Friday 21 March 2014

Summer Accuracy Challenge Quilt - End of March Break

Last week was a huge success with our march break fun! Here are some quick pics that explain the lack of sewing last week. Every night was not spent in the sewing room, it was spent at the kitchen table with my husband planning the next days activities :)

Dessert - Ant hill (pudding, cookie crumb)
bug board game


Bug shells found camping last year. Yes even spider..

Many many trips to library to explore each theme!

Lady bug pizza!

Princess's do not eat regular animal crackers. Must have princess sprinkles!

Princess castle for royalty day!

Planted some seeds on garden day! They are sprouting already!

My sewing room window is now occupied!

With all this going on I didn't have much time to sew, but it did give me some time to plan and really go outside the box for my next quilt. I spent an hour at the fabric shop by myself on Friday and I chose colours I never ever would have picked. They are summer orange, pale green and rich green, all based on a focus fabric. This week I have begun piecing them into a quilt from the book "Shape Workshop for Quilters" by Katy Jones, Briono Greenberg, Tacha Brucher and John Adams. I  found this book at the library and have really enjoyed their take on things. It really focuses on shapes and how they base almost all our quilts. Master the shape, the quilt comes naturally. Can you guess the shape of focus in my quilt?


I am having a lot of fun with this quilt. I love the background fabric because it is white, (for my summer quilt I wanted white to be background, I think white always looks so crisp), but it isn't simply white, it has the pale green in it for some flower outlines. I will add that these are not all from the same collection at all. The solids obviously are and they have no right and wrong side which I love and are turning out to be a lot of fun. 

Because I have this lovely vegetable garden started in my sewing room, it has taken up most of my side desk. I will admit to being quite worried about this when assembling but I have found that I love it! 

The small bench's I stacked actually provide a bit of a low shelf, this makes tucking my project away from little hands very easy! Also the pieces do not slide around on the wood nearly as much as they did on the shiny desk, no pieces getting lost! It also makes it easy to organise but still have space for the pattern in the book. From the leftovers you can see I am making simple pinwheel blocks (right bottom corner) for another hospital baby quilt.

If you remember this years goal was about accuracy. I am proud to say this is my most accurate quilt. Ever. I have never taken my time to piece each little seam like I am now, and it really is worth it.


Well happy spring everyone! At least that's what the calendar says. My window would have to disagree! There is still 3 feet of snow on my front lawn. 


Thursday 13 March 2014

The Lack of Time - I Do Not Mind

This past week is March Break here in Canada and I have had little to no time for myself. Heres the unexpected part - I do not mind at all! When I first realized that I would have my daughter in the house all week with  all her activities cancelled for the week, I kind of panicked. Rather than just stare at each other every morning I decided to plan out my week so that we would not get bored. Each day I gave a theme and planned activities, crafts, songs, movie ect to go with each theme. Monday was bugs, Tuesday maple Syrup. 

My daughter and I looking at some tapped maple trees. 
This was all fine and dandy until Wednesday arrived. My daughter went downstairs and we were going to learn about the desert. Lots of fun until my daughter went into the basement only to discover an empty hamster cage. Her hamster had passed away days before and I had not decided whether to replace it or break the news. She did not deal with the death of my parents dog well and I really wasnt wanting to go down that road again. Well a mommy moment occured when I had to let my daughter know the hamster did pass and it is ok to be sad. I do not want to get another hamster and go through this ordeal again in two years so I decided instead we would get a Guinea Pig. 


Now what is a mom to do other than let my daughter know that the passing of old friends can mean the hello to a new one. We went to the library and got some books on Guinea Pigs (I had one as a girl and worked at a pet shop, but I could still use a refresher!). After going to the pet store, rearranging our craft room to fit in the new friend (it is a great place for him, the busy center of our home), setting up the cage, welcoming the baby guinea pig (now named Leonardo after a ninja turtle), we did not have time for much else. Also, my sister in law had a baby! This of course was a great day for our family. Needless to say, what a mom wants (a couple of hours) is not what a mom gets, but I think that is perfectly fine. Sometimes the unexpected is what makes a good mom, how we deal with these situations really teaches us. We need to treasure these family events, it makes us better quilters I believe because we have a family bond and memories that we put into our artwork. 

This blog post came after I realized I haven't sewn much of anything this week at all. With the amount of groups I am in this was quite surprising. I look forward to next week maybe getting back at it that is for sure, but I can tell you, this is what I quilt for, my family, my friends, and all the little life events we encounter on the way. I did say my sister in law had a baby, what better gift to give my new nephew, who is also my neighbour, than a quilt? 

My design wall hasnt changed in weeks! Pat Sloan BOM