Snow Day

The city is closed today. Originally we were suppose to get 37 cm of snow but I think since some of it came as rain, we will only get about 15 - 20 cm. The roads are a total mess, and we have been asked to stay home. My kids are working from home, so they didn't bring my little buddy for his grandparent day, today. This was Doug's reaction when I told him.

He looks dismayed.

Outside the world is dull and wet.

However, my dining room conservatory is showing hope of spring.

The amaryllis will flower soon. Beside it, the Christmas cactus is in bloom and that azalea just keeps going. It is a joy to step in there.

Ravelry suggested a pattern to me last week. Although I don't need another knitting pattern, this one sucked me in. It helped that I had the yarn available in my stash. So, I started a spring shawl.

It can be my Lenten project, and I will try to finish it by Easter. The pattern is called Floatini. The grey yarn is a merino and silk light fingering and the hot pink is mohair and silk. How could I not?

Meanwhile, I continue to create order to my sewing space. This week, I added an IKEA storage unit called Trofast. It is sold as toy storage, in the kids section, but I now have two of them to store bits in. This one is entirely for purse hardware and goodies.

The drawers are labelled things like "straps" and "closures". One drawer is still empty. Having dedicated homes for stuff really makes the tidying simpler. On top of it is my cub car/ venturer van from my days as a Venturer Advisor. It won second prize in the beauty category for leaders, at the cub car rally. Of course, like all good minivans it doesn't go very fast. My son took first in his category for speed. I first blogged about it here.

I also placed these drawer organizer boxes on the top of the fabric storage. They are to hold the current WIP so that finished bits don't wander.

I splurged and bought a new ironing board pad and cover (It was $10 at IKEA.) As you can see, I haven't put it on yet.

Thanksgiving

In this part of the world, the harvest is pretty well finished by mid October. We are getting frost warnings most evenings. So, it makes sense that we give thanks for the harvest in October. Our vegetable gardening is nearly non existent these days, especially since there is an excellent Farmers' Market about 5 minutes away, in the parking lot at Best Buy! I can buy lovely vegetables, grown pesticide free, and support local agriculture.

However, the seeds from one of last year's squash decided to grown out of our compost bin this year, and without any work we have a bumper crop of squash.

I haven't cooked any yet. I hope they taste good.

The sewing room reno continues. The Kallax has been built.

Today, I was adding bins and labelling them.

I have found a few WIP that I plan to finish soon.

I started the Ring Sling back in February. You can see the lining here.
https://artsandsocks.blogspot.com/2019/02/one-day-only.html

Then I cut the exterior of the bag, by putting the cut line on the fold and I cut on the fold line, leaving me with something unusable. Progress came to a complete halt, until today.

The exterior is now cut correctly.

Here it is with the exterior pocket.  I think fall needs a little Tula Pink. This is Tabby Lane, that I have been hoarding for awhile. Fingers crossed I can finish the bag with no more disasters.

I saw a tip the other day that you should store your interfacing rolled inside a paper towel tube. I just laughed. I buy my interfacing 5 metres at a time. I saved one of the pieces of packing from the Kallax and it is just the right size to make a bolt for my interfacing.

It will fit nicely beside the shelf.

Clean Sweep

Last week, we put all the items we wanted from IKEA on a list and actually bought them. We finally got the new bed we have been wanting. We got my little guy his big bed, as his third birthday present. And, I got a Kallax shelving unit to store my fabric in. The price of shipping is per delivery not per item, so it just made sense.

If you live without IKEA then you might not know about this marvelous piece of furniture. It is a box of cubic holes, that you can place storage bins into, or store books, or use their drawer insert and add a cat bed.

This is the one I bought:
https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/kallax-shelf-unit-white-80275887/


And, of course, I picked up the cat bed for it.
https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/lurvig-cat-house-black-80376551/

So, the next order of business is to move the boxes and bins out of my sewing room, so I can put the shelving in to store them.

Progress is being made, but I need to move some more out. I am not showing you the mess that is still to be moved. At the same time, I am pulling fabric for some projects for my upcoming quilt retreat.On the couch, you can see the start of that. Not much sewing is being done, but I am hopeful that I will have some better organization soon.

I have been knitting.

One of a pair of baby socks, the yarn is leftover from an adult pair in Turtlepurl OM colourway. The pattern is Kate Atherley's baby sock, my favourite baby sock pattern. There might even be a hat from the leftovers.

It was garbage day on Tuesday,  and you always see the most interesting things.

A crow (or possibly a raven) is inspecting the neighbours' garbage for items they were suppose to put into the organic composting bin.  Obviously the city is getting serious about keeping organics out the landfill, and they have hired this guy to check our bins.

Nearly Finished

I spent a couple of weeks working on projects that I hope I will be able to tell you about soon, but I can't blog about those things just yet.

So today, I thought I would show you a couple of well aged UFO's that will soon be FO's.

