Butterfly Warm Wishes - Complete

Last night I put the finishing stitches in the binding on this quilt. This quilt pattern is called Warm Wishes and has been quilted with Circle Lord's Wave template.

The focus fabric in this quilt is butterflies. Double click on a picture to get a larger view and you will see the butterflies.

Laurie and Jamie's Wedding Quilts Finished

Did you notice the title of this post? Yes, it says "quilts" --as in more than one.

If you remember back on July 22 I showed you the fabrics that were part of what I was calling the South American Challenge. "Plan A" was to make a Trip Around the World Quilt reflecting Laurie's (my niece) many trips to far away countries over the years, inspired by the colours in the fabrics that Laurie brought back home to Canada from South America. This plan was proceeding along just fine until I reached the point where I was going to apply the borders to the quilt. The fabrics from South America were not quilting fabrics. These fabrics were of a different weight than the quilting fabrics used in the Trip Around the World quilt and were loosely woven and required stabilizer before I could cut them. I just could not continue with this plan. It was clear that a quilt combining the quilting fabrics and the woven fabrics was not going to happen.

On to "Plan B". I decided to finish the Trip Around the World quilt with quilting fabrics, adding a narrow border (actually a flap of fabric) and a wider border made from quilting fabrics in the main body of the quilt. In order to still make a quilt from the South American fabrics, I decided to showcase those fabrics in their own quilt. My husband started to refer to this quilt as the "Bonus Quilt". A simple nine patch made from these fabrics was backed with the same navy blue flannel fabric used to back the Trip Around the World quilt, and quilted in the same manner as the Trip Around the World quilt using the Circle Lord Baptist Fan.

The following three pictures are of the queen size Trip Around the World Quilt.

The following two pictures are of the Nine Patch throw made from the South American fabrics.

The next picture is the happy couple on their wedding day in Hastings, England taken on May 26, 2007. The couple on the left are my BIL and SIL--parents of the bride. Laurie and Jamie were married in England but because many of the Canadian friends and family could not make the trip to England for the special day, a second celebration was held yesterday, August 25, 2007 here in Canada. The quilts were presented to the happy couple at yesterday's celebration.

Congratulations Laurie and Jamie!

A Quilt sewn together,

With utmost care,

quilted with love,

is a treasure to share.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down!

This post is about quilting in that it is about quilting distractions. I had started quilting early Saturday morning and I was making great progress on a customer quilt when my DH interrupted to suggest that we head uptown to watch the demolition of one of our small town's landmarks. Now remember, this is a small town and we have very little local entertainment. This truly was an opportunity not to be missed.

So we jumped on our bikes and pedaled the few blocks it takes to get uptown from our house. When we arrived, there were already some local residents who had positioned themselves across the street from the demolition.

This is a picture of the side of the local feed mill and farm store . A mural was painted on the side of this building many years ago. Fortunately I had the foresight to take a picture of the mural the week before the building was demolished. The old feed mill was starting to become a real eye sore but it is a shame that we had to loose this mural.

The following are pictures of the demolition as it was taking place Saturday morning.

The equipment operator was truly skilled and it was a pleasure to watch him operate that huge piece of machinery with such finesse. He could use that bucket to remove just one cinder block at a time or he could use the weight of the machine to knock down large sections of the walls at a time.

Given that the highway passes directly next to this demolition, it was a credit to the machine operator that the wall fell inward and not out onto the highway where someone could be seriously hurt.

Rumor has it that this location will soon be the new home of a grocery store.

By the way, I did finish that customer quilt later in the afternoon!

Frogs Warm Wishes - Finished

This is the Frogs Warm Wishes quilt again--shown in a previous post (scroll down). The binding is finally finished. I had hoped to have this quilt finished sooner, but other commitments were competing for my attention lately.

I have mentioned before that this is one of my favorite quilt patterns. I just love the "recipe"--a focus fabric or novelty print and 3 contrasting fabrics drawn from the colours in the print. A dash of a fourth fabric drawn from the colours in the novelty print can be added as an inner border to add punch if desired.

Simple piecing.........just straight lines...........no stretchy bias to deal with..............just let the fabrics do all the work
!

