Blitzen

Blitzen by Basicgrey for Moda is a delightful new line of fabric.  When it came into the local shop I just could not resist buying some of it.  Here is what I did with it.

Even though this is a christmas line of fabric, I wanted to make a quilt for all year round.  I will be offering this as a class at Katja's this fall.

This is the hexagon for week 31.  I am busy making myself kits for the rest of the 52 hexagons so I have some work to do on an upcoming road trip.  WooHoo, ROADTRIP!

Have a great day!

Farmer's Wife Blocks 61 & 62

Northern Lights and Old Windmill are out enjoying the sunshine.

Right here in Kamloops!

At the first annual Kamloops Marathon and Half Marathon.  And why were we here at 6 am on a Sunday morning?

It was my daughter Leslie and her friend Heidi running in the half marathon.  Their first time!

They finished the race together in a time of 2:18.  A very respectable time.

And they will still smiling at the end.

Week 30, Already!

Where does the time go?  Here is week 30's Hexagon.

I just couldn't resist these cute little mittens!  Even though we are in the throws of a warm spell, winter will be here again before we know it.  LOL.  Keep those mittens handy.

I was going to share a picture of my Blitzen quilt with you, but I just realized I left my camera at the quilt shop.  Now how does that happen?  I guess Carla's wonderful peanut butter cookies had me on such a sugar high, I couldn't think of much else.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Spring Bouquet by Laundry Basket Quilts

I've been a little busy lately working on a Spring Bouquet sample.  The quilt is designed by Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda.  The beauty of this pattern is that you can buy Silhouettes which are laser cut appliqué pieces, that already have steam a seam 2 fused onto the back. First up, a picture of a completed block.

The quilt is entirely made of batiks so the colours are vibrant!

To make the block I started with the pattern, a 17" background square (pattern called for 16 1/2" but I like to cut it down to size after the appliqué is done,) a light box and the pre packaged silhouettes.

I pinned the pattern together and then pinned the background square to the pattern.  With the light box the placement is a snap.  The papers peel off the silhouettes easily leaving a slightly sticky backing.  Sticky enough to hold everything in place yet enough give that if you have to lift a piece to place another under it, you can.  Once everything is where I want it, I unpin everything, slide the block off the light box onto my ironing board, and set everything in place with an iron.

Next comes the machine appliqué.  Lucky for me my machine has a setting for needle down and pressure foot up whenever I stop, making sewing everything down so much easier.

The quilt consists of nine blocks and four appliquéd borders.  It will be available shortly at Katja's as well as most other local quilting stores.  A great Moda project.  Stay tuned for more pics shortly.

Farmer's Wife Blocks 109, 110 & 111

Yes, I am jumping to the back of the book.  To complete all 111 blocks by the end of the year, I need to present three at a time for seven weeks.  I was going to do this at the end of the year, but someone asked that I do it a little earlier, as Christmas is so busy.  So I thought I would mix it up a bit.  Three this  week, maybe two next, you just never know!

The names of these blocks are Windows, Wood Lily and Wrench.

Once again my blocks went to work with me.  This is the cute little Ford Transit that I drive around in to complete my mail route.  It is parked at a CMB site on Quail Dr.  in Batchelor North, Kamlooops.  It is a fairly new part of town.  I took this picture a bit ago when my truck was clean.  LOL.

Playing with "Free-Motion Quilting"

In my last post I mentioned that I had bought the book "Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters."  I could hardly wait to try some of the patterns in the book.  So.......

Sharon and I discussed using two patterns from the book on her quilt.  Luckily when I phoned to see what she wanted me to do, we each had a copy of the book.  We flipped back and forth through the book, until we settled on this.  I love it!

This is Hexagon 29 of the Hex-a-thon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Farmer's Wife Blocks 59 & 60

Night & Day and Noon & Light are out enjoying the beautiful sunshine!

If you are a local you may have been here this weekend.  Or at least if you are a baseball fan, that is.

My blocks and I were at the local Norbroc Baseball Stadium for the Kamloops International Baseball Tournament.  KIBT for short.  It was the 40th anniversary of the Tournament.  There are usually teams from San Diego, Seattle, Red Deer, Kamloops, Kelowna and various other Portland or Washington State areas.  

My first year volunteering at the tournament came about by chance.  I was wondering around the Park and stopped in to watch a ball game.  The person running the game clock had to leave and asked if anyone knew how to run the clock.  I had spent many hours at the park with my son and as most parents do, knew how.  My volunteering at KIBT started that day, 15 years ago.  A dear friend of mine, Fran, saw me running the clock and stated that if I was going to volunteer, I needed to work with her.  Since then you can usually find me working at least a shift at the front gate.  Great friends, great times and great baseball!

JoAnn sent me a picture of her blocks to share, and she is wondering where the pictures are of everyone else's.  Hmmmm.

A Little Shopping

While I was at Katja's Quilt Shoppe on Friday I just couldn't resist a couple of goodies.  The book "Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters" is a must have.  She goes over a lot of basic free motion quilting designs and shows how to use them on a few Modern Style quilts.  Angela also blogs at Quilting is my therapy if you want to check her out.

