Mini-Quilting

I imagine that in a previous life, I was a pioneer woman, working on the homestead, raising children and hens and making everything from scratch.

I just get so much satisfaction from creating physical objects- some useful, some not so much.

My most recent project started as a gift for my in-laws upcoming 50th Anniversary. I found a design in one of my favorite magazines (that I buy, fawn over for days, stack on my bedside table, and then sometimes find the time to make something from): Quilting Arts magazine. This was the Holiday 2008-2009 edition- and it is called "A Quilted Family Tree", designed by Virginia Cole.

Basically, it involves patching together a miniature quilt top from approx. 1 inch blocks, backing it with muslin and then quilting. Then, in the shape of a tree, you paste on words- cut from books or printed- that are relevant to your family. Here's mine:



Since the miniquilt was made bigger than I needed, there were some fairly big scraps left over. As it turns out, one of my best friend's mother was having her 80th birthday party on Sunday past, and I decided to make her something similar out of the scrap pieces. So, I cut out 4 pieces, sewed them together, quilted them onto a muslin backing, and then put a small binding on the whole thing. I found a "quilt quote", dug into some of my scrapbooking embellishments, and the whole thing came together:

Not bad for a few days of off-and-on creativity!

Happy Summer!

So, I missed the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day (July 1st) and a Happy Independence Day (July 4th)- but better late than never!

We had subdued Canada Day celebrations this year- the weather was cold, the holiday was on a Wednesday, I was recovering from a migraine... but we took the kids to our community celebration as a way to mark the day. I'm not a typical flag-flyer, but I am very grateful to live in this country and proud to be Canadian, so its important to us to remember that, at least once a year.

It has been a busy summer for me at work. We have a lot of projects on the go with graduate students, but that's a good thing. In spite of this, I've managed to squeeze in a few leisure activities- like planting my "red, white and blue" flower box. I call it my "Obama Garden"- in honour of the first African-American President of the United States of America! Take a look:




My 10-year-old has been bent on having me make her a recycled "Kool-Aid" bag. We don't even really drink Kool-Aid at our house, but we bought a couple of boxes of the and her cousins donated some of their leftover pouches. This is the result:


So, it took me the better part of Thursday evening to do that, but it was kind of fun. I also broke off a needle in my sewing machine (which I just had serviced) and ended up shifting the bobbin casing, requiring that I take the bottom plate apart and fiddle a bit, but it all ended up OK. LOL- I can't believe I'm making Kool-Aid bags! Oh my.

I hope anyone reading this is having a great summer. I imagine my blog posts will be quite few. BTW, if any of you want to hear the story of a wonderful adoption from China's Waiting Child Program, go to the blog links on your right and click on "The Seventh Diamond". You'll find a link in Kimberly's blog to her travel blog, kept for her family's journey to Sophia Jane. Beautiful Miss Sophia is such a treasure! Seeing her with her brothers is so heart-warming. Welcome home, sweetie!