Completed Quilt... "Feeling Blue" a.k.a. "The Blue Beast"

So Happy Birthday, Mum!  It's a bit early but it's finished.  I am pleased with it and all it's scrappiness.  The back is a story.  Years ago, 2 houses ago, I bought a lovely shower curtain.  Paid way too much money for it at the time but it was exactly the right thing for our country house.  We sold the house and I kept the shower curtain.  And now it is totally and perfectly repurposed as the back of this quilt for Mum.  The quilt measures about 76" x 76".  It was not as difficult to quilt as I thought it would be.  My machine handled the bulk well but my hands and shoulders got quite the work out.  It feels good to be finished and I am sure Mum will love it.  Mum has always had a thing for blue.  She is coming down this week so she will be able to visit her quilt in person and take it home before her birthday.  

 Here is the funny thing.  The quilt is perfectly square.  The border on the back was all the same measurement and yet somehow the border on the back on one side only is wonky.  I squared it all up before putting the binding on.  I am just going to say I planned it that way for a certain quirkiness.  : ) The quilting is just all over stippling in white.

Quilting the blue beast on a snowy day

We woke up this morning to a whack of snow.  It was just last weekend when Husband and I were raking flower beds and now we are right back into full bore winter.  Crazy!  Webster thought it was too much fun.  And then I got down to quilting the blue beast for Mum.  I am calling it that because it is just so darn big.  I know it is at least 75" x 75" and is the biggest quilt I have made to date.

Me quilting the blue beast.  Too bad you cannot see my whacky gardening gloved hands!

I used spray baste for the first time.  That was interesting.  Let's just say I learned a lot with this first attempt.   And let's just say that after I had the batting connected to the quilt top
and having hollered for Husband to come and help
and after having a mild panic attack
and after crawling all over the kitchen floor with the dog looking at me strangely
and after Husband made many supportive comments...

I did a much better and calmer job of attaching the batting and top to the quilt back.  I now know this.  Only spray a small bit at a time.  Start with the batting on the floor and the quilt back rolled up smoothly. Spray the width of the batting, about a foot at a time.  Unroll the quilt bottom onto the sprayed section and work your way spraying and unrolling until all is smooth and attached.  Do the same for the top.  My LQS lady also advised me to leave the quilt with the spray baste for about an hour before beginning to quilt.  So I did that.  And what can I say.  I have finished quilting the beast.  I have NO wrinkles on the front or back.  I used NO pins in the entire process.  I am a convert to spray baste.  I LOVE IT!

This evening while watching the Oscars, I will complete the binding and a work in progress will magically transform into a completed quilt!  Woohoo!

Saturday and it's snowing

Husband needed a haircut and I needed a thrift store. After a thrilling trip to the dump to get rid of the recycling, general trash and renovation garbage, we were off to the races.  Actually the only thrilling thing at the dump were the bald eagles.  The rest of it was, well... dumpy.  After the haircut, we pulled up to the thrift store just as it was opening.  I jumped out and Husband was off for coffees because Roll up the Rim has started at Tim Horton's!  (And I won a coffee today!) 

 At the thrift store I did find another super button jar.  Filled with all sorts of large coat buttons, an unusual large cameo button, one that looks like a limpet, a very large shell button and lots of other lovelies inlcuding many large coat type buttons that just work so well for pillow backs.  And in the button jar were 2 nickels.  One was 1985 and the other 1989.  How odd is that?  The years of both son's and daughter's births!  Talk about a coincidence.  On to thrift store number 2 and I picked up a metre and a half of lovely quilting cotton with pink ruffled poppies for a  mere $3, and a huge Battenberg lace table cloth, $2 and some other vintage embroidered linens that asked to come home with me for cheap.

And for more flea market finds check out Sophie's blog!

Where do you sew?

