Next Step Quilt Designs

Tropical Breeze

2012-01-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

Guess What!? Only 11 more months until Christmas!

This drives all my friends and cohorts crazy when it is announced how many months till Christmas. Me, I'm more than happy to oblige.

This is the perfect time for us Canadians to be thinking about tropical breezes.

Can you feel the warm breeze, see the turquoise ocean, the palms swaying, while lying in the sunny sun?

Scrap the Deep Freeze

2012-01-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

We are in the Deep Freeze! It got down to -40 last night. It doesn't matter whether that's Fahrenheit or Celsius, it's DARN COLD. But, don't feel bad for us because 3 hours/300km/180 miles, north of us it was -50. And what a perfect day to make scrap quilts.

Two ladies in a group that I meet with every month, decided it would be fun to do a 9-Patch scrap project again. It was so much fun last time we signed up again. Out of the six categories, Repro's with tone on tone white, Country, True Scrap, Novelty, Floral and Jewel Tones I signed up for three of them.

What was I thinking!!!

It's only 8 or 9 9-patches every month.
Oops, times 3 categories.
Oh my, times 5 months.
Ikey rumba! That's 125 9-patches.
Ah Ha! I'll do them all right now instead of a little bit every month.
Ta Daaaa! DONE.

Floral

It's always a great surprise to see how fabrics in your stash go together so well. My favorite, the daisy and fern fabrics, were put into the stash project area for a future design.

Novelty

What fun! Farm animals with beach stuff.

True Scrap

This was harder to make until I read the new book by Helen Roddy Brown, "patchwork-play QUILTS".

She explained and had pictures showing the many ways to scrap a quilt.

Stay Warm!

Shape Up Quilt & World Jr Hockey

2012-01-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hockey. Quilting. Hockey. Quilting.

After agreeing to go with a friend to the World Jr Hockey Tournament here in Calgary, I thought I'd be so sick of hockey.

NOT!

In fact I'm:
1) waiting for colder weather so the ice will freeze so I can go pond skating. Way so much better than in an arena!!! Was even wondering what happened to my hockey stick from 40 years ago.
2) in pretty good shape after climbing 125, yes one hundred twenty-five, steps 3-5 times for 10 days. Yeah, we were in the nose bleed (they call it press level) seats. No kidding, What a fantastic view!!!

The Zambonis were only this big!

3) sick of the carnival food, ie hotdogs, ice cream, burgers, nachos. Had 2 pieces of lettuce and 2 slices tomato in 10 days. Was even thinking I could have drank my veggies, V8. Duh!

Being a Canadian, very rarely do we see this. This was so heart welling! A 25 ft wide Canadian Flag travelling around the Saddledome in Calgary! OOOOWWEEEE!

Even had to take this picture of a sight that was unbelievably shocking!

NO lineup at the women's toilet only the men's!!!

All in all, it was a fantastic time and even though Canada won the Bronze medal, Hockey is still Canada's game.

And I'm glad I was there!

As for the quilting, I finally finished TB Shape Up Quilt. It's off to the quilter!

New Year 2012

2012-01-01T18:27:00.002-07:00

How many of you make New Year Resolutions?

In December, a wise person said not to make resolutions, instead make goals! Not big ones, but small baby step ones. Much easier to keep!

May your New Year goals come to fruition!!!

Four Food Groups

2011-12-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

'Tis the season for colds. This is when my most favorite 4 basic food groups chips, ice cream, pop, and CHOCOLATE are the best.

One thing about being not quite so sick is that you can still piece. The process may be slower but it can be done. This block was to be a log cabin block, but, in my wisdom, or Not, it was changed to a spiral.

Maybe not such a great idea to do this when the head is foggy. But, after a few unsewings, Voila! This was sooo worth it and sooo much fun!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T17:37:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas To All &

To All A Goodnight!

Quilt to Music

2011-11-23T10:08:00.016-07:00

Quilts set to music from Canada.

Ice &quilts

2011-11-16T19:18:00.006-07:00

I spoke a day to soon. The next day it turned cold and snowed and the lake froze over completely. The second day, the Chinook came and melted the snow by the afternoon. Unfortunately, the ice is still on the lake. Winter is really here. The arch in the photo is the Chinook cloud.

Not only is the Rocky Mountain Puzzle quilt completed, but so is the Domino quilt.
Rocky Mountain Puzzle quilt is from Moda's Terrain layer cake by Kate Spain.

Domino quilt is from stripes, plaids, and the odd dot that I cut up to make my own layer cake.

November Geese

2011-11-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

It's mid November and the lake is still open. Open that is to gaggles of Canada Geese. Ice has been trying to form some nights but, thank you mother nature for standing up to the north winds and only allowing the chinooks go come through.

Early Morning Geese

The last gaggle this morning

Afternoon rest from the blustery winds
Calmer in the cove

Remembrance Day

2011-11-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

In Flanders Fields

by Canadian military doctor and artillery commander John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

For information on the Poppy and Remembrance Day

Rocky Mountain Puzzle

2011-10-12T15:04:00.001-06:00

Layer cakes - what do you do with 42 - 10" squares? Besides checking out Moda Bake Shop. I wanted to design one of my own bakeshop goodies. Born is the Alberta Rocky Mountain Puzzle quilt.

These 420 hst's are from one Terrain layer cake and twenty-one (21) 10" x 21" white pieces of fabric. Why I made the 420 hst's larger to trim them to size instead of using one of the paper piecing methods is beyond me.

Canadian Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T20:30:00.008-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving

Canada!

Wishing you the very best turkey day ever!

