Renske Helmuth: Quilt Artist & Teacher

Taking a break.

2012-01-26T18:47:00.003-05:00

The partly knitted sock has been put away, the sewing machine is back in the cabinet and all the fabric has been put on the shelves. Yes, I have done, what I set out to do. Has it helped my shoulder? Not really. I think ,that it might take longer then I thought and I might need to get somebody to look at it. In the meantime, this blog was supposed to be about quilting and since nothing new happens around here, I have trouble finding things to write about. Don't forget, writing does not come easy to me. So I have made the decission to stop for a while. I might come back once in a while,when I have something newsworthy to talk about. And with a lot of help from a very good friend I will update all the information on this blog. To finish I will show some pictures of the Album Quilt from last week. I took a 10 months class with Rosemary Mahkan and this quilt was the result. I loved every minute of it. We used the different books by Elly Sienkiewicz. Starting with an easy one, we slowly build up to the difficult ones I put in the center. These blocks all have a special meaning for me. I grew up on a dairy farm and yes, I learned how to milk by hand. I do realize, that the conformation of this cow is extremely poor, but that's as good as it gets in fabric. While growing up I spend as much time as possible with our horses. And our favorites were our Frisians, which we drove, rode and showed. This is my first horse, Marietha. It was really hard to leave her behind, but you can't have it all. I have always loved flowers and plants. My mother had gorgeous flowers in the house, not much outside and it must have rubbed of on me. When we moved to the farm, I had a large garden with lots of flowers. Now there are less outside, but it seems that each year there are more inside, especially orchids. On the farm we had a large vegetable garden. We used to pick peas, not by the basket, but by the bushel. We could take them to a peasheller,what helped. We also had a mulberry tree, sour cherries, apple and pear tree. And we had a bigger family. Do I miss all the canning and freezing? Not really. With just the 2 of us, we don't need as much. So I'm down ,but not out. I will be back with new quilt ideas. Some have been floating around in my head for a while now and after a rest I hope to be ready to tackle a new project.

2012

2012-01-11T15:41:00.001-05:00

We have had a tough beginning of 2012. On December 28th my mother-in-law passed away. The last few months had been very hard for her. There were the different falls and trips to the emergency room and beside that some other problems. But up till the last few weeks she could not do without her paper. She never had a t.v., but she loved to read her paper from front to back. Since Laurence is her only child living in Ontario, it was up to us to make the arrangements By New Years Eve everybody had arrived from out west. Visitation was on Sunday and the funeral was on a very cold, windy and stormy Monday. It was through grandma that I learned about quilts. The first time I visited her home, there was that large blanket in a frame. I was told, that is was a quilt and she explained, what all was involved.Later, when we had bought the farm and she lived beside us in the corner of the farm, she continued to help me. A few years after grandpa and grandma build their new house, they put on a sunroom. It was there, that grandma would do her quilting. Grandpa would sit beside her, reading the paper. This is my first appliqued quilt and it is one of the quilts grandma quilted for me., all by herself.And what a job she did! Another time I will get back to this quilt. Over the years we helped each other. She loved to quilt, but gladly let me do the piecing for her. After I became a member of our guild, I persuaded Hilda to come with me and for years she would not miss a meeting. It was just in the last few years, that it was getting too much for her. After grandpa passed away 17 years ago, she was all by herself in the house. I would visit daily, but it was the quilting that kept her busy. This summer all her children and most of her grandchildren were here for her 90th birthday. She had looked forward to that for a long time. And she was still very interested in what her grandchildren were up to. She even learned to use an Ipad ( I think thats what it is). Jenny and Tony had been to Scotland and she wanted to see their pictures. It will be different for me. No more trips to the farmhouse in the corner or to town to visit grandma. We will miss her. I have had recurring shoulder problems and I think it is time to give my shoulder a rest. So no more knitting and appliqueing. These mittens were finished last month and they might have something to do with the sore shoulders. Hope some rest will help.

Christmas cards 2011

2011-12-14T12:59:00.001-05:00

Another month and another cold. I'm not sick, but I don't feel like doing as much as I would like. I did send my Christmas cards. And I'm very glad I made these in the summer. Laurence always tell me I'm nuts, but that seems the time to get it done. By late November I seem to have a lot of other things on the go.

The background of these cards are selvages, sewn to a piece of Timtex (you can really use anything that stiffens the fabric enough so that it is not too floppy). I wanted a different color combination and saved for a long time to get enough of the blue selvages. And there are none left! The silhouette comes from the book Applique Paper Greetings by Elly Sienkiewicz.

For the silhouette I traced the pattern on the dull side of freezerpaper, cut the pattern out and ironed it to the right side of a piece of dark blue batik which had fusible web on the back.

Next step, trace around the freezer paper pattern.

Cut the tree out, center it on the background and fuse it.

For the back I had to be somewhat creative. I did not have enough fabric for all the backs, so I used different scraps. One of my favorite fabrics is the one with the cranes. I had only bought a fat quarter and had used most of it by now. It was just the right color, so this was the time to use the rest.

With the cards I made before, I always had trouble finding a spot to write a short note. This time I came up with the idea of using a piece of silk ribbon, again fused to the fabric. It worked very well and the writing looked good. The final step was the zigzag stitch around the card. For that I used a variegated thread by King Tut.

The cards went out on Friday and I know of at least one that has arrived.

The weather is not really winterlike. Today it rained all day and it will be the same tomorrow. It would be nice to have a white Christmas, but we can do without a winter storm. The tree has been decorated and some of the baking is done. I'm not much for anything sweet, but Laurence makes up for it. And my shopping is done, over with!!!!

Wheat weaving

2011-12-07T15:39:00.003-05:00

Years ago I went with a neighbour for a one evening course in what was called wheat weaving. We made a few small braids using wheat straw. I found it very interesting and wanted to know more. The instructor that evening had only one small book and could not tell me much. I did find the address for the Women's Institute of England in the back of the book. I wrote a letter explaining my interest and a few weeks later I received a reply from Janet, who has been my friend ever since. I have visited her in England and she has been to Ontario to see me. We even went to the North American Wheat Weaver's Convention in Illinois together.From her I learned more about the craft of making "Corn Dollies" as it is called in England. I also got to know Daniel, who made corn dollies for a living not far from us in St. Jacobs. You use mostly wheat, the straw as well as the heads. It is in the heads that we can see a difference. There is bearded wheat ( has long hairs) Black bearded wheat with ever longer hairs, white looking straw and red looking straw. And then there is barley and oatsLaurence used to have test plots with the varieties, that I would beg of the different companies. I loved to make a large variety of designs. I would sell them at the different craft sales and that was the part I did not like. You cannot use the straw till it has been in water from 1/2 to 11/2 hour. That makes it plyable and from there you can braid and twist it. At that time I still did most of the milking and my hands and arms used to give me trouble. Because the straw had to be wet, you could not stop too long. I found that with applique I could just do a little and stop. Slowly the applique became more important and finally I stopped with the wheat. I have only a few pieces left. I had forgotten all about these dolls. One year I planned to make a nativity scene, but after these 4 dolls I gave up. They are about 12 inches tall. The idea was to make the rest the following year. And promptly it was forgotten. When a friend asked me about them I took them out of the box and I will display them this year. In the back of the yard we have a fair sized gazebo. We don't use it, since we have a large deck at the back of the house and during the summer we do not take the time to sit out much. But I figured that it might be an excellent place to put my orchids for the summer.By the middle of June I took them all out there and they were told to either do well or they would end up in the compost pile. Almost all listened very well . By the time I took them in, after a few light frost, most of them had buds. This is the first one blooming and it looks like there will be more before Christmas.

Another quilt finished

2011-11-30T15:53:00.001-05:00

Finally it all came together and I could finish this quilt.

I started with the dark blue blocks. I used Susan Briscoe's books as a guide to fill the dark blocks with hitomezaski sashiko patterns (one stich sashiko). In the 4 corners are designs I have made before. All the sashiko is done by hand. It takes a while, but I love sitting down and working by hand.

The 2 fabrics in the other blocks are doby cloth I bought from Michelle at Kallisti quilts.

A few years ago we went for dinner to the Mandarin Restaurant during Chinese New Year and each of us received a coin. I had saved them and they would give a nice touch to this quilt. But I had 2 problems. First of all I did not have quite enough coins. All it took was one phone call to the restaurant and I was told I could pick up as many coins as I needed. The next problem was the large square hole in the center of the coin. I could not find the right button to either fill the hole go over the top.

When I found out that my friends Elizabeth and Elizabeth (or as I call them the dynamic duo) were going to the show in Houston I asked them to look for something suitable. And they delivered! They found beautiful round, Japanese buttons, large enough and the right color. For the back,they brought back small square pearl shell buttons.

By that time I had machine quilted the piece and was ready for the final step. It worked like a charm. I sewed the binding on and it hangs as it should, nice and straight.

This is one more project done.

I'm working on some new applique blocks, but it is going slow.

We still spend a fair amount of time with my mother-in-law in town. We also have a visitor again. Abner the basset is back for a few days and he is making himself at home. His favorite spot is Laurence 's chair.

One of these days I will have to start thinking about Christmas. Right now it is all white outside and that at least gets us in the mood.

More work in the future

2011-11-19T03:30:00.000-05:00

It has been a while, but I have been under the weather for over a week now. At about this time of the year I will get problems with my throat. Some years it is very sore, but I can talk normally; other years I will get laryngitis. And this was a bad year. Needless to say that it has been a very quiet week around here. But we did have some company. Abner, the Basset, spend a few days at our place, He must be the easiest dog to have around. Here he takes a peak into my quilt room through the glass. I'm working on my crazy quilt block and as you can see, there is stuff all over the place. I just did not want him to get a needle or pin in his paw. And he did not mind, although it is not quite as good as sitting on Laurence's lap, watching t.v.

The block is coming along. Right now I'm at the place, where it is not fun anymore. The easiest would be to put it all away, but I know from experience that it will change one of these days and the rest will come along just fine.

I do have some ideas of what to do next, but that will not happen till next year.

Last Sunday I found a small parcel in our mail box at church. In it was a short note , a pattern in Dutch and a few typical Dutch hankies. The pattern was of a small kimono, just up my alley. My friend had received it as a gift, but did not speak Dutch, so could not interpret the instructions, which were not all that good anyway. It will make a nice quick project at some point.

The same day Jenny and Tony were here and they came with a parcel from Japan. They had placed an order for me, since I don’t have PayPal, for a sashiko book and some wrapping cloths. I'm planning to make small quilts with these cloths, using selvages and sashiko. And this also will happen some time in the future.

Grandma is slowly getting used to her new place. We had to clean out her room in the retirement home as quickly as possible and all those things are in our garage, waiting for me or her to go through.

I hope to have her here for lunch on a regular basis and then she can decide what has to be done to her things.

Our harvest has been over for a few weeks now. All Laurence has to do is combine for one more neighbour.Then all the equipment can be washed and put away.

First frost

2011-10-28T08:32:00.001-04:00

It has been a while, but a lot has happened here in the last days.

A week ago Monday I drove to Buckhorn, which was easier than I expected. On Tuesday, I taught a workshop in a recently remodelled hall with lots of room and great light. 20 ladies wanted to know more about making a crazy quilt block. With this workshop I ask everybody to make a block (I supply a pattern, but they can make whatever they like) beforehand. The first thing we do is look at all the different blocks. It is great to see the huge differences, from real wild colors to muted, very co-ordinated blocks.

What made it also great was all the room we had. You know, that anything to do with crazy quilting means a lot of "things" to bring. The tables were full to overflowing with "stuff"!

On Wednesday morning I gave my trunkshow. This guild has it made with a restaurant right beside the church where they have their meeting. After lunch I drove home in the rain, where Laurence was waiting for me. He had 3 days with no combining, but things were starting to get better. By Thursday afternoon he was back combining and since then we had good weather. One more week should do it. We did have our first frost. Most of the flowers are gone, but I still can find the odd rose, including this pale yellow one.

As I wrote before my mother-in-law has been in the hospital for a month now. She fell in her room and ended up in the hospital with 2 broken ribs. After a week she fell again.

By that time we all decided, that she needed more care and she was put on a waiting list for a bed in a nursing home. The Powers That Be tried to find her extra help, so that in the meantime she could go back to her room in the retirement home to wait for a bed, but all the work was for nothing. I have to say, that she is getting excellent care at the hospital, but it is not a nice place to be, if you don't really need all that care.

Then we got a call yesterday, that a bed was available right in the same home, where she was on the retirement side. It was not exactly what she wanted and she had only one day to make up her mind. Her other option was to stay in the hospital till something more suitable came up.It was very hard on all of us to help grandma to make a decision. But by this afternoon she has decided to go ahead and move on Friday. I will help her with moving the few things she can take along and the rest will be stored here till she, hopefully soon, gets in a bigger room.

Rain, rain go away

2011-10-20T10:57:00.002-04:00

Remember last week? I talked about the wonderful weather we were having -- how fast things can change! It has been nothing but rain since. The equipment has been repaired, greased, oiled and fueled up, but there is no place to go. Laurence is getting just a little antsy. We have been farming a long time and we have been here before, but the waiting never gets any easier. And the forecast is not looking much better.

Here at home, things are about the same. Laurence's mom is still in the hospital. She fell again, but she only had a few bruises. Right now she is doing well and some changes have to be made. We try and visit her each day and keep her spirits up.

Next week I will be in Buckhorn, where I will be giving a trunk show and a workshop. We will be doing some crazy quilting. For that workshop I like to have a sample handy. A few weeks ago I showed you the beginning of a new block (see the top picture). Since then I have been adding some ribbons and laces. I guess if you wanted to be really "crazy" you would work at it more randomly, but I like to have some control. That's why I add the ribbons and laces later. I sew them on with some big stitches, since later on I will follow with embroidery or beads. For the lace ends I will open the seam allowance and tuck them under that or I will double the ends, whatever works.

Finally I have used all the lace pieces I got from my friend Janet in England. Thanks Janet, I loved to work with them. I was very stingy, but the box is empty. For the next round I will start with the beading and the embroidery. This I will do from the center out. That way it will get less wrinkly. The final round will have all the little extras like buttons, pins and whatever else I can find. Remember this was only a sample piece! Well while working on this you have lots of time to think and wouldn't it be nice to continue with a border with embroidered flowers, next a crazy quilted border and then a border to pull it all together. Have to give it some more thought!

What a week!

2011-10-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

What a glorious week we just had. By last week Wednesday we could start with the harvest and the weather was good till today. By now the white beans and soybeans have all been combined, except for one farm a distance from here -- and all the winter wheat has been planted. The next job on Laurence's list is checking the combine. They ran into a few smaller problems yesterday, but with the coming days being rainy he has time to fix whatever is needed.

This last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada. Jenny and Tony arrived early Saturday afternoon with their bikes. They went for a few long rides and enjoyed every minute of it. On Sunday we had our Thanksgiving meal and we missed grandma: she is still in the hospital. Though she is feeling much better, she decided that she was not up to coming to our place. Instead we visited her later on in the afternoon and brought her a few treats.

Shawn and Emily brought their bassett hound, Abner. The two of them left in the midafternoon for the tractor pull at the Simcoe Fair, and we were to watch Abner.

Bernie could not appreciate another dog and there were a few instances where it was hard to keep the peace between the two of them. Here is Jenny showing off my latest pair of socks, while keeping the peace between the dogs. The pattern is by Cookie A and I forget where the yarn came from.

It was a nice pattern to knit. By now I have enough socks for a while and I have started the knit a pair of Norwegian mittens. Yes, I know it is not winter yet, but I like to be prepared. Jenny just happened to have a book and some of the right yarn. With us being so busy with the harvest I just don't feel like starting another big quilting project. These mitts should not take long, but they are fussy.

Tomorrow I will get a few pictures printed for my next project. So once the fall work is behind us, there will be no more excuses. I did some clean-up work in the flower beds, but a lot of plants are still blooming. These roses I took to grandma yesterday and there are many more. I did take most of my orchids inside. And almost all have survived their stay outside. Most did very well and I can see flower stalks on a lot.

Canadian Food Grains Bank

2011-10-05T16:14:00.002-04:00

What do you get ,when you have over 120 combines in a 160 acre soybean field? Besides a lot of noise and a lot of dust flying around, after 11 minutes and 43 59/100 seconds, you get a new world record! All the proceeds from the combined beans will go to the Canadian Food Grains Bank and the government will match this money 4 times.

The Canadian Food Grains Bank was formed by a group of churches and as the name implies, tries to help get food to people in need. The first we heard about this plan was in the winter: by then, everything had been donated, from land, to seed and fertilizer. Later came the call for combines. I was after Laurence to go, but he figured that our combine would not be big enough. The big day was last Friday, but it was rained out. The second try came on Monday, again a rainy day, but today was just perfect. We had seen a few combines go past here and we are about 40 km from Moncton. Shawn was there with one of the dealership combines and so was his father -in-law with his combine. But Shawn did not get to drive and so watched it with us.

Once I looked at the pictures at home I noticed him on the right of the first picture. By 1:30 it was time to go and it was something to see. The combines started from both sides, one with 65 and the other with 55 and they met in the middle, where an area had been combined before. A big worry would be any machines that quit for whatever reason, and there were some that could not keep up.

As the combines came closer, so came the dust. But after 11:43:59 minutes the horn went and it was all over. Or really it just started, because all these beans had to be sold by auction!

We went home soon after, but Shawn phoned just now and we heard, that the first 10 bags of beans sold for $1000 each and were donated back and then resold for the same amount. We will have to wait for the final tally for a while. And you cannot have a farmer do without food. I do not know, how they did it. This all happened way back in a field with no hydro in sight. There was one tent, where you could buy beef or pork on a bun, all donated and ice cream, coffee and apples. All they asked for was a donation. And there were hundreds of people.

On the home front things are not going as well. Last Thursday night we got a call from the hospital. My mother-in-law had fallen and was taken to the hospital: she had 2 broken ribs and she is still in the hospital and she is in a lot of pain.

Today we had great weather and we hope to start with the harvest tomorrow. So we keep our fingers crossed and hope for a lot of sunshine in the coming weeks.

Sniffles and sneezes

2011-09-28T14:34:00.003-04:00

By Friday afternoon last week, everything was packed and I was ready to go to the Heart and Hand Festival. It was a wet outside, not looking promising for the next day. I knew that a lot of the people would be outside. But by Saturday morning it looked totally different. I left around 7:30 with my camera, and it was very hard to keep on driving: it was one of the days with a ground mist, perfect for taking pictures!

I was good though and arrived at the Schneider House nicely in time for the set-up. The day before, I was asked to bring a few larger quilts – dowels would be provided, along with screws and a tall girl with a drill. One minute tops, and a quilt was hung!

I did manage to look around before it all started, but quite a few had not arrived yet. That's what I miss: I love to see what others are doing. By the time my things are back in the car, theirs will be too!

I had a good size area inside where I could show a nice variety. It was a long and tiring day. Before I made it home at 7pm, I took my crazy quilt to another guild member. Our guild show is coming up and that meant one less trip to Kitchener.

At left is a block I made for a quilt that will be put together for the Mennonite Relief Sale next year. I received the pale yellow and pale purple fabrics and was asked to make a 9 inch block, on point, with flowers. I had started it at home and worked on it, while at the Schneider House. It was a perfect take-along project.

Jenny and Tony came for Sunday dinner. They had to go for business up north and we were asked to look after Bernie, the Bernese. By early evening I started to get a sore throat and by Monday morning I had it all: sore throat, cough, runny nose and whatnot. Now my mother -in-law had the same early last week, so it was not that surprising. Needless to say the last few days have been very unproductive.

I did finish the block. The tulips and the inner heart have trapunto behind the applique and all the pieces are highlighted with a black stem stitch done with perl cotton. With my gucky eyes it was hard to see, but I think it turned out presentable.

Back to the guild show. The Waterloo County Quilters Guild has their bi-annual quilt show at the RIM Park in Waterloo on Friday September 30th and Saturday October 1st from 10am till 6pm. There will be lots of quilts, merchants and a tea room.

We are ready for the harvest to start, but we are still waiting for the beans to dry down some more. Most of the rain went past us, but there is lots of moisture in the air. And it does not look very promising for the next few days. Better keep our fingers crossed!

Heart and Hand Festival

2011-09-17T10:39:00.004-04:00

A few days ago, I received a call from Susan Burke, the curator for the Joseph Schneider House. On September 24, there will be a craft festival at the museum and they wanted a quilter. She wondered if I would be interested. Since it is only one day I thought it might be nice to go and see all the other crafts. I would have to bring some quilts and have something to demonstrate. The house is from the mid 185o's and that made me think that a crazy quilt might just do it.

After finishing the last crazy quilt project I made myself a promise to stay away from it for a while, but what harm would it be to just make one block? So out came the stuff! I always like something in the center that stands out. I have done embroidery and pictures on fabric, but this time I wanted to use one of the transfers I bought a few years ago. I had tried a transfer once and it had not worked out. This time I was very careful and did everything according to the instruction sheet. And it worked great!

