Left early

Good evening all
Hope you've had a creative day, even if only in your mind.

I'm trying something new with my blog - adding categories.  What do you think?

What's Happening Now

I'm laid up on the couch right now.  I had a doctor's appointment today that left me crampy and lightheaded.  Should be as good as new tomorrow. (hoping)

What I did Today

I got to play around today in my quilt room on some blocks I'm trying to come up with for a competition that's due later this month.  Need quite a few more hours for play and will try to do some more tomorrow. As I'm typing this, I also got a new idea for the quilt.

Story of the Day

I wasn't able to stay at the retreat for the full 4 days.  I ended up leaving around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.  I looked like this on Saturday during the day:
 

 And this is what I looked like in the evening:

We were invited to Hollywood Glam 1930's Wedding.  It was held in a historic house in Edmonton.  The wedding was great fun.  Small and intimate.  There was a scavenger hunt, The Newlywed Game, and Blackjack.  My SIL's brother was the one getting married.

They got engaged in July and the wedding as last week, a very short engagement.  And of course, I thought - I should make them a quilt!  LOL  I had a quilt in pieces from a challenge at my guild that I didn't finish in time and another quilt ready to be quilted which I didn't have a plans for.  When my SIL was over, I asked her which one she thought would suit the couple.  She picked the one in pieces.  I also considered ordering 1930 reproduction fabrics but SIL talked me out of it.

This quilt was very hard to stick with.  I felt like I was ripping more than sewing.  If it wasn't for it being a wedding gift, I don't think I would have ever finished it.  The quilt pattern calls for appliqued flowers in the centre of the blocks.  About 3 weeks before the wedding, I got the idea of signature blocks from the guests for the centre.  Both sisters' of the couple thought it was a great idea.  Which also meant - I didn't have to have the quilt finished - just the top ;) LOL

Here is the finished top (picture was taken at 2:30 AM Saturday)

I have signature circles from every guest or couple that was at the wedding.  The wedding couple loved the quilt and the idea.  I also informed them that the quilt would be finished for Christmas.  Now to start thinking of how I'm going to quilt it hmmmmm????

Have a great day!
VickyK

Messy at Retreat

Good Day All
Hope you are having a great and crafty Friday.
I'm at retreat and am having a great time.  My morning started off not to good with issues at home.  Dealt with them, Then I went Shopping.  There is this great quilting store in the middle of nowhere about 15 minutes from the retreat.  It is a small store that has a great selection.  Its called Country Stitches in Winfield, Alberta.  I love the store, the staff and the owner.  Its all good and a big reason why I look forward to this retreat.

Here is a picture of my messy table and this is clean to what I normally end up working in.  :)

Do you attend retreats?  What do you look most forward to?  Are you a neat or messy worker?  Would love to hear from you!

And remember:  Give-away is can be found in this post

Later or tomorrow I will post pictures of my latest purchases.

 Here's to a Crafty Day
Vicky K

Let's Get Acquainted!

Good Morning All
Hope you are having a great day.  Its supposed to be a beautiful day here in Alberta.  And I'm really excited today for 4 reasons!

First - Its my turn on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop Summer and Fall 2012 that Beth from Plum and June is hosting and doing a great job.

If you're new to my blog - Welcome!  I'm glad you could make it.

Here's a little about me:

I learned how to quilt in 2006 with a few work friends.  We would meet at my house once a month.  One lady taught 3 of us to quilt.  It was great fun.  We stopped meeting when I was put on bed rest for my pregnancy in 2008.  I really missed the camaraderie.  I decided to join a Block of the Month Mystery Quilt at my LQS.  There I met 2 ladies who talked about the quilt guilds they were a part of.  It took me almost a year to join 2 of the guilds in my area.  The meetings help to motivated my quilting and give so much inspiration.  I also started blogging last year to help with motivation and to keep a journal of my quilting and crafting.

The first theme for the Blog Hop is Novelty and a second theme is added - Colour.  I will be focusing on Colour.

