Sisters Together

While we were in Arizona, my sister and her husband came down for a bit. That's my sister and her husband looking down from upstairs at our place in Arizona.

 While she was there I offered to make her a quilt. I had planed on giving her one for Christmas, but then thought that she might like to pick out her own fabric and pattern. She loved the rich jewel colours in the batiks, so that is what we went with.

After going through lots of pictures, she picked out some that she liked, and we came up with a plan. It really was fun working with her. I did most of the sewing, and she did the pressing. It sure goes faster with two people!!

So, we got the top finished...

And I made up the backing.  Now I just have to put it together and quilt it!! I made a little label too. ...a reminder that is was a fun time together..

I should be able to get it done before Christmas !!

....time to link up to TN&TN...

and WIP Wed at Freshly pieced...
                                                       

Downton Abbey update....and FINISH!!

I had been updating on the progress of the Downton Abbey Mystery QAL, but got interrupted by going home for Christmas...going to Hawaii...going golfing....etc.

Anyway..This QAL was really fun for me, and a real skill builder too.  Lots and lots of little pointy bits!
This was run by Love Bug Studios, and I think that it is available as a pattern now, if anybody is really interested in making one. The fabric I used was the Lady Sybil line...I love these colours.

Anyway, I did catch up and get all the blocks done. Each block has a bit of a story, linking to the "Downton Abbey" TV series. And wow, some people really take this show seriously...and have very strong opinions about characters and plot twists!! Some of the comments were pretty intense!   But me...I just like the colours LOL.

I have shown some of the early blocks before, and here is the finish!! It is about 82" x 82".

I used a neutral print for the backing..it actually has script printed on it......with some of the left-overs from the front. I tried to just do some random blocks for the back....but if you look closely, you will see that it is a perfectly symmetrical pattern....still can't do random!!

For the quilting, I wanted to do something quite simple because the quilt top is quite busy, so I tried out a new pattern...I call it "bubbles".

I need to practice this one a lot more...as I made a lot of mistakes, but once it was washed up and nice and crinkly, it looks great!

so...I am linking up to TGIFF...haven't been there in  a long time! Lets go see what everyone else has finished!  This week it is over at A Quilting Readers Garden.

And also going over to Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it up Friday!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

travelling home

Well, spring is almost here, so time to leave the sun and sand of Arizona, and travel back to Saskatchewan....where I think the snow is slowly melting...I hope!! It has been a bitterly cold winter there, so I can't really say that I missed being there for that, but it will be great to get home again.

We drove first to the Grand Canyon. We had never been there before. It really is breath taking! The pictures really don't do it justice either.

Then we stopped for a short visit as we drove through Salt Lake City. We were fortunate to be there for a free rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

We are now in Calgary for a few days, then will be home in time for Easter! We are visiting my daughter here in Calgary...and yes, she is back in her apartment now (after the big flood in June/2013) and keeping her fingers crossed that there is no flooding here this spring. They are really just getting settled and have started buying new furniture etc. I suggested maybe they should buy stuff that floats LOL !!

I have now finished all of the hand applique blocks for the quilt that I had traveled with, so next I need to get them put together!

I am procrastinating because I am pretty intimidated by trying to figure out how to quilt this one!! Some of the blocks are at home, so I will have to get them all together and take a picture later. 

travelling tote

I had some leftover scraps of "outdoor" fabric, and thought it would be very rugged for a tote bag to haul my bits and pieces of quilting stuff in the car.  I didn't have much of the fabric left over, so it is not very big.

but it holds a cutting mat, rotary cutter, a couple of rulers, pins, and some fabric...

What more do I need ?? :)

Where have I been?

Well....where have I been??  All over the place, I guess is the easy answer.  And I am not quite sure what happened to my blogging. I think that blogging was part of my daily routine, and when my routine got disrupted, I sort of lost that part of my day???  I know, it doesn't make much sense to me either!!

We flew home to Canada, from Arizona for Christmas...arrived home on Dec 20 and had 25 people for Christmas dinner on Dec 22! And yes, I even managed to get the Christmas tree up and decorated! It was great to be home and see the whole fandamily :)

Then a week after Christmas we were off to Hawaii for a month! (it is a tough life, I know!) We have a time share, and have always gone to Maui, which we love, but this year decided to try somewhere different, so we went to Kauai instead. It is a smaller island than Maui, and much more rural. Very lush and green and beautiful...and very quiet!!

Lots of turtles just off the edge of the rocks...I guess they feed there.

We did lots of hiking, golfing and relaxing by the pool. And I found the greatest little quilt shop with very friendly staff. If you are ever in Kauai, you need to stop in for a visit! The Kapaia Stitchery on the Kuhio Highway...

We were home for a couple of days, then back to the sun in Arizona! (photo by my daughter, Kara@ Inspired Photography)

We saw our first rattlesnake!! Up close and personal!! A little too up close for my liking. We were out hiking in the desert and Jack planted his hiking pole and must of scared the snake. It reared up...hissed and rattled....and we ran! I didn't realize the rattle was so loud!! But it sure got us moving! Once we were well out of striking distance, we crept back to take some pictures and marvel at how big the snake was, how difficult they are to actually see, and how lucky we were that he didn't strike!
Whew!

I have been doing quite a bit of sewing in Arizona....I will be showing off some of my finishes over the next few days. Here are a couple of the small quilts...

This is a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop...very cute...and quick and easy. I made this with a jelly of roll of Road 15 by Sweetwater.  It is only about 48"x 55". My daughter claimed this one right away...so it is gone already!!

This cute quilt was made from a jelly roll of Mamma Said Sew  by Sweetwater.  The pattern, called All Lined Up is available here.  It finishes about 58" x 79".

Anyway. ....I don't want this post to get too long..so will save some for another day....hopefully soon! ; )