Merry Reindeer

Cynthia brought me this wonderful Christmas reindeer quilt to be sure and have it ready for next year.

Just need noses and ready for Santa's sleigh next year.

Cynthia fussy cut all the sashing for her quilt and well worth the effort.  We decided to leave the sashing and do a medium density meandering and festive scroll pattern for most of the large spaces.

Fussy cut sashing

On Comet, On Blitzen

Then of course I just had to make sure that they all had an individual hat to wear.

Each with their own hat.

Now all that they need are noses, a whistle from Santa and quilts all hung on the wall with care. lol

Back

Lisa's Beautiful Double Ring Quilt

How wonderful is Lisa's quilt going to look on her bed. 

Double Rings

It was a lot of work putting all those small pieces into a ring pattern and she did a wonderful job.

Look at all those pieces.

Because of all the bright flower fabrics we decided to match the topstitching using Terry's fav flowers.

Terry's fav flowers.

Lots of daisy like flowers, leaves and swirls gave Lisa's quilt motion.  Add a medium silver thread that matched the background fabric made all that wonderful color really pop out.

The double ring really stand out.

But wait until you see the back. wow!!

Back

Perfect for a growing little girl.

Terry came to me asking for a quilt that his brand new granddaughter could grow up with.

Rail Fence

Terry originally had a nautical theme in mind but after looking for the appropriate fabric and having no luck we settled on a jelly roll called Bubble Pop.  It turned out beautiful and perfect for a growing little girl. 

Follow the loops to the daisies.

Lots of color and plenty of interesting shapes and details to make any little kid happy.  And one of my favorite games as a kid was to follow the pattern.  This twin size quilt has loops and daisies to trace to her heart's content.

lots of shapes

  The back and binding fabric go perfect with the front which also has blue with white polka dots in it.

back

There was enough fabric left to also make a cute little dolly blanket to go with with the quilt.  Even though Terry's granddaughter is to young today it won't be long before she is tucking in her dolly just like grandpa tucks her in at night.

Dolly's blanket.

So although Terry was disappointed that this cute little quilt didn't have a nautical theme I think his granddaughter will grow up loving it and know she has the best grandpa ever.

Joan's Beautiful Card Tricks Quilt

Joan's quilt turned out beautiful and I love the splash of red throughout the quilt.

Love the red splashes of color.

Made with love for her grandson's graduation (who wanted a blue quilt), is sure to be treasured for many years to come.  

The topstitch pattern, Scribble Back, was the perfect pattern for this quilt adding a modern flair and still maintaining a masculine feel perfect for a young man.

It is such a fun pattern giving a lot of motion to the quilt.  A pattern with straight lines would have overpowered the angles of the 'card tricks'.

So much fun.

Back shows well.

Scribble Back is such a fun pattern to do, turn the music up and get into the loop groove. lol.

Joan also had me sew the binding on.  This way it will take her no time to finish the last bit by hand.

Seriously Pinned will bind your quilts and as in Joan's case get the binding on for you, nice and trimmed, corners pinned and ready to sit, have a cup of tea and relax while doing a little hand work.

Dieting 101

The diet I started 2 weeks ago was a great success.  Lost 11 lbs in 10 days.  Although not for the faint of hearted and will test your will power, by the end of the 10 days I was feeling much better.  The first three days is almost like having the flu.  Nausea, light headed, and fatigued.  Your body is missing all those carbohydrates normally pumped into them.  It grumbles, rolls and generally complains. 
I did manage to find a few great recipes that now will forever be in my weekly make list.  One was this simple cracker recipe from Wholesome Yum https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/paleo-crackers/

Needless to say after our 10 days (my son went on the same diet as is way easier to diet on the buddy system, he lost 12 lbs) we went out for lunch and take it from me DON'T do it.  Needless to say I am back on the diet with a few modifications and feeling a lot better for it.  So my diet does not have a name that I know of, but here are the rules.  

1 - Measure out portions.  I cut my portions down to a reasonable size and no 2nds. 

