What I've been up to

So Christmas has come and gone and we had a great holiday. Driving across Canada is an adventure. I saw my first moose and a white headed eagle on the side of the road! I also got a great picture of Lake Superior at sunset; I'll have to post that.

Since we've been back I've been looking for a job, no luck yet on that but I have until the end of March so I won't panic just yet.

I've also been fixing up my sewing room, which will now be called my Girly Room/Studio ;O) I didn't want to invest too much money in this so I used some leftover paints we had and bought a can of oups! paint (the one they sell for 1/4 of the regular price at the hardware store because the colour didn't turn out right)and mixed my own colours. I am very happy with the results.


Here are a few pictures some with the flash and some with the overhead lights on.






I still need to make the curtains, cover my ironing board and cork board and put up my batting for my design wall. That coral took six coats to hide the darn aliens but it was SO worth it.

I love this room because of the colour but also because it cost close to nothing, I bought one gallon of bright oups! pink for 10$ and one small can of new Golden Starfish yellow for 10$. I mixed the pink with some leftover orange to get the coral colour, the yellow with some leftover white and the peach I made using the leftover coral and some more leftover white.

I already had the small shelves and brackets so I bought 2 more sets of brackets and 2 more shelves for about 15$ so I would have 6 instead of 4. In the closet we used the panel from the old IKEA armoire that was falling apart and a set of 3 brackets for 4$.

This last picture is a close up of my spice rack. My dad made it years ago and I've had it for at least 15 years, I had always used it in the kitchen but I have no room for it here so I painted it turquoise and now it's my knickknack storage. I need to buy some baby food the empty jars fit perfectly in there.



Have a great day
Danielle xox

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Please read about it here: Bloggers Unit

Oh Boy! I'm in trouble.

Anna Maria has done it again.

Wouldn't you know she would come out with another, fantastic absolutly
amazine line right in the middle of my fabric diet! And I was doing so well...

Go take a look. I dare you not to feel like a child at the carnival. Try not to smell the popcorn and cotton candy, or imagine the jugglers and fire breathers. I dare you!

Anna Maria Horner: Good Gracious!#links#links

Have a great day
Danielle

P.S. Please excuse the spelling, my spell check is somehow set to french and I don't know how to change it.

I can't believe I'm done!!! Well almost...

I have got to be the biggest procrastinator in the universe. If I'm not under pressure nothing gets done. So that's why I still cannot believe I actually have all my Christmas machine sewing done, or at least it will be by 11pm tonight.

You see my sweetheart decided last July that he was not taking a summer holiday, so that he could get 3 weeks of at Christmas in order to drive to Quebec, and visit our family and friends we haven't seen in over a year. Now if you have ever been to Canada you know that this is a BIG country. You also know that it is a COLD country. Here in Cold Lake that means it can often go down to -45 degrees Celsius (I'm thinking that's well under zero Fahrenheit). So driving 2600 miles in the hearth of winter is no small thing. In order to arrive in time for the holidays and have a few days to rest before the festivities begin we are leaving tomorrow.

Now it's hard enough for me to get my act together before December 24th but take away 5 days and it become almost impossible. Please forget that I knew since July and that I had a very good idea by the end of September as to what I wanted to make. Please don't take into account that I had more than enough fabric to make 10 times as many gifts as I wanted to make and did not need to shop for anything. Nope, being me, I started sewing on December 5th when my son gleefully announced that there were only 2 weeks left before we left for vacation...

But I made it! All I have left to do is the hand finishing, which should occupy me during the next 4 days on the road.

Behold the Emelines:

I made 5 but couldn't show the last one so as not to ruin a surprise...

The baby girl quilt:

I sew the top to a piece of batting and quilted it in what my son calls a "cornered spiral", before attaching the dark purple minky. That way it is thick and fluffy and can be put on the floor for the baby to roll on :O)

The baby boy quilt:

Same here, bathing, quilted in strait lines and then attached dark brown minky. No walking foot by the way, my old White machine is fantastic! I plan to hand quilt around the creatures with embroydery thread during the drive.