First up is the quilt that I found during my tidying and redesigned so I could happily finish it.

I have been working on finishing the binding, doing about 30 minutes at a time. I am more than half done, so it should be finished by the end of this week.

The lace scarf from 2015 now only needs a dip in the hot tub, and some blocking to be ready for cold weather. Hopefully, the cold weather will not be here too soon. My camera doesn't like purple as much as I do. I'll try for a better picture after it is blocked.

Yesterday, I cleared all my flat surfaces in my sewing room, so some new things can be started, without anything in the way. The scraps are filed, the tools have returned to their rightful homes.

Beautiful, isn't it. Slowly, I am creating order.

Fortunate Finds

A few weeks ago, in my ongoing sewing room cleanup, I found a quilt top that had been resting for quite some time (I suspect it might be 10 years). If memory serves, I was originally overwhelmed by the size of the quilt, then, when I next looked at it, I thought it looked too Christmas-y to put all that work into.

This time, I took a careful look at the top. The green borders had not been sewn on, merely pinned and there was more fabric in the box. My original plan would have made the quilt huge. After I removed the green borders, and added just red borders, it is much improved in my mind.

It is now about double bed sized. It has very nice red borders.

Doesn't look Christmas-y at all. It actually looks kind of like my backyard trees.

Lots of red and cream with some green leaves.

In a piece of good luck, I was at the quilt shop where I got the fabrics for this in the first place. Another store in the building had had a flood from a burst pipe, which caused the quilt shop to go through their storage area, looking for things that had gotten wet. They found some older fabric, that they dropped on the sale rack.  I found a bolt of the floral print.

There was a little over a metre on the bolt, so I took the whole thing. I now have binding for my new quilt, as well as extra fabric for doing something with the borders I removed. I have a plan!

Oh, and I figured out a way around the overwhelming size. I am sending it to be quilted on a long arm. Turns out you don't have to do every thing yourself. I just need to make the backing and it will be off to be quilted.

Spring and a Quilt Show

Spring seems to have arrived although the sun is still at a premium.

 The daffodils are outside, not in a pot on my counter.

A few tulips made an appearance for Mother's Day.

We planted this forsythia, not long after we moved into this house. over 25 years ago. It was beautiful with a lovely shape and it always bloomed right to the top. About 10 years ago, the city had to dig up the watermain, and they learned that it isn't on the city easement, where it is suppose to be, but instead goes diagonally across my yard, right under my fence. I asked them to be careful not to disturb the bush. However, that wasn't possible. They were going to toss it and get me a new one, but I asked them just to move it, roots and all, away from the digging. We carefully covered the roots, and put it back in the hole, after they were finished.  It has taken nearly 10 years, but it is back to near its original glory. It also has a new companion on the inside of the fence, that grew from the root that was left in the ground.

Meanwhile, Spring means Quilt Show, around here.  So Friday, I went with friends, to check it out.

My friend, Barbara Karim, took Best of Show for her wonderful Civil War Bride quilt, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Here are a few of my other favourites.

I obviously have every broad tastes in quilts. I think I like the paddles, best.

Meanwhile, Spring Cleaning 2019, continues. Today, I started attacking the drawers in the sewing machine table. Over the years they have become catchalls for things that don't have a home. In my 30 minutes, today, I got one drawer done.

Now it just has things I use at the machine. Sewing machine needles, wonder tape, glue, and room for my clips.

This is another drawer, tomorrow's project.

I have no idea what is in there.

Spring Cleaning - Week 2

I put in my 30 minutes, yesterday, and I found a long forgotten project.

I started this quilt longer ago than I can remember. My memory said that I set it aside because it was too "Christmas". Why would I put a lot of work into a Christmas quilt?

I pulled it out and looked at it, yesterday. I realized that I had done a good job on the piecing, and if you take away the green border, it doesn't  look very "Christmas" at all. The fabric is actually much more cream than the picture shows. It was a very grey day when I took the pictures. I can replace the green border, with a red, tone on tone border. Best of all, someone has asked for the finished quilt.

So it has moved from the give away pile to the "to be finished" pile.

I purchased some "mini bolt boards" also known as comic book boards, to wrap my fabric around and make it tidy. Some ironing may be required. I bought 100, I wonder if that is enough.

I see that my toss toward the wastebasket missed and you can see a discarded envelope in the background. I've since picked that up.

I am test knitting a shawl for a designer, more on that later, but this is the start.

Winter just keeps hanging on. Apparently we are on day 157 of discernable snow on the ground. So brightness is required.

 Currently blooming in my kitchen! I am also forcing some forsythia so it can grace our dining room table, on Easter.

Spring Cleaning Begins

My sewing studio (sounds better than kid's former bedroom) will never grace the pages of a magazine, but when I lost my straight pins, something had to be done.

