a guild challenge

We went camping this past weekend at the same place as always.  Shunda Lake is always so peaceful and beautiful.  This stump from my header changes a bit every year.  I did not get a lot of stitching time there this year as we did more hiking and kayaking but I did manage to take a few stitches in this Wandering Foot block.

 A major reason for the less stitching time was that my son, my husband and I climbed Mt Coliseum.  The view is pretty incredible from up top but it was an intense hike - straight up the mountain.

It was fun to share this experience with my son who recently turned 13.  For his birthday I made him this small zippered bag for carrying his book when he goes biking. He used to borrow an old one of mine so now he has his own.

This next project is part of a guild challenge.  Every 2 months a theme is pulled out of a bag full of ideas and we're supposed to make a block or border or quilt element to go with the theme.  The first theme pulled out of the bag was "Iconic".  I was stumped! What came up on my internet search for Iconic were movie stars and political figures that really didn't inspire me.  I had already decided I was going to use a dark background and had purchased this navy dotted fabric so I was determined to come up with something. 

My DD#1 saved the day by suggesting using an Iconic book for my idea.  (she is such a bookworm :0)  I immediately thought of the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird"  - it is a great book.  So here is my mockingbird perched in what is supposed to look like a pecan branch. (I have never seen a pecan tree or a mockingbird so I took liberties and the flowers are there for color)  The bird's eye remains to be embroidered...

We just watched the movie a week ago - which is in black and white so this color picture on the cover of the book seems odd.

 

The next guild theme pulled was "where you live".  That one was easy.  I live in the province of Alberta and all of our car licence plates read "Wild Rose Country"  As the wild roses were/are in bloom it was easy to come up with a rose wreath for my second block.  

 

 I took a picture of these on my morning run last week Monday - they were right next to the path. 

The next theme pulled was "Adventure".  After a little thought I settled on the Wandering Foot block from the first photo of this post.  It's not finished yet so I'll post it again later.  The guild challenge is only going to go for 5 themes.  I have already decided to make at least 12 blocks so I will be making some extras along the way.  

And, finally I have to post a picture of my amazing and sweet DD#1 who graduated from High school this year.  I am tremendously proud of her. She looked so beautiful in her royal blue dress. 

 I am still coming to terms with the fact that she is now an adult and plans to go away to school next year.  Oh the places she'll go :0)

Happy Quilting!!

Time flies

A blog post is long overdue.  Its been a tremendously busy few weeks since I last posted.  I did take time out to go to the annual outdoor quilt show at Heritage Park.  It was such a gorgeous day!  Sadly I did not have a quilt to put in this year - can you believe I didn't finish a single quilt in the last year!?  The park featured several of their antique quilts in an indoor exhibit - what can I say - they were my favorites.

They were hung in front of windows and not flat either but I was happy to see them on display.  This was a fabulous 4 block applique quilt.  I just love this block!



 

 Simple grid quilting - very thin batting.

 I thought it was interesting to see this faint red stripe running through the background of one of the blocks.  A repurposed flour sack??

 3 days later I was back at the park accompanying my youngest daughter on a grade 4 school field trip and spied the quilt again displayed on this bed in the ranch house.  Imagine sleeping under something this lovely  :0)  I like that Drunkard's Path quilt too!!

 This was another of the antique quits displayed on the quilt show day.  The handquilting is very fine on this one and I love the striking border.

 There was a wonderful exhibit of quilts celebrating Canada's 150th birthday this year.  I thought this one was great.

 This was another fabulous entry into the show.  That is a lot of little triangles - marvellous!

 I was thrilled that 2 of my daughters wanted to come to the show with me.

I had to laugh at this tag - what a name for a quilt.  I never have nightmares about applique :0)

 Here is what I've been appliqueing lately. I'm almost finished the first side border for my signature quilt.

 And I've been working away on my border background fill on my Bird of Paradise quilt. I've turned the second corner so I'm just over halfway now.

 I'm not sure it was the best choice for the border background.  It looks kind of boring.  It is fun to stitch though. All I did was switch the direction of the 30 degree lines. I wanted the background to be quilted just as densely as the middle.

In the end I decided this quilt is really all about the applique so its alright for the quilting to be boring and not detract from the applique.

Happy Quilting!!