Paul's potholders ROCK!

Ta DA! Look at these amazing pot holders made by Paul from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! Aren't they AMAZING? I am yelling because I am just so thrilled with them!

Not only did Paul outdo himself with the pot holders, he also sent along COASTERS made with the same incredible material!




















The quilting on them was quite phenomenal! My Mother-in-law was with me when I opened my package and she lost her mind when she saw the pot holders and coasters! You should have heard the pair of us!














I'm from the prairies, how did Paul know? I love the wheat print! My Dad was a flour miller and he worked for the mill that made Sunny Boy Cereal. Have you heard of it? We have a retro Sunny Boy poster in our kitchen, so these will fit in quite nicely.

Can you believe how perfect they match my bowl set?

What can I say? I'm so tickled with my pot holders, the colours, the quilting  but especially by Paul's generosity. So I say to you Paul, Thank you, thank you so much! These are so appreciated!

Well, she also had her own snowmobile but that wouldn't have been as inviting on our front porch.

 

Yes, there is snow lying on the ground right now but I have been thinking about these photos from the summer. I'm not longing for the dog days of summer... I got a call from my Dad's wife yesterday and I knew as soon as I saw the name something was up.

This is an awesome bell! They just don't make them like this anymore. Since the bell on my bike broke, and this bike is only for show, I've relocated  the bell to my bike.

  
My Grandma, who is all set to celebrate her 90th birthday on the 14th of December, has taken a turn for the worse and is the hospital. She has been weaving in and out of my thoughts, which led me to these photo's I took this summer.

My Dad as a kid, slapped a Norton sticker on my Grandma's bike for her. I guess since my Grandpa had a real Norton motorbike it only made sense to my dad that Grandma should have one too!

   
This was my Grandma's bike and it sits lovingly on our front porch to greet people. It isn't fancy and I think it was my Grandpa that gave it the spiffy new paint-in-a-can spray job.














I wish I could say I knew my Grandma really well when I was growing up but I didn't. It wasn't from not being around her, it's just that my Grandpa had a very big personality which seemed to take up the room with his stories.

And my Favourite, the mud flap! My handy dandy Grandpa  made sure her bike had one!

 
My Grandma has always been kind of a mystery to me and I feel like this bike is a bit of a clue to who she was. She happily road behind my Grandpa on his motorbike starting in the 40's and well into the 80's but this was her bike and her bike alone.

***

Sadly, I just found out before I posted this that my Grandma has passed away. I take comfort in imagining her and Grandpa driving off on their big old big motorbike for the ultimate road trip!

Tis the season of the craft fair!

Craft fair time is upon us, yet again. I've been busy in the studio building, playing and concocting all kinds of treats for an upcoming craft fair that I annually participate in, in North Vancouver. My friend Linda Sharp hosts this craft fair and it's always filled with inspiring people and great holiday finds!The craft fair is November 11th-13th (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

"LIFE WILL SHOWER HAPPINESS UPON YOU"

Photo's by Raeanne Schachter (also known as Raeanne Fabulous, because she really is!)

I have been working on three kinds of pendants. You can see one style of pendant in the above pictures. All three styles feature fortunes embedded in resin. The above style is a cast silver bezel. The backs have lucky numbers hammered in the silver! Ooooh Aaaah!














I'm also doing a few different types of cards this year. I'm doing singles and packs of  regular cards but I'm also branching out into cards that have magnetic fortunes on them (that will be interchangeable with pendent  necklaces or your refrigerator ;). Ooooh Aaaah!




















And of course every year I do soap, which happens to be the perfect stocking stuffer!

Packed and all ready to go!

If you are interested in stopping by North Vancouver for the craft fair, send me an email and I will send you the address.

Or if you live near me and see something you like (or you want to see more stuff in person) and you don't think you'll make it out to North Vancouver, send me an email and we can arrange a private showing!

Thanks for stopping by!

...in bed?

My husband and I started collecting fortunes from fortune cookies years ago. Every time he reads a fortune he adds "...in bed" to the end of every saying. For example:

"YOU AND YOUR PARTNER WILL BE HAPPY IN YOUR LIFE TOGETHER"...in bed

or

"WEDNESDAY IS THE DAY TO MAKE YOUR MOVE"...in bed

You get the idea. 

Needless to say we have collected a great many fortunes and keep them all in a jar. For me, they have become an inspiration for an on going theme in my work, so it seemed only natural to make some fortune cookie quilts!

