Farmer's wife Quilt Along Week 34

YAY!!! I'm back!  Oh this feels so good. :)

Thank you so much for your all your responses to my request for feedback on my blog banner.  Wow you guys are so nice!  I wasn't expecting so many of you to tell me to do what pleases me.  That is pure generosity and I am totally grateful. 

My favorite comments were ones that suggested I do "the same but different".  So now I'm working on a new banner that you will recognize as me ... for sure ... promise.  It will be the same, but different.  Not sure when it will be ready.  But you'll be the first to know when it's done. :)

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I have some MAJOR catching up to do here on the farm and beLIEVE me, I've been farming!  I'm going to spend this week showing you (some of) my new FW blocks ... and there are some beauties I tell ya, like today.

Green, Gray & White

#67 - Pine Tree

I live nestled in the foothills of the Great Canadian Rockies.  I suppose I should appreciate the landscape more, but I'm not into rocks & mountains and the indigenous flora that isn't anywhere NEAR my preferred English Cottage look ...

We have an abundance of pine trees and I think almost every other species of tree with needles & cones.  I bet there isn't a single residential street in the city without at least ONE.  Again, I suppose some people would find that charming and romantic.  Not me.  I only like these trees at Christmas time.

However, THIS is the kind of pine tree I can get jiggy with ...

all covered with flowers! :)

#105 - Wild Goose Chase

I had the.hardest.time deciding how to make this block in terms of print/color.  Should I go two-tone? Symmetrical?  Totally scrappy? And all the beautiful and inspiring versions I found on the FWQAL Flickr group didn't make my decision an easier.

But I finally went with these colors, scrapped "the snot" out of the green and I EL-OH-VEE-EE it!

YUM! :) 

(Just so we're clear here I mean yum the color ... not yum the snot.)

10 Things I Know Today That I Didn't Know 3 Weeks Ago

1. If you have an eye infection, don't chop onions.  THAT shoulda been a no-brainer.

2. If I'm not blogging I can make 22 Farmer's Wife quilt blocks in one week.  Trying to start the 23rd block, however, is like pointing a loaded gun to my head.  Just.couldn't.do.it.

3. If there is a Super Bowl party at my house, the next day I will have chocolate covered cheesecake morsels for breakfast, red licorice for a mid-morning snack and potato chips with pickle dip for lunch ... and then grow a zit by dinnertime.

4. The NEXT time I go to a seminar on how to use my new computer, I WILL remember to bring a notepad and pen.  (What is WRONG with me?!)

5. Getting used to using the "command" vs. "control" key is surprisingly difficult & frustrating.  (This will only make sense to you if you've ever gone from a PC to a Mac.)

6. If the furnace in my house dies at 3:30 a.m. and it is only slightly below freezing and lightly snowing outside, I can stay almost warm all day if I drink lots of tea, wear a wool sweater & socks, keep a space heater on in the hallway and the oven on in the kitchen ... and all the lights on in the house.  Eating ice cream is not recommended.  And making the chili for dinner extra spicy only upsets the children. 

7. If my husband has recently started a new job and I attend the annual company party with him, I will ALMOST make it through the night without sticking my foot in my mouth.  Unfortunately, I will exercise my occasionally sarcastic sense of humor as we are leaving and make fun of the door prize we won ... TO THE WOMAN WHO ORGANIZED THE ENTIRE EVENT.  (Seriously, WHAT is WRONG with me?!!  I was just trying to be funny.)  In my defense, I didn't know it was her.  And it really was a fantastic evening, just sayin'.

8. I will never wear high heels again.  Ever.  Life is too short to suffer that kind of unnecessary pain.  I am probably shopping for black patent ballet flats this very minute.

9. I love blogging.  Not being able to blog about pretty things makes me sad.  (I also had "& lonely" but deleted it because that just sounded pathetic.)  I am back tomorrow with some new things. 

10. BILLY CRYSTAL IS HOSTING THE OSCARS!!!

Too Gone For Too Long

Country music fans will recognize that title from this Randy Travis classic.  Oh gosh, the next line of that song is "it's too late to come back now" ... ??? ... geez, I hope not!!!

I really didn't think I'd be down for 2+ weeks.  But I am.  Now I'm waiting for my new Photoshop software to come in so I can start showing you what I've been up to.

In desperation, I dug around my old photo files and found this ... you may recognize it as my blog banner on steroids.

In fact, I made it as part of an exercise for a blogging course I took from Holly Becker of Decor8 last year.  My banner is the edited version of this collage.

Ooooh, wait ... I just had an idea. 

Back story required.