As you can see it will be another horsey block. I have enough odds and ends to make it work. I will not be able to take all my "junk" with me next Saturday, so I cut out already some ribbon. Later in October I will teach a workshop making a crazy quilt block at Buckhorn, and this same block will come handy for that. Now back to an oldie. This wall hanging was made about 10 years ago. I had ordered a lot of different colors of 1-1/2 inch shaded wired ribbon; some I had used for other projects, but there was still a lot left -- enough to make this quilt. The bushel basket and leaves are hand appliqued. The flowers are all made with the ribbon, but they are twisted and sewn different ways. The centers are either made with lots of small beads or French knots.

I made these centers with black fabric in a hoop. When done I would cut it out with a seam allowance, which would be folded around a few pieces of quilt batting and sewn down with big stitches. The last step would be to sew it in the center of the flowers. That gives it a somewhat puffy look.All the beading was a lot of work, but very relaxing. The border was done with reverse applique. I had another border first, but it just did not do it for me. Finally I ripped it out and did it this way. And it does look much better.

It might be a week and a half before you will hear from me again. Next week will be very busy: first my trip to the Trent Valley Quilters Guild, then our monthly guild meeting, then we have to get the barn ready for the chicks we are getting on Friday (yes I do have to do some work around here!), then Saturday to the museum. Sunday we can expect Jenny and Tony here for the day.

The harvest is about ready to start. Next week Laurence will start with the white beans and that will be followed by the soybeans and then the corn. All we need is some good weather!

Freebies

2011-09-14T18:34:00.003-04:00

It has taken me a while to get this done, but we have had some problems with our Internet connection. Let's hope it will work today.

This is the week of the Outdoor Farm Show near Woodstock, a sure sign that fall has started. We went yesterday early and it was a great day with beautiful weather. We saw all the new and ever bigger equipment, and with the ever bigger price tags!

We missed out on the free breakfast this year, thanks to a computer glitch, but we came home with lots of goodies, as you can see on the left. From free bags, hats, toy truck pens, paper and what not. And that’s not counting food and drink: we dined on pie, apples,candies, coffee, juice and water and peanuts. By midmorning wheelbarrows full of peanuts are parked in all the intersections. I guess it is not really free, somehow we will end up paying for it, when we buy our seed or fertilizer.

Now back to quilting. I managed to machine quilt this top and put the binding on. All I have to do is find some way of putting the big coins I got at the Mandarin Restaurant in the center of the flowered blocks. The hole in the middle is square and I'm looking for old buttons with a square shank (I'm not sure that's what you call it) that would fit in the hole.

Then it would work with another button on the back.

The machine quilting was hard on my back and shoulders and I decided that this would be it. It took about 4 days to change my mind.

I appliqued a small landscape last fall and it needed some quilting and then embroidery. One more day and the quilting will be done. And that will be it for now. Last week I had my first trunk show for the Brant County Quilters Guild in St. George. Next week I will be gone a few days to the Trent Valley Quilters Guild for a trunk show and a workshop.

I have had some problems with my foot and at times it was hard to stand for any length of time. I did get new and better sandals and it has improved quite a bit. Now I know, that sandals do not look too classy and I came up with the following, still not classy, but a little different. For my trunk shows and workshops I will be wearing my sandals with socks, that will match my top.

Here, you can see the socks I just finished. The picture turned out a little redder, than the socks are in reality. I'm working on a green set now and I have grey yarn set aside for later. These socks are designed by Cookie A and were fun to knit.

Blogger

2011-08-31T13:29:00.002-04:00

AS you will have noticed, only the pictures from last week showed up. No matter how much I tried I could not get the rest to show up. Then we left for Jenny's for a few days and when I came home I had 1/2 bushel of tomatoes, peaches and cucumbers to can and pickle. All that is done and now it is back to quilt related activities. This orchid is my latest one to bloom. I received it in early spring from Jenny's mother-in-law. They were moving and she did not have enough room for all her orchids. I put it outside and one day I noticed a flower stem. It took a while, but it is in full bloom now. I will need a card for this coming week-end and I found this one already fused with selvages. On the Internet I found a suitable rose silhouette. I drew it on a piece of fused batik and cut the different pieces out. On the back I put another piece with flowers. Up to now I never had a place to write a short note. Last week I bought some satin ribbon. I also fused that and that will be my place to write a short note. I will have to finish the edges yet. I have been machine quilting and I do like it at all. In one more week I hope to be able to show you the result. Now let's hope Blogger will cooperate!

All mixed up

2011-08-25T11:35:00.002-04:00

I love my amarillis to bloom during our long and dark winter. Then in the spring I take them outside and once there I hope they will grow bigger bulbs for more flowers in the coming winter. A month ago I noticed a few flower stalks coming out of one of the plants. And right when we celebrated grandma's 90th birthday I had 12 flowers all blooming. The picture here does not do it justice. All I hope now is ,that I still will get some flowers in the winter. Today another oldy. Grandma has 5 children and she promised a quilt for each of them. Since Laurence is the oldest, she started with us. But since I had done some piecing and that is not what she is interested in, she told me, that she would get the fabric, but that I could do the piecing with her help. Now I had done some piecing and with her help the center went together nicely. Then the border. After ripping it out again and again I realized, that if you are told to make a 1/4 inch seam, that's what you have to do. Once I had that in my brain, it was clear sailing. I marked the quilt and then grandma took over with her magic. She is one of the best hand quilters I know. A few years after grandpa and grandma build the house at the corner of the farm,they build on a sun room. It was here that grandma would do her quilting while grandpa would read the paper. and it was here, that our kids would play under the quilt. They loved to across the field for a visit. Now let's hope Blogger will cooperate this time.

Back to a quiet house

2011-08-17T13:32:00.004-04:00

We have had a few busy weeks with lots of company. Laurence's brother and his wife were the first to arrive -- and see what they ended up helping me with!

I store my large quilts on one of the spare beds and since we were going to have a full house they had to be moved. Just the right time to take some pictures. I never took pictures of my oldest quilts. It all worked out very well. I would take one quilt downstairs, if needed put a temporary sleeve on the back, take the quilt outside and my helpers would hang the quilt on the frame. The weather was perfect, overcast and quiet, except for a few minutes. Right at that time, one of the quilts decided to try out for a flying carpet. No damage done though. Now I have documentation of almost all of my quilts.

Over the next few days the rest of the family came from B.C, Alberta and Saskatchewan. By Saturday morning the house was more than full. Grandma, the birthday girl, came midmorning and was here till early evening, having a wonderful time with all her children and grandchildren. And this picture just shows that you are never too old to learn something new. Here grandma, 90 years old, is using an IPad for the first time. Jeanette brought her pictures of their holidays to Scotland and grandma spend a long time watching them and figuring out how to use the IPad.

After a wonderful Saturday, we all went to a reunion on Sunday. I had made lots of food beforehand and that came in very handy. By the time the company was gone, the fridge and freezer were getting empty. All in all, a good time!

Soon after we were married I made my first quilt. After using it for years, it ended up covering one of Laurence's antique John Deere tractors. So no picture of that one. But this was the next one, made in 1974, just before Shawn was born. We had moved back to the dairy farm and with helping with the milking and teaching special ed. I was very busy. But somehow I found the time to make this quilt.

The pattern came from a very old and very small picture I found in one of grandma's very old magazines. Since we did not know if it would be a boy or girl I used both blue and pink. I drew the pattern pieces and did the applique on the machine. After that grandma put in her magic with her hand quilting. This quilt has seen a lot of use. It was lost for a long time, till I finally found it in the bottom of the cedar chest.

The weather has been good the last few weeks with lots of sunshine and some much needed rain. The wheat harvest is behind us with a very good yield and most of the straw has been baled or sold. We are looking forward to some quiet days on the farm, at least till the white beans are ready. Lots of time to get some projects finished.

More posies

2011-07-27T09:48:00.002-04:00

This is a brand new wall hanging. Last fall I was asked for a short workshop up in Grey County and we came up with the idea of making some 3d flowers using shaded wired ribbon. I taught how to make the rose, pansy and lily-in-the-valley and included a pattern ,that could be used to make a small quilt. I still had the pattern and the flowers and that's as far as it got. Till a few weeks ago. I was looking for a small project and this was it. The oval was done with reverse applique. Next came the leaves and stems, followed the flowers. I always like to set a center of with a small strip in a contrasting color. Here it is a 1 inch wide strip. folded double and sewn on the right side of the center, before I sewed the border on. It is machine quilted. And now that I'm looking at my old quilts I realize, that my memory is not as good as I thought it was. Most of my quilts do not have a label and to be honest I have forgotten when they were made. I'm doing better and everything finished this year has at the minimum my name and year on the back. I bought the large African panel last year at Quilt Canada in Calgary and the smaller ones this year in London. I do have some African fabrics and a bunch of buttons, but have not yet figured out how to put it all together. It would be something completely different for me to try. Later,after some contemplating! Laurence started to combine the wheat on Tuesday, but it was still too high in moisture. Then we finally got some rain, not as much as the people around us, but with this dry weather every little bit helps. Family will start arriving on Tuesday. Grandma is looking forward to having all her kids and grandkids together for the big event. I have been doing some extra cooking and baking early in the morning to miss the heat. And as of this morning we have a new upright freezer! After cleaning out the chestfreezer a few weeks ago we decided that we are getting too old for that job and needed a change. I store most of my quilts on one of the spare beds. Now with all the family coming they will have to be put away for a while. My plan is to take pictures of the older ones before they are put away, at least if the weather cooperates and I can find some help.

Tulips

2011-07-20T10:35:00.002-04:00

In 2 weeks we will have all of Laurence's siblings and families here for grandma's 90th birthday.This means a lot of cleaning up and getting ready.Yesterday I took a stack of quilts of one of the spare beds and I realized that I have used a lot of flowers and plants in my quilts. This one "Tulips" I made about 6 years ago. It shows the life cycle of the tulip. The blue fabric in the border I love and every scrap has been used up. The center piece I dyed myself, the rest are fabrics I bought. The flowers and leaves have been fused to the back ground.I machine quilted all around the flowers and leaves. The roots are twisted, silk ribbon, fastened with a few stitches. The back ground and border are machine quilted. Up to now it has been stored with the rest of my quilts,but it will be displayed for the next few months. The weather has been very, very hot and will be even hotter tomorrow, up to 37C. We are not used to that here up in Canada. And we could use some rain. The wheat is almost ready to combine and the fields are looking very good. We were gone up to Algonquin Park for a few days and coming back on Monday we saw field after field of wheat. One more small kimono piece. This will be the last one for a while. The small pieces to the sides are left overs from my pot with tulips quilt, still a work in progress, and are vintage pieces of Japanese fabrics.

I also finished my last "smile" quilt. This one is meant for an older child. I found the center fabric a few years ago and I combined it with strips of fabric I had dyed myself. It is displayed on the spinning wheel I have from my mother. One of my goals is to learn how to spin and maybe weave. But that means less time for quilting and that is goin g slow enough right now as it is.

Visit to Baltimore

2011-07-13T09:52:00.003-04:00

This quilt was was of the first workshops I offered. In 1995 I became a member of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and soon after I was asked to teach an applique course. I taught 2 workshops and the result were the 2 first( Baltimore Album) quilts we made for the Mennonite Relief Sale, sold in 1999 and 2000. The last one also was accepted at the IQF in Houston, where it won an honorable mention in the group category. Next I was asked to teach a workshop for Ruffled Elegance , at that time the quilt store in St. Jacobs. This quilt, from about 1997,was the result. The 4 blocks are from one of the books by Elly Sienkiewicz, the border is my own design. The was a 6 month course, one evening a month. I did a lot of 3 dimentional flowers for this one. Except for the binding it is all done by hand. Hand quilted by my mother-in-law Hilda Helmuth. Since then I have taught this workshop a few more times, but it has been retired for quite a while now. The last few weeks I have been finishing some small projects and this animal quilt is one of them. It will go to our guild "Smile Quilt" project and will find a home with a sick child. The doll in the picture is the only doll I ever had. I never really played with it. I was rather in the barn, helping my father. I had lost track of it, till I visited my sister. She had rescueded the doll at some point and taken it home. Now she sits on a chair, upstairs in the hall. And she is fully dressed in a full set of 100% cotton, knitted underwear, made by me during my years in public school. I have no idea, where the dress comes from.

It has been hot here. And we could use some rain. Silly isn't, it was not that long ago and we were complaining about it being too wet. I added a few more plants( could not miss the sale now, could I) to the flower beds and I figure that this is enough for this year.

Ribbon flowers

2011-07-05T15:51:00.001-04:00

Heart with 3d flowers. This is a real oldy from about 2000. I never did put a label on the back and at that time I thought I would remember the when and were. Now I realize with about 60 to 70 quilts plus around, that it is not quite that easy. This quilt is made with scraps of shaded wired ribbon. The pansies and rose at the bottom are made with 1/2 inch wide ribbon and the fuschia's with different widths. I had just finished my Baltimore Album quilt and had put the left-overs of the ribbon in a small bag. Once full it was time to make something and this was the result. The center is a small piece of kitchen curtain I had found. The leaves are hand appliqued, but it is machine quilted, one of my first attempts. I have al ways liked to work with this wired ribbon. The colors are very bright and with the wire in the ribbon you can get a flower very fast. Lately I have not used it quite as much, but I'm still making flowers to put on my cards. That with a background of selvages gives a nice look. My newest piece. I did not get much done over the last few weeks. My arms and shoulders bugged me and I took a short break. But now I'm at it again, but very slowly. This is another small kimono with selvages and a small sashiko piece. There is one more in the works and that will be it. For this piece I used some of my Japanese selvages. We have been busy around here. 4 weeks from tomorrow will be Laurence's mother's 90th birthday and all his sisters and brother and their families will come home. It will be a very full house. I want the place to look nice and I have been spending a lot of time in my flower beds. By now even the mulching is done. 2 things I worried about, cleaning out the freezer and the mulching and both have been done ahead of schedule. Laurence decided one day to help me with the freezer and whatever you have planned for the day, forget about it. You know, that this help will be a one time deal! We did decide after, that it might be time to get an upright one. But all the work will be worth it. Grandma has not seen all her kids together in five years and is looking forward to every minute of it.

First installment

2011-07-01T20:17:00.001-04:00

Last week I wrote about featuring a different quilt each week, mostly older ones and in no particular order. This one just happened to be at the top of the heap. The title of this one is Winter Breakfast and was finished in 2006. For years I wanted to make a quilt with birds, but it had to be birds that I had seen at one of our bird feeders. One was missing, the cardinal. Than one Sunday morning there he was, sitting on a railing and watching what went on inside of the house. I quickly took some pictures and that was the start of this quilt. All these birds are from our area. The pine boughs and seeds are embroidered by hand. The applique is also done by hand. The feeder tube has 1 or 2 layers of netting over the applique to give it a more glass/plastic like look. The hand quilting was done by my mother-in-law Hilda Helmuth. When I started to make quilts I used to use the cheapest fabric I could find for the back. Now I have changed my mind and I try to find co-ordinating fabric for the back. For this quilt I was very lucky to find matching fabric with chickadees for the back just before it would be quilted. This quilt was at the National Juried show in Ottawa. With no chores and all the field work caught up we decided to take a break and go away for a few days. Laurence always wanted to take the ferry to Pellee Island so on Monday morning we drove to Leamington and took the ferry to the island. We stayed overnight and the next day took another, smaller ferry from the island to Sandusky in Ohio. From there we drove to Archbold. We wanted to visit the Sauder Village.We had been there before, but always to late in the day to make a visit worthwhile. The village has some excellent craft people and I came home with a beautfiful big hand woven basket. And there is even a quilt store.This time I did not find anything I needed or wanted. From there we drove to Shipshewana in Indiana where you have 2 very good quilt stores. And yes, I found some have to have fabrics there. We made it back last night and today was catch-up day. The lawn needed mowing and the flowers needed some care, but that's been looked after. Even my new fabric has been washed and ironed!

New plan

2011-06-22T09:18:00.002-04:00

Summer is on the way and things are growing fast. We have had enough rain and some heat and the flowerbeds are a riot of color. This small iris I bought on sale last year and this was the first flower. I love the color. This climbing rose did well last year. The year before I cut it all back in the fall and it took a year to get over my mistake. Last fall I did nothing and just cut back the dead branches this spring and there are lots of blooms already. I took most of my orchids outside and put them in the gazebo,, where they can get light but are out of the sun. Not sure this will work, but I hope it will. The blooming ones are still inside, including this one. This is the fourth time it blooms and I love the color. But now something else. Before I went on my trip to the Ottawa area I had some trouble with my forearms. I did not think much of it, but by the time I came back the pain was worse. Now I'm told it is tendonitis and I have to take it easy till the pain is gone. Now how do you take it easy at this time of the year? All of Laurence's siblings and family will come here at the beginning of August for grandma's 90th birthday and I like to have the place look kind of decent. My plan is to take care of the house and gardens as well as I can and let the quilting part go for a while till my arms feel better. But I did come up with a plan. When putting my quilts back on the bed, where they are stored I realized that for most of them I do not even have a picture, especially the older ones. And to my shame I have to admit, that unless the quilt went to a show, no labels either! On Friday my camera will return and I will start taking pictures of all my quilts. Each week I will high light one with a short story. And I will continue to talk about anything worthwhile that happens around here.

Home again

2011-06-16T10:38:00.002-04:00

It has been 2 weeks since my latest update and a lot has happened. I was gone for 9 days, teaching 5 workshops and giving a trunk show. First up was Perth. I had been there before, teaching a 2 day workshop with orchids.This year the plan was for me to go and see the showy lady slippers at the Purdon Conservation Area, but I was too early. Instead my host Heather took me to the garden of a friend, where we found these 2 yellow lady slippers and this jack-in-the-pulpit. We have these in our bush, but I don't think it is the same kind. These were bigger. After a few wonderful days it was of to Ottawa for 2 one day workshops and a trunk show. My host Lois drove me all over Ottawa one evening to show me all the important places. Monday was my day of ( at least till the trunkshow in the evening ) and Ann, very graciously offered to go with me to the Museum of Civilization. Lois had shown me how to drive there from her place, but to be honest I chickened out. Just don't like city driving. I loved the museum. I only saw a small part and will have to go back. Tuesday morning I had a beautiful drive to Renfrew. I missed all the rain and hard wind on my travels. The next 2 days were very hot and I was impressed with the hard work, that the ladies put in with all the hot air coming in. My host Susan is also a member of the guild in Pembroke. This guild just happen to have their year end meeting, with a catered supper the first evening I was there and what a great evening it was! I stayed at a beautiful place out near Eganville with lots of colorful flowerbeds. That made me think that I better get home and clean my flowerbeds. From there it was the best to drive home through Algonquin Park. Friends of ours live near the park. I decided to stop in just to say hi. Doris was on her way out to a lunch/lecture. She wanted me to come along, but all the tickets had been sold. It just so happened, that when she phoned one became available, so it was of to Haliburton. I still had a long way to go and made it home at 8 in the evening. Laurence had been very busy and most of the planting was done. While I had not seen any rain during my trip, they had regular thunderstorms here. I think that is the reason that my potted plants looked so well when I came home. And yes, there were lots of weeds. Now after a week home things are back to normal. The very bare fridge has been restocked, the weeds are gone and the books are up to date. These are all the pictures I took. The last one I took at the church in Perth, where somebody grows the most amazing irisses in all colors. No more pictures till me camera comes back from Scotland. I hope to have time to get some applique done by next week. As I look out the window I notice that the lawn could do with a haircut again.

A great week for quilts!

2011-05-31T10:56:00.002-04:00

This is a little early, but tomorrow morning I will be on my way to the Ottawa area for a trunk show and workshops. This was the trip I had planned last year, but had to cancel due to surgery. It looks like my departure here from the farm means a change of weather. The rain has stopped and we have sunny, hot days. Laurence is busy in the fields and I feel a little guilty for leaving him with all the work. Last week was THE big quilt week for me. On Wednesday,while at the National show in the afternoon I was shown a catalogue and there, right on the front was my quilt!On Wednesday evening we had the award ceremony for the National Juried show and my quilt Memories got first in the original traditional category, what made me very happy. This quilt had been a longtime project and it will be one of a kind. On Saturday was the 45th Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg. We went over on Friday evening, since Laurence had other things to do on Saturday. The quilts can all be seen that evening. They hang over metal frames and are all covered with plastic. On the left is our quilt Plain and Fancy, which was the feature quilt this year. Saturday the quilt auction starts at 8.30. I went early to meet some of the Dutch quilters ,who had the quilt show in Ailsa Craig. Not all could make it, some had a booth to attend to and others had to teach. But if you want to see quilt being sold...this is the place to be. On the first picture of the sale you can see the quilts hanging on the frames on the right. On the left they are still working on making strawberry pies. Strawberries are flown in from California , cleaned, washed ans hulled and used to make pies. The line-up is long and well over a 1000 are sold each year. In the second picture everything has been cleaned up already.Our quilt was the feature this year and sold as number 150. And I'm very happy to tell you that it brought up the top price of the day at $9000. In total the quilts brought up about $120.000. Saturday evening I had an invitation to the banquet held in honor of the Dutch quilters in Ailsa Craig and it was lovely . Some of the food was as I can remember from home, some was Canadian, but it all was delicious. The last days I spend getting ready for my workshops. The kids have moved out. The moving truck came yesterday and they are in their own place. Even Abner, the basset, is gone, so it is very quiet around here today. Will be back late next week.