I have noticed several bloggers showing their sewing spaces of late.  I spread out all over the place.  With just Husband and I at home, we have a lot of space to rattle around.  Husband made an absolutely massive, stunning harvest table for our downstairs summer kitchen.  It has become the place I sew even though my actual sewing table is in the spare room where most of my fabric lives.  The harvest table is so big that I can spread everything out and leave it out. I can have my sewing machine at one end of the table.  Cutting mat in the middle and piles of sewing stuff, fabric etc. at the other end.  It is just fabulous.  When I am quilting, the large table is great because I can spread the whole quilt across the table.  And I can leave my mess all over the place and its okay.

The table has a story.  Our farm is in an area of British Columbia where huge cedars grow.  The woods behind our house has huge cedars and also the massive stumps of trees cut down so many years before when the area was settled.  Our farm dates to the 1930s.  We have lovely small barn which has been built with planks of cedar that were most likely cut from trees from the property.  Husband took some of these massive planks from the stalls in the barn and transformed them into the harvest table.  The planks are thick, thick, thick and the table would be the place I would shelter under in case of an earthquake.  The chairs were a Craigslist purchase.  By the time we get around to changing the flooring downstairs, it will probably be a retro trend.  Or at least I can hope!

On a serious note...

some winter colour on a cold day

With the earthquake this week In New Zealand and the terrible situation in Libya, I am grateful for Canada.  I have had news that our friends in Christchurch are rattled but well and are looking for ways to help those who need it.

We are keeping a close ear to the news from Libya as Canadians are still struggling to be evacuated.  We are thinking, however, of those who do not have the luxury of having a country to be evacuated to and must live through the chaos that is Libya today.  The troubles in North Africa are having an impact on our gas prices but that seems like such a trivial matter in the larger scheme of things.  Heavy sigh.

We have much to be grateful for.  Back to more cheery topics tomorrow.  Today was a thoughtful day.

On a Wednesday...

The snow did not amount to much here although Victoria apparently got hammered!  We are in a cold snap though and that will make tomorrow's bus duty a chill-fest.   I just got home from a LOVELY dinner and quilt shop visit with friends.  We were looking for fabric to make a table runner that I will make for her but my friend could not see her vision in fabric.  I am going to introduce her to some online fabric shops so we can find THE fabric.  We had a lot of fun though.  Lots of catching up!

Here is my new couch quilt work in progress.  It's all half square triangles.  I was playing around with the arrangement and then saw Tracey's Little Lovebird quilt before she had it finished and thought that I could place my half square triangles in a similar organized fashion.  I like it!  Husband does too.  He seems to like quilts with high contrast.  I used fabrics from my stash.  Some Rouenneries by French General, some Patisserie by Fresh Figs, some Glace by 3 Sisters etc. etc.  I think Glace is supposed to be a Christmas line but who would know that?  It is just lovely deep, saturated reds and lovely greens.  That is what the border is by the way-Glace.

Husband is busy with some renovations.  He has painted the entire main floor and is now building a built in wall unit in the living room.  Really exciting.  He does such lovely work.  It is sort of like quilting.  He buys large chunks of wood, cuts it up and puts it back together in a different way.  Wood quilting.  I like that.

Snowing a blizzard!

So yes, it is snowing a blizzard as we speak.  But the good news is that I have my sewing machine back!!! It sounds like marshmallows.  Or kittens purring softly.  I don't know, it's just so good to get it back.  I have 2 quilt tops finished and ready to sandwich so I was starting to get antsy without my machine to quilt the puppies.    Here's a peek at Mum's quilt getting a little fresh air on the clothesline.

It's going to be a beast to quilt as it is big at 75" x 75".  I can just see Webster's feet on the right hand side.  He was really wondering what the heck we were up to!  Husband was the photographer while I pinned the quilt top on the clothesline.  It was raining and cold.  I was undercover.  Husband was not.  Tee hee hee.

On a serious note, we are hoping that all is well with our friends in Christchurch and feeling the sadness at such an event as this very significant earthquake.

