Fairy Quilt

Hopefully this picture is clickable so the quilt can be seen close up. I was hoping to finish it for Phoenix and send it down after Christmas but it will not be quite finished. I am not sure what sort of quilting to do in the sashing - trying to decide if I should just do a 1/4 inch outline or hand quilt a few hearts etc - or stipple. That is my main stall...

A bit of Quilting to report

 

I have been working on the Fairy Quilt for Phoenix this fall.  I was hoping to have it quilted in time to take to Cranbrook for Christmas but I don’t think I will.  I am pleased with the way it turned out.  I found the perfect fabric for the border and sashing on my way to retreat in November. 

 

 

Here is a picture of Jim and I all dressed up for the wedding!! It was very cold – but a lovely sunny day – I look a little cold!  The bridal party had some photo’s taken at this spot.  They weren’t there for long I’ll tell you!  It was cold. 

 

My “Mother of the Groom” dress – which I stressed over quite a bit and I was very pleased with the dress I found in the end.

 

 

The cutest kid there!!  Phoenix the flower girl!!

Nana and Phoenix dancing

I suppose I should say that I didn't know Jim was video taping me so that is why I have such a stupid look on my face!!

A few Wedding Pictures

  Jessica and Phoenix getting ready to be the flower girl.  The Italian Hall was beautifully decorated in a Winter Wonderland theme.


Eric waiting for his bride.



Here comes the bride and her father.


And now you may kiss the bride!

Darla and Eric – December 4th 2010

I am doing a bit of a test post here with the a new editing and posting program I discovered from Windows – Windows Live Writer.  So we will see how this works.

Waiting for the cream to clot

Okay -- where the heck have I been you ask??  I have been just too busy to blog because we have been clotting cream.....Yes.. another Jim experiment!  It started out with an English tea bridal shower was being planned for Darla ( Eric - middle son) fiance.  So Jim decided that she needed an old fashioned "Cream tea" and he would make some clotted cream - he had ALWAYS wanted to make clotted cream... so I was told.

First the research - the recipe - which is basically whipping cream - pasteurized but not homogenized - Avalon Dairy in Vancouver had the correct whipping apparently - it even comes from Jersey cows.  It is a pretty simple recipe actually.  Bring the whipping cream to room temperature and then let it simmer in a double boiler at 170 F for anywhere from 1 hour to 12 hours..... Jim opted for the 10-12 hour range.



It forms this little crusty layer.

Once finished - let cool and then take off the top layer and  fold it and mix it all up.




And below..... clotted cream -- wonderful clotted cream. 



Jim took this little "artys" shot of the final result. 




And how much clotted cream do you get from 2 litres of whipping cream -- too much.

I took a bunch to the bridal shower - It was a lovely English tea.  I dug out Aunt Dot's Pink Minton tea service from pre 1950 - it  had probably been in the box for 25 years.  I made little cream scones and bought some special strawberry jam.  Darla's Nana is from Wales and she gave the clotted cream two thumbs up..... but was that enough -----NO - one needs to perfect the recipe - so the following weekend MORE clotted cream was made -- I am now pleading that he stops this NOW - I can't take it anymore!!

Luckily I was at a quilt retreat for the second batch but there was a lot left over and we are still eating it.  I think we need  Jim needs to sit down - eat the rest of it -- finish it off - get it out of the house and be done with it - get his fill and let it go... he's made it - it's fabulous and enough already.....lets get back to something a little less fattening - like prawns!

Off to the Adams River

Jenny and I are off tomorrow morning to the Kamloops B.C area to meet Jim and see the great Adams River Sockeye run return to it's spawning grounds.

Jim was already there last week so here are a couple of pictures that he took last week.



The red spawning sockeye................


The dead sockeye...................................



Makes you wonder why they are so desperate to get back there!!

Jim had meetings again this week so he has gone up to Kamloops and I am going to meet him there at the end of his meetings and go see the river and the salmon.  All these years and I have never been to the Adams River - this is supposed to be a very big years as there were 25 and/or 34 million salmon returning this year -- ( those numbers are an estimate!)

Jenny gets to come and we are staying at Sun Peaks - just outside of Kamloops - pretty exciting.  Although I am not as happy as I would like because I spent an hour and a half in the dentist chair yesterday getting an old crown replace ( amazing  how something that was put in - in 1992 is now "old" ) -- anyway I am quite sore - it is on my "bad" side - so I have been taking Aleve and Ibuprofen most of the day.  I sure hope it doesn't turn into the pain and agony that I had last October.

