Well -- I didn't win the Jann Arden tickets

Well -- I guess I don't have to go out and buy a new outfit!! The LGH Hospice society is having a benefit to raise money and they are having an evening of B.C estate wines and appetizers and Jann Arden. The tickets are $250.00 - but they had a raffle for us poor staff that can't afford $500.00 to take a spouse and spend the evening with Jann Arden. I bought two tickets and I really thought I was going to win --LOL!!! Maybe that was because I really, really love Jann Arden - and it is a small little theater - it would have been so great. But I would have had to buy a new outfit for the occasion. I guess I don't now.

But I did go shopping today - and I bought baby bath items!! Jessica still didn't have a little bath tub so I told her I would pop in to Walmart and pick up some bath things.




Reminds me of the Mastercard commercial -- Gas for the car to get to Walmart - $2.00; Baby bath items $81.43 -- A new grandchild - priceless!!!! Although I did think it was a bit expensive to bath a baby - LOL!! But I did buy a lot of things.




I also bought some flannel to make a few burp cloths with Finn's tutorial. Jessica says she has lots and lots of blue clothes so I have bought mostly yellow flannel. I thought it was pretty cute fabric for burp cloths.


And on the quilting front - I am putting the binding on the Sock Monkey quilt. We are driving to Calgary on April 11 th -- now that I am not going to see Jann Arden!! and I will have the quilts all ready to go for the trip. I hope the weather will be good for the drive. I was also thinking about using a charm pack of sock monkey flannel that I have to make a small quilt for the buggy that would be just the charm squares on one side and minky on the other. I have a day set aside to do that.

I thought I might give Bonnie's mystery quilt a go -- Orange Crush. I am not that great at mystery quilts because I have a terrible time trying to chose fabric for something I can't visualize. But I decided to stretch myself here. I also decided that I would buy the cheaper fabric at Fabricland and then if I hated it - I won't have wasted yards and yards of quality quilting fabric. Bonnie has the yardage requirements set out - and I don't have a lot of yardage - only a few pieces that are as big as two yards. So I bought fabric today for the quilt.



This is the start. I am going for a civil war era theme. Bonnie had suggested a few different colour ways. The top fabric is my two yards - it isn't as orange as it appears in the photo. The next fabric is greener than it appears in the photo and the last fabric is a double pink. I am going to add some blue from my stash - I just need 3/4 of a yard of that which I should have - plus it can be scrappy. I have lots of two inch strips all ready cut. I don't know how well I will keep up with the rest of the gang - but I did join the Yahoo message board. Anyone else doing this quilt? What do you think of my fabrics? I am worried they might be a bit too patterned - but if you see them in person they all look kind of civil war era in colour. They are also not as dark as Bonnie's fabrics. I hope they will be a good choice.

A start on the Japanese Wall hanging

Happy St. Patrick's Day - and Happy National Quilting day!!

National Quilting Day ( although apparently it is only in Australia and the U.S. ) I spent the day at Quilt retreat - QBTB - Quilting by the Bay. I basted and machine quilted the Sock Monkey quilt. So I just have to sew on the binding and it is finished.

I started the Japanese wall hanging quilt a couple of weeks ago. I am doing it the Becky Goldsmith way - with the clear plastic overlay, and the needle turn applique. I took a class from Becky Goldsmith and she has really, really tiny stitches. Really tiny. I enjoy working on needle turn applique.


It looks a little crooked - not perfect like I would like. Maybe from a distance it won't look so bad. It is supposed to look like a stone path through the garden - and stones aren't perfectly formed and shaped anyway!


Just a reminder of what I am trying to complete. I posted the pattern a few weeks back.

I have not been feeling well this week - almost like a cold is coming but not quite there - very tired - so I haven't been up to much. I have yet to figure out the EQ6 - but I will. I did get an email back from Hancock's about the fat quarter that was sent that didn't belong. They said that the one particular fabric was on back order so instead of not sending the bundle out they just substituted another fabric. I kind of figured that! But they suggested I send the entire bundle back - they had a 30 day return policy. I don't want to do that - I was just hoping they would suggest they send the correct fat quarter when they get the fabric. I bet that fabric is pretty popular and hard to get right now. I haven't emailed them back yet. Now of course I will obsess about this for a while -LOL.

Well - it is late and I should go cut the binding for the sock monkey quilt. The Vancouver Canucks won tonight and that is a good thing.

