Time out

Well after my last fiasco with the buckeyes I took a well deserved rest from the beauties. I know what your thinking and no it will not become a UFO. It will be the only quilt that I have made that will fit my bed and I am looking forward to having it on my bed. I have been pondering what type of border I will use on the quilt. I just don't know anyone with suggestions send me a post.
I actually spent the last few days outside in this beautiful weather we are having. The sunshine is melting the snow very quickly so my only concern is I hope my septic field doesnt flood. the basement in which we normally have trouble is nice and dry. The highway people were out flushing the culverts so the water will flow . but the melt water well it started creeping into my yard again. If I had a newer house that had the ground built up this wouldn't be a problem. but in comparison to the house 2 doors down me and my neighbor gets his water runoff. I can't wait until this weekend . I signed up for 2 classes one Saturday and one sunday. I think I will have to get a materials list since I I haven't gotten one yet. One my todo list today is one swap block and putting together my blocks for a row robing so i can send it off . I will see how much i will manage since well its beautiful outside again today. But since the lighting is so great I might get some sewing done . I promised myself that I will do at least 15 minutes and I want to set up my embroidary machine to do a few tea towels for gifts. Have a great day folks......

buckeyes and bastings

Well last night I went to a satelite group of Manitoba Prairie Quilters. Its at Little Brittian Church. Well I was inspired yesterday to actually begin the finish of a quilt. I had pieced the flannel backing to an adequate size and hauled everything with me to the hall. I had previously used basting spray but for the life of me could not find it, but the pins, they were there waiting to make my fingertips raw. Someone had already had the tables set up for basting so I just had to wait my turn. That was my evening bent over tables pinning my quilt. It took me an hour and a half but hey its done and now I can machine quilt it. This will be another full day exercise in rolling and tucking and shifting under my machine to get it to do what I want with it. The only question that I have is what color thread do I use. this is an extremely scrappy quilt. I do not want it to be biege. but what if any varigated color would I use. The back is easy it is beige. and I have enough thread for that.
Today I continued to make buckeye beauty blocks. I had them all set out on top of my bed in order to sew and make a pleasing arrangement of colours. I had finished the blocks Yippee.
That was short lived as something evil possessed the blocks and they either grew to larger than 12.5 inches or shrunk to 11.5 inches. The first row was very easily put together no headaches matching seams. Then it all changed. first two blocks easy , next block shrunk . It was a very pretty block. but I cannot make it grow. I switched the blocks around and carried on with making the rows. Row three made me mad no matter how many times I frogged the block aftersewing it, It would sit still until it got under the needle and my seam allowance would be a millimeter to half an inch . AAAAAAAA. Tossing those 2 blocks aside I went and rearranged the blocks another time. Next Row the third block was to big. Now I know I could have cut it down but it would have made the squares, rectangles and squares and I couldn't do it. As this pattern of sewing and swearing continued I ended up with blocks that will be very nice throw pillows or a table runner something else anyway and I now have to make another 7 blocks.
Maybe tomorrow I think I am done sewing for today.

How did this all start

Dancing sounds innocent enough. My mother decided that we needed to find out about our native heritage. Dancing was the first step in my journey into my heritage. When I was sixteen my mom said Lynn there is a Powwow in Sandy Bay on Saturday lets go. okay I foolishly said. Next thing I know my mom drops yards of fabric beside me on the couch. you and your sisters need dance outfits then and We have to make them before Friday night. ( We ,meaning me) This began a longstanding tradition of being Voluntold to do some sewing for my mom. It also became the start of my STASH. My grandmothers were great enough to keep me out of trouble by showing my how to sew, now it was time to do something with it. Quilting just kind of evolved from doing dance regalia. My youngest sister Leanne was just a preschooler and years of dance outfits required. My mother stuck her in every kind of dance class, Clogging, square dancing, tap and jazz. and of course Powwow. Every time my mother came home with something for me to sew. Crinolines. I hated doing crinolines. Full skirts to swirl, sequins to add to a tap skirt, and then came the Shawls. Ladies Fancy Dance was the style of dance we all learned. The ladies wore shawls.

No this isn't one of my sisters Its just an example of the style of dance regalia that I have sewn. Then my mother asked for lone star shawl for my sister. I didn't know making lone stars was supposed to be hard I just did it. I of course went okay just buy me a rotary cutter and a mat. Buy this time I was collecting Quilters Newsletter and Quiltmaker and the rotary cutter was changing the way we pieced quilts. No more stupid little templates. We went out picked up the biggest mat I could find and a rotary cutter and all the fabric. . That was it. one lonestar shawl 10 hours of sewing and cutting and one shawl. After I woke up I went and purchased a good iron. Next thing I know I am hip deep in making lone star blankets for my family and others for native ceremonies.

Buy this time my baby sister was 16 and I have been sewing her regalia for years. Every year it seemed like my mother collected kids (she was a foster mom for 27 kids) and got them into dancing powwow, and I had sewn for everyone of them. I even spent a few years teaching mothers how to make their children's regalia for a dance troupe. Even I couldn't sew for 20 or so kids. My house was full of color and ribbons of every color yarn and shiny sparkly material. My mother feeding my fabric addiction because she always had things for me to sew and she made me crazy with what she wanted me to sew. I am the one that in a sewing emergancy ,could whip up what you needed last minute. Years of my mother going "We need 5 dance outfits by 11:00 tomorrow morning and I said you would do it", made me crazy, but fast, and really good at improvising.

