What’s Going On!

Mar 29, 2020

So how is everyone doing being stuck at home? Crazy times huh!

Well, the good news in all of this is that some people are getting a lot of quilting done!

Unfortunately, not me, why you might ask? Well, I managed to come down with a really bad cold, so I have been trying to take care of myself and have watched more movies in the last 10 days than I have in the last 2 years.

Love the above picture, Cocoa decided he wanted Kevin’s lap, BUT that is usually reserved for Mia. She wasn’t at all happy that Cocoa took her place.

Quilting Update

I finished the last of my client quilts about 2 weeks ago and there the poor thing sits waiting to be picked up. What with my cold and all the self-isolation going on it has been safely tucked away in the studio.

I am hoping to come up with a safe way to transfer the quilt to the owner next weekend once I know I am healthy. More than likely we will do the handoff outside. I usually like to show the quilt laid out for the client to see the whole thing but in today’s circumstances that may not be possible.

Oh well, we can only do what we can to make sure everyone stays safe.

Travelling

I have had to cancel two trips this year and that has been disappointing however, I’m sure things will get back to a new normal in the next few months and then I can plan new trips to take. It doesn’t seem possible that I was in Japan a year ago today. My memories keep popping up on Facebook, but I don’t have the heart to repost those pictures.

Groceries

So how is everyone doing with the grocery shopping? Were you one of the hoarders? We weren’t and sometimes I wish we had of as now finding toilet paper, bread and flour can be challenging. We have one designated person to go out to do the shopping and that is Kevin mostly because I was too sick to go out.

Since bread is hard to come by, I made my very first ever loaf of bread the other day. I was thrilled that it turned out. Now if we can only find flour we are good. (sigh)

So, keep quilting! At least as quilters with usually a huge stash of fabric to choose from, we won’t soon get bored!

Getting back to Normal, Whatever that is!

Feb 7, 2020

The house is slowly getting back to normal. The last three months of living out of my master bedroom were really interesting, to say the least. I felt so cooped up. The one bright spot is that I realized I could live in a much smaller space if I really ever needed to. The two that actually seemed to enjoy it were the cat and dog. Both hung out with me as I either worked on my hand sewing project or on the computer. 

The one bright spot in all of this is that the house is looking better than ever. I guess that is the message in life too. Whenever something bad happens, something better almost always comes out of it. 

 

When I picked the flooring 5 years ago, I had just purchased the house and hadn’t actually lived in it. I loved the flooring I picked but after living here I realized that the flooring needed to be lighter to brighten the whole place up so when I was told I had to replace the flooring I took the opportunity to get a lighter floor than what I had originally picked. I was a little worried about my choice as I made my decision on the flooring in under 30 minutes. I know that would seem a ridiculously short amount of time for some people, as I know some people hum and haw for days.

Nope, not me. Still, I did wonder if I made the right decision. I need not have worried though as it turned out great. I guess all my quilter colour training has paid off in some ways! Ha!

Finally quilting again

I am loving having my studio back in order and finished two quilt tops. I have one on the frame now and am so enjoying quilting again! I don’t think I realized how much I missed using my long arm. I just have to quilt the border of the quilt but haven’t decided what design I want to use. I have two completely different themes running around in my head. I need to sketch them out a little more.

Once the quilt on the frame is finished then it’s onto the Vintage Hearts quilt. Now that I have finished appliqueing the quilt top the last thing I want to do is have the top sitting around forever so the sooner I get that thing completely finished the better! I can’t wait!

Last Word

Age is only a state of mind, you are as young as you think. Laliah Gifty Akita

This quote has been brought home to me a lot lately. I have recently taken a temporary job at a contact centre where I am taking calls helping people. It is amazing to me how many people say to me on the call, “oh I am too old to use a computer” and then when it comes to their birthdate they are 10 years younger than me! What!! Seriously, well, I guess you’re old if you think you are! I’m so glad I believe in continuous learning I would hate to talk myself out of learning new things.

Keep learning and growing!

The Rebuild

Jan 21, 2020

 

Well, things are finally getting put back together. In fact, by the end of next week (fingers crossed) I should have my house back in order.