Of dogs and quilts

2011-05-27T09:01:00.001-04:00

Meet our new house guest, Abner the bassett. Shawn and Emily came back to Ontario very early Wednesday morning with the dog. They will stay here with us till their furniture arrives. They have found a place close by that they can rent till they find a house they like. It all seems to work out. The weather has not improved. Rain and more rain. Now the forecast is, that next week it will be sunny and hot. Better keep our fingfers crossed! The only sunny day this past week was Sunday. That was the day of the airing of the quilts in Ailsa Craig. The morning started out wet and later cloudy, but by early afternoon it was warm and sunny. We made it by mid afternoon and while Laurence was of doing something else I wandered through town to see the quilts. It is a fun way to display quilts,even if they were blowing in the breeze. Most were of a traditional design, but I found this one hanging on a white picket fence and it clearly had been influenced by the work of John Willard. Later I found out, that it was started in a workshop by John. My trunkshow started at 4.30 and I was very relieved, when I found out I could do it in English. The potluck after was very good with a lot of great food. I was too busy eating to take pictures. On Wednesday I went back to see the show and meet some of the Dutch quilters. The quilts were beautiful with quilts in all shapes and sizes.And it was very busy. By that time you could call it already a success I think. I did spend some of my money at the 2 Dutch quilt stores, who had booths there. I loved the red, blue and white fabric Maaike Bakker brought over and I have used the fabrics from DeHaan and Wagemakers before. Both places were doing very well as far as I could see. From there it was to Quilt Canada in London to the opening of the National Juried show. More about that next time. Tomorrow is the Relief Sale in New Hamburg and the feature quilt is Plain and Fancy. Let's hope that the weather will change and we will have sunshine. Our soybeans are still in the bags and it will take a few warm and sunny days before we can get back on the land. Behind the house the lawn looks like a pasture. It has been too wet to mow and with this cool and wet weather the grass just keeps on growing.

Rain, rain go away

2011-05-20T11:07:00.002-04:00

With over 8 inches of rain in just over a week we are not amused! Today was a gorgeous day, but at the back of the house it was too wet to mow the lawn. And it looks like by the time things have dried out, we can expect more rain. We have all our corn in the ground and here and there it is coming up. But all the soybeans are still in the bags. By now Laurence has everything fixed, oiled, greased and whatever else has to be done and he is running out of jobs. Maybe I can get him to do some garden work. At least I can try. But I forgot,tomorrow there is a large auction close by with lots of old John Deere tractors. Nothing can compete with that! I was asked for instructions for the small kimono and as I made this one I wrote down all the steps. But in the end I did not have the right measurements, so I have to try again. The outline of the rabbit I found on the Internet. Since it is the year of the rabbit I used it to make a card for a friend. This time I did some sashiko stitching. The edges have not been finished. I want to use a green thread and there is not enough left. But it is on my ever getting longer list of things to look for at next weeks merchantès mall at Quilt Canada in London. I hope to go on Wednesday ( with the way the weather looks I should not have any difficulties!) This is what I do when I am bored in the evening. I get some scraps out and make cards. They come in handy as gifts.The top one has a small piece of vintage silk fabric and I did some sashiko on the right. The bottom one has sashiko at the top and some very old shibori at the bottom. I love the little tulips. One more to go. Below is a picture of my first orchid. I bought it about 8 years ago and I knew nothing about them. All I knew is, that I loved the orchids I had seen in California and I had to have one. It bloomed faithfully for a few years and then it started to look tough, so tough that by the time we were moving 2 winters ago I left it on the farm in an unheated kitchen. A few months later the leaves were still green. I took it home,it deserved a second chance. And here we are. The flowers are huge and a beautiful color. The leaves are better, but still nothing to brag about. In a few days I will meet the Dutch Quilters, who have arrived in Ailsa Craig. I will give a trunk show on Sunday afternoon, in Dutch. At least I will try. When I speak to my family in Holland it is always in Frisian and my Dutch is very rusty. I will have lots of news next time around.

Weeds....and me

2011-05-14T10:51:00.002-04:00

I hate twitch grass! As soon as the flower beds start to look nice I can see the shoots coming up. And I have learned over the years, that ignoring it just makes it worse. So the last few days have been spend pulling as many weeds as I could find. I feel like I'm ahead of the game, if only for a short time. We have been very busy outside. The corn has all been planted and as soon as we have a sunny day again we will start with the soybeans and then later the white beans. The daffodils look great this year. I bought 200 bulbs 11/2 years ago and this year they put on quite a show. My plan is to get another 100 this fall.

This morning bright and early I went to Moorefield, where we had the spring sale of our horticultural society. I brought some plants, but came home with more. There are a few empty spots that I can fill up. From now on I just have to stay away from anything to do with garden plants. The beds are full and really I do not need any more work. But it is so much fun!

Quilt related projects will have to wait for some rainy days. But the busy time for shows is coming up, starting tomorrow. In the afternoon is the official opening of the Grand National Show. And then the week after we will have Quilt Canada in Londond ( I took my entry for the National Juried Show in a few days ago) And the Quilt show in Ailsa cRaig with the Dutch quilters. I will be giving a trunk show next Sunday afternoon for the Dutch quilters. That means that it has to be done in Dutch and it has been a while!

I'm getting ready for my trip out east in the beginning of June. More about that later.

My last entry was a while ago, but we had some problems with the computer, lost hydro for most of a day and with Shawn around access is difficult in the evenings.

But by next Thursday ( guild is on Wednesday) I should have lost of quiltery things to show you

Friendly visitor

2011-04-27T15:10:00.002-04:00

When we looked out of the front window early yesterday morning we found a very large, wet and dirty, dog looking at us. As soon as I opened the door he decided he had to come inside and it took all my strengh to change his mind and direct him to the garage. He was a very friendly, huge, Saint Bernhard,who seemed to be lost. But he did have an up-to-date tag and all it took was one call to the Municipal Office in Listowel to get the name and phone number of the owner, who happened to live about 5 km from us. If took a few more calls, but by mid morning she came and took the dog along. I like dogs, the bigger the better, and the kids are after us to get another puppy, but we have not decided yet. What difference it makes to have an up-to-date tag on the dog. When Riley took of during a thunderstorm last year, it took a few weeks and some luck to get her back, all because we were too busy ( or too lazy) to put her new tag on her collar. The last week has been rainy. Laurence is anxious to get planting, but it will take at least a few more days. More rain is coming down as we speak. Since there were no chores to do and no planting in the for seeable future we decided to visit Jeanette and Tony for a few days last week. Laurence wanted to go to an auction sale in the area and I helped Jeanette to clean up her flower beds. I had made up a short list of plants I thought I needed and I came home with most of them. Her clematis were at the wrong place and have a better home here and her largest hosta's needed to be divided. A visit to Moire's garden, a garden center in the area, helped to fill in the rest. Everything has been planted. All it needs now is some heat! Yesterday morning I finished the binding on this I Spy quilt and in the afternoon I took it over to the proud grandmother of the baby for who I made it. This morning I cleaned up the quilt room and now there are no more excuses to start on a new project. I also finished another pair of socks. The yarn I bought somewhere on my travels and the pattern is out the book knit.sock.love by Cookie A. This is one of her easier patterns. I like to switch from an easy pattern to a harder one. I never make the same pattern twice if I can help it.

Depressing!

2011-04-21T13:59:00.002-04:00

This is what it looked like outside the front door this morning. Last week I bought a flat of pansies and put some of them in pots to fill the urns. I was told that they can stand some frost. Let's hope that is true.By now the snow is gone, but it is still cold. And the weather for the coming week does not look too promising. Everything is ready for planting to start and Laurence is getting a little antsy to get going.

Nothing to show on the quilt front. I'm still machine quilting a Smile quilt. And I found out again, why I do not do more of it. My back and shoulders are protesting and that is a sign to slow down some more. Maybe by the time I'm finished it has warmed up enough outside to work in the garden. The started bulbs in the house are doing well. I will have a lot of begonia's.

45th Annual Relief Sale Dinner

2011-04-12T16:26:00.004-04:00

I have been busy making kids' quilt tops. This one I finished quilting this morning and it will go to Japan. All it needs is the binding. Three more to go, two for Smile Quilts and one for a gift. The machine quilting did not go too badly, but it it still hard on my back. I have to take it in small steps.

Yesterday was the annual dinner for the Mennonite Relief Sale at Bingeman's in Kitchener. This is a sure sign that spring is not far off! The hall and food have all been donated and all the work is done by volunteers. Not a small job, since the hall was filled with over 700 hungry people. The proceeds of this dinner help with the expenses for the Relief Sale at the end of May. As usual the meal was very good.

At the front hung the feature quilt for this year: it's the quilt that I co-ordinated with help of lots of members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild. This is the 6th feature quilt I have co-ordinated and I have a poster of each one, except for the first one.

That year, 1999, there was no feature quilt yet. That changed the following year. This year I also received a poster and as usual it is very well done. There are also cards and I love them. They are very clear and you can see a lot of the details, what is hard to do with such a busy quilt. Posters and cards will be available at the sale on May 28th.

We finally have some sunny weather. The first little primula is blooming in a sunny spot. A few more of those sunny days and the daffodils will be out.

Today I was asked by Laurence to roll the lawn. That way it will not be so bumpy, when it will be mowed. We think a little different about what has to happen outside. For him the lawn is number one, for me the flowerbeds come first and if there is time left, then I will get to the -- huge in size I might add -- lawn.

This coming Saturday I will be teaching at Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph. It will be Landscape 2.In this workshop, I will show you how you can make a landscape quilt using your own picture. There are a few spaces left, so if you are interested you can give the store a call at 1-866-364-2790. It helps if you took my Landscape 1 workshop, but it is not a must. Enthusiasm is more important!

Blogger problems

2011-04-05T13:03:00.002-04:00

I have been trying since the middle of last week to get some pictures on Blogger and I have had no success. This will be a short entry and I want to see if this is working.

Last week I mentioned, that I was tired of making these small wall hangings with kimonos. That lasted all of 2 days!

On the Friday I was in Kitchener with a long list of things to do. One of my stops was the Open House of Kallisti Quilts. I had ordered some more sashiko thread and Michelle told me, that she had saved her selvages for me. And not a few! I came home with a bag full. And they were beautiful, all from Japanese fabrics.

As a thank you I decided to make just one more of these small quilts, using some of the selvages. That first steps went fine. Once I got to the kimono part I ran into trouble. I wanted to use some taupe fabrics. After looking through all my fabrics, I discovered, that I did not own any taupes. On Saturday, I taught at Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph and a few fat quarters took care of that.

This morning I finished this piece and that will be the end for now I'm busy working on some Smile quilts (our guild donates quilts to the hospital for children with severe illnesses).

Looking outside, I might as well be working where it is warm. On Sunday evening we got snow again and it is still white and cold outside.

3D flowers

2011-03-23T09:48:00.002-04:00

Snow and more snow! Looking outside it is all white. Although not yet a blizzard, it is blowing snow across the window. And the coming days will stay cold we are told. This old oval frame I got from Laurence's aunt, but I had to promise her to fill it with something"nice" The year was 1994 and I had just started with my first appliqued, Baltimore Album style quilt. I had never used the wired ribbon and after looking through my first Elly Sienkiewicz book I found this block, perfect for trying out all the new techniques.The basket is made with ribbon. that had the wire taken out. The leaves have been hand appliqued after which I had sewn the roses on. By now it looks a little dated and I have a new idea for the frame. I also added 2 more small kimono quilts. Both have different sashiko at the side. The pink kimono is made with a vintage piece of silk and some of my hand dyed fabric. On the side are 2 small crest designs. The second one has a black background The fabric for this kimono was given to me by a workshop participant in Peterborough. She had seen my other samples and wanted to make one herself. The next day she came with 2 pieces of fabric, all sewn together, but the size was wrong and without a machine we could not make it work.She decided, that I should have a go with this fabric. I gave her the right dimentions and she went home with the promise to try again. I think that with these 4 samples I have enough. Looking outside you do not get the idea that it soon will be spring. Most years I have potted my begonias up by now and looked at my other bulbs. Most years I also run into problems with bulbs growing too fast here in the house. So this year I'm taking it slow. I did start some seeds, but they are very slow coming up. Now last evening I heard of a solution. It was the monthly meeting of our horticutural society and one of the members mentioned, that she starts her seeds in the oven with just the light on and the door open a few inches. Coming home I got my boxes of seed , put them on a tray and put them in the oven. They are not up yet, but I keep a close watch!

About boots and bogs

2011-03-18T15:32:00.001-04:00

For as long as I have lived on the farm in Canada I had a pair of rubber boots. They never fit too well, were cold in the winter and did not look that good either. In Holland we never had boots, only klompen or wooden shoes. But these boots kept you clean and dry, at least most of the time. Then last year Jenny showed up with really nice boots. They had everything the others did not have. They looked great, were very warm and fitted just right. Last week I got my own pair of Bogs for my birthday. They fit so well, that I can even put them on to go for a walk. Now the next question: Shall they be used for the chores or.... shall I go back to the "other" ones. Just like my dad. He had klompen for the barn, which were plain wood and not painted and then a pair, usually black, for going to town. Another pair of socks have been finished. The yarn I got from Jeanette after they had been in San Francisco. The pattern is, again, by Cookie A. I wished I would have used other yarn for this pattern. It was fairly difficult and the pattern does not show up well. Last Saturday we celebrated 4 birthdays, including mine.Since Tony's parents are moving to a smaller place I was the recipient for 5 more orchids, including this lady slipper. I have 2 others, but neither has ever bloomed. I'm up to around 30 orchids now and this has to be it. There is no more room in the windows. Tuesday and Wednesday I was at the Eire Shore Quilters Guild and all was well. The weather was good ,excpet for some rain, but that's better then snow. I had a very enjoyable time and I hope that the ladies will show me later some of the crazy quilt blocks they worked so hard on. I did not get much stitching done in the last few days. The wall hanging below I made a few years ago. The pattern was in the AQS magazine. It is the frist time I made something with the raw edges showing. It was a new experience and I prefer to tuck the edges under I found out. It is machine quilted. The peice for the mountains I made kept for just such an occasion. It was dyed by Micky Lawler and I had bought it when we were in Vermont, years ago. Something happend here with the letters and I have no clue as how to change that with my limited knowledge of the computer. Better quit before I do more damage.

About cards and monkeys

2011-03-09T19:37:00.001-05:00

There are 4 birthdays to celebrate in the first week of March around here. We will get together in a few days time and I needed another card. We were invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with Tony's parents, but due to bad weather we missed that. Since this is the year of the rabbit I thought it would be nice to make a suitable card. Lots of ideas on the Internet and with lots of selvedges in the bin, I came up with this idea. For the rabbit I used WonderUnder, quick and easy. My poor sock monkey was in need of a hat and some finishing touches. I had bought some red yarn and made a cap, which was too small. The next one was better, but finally with my 3nd try I did it right. I just kept on going, so by now I have caps for Jenny , Lois and for my second, yet to be made, sock monkey. Here it is putting a few stitches in my new quilt. I have done a lot of boring, putting together by hand, work on this wall hanging. And there is more to do. I always seem to be making cards. I just like making small projects during the evening. The 3 cards below will be gone by next week. The fabric circles come from a piece of Japanese fabric. The top one has a few leaves put on with again WonderUnder. The bottom 2 have a few sashiko stitches added. I zigzagged around the edges. Next week I will be in Kingsville, near Leamington at the Erie Shore Quilters Guild . Tuesday evening I will give my trunkshow and then on Wednesday I will give a workshop. We will be making a crazy quilt block. This means, that I might not get back to this till later on in the week. Today was a miserable day with sleet and rain. More is expected for the coming days. I did buy some seeds today, but looking out of the window I might be a little bit on the optimistic side.

Finally!!!

2011-03-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

I have been trying since last Thursday to upload these pictures, but no matter what I tried, it did not happen. Tonight I gave it one more try and oh wonders it worked. My catleya is blooming again.When I got it for mother's Day I was told, that it was hard to get to bloom again, so I did not have much hope. But this is the fourth time it has flowers and I love the scent. Not so Laurence, who cannot appreciate it. Last week I spend the first part in Peterborough, where I taught a 2 day workshop, Orchids in a pot. Then on Wednesday I gave a trunk show in the morning. All in all a very good experience. I had a great group to work with and my stay at Ruth's place was very enjoyable. I was back on the farm and could take a long walk out in the bush. Even the drive both ways was better then I expected. While I was there I got a call. My uncle, my only relative in Canada, for as long as I have been here, passed away on Sunday, at the age of 95.It was at my uncle and aunt's place, that I ended up ,when I emigrated to Canada. It were my cousins, who started me on my path to speak proper "Canadian" with lots of joking. Thursday was spend in Guelph for the visitation and funeral service. On Friday my friend Lois and I made it to the Horticulture Show in Stratford. Just what we needed, a whiff of things to come. On Saturday we picked up Shawn at the airport in Toronto. We drove down in the rain and came back in snow and in very poor driving conditions. He will start his new job this coming week. Things will be a little different here for the coming weeks. Emily is still out in Alberta and she will stay there till the house has been sold. Shawn will stay with us as long as necessary. But it is good to have him around. We have not seen too much of him these last few years. No wonder I did not get much done quilt wise. I did finish this small wall hanging a few weeks ago. The kimono I had on hand. I found a piece of matching dyed fabric and then finished with a strip of sashiko in a matching thread color. This is number 2 in what I hope will be a monthly series.Last fall I taught a 1/2 day workshop at the Grey County Museum and I had put the pattern and samples away. I did come across the bag and have put it together. The flowers are made with shaded wired ribbon. The leaves are fussy cut out of another leaf fabric. Simple, but fun to make.

Blooms and more

2011-02-23T11:08:00.001-05:00

Friday evening was craft night here at Lauren Farms. Jenny came over for the week-end and my friend Lois and her husband came for supper and then it was time to make our sock monkeys. Jenny had found the red heeled socks at a store in St. Catherines and with help of a book and some other instructions we were on our way. Part way through we realized that it would have gone way faster if we had used the machine for part of it. We did not get it all finished, but we had a lot of fun. On my trip to town yesterday I stopped at Spinrite and got some red cotton yarn to make a few hats and scarves. That will have to wait till the latest pair of socks are finished. On Saturday Jenny and I started to work on a "Quiet Book " It's just what it sounds like. The book is made out of fabric and has lots of interesting things to do for smaller kids. I used to make them years ago for the Mennonite Relief Sale and according to Jenny she never had one for herself. Since lots of her friends are having babies she decided to learn how to make one herself, with help from mother that is. Pictures will follow as we get the pages done. I have kept my ammarillis bulbs over the years and have had some success with getting them to bloom again. Usually I put them outside in the ground and dig them up in the fall. Last year I put them in large pots on the deck and they did very well. Up to now 6 have bloomed, most with multiple stems with a few smaller ones to come yet. Those and the blooming orchids make it colorful in the house. For years I always hoped for a cardinal at the bird feeder. When finally one showed up just before Christmas I was very pleased. He was a little skitterish and as soon as he saw a reflection in the window he was gone. Over time he must have gotten used to us and would sit for a short period of time on the sill in the kitchen window. Then one day Laurence heard a strange noice and here was the cardinal, flying again and again in the window for about 5 minutes and then he would disappear. Then I remembered a neighbour, complaining of a cardinal doing that same thing over and over again. I wonder what it sees in the window. It always is at about the same time of the day, later on in the morning. This morning I happen to be close and have my camera handy and I managed to get a few pictures. Most did not turn out. By the time I took the picture, the bird was long gone.

Tulips

2011-02-17T08:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was our guild meeting and like most other months I made a day out of it. I make a list of things to do and yesterday it took all morning to get the things I needed .Jenny will be here this coming week-end and we will be working on a few craft projects. More about that next week. To get ready I had to clean up and I found a few kimono's I had made. It was a shame to put them back in the drawer. I came up with an idea for a small quilt. I put a few stitches of sashiko on the side ,fused the background around a piece of Timtex and sewed the ends with a zigzag stitch. Before I fused the back, I stitched the kimono to the front in a few spots. I have a few more kimono's and plan to make a few more of these small quilts. I have been appliqueing these tulips and I had fun finding the right fabric. All the pieces for these tulips came out of one piece of Phil Beaver fabric. I had bought it out west a few years ago and never found a good project to use it. Now I would have liked more. You get this effet by cutting very selectively and it does not take long and the "best" spots have been used. As I mentioned, yesterday afternoon was our guild meeting. As usual in February the programs in done by members, since the weather quite often is bad. Not yesterday. It was above freezing and sunny. We had our annual chair sale and I was very, very lucky. I arrived early and spotted one of the earlier books by Elly Sienkiewicz, the one I did not have, for $1, yes that is $1. I bought that right away. Then I spotted a piece of fabric I have looked for for a long time and got that for $2. It is not often that I'm lucky, but yesterday was my day. Five members had each a 10 minute demonstration and as usual you always learn a few things. All in all a good day.

