Back From Vacation

My daughter and I had a wonderful vacation in London and Paris!  It was the first time either of us had ever been there, so it was a grand adventure!  Here are the two of us at the Eiffel Tower.  (I'm the one on the left, LOL)

The weather was fantastic - it only rained for one morning.  We were on a tour, so spent some time on buses with a guide pointing out all of the sites while we clicked our cameras out the window.  When I came home and started sorting through my 500 photos, I found that I couldn't remember what many of them were!  "Here's an old building."   "Here's another old building."  DD and I will just have to go back again for a refresher!

We managed to see many of the tourist sites - Windsor Castle, The Tower of London. Westminster Abbey, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We mastered the Tube.  We saw a show. Unfortunately, Kate and William must have missed the memo that we were coming, as they were not in residence in Kensington Castle when we arrived.

But now back to reality and back to work!  And, just a little bit - back to quilting.  I finished my July Craftsy BOM block, and that's about all that I did in the last month!

Another first for me - I've never made tumbling blocks before.  These ones had an easy trick - you can see the seam in the lightest blocks - this allowed them to be all sewn together in strips, instead of sewing with Y seams.  Pretty slick!

Trip to Windsor

Not the castle, the city in Ontario.  A week or so ago, I visited Windsor for the first time.  I was there for a conference at the University, and tacked on a couple days vacation, so I could visit the place, and, of course, do my own little shop hop.  I brought Mr CQT with me - now that he's retired, he can come along, whenever he wants.  That's kind of fun!

We stayed at the Windsor Hilton.  I highly recommend this hotel - lovely rooms and great service.  This was the view out of our window.

This is the Detroit river, and the Detroit skyline.  Detroit is NORTH of Windsor, which really got me confused with directions - I couldn't wrap my head around the US being north of Canada.  Of course, my family would tell you that I'm confused with directions most of the time.  Thank goodness for Mrs. Garmin.

Here is the skyline at night.  Our view was spectacular!

We did not visit Detroit.  Somebody forgot to bring the passports.  (OK, OK - it was me.)  But we did tour around the Windsor area.  We visited Rose Cottage in Amherstburg, which was a pretty store, in a new building.  Amherstburg is a very pretty town, on the edge of Lake Erie. Then we went to Essex, and visited Sewcraft, which sells all kinds of fabrics, not just quilting fabric.

We then visited Ella Quilts in Tecumseh.  This is in a tiny house, hidden from the street.  We couldn't find it, even with the help of Mrs. Garmin.  But we phoned and got directions and I was pleasantly surprised.  The store was packed full of fabric and supplies, and the owner was very welcoming, even treating me to a quick lesson on how to do a disappearing four patch block.

Finally, we went to Quilting Confections in Windsor itself.  Mrs. Garmin got confused by the address, and wanted to send us in a strange direction.  We knew from the ads for the store that it was across from the airport, so we ended up finding it ourselves.  This store is in a strip mall, but very bright and cheerful, and a good supply of fabric.

I didn't buy a lot.  Ontario has 14% sales tax, so that made the prices a little steep, when comparing them to home.  But, I couldn't go away empty handed, so I did buy a few fat quarters.

Birds, owls and monkeys!  I seem to be on an animal kick lately.  The fabric lines are Song of Joy by Victoria Hutto (Timeless Treasures);  Owls in the Hood by a Danish company called STOF and Lollipop by Sandy Gervais (Moda).

Sew Sunday / March A Long Report

I had plans for my week off.  Oh, I had big plans.  Now, it's the last day of said week, and I did not accomplish anywhere near what I wanted to accomplish.

I listen to Pam's "Hip to Be a Square" Podcast regularly, and follow her blog.  Take a look at her blog sometime.  That woman is amazingly fast when it comes to completing quilts.  Suffice it to say, she completed more this week than I did - and she was working full time, whereas I was off!

But, I'm not complaining, really I'm not.  I enjoy taking my time, and enjoying the process.  It's not a race.

So, here is my weekly March A Long progress report.

Monday:
I thought I had finished up the hourglass units.  Then, I put them in rows, and found out (surprise!) that 208 units don't make a good rectangle.  Turns out I needed 32 more.

Tuesday:
Made 32 more hourglass units.

Wednesday:
Sewed the hourglass units together.  Here they all are.

I put them together totally randomly.  That was a bit of a gamble for me - usually, I plan out the placeement of even my scrappiest quilts.  But this is going on the back, so I went for it.  The lights and darks aren't evenly distributed, but it doesn't look bad.  This piece is about 80 inches by 30 inches - the size of a small quilt all by itself!

Thursday:
Sewed the rest of the backing together and sandwiched it.

Friday:
I always have to procrastinate at this point, because I usually have no idea how I am going to quilt the quilt, and I'm terrified of mucking it up.  So, Friday was the day I did inventory of my sewing room.

Saturday:
Still procrastinating - I did the March Craftsy BOM Block.

This one is pretty busy!  It was fun to make, and Laura Nownes gave a really good lesson on drafting HST's and QST's in the video part of the lesson.

And, I finally started quilting the Sand and Sea Glass quilt!  Yay!

That's my report, Scientific Quilter, Sir!  And I'm linking up with Darla, the Scientific Quilter for March A Long.

