Winter Wedge Kaleido

     Our Wednesday walk along the Bow River started out foggy and nippy leaving behind beautiful frosted shrubs. In the past, I would say hoar frost but was corrected on a trip to Lake Louise to call it rime ice. Never heard of rime ice. Since I wasn't up at night by the river to actually say which one is correct, I'm going with frosted ice.

Between Calgary and Canmore the amount of ground snow varies from almost nil to one foot. But, at beautiful Lake Louise it is definitely winter. The day felt like shorts and t-shirt weather, spring skiing weather. 

Hiking the hike out down to the Village we go along a gurgling creek. Hard walking on soft packed snow.

One side of the Great Divide Trail is Alberta, the other side is BC, British Columbia. There were groomed x-country ski trails and another trail that I thought was for skidooing. 

Nope, it was for dog sledding. When we had lunch here, the sleds and dogs were just getting set up. Once the riders got into the sleds, ear piercing cacophony took over the silence.

   When I'm hiking/walking many ideas come to mind. You may have seen the Alaska quilt kit that I pieced for our guild raffle. It was challenging. But, once I got the hang of it, no problem. Really the quilt has only 3 blocks. It's the fabric placement that changes the look of the block.

The Deb Tucker Studio 180 Wedge ruler and Marti Michel's Kaleido ruler both work well when making this quilt. Because I like to cut larger pieces then trim down the Wedge ruler works better for me. To make only the kaleido block, the Kaleido ruler was better for me. Using these rulers gave me the idea to make a sampler of various wedge and kaleido blocks. So stay tuned for the first block and follow along. Until next time, 

Enjoy!

It's been such a busy morning telling mom to feed me NOW. And I'd really
like to get up and tell you all about it, but it's nap time.

Meyawn,

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.

MIA Zoom

   
   So this was all weekend in the far south of Alberta, Lethbridge.

And all this weekend not so far south in Alberta, Calgary. Ol' Father Winter let us know he was coming on winds of 85kg/hr = 55mph. Almost all the leaves are gone and the lake has a thin ice covering. As my dad used to say, 'Better put rocks in your pockets.'

   Sometimes, it is bad getting old. Sometimes, it is hard to believe I worked in IT and knew all the latest technology. When the phones became smart phones, I didn't care and didn't want one. Since getting back into business in early 2000s, I've been playing catchup ever since. The ol' brain is slower and sometimes it likes to run backwards. 

But thanks to a young whippersnapper teaching an old fuddy duddy, we've finally kind of got the hang of 3 cameras, OBS and Zoom. So, for those of you that are registered on facebook with your pattern for the 150 Canadian quilt rerun we will be taking the first kick at a zoom meeting for cutting out the background and Block 1. 

For those of you waiting for the gypsy wife program to start it will happen in a couple of weeks.

We are almost finished with the roll over of Quiltnasium.com to another webhost and updating the blog look and getting the email operating again.

I'd like to thank all you for being extremely patient in waiting for these programs to happen.

Just Around The Corner

   The last hoorah. 

   Turned on the furnace today. Days are shorter. Almost fall equinox. You know what that means. IT'S COMFORT FOOD AND QUILTING TIME. Turkey and gravy, macaroni and cheese. 150 Canadian Women rerun and Gypsy Wife.

Remember you've got to have the patterns to participate.

   Finally got a laptop with a camera. Am still waiting for webcams. Now have to learn zoom and the multi cam linking. Everyone says it's easy, but I've been computer challenged lately. The brain is not computing. So we'll work on zoom quilt days first then advance to the quilt alongs. 

Rainy Days and Mondays

  never get me down. Ah it's Monday. We're off on another city hike, Douglas Fir Trail. Lots of up, trail and stairs. Many decades I've looked at this hill and never knew that you could hike it. Awesome view from the lookout.

Douglas Fir Trail hill

Up up and up

bridge over wash out

lookout

Down worse than going up

   Paper Sky block 2 will be up for purchase and block 3 will be up for free this week.

   Questions have been asked and comments have been made regarding the cutting out the fabric because most of the pieces we cut are irregular in shape. It is hard to gauge how to lay them out to get the best use of your fabric. I recommend that you print the number of pages required for each page. Cut out the paper templates. We have drawn some of the templates with two sections into one template. If you need to cut them apart then do so. Arrange the templates accordingly on your fabric to get the best use. We have given you a suggested layout that we used but it may not be the best layout for you. Each block that we cut, we have started where the previous block left off. So, if the previous block only used a portion of the width then we started where we left off. We try to keep it so that the fabric base line is straight, not jagged. As shown in the first photo below, we didn't cut the previous block in a straight line so the next block was arranged to use up the jagged base line.