Farmer Hofstra

2011-02-09T15:44:00.001-05:00

When our children were still small I did some supply teaching and one day the librarian gave me a small book to read. It was called " The cow, who fell in the canal" The drawings were very well done and showed scenes of years gone by in Holland. When I opened the book and started to read I had to chuckle. The cow belonged to farmer Hofstra. Now my maiden name is Hofstra and my father was known in the area as farmer Hofstra. I could not find a copy in the store and the librarian was kind enough to get me a copy, which our kids loved to read. But as they grew older, the book was stored with the other childern's book and forgotten. Now forward about 30 years and we are in Amsterdam. On one of our walks a few weeks ago we ended up the old "Nieuwe Kerk" I guess it is the newest of the old churches. It was close to closing time, and we could not go through it, but the store was still open and since it was cold outside and we were tired we popped in. My cousin came up to me and asked me, if I had ever seen this small book about a cow, who fell in the canal.It was the same book I had at home! And it was in English I don't think that it was ever available in Dutch. I could not pass this up and bought a couple. They would make nice stocking stuffers. The next day we went through the Rijksmuseum, where we saw all the fantastic paintings and pottery and so much more. At the end you come to the museum store. And there, in the kiddy corner was another copy, this time 2/3 the size of the book at home. Had to buy another copy! By that time I had bought quite a few books, so I had to keep in mind, that I had to take all this stuff with me on the plane. Now to the real farmer Hofstra. He did wear similar work clothes as you see in the book, but I do not have a good picture of my dad in his working day clothes. My mother was the kind of person, who made you change in your "good" clothes before a picture was taken. But here is a picture of my father at a favorite activity of his, a show of his beloved Frisian horses.

Makkum

2011-02-02T11:01:00.001-05:00

One of the places I wanted to visit in Holland was Makkum,where the Tichelaar Family has made pottery for over 400 years. On a cold and rainy Monday my cousin Sippy took me to see some Delft Blue pottery. Located in these old buildings they still make the plates, pots and vases, that they are known for. At the back was added a very modern ,light show room, where you can buy the old style pottery as well as very modern pieces. They were very accomodating and I could take pictures as much as I wanted. One thing had changed. We could not tour the actual factory anymore, but had to watch through windows. This was a fantastic piece( below), used long ago to show of tulips. That was in the time, that tulips were worth more than gold. They had done restauration work on some pieces for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and decided to make a few new ones. And what a job it must have been! One was left without the blue decorations and that gave it a very modern look. I would have loved to take some of the bigger pieces home with me, but after my fall I thought it better not to try. The first place I stayed in Friesland was at my sister's. They live in a 100 year old house which has been fixed up with a lot of the old things still in place. Included in that are a lot of old tiles in the living room, kitchen and outside beside the front door and above the windows. All are close to 100 years old.It was here, that I saw the book about the Tichelaar Family for the first time. In the book were pictures of the tiles and and of this house. As you can see, they made a lot more than what we think of as Delft blue pottery. It seems that they were very good at changing as the times changed. That might be one of the reasons, that they is still in business after more than 4 centuries. I did buy the book, so I can have a better look now that I'm home. And I could not go home without at least a few small gifts. For Tony and Jenny, who plays the French horn, I found this horn player and for Shawn and Emily I had a choice of different horse and riders. And yes, I got them home safely. It has been back to work for me. The crazy quilt is almost finished. It is hanging on my frame and it is (almost) square and it hangs straight. I will have to go over it with a magnifying glass to try and catch all the loose ends, but I'm happy I did not give up. It took me almost 5 years, of and on. We missed the BIG storm. We were warned, that we might get up to 30 cm of snow, but it ended up with about 5 to 10, but with some wind. Schools were closed, but all the roads around here were open. It was just a good day to stay inside and get some work done.

Back again

2011-01-28T12:48:00.001-05:00

I have been home now for a few days now, but they have been very hectic. Just before Laurence left for the airport to pick me up, he got a message that his uncle, his mother's only surviving brother had passed away at the age of 98. Then later we got the call that his aunt, grandma's only surviving sister had passed away 14 hours later at the age of 92. We have been spending time with grandma and made sure she went to the visitation and funeral. It seems, that this is my first day at home and I have been busy catching up with the chores around here. Now about my trip to Holland. After 2 plane rides, 5 train rides, visiting 4 museums, 6 fabric stores, 2 bookstores and visiting with my siblings and a cousin I made it home in one piece. And a 2 day visit to Amsterdam, where we did a lot of walking. The start was a little shaky. I know now, that yes, you can fall on your head out of a still standing train! I still have the bump to prove it. That was the beginning and low point of my trip. After that I had a great time. On the first afternoon my sister took me to this cheese store, right on the farm. Too bad I could not take any of those cheeses with me. Then it was on to the first fabric stores in the old town of Staphorst. I was searching for old looking white and blue fabrics and I got some nice ones. This is the church in Bozum. I used to teach there for 2 years before I came to Canada. Where I'm standing used to be the play area, where the kids spend recess. I lived in this small house , kind of tacked on to the bigger one with just one room and a small kitchen. You can see it on the right side of the bigger house. And yes, it was very small. I would sleep in the old fashion way, in what looked like a closet. During the day you would close the doors and at night open them again. It still looked lived in. In our early years of farming we would have students from the Agricultural School in Leeuwarden staying with us for the summer. Later on we needed help for a longer period and we would get help through another exchange program. One of the fellows, who was with us 2 summers was Johannes. From him I learend a few years ago about a big quilt show at the Frisian Museum, where he is working in security. Last week one of my stops was this museum and as you can see, we had a good time catching up on all the news.

Bad news there was, that this museum will be moving to a new location and all their textiles had been put away, so no quilts.

Before I can think of starting on a new quilt I will have to finish a few. That will be my goal for the coming week.

A little of this.......

2011-01-12T13:27:00.002-05:00

This past week was a time to get a few things finished.Last year this time I was in Japan and this year I will be going to Holland. I'm leaving in a few days. It has been a few years since I was there and I think it is time to visit my relatives. I have a long list of things I'm planning to do. Yes, I'm going by myself. Laurence does not like the idea of going over in the winter and visiting museums is not on the top of his list of priorities. We have had a lot of snow lately and any day now the trails will be open and he will be off for a run on the snowmobile. And then there are the chores, that have to be done. I still have few pairs of socks here and finished this pair this morning.Another Cookie A pattern, but the wool I got on sale somewhere and I have no idea where it came from. It did knit very well though. I'm still waiting for the pearls I bought to be used in the tying of the crazy quilt, so I had to find something else to do. Cards don't take long. This time I made 5 back grounds, using some of my selvages. Then I finished a few with some ribbon flowers I found.The rest all went into a bag and will be used when I need a quick project. I always find that once you put a frame around a landscape it looks completely different as is the case here. I found the frame in a drawer and it was the perfect size. I also realize that it will need a few more small trees in the front before I will do the threadwork. And...I cleaned up my sewing room. I find nothing is worse, than coming home after a trip and the room is a mess. This way I can start fresh with whatever I have decided.

New Year, new project

2011-01-05T09:39:00.001-05:00

Here it is the new year. I made my oliebollen and as usual, there were way to many. I did it the easy way by buying a box with a mix in town. I did take some to the neighbours. You have to eat these oliebollen right away. The next day they are just not as good, even with maple syrup!. We started the year without snow, but that has changed. Yesterday we got a lot and today it is beautiful outside. Cold, but sunny. Laurence can hardly wait till the snowmobile trails will be ready. I have been working on my vase. The first picture shows the vase with only the basic applique. I did not have a Dutch fabric with a scene, so I used this oriental picture. The color was just right. The back ground is different. A few years ago a friend gave me a few old doilies she had bought at an auction. For this I used the large one. It is made out of natural colored linen. My plan is to put this doilie, after all the applique is finished, on a dark blue background. The second picture shows how far I got as of this morning. Some of the dark blue pieces are appliqued, but I did use embroidery. Some of the points are just too tiny. There is still a lot more to do. These vases were very elaborate and that's what made them stand out. After this is done I will have to think about the tulips, that will go in the vase. I think that they will be yellow or red. This is turning out o.k and up to now it has been fun. I will have to put it away for a few days. I'm also basting the crazy quilt and will have to start the quilting.There will only be a few lines, just to keep it all together. The rest will be tied. For that I have ordered small pearls for on the back. And now that I'm so busy with all this Delfts blue stuff, I really need to do some more research, so I have booked a flight to Holland for the end of next week. Laurence prefers to stay here. He is not into visiting museums and quilt stores first of all, and than to do this in the winter makes it worse. Now I hope, that he can get some snow mobiling in. That way we are both happy!

At the end of the year

2010-12-31T10:05:00.002-05:00

Here we are on the last day of the year. What a year it has been. From a fantastic quilt trip to Japand to being down and out for a while after surgery. But by and by it has been a good year. We had a lovely time during Christmas. The group was smaller then I'm used to,but that did not matter. We had a white and cold Christmas, but right now it is raining, so no more smowmobile rides for a while. This year I have been knitting up a storm. After not being able to knit for years, because of painful shoulders, I found that I could knit socks again if I took my time.Most of the socks have found a good home. These were barely of the needles before Christmas. I gave our son-in-law's mother a choice and she picked this pair. The pattern is another by Cookie A and the yarn is by Socks-that-Rock, my favorite combination. I'm working on a new pair, since my inventory is quite low after the holidays. I have a new idea for a quilt and this Delft Blue vase is part of it. The idea is to make a quilt with old Delft Blue vases and pots. In the vases I would applique bouquets of spring flowers. I'm thinking of tulips, daffodils, snowdrops and crocusses.To see if I can pull it of, I took pictures of a vase that I remember sitting on the mantle at my grandparents. From there they( yes there are 3) came to my mother's and after she passed away they came to me.

I found a few suitable blue/white fabrics in my stash and I have been looking around for more. Next week I should have a good start.

This vase will be filled with tulips and I found some fabric by Phil Beaver with lots of color variations. I have not been able to find a suitable Dutch picture for the center, but I did have a suitable oriental fabric, so that's what it will be.

Now it is on the the next job. When we were growing up, my mother would always make oliebollen for New Years Eve. I found a recipe, so I will be making some for us and take some to the neighbours, at least if they will turn out.

Wishing all of you out there a very Happy 2010!

Thinking a year ahead.

2010-12-22T13:05:00.004-05:00

Not long after I had send all our Christmas cards away I discovered, that I was a few short. My eye fell on my container with selvages and an idea started to form. I had a nice piece of dark blue batik,already with WonderUnder at the back. And I found a piece of Timtex, big enough to make 5 cards.The Timtex is used to make the cards stiff, so they look like a real postcard. I dumped the whole box of selvages on the table and started to sort the blueish ones out, both with lettering and color dots. I also found a few pieces of a silky type ribbon, used to tie fabric packs together. First step was to cut out the Timtex a little larger then I needed. On one side I ironed Wonder Under. I took the paper of so only the glue part was left. Next step was to audition pieces of the selvages and ribbon and try and come up with a nice design. Once I was satisfied I ironed the pieces on to the Timtex. I had a piece of dark blue batik all ready to go. I drew halve the tree design on a piece of freezer paper, folded it double and cut it out. From there I ironed it on the dark blue fabric and drew around it with a white marking pen. Once cut out I centered it on the selvages and ironed it down. For the back I found a piece of grey/blue wintery fabric with cranes, just enough for 5 cards. After ironing some WonderUnder to the back, I put a piece on the back of each card. Now was the time to square it all up. Then the final step, the finishing of the edges. I used a variegated King Tut thread, left over from a previous project. Some cards are gone, but a few were stored in a safe place. I have been making different cards for what must be close to 15 years and at times the hardest thing for me is getting a new idea. Now I don't have to worry about next year. I will have to start to collect more selvages from blueish fabrics though. It took more thant I thought. This will be my last post before Christmas and I wish everybody out there a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas cards

2010-12-16T15:35:00.002-05:00

I know it has been a while, but I did not feel the best. But a visit to the doctor and some medication took care of it. But in the meantime not much got done. Last week I managed to do the water area of my landscape. The front will have more trees and rocks, but I have not decided what will go where. It is on my design wall and once in a while I have a good look. One of these days I will get THE idea. Yesterday I mailed this year's Christmas cards. I had the wintery print for a while and I had enough for 12 cards. The back ground is a fine Indian cotton, what made it hard to stitch the sashiko. The sashiko was done by hand and I used overdyed cotton thread by Sassalyn . It was left over from another project. Inside the cards is a piece of Timtex and this makes it firm. Now today I realize, that I'm a few cards short. I found enough Timtex for 5 more cards and I will show the result next week. Most of my Christmas shopping is done and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. This is the first time we went to a tree farm near Mount Forest for out Christmas tree. What I liked the most was the giant Saint Bernard, which greeted us. We used to have one years ago on the farm and I'm still partial to them. I did some special baking also, but around here that never lasts too long. Whereever I hide it, my dear hubby will find it. My solution is, to do the rest of the baking just before Christmas Day. On Tuesday I finished my schedule for this year. I did a trunk show at the guild in St. Mary's. We have had a fair amount of snow, not as much as a lot of places around us, and the roads can be slick at times. We were lucky. I did get there in time and had a wondeful time. And after my talk, there was a catered lunch. What can be better. When it did start to snow again, I got out of there in a hurry and I made it home in good time. We have had the bird feeder out for a few weeks now. When we just moved here, I was complaining to Laurence , that we never saw any birds. Well, this year is different. It seems, that every few days I have to fill up the 'big' feeder. And for the first time I saw my favorite bird, the cardinal. I know, that this is not the best of pictures, but I cannot get any closer. All in all it seems that most of the work for Christmas has been done and I feel less pressure than some years.

Winter is here

2010-12-02T09:43:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday I had a workshop in Burlington, at least a 11/2 hour drive from here. When we got up, it was freezing rain. Not good for this nervous driver! But since we were up early, Laurence decided to come along. He quickly did the chores and of we were. He dropped me of at the store and spend the day visiting with Jeanette and Tony. They had promised to take him out for lunch if he would bring the truck. That way he could take their summer tires back to our place for storage. We had a pleasant time during the workshop. For lunch a few went across the road to a deli and they came back with some Dutch chocolate I had not seen in 40 years. As a child we would get small chocolate Christmas wreaths topped with sprinkles. And here was a whole container to be shared by all. That started the conversation and it ended up that most had some Dutch in them and all had stories to tell. And yes, during this all they kept working very hard. All in all a succesful day. When Laurence picked me up again, the snow and ice were gone and the sun was shining. But I was very happy he came along. I have been somewhat under the weather for the last few weeks and had dreaded this day, but it turned out fine. Not much has been accomplished, just the necessary seems to get done. I put the crazy quilt away till next year. I did find this small wallhanging I made years ago. I never used it. No wonder, it did not have sleeve. I put a sleeve on and will hang it in the hall. I think I made it, when I got a machine with some fancy stitches. I do remember, that it was hard sewing with this golden thread.

And winter is here. We have snow on the ground. This morning I saw a car almost sliding in the ditch. It seems that you have to see something like that, before you are slowing down yourself. And now the snow can come for Laurence. The outside work is done and he has his new snowmobile licence!

Grandma's cross stich quilt

2010-11-26T13:31:00.002-05:00

When Jeanette asked me to take a few of her quilts home so that they can be flat on a bed for a while, this was one of them. With one large dog and 2 cats her house is not set up to display her "good" quilts. I still remember when grandpa and grandma Helmuth went on holidays to the States for a few days. Grandma found this pattern for a cross stitched quilt top. She had bought the kit and spend the following few winters making the top. It is a beautiful design with lots of different colors. Once the top was finished, she quilted it, all by her self. Really, 100% of this quilt has been done by her. Then when Jeanette and Tony got married, grandma choose this quilt to give to them as her wedding gift. Right now, she cannot display it, but she hopes that in the future she has the right place for it. It has been another busy week with specialists appointments for grandma and dentist appointments. Right now Shawn is home for a few days, so we want to spend as much time with him as possible. He will fly back to Calgary at 6 tomorrow morning. That means leaving about 4. It will be a short night! I'm allready packed to go and teach in Burlington tomorrow. This will be the last workshop for this year. Last week I send a picture of my crazy quilt to a quilter by the name of Allison Aller, who is very well known for her crazy quilts. I asked if she had some ideas about how to put my crazy quilt together. She gave me some great suggestions. According to her I should put some thought into what I put on the back. Now for me a backing just means to get a piece of fabric, preferable matching the front somewhat, and that's it. I knew I wanted to use the fabric my mother had bought years ago to make a Hindelooper costum. She never got around to it and finally gave me the fabric. Over the years I had used some of it, but I did have enough left to make the back you see here. Then I used some of the lace I used for the front and covered the seams with that. The lace is then embroidered to the background. This is all I will do. The next step will be to do some hand quilting around the blocks and around the border. The rest will be tacked together with beads. How I have not quite decided. It will be one step at a time.

Back to the crazy quilt

2010-11-19T14:07:00.003-05:00

It has been another week where not much quilt wise has been accomplished. My mother-in-law came back from the hospital at the beginning of the week. She is much better, but still needs regular visits. Since the week-end we have a canine visitor, Bernie the Bernese. A few days ago Laurence took her for a long walk through a corn field and unknown to us, she ended up with burdocks on her legs. That was the beginning of a frantic search to get them all removed. We have never seen her that upset, to the point of starting to vomit. I clipped most of them with scissors and after a few hours of trantic searching she quieted down. I guess she is not what you would call a farm dog. She likes to be very clean I was told later.Now we just take "clean" walks on the lawn. We also had company from out west. That and the guild meeting on Wednesday took a chunk of time.I also realized that in just a few months entries for the NJS have to be in and the crazy quilt is far from finished. Today I sewed the last of the lining to the front. It is a very heavy quilt and I want to be sure, that it will not start to sag. So far so good. Next I will put a variegated piece of yarn around the blocks, so the edge will pop out more. For the bat I will use a piece of heavy flannel and then on the back will be the fabrics my mother gave me. Next question is: How to put it all together. There has to be a "quilted component" I figure I will hand quilt on both sides of the border.The inside of the border and the blocks I will tie with light colored embroidery floss. For the black velvet I have some black beads in mind. That will come last and I'm not sure about it. This landscape has been put on the backburner for a while. I was planning to have it finished by now, so I could do some of the embroidery tomorrow during my workshop, but that is not going to happen. The car is all loaded up for my workshop tomorrow in Guelph. For this one I need a sewing machine and I spend some time today to make sure it was all set up right. Then next week the last workshop for this year. I will be at the "Quilters Dream" in Burlington. We will start an Hawaiian style block, using the snowflake folding method of making the pattern. I think there are a few spaces left and if you are interested you can get information at 905-681-8164

It took a long time!!

2010-11-11T09:21:00.004-05:00

In May 2009, I taught my 2 day workshop "Vase with orchids" at Quilt Canada in Saskatoon. One of the organizers saw my sample, and she mentioned that she had a lot of orchids at home and asked if I wanted a small one (notice the word "small").

The next day she showed up with, in my eyes, a large orchid in a clay pot. No way I was going to leave it behind, so I emptied one of my bags and stuffed it under my seat on the plane. It got home in one piece. Over the next months it grew a few new shoots, which would then turn brown and wither away.

This spring I got fed up and took the plant outside. I smashed the pot to pieces and cut up the plant in 6 pieces. Two were very small and they ended up in the compost pile; the rest I potted up. One I hung in a tree, the others ended up in the shaded area of the deck. A month later, I found the 2 small pieces in the compost pile had roots. I found pots and put them with the others. Later I gave a few away, and the rest are doing fine. No more water out of the tap (runs through the conditioner) but water out of the barn -- and no more brown points. And yesterday I had the first flowers! And it was worth the wait.

I see I have lost a picture of my landscape in progress that I had loaded up and have no idea how to get it back. That will have to wait till later. There was a question about the sky fabric. It is not a batik or a hand dyed. It was a small piece that I found somewhere in my travels. And all I had is being used.

These fabrics are the ones used for the foliage. I try and buy fabric with lots of variations and then I cut where ever I find the right piece. This makes for very "hole-y" fabric. Notice the small piece in the left bottom corner. It has maple leaves, and those leaves are the perfect color for some of the "trees". Notice also the holes.

We had a busy week. On Saturday I taught a landscape workshop in Guelph, and this coming Saturday I will repeat the class. On Monday, I spent a big part of the day with my mother-in-law at Emergency, and finally at 7 at night she was admitted. She is doing well, but will be in the hospital for a few more days. On Tuesday I had a trunk show in Ajax. I do not like to drive in the city and was not looking forward to this. But Laurence came to the rescue. He came along. This way we were able to visit grandma in the hospital first. We took the road through the country, Orangeville, Newmarket and then south and we did not run into heavy traffic till a few kilometers from where we had to be. With him driving, it was a piece of cake. By the time we were done, the busiest time was over and we came home over the 401, through Kitchener. And in the end that way was only 1/2 km farther than the other.

Fall landscape

2010-11-04T15:22:00.002-04:00

We have had a few busy days, and we can blame it on this little fellow and his companions. The busiest time for us is before the chicks arrive.

It amazes me always how these little chicks, barely out of the egg, hit the straw ready for action. As small as they are, they will start eating and drinking right away.

Now it is back to quilting. For the next two Saturdays, I will be teaching my second landscape workshop at Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph, and there are a few places left. If you are interested you can give them a call at 1-866-364-2790. In this workshop, I will teach you how to make a pattern from your own picture.

