Quilts: fueled by Swiss Chocolate

I know - - I'm an idiot.  Like I need more fabric.  But I saw a photo on Quiltville Open Studio facebook page yesterday of a finished Kim Diehl design called "Sprigs & Twigs" and I just knew I had to make one.  I looked all over online for a quilt kit, because I'm really bad at choosing fabric "on purpose" - I'm more of a fabric "finder" than a "shopper".  But first...I had to find the pattern.  (Hey - there are some free Kim Diehl pattens on the Henry Glass website!)

I thought I would spend tomorrow running around SW Ontario looking for "Simple Appeal", but started today with a trip to Elmira's "Quilter's Nine Patch" (it's open Sundays, but closed on Mondays).  WHOOP! WHOOP!  They had the book in stock!

On the way home, Hubby and I stopped in St. Jacob's at Picard's Peanuts briefly, and laid in a small supply of quilting fuel.  mmmmmmmm....chocolate!

I've put together my Leader & Ender project: Split Nine Patch.  I'm piecing together dark four-patches for borders.  I imagine I should have them done by the end of this week.  I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with this - - I love it a whole lot!

Adventures 3

About two weeks ago, Hubby and I stayed a little closer to home for our weekend adventure.  We had initially thought about doing an overnight shopping trip to Niagara, but once I paid the balance of my fall tuition...well, let's just say I didn't feel as excited about a shopping trip!

We've only lived in the Waterloo Region for a little more than a year, and continue to learn more about our new hometown.

A few weeks ago, I read a charming article in the newspaper about a restaurant in Waterloo called "The Harmony Lunch".  I added a visit there to my mental to-do list, and this was our first stop:

Have you ever had a hamburger that is pork instead of beef? It was delicious, and the restaurant was charming.  I would have liked to have taken some photos - the scarred wooden floor, the hat rack, the telephone booth, the old soda fountain.  I don't think a thing has changed in here since The Depression.  

I had read in yesterday's newspaper about a log cabin in a park in Waterloo. I'd never visited this park before, so we enjoyed a little walk through it.

The autumn leaves are already falling, and it's only August.

And here is the log school house!  There was a wedding party doing a photo shoot next to the building.  I imagine there is a real feeling of nostalgic connection to this house built by the original Mennonite settlers in Waterloo.  The wedding party may have even been descendants!

And the last stop in the afternoon was to the recently opened Apollo Cinema.  We were able to snag a Groupon deal that included tickets for 2 plus popcorn and drinks for $15.  We saw "Mr. Holmes".  Neat theatre!  Even regular admission is cheaper than the big cinemas, and it's licensed, so you can order a craft beer or a cider or a glass of wine at the concession stand.  There's even tables in front of the lounge-y seats!

Adventures 2

We had such an enjoyable time a few weeks ago on our adventures to Calendon and the cidery, that another adventure was called for the next Saturday.  This time we headed north towards Owen Sound.

The aim of our day trip was to combine a couple of tours: The Grey County Waterfall Tour and The Saints & Sinners Bootlegger Run.  It was a lovely combination of stunning natural beauty, and tasty visits to craft brewers and cideries.  We by no means were able to hit more than a handful of the stops, but that only means that we will just have to go back!  There's another tour I'm interested in taking in that same area, perhaps later this fall: The Apple Pie Trail.



First stop - breakfast in Durham



Inglis Falls near Owen Sound



Whenever possible - we must check out every music store or pawn shop to check out the guitars.  I guess this makes up for the forced stops at every fabric store.

Neustadt Springs Brewery - the oldest operating brewery in Canada.

Hoity Toity Cellars near Mildmay, where we sampled a number of ciders, and brought home a couple of bottles to enjoy.

After a full day of driving, we met my sister and her husband in Elmira for dinner at The Crossroads.  They had been on their own day long adventure, near our neck of the woods.  I was sure to hand over any literature about our trip, so they could enjoy the sites we visited.

Adventures

Hubby and I have been spending Saturdays just having adventures.  Here's a few photos from our trip a couple of weeks ago.

