So it Starts!

It’s official! Yup, we have entered a whole new year!

What will this new year bring I wonder? Do you look at the new year with dread or with possibilities?

I think in the past I always looked at the new year with well, maybe not dread, but maybe you know, same old same old, wishing and hoping things would change but not really believing it or doing anything to actually make the change.

Now, it’s 2020 and I am sitting here with so many possibilities in my life. Many I couldn’t even have dreamed of when my world literally fell apart. They say things happen for you not to you and whenever you look back on your life you can see that. You can’t see it when it’s happening to you.

One of the reasons I have been so silent on this blog this last season is that in October we had a flood. Not just any flood either. The townhouse complex where I live happens to be directly across from a fire hydrant. Now you might be saying, hey how lucky can you get however we weren’t so lucky that day in October. 

You see, the fire hydrant was due to be replaced and so everything was arranged. Kevin and I heard the machinery come in the morning and didn’t think too much about it. Then, Kevin had to go downstairs for something. “Hey Janice, we have water pouring in down here”! Wait what!!

 Kevin went to go outside and stopped dead in his tracks. Oh, my we have water coming in the front door too. He put his rubber boats on which go to his knees to slug through the lake that had developed by our front door and the water was so deep it flowed over his boots.

 Turns out the pipe in the ground burst and the company doing the work (whom I can’t name at present) hadn’t done their due diligence and had no idea how to turn the water off. It was Kevin who phoned 911 and got hold of the fire department who in turn got hold of the city to have the water shut off. Meanwhile 30 minutes of water rushing through our unit and under the street caused a LOT of damage.

 There ended up being damage to over 11 units with our unit and the one next door to us having the worst of it.

 My quilting studio had to be completely dismantled and we are only now getting things put back together. We still have to have all new flooring laid in the upstairs of our unit so this nightmare isn’t over yet.

 Someone actually had the audacity to say to me, well aren’t you lucky you get all new floors for free. Well, it’s not actually free, there is the time, stress, Insurance companies, inconvenience as well as deductible costs among many other things. Not to mention the fact that I LIKED my floors and didn’t actually need new ones. Ok maybe the ugly carpet on the stairs needed replacing but having a flood is a hell of a way to get that replaced.

Click on below images to see larger view. 

 

What about Quilting

How did all of this affect my goal to complete as many older quilt projects as I could for 2019? Well, it did put a damper on it for sure. However, I did manage to finish a few and here are the finished pics.

Click on below images to see a larger view. 

The other thing it forced me to do was finish my hand applique project I have been working on for over 15 years. I have actually finished the top except for the borders. As soon as I get my studio back together and access to my long arm I am going to have to get this one quilted.

Well, that’s the update from me, hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and back ready to tackle more quilty projects for 2020.

 

Finishing Frenzy and Travel Updates

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.

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.

Client Canada 100 Quilt

Hello Summer! Summer is probably my favourite time of year. Here in Victoria BC, it doesn’t get super hot so most days in the summer are really pleasant. Summer is when things slow down in the quilt studio at least when it comes to client quilts, so that means I might actually get my unfinished quilt tops quilted. Wow, won’t that be something, I only have about 4 or 5 of them sitting around. Of course, 3 are queen sized and I want to quilt them with more than just an allover design so that means they would be on the frame for awhile hence the fact they have been sitting waiting for an opening. My Mom wants one of them for her bed so that is an incentive to get at least one quilted right there.

Canada Quilt 100 Quilt

Isn’t this quilt stunning! This was made by Linda Chase. It was designed by Kat Tucker and was called 150 Canadian Woman in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday. Linda did a fabulous job piecing this. I love the scrappiness, even though she just used red and white there is a lot of movement happening here.

I used white Sew Fine 50 thread from Superior Threads and used a maple leaf pantograph for the quilting design. We thought using red thread would be too much and we would have been right. For me, I just wanted the wonderful piecing to shine through which is why the white thinner thread was chosen.

Thank you, Linda, for allowing me to quilt this beauty.

Now to quilt some of my own quilts.

 

9/11 Remembered and a Baby Quilt

So do you ever find when you go away even for just 4 days it takes longer to catch up on everything? Here it is almost a week gone by and I am finally getting to writing another blog post and feeling like I can start to catch up on everything now.