Off the Quilt! Sheesh!

Those little orange feet in the upper right corner look innocent enough don't they...

HEY! I'm working here! No respect, I tell ya! lol!

I'm getting close to finishing my Robert Kaufman Kona Challenge. This is part of one side. I just need to add another 45" of the purple navy to other side of the letters (on the side the cat is heading towards). The letters will be offset to the left side of the quilt, not straight down the centre.

I've got all the letters done for the back, (or front depending which side suits your fancy) I just need to decide how I'm going to arrange them, then sew them all together, sandwich, quilt and bind. That's all! Phew!

I have to admit, I'm pleased with how the letters came together. Pretty good for winging it, if I do say so myself!

Cheers, thanks for stopping by!

A recorded Message

I can't come to the blog right now, (I've been swallowed up by my scraps from the RK Kona Charm Pack Challenge!) Please leave a message and I'll blog you back (as soon as I've found my way out!)
Cheers!

Peek!

So, I finally took the plunge and cut my Charm Pack, from the Robert Kaufman Kona Challenge! The first cut was pretty hard but now the fabric is just a flyin! And I am having SO MUCH FUN! I just had to show off a little peek of what the blocks are starting to look like.Unfortunately, I won't have my full quilt done for next week's Fraser Valley Quilt Guild meeting but I will have my tops done! I say tops because I really don't know which will be the top of the quilt. I guess it will be reversible depending on our mood and the season. It's also going to be a biggun!

But shhhhh! My lips are sealed until next week, for the full reveal. Cheers!

Back to the Drawing Board

The Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild is participating in Robert Kaufman's charm pack challenge. Our quilts are due at our upcoming October meeting. Hopefully they will be completed but if not, at least our quilt top needs to be finished. The Challenge is to make a quilt with every colour in the Charm pack (no matter how small each piece is). We can add fabric but only solid colours.




















I've had my Charm pack, a lovely stack of 12cm by 12cm fabric in every Kona colour you can imagine, for a couple of weeks now. For someone that gets ga-ga about fabric, I was even surprised at how much I loved looking at this little stack. I would even go as far as to say it made me giddy! I tried to describe how exciting this was to my interior design friend. I told her it is like getting a can of paint for every colour in one of her colour swatch books! Her eyes lit up as she nodded dreamily and I knew she understood.













Even though I knew right away what I wanted to do for the challenge,  I had to draw the stack first and savour these little yummy pieces of fabric... before I start (GULP) cutting into them!

Now what will the quilt look like? I'll keep you posted! Cheers!

Harvest Time

 I made this quilt for my father in law back in April when he officially became a senior.  He LOVES his John Deere tractor and since he has come to my rescue with it on more than one gardening occasion, I thought he deserved something extra special.

My husband and I are from Alberta but moved out to Vancouver in the early '90's and I guess as a reaction to that move a lot of my work has reflected where we are from.









 



 

I had a hard time adjusting to the west coast landscape and was homesick for open horizons and big blue skies. Don't get me wrong,We love the west coast and love living here which is why we never moved back but there is something special about the place you grow up in.


















When we were expecting our first son, it seemed only natural that we added a few John Deere accents to the baby's yellow and soft green room. I made a John Deere changing pad, covered a few pillows here, acquired  a John Deere lamp and it snow balled from there. Then the blankets and fabric started rolling in, we became the John Deere people. People would see something in John Deere and  they would pick it up for us. So for years I kept accumulating this fabric and what was I going to do with it all, so this was the perfect project!


















This part of the quilt is from the changing pad I made for the babies room but, now that our son is 11, I didn't think he'd mind much that I cut it up. Lots of the other John Deere fabric was used on the back of the quilt.

I just love how quilts crinkle after they have been washed!

Sewing the lines in the sky was super fun to do.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I had each of his grandchildren do a bit of sewing on the quilt, just to make it extra special!

Mr John Deere, tickled pink! Or should I say green?

Psst... pass it on!

It seemed not that long ago I was driving away singing "Schoooooool's out for Suuuummaarr!!"
but as all good things, summer has come to an end and it's back to school time!

This summer I was inspired to make this quillow (yes, the quillow, I'm bringing it back baby!) by my son who had just finished grade 5. Ahhh... Grade 5, the switch from "Girls are gross!" to "Do you think I should ask her out?"  This of course is usually done by the passing of a note, in which you have to check box: (A) for yes or box (B) for no.










 














 

What do you think?

