Friday Night With Friends Report

This weekend has whipped by in a blur it seems.  Part of the reason for that is that I spent a good bit of it sewing!  Friday night and Saturday I hung out with my friend Dahn and played with fabric and other fun things.  I love going to Dahn's house.  She has a great studio to play in, for one thing.  But even better - her first love is art quilting and she has pieces of her work hanging all over the house.  It is wonderful!

Her studio isn't huge but there is a lot of stuff in it - fabric (lots of her home dyes), thread, magazines, inspirational pieces on the wall, art quilting supplies and Ripley, the cute dachshund.

We may not have been as productive as one would think though because we had lots to talk about. :)

Dahn created this huge tote bag.

I worked on some hot pads that I am making for my friend Judy.  She is having a booth at a craft show and asked me to give her some things to sell.  You can see I haven't quite finished the binding on one of them.

And I made this postcard for Sheila's fall postcard swap.  I watched a show about giraffes last week and decided I love these animals.

Yup!  It was a pretty fantastic Friday Night with Friend's!  I hope you had a good one too.  Head on over to Cheryl's blog to see what everyone else was up to.

Janet 

A fun mail day

I have been away visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Seattle and a quick stop to see a friend on Salt Spring Island.  More about the trip in another post.  Today I want to tell you about the fabulous mail waiting for me on my return.  

First up this lovely postcard received from Lin in the Christmas postcard swap organized by Sheila.  I think it is done with Shiva paintsticks but it may be some kind of foil… I’m waiting for Lin to let me know the details.

Then I received my paper piecing blocks for November/December from Michell.  She is also in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap that I participate in.  Despite a big move, Michell is further ahead than me as I don’t have her blocks for this swap made yet.

A couple of weeks ago there was a blog tour for the 10th edition of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks and I WON!! My copy from Rochelle has arrived.  This is so exciting as I love this magazine, I have always entered the giveaways on the blog tours and this is the first time I have one a copy.

And then to top it all off, icing on the cake if you will… Carol at Sew Sisters Quilt Shop sent me a lovely thank-you gift for participating in their Canadian blog hop.  These fabrics are from Moonshine by Tula Pink for Free Spirit, which is the line that I chose from the Sew Sisters Shop as a give away on the blog hop. 

And included was a gift from Aurifil which was a sponsor in the blog hop.  I love these threads!

So I have reasons to like Canada Post today.    How about you?  Have you received anything fun lately?

Janet

Postcards – Spoiler Alert for Lin

LIN, if you don’t want to see your postcard before it gets there, close this now!!

I joined two postcard swaps this month.  I have more than enough to do, but postcards are so much fun so I said yes.  Here they are.

The first one was organized by Brandy Lynn.  The theme is snowflakes.  (Can you tell?)  These are plastic sequin snowflakes on a blue background overlaid with tulle with silver flecks.  Even though I first glued, then sewed the snowflakes on, I felt a need to put stitching around them.  I thought that the swirly circles would give the effect of swirling snowflakes.  It looks more like that in person than it does in the photo.  I don’t know who I am sending this one to yet.

The second one is for a swap organized by Sheila.  The theme is Christmas   I decided to play with my new technique. We had strategic planning meetings at work the last two days – a perfect time to do a bit of stitching.  Lots of channels emerged.  This card is going to Lin in France. 

Have you made any postcards lately?

Janet

Flowers Galore!

I had a great time with my grandkids, but it was a whirlwind and I was very tired for quite a few days following.  I only took one picture… this was the day we headed out to see Papa at his worksite and they got to ride on the quad.  Always a fun event…

The rodent situation continues.  Last week when the grandkids were here we discovered  three mice in a 5 gallon bucket in the sunroom.  One was dead but the other two were alive.  I can’t imagine how they got in the bucket, why they got in the bucket (it was empty and clean) and how long they had been there but I think it was a while.  We took them up the road and released them in the bush.  Grandson carried the bucket and said they were so cute and he wished he could keep them.    Then this week there was a drowned squirrel in one of the rain collecting barrels.  Thankfully hubby came home this weekend and dealt with it as I wasn’t going near it.

The wild flowers are coming out fast and furious now.  These are wild strawberries.

And beautiful wild roses….

I have some sewn flowers to show as well.    I received two sets of second round hexies from Christine in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap and here they are sewn on to their flowers…Pretty huh?

I also made a postcard birthday greeting last weekend for a certain little girl (DGD in Nfld) and hopefully she has received it by now…

 

And I received this lovely postcard from Brandy in the Maple Leaf postcard swap.  Ingenious how she used the wool to cover the joins in the fabric. 

Here it is posing with some flowers in my sun room.  (no mice in the photo)

That’s all I have to show this week.  I hope to get more sewing done in the next few days though as Tuesday is a holiday from work for Canada Day.  

How are you doing with your rodents… er, I mean your sewing?

Janet