Thanksgiving reflections:

Addition to the family

2011-09-25T17:48:00.012-06:00

It's here and set up! Fusion aka Fred! Joyce and her husband Joe, from Big Sky Quilts in Montana, did a wonderful job of putting everything together and getting it all setup in a day. What a job that was! So grateful I didn't have to do it! The next day a had my first lesson. Woohoo!! Talk about exciting!!

And then, I badly hurt both hands so Fred has been relaxing and getting acquainted with his new home. Only this past week have I been able to piece.

What happened to the office that was where Fred is now? Everything has been moved upstairs and combined with a living room office into the long forgotten den that was used as a storage for trucking and quilt store paraphernalia after closing and selling the businesses respectively.

Yes, that is a pink elephant in the chair. But, that is another story. Time for another reorganization. Yes, this is one of the other rooms that was mentioned in the first reorganization that needed to be redone. Anyone out there starting a business that requires office paraphernalia?

Renewed WIP

2011-09-18T06:59:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Jo here; Kat's cohort.

Isn't it great when you can throw a WIP in the box because you're sick of the fabric, let alone the quilt, and 10 months later, when you find it in a pile, it is the best looking WIP again!

Mystery Final Chapter

2011-09-08T18:26:00.002-06:00

Here we are at the final chapter of the Mystery. I hope you enjoyed the journey. There are pictures of other color variations that you can try.

Mystery is no longer available. Stay tuned for another mystery in the spring.

It's finally a hot summer here even though it is September. I guess technically it really is still summer because the first day of Fall is in October. Even the poplar trees are still green.

I always feel like saying Happy New Year September 1. Don't you think this is the beginning of the year? Everyone gets back into a routine and most groups/institutes start their programs at this time.

You may have noticed that the previous post was by Jo. She is a great friend and cohort. Jo enjoys quilting period. She is one of those that actually pieces every day. She tests my patterns, sews my samples and gives me a kick when I need one to move forward. Jo recently purchased one of APQS' first midarm, longarm at that time, quilting machine. It's like working on a Featherweight. Hums along beautifully!

Jo will be periodically blogging at Next Step Quilt Designs. Her enthusiasm for quilting is contagious so stay tuned!

Summer Daze

2011-09-07T21:18:00.016-06:00

Summer is over, boo hoo, and the city is back to normal. Because of all the construction projects, the one hour drive across the city is back to two hours.

The design wall is getting fuller by the hour. Kat is experimenting with 'modern quilt' fabric in her traditional “block of the month” blocks. It works for those who like blended quilts, which we do. Well I do; Kat is experimenting. Here is a portion of her Summer Daze block of the month.

Many modern quilts look somewhat simplistic but in studying many of the websites with Modern quilts, I came to notice that the only restriction is my own fear in using whatever fabric you want. Kat noticed that many Modern quilts use plain white for a background giving the quilts a clean look. The impression that many modern quilts are just large pieces of modern fabric sewn together doesn’t hold true for us either. Anyway, a new door is now open for us to try and we have found another reason to add more fabric to our stash.

Slow posting and slow sewing. All though I did quilt the Summer Daze quilt myself on an old (l988) “midarm” longarm quilting machine (that doesn’t sound right), the fact is that the last time I quilted on any type of longarm machine was back in the early nineties. A pretty fair job if I do say so myself.

The next modern quilt is also done is ready to go on the Midarm quilting machine. I love how the colors worked in the unusual setting. The simple border really showcases the blocks.

Mystery Lucky

2011-08-13T21:18:00.007-06:00

	Mystery is no longer available. Stay tuned for another mystery in the spring.
This is Lucky. Mouser, birder, mischievous elf, lady of the house, master of the house, alarm clock, de-stresser, time to take a break and pet or feed me clock, my boss, my baby. Now my Angel. She is greatly missed.

Mystery Calgary Stampede

2011-07-13T17:40:00.006-06:00

Mystery is no longer available. Stay tuned for another mystery in the spring.

The Calgary Stampede for 2011 is 5 days old. There are free, yes free, Stampede Breakfasts everywhere every morning. If you love flapjacks (pancakes) this is the place to be. Thousands of people are fed every day. One thing about it is that after Stampede is over you will never have to eat another flapjack for a year. The Chinook Centre breakfast is 50 years old.

Modern - Nature and the Fire Department

2011-07-05T15:14:00.000-06:00

You just have to love it when a plan comes together. It's even more rewarding when a friend's stash can come to the rescue when you cannot find the right fabric in your stash.

1st attempt

The revised block turned out great. It is amazing how the scale of the new fabric makes all the difference. The small checked fabric adds even more interest.

revised

Firemen are so compassionate! They do so much to help all creatures great and small!

This family of ducks was ready to hit the pond in the green space behind my friend's house. She walked down 3 houses looking for a route to the pond before the firemen came and escorted them to the back thru a neighbor's yard. You just have to admire the firemen's willing ability to help everyone!

looking for a route to the back

on to the next house

C'mon li'l duckies.

Watch that they follow the path.

Have you ever notice that the smallest things can give you the biggest smiles and the best feeling!

Modern Quilts

2011-07-03T20:06:00.000-06:00

For a few years now, very large, large and large medium scale fabrics with all kinds of textures have been around. Everyone loved them but no one really knew what to do with them. One would never think of mixing any of these textures in a quilt.

Then the Modern Quilter arrives. They pick the fabrics they love. They mix all textures and colors together. They create their quilts without inhibitions.

Over the last 3 years, I have learned a great amount about combining stripes, plaids and various textured fabrics from the freebie 15 program at Traditional Pastimes in Calgary. It is nothing out of the ordinary to receive a package similar to this each month.