Second - GIVEAWAY

I was lucky enough to meet Cheryl Arkison co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts at my quilting guild in September.  Her trunk show was great.  I've seen the book on other blogs and the web but didn't have a chance to check it out.  I still can't believe I got to see so many of the quilts from the book IRL.  I bought an extra book special for this Blog Hop as a give-away.  And its signed!

 

There will be 2 chances to enter my give-away :

        - Follow my blog - just leave a comment stating that you are a follower
        - Tell me about your thoughts on the book - First time seeing, Bought the Book, Have a favourite project, Have made a project, etc.

Giveaway will be open until Monday 5:00 pm MST.  Good Luck Everyone!

Third - I'm going to a retreat today.  I can't wait to get everything packed up and head out.   I will have to cut my weekend short as I have a wedding Saturday night.  But I still get Thursday afternoon to Saturday afternoon to get some quilty time.

Fourth - I may be purchasing a Featherweight today.  I've been hemming and hawing about this Featherweight for a while.  Well I found out last week that sewing machine service store is closing and moving across Canada.  The sewing machine is in great shape, has lots of feet and the manual.  On Sunday, while watching Bonnie's QuiltCam, I asked her opinion about the machine.  She gave me some great advice.  On my way to the retreat, I'm gonna stop by the store and test out the machine.  If it hums and doesn't eat my fabric, it will be coming home with me.  My only other worry, it might be sold already.  Wish my luck.



I'm also thinking of starting a QAL based on the Sunday Morning Quilts Book that will be starting in October.  I will be making "The Missing U."  I love the story behind the quilt and I'm a proud Canadian.  Would you be interested in joining me? (bonus entry for giveaway)

Please visit these great Blogs that are participating with me this week: 

Sep 25
        Amanda from Material Girl Quilts
        Amanda from Fabric Engineer
    
Sep 27
        Vicky from Vicky K Creating
         Francine from Mocha Wild Child


That's my long post for today.  I will try to keep up with the comments while on retreat but please forgive me if I don't :).

Have a great week and weekend!

Vicky K

Retreat Works

Good Morning
I've had a pretty successful morning so far.  Its feeling really nice since I've been sick for the last 2 weeks.  I had a sinus infection that hit me hard.  My teeth hurt like the dickens, fever ever 2 days, achy, clammy and so on.  I thought I had a cold and you're not supposed to go to the doctor for a  cold.  But last Wednesday, I couldn't stand it anymore and finally went to the doctors.  I had to wait for almost 2 hours to see the doctor for 10 minutes.  My poor house and family.  I could only get the energy to do one thing daily, either dishes, vacuuming, cleaning up after kids, make supper.  So my house has suffered greatly.  We also got possession of a rental house on May 1, and hubby is obsessed with doing the necessary renovations to make it contain a separate legal suite.  So he was too busy to help with the house and kids.  But I'm on the UPSIDE!! 
We are going to Mexico in June and I would love to lose some weight before we go.  This morning I started an exercise routine.  I'm hoping that doing the program will help with my energy and motivation around the house LOL.  I'm a terrible housekeeper and an awesome procrastinator.

Sorry for the ramblings.  Back to Quilting:

Two weeks ago I went on retreat for 4 days.  I brought 5 projects to work on.  The first project I worked on was 2 quilts for my nieces newborn twin boys.  She fell in love with the panel  Forest Friends from Northcott.

Northcott's website lists all the store that purchased their fabrics and has a download for EQ7 for their fabrics.  I downloaded the fabrics into my EQ7 and played around to come up with a quilt.  Well I actually came up with 4 different quilts.  I couldn't decide what to make so I printed all of them with the fabric requirements to take to the store with me.  I found a store, Snow Goose Quilting that purchased all or most of the fabrics in the line.  I had the ladies at the store help me decide which one to make.  I will post a picture of the quilts when I finished but here is a little sneak peak.

The pile on the left is my yardage for the quilts and the pieces on top are for the quilts too.

 Here is a picture of one of the blocks I came up with.

I really hope that she will like the quilts.  The fabric and backing is flannel.  Ohhh so soft.

Do you have EQ7 or a program like it?  Do you like coming up with your own quilts.  I would love to know and see some that you have done.

Hope you are having a great Monday!!
Vicky K