Dang! It's snowing!!

It was such a lovely sunny weekend that Husband and I raked and tidied a bunch of flower beds.  He manned the rake and I was on the wheel barrow.  We have a lot of flowers.  The elderly lady that we bought our place from had a lot of flower beds.  All perennials of course.  Even the barn is landscaped.  We didn't get all the beds done.  But took care of the flower beds around the house at least.  We discovered many brave crocuses blooming.  And now today it is snowing!  And Husband and I are both complaining of being stiff and sore from the gardening of yesterday.  The winter has made us soft!

Son and girlfriend came out from the big city (Vancouver) for lunch.  It was lovely to see them before they fly off for a holiday in Mexico.  Nice!

I had taken out a quilt for Son to take home.  My Gramma made quilts for her great-grandchildren.  I am not sure if she made one for each of them but she certainly got a good start on it.  We had Son's quilt at home, storing it for him.  Now that he is making a home with his lovely girlfriend, he took his quilt home with him.  He has always told us that it is our duty as his parents to store his stuff.  I don't know where he found that rule!  As a result, we still have his wooden chest filled with Lego, his Tonka trucks, his transformers etc. etc.    I am working on getting him to take something each time he comes out.

This is his quilt.  The fabrics in the squares are all lovely vintage fabrics.  I am so glad that each of my children have something from Gramma!

For the love of buttons!

I am always looking for buttons.  This Saturday there were several button jars at my favourite thrift store and I examined the jars closely before choosing.  I looked for variety, age and size. This one fit the bill but once we got home, I was kicking myself for not picking up the other 2 jars because there were some very snazzy things in this jar.  Even Husband was picking up things and doing Google searches.  Really.  Husband was pawing through the button pile checking them out.  There was a token, that on one side said "Good for 5 cents in trade."  Google searches have the token dating from the early 1900s and selling for various prices, usaully around $10.  How cool is that?  And here they are out of the jar...

Lots of variety.  Some old shell buttons, leather and some that look like cork.  Cute little red rocking horses too!

But also these in a separate bag for 50 cents.  Lovely!

And some fabric...   Sunflowers!!!  Over a metre for $1.50.  Daughter loves sunflowers so this fabric will transform into something for her without a doubt.  The yellow stuff is actually a pair of really beautiful, cotton pillow shams- like new.  Lots of fabric there.

And some more fabric... Flannelette.  Pretty pink princesses.  A tiny pin cushion and some more vintage buttons.

And for more flea market finds check out Sophie's blog!

So sunny!

Saturday Stash Building

Frosty Saturday morning following last night's full moon but the sun is out in full force, waking up the garden.  Even the golfers are out across the way.  And yes, with the start of the golfing season, we can soon anticipate a fabulous golf ball harvest from aimless golfers who whack countless golf balls into our field.  If only golf balls were made of something valuable like silver bullion or something, we would be RICH!!!

Husband and I went down the hill for groceries.  We parked, noticed the oddly bunched seagulls in the parking lot, stepped out of the van and were immediately blown about by the wind.  It took our breath away.  OMG!  Talk about windy!  We are very sheltered up here at the farm and do not notice the wind at all.  We stopped at the veggie shop, which is right in the middle of farm land.  Checked out the pruning of the blueberries at the big blueberries farms and then off to the thrift store.  Got Husband a coffee so that he could keep busy while I was in the thrift store.  Poked around the thrift store.  Found some treasures.  And then off to the fabulous local quilt shop.  Husband was being very indulgent today.  He has the patience of a saint.

At the quilt shop it was buy one get one free bolt ends.  Seriously, too much fun for words!  So I added a nice selection to my stash.  Some owls from Deb Strain's Love U, Frolic by Sandy Gervais (Husband said... clown fabric.  I don't think he liked it but I do!), Simple Abundance by Bonnie and Camille,  Habitat by Michele D'Amore for Benartex and finally more than a metre of Glace by 3 Sisters which will be used in the new couch quilt.  My current work in progress.  When I left the shop, apparently I was skipping.  Yes, I was that happy.  Husband shook his head.  He just doesn't get the whole fabric thing but at least he puts up with my fabric addiction.