Then, ding ding ding and the light goes on. The Modern fabrics are similar to the Thirty's fabrics. They are bright, true color fabrics and are combined with white or another solid color. Here is my attempt to moderize the block of the month quilt, Elegance, with the fabrics below.

Same blocks - 1st block Traditional - 2nd block Modern.

Unfortunately, the second block from a distance shows that both the black and red colored fabrics are too similar.

The block looks better close up.

Here There & Everywhere

2011-06-23T18:44:00.012-06:00

Another busy month Gone! There are so many things to learn in blogging, facebook, twitter, and webbing. Technology Period. Sometimes I feel much older. Platinum moments.
Just spent the last weeks touring around East Texas. Manage to go to Stitchin Heaven in Quitman and

Quilt Country in Lewisville north of Dallas TX. If you are ever in those areas make sure you stop in.

Mystery is no longer available. Stay tuned for another mystery in the spring.

The S Did It

2011-05-22T15:15:00.004-06:00

Cannot believe it is the May long weekend already. It's still cool and rain threatening. The trees and the early spring flowers are finally coming out. On the bright side that gives you time to get your fabric ready for the

Mystery is no longer available. Stay tuned for another mystery in the spring.

If you are like me and cut your pieces larger sew together and then trim down to size email me for different cutting instructions.

Have Fun!

Changes

2011-05-04T21:15:00.002-06:00

What a week of down and up!
Assassination of Osama Bin Laden - Royal Wedding.
Canadian Federal Election (4 in 6 years) - Conservative Party majority seats elected (no more elections for 4 years).
Purple quilt cancelled - New quilt Royal Stars top finished. Thank goodness for deadlines.

Finally had to give up on the purple quilt. Just could not get it to work. Trying to force it was leading to more trying to force it. Even made three blocks to try to convince me that the fabrics would work. NOT!

Ding Ding Ding There's a quilt design that's been sitting in The Book for a year waiting to be recreated in batik fabric - EE Schenck, Galaxy, Java. Royal Stars. Coincidental that the Royal Wedding is happening. Does 1+1 really = 2?

Quilt was designed using EQ7. This is Block 1. Blocks are numbered easiest to hardest. When the pinwheel turned out fantastic this was the right project at the right time.

Auditioning which color, medium or dark, look best around each block

Which block goes where? Looking through the peep hole/reducing glass/digital camera picture is the best way to see if anything jumps out at you. You also want to scatter blocks that are similar in shape.

Sometimes just being together is what matters!
Borders - what kind, what width, what color, design or plain?

Another background border it is. Eleanor Burns was here and put all the auditioning pieces on the floor.
Now what? Add another border or not? Again wide or narrow? Color? Type?
Ok, a small red border.

Add another border? Now my head hurts. My eyes are not seeing. Tired. Lazy. Don't want to. Off to my friend's house for another opinion, a set of fresh eyes. Good thing because her daughter asks "Why does one of the sashings have a strip the other way around?"

Oh brother! LOL Do you know how many times this quilt has been examined, had pictures taken of and have never noticed the oops. Can you find the oops?

Audition more fabric, more widths ... Unanimously, no more borders. A welcome relief!

Cincinnati Quilt Festival

2011-04-17T16:19:00.000-06:00

Cincinnati Quilt Festival was wonderful! Very clean city. Excellent venue. Two major hotels across the street, one a short block away, another two short blocks away. Classes were excellent. The food not the usual large venue food but instead diverse and very edible. Definitely worth a return to next year. Maybe next year will attend the ball game as well.

One of the tours offered at Quilt Festival in Cincinnati went to the Warren County Museum in Lebanon OH. Two particular and different articles caught my eye. The first, an Irish Chain quilt pattern on point ...

the second, a crystal pitcher.

The eye in the center is from the other side of the pitcher.

So many quilts to view at the show. This year I am particularly interested in how people quilt their quilts. How do they fill the large areas, the very small areas, the separate blocks, the border, the separate borders...

All so impressive!

Can you see Whoo welcomed me home.

Must be a night owl pretending to sleep on the branch above the magpie nest.

Oops, Whoo watches me now!

After 6 hours of periodically disturbing him to take a picture he flew off. It was interesting to note that the sparrows and chickadees were not bothered with him as they flew in and out of the tree beside this spruce.

Here we go again. Heavy wet snow that melts the same day only to snow again a couple days later and stay for a few days. Welcome to Spring in Calgary Alberta Canada!

Just had to take a picture of this.

The fabrics have been choosen for, LOL, Spring Crocus.

Decisions or Procrastination

2011-03-31T14:59:00.000-06:00

Which is it? How many of you have those days or even weeks where you cannot decide which fabric combination to put together? Or, is it really procrastination and you required a deadline date to get the wheels in motion?

It has taken 2 weeks to decide Just Do It for crying out loud. Make the decision and get on with it. As per usual the decision is a tweak of the first fabrics that were picked. Geesh! Cross you fingers that it works. Stay tuned for the Lattice.

Even Lucky gets tired of waiting. But, say 'Supper' and the sleepy come alive.

p.s. How many of you use yellow green, aka puke green - first block, in your quilts?

Elegance

2011-03-20T17:18:00.000-06:00

Even in my garment days the first and last thing, ie cutting and hemming, was hated. Learning to bind my quilts by machine was a god send. It only takes 1-2 hours. This quilt is to be shown so the binding is done by hand about 8 stitches per inch. Twelve, yes 12, hours later, voila.

Quilting by Nancy at Crazy Creek Creations. Isn't it fantastic!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T14:41:00.001-06:00

May the luck of the Irish help you find your pot of gold at the end of your rainbow!

