Old Red Barn Quilt Along and Giveaway

Dana is having a quilt along on her blog based on a quilt she made last year and gave away. Dana has a thing for quilt give aways!!

The quilt along is expected to take six weeks: and I am participating.
Week 1: Gathering of supplies.

I used fabric I had on hand and had most of the supplies – except the scissors are not just for fabric and so were dull, the rotary cutter had a piece missing, my pins are needles and I don’t have a pin cushion

One of the best parts of quilting for me is picking the fabrics. I have a few strawberry fabrics that have been buzzing in my brain for sometime and this seems like a great opportunity to use them. The fabrics I am using are:

Karen Jarrar for Marcus Brothers - Large Strawberries

Flower Fairies by the Woodrow Studio © the estate of Cicely Mary Barker 2002 – Strawberry Check and the Strawberry Fairies

Kaye’s Kitchen by Kaye England – Strawberries

Timeless Treasures Fabrics, Inc Patt #Kidz-C4386 - remind me of strawberry vines

I have this backing fabric in mind but may pick something else. (Sorry - it has no identifying info)







Week 2: Cutting the fabric.

The blocks are 12 inches by 12 inches finished and each block is made up of five 12.5 by 2.5 inch pieces.

It looks like the blocks are made up of various fabrics but we will know better when the directions for next week are posted on Monday. I am using five fabrics instead of 12 and am making a smaller quilt with 20 blocks instead of 35 blocks.

I did a little diagram to help me figure out the cutting layout to reduce wastage and to compensate for making a smaller quilt. Sure hope I calculated properly in cutting the fabric.
Week 3: Sewing the blocks and trimming them to size.

I did week 1 and week 2 work on Friday so I will be starting week 3 work on Monday

Week 4: Assembly of quilt top.
Sometimes I get stuck at this point but I purposefully planned for the quilt to be a smaller project s it would be more manageable.
Week 5: Quilting the top, batting and backing
Sigh...this is where I usually get stalled. I am hoping that by having internet buddies working on their projects I will be encouraged enough to keep going.

Week 6: Binding
I will chose binding fabric when the quilt is pieced.

Each week Dana will give full instructions and then we will have the week to get it done. Dana says; "Easy enough, right?"

Also, each week Dana will give away quilting related stuff that corresponds to that week's work.

At the end of 6 weeks participants should each have a completed quilt.

Give away

AND at the end of 6 weeks Dana is giving away: "the big daddy of all prizes . . . a Janome 6600P sewing machine."

Silver Linings and a Giveaway

Am going through some challenging times at the moment but the good news silver lining is that I will be able to spend more time at home, with Pat and sewing.

I have been making a birthday bunting banner that has been stalled for a bit until I find the right shade of purple to finish the appliqued letters.

More time means more time for blogging and today I stumbled across Julie's wonderful blog Joy's Hope



Please read Joy's Story it helps put life's challenges in perspective. Julie has an etsy shop and it has beautiful flowers she made listed.







AND there is a giveaway on Joy's Hope for a banner (How coincidental is that?!!) made by Trish of Daisys and Dots http://daisysanddots.blogspot.com/

So, how can you win your choice of super awesome bunting?

Go to http://www.joyshope.com

and see all the options... Here is one of the buntings you could win.

Found At Last

I have been searching for these photos forever and now they are found!!

These are the quilts I made for Matthew and my cousin's baby girl a few years ago.

Matthew's quilt is a twin size sampler quilt and the blocks are pieced by hand. I call the baby quilt down the Fairy Lane. I think the blocks in this quilt are called Sister's Choice. They are machine pieced and frame a lovely fairy fabric.

Sunday Breakfast - Finnish Pancakes

I was stumbling early this morning and found a recipe for Finnish Pancakes;http://www.omnomicon.com/finnish-pancakes. Aleta got the recipe from the Massachusetts Poultry Association, Inc.