The bird count on the drive home was high.  3 bald eagles, 1 large hawk and about 40 swans.  The eagles were having a heck of a time with the wind.  The swans were just parked in a field.  Blinding white in the sun and the size large dogs.  The mountain peaks were covered in snow and showing off against the blue sky.  We do live in a beautiful part of the world.

Daughter is back at university and is freezing with -20 (celsius) temperatures.  She experienced no mishaps on the drive back.  No near death experiences.  But she did forget her purse at home and had to double back for it.  Miss Forgetful or what?

backyard snowdrops today!

Here is the thing...

I took my sewing machine in for service.  They said two weeks.  I think that this is a long time to be without a sewing machine but what can you do?  I unhappily left my dear machine in the hands of the repair people.  I trusted them.  This week, my anticipation started to build because I knew that the two weeks is up on Saturday.  Happiness!  Delight!  Joy!  and yes, even wonder!  Will it be a magical experience to use my newly serviced machine?  Will I notice a big difference!?  How many quilt shops can I stop at on the way back from picking her up?  It is all just so exciting!!!!  But then I phoned the repair shop.  Just to check.  I asked politely and I mean very politely because I want them to be nice to my machine, "Will it be ready for pick up on Saturday, which will be the promised two weeks?"   And I waited, holding my breath.  Somehow I just knew that even with all this anticipation and barely suppressed excitement, the chances were great for disappointment.  And I was disappointed.  Heavy sigh.  Apparently they are just sooooo busy that  it won't be ready until at least next Wednesday!  OMG.  Honestly, sewing machine repair people need to think about the trauma that we go through without our machines!!!!!  I have read about similar separation anxiety on other quilt blogs with sewing machine service.  I know I am not alone.  I may need therapy.  Maybe a support group.

I have been working away at the hand quilting on my French Roses quilt.  My finger tips are showing the boo boos from the needle.  I wear a thimble on my underneath hand but I think I might tape up the ends of my thumb and index finger before I continue.  Such a whiner!

I am off to Books for Bedtime with our future Kindergarten students.  The primary teachers and I will spend a delightful hour with at least 25 four year olds decked out in their jammies, so that we can start to get to know them before next September.  Seriously, it is just way too much fun.  Happy Thursday!

the girls

The girls having a diva moment

Husband loves his girls.  They are turning 2 next month.  On St. Patrick's Day.  We brought them home from the hatchery in a box.  They made an incredible noise for such little fluff balls.  We had 27 of them and once they grew they produced a lot of eggs.  I was spending a lot of time selling eggs.  Not that it is ever a problem because people always want eggs.  The law of small farm chickens is that egg demand always outstrips supply.  It's just the way it is.  

A while back we decided to scale back the girls to just enough for us with a dozen or so a week extra.  We quickly found a farmer who wanted some more chickens for eggs.  The farmer came by and husband and I were busy stuffing the girls into crates for the short trip across the way and down the hill.  Husband knows his girls and had an idea which ones he wanted to keep.  One of the "give away" girls, a crafty and feisty bird, decided to make a run for the woods.  She totally took me by surprise, squeezed out of the crate and high-tailed it for the woods.  I thought she was a goner.  We have coyotes, and hawks, not to mention BEARS!  Husband wasn't worried.  Through the afternoon, we caught site of her a few times.  And sure enough, when dusk was beginning to fall, out of the woods came chicken little.  Ready to go in for the night and join the rest of her buddies.  Husband opened up the pen and in she ran.  Known as Lucky, she is the seventh hen in our flock.  Lucky number 7.  She works hard to prove her worth.  Sometimes she takes a long time sitting in the nest working away at laying her daily egg.  She adds much to a group of lovely, gifted egg layers who have been known to give us 8 eggs a day.  But husband has also been known to boil them up a pot of warm pasta on a cold and rainy day.  Just a little spoiled they are.  And to let them know how much we do appreciate what they give to us...  

