December 28th 2013
Someone following this blog has just told me that by clicking on the Oakshott link given in this blog a virus appeared and has compromised her various accounts. For this reason, and until I have sorted this all out please DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN MY BLOG to save yourselves any problems. I seem to suddenly be in a nightmare of viral issues and have obviously been both hacked and infected somehow.
27th December
People are reporting strange e mails from me. If anything seems suspicious please don’t open it – and anything that asks you to friend me. I’m trying to get to the bottom of it. Thanks
December 21st 2013
My studio is plunged into its seasonal grey gloom as the three gorgeously huge skylight windows are blanketed thickly with snow and ice and we need some bright sunshine to melt it off. Bright sunshine is forecast for Christmas Day so I have my fingers crossed. Up here in Montreal we have had a huge amount of snow and ice already and ice pellets are falling as I write, sounding like fizzing epsom salts as they cascade into the snow. Many of those of you in warmer climes or Europe send us worrying messages of concern but our houses are warm, our shops are warm and we have the gear to deal with it. What it means is lots of extra sewing time in order to avoid slow moving traffic or the zillions of snow ploughs out to clean the streets. So who’s complaining?! I just took this photo to illustrate my point, so this is the view from my kitchen. I’d send a photo of my studio but it is but a gloomy cavern today….
After all your encouragement I have been working hard on the PM but I did also manage to complete the first border of my Harvest/Autumnal/Plaid and Plains quilt and I really love it to bits. So much so that I have put it away for now as I will continue with another border beyond and possibly some blank space for some exciting quilting once the PM is finally finished. I love the way the colours just glow off the navy background and I love its zany naif look.
Now I must put this away and venture out into the frozen abyss as we have not only Milo to walk this morning but our son’s whippet too. Rufus is staying for two weeks and both he and Milo are running around the house like a couple of hooligans and need to go out for a walk in their Arctic gear.
December 15th 2013
Well honestly, I thought it might help me a little but you have all given me the kick I needed and I have both worked hard on and actually enjoyed working on the purple quilt in the past week. Thank you all so much for giving me many different reasons for completion, thank you for all the compliments which have spurred me on and for just making what seemed impossible achievable.
I feel I owe you a bit of an explanation as to why this has seemed such an uphill battle which also will answer your queries about the design. I started off with the central wreath and then decided that I wanted to make the quilt choc-a-bloc full of flowers. I do indeed “fly by the seat of my pants” and the quilt dictates to me as I go along. This means that it has told me to put in even more mimosa, even more flowers and finally (this week to come) a whole band of red poppies in each corner. I find that it’s all about balance but with this quilt I didn’t know that it would dictate to me to repeat all the most fiddly flowers, and so much more of them than I thought at the outset. I called it “Purple Monster” as that is how someone referred to it in an email recently and it made me laugh. I know I will love it once it is finished, or at least finished and put away for a week or so. I know I’ll enjoy the quilting and embroidery and I think I will bind it with a wavy bright red binding. I think I will have finished the applique by the end of this month, thanks to all of you and so I feel very optimistic. In fact I think after calling a previous quilt quilt “Euphoria” that I might just call this one “Joy” without even so much as a hint of irony. Thank you all and Happy Christmas in case I don’t get to post in the next few days because I am so busy appliqueing poppies!
December 12th 2013
I am using this blog to try to pressurise myself to stagger to the finish line with the aforesaid monster. I have managed to do the odd bit of applique here and there but it’s amazing just how much you can procrastinate when there is something you really don’t want to do. I have done a stack of knitting – a coat – (yes really, a whole coat), a huge shawl for a present (which though I say so myself was just beautiful) two bandanas for sons who along with me are are fighting the cold spell outside (minus 19 as I write and that’s without windchill). I have taken up machine patchwork after what must be an eight year lull. I have sorted out all my Oakshotts and folded them neatly into colour blocks. I have cooked like a gastro-chef and finished my christmas shopping. So here are two pictures of the unfinished demon. Please bully me.
As I know many of you following this blog are also use Oakshotts I thought I’d let you know that they are having a big warehouse sale this weekend. For those of us unable to get across the Atlantic (or the many other seas that divide us all) they will also have special deals on line at the same time. Michael says that those unable to attend the sale should see the NEWS section at the bottom of the homepage on the website for some very special offers for the weekend. For those of you lucky enough in the UK the warehouse sale is Friday 6th December 10 – 4 pm and Saturday December 7th 10 am – 4 pm.
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2nd December 2013
Today we had our monthly Block of the Month Group and as usual we had a day of much fun, food, friendship (and a little bit of sewing thrown in). This was the third time we had met for the Block of the Month and as always when everyone left I felt buzzy with happiness at spending the day with such a fabulous group of women. I feel that for centuries women have known this, that a group of women sewing together with easy idle chit chat throughout the day offers more support and friendship than all the teas and lunches, dinners and coffees put together. I love my Quilt Guild and I love my Block of the Month Group. Here we are, the Canadian Contingent.
and later on taking a break for lunch….
Meanwhile I am hoping to get lots and lots of sewing done in the next week or two and feel full of energy to finish the purple monster. Photos of projects to follow in a few days time. I have been busy with so many other things since getting home that there is little to post of a sewing nature and I keep on finding myself knitting, a guilty pleasure, which keeps me from my applique. Sewing pics next time I promise!!
deborahkemball 