Extra Square

2011-03-16T16:01:00.000-06:00

Here we are another quilt top completed, well, maybe. There is one, Yes, One, extra block. Used 63 hst's.

Question: does the extra block go in the back Or does it look okay on the front bottom right?

Hallowe'en HST

2011-03-13T22:34:00.001-06:00

What was I thinking cutting 480 hst's last November?

Oh fun! There are 2 left over.

Yea! One fell in the scrap bucket.

Alright, there are extra triangles in the HST scrap bag.

The hst's were sewn in groups of 10 so that a string would fit on the ironing board. While pressing them decided to sort them according to the black fabric because the hallowe'en fabric is blended, ie all look close to the same. Therefore, the black fabric will be the feature where the eye can rest, the hallowe'en the background.

All squared, maybe should have used triangle paper instead? Which takes less time to paper or not paper?

Star Daze

2011-03-08T11:47:00.002-07:00

Check out the quilting on my original Star Daze block of the month done in traditional fabrics. Nancy from Crazy Creek Creations has done awesome quilting on the asymmetrical quilt. It will look fantastic at the quilt shows. For more pics click on Crazy Creek Creations.

Start the groove.

2011-03-06T18:29:00.001-07:00

Easy easy easy! Two similar blocks diagonally cut in half and sewn together. What a great idea! My head is spinning and it's time to experiment with other blocks. Feel the groove - look out - we're coming out of quilter's (writer's) block.

And the fabrics in this simple block are just awesome! Sets the mind a spinning.

Hallowe'en

2011-03-01T17:40:00.001-07:00

Do you suffer from bigitis and changitis? It doesn't matter how small a quilt starts out at, it gets revised and enlarged. Sound familiar?

Back on November 28 a Hallowe'en HST quilt began. Since then, this Hallowe'en panel was uncovered from the stash and is now going to be incorporated into the HST's. No sense making two quilts when one larger one will suffice. That's one way to use up the stash quickly and effortlessly. It's also interesting that the fabrics look like they are from the same line even though there are a few years between them.

Thankful Tuesday

2011-02-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all creatures great and small.

Thank you for the birds that visit the feeder and the bunny that cleans up after the birds.

See the brown ears. Woohoo, Spring is just around the corner!

Two of the Same Mystery

2011-02-21T21:38:00.020-07:00

It is tremendous to be able to sew again without the mess! No more moving other projects or stuff just so that I can sew! Yeah! Now the 6 containers of wip's, that were originally not going to be finished, can be tackled with renewed piecing interest.

Back in 1997, one of the Calgary quilt stores had a Mystery Quilt summer. All you had to do was pick up a step each week. I still remember cutting these quilts at the Yakima race track in Washington. My DH drag raced in the super comp category. Drag racing being a hurry up and wait sport there was lots of relax time for my new enthusiastic hobby. After working on these quilts during the quilt guild scrap weekend over the last 5 years, the quilts finally reached a stage where the enthusiasm to finish them was overwhelming. And now they are ready for the quilter. Two done a million to go!

This mystery used 4 fabrics, but, you could use a different colour fabric in a certain area thereby using 5 fabrics. So, of course I had to make the 2 similar yet different quilts. If you are looking for the difference, ...

... in the yellow quilt, the star points and star center are blue. In the pink quilt the star points are deep pink and the star center is dark purple.

It is interesting that when the colours were picked for these quilts I just picked the colours. Now, I sometimes agonize over the colours more than I should. It seems that the more I've learned over the years the more particular I've become in choosing colours. Have even had to get out this egg timer from a Mary Ellen Hopkins seminar.

How many of you find yourself agonizing over the fabric picking?

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T18:03:00.002-07:00

Almost got the valentine's quilt completed by Valentines Day! All pinned and ~~steady~~ ready for quilting.

Who said valentines have to be red? How about red Cupid's arrows instead.

Elegance

2011-02-10T19:18:00.009-07:00

I just had to post this... please check out the link ...
I am speechless of the custom quilting by Crazy Creek Creations on one of my favorite block of the month designs, 'Elegance'. I have three excellent and outstanding long arm quilters that specialize in different areas.
to be continued...

Las Vegas

2011-02-04T18:07:00.031-07:00

Don't you just love Las Vegas in all its splendor. Everywhere bells, whistles and flashing lights.
This time my friend, Joanne, came down. Her and I $pent ~~time~~ er money in the Bellagio. Bellagio's best part is hidden behind the casino. Cafe Gelato, specializing in Italian ice cream, truffles, chocolate, special cakes. Truly delectable.

And the Botanical Garden celebrating The Year of the Rabbit, dressed in the Chinese colours of red lanterns and zigzag bridges, gold coins, terra cotta soldiers and cart, bamboo and green rabbits surrounding one giant 10 foot hairy rabbit. Awesome. Amazing.

You know your in heaven when you can eat gelato and become mesmerized by koi swimming in the garden pool!

The next two days we went shop hopping. The shops are conveniently located in a circle around Vegas just off the freeway.
First stop: The Fabric Boutique - wonderful, brightly lit shop that has a colour of the month.
2nd stop: The Christmas Goose - cozy country feel.
3rd stop: Quiltique - also brightly lit and full front windows.
4th stop: Fiddlesticks - quaint shop in Boulder City that has a colour of the month.
Besides batiks and balis this pretty Luna Notte fabric says please take me home.

Adding grey, blue grey, sage and even red on the coral side will make this fabric sing. Already have a design swirling around in my head. TG am going home tomorrow.

It's Organized!!!

