Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas To All!

Thank you for joining us on our journey this year. Wishing you a very merry Christmas. Best wishes for 2018. Hope you continue to hang around in 2018.

Tires 2017

By the time you read this Tuesday morning I'll be admiring this too cool, decorated Fountain Tire Christmas tree again. No, I'm not in Winnipeg (get it the goin' to Winnipeg angel guy), I'm in Okotoks, Alberta and yes there is snow on the ground. Yesterday during the oil change I had them check an oil leak that I've been watching for a few months. Every time I traveled on rough terrain, no I'm not a t ving in my car even though it felt like it, there was an oil leak under my car in the garage. Well, it ended up being a rear seal. So here we are waiting while my baby gets a new rear seal. (had to enlarge the picture so you could see the angel, ornaments and lights)

The week was fabulous. I got to sew and watch all the W network Christmas movies. Woohoo! There was this piece of Christmas fabric that just didn't want to spend time with anyone else plus I had been admiring it for awhile but didn't know what to do with it. This time I laid it all out on the cutting table. Whoa, there are 8 repeats. Yes, enough to make a One Block Wonder.

And the best of all last week, this calendar was full of all the meetings, appointments, get togethers, holidays and life that went on in 2017. It was such an exhilarating relief, a weight reducing, an actual Thank Goodness this year is done feeling of wiping the board clean. A beginning of a new year feeling. Then oops better add Christmas, oh, and oops, add back the oil change and the massage and the group dinner. Oh, and better add the new rear seal appointment. But doesn't it still look great with the rest all erased? Oh yes it does.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Brown Christmas & Tula Pink

While eastern Canada looks like winter is settling in, here in Calgary it looks like we may have a brown Christmas. Now before you groan or become jealous or go on about climate change, in my 60+ years I have seen a few brown Christmases only to have a major blizzard on New Year's Eve and then turn very cold and snow like the dickens until June 1.

This year as my deck sits in limbo until the spring, we've put the bird feeder up on the makeshift railings. This picture shows how much of the bird seed the birds pick out and spit on the ground. Now I've figured out that this is so that their fellow bird friends can also eat at the same time and then they can all fly away home in a group. Unfortunately the rabbits are not getting as much seed as they usually would.

We have a different surprise for you this week. I'm slowly becoming a Tula Pink fan, i.e. I'm not in love completely with all her fabrics in her lines of fabric, but I love her new rotary cutter and black mat. And, we have some in stock for you. Well ok, we purchased for me but I'm willing to provide some of her new hardware to you. Check out our notions page.

As for the fabric specials we added a couple more pieces that had been hiding in the back room to the $5.00/m section. I must have had great plans for them but now I don't remember.

Enjoy!

More Geese - Specials

Oh Oh! Something is going on. Is it the Super Moon? 
This week flying geese are on the paper piecing winds. My guild is challenging us to create a 4"x6" piece of our choice out of complementary colours. Mine is purple and orange. 
The first one: easy to make the geese in a curve and oh, I'll just piece the top and bottom curves. As an old seamstress, nothing to it. Right? Well, the top piece went well but the bottom piece was not so much. The curve was so tight it had to be hand stitched then sewn together on the machine. Let's put it this way a lot of steam and pressing the heck out of it does wonders.

Ok, so let's try to paper piece the whole thing. Oops, didn't plan the lines very well and ended up splitting it into half so it would work. Also, way to many smaller pieces so I added a big chunk in the lower right and a big chunk in the upper part of the smaller left piece.

Let's try this again, and add larger pieces instead of all these small ones. Feeling a little cocky now. I've made so many of these now they can be made with my eyes closed. NOT!

Mmmm they don't seem to go together when one side is pieced on the wrong side of the paper and the other side is pieced on the right side of the paper.

Ah this is better. Because both the project and the pieces are so little I used the Add an Eighth ruler instead of Add a Quarter ruler. 

Voila, it looks awesome.

If you want to try these flying geese here is the 4"x6" flying geese pattern. Note the first goose is not a whole one as the part of it goes into the 1/4" seam allowance.

Enjoy!
p.s. In 3 weeks it'll be Boxing Day.

p.p.s. We are clearing fabric see specials for $5/m

Triple Geese

For those of you that preordered the 150 Canadian Women CD, they are in the mail. I hope you are as excited to get yours as I am to get mine. CDs are still available. 

Now for the Triple Geese block. (Papa goose, mama goose and baby goose) I've been experimenting with some blocks and think this block is so cute.

For those of you that know me, if there is a way to eliminate seams I will figure out a way to do it. And because I'm now in love with the smaller blocks this block is 6" square finished. It'll look great in multi colours or scrappy one colour. You could even use it as an extra block in your 150 Canadian Women quilt.
Here goes.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
Purple: 1 - 3.25" x 6"
Orange: 1 - 2.5" x 4.5"
Yellow: 1 - 1.75" x 3"
White/Background: 
2 - 3.25" x 3.75"
2 - 2.5" x 3.75"
2 - 1.75" x 3.75"

Step 1 - Layout each rectangle as shown. The background rectangle shorter measurement  should be at the top. 