I have been busy working on my Civil war BOM quilt.  I am really enjoying making this quilt..................



And the main reason I am enjoying it so much is this little featherweight I call her Daisy -- Well she just loves this fabric!! And is sewing it beautifully!!




I tried to sew the Morris Garden Lady of the Lake quilt on her but she just did not like that fabric but she just LOVES the Civil War fabric and her and I are bonding!! 

Pam

House reno's that continue.......

I know this has nothing to do with quilting.... but I am quilting as well...

Work to be done on the soffits...... the back of the house has been mostly painted at this point and Jim is changing the old white painted soffits with new cedar ones.




This is how they looked...see the ratty old mesh covering the soffit vents.


The change to cedar -- which was not too difficult as the new cedar is put right on top of the old soffits....I didn't get a "before" picture of the white soffits on the inside of the deck -- but they looked just as bad as the ones on the outside of the deck - trust me!



I like this photo because Jim is wearing his "Beer is my Life" T-shirt!!  In this picture you can also see that the outside wall of the house on the deck is still white and the roof of the deck has yet to be washed.  Most of this was done without my help - I think I was quilting this day.....and a neighbour who had a special saw was helping this day...... but finally I was called to service....

As you can see the outside wall is no longer white - the roof has been washed and the new vents in the soffits are going to be installed..... and I got to help.




Isn't that lovely..... new cedar - new vent covers... newly painted brown trim - although the brown trim around the window still needs another coat.... it really doesn't ever end!




And a nice new deck.... time for a beer!!


Isn't it lovely!!  And Jim  has officially declared that his work for the season on the outside of the house is finished!!  Thank goodness!!!

Now for the closet.......................

Last Weekend.................

Before I get to what we finished this weekend .... let's take a look at what we did last weekend - or maybe it was the weekend before - I can't remember - it all seems to blur together in a haze of sore muscles.....

After we finished the painting of the outside of the house - which is now officially "not WHITE"  The new colour is Mortar.... with a little bit of Baffin Island and Dark Chocolate Brown trim - we still have yet to paint the white doors - which will be Carmel Apple - like the garage door. 

Once the paint was dry - it was time to move the wood pile back to where it belongs - under cover - right up against the newly painted house - but away from the rain.  The wood pile had been under a tarp on the lawn for the better part of the summer and we had a very rainy September so we needed to move it.
I got to help!




Here is Jim - as more than half the wood pile is moved by the time I decided I needed to take pictures.... so the wood pile went from here....................

To here....................



The other half of the wood pile.

Jim has a bit of a hoarding instinct when it come to wood.  He will come to a dead stop if driving down the highway and sees a tree down that would be good burning wood -- like a Cherry tree - or Arbutus... it's a bit of an illness I think.  When they were building the new highway there we all kinds of trees being cut down and Jim would go back at 6 AM with his chainsaw and truck and pillage the dead fall.  Lord knows you can never have enough firewood!

Then as I was looking around the back yard I realize what a total disaster it was - Good Heavens -- I need a picture of this mess....



Old bird cage...( poor Abigail) --  dead washing machine... lawn mower --- what a mess!!

So a picture of the front of house --- which looks lovely after I swept up all the dead leaves.  That was one of my assigned tasks - after moving the wood pile!! 



I did get to go to a Quilting retreat on Saturday though - QBTB - and I worked on the Civil War BOM for almost 10 hours and I finished 3 blocks!! 

More to come -- and the back yard looks much better this weekend -- bird cage is gone!!

Photo of the day

I know I  have been neglecting my blog lately -- as usual.  I have been working a lot lately and Jim has been cracking the whip with a bunch of house reno work lately - so if I haven't been at work I have been helping with painting/washing/moving wood piles/hauling junk etc at home.

Picture of the day~~~~~






The other morning I got up to find this collection of glasses in the bathroom -- on Jim's side of the bathroom counter....... is this really necessary????

Celebrate the Sockeye

This is a year to celebrate the sockeye - so my Salmon Biologist husband tells me! He has been out on a couple of fishing boats this summer and with a 34 million return this year we are all celebrating the sockeye here on the west coast of B.C. and maybe all over Canada.

I have a few pictures he took this summer.




This picture was taken just a couple of weekends ago at the mouth of the Fraser River - in the picture you can see all the little splashes of water - those are jumping sockeye - just a few of the 34 million!



Jim took another trip to the West Coast of Vancouver Island -- known to him as Area 20.



