All packed and ready for New York City

I finished my packing today and hope that I have everything for New York City.  I try to pack light but then I think of something else and it has to go in also.  We use only a carry on suitcase when we travel but we check it so that we don't have to drag it through the airport.  It is bad enough once we arrive at our destination. 

Lynda will have her laptop with her so I won't have to bring mine and I hope to blog while we are there and let everyone know what we are doing and what sights we have seen.

We have tickets to the 911 museum and a tour of Central park is also booked. One of the highlights of the trip will be the last night in New York. It will be in Madison Square Gardens at an NHL hockey game between Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.


I will be celebrating my birthday while we are in New York City at the St Patrick's Day Parade. It is the 250th Anniversary of the parade so it should be a lot of fun.

Peggy.

Small Pouches

I have been making small pouches the last 2 days.  I made one and it was too small so I had to make another.  The first one fits my Ipod perfectly so it wasn't a waste and the second one is for my GPS.  The small one has fusible interfacing so it is not floppy and the larger one has fusible batting to make it more protective for electronics.

I don't know where I got the pattern from, it was off the Internet but I can't find it again.  I probably downloaded it sometime last year and maybe the writer has taken it down.  I have started copying the website now when I download a pattern, so that I can go back and see the pictures that the writer has posted.  Sometimes the instructions aren't clear to me and it is nice to be able to go back and look at the pictures again.

I want to take my GPS and my Ipod to New York City and I want them protected and I think that this will work just fine.

Too bad I only had one green zipper, I must stock up on those next time I am out shopping.

Peggy.

Sunglasses case

I like to have a case handy for my sunglasses when I am travelling so I came up with a small zipper pouch.  I got this pattern from Studio Kat Designs.  They are called Roly- Nesters.  I have made a few earlier but this one matches my day bag for New York City.



This is a better view attached to my bag.  I can have it on the outside of the bag or flip it into the bag if it gets in my way.

I used a split ring to attach it to the bag.

Peggy

The Thursday Group

Yesterday Maria, Joyce and I got together to do some quilting.  Joyce finished her quilt with all the beautiful maple leaves on it and is now making a rag quilt for one of her granddaughters.   This girl is into a lot of sports including hockey and motocross.  Over the years Joyce has made pyjamas for her grandchildren and she is using the left over fabric with all the sports on it for her new quilt.

She is cutting 12 inch squares and needs 15 of the sports and 15 of denim.

Maria is doing paper piecing of a table runner.



She has a few pieces done.  The colours are very striking.  I think her daughter will really like it.

I brought some applique with me and these will end up as placemats for the Quilt Guild to either sell at the show or give to Meals on Wheels. 

We always have a great time at Joyce's in her sunroom and even manage to get some work done.

Peggy.

One year Anniversary

This blog is just a fun thing to do and I don't know if there is anyone out there who checks on my blog regularly but that is all right because I just enjoy writing about my quilting life and travelling.  Yesterday is the one year anniversary of when I seriously started blogging.  I did some a few years ago but never kept it up and since I have been doing a lot of quilting I have found it fun to track what I am doing and see what some other quilters are doing also.  I have a hard time believing that I have had 2,791 hits on my blog in one year.

This what I am working on now.  It is a kit that I received from my daughter for Christmas called Snow Chateau by Michael Miller Fabrics.   The free pattern is here at the bottom of this page, but you really need all the fabrics that go with it to make it.

The border around it is stones and they are directional so it was tricky cutting them as I had to cut some strips the length of the fabric and some the width of the fabric.  Then you have to make sure that you sew them on the right way up and not what I did and had to rip out 2 seams before I clued in. 

The next step is to make quarter square triangles from 4 different fabrics and then applique snowflakes onto these squares.

I always do my tracing in the afternoon and then do the cutting while I am relaxing watching TV at night.  That way I don't waste time when I could be sewing. 

Peggy.

Jodi is having a give away

Jodi over at Pleasant Home is having a give away.  She just finished a new baby quilt for her soon to be granddaughter and she is giving away a Baby Go,  Oh, would I love one of those.  I have been thinking about one for awhile.  Maybe I will win it.

Dreaming......
 
Peggy.