UFO...

I have a UFO.  This was actually the first quilt I put together last May when I started quilting again but it is yet unfinished.  I know it is because I am hand quilting it and I am a little ADHD with that.  I have not been working at it because I got a little bored with it.  I also got onto a knitting kick and that took up my evening handwork time.  And I got on the hexie wagon but then I picked it up the other day and thought, okay, this isn't too bad.  I just have to do it!  I really love this pattern.  It is "French Roses" by Heather French and it is soft edge applique.  Super easy to put together.  I could have machine quilted it being careful not to quilt down the soft edges but I put this together before I was brave enough to try machine quilting.  I used soft dusty romantic prints.  I was going for that soft, romantic, aged look but my fabulous local quilt shop put it together with brights and it looked lovely too!

Totally scrappy. I can hardly wait to throw it in the wash to get all fuzzed and crinkled.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 I found this Valentine in a box of things from my Nanna.  I think I probably sent it to my Nanna and Grampa when I was about 6 or 7.  Now that makes this card a true antique!  Notice how the "p" is backwards and I still turned out okay.  (Husband might not agree with me though! Hee hee!)  I tell parents all the time not to worry so much about letter reversals.

And I made a few Valentine's for Husband, Daughter and her visiting friend.  Hedgehog Heaven fabric! and some lovely bees.

Valentine's Day is just so much fun at an elementary school.  The school had a lovely vanilla fragrance from all the cupcakes.  And little children were so excited to give out their cards.  A lovely bit of fun in a dreary February.  Happy Valentine's Day!

On a Sunday...

So nursey student daughter arrived safely last evening with 2 friends in tow.  Her flat tire incident in the Fraser Canyon, turned into a near death experience in her mind anyway.  Only daughter could be so dramatic.  She whammed into several large boulders that had fallen off the cliffs in the canyon.  Her car limped home with the little Mickey Mouse spare tire.   Two new tires later, as tires are purchased in pairs,  all is well.

In between a trip to the mall with daughter and friend, I did work away on the current work in progress.  I was in HST chaos as you can see from this photo.

And this is how they are coming together.  I like it!

Finally, there is a new recipe at the Moda Bakeshop and a give away at the the baker's blog, Lily's Quilts!  Check it out!  The quilt is Hexagon Park, and the give away is a Sherbet Pips layer cake.  Life cannot get better!

Messing around with half square triangles

Pieced a bunch of half square triangles (HSTs).  I am thinking I will do something along these lines for the new couch quilt.  I wasn't over the moon with the blocks I played with the other day.  As I finish more HSTs, the placement will be more random.  I am pairing prints with an assortment of creamy neutrals.  This is more my happy place.  I do like putting HSTs together.  I started with 5" squares, drew the diagonal on the neutral, paired with a print, 1/4" seam on either side of the diagonal and string pieced a giant mess of them.  Pressed them with the best iron in the universe.  Definitely in my happy place.

But then the phone rang.  Daughter is on her way home for the week and got a flat tire.  She is still several hours away and in the middle of not much.  Some kind soul changed her tire for her but she is driving on the little spare tire thing.  Argh.  Mother stress is in full bloom.

It's a windy, stormy Saturday.  Time to curl up with a book and a hot cup of coffee.  Happy weekend!

mmm, yummy!

Husband did some baking today while I was at school kid wrangling.  Daughter is coming home for university reading break tomorrow so you have to have some baking in the house, right?  Husband makes awesome cinnamon buns.  He thinks it is all because of the pan.  He calls it the magic pan because it doesn't matter what he puts in the pan, it always tastes like heaven.  Magic.  What a scent to come home to!  

