Tuesdays with Elinor

My good friend Elinor Burwash and I have been working through Fabric Embellishment, The Basics & Beyond. My friend got her copy at Houston and I was so enticed I picked mine up at Earthly Goods so that I could join in the fun. Elinor had very generously offered to make me dinner and to lend me one of her Bernina so that I could come straight from work to play at her house. The get-togethers have stopped for the time being as we both concentrate on other projects but I wanted to share with you some of my completed pages. Elinor had made the decision to complete hers with the intention of creating a sampler wall hanging in analogous range of colours which she will no doubt share some day on her own blog pages.

My choice was to make mine into a book and to give my pages body, I used a sheet of "Heat & Bond" between my batting and false backing, cut to within a quarter inch of my outside edge. That is something you do not want to sew through!! False backing...because I want this to be neater and no distraction.

Page 1: Weaving Fabric: A too-far-gone lace tablecloth woven with hand dyed cotton from Cathy Tomm. A channel stylized branch with beading, buttons and seed stitching. The edge is finished with a novelty yarn.

Page 2: Adding Flair with stitches and bits: novelty edges adorned with beaded fringe, bias tape, eyelash yarn, rick-rack and anything else that can be sewn in. I finished the page in envelope style and mounted to stiff black felt with buttons.



Page 3: Crazy Quilting (traditional style) This was my first completed piece of crazy quilting. It should have come with a warning, it is very addicting. Finished with embroidery, beading and buttons. Thank you to Judy Hatt for the beginning centre that I just kept adding to.

Page 4: Crazy Quilting (deconstructed with arc-i-texture cirlces): I used a variety of black/white/red scraps leaving the mother goose visible through the arc-i-texture circle (a technique I learned from my good friend Kim Caskey). Finished with chenille yarn and a traditional binding.

Page 5: Rubber Stamping (with covered clothes cord coils): a warm August afternoon spent stamping and painting in the of shade of a linden tree. Margie Davidson's garden was the inspiration for the fern stamping (what she can't do with a fern is hardly worth mentioning). I loved the texture that the background stamping created and it was only made complete with batik covered clothesline cord made to represent fiddlehead ferns. Finishing included seed beads and an eye-lash yarn edging.

There are more pages soon to be completed and shared.

Science Sunday

The first Sunday of March is marked in my calendar from year to year. That is the Sunday that is reserved for my grandson Ty and I to attend Science Sunday at the University of Alberta at the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Building. This is a hands-on science discovery day for ages 5 - 12. We always have a great time. This year was especially great because Ty is now old enough to participate in the archeological dig!


Twenty budding archeologist don goggles, take up trowel and paint brush and excavate away the layers to discover artifacts laying waiting to be discovered under the sand.

There is also the necessity to record/map where in the dig your artifacts were located.

It is a great day to spend with a special boy. We also took in the "Noises in Nature" presentation by John Acorn. Ty always get the answer right when John plays the recording of the flying grasshoppers. John has a new toy which records under water sounds. So this year we got to hear the under ice sounds at a frozen Lake Wabamum (wow the ice cracking sounds like a rifle shot) and the different sounds made by a low flush versus traditional old water guzzling toilet!

There was also time to do "Dot to Dot Dino's",

"Why Playdough is like a Rock",
Or decorate your bag...with a crushing scene of dinosaurs trapped in molten lava...titled "End of Dinosaurs".

Ty got to compare his humerus arm bone being shown here by a volunteer holding a human cadaver bone. Our bones are much larger than those of this smaller species type anteater.
There is so much to see and do at Science Day we will have to go again next year.

Scrappy Saturday Catch-up: January/Red

Scrappy Rainbow Challenge Saturday, well Friday night as I will be on the road early Saturday. I thought I would make a collection of nine patches as I clean off the top of the scrap bin. So at this pace it is not too exciting (and out of focus to boot). But there will be some additions, ie March, April, etc.

In an attempt to play some catch up here, I have decided to do a very red scrap spool challenge covering off the month of January. February will just have to wait.