Check box (A) for yes I like

or

Check box (B) for no I don't like

Visiting the LA Modern Quilt Guild

I'm not sure why, but when we were coming up to the summer I thought "this will be great I'll have way more time to blog". Clearly that hasn't been the case.

Anyhoo, let me tell you about my visit the the LA Modern Quilt Guild back in June. Actually let me tell you about it from the perspective of the two guys who were waiting for me as I attended the meeting. The "official" post about my visit to the LA Modern Guild is posted on the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild site.

This is Ty, also sometimes referred to as "Captain Awesome!" He works with my husband and is an all around good guy. He has become a close family friend and he did the graphics for my blog :) It's a dark photo, I know, but this is Ty patiently waiting outside to pick me up from the meeting. My husband is the photographer and sometimes instigator.

When I called my husband to tell him I was done and ready to be picked up he said they were no where near Sew Modern and were on their way over. Little did I know they were actually standing right in front of the store! So while I was wrapping up saying thank you's and good bye's, Ty got an idea or was it a dare? I'm not really sure...

Ty revved himself up, and away he went, right in front of the Sew Modern Window, exactly as you see in the photo below. I at the time was chatting with a few ladies who looked over their shoulder and suggested someone was wanting some attention. I swallowed hard and said, "actually, that's my ride". Luckily the LA Guild, who have awesome quilts also have an awesome sense of humour!

Yup, it's all about me!

Howdy folks, it's been a while! What can I say I've been on the road. Earlier this month I had a chance to visit the LA Modern Quilt Guild and met Alissa and Latifah... the very two who started the Modern Quilt Guild! If you haven't heard of modern quilting or modern quilt guilds they are popping up all over the world. This last September I started a modern quilt guild chapter, with my good friend Cynthia (who I had just met), in the Fraser Valley. I love to say "chapter" because it makes us sound like bikers! When I was down in LA I took a whack of pictures, but... I'm not quite done tweaking all the photos (stay tuned!). So, I thought I'd cheat and borrow a post from our quilt guild! You see, each month I send out 21 questions to a member of our guild. Our members can nominate a friend or themselves but usually they are too shy, which means I just have to pick someone. Last month I was talking to Cynthia about who we should ask and she turned to me and said , "how about we do you?".  Stunned I thought and answered,  "Um, o k a y?" So here is a little about me!

Mind if I call you "Honey Bun?"

As all good things, the show at the Sernidipi Tea House has come to an end, BUT... I was invited back for next year (yay!) AND... the drawings are now going up for adoption at Favourite unique gifts and accessories, at the Quay in North Vancouver!

This will come in handy when your playing quilting trivia: A honey bun is not only something sticky to eat, it's also pre-cut fabric in narrow strips!

I saw this honey bun and just had to have it. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it now that I've drawn it! Oh well, buying it to draw it was good enough justification. Hey I know, do any crafty people out there have suggestions what I could do with it?

How NOT to write a blog post!

The Culprit! titled "Quietly she waited for her name to be called on the Polka Dot Door"

Last week I wrote this whole blog post about four of the drawings I'm showing at the Serendipi Tea House and asked my husband to check it over for me, as he often does. The blog post talked about my favourite titled drawing of the show called, "Quietly she waited for her name to be called on the Polka Dot Door." Witty and cute right? Then I proceeded to talk about a conversation my friend Sue and I had about enduring watching the Polka Dot Door. We'd both watch because the host at the end of the show would hold up a magic mirror and would say the names of the kids watching. They never called our names, two fairly common names of the seventies, Sue and Lysa (I figured if they said Lisa, that would mean me too). Oddly enough I couldn't find a link on YouTube to that part in the show but I did find the theme song, so good enough! Time to have Chris, my editor, have a peek at the post. He takes a quick look and calls me back:

"... um, you know the Polka Dot Door?"

"Ya?"

"They never had a magic mirror."

"Wha? Ya they did."

"No Romper Room did. I just looked it up on YouTube. You've got the wrong show."

in a teeny tiny voice "Embarrassing!!!"

Especially since I've had my show, with the titles for my drawings, up for four weeks now.

Which bring us back to present day. Determined to save this blog post I promptly sat down, this rainy Monday morning, to edit... oh wait, I didn't save the original post! Super!

... and that's how NOT to write a blog post!

Titled "Little stack of fabric-blue and green"

A detail of the drawing above.

Titled " Little stack of fabric-purple and orange"

Gingham fabric added to the sides.

"An Ode to Kitty Yoshida"