The quilting room is all back and better than ever! It was a good opportunity to go through the many books, magazine, patterns and other things I have collected over the years and get rid of anything I know I will never use. What with that and the concentrated effort to use up what I had last year I was actually able to get rid of lots of extra baskets and bins that I now no longer need. This has made the room feel not so overly cluttered. 

The upstairs

The upstairs is finally getting worked on as well. All of the upstairs flooring (except the bathrooms) got removed last week and new carpet placed in the bedrooms and on the stairs. The house looks so empty with no furniture.

Today they start laying the new flooring down in the upstairs of the house. This should be finished by tomorrow and then it’s just baseboards, finishing details and furniture to be moved back in. I am so glad to be getting to the end of this.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery

Did anyone do the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt? I used to do the mystery quilt every year. The first time I did the mystery quilt I loved the quilt. The second-year I thought it was ok, but it wasn’t my colours so gave it to the church for a raffle. The person who won the quilt loved it and it was her colours so that worked out great.

The third-year I did the mystery quilt I thought the quilt was, well not ugly exactly, but not great either. There wasn’t enough negative space for me, so the quilt was super busy. I even toned the quilt down by keeping the neutrals very neutral, but it was still way to busy a quilt pattern for me.

After that experience, I don’t do the mysteries anymore. If I am going to put that much time and effort into something, I want to like the finished project. I keep all of the steps and follow along, but I wait to find out if I like the quilt first before deciding whether I will make it or not. There have been a few in the last couple of years that I have really liked and have earmarked to do however I can say I am so glad I didn’t do this year’s quilt. I am not sure what it is about this one I don’t like. I think it’s the colours, I may play around with the design in Electric quilt and see if I can come up with something that would work better for me as I have tons of scraps that do need to be used up.

Bonnie is the scrappy quilt queen for sure, but sometimes I like just a little more calmness in my quilts where hers can be so super busy for me. Just a little too much going on and that’s ok. That’s why there is many different types of quilts and quilters.

My works in progress

Since I didn’t have a quilting studio and a lot of my stuff was in storage for 3 months, that gave me lots of time to work on the endless applique project. My vintage Valentine which was a hand applique project I started over 15 years ago now. It was supposed to be a block of the month. Well it turned out to be more of a block of the year with a few years completely skipped.

The top is completed now. Can I hear a drum roll please?! Seriously, I am so happy this thing is finished and now let the actual quilting begin. Now that I have my long arm machine back up and running this will be the first project on the list to be put on the frame and completed.

Will I ever do another hand applique project? Well, never say never. I have a project I am working on now that has small bits of hand applique and that is doable, however I sincerely doubt I will ever tackle this size of project again. I may end up dead before it ever gets completed.

I have another project that I need to finish as well. It was one of my kits I had earmarked to finish for 2019 however the “flood” kind of interrupted that. I have had this kit sitting around since 2005. 

Why I have had these kits sitting around for so long without just getting in and making them beats me. I still have 3 more kits left to finish. One is a very simple project I picked up in Hawaii 5 years ago and the other two I have had for about 10 years however both of those are far more complex as one is another Judy Niemeyer quilt and the other a Pam Bono project.

The last project I am working on is a Jinny Beyer Block of the month from 2015. I had purchased the main Jinny Beyer border fabric many years ago and found most of the co-ordinating fabrics in my stash. I won’t have enough of the border fabric to use as an actual border around the quilt as per the pattern but that is ok with me, so we’ll see how this turns out.

So, what are you working on? Did you attempt the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt this year? If yes, do you like it? Let me know in the comments below.

Finishing Frenzy and Travel Updates

Sep 15, 2019

Whew, those Japan posts took a lot to put together. I’m so glad I did though as now I have a great reminder of what a great trip it was.

So, what’s been going on around here since I finally finished up the trip. Well, as I think I mentioned in my last blog post-Mom and I headed back to Seattle for my cousin’s wife’s funeral. Since we had driven down last time, we decided to take the Seattle/Victoria clipper this trip. It takes just under 3 hours one way. The seas were calm, and it was a great trip both ways.

Funerals are never fun, the best thing about them is catching up with family afterwards and there was a lot of that happening. My sister and her husband picked Mom and me up at the Seattle Clipper terminal and we headed down to Renton where my cousin lives.

There were two services, one Friday night and one Saturday morning. On Sunday we headed back home.