And now, for Sew Sunday.  I've got my housework and grocery shopping done, so I can spend a couple hours in the sewing room.  And, now that I've made the big leap to start quilting Sand and Sea Glass, it should be much easier to continue.  So, that is my plan for this afternoon.

And I'm linking up with Mary at Fairly Merry and Sew Sunday.

Back From Vacation

Boy you get some funny looks when people ask what you did in Las Vegas, and you answer, "Well, I went on a Quilt Shop Tour".

But, that's one of the things I did!  Susan runs Quilt Tours of Las Vegas.  In my case, she picked up me, and two other quilters (Carol Ann from Michigan, and Diane from Ontario) in her van, and took us all over town!   We started out at The Christmas Goose.  Before arriving at each store, Susan gave a brief overview of the type of store, what kind of fabric they sell and whether or not they have any sales happening.  She explained that the Christmas Goose really has nothing to do with Christmas or with geese.  Just great fabric!

Then we went to Fabric Boutique.  All of the stores, by the way, gave us a discount because we were on the tour.  After that, it was time for lunch.  You might think it would be awkward, having lunch with four ladies you had only just met, but it was not.  We all got along like old friends.

After lunch, we headed to Boulder City, to Fiddlesticks Quilts.  This is a cute little store, in an old theatre.  After this, we headed back to Vegas to finish off the tour at Quiltique, which was definitely the biggest and carried the most modern fabric.

What a great way to shop!  I didn't have to worry about how to get to the shops, and we spent about 45 minutes in each - lots of time to browse and carefully make our selections.  And, of course, it was great company!

So, I did make a few tons of purchases.

 First, I found this pattern  - Tulip Star by Jackie Robinson of Jackie's Animas Quilts.  It was sitting beside this gorgeous floral print.  Even though I  have SO many projects to complete, I decided to go for this one too.  The greens and reds are for this project as well - I still have to get some cream, and perhaps yellow.

Next, I saw the print with the birds on wires that I just loved.  I bought a yard, just because.  In another shop, I found this pattern  - The Abigail Bag, by Serendipity Studio, and thought the fabric would be great for either the inside or the outside - I haven't decided.  The green here will be the "other" side.

Or maybe I'll use this red.  It matches the bird on a wire fabric too.  It depends how adventurous I feel when I start sewing this bag.   (I'll probably go with the green.)

And a few other odds and sods.

 

 

All in all, a great day!  If you're ever in Las Vegas, I highly recommend the tour.

Drop and Give Me...Um...

OK, OK, I admit it.  I haven't done 20 minutes every day this week.  Turns out work required me to drop and give them a few too.  Darn!

But I did get to sew a few nights, and managed to crank out this.

This is a lovely pattern from Bonnie at Cotton Way.  I purchased it as a kit from Connecting Threads.  I don't know if they have the kit any more - I bought it about a year ago.  But, the pattern is still available at Cotton Way.  You can make it up with quarter dresdens as well.  You could also adapt it to make a plain cover, if you wanted to.

The neighbours probably wondered why I was dragging my ironing board outside in the middle of winter.  Or maybe they didn't.  They may have thought - oh, there they go again!  Mr. CQT has been known to engage in some strange looking construction projects out there from time to time!

Anyway, there's another look.  It was fun and quick to make, and now it is brightening up my sewing room.  Where I WILL have time to sew tomorrow, as it's the Family Day holiday.  Yay!

I'm Back!

Mr CQT and I took a week's vacation in Phoenix and soaked in the heat - which was good, as we really haven't had any heat yet this year in Calgary.

We also drove up through beautiful Sedona to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  It was the first time I had ever been there.  It is awe inspiring!

This photo doesn't even begin to do it justice.  After walking around, we headed into the gift shop to look for a fridge magnet (we collect fridge magnets wherever we go!), and what did I see, hidden in a little corner?

Imagine that!  A Grande Canyon quilt!

We also managed to visit almost every quilt store in Phoenix / Sedona / Flagstaff, and I did a little shopping. You can't just go into these stores and not buy anything, right?  And there were Memorial Day sales going on in some of them, so I got some really good deals!

Here's my loot.  I have no idea what I will do with these bright fat quarters, but they were so pretty, I couldn't resist

 Same with these solids and the pastel coloured ones below - although I'm sure a baby quilt will be needed at some point or another, and I'll be ready with these fabrics!

Part of the reason for our trip to Flagstaff was so that Mr. CGT could experience Route 66.  He has always dreamed of driving on that route, so the bit that we were able to experience in Flagstaff was fun!  And, in one of the stores, I found some Route 66 fabric.

I'm going to make Mr. CGT a pillow out of this.

More fabric, a ruler and a book:

I've got an idea for a Mariner's Compass quilt that I would love to make to hang at work.  We work with people going through separation and other family disputes, and a big focus of the work is mediation.  The Mariner's Compass would be an ideal symbol of the mediators goal - to guide people to a better way of resolving their disputes.  This is a "someday project", for sure, but getting the instructions is a first step.



I also bought myself a hat.  Usually I look absolutely ridiculous in hats.  But I found this Anne of Green Gables style hat in Arizona, and I don't think it's that bad!  Now I've got something to wear when I'm gardening.  Have to maintain the pasty white Canadian complexion, eh?