2- Cut out the carbs.  It is impossible to cut out all of them but my rule of thumb is; no bread (although I did find a recipe for a soft gluten free bread that was easy to make and the first loaf of bread I've ever made that wasn't so hard you could use it as a hockey puck), No pasta, no white rice, In fact if it's white don't put it in your mouth.  The only exception to this rule is cauliflower, eat lots of that.  No sugar........check the carbs on your sugar, wow.

3 - Eat meat, not if it is processed but everything else.  Including bacon (low sodium) just remember rule number 1.

4 - make your own salad dressings without sugar added.  There are lots of recipes out there that are sugar and carb free.....have fun searching for them and you will forget about your tummy for a few hours.

5 - Snacks; you may need a lot of them during the day at the start to stave off the hunger belly rolls so a handful of nuts, a bowl of vegetables raw, salad, and best of all 5 of the above crackers.

One discovery made was having a protein drink for breakfast.  Love it, it has almost all the vitamins and minerals required in a day, easy to make and yummy.  Add water, shake, and enjoy.  Keeps me going until lunch.

Not saying that it is a perfect diet for you and you should always check with you doctor to make sure you can diet (I have to have a banana a day for the potassium, my doctors rule), it may not be the right thing for you, but it sure works for me and I may just stay on this forever as I feel better and way more energy. I will take it a little slower this time but with 2 to 3 km walks a day.

So my new goal is 15 lbs over a 3 month span.....wish me luck!

Pretty in Pink

At the last MPQG meeting I also rescued two quilt tops.  Both are dresden plate pattern and pretty in pink.  The first I put on the longarm and topstitched it in feathered scrolls.  One of my favorite free hand patterns that is pretty, has lots of movement and, well, easy to get into the groove to do.

The quilt top needed a bit of thread clipping, and a bit of push pull to smooth and even it all out.  Maybe I should have removed the borders and cut them down to size a bit but I have worked with harder quilt tops.  It was a good test for the new longarm.

Detail

Using a very light pink thread kept with the overall feel of the quilt without making the pink overbearing.

Front and back.

The binding fabric also came from the give away table and worked perfect for quilt making this a wonderful and pretty in pink charity quilt.  I haven't decided which charity to donate Seriously Pinned charity quilts to.  So right now the quilt is for sale at $100 with half going into the charity cash bucket.  The other half to help pay for the batting and thread used in the quilt.  This Pretty in Pink quilt is 53" x 70".  Perfect for a single bed.




The other smaller quilt I started last week was bound and double thickness added to make this wonderful small throw rug.  Now gracing the front door of the sunroom.

Best thing is that you can just throw it into the laundry when it gets a little dirty.

I'll close with the kitties helping me bind the Pretty in Pink quilt.  They are always so much help.lol.

My two little helpers.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

The light was beautiful.

After a few years of not having winter (well a real winter) I have been enjoying the snow.  It makes for a busy day as on Saturday I must have shoveled the walkway off a dozen times.  Not sure why as anyone on the roads were crazy and I did not expect to see anyone in the shop for the day.  It took Tyler and I 2 hours to shovel out the car and the driveway.  Good exercise.  Made me smile and reminded me of living in the BC mountains.  But our 1.5 feet of snow is nothing compared to what they had in Newfoundland.  I think we got off pretty easy.  Then the sun came out and sitting in the sun room was brilliant.

Again it was another play week with lots of little things getting done.

The funnest was a small quilt made from a pile of blocks I found at the MPQG, on the give-away table.  I knew that they were a someones first attempt at a drunkards path and needed to be squared and would never quite fit together, but were fun to play with and create different patterns.  It will make a great little cat bed or throw rug. 

waste not want not

very fun

That and finishing up a few test pieces I have been working on made for a fun week of snow, recycling, and keeping warm (definitely need different cold weather clothes than what is in my wardrobe).

Re-designed

I was playing with the Leaf table runner pattern and made this wonderful table topper.  Just have to quilt and bind it.

A cute little candle mat

 Out of the left over bits and pieces of fabric from the leaf table runner and topper came this cute little candle mat (or mug mat).  A perfect size for those small spaces.  It was fun to applique each of the leaves with a different thread to see the variations possible.  Gold, purple, yellow and black threads.  Which one do you like best??

Close-up of thread colors used