Fabric Fun

I just spent the last 4 hours sewing together, ironing and squaring up a bunch of quilt squares for a quilt I'm making ("Yellow Brick Road" by Atkinson Designs).

I haven't decided what size I'm making since I have a few options... I can make a twin sized quilt, a lap and a baby quilt or two baby quilts and have squares left over. I'm going to wait until quilting night on Monday to put it all together. A friend of ours just had a baby so I could make one of the smaller sizes for them.

(even the scraps look nice!)

After that I have another YBR quilt to make (I'm seriously loving this pattern, it makes a visually interesting quilt without a lot of pain in the arse. After spending AGES staring at my silly ½ square blocks and running in to problems with running out of fabric for other quilts, I'm loving working with a pattern where you can get a twin sized quilt with 18 fat quarters -- and oh my, there are a lot of REALLY cute fat quarter packs out there!).

Then after that, I want to try and tackle the colour wheel quilt I've mentioned before. I thought about using all my dyed fabric for it until purlsoho got their colour wheel fabric bundles back in. I figured I'd spend less money ordering one of those than trying to order individual pieces of fabric to fill in the gaps. No idea what I'll use my dyed fabric for... Maybe a YBR quilt haha

Then on top of all of that I just got in some REALLY cute fabric. I thought I could make a few baby mei tai slings but now that the fabric is here I'm not so sure - it's SO cute! It makes me want to sew up curtains or sheets for a kid's room. The owl fabric is for my second YBR quilt. It'll be enough for the borders but probably not quite enough for the back. I'm torn between putting cotton or flannel on the back. hmmm

So yeah! That's pretty much what I've been up to! Not having hockey on Tuesdays has freed up a whole day for more crafting and I actually got to run errands (and go out for "dinner" - sandwiches) without feeling pressured to get home so I could relax/get ready for hockey. I'm sure Glen isn't too thrilled with me taking over the living room two days in a row with the card table & sewing machine! I can't wait until I can have a dedicated craft room (that's all I've been dreaming of lately and I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time on realestate.com.au!)

This is post 95! Only a few left to go until my my 100 post give-away!


Temperature: -23C
Sunrise: 8:00am
Sunset: 9:57pm

I've been meaning to post...

For close to a week I've been meaning to sit down and write a post and for whatever reason it hasn't happened.

This past weekend I took part in a class offered by our quilting guild. We made Easter wall hangings (12"x21"). While hanging decorative quilts on my wall isn't really my thing, I decided to take it to learn some new techniques and to brush up on some basics.

How cute is that? I'm going to send it to my grandma for Easter. Generally I'm not a pattern follower when I quilt - mostly because I just make patchwork quilts - so this was a bit of a step for me. Even though I know how to sew I felt like a total newb because I've never followed a quilting pattern. Because I like to torture myself I'm doing another quilt on Mondays using a pattern. Actually, using a pattern is good because you at least know how much fabric you'll need to make a quilt X size but sewing random 5" squares together uses a lot less brain power lol

Tuesday was our last night of hockey for the season :-( I really wish the ice was in for a few more weeks especially since I probably won't be here for the next season.

My visa application has been recieved by Ottawa, I have a case number, a case worker and my visa has been charged the application fee (!). In the email I got from them on Monday, they said that the typical processing time is 12-16 weeks and I'll be notified if we need to send in any other documentation or have to go in for medical checks.

So there ya go! Probably a better post than if I would've written yesterday. All you would've heard about was me ranting about doctor's appointments and having a flat tire (suffice to say yesterday was crappy).


Temperature: -23C
Sunrise: 8:26am
Sunset: 9:34pm

My Life's Work...

Because I'm not about to write a novel any time soon!!

So there she is... My 200 page immigration application.

We started gathering stuff (like long form birth certificates) last year and in the last 3 months have been working on part of it every day. There was a lot of waiting for things to come in (we could've had this sent off 2 weeks ago if we didn't add more pictures at the last minute) and a lot of re-reading of forms and discovering we needed something else - I think there were a few days in a row when had one more letter from XYZ that needed to be written or one more photocopy of ABC document needed to be made - it seemed we were never going to have everything.

As of 3:00pm my application was tucked away into an express post envelope and handed over to the post office to be whisked away to Ottawa to be processed. The lady on the phone this afternoon said there's about a 3 month processing time so we'll hopefully have some sort of word by the time Glen has to fly home.

We're excited and relieved to have completed everything but now the waiting begins. We're also really happy to not have to answer any more "Is your application done yet? Have you sent it in yet?" questions.

Should I start posting weather comparisons at the bottoms of my posts now?


Temperature: -32C
Sunrise: 9:04am
Sunset: 9:01pm

March: In like a lamb out like a lion/in like a lion out like a lamb.

What happens when the middle of March is lion-like?

We are having a pretty intense cold-snap at the moment. The wind chill has been in the -40s (closer to -50 at some points!) and the ambient temperature isn't much warmer! (Cambridge Bay has been outrageously cold -57C with the windchill for the last few days!!)

I had to keep two of the residents home yesterday (due to the cold) and let me tell you, I was insanely unpopular last night because of it. The main issue is that it's SO sunny out - not a cloud in the sky - and for people that don't understand how the weather works, they think we're having a lovely winter day. Not so much. So I got to hear all night "It's sunny out! It's not cold!!" "I'll wear a coat! It's NICE out!" when really, it's minus a bajillion degrees.

