quilting, quilting, scrubs, quilting

Managing bulk is not always fun, but so far, I am absolutely loving my quilt. And the best part is I'm actually going to get to keep it! Yay!


Check out the back! I love the hot pink, even though I'm usually not a pink person. The brushed cotton is great because it's soft like flannel but not as thick, and I do enjoy the pieced strip about 2/3 of the way up. It's my first (very small) attempt at improvisational piecing.


I'd really like to have it all finished by the end of the weekend, but it looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty busy one, so maybe the end of next weekend is a more reasonable goal. I have trouble quilting for too long, partially because I get distracted by Scrubs on the tv, and partially because it hurts my wrists, but I make a goal to finish a whole bobbin every time I sit down and so far it's working. I figure two more bobbins and I can move onto the binding!

more fabric

As promised, here are some pictures of the giant pile of fabric I bought from The Workroom in Toronto. Lots of great stuff that is pretty much impossible to find in Calgary. Heather Ross, Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt, the list goes on. And although I generally don't like using patterns, I did pick up the Amy Butler "Birdy Sling" pattern, and the one for Denyse Schmidt's "Single Girl" quilt. Oh how happy it has all made me!

I've already chosen 3 of the fat quarters to be in the quilt top that I posted earlier. Plus I added a solid purple and a great polka dot I found at My Sewing Room here in the city. The quilt is still sitting, waiting to be finished, but I think today is the day. I have some errands to run and some cleaning and tidying up to do, and then I think the quilt and I will sit down in front of Scrubs for some quality time together. Maybe we'll invite hubby to join us.

new fabric/new project

This is what came in the mail yesterday!

Cake Rock Beach

And some Net of Jewels. Both by Joelle Hoverson.

And this is the new project. The top is done and I'm working on piecing the back. Then, on to the quilting!

what i did on my christmas vacation

Well, it's long overdue, but I finally have some time to post on my blog. Hubby and I took two and a half weeks off of work over Christmas and decided to make the trek all the way from Calgary, Alberta to Burlington, Ontario. Approximately 3,500 kilometers each way! 39 hours and lots of repeated music (silly us, we only brought 3 Cd's and hadn't loaded up our iPhones yet), we made it to my Mom's house.

The holidays were a blur to say the least. Lots of visiting with family and friends, driving all over Ontario, ripping the upstairs bathroom at Mom's house to pieces and putting it (almost) back together, lots of sewing, playing DS games, and endless hours in the car. It was a great trip! Definitely one of those "big memories" that we will tell tales of to our children some day.

This is a picture of my Mom's gigantic Christmas tree. Even though all of her kids and step kids are grown up and have moved out of the house, she hasn't lost her love of whimsy (or gift giving!) Notice all the stuffed animals piled on the chair and next to the couch. Okay, I admit it...most of them are mine!

Christmas morning was a blast. My Step Dad made some scrumptious healthy pancakes and fruit and we all feasted together. Lots of great presents were shared, and a few that were ridiculous but amazing!

One of the sewing projects I worked on over the holidays (Christmas Eve to be exact) were these pillows for my Step Sister and her husband. (Rick & Heather) I especially love the ampersand pillow made from a gorgeous pale grey flannel with a raw edge applique of some simple Kona Cotton in snow. I was pretty happy with these little guys and had they been mine and Hubby's initials, I might have just kept them, but no such luck. I was also my first time trying out a mitred edge for the border and it (mostly) worked out okay.

The other big sewing project I worked on, other than hemming several pairs of new jeans and fixing button holes, was a Christmas quilt for my Mother-in-Law. I wanted to post about it before since I've been working on it since about October, but I wasn't sure if she reads this and didn't want to spoil the surprise. I'll post pics of the quilt as soon so I get them from my Mom. Thanks to my friend Jennifer for a pile of Merry & Bright fabric...or was it Holly Jolly? Anyways, it was great!

While in Ontario, we did one or two relaxing "vacationy" things. This included watching all three extended editions of Lord of the Rings, visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame (pictures to come), going to bed at 11:15pm on New Years Eve (lame!) and a trip to The Workroom!! I stumbled upon this amazing fabric store/craft and sew by the hour/generally awesome place while online one day and was over the top excited to visit. I love Calgary, but one thing I'm coming to understand is that there is a real lack of contemporary fabric in this city. IF you can find Joel Dewberry, Amy Butler or the like, you'll only find one or two bolts of their stuff and it will be close to $17/m - yikes! So a chance to shop at a place that carried nothing by great fabric was like a dream come true. I literally just walked back and forth in front of the shelves smiling, completely overwhelmed before Hubby encouraged me to start picking stuff out. Pictures of the newly decked out stash coming soon.

I also received a gift card to Purl Soho and decided to spend my money on some fat quarters of Cake Rock Beach by Joelle Hoverson, a few 1/2 yards of Net of Jewels, also by Joelle, and a new blade for my poor rotary cutter which I rolled over the tile in the kitchen by accident. So, with any luck, my new fabric will be arriving in a week or so. Yay!

I feel like I have written more than any person will be interested in reading in one shot, so I'll stop now. I promise a new post soon, full of pictures of the other projects I have completed and been working on recently, plus the Hockey Hall of Fame, and my newest additions to the stash.