This is from the book Cut the Scraps, by Joan Ford. These are large pieces compared to the standards of Bonnie K. Hunter, but each have their own use-it-up commitment.

While it is not suggested in the book, as I have drawn my corner to corner line, I have also moved the ruler over another half inch and marked another line. There by creating a bonus set of triangle when tidied and squared are 4" and 2 1/2" respectively: seed for another quilt in my further. BaZinGa!



Thanks for your feedback and encouragement you have all shared. Happy Saturday you Scrappers.

Rainbow Challenge(s)

I think I will try to get caught up with my friend Cathy Tomm and those linked up with SoScrappy and the Rainbow Challenge.

For January it was the colour red. Well, red with a tint of white is pink.

In one failed attempt to tidy the studio I came across a bag of pink scraps that I had inherited from my friend Judy Hatt. I hauled out all the scraps onto the table, did a quick assessment..."looks like the beginnings of an irregular log cabin" I mused. (wish I had taken a picture at that point) What to do, but get sewing, and sewing, pressing, trimming and sewing, add some more of my pinks, florals, grapes, oranges, limes, melon (this is no ordinary fruit salad).


What if I add this bold stripe and a centre of melon? (melon dyed fabric from Margie Davidson)


Viola, a disappearing nine-patch. I am quite happy with the results. I have several hours of sewing ahead of me to create this double sized "Fruit Salad".

Now for the month of February it is GREEN. Hummmmm where is this going to take me.

Orca Bay Top Finished!

Here is my finished top. Sorry about the great human fold, but Betty and I were doing our best. it turned into a very large, heavy and amazing quilt. I am looking forward to getting this quilted.

thanks again to Bonnie K Hunter of quiltville.com for her inspiration and leadership.

Because we received our 'star' clue just before Christmas Eve, my quilt is called "Stars of Wonder Stars of Might".

Bill MacKinnon

My brother-in-law Bill MacKinnon left us yesterday, January 9, 2012. While he was here and before he left he made sure of a few things.

He raised with my sister Marg two beautiful daughters: Carla and Mary and one son: Doug.

He showed a granddaughter Jamie and grandson Billy what it was to be loved so unconditionally that he became their best friend. He could have been hardly have been prouder to welcome his great granddaughter Savannah into his life.

He taught them all how to ride, how to drive, how to treat people with respect and how to get the most of every moment.

He rode high into the mountains of Jasper National Park and Willmore Wilderness, and had memorized every horse's name, wrecks he had, trails he rode, peaks he saw and every great spot he camped. He was also known to tie knots in small saplings at the tree line, or so it is rumored. If you find one I would love a picture.

He was the original maker of "witches brew", aka pancakes which were always served with peanut butter and jam. This was washed down with generous cups of black coffee.

There are countless stories of his compassion, fortitude, resourcefulness and generosity that will be told at his memorial service on February 18.

He was so special and such a good friend to me. He is riding with the angels now and I already miss him terribly.

Orca Bay Update

UPDATE: February 6 2012. Top is done. Apologies for the very human fold but Betty was doing her very best.

Thank you Bonnie for your inspiration and leadership. I can hardly wait for the next one.

Imagine the frustration. I was without internet and phone service for the past 9 days. Well I had other things to do, like make the 4 more Ohio Stars that I had somehow miscounted.

In desperation to get my Orca Bay fix I did go round to the public library to get caught up on all the new Mr Linky posts that were happening. I did call my DD after new years (not knowing the next clues were going to be released) and she read the #7 clue to me so that I could get my flying geese made. Those went together amazingly fast.

Then I talked to Cathy Tomm and she explained over the phone (cell) how to contruct the rows. Since I have gone back to work full time now, I make the most of those hours between 5 and 7 am by working on Orca Bay and my other MQ.

The following quilt I did at a LQS Dec 27-30 with my friend Maureen. We give each other the gift of time for Christmas by taking this 4 day class together.

(Near) Completed pictures shall be posted after the weekend.

Wishing you all a very happy and creative new year. Many many thanks to Bonnie for your generosity of spirit and talent.