Being morning people, we were out the door bright and early, and headed to Orangeville, where we selected some fresh produce at the farmer's market and did a little window shopping.  After that, we did some driving through the country roads around Hockley Valley, and the Forks of the Credit.  

Next stop was for lunch at Spirit Tree Cidery in Caledon.  On Saturdays they offer pizza with gourmet toppings baked in their wood fired oven.

And of course....any trip to a cidery warrants the testing a few of their brews.  We each sampled a "short flight" of pear cider, applelager, and draught cider (and brought home a few bottles for enjoying later) on their deck.

Due to some road construction, we had to do a little variance to our route, and passed by the Cheltenham Badlands.  I've never seen anything quite like it!

I'll post photos from our next Saturday adventures soon!

A little thrifting

Not much quilting going on here - - I've been binge watching Downton Abbey this week.

Hubby and I went out to run a few errands, pick up a few groceries....and as long as we were on the road...a little thrifting.

I found this colouring book, and was anxious to learn more about the artist, and the purpose of the book.  As a social worker, I don't--as a rule--do any clinical work, but for a $1 I may find some use for it in my practice.  

Anyway, I learned that this colouring book was created to raise funds for the Stephen Lewis Foundation Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign, to support African women who have lost their own children to the AIDS epidemic and are raising their grandchildren under very difficult circumstances.

I also found this turquoise beaded necklace for $4 -- I have a serious case of like for it.  Hubby doesn't like this photo.  He thinks I look oooooold.  I think he has some sort of filter in his eyes that still sees me as 27.  I'm going to be 46 in less than two weeks.  Heck!  That's almost FIFTY!!!!  He's nuts.  I don't look old.  I look just the right age.

Down time

Working away on sewing HSTs into pairs, and then into Broken Dishes blocks for Jamestown Landing.  I worked on these while watching Quilt-Cam on Sunday afternoon.

It's been a little chilly in my basement sewing room.  I'm used to bare-footing my foot pedal.  I dragged a space heater into the hallway and aimed it into the doorway, but it was hard to moderate the heat - - simply no happy medium between arctic tundra and tropical heat.  I found a piece of carpet to put under my chair, and that helped a bit.  Then Hubby remembered that he had shut the furnace vent in my sewing room - - well golly gee! - - problem solved!

I've read two books in the last three days.  

"When She Woke" is not something I would typically reach for, but it's this month's selection for Book Club, so I had to give it a try.  I picked it up a week earlier, and read the first three or four pages, and thought, "no...I can't read this...".  It's a dystopian novel set in the not-too-distant future, loosely reminiscent of "The Scarlet Letter".  But I picked it up again Sunday and finished it within a day.  

"Kabul Beauty School" had been on my shelf for a number of months.  I had heard of it several years ago - I think I might have seen a news story or a documentary about it?  I'm glad I picked it up - it was very readable!  I will recommend it to my social work practicum students in the future as a lesson (or rather -  many lessons!) in cultural competency. I couldn't put it down.

It was back to work today after a week at home, and I had lofty ambitions to solidify some plans and presentation material for a training event in three weeks.  Ugh...could NOT get into it!  Another half day tomorrow, and then I'm off again until the 5th of January.  

Sunday Checking In

My plans to do some morning sewing in order to get on top of some UFO's is working.  I completed some more blocks for A Grateful Heart.

But this weekend, it was time to work on WHATEVER I WANT!!!  

I made this tote (a pin from Pinterest!) is from a Moda Bake Shop tutorial: Hushabye Tote 

In addition to this tote, I also played around making some blocks to add to the growing piles:

• 18 - 3" nine patches (for a total of 111)
• 10 - 6" crumb blocks
• 6 - 6" split nine patches

On Friday, Hubby and I had a bit of time to go for a bit of a drive.  Two of the stops included Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg, and Quilt Junction in Waterford.  I made a couple of purchases - - but mostly books rather than fabric!  Here's this week's new additions to the stash though.  

I've been drooling over the Tim Holtz fabric for months - and was delighted to come face-to-face with it in Tillsonburg!  I treated myself to a bundle of 10" charms.  They were offering a class of a great pillow using these fabrics - - too far for me to take part, but look as some of these projects on Pinterest.