Finnish Pancakes
4 tbsp butter, melted
4 eggs
2 c milk
1/2 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 450oF, and pour the melted butter into a 9″x13″ baking pan. (I put the butter in the baking dish while the oven preheated) and took the pan out when the butter had melted and was slightly bubbly)

I whisked the eggs until well-blended and then whisked in the milk, flour, sugar and salt with the eggs. I poured the mixture into the pan with butter making sure to get the floury bits at the bottom of the mixing bowl into the pan. I baked it for 20 minutes. The edges were nicely browned and the top was light golden. The pancake puffed up quite a bit in the oven and then deflated when taken out.

I cut the pancake into four and served each piece with thinly sliced granny smith apple pieces dipped in lemon and sprinkled lightly with cinnamon sugar and then generously drizzled maple syrup over it all.

This was delicious - very light souffle, eggy like confection. Very easy to make too.

Bowen Island

It took us forever to get on our way on Saturday - housework, laundry, a god trip to Trout Lake Farmer's Market to buy herbs but around 2pm we were at Horseshoe Bay waiting for the ferry.

We arrived on Bowen island and visited the toy store where we bought bristol board for Pat's school project and a baseball bat. The storekeeper suggested we go to Tuscan restaurant for dinner so we made reservations and then headed to the beach. We explored the beach for a couple of hours. Pat went swimming brr brr and more brr but he loved it. Watched crabs scramble under rocks, found cool rocks and admired the driftwood.

Dinner was a delight. We got the chef's table which meant the table beside the serving counter next to the open kitchen. Christophe Langlois is the chef owner At first Pat was tired and crabby and hungry and complained that he did not like anything on the menu....then the kitchen staff plated several dinners for other guests and Pat asked the waiter what they were. He explained them and Pat chose homemade fettuccine pasta with mussels, oysters, halibut, scallops and pommodori sauce. It was huge. He was in heaven with every bite and kept sighing and exclaiming how good it was as he shoveled the food in.

We had a great bruschetta with avocado, cheese, tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had halibut on fettuccine with a saffron, asparagus and tomato sauce and Ian had a pizza and pernot. Everything was so delicious.

Pat had triple berry white chocolate creme brule and it was an educational experience. The chef showed the new kitchen staff how to use the blow torch and turn the dish just so to get the right level of "brule" Pat stood to watch and pronounced the dish perfect. The chef came over to speak with us and Pat gave him two thumbs up which made the chef laugh.

The chef told us he really enjoyed Pat seeing eating his dinner and that several other guests ordered the dish because Pat was so clearly ecstatic. (Pat also ate I/3 of my supper - must be another growth spurt)

http://www.tuscanypizza.com/

I knew you were coming and I baked a cake

Cait and Pat had so much fun goofing around!!

Secret Agents

Garden Time

It is so beautiful in Vancouver and so lush with vegetation. Our garden is just a small example of verdant Vancouver. The previous owner was a landscape architect and the garden is packed even though he took quite a few plants with him.

Leaving the Nest

Cait is here for a week after the end of her school term and we have had a great time. One of the highlights was our trip to Whistler and Devon, Cait and even Pat went bungee jumping. It was Cait's idea but Devon was up for it too.

Devon just ran and jumped off the platform - it really looked as if he was flying. Cait jumped and swung wildly - they both said it was a real rush of feeling and then the swinging was fun. At first I did not want Pat to do this. It was terrifying to watch Devon and Cait fall over 150 feet, I could never let myself just go like that. They were so enthusiastic about it after the fall and said Pat would love it. He was beyond keen to try - no fear in him! He was so focused on the instructions his teachers would not believe it if they saw him. They holstered him up and counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and he stepped off into nothingness and spread his arms wide to fall freely. He was so pumped after being hauled up.

I asked Pat what it was like and he said "At first I got a tingly feeling in my privates and it felt weird with the first drop. Then the swings back and forth and up and down were SO FUN!!! He has been wearing his bungee t shirt ever since.

The 3 images here are by Whistler Bungee and were included in the CD they gave us.