It is always good to have a project on the go. I started this landscape as a sample of how I approach a project like this. The picture is from a very old postcard I found in my mother-in-law’s box, when we were getting ready to move her to a retirement home. I enlarged the picture and made a copy, first on transparencies, and from there on freezer paper.

For me the hardest is to find the right piece of fabric for the sky. Once that is in place, I feel like I'm getting somewhere.Then after the applique is finished, I will keep on with some threadwork.

We have made some changes to this website and you will notice the menu line across the top. We will re-organize the quilt galleries and the first one shows the quilts I have co-ordinated for the Mennonite Relief Sale. As time allows, we will update the other categories. Some new ones will be added and some older ones removed.

Blame the wind

2010-10-28T10:04:00.003-04:00

Yesterday started out well, with lots of sun: a perfect day to work in the garden. On our way home from Jeanette's, we had stopped at the Terra Greenhouses, and since the bulbs were on sale, I could not stop myself and had to get some more. You can never have too many spring blooms after a long winter. And I managed to do some additional cleaning. This arrangement shows a few of the flowers still out there.

The wind was strong, but it had been like that for a few days. Early in the afternoon, just when I was ready to sit down at the computer, the lights started to flicker. After 15 minutes of that, the lights went out and stayed out till it was time to make supper. After supper, cleaning the dishes and bringing Laurence back to the workshop, I was ready again, but right at that moment it turned pitch black and it stayed that way. We went to bed very early and by this morning we had hydro again. And yes, we have generators at the barns, just not at the house here. We did buy a small one last year, but over the summer it got stolen, along with a backpack blower.

It has been a very busy week. I was in Barrie for 2 days, for a trunkshow and a workshop. The last time I went to Barrie I ended up in a snow storm. This time it was better, but still I ran into the first snow of the year. I had a very enjoyable time there with a very lively group.

Then on Sunday, my friend Lois and I went to Jeanette's. She had tickets for the Shaw Festival after which we went out for supper. I knew that she had a few quilts tucked in the closet. I asked if I could take them home to give them a rest from being folded up. One of them is this quilt, made by Jeanette when she was 9 years old. She wanted to make a quilt and her grandma offered her to buy the fabric and then, when it was all pieced together she and the great aunts would quilt it for her. She choose this pink fabric ( a color she cannot stand now). Each evening, after the dishes were done she would sew a block, while I was in the barn, milking the cows. She was very exact and did a lot of ripping, but she did finish it in time for it to be quilted for her 10th birthday.

I did not get much done this week. It is getting time to finish the crazy quilt, and the first step was to sew the backing on. This is a very heavy quilt and it needs an extra layer to keep it from sagging. This lining is heavy and hopefully will do the job. It has been sewn to the center. The next step will be to sew the border to the center with reverse applique. The hole has been cut and it is all basted together – all I need is time.

More sunshine

2010-10-19T14:11:00.002-04:00

Here it is – the middle of October – and there are still gorgeous roses outside. I took a bunch of pink ones to my mother-in-law, and made this small arrangement for on the table. Since the rose bushes are at the side of the house, we don't really notice them. So we might as well enjoy them inside. And as soon as these are finished, there are more where these came from.

All my orchids are back inside and the time outside has done them well. Most have new shoots coming and I hope to have a very colorful winter. This clivia decided to bloom early this year. It sits in the hall,inside the strainer. I really treasure this milk can and strainer. Both are painted in the style done in the small town of Hindelopen, where my mother grew up.

The can has a painting of the farm where I grew up. On the strainer is a picture of the farm my parents moved to when they sold the farm. It was their retirement place, where they could have a few heifers, horses and (for my mother) some Shetland ponies. By that time, I had been in Canada for a while, so it never was home to me.

This can came to Canada in a large crate with other things after my parents passed away. I have another milk can without strainer, also painted with the farm, that I brought years ago. I never forget how heavy it was, carrying it on the plane, full of knitting yarn. Yes, at that time it was carry-on. When I saw a neighbour at the airport in Toronto, willing to take me and my milk can home, I was overjoyed. By that time I could hardly lift the silly thing. But you forget that once it was home. Now I just enjoy looking at it.

This quilt top is finally finished. In the corners I had planned to put Chinese characters, but it just did not look good. These kamon designs look much better.

Right now the car is packed and ready to go. This afternoon, I will drive to Barrie for a trunkshow tonight. And then tomorrow a workshop.

On the farming front, the harvest is finished. This year we had good weather. That meant a good crop. And now we also have good prices. So who can complain!

More sun

2010-10-14T20:51:00.001-04:00

We have had some more beautiful sunny days. The trees have turned color, but in general they are not as bright as some years. These trees are the best I could find, and they are just up the road from us. Other years, we have gone for drives to "find the best trees" and more than once we would find them right around our farm on our way home!

We’ve also had some fabulous sun rises. I took this picture 2 days ago, at about 7 o'clock in the morning. It never lasts long, so as soon as you see these colors, you run for the camera.

Monday was Thanksgiving, but since it was a nice day and we were busy with the harvest, we had our dinner on Sunday. Jeanette and Tony, Tony's mom and dad, and grandma all came, and with everybody bringing something we had lots to eat. I found enough flowers around the house to make this arrangement in a hollowed out pumpkin. Then on Monday I dug up all the remaining bulbs and tubers, which are now drying in the garage.

Here is a picture of another pair of socks I knitted, and as you can see, Bernie the Bernese was not impressed. The yarn is "Socks that Rock” and the pattern is from the book " Sock Innovation" by Cookie A. Looking back, the pattern would have shown up better with a less colorful yarn.

Yesterday morning, I drove up to the Grey County Museum near Owen Sound for a short workshop, and later, a trunkshow. The guilds in Grey and Bruce County had come together and put this day together. With about 180 quilters attending, it was a busy place. In the afternoon, I taught a workshop on making flowers with wired ribbon. Then we drove a short distance to the Keady Community Center, where we had a delicious supper. Then came my turn to do my trunk show.

By the time I drove home, the nice weather was gone and it was raining. I had a great day, and the ladies did a fabulous job with the organization. They were already talking about next year.

Next week I will be at our guild meeting on Wednesday, then I will be in Barrie on Thursday for a trunkshow and on Friday for a workshop.

Right now the sun is shining again and Laurence is back to combining corn. It is all going very fast and this time next week we hope to be finished – that is, as long as the combine behaves and I keep the guys fed and watered.

Gorgeous weather

2010-10-08T13:18:00.002-04:00

Just as I was sitting down to write this post, the phone rang. It was Laurence: could I bring some lunch to Herb, the neighbour we work with? And since it would on my way, he could use some more lunch, too. And then take Herb from point A to B, back to A, then to C.

This has been been going on for some days now, but I don't mind. The weather has been beautiful, the trees are changing colors, and the soybeans are off the field. Later on today, we will start combining the corn. Up to now, it has been almost a perfect fall: completely the opposite of last year, and much easier to take!

The border pieces with the sashiko pannels are finished, but not yet attached. In the corners, I would like to add some Chinese symbols. Since Tony's parents are coming on Sunday and know both Mandarin and Cantonese, they can help me with that. The coins will not go on till after the quilting. I figure it will be much easier to do the quilting first, than having to go around all the coins.

But the quilting will have to wait till this winter. There are a few other projects that I have to finish first. One, my Christmas cards for this year, is now finished. The crazy quilt will be next. I still don't know how to get it all together and not have it sag – but I will take it one step at a time.

On Wednesday I'm teaching a short workshop for the guilds in Grey and Bruce County. It was just supposed to be some flowers made of shaded wired ribbon, but I felt that would not be enough, so I have been digging in my sample box. Each time I teach a workshop and come home with some samples, they go in this box. When needed I will take them out. It is very handy if I need some for postcards. I will make up a pattern, but all the pieces will stay separate, so we can play with the design.

Sunday we will have our Thanksgiving dinner. Jenny and Tony are coming tomorrow, and then on Sunday his parents and grandma will be here. The group is smaller than it used to be, since Shawn and Emily, and Laurence's siblings and families, have moved out west. We still will have our turkey, but no 20 pounder!

Now I’m heading out to the garden. It is the perfect time to clean up, but it is a shame as long as the flowers are still blooming. Winter is long enough as it is. So, as in other years, part of the cleaning up in the flower beds will be done in freezing weather.

Sashiko workshop

2010-09-30T08:41:00.002-04:00

On Saturday I had a few friends from our guild over for a day. They had decided on a beginner sashiko course. Since it was a small group we could have it in our dining room with a nice big window. Since my quilt room is right beside, it was easy to go there and have a look at what I'm up to.

Jeanette went with me to Japan at the beginning of the year and she loved the small kimonos. I always keep one handy, that is only partially sewn together. That way I have something to look at, in case I forget how it goes together. She had just the solution. With her camera she took pictures of the different steps.

Elizabeth also went to Japan. She has all the fabrics to prove it. She will use the sashiko to go with her pieced pieces. This was something new for Tamara, but it did not take her long to catch on. We had a wonderful day and are planning to do it again in April with another new technique.

I have been working on some narrow bands of sashiko to be used in the border for the quilt I'm working on. I did not get too much done. I was in Pickering on Monday for a trunk show and on Tuesday for a workshop. Driving down went very well and I was way too early for supper, but on my way home it rained quite heavy and it was no fun at all driving on the busy 401. But the nice people make it all worth while.

This is the sample of the narrow band of sashiko. It is 1 inch wide. On the left is the front, on the right the back. But it could easily be the opposite.

I have just finished mowing the lawn and I hope it is the last time for the year. The trees have been changing colors, but for them to turn more we will need a frost. So far we have had no frost here. The soybean harvest has stopped for the time being. While I was in Toronto we had 2 inches of rain here. But most of the beans are off and the winter wheat is in the ground, and right beside the house the field looks green already.

Next up is a workshop on Saturday at Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph.

My oldest quilt

2010-09-23T10:54:00.002-04:00

When I got ready for my trunk show on Monday morning, this quilt showed up at the bottom of the pile. It is my oldest quilt and dates from about 1850. It was made by Margaretha Axt, Laurence's great-grandmother on his mother's side. I received it quite a few years ago from his aunt Ruth from Chicago. It had been hanging in her family room, but she was ready to move and none of her family wanted the quilt, so she wondered if I wanted it. I could not say no. Most of the fabrics are in good shape. The brown patterned fabric is in very good shape and the colors still look bright. Notice how the dark patches are not all going in the same direction... The binding is gone in places. The red fabric is also gone in a lot of places and the wool bat is coming through.

I was told that the reason for the disappearing fabric was something used to make red dye. I do not want it to discolor anymore, so I’m keeping it in a dark place – on a bed, beneath some other quilts, where it will not get creases.

I had a good trip to the Etobicoke guild. I'm not a city driver and was not looking forward to this trip, but it all worked out very well. I had a nice supper with some of the members. And the facility they meet in makes you jealous!

I always put 7 large quilts in a suitcase that fits just right in the back of the car. When I was trying to open the suitcase, the zipper broke and that meant a trip to Waterloo for a new one. I'm going next week for 2 days to another guild on the other side of Toronto ( Rouge Valley), so the new suitcase could not wait. I found one on sale: I was a very happy camper! On my way back I stopped at a tree nursery. I always wanted a Mountain Ash tree. My inlaws had one on their front lawn and I always loved the look of it. Laurence had stopped in on Saturday, but he wanted me to check it out. He even had dug the hole already. I found the tree I liked and with it tied on the back of the truck I got it home. I'm pleased to tell you that, as of now, it is in the hole, everything is cleaned up -- and we even put 2 stakes in with wire to keep the tree straight.

We have had some decent days and managed to combine part of the soybeans. This morning, Laurence planted some more winter wheat and an hour ago I took him over to the combine.There is rain in the forecast, so he wants to try to get as many beans combined as possible. As soon as I'm done with this entry, I have to go back and see what he has lined up for me to do. My ITINERARY has been updated. Please have a look.

More sashiko

2010-09-18T09:09:00.002-04:00

It has been a very busy week. We did manage to finish combining the white beans, and we started with the soybeans -- but a few days of rain stopped that.

On Wednesday, I took my mother-in-law to the doctor, and after that I made my way to Waterloo to do a bunch of errands. One of my stops was at the local Mandarin Restaurant to pick up some extra coins. They were very gracious and said I could have as many as I needed. The coins were not the same as the ones I had, but it all will work out. In the evening at guild we had a great trunk show by Elizabeth Dillinger from Pickering: she showed us some amazing quilts.

Thursday morning, we woke up with the rain coming down, hard at times. Laurence wanted to go to the Outdoor Farm Show regardless, and he promised me that by the time we got there, the rain would be over. It was not to be. And I can tell you, tempers are not the best when 2 people try to stay dry under a very small umbrella. We did have tickets for a free breakfast, so that was our first stop. And we all received an emergency rain poncho right there!! The day turned out better from that point on. The advantage was that all the sales people had lots of time to talk! We stayed till about 4 in the afternoon; by that time the rain was over. But we were very tired and bed looked pretty good not long after supper.

Lately I have been looking for a Mountain Ash (a tree with lots of red berries). I have a spot picked out already. This morning Laurence went to an antique John Deere auction and I was busy baking for our church potluck tomorrow. At noon he phoned to let me know, that no, he did not buy anything and no he did not have lunch yet and yes, he had stopped at a tree nursery and found a nice tree and no, he did not want to bring it home. I had to inspect it first. After lunch he let me know that the hole had to be dug right then and there. I know enough to jump when that happens. As soon as the weather gets better, he will be way too busy. So the hole is dug and at the beginning of next week I will look at the tree.

The sashiko blocks are all ready. Nothing has been sewn together yet. After it is all together I want to make 4 blocks for the corners, then a narrow strip with sashiko on each side. A friend of mine gave me an idea for how to attach the coins with narrow strips of fabric. The last picture shows the front and back of 3 of the blocks. On some of them there is more thread on the back than the front!

On Wednesday I picked up another 20 skeins from Michelle at Kallisti Quilts, just in case. Next week I will have my first trunk show of the season for the Etobicoke Quilters Guild. Then next Saturday a workshop here at my place.

Be careful what you wish for

2010-09-09T10:06:00.002-04:00

Last week it was hot and very dry here. Both the corn and soybeans have stopped growing. The white beans were ready to combine, but the pods were almost too dry and would shatter before coming close to the combine. A little rain would help. Well, we got the "little rain" and then some. It has turned cold and rainy. We only managed to combine for part of an afternoon. And now it is wishing for some more sunshine. This is the project I'm working on. Each block has a different hitomezashi ( or one stitch) sashiko design. In this one you can see how an extra row of stitches changes the whole design. It is a lot of fun and it takes a lot of thread. I'm using the "Ultimate Sashiko Source Book" by Susan Briscoe. The flowered fabric a got a while back from Michelle at Kallisti Quilts and it works very well. It has the same design, but in different colors.For the border I'm planning a narrow strip of sashiko with a narrow strip of the patterned fabric on each side. Then a piec of the dark blue. In the corners I will use a different kind of sashiko design. The center of the pieced blocks looked a little dull.Then I remembered that on one of our trips to the Mandarin Restaurant during the Chinese New Year, we each got a big coin. I rummaged through my beads/coins and found 6 of them. Not enough. Yesterday I phoned the restaurant in Kitchener and told them about my project. I was told to come in next time I'm in town and I can get all I need. How about that!Then the next step will be to find a way to attach them to the fabric, but I'm not at that stage yet. In a few days my itinerary will be updated. I will let you know, when that happens. One of the workshops will be here at my house and there are a few spaces left. What: Sashiko for beginners (kit will be supplied) When Saturday, September 25 from 9.30 to 3.30 Where: at my house near Moorefield Interested? You can email me at helmuth@golden.net The next step will be to update my quilts on my blog. While sorting through my quilts I discovered that I could not find a picture of my bird quilt. With the help of dear hubby I took a few new pictures. Here is a close-up of the bluejay. For some reason I liked that bird, maybe because it was hard to get the coloring right?

Older yet

2010-09-01T14:19:00.002-04:00

Last Friday we went to the Waterloo County Steam Threshers Reunion. It was close to us and since it was a beautiful day with not too many urgent tasks at hand we decided to go later in the afternoon. A few weeks ago I showed you the old tractors and threshing machines. Here we had 2 steam engines, more than a 100 years old. Both were working.It took a few guys to keep them running with all the wood and water , that was needed. The front one was hooked to a threshing machine. But that was not all. There were lots of old tractors of all colors Inside the big tent I found these Old Order Mennonite ladies quilting. This quilt had pictures of grey tractors on it and would be sold next year. This year's quilt had blue tractors on it and was sold at the end of the auction. It sold for $400 After a tour of all the machinery it was time to eat and eating we did. Not all was healthy, but it tasted great. Early in the evening there was an auction of donated articles and Hubby came home with another J.D toy to add to his collection. All the proceeds of this Reunion will go to the Mennonite Central Committee and the Gospel Echo Prison Ministry. Later in the evening there was a concert by the Gospel Echo group and other local groups, followed by a corn roast. While sitting on the bleachers I saw these girls in their pretty dresses. They are what we call Mexican Mennonites. This group of Mennonites moved early in the last century from Manitoba to Mexico. But since conditions there are very poor they have been coming back to Canada, mostly to Ontario. The women and girls are very recognizable by the bright floral dresses both are wearing. And if you look very close you can see all the pleats. The whole skirt is pleated. I do not know, how it is done, but I was told once that they make the pleats and then put the skirt part in the oven to bake. Never could find out if that is true. These girls were not very interested in the auction, so it did not take long for dad to take them somewhere else. In the spring I saw a beautiful butterfly. I asked Laurence to keep it on the flower, while I got my camera. Well, no luck. He let it fly away. But this week I had more luck. I saw this butterfly on one of my dahlia's and ran in the house to get my camera. And it was still there when I came back. Just this one picture, that's all the time I had. As I said last week. If I have nothing quiltery going on, I start making cards and that did the trick again. I'm working on something new, but have not enough finished to show just yet. Next week I should have something to show.

Selvages

2010-08-25T14:34:00.002-04:00

What to do ,when the creative well has dried up? Get out the box of selvages and start making post cards. Most of my fabric is neatly folded in boxes, but I like my selvages all together in a big mess. Then when I need some, I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt. I have collected selvages for quite a few years and now I'm getting more from friends. Next came the box with workshop samples. Each time I teach a workshop, where we make flowers out of wired ribbon, I come home with more samples. These also go in a box. And this box is also overflowing.These 3 cards are the result. I use WonderUnder to put it all together, plus some machine work. Come to think of it, I wonder if there are blue pansies. But that was the only color I had 3 of. Next up was the making of a Christmas Card. Yes, you read it right, a Christmas card. Each year I make 10 to 12 cards. I have done this for years and I have never kept one for myself. After all these years it is harder to come up with a new idea, so when something popped up in my mind, I decided to try it out right away. It has to be doable in not too much time. I had all I needed on hand and managed to make one in the time I allowed myself. Now the finished card and supplies are in a box and will be used on a rainy day. Last year I made cards with a kimono ( to let everybody know how happy I was to go to Japand in January) And I did not keep a card. This small kimono was left over from my last project, see last week, and I made myself this card. This one I will keep! It is too large to send away anyway. We have had a busy week. Last Thursday we picked Shawn and Emily up at the airport. They came to Ontario for the very sudden funeral of Emily's best friend's father. The visitation was on the farm and afterwards we drove up north to near Algonquin Park to stay a few days with friends. We have done this for years and always had good weather. This time I can describe it in 2 words: IT RAINED!

Most of our plans included being outside and had to be changed. We did manage to walk a short trail ,that was just completed. And when we came home on Monday afternoon we discovered , that not one drop of rain had fallen here at home.Next time it will be winter camping in the bush, at least if I can convince Laurence.

On our way home I stopped at the quilt store in Cookstown and found one more piece of corn fabric. I will need a few more, before I can start on my "corn" quilt.

Finially finished

2010-08-18T11:30:00.002-04:00

Nothing like being a little on the late side! For our guild show last year the challenge was to make a small wall hanging using a synonym. I came up with this idea, but found out that it was not really a synonym, more of a saying. I put it away and made another quilt. But I never like to leave things unfinished, so a few weeks ago, with nothing better to do, I picked it up again. There are 4 small, folded kimono's in the center. The saying is as follows: something old (top left, made with a piece of vintage Japanese fabric) something new (top right, made out of fabric I just bought) something borrowed ( bottom left, this is the first folded kimono I saw. I received it from my friend Janet from England years ago and I have borrowed it for this quilt) something blue ( bottom right, made out of a blue oriental fabric) The circles are out of a old piece of oriental fabric appliqued on the blue background. The sashiko designs are done by hand. The quilt is machine quilted. And this time I even put a label on the back right away. Most of my quilts still do not have a label, but I promised myself to do better in the future. For years I have tried to grow dahlia's and most of the time they do not get very big and are full of bugs and holes. My aim was always to get one that is dinner plate size. And this year I managed that. The white one in the center is as big as a , smaller size, dinner plate. This afternoon I will cut some of these to take to my mother-in-law. She loves flowers and used to grow all kinds. Now that she is in a retirement home she really misses that. The next best thing is to bring her flowers from my garden.

