Friday, July 21, 2017

Four Patch Charm Quilt in Shimmer

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I made this sample as I was writing up my pattern for the Four Patch Charm Quilt,  I wanted to make sure I had all the measurements right!  Nice to finally have the time to pop a panto on it and get it done.   The fabric is Northcott Artisan Sprirt Shimmer Charm packs in four colorways, Pansy, Peacock, Sunglow and Hibiscus.   The pattern only calls for 3 charm packs but I bought four from Keystone Quilts when they had a buy 3 get the fourth free!  Can’t resist a sale like that!  I was able to pick and chose the colours I wanted with the four packages.   The background is a white Colorworks, I find this line of solids nicer than Kona solids as it has a finer weave and less fraying. 

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I chose the Wave on Wave pantograph as it is one of my favorites.   Used white So Fine thread and Dream Blend batting.

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I was out again taking pictures of the eagles, they have been very cooperative this summer!

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Monday, July 17, 2017

Update on the Move

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So I just got back from a week long house hunting trip to Emo, Ontario which is going to be our new hometown soon. Its a very cute little town with a population of 1,300 and is right on the Rainy River which borders with the States.  The main business area is right on the waterfront and is very inviting.  There is a river walk and up on the street level they have four decks to enjoy the view from, one has stairs down to the river.    I will apologize for the quality of some of these photos as I used my phone for a few!

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Now to the good news… we bought a house!    No it’s not on a lake, and no it doesn’t have a great view (yet) but the house is perfect for our family.  Best of all it has a huge room in the basement for my longarm!! I can finally have my sewing machines and fabric all in one room!    If you are curious and want to check out the listing you’ll find it here.  The listing doesn’t show the new quilting room but is what they called the ‘game room’ in the listing.   It is in a relatively new subdivision with about 70 lots but only 10 house build on it so far, the house is two years old.  We will have a green space to the north and east, and have a few neighbours to the south side.  Only thing it didn’t have on our check list was a garage so we will build one next year.    We do not get possession until Oct 2 and have to be out of our house here on Sept 1 so will have to put the longarm in storage for a month with the rest of the furniture. That’s not too bad! Gives me plenty time to plan my new quilting room! Glad the company Tim now works for gave us a rental house until we get possession so we are not homeless for a month!

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We explored a lot of the area last week and Tim noticed an areas just off the highway about 5km from our new house that is a heron nesting ground! I wish I had my big zoom lens but my regular lens would have to do!    I had been told that herons nest high up in the trees but have never seen this before. Well I couldn’t believe how many nests there were in this one small area. There had to be a least 20 nests and most had herons in them!  Here is the view from the highway and I zoomed in on a few.  The noise from the herons were quite loud and I even saw two in a bit of a scuffle.   It will be fun to capture this again next year with the right equipment!

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We also drove about 40 km north to a few lakes and I think I’ll be quite happy kayaking these lakes next summer!    Not right out my door anymore but not too far away.

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I also brought along a quilt with me to bind, it is a Quarter Sections quilt that I made as a class sample, so used it to audition locations for quilt pictures.  There is even public dock on the river I can use but it was too windy when I was there this time.    This quilt was made with purple batiks and I used Water Wings as the panto design.

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Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Four Patch Posies

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I managed to find time to squeeze in a guild comfort quilt this week and this one is called 4-Patch Stacked Posies by H.D.Designs.   It is a simpler version of the Stack and Whack technique.   We found a fabulous large print black and white fabric to us and added a red inner border to allow the bit of red in the fabric to pop! Turned out great and I love how each of the block are so different.  I quilted it with the Popcorn pantograph, used black So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting. 
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Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Graduation 2017

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Last Thursday my youngest son Daniel graduated from high school and we are so proud of him!   The graduation class was 55 graduates which is a typical size for our  town these past few years.

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It just feels like yesterday I was watching this sweet little boy get on the school bus to go to kindergarten for the first time, where does the time go?

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It was a rainy and cool day but we did manage to get a few family pictures in the front yard between rain showers.

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Here is the whole graduating class of Hapnot Collegiate 2017!  Congratulations Daniel!

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Saturday, July 1, 2017

Happy Canada Day!

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Last night we went to town to watch the local Canada Day Fireworks display that are shot over Ross Lake.  They put on an amazing show and I always enjoy the ones that they bounce of the water like the one pictured above.   The lake was calm so was able to get a nice reflection of the fireworks in the lake.  As you can see there is still some light at midnight up here as the sun doesn’t set until 10:30.

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I was also able to get more pictures of the eagles at the dump, all 9 were still there again. 

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