2011-01-25T21:27:00.002-07:00

Yabba Dabba Do!!! The sewing room is finally organized! It's unbelievable how relieving this is. Even though it took four months and many times I wanted to cry and say to heck with it, the reward is so elating. Everytime I go into the room it's a shock! This cannot be my sewing area. Oh but it is! It really is!

Remember the Beginning ...

The Middle ...

The End!!!

The UV Protection light turquoise and gray-green fabric hanging are being auditioned for curtains for the fabric shelves.

Tips for when you decide to take on the undaunting and extremely rewarding task of organizing your sewing room:

Tell someone, even if it is blogged. This is for accountability.
Take before pictures - Yes, it is embarrassing but at the completion of the process it is extremely rewarding to see what you have accomplished.
Very Important: Clean up all paper, flatten cardboard boxes, stack containers and vacuum - yes, vacuum - when you finish for the day. Nothing is more fulfilling that day than the feeling you will have when you recycled or garbaged stuff.
Do what you can the first day or even week while you have the incentive and steam to pursue this task.
Now you have run out of steam and are getting discourage that you will never finish, set a timer for 15-30 minutes each time you organize your room. When time is up and you want to continue because you are on a roll, do it!
Who's stupidest idea was this? Where did it all come from? You definitely cannot see the tables, counters and floor any more. Remember it will get worse before it gets better.
Do not feel like working on the room. Then Don't! When I planned to be done in 1 month my friends laughed. It took me 4 months.
There will be little surprizes along the way, ie finding forgotten quilt projects, finding tools or patterns or even a favourite thing that you thought was long gone. Cherish these moments as it will bring a smile your face.
Ahhh, you can see a light at the end of the tunnel! Now all the little nitty gritty things surface. Again it is surprizing how long it takes to organize the little nitty gritty things. Sometimes as long as it took to do the large things.
That incentive and steam at the beginning comes back. Do what you can until... review tips 3 thru 8.
Before you know it YOU ARE ORGANIZED!
Take after pictures. You will have a smile from ear to ear and wonder how quilting happened in this room.

Drunkard's Path

2011-01-12T21:21:00.007-07:00

Reorganzation of the main room is so close to completion that daylight finally touches the floor. Two 30" cubed boxes, a couple large bags and an ironing height open counter have been cleaned out and sorted into 4 large garbage bags:
1. useable scrap fabric for those making scrap charity quilts,
2. unuseable scrap fabric for recycling. Found a place that takes cotton fabric including blue jeans, that were once designated for blue jean quilts, and makes recycled paper,
3. craft supplies that are going to various groups of people that will use them.

In between all this, I completed the Drunkard's Path Table Runner / Table Topper and wrote the instructions for it. It's free for your enjoyment!

A New Year

2011-01-05T17:09:00.002-07:00

I never tire of this gorgeous west view no matter which season. Today is especially grand as the mountains are at the front door.

This reminds me of a comment a newly arrived Easterner (a Toronto, Ontario, Canada person) said to me back in the 70's.

'The postcards are not fake; the mountains are actually that close!'

This new year also brings a fresh start to messy, disorganized rooms. Ok, so it started in October. Both the work tables and the APQ George table are finally cleared. There are 17, yes 17, large (58qt/55L) empty totes stacked in front of George.

It seems the WIP Fairy has been at work again. The more the reorganizing continues the more wip's are uncovered. Here are four more tops that are now ready for quilting. Thank goodness three are table topper/wall hanging size. The larger one on the work tables is the 'BWR Windmill' quilt in blue.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T05:22:00.033-07:00

Another year has come and gone! Where did it go? How did it happen?

Wishing you a quiltabulous

& prosperous 2011!

The Feast

2010-12-30T17:50:00.008-07:00

Oh My!!! The time between Christmas and New Years should be called 'The Feast'. This is the only time of the year where basically almost everyone eats non-stop. Chocolate, turkey, chocolate, turkey buns, treats, turkey soup, dessert, ...

Looking back, 2010 has been a year of change for me. So keeping with the continuity of change, prime rib instead of turkey and strawberry shortcake instead of pumpkin pie. What a treat!

My sister brought this delightfully tasty crunchy salad that she found at Cooks.com instead of orange-pineapple jelly salad.

CAULIFLOWER-CASHEW-PEA SALAD from COOKS.COM

Combine ingredients:
1 c. chopped cauliflower
1 c. diced celery
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas (thaw in fridge overnight)
1/4 c. diced green onion

Salad dressing: *
1 c. Ranch dressing
1/2 c. sour cream

Add as garnish or mix in: **
1/2 lb. crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled
1 c. cashews added

Chill.

* we only used half
** added just before serving

CLASSIC STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE Serves 6.
from Kirkland Signature Whole Strawberry Bag

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
Additional sugar

2 1/2 cups whole frozen strawberries
1 cup whipping cream, whipped and sweetened

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into large bowl.
Cut in butter to resemble coarse meal.
In bowl blend milk and egg yolks with fork.
Stir into flour mixture to make a soft dough.
Divide dough into 6 portions; form into balls.
Pat balls out on greased baking sheet to 3-inch circles, moistening fingers with egg whites.
Brush cakes with egg whites. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake in preheated 450 degree oven 10-12 minutes until golden.
Remove from rack; cool.
Sweeten strawberries to taste.***
Halve the cakes horizontally.
Fill and garnish with strawberries and whipped cream.

*** I put the whole strawberries into a large bowl to thaw. When the strawberries were slightly thawed I sliced them then let them completely thaw in fridge. Because strawberries are already sweet, I did not sweeten them. But, I made a rum sauce to pour over the strawberries.