More farming stuff, just once more

2010-08-11T10:19:00.001-04:00

Our wheat harvest was done on Friday afternoon and that made it possible for us to go to the yearly meeting of the "other" antique John Deere" group on the province on Saturday. Here they have some of the machinery working, what really appeals to Laurence. He knew, that there would be a few old combines at work. After some last minutes repairs the 7 combines were all in the field. While I was asked to take some pictures Laurence took a ride on the second combine. With the clouds in the sky and the sunny weather it made for some good picture weather. I was quite impressed with the line-up of these combines, till the next morning. Laurence told me, that I should see what he had found on the Internet. Now that was impressive! The previous day 200 combines harvested wheat, all at the same time, to set a new Guiness Book Record. It happened near Winkler, Manitoba and you can see them in action and learn more about the charity it is for at www.harvestforkids.com. And yes, it is very impressive. If we would have been closer Laurence would have gone, even if he had to drive a few hours. On Sunday evening we went to the Dettweiler Meeting House. This is the oldest, stone church in Waterloo County. It was build in 1855 and has been restored as it was in that era. The small part in the back was added and has washrooms. There is only hydro in that part. Once you go inside, it is as if you were back in the 1800's. Benches all around an old wood stove. At that time the women would sit on one side, the men on the other. The wooden planks coming down from the ceiling have knobs on which to hang your hat. Maybe you have noticed the keyboard on the left. There is no hydro in this part (notice also the lack of light fixtures ) There seem to be a few outlets behind the pulpit. And there is no air conditioning, something we could have used that evening. Even with all the windows wide open it stayed very warm and humid. But the singing was great! I'm almost finished with the quilting on a piece and I hope to have it completely done by next week. This here is an upcoming project. The seedbag Laurence found at an antique mall in Ohio. What was interesting for us was, that the previous night we had stayed at a b and b ,where we saw the same bag. The hostess was the grand daughter of the Yoder, who owned this company. Laurence's orders for me are, that I cannot cut the bag up in pieces. On the right are a few pieces of feed sack fabric. In front are logo's I have cut of Laurence's hats over the years. Right now you cannot do that anymore, because the logo's are embroidered right on the hat. How it will all go together, I have no clue, but I will come up with something.

Not a good day, at least at the start

2010-08-05T14:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had to get something at the home farm and while there the young couple, who rent the house offered me a bag of cucumbers. In the winter they had asked Laurence for a patch of ground to have a garden and Laurence had worked up a patch. Now they discovered , that after a week's holidays things had grown more then expected. It was just last Sunday ,that Jenny mentioned, that all the cucumber relish was gone. When we moved a few years ago I had decided not to do any canning and I got rid of my jars and my, mostly too old anyway, spices. Now things have changed and I'am planning to can, besides applesauce, peaches and tomatoes, relish and pickles. So this meant a trip to town to get new spices and some supplies. And since I threw out my old recipes, I also had to look for a new one. Everything was cut up last night, all ready to go first thing this morning. The relish was cooked and bottled. Then when I had a sample, it did not tast like it should. Something had gone wrong.Anyway, this is the first time in almost 40 years, that I could not use my relish. So I will ask for my old recipe from my friend Pat and try it next week again. I was told that there are an over abundance of cucumbers where these came from. So not a good start of my day. Then I tried some machine quilting and could not make that go. I gave up at that point and went to the garden, where I found this lily. I had totally forgotten ,that I had planted it in between some bushes. I bought it for Easter last year and once it quit blooming I had taken it outside. Now that was a nice surprise. And Another pair of socks. The pattern is out of Sock Innovation by Cookie A. Yarn by Socks that rock. A somewhat boring pattern in a very boring color. I was glad, when I was finished. Now it is on to a more challenging pair. The crazy quilt is still on my wall and that's where it will stay for a few weeks, till I have figured out, how to put it together. So far I'm pleased that it all went together.I have made up my mind, that this is more a project for colder days. This afternoon I got another quilt top out. This one I started for our guild challenge last year. Once I found out, that it did not really fit the criteria, I forgot about it. And oh wonders, this time I could get my machine to work. For some reason machine quilting is hard for me. I seem to get really tense and end up with very sore shoulders and back. But so far so good. Later in the afternoon I helped Laurence with bringing the large round straw bales out of the field to the barn. Just like the threshing I talked about last week, this also is much easier. No more handling small bales up in a hot barn! Now it is all done from a tractor seat. Only 2 small fields of spring wheat to combine and this part of the harvest is finished. This has been a great year with a good yield and a great price. It is not often, that you get both. Usually it is one of the other, or both are way down.

Just now a truck drove in and I received another bag of freshly picked cucumbers and green peppers. These were the left over from todays harvest after they had cut up enough for 2 batches of bread and butter pickles. Now this time it will be done right!!

Threshing

2010-07-26T19:39:00.001-04:00

Last week at the Amish auction, there were a few acres of old, mostly horse drawn equipment for sale, including these big machines. Can you guess, what they are? Yesterday it came all back to me. It was the yearly Antique John Deere tractor show in Drayton and while we were there one of there threshing machine was in action and I remember how noisy, dirty and dusty it used to be. When we took over from Laurence's father there was one of these old machines up in the barn. I grew up on a dairy farm in Holland, but since we only grew hay I had never been involved with the grain harvest. I was about to get educated. A few weeks after we took over, this machine came out of the barn and was put on the barn hill. The tractor was hooked up with a long belt and this belt turned all the parts in the machine. The long spout blew the straw back to the straw shed and the auger delivered the grain to the grain bin. It was hot and dusty and it took a lot of know-how to keep it all running.After a few years we sold the treshing machine and bought a small combine. This was much better and since then each combine has been bigger and faster and with a.c! We had rain again on Friday and Saturday and Laurence was sure, that the grain was still too wet to start this year's harvest today. But one of our neighbours showed up with a sample and he wanted him to come over right away. 5 minutes later he was gone and he is still combining. The weather for the coming days looks promising, except for Wednesday. With any luck the showers will miss us. I have been busy making apple sauce. We have a large harvest apple tree on the farm. Every other year there is an abundance of apples. This was the off year, but there was enough for everybody. These are the jars, the rest went in the freezer. It looks like a lot, but come next year ,it's all gone. The border has been sewn down on the quilt and I'm in the process of sewing the lace on both sides. I can see the end nearing and it is getting time. I'm just getting slightly tired of the whole thing.

Another busy week

2010-07-21T10:21:00.003-04:00

It started on Thursday evening with the Listowel Fair parade. We like to go and watch, since it is a good size parade for the size of town. But this year the weather would not co-operate. Right in the middle of the parade it started to rain, then to pour. But the parade went on! Friday after noon Laurence decided, that we had not seen a play at the Theatre in Blyth and since there were still tickets available we spend an enjoyable evening at the theatre. This brings us to Saturday, the day of the Amish Parochial School Auction. I love going to this sale and each year it is bigger and better. The money raised will be used for their schools. Each year it is on a different farm. This year it was not as close as we are used to, so it took some time to find the place. But once you are close you cannot miss it. It is a good place to meet friends and neighbours. First thing we got was our bidding number. Just to show you how busy it was, we were there by 9 o'clock and we were number 1590.After that Laurence and I split, since we are not interested in the same things. I looked in a few of the tents and watched the local Bernina dealer, quite conservative , trying to sell one of the latest and most expensive embroidery machines to the lady on the right. There was quite a conversation going on. I did not stay around long enough to find out if she made the sale. Next stop was the "Baked Goods" tent. Besides all kind of baking and home made donuts there were hundreds of pies. It was not uncommon to see people walk away with 6,8 or more pies. I guess they freeze alright. It was getting time to walk over to the quilt tent. The first few years, the quilts were sold right outside on a hay wagon, but the last few years there has been a tent. The hay wagon is still there.This year there were 120 quilts, from crib size to king size. This quilt was one of my favorites and brought $700. Most of the quilts are consigned, but at the end of the sale there are quilts that have been donated by the different school districts. The top went for about $700 to $800, but most large quilts sold in the $350 to $500 range. I would have loved to get one, but either the colors or the design did not work for me. I did not last the whole sale. I have never been that hot!. There was a breeze, but only outside. After a lunch of a hamburger, pie and icecream ( you don't think of nutrition) it was time to watch the horse sale. This year there were about 200 horses and ponies. When I came closer I saw this black horse's head, what looked to me like a Frisian. But since there are only a few hunded in the whole country, that was very unlikely. But no, it was a FRISIAN! It was a 5 year old stallion by the name of Piper. He was not there to be sold, but just for show. Later I talked to the owner, who had bought him not that long ago and hoped to use him for breeding purposes. Seeing that horse made my day! By that time Laurence had more than enough and he wanted to go home. That evening he went to the tracor pull in Listowel . I stayed home with the excuse that I had to get food ready for our yearly Sunday School Picnic the next day. You see all these activities and some more beside, took care of most of the week. At times I feel like we are in the tropics right now. The weather is hot and it seems that every few days we have rain or a thunder storm. Laurence is more than ready to start combining the wheat, but it has not been possible. I have a few more pictures, but for some reason I can only upload 4 at a time. The rest will come in a few days.

Pieces of the puzzle

2010-07-14T16:12:00.002-04:00

Finally I'm back in the garden. Even pulling weeds feels good. And there are a lot of weeds. I try to take my time and slowly do a little more each day. The flower beds in front of the house look good with lots color. Around the house there are a few empty spots. Today I bought enough plants to fill those spots with some new perennials. The Zehrs store in town is closing its garden center in a few days, so everything was 50% off. I love taking pictures of flowers and bugs. Just now missed out on a butterfly. I was on the phone and by the time I was done, the butterfly had taken off. Another 14 seam treatments and they are all done. It is hard to come up with something new, so there will be a few repeats in there. At the bottom I want to put this picture of my parents in their Frisian costume.I have a few more pictures I can use, but that will depend on how it all comes together. To finish I needed a background for the border. I wanted black velvet, but had no idea where to get some. Friend Elizabeth to the rescue. She mentioned a good quality velvet by the name of DeBall. I had to do some searching, but found out, that it is used in Scottish costumes. So a call to friend Judy, who is involved with a Scottish festival. From her I got an address in Hamilton. I was lucky. They had some in lay-away, but could spare me one metre. Two days later it was delivered. Now to the lace Next week I will show how I want to put it all together, but I would need at least 10 meters of lace, 1/2 inch wide and preferable old. Here friend Lois came to the rescue. When I told her what I'm looking for she mentioned, that she and her husband were going to Northern Michigan for a few days. They love to go hunting for antiques, so she would keep an eye out for lace. A few days later I got a call. She had found an antique store, that specializes in laces. There she found this card with over 15 meters, never used. It was still on the card. When new it had sold for 10ct a yard. That was the last piece of the puzzle! I figure that by the end of the week the seams are finished and I can start to put some flowers or charms on the block with empty space. It well certainly is nice to have good friends!

Heat wave

2010-07-07T09:47:00.002-04:00

The last few days have been hot,hot,hot. But I was told it is good growing weather. Laurence has this saying of " corn knee-high by the first of July" If the corn is that high it usually means, that we get a crop. The first picture was taken mid June. We have had a lot of rain ,way to much really, during June, but that small field beside the house did well, as you can see. It is knee high. Now let's go to the next picture. That one is taken on July first. You can barely see Laurence 's head behind the corn stalks. And no, I did not sit down on the job.It was taken straight from the edge of the field. Now I have to admit, that not all of our corn is this tall. And our white beans and soybeans have a tougher time. The wheat is coming on fast. Laurence is all in a panic and he has the combine all apart for " preventive maintenance". Last week was a week I rather forget. I found out, that if you are told to take it easy after surgery, you better listen. I seem to have a hard time doing that ,so I had to slow down again. Besides that I had a nasty intestinal bug. Between the two of them I rather forget the week. But I'm on the mend and back to some applique. This morning I gave myself 5 minutes in the garden, pulling some weeds. So far so good. Despite my lack of care the flowers are doing well. My pots look colorfull and seem to be doing well, as long as they get some water in time. I'm lucky to have a hose long enough to get most watering done. I'm still plodding away with my crazy patches. By now 2/3 of the border has been covered. I even managed to get 16 yards of lace for the border. Or not me, a friend ,who loves to go to antique stores found it for me in Northen Michigan. Can't pick it up just yet, since she is on holidays. So it seems that I have everything to pull it all together. All it will take from now is time. And with this weather it is no hardship to sit in a cool room.

Going crazy

2010-06-23T14:14:00.002-04:00

Another pair of socks finished! The yarn is Koygu and I found the pattern on the web. The pattern is called fruitloops and it works up quickly. I'm still banned from gardening and it is getting madning. The weather has been very warm with lots of rain, so everything is growing like crazy. That also means, that there are lots of weeds. One of these days I will be able to pull them all. I did get a few more shrubs planted. On our way back from meeting Jeanette and Tony for brunch on Father's Day we stopped at Terra's. This is not on Laurence's list of favorite places, but after a good meal he was more then willing to endure it this time. We did get another corkscrew hazel. There is one on the home place, but I needed one here. The branches are very usefull for flower arrangements. And I got 2 highbush cranberries. I hope we will see lots of berries in the fall and winter. They were planted just before another rain. Right now I'm working on the border for my crazy quilt blocks. They are foundation pieced on a piece of muslin. Once all the seams have some kind of treatment I will cut the piece out and sew it on a piece of black velour. Right now my plan is to make a 1/2 inch wide strip of dark blue mottled fabric , cut on the bias and sewn double. Sew a strip on each side of the border. Arrange this on the velour and then sew it down on the other side of the strip. I'm looking for about 8 meters of 1/2 inch wide lace, either white or off white to sew then over the dark strip. Then I will cut a hole in the center of the velour for the 4 blocks. It will be a very heavy quilt and it will need extra fabric sewn down on the back. There are 160 pieces in the border and after 60 seams it is getting harder to come up with new ideas.

Back again

2010-06-15T18:48:00.002-04:00

It has been a long time, but surgery took more out of me than I expected. And besides that I got a little bit lazy from all that sitting around. And since I'm expected to take it easy there is not much to talk about. But I'm on the mend and in a few weeks I should be ready to tackle all the jobs that stare me in my face. But I have done some knitting and managed to get these socks done. The pattern is out the the book Sock innovation by Cookie A, my favorite knitting book. The patterns are challenging and fun to figure out. The yarn is by Socks That Rock and the socks are modelled by Jeanette. Next week I should have another pair finished. We have had a lot of rain and some hot weather, so everything is growing fast, including the weeds. Not being able to do any gardening is frustrating. The roses are doing great, despite my lack of care. Last year this climber did not even have one rose. I pruned it back in the spring that time. This year I let it be and there are roses galore. Besides knitting I have been doing a lot of reading. I love reading, but I'm getting to the point, where I a little less would be fine. And as you can see I did not forget about quilting. With all this extra time on my hands I decided, that it was finally time to finish my crazy block quilt. I had been making one block a year and have just finished the last block. Since all my "stuff" is all over anyway, I started with the border. I should have pictures next week. I wanted to have a border of black velvet and found just what I needed in Hamilton. I have set myself a daily quota and hope to have the whole quilt done by the end of the summer. I'm getting itchy to start a new landscape. Tomorrow we have our last quilt meeting of the eyar. It is our yearly business meeting, followed by a short program.The 3 members of our guild, who went to Japan will show pictures and our "stash" My part will be the pictures.

Quick update

2010-05-19T07:37:00.002-04:00

First the good news. Riley is back. She ran of during a thunderstorm and was found a few days later. This family looked after her for a few days, then called the dog catcher. He picked her up last Thursday. Since Riley was due for her rabies shot the Vet. Clinic phoned yesterday. I told what had happened here. She mentioned then, that a dog had been found, similar to ours and gave me a phone number. And yes, it was Riley. It really taught us a few lessons.First put all the up to date tags on the dog. Since she never left the place anyway, we just dropped the tags on the desk and then forgot about it. Right now she is wearing her latest tags!!! Second we should have phoned around more and to the right places. But it all ended well. I do not know, when I will post again. I will be out of comission for a week or two. Then I will show you my new socks and crazy quilt block.

Riley

2010-05-12T15:34:00.001-04:00

Not quite 13 years ago we were without a dog. We had lost our dog due to old age.Our neighbours knew that and phoned one day to let us know, that they had just the right puppy for us. I was a little hesitant, but once we had seen the pup it was love at first sight. She was a mixed breed, part golden retriever, part Australian cattle dog.We took her home with us and it has been a faithfull dog on the farm ever since. Right from day one I would take her with me for a walk. First on the sideroad with no traffic so she could run as much as she wanted. She was never much of an inside dog, maybe on the coldest day of the year, but then only for halve an hour or so.She loved to get wet and dirty. Once we moved closer to a very busy road, she had to walk on a leash, but no problem. She never left the property unless I had the leash in my hand. I figured we walked 3km x 5 days x50 weeks is 750 km per year. Do that for at least 12 year and the total is about 9000 km. That's a lot of steps in all kinds of weather. The one thing she was scared of was thunder and lightning. She would try to get as close to the door to the house as possible. On Friday there was a heavy thunderstorm with a lot of rain. When Laurence came home from doing the chores she was in the garage. We usually leave the garage door partially open, so she can come and go as she likes. When I checked on her at bedtime....there was no dog. I called and walked around the house in the rain, but she was nowhere to be found. The next morning we went to the neighbours, but no sign of her.And she has not returned. We have not given up hope completely, but it does not look good. And going for a walk just is not the same by yourself. While working in the back flowerbed I noticed a very upset killdeer. Both mom and pop tried the wounded wing thing and then I saw it. Right on the path, in a little dip were 4 eggs. Since then I have kept an eye out and they are still there. Now that we know the eggs are there, we try to stay away as much as possible. Next week some quiltery things again. The weather has been cold and wet. From a very early year it has turned into a not so early year with no soybeans in the grounds yet.

Back home again

2010-05-05T09:41:00.002-04:00

I'm back home again after a good visit out west. It started with a visit to Shawn and Emily and it turned out to be the right time. Not too nice, so Shawn would be busy in the fields, but also no snow yet. That would come later. On Sunday they dropped me of at my sister-in-law Anne in Calgary. On Monday we visited the Glen Bow museum. I really enjoyed it and will be back. There is way to much to see in one day. Tuesday morning I was dropped of at the Hyatt and in the afternoon I attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Quilt Association, which was short and sweet. The teachers were taken out for supper at a nearby Chinese restaurant after which the show awards for the National Jureid Show were announced. And I'm happty to tell you that both quilts won an honorable mention. "Plain and Fancy", the quilt made and quilted by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and friends won in the bed size category. This one meant a lot to me. To have co-ordinated a quilt with around 100 different quilters from beginners to advanced and then get an award at the National Show is fantastic. This quilt will now go to the quilt committee for the Relief Sale and it will be sold next year. "Oriental Treasures" won in the traditional wallhanging category. Once the awards were handed out, we could go and see the quilts. There were a lot of beatiful quilts, more than in other years. Then my work started. I taught for 4 days, 2 one day and 1 two day workshops. It is always a lot of work to get ready, but in the end it is worth the time and effort. I had great groups,coming from all over the country. And there was a lot of picture taking. Here is my "helper" being very helpful in holding up the sample. Evenings were busy with dinners and entertainment. In between I found time to go to the merchant's mall and I came home with more ribbons and beads. I promised myself to finish the crazy quilt blocks, put a border around it and have it ready for next year's show in London, Ontario. But that will have to wait a few more days. I came home on Sunday and that night we had a good shower. Everything looked so green here.And with all the warm weather the weeds grew like crazy. Beside mowing lawn and weeding the flower beds I will have to start putting my pots together. Maybe later today. We have another nice shower, so no more outside work for today.

Calgary, here I come

2010-04-22T08:36:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow it will be blast-of time. First I will go to Shawn and Emily in Olds for a few days , then to my sister-in-law Anne in Calgary and she will drop me of at Quilt Canada on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon there will be the annual meeting and that evening the official opening of the show. Then I will be teaching from Wednesday till Saturday and on Sunday I come this way again. All my teaching things are packed , now it is a trip to town to make sure, that there is enough here at home for hubby to eat. His aim was to get all the corn planted before I had to leave and he will accomplish that today. Most years we would not have started even. But everything is growing, including these daffodils. This small wallhanging I made a few years ago, using some of my dyed fabrics. It is fused and machine quilted. The crazy patch block is finally finished. Once I decided it had to be done , it did not take that much work. This is number 3, the last one will have to wait till this fall. Then it will be on to the border. As soon as the block was done I cleaned up the room and now I can find most things again. It also means ,that there is nothing on my design wall to be done. I did find some small pieces of vintage Japanese fabric and decided to use them to make a few simple cards. I always seem to need more and even those small scraps are too precious to throw away. But not even one scrap is left over. Yesterday was a very busy day, first with farm stuff and then later a trip to Waterloo. It was our monthly guild meeting and as a guest we had Sylvia Naylor, a fibre artist from Cambridge (www.sylvianaylor.com) Her thread painting is fantastic. I have tried it on a small basis, so I know how much work it is, but to do it on a much larger scale, is incredible. Before I would give it a try, I would have to invest in threads and more threads in all kinds of colors and varieties. I did bring my sewing machine to the dealer to get serviced. I have done a lot, at least for me, of machine work lately and this way the machine will be all tuned up for my next project.

