And what were you doing at 12:34:56 on 07/08/09

As you might have guessed, today at that time, I was in my sewing room.

I heard on the radio today, that this phenomenon only comes once each century. That is, that the numbers 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9 correspond with the exact time and date.

So today, the 8th of July, 2009 at about 12:34ish, I was working on a little project that I'm making for Scott and Michelle's wedding, which is July 18th, 2009, next weekend.

So what were you doing today at 12:34 today?

The business of a Raffle Quilt

I'm getting ready for a visit with Rose. She's the spry eighty something lady who is my point of contact for the St. Dunstan's church quilters. Every year, I sew a quilt top for this group of sweet ladies. They hand quilt it and then sell tickets on it as a fund raiser. These ladies were all piecers and appliquers at one time, but not so much now and get me sew their annual raffle quilt.

So typically this time of year and with them in mind, I go through my quilt patterns and photos of quilts that I like, I flag about a dozen quilts that I'll present to them as a group. They decide which pattern and give me some feedback on colors. Then I have the next 6 months to buy the fabrics and make the quilt top. I'll deliver it to them next January.

Like many other fund raising efforts, it's getting harder and harder every year to get those raffle dollars, and over the years, they have a complied a few things that they keep in mind when selecting their raffle quilts. I'll share their tips with you in case you are ever asked for an opinion.

• Know your customer... For these ladies, they sell tickets in church, at church suppers, in malls etc. So they know from 20 years of experience, that a traditional quilt is a must. While art quilts are well appreciated, their customers are very traditional and love the utility use of a quilt for a bed covering rather than hanging it on a wall.
  
• Take the color excuse out. For the times that they have had a 2 or 3 or 4 color quilt for their raffle quilt, they would have customers not buy tickets cause the quilt wouldn't match "their colors". They heard that time and time again. It's obviously an excuse not to buy tickets, so now, I typically make multi-colored quilts that look like scrappy quilts, but the fabric is purchased to blend together.
• Queens all around: Everyone always asks about the size of the quilt being raffled. From the experience of these ladies, it's impossible to sell tickets on anything but a queen size quilt, so I always make one that is between 82 and 86 inches wide and about 100 long. The length is not as important.

So with all the above factors considered, here are some of the pattern choices that I have for them. I'll let you know top two favorites at the end of this post, and I'll report to you after my meeting with Rose, if they chose one of them as their favorite too.

Either one of these would be a nice change for them. The first one, "Birds in the Air" might be a little too blue, but we could do shades of blue, maroon and green. The second one, The Dutchman's Puzzle might have too many seams for them. The last time I visited, they mentioned something about too many seams in the Nines and Vines quilt that I delivered to them last January.


These 2 are very traditional but they might be bordering on too color specific. They would be an easy and quick sewing job for me though.


If they wanted to go with a single color palate (which I don't think they will do), I think these are nice choices.

I really like this star quilt. I haven't done stars for them in a while. I like the different size stars in this pattern. The geese quilt on the lower corner of the picture is quite plain but if I add a nice border, I think the white space it would show off their great hand quilting.


These quilts are all good quilts in my opinion. I like the log cabin. I'm not sure if this one with the star on it will be traditional enough for them, but we can ax the stars if they want. The other 3 quilts were quilts that they liked at the Elm City Guild show last year.

So, what am I hoping they pick??

I am hoping that they pick either of the top two quilts, Birds in the Air or the Dutchman's Puzzle Quilt. I haven't sewn either one of these quilts before, and I think it would fun to sew. And you know, I've never made a log cabin quilt, so I wouldn't mind making one of those. The Split Nine Patch in the bottom photo is nice and on my "want to make list". And I've always wanted to make a single color plus white quilt like the red one..... OK, OK... I would be happy to make any one of these quilts!!!!!

I'll let you know in a couple of weeks, what they select.

Mushroom Soup

As you all probably know, the damp weather has been with us since June 17th, but who's counting. We're trying not to talk about the weather, and we're adding different things to our daily outings, just to break up the overcast monotony.

But this morning, this giant mushroom pops up beside our cedar tree and we just had to laugh.

This got me thinking about mushroom soup. I found this Asian mushroom soup on the food network. It is not the traditional creamy mushroom soup and the picture looks yummy. I'll be cutting the portions down on this recipe and trying this soup soon. But not with our new found giant mushroom. I'll buy some grocery store ones to make this recipe..

