Bad Blogger!!

I have been very busy and away from home most of the summer. I promise I will catch up with everyone in October.


I was lucky enough to go to the APNQ show with 15 of my "quilting peeps". We stayed two nights at a hotel downtown Seattle and had a marvelous time -- saw the show, shopped, and had a couple of wonderful meals. We carpooled down to Seattle. A three hour drive from Vancouver took over 8 hours each way - there are a bunch of great quilt shops along the road to Seattle. I stopped in Wendy's favourite little shop in Bellingham "Two Thimbles" I bought a bunch of Jo Morton fabric there. Great place to shop!!

I have been busy getting ready for my own guild's quilt show since I got back from Seattle. The Lions Gate Quilter's Guild show is September 19, 20, 21 st. I am in charge of the merchant's mall portion of the show. We have acquired a little extra space in our venue late in the planning process ( July!!) so the Quilt show committee decided to add extra merchants -- 5 extra. So I have been busy lining up the extra merchants and getting all the letters out - cheques from the merchants and such. I need to have all this done before we leave on our trip to the Arctic Circle ----- and beyond. So I have been busy - plus working here and there. I will not be getting back from our trip until the day before the show is opening -- how's that for cutting it close!!



Here is a picture of a bear in the backyard - this was one day last week. Just a little guy - probably born this spring.



Also there were three Racoons on the deck trying very hard to get into the closed in area of the sundeck to eat some of the tomatoes - good thing the sliding glass door was shut. The neighbours are finding they are coming in their house and eating the cat food. Cute little guys -- I think Jenny would have been pretty excited to see these guys but she was fast asleep when they showed up.



And here is my entry for the quilt show. I just finished the binding two days ago. There is a small amount of hand quilting left to do and I was going to take it on the trip to the Yukon to finish it up but I managed to complete it enough for the show. I need to do a bit more hand quilting in the top section with the gold stars - but it is ready enough for the show and I am not going to take it with me. I think I will take a couple of Dear Jane blocks to work on - not sure how much I will get done but just in case...........

We are leaving very early Saturday morning. I am working two day shifts - Thursday and Friday. So Jim will be finishing up the packing and taking the bird off to the person who will watch her while we are away. Jenny is coming along - so hopefully she isn't too car sick this trip. We will be driving up to Whitehorse -- 2500 kms -- in the first three days. There is a couple of quilt shops in Whitehorse from what I can see online. We will then be getting an RV - and driving north to Dawson City -- up the Dempster Highway and past the Arctic Circle to Inuvik. I am sure it will be quite the adventure. I am sure will will take lots of pictures and hopefully it doesn't snow and we don't get eaten by Blackflies. Jim wants to see caribou and grizzly bears and maybe a wolf or two.

My gifts from Anna and some pictures with the new camera

I am just figuring out the ins and outs of the new camera. I have made the picture size smaller - from 10 megapixels down to 6. I am working with all the different settings as well.

This is the lovely gift that Anna ( with no blog) gave me when I went to visit her in Red Deer. She made me such a pretty bead bracelet - that I just love. And when we were shopping she bought the Quilt Diva pattern for me. I saw it last weekend all made up on display in a quilt shop in Washington State - I think it was the quilt shop in Mount Vernon. It is such a fun pattern - great one to use up those scraps as well. And again I must Thank Anna for all the gifts and the great visit we had in July.



This next picture is from the "sunset" setting on the new camera. It really does bring out the colours on that setting - rather than just Auto. The camera has a bunch of pre-set settings -- Aquarium, Fireworks, Beach, - I really don't think you need a Fireworks setting on a camera - how many times do you go out and take pictures of Fireworks. Anyway - I am enjoying the camera and just playing around with each setting.



And the last picture is sweet little Hunter. He is 4 months and 15lbs. Gosh - isn't he cute!! Very serious - I should have had Jim take the picture - he smiles for Jim.



I have yet to spread out my Quilt show purchases and take pictures of all that yet. I better get that done before the Visa bill comes and I have to fess up to how much I spent!

What I got in the mail!!

Before I show any quilt show/fabric shopping pictures I must post about what I found in my mail box yesterday!

This quilt was sent by San - Gypsy Quilter - for little Hunter. I just love the yellow and blue and it is such a lovely quilt! How sweet of San to send it for Hunter. It missed getting here before they left by just a few day - that is Canada Post for you. I had no idea she was sending it for him. I remember seeing it posted on her blog. It has just the softest and prettiest yellow heart flannel on the back.




And it has a label -- something that I always forget to do. San sent the label separate so I could give the quilt a wash and fluff before the label went on the quilt -- that is such a great idea for a baby quilt - after spending time all shut up in a box and shipped across the country.



It really made my day yesterday to open her box. She also sent a bunch of flannel bits and pieces for me to make some more little quilts for the NICU. I will make some more this fall -- after September comes and goes.

I had a great 3 days of quilting related activities this past weekend. I shopped too much, ate too much and hopefully walked just enough to wear off what I ate! The quilt show in Seattle was great - wonderful new venue!!

Just a very quick post

I am heading off to Seattle first thing in the morning for a weekend of fun and quilt show frolic!! And my usual shopping - need to add to my retirement fund - AKA -- My Stash!!

I worked a bit on my first mystery quilt block from the Fat Quarter Club. Most of my quilting time lately has been spent on the hand quilting of the Mariners Compass quilt. Jessica and the gang -- my sweet little Hunter - have been here all week so not a lot of quilting was done.



This is some of the fabric I bought in Red Deer. Now wouldn't that make a fabulous bag!! I bought enough to make a Professional bag.



I also bought some great Cheddar and Turkey Red fabric for my Dear Jane in Red Deer as well.



I am off -I have a very early start in the morning. I bought a new camera last week - I have a bunch of pictures on the camera - some Hunter pictures as well. I am not sure about the camera yet and the picture size is pretty big - so I don't know how they will upload and look on the blog. So this is a bit of a test.