When I first discovered blogs, one of my very favorite things was when bloggers changed their banners.  And when I started my blog I SWORE I was going to change MINE every.single.month.

Yeah, right!  Sometimes I can't even stand my own delusions of grandeur.

When I came up with my current ... oh, let's be honest here ... ONLY banner, I really fell in love with it.  I mean really.  I'd never done anything like that before - made up a collage of my favorite things - and now I'm afraid it was a creative fluke and I'll never be able to make a new one that is just as pretty ... kinda like a one hit wonder.

That said, I wonder if you're getting bored of it.

But on the other hand (another Randy Travis hit ... I'm not really a Country music fan, I just happen to know a few of his tunes),  I wonder if you guys still like it and would prefer I just keep it forever and ever ... amen?  LOL, ok now I'm just messin' with ya!

So how 'bout YOU tell ME if I should keep my current banner or try to come up with something new. 

(See how I'm trying to trick you into talking to me?)

I'm Fancy Free

Wanna hear what I've been listening to - on my new computer - while I wallow here in self-pity?

The Hubster found this really cool song last weekend and I'm NOT exaggerating when I say I've hit replay like a bazillion times already.

It's helping to take the edge off things ...

I especially like the drum roll at 1:16.  And 2:38.  And 4:06.

Love a good drum roll. 

And yes, I air drum. 

Sometimes. 

When I'm out of chocolate.

And no one's looking.

Because it's possible I pucker my lips like Mick Jagger when I do.

But I will neither confirm nor deny that rumor.

Just Call Me Schleprock

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Turns out I'm one of those "very rare cases" who has an allergic reaction to the drops I was prescribed for my lovely eye infection.  So now I have the yummy steroid kind. 

In other news, I finally resorted to signing up for a class to learn more MAC stuff ... 'cause apparently wishing for someone to wave a magic wand over my head and granting me omnipotent MAC powers isn't working.

And I won't even bother mentioning that my little one is sick and staying home from school today ... again.

But on a more positive note ...

...   ...   ...

Uuuuh ...  I know it's here somewhere ... just have to keep looking for it ... ;)

Still Alive ...

... but not entirely happy. 

I haven't actually burst into tears.  Yet.  But this ride ain't over.  And I have PMS.  Just sayin'.

(Chocolate can only help so much, ya know?)

But I really miss you guys so I'm just popping in to say "Hey, miss you" and to fill you in on the week's happenings.

The computer switcheroo started out ok, until the final data transfer part when the Mac was saying hello to the PC but the PC was just flat out dissing the Mac.  It was being totally rude and obnoxious.  

Now my better half is smarter than the average person - especially when it comes to techie stuff - and SHOULD have been able to do it all himself.  BUT, because my PC was so (insert expletive here) up he couldn't save it.

So I had to pay some dude the equivalent of waaay too many fat quarters to rescue my email.  That took a few days.  

Now I'm super crabby because I HATE reading instructions.  Oh sweet irony that I'm awesome at writing them ... you'd think I'd appreciate all the work that goes into them.  But no.  I'm just totally stubborn & immature when it comes to learning new things.  What I WANT is to try to do something and have it just magically happen.  But if I CAN'T get it right the first time, I want someone right beside me to TELL me or SHOW me what I need to do and that would be it.  Yeah, that isn't happening.  But never mind that.  

I can't remember the last time I didn't have a computer on in my sewing room and felt really ... lost.  So I just got to playing with fabric, cutting & sewing.  That is until I sliced a good chunk out of my finger.  Yes, I will spill blood for the sport of quilting.  But it's left me a little handicapped.

And yesterday I woke up with an eye infection.  Totally gross.  My eye is swollen, it hurts and I have to take drops.  AND it's contagious so I'm washing my hands like Lady Macbeth.

Oh.  And did I mention it's so cold here in our ridiculously underinsulated 60 year old house that my husband actually slept with a toque (that's pronounced "tooook" and means winter hat, usually knit and made with wool) on account of all the cold air pouring down on his head from the window above the bed.

Gee, nothing like vomiting a barrage of complaints to make you happy to hear from me, eh?  Sorry.  I guess I just need a sympathetic shoulder.

And sorry also for no pictures.  I haven't figured out that bit yet.  But hubby promised to help me this weekend so fingers crossed for Monday, kay?

In the meantime, I promise I've not been idle.  I've been sewing and stitching away (as best I can with only 9 working fingers and one and a half eyes) and even got a little makeover done in my sewing room.  My girlfriend helped me part with about 100 lbs of fabric and I got a new desk ... a really pretty "shabby" one, to go with my pretty new computer. :)

Thanks for listening.  Fingers crossed for a productive weekend.