New Sneekers

I am doing really well with the revival of my running program. I have completed my physio therapy on my knee and it's feeling almost normal again. You can't imagine how good that feels. Right now, my 45 minute workout has me running 5 minutes and walking for 2 and there is a bit of time for a warm up and cool down. I'm running a total of 30 minutes out of the 45. It won't be long and I'll be up to my 35 minutes of running with only 1 minute walking breaks every 10 minutes. I'm really keen and quite pleased about getting my running shoes back on.

I was in the running shoe store today, and they had buy one pair, get one free this week. What a deal. So now I have a pair of Sauconys and a new pair of Nikes. The Nikes have a hole under the insole so that I can put my Ipod - Nike tracker. This little thing wireless connects to my Ipod Nano and it records the distance and speed that my shoes are moving. And as long as I'm in the shoes, it gives me a pretty accurate of my workout. Now I'm building some new 45 minute playlists to listen to. I'm not good with picking peppy music, so building these playlists is harder than it sounds.

Rain Rain go away

Well, tomorrow is Friday and normally we'd be planning to go the cottage. This will be the third weekend in a row, that it's been too rainy or overcast. But it looks like nicer weather will be coming mid next week. Good thing, because I'm getting mouldy. Gesh

Happy Canada Day!

My friend LindaH is so smart. She posted her Canada Day Project earlier this week. It's a sweet Maple Leaf quilt that she'll use as a place to hang her pins collected from various quilt guilds. Go over and have a look at her Maple Leaf post.

I have been working on some fun projects for my niece's upcoming wedding so I can't post pictures, but the projects have been all fun. I'm doing some final hand hemming of some little dresses etc but other than that, my wedding sewing projects are coming to an end. It was fun while it lasted.

So what's next for me? Since it's Canada day tomorrow and we'll be heading to the cottage for a day or 2 of long overdue sunshine. So for now I thought I'd show you some red fabrics that I've been collecting from shops all over the Maritimes. I fell in love with Alex Anderson's quilt from her book Finish It.

I saw this quilt in person when I attended the Ricky Tims seminars in Ocala FL this spring. Of course, there's not only reds, but I had none at all in my stash. So now I have enough reds and with the stash fabrics, I'm ready to start some cutting. I plan to start sewing this in the fall.

Maybe next Canada Day, I'll show you my nice red quilt.

Happy Canada Day Everyone! Back in a few days.

Visitors

This is Jessica and Emily. Our Number one and two grandchildren. Sporting their shorter summer haircuts, they came for a visit on my birthday. They're now in Niagara Falls enjoying one of the great natural wonders of the world. I visited Niagara for the first time only a few years ago, and I wished I had seen it long ago. These kids are so lucky to see it when they're young. They'll hear about it in school, see documentaries of people going over it in barrels and hear of people's visits to this great place.

Aurora came for a weekend stay as well. She's now giving hi 5's and has taken a liking to stuffed animals. This weekend, this Christmas dog was her favorite. She likes to talk to him while having her snack. It's fun to watch that little brain of her's clue in to games and playing. She's such a cutie.

The triplets are are gone to PEI for a vacation. I love Ann's land. Home of Ann of Green Gables that is. Last year, all the kids went to the Haunted House. They were all scared out of their wits. But they've been talking about the haunted house ever since, so it was memorable. They say they're going back because if they happen to have a rainy day because now they're bigger and they're not scared. We'll see!

And the rain continues in the east, so with an empty house, and no sun today, it's off to the gym and then into my sewing room. I wonder what I'll make today.

It's my Birthday!!

I had started this post yesterday but it was such a busy day yesterday, that I didn't have a spare minute to finalize it.

Yes, it was my birthday. What could be better than having a visit from all the people you love so much. All my kids and grand kids were here throughout the day to bring gifts and well wishes. I love my birthday and when everyone comes around to share it with me, I feel so special.

Last week I received a great birthday gift from Friday Girl Vivian on behalf of the coffee girls. It was a fun, fun cupcake themed bag of goodies. The Martha Stewart Cupcake book has hundreds of recipes and pictures that are so inspiring. It's hard to decide which one to make first.


Yesterday, knowing that I was going to have lots of visitors I got to try out a few of the cupcake things in my gift bag. See what I made. How fun is it with the kids around when they saw them. WOW was their reaction. The lacy tops were made by boiling sugar syrup to the crack stage then drizzling out on parchment paper. You have to remember to drizzle a stick so you can actually stick the creation in the cupcake. The next time the kids come over, they can pick out their own special cupcake recipe and we can make and decorate them.

