Goals for 2016

Each year at this time I take a look at what I have accomplished in the previous year and look ahead to the coming year with great anticipation of what I would like to complete. Being a bit ADHD, I tend to dream BIG or not at all. Its All or Nothing. Feast or Famine. When will I learn to balance some of the things I am doing and some of the things I want to do? I do not handle accountability well. Well, I don't really try and avoid committing to stuff or volunteering in case I  forget or don't have time or just don't want to do it. But I ramble.

I have been away from home 9 times in the past year. Three times to visit my daughter, Australia's AQC, overnight with all 3 of my sisters, Bennington Vermont, Shipshewana, Indiana, England and Poland. And even a 4 day business trip with my husband to Holmes County PA. Next week I fly out to my daughter's for 3 weeks as we await the birth of her second baby.  And I am planning a ministry trip to India possibly in March. Most times when I travel, I take along several prepared applique blocks to work on in those little moments and I have gotten a lot of blocks done this way. That and a text book or two for the self-paced on-line doctorate I am working on. It has no deadlines so I am moving very slowly. 

One of the biggest personal goals for the year is to finally realize the 30 year dream of having my first book published. I completed the edit revisions today and will re-submit it as soon as I figure out how to attach the file using Windows 10. Need I say more?

I completed and quilted and gifted my CCCQ quilt. That is occasion for applause! Now to do it again with at least one more this year. My quilting focus for the past 2 years has been hand appliqueing sampler blocks for several quilts and machine appliqueing for others. So-a lot of blocks. Time to get some of them completed and quilted.

So goals for 2016

     1. Publish my book.
     2. Complete at least 1 of my big applique quilts, quilt it and bind it. I choose Ben Biggs.
     3. Quilt my Dear Jane Quilt and bind it with narrow binding on all those scallops.
     4. Lose the 22 lb I did not last year with  my goal of losing 40.
     5. Have fun more often.
     6. Spend more time with the grand kids.
     7. Laugh more.
     8. Sing louder.
     9. Buy less new fabric.
   10. Do the 40-bags-in-40-days challenge for Lent.
   11. Design a layout for each of the three $10 quilts and complete them.
   12. Complete coursework for doctorate. Then the dissertation, but I will need some goals for 2017.

Blessings,
Chris

 

Visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum Part 1

My sister Terry, niece Jenny and I took the train into London one day to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was supposed to be an hour and a half ride that was delayed two hours because of an "incident" on the tracks at the next station. We were almost halfway and debated going back but the next train that pulled into the station was going directly to Liverpool St Station, so we got on it. It was fun trying to find our way through the underground to the correct subway train. I had my rollator with me, otherwise I could not have considered such a venture. With no elevators available, Jenny and I each took a side and carried the thing up and down stairs, slowly. It worked. One of the nice things about the rollator is that I could sit down when I need to get off my feet. Her fitbit told us we had walked 10,000 steps by the time we were leaving the museum. Not bad.

We arrived at the V&A at about 1 o'clock so the first t hing, after getting a map, was to have lunch. Salmon, stirfry and courgettes. Yummy. 

  The next thing was to take pictures of the  3 dining rooms. 

I guess there is a good reason why one of them is called the Morris Room. 

 I was still trying to figure out my new camera using the zoom. Some of the photos came out blurry. 

Ceilings and archways, pillars and lights.

Can you tell I like architecture? 

Well, more like floor tiles in the older parts of the building, which, by the way is really really, big. 

I saw future quilts everywhere.

I cannot upload any more pictures right now so will save the other stuff for later. There were elevators and bathrooms. I am not used to washing my hands in a public washroom and seeing men in the mirror. I checked outside to make sure I had gone into the correct room. I had. There were 4 floors with over a hundred different displays in the free section. Because we had only 4 hours, we decided to not visit the ones that we would have had to pay for. One of them was Textiles of India. Another was shoes. Speaking of shoes, I did more walking that day than I do in a month at home. I bought a treadmill before I left and it is sitting in the living room waiting for someone to release it from its packaging and setting it up so I can walk on it.  I wonder if my rollator will fit on the conveyor?