Otter Family Victoria Clipper Dock

Mom and I enjoying the Clipper Ride home

Toronto Bound

The next weekend I was off to Toronto for a business conference with my online digital marketing group where I met up with some great friends. Needless to say, that was a fabulous weekend. I had so much fun and learned a lot as well.

The conference was held in downtown Toronto so there was 5 of us that shared an Airbnb condo in the heart of Toronto. It was really convenient from the airport, one train from the airport and then less than a 5-minute walk to the condo. Perfect!

We had a great view of the CN tower and glimpses of the lake, couldn’t really ask for much more! This was my first time ever in Toronto so I found it fascinating. The conference was held in the Globe and Mail Centre on the top floor. Wow, what a view of the city you get from there. Too bad the winters are so cold there. Maybe next time I will get to Niagara Falls.

Toronto Skyline

Globe and Mail Building

The Gang

CN Tower at Night

On the Quilting Front

On the quilting front, I have been finishing up projects some that have been sitting around for years.

Judy Niemeyer Wedding Ring Star Quilt that has been a top for almost 5 years

I Spy Quilt that I started at least 7 years ago

A little Victoria Golf Course wall hanging designed by Susan Teece

And last but not least Blended Beauty which was a kit that myself and two of my long-time quilting buddies purchased together. Heather finished hers years ago. Kelli used the fabric from the kit for other projects and I finally finished mine. It looks like I forgot to take a picture of the back of the quilt before I handed it to the church as their raffle quilt. It turns out there was so much fabric leftover in those fat quarters from the kit I was able to piece together all of the remnants and just use two smaller pieces from my stash to make the quilt back. The quilt back is almost as pretty as the front.

So that brings us somewhat up to date. I still have two quilts to quilt and 5 or 6 more kits left to complete. Not sure if I will get them all done before the end of 2019 but I will try.

Playing Catch Up

Jun 22, 2019

Well it seems like it has been forever since I did a blog post. I finally got a newsletter out but even that was 6 weeks ago now. Time just flies by these days. So, what have I been doing these past weeks?

Well as some of you know I went to Japan for 4 weeks in March and April. I came back with a cold so between that and jetlag I wasn’t very productive until the beginning of May.  

Quilt Finishes

My goal this year is to finish all of my UFO (unfinished objects) quilts that I have sitting around. This would include tops that are pieced ready to be quilted and parts of projects that still need to become tops. Many of these projects are at least 5 years old and one hand applique project, well it’s getting on to 15 years old lol! I will finish it, but I will never again do hand applique.

I had made two “Gravity” quilts, one from the original kit that was all in solids and one that I made from my stash. The one I made from my stash I quilted back in January and it is now on my Mom’s bed and the other one I finished in May! I love it! I loved it when I saw the picture and bought the kit 5 years ago but now that it is on my bed in living colour, it brings a smile to my face every day! 

I finally have the Judy Niemeyer Wedding quilt on the frame. I can’t wait to start quilting this one. Ok so I still need to get the batting in there but hey, it’s at least pinned on the frame.

Last but not least my “I spy” quilt that I started, oh, 10 years ago now, is just waiting for borders. Yeah! I have no idea what I am going to do with this quilt as my two great nieces already have quilts and I don’t have any other children in my life to give it to. Any suggestions?

Website Refresh

Kevin and his son Andrew have started up a new company where they are making products (small tables etc) from all the burls Kevin brings home from the log sort where he is working. Between the two of us, we now have 3 or 4 small businesses going. I figured it was about time I learned more about web design so I could keep up with the websites so for the last few weeks I have been head down in learning mode and I used the Victoria Sunshine Studio website as my trial site. I had set it up simply 3 years ago just to get it going. I have learned a lot since then, so it was great to take the time to revamp it a little. I didn’t want something super fancy, but I like how it turned out and I learned a lot so it’s all good! It did take longer to update than I thought though, but doesn’t everything?

 

Finally

So that brings things somewhat up to date, at least quilting wise. I still have last weeks wedding to document (my nephews not mine) and of course the Japan trip itself. I have had several people ask when I will be posting that trip so stay tuned. Warning it will be picture and info overload, but it will be a good chance for me to revisit and document the trip myself.

To close here is a pic of the critters, they are usually close by one another but not normally this close, so it was picture worthy.

Remember to enjoy each day and be happy in the moment!