A Finish of the Nerdy Sort

Yup, you read that right.
It's what you've been waiting for...
It's done.

It's big.

At 81" × 100" it takes a bit of help and a high vantage point to get some decent pictures...meet Ma PurpleBoots  & Ump PurpleBoots. They were kind enough to freeze their paws off this morning to hold this bad boy up over their veranda railing for me.

Look at that colour!

Kona Nerd (she prefers 'Kona Badass') Jen over at A Quarter Inch From The Edge has promised to help me get the colour stats on this quilt. Wouldn't it be fun to know just how many of the 300+ shades are represented in it?

Look at that back!!

I'm not sure why,  but I love the back as much as the front!

Look at that quilting!

It's called Dizzy Izzy Baby designed by Jessica Schick, downloaded from Urban Elementz. (A certain lil springy thing is pleased by the choice.)

If the Kona Nerds were ever to meet, I imagine it should happen in a colourful spot like this...without the snow.

I hereby call this meeting to order.
On the agenda: a celebration! We Kona Nerds did good!
Margaritas anyone?

Forty, You Say?

It's Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch From The Edge and Jen has a giveaway for gift certificate for $40 from Fabric Please. I know I'm trying to use up my stash this year, but c'mon people...even I couldn't resist a shot at winning some free fabric in midst of The Stashpocalypse! I'd encourage you to go ahead link up with her but I'd really hate to dilute the linkup and lessen my own chances of winning.

With the number 40 ringing loud and clear in my mind it made me think of a couple of quilts that were all about 40:

40 seems like a big number, especially if you think of it in terms of ones age. Turning forty is a milestone and one that I feel should be marked. In preparation for the big 4-0 during my 39th year I bought a Jeep that I'd always dreamed of, got my first tattoo and finally scored my long coveted Harley Davidson Fatboy. (Midlife crisis, anyone?) My sisters didn't do things up quite to that extent, but to help them in their celebrations I made them quilts.

Sister PurpleBoots Levy got this one...

A scrappy Twister that had my second ever attempt at free pieced letters on it. The 10" squares were swapped with members of a bee I sew with...so of the fabrics were wild! several were vintage, others were just plain yucky. My bee mates referred to these flimsies as our "Ugly Quilts". I begged to differ, I actually really like them, but I couldn't convince them that they were really nice quilts!

Sister PurpleBoots King got this one...

A scrap-a-palooza masterpiece made of a whole grocery bag full of old-old-old tossed out scraps from one of those same bee members along with some of my own. The free pieced words on this one described how I felt about stitching all those bits together.

I have 2 more sisters to turn 40 in the next couple years, so there'll be 2 more "Celebrate 40" quilts to make. My eldest sister who was long past 40 got her quilt for Christmas one year... and my step sister who'd passed 40 long before I started this hasn't gotten hers yet...but I have uncovered the special fabric I bought for hers and she will turn 50...eventually.

If You Go Out In The Woods Today

When I was a small child my mother used to sing me a song that started like that...not that this post has anything at all to do with the Teddy Bears Picnic, but since I just spent some time traipsing around in the woods I thought it made for a catchy post title, don't ya think?

I finished up the scrappy binding on Star Bright this morning and needed to get some good pictures. I jumped into my boots and went into the back yard for only that purpose.



But it was such a nice day out there that the springy things demanded more. So, up the hill we went. I love spending time in the woods with the dogs. Seeing them so happy and running so freely makes me feel so good. I am lucky to live on the acreage that I've roamed since my childhood; there is something very grounding and peaceful  about being in familiar territory...knowing every path, retracing old footsteps, and remembering old times brings waves of gladness and, at times, sadness too. This place crosses many chapters of my life...the land, the trees, the paths are all a part of me somehow.

It seems to me that a childhood in the 70's and 80's meant growing up in a simpler time. We made our own fun, we played, imagined and lived out side. Climbing trees was a big past time for me; I swear I was part monkey. I saw this tree today in a clearing at the top of the hill where a few property lines collide. At one time you could see the whole Bay from this spot but the trees have grown and now tower across the view.