PS:  I reeeeeally really do miss you ...

Proud Mama

I almost didn't have anything to brag blog about today.  But then I thought you might like to see what the other needlewomen in my house are up to these days.

Big Sister (10) got this book from Santa. 

Santa rocks, just sayin'... ;)

And she wanted to try out this design on a t-shirt,

so I suggested she practice on muslin first.

I must say she has a most impressive stem stitch.

So of course whatever Big Sister is doing, Little Sister (8, but almost 9) also wants to do, right?  I was a little sister so I know ALL about that.

She decided to stitch her initial, which she drew freehand with no hesitation.  (She did NOT get that confidence from ME!)  Haha!

(Love her little curli-q's!) And check OUT that backstitch! 

So when she realized it was our Anniversary last week, she wanted to "secretly" make something for us.

She's watched me make letter templates many times before with the computer so she just went ahead and made up her own pattern.

And I hadn't put away the muslin yardage so she helped herself to a nice big chunk.  Unfortunately, she was a little upset that the piece she'd cut was still too small, (thank goodness she used the 'el cheapo' muslin and not my prized fabric from the "forbidden" pile) but I have an idea for that.  I'll show you when it's done.

The most surprising thing to me is that this kid usually loses interest in things quickly ... but she hasn't given up on this yet!

(Please notice how she flourished the Y.)

I really am a super proud mama. :)

Daisychain Sampler "M"

As in James Bond's boss. 

Or half of the candy that melts in your mouth, not in your hands. 

Or my daugher's middle initial. 

Or just plain old "Mmmmmmmmmmmm", which is exactly how I feel about this color (again!).

You know, I really like the chain stitch ... once I figured out how to not pull too tightly so my links would stay nice and round!

It's another one of those cool texture stitches.  I've used it as a purse handle, a skipping rope, a chain for a pocket watch, octopus tentacles ... it's super versatile.

Daisychain Sampler "L"

This is such a cute little letter.

And I love making flowers with this ...

a pinwheel blanket stitch.

But the whole time I was stitching up these flowers, all that was going through my head was, "The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round ..."

Clearly I've been on one too many field trips with 5 year olds!

For the first time in this Sampler, I'm using a single ply - here for the Colonial knots. 

I want the little knots in the flower centers to be delicate and I think 2 plies would be too chunky. 

Remember, I reduced the size of my pattern by 30%.  If you're stitching with embroidery floss too but on the pattern full size, you may not want to copy me here.

See?

Uber super dee duper cute. ;)

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along Week 33

Pink & Gray

I think all my FW blocks this month will have gray because, well, I liked last week's blocks so much and I really need to catch up with this color for my quilt.

#40 - Friendship Block

Yeah, this block and I are DEFINITELY friends! :)

 

#80 - Single Wedding Star

Yep.  I totally love pink.

Sorry guys, no funny in me today ... I looked EVERYWHERE for it.

But I got nothin'.  Nada.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.

Maybe if I had a glass of wine or something.  Naw, it'll just make me sleepy and then I won't be able to feel the end of my nose.

And then I'll have to pee.

Never mind ... I'll keep lookin'.  Maybe it'll show up tomorrow.

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along Week 32

Blue, Gray & White

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary.  Wow.  I wonder what that is in Hollywood years?  ;)

Yes, "we" (meaning me) decided to get married in the winter ... 'cause I really wanted to wear a velvet jacket as part of my wedding dress  ... so I could hide my chubby arms ... not kidding ... 

The color theme was silver & white and my sister-matron-of-honor wore a navy velvet dress.  So in honor of this special day, I made blue, "silver" & white blocks. 

I also chose these blocks specifically for their names.

#89 - Steps to the Altar

This block ended up looking more like a tree to me but ... whatever ... let's go with it.

The church still had a nativity scene set up on the altar and I remember spending the entire ceremony looking at astro-turf bedding in the manger and cotton ball snow on the trees. 

I am SO not even joking about that!  Actual fluorescent green indoor/ outdoor carpeting and cotton balls, carefully placed one by one on the tree branches.  It would have been a great place to be if you wanted to play soccer or suddenly found yourself with a nail-polish removal emergency.  Haha!

Can you imagine?  Trying to be all serious about getting married but mostly concentrating on not bursting out laughing everytime you see a plaster cast baby Jesus with a broken-off finger and an anorexic plastic cow with bony ribs sticking out ...

Dude, it was hilarious.

But my point - and yes I have one - is that I resisted the urge to make these altar steps green in homage to that astro-turf.