It is official...spring has started

2010-04-14T13:57:00.002-04:00

For Laurence spring starts when the first corn goes in the ground. And this is the day. After lunch he started the first field, almost 2 weeks earlier than ever before. But the ground is ready. We have some rented fields, that have no tile drainage and they can be very hard to get planted, so whenever it is dry, you better be out there and get the job done. This also means that our busy time has started. Out in the flowerbed, the daffodils are blooming. What you cannot see is the lack of crocusses ( see a few weeks ago). Still makes me mad. I have not seen a squirel since. Last year I noticed these small violas. They had taken over the flowerbed and I had a heck of a job to pull most of them out. What I did not realize is, that they will bloom from early spring till the first frost. Now I will keep patches of these flowers around, since they brighten up the whole bed. I just have to make sure to pull the extra's. This last week-end Shawn and Emily came to Ontario. All kinds of activities were planned for the upcoming wedding of Emily's sister. They did come over here on Sunday afternoon and all of us went to see Jeanette and Tony. We had a good visit. I noticed her 2 orchids, a white and a yellow one, in full bloom. Now she barely waters them and forget about fertilizer, but still she is getting these beautiful sprays of flowers. It used to make me jealous.Finally I have one. This orchid was left on the farm when we moved 11/2 years ago. There is sat on the counter in the cold house with no water for over a month. When we had people move in, I took it along home, since it had been my first orchid. All this time it was in a back corner of the office and to my surprise it got a flower spike and look at it now!!! Shows you to never give up and maybe I should back of with the watering and fertilizer. Last Thursday evening I gave a trunk show for the London Friendship Quilters Guild. The next day I did a workshop. They took a lot of pictures and if you like to see me in action you can go to www.lfqg.blogspot.com Not much quilting has been going on. In just over 1 week I will be leaving for Calgary and my time was spend getting everything ready. As of now the kits are organized and the patterns done.I'm getting close with the crazy patch block, but no sigar yet. Only 3 more patches to embroider, but my mind is black right now, so I put it away for a few days. Wait for some new inspiration.

Busy,busy, busy

2010-04-08T11:03:00.002-04:00

The next few weeks will be very busy. In 2 weeks I will be going to Calgary, first to visit Shawn and Emily and then it is on the Quilt Canada. The 2 entries in the NJS have been shipped, so that is one less worry. Now it is on to getting the kits and patterns ready. Yesterday I spend time in Elmira to make all my copies and the next step will be to put it all together. This morning I had to get ready for my trip to the London Friendship Quilters Guild, where I will be giving a trunk show tonight and a workshop, small landscapes, tomorrow. Laurence just took the big suitcase down and put it in the back of the car, so everything is in place. I have a list and as I put things in the car, I tick them of. By the time all the ticks are in place, everything should be in the car. Up to now it has worked. I am still working on my crazy patch. I am getting mighty tired of it, but the end is in sight. By this time the table is a big mess. I love to clean it all up, but just 3 more patches to go! Block number 4 will have to wait till the fall. We have had fantastic weather over Easter, warm enough to sit outside. Neighbour Harold, who is in his eighties, loves to tell you about the time ,he was able to seed grain in March. Laurence always thought it would be special to be able to do that. Well, this would have been the year. It was too bad, that the tractor was at the dealers and did not make it back till April. He did seed some spring wheat, but he was 2 days late. Now it is back to cooler and rainy weather. The daffodils are in full bloom and the pansies look great out in the flowerbed. I realize, that we might get some snow yet, but they can handle that. Below you can see my re-blooming Christmas cactus. I bougth it last fall as a very tiny plant. Right now it is in bloom and there are lots of buds. Now it is backto getting kits ready!

Is spring here to stay?

2010-03-31T19:12:00.002-04:00

We have had some gorgeous days and there are more in the forecast. By Saturday we can expect temperatures above 20C.And with the warm weather and the sun I get the urge to get my hands dirty. My begonia's and caladiums are doing fine, but it is way to early for them to be out. And the chance of it staying this nice is close to zero. Today I had my weekly rounds to make to the bank, grocery store, butcher and my favorite Amish place to get the best birdfeed.I stopped at the greenhouse near St. Jacobs , where I have been getting my pansies. And I was lucky. They were open for business and I could buy my usual flat of 48 pansies. On my way home I picked up a big bag/bale of growing medium and I was in business. I'm not scared to set pansies out this early. They can stand some frost and they are close to the house. The wheel barrow came out of storage and the pots were cleaned and I was ready to plant. I planted 3 pots for in my urns and they should be colorfull come Sunday. The rest I will plant in front of the house, but I will wait a few days till they have hardened some. I started to dig in the flowerbed and oh boy, can I feel it! I did finish the top I started in the workshop with Elaine Quehl. I want to machine quilt it, but it will have to wait till after I come back from the National Show in Calgary. That is coming up. I'm getting the 2 quilts that have been accepted, ready for the National Juried Show. They will be send next week. Most of the supplies for my workshops are here, but I have to get busy and put it all together. Still working on the crazy quilt block. It should be finished this time next week. Then I can clean up the table and get ready for my trip to Calgary Last week we had our monthly horticultural meeting. I enjoy going there and meet neighbours and friends. And over the years I have learned a lot. I miss more meetings then I like, but it seems that a lot of guilds have their meetings also on Tuesdays

This time there was a small competition. We were to make an arrangement using one flower. I came up with this one. I cut one of the flowers of my orchids and the rest I found outside.

I love to use corkscrew hazel and red dogwood.

And it still looks as good as when I made it.

Workshop

2010-03-24T10:58:00.002-04:00

Usually I'm giving a workshop, but last Saturday I was able to take a workshop from Elaine Quehl from Ottawa. On Wednesday we had seen her trunk show at the guild and I was looking forward to her workshop.I have made a few wallhanging with fused fabrics, but I wanted to lean more. It was a full house with 20 students The Community Center in Mannheim is bright and airy, just what you need for workshops. I had made up a design before( jack-in-the-pulpits), but once I saw samples and got some more ideas I changed my mind. I wanted something, that would not take too long. Here you see my attempt at making poppies.Elaine is on the right. The top was not quite finished, but as of this morning it has all been fused and now I will have to find the time to quilt it. All in all, a great workshop! I'm trying out some new thread for some of my sashiko workshops. I received 3 different thicknesses of pearl cotton in different colors. I like to make use of my time, so decided to try them out making cards. All 3 have the same cherry blossom pattern. The top one is a #5 pearl cotton and it proved to be too thick. The middle one is a #8 and was just right. The outside is a single strand, the inside a double strand. Both work well. The bottom one is a #12 pearl cotton. To my surprise it worked very well with a double thread. The compay, Valdani Threads, is sending me now a few different colors to try out. They should be here by the beginning of next week. I will keep you updated. There will be some more postcards in the making. For the top 2 cards I used Japanese Doby cloth, for the bottom a piece of silk from a vintage kimono. I'm still working on the crazy patch block, but I realize, that I like to do that in smaller doses. I seem to run out of ideas, but I will persevere.My aim is to have the 4 blocks and a border finished by this time next year.And there is no room to make anything else. All my "stuff" is out and covers the whole table. It also does not help ,that we have had sunny weather. The squirel seems to have caused enough trouble and we have not seen him/her for a while. There are even a few crocusses, that have survived. I planted my begonia's and today the caladium bulbs I bought at Canada Blooms. Both are in pots in front of a sunny window.

Sure sign of spring

2010-03-16T15:10:00.002-04:00

This week I have been working on some of the embellishings. I find it the easiest to start in the center. The blocks are smaller( and won't take as much time) As I work out, I do not have to hold as much of the finished blocks in my hand and they don't get as crumpled. As with the other blocks I did not find the first ones that hard. Lots of ideas, but slowly the ideas will be used up and then it gets harder to come up with new stitches and "stuff" In the meantime I cannot do anything else, since the table is covered completely. Now there will be a break for a few days. Tomorrow there is our guild meeting and then the next day bright and early I will be leaving for Canada Blooms in Toronto. I'm planning on taking my camera along and I hope to find inspiration looking at all the floral arrangments.Then on Saturday I will be taking a workshop with Elaine Quehl. I'm looking forward to it. Remember last week, that picture of the innocent squirel? I did move the bird feeder and did not see the squirel on the deck again. Now, today I found out the reason why. Last fall I planted lots of daffodils and crocusses. When I had a look around this morning I found lots of daffodils sticking up. But in front of the bed I saw a few bulbs and a few green sprigs. Looking closer I saw neat little mounds of bulbs, all with the leaves eaten up. Now I have been gardening for a long time. I have had groundhogs eaten my peas, herds of cows running through my corn or eating my flowers, dogs digging up bulbs,but I never have had problems with a squirel......until now. And all of a sudden she/he/it does't look as cute anymore. I have not decided what the next step will be. I wonder if I stick the bulbs back in the ground, if they would survive till next year. I planted around 10 bulbs together and would't you know, that's how many I find in a heap. Grrrrrrr!

Another project finished

2010-03-10T20:15:00.002-05:00

Last evening I tried to blog, but I could not get anywhere, so let's try again. The quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale this year is done. Size: 60 by 60 inches. Hand appliqued by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and hand quilted by members of the Listowel Mennonite Church. The "big sister" is going to Quilt Canada and will be auctioned of next year. The whole project lasted from October 2008, when I asked if members of the guild would be interested in this project, till now. Around 100 different ladies have worked on the the quilts.And I would say, that it's the average time it took for the quilts I have coordinated. It never has been a speedy process. Now it is on to another longtime project. For 2 winters I have made a crazy quilt block for my "horsy" quilt. This winter there had not been the time up to now. I got all my fabrics out and sewed one block, putting the different laces and sigar silks in as necessary. It went so well, that I also sewed the fourth and last block.( My first plan was to make 12 blocks. After one was finished it was changed to six. After the second block it was down to 4)All 4 have a photo transfer with horses in the center. The fabric has been put away and now there is another mess on the table with buttons, laces, ribbons and you name it. It will be a long time project. Tomorrow and Saturday I will be teaching in Guelph (both workshops are full). Next week Wednesday there will be our Guild meeting, followed the next day by a trip to Toronto for Canada Blooms. I'm looking forward to the day and will take my camera along. I hope to get some ideas for another flower related wall hanging. How about some of my fancy Japanese fabrics with ikebana style flower arrangements? I have another workshop coming up on Saturday March 27th It will be at Quilters Dream in Waterdown ((905-689-3434) and we will be making the pansies. We have had a few beautiful days. Everybody seems to be in a good mood. When I walked this morning with Riley, I got a lot of waves from the passing cars. I cannot see any of the 200 daffodils, we planted last fall yet. What I can see is the mess on the lawn. When we put the geothermal heating system in during December it had started to snow and up to now the ground always was covered by snow. Now the bare ground is visible and it is clear there is a lot of fixing up to do. But I realize that will have to wait till after the planting seeding and spraying .

Side tracked

2010-03-03T11:34:00.002-05:00

This should have been the week to make my next crazy quilt block. But it has not happened. When all the cut-of triangles from last week's post were finished I had some leftover vintage Japanese fabric, too good to throw out. And since I have a few birthdays coming up I decided to make cards with the left overs. And it seems to take just a little longer to make multiple than one, so here are the 6 cards. I put Wonder Under on the back of the scraps and ironed them on a piece of Peltex. Next I made the cherry blossom with sashiko(center,left).The circle with the cherry blossom was machine appliqued over the collage.After that I put another piece of fabric, also with Wonder Under, on the back. The final step was to go around the card with a zigzag stitch.I have enough small pieces to make one more like that.For the others I tried to match the sashiko with the flowers on the fabric. Those circles are hand appliqued to the back fabric and then I stitched the sashiko. Next the fabric is attached to the Peltex. On Sunday I received the quilted "small sister" to the big papercut quilt ,that was quilted here last fall. The large quilt will go to the NJS and will be sold at the Relief Sale next year, but this smaller one will be sold this year. The applique was done by ladies from the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and the quilting by members of the Listowel Mennonite Church. Now it is my turn to put the sleeve, binding and label on. Right now it is laying on the floor in the hall. It has to be squared of and the first step was to wet the borders. The borders can be manipulated somewhat and I hope that by the time everything is dry the mitered corners will be straight. The final size will be about 60 inches. There was a question about the cut-of triangles I talked about last week. For each triangle I sewed the pieces together by machine and then basted the turned over edges by hand. Whatever I had in mind to do with them did not work. I will have to go back to the drawing board. When I have decided they will have to be sewn together by hand also, either on another piece of fabric or all together with little set-in triangles. No matter what it will be a lot of work.

Which project?

2010-02-24T13:43:00.002-05:00

Last week I mentiond, that I had 3 projects I could work on and I would have to choose one of them.I get the most done if I work on one project at a time.The first one here is in the mother's flower garden pattern. Each summer I have one day, where I decide to dye some fabric. By the end of the day all the colors look so great, that I find it a shame to use them and I put it all away in a drawer. When I needed some handy work for on my long trip to Japan, I finally decided, that the day had come to cut into some these fabrics. I had no idea that there were so many. I cut and basted and took the little baggies on my trip, but I never even looked at them. Once home again I appliqued them together in the evenings, while watching t.v. And this will be the grand total for a while. This is not my chosen project. I have collected Japanese fabrics for a while. Here also I would look at them and in the drawer they would go again. At the Tokyo quilt show I bought a book byKuroha Shizuko. In this book I found a pattern shape that looks like a cut -of triangle. While in Japan I bought some more vintage fabrics and now it was time to use some of them. The idea I have right now is a "strippy" quilt with 5 vertical stripes, 2 with these shapes and 3 with a simple pieced patterns, all in very dark blues. Over those strips I will do applique, maybe some flower arrangements. But this one also, is not the chosen one. Next up will be the third crazy block of my horsey quilt. During the last 2 winters I have made a block and I really should make another one. As soon as everything has been put in their place I will get all my "stuff" out and get going.

One job done!

2010-02-18T10:34:00.002-05:00

This morning I sewed the sleeve on this quilt, while Laurence cut a dowel to the right size. Yesterday I had bought some 20 lb weight fishing line, so we were all ready to go and hang the quilt in it's designated spot. The hardest part was to get it straight. Fishing line is very slippery ! But we managed and it looks good. When I lived in Holland I never knew that there was something called a quilt.Then a few years ago there was a big quilt show at the Friesian Museum in Leeuwarden. I bought the catalogue and in it I found this Friesian quilt, dated from 1775 to 1800. Most of the fabrics used were the chintzes, or glazed cottons. These were and are still used in the different costumes of the time. I had a collection of reproduction fabrics from De Haan and Wagemakers in Amsterdam and now I had found the project to use them in. Included also is the fabric my mother bought for a Hindeloper costume. When she realized she would not get it done, I received the fabric. And there is a small piece of her Friesian costume. I have been complaining about the machine quilting and I'm very glad it is over. Hanging on the wall it does not look bad. ( at least from afar) I still have some fabric left and it will be used for my next crazy patch. To get limbered up I also quilted 2 smaller pieces. They were appliqued a few years ago and I never got around to the quilting. The fabric in the center came with the animals and flowers on it. This made it very easy to do the rest. All it took was about 8 small pieces and I had a landscape. Now it is on to the next project. I have 3 in the planning stages, one hand piecing, one machine piecing with Japanese fabric and a crazy patch.Next week I will show you the winner. In a little over a week I will be going to the Norfolk County Quilters Guild. On March 1st I will be teaching the "Sunflower" workshop. On March 2nd I will teach beginning sashiko in the morning and give a trunkshow in the afternoon. Got to go! I cannot miss the ladies speed skating at the Olympics

Still winter

2010-02-10T10:10:00.002-05:00

Outside it is cold, white and windy. Winter is far from over and we have not had the amount of snow we get most years. Saturday afternoon Anja, a neighbour, who took last fall a photography course with me, phoned. It was a beautiful , cold, but sunny day, just right for taking pictures she thought. We ended up going to the Elora Gorge. We took a path along the river and were able to take some nice pictures. By the time we were back at the car, we were chilled to our bones,but some hot chocolate at the local Tim Hortons warmed us right up. We will do this again. Going with somebody else is way more fun, that going out by yourself. Outside it is cold, but inside it is nice and warm. Some of my orchids are in bloom and it makes the room look all spring like. Laurence claims, that this is all due to his"mis" management while I was in Japan. I don't really care, the main thing is that they are blooming. All these orchids are blooming for the second or third time. There are 6 more with buds and they should be in bloom in the coming weeks. The cattleya gives of a very nice fragrance to me or "that smell" to Laurence. The amarillis I bought last fall. I usually put the finished bulbs in the garden over summer and pot them up in the fall again. But last year I did not have much success, so I had to buy a new one. On the quilt front. I'm still machine quilting and it still is tough to do. I have made progress and hope to finish this step by the end of the week. I have some new projects lined up, using some of my Japanese fabric. Now I have to consider how much time I want to spend on a new project. What I have in mind, might take a year or more. I just don't know if I'm that dedicated right now. Maybe just go for some smaller projects. When I looked for an older quilt I found this one. I must have made it around 1995 or 1996. It does not have a label. I never label my quilts, except if they go to a show. I always thought I could easily remember, when I made then. Well it just is not that easy and I will have to change my ways. This quilt was made for my father. I asked my mother to get me some neckties from family and friends in Holland. I did the same in Ontario and this quilt was the result. My parents had this quilt hanging in their bedroom and after my mother passed away I took it home with me Now the good part. When I picked up the quilt I noticed a piece of paper pinned to the back. And here was a list of all the necktie owners. Sadly most of them are not with us anymore. That made me think, that I should smarten up and start labeling my quilts., even a piece of paper would do is better than nothing!

Indigo

2010-02-03T15:15:00.002-05:00

One special exhibit at the Quilt Festival was this area, where you could learn about indigo, from how it was grown ( the plant is part of the nettle family) ,harvest to how it was used. I could not understand anything of the explanation, but the pictures on the wall did the trick. On the right you can see bags ( I think made out of hemp)with the indigo, ready for use. On the table is the dye pot. All around were samples dyed with indigo. And no gloves for this man during demonstrations. When I saw him the next morning during breakfast he was very recognizable. His hands were still blue! One of our stops a few days previous was in Yuki City,where we visited Tsumugi-no-Sato. There we experienced traditional Japanese weaving and we could practice dyeing with natural indigo. We were taught how to get our white hanky ready for shibori dyeing.The first step was to copy a pattern for shibori on the fabric. Next we were shown how to stitch this pattern and pull it very tight. Once we were ready for the dye pot we were supplied with boots, aprons and gloves. The more times you dipped the fabric in the pot, the darker it got. Mine is not very dark, because it was very hard on my poor back. Once our group was finished we switched to the weaving looms. By the time we had our 30 cm of weaving, we had a good look around the small store, where you could buy beautiful garments and fabric. When we were ready to leave we each got our hanky in a plastic bag with orders to let it dry till the next morning before cutting the strings. This visit was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Back to the quilt show. In the same area as the indigo demonstrations was a collection of quilts by Kuroha Shizuko. She used almost all traditional indigo blue fabrics. She also had a book you could buy and at certain times of the day, she would sign books. The book was very good and the drawings of the patterns were good enough to follow without being able to read the book. I bought a copy of the book and here you see her signing my copy. When not busy signing books she would give an ungoing demonstration. Now it is back to reality for me. This week I started to machine quilt a large wall hanging and it is not going well. It seems that every time I finish a project I also forget how hard it is on my back and shoulders. This time I will not forget! It is just not worth all the agony and pain. I have tried different chairs, and positions but nothing seems to make a difference. But I will muddle onwards!

Tokyo International Quilt Festival

2010-01-26T16:40:00.003-05:00

I have been home just over a week now and things have settled down. Most of my new fabric has been washed and ironed and is ready to be put away. And with me, winter has returned. It is snowing right now and Laurence hopes it will continue for as long as it takes to get enough snow,so he can go out on his snow mobile. Today I would like to give you some thoughts about the quilt show. When we arrived a halve hour before the opening at the Tokyo Dome, there were people lined up all around the stadium and a large area in front of the Dome was filling up fast. Thousands of people were standing in line. Once the doors opened promptly at 10 the line moved fast and we were inside by 10.30. The Dome is used as a baseball stadium and the show was in the field. You had to walk down to the field.Rubber interlocking mats were put on the floor (reminded me of the mats used in the milking parlors around here) On the right was the show. On the left were the special exibits. All around were the vendor's booths. On Friday I went by myself and "saw" the quilts and made my rounds. On Saturday afternoon it was not quite as busy and Jeanette and I "looked" at the quilts and took pictures. Some observations: It is called the Tokyo International Quilt Show, but I only saw one quilt made by a quilter with a non Japanese name. Most of the quilts were recognizable Japanese, either by color, subject or workmanship. And that workmanship was amazing in most of the quilts, either in quilting, piecing or applique. Almost all of the quilts were hand quilted. That quilting was usually close together and very fine. Some lines were only 1/4 inch apart. There is a lot going on in these quilts. It seems almost that more is better, either in applique or piecing with most of it also done by hand. Sometimes it might have been almost too much for my taste. Most quilts were a fairly large size and there was not one mini in sight. But here are 2 of my favorite quilts. The top one was one of the winners. There is a lot going on in this quilt and you have to see it up close to appreciate it all.It tell a hole story. The second quilt I love. This one is almost too busy, but it seems to work. There is an amazing variety of flowers in every color imaginable. I did get some shopping in. It seemed that the vendors with similar merchandise,each had their own area. I took a good look at the area with the "vintage" fabrics and made some good purchases. What I liked best were the bags with a variety of fabrics for 1000 yen, or about 11 dollars. But finally I realized, that all this STUFF had to be trucked home, so I backed of and from then on enjoyed the show. Later I will show a few more of my favorite quilts.

