In Two Minds

This past week I have been rummaging through our storage unit and unearthing the plastic tubs of fabric, of which there are (maybe too) many. I loaded up the car and hauled them back to the house, where I am proceeding to cull (and make a great mess). As I sift through and sort, one half of my brain thinks, 'too much fabric, get rid of it, move on now, and who needs another quilt' (besides my dear Ida-Mae whose commission I have back-burnered, but not forgotten).

But following closely behind these logical thoughts, come all those neurons firing from the right, and that barrage brings with it the piqued interest, the steady flow of ideas, and that always-simmering creative excitement, roused by these pretty pieces of cotton.

But, while I work out what to do with my beloved quilting hobby, let me fill you in on my Christmas Delivery to Robert's brother Frankie. I think he was delighted with his Christmas gift!

It was a lot of fun presenting Frankie with his quilt. He was pleased. I was pleased. It is such a great joy to hand over one of these made-with-love items. Perhaps the decision about what to do with my hobby isn't such a tricky one after all!

A Quilt Class

Penny, owner of the local patchwork and quilting shop here in Dundas, has asked me to facilitate a workshop this Saturday! I am so excited about this opportunity. I will be working with this colourful mix of batiks and Kaffe prints.
I am going to use this blog post as my tutorial page, so if you are not interested in a patchwork project "how-to's", then sign off for now.

In Australia, the patchwork shop where I have worked hosts a "Saturday Strip Club" (*!*). I have seen a particular quilt being whipped up by many-a-student during these classes. (In spite of Internet research, I am unable to cite the author, but it is not my own design.)
The following instructions are my explanation for a quick and easy version of this 2 1/2" strip quilt. I have named this version "ARE WE THERE YET?" -you will understand the significance of this name once you begin to sew...

ARE WE THERE YET?
Finished size, before borders, 49" x 64"

WHAT YOU NEED...
40, pre cut 2 1/2" strips. (Penny has some beautiful kits waiting for you!)
1 metre of border fabric ( optional)
60 cm of binding fabric
Cotton thread
Straight Edge
Pen or Pencil
Fabric Scissors
1/4" patchwork foot for your sewing machine
Rotary Cutter and Mat
Sewing Pins

INSTRUCTIONS...
1. Set aside ONE* of your 2 1/2" strips.
2. With the remaining 39 strips, join them with a 45 degree seam as follows:
Place the ends of two strips, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, at a 90 degree angle to each other.
With a pen, pencil or fabric marker, and using a straight edge, draw a diagonal line to mark your 45 degree seam line.

Tip: Fold your fabric back to ensure you have drawn your diagonal in the correct direction

Secure with pins and carefully sew along this seam line.

Repeat this for each of the 39 strips in your kit. Be careful to keep right sides together, and to avoid twisting your strips as go.
(I sew one seam at a time, trim and cut my thread, and I find this helps to keep the eventual long line of strips from twisting.)

3. Take your last strip, the ONE* you reserved, and cut it in half at its' midpoint.
Add one of these halves as your final join.
You will end up with a LONG puddle of fabric strips, 1550" in fact!

4. Press your seams and trim your seam allowance back to 1/4".

5. Keeping RIGHT sides together, find the midpoint of your 1550" length of fabric strips. Again, being careful not to get things twisted, you basically fold your length in half. It's long!
Cut your fabric into two lengths, each 775", at this midpoint.

6. Join these two strips, with a 1/4" seam. ("Are we there yet?") :)

7. You now have a 775" long x 4.5" wide strip of fabric. The rest of the process involves cutting these long strips in half and rejoining the halves by sewing along these long sides. As your strip lengths shorten, your quilt width increases.
- cut the 775" x 4 1/2" strip in half at the midpoint. Join these two halves with a 1/4" seam along the long length.
- cut the 387" x 8 1/2" strip in half at the midpoint. Join these two halves with a 1/4" seam along the long length.
- cut the 194" x 16 1/2" strip in half at the midpoint. Join these two halves with a 1/4" seam along the long length.

8. Final Join!
- cut the 96" x 32 1/2" strip in half at the midpoint.
You will have two sets of strips that look like this:

Join these two halves with a 1/4" seam along the long length. Voila! Your quilt top is complete, and looks something like this:

Adding A Border:
A mitred border would be the perfect finish to this quilt.
The mitred corners would suit the 45 degree joins throughout the body of this top.
- cut seven, 4" x 42" (or width of fabric) strips.
-follow Penny's instructions for a mitred seam on the corners.

Another Border Idea:
Since this quilt uses a variety of prints, choose four fabrics that you have used in your top and add a different print to each side of your top.

Binding Strips:
- cut seven 2 1/2" x 42" strips. Join strips with a 45 degree seam.

After The Snowfall...

...there was a thaw, and a couple of days of rain even :(
Now the thermometer has dipped past freezing again and our winter wonderland is quite beautiful in an altogether different way.
These are the conditions however which make the going icy and difficult. Our area has some power outages, and some treacherous road conditions. It's a great day to stay indoors!

Winter Wonderland

"these wonderful things
are the things
we remember all through all our lives"...

We have arrived to a real winter wonderland here in Ontario, Canada. The temps are well below freezing, and we have been treated to fresh blankets of snow, snowflakes falling thick and fast, frost on the windowpanes...such a beautiful welcome! Leah's Callum, and family friend Steven are both with us and this is their first visit to Canada. We are excited that they can experience Christmas in this setting, it is indeed a wintry fairyland.

