BOXING DAY
All over for another year ! Up early on Christmas morning, croissants for breakfast and nice cup of tea. We opened our gifts and then got the dogs ready for our hike (more details below). Mid afternoon Rob and I went to Kathy and Wayne’s for Christmas lunch. Sandy and John were there as well. Plenty of delicious food to eat, Rob’s favourite was the homemade apple pie of course. The wine flowed and we had a very nice time.
Excercise
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Travels
Excercise
Sewing
HO HO HO
TRAVELS
Exercise
Quilting
More New Crafts
I am trying to stay on top of my quilting projects but also expand my horizons with other crafts. I am sure it will help me with the art side of craft.
My beading supplies arrived so I was able to try my first lessons. The explanations and diagrams were really clear.
looking forward to the next lesson. I posted a comment on Quiltvile’s quips and snips about having too many projects and no deadlines to motivate me and she very kindly emailed me some sage advice. So after months of just looking at it, I loaded my blue and white quilt onto the frame.
I am doing a very dense design in the white parts using Qbot and then a light freehand design in the blue parts. Its going to take a lot of hours but it will feel good to finally get it finished.
While the Qbot parts are stitching, I have been doing some work on the Pineapple Blossom quilt from Bonnie’s class. It uses up some of my scrap fabric. There are more squares to add and I will also add sashing.
Something else I tried this week was drawing zentangles, they are a lot of fun and for someone who is very drawing challenged, this is a good outlet for my need to create.
Tuesday I had a class on creating a table runner based on cotton theory quilting method. I took the class at Quilters Attic and was really pleased to be able to get so far that I was able to finish it when I got home. Its reversible and I am really pleased with it. It has great texture to it, I feel inspired to get out one of my other UFO’s which is the Charleston Quilt from cotton theory 2. That one has been a long time in the cupboard.
Thursday DH and I went down to New York City for the day, we took the train to Penn station and our first port of call was a huge photography store to lust after all the great stuff. we then went off to walk the latest stage of the high line that has been opened to the public. It’s an old train line that used to run about 30ft above the ground and it has been converted to a great garden area with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view. it gives you a different perspective on the city and is well worth the visit.
After a nice lunch we went to Moods fabrics (of Project Runway fame) it is such an amazing place and even DH was impressed by the range of fabric that they had in there. Even more surprising was when DH pointed out that Mundo the runner up from last years project runway was standing at the counter, not bad for a man who had no interest in the show !
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Finished my Rug
Rug hooking is a lot of fun and very restful, well certainly at the level of designs I am working with and this will be something I can do in the truck when we are hauling the RV on one of our trips. I am a terrible passenger and can drive my DH nuts when we are, in my eyes, hurtling to an early death on the highway ( he just calls it driving). Anyway regardless of whose point of view is correct, if I am not looking out of the windows, it makes for a more peaceful trip for both of us. I am looking forward to starting another one.
Wednesday I was reading things on the Internet and came across this website www.joggles.com I had a look at their class schedule and took a fancy to the bead embroidery class. I like crazy patch quilts so I could embellish those but I also like small hand stitched projects and beads could add some pizazz to those as well.
So I have signed up and ordered my supplies. Lesson one was on Thursday, I have read it through and it is very clear and easy to follow, just need to wait for the supplies to arrive before I am able to try out the techniques.
I am sitting here with so many projects I should be getting on with but with no time pressure it is difficult for me to pick one and get on with it. This is not helped by the fact I know I have plenty that have been UFO’s for long enough and they should be my first port of call. I commented to this effect on http://quiltville.blogspot.com and Bonnie very kindly sent me an email with some sage advice, which I will try and follow. I will let you know how it goes on
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July – Road Trip
I had a an unexpected break from work (next contract is delayed) and so we packed up the RV and headed off to Kennebunk Maine. the weather was perfect and Maine allows dogs on the beach up till 9am so we were up with the larks every morning and off to the beach. I made myself lots of little quilting packs to keep busy in my spare time and was able to get the Majestic Majesties quilt top from my Bonnie Hunter class finished.
I took a trip to Freeport and visited Cotton Weeds quilt shop, very nice shop well stocked, great range and friendly. I bought some hand stitching items and a pattern.
I found a rug hooking shop in Kennebunkport but did not buy anything as I need to know how to do it first ( although 3 days and 200miles later, I got an email from my local wool shop White Barn Farm offering a beginners class in hooking) ah well!
In Kennebunk there was a small quilt shop and so I bought a few fat qtrs just to show willing.
We also went to see a few of the lighthouses in the area and made sure we had our fair share of lobster rolls.