I was catching up on my Facebook reading this morning and although I knew yesterday was the 9/11 anniversary it hadn’t occurred to  me that 15 years had gone by! Yes, I know just do the simple math but it is something I just hadn’t thought of. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. It was early here on the west coast so a lot of us hadn’t even woken up yet. The news came on the radio when the alarm clock (remember those I use my mobile phone now) went off and that is when I first heard it. At first I thought I heard wrong and my ex-husband thought the radio announcers (who were prone to make jokes) was kidding but something about the tone of their voices told me otherwise. I jumped out of bed and raced to the living room to turn on the TV and there it was. Nope not a joke! It was very real.

Not much work got done that day. The TV in the lunch room at work got moved into the board room so that everyone got a chance to keep abreast of what was going on. This was before internet streaming was allowed on people’s computers at work. That day the six degrees of separation theory was put into practice for me. At the time I had a very good friend whose brother worked at the pentagon for years and only had just retired months before the plane crashed into it. In fact at the time he lived only blocks away. Now 15 years has gone by, the world has changed, or has it! As with anything bad that happens a lot of great things and good will happened as well. It does seem though that is one date where you ask someone if they remember where they were when they heard the news and they will be able to tell you without any hesitation. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?

Anyway enough of the melancholy, it wasn’t actually what I was going to write about, but somehow it seemed appropriate. So now onto some pictures of a cute baby quilt.

animal-farm-baby-quilt-1

animal-farm-baby-quilt-3

Isn’t that pig flying over the fence sashing the cutest! This was just a simple baby quilt I quilted a couple of weeks back for a client. She wanted white thread and a simple all-over heart design so I used Superior Threads King Tut 993 Temple and used a white Superior Threads Masterpiece in the bobbin. I really love how simple all-over quilt designs make these wonderful simple baby quilts come to life.

I am still struggling to find the perfect spot to take good photos of the finished quilts. I have a friend who is a photographer who is coming over to help me tomorrow with finding the perfect spot both indoors and outdoors and give me some pointers on lighting. Yeah! I can’t wait.

Remember to sign up for my newsletter. I am currently writing about colour and how to use it in your quilts.

Happy Quilting

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Inspiration Journal

 

 

Where does Inspiration Come From?

I’ve been thinking a lot about inspiration these days. What types of things inspires that creative spark in all of us. Is it a pattern or book, nature or a photograph that speaks to you. I love thumbing through my collection of quilting books (I have over 200). I do have some pattern books however mostly they are technique books and some I simply have just got for the inspiration, I will never actually make anything in the book. The majority of these books were purchased when I was just starting on my quilting journey and wasn’t too sure which path to take.I don’t buy very many books these days unless it is to do with machine quilting. My most recent purchase was Angela Walters new book Shape by Shape Collection 2 but this is the first book I have purchased in almost a year. The book is filled with wonderful ideas and inspiration for someone who enjoys actually doing the machine quilting.

Shape by Shape, Collection 2 by Angela Walters (Paperback)

Some people think that it’s just making quilts and gasp calling it a “blanket”. However I feel it is more than that. Even when you have a fast baby quilt that you need to make, you still put the time into thinking about colour and pattern and making the quilt with love. I mean really, you could just go and buy a baby gift and it would be a whole lot easier and way less expensive in some (most) cases. When you are a quilter though, it’s just not the same. When you are a quilter, you make that quilt because you want the gift to come from your hands and therefore you add your love and part of your spirit into the gift as well. Some people recognize this and realize that the gift is extra special. Of course you are also going to get the people who simply don’t understand and don’t appreciate what they are holding in their hands.

A little off topic but have you ever had that happen to you? Thankfully I have only had this happen once, suffice it to say I’m a little more discerning in where my ‘art’ and ‘soul’ goes to now.

So where does the inspiration come from? I find it can come from many different sources. Old doors, leaves, trees or even grates. I took the following photo of a grate in a park in downtown Nanaimo BC. I loved the circle design on it.

Inspiration-1

In one case I was asked to make a baby quilt for a friend, she gave me the two thoughts circles and indigo. What do you do with that? Well the indigo was pretty easy, blues but what of circles. I sat down with all of my quilting books that had circle patterns and designs and finally chose a drunkards path variation pulling all of my blues from my stash making sure I included some indigo. Here is the result.

Baby Quilt-1

Since the top reminded me of a night sky and moon, that gave me the inspiration to quilt the moon and stars across the quilt. I found a quilt design that I turned into a pantograph.

Baby Quilt-2

I love the man in the moon theme, I felt it was perfect for this baby quilt.

A quilt is a blanket of love

What inspires you?

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Inspiration Journal