Weekly Post - Post Cottage Edition....

Every summer we are fortunate to be able to head to the family cottage to rest and relax.

Built in 1941-42 the place has stayed basically the same with the addition of one small bedroom and a fully functional bathroom. I have to ask my mom when my "auntie" had that put in.

A few years ago we changed the clapboard siding to aluminum to save costs. Continual paint maintenance was becoming too much. Now we can give it a good pressure wash and be done.

Everyone gets to do just what they like at the cottage. My husband reads, kayaks

and putters at a few chores. I take along some basic sewing, read and sometimes a craft or two. Our now adult kids kick back read, rest and play games. My sisters family fish and she reads. Our dog lives to fetch sticks and run.

 If we quit throwing in the sticks then he "accidentally" throws them in the lake and makes a big scene out of fetching them.  Now with the next generation we will see what develops. Baby Pea came up with her parents for a weekend but since she was just under 3 weeks old she basically slept and ate.

Many memories are created at this place which we just kick back and relax. No TV unless we bring a DVD. No Internet for we have a dial up wall phone. It truly is our happy place.

The cottage is an inspirational place for me. This year I worked on another set of blocks for my "Judy" quilt. So far I have managed to make one set of five blocks a year. I am going to push myself on this one. It is time for it to be done. Paper piecing Judy Niemyers way is not my favourite way of making a quilt. It is incredibly accurate but very labour intensive!

We had another edition of cottage craft club for my sister and family. This year was felting. They took to it like ducks in water!

I did make some little dresses and diaper cover pants for my Sweet Pea and her cousin. Being 4 months apart in age I couldn't resist making matching outfits for them.

I also completed a special bib and cuddle bear order for a friend to give as a gift. I only do these for fun because it is way to time consuming to do it other wise.


Another thing I did was gather leaves for my echo printing. Out came a old phone book and the leaf pressing began. Storing up my spoils for when there are no leaves to play with. I feel like a kid again with my tree identification book and going into the woods to gather leaves for the leaf project.

We also went on a side trip to meet up for a day in Haliburton to see the Fabrigos! What fun. Al was teaching, Robynne taking his class, and Karen was visiting her daughter with her sister. We went to Fleming College Haliburton walked the trail of the sculpture garden and then went though class open house. It was inspiring.

Thus ended the two week adventure in Muskoka for 2017!

I am linking up with the needleandthreadnetwork
Have a great week!

May Marching Along...

Marching along. That is what I feel like I am doing. Since my latest body rebellion I have been trying to just march along on what needs to be done.

Goals to get through the month.
Family needs come first. This has been another month of appointments for mom and dad and myself. The last to get through will be for my hubby at the last day of the month. Hopefully June won't be as full. Although mom has another spot of her cancer that has to be removed. We are glad it is only one tiny one.
Honour my own body rebellion. Letting go of the need for perfection and asking for help. This one is hard for a helper.

Craftsy's 50% off members favorite classes sale

Craftsy is continuing its birthday festivities! Put on your party hat and celebrate with 50% off member-favorite classes. Grab a class before the deal expires on Saturday!

On my sewing activity front. My main goal has been to finish my pieces I wish to enter into a regional show. The deadline is fast approaching. I did not feel well enough to work on this in April and some technical issues had alluded me. The issues are now resolved and I had a great day stitching away.

Portion of my piece yet untitled.

I am having a hard time coming up with a name for this piece. I think I have been working on it to long!

I took quiet time just to do some stitching on a project that I started in 2014. It is not a high priority and I usually only work on it in my monthly stitch group. It is a Judy Niemeyer Quilt - Log Cabins. 

It is not that it is particularly difficult but the process is time consuming. It is a paper piecing pattern for those who don't know. A lot of prep work. It just has not been on the high priority list. 

But to prove to myself that I have spent some time on it. Here it is ongoing. 

This is colour way two of five. The set consists of 5- arc A and 5- arc b. And 5 paper pieced log cabins. Set 1 is complete. Set 3, 4 and 5 are in bags patiently waiting their turn. 

The arcs take me sometime to figure out each time I start. I always did hate geometry with a passion. 

The log cabins less time. 