I also found some solid FQ's in the $2 bin.  I can always find room in my stash for solids.  Moda's Sweet Serenade charm pack and a matching FQ came from Waterford.  I must have been in the mood for "ephemera" type prints that day.

I meant to spend the afternoon working on the next blocks in the Love Blooms Here 6-part series from Quiltmaker magazine.  I had been looking for this issue for nearly two weeks, and finally found it yesterday at the drug store.

Instead, I learned that my great nephew was playing in a basketball tournament in town, so Hubby and I went over and watched a very entertaining and exciting game!

So tonight I'll try to make a start on those Love Blooms Here blocks while I catch this week's episode of Mr. Selfridge on PBS.

Does Anything Feel Better Than a New Blade in Your Rotary Cutter?

There are a millions of small pleasures in this life that we simply need to close our eyes, feel, and savour.  Things like slipping into bed the first time after changing the sheets, baby laughter, correctly picking the fastest moving check-out at the grocery store, a perfectly sharpened pencil, sunlight filtred through autumn leaves, driving on a hilly road and feeling that slight roller-coastery feeling, spying snowdrops after a long winter.

But today I'm thinking that the best feeling experience is slicing through fabric with a brand new blade.

How did you celebrated Worldwide Quilting Day?  Me?  I'm still celebrating!  I have been marathon-ing old episodes of The Quilt Show, which have been available for free all weekend.  It's not too late to catch a couple of episodes -- available until 12 midnight PST tonight.

While I've been watching - I've been taming my stash with Joan Ford's Scrap Therapy method.

I know I've been talking about this for a couple of weeks.  I actually started cutting the other night - - all of my 30s & 40s repros are now sliced up and ready to go - I'm thinking of making the quilt that's on the cover of "Cut the Scraps", which I purchased earlier this week.  It's been tough NOT cutting 2.5" squares - this seems to be a size I do use quite a bit - - so I have to remind myself that I can cut 5" squares into four matching 2.5" squares.

Of course - - this leads to a ton of odd shaped cut offs, which I have been carefully piecing together as per Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 15 Minutes of Play.

This image is "borrowed" from Paula Prass's blog Show & Tell. Scroll down to the bottom of THIS POST LINKED HERE to see how she has her fabric organized.  Quilter porn!!!!

So....I whipped up a batch of homemade spray starch a la Quilting Sheep 

• 2 cups distilled water
• 2 oz vodka
• 6-12 drops of 100% pure essential oil - lavender is nice
• 1/3 cup of liquid starch

I have been using this recipe for about four years.  I can't think of a thing I'd change.  It takes out the toughest wrinkles, and really crisps up tired fabric without flakes or gunking up my iron.

Anyway....back to the piecing - I iron through a stack of fabric, cut it, setting aside the odd shaped cut offs, and when I've got through that stack, I start sewing together the blocks.  So far I have pieced 30 6.5" blocks.  I'm thinking that I might whip up a batch of 8-pointed stars, like the 2nd block of the first row pictured in the book.

Something else that I've been piecing between trimming is this jar full of 3" nine patches created out of CW repros.  I have 93 so far.

I also sorted through all of my strings, and divided them into colour families.  Inspired by a couple of quilts in Bonnie Hunter's String Fling book - - I'm feeling like I might start piecing some string blocks too.  I don't have a project in mind, but if I start by just doing neutral blocks in a usable size (maybe 8.5"?) then something is sure to come to me.

I've also been working on my "Leader/Ender" Scrappy Split Nine Patch blocks - I'm working on my 10th block right now.

 Let's talk about tea.  

I gave up coffee about three months ago.  This was a HUGE deal, because I am an enormous fanatic about my coffee.  Due to some tummy issues, I was forced to quit coffee to cut back on the caffeine.  So I switched to tea.  I don't drink my tea very strong, and despite all the urban legends, tea does have about 1/3 the caffeine of coffee.  I figured I was good.  Nope.  I saw my nutritionist about a month ago, and she insisted the tea had to go - - or switch to decaf.