Water bottle holders

When Lynda and I are travelling we carry water with us daily so I made water bottle holders that I found on Pink Chalk Studio website.  We really like them as it keeps our hands free and I put Insul-Brite inside so the water stays cold.  They were really great when we were in Italy in 2008 as it was very hot over there.

This year when we are going to New York City it will be before spring arrives so we decided that we will carry our water in our day bags.  The strap from the bottle carrier will be cumbersome and I didn't want to cut them off and waste the strapping so I decided to go to the Dollar store and see what I could fine.

Colleen said she wanted black so Lynda can have the blue one and mine will be the funky purple.  I use a fat water bottle that is easy to wash out and I had to stretch the holder to get the bottle in but I think the whole process will work out easier than the ones I made. 
We can take the ones I made to Paris in the fall.

Peggy.

Getting ready for New York

I made myself a new bag to take to New York.  This will be my day bag that will hold my hat, umbrella and water bottle.  My coat is beige so I had to have a new bag as my other ones are blue and bright red flowers.  The brown one I took to Ireland had too much turquoise in it. 

It is pretty light in colour, I just hope we don't have too much rain and it ends up getting dirty.  I have been putting zippers in my bags and also this one has 2 large pockets.  I made the pocket extra large so that my water bottle will stand up in it and not fall over and spill.

Peggy.

Small Purses for New York City

My sister Lynda, my daughter Colleen and I are going to New York City for a week in March during March break.  We carry small purses that fit under our coats when we travel and then carry what we call a day bag with things like our umbrella, water bottle, hats and mitts.  Our small purses contain our money and credit cards and they are never in view of the public except when we are making a purchase.  We have tried money pouches that go around your waist and these make you look like you weigh 30 lbs more than you actually do so I came up with this idea.

I really like this pattern that I found on the Internet.  It is called "Sew Sweet Satchel" by Lazy girl designs.  I make the flap a little smaller and put a zipper under the flap.  This isn't called for in the pattern.  There is a zipper on the back with is also great.  The purse is very secure.  I have one so I made one for Lynda and one for Colleen.

This is Lynda's purse.  These purses go across your body, or they could be worn as a shoulder purse.  They are small enough to fit under a coat and not be bulky.

This is Colleen's purse.  They both wanted dark blue but I made them from different fabric so that they would be different and there would be no mistaking which one belonged to whom.

If you look at the pattern, you will see that I changed it a little.  I added a dome fastener to close the purse and a button for decoration.

Peggy.

Placemats for Meals on Wheels

A while ago I was in the local quilt shop and she had put together some 2 1/2 inch strips in like and complementary colours.  Forty strips in a group to make a jelly roll.  I purchased  a brown and orange grouping just because I liked them. 

Over the weekend I made two placemats by sewing some strip sets together.  They are quite masculine and I think they turned out very nice.  I made them different just to be different.

Peggy

My Vest is Finished

Well, I finally finished my vest.  It was a long haul since I haven't made clothes for myself in years and I probably won't make any again.  My friend Maria was a big help.  We got together last Tuesday and worked on fitting the vests.  We took a little off here and a little off there and came up with a pretty decent piece of clothing.

The binding is sewn on the right side and then folded over and stitched in the ditch on the right side.  Some of the binding didn't catch on the wrong side so I just sewed it on by hand with an invisible stitch on the wrong side.

The front

The back of the vest

There is suppose to be a zipper in the vest but I didn't put one in yet and I may not.

Peggy

The rest of the mug rugs and Lanyard

I am finished with mug rugs for now.  I have made 10 of them for the local Quilter's Guild.  Now it is onto other things.

Pretty Blue Birds

I know it isn't the season for Christmas but I couldn't resist this fabric. 

My trees have lights.

My sister Lynda, my daughter Colleen and I are going to New York in March and I am starting to get ready for the trip.  I want a secure warm place for my camera so I thought of a lanyard around my neck but the ones I have are skinny and I thought they would pull on my neck so I came up with this.

Here it is around my neck but without the camera as I had to use it to take the picture.  My camera is a point and shoot so I took the idea for the lanyard from tutorials for a cover for a camera strap. 

I think that will be more comfortable then a thin stingy lanyard from the dollar store.  And more colourful.

Peggy.

More mug rugs

I seem to like making these little things lately.  I think it is the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you are finished something.  These are for the Guild.  I hope they like them.