And Finally this week I will let you gaze at  another ongoing never ending project. My hand pieced grandmother flower garden. I have no idea when I started this. I did however start it using Linda Franz Inklingo products. http://www.inklingo.com/ This women's product is neat. You can use it to print paper piecing templates  as is the popular craze right now or to print on the back of your fabric to get perfect lines to sew on either by hand or machine. She has been

 doing this for a while and even had her husband drop off a book for me when he was going by to save me postage. Now who does that easily! (She offered.) 

I have no clue of how many I have made. I must find the box I have them saved in. It is a project I take in the car on long trips or lately been doing while waiting for someone at the hospital to have surgery or appointments.  This is not paper pieced but done by stitching on the lines printed on the back. 

I am going to test it out on my up coming Katija http://www.katjasquiltshoppe.com/ New Hexegon project. I just found out that I could use my already purchased Inklingo products to run paper through my printer to make my own templates for paper piecing. 

Well that is what I have been up to. I am finally feeling much better than I was for the last two months and am also happy the sun is shining. 

I am going to link to needle and thread network . 

I enjoyed reading the blogs of my fellow Canadians last week so I thought I would try to join in each week as well. 

till next time

Jo

What have you been up to?

Reminder: Craftsy is offering a 50% off members favorite classes sale.  If you go through the link below as an affiliate I do get a small renumeration. I want to encourage you to get access to some of the best classes on a broad number of topics to help your creative growth.  I will never promote something that I don't myself use or feel is a rip off. Craftsy classes are one of my main goto's to learn new things. No pressure but if you like craftsy please consider going through my link. These offers will always be at the end of my blog posts. This is to ensure you are not pestered and can read my blog posts for enjoyment not pressure.
Jo

Craftsy's 50% off members favorite classes sale

Craftsy is continuing its birthday festivities! Put on your party hat and celebrate with 50% off member-favorite classes. Grab a class before the deal expires on Saturday!

Judy Niemyer

I was invited to join a "Stitch Group". It would be devoted to make Judy Niemyer quilts. I haven't done much paper piecing and thought it would be fun. How big of a commitment could it be?

So I went to Judy's website and checked it out. Until I was asked to join I didn't even know who she was or what she did.
Judy Niemyer www.quiltworx.com

I choose this pattern to work on. It was not so busy  in colour of most of her quilts seemed. And I liked the neutral space.

Little did I realize that this was a companion quilt. That means that it is make with the left over arcs of the quilt below.

So I sent for this pattern.

So far the commitment to time has been a bit more than expected.
One evening pulling fabric from the stash. I found 50 fat quarters or pieces of fabric to use in the quilt. 25 dark and 25 light. The twenty five had to be five different colour-ways.
Then (and still now) my basement is littered with the rejects and boxes that hold the fabric.

Then I had to prepare the fabric to cut. Ironing 50 fat quarters...easy to get done. It was... I like to iron. But wonderful friends dropped in to set up the fountain I bought to Springs ago. My hubby is not to handy in areas that he is not familiar with. It was much easier to set up when I realized that the top of the fountain was actually the bottom! 

Some of the fabric waiting to be ironed. 

Pile of fabric on the ironing board. First I made it damp with water and then I sprayed with Ellens Best Press. 

Once all the fabric was ironed I was done and it was supper time... 

After supper I packed up the required equipment and fabric for the next day.... 

My first day was inspiring. Most of the group was merrily sewing away making their blocks. One lady was doing the sewing by hand.... That is an amazing feat! 

I managed to cut out most of the fabric templates in the first stage. I still have to cut them up  into groups to go into bags to sew into the blogs. 

I will say that Judys method is very methodical. It is hard for a newbie to follow with out help. My help came in the form of reading the pattern about 50 times and watching Judy on you tube. 

I would have had to rely on the group to get me to understand what to do if I did not watch the videos... 

So I will document the progress as I make it. My goal is to get the fabrics all cut out and ready to start sewing next month. I will also have to watch some paper piecing videos along the way. 

Even though I am trying to go into the art quilting/fibre art world more I think that every traditional style quilt will teach me skills as well as beautifying my home. It really was an exercise in colour theory to pull the fabrics. 

I love my new group. So funny and inspirational. Thanks for inviting me! 

Jo