This is a picture of the quilt back. I was determined to bust stash with this one so I used all of the leftover fabrics from the front of the quilt and added two pieces of green from my stash to make the piece large enough to use as backing for this quilt.

While surfing the Internet, I discovered a site with interesting facts about frogs. This site mentioned that frogs are a protection symbol for children and promote pleasant dreams. I didn't know this about frogs when I made the quilt, but in hindsight, this information confirms that this will be a great quilt for a young child some day!

Nice Matters Award

While reading Joyce's (J's Quilting Blog) post from last Friday, I saw that she had nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. "This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also, for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award."

Thank you Joyce! Joyce is a fellow Canadian quilter and blogger. I feel a kinship to Joyce as she currently lives in one of the Canadian Prairie provinces next to the province where I was born and lived as a child. Joyce is more of an artist than I am and I always enjoy reading about her projects--she is not afraid to venture outside the box. I usually start my quilts with a commercial pattern, whereas, Joyce is not afraid to start from her ideas--no pattern. Look back at Joyce's posts where she builds her farm yard animals from scraps and you will see what I mean.

Here are my nominations in no particular order.

Linda J (Life With Quilts and A Little Old Lady in A Fur Coat - Linda continues to keep me motivated and inspired. I have yet to meet someone with a better "mental filing cabinet" than Linda. If you have a quilting question regarding something you have seen somewhere, what the name of a block or quilt is, where to find a pattern, etc., Linda can usually find it for you in her computer achieves or on the Internet--within minutes, sometimes seconds! Linda has a very generous soul and not only does she spend most of her time making quilts for charities--The Boys and Girls Ranches, Wrap Them in Love, etc., she keeps those who come in contact with her inspired to do the same!

Pam (My Creative Mind) - Pam is a very generous quilter as well. Pam has a goal of making and collecting from other quilters a total of 200 quilts that will be given to children living in orphanages in Mexico. Pam is quick to share her personal bounty. When I commented last spring that there was no local source for purchasing St. Patrick's Day fabrics in my part of the world, Pam was quick to respond with a package filled with St. Patrick's Day yardage.

Cher (Marathon Quilter) - Cher is also a quilter who is generous with her quilting talents. Cher is currently quilting for the Wrap Them in Love charity group and inspiring other quilters to do so as well. Cher, Pam, LindaJ and myself often meet up with one another on-line and chat. These ladies are all great quilting friends.

Patti (Quilting is My Passion - Patti always amazes me with how much she can accomplish from a bin of scraps! I have been inspired to make many of my projects after seeing Patti's accomplishments.

Pam (Pam's Pages) - Pam is also a fellow Canadian quilter and blogger. Pam only lives about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from me by car but we have not yet met in person......some day! It is nice to have a fellow quilter in the same geographical location to keep me apprised of what is happening in the quilt world at the opposite end of this valley. It was Pam who reminded me of one of my favorite quilt guild's quilt shows--without that reminder, I would have missed that show!

Chookyblue - Chookyblue provides us with wonderful pictures of every day life in Australia. Through Chookyblue's posts, I am able to virtually visit a country that I will likely never see in person. Chookyblue is also organizing a Christmas Present Swap.

Libby (A Simple Girl) - Libby does wonderful handwork. I am primarily a machine work person and have great admiration for those who can do such wonderful handwork. Libby is a regular reader of my blog and I appreciate the time she takes to leave such wonderful comments.

Sticking to the "rules" of the award, I have limited my nominations to just 7. However, there are many, many other quilting bloggers out there who are also deserving of this award!

Back Yard Renovation

Today is a statutory holiday here in B.C.--it is British Columbia Day. I did the machine quilting on the binding for my Frog Warm Wishes quilt yesterday. Today I will be enjoying the pleasant weather as I sit outside and do the hand stitching of the binding to the back of the quilt.

The real news this weekend was finishing our outdoor patio area in our back yard. We now have plenty of room to have everyone sit around the table in the cool shade of our maple tree.

And of course, DH has discovered that this is also a quiet spot to read the morning paper!

This is our little oasis. We don't need a reservation and there are no line ups. This is our little piece of heaven.