So, yesterday, I started on the 30 minutes to tidy project. Nancy Zieman taught me about 10, 20, or 30 minutes to sew, and I thought that could apply to this project.

Two days in and I have made significant improvement to my space.

The cutting table is clear. My current project is piled on one corner. Like the neon green zipper? I have room to move.

This is the right end of the  serger "table" (a board om two file cabinets). I was embarrassed by how old some of the stuff on there was. I found two notebooks, that I am sure I have been missing for months. The rubber glove is the best thing I have found for clearing the lint out of my cutting mat. The bag is filled with selvage edges, that I am waiting for the perfect project. I see I set my camera case down and forgot to move it as I took the picture.

Left end of the serger table, with my tablet stand, my tool bag, some thread and my coaster for my coffee cup. Might still need a bit of work but it is much better.

The best part is that there isn't any stray fabric. Big pieces are in one place. Smaller pieces are in another. The pieces that are small enough that I won't use them are here.

They are packed up and ready to go to the local kindergarten for their art projects. I asked the teacher if she would like them and she was thrilled.

My serger table had 5 coasters on it. Why?

These three I made, and have never used. So, they are just sitting on my table, cluttering up the space. Obviously a new home is required.

The treasure of the day is this.

A package of barrette backs from a store that went out of business in the 1990's, I think. The only time I pin my hair back is at yoga and I use bobby pins. I have started a collection of things for the give away table at quilting.

In case you are wondering, Mysti has decided to be a bit more social. Still very cautious, but she has started to play and get in touch with her inner kitten.

Some Progress

I spent a large chunk of yesterday, helping out the young people in the family and doing government paperwork.

The young people all needed help. The local ones had discovered that in -24C weather, the little one's snowpants have somehow disappeared. By late January, finding more is difficult, kind of like finding a bathing suit in July.  However, I used the phone and found some. I just needed to go and buy them. Meanwhile the Maritimers asked Dad to repair something that would cost $700 to replace. That had been finished over the weekend, but it needed to be mailed. Fortunately both tasks could be done in the same general location. Mission accomplished, though I was cold for the rest of the day.

Since I was hiding indoors for the rest of the day, I decided it was time to attack some paperwork. One item required me to go online and use the information the government had sent to fill in an online form. Guess what? The information they sent me was wrong. I spent a total of about 3 hours, trying to get it to work, one hour was on hold to their help line. I gave up after an hour, without every getting off hold.

This morning, I called again, as soon as they opened. I was armed with a cup of tea and access to YouTube videos of Say Yes To the Dress. This time, after 45 minutes, I finally got a real person, who told me I was doing it wrong. After some discussion, I discovered that the paper was wrong, and what I had done was exactly right. So, they will send me new paperwork, in a couple of weeks. Then I will have to try again. My biggest grumble is that there is no way to tell them they messed up, except by calling another number and being put on hold, again. Someone else will have to take up that challenge.

So, this afternoon, I stepped into my happy place. I spent some time straightening up my sewing room. I managed to get the ironing board clear.

The rest of the room still needs work, but some progress has been made. I made the pattern for the first Bag of the Month for 2019. I have printed, cut and taped the pattern pieces. I even made a separate pattern piece for the outer pockets so I can fussy cut them.

I realized that I needed another fabric for my inner lining, since I didn't have as much lining fabric as I thought. After trying a couple of other things, I think this is the one.

Since the bag has a zipper on top, the inner lining will only be seen when I open the bag, so a perfect match isn't necessary. The fabric is a silly fabric with funny lines about quilting. It has the blue from the outer fabric. as well as the green, I think Tula Pink would approve.

The fabrics are all ironed, so I can start cutting.

P.S. I also got my stove cleaned this morning. All and all, a successful day.

Roxy

The weather seems to have settled into spring. We haven't seen a snowflake in a couple of weeks, so maybe it is here to stay.

Spring means that I spent a day, clearing out my sunroom. We were literally shoveling 6 months of dirt and leaves that the dogs had carried in. We can use it again to enjoy the breeze without the bugs. Of course, on Saturday, one of the dogs decided to let himself out by going through the screen. Add the screen to the To Do list.

I finished my Roxy Clutch Wallet.

I love the look and feel of the cork. I considered ordering a frame in gold, but in the end decided to use the one I had, in gun metal. I think it worked well. It isn't as shiny as the gold so it doesn't take away from the sparkle of the cork.

I got all the tiny screws in, and I am looking forward to using it this summer.  My phone even fits.

My quilt group was looking for donations of six inch blocks in Civil War type fabrics. The best I could come up with was some off white and red. It looked okay with the other blocks.

Of course, it is a cat block. It was a free pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

Last week, I started sorting my fabric, in an effort to be able to find things more quickly. It is slow going, as I measure each piece and attach a label. However, I am sure it will make deciding what fabric works for a pattern, much faster. Now, if I can just keep at it.