I really hope we don't have another 2½ weeks of this...


Temperature: -34C
Sunrise: 9:21am
Sunset: 8:46pm

Better Late Than Never!!

After much anticipation my v-day secret pal package has arrived!

Normally when something takes AGES to get here I say it's come by dog sled but I think even a dog team would've gotten the package here faster.
I got: two lovely skeins of Knit Picks Imagination in "Lost Boys" , a cute paisley tin (I'm in the process of doing a paisley glass etched mug!!), stitch markers (awesome! I actually need some more!), an incredible skein of Manos silk blend <3 <3 and some tea (smells yummy! I'm going to have a cup after I write this post). yay!! Thank you!!!!

I was going to pair this post with my latest sewing creation but that's going to have to wait for another day - I'll tell you about it now though! I made the Mei Tai baby carrier from Sew Liberated. It only took a few hours and it turned out really well! The distinct lack of a baby and my helmet hair prevents me from taking a picture of it but I'll try to get one soon. I'm definitely going to make a few more - they'd be a great gift for all those people that seem to keep popping out babies!

Only two more nights of hockey left :-( I'm really sad, I've been having SO much fun. I even got two goals today (grand total 5!) and my skating is definitely improving. Hopefully Glen will come along next week and take some more pictures.


Temperature: -23C (feels like -31C)
Sunrise: 9:30am
Sunset: 8:39pm

Plans

So I don't think I really have anything exciting report (do I ever?). The second little sweater is coming along (started on the second sleeve) but has been put on hold for a top secret birthday project for Glen (his birthday is on the 22nd).

We booked tickets last week for a trip to BC & Alberta. We hadn't really planned for me to go as well but we found some cheap tickets flying through Whitehorse & Vancouver and couldn't really pass it up. My cousin is getting married in Alberta in July so we were trying to figure out how we could make it down for that as well as there being time for me to go to GNAF (which is the weekend after). So instead of just going down for the wedding we're going to spend a week-ish in Victoria with my Aunt, Uncle and other cousin (it's her brother that's getting married) and then we're going to somehow make it out to Alberta for the 4th of July and then make it BACK to Vancouver to fly on the 7th. I'm SO excited to get back to Victoria (probably the only place in Canada where I could see myself living) but there's a crappy part to all of this... Glen's visa runs out at the end of July... It's silly to fly him all the way back to Inuvik for 2 or 3 weeks so he's going to fly back home when I fly back to Inuvik (his flight leaves 3 hours after mine in Vancouver). [insert me crying at the drop of a hat for the last week HERE].
So all of that means kicking my visa preparation into overdrive. And I can't believe I'm saying this but we're SO close to being ready. I'm getting some documents notarised tomorrow and then all we need to do is wait for a few more pictures to come in the mail and then that's it! We're of course going to scour the site and make sure we have everything before we send it off... We both finished writing all the letters we needed to (hello 2000+ word essay about how we met and our life together for the last 3 years) which has been my least favourite part so far (I don't like writing formal letters) but at least it's done! Before we send everything off I'm going to take a picture of the giant stack of papers - there's easily over 200 pages to this thing.

And the only other news I have to report is that this is post 90 and in 10 more I'm seriously going to be holding a blogiversary party (not like the last time I said I was going to and then got too busy to plan one). I don't think there's going to be any sort of skill testing questions involved but I'll have a draw for prizes.


Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:42am
Sunset: 8:28pm

edited sunset time.. The website had it wrong and the sun clearly set after 8pm tonight (love it!!)

A Little Sweater!

Finally a knitting FO!

For the last few months I've been itching to knit an adult sized sweater (my first) and I've been scouring my books/magazines and websites trying to find a pattern. The urge was getting pretty strong and I hadn't found a pattern that was going to satisfy what I wanted to make so I decided to knit a baby sweater. I decided on the Placket-Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

(Harry Potter book shown for scale)

First the bad news: It didn't satisfy my urge to knit an adult sized sweater lol
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how this little sweater turned out. It's my first completed non BSJ sweater (I have a partial Trellis in the depths of the packrat room) and I really enjoyed knitting it. It was quick enough that I didn't get second sleeve syndrome (hah!) and it was easy enough to do while not having to focus 200% of my attention on it (hello Trellis!). I didn't have enough of the yellow yarn so that's why I put the pink trim - which was a good idea at the time - y'know until I got to the placket part and had to intarsia from both ends of the ball.

Specs:
Pattern: Placket-Neck Pullover (0-6months), Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Butter and Blush
Needles: Size 6 or 7
Mods: Added a second colour and changed the length. I used the lengths for the 1-2 years version because the 0-6 month measurements looked like it was going to make a short, fat sweater.
I have no real baby to compare this sweater to so I have no idea what size of baby it will fit or if the mods I made would make a sweater dress for said baby or not. If anything, the arms are probably a pinch too long. Oh well!

So, being as unsatisfied as I am, I cast on for another one of these sweaters last night! I'm making the 1-2 years size now.


Temperature: -8C
Sunrise: 9:12am
Sunset: 7:01pm