Layered: top to bottom
Strawberry
Whipped cream
Rum sauce
Strawberries
Top of shortcake
Whipped cream
Rum sauce
Strawberries
Bottom of shortcake

Rum Sauce Serves 6. Created on the fly
1/2 cup butter - Melt on medium heat in sauce pan
1/2 cup sugar - Stir in sugar
1 cup water - Carefully add - there will be spitting and splattering
Milk - Approx 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Butter rum flavoring or Rum - Add to taste
Cornstarch - Approx 1 1/2 Tablespoons - add gradually until thickened

YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

Reorganization Continues

2010-12-23T20:36:00.005-07:00

The reorganization continues very slowly but surely. Have now gone through two 3 cu. ft. moving boxes filled with WIPs. Work In Progress sounds so much better than UnFinished Objects.

For many years I had no intention of completing the quilts. They were part of my thirst for knowledge on techniques. When I started quilting, for the second time, I became a sponge. Classes here, classes there, and more classes everywhere. There was and still is so much to learn.

Also in the boxes were some of my first block of the month designs. The 2 star quilts are same pattern. One is country, the other is contemporary. If you look close at the quilt on the right side, you can see the odd green piece. I said to Donna, one of my testers, wouldn't it be cool to put lime green in some of the blocks. I was thinking inside the box, a center or corners. She was thinking outside the box, only one piece anywhere in the block. How ingenious!

For the last couple weeks it's been nose down and pedal to the metal. One would think that these quilts had to be done for Christmas. Completing borders, making regular backs, making art backs, getting ready for the longarm quilter.

It was fantastic to use fabrics from the stash. Particularly, the ruler fabric without having to cut it up. A few more meters gone!

And to use 9 of the left blocks, that didn't make it into a previous quilt, for the back of a table topper.

Then, there is this very old round robin row quilt. The quilt began with the bargello. You remember the Bargello? I had a fat quarter color run that worked perfectly.

The next person thought the bargello looked like the northern lights, Aurora Borealis.

Now, take the bargello row apart and put it around the top of the quilt. Voila, the northern lights!

Add the bottom row. Carol, a geologist, said it was a cross section of the geological formation under my house. At the time, thought it was cool because I had also studied geology. Wasn't going to use this row but when some of the medium brown was cut off, excavated, it worked perfectly!

Notice how the trees have moon glow from the silver lame moon in the previous row.

Inner Border - Only top and both sides. No bottom inner border.
Outside Border - navy with gold stars sewn at an angle to a navy with light blue hi lites.

A perfect work of art!

Lunar Eclipse 2010 Winter Solstice

2010-12-22T12:16:00.010-07:00

Watching the 2010 winter solstice lunar eclipse was fantastic!!! My sister, the shutterbug, sat up to watch it in another part of the city; I set my alarm clock every 10-15 minutes to look out my window. Unfortunately, the moon clouded over just after total eclipse and I didn't see the red moon. However, the snow was reflecting the red color. Way cool!!! These are her photos and this is a You Tube time lapse of the Lunar Eclipse in Calgary by another person in Calgary.

Side Tracked, Again!

2010-12-11T19:06:00.006-07:00

It's so easy for me to get side tracked from reorganizing. No, haven't finished the Hallowe'en quilt. Yes, am still reorganizing.

Found this block all cut and ready to piece together. Better finish it before pieces go missing. It's the last of 12 blocks from Traditional Pastimes Freebie 15.

Corner trees are rotated so that they point around the outside of quilt. Row 2 column 1 block is a basket on it's side. Now what to make for alternate blocks? Yeah, play time in EQ.

I skipped some steps in EQ. The block pattern works but the center color isn't quite right for me.

Audition fabrics from the stash.

Voila, another quilt for Victoria Quilts!

Whirlwind Day Escape

2010-12-05T16:45:00.005-07:00

Yes, just as the title says, I escaped to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for the day from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Back in the late 70's, I took a 50 minute flight to Nisku, Alberta on a 747 to meet my DH and spend the weekend together. Besides being 5 miles from Edmonton's International Airport, Nisku was then a wide spot in the freeway where people in the oil patch accumulated at the beginning or end of their weeks in the field.

Anyways, there were only 7 passengers on this huge airplane. So when only 4 of us were getting off I asked the flight attendant where the plane was continuing to. Amsterdam! Okay! How do I stay on the plane and continue to Amsterdam?! Ever since then it has been in the back of my mind to jet set to Amsterdam for the day.

Okay, so Ottawa's not Amsterdam, BUT, what indescribable fun it was to fly there, tour for 4 hours and fly home.

Itinerary:
- fly to Ottawa;
- 20 minute bus ride to downtown - buses have their own bus only road system;
- picture of my initials on ornament in Fairmont Chateau Laurier
- walk across the Rideau Canal - getting ready for winter Rideau Canal Skateway; (Note to bucket list: skate down the Rideau Canal)
- visit Canada's Parliament Hill
- purchase souvenir key chains for Christmas ornaments
- fly home to Lucky.


Welcome to Ottawa


Initial Ornament	Rideau Canal


Canada's Parliament Hill +5 and raining	Souvenir Key Chain Christmas Ornaments


Lucky - "and where have you been?"

Reorganization continued

2010-11-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

I now believe the saying - it gets worse before it gets better. The floor gets more and more cluttered as the shelves are organized. It looks worse and more daunting than in the beginning. Will I ever see ...!

This fabric folding is too much for the brain. Not that it's hard, but, that the brain is in design overdrive. Put these fabrics together and create this quilt, put these fabrics and create this quilt, put these fabrics ... Stop the wheel I gotta get off!!! Whew!!!