The tree beckoned. I haven't climbed a tree for quite some time. When Not-So-Little PurpleBoots was a small boy I proved to his naysaying frame that it could be done. He never really caught on. I guess Virgo boys aren't much into swinging in the tree tops these days, he was much too practical for such foolishness anyway.

This felt good today. The springy things were slightly confused by my monkeying around but they patiently sniffed around below waiting for me to come back down. Like riding a bike, or skating, one does not forget how to climb trees. It's just a bit harder to twist a 5'9" frame up and around the branches than it was a 5-foot-nothin' frame...but it can be done. And what's more? It should be done.

I'll cling to my childhood glee as long as I can.

Checking In...

Folks, February has arrived. That means I have survived a whole month of The Stashpocalypse; so far so good.

I bravely ventured into a fabric shop on 5 occasions in January:

 1. I popped in to Patch in Halifax to pick up fabric that was being supplied for the class sample. I was focused on the mission at hand and managed to get out with just a small bundle at no cost to me! 

2. A few days later I literally ran in to Patch and practically threw the finished Sampler at Chris...blinders on, parked illegally in a snowbank and late for boxing class. How easy it might have been to skip class and poke around instead...

3. The dreaded behemoth that is Fabricville; definitely not my go-to-cotton-patch...but hey, I've been known to leave behind a little credit card carnage there on occasion. I (brace yourself) took on a commission for a giant t-shirt quilt and needed stabilizer for the jersey shirts. 

4. Fabricville again. More stabilizer. Have I ever mentioned that I HATE t-shirt quilts? But money is money and this stash slayer is broke. 

5. The Robot requested a giant cone of white thread so I popped in to Sew With Vision for a visit. Always nice to catch up with Bonnie and see what they're working on in there...and she's got great prices on Signature quilting thread and offers a discount to guild members.

No poking around, no fabric petting, no Visa charges...just get in and get out. 

Took. Everything. I. Had.
But, mission(s) accomplished. 

Now, just 11 more months to go.

It helps that The Enabler left behind a stack of Tula Pinks Eden in purple. We're going to surprise each other by creating a flimsy for the other with the line. She's got the same stack for me in the pink colourway. She picked up the fabric when It's Sew Time had their open house Christmas sale, so I'll be quilting both of them.

What else is new?

Well, my first Bloggaversary slipped by quietly on the 28th of January. In the words of my favourite author, "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" I had totally meant to do something to mark the grand occasion, but turns out I'm often less like the Grinch and more like Pooh...even when I try to remember, I forget. Oh bother. It's hard to believe a whole year of rambling at you fine people has passed. Time flies! 

We had a little sew-in here all weekend...sewed our hearts out, ate our faces off...you know how it goes. Saturday The Robot and I quilted The Enablers kinda-quick-curve-ruler project she calls Curvy Girl. It's beautiful...but do ya think I snapped a photo of it? No.  On Sunday, Adrienne was working on a new class sample for Patch and I busted out some stash fabrics and made one along with her. It's done, just needs binding. Super cute and fun project...it's got some Dr. Seuss fabric in it...I guess that's what got me going on the rhymes.

Star Bright quilt designed by Katie Blakesley at Sew Bike Quilt

I even pieced the back in true scrap-a-palooza style. I had a big chunk of the grey Robert Kaufman sheeting that I had cut off the bottom of the Gravity quilt, so I sewed that up with some other leftovers...and voila! After everyone had left for the day, The Robot & I quilted it up using the "Bubblicious" pattern downloaded by The Enabler some time ago from Intelligent Quilting. See, I even have digital demons to fight in this Stashpocalypse...sigh.

Once my wee star quilt was done I blew the dust off a long forgotten project: Pointy, by Elizabeth Hartman. How could I have neglected this rainbow of Kona and linen for so long? The kit came and served as a bit of retail therapy around the time I hit the deer on the Fatboy...I had even cut it all up and had some of the piecing done! Clearly my fire blazed off in a different direction and I took a different path. Gravity, maybe? Anyway, yesterday I stitched up one arrow and was satisfied enough with it to put the pieces in the Jack Daniels tin. Once that happens, it'll probably get done...or at least carted off to a sew in and worked on.

And that, my friends, is all for now.

