Weekend Catch Up!

What a busy week, we were back to school, back to work, basketball, curling and Jenny's 14th birthday.  Who has time to post!

Today is catch up day, put away the laundry, vacuum around my husband who is glued to the football game, put away the last of the Christmas decorations.

And it's catch up on my crafty stuff!

First I have to tell you about this prize I won in December.  I had visited Mrs Moen during the Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Party and entered to win one of her Fabulous Pillows!   Please take a look at them, they are just so clean and fresh.  I was very excited to hear from Mrs. Moen herself to let me know I was her winner.

Yay me!

And last week I was even more excited when I went out to the mailboxes and found a package with exotic stamps on it.  It was my pillow!!!!!!

Ok, I need to get a pillow form to fit it so you have to imagine how it looks all full and fluffy (or go back and check out the photos on her blog!).

  

 It's it pretty?  I'm going to put it away before my daughter decides she needs it on her bed (she's already hinted) and save it for next Christmas.

What else has happened?  Oh yes, my Sakura Park project!   I went to the quilt shop as scheduled last Saturday.  After looking at pretty much every bolt of fabric in the shop, which was quite difficult as it was class sign up day and the place was packed with women and food and fun (I didn't want to leave), I found that there wasn't a fabric I could use for the alternating blocks.  Nothing in the style I imagined I wanted.

But you know what happened then?  Inspiration struck.  Everyone I knew was surprised with the type of quilt I was working on, it wasn't me.  I'm all about bright and cheery and fun.  My Sakura Park WIP was more calm and peaceful and very white.

Look what caught my eye.

I had another idea on my quilt layout and it all revolved around this lovely striped fabric.

I've been cutting and sewing and I can't wait to show you what I've done.  But you'll have to wait for that, I want to get more done before I show you.  But I can show you this!

I realize I haven't mentioned yet what happened on sign up day at the quilt shop.  I may repeat myself from last year at this time, I'm so weak.  I'm easily swayed, especially when there are chocolates laid out and lots of friends to offer their advice LOL. 

I went to the quilt shop with the intention of signing up for the French Braid class.  It's a 3 day class (2 evenings, one full day) over the course of a month.  So lots of time in between to finish my homework and hopefully come out of the class with a finished quilt top.

It did not stop there, my friend Susan who works at the shop asked me to take a scrappy class with her in March. Sure!!!  Didn't even think twice LOL.  It's called African coins and the model shows a lot of wonderful batik scraps used with the border in African fabric really pulling the piece together.  I can't wait to use up a lot of these scrap pieces I've been saving. 

My friend Holly talked me into a class with her (or was it me convincing her?  I'm foggy on the details LOL!!).  We're going to do a fun Buggy Barn class.  Long time readers of my blog know I did this two years ago and made a tree skirt.  It's not so much that I need to learn the technique again, but Buggy Barn quilts are so much fun to make with others.  You get to laugh, poke fun, commiserate over the angst of not knowing if you chose the right fabric...it's about enjoying yourself and hanging out with ladies you like.  I noticed from the other Buggy Barn class I took, that there were others that were repeaters, it was like a little club.   This time I'm making a quilt called Hearts Come Home from Buggy Barn's latest book Crazy Till the Cows Come Home. 

Between work and family, I've had probably an hour of downtime at the end of the day for me.  I've used the time to work on my cross stitching and am making good progress on Grimes Ghost.

I usually don't add my initials (bottom left corner) and date until the end of the piece. In this case I found it necessary to stitch in my initials and 2013 (so now I'm committed to finishing!).  I'm having a difficult time reading the chart as the symbols used are the same value and are very similar to each other, it's very hard to glance over while you are stitching and get your bearings.  I needed to add my initials and date so I'd have landmarks to work the rest of the stitching from.   It's really unfortunate as I love the style of this piece.  I think the designer has a great eye for colour and a wonderful imagination, I hope that her other patterns are easier to follow as it looks like she's got a couple of great designs coming out in 2013 that I would be interested in stitching.  It's just a shame that the symbols chosen in the published chart weren't more user-friendly.

As this project comes to a close, I'll soon be able to pull out my next needlework project.   I can't wait to show it to you....soon!

Take care and have a great day!

Vivian