Lots of Scenery… not much sewing

Our 2013 Road Trip V3 has begun. (insert fanfare here).

The bride and groom of the weekend

invited friends and family to brunch this morning. So we had lovely last good byes before they fly off and we drove off into the west.

Which gave our GPS a fit, it wanted us to drive east. Much fussing ensued. Corrections were made to the settings and we drove happily down the highway to the border. A delightfully easy crossing, no traffic at all. I asked that we take a break as soon as an opportunity showed itself, and there it was. A plaza not 3 min. from the crossing, with a Lowe’s, JoAnne’s, and  Walmart.  All the things we were looking for.

I got the  paint chips to colour match the fabrics for Bonnie's new mystery challenge,  picked up a few quarter yards of fabric, and DH picked up a few personals at Walmart .

Back on the road, we did something a little different this time. Instead of sticking to the Interstate highways, we went off on the regular roads and cut through Adirondack Park. A little too late in the season for a spectacular colour display but pretty enough to make me consider calling this new quilt an Adirondack Autumn.

All the colours Bonnie has chosen were there, the rust, golden yellows, the green of the pines/spruces and the blue sky.

So lots of thinking about sewing, but didn’t get any done.

Not sewing today

I'm not sewing today.  Instead we are enjoying our friend's wedding. And all the socializing that comes with a group that doesn't see each other often. Getting a chance to visit and meet new friends.

I packed a couple of projects to work on later in the trip.  The Bonnie quilt I've chosen will be the

Sister's nine patch. Can't show a picture as it is all still packed in the van.

Linking up with Jo for the first day of the challenge. Jo's linky

Engage Hyper Drive. Full Speed Ahead!

Or something like that.

I have been working at top speed this week, so fast…how fast? Fast enough not to have time to come on here and whine about it.

But the end of the tunnel, horizon, whatever, is in sight.

Wedding quilt: Done. Washed, labelled, hanging out to dry

Shades of Black quilt:  Quilted, binding ready

Last minuet baby quilt for BIL’s godson’s baby: pieced.

All the unfinished stuff is coming with us on the road to be worked on evenings as we travel. Which means a sewing centre to be packed, in addition to the formal clothes for the wedding, warm clothes for the inclement weather we are bound to run into. Boots, coats, etc.

I wouldn’t be so frantic if we were leaving tomorrow as originally planned, however DH and a friend hatched a plan for us to stop and overnight tonight with the friends, leaving together tomorrow for Ottawa. So back to packing.

I Changed my mind….

 

and the new one works much better, thanks.

I spent the morning today waiting for my DD2 to have day surgery. As this was a planned event I had time to prep some sewing and printed off some more diamonds. However, I printed some different colours this time and tried a new arrangement.  Despite all the positive comments, I still wasn’t satisfied with the way the stars were going together. The slight offset was off-putting to me. So I’m mixing solid colours in with the print

 

Really like the purple.  And I think I will do a “Seven Sisters” block. Maybe four of them. We’ve got another road trip coming up so I have lots of hand sewing time.

 

 

Another change was the quilt I was doing for our friend’s wedding. I really wasn’t satisfied with the choice. While sitting sewing this morning I had lots of thinking time which helped me identify what was wrong with it. I wanted to make him a quilt full of boats and sailing theme fabrics. He’s an avid sailor and I wanted to acknowledge that in his gift. Once home I started fresh on a pattern I had flagged in the spring. It is in Pat Sloan’s book What a novel Idea.

This is only half way, there is another chevron on the sewing table but this is full of boats, flags and the white has sea shells. Much better.

And I changed the orientation of my sewing machine. Now I have closer access to the design wall and don’t have to reach over the machine.

It seems to be working better. But I’m sure there is a more effective way to arrange this room, I just haven’t found it yet.

Distractions

I’ve had a few this week. Enough to keep me from finishing anything on my “to do” list. So as much as I wanted a finish to show off, I don’t have one.

One of the things distracting me was a property we found for sale that seemed to fit our downsizing plans. Much time was spent looking on google street view and talking it over before setting up an appointment to view. Then Saturday we had our view and still more talking going on. No sewing involved in this.

Although if we do get this, I will have an awesome sewing room.

Another distraction was sewing related. I’ve know about Inklingo for a while and even have the shapes collection but haven’t used it. Then Linda started showing pictures of the Kaleidoscope Stars. Check them out here if you haven’t seen what she’s doing Inklingo - Kaleidoscope Stars.   So I’ve been working on printing out the diamonds and sewing them when I can fit in some hand sewing. (Like sitting waiting for the Kaffe Fasset lecture). My printing needs some work, well actually it would be the cutting out of the fabric to be printed upon. I didn’t get it lined up in exactly the same spot every time for all six sheets. So this is what my stars look like

Just a little off.  But once I’ve mastered the technique I will repeat with the fabric I really wanted to use.

Butterflies

 

 

So today I am linking up with Quilter Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday. I will be sewing more of the practise stars in the van on the way to Burlington this afternoon.

Oh What an exciting night

This rates right up there with meeting Bonnie Hunter.

I did get tickets to the Kaffe Fasset lecture. I bought two and was going to take DH since he is so involved and interested in my quilting endeavours. However, he suggested that I invite his father, who has a great interest in colour and  fabric and even has as one of his prized possessions a Pantone colour book.  I thought this would be great and gave them a call. Some how, I wound  up with my mother in law coming  instead.  She was very excited and called back several minutes later to tell me she had found his Glorious Knitting book on her shelves. She had forgotten she had it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time. He gave a fascinating talk, only showed the two quilts, everything else was by slide show.  And then to top it off, I won a door prize.

So thanks Jayne, for encouraging me to go. I was almost going to pass on this.