I do love Quilt-y mail

This came today....

And I think I like it!  I have been buying the occasional quilt magazine and then my quilting Aunties gave me a bunch of magazines.  Thank you Aunties!  But I have not found a magazine that I like consistently enough to get a subscription.  But this one looks quite promising and I think I am going to step out on a limb and subscribe.

My hexagons are growing.  This happened while watching the auditions for American Idol last night.  I have to have something to keep my eyes off the TV because, let's face it, those auditions are often really hard to watch never mind listen to!  Husband had to look away and finally just went to bed because he couldn't bear it!  Hilarious!!!  So these are my American Idol hexagons.

It's like the Friends episode...

I was messing around with a sample block for the new couch quilt.  I had printed out a pattern from Quilter's Cache for the Starflower block.  This all sounds perfectly normal.  I cut the pieces according to the directions.  Started piecing it together and right away noticed something.  OMG!  I had somehow got the page two of the Square and Points block instructions attached to page one of the Starflower block.  Just like when Rachel put the ground beef in the trifle for Thanksgiving desert because the recipe book's pages were stuck together.  You know the episode, right?  It was pretty funny.  Anyway... So block number one is Square and Points.  And block number two is Starflower.  Husband likes Square and Points but he just gets all caught up in which fabric he prefers and forgets to look at the block pattern.  I like the idea of the Starflower but my points are wonky!  Not perfect.  Needs practice.   Maybe I will do a combination of several blocks.

Block number one, by mistake...

And block number two, on purpose.

I also do not like the fabric choice with the plaid for this block.  Looks wonky but not good wonky.  Maybe I will throw it off the balcony for a seagull.  Isn't that what happened on Friends?

Up next

I puttered away with the hexagons last evening.  They really are quite addictive but I have also started thinking about the next project.  Since my sewing machine is in for a tune up, I can only piece not quilt with my old machine.  I was thinking of making  another couch quilt for the living room couch.  I have a stack of fabric in mind, all from stash.  An assortment of stuff, including some French General etc. etc.

And I am thinking of branching out a bit with the block.  I found this block pattern at quilter's cache and husband approved.  He likes things complicated.  I am not totally convinced but I am going to at least make one block to see.

On the home front, after living without drapes in the dining room and living room since last Thursday, I picked up the newly dry cleaned drapes today.  Husband quickly hung them.  We have big windows. We live in the country but at night, we have felt like we have been living in a country fish bowl!  Phew! The drapes do look lovely.

Bitten by the hexie bug!

I made a pillow about a million years ago using hexagons and paper piecing.  It was when we were in Peru for several months.  I kept busy then with a lot of hand sewing.  Last night, while husband watched the Superbowl, I made hexies.  I made a lot of them.  I see a pillow in their future.  Good colours for the living room.  And what is the fabric?  I don't know.  I know the solid is from Gramma's stash and the other two... Hmm.  Definitely Moda.  Maybe Blackbird Designs?

And the big news is that I read on a blog that there is a fabric store in Vancouver that is carrying all 221 colours of Kona cottons.  That is crazy!!!!!  I think I may have to go on a field trip.  I told husband.  He was less than impressed.  221 colours!!!!  I might faint.  Happy rest of Monday.

Work in progress status report

"Feeling Blue" quilt sneak peek

While husband was shouting at the TV, watching darts before the Superbowl started, I finished the "Feeling Blue" quilt top.  I must be getting somewhat clever in my old age because I actually remembered to mark the first block of each row with a masking tape label.  Row 1, square 1 etc.  I have learned that I sometimes mess up when sewing the rows together if I do not identify the order in some way.  After getting the whole thing together and it is a big one, 70"x 70", I did notice to same fabric touches but they are small and I am going to live with it.  This is after all a scrappy quilt.  (Notice how I am trying to convince myself and squash my inner OCD.)  I had been really focused on spreading out the centre squares so that there was lots of variation and also varying light and dark blocks so I missed the 2 tiny same touches.  I still need to add a border around the sewn together blocks because Mum wants the quilt to measure 75" x 75".

