Progress

My first official post! It has been a long time coming, but something about leaving a place makes me finally get around to tying all those loose ends up. By finally contributing here I am also making a statement… a statement that says we will stay in touch, and will craft together again soon.

I am excited to exit Edmonton and settle into a small town climbing life in Squamish, even if it is ridden with thesis writing stress. I’m also excited for all the new sewing projects a move produces. John and I plan to recover his parent’s first sofa set for our new place! Yup, old school wooden armed sofa is going to soon meet with a melding of mine and John’s fabric choices… so far we have agreed on little except a Canadiana print with moose and bears…. We decided to sleep on that one for a while and see what inspiration Vancouver fabric shopping may bring. I think I will finally get to my 5 cushion covers that I have been planning for months as well, once another chapter or two is written of course!

I am truly going to miss you ladies and our crafting fun. I look forward to craftcation 2012, and would like to plant a seed for a craftcation Squamish sometime in the fall of 2011. October will be lovely out there!

The crafting group has done me well. One major achievement: The infamous pajama quilt is complete! This quilt, my first, was started about 10 years ago and has seen a number of adventures over the years. I was moving out of my parent’s house, headed off to grad school in Nova Scotia and trying to clear away the junk in my old room. I just couldn’t throw away all of my old pajamas! Complete with penguins, flowers, and Garfield in plaid these were a selection of pjs brought by santa over the years. Five years later, Garfield and his friends accompanied me on a drive across most of the country. Alberta bound!

A new apartment and 2 more years later, it was time to make a quilt sandwich. I wanted to stick with the recycled nature of the quilt so used an old duvet cover for the inside, instead of batting. The duvet cover had been two sheets I sewed together previously as a first attempt at crafting. It had served me well but was ready for its second life. I’d decided that it was time to retire my 8 year old sheep sheets as well but I couldn’t bear to part with them… now I needed backing material… the match was made! Blue flannel with little sheep in different positions, they made me chuckle every time I crawled between them, now they would be joined with plaid Garfield and the penguins. Finally, a few months ago, free motion quilted and binding attached, I declared this project complete!

There is something to be said for a deadline too. 10 years to make a quilt, 2 days to make some trivets.

It also took just a couple of nights to get a baby book for my new niece Analeigh all but bound together. This would be complete, however I learned the hard way that hand sewing while watching a movie can mean mistakes. I sewed the rainbow in the wrong order! Even so, this was one of the most fun projects I have done to date; crazy quilt squares are stress free!

I replaced the orange for pink in this rainbow. A new girl needs a little pink!

Here's to more sewing projects and a blog on which to share them from across the country!!