He spent the day on a fishing boat - mostly watching I suspect.




And eating!!



The season has come to an end.  We are planning a trip to the Adams River in October to see the Adams River Sockeye spawn.  I have never been there but this year is going to be a good one - so I have been told.

I have been working a lot this past week - 5 shifts in one week - so this post has sat in my list of posts to edit for about 10 - waiting for me to finish.

I am off this week - with a cold - and I am totally and completely annoyed.  I had a cold last March and I feel one cold every other year is plenty - so two colds in one years is unacceptable.  I don't think this one is as bad - and I have things to do this week so I am just going to do them!! 

Gibsons Fibre Arts Festival

I belong to a little Friday stitching group sort of know as the "Gathered Threads" although we also call ourselves the "Loose Thread"  as it is a pretty casual bunch and we quite often will invite any one that happens to wander by looking remotely like a quilter to join us for the afternoon.  I also will lovely refer to them all as my "Quilting Peeps"  Last Friday a few of us took a little day trip to the Gibsons Landing B.C. for the Fibre Arts Festival.  It was a very small show - with a quite a large Merchants's Mall - we was heavily weighted in the Fibre end of the Arts.


Here is Dianne and Sharon - smiling for the camera as we have our morning Starbucks fix waiting to get on the Ferry at Horseshoe Bay.  It was a gray day in the morning but it quickly became a lovely sunny afternoon.



A few photos of some of the items on display at the Festival.   Some items I took pictures of the labels and some I did not.

This was an amazing little fruit bowl all made from felted wool.





This small quilt was made by Gail Hunt.  Gail was one of the founding members of the quilt guild I belong to and she wrote a book called Quiltworks across Canada.
It is a great book. 



The photo doesn't really do the quilt justice.  It is just full of texture and detail.





This is called "The Eyes Have It" by Trisha Joel of Gibsons B.C.  "It is screen printed fabric suggesting eyes and the red suggests danger"  I was quite drawn to this quilt - must be the eyes!






There were a series of quilts hanging together on a wall with this label.  The picture is a bit blurry. Jim had the new camera and I was back working with the small little Canon - obviously not working well with it!








They were all done by a Carola who is a local quilt shop owner in Gibsons.  I have no idea how she found time to make these quilts.  I have had Carola at our quilt show's Merchant's Mall a couple of times and Carola works non stop - she is always at the many quilt shows with a booth.  She is a great person and has a  shop in Gibsons called Carola's Quilt Shop.
After seeing her booth at so many quilt shows I finally got to go into her actual shop and spend money there!



There was this beautiful piece - it is all felted wool.






Here is another piece that caught my eye.  Of course I don't have a picture of the label and I can't remember the details. 




 
This one is called "Mandala" and it is felted wool.  It is by Hieke Fink of Prud'Homme Sk.





This one is called "On and Off the Grid" by Janet Tufnall of Sechelt B.C.  It is layers of fabrics that have been slashed and sewn and maybe slashed again.  Quite interesting.



The were a few items there that would not really be in the Fibre part of Fibre Arts - but lovely to look at none the less. 


My favourite of these was this hand painted little gourd.  It is by Gloria Micheal from Half Moon Bay B.C. 
It was for sale for $200.00... which I thought was a pretty reasonable price.






This shawl was the piece that won Best of Show.  It certainly was lovely.






Most of the items were for sale and I could have bought a couple of things!!  But I didn't.  I'd love a dragon fly gourd....


The show was really heavy in the wool - knitting, weaving, felting etc and only a few quilts.  The merchant's mall was also mostly wool shops with only a couple of booths selling fabric.  So ---- I decided maybe I should try my hand at KNITTING..... LOL.  But I found a little free pattern and bought the required supplied and decided to try making a pair of socks. 



I am hoping that the knitting ladies at my Friday Stitch group will guide me along.  I started the "tension test" piece last Friday and I think I maybe should knit a scarf first.  Maybe socks was a bit ambitious.  But it is supposed to be a very simple pattern.... no heel as they are tube socks. But really....... socks....... what was I thinking!!   I have done some knitting in the past but I think it was probably 30 years ago.  So first maybe I will head down to somewhere like Micheal's and get a pattern and wool for a scarf.  It seemed like such a good idea at the time!

It is raining today - it hasn't rained here in a long time and we really need the rain so I won't complain.  I am hoping to finish up the quilting on the table runner and put the binding on today.....but first coffee and maybe a bit of  the Y&R!!