Hello, my name is Pam - and I am addicted to fabric

Okay - there, I've said it - and now we will move forward.

I ordered the Moda "A William Morris Garden" from Hancocks Fabrics and it came in the mail on Monday. I am quite happy that I bought it. Including shipping it was $85.0 Canadian - which is basically $85.00 American. One thing I discovered today is that it is missing one of the fat quarters . They sent 30 fat quarters but one of them does not belong -- hmm... what does that remind you of -LOL



Can you find the one that doesn't belong? I sent an email to Hancocks and I hope they will send me the right fat quarter.

There is this quilt pattern that has been designed for the fabric. I was looking at it and thinking about maybe making it, It certainly shows off the fabric beautifully.





But I was thinking maybe an old Civil War era block would be really nice for the fabric. I spent most of the afternoon looking for a block I liked. I decided I liked the basket block. And what an event it all turned out to be.

I found this picture of a basket block ( Grape Basket) I hope who ever this block belongs to doesn't get upset that I have it on my blog. I found it in Webshots. I really think it would be a good block for the fabric. I could not for the life of me find the block pattern.


So -- I have EQ6 -- I can draft the block in EQ6 and get the rotary cutting directions --- NOT!!

I spent the afternoon trying my darndest to draft the block. I just couldn't get those lines to go where I wanted them to go and then not go where I didn't want them. Talk about an event.

Finally I just switched over to good old graph paper and pencil.





I made a 10" trial block out of scraps. I think I would prefer an 8" block. I might work on designing an 8 inch block tomorrow - as this little exercise took me about 6 hours!!

Although I am wondering if 8 inches might be too small of a block for the florals in the fabric collection. Maybe I should use my left over Dear Jane civil war scraps to make an 8 inch basket block quilt. Maybe I should make the "Stepping Stones" block instead. No wonder I never get any actual quilting done!!!

Keeping up with blogging - and other things not quilting related

It is hard to keep up with reading all the blogs I like to read - and comment and also answer all those bloggers who comment on my blog. I have worked 65 hours this past 10 days -- which is much more then I usually work so I am just catching up on the blogs late in the evenings. I enjoy reading my favourite blogs - and of course they quite often take me off to other blogs, and - on line quilt shops, and new patterns and such!! So sometimes I fall behind - but remember I am still reading all of my favourite blogs although I am not commenting at times.

Last week we had some beautiful sunny weather for three days in a row. Jenny and I had been going on this lovely (and not so lovely) long walk - so one day I took the camera along and took some pictures to share.




We started out on a little path through the woods - up a small hill very close to our house.




We cross a small bridge that goes over a very small little stream -- there is Jenny waiting for me to stop fiddling around with the camera and catch up.





After coming out of the woods we come up to where they are widening the highway through our little village -- the equipment is right along the path that we must walk. It is very noisy and loud but when the workers see us coming they shut down the machines until we pass - which is great of them. They are moving all these big rocks around and they just roll everywhere.



Up the hill past another big machine. I have no idea what these big machines are actually called! You can see all the flags they have on the power lines so the big machines know where the power lines are and don't take any down as they work. The two lane highway that goes through here is being widened to four lanes. It is a project that got started for the Olympics but in reality this road should have been widened to 4 lanes 15 years ago. The traffic along this road is very busy with visitors and skiers going to Whistler plus all the people who live along here and commute to work in Vancouver ( Jim and I belonging to that group)



Then we walk past where they are building up the road and the new overpass. Not a very pretty site but it is very interesting to watch the process of a road being built. We live about 13 km north of Horseshoe Bay - the beginning of the "Sea to Sky" highway. Six years ago when we moved here the entire highway was two lanes. Now about 7 kms of it is 4 lanes and by 2009 the entire 13 kms will be 4 lanes. We have heard that during the Olympics there will be a bus full of people driving on the highway every 15 seconds!!!




We then headed down the hill towards the water -- over the railroad tracks and past the house that Harrison Ford filmed the movie "Firewall" (which wasn't really that good)





And this is where we are going - a little "off lease" park that Jenny can wander around in and chase a stick or two (but not bring them back!) This is the view south looking towards Horseshoe bay.



This is the view northwest looking towards Gambier Island and the Sunshine Coast.

Jenny - enjoying the view! I hope you enjoyed the walk.

I have been working on another Dear Jane block - so I have been quilting a bit.

So I will continue to make my blogging rounds and enjoy reading all your blogs - even if I was too busy to comment much this week.