Paper Sky Final Block

  Whoa, Block 9 for Paper Sky is on Quiltnasium.com. See video on Quiltnasium Quilt Along by Kat facebook page.

   We have been working on resizing the 150 Canadian blocks from 6" to 3" and adding more blocks. If you are interested in creating a smaller replica with more blocks email us at ask at quiltnasium dot com. This program is blocks only, no women biographies. I'm making mine in the range of bright lime greens, ie yellow green to blue green, on a mottled gray background. Too Cute! I'm liking these even more at 3".

    It's a very early Spring for Calgary. The chickadees tried making a nest inside the window batten. The squirrel is shredding cardboard for its nest.

Even the rabbits are turning colour. Let's hope we rain. The snow was so dry this year we maybe got a couple inches of water out of it which ran off the frozen ground and into the gutter. Dry snow, powdery, 10-12" equals 1" rain. 

   First mouse of the season. I'm such a fabulous hunter. Didn't loose my touch over the winter. (ha onto the nails and sizzle on butt) Just had to give mom her first present of the year. Now let me in for my treat.

Colouring Page, Hail, Breakfast

   Who is ready? We have posted a colouring page for the Paper Sky program here. There is a video on Next Step Quiltnasium's facebook page and a link on Quiltnasium's home page explaining fabric values and showing the fabrics I am working with. Remember to sign up for Quiltnasium's Quilt Along by Kat facebook page as well.

  Tis the season. In Calgary, as we say in regards to weather, we get winter and Calgary Stampede. Winter was like yesteryear, so, why wouldn't Stampede be any different. Very nasty. I don't think Mother Nature got the memo about the Stampede being partially cancelled because she let it rip.

No this isn't snow. Hail.

I'm touching wood while I write this, we are situated in Calgary's banana belt where we get 100 times less the extreme weather. During this storm we only had rain. Whew! 

   The Breakfast Caravan did happen 4 mornings. Instead of people lining up, cars were lining up. We wore face masks and gloves and handed out pancake, sausage and orange juice take out. I was a traffic controller. Now I know how the police feel when controlling traffic. Sometimes you wonder how they got their driver's license. Here are some of Livewire Calgary's pics of the fun we had. Enjoy!

Cat Crazy Happy Canada Day

   How was everyone's Canada Day? We had a great time serving up pancakes and sausages in Canmore then visiting Sugar Pine Quilts.
   What's even better is, we've finished the new 1-2-3-4 quilt using the crazy cat panel and coordinating fabric. Panel and coordinates available now. Kits available Thursday.

Remember to sign up for the our email newsletter,Quiltnasium Relay, to be notified of our specials.

Enjoy!

Quilt Festival Hiking

   We want to thank everyone that stopped by our booth at Heritage Park Festival of Quilts. The first day was rainy but everyone came to shop. The second day was glorious and everyone came to shop. It was like old home weekend seeing everyone. We had a blast talking to everyone.

  The hike today was also wonderful. My dad's favourite flower, Shooting Star, were out in full bloom all along the trail.

I remember he tried to transplant one of them but they didn't take. However, you can have your own shooting star, Showering Stars kit. Plus there is enough of the jelly roll left to make a table runner or pillow.

 

   The hike today was not without a feature attraction. In fact there were two features. The first being the beautiful trails for hiking

with peek-a-boo spots of the glorious mountains that are only minutes away.

The second was this gorgeous Black Bear. He scared two white tail deer away plus us. We just observed what he was interested in; it wasn't us. So we made ourselves large and noisy and he ran back into the woods. What male wants to take on 11 loud women with pointy hiking poles and bear spray?

Showering Stars & Buffalo Beans

   The Showering Stars top is done. What an easy quilt to make! One jelly roll, a bit of white and the background. Instructions and diagrams are excellent. Plus we have kits available at Quiltnasium and online.

   Ah, another Spring first, Buffalo Beans. Why they are called that? The First Nations Peoples' used its flowering time to indicate that buffalo bulls were ready for the spring hunt. CAUTION: even though this plant is called a bean, DO NOT eat it because it has poisonous alkaloids that may cause you to be extremely ill. It is a.k.a. prairie bean, golden banner, prairie pea, golden bean.

      We are off to Quilt Market this week so check Quiltnasium for the unusual store hours in May.

Showering

   Again, the daily snow showering. But we've counteracted this with Showering Stars by Robin Pickens. This week we'll be working on the quilt. Come on in to Quiltnasium to see the to put your kit and pattern together. Or, message us here.

Plus, we've been writing up and testing the pattern Ribbons for the Limoncello fabric that's here. Wonderful yellow, gray and pearlized white.

   This week I noticed that the we've been writing a little ditty about each week's Splendid Sampler II blocks. So in keeping with tradition here is the next ditty. Get To The Point, by Rhonda Pierce, Sailor Collar, by Jenni Smith,

 because I'm Out On A Limb, by Carrie Nelson, and want to go on My Road Trip, By Terry Atkinson.

Tata for now.
Enjoy!

Canada Day Scientist

Did everyone survive Canada Day?
My Canada Day started at 3:45 am. Up and at it for the 1.5 hour drive to Canmore to flip pancakes and sausages at Canmore's annual Canada Day celebration, parade and all. Then over to the Sugar Pine Quilt Shop for some goodies for testing my new pattern for Northcott, Scientist. Unfortunately, Northcott's fabric isn't out until this fall but am working on getting the pattern ready for August. Stay tuned. It'll be fabulous for the big or little science person in your life.

border - background - flask - chemical reaction.

On the way home, made a stop in Bragg Creek at the candy and ice cream shop. If you ever get a chance try Limezilla ice cream. Oh yum! If you like lemon or lime, it's the best. Then at the counter there was this taffy treat from my childhood years, some 50 years ago. If you are old  er young enough you'll recognize this. What a great way to finish up the day, ice cream and taffy.

It's Monday, hooray, a hike to wear off the pancakes, sausages (had to taste test for quality control), ice cream and taffy. The rain stayed away making it a glorious day seeing all the woodland flowers.

ridge view

Enjoy.

Rocky Mountain Puzzle and Space 3

The Rocky Mountain Puzzle quilt is one of my favourite quilts. It looks so clean and crisp. It's like skiers in their colourful ski suits traversing down the mountain of fresh white snow.  Click image for instructions.

As you can kind of see in the picture background the lake is staring to open up. It looks like puddles in the snow. Mother Nature has been teasing us by snowing overnight then melting it during the day. No shoveling. I don't know about you but I'm ready for green grass and t-shirt weather.

Space 3 block is now posted. We are travelling through the Stars for the next 2 weeks and learning the Diamond in a Square.

Enjoy!

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. 

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!