Wendy’s Quilting and Life

My little holiday has flown by and now it’s back to the office.

I feel like I didn’t accomplish a lot but I did get some much needed rest, some outside time and of course some quilting.

The Elizabeth Quilt is well underway, I still need to cut out and piece the setting blocks which shouldn’t take too long and then add the border, maybe one evening this week. I still need to play with the block positions before put the top together, I just wanted to lay the blocks out today to show Alva when she came by to show me her latest blocks..and I’ll be sharing pictures of that quilt sooner than later I’m sure.

Alva also brought me a beautiful surprise

This is my moms Thimbleberry quilt from a couple of years ago that I quilted for her over the winter. I need to take better pictures next time I’m over, as the lighting wasn’t the best. But these pictures show some of the quilting.

My mom and my daughter Katie 2 very creative ladies, this is one of several pictures that I took during our Easter dinner at my parents and I really like the expressions that I captured.

My dad was interested in my new camera and had me take a picture of the bird feeder in full zoom, from inside the house and about 15 ft away. My dad is a wood carver and is very interested in studying birds; I still need to practice using my camera, what a shame that I have to work for a living instead of working on my creative endeavours.

This morning I read a post by Darlene @ Quilters Daze where she has written an excellent post about and 8th day of the week. You know the days that we would be able to do what we want to do or to be able to accomplish the things we can’t in 7. I so often feel like I live my life on a treadmill.

This week I’ve allowed myself time to do what I want totally unscheduled days. Yes I’ve had to say no to my girls about some of their requests (like my youngest who would like me to just taxi her around a bit more instead of taking the school bus home) I learnt a very long time ago that its alright for a mom to say no sometimes and to take care of herself and not feel guilty about it. Somehow I forgot to really learn that part the not feel guilty part, I think that’s part of being a Mom?

I had a visit with a very good friend of mine yesterday she has been my quilting mentor for almost 20 yrs now. We first met when Quilt Canada was here in Thunder Bay and I was at the very beginning of learning to quilt. She was a helper in one of the classes I took and after that I seemed to run into her in the fabric/quilt shops every time I was looking for help on a project I was working on. She has been an amazing cheerleader in my Quilting and a true inspiration, I love her quilts.

This quilt she brought to discuss the border colours and that it will be coming soon for quilting, and another that’s ready for quilting that I will share pictures of soon.

Alva is never shy in her use of colours and most of the time she uses very bright and vibrant colour. I wish that I would have gotten a better picture, and I hope she doesn’t mind being included in my blog.

I also finished the Stars yesterday for my latest quilt, and also started the next blocks delectable mountains with too many half square triangles.

It was a beautiful day so I went walking, a good fast pace and it sure felt good, when I got home I decided to tackle a bit of cleaning….under the stove/fridge and the outside of those appliances one thing led to another and I was exhausted. Thankfully my eldest daughter asked if I’d like her to make me supper!! She made her own version of gumbo and oh it was good. That husband of hers sure is a lucky man!!

I spent some more time getting to know my new camera; I think it will be a lot like my longarm……practice, practice, practice!

Today promises to be another bright sunny day so I’m going to walk again and maybe take my camera this time. And of course time in my studio without the phone!

Have a great day!!

This is one of the two customer quilts I finished today and I’m well on my way to the other half of the star blocks needed for my newest project.

I almost let myself get sidetracked by pulling out another little project. Its just a little wall hanging that would be nice to have up for spring time, so depending on how much I accomplish tomorrow I may be able to get it on and off the machine.

My camera is also taking up some of my time. Lots of practice shots and playing with settings. It will take some time to feel like I know what I’m doing with it.

This week is a gift to me. It’s like a clean page that I am allowing only myself to write on. I’m using up my comp days from work and I’ve made it really clear to my girls that this week is mine.

I had originally thought I’d use the time for some spring cleaning and painting but then I thought better so…….

I’ll be working on my next project; the above picture shows what I’ve done so far.

I will of course work on customer quilts and there are some cleaning projects that I do want to accomplish, it is spring after all and there really is nothing like nice clean windows in the spring and since I don’t live in a house that’s terribly large it isn’t that huge of a project. Also there are some dust bunnies that really have to be caught and released that have been living under the fridge. I just don’t want to get too carried away with spring cleaning and not get some piecing accomplished. Oh and there are a few recipes that I’ve wanted to try … I have 8 days left of my little break!

I played around with my new camera this weekend and also with photo shop. It rained almost the whole weekend but today looks more promising for a walk and some outdoor shots. Not that I’m counting but there are only 67 days til my grandsons approximate time of arrival!!!!

First thing, I made my decision on my new Camera. I decided to go with the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS model. I’ve had a couple of Powershots already that I was really pleased with and this camera has all of the features and more that I was looking for. At this time in my life I don’t really have the time to invest in learning to use the SLR that I’d want to so for now I’ll stick to the point and shoot side of photography. This camera though will give me more options than my previous camera. Hopefully I’ll be very familiar with my new camera before the newest member of our family arrives in June.

Of course I had to try out my new toy last night and took a few shots in my studio of the latest customer quilt that just came off the frame

This was such a pretty quilt to work on this week, I’m going to have a hard time parting with it, I’m sure that my customer will want it back.

Now onto time. I really enjoy my day job; for the most part it is very interesting and challenging. I work with some great people and my desk is situated beside one of the sunniest windows in the office. (I thrive on daylight esp. when its sunny). My main complaint about my day job is that it takes up so much of my time. I often joke that I wish I had a clone to send to the office for me, so that I could spend more time doing the other things in life that I enjoy. I suppose that’s the wish that most full time employees have.

Anyways I’ve given myself a little treat. I have taken a 10 ½ day Easter weekend with no major plans other than quilting, some spring cleaning, and lots of Wendy time J which is why I picked up my new camera after work yesterday. I’m really hoping that this break will give me a chance to recharge my personal batteries.

I’m also hoping to have a chance to spend a little more time blogging…I guess time will tell.

I’ve been keeping up with my Designers BOM from fatquartershop.com though I really should start on the finishing kit so I’ll be ready when the blocks are finished. I’m planning to have this quilt finished by the beginning of December so that it will be my official Christmas bed quilt.

I’ve been researching Cameras, I love taking pictures and I have a great little Cannon Power Shot but lately I’ve wanted more that this little camera offers. I don’t want to give up the simplicity of a point and shoot so I’m wavering on moving up to a DSLR Canon Rebel XS. Do I really have the time I’d need to invest to learn how to use it?

Or do I stay with a Point and Shoot and move up from my Powershot A720 IS to Canon PowerShot 12.1MP Digital Camera (SX20IS)

At this point I’m leaning towards the Power Shot, it has 12.1 Mega Pixels and 20x zoom compared to my current cameras 8.0 and 6x zoom.

With my little grandson on his way and some other events that are coming up and the fact that I love taking pictures by the thousands I want to be ready. Does anyone reading this have any opinions on these two cameras? I only have 82 days left until his expected arrival.

And moving along to is it really only the middle of March??

Living in NW Ontario spring does not arrive until May and even then its not unheard of freezing weather for the May long weekend. Well this morning we had breakfast out on the deck it was over 14C which is a huge treat for us esp that it happened on a weekend! We even went for a bike ride this afternoon! Afterwards we took a walk through the woods and look what I found!!

I’m sure we’ll see more snow before the month is over but this sure gives me hope.