150 CD Week

Here we are all ready to stuff the 300 envelopes with the 150 Canadian Women CD on Tuesday and mail them out this week. Thank you for your patience in waiting for them. All will be notified by email the day yours goes out. If you would like a CD they are available and you may purchase one or more here. We also have the background fabric available for a backing.

We have also been working on a couple designs for Northcott fabric in a couple new lines. One in Santa Fe colors and one in their basics. 


Happy Quilting

Being a Beginner

"All through your life you are a beginner in everything until you do that thing. To be adept at something you have to keep doing it until. Never give up." unknown

Three beginner words of the week.

Perseverance. Even though I've written many patterns and held many programs, the 150 Canadian Women has been the biggest and highest learning curve that I can remember. Putting this program on a CD is a fabulous and interesting experience. So many little things have to be completed to even get it to the stage of readiness. Doug of dat media, the media man, has been terrific, extremely helpful and even re-created the CD label.

CDs are to be shipped next week. Woohoo!

Health. This year I've been watching my mom grow older not by the years, nor by months, nor by days but instead by minutes. I've learned that growing old is not for sissies. 

Winter. Not much to say about it except that it's here and I'm still in denial.

Oh, one more sentence. Looking forward to the shortest day, December 21.

Bonus Blocks

Winter arrived a couple days after we got back from Quilt Market. From 70 degrees to -7 degrees.

This was my favourite non quilt. Bet you didn't know that you are a CEO.

T-shirt from Stitchin Tree Quilts from Woodbine Iowa

How many of you have fabric scraps remaining? I know I did. It seems I didn't cut as many mistakes as I usually do. Because of this you get a quick and dirty pattern for not one but two bonus quilts.

BONUS PATTERNS

Enjoy!

Borders - Market

Quilt Market in Houston was very exciting this year. We got to to see upcoming patterns and fabrics,

a World Series baseball game ( ok actually only from the tv but the game was only 3 blocks from the convention center),

the annual little kids hallowe'en party in the park across the street and 

the next day, new this year, an eastern Indian event complete with camel rides.

We are at the end of the program. This is sad but oh so exciting because all your patience and hard work is coming to fruition. We finally get to see all the awesome quilts that you have completed.

Two of my extra blocks, well actually all of my extra blocks are extremely simple, one maple leaf fabric in four and the other two are reminders as to why I created this quilt. Canada is 150 and my favourite parts of the national anthem.

My quilt has the multi horizontal borders. 

On the back is the Alberta panel from Northcott, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman (love that fact that he's saluting) and the Canadian flag, and lastly a huge area to write, with a pigma pen, my label.

Today the link is for the remaining one to three borders. For the first red border you have a choice to make it with one red fabric or make a piano key/perpendicular border or a multi horizontal border (shown above). The last two borders are one fabric, background and red.

BORDERS

	One Fabric
	Perpendicular/Piano Key
	Multi Horizontal

This has been an exciting journey for me and I hope for you as well. Remember to post your quilt on the 150 CW Quilt Along group page or send us a finished quilt top or quilt pic and we will post in the gallery on the website.

We hope that you continue to follow us to our new adventure coming soon to our website.

Enjoy!

The Blocks Are Done 148-150 Foxy

The blocks are done! The blocks are done! Congrats to those that have kept up. If I hadn't had to keep up I don't know if I would have. Many thanks to those that have inspired me along the way.

Now this is not the end. Next week we will post the finishing instructions. There are instructions for completing the sashing if you are not doing cornerstones plus the first border above the available blocks. This should keep you busy sewing all the blocks together and making the first border. Whew!

That said, I spent the week at Back to Nature, a retreat by Water Valley, Alberta. 

Being the early bird every morning, all was peaceful at 0530. Everyone else still snoring. That's my spot where the light is. Took the computer instead of the sewing machine. Much easier and less stuff that I probably would not have accomplished but ambitiously thought I could accomplish.

This little guy was peaking at us through the window one morning. I had to run upstairs, quick like a fox, to get his picture. Look at the bushy tail and beautiful coat. He's well fed and ready for winter.

These ladies are last in the program but are not the last women to have accomplished or pioneered or will accomplish or pioneer something big or small. I hope that you will continue to research other amazing Canadian born women. They will be found in any field from professional to domestic, from under the water to high in the sky, from a to z. What I have learned is that no matter how far Canadian women have come some things have not really changed. Good, bad or ugly we still have a ways to go and accomplish. You go gals!

B l o c k s  1 4 8,  1 4 9,  1 5 0

	148 Ada Jane McCallum
	149 Beverley Busson
	150 Mom

Enjoy!

Week 49 Second Last Week of Blocks

Has the time flown for you? Oh Yeah! Only this week and one more week of blocks and then the finishing instructions. Yowsers!

Because of Calgary's location to the Rocky Mountains we have awesome cloud formations. Sunday night the dusk sky was incredible. The first image is looking north and the second image is looking south. The swirls are awesome.

This week we present Ladies 145, 146 and 147.
Cairine swam in a sea of politics, Winnie swam in a sea of water and Riel jet skied through the clouds.

B l o c k s  1 4 5,  1 4 6,  1 4 7

	145 Cairine Reay Mackay Wilson
	146 Winnifred (Winnie) Frances Roach-Leuszler
	147 Riel Erickson

Enjoy!