For someone who is not into novelty or floral fabric there sure is a lot of it. Okay which fabric fairy put them in the stash and let them multiply!? What to make out of the Hallowe'en fabric? See how well the 1 meter pieces blend together. This has to be a 2 fabric quilt because the fabrics are so busy. Now, what color to use for the second fabric. Lime looked good but liked the way black made some of the Hallowe'en fabric float. Use not 1 black but many blacks.

Next, which block(s) to use. Let's make it simple. Squares vs triangles. Triangles more work but way more interesting. Quarter vs half square triangles. Okay, half-square triangles easier. What size triangles? Trail and error with the ruler. Don't cut just audition size. 3" looks good.

Size? A large lap / not so long twin size quilt, about 60" x 75", is just right. Doesn't take so long to make, isn't huge, lots of room to snuggle under. Finished 12" blocks = 5 x 6 block quilt : 1 block = 16 half-square triangles : 30 blocks = 480 half-square triangles, OMG = 240 squares cut from each of the 2 colors (hallowe'en and black) cut into triangles and well stirred. The 60mm rotary cutter works well for mass production.

Well, this got me out of reorganzing. Now to dig out the sewing machine from under the reorganizing. LOL!

Backyard

2010-11-20T16:54:00.002-07:00

The backyard is a winter wonderland right now with inches of snow covering everything. Branches bent over from the first wet snow are now holding onto the 48 hours of light fluffy flakes. The addition of bird feeders creates a magical world for bird watching.
Suet in the willow bird feeder has attracted a male Red-Shafted Northern Flicker. They are in the woodpecker family. His beauty is his spots that look like batik fabric and the beautiful red under wings seen in flight.

main view from computer

Winter

2010-11-17T16:36:00.029-07:00

Hard to believe 2 days ago it was 11C / 52F. It's been snowing for 2 days now. First night snow started melting and as the evening cooled the snow turned to slush and then to ice. During the day snowing continued and temperatures went down. Driving and walking were done with caution. This morning, roads were and still are plugged. Tried to drive to swimming, but, ended up driving a circle around the community on the main roads and ending at home. Every street, thoroughfare was plugged. So my exercise of the day was shovelling the driveway and sidewalk. Now -13C / 8F


Mugo pine snow ghost	Steam off the water


Canada Geese waiting for the storm to end


8" of snow - day two


Day two


Sparrows at feeders



Birds between branches

Reorganization One Month

2010-11-17T15:37:00.001-07:00

First fabric group

Tis a slow process. Almost all fabric not slated for projects is folded. Thought this was all, but found more yesterday.
I am so excited that this is it; thought there was way more. Just shows how the mind exaggerates is not as devastating as once thought. This is 16 bins from this room plus 5 bins from another room and bagged fabric. Still have project fabric to organize. It's interesting to note that all this fabric is from before and after owning the store. While owning my store, I only purchased a dozen pieces of fabric to take home.

Folded waiting for better shelving

Now, one might think hooray that is not much fabric and others would say are you crazy, but, always a but, there are also many bolts of fabric. Some bolts were cherry picked out from the fabric that the new owner did not want, put on consignment for one year and discounted. The other bolts were for new quilt designs. Should these bolts be counted in my personal stash or am I delusional.

The Reorganization

2010-10-17T18:57:00.002-06:00

Reorganization of my studio has been a very, very, very long time coming. Five years in fact. Life, well reality got in the way. Owning a quilt store and a trucking company, selling the store, becoming a widow, retiring me and the trucking company. It's unfathomable how 3 years of retirement has flown - mach 20. The studio reached a point that everything had spread into 3 rooms and in order to create a quilt, hours were spent looking through the stash for what I knew that I had and needed for the quilt. It all started out organized, but, as the books and fabrics came home to live they began to take over. It also didn't help that when auditioning fabric for the next quilt the fabric was never put back properly. Where is the clean up fairy? It's always been a blessing that the amount of fabric accumulated has never been questioned even before my DH got into super comp drag racing - the highest level before one requires a national sponsor.

The reorganization began Oct 8. I began librarytising my books into an excel spreadsheet. Got about a third complete, got bored, then started refolding the fabric. To date about half of the fabric has been refolded, sorted and placed on a 24" deep shelfing unit. It is unbelievable as to the release of anxiety that has happened as well as amount of creativity that is again running around in my head. I can hardly keep up with all of the new inspirations of colors for quilt designs. Eight very large fabric bins once existed in the section where the 3 columns of fabric are. Eight more bins exist under the next section where the small colored containers are behind the green uv prevention fabric. Then in the end section on the right hand side are bolts of fabric. Do I really have enough fabric?!?!

Twid Tweet - First thing

2010-05-30T09:32:00.004-06:00

Morning to All.
It is 0830 now and 3 hours have passed, all being on the computer. It is dreary outside, 3 C/ 35 F, some sleet, err can be classified as snow, on the ground. In Calgary, Alberta, the weather is crazy because of the Rocky Mountains. Last year it was 28C/85F.

Anyways, back to the computer. A friend once said, "The computer is a waste of time." It took a week before the light bulb went on, ie before I knew what she meant.

Interesting that the first thing a lot of people do when they get up is check their email - after peeing and making coffee, not necessarily at the same time. :o)) I'm certain that the coffee and the computer are turned on at the same time. Maybe some have a timer on the computer as well so that both the coffee and computer are ready and waiting. Most do not even want their postal mail that often - once per week is good.

Penmanship is deteriorating, typing is improving, face to face socializing is decreasing and hermiting is increasing. You can communicate with the world without getting out of your pyjamas.

Yesterday, I watched a documentary on cell phone usage. Japan's cell phone usage is over the top. No one talks face to face. It is all done on the cell phone. They want to be polite. Positive is on the phone and negative is texted.