#101 Wedding Ring

I love how these blocks look all calm, & soft & wintery & elegant.  Perfect.  Exactly what I was going for. :)

Happy Anniversary, Honey. 

Daisychain Sampler "K"

K is my favorite letter.  I mean of all time.  Before I was married my initials were K.K.  Now I'm K.C. ... with my very own imaginary "Sunshine Band" all you 80s people ;).

I know it would have been expected for me to stitch it up in pink, but since E & J - the adjoining letters - are already pink, I just went with what color was needed here.

Light moss green. :) 

I L.O.V.E. doing this stitch - long & short stitch.  It takes a little bit to start seeing the texture.

But once you get going, it is the COOLEST thing.

Just to give you a scale reference ... told ya I like little!

I love using stitches to create texture.

Progress Report ...

I am one happy stitcher. :)

Daisychain Sampler "J"

Geez, I've neglected this poor Sampler for a month now!  Shame on me.  Let's blame it on Christmas. :)

Now you may (or may not) know I have a thing with quilting where I don't like the same color or the same print to "touch" when I'm piecing fabrics together.  Well, I kinda have the same thing here.

I'm loosely following Alicia's color placement and she has dark pink in both "I" and "J". 

I ALMOST changed the color.  But I admire Alicia's talent so I figured if it's good enough for her, it's CERTAINLY good enough for me!

So I did it.  I let the dark pink be beside itself here.

The sky hasn't fallen.

Think I'll be ok. ;)

Felt Christmas Ornaments - The Finale

FINALLY, you're probably thinking!  But you should be used to me beating a good idea to death. ;) 

In all seriousness though, I want to share with you the REAL story behind me and these ornaments ... the reason why I fell in love with them in the first place ... and why I wanted to make them THIS year ... which you may have already clued into if you read last week's holiday post.

... sparkles with ice crystals

... watches from the trees

(what are the chances of me getting a picture of TWO deer in the woods while on a walk with my sister-in-law?!)

... with the wood fires burning

(and the front door is even on the same side!)

Right down to the gentle smoke from the chimney ...

I mean come ON!  It's like this ornament set was designed especially for my family's 2011 White Grizzly Christmas.

I gave the cottage to my brother & sister-in-law - the owners of the Lodge, the deer to my mom and the tree went to my sister & brother-in-law.

And now I'm going to make another set for me ... and probably one for each of my daughters too.  'Cause I'm pretty sure this is a Christmas they will never forget. ;)

Thank you Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy for designing THE.BEST.HOMEMADE.SOURVENIERS.EVER!

Felt Christmas Cottage II

Farmer's Wife blocks will be on Friday this week because ... well ... you'll see. ;)

But I CAN show you the finished cottage.  Yay!

Here's how it turned out.

The mistletoe under the eaves is such a simple detail but it adds SO MUCH to the design.  I was going to stitch it in the green that matches the shrubbery (tee hee), but the pattern says to combine the other 2 greens and I gotta tell ya, very nice touch.

I'm so annoyed with myself for forgetting to do the blanket stitch along the bottom edge of the roof here.  I know, not a big deal ... but still ...

And I added a gold bead as a brass doorknob.

I think I overstuffed it just a little bit.  But I love how all 3 ornaments turned out.

Dude, you really should give these a try. ;)

It's What Canadians Do

If you read this post, you need to pinkie swear first that you won't call child protective services on me, kay?

                    *               *               *               *               *

I gave birth twice.  I'm not having any more children.  This kitchen is closed.  So you'd think I'd want to keep the ones I have safe, right? 

Just one problem.  I'm Canadian.  I'm culturally obligated to let my offspring participate in somewhat ... er ... unconventional activities. 

Admittedly, the following story illustrates a rather bizarre way to enforce national pride.  But I don't make the rules.  I just live here.

So here's how we spent Boxing Day.

"Ok girls, guess what we're doing today.

We're going to get into this galvanized-steel-coffin-on-tracks (otherwise known as a  snowcat)

named "Felix"

and I'm going to let your Uncle (my brother)

drive us for about an hour along 12 miles (20km)

up a vertical mile

to an elevation of 7,400 ft (2,300 m) at the top of a mountain.

When we get there he's going to use Felix to dig a huge pit in the 4' (1.2m) deep snow in about 30 seconds

and we're going to make a bonfire

so we can roast sausages & marshmallows to go with the smoked salmon sandwiches, veggies, shortbread cookies & chocolate packed for us to eat

while sitting on snowbenches,

complete with hot chocolate mug holders.

Then I'm going to let your Uncle take us waaaaay up there,

where your mom will almost s%&* herself

(Okay dude, seriously?  Dude?!  DUUUUDE!!  STOOOOOP!!!  I am SO NOT LIKING THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!)