For my birthday supper, my hubby bought the biggest lobsters we've ever had. They each weighed about 2-1/2 pounds. They didn't even fit on the platters. No problemo, we broke off the claws and then they fit. We had them with coleslaw and potato salad. They were delicious and of course we have leftovers for a nice toasted lobster roll today and probably enough for a supper too.

I loved my birthday day.

Yoga Mat Bag

I took my first yoga class at the gym yesterday. I quite enjoyed it and I've been needing to add some stretching and flexibility movements to my exercise program. I now know why one would need a bag to carry their yoga mat in. It's the most awkward thing to carry around in your car without unravelling.

This morning, I made this one up as a prototype. I looked at a few tutorials like this one, and this one by Amy Butler. But I didn't really want to fuss with a circular seam at the bottom. I did get the idea that the bottom of the bag doesn't need to be round from this tutorial. So armed with ideas, in less than half an hour, I made this prototype bag with folded corners and an open top. I'll use it for the next few times I go to yoga class. If I feel I need a few pockets, I can use Amy Butler's technique to add them.

Here is Mitchell modelling how my yoga bag is to be carried.


Here is Caitlin and Grace who were over for a visit this afternoon too. Notice Caitlin's hair. She braided it herself. She's going to be a hair dresser, you know! Grace wants to be a veterinarian. Mitchell said he wants to help animals too.

1/4 inch foot frustration

I've been using my Juki TL98Q daily and I've tried lots of things. I really like it. The needle threader is awesome. It never misses. Also I love the thread cutter. It's second nature now. It never misses picking up the bobbin thread when I restart sewing. This is so nice. It's now my main machine. I've used my Pfaff for a couple of small zig zag and embroidery projects.

Now I want to try my hand at piecing on the Juki. The Juki came with a 1/4" foot which is great for strip piecing because it has a bar on the side which feeds quickly and the bar limits how far the fabric will go over. For piecing, I'm a pinner and I pin my fabric pieces to death. I need a 1/4" foot that doesn't have the bar on the side so that I can leave the pin in the fabric right up to the moment a stitch is taken.

You can see in this picture that my 1/4" mark is clearly marked and I can use the Juki standard sewing foot for 1/4 inch seams but a foot with marks is really what I want.

I've tried 2 different high shank 1/4 inch feet on my new Juki. Both are close but not quite there. The needle is not centered over the foot. Actually the foot is covering part of the hole in the needle plate.

Do any of you Juki TL98Q users use a 1/4 foot without a sidebar?

A visit with Mitchell

Today, I had a to-do list a mile long. Mitchell came over to help me do these gazillion things.

We dropped a paper off at the bank. We dropped some weddingy things off to Stephanie at City Hall. Mitchell had never been in there before. We went to Scoop and Save to buy some special vacation lunch things and then on to Moores where they fitted Mitchell for his fancy clothes that he'll wear at the wedding. While driving around at all our stops, Mitchell said "I love a rainy day!!"

When we got home we made waffles for lunch. Then we made chocolate chip cookies together and Mitchell licked the bowl and the beaters all by himself. He never had to share with anyone!!

He really wanted me to show you these special Swarovski figurines. One is called Dino and the other is called FiFi. They are my entire crystal collection. When he grows up and gets married, these will be his. He likes to look at them and admire their special glimmer.

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FiFi, the poodle is about 30 years old and I got her when I lived in Europe.

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I just got Dino last year at the Duty Free shop. See the new colors that Swarovski incorporate into their crystal.

I might buy another figurine next one year to make 3 in the collection. We'll see if they still have them at the duty free store. Mitchell says when has kids, he's never going to let them touch them.

And the final thing we did together today was write this blog. It was a great rainy day. Thanks for all your help Mitchell.

Home in sunny NB and a new To-Do list

While it was drizzly and cloudy for the weekend, it was still great to spend a relaxing weekend at my sisters house in Nova Scotia. We did small projects her daughters wedding. While I did some hand sewing, my sister covered an old chair that has been our family for about 50 years. We have pictures of us as babies on that chair. She's going to blog about it and will probably tell you about the Rocket Richard connection to it. It's a sweet chair and I would never have had the courage to upholster it, but she did and it looks like new. Stay tuned to my sidebar to see an update about the chair at Donna's blog soon.

So we're home now, back in sunny NB (not) and I have a fun new to-do list as we head into the final stretch before the wedding which is in about 3 weeks. I had intended on losing 20 lbs before the wedding, but I don't think that's going to happen so it's time to start looking for a nice dress to wear.

Last week I also started some small selvage projects which I will get back to and finish today. I'll take a picture and show you later this afternoon.