A bee in my bonnet.

Sometimes a gremlin creeps in.  This happen to me recently, I traced my template on the fabric, did not realize it had flipped.  It is plastic and I had made two, mirror images, except, somewhere along the line, it was flipped.  I traced and cut 800 diamonds,

When half of them should be a postive and the other half negative.  Big OOPS!  Now I will need to go back to the quilt shop and try and find a replacement.  How did this happen?  Simple, human error.  Doing to many projects, all at once.  Garden, house, then a little wobbler like this.  Back to the drawing board.  Lets try again.

Use a permanent marker, mark templates, making sure the top side is marked.  Now the design can be traced on the wrong side of the fabric, with the template facing the correct way.  Next step, trace and cut all the fabric diamonds.

Replacement fabrics, the two plain blue one's may not be needed, as I may just have enough fabric left of the blue.

If the design was a scrappy look, this would not have been a problem, except it is a plain and a print border in this blue.  Using it mixed up, in this colour combination would make it visually distracting.  Will line all the diamonds up, once the correct sequence of the diamonds have been stitched together.   (To show the distraction...).

Discovered a few more fabrics for Love Entwined.....   then there was a sign that said simply Lillies with an arrow pointing left......

Lets go for a drive!

It is saturday afternoon, you've just finished four hours of hard work in the garden, your hubby, who was happy working on something just now, want to go on an adventure.  This morning, there was not a mention about this as part of the day?

 First stop gas, while filling up, this truck caught my eye.  It had character.

 The face on the front of the truck.

 We drove to Barrie, Ontario.  There we went to a fishing shop.  It turns out the trip was to get the fishing rod, which is no longer in production.  Afterwards, supper was approaching fast, so we stopped to have a bite to eat.  IL FORNELLO BARRIE,  it turned out to be an excellent choice.  Everything was made from fresh, not frozen ingredients.  It is the best meal we've had eating out,  in almost eight years of living in Canada. It may be part of a franchise, it gets the Vote for the Best Restaurant!

While we were in the area, we stopped at the 400 Market.  It is a fleamarket, right next door is an antique market.  This quilt was hanging at the entrance.  Also got an antique sewing machine, which needs a bit of work.

 All too soon, we had to make our way home.  All the farmers had crops planted, almost standing knee high.

These pictures, was taken, from the car.

On our morning walk, this sign just says it so well.  Reach for the Moon!  Local business donate money to the Hospital, for kilometers bikers clock up over the spring-fall season, riding their bikes.  What a neat idea.

Projects? Getting back to normal life......

 In life the fine art is finding the perfect balance that work for you, only you know what that is.

How many?

We could make a list.  It could be scary....,.  Years ago some of us made a list of all those UFO's.  We worked only on them, nine months later, all of mine was done.  For two months afterwards I had no projects started or works in progress.  It was a dull time.  The cure was simple, start one project, except working on only one is boring.  The solution was simple, start as many as I want to, it is what gave me back my mojo!

 We all start the ones that grab our attention, knowing we will be compelled to make them.  As to when they get finished, that is an entire different story. Making sure everything is all together, pattern, fabric to finish it at any given stage, is good planning.  Never having to worry about not being able to finish a project.  Can you work on one project only, from start to finish?  Do you get bored, is this the reason we start more than one project, rotating them to keep active interest in all of them?

This one got  four more rows this week.

This hexie love, is made up from all my leftover one and a half inch squares, which I fold over the hexagon templates.

Fabric collection for a red and white quilt, for one of my children.

Tops done, stored in the cupboard, ready to be quilted, one day.  The only way it gets on the list, is if they get prepared to be quilted.

One of the first quilts I made, it was when Jane Austen was my favourite inspiration.  It is made from a mixture of fabrics, English pieced and hand quilted.  Used polyester batting/wadding, at the time.

My summer tablecloth, a friend calls this a flimsy?  I think she may be right about this one.  It has been like this for almost ten years, time to finish it.