I had bags of shiny colourful material scraps from all those dance outfits, these all went into crazy quilts . I was determined to embroider. My mother did it wonderful work. She didn't sew but she could embroider. My pitiful attempts .... French not.

My mother passed away from Breast Cancer on Sept 13, 2006. Part of this story is in remembrance of her and how she made me crazy and how all this started.

Lost in the big city

Well today I went for a ride to winnipeg. As most cities goes it isn't so big. Not completely horrible to drive in except when I am driving. Off I go to meet Linda at Fabricland inthe southend of the city after spending 15 -20 minutes getting directions to find it off I go with the hopes of a fun afternoon. I am cruising down pembina and what theres Futureshop damn i missed the parking lot for Fabricland. So I parked in the next buildings lot behind the fabricland . I spend the next hour or so fondling fabrics and looking for green fabrics .( Previous comments on greens earlier) Well there were a few greens there Linda was finding them for me. Thankyou by the way, but they were setting off my yuck detectors. I stated I am not a biege person. I also am not a green person. and the fabrics were all so so so .... anyway I didn't buy any green but I did leave with a couple of florals to practice thread painting. So now we are going to go have coffee or tea at tims. I have a memory problem... She said Dakota after ST Marys. I remembered St. Marys. next thing i know i have totally missed the turn onto Bishop Grandin and am still heading towards the university. U turn at the next place I can to get back heading in the correct direction. Meanwhile I lost Linda she was in the correct lane and I assumed she took the right turn off. . Anyway I pull up to St marys I turn and now I am going into St Vital Mall Parking lot. I don't go there don't like shopping there don't like parking there and I see no Tims. I figure well I will just go inside and phone Linda and get her to come save me. as I am cutting through the lot I hear honking. Its Linda I am saved. I see her laughing at me and she motions for me to follow her which I think I should have done in the first place. What saved me is that you can see me coming and going ...I have a bright Yellow and I mean SUNSHINE YELLOW Focus. I think she ended up following me to save me from myself
I finally made it to Tims. had a fun conversation. I think we made the man next to us nervous he left kinda quickly. I had fun . I missed my husbands lunch break but oh well. Sh*t happens.
I have to leave my house more often .

Well these are a few of the buckeye beauties that I had recieved from a swap. The colour scheme was autumn with biege TOT. I signed up for 3 sets of 4. So I only purchased the TOT biege. I didn't own beige. the rest of the autumn colors I got from my stash. I also fiqured out that I am sadly lacking in blues and greens. Its funny how you gravitate towards certain colours. I have a number of wines burgandys and reds, a fair bit of oranges and more than my share of purples. I have complained before that I am not a biege person. I go into a LQS and I will inevitably pick up a few reds and oranges.

It a compulsion I am an obsessive compulsive fabric purchaser. What if that fabric isn't there when I figure out how to use it? how much should I buy. With this swap with some of my favorite colours I added to my fabric palette in block formation. Patterns that I haven't seen before. Only one fabric piece in a block was the same that I have in my stash. I even used it my blocks for the exchange maybe they are having the same thoughts as me... scary

Actually I figured out that I have to make 18 more blocks (four down) to make a coverlet for my king size bed that I bought by mistake. How can you buy a king sizebed by mistake you ask? Let me tell you its actually pretty easy if you have my brain. all the right circumstances have to be perfect the stars have to be aligned just right. and you have to have a memory like a colonder.

We have/had a queen in the bedroom makes it real cozy . now I haven't had much of a brain since my mothers passing so little thing go unnoticed by me on a regular basis add a lot of confusion since we were moving furniture out of my mothers house and her friends apartment (who I bought the bed from) One demanding sister and confusion with movers 3 times. Its real easy for your mind to wander off farther than you think. Now I had only seen the bed in passing once. it was beautiful was all that I could remember. and I agreed to buy it I thought it was Queen sized which I knew fit in my bedroom. I got to mothers friends apartment realized I already paid for it and it was KING sized. Well I went home and started to move stuff around. it was gonna be real tight. I had to confess. Dearest Darling Husband Can you take the closet out of the room because the bed that is coming tomorrow won't fit otherwise.

Ladies and gents what do you think Freud would say about my bed?

And oh yeah size does matter.

depression sucks

Somedays it is hard to get out of bed. specially if i get up and I am faced with mounds upon mounds of unsorted fabric. Its all washed but its not folded or ironed or placed in color order. My husband was in a snit about all my fabric .... I told him "I NEED A SEWING ROOM NOW"
We have c0me to an agreement .... we spend one weekend on a room start to finish new lighting insulation drywall new window , closet space voila. A room to place my bins, in the closet of course with the exception of the stuff I am working on. Unfortunately I usually have at least 4 or 5 things going on so I don't get bored or frustrated. Today I spent the day working on blocks for a Buckeyed beauty quilt and cutting 2.5 inch strips from stash. I have enough for a lap quilt but I figure I can attack my stash and make it even bigger. 12 of the blocks I got in a swap that was fun. I realized that my stash has changed I had been purchasing brights and colorful materials as opposed to the relaxed autumn colors. I think the next thing I will cut out will be brights so I can make a black and bright quilt, but i have to finish another log cabin first. No pictures this time .... I am embarassed of the stash sty that I have made...I am going back to bed.