Straight from the airport we arrived at my sister's home for a dinner feast and the sweet fellowship of family - our Robbie, my sisters, our nieces, nephews, and their precious kiddies and hubbies! It was a happy reunion. I promise to post about this next.

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without a gorgeous fir tree laden with lights and trinkets, and so the gang set out to cut down the perfect tree. I am sure my kids were grateful for their newly-purchased boots as they trudged through the woods. Apparently there was the obligatory pelting of one another with snowballs. A good time was had by all!

Here is the tree-cutting clan, the Birdie/Mack cousins, and Robert was not about to miss out on the adventure:

A happy daddy with his kids

Cousins, Lindsay and Gillian

Annie with Gill. (if you look beyond those beautiful smiles and gorgeous conifers, you can see the old grey barn in the background. It all makes for a great photo).

Here they are dragging the tree back to the car. Bekah (orange jacket) did a great job with the knot-tying to secure the tree to the roof of the van.

But cutting down the tree is only half the fun! Now comes the fun and occasional drama of "putting it up". Bekah and Leah did a great job wrestling this big spruce into submission! I believe it nearly toppled on 3 occasions, but the girls perseverance, and Johny-to-the-rescue, a new hole/screw in the ceiling, a few squeals and screams, and lots of laughter later, we now have a stunning Christmas tree standing tall and straight, glitzing up the room and smelling delicious! Ahhhhh, Christmas!

This photo was taken during one of the attempts to right the falling tree! I wish I had taken more photos to show you the ladders and other bits and pieces employed to accomplish this job.

But how about this for a significant end result?!

Such a pretty expression of what is happening in this "happening household" this Christmas season. For it takes work and co-operation and intentional good cheer to make happy family memories and enjoy the traditions that this season is steeped in. I for one, am loving every minute!

The Finishing Touch

I love to work with my friend Donna when I create my quilts.  I confidently hand over to her the 'tops' that I have painstakingly assembled, and she then works the end result, the outcome of consequence!
Donna takes my quilt top and backing, and nests them between a soft wadding of cotton & bamboo and winds these layers onto her great and mighty quilting machine.  We liase to find the most appropriate thread colour and a quilt design that will 'bring it all home', so to speak. Donna then stitches this pattern throughout the top, adding the stability, the texture, the warmth and body to the project for what is always a beautiful end result. (I have previously shown some photos of Donna and her Statler in this post)
Grand Finale: noun

: a very exciting or impressive ending of a performance or show

 

Noun

1.

finishing touch - a final touch; a crowning achievement; a culmination.  Frankie's quilt is complete.  I have sewn down the outer binding, added a label - (Anna insisted that I must) - and it is ready for travel to Canada.  Jacqui also,was a huge help to me in seeing that this quilt was completed on time!  She lugged it back to Perth in her suitcase, readied the beautiful backing fabric with perfect seam matching (you would never know 2 pieces of fabric were joined!), delivered it to Donna on my behalf, and even helped me with the binding. It's always such a pleasure to gift a quilt to a special someone.  I hope Robert's brother enjoys it and thinks it is striking.  I hope it will be a reminder that he is loved each time he uses it. Merry Christmas Frankie! Although the lighting doesn't do justice to the quilt's colours, I love the way it shows off the texture of the quilting!

 

Cinderella is not going to the Ball

Remember the ball gown?
Some of you have asked to see it.
Sorry, you will only be able to see it hanging over the closet door. As it turns out, we are not going!
Rob and I are in the midst of a chaotic time and tomorrow evening's festivities simply became too complicated. Does that sound lame? Possibly, but...just be glad you are not us right now.
The seamstress, Ibu Eny, almost didn't finish the gown and I was making a mad dash to her shop to pick up the barely completed dress late in the evening before my 3am departure from Jakarta. Earlier in the week, I managed to sneak away from the house during the pack-up for my fitting, which was fortunate because a few alterations were in order.
The dress is in hand. It's very pretty. My friend Cathy has dared me to take it to Canada and wear it to our family's Christmas celebration...with my Ugg boots! When I mentioned this to Anna, she begged me not to! We shall see! It's just the right colour for a Festive Frock!

Here it is literally tossed into the back seat in a heap after rushing to pick it up!

That's much better...

Some pretty details...

Someday, maybe, I will wear this lovely gown, and when I do, I will be certain to add a picture to this post!

Inbox

As mentioned, the house is all packed away, the container set sail yesterday in fact, aboard the vessel 'Cape Ferroli'. Tick this portion of the move from the list.
But leaving a place involves so much more than packing and shipping. There are these beautiful people, now part of our circle of loved ones that we just walked away from. And believe me, we didn't want to. One thing is certain, you can have experience with the process of goodbyes, but this experience doesn't really make the going easier.
One of my lovely friends...

...her name is Shienny, made sure that this arrived in my inbox last week. She titled her email "Our Heavenly Tailor-Made Friendship":

"In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

You can imagine how encouraged I was when I read this! And thankful for the people in Jakarta that "God has chosen" for Rob and I!
It's my pleasure to put faces to the names you have heard me mentioning this past year-
Shienny and Uran:

Sharon, baby Caleb, and Dave:

"The JJ's" - Jan and Jack

Elsa:

Jean:

Martine:

The amazing women's bible study:

I dragged my heels moving to Jakarta, but that is because I didn't realise WHO would be there waiting!
We Miss You!