'cause she reeeeeally doesn't like heights.

Up here I'm going to give you an inner tube ... yep, that inflatable rubber donut that comes with warnings about "causing serious injury & even death". 

That's right girls, that what it says right here in big bold letters ... SERIOUS INJURY & EVEN DEATH.

I'm going to let you sit in this human-missile-maker with absolutely no safety devices and have someone give you a big push from this spot right here

and I'm going to let you fly down the mountain

at god knows what speed

and hope you stop before you disappear over the edge.

Then I'm going to follow you on a sheet of plastic called a crazy carpet ...

... in a manner that could not POSSIBLY be less dignified.

And then we're going to do it again.  And again.  All afternoon. 

At some point, your Aunt & I are going to think it's a good idea to share an inner tube down the mountain

and we're going to have an EPIC wipeout

and then laugh until we can't breathe.

Ok girls, you up for all that? 

Good.

Now go put your helmets on.  Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Christmas at the Lodge

When I say the Lodge, I mean my brother's place,  White Grizzly Lodge - quietly situated on the northern tip of Kootenay Lake in the British Columbia interior of the Canadian Rockies. 

This is what he does (I'm a proud sister).

I don't do that.  Not even close.  I think only crazy people with suicidal tendencies do that sort of thing. 

But the Lodge is still a super cool place to visit, even if you don't ski.  Check this out.

The main building sleeps 16 people - 5 bedrooms, each with private bathrooms (thank god!).

A welcoming front entrance.

A woodpecker door knocker made by my Uncle to announce your arrival.

That's my room up there.

The view from my room.

Firewood - a necessity for the warm fire in the main room where we all hang out.

A dining table made from a slice of a 500 year old Sitka Spruce tree.

We eat like kings here, all meals were prepared by a chef.

Complete with standard issue Lodge taxidermy ...

... named George.  Totally not my thing.  But he's really quiet and you kinda get used to him after a while.  

FYI, George came with the place when my brother bought it.  No one in my family owns a gun let alone shoots anything, just sayin'.

I even saw some deer while on a walk with my sister-in-law.

(So mad I didn't have my camera set properly ... )

So this is where I was last week.  It was the first time in a decade my family's been together for Christmas and it was a right-proper-Winter-Wonderland-holiday.  It was special.

I have a few more fun things to share about this place in the coming days.

Felt Christmas Cottage

You may have noticed this cottage was a little slow making its debut.  Yeah, I tend to save the hardest things for last.

Plus I wasn't expecting to make an extra deer and 3 extra trees!  Cut me some slack, eh?! ;)

Well, here's how little miss cottage is coming along.

She's actually not as tricky as I thought.  Not difficult, just more time consuming because of the # of pieces.

I promise to keep working on it, kay?

(Omg, I LOVE that cross-hatched roof!!!)

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along Week 31

Hello hello!  Hope you had a lovely Christmas.  I've had an amazing few days, but more about that later this week ... or next.

Today I have new FW blocks for you in colors I'm calling "The Kitchen Sink" palette. :)

I've been DYING to make this block - Postage Stamp - since I started this QAL back in June.  This sort of piecing is really one of my all time favorite activities. 

I was going to wait a while longer to make it, for no particular reason, I guess. 

But suddenly I was inspired by a few things ... this image I found at one of my new favorite blogs (well, new to me - she's been around for quite a while!)  Something about the pretty, colorful ornaments on this tree ... I actually get butterflies in my tummy when I look at this photo.  I can't explain it.

And the thought of what Christmas usually looks like - an explosion of color with all the gifts, wrapping paper, decorations, lights, candy ... especially if kids are involved.

So I decided to cut one square from every print I'm using for my FWQAL quilt and found that I had almost enough squares for 2 blocks!

I just threw in a few more whites and voila! 

I have a feeling that when it comes to the final quilt there'll be a few blocks that won't play nicely with the others and won't be allowed to join in.  But I'm sure both these blocks will make the final cut because ...

I ... LOVE ... THEM ... SO ... MUCH!!!  It's sad really ... how much I love them.

So much so that right now I'm totally wanting to make a huge quilt with just these little 3/4" squares. 

Don't think I won't!  In fact, I just might do that with all my scraps at the end of this QAL. 

One of these days I'll show you the quilt I made that ended up with literally thousands of tiny pieces.

You think I'm joking, don't you? 

Dude.  I don't joke about things like that ...

Pretty Wishes

Wishing you a very Pretty Christmas and a Lovely Holiday!

xo, Kristyne