The second little goodie is the half yard cuts of ten of Moda's "Over the Rainbow light batiks. They will be wonderful for backgrounds on scrappy batik quilts.  I can hardly wait to cut into them.  What shall I make.  Hmmmm.........

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kaoham Shuttle, B.C.'s best kept secret!

While Doug and I were in Lillooet last week we rode the Kaoham Shuttle.  It runs from Lillooet to Seton Portage, along Seton Lake.  It is a 24 km rail trip aboard a small commuter train.  And the best part, hold onto your wallet, the price is $10 round trip.  It runs on Fridays for the tourists, leaving Lillooet at 10:30 am.

A few of our friends joined us in this adventure.  Thanks Dawn, Mark, Deanna and Derry for joining in on the fun.  Here we are all waiting at the CN station in Lillooet while our Conductor John gets things ready to go.

If you look real close you will see a bear in the middle of the picture peeking out from behind the Saskatoon bushes.  John stopped the train to show us Mountain Sheep, three different bears, and this Bald Eagle below.

As well as stopping for wildlife viewing, we stopped at various historical points of interest, including one of the sharpest curves on the CN line, a couple of derailment sites and the Shalalth burial grounds.  John gave us a running commentary most of the way.  It's great when the Conductor is sitting a couple of metres away and can answer any question you have.

As we got closer to Shalalth, the Hydro Electric station came into view.  Massive amounts of water drop from the reservoir above to this station.

And just as you pass the Hydo station, you enter this tunnel.  it is 1,220 m. long and is the third longest in B.C.  The kids on the train asked John to turn the light off so it would be really dark inside.  He was happy to oblige.

And here Doug and I are, saying our goodbyes to John.  What a wonderful day it was.  If you are interested in taking the trip, phone 1-250-259-8300.  They don't take plastic, and your word is all they need for the reservation.  How refreshing is that?

Since it is Thursday, it is time for this weeks hexagon, so here you go.

Farmer's Wife Blocks 57 & 58

Morning and Mother's Dream went on a short holiday this week.  Way last January I took pics of blocks at Britton Creek.  Click here for a refresher.  Today I went back to the same spot to take a summer picture.

Definitely looks a little different.  LOL.

A few women are managing to keep up with the quilt along.  Congratulations to everyone who is playing, whether you are keeping up or not.  JoAnn has sent me pics of her last few blocks.

And now for a little sneak peek at the quilt I'm making from my Blitzen fabric.  Today I sew the binding on by machine.  As soon as I have it hand stitched down, I'll post a picture of the finished quilt.

 

Summer has finally hit here in Kamloops.  Currently it is 35 C.  Normal for this time of the year, just a bit of a shock compared to the cool weather we have had up till now.  Not that I'm complaining!

More of Beautiful BC

Wow!  What a great day of exploring we have had.  Yesterday we drove through the Fountain Valley with a stop at Kwotlenemo Lake.

We took a side trip up a logging road behind the lake and came upon this!

A mama bear and her two cubs.  She was ready to send them up the tree if we came any closer.  I had seen the backside of a bear the day before, but this bear and her babies were a delightful surprise.  Certainly made my day.
From Fountain Valley we drove to Lytton and looked around, then back to Lillooet.

Today we drove to Pemberton with Dawn and Mark.

The skies have cleared up and it was a gorgeous day for a drive.  This is Duffy Lake, with Cayoosh Mountain in the background.  Around every corner of the 100 km drive there was more incredible scenery.

This is the view coming down the switchbacks towards Lillooet.  The only problem is finding a safe place to pull over to take a picture.
We are now back at the camper trailer with the air conditioning on as summer has finally decided to make an appearance.  Off soon to play board games with our friends at a picnic table beside a fire.  What could possibly be better?

Since it is Thursday, I thought I had better leave you with this weeks Hexagon.  Have a wonderful day!

Gold Bridge and Bralorne

Doug and I are on holidays this week so we are continuing our quest to see Canada.  We are camped at Lillooet and are exploring the countryside around us.  Today we drove to Gold Bridge and Bralorne.

The Bralorne sign proudly state a population of 60.  We were told by a local that in addition to this there are "64 active miners" working the local gold mine.

If you look closely, you will see snow on the hill just behind this cute little church.

The sign welcoming us to Gold Bridge says that it's population is 43.  Wow, I wonder who gets to change the sign when someone moves in or out?

The main story to our trip was the road we had to take to get there.  Partly paved, but a lot of it was this slippery gumbo shown here.  Of course it was raining a lot of the way in, so it made the road a little more interesting.

We wound our way through this canyon with rock bluffs on one side and a raging creek on the other.  The road is not always two lanes wide, so we had to keep an eye out for oncoming logging trucks.  All part of touring the backroads of B.C.

Natures beauty was everywhere!

Once through the canyon, the road follows Carpenter lake most of the way to Gold Bridge.  It was a great day of exploring, but we are both glad to be back at our camper trailer, enjoying our view of Lillooet.

Tomorrow is another adventure, I can hardly wait!