Peggy

Bruce Canyon Vest

Yesterday was the class to make the Bruce Canyon Vest.  We started at 10 am and ended at 4pm tired and exhausted but with a feeling of accomplishment.  It was a long day but we had a great instructor who had made the vest herself so she was extremely helpful.  We could read the pattern or we could ask for assistance.  There were 10 ladies in the class so it was a very busy place.

Here is my friend Maria working on cutting out her fabric from the pattern.

                             

This is the 2 fronts of my vest with the strips sewn together.  It is a quilt as you go vest which really goes

together quickly.

 

The back with the collar sewn on.  It still need the sides seams done and the binding applied.

Maria and I hope to get together this week and get it finished up for the Guild meeting on the 21st. 

Peggy.

My Sister's Blog

Visit my sister's blog for a great read on Graduation.  She is graduating from University this year and wrote a small essay on what Graduation means to her.  It is very enlightening.

Peggy.

For the Guild

The annual quilt show is the end of April and the way my life goes it will be here before I know it, so I started making some items to be sold.  They were asking for potholders or mug rugs so since I finished my last 2 quilts I thought I would see what I could come up with.

The pot holder was a little tricky.  I may stick to mug rugs.

 

I think my mug rugs turned out pretty good and I have a few more ideas and will post them when I have them finished.

 

These are the in thing these days.
We had a great day a Joyce's today.  Didn't get much quilting done but a lot of friendship and gabbing going on over there.

Peggy

Dresden Plate Quilt.

I started this quilt in October at the set of classes I took at the College.  I finished the Kakabeka Quilt so then I wanted another challenge.  It took me a while to figure out what I was going to do with the squares and I came up with this quilt. 

On both of these quilts I constructed the backing in a very non-traditional way.  I read on a blog about a new method that uses less fabric and is very useful for small quilts.  This quilt is 48 x 64 so it fits into the category.  The backing fabric is cut on the diagonal and then sewn back together.  It is very useful when the width of the quilt back is 1 1/2 times or less then the width of the fabric.  It was developed by John Flynn .  There is also a neat website that does the calculation for you so you don't have to do the math to figure out how much fabric is needed for the backing.

I was skeptical at first but it works and I used a metre less fabric then I would have if I had cut the backing the traditional way and there is less waste.  I like leftover fabric but I don't like waste.

Ta-dah

Those are YKW's fingers again.



I also rounded the corners on this quilt.  I had never done that before but took my cue from the Dresden plate and it gives it real character.

Peggy

Valentine Placemats

I finished the placemats to match the simply hearts tablerunner.  I designed them myself using the same pattern.  I like my placemats big so the side borders are 4 inches instead of the 2 inches that I made the top border.   The finished measurement is 12 x 18.  I made 6 of them, 2 for me and 4 for my daughter.

I think they will make my table look real spiffy for

Valentine's Day.

Peggy

Kakabeka Quilt

Every block in this quilt is a 9-patch with a plain square in the center, confetti in the corners, and a chips-n-dip square on each side.  The pieces are turned differently in each block so that the blocks look different but they are all made up of the same 3 components.  I could have made all the blocks look the same but by turning the sections they came out so that they look like different blocks.  It was a challenge for me because I wanted the blocks to look different and yet still have the same 3 components to them.  This is the book I used to make this quilt.

Chips-N-Dip Block



Confetti Block

  I feels good to have finally finished it.  I started in the classes in October 2010.

 



Peggy

Getting organized

I have been trying to be more organized with all my patterns lately.  I have downloaded a lot of patterns and I print some of them, then when I want to make something I can't find the print out.  They are all saved on my hard drive and a thumb drive but sometimes it is easier to make something from the written page, but WHERE is it.  So I decided to do something about it.  I went to the dollar store and bought 19 packages of protective sleeves.

Then I went to Staples and bought some hanging file folders and a portable file tote, and today I went back and bought more hanging files.

This is the end result of two days of sorting.

But that is not all.  I had two binders and they are full too.

Now maybe I can find a pattern when I am looking for it.  I found so many patterns for placemats that I forgot I had and I could have used them when I was making all those placemats at Christmas time.  So, next time I know where to look for a pattern.

Peggy.