Reindeer and Lights

Posted on December 25, 2009 by Norma Hanson

Last night we visited a local garden supply store to see the reindeer and light display.

Last night was the last night that Dancer and Vixen would be visiting our community before they had to head back home to the North Pole to go back to work with Santa Christmas Eve.

This was my first time seeing reindeer. The two reindeer on display were both females–a mother and daughter. Usually the female reindeer do not shed their antlers. However, one of the reindeer was without one of her antlers because our climate is warmer than she is used to.

In past years, the light display had been set up outside of the garden supply store. This year, the lights were indoors and interspersed amongst the plants and displays. We really enjoyed walking through the store looking at the lights.

After enjoying the lights, we had a nice supper at a local restaurant and then headed home. What a perfect low stress way to spend an evening enjoying the sights of the season.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Quilt, Quilt, Quilt

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Norma Hanson

I have been busy in my studio since we came home from our holiday in Alaska this fall. I have quilted 9 quilts for customers and 4 quilts for myself (Fall Warm Wishes, Daffodil BQ2, Rooster Strip Twist, and Dryer Sheet Diamond String).

Most long arm quilters would not feel that quilting 13 quilts in 3 months is that big an achievement, but keep in mind I have a full time day job on top of my quilting.

These are pictures of the customer quilts.

All quilts except one were quilted using Circle Lord’s templates.

The squares on this quilt were quilted in the ditch using my Bernina dsm.

I still have some customer quilts to finish, but thankfully, everything that was required to be completed prior to Christmas is now finished! I am now working on deadlines for after New Year’s.

Birthday Celebrations

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Norma Hanson

My birthday was November 24th. Since I was out of province on business on the 24th, we celebrated my birthday on Saturday night.Tradition in our family was always an angel food cake for on your birthday. This year was no exception to that tradition.

This is my DH and me. The photographer was my son.

After supper we retired to the family room. It was a nice relaxing way to celebrate a birthday.

Current Projects

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Norma Hanson

Although I have not been posting to my blog lately, I have been busy.

I finished a fall table topper for my mom. We purchased these fabrics at an Oregon Wal-Mart this summer. I have enough fabric to make myself one of these toppers as well. I have only finished one so far and that one is currently on the table in my mother’s kitchen. Maybe I will have mine done for next year. I have been busy quilting customer quilts and it seems that I don’t get an opportunity to work on quilting my own tops much. This fall, I have started inserting my own projects between customer quilts so that I can move my own projects forward. This plan seems to be working so far. This picture was taken Friday night and it is a top made from strings foundation pieced onto dryer sheets that I finished piecing August 1st.

I am also working on the binding on my Daffodil BQ2 quilt. I only have one corner of the quilt’s binding hand sewn to the back of the quilt so far. If I am looking for a handwork project this is the one I can pick up.

These are the fabrics that I recently purchased to start a new project. I fell in love with the floral fabric and coordinating stripe. The light green fabric in the middle will be used as background–a departure from the usual white or off white background that I usually gravitate to in a project.

These fabrics will be used to make a Terry Atkinson pattern, “Got Stripes?” from Terry’s new book, “Time Out Quilts”.

I work on the reward system to stay motivated as I work through some of my UFO’s. The reward for working on a UFO or other challenging project is to work on something new. Working on Got Stripes will be the reward for the next while.

Having several projects at various stages of the process also helps to keep things moving forward. If I feel like piecing or quilting, or doing handwork, I have something ready to go.

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Norma Hanson

Wednesday evening was our regular Quilt Guild meeting. The Workshop Committee encouraged members to bring along their hand work to this meeting so that we could stitch and visit the evening away. As you can see, these ladies are very busy stitching.

Busy hands…..

Wonderful handwork on these crazy quilt blocks.

We also had a short presentation from Grace. Grace talked about her years of quilting–she has been quilting since 1976–33 years!

Other members are being encouraged to share their “quilting journey” in the coming months. What a great way to get to know one another a little more.

Grace led us through how she started quilting through to the present time with wonderful humour and some great samples of her work.

Show and share is always a popular part of the evening.

These blocks were won by one of our members in a monthly block draw last year. The blocks made up into two wonderful lap sized quilts.

Dorothy has been chosen by our quilt committee to be our featured quilter at our upcoming quilt show in October 2010. Dorothy has been quilting since she was 5 years old. Many of Dorothy’s family members have benefited by her wonderful talent and generosity as she shares her finished projects with many of them.

This giraffe project was perfectly timed for our show and share as there had been an announcement on that night’s news that there were two baby giraffes born in the Fraser Valley this week–one in Aldergrove and one in Langley. Janet told us her project was a 39 year old UFO! Congratulations on getting this one off the UFO pile and onto the wall, Janet!

These small quilts have Velcro on the back so that they can be rearranged on the wall of the library. Enid was responsible for getting this project off the ground and sharing it with the local library. Each block was designed by Enid and represents a different children’s story.