We were also lucky to see a Osprey nesting in the harbour at Portland – beautiful
After 5 days we headed up to Bar Harbor area (picture at the top of blog) plenty of hiking, more lobster and another quilting shop, Sewing by the Sea in Trenton.
another 7 days then off to Gorham New Hampshire, hiking in the White Mountains plus a drive up the auto route on Mount Washington.
We went out one evening and spent 2 hours looking for Moose on a stretch of road that we were assured was a guaranteed sighting. No luck but we were at least rewarded with a great sunset
On another scenic drive DH pulled in for diesel and low and behold there was a quilt shop across the road, I think it was called Pinestead and it was in Lancaster and they had 40% off sale, yippee !
We drove back home last Thursday and on Friday I finished off my autumn table topper, I am going to be teaching this at the local quilt shop (Quilters Attic in Pine Bush) in a few weeks time. It will teach piecing in the hoop, appliqué and quilt as you go.
Saturday I was off to the wool shop for my rug hooking lesson, great fun, we used yarn as it is an easier way to learn the basic techniques. The teacher was really good and allowed us to choose our own designs. I decided on a chicken and I am sure this is going to be a craft I will be doing more of.
Today I had fun playing with my photo’s in Photoshop Elements and then printed out one on my lighthouse shots onto fabric and created this little coffee mug rug. I saw a posting on the small quilts yahoo group on a quick way to make pinwheels and I was really pleased with how these turned out
For those of you that are more interested in the travel part of the blog, there are a lot more details and pictures on the lynneusa.blogspot.com
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Catching Up …. again
it is so easy to loose the habit and then you end up always blogging about stuff that happened ages ago.
So here is my catch up and I will try and update it more often. Lets finish off the Baltimore trip, lots of good food and fun mixed in with the work and I sense a theme with the restaurants there. Here is a picture from the outside of Cafe Hon yet another Elvis.
This weekend I finished hand knotting the afghan I embroidered for a friends wedding, I used designs from Janet Sansom they stitch out so well, I love them.
Saturday morning I went to Quilters Attic, I spent the morning in a 5D software training class and the afternoon in a class making the Suzi purse insert, I finished a large and a medium.
Very cute. I will use them to store quilting supplies in my basket. I was able to finish 2 more blocks for my PB & J quilting Bee.
I went running with Gil twice this weekend, 4 miles on Friday and 3 on Sunday morning and then last but not least I stitched out another Janet Sansom design as a centre for a decorative pillow
Looking forward to this week, couple of dinners with friends and wedding on Friday.
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Warwick Winery and Baltimore
Saturday started with some very British weather, overcast and dreary, wet without actually raining. We decided to take our quarterly hike to Sams club and bought huge packs of household “stuff” . The rest of the day I spent working on a flannel disappearing nine patch quilt. I used huge squares 6 X 6 the idea is you make a standard nine patch then cut it into quarters and twist them around and sew them back together. I really like the effect it gives.
It looks very different from the standard 9 patch. Sunday we went off to Warwick Winery in Pine Island for live music, great food and for DH and friends some good wine ( i am driving to Baltimore so no alcohol for me)
If you live in this area I strongly urge you to check it out – it is such a fun day. Of course it was made even better for us as we were enjoying the company of very good friends.
So 3.30 I left everyone still having fun at the winery and started by drive to Baltimore, arrived there about 8.30 after a stop at the dairy queen 🙂 The drive was pretty good and seems I was lucky as there had been a massive storm in Baltimore only a few hours earlier. Hotel is fine and I brought my new Babylock light weight machine in the hope that I get to do some piecing.
Monday arrived at the office bright and breezy and had a really productive day, went out to dinner in the evening with Gale and she took me to a very good Mexican in the Canton area of Baltimore. Its looks quite an artsy area
The restaurant was very good although I was surprised that their theme would be Elvis – I guess there is a good back story there? Any way great company, good food and a very nice house margarita.
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Oh Gourd!
We are preparing for very high temperatures today and keeping indoors as much as possible.
This time last year we were on our road trip, part of which was a one week visit to Lancaster PA. We were camped right in the middle of the Amish community and one of our purchases was a hand painted gourd which we have hung in the garden. Obviously we are not the only ones to like the gourd as we have a pair of birds that have taken up residence. We are hoping they will lay eggs and we can watch the babies grow.
This morning one of the many deer was feeling braver than normal and came really close looking for something to eat. The dogs were so surprised they just sat and stared out of the window while the deer took its time.
The past two evenings I have been trying to catch up on my BOM Patriots in Petticoats. I am off to Baltimore next week with work so I thought I could cut them ready then sew next week while at the hotel. They are very complex blocks though and I have spent hours cutting pieces that are small and measured in eighths. Tomorrow is forecast to hit the high 90″s
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