Back from Japan

2010-01-21T11:16:00.002-05:00

I have been back for a few days and it took me a while to get back in a routine. 13 hours sitting on a plane is a long time! I tried to update my blog yesterday, but Blogger would not upload my pictures. But today it seems to work. I had a wonderful time in Japan. The weather co-operated and we did see a lot of things. I have not gone through my 750 pictures yet, but that will come. And all my fabric purchases are spread out on my sewing table.I have to show them of to Jeanette this coming week-end before I will put them away.Japan is known for its cherry blossoms and I did take a picture of these blossoms on the last day of our tour in an old garden, right beside the Tokyo Dome.This tree was a 4 season cherry tree according to our tour guide. There were not many blossoms in January, but enough to take this picture. On Sunday we took a trip to Mount Fuji and again we were in luck. The weather was beatiful and we had a great view from the visitor center. There was snow on the ground, but it was very mild. Later on in the day, the clouds moved in and when we were on the other side of the mountain it was covered in clouds. There is a lot to tell, but first I have to get everything organized. We had a great group of 16 and a tour guide, who went beyond the call of duty. This picturebelow was taken on a back street in Kyoto. These geishas were coming out of a restaurant after performing a tea ceremony we were told. In the coming weeks I will tell more about this fabulous trip. And yes, we did see the quilts at the quilt show. And those too, were fabulous.

Socks

2010-01-06T13:06:00.002-05:00

When I was about 4 years old I watched my mother knit.By sitting across from her I learned to knit myself, altough backwards to what she was doing. But being somewhat ambidextrous it came easy.And I'm still knitting that way. When Jeanette was 6 she decided she wanted to learn how to knit. I could not help her, but Beppe to the rescue. That summer the whole family went over to Friesland to spend time with my parents. And yes, Jeanette learned how to knit, as you can see on this picture. (This is the first time I scanned a picture and it looks likeI will need some more instruction). Jeanette knitted for a while and then she found other things to do. I kept on knitting till it just got too hard to do. My shoulders could not take it, so I stopped about 15 years ago. Now let us forward till about 5 years ago. Jeanette was finished her education and she wanted something crafty to do, but not quilting! So she started to knit and got just as involved with that then I am with my applique. When I saw the beautiful yarns she had, I got the urge again and decided, that I should start with socks. Before I would go to the Spinrite Outlet Store and buy just any yarn, this time I had Jeanette to lead me. I never knew that there is yarn made out of Alpaca, bamboo, silk, soybean, camel, muskox, you name and it is available. The hardest part was to get knitting needles. I need the long, double pointed ones and I had to get them from Holland. Once that problem was solved I was of to the races. I still have to be careful and will only knit a few rows each day. These are the socks I knitted last year. One pair I send away as a gift. The 2 socks on the left are out of "Socks that rock" wool, my favorite. The designs are by Cookie A, whose designs I love. They are not easy, but worth the trouble.The tiger striped ones and the multi color ones are wool ,that I got on sale. You notice that only 1 grey sock is done. That yarn I received during one of my workshops. It is home spun and has Malamute(dog) hair spun into . The yarn is thicker and the socks bigger, since they will be for Hubby. I just started sock number 2, but it will not get done for a while. I'm almost packed for the big trip. By now I'm really looking forward to it and I can hardly wait. More when I'm back again.

A Christmas tradition

2009-12-31T14:06:00.002-05:00

Since our kids were small we have had this tradition around Christmas time, that I wish would go away. It seems that at least one of us would be sick or have a bad cold around that time. This year was no exception. The Friday before Christmas Jenny noticed swollen glands in her neck. She went to the doctor, who was quite sure it was the mumps Swabs and blood were taken and she was told to stay home, in quarantine ,for the next 9 days or till the samples would come back negative. Christmas eve they came back, possitive. Since we had had the mumps she could come here. Whoever did not have them or did not know, stayed away for the holidays. We all stayed home on Christmas eve,missing the service at church. Christmas Day was quiet, but very good. Grandma and our friends from up north came over and the food disappeared. Boxing Day came and Jenny was again a free woman,so off to the mall she went with Tony and Laurence. I stayed home to clean up .Since the temperature was around freezing it was a good day to put our, very small tree out in its pre-dug hole. In the morning I took the decorations of (the ugly duckling had turned into a lovely swan with all the decorations) In the afternoon the guys took the tree outside and under the watchfull eye of Bernie, the Bernese, planted the tree. We put 2 bales of straw around it and now we hope that it will survive. The papercut quilt has been named. From now on it will be known as "Plain and Fancy" That's the best I could come up with. It has very plain blocks and fancy blocks.I like to enter it in at least one show and the date to enter is coming up. Laurence and I had tried to take pictures outside, but the quilt just about flew away. More help was needed. And that I had on Saterday afternoon. The wind quieted down for about halve an hour and with the sun behind the clouds conditions were just right.

Only one more week and I will be on my way to Japan. I'm looking forward to it more all the time. The yens have been ordered and a long list of things that have to be done, has been made up.

It looks like we will have a very quiet New Year's Eve. Laurence is sick with a cough and a sore throat, so we will not be going anywhere. But to everybody reading this, I wish you a very happy 2010

Of a small tree and a big trip

2009-12-23T18:30:00.002-05:00

Once in a while Laurence insists on getting a real, potted Christmas tree. We have done it before and they all have survived. This year again he made me go with him to Frank's greenhouse on the other side of Listowel for a potted tree. And we were in luck. There were different ones there, even on sale. Now the one thing I do not like is, that they are small.Not enough room to decorate. But we came home with this Colorado Blue struce. Laurence dug a hole right away outside, so after the holidays we can pop it into it's spot. With a few straw bales around it for the rest of the winter and everything should be fine. We put the tree inside this morning and I decorated it later in the afternoon. And yes, I put something around the garbage bag! We also put another smaller quilt up in the hall. The way it is right now I can almost change quilts by myself. This one I made years ago and it is an amarillis in a pot with 3d accents. It has never hug on any wall before. I realize, that it really is a tad small up there, but soon I will be working on the one meant for that place. Here are my Christmas cards I made for this year. I was early and they were all ready at the end of the summer. And now you might wonder, why a Japanese kimono on a Christmas card. Well I have some news. In a little over 2 week I will be going to Japan for 2 weeks. I heard about this trip during Quilt Canada from Sandy Simmelink. She got me in contact with Kathy Nelles, who is the organizer. As soon as I received all the information I signed up. Later at our guild meeting I asked around and Elizabeth decided to come along and later 2 other members decided to join the group. We are going to Kyoto, Nagoya and will end up at the International Quilt Show in Tokyo. But first there is Christmas. Tomorrow evening is the candle light service at our church and it is one of my favorite times. With the church full ,the singing is great. Jeanette and Tony will be here tomorrow and grandma, Tony's parents and some friends will join us for Christmas Day. Shawn and Emily decided this year to stay out in Alberta. They will be here during the coming year for different weddings. To everybody out there reading this, I wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming year.

New heat source

2009-12-16T09:44:00.002-05:00

It is just over a year ago that we moved to this house. It took some getting used to, but I like it very much. Most of all my sewing room. At the farm it used to get very cold in the winter, here it is nice and cosy. What I did not like was the heating system. This big house was heated by electricity. We looked around ( or mostly me) and decided on a geothermal system. And last Thursday, right in the middle of the first snow storm of the year, it was time to start the digging. A small high hoe started digging a trench from the house, around the back of the house to the end of the yard. I had moved some of the perenials, but I could not save all of them and a few of the roses did not make it back into the ground. Out at the edge of the yard a bigger high hoe started to make 3 deep trenches. Each had 2 loops of pipe at the bottom. The 6 loops were hooked up to the loop from the house. The pipes were filled with a mixture of ethanol and water. The heat in the ground will warm up this mixture and that will heat the house. Right now the fellows are hooking up the water heater. This will pre-heat the water to around 40 degrees. As you can see it make a big mess. At the end everything was back filled as much as possible, but with the bad weather and the snow we were getting, it was hard. Friday the furnaces were switched and we did without heat for a day, but right now the new system is working fine. We still have more snow coming down. At least the wind has calmed down.

A few weeks ago I was at the local grocery store and noticed a large group of amarillis bulbs. These had been in boxes and had started to grow in the boxes. The floral department had potted some of them up and they were on sale for 50% off. First I bought one for my mother in law, then went back and found this one with 2 buds. Right now the first stem with 5 blooms is in full bloom with the second one not far behind. Very Christmas like

Ready for pictures

2009-12-09T13:46:00.002-05:00

Once a quilt has been quilted, the work is not done. The next step was to square the quilt. I was thankful that we had managed to get the table tennis table together. That made the job much easier. The final size was 951/2 by 951/2, give or take 1/8 of an inch. I use a long carpenter ruler. That makes it easier to get a straight line for cutting. I have had my share of wobly bindings. Next step: the binding. With this get-up it went fairly fast. I turned the binding to the back and basted it down by hand. Another member of the guild asked if she could do the hand sewing since she did not make it up here for the quilting. This way we can take pictures and the sewing can be done later. Next step was the sleeve. I put a divided, 4 inch sleeve on the back. Some shows ask for a divided sleeve if the quilt is over a certain size. I also put a temporary, narrow strip on the bottom. Just in case it is windy when we take pictures. That way I can put a narrow dowel it to keep it straight. Then this morning: the moment of truth. You never know, how it will look and hang, till it is accually hanging. The ceiling in my quilt room is 8 feet tall, so there was just enough room to hang it on my stand. And it looks great and.....it hangs really, really well for such a large quilt. Let's just say that I'm very happy. A fantastic result with the help of over 100 participants. A real group quilt! There are a few things to do yet. We will have to take a good look at the back in case some stitches have been forgotten and look for loose ends. Now it is time to start writing the Christmas cards and do some baking. I'm not very good at multi tasking. The weather has not been good today. First rain, then snow , a good day to stay inside. A few weeks ago I got lucky at the local grocery store. Right there, in a shopping cart, were 2 orchids. Price: 99 cent each. I had a good look at them and they were healthy. How could I leave those behind. Just in case there is a bug present,they will be by themselves for a few weeks, but I repotted them and they are blooming well. A friend told me once, that orchids seem to breed in the night. Slowly you seem to get more. I had a good laugh, but that seems to be happening here.

The last stitch

2009-12-03T16:08:00.002-05:00

This is what it looked like yesterday morning. We were very close, but all along a small strip had to be quilted yet. Esther, Judy and Kathy came early and were determined that we should get it finished. There was only room for 3 quilters without getting in each others way. So I did not get in the way and let the pro's do the work. By early afternoon they got close, just a few more stitches and then at 2.40 p.m Kathy put the last stitch in the quilt. I'm quite sure there will be some forgotten areas, but I can find those later. And then the moment of truth.Would it look as good as we thought it should after all this work? And yes, it did. The quilting looks just right and looks even better from the plain back Right now I have it on a spare bed, just to get all the wrinkles out. The next step will be to square it and put the binding on . I always take a large quilt to church to do the squaring. I can put 3 or 4 tables together and have lots of room. But son-in-law will get a table tennis table for Christmas and since they do not have room at home it will stay here for the time being. Daughter asked us to buy it (on sale) last week and could we put it together please. What a job!!!First it was awfull heavy for the 2 of us to get it in the box down the stairs. Once there we left till till the quilt was out. So last evening the time had come to put it all together. Let's just say after 21/2 hours and 2 trips to the workshop and 2 sore backs later it was together. I washed the top this morning just to be sure the paint would not come of and now I'm ready to do the job here. The table is not wide enough, but I figure that with the straight edges I will be o.k. Winter must be close. We had a sprinkling of snow this morning, but a minute ago I saw the first snow plow driving past. Looks like winter is on it's way.

It's not all quilting

2009-11-25T15:02:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had 6 ladies here to quilt and a lot got done. Tomorrow another 6 are coming and my wishful thinking is, that by the end of the day we will be finished, or very close to it!

But it was not all quilting. Jeanette gave me a book with sock knitting projects called Sock Innovation by Cookie A. I can use it for a while, but she wants it back.The patterns are not easy, but very interesting. I am working on my second pair from the book, and during our chats around the quilting frame, I found out that a lot of quilters are also knitters! Florence would love to have a copy, and since I am using Jeanette's, I ordered two books.

Carol, Thelma, Shelagh and Florence closely examined the book and my one finished sock. Florence had made a few samples, and in the photo here, the discussion was about some of the knitting patterns.They are a little different, but once you catch on, they are very easy to follow. And yes, a lot of quilting got done, but there will not be a picture of that till the last stitch has been put in!

It’s almost December -- and I found this pansy in the garden! I bought a tray of plants in April, and some of them have bloomed for over 6 months now. And the harvest is finally over: Laurence finished Monday evening at 11 o'clock. Rain was expected, so there was a push on to get it finally over with. The days have since turned to cold and very rainy -- great weather for staying inside and getting some quilting done.

It has been a busy week

2009-11-19T18:01:00.004-05:00

I know this is a day late, but we have been busy. Up until today, the weather was beautiful and the corn harvest was in full swing. Here, the guys are finishing one of the fields. The quality of the corn around here has been very poor this year, and that did not change. The moisture content dropped some with these past several nice days, but today is a different story: it was raining all day. Laurence used the day to fix all the things he did not have time for during combining. But he is ready and hopes for a few more sunny days. Don't forget, we are in an area where we can get snow anytime now! Last year we did have snow by now, and it really did not go away till the spring.

I have been busy with the quilting. On Tuesday, we had a small group, but we got everything lined up for the bigger group today. I did not take a picture, but I hope that by getting 6 people out next week on both Tuesday and Thursday, we can get it almost finished. We all really like what we see.We complain a little at times, when we hit one of the more difficult blocks, but that never lasts long. And some of the centre blocks are very hard to quilt. There are lots of small areas, where you can only do one or two stitches at a time.

Yesterday was our guild meeting. As usual, it was a full day for me. The morning started with getting parts for Laurence, followed by some shopping for gifts. The guild meeting was a lot of fun. The tables were all covered by white table cloths with a cyclamen in the center. Since this was our Christmas meeting, members brought in finger-foods, which we enjoyed while being treated to a fashion show by members. It was a fun and relaxing meeting.

I had to leave early to go to the nose,throat and ear specialist in Stratford. He looked in my ears… and after almost 2 months I'm infection-free -- finally! That evening, I did my trunk show for the guild right in Stratford. They let me do my presentation first, so I could leave in time, and I was home just before 10. It was a fun, but very tiring day.

While getting ready for my trunk show I found this wall hanging I made years ago. My mother-in-law made a full size quilt with this pattern. I liked it and wanted to give it a try. It was fun, but one block was enough for me. I did machine quilt it and then it kind of disappeared under some other quilts. I seem to like it better now and I will put a sleeve on. Then I will find a place to hang it up for a while.

Still more quilting

2009-11-11T17:00:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday, it started to snow in the afternoon and by the next morning it looked like this outside. Riley and I went for a walk and I tried to take some pictures for my photography course. The rest of the class had gone on a field trip Saturday, but since I had to teach I was unable to go. I did manage to take a few pictures I liked, but this is my favourite. The snow did not stay around long, and by the afternoon it was gone.

Then Sunday morning, we woke up to a very foggy dawn.I went outside with my camera before breakfast and took this picture of the sun coming up. An hour later the fog was gone and the sun came out. And we have had sunshine ever since. Laurence has done some more combining,but the crop is still very wet, even with all this sunny weather.

Today was another quilting day. Just like last week, we had another quilt to admire: Clara brought her beautiful Wedding Star, a variation of the Double Wedding Ring. This quilt will be a gift for one of her grand children. But is was not all talk (and eat). A lot of quilting got done, so now I have hopes that the quilting will be finished before Christmas.

Here are Judy, Jeanette, Shelagh, Emily and Clara, hard at work(I must mention that it was a very hard working group!!!) You can see my "throne" in the back. I still do my quilting with the stab method and I'm very slow at it, but every stitch is one that does not have to be done anymore. The two ends are almost completely quilted and we are just about ready to roll again on both sides. Next week, I’m hope to get groups in on Tuesday and Thursday.

Start of winter?

2009-11-05T16:14:00.002-05:00

As you can see, there is still a lot of quilting to do. This was yesterday’s crew, with Judy, Arlene, Eileen, Lois, Emily, Shelagh and Jeanette. At the end of the day, both ends of the quilt could be turned at least once.

Then today there were 6 of us, and by this evening if looks a lot different. Now we will take a break till the middle of next week. When you have this many quilters around you can get in some tight spots. It helps in times like that if you are very flexible, like Judy and Arlene show us here!

Judy showed us her fabric portrait of a Haitian woman. She is taking an on line course with Quilt University and this is her project. She has done a marvellous job, as you can see in the close-up. She had not decided if she would frame this or if she would turn it into a small wall hanging.

Now on the farming front: we have been farming since 1974, and this is one of the worst years we have had for growing corn. First there was the late spring, followed by a non-summer; we had a decent fall, but with an early frost. All our corn is still in the field, really too wet to combine. But today was supposed be the day: Neighbours wanted high moisture corn to fill up their silo's for their dairy cows. So this morning at 6 we were up, but after breakfast it rained just enough to change our plans. For the rest of the day we had rain and sleet for a few minutes followed by sunshine. They did start for a while in the mid-afternoon, but around 5 o'clock it started to snow and right now we have a white world out there.

Needless to say that the supper I had almost ready to take to the field was eaten right here in the kitchen! But the forecast promises a few sunny days ahead. Let's hope they have it right this time!

Things don't always go the way you think they should!

2009-10-29T19:18:00.002-04:00

I have been taking a photography class at night school for the last few weeks. I’m used to taking my pictures on the automatic setting of my Nikon D40 and the first thing we had to do is change it to manual! That started all kinds of new things for me, from aperture to shutter speed. My home work was to take certain pictures on different settings. So Sunday afternoon saw me tramping through our bush.This tree was as colourful as I could find.This year the colors of the trees have not been great.

I did find a few roses at the side of our house: they are not the prettiest, but they give some color. I'm not very good at this manual thing yet, but I did get a few things figured out.

Then on Tuesday I could not go to class, because of illness. Last week we started with the quilting -- there is a lot of it, but we’d made a good start, till Tuesday. In the middle of the night I woke up, all dizzy. I could not stand or even sit! A week before, I had been to the doctor with my ear infection, and he’d made an appointment with the specialist for me, that just happened to be on the Wednesday! Laurence managed to get me there. As it turned out, the dizziness had nothing to do with my ear infection, but something floating around in my inner ear. The specialist twisted my head a certain way and almost instantly the dizziness was gone. But not being able to eat or drink much for the previous 2 days had left me weak.

Needless to say, that there has not been any quilting done, but I hope to be back in business by the beginning of next week. Here is a picture of the Monday group, with Margot, Jeanette,Charlotte and Emily.

Ready to quilt

2009-10-23T16:32:00.002-04:00

A quilt top is not a quilt till it has been quilted.

Tuesday was the day to put the "papercut" quilt in the frame for quilting. There is lots of room down here in the basement to set a quilting frame up. Emily and Carol, both very experienced, drove up from Waterloo to help. In just 45 minutes, the quilt was all ready to go.

Wednesday, we had our guild meeting and I made sure I had lots of hand-outs with the directions to our place: today was the first day for quilting. We started of with only the three of us. Better to say two and a half: I have trouble with hand quilting. My back just won't let me do much of it.

This morning, I tried really hard, but did not get much done. In the afternoon, I tried the stab method. By having one hand on top and one on the bottom and stabbing the needle up and down, I managed to get more done with even stitches. So from now on this will be my(very awkward and slow) way.

Here are 2 expert quilters, Carol on the right and Florence on the left. They worked very well together with one being left handed, the other right handed. Tomorrow, I expect 6 ladies to come here. There is a lot of quilting on this quilt, but any less would not look right. Notice the 2 posters behind the quilters? That are two of the quilts done by the guild and the church, both sold at the Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg. The one on the right was finished in 1999, and won an honorable mention in the group category in Houston. It sold in 2000 for $16,000. The one on the left was sold 6 years later. Made by the same groups, this one showed interpretations of the aerial photography by Carl Hiebert. It was purchased by Carl for $11,100. The quilt currently in the frame will be the 6th one to go to the Relief Sale.

The weather has turned again. It is wet and cold. The soybeans have been combined and the winter wheat planted, so we are not in too bad a shape. The corn has to be done yet, but that can wait a week or so. With weather like this, it is kind of cosy quilting downstairs!