The little girl tote bag:

I love, love, love Freshcut. In the back pocket is a not to perfect pencil roll, I made this without a patern and will have to rework this if I ever make one again because the markers I put in there keep falling out :O(

Not shown is my Mom's tote bag because she may be reading this if she hasn't lost my blog address again (Hi mom :O)) I will post pictures of it after Christmas. Also not shown are the 2 little boy tots that are being assembled while not on coffee/blog brake.

It's 3:30 pm right now and I am heading back to my sewing room. I will have more than enough time to finish sewing the binding onto the baby boy quilt and to finish assembling the little boy totes.

And tonight, while my sweetheart is busy running last minutes errands and my son finishes vacuuming the house, I will pour myself a DiSarono on the rocks and raise my glass to the procrastinators of the world. May all their Christmas sewing be done on time!


Cheers and the very best Christmas.
Danielle

The Jester Quilt & Why Are All my Pictures Yellow?

One of the reasons my posts are few and fare appart is due to my pictures. I know the camera is not the problem, it has to do with lighting but I stile havn't figured out how to solve this. My best bet would probably be to take the pictures outside in natural light but I'm not sure how to set this up. I will work on this because yellow pictures: Yish!

Anyhoo this is another top I've finished and have added to the "Gotto Quilt" pile. I have named it the Jester quilt. Here it is on my high teck design wall which consists of a 108 wide piece of batting my bunny Maya nibbled in a few places rendering it unusable for a quilt. Tacked to the wall it's perfect for designing and I can't imagine myself putting my unassembled blocks on the floor, with the bunny and dog hair it would ruin them, so Maya actualy did me a favor of sorts...

The fabric is Symphony by Sentimental Studios and the pattern is Jelly Diamonds by Fig Tree Quilts. This picture was taken with the flash, it's not yellow but I it's stile does not do the fabrics justice.

I love this pattern. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and it goes together very fast. I did not put in the setting triangles because 1) the fabric I had just did play well with the rest and 2) I like the points, they give the top a carnival feel. I am considering adding tasles to the top and bottom points once it is quilted and bound.

Their is some majore streching on one side. All the pieces are bias and my seam allowances are not all the same so the edges got warped when I put the whole thing together. Hopefuly I will figure out a way to fix this and then I can quilt it. Stile I am happy with the results. Except for one or 2, all my points are lined up which make me very proud.

I consider this one a practice run because I intend to make a bigger version of this for my bedroom, I love the fabrics so much. So this will either be a lap quilt or go on the wall.

Have to get back to my Christmas sewing. I'll post some pictures in a few days.
See you soon
Danielle

Thank You

I feel such pride and such hope this morning. Thank you neighbors.

Finished Boy Quilt Top

So I do sew. In fact I've been pretty busy working on my X-mas gift list. This proves there may be hope for me yet because I usually never think about X-mas gifts until the 15th of December!

This is the last top I finished. There was another one before this but I don't have a picture yet, I will take one later today and post it tomorrow along with pictures of my current project, but I digress...


I started this one last March. I had all the fabric cut and the strips assembled into pairs. I made it from fat quarters but initially it was a jelly roll pattern (Gridlock from Pieces From My Heart by Sandy Gervais) The fabric is also by Sandy, from two lines, Fall Back in Time and Mix & Mingle.
My first intention was to make this as part of a his & hers set for our bedroom but then I changed my mind completely about the colors and so this will probably be for my son once it is quilted. It's a little bit biger then twin size.

More pictures tomorrow. Till then I leave you with 2 pictures my son took of me and my helper Mickey. He is great for moral support and for scattering bits of thread all over the house :O) Notice the aliens on the wall? This was a little boy room before we bought the house, haven't decided what colors I want in here yet.