Holiday Weekend

It is the first day of a holiday weekend here. Our Canada Day lands on Tuesday so everyone who can has booked off the Monday and is having a long, long weekend.  Due to our schedules, DH and I are not getting the full effect of this. He is on-call and has to keep his work phone on and actually answer it. I get the Sat & Sun but have to work Mon & Tues. What we did have on the agenda for today was the launch of our boat. Which happened bright and early this morning.
Bright being very appropriate, it was very sunny and we are both sorry we didn’t apply sunscreen. Here DH is getting everything set up.


To get to us, the yard workers had to move trailers around first.


Then they pushed us on our trailer over to the big machine that lowers the boat into the water.
And before you know it, we are afloat. Motor on and over to the dock.




The rest of the day was spent on the fiddly bits of stuff that consume so much of boating. The sail isn’t even on yet! But just being there, on the water, was wonderful.
Canada Goose pretending to be a Flamingo ( we weren’t fooled for a minute)







And now that feeling you get after a full day in the fresh air and sun is creeping in and some one, some where is having a really good fireworks. I’m too tired to even wonder where.

Quilt Canada

was wonderful, I’m so glad I went.  Only a few  pictures, too busy to get many. The class I took was so absorbing and fascinating I even forgot to eat the chocolates I took.

 This is the picture that was a thumbnail for the class signup.

Pretty awesome,right

 

 

This is more along the lines of what I am trying to make.

And so far this is what I have done.

 

 

The class did what I wanted and much more. I was just looking to learn how to foundation piece with freezer paper.  The teacher, Gail Garber, showed us how to design our projects rather than just copy hers. The whole first day we didn`t even touch the sewing machines.

 

Which were lovely, new Janome`s. A real treat. I was so early the first day I managed to snag a table with only one machine, thinking it would be helpful to have the room. It was but on the other hand, wasn`t very sociable and meant I didn`t get to know my classmates as much as if we had been elbow to elbow for two days.

The displays of quilts were a fantastic as might be expected for a national show, no pictures of course. I did get some of the vendor mall before  diving into the shopping.

And best of all, I got to thank  Matt Sparrow, the longarm quilter who quilted the tops I sent for the Calgary Flood Relief last year. He was here with the APQS booth. It was almost like a celebrity sighting. The first time through the mall, I was so surprised to see him. I had to go back three times before he was free to approach, it was such a busy booth.

Definitely putting going to Quilt Canada on my list of things to do again.

Playing Hookey

Or whatever it is called. When summer was so close and school so boring, we would take off and play in the sunshine. Or at least in my memory, possibly it only happened once. Dear Hubby and I did it yesterday.  He had to pick up a part from a marine store almost two hours away, in Port Dover.  So we made a day of it. Starting by returning the items to the Quilting Bee and exchanging for what I really wanted, since it was on the route we were taking.

Dear Son came along, so he could get a look at this.  A power boat he is considering.






After the marine store, an obligatory stop at a local landmark hot-dog stand that DH remembered from summers he worked in the area.







And a Golden Glow drink. Some 
sort of orange soft drink, very refreshing.






Such a beautiful sunny day.  The streets were full of teens in summer gear, heading for the beach. Which in this little town is right at the end of the main street.

 Then on the way home we found this guy, and tried to take selfies with him.
Unfortunately the sun in my eyes didn't help matters

All in all a very successful day trip and an escape from the desk/phone for DH.

Spring Shop Hop Goodies

This weekend was the spring shop hop locally. For the past few years this has been a small affair as there have only been three shops locally. But they teamed up with three shops a little farther away and it seemed to be more traffic. I sure hope it worked for them. Personally, I still only shopped at the three locals, I just couldn’t fit an hour drive on the highway into our plans, and I wasn’t up to going it alone.

I went with a shopping list and managed to stick to it , mostly. And spaced it out so I was only at one shop per day.

The first one, called Bee  - Modern Fabrics. White on white and some black/white’s. A whole 4 metres of the white on white because I”m thinking of doing another Film at Five.
Each store had a free gift and a free pattern. Bee’s was a bamboo reusable shopping bag. (coincidently with their name on it).


Saturday I nipped over to the shop in my town, Kindred Spirits. Who give a nice new ruler as a gift and a neat chevron pattern. I went off the list there and picked up a flannel on the clearance rack that I thought would work for some backs I need. Plus two batiks that were on my list.

 And Sunday, we drove out to the farthest away. They give a nice pair of scissors. I picked up a few supplies there as well as fabric but will be returning some. The black and white I grabbed without looking closely and has a tan in it as well. And the pink thread that I grabbed without careful consideration turns out to be polyester intended to be embroidery or top-stitching,  I think, not the quilting thread I wanted.
And this is why the batiks and black & whites. Bonnie’s Jellybean Blast block from the vol.7 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine.
 
The full quilt is now on the cover of the latest edition of the magazine, so I pulled out the 100 blocks mag and started a test block with some of the batiks I was given for mother’s day. Love it, but the jelly roll didn’t have enough variety in the purple or yellow.
And what about the Kissing Fish pattern that I was making with them?

I have gotten this far with it. Just not loving it and decided to call it a day and put it together ( blocks aren't sticking very well to the new design wall). Using 4.5" HST for the edges. The original pattern called for a complicated two block arraignment, with squares sticking out the edges and then trimming them down, not happening. Just sewing the rows together on the diagonal.