Have you ever been to Vanderhoof?

Have you ever even heard of Vanderhoof? Probably not, unless you live in British Columbia. And I bet there are more than a few British Columbians who haven't heard of it either! It is actually a small logging and farming town in the geographical centre of BC, about an hour west of Prince George.

Why I am I rambling about such a small town?!? Because they have two wonderful quilt shops (which are magnitudes better than the shops in Prince George), and I went on a field trip yesterday to check them out.

Here are my lovely finds:

 From the bottom: Sandi Henderson Farmer's Market, MoMo Freebird, an Art Gallery Oval Dot (oh, so soft), Kona Cotton "Tomato", a Kaffe Fassett Dot, Heather Bailey Bijoux and Amy Butler Belle.

 A lovely Corduroy (bottom) and a Michael Miller print for a skirt for my daughter.

 

And some gorgeous Kate Spain "12 Days of Christmas" for a Christmas Table runner.

It was a great day and it was wonderful to see vibrant Quilt Shops in such a small town. I wish I could say the same for Prince George.

Have a great Saturday and happy sewing. 

We're having a baby!

Yup, #3 is on his or her way! I wonder which of these beautiful fabrics I'll get to cut up???

Another slight for Canada....

Oh, why, oh, why do people (or one creative, artistic, wonderful person in particular) insist on "NO INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING"????

I am so sad to be missing out on this year's sale. I would adore a Heather Ross Scrap Pack or a small piece of artwork. Have fun all my American friends...

Just to fuel my heartbreak, here's a shot of my loot from last year! Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Nothing like a deadline to make me finish a quilt!

I finally got the last of the buttons sewed on my little doll quilt this morning. Of course, today is the deadline to ship internationally, and I am going to make it, whew. (So there is a little hint...this quilt is not going to Canada).

I meant to get it finished yesterday but after pricking three tiny little holes in three of my fingers while sewing buttons, I thought I should take a bit of a break before finishing. Perhaps I should use a thimble???

This little quilt gave me lots of troubles. I designed it with borders because I thought Cathedral Windows were tricky, but it turns out that actually, it was the math for the borders that gave me the most trouble. And then a terrible ironing incident (imagine brown yucky water spewing out all over my beautiful pristine white fabric) caused some of the reds to bleed. Thankfully the kind folks on flickr helped to solve the problem...I just picked out the offending piece and sewed in a new one. Why couldn't I think of that???

Overall, I am pretty happy with this quilt. Again, I am hoping the Flea Market Fancy Effect will prevent my partner from looking at the flaws. Like the fact that the borders are not square (at all) and there is still a bit of bleeding in one of the yellow bouquet windows.

Here is the back of the quilt. As you can see the middle square isn't quilted...I had planned to bring the thread through from the buttons to have a tied effect, but it just looked funny. I'm assuming my partner won't want to wash it so I hope it is okay. You understand, right partner???

I also made my partner a little bag from a tutorial over at Pink Penguin. Isn't it cute? I love free tutorials....

I am so thankful that I finished this quilt (and in time for the mailing deadline no less). Now I can just sit back and wait for my own package. I love this swap!

A Quick Tote Bag...

I've been working madly on my Doll Quilt, but I managed to whip up this quick tote bag this weekend. My mom is coming today for a week (I am so excited) and her friend is picking her up on Friday for a road trip. My mom's friend makes my kids the most beautiful hand knitted socks...and not just one or two...I get packages in the mail all of the time with a couple of pairs each. They are gorgeous (yes, I am jealous of my kids' socks). So I owe her. Big time.

I thought a nice bag, filled with some goodies would be a good start at saying thank you. I used this great tutorial over on Moda Bake Shop. But as you can see, I used scraps instead of a charm pack.

I'm also really working on getting projects completed...I had a great message from Rebecca about setting small goals, deadlines and keeping track. Rebecca just had a baby girl so pop over and say congratulations. And while you are there check out her fabulous sleep sack. I love it!

I also made some yummy jam...I ran out of raspberries so I added some blueberries and it is a refreshing change from plain old raspberry. Isn't wonderful when things work out even though they are different than your original plan?

Have a wonderful Monday. I'll be back soon with photos of my finished Doll Quilt.

Doll Quilt Update

One of the reasons that I shouldn't start new projects right now (other than of course that I never actually finish my projects) is that I have a few obligations to complete first.

One of the most pressing is my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 10.  I've had my plan in place for quite a while, but I needed the courage to actually get going on it. Of course, the deadline didn't hurt either.

(Sorry for this awful photo...I really need to work on my lighting!)

I'm going for the FMF effect here. Blind my partner with Flea Market Fancy, and hopefully she/he won't notice the flaws in the construction of the quilt. I think my partner will love both the FMF and the cathedral window design. I used this tutorial. (Here is part two). I also read this great post/tutorial that has tons of great suggestions on how to make a cathedral windows block. 

I'm counting on using buttons like in this pillow to hide where my points don't match up.

I think the trickiest part was actually folding the fabric but now that I'm at the sewing stage it seems to be going pretty fast. I love how the white gives some separation to all those bright prints. It also makes a difference what kind of fabric you use for the background. I bought some very soft Japanese cotton from my LQS because I loved the feel of it, but I think it is just too soft for this pattern to get a nice, crisp fold. Perhaps good old Kona Cotton would have been a better choice. I know for next time (if there is a next time!) Wouldn't this pattern be beautiful to showcase some of my favourite Heather Ross prints?!?

Thanks for all your great comments on the price of fabric from the last post. It seems folks in NZ have it much worse than us Canadians. But I'm impressed with how many of you work to support local shops.

Happy Sewing!

Fabric Finds...

I always stop at the Jasper quilt shop on my way to Edmonton. It works out beautifully...my husband takes the kids to the playground and I spend too much money on fabric. The shop has a great mix of fabrics including lots of 30's reproductions, wilderness fabrics (they are in Jasper National Park after all) and every time I go there is a bigger and better selection of beautiful contemporary fabric.

This is what I came home with:

• 1 FQ of Heather Ross Mermaids
• 4 FQs of Light Blue American Jane Pez (I cleaned the store right out!)
• 1 metre of Tula Pink Flutterby Ladybugs
• Unfortunately, I left all of the Nicey Jane and Hope Valley in the shop. (Believe me, it took terrible constraint)

I'm sure that for most of you, seeing this kind of fabric in a real, live, quilt shop is pretty common place. But I live pretty much smack-dab-in-the-middle of British Columbia, Canada and I am surrounded by Thimbleberries, batiks and dusty rose. I never get to actually see the fabric that I buy until my order arrives at my mailbox. So I feel like a kid in a candy store when the opportunity actually presents itself.

But the thing that gets me most is the darn prices of fabric in Canada. I bought the above lovelies because I know they are almost impossible to find on-line and I LOVE them, but they were all at least $18/metre. $18 per metre...isn't that disgusting?!? No wonder I buy my fabric online. I don't know how people afford to quilt/sew in Canada.

Okay, end of rant. Sorry. Especially to those of you in the US. Please enjoy your low fabric prices. Now I'm off to sew...I think my little darlings are finally asleep (is it really 9pm already?) and my husband is off watching UFC. I must get caught up on my all of my bee commitments.

Have a great weekend! Happy Sewing.