After watching this, I went to visit my mom, face to face. We went for dessert and had a great chat. We also decided that we would go for strolls in the Calgary area on a regular basis.

May your days be spent face to face with friends and family!

Quilt Canada

2010-05-09T16:32:00.003-06:00

Whew!! Quilt Canada 2010 has come and gone. After 2 years of working on the local organizing committee, we are finished, just like that. What a great success it was! A ginormous thank you to all who attended! The best thing was that the show was all under one roof here in Calgary, Alberta.

The next large show is in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the University in May 2012. The inbetween show is in London, Ontario at the University of Western Ontario, May 24-28, 2011

Another year

2010-01-09T20:40:00.003-07:00

Where did the year go!!!

Two new quilt patterns are on the go.

This one Midnight Rainbow and The S Did It.

The S Did It, previously a mystery, is being converted to a pattern.

McIntosh Done

2009-07-15T18:40:00.004-06:00

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Where has the months gone?!

The McIntosh quilt instructions are done, the pictures are finally completed, and the item is on the website. This pattern is for Quilt Stores only. Stores using this program will be posted on the site. If you want to make this quilt, have your store email me.

Appleicious & Mystery

2009-04-29T16:24:00.010-06:00

The last McIntosh sample is at the quilter. Thank you Arlene, from Cairnhill, for taking time to quilt McIntosh. Pictures coming soon.

Already, I have a new mystery quilt in the works. Plus, Joanne has been at her computer creating more virtual quilts for the SON series than she can sew and I can write instructions for. It's never ending! That's a good thing!

Besides getting the samples ready, my studio design wall has grown to 9 ft x 11 ft! Thank you electricians and my fantastic neighbour.

Is anyone out there an unanonymous quilter?
Happy Quilting!

Appleicious - Finishing

2009-02-19T19:18:00.032-07:00

The testers have finished the blocks and are testing the quilt layout/finishing. It's been a challenge to get the quilts done because January and February have been crazy with retreats, conferences and holidays for all of us.
For myself, I spent 5 days in Canmore, Alberta in Libby Lehman's thread painting classes. Libby was wonderful; the classes were wonderful. It's the first time I've not been stressed out on getting behind or having to finish. Libby's solution is to explain to your family that she needed your samples for the next class.
Thread painting is not intimidating. You just get in there and go for it. If you do not like it just put different thread in the machine and away you go. So inspiring.

There was a small horse or was it a very large dog roaming the area or sitting at the front door accepting pets. He could straddle the 2 ft high rail fence and it would not touch his belly.

These days this plaque is appropriate for the economy.

Appleicious Testing

2009-01-21T11:32:00.019-07:00

The testers are now working hard at piecing the blocks. Here are the 3 other colorways they are working on.

Appleicious is split into:
1. Spartan - borderless blocks with pieced or non-pieced border and

2. McIntosh - bordered blocks with pieced or non-pieced border.

Appleicious Count Down

2009-01-04T15:22:00.014-07:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

At this part of the world it has been crazy snowing. I haven't shovelled this much snow since the early 80's. My driveway has 3-4 foot / 0.9-1.2 m banks on each side. It is at the point where the snow has to be thrown up over the top to the other side. The top of these banks have also been pushed off to the back so more snow can be piled on. Just crazy!
Been waiting for a Chinook, warm wind from over the mountains, to come and raise the temperature to 5C or 40F and melt the snow. After 9 weeks, it has finally warmed up to 0C or 32F. It feels like t-shirt and shorts weather. ;o) According to some of the younger generation here, wearing pants is for the weak. Wearing shorts in the winter was started a few years ago on a bet between some of the Loomis, now DHL, delivery guys. That's another story. Suppose to be 3C this week but, that can also be wishful thinking on the weatherman's part. Okay, enough of this, on to quilting.
Finally, the six companion/filler blocks are figured out for the Appleicious block of the month. It took forever. Now to finish writing the sashing and various borders instructions. The testers are ready and waiting and the fabric is on order. It's so exciting when this point is reached. It's so close you can see the end.

These 2 blocks are block 6 shown in 2 blue colorways. There will also be a red-green and a yellow-red colorway sample. Soooo many colorways to choose from in the Cider Mill Road line!

Here We Go!

2008-12-11T18:06:00.011-07:00

Day one of blogging. Everyone said it is easy to setup. Yes, Okay, Right on! NOT! If I am told that nothing can go wrong with the computer or program then, I'll be able to put it into a tailspin and lock it up.

It has been 6 years since I founded Along Came Quilting and 2 years since I sold the store to my manager and kept all the rights to the patterns. Owning the store allowed me to get back to my first love, geometric designing.

At the age of 12, I started designing floor plans with dominoes and driving cars and trucks around the neighbourhoods that were created. From here I became a Draftsman. In 1987, my husband and I started an international trucking company. A couple of years ago, I sold the store to go back to working full time in the trucking company again and to pursue designing the block of the month patterns. We are so thankful that we have now been able to retire one year earlier than we had planned. And so the page is turned; a new chapter is started under the new name, "Next Step Quilt Designs".

During the time of owning the store, I started and designed 2 Block Bonanza programs each year. The programs' success rebirthed the designer in me. Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a new Block Bonanza program, aka Saturday Sampler, using Nancy Halvorsen's Cider Mill Road fabrics. The blocks (have to figure out the picture posting thing) have been proofed and tested by me and are now being sent to the real proofers and testers. Now, onto the quilt layout.

All patterns previously created will be issued under Next Step Quilt Designs.

Thank you for your interest in my blog and I hope to keep you amused in my process.