Oh my gaaaawwwd!  After some initial stubbornness (spell check insists there are 2 'n's in stubbornness - that just looks weird, but I digress) - -  I resisted the urge to toss myself on the floor kicking and screaming like a 3 year old at the grocery store who is denied a Kinder Egg - -   and grudgingly agreed to give it a try.

Now before you add a comment about try this herbal or that fancy schmancy flavour - - I have to tell you, I hate all tea except good old fashioned Orange Pekoe.  I'm not so much of a snob that I have to insist on a brand - - whatever is on sale and I have a coupon for is perfect.

I tried Red Rose Orange Pekoe Decaf first.  (Remember that commercial?  "Only in Canada, hey?  Pity!")

Terrible - - I had to use two bags to brew one cup, and that's pretty bad for me: a person who doesn't enjoy a strong cup of tea.  A box of 80 bags was only slightly cheaper than Tetley (which was my next trial).  But if you're Canadian and feeling nostalgic, enjoy the commercial, and check out the photos of the Wade figurines that came in boxes of tea in the 60's and 70's.  I remember my Nanna kept a troupe of the Nursery Rhyme figurines on her kitchen window sill.

Next - I tried the more expensive Tetley decaf.  A box of 80 bags at Walmart was just shy of $8.  Within a few days of my purchase, I began to see news items related to young girls being sold into slavery and involving Tetley - - and as if that wasn't enough to turn me off - - it wasn't great flavour.

Now -- and this is going to sound sooooo strange to my fellow Canadians -- there is not a Tim Horton's near my home or work, so I rarely get to go there - - even though it's RRRROLLL up the RRRRIM time! - - however, if I'm out and about, I will head into a drive through and order an "XL decaf Orange Pekoe, one bag in and one bag on the side" - - that's right.  At Timmy's, if you order an XL tea, they put two bags in, but one is plenty strong for me, and I can save the spare bag for another time.

Hubby and I were out on the road yesterday for a drive to nowhere in particular, just to blow the dust off. (For the record, I didn't get to go to ANY fabric or quilt stores - but I DID have to endure  visits to two music stores in Orangeville.  Ugh - nothing more boring to me, and the first one smelled like coffee and marijuana.  Musicians!  grrrr!)  

Coming home on country roads, I got a smidge anxious when we were a little lost, I realized I really should have gotten gas before leaving civilization, crawling through white out conditions, the snow plough we were following turned around as we hit the county line, and we passed an accident (police were already on scene, and it looked under control, so I didn't stop).  When we finally arrived in Fergus, a place I often travel to and/or through for work, I pulled over at the first Timmy's I came to.  I needed to a break from the car and to unwrap my white knuckled grip on the steering wheel.

I ordered my tea, and because I was actually IN the Timmy's and not the Drive-thru, I asked about the price of tea.  A box of 40 bags came to $3.49.  Perfect!  I am the happiest tea drinker in the world now!

Can you stand one more thing?

Maybe you've seen this 'pinned' on Pinterest:

The instructions are here - - but I had never tried it.  I had a grapefruit that was beyond eating --the peel was dry and the flesh was getting squishy-- so I thought what the heck?  Cut it up, put it in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup with water and nuked it for five minutes.  I let it sit for another 2 minutes, and the icky stuff wiped right off with a paper towel, and the overpowering smell of popcorn was erased.  I'm thinking that any citrus fruit will work.  Keep that little tip in mind.

Oh! Scraps!

It doesn't matter how many drawers full of scraps I already have - - I love, love, love scraps.  

I did a little bit of thrifting on Friday with Hubby and bought a $3 bag of scraps.  Here's what I got that I'm keeping:

The smaller piece of batik (with the stars) is a 1/2 yard, and still had the price of $7.50 attached to it.  Thank you!  I'll take that!

When I was at the Greenwood Quiltery yesterday, I snagged several bags of scraps too.  I spent the evening pressing, squaring up, trimming, and organizing scraps.  My favourite way to spend a Saturday night!  Even Gibson got in on the fun.

Linked to Sunday Stash # 58 @ Molli Sparkles