Monday, November 26, 2012

I think I have a new obsession

A new obsession. And NO time to do anything about it. Argh!

This past weekend I was very excited to attend the Paper Pieced Pillows Workshop with Sonja Callaghan put on by the VMQG. And oh my, So.Much.Fun! It was held at the Kennsigton Community centre, which I had never been to. The space was just lovely, spacious and full of light.

The templates. And the very handy Add-A-Quarter ruler that Sonja gifted us with.
Sonja was wonderful. Engaging and patient. I learnt so much and feel well equipped to now attempt more difficult paper piecing projects at home. I came home with my penguin block(almost) finished. I still need to add the border, quilt it, and add eyes. Then of course construct the pillow. But I feel like I've got the hard part tackled. I want so badly to finish my pillow but there are so many other things on my plate right now that need working on. Argh! I hope I can get it done before the Dec VMQG meeting, but that remains to be seen!

Sonja herself :)
I now think that anyone can do paper piecing and do it well! If you don't agree, go check out Sonja's video tutorials! Bet you could do it!


Some paper piecing in progress.

If you interested in making these pillows yourself the pattern and instructions is in Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays: 30+ Seasonal Patchwork Projects to Piece, Stitch, and Love. I received the book as part of my enrolment for the workshop and was very pleasantly surprised with it. There are many projects in there that I want to make, which makes it a winner in my books!

My nearly finished Penguin block.

While at the workshop I couldn't resist this little cutie, so this pattern is now on my desk and to-do list :)



Group shot at the end of the day. Look  at all the adorableness!

Now back to holiday crafting! Can you believe it's almost December? I can't!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

It's official!

Well, it's official. I am a card carrying member of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! It was such a good meeting last night. So many pretty things and wonderful people. It's been really great meeting many crafty people :) 




The guild had been invited to participate in a pincushion swap with several other Guilds. I couldn't decide whether I was going to participate or not. I was feeling a little intimidated by all the talented people and had never actually sewn pincushion before(for real). I also realized that the only pincushion I own is a magnetic one.  I ended up going for it. I've been wanting to make the cupcakes in Betz White's book Warm Fuzzies for quite awhile. I had been slowly gathering wool sweaters to felt. Which by the way was quite a feat as I discovered that even 2nd hand nice coloured wool sweaters could be pricey. It wasn't actually difficult and I had a lot of fun making them. Yes them. After I made one I couldn't stop and now have 6 cute little cupcakes almost done. This is the one I sent for the swap:






That ended up being quite a few firsts for me. First time sewing a pincushion, first time participating in a swap, and first time sharing in front of the VMQG. I sure hope whoever is the recipient of my cupcake enjoys it!

Here is all the pincushions made by members of the VMQG. We have some mad talent! They are beautiful!



And for even more fun the swap was featured in Canadian Living's Craft Blog. And you can see my little cupcake in the picture :) :) :) For that article click here.




Sunday, November 18, 2012

Conquering fears and bloggy prettiness

Did you notice my new header?? If not please look up now :)  Drawing courtesy of my husband. He rocks. I still have some tweaking to do but it was late when we got it that far. It is a HUGE improvement. And no, my sewing machine is not so pretty in real life. I totally wish!

Have you ever signed up for something or agreed to do something and then thought...hmmm....I may be in over my head? We'll I went to my first Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild meeting in Oct(The Nov one is tomorrow, Yay!) and was completely blown away by all the talent. And then I fell in love with these:

Sonja is a member of the VMQG and as I looked at her patterns I realized I had seen her work online and loved it but have  always been intimidated by paper piecing.  It looked so complicated that I admired it and moved on. Never with the thought to actually try it. It happened that there was going to be a workshop with Sonja to learn to make this cuteness so I bit the bullet and talked to Sonja. She assured me that an absolute beginner could take the workshop, so I signed up! Eek!  I was mostly excited until I received the supply list and instructions. It was 6 pages long. 6 pages! And that's without the actual piecing instructions! I had a little freak out. I was sure I had signed up for something completely above my skill set.

I eventually decided that the only thing to do was practice. So I picked out the easiest of Sonja's free patterns on her website. Watched her tutorials, also on her website. And guess what? I rocked my first ever paper piecing!



As with most things the worry of how difficult it was was way worse than how hard it actually was. Sonja's video tutorials were very helpful. Now this is a very simple pattern and the penguin/polar bears will be much more difficult but now that I have one completed block under my belt I'm confidant and excited for the workshop! Yay!

There was a fabric sale at Fabricana this week, which was timely as I needed supplies for the workshop. Rod was home so I got to go hang out all by myself. It was lovely, I browsed and fondled the fabric for most of the morning. I got to actually take time to make decisions! Which was a serious feat indeed in midst of a sea of beautiful fabric that was on sale! 

This is what I came home with. Yum!

I couldn't resist some Star Wars fabric for my little Star Wars freak! Love it!





Sunday, November 11, 2012

I love Fall and other randomness

I hope everyone remembers to have a moment of silence today to think of all our soldiers that sacrificed so much striving toward peace!

My husband told me this morning there was snow in the forecast for today. I was so excited and was sky watching. I just checked the forecast though and see no snow. I  lived in Alberta until I was 11 and still miss the snow sometimes. We do get snow here in Vancouver but it's generally pretty brief so I try to enjoy it when it comes. That being said, I'm not in a hurry for fall to be gone. 

The colours around here have been stunning!

Fall is my favourite!
 I haven't gotten anything crafty finished recently although I have been working on things. Maybe I should join WIP(work in progress) Wednesday. I always have lots of projects on the go. I did go to a sew-in with the VMQG(Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild) on fri. That was so much fun. The only pics I took were on instagram though. Does anyone know how to embed photos from instagram into a blog post??

I went to my first meeting of the VMQG last month and was instantly hooked. So many wonderful encouraging people and oh my!! the creativity!! It totally got my creative juices flowing. I'm going to join at the next meeting and am oh so excited about it! Never mind that I have never actually quilted anything before. Sewn and crafted lots of course but the actual quilting process scares me. I am bound and determined  to get over it though and am currently working on a quilt. Yay me! A big thanks to Holly for convincing me I needed to check out a meeting :)

Now to sneak in a few pics of my kids because, well, they're cute!
We paid a visit to the bunny patch recently.

My husband is apparently good at catching black baby bunnies.

My kids were pretty pleased :)



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Beginnings

I've been wanting to start blogging again. At first I couldn't decide whether I just wanted to pick up where I left off with my old blog or start fresh. Eventually I decided to start fresh. Then I couldn't come up with a name. Eventually I decided. Then I wanted to get the space all pretty before I started. Which it isn't. I'm not sure you could have a more bare blog. I decided to start anyways, who knows when that will happen but I figure if I start maybe that will push me(and my hubby who is drawing for me) to finish.

So TA-DA! Here I am blogging again. Yay me!

I'll leave you with a couple Halloween photos  because I can't bear to post picture-less. We haven't done an actual photo shoot with the kids in costume as the weather was horrible. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to do that!



Our Weeping Angel pumpkins

Princess Zelda, Link, And Link's Loftwing. We had a themed Halloween around here!