 In the above picture, we used up the small piece that was left over from previous block.

If you are using one-way fabric then you can arrange the templates to get the direction you want the fabric to go. Note: that you will require more fabric.

Fabric Shadows

    We are always told to press to the dark fabric. But, sometimes pressing to the light fabric is the best. This is when fabric shadows occur because the dark fabric is wider in the seam than the light. That is the light fabric is narrower than the dark fabric.

To correct this so the shadow doesn't show, first place the ruler just on the edge of the light fabric. Then slant the rotary cutter to the outside. If using your right hand, and the fabric is on the right, slant the rotary cutter to the right. 

Trim the seam. Now the dark fabric is shorter than the light. 

If there is only a little part of the seam that will have a shadow then just do it carefully and slowly. Practice will give you confidence and make perfect.

   Our hike today was to Pine Top. It is a loop through a wonderful forest of different trees and creeks. The one most noticeable thing was that some of the scrub bush had already turned yellow. Does this mean that is was too hot and dry or winter is coming early. Yuck. Even my crabapple tree has some yellow leaves. Ugh.

  Remember to download Block 2 of Paper Sky.

   I'm asking the pets out there. Do you have problems with your slave wanting a piece of the bed? Meowsh. Mom expects me to move after I'm all settled in for the night. I gave her at least 1/3 what more does she need. Do you see the white cover on the right side and the white pillow thing on the floor, she says those are my beds. I say she sleeps on the couch. I got here first.

Nighty night.

Long Weekends

   There is nothing like a long weekend. Many decades ago, a group of us used to load everything up and head to a semi private lake in B.C. It even got to the point where DH and I would leave on Thursday to get some down time before the rowdies arrived. Ah! Ha! Then everyone else started coming Thursday, so we would leave Wednesday. Even just one day alone was heaven. Sun and boating and liquid (water what else were you thinking) in no particular order depending on the day.

Today was just as great. First hike this summer. A hike through the west end of Fish Creek park in Calgary. Not hot yet; thank you clouds. Just the right amount of breeze. 

The hike loop view.

Beaver made candles.

Too the west, thunderclouds coming this way. Can you see the animal?

 Purple flowers. 

Canada thistle.

    Paper Sky block 2 is almost ready. Remember, when block 2 goes up, block 1 goes to the store purchase. So go to Quiltnasium and download block 1.

  

   Quilt alongs for 150 Canadian Women and Gypsy Wife details in the Fall.

   Oh mom, go away, I'm hunting! Bug, bug bug. Can't she see I'm concentrating. Every 15 minutes out she comes to see where I am. Oh meowzer, she's got the camera. Honestly, you'd thought she never saw a cat hunting. Okay, I'll let her see my eyes, but not too much. Happy? Meeew!

Another Monday

   Another Monday and what are we doing? Playing solitaire! Yep, that's it. Was to go hiking for the first time this summer. Nope, that didn't happen. Electricians came to replace the ceiling fan, that hasn't worked for 2 years and changed out 12 lights to LED lights. It'll be much brighter and cooler for the quilting classes that are still on hold.

   I want to make Jen Kingwell's Gypsy Wife quilt soooo bad. How many of you would like to quilt along with me? We have the pattern instock.

   Also, how many would like to start or get back to the 150 Canadian Women blocks? How about quilting along as well? This time I'm going to have a dark background and different colours of blocks and may or may not make 2 quilts instead of one large one. Must have the pattern that you either downloaded 2-3 years ago or purchase the CD.

   One more week until Paper Sky kick off. See you on facebook Quiltnasium Quilt Along by Kat group page.

  Oh Meow! Not good. I heard mom talking to a pest control sales man yesterday. He wanted to eliminate the voles and mice in the yard. He said he's going to work on the neighbour's vole problem. I've managed to eliminate all but one in my yard but the fence is in the way to the neighbour's yard. I know, I know, there's never just one. But, that gives me a reason to get up and at it in the morning. Geesh, what's going to happen. There will be no watching, listening, staring down or daring those varmints to come on over to my side of the fence. 

Here mousy mousy. Come to mama.