One Mans Junk

Once upon a summers night in 2015 the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild held their first yardsale. (You can read all about it here.) The peeps cleaned and gutted their scrap bins, purged their stashes and drug it all out to the meeting place and set up shop. What a fun evening...we hooted, hollered, laughed and emptied our piggy banks into the hands of the sellers. I lugged home 17$ worth of random textile goodness from Adrienne over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts.

There were fat quarters, half meters, triangles, and scraps of every size and shape imaginable in my bag o'loot.  Oh... and of every print imaginable too. I brought it home but never got around to amalgamating the fresh haul into my stash. And so it sat and sat in the bag.  One day I started playing with it...I sewed up long strips of those already cut triangles without purpose. Another day I started making slabs of scrappy bits without much though of arriving at any particular destination. Without any real plan for the goods I ended up putting that bag away and almost forgot about it. Almost. But a couple days ago, an idea came out of nowhere and blindsided me. A spark suddenly caught and a fire grew.

It grew.

And grew.

And now, it's going off on a little trip to grow some more.

I have always loved the idea of a round robin quilt building project and in the Stashpocalypse spirit of "using only what we have" (as per the manisfesto) fellow stash buster Anja, over at Anja Quilts, has agreed to take a shot at the pile of "junk" and add something to it. I will bring her all the bits and chunks in the pile along with the center medallion (which now measures 32.5" × 42") and set her loose with only one rule:

She can ONLY use the junk in the bag. As now proclaimed in cloth 100% of the fabric in this flimsy has to come out of that original 17$ investment. Nothing can be added to the pile unless it once belonged to Adrienne. (Perhaps it's worth noting that now might be a good time to break into her sewing room to swipe a little more currency in the low volume department? It took every square inch in the bag to piece the background around all those letters, there's not one bit left in that bag and only slivers in my trash can.)

Perhaps you, dear reader, might like a turn playing in the heap of cloth? Let me know. When Anja is done adding her two cents worth the flimsy is going to need to go somewhere with a fresh set of eyes to build on some more patchwork.

Seriously. This is going to be a blast!   

Four Patch For Patch

A 4 patch improv sampler for Patch.

How's that?

Remember the fun little sampler I showed you last week freezing in the garden? It was a prototype for the Intro To Improv class I'll be teaching at Patch, in Halifax, in February. It's made up of four "patches" or maybe they're just blocks, but that doesn't make for a catchy lil blogpost title does it? 

Sampler 4 Patch, the 1st edition: a prototype in Kona

Sampler 4 Patch, the 2nd edition: a breath of spring in the dead of winter.

I made it again in fabrics that Chris, the shop owner, chose from her oh-so-handsome stock for the class sample. (She has SO many gorgeous fabrics on her shelves...all the trendy, super-fun stuff I keep seeing popping up on my Instagram feed is there!) This time round I took lots of process photos so I could make notes for potential students. Notes. Yes. She thought notes would be helpful.

It's hard to write a pattern for improv, because there's no pattern. Nothing is measured, everything is eyeballed and at the whim of the cutter. So I took photos. Lots of photos. And then I attempted to put them into a document...to build a tutorial...sorta.

This exercise was really an expose on my computer skills, or lack thereof.  Jeez Louise. Not hard to tell that I do not rely on Office programs for my job. I figured it out...sort of...but it ain't pretty. My formatting skills leave a lot to be desired really. Oh. And, did I mention I forgot to take pictures of Block One? Not to worry...I'll figure something out for that blunder. That's exactly what an improv brain does, it figures stuff out as it goes along.

Oh well, at least the pictures will speak for themselves...and I'm pretty sure they're in the right order. It's a darn good thing I like to talk so the students will get the up close, rambling, hands-on account of how I made each block and then joined them altogether.  

A four hour workshop sure does take a lot of hours of prep time...

if you're me. I hope you're not me. The world can't handle too many of us.

Thinking about giving improv a try? Come play with me in February!

I promise my improv skills are far superior to my computer skills!!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, well you know that's a hard one for me. 

So let me just say these few words:

I am glad I remembered socks today.

And these few words:

Why the hell are my top 2 pictures blue?