Nice Matters Award

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While reading Joyce’s (J’s Quilting Blog) post from last Friday, I saw that she had nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. “This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also, for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.”
Thank you Joyce! Joyce is a fellow Canadian quilter and blogger. I feel a kinship to Joyce as she currently lives in one of the Canadian Prairie provinces next to the province where I was born and lived as a child. Joyce is more of an artist than I am and I always enjoy reading about her projects–she is not afraid to venture outside the box. I usually start my quilts with a commercial pattern, whereas, Joyce is not afraid to start from her ideas–no pattern. Look back at Joyce’s posts where she builds her farm yard animals from scraps and you will see what I mean.
Here are my nominations in no particular order.
Linda J (Life With Quilts and A Little Old Lady in A Fur Coat – Linda continues to keep me motivated and inspired. I have yet to meet someone with a better “mental filing cabinet” than Linda. If you have a quilting question regarding something you have seen somewhere, what the name of a block or quilt is, where to find a pattern, etc., Linda can usually find it for you in her computer achieves or on the Internet–within minutes, sometimes seconds! Linda has a very generous soul and not only does she spend most of her time making quilts for charities–The Boys and Girls Ranches, Wrap Them in Love, etc., she keeps those who come in contact with her inspired to do the same!
Pam (My Creative Mind) – Pam is a very generous quilter as well. Pam has a goal of making and collecting from other quilters a total of 200 quilts that will be given to children living in orphanages in Mexico. Pam is quick to share her personal bounty. When I commented last spring that there was no local source for purchasing St. Patrick’s Day fabrics in my part of the world, Pam was quick to respond with a package filled with St. Patrick’s Day yardage.
Cher (Marathon Quilter) – Cher is also a quilter who is generous with her quilting talents. Cher is currently quilting for the Wrap Them in Love charity group and inspiring other quilters to do so as well. Cher, Pam, LindaJ and myself often meet up with one another on-line and chat. These ladies are all great quilting friends.
Patti (Quilting is My Passion – Patti always amazes me with how much she can accomplish from a bin of scraps! I have been inspired to make many of my projects after seeing Patti’s accomplishments.
Pam (Pam’s Pages) – Pam is also a fellow Canadian quilter and blogger. Pam only lives about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from me by car but we have not yet met in person……some day! It is nice to have a fellow quilter in the same geographical location to keep me apprised of what is happening in the quilt world at the opposite end of this valley. It was Pam who reminded me of one of my favorite quilt guild’s quilt shows–without that reminder, I would have missed that show!
Chookyblue – Chookyblue provides us with wonderful pictures of every day life in Australia. Through Chookyblue’s posts, I am able to virtually visit a country that I will likely never see in person. Chookyblue is also organizing a Christmas Present Swap.
Libby (A Simple Girl) – Libby does wonderful handwork. I am primarily a machine work person and have great admiration for those who can do such wonderful handwork. Libby is a regular reader of my blog and I appreciate the time she takes to leave such wonderful comments.
Sticking to the “rules” of the award, I have limited my nominations to just 7. However, there are many, many other quilting bloggers out there who are also deserving of this award!

Back Yard Renovation

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Today is a statutory holiday here in B.C.–it is British Columbia Day. I did the machine quilting on the binding for my Frog Warm Wishes quilt yesterday. Today I will be enjoying the pleasant weather as I sit outside and do the hand stitching of the binding to the back of the quilt.

The real news this weekend was finishing our outdoor patio area in our back yard. We now have plenty of room to have everyone sit around the table in the cool shade of our maple tree.

And of course, DH has discovered that this is also a quiet spot to read the morning paper!





This is our little oasis. We don’t need a reservation and there are no line ups. This is our little piece of heaven.

Customer Quilt – African Coins Quilt

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These are pictures of a customer quilt that I just finished. It is called African Coins. The fabrics in this quilt really make the quilt. This quilt was quilted with my Zig Zag template on the coloured fabrics and the Wave template on the black and white fabrics. There were lots of thread changes on this quilt with King Tut variegated thread called Pharaoh’s Treasures on the coloured fabrics and So Fine Charcoal on the black and white fabrics. The back of this quilt was brown flannel which combined with the Hobbs Heirloom batting makes for a quilt high on the cuddle factor scale!
If you are interested in making your own version of this quilt, this is a link to an article on HGTV’s web site which describes how to make a quilt similar to this one: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_quilting_instructions/article/0,1789,HGTV_3302_3064861,00.html

Garage Sale Find

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Saturday morning we headed out to check out a few garage sales. We don’t really need anything in particular, but it is fun to do. You just never know when you come across that perfect something!

For a while we seemed to be on the same schedule as a truck with three men in it. They would arrive at a yard sale just before us or just after us. My husband thought they had probably left their wives at the mall and they were making their own entertainment–killing time while the wives shopped. We parted ways at a garage sale where they were looking and seemed very interested in a 6 ft high, 15 ft long Santa and reindeer Christmas yard display. When we left them I was chuckling–that will be the last time those wives leave those men alone garage sailing! I would love to have been there when they pulled up to the mall to pick up their wives with that huge yard display in the bed of that pickup!

I came across the garage sale of a quilter. Look at the fabric I found! All of the fabrics are brights–perfect for a kid’s quilt–perfect for a donation quilt. I just need to find some time now to work on a quilt!

Customer Quilt – Uneven Nine Patch Quilt

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This is a customer quilt that I recently finished. I am always on the lookout for quilt designs that can be converted quickly into interesting quilts. It seems these days that the time I have available to work on my own quilts is less and less. I don’t have the time to devote to those heirloom quilts right now. There are many bloggers out there making donation quilts for one of the many needy organizations and so I thought you might enjoy looking at another idea.

This Uneven Nine Patch or Puss in the Corner block is very simple construction–5 1/2″ square center, surrounded by 2″ squares and 2″ strips for a finished size of 9 1/2″. (Please note that measurements are finished sizes, not cut sizes.)

This quilter set the blocks together with 2″ sashing strips and cornerstones and finished the quilt off with a 2″ inner border and a 5″ outer border.

The fabrics in this quilt definitely add interest to an other wise simple quilt block, but the formula works.