And about the shouting at the TV during darts.  First of all, who watches darts other than husband???? And secondly, daughter phoned while he was watching darts and all I had to say was, if you are lucky you may even hear your father yelling at darts.  Even her room-mates groaned.  They know what this sounds like.  But if it makes him happy, it's all good!  I think it is something like how I felt when I found my flea market fancy at the thrift store.  Maybe I should start shouting in happiness when using my new iron.  There's a thought!

On a Saturday...

love those buttons!

milk glass

Husband stayed home this morning.  He was BUSY.  He had a to do list that did not include driving around with me to thrift stores.  I don't think he missed waiting for me while I poke around a thrift store but I missed him!  I bumped into one of my buddies at one of the stores.  We marveled at the quantity of STUFF and had a quilting discussion about using spray baste.  Neither of us have used it yet.  I am planning to use it for the blue quilt because it is going to be so big.

As for the blue quilt, I have made 30 blocks but I think I need another 5.  I will crank those out tomorrow and see if I can get it sewn together.  I cannot start on the quilting though as... trauma... I took my sewing machine for a tune up today and they said it will be 2 weeks.  Yoiks!  I still have my old machine which is in great running order so I can use it for piecing but definitely not quilting.  It was so strange to thread the needle and I kept pushing blank space where the needle up button is on my new machine.  I am so spoiled.

vintage pillow ticking

And for thrift store finds today.  I found the sock pattern booklet that I have been looking for.  And one for dolly clothes and last weekend, I picked up the one with patterns for Bazar items.  Lots of toilet roll covers which I won't  be knitting but lots of tea cozies which I will be knitting.  I am determined to knit a pair of socks this year.  With the pattern book I am that much closer!  I also found another milk glass footed bowl and a bag of buttons from someone's button jar.  And check our the vintage ticking!!!!!!  50 cents each!!!  Still have labels.  100% cotton, down proof cotton.  Awesome!  They are in great shape.  I could make a pillow ticking quilt.

and for more flea market finds, you can check over at Sophie's blog.

Sky fire...

 Dramatic or what?  Husband and I were talking just after I arrived home from work.  He looked out the dining room window to see that the sky was on fire.  It was incredible.  And the clouds were blowing across the forefront of the horizon as if the clouds were on different levels of the sky.  It was really something to see.  Incredible colours.  I ran out to the driveway to take a few pictures.  I am sure that this type of sky means something ominous about the weather that is to come.  The high fence that you see is the net around the golf course driving range that is over and across the way.

Husband is complimenting me on my photos of late.  I was not convinced that the pictures I took of the sky would turn out.  I used to take really bad pictures but I seem to be getting better.  Such a critic!  Thank goodness it's Friday.  A weekend of playing with fabric lies ahead of me and for husband... the superbowl!  Happy quilting!

It came!!!!!

Oh my goodness!  Husband left me a message today that there was a package in the mail and that I might want to know that.  Oh my goodness!  I now have faith in the system.  Online fabric buying from the United States and shipped to Canada does work.  It took just a bit over 10 days.  Not bad.  Not great if you are wishing for instant fabric-gratification.  And no extra duty, charges, taxes blah blah blah.  I ordered from the Quilted Castle and I am happy to say that I would order from there again.  Good story.  Happy, happy, joy, joy.

So what did I buy?  1 yard of Meadowsweet Grand Foliage in Celery by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller .  On sale!  And then 1 yard of Daisy Path and Meadow Dot in Robin's Egg.  Same designer.  And then 2 colourways of Trees, It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda.  Too cool for school!  And not to be forgotten Bella solid, Sunshine by Moda Basics.  And sunshine it is on a rainy day!  And this is just stash building.  Pure fabric happiness.