Last but not least the ones that find us.  It is made from the good bits of old dresses, found it on our travels, for less than ten bucks.  It is a twin size, needs to be handquilted.  I salute the quilter who made this.  To this day I cannot just discard my scraps.  Hence the reason Ohmigosh by Sue Garman has made it on my project list.

Love Entwined, the journey continues....

The center with the lollipop flowers.

Preparing everything takes time.

 The diamond borders, will all be done at the same time.  Currently cutting out lots of diamonds.

The binding is all prepared, the borders stitched, ready for them when the quilt needs them. 

The stems for the center is stitched in place.  

Then  a hiccup happened.  Not enough fabric for my diamond borders, I needed 18 more diamonds.
I could sweat over this little detail, or I could find a substitute.  On friday afternoon, a trip to The Hobby Horse , solved my hiccup.

I found my replacement fabric along this shelf.

 A little snippet of the shop inside.

The roses along the fence here has the most heavenly scent. 

Nemesis.

Sometimes a pattern come along, it is one of those you know you want to make.  Then you do all the right things.  Make the templates, buy the fabric, cut it out and sew it together.  Now you should have a quilt top?  What if it has a bubble?  You unpick it, try another method, except you end up with the same result.  What if you go through this process seven times, yet nothing works.  Cannot contact the pattern maker, she made her quilt in 1860.  The magazine that published the pattern, do not test the patterns, before publication.  Only one do, that I know off.  This pattern was not published by them!

By now I should have gived up and just tossed this in the bin and notch it up to "school fees" ? Why?  Someone long ago got it right, without the tools we have today.  So I am handpiecing this quilt.  It is a Kaleidoscope quilt.  The reward, outway all the pain and frustration to create this quilt, if one get it right!

I have only ever seen one of these completed, the original featured in the magazine years ago.  One of the things I have done is to starch the blue stars, they are in a yellow circle, with melons, very similar to a double wedding ring quilt.  Instead of having a square, it has a triangle in between the melons.  Once I have sewn them up, I will post an update.  This is currently a WIP.

 This weekend it rained a lot, the creek is overflowing its banks with all the water. 

We walk along the bank every day.

Adventure's, while exploring beautiful places. Part 2.

A day in the life.....

When going on holiday, some of us will just embrace exploring and fill each day with a quest to discover everything we can.  Not the average tourist stuff, but the off the beaten path too.

 

The wild child:  Believe me, the guys young and old wanted to go on this adventure.  Plan on getting dirty, dusty in dry times and mud splattered in the rainy season, all part of the fun.

Getting to the best views, one might have to travel a path in an unexpected way.  Sacrificing a little bit of home comfort for the best views in the world. Looking down,  it was very high up.

Seeing parts, one would never see, on the tourist route.

The fun of reaching the best look out spots, following a creative form of transportation to reach those spots.

Local food, fresh, best potato wedges we ever tasted.  As for milkshakes, all of them come with alcohol.  One has to ask for ones without any.  The "Sweets" Hot sauce is very good, we gave it a try, turned out to be very tasty. 

 

Local shop, selling handmade crochet clothing.

At the end of the day, we all went for a swim, to wash the dirt off.  In the sea.  We all felt like little big kids, it is good to get all dirty, once in a while.  It was never on my bucket list, somehow it arrived there.  I was not going to say, no!

PS: I took my stitching with on holiday, did some on the plane and one morning, sat outside on a lounger for three hours, the light was perfect.  Rain started while we arrived, they've had a drought for two years.  The thing is the rain always follow me....

Exploring Beautiful Shores. Part 1.

Sometimes we need to have a holiday and explore places further afield.

To swim in the Ocean, walk on the beach, enjoy the simple things in life. Allowing us to catch up with Grace, just to be, for a moment in time.

Taking in nature.  This baby crab was tiny, with spots.

On an early morning walk, this little green lizard was rock hopping.

A stingray having fun in the water, he was playing games with the fish.

The flowers, saw lots of hummingbirds, even on the beach in the trees.

The shells on the beach, it was fun finding ones that was new, in all shapes and colours.

 

Antigua