Even More Sewing!

EDIT: We went outside to take pictures of the quilts so I'm editing this post and the previous one to put in the better pictures.

I've got the pink quilts all sewn together!

"lap sized"


"baby sized"

Here's a link to a picture of the bundle I used for these two quilts: click - I'm going to use the brown fabric in the top left as the borders and then the pink check and the pink chocolate bar fabric as the backings (depending on how much I need for the lap quilt will depend on if it gets the check or the bar fabric -- they were ½ a yard short of check fabric but it might fit - I usually order ½ a yard extra just in case and they had the exact amount listed in the pattern.).
We've figured out fabric for Glen's oldest nephew. Here's a link to the picture of the bundle: click - I'm going to use all but the four flowery ones in the top left. And I've decided on the two fabrics in the second row on the right as my border/backing. I hope it's boy enough. Looking at the bigger pictures of the fabric it looks like it will be and there's a bit of cheating you can do with the fabric - like using the more "girly" fabrics for the small squares so you only get little snippets of the pattern.

The fabric for my cousin's quilts is at customs so hopefully it will be here soon. The ladies at quilting are going to be so surprised when I show up with a bunch of stuff pretty much finished!


In the next few days I'm going to run around and get some of the stuff for my 100 posts thing. I'm going to try to make it for the 14th (one week!) which will be my 6 year anniversary of moving to Inuvik (yikes!!!).

Hope you guys aren't getting bored with all the sewing talk!

Temperature: -15C
Sunrise: 7:34am
Sunset: 10:19pm

More Sewing!

I've been sewing like a mad-woman the last few days. I got the top of one of the quilts almost done (just have to add the border). I decided to start on the second of my YBR quilts. I'm glad I did because I was doing that one in "lap sized" and it turns out that it will actually fit a single bed (I dunno who's lap they were going by!?!). So now that I know that, I can turn the pink one into a lap & baby sized quilt instead of a twin. I've got the pink quilts all laid out, all I have to do is sew it together (which I was going to start on tonight but my back is killing me!). I still have the border to put on before I sew the backing/etc on.

(how is this lap sized? Glen's holding his arms above his head!)



close up

The camp-out quilt is going to Glen's nephew who will be 1 in June and then I thought I'd give the "lap sized" pink quilt to his niece who will be 5 in September and then I couldn't leave out his oldest nephew (he's 12) so I'm going to make him one too.

Now that my mum has seen the quilts I'm doing she wants me to make one for my cousin's kids. Actually she wants me to make one for EACH of the kids. Yup, 4 more YBR quilts to make. 5 new ones in total. I've ordered the fabric for the ones my mum wants me to make and I still have to order the fabric for the one for Glen's oldest nephew. There isn't a lot of boy fabrics (for older boys) so I might struggle finding something (or get really creative).


Temperature: -21C
Sunrise: 7:43am
Sunset: 10:12pm

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

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

Quilting Challenge

To add to my growing list of unfinished projects, I'm about to start another one... Our quilting guild is having a creative challenge and I'm taking part (because I'm crazy!!). The challenge is quilting a deck of cards. Each person takes as many cards they want (I took one to start) then they interpret the design how they want and turn it into a 6"x10" quilted piece.
Some people are translating the card literally onto the fabric and others are thinking a bit more outside the box. It should be interesting to see what we all come up with.

I ended up getting the ace of clubs and have finally planned my design and what I'm going to do. I ended up buying a bunch of wool felt to use instead of fabric (for some reason I'm less scared to work with felt than actual fabric?!) and I'm going to do some free motion quilting on it (yikes!) and maybe some needle felting.

So my task for tomorrow during quilting is going to be working on my free motion quilting. My machine is being kind of picky with the tension so I want to get all those issues worked out before I try it on my piece. I have a feeling that depending on my filler and the felt you might not actually be able to see a lot of my stitches so we'll see... I might pick a couple of colours I'm not going to use and see what things will look like.

Once I get all my pieces cut out and put down then I'll take a picture - I'll spare you the photos of my sketches (there are many!).

I'm still trying to figure out what my plans are for this summer... There's a family wedding and the arts festival but if I go to one I can't go to the other AND if I go to the wedding I'm probably not coming back up here (because I'll probably *hopefully* - be moving soon after that anyway and there's no sense spending money on plane tickets TWICE)...
We've started to buckle down and get my immigration forms sorted out. We're making lists of things we need and it seems right now the only thing that might take a while getting is my police clearance thing. Otherwise it's just up to us to write letters about our relationship, compile pictures and all that sort of stuff.. I'm hoping that we'll have all that stuff done by the time my police thing comes through so we can send everything. ugh... It's a lot of work and I'm paranoid about screwing it up...



Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 10:11am
Sunset: 6:05pm

Sewing

I finished a cute little Christmas print bear tonight. He would've been finished yesterday but I forgot a piece and had to take the head apart (the head was turning out narrow and duck-like and I was getting disappointed - no kidding! I forgot the piece that goes on the back of the head - ugh - and btw - having to photocopy and enlarge pieces is a giant pain).

I think he turned out pretty cute. He was a bit fiddly to do and isn't perfect but it was a great start and I'm sure the next one will go a bit better (and the picture isn't great since it's almost 4am).

Temperature: -20C (feels like: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:56am
Sunset: 3:23pm

Getting down to the wire...

Craft fair knitting has definitely slowed to a crawl... I've been getting some sewing done though. I wanted to make some fabric baskets to hold things on my table so I made a few of those. I also thought I'd make some for presents so I made a few extra (and once I get more cording I'll probably do a bunch more). A co-worker's husband is hopefully coming by tonight to look at my plans for a backdrop thingy. In exactly one week I'll be hauling my stuff over to the rec. centre to set up!

I've been cutting out blocks for a quilt too (I have one on the go that is driving me insane so I've started cutting out stuff for a new one just to give me a mental break from it). No pictures of it yet but I'm pretty excited about both of them (my first attempts at triangle pieces). I don't have enough fabric for the first one so I bought some extra and it *kind of* matches --- That's what happens when you buy fabric 7 years ago and only get around to finish sewing stuff together now. So I'm hoping it will work out afterall...

It has gotten outrageously cold here - or it was outrageously cold yesterday anyway. -38C with the windchill - wtf? I got into the truck yesterday and it said -29C (no windchill) brrrr! It's not supposed to be this cold yet!!! I've been waiting to pull out my parka and my warm mitts but I think I might be doing it sooner than planned. It's also super dark out now (doesn't help that it's been overcast). Not enjoying that much either... blehhh!


Temperature: -18C (winchill: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:45am
Sunset: 3:33pm