Blessings,
Chris

Merry Christmas to Everyone

It is a beautiful, warm sunny day here in Southern Ontario Canada. It should be a day filled with snow flakes and ice cycles, but I won't complain. The daycare was closed this week so two little girls came to the farm for 5 days and nights of sleepovers. I spent most of those days sitting on the edge of the bathtub encouraging them sitting and performing successfully on the toilet and watching both of them ( a bit? OCD) washing their hands and shushing them to sleep each nap and night. They are both early risers so we went out to the barn each morning to see how we could help Grampa. And we watched Charlotte's Web, not once but several times each day. Chin up chin up Everyone loves a happy face!

I had a wonderful trip to England to visit my sister. We took the train into London one day to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. Since I was careless and left my camera on the plane, I bought a new one so I could take lots of pictures at the V&A. I did take lots of pictures but cannot seem to upload any here so I will have to wait and do a proper post later. Speaking of  new camera, Elly was taking pictures last week and broke it. Good thing all the photos are in my computer. Good thing I bought the cheaper one.
I wrote a poem today. Don't get too excited. I don't do it that often.

'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mouse
But lets not overreact

After 5 days and nights
All the grand kids have gone home
Tomorrow Grampa will be on a plane
Thus leaving Gramma home all alone
And this is a fact

And on her book she will have
Five whole quiet days
In order to complete the last
And final editing phase
Then everyone will come back!

Merry Christmas to All
And to all a good night!
Blessinigs,
Chris

Completed CCCQ

So, without further ado, here is my completed Chester County Criswell Quilt. It finishes about ( I forgot to measure) 79 inches square. The blocks are 12 inches and I put a 3 1/2 inch border all around.

Part of the fascination with this quilt is the numbers that popped out. The original was made in 1852 as a wedding quilt. I was born in 1952. It was made in Chester County Pennsylvania. My father's name was Chester. And Mar 9 showed up somewhere and that was his birthday.
  
I started the BOM a bit over 2 years ago and kept pace with 1 1/2 blocks per month for a total of 32 twelve inch blocks and one 24 inch center block. I decided to do needle-turned hand applique. I love how relaxing it is once you get into the rhythm of it.

I started the center block as I was planning my first trip to Poland in Sept 2013. By golly, that is exactly when I started this blog! I was listening to hours and hours of Polish lessons on-line as I stitched that center block. Then I prepped several blocks and took them with me to Poland to meet my father's family for the very first time. I stitched throughout my visit. My then 88 year old aunt asked me what I was doing. Stitching says I. Why do you do that? To keep from biting my nails I replied. What are you going to do with it when you finish? Check out my first visit.

Now, I start far more quilts  than I ever finish, but I was determined to complete this one. I only had 2 years to do that. It was on my second visit last year that I decided to complete it and give it to my aunt for her 90th birthday. At Christmas last year, I had all my family that came to celebrate here at the Farm sign their names and birth dates. That was 23 of us. One of my sisters living in England came to visit in June so she signed her name and those of her children and grand children. I added our parents names and machine quilted the thing in 2 days just before flying out to Poland 2 weeks ago. I used a gray on cream toile for the backing.

As the quilt was being presented to my our aunt, I told the story through an interpreter and then invited everyone at the party to sign their names also. 

She loves it.

Happy 90th birthday Ciocia Albina
Chris

Packing

I am starting to pack my bags for a family visit first to England then to Poland. My sister in China will be spending Christmas in Poland this year. She will arrive after I leave. I will be there earlier for our aunt's 90th birthday. Looking forward to that. My  younger sister lived in the very hot and dry Middle East for 4 years and left her very warm and heavy winter coat she used in her years in Mongolia at my house. So now my task is to get the coat to her. I can do  that. I thought about just wearing it, but alas, she is a couple of sizes smaller than me, so will have to pack it or carry it.

I have prepped 2 more Morrell blocks for applique. I plan to do the Broderie Perse by machine. I have a glossy cream thread to satin stitch the edges with. Well, I will try it out and see if I like it, but not this month. I also have 3 BTCT blocks that I have been carrying around with me for a while. All those circles. Many still to do.  But I have got the grape vine done. This was no easy task. They wind over and under each other. Some of my bias strips were too short to wind too far so had to do it in parts. But it is now done. I thought I had figured out the round circle thing. But those tiny ones are not so round. I finally drew circles on top to help. There will be still more after I complete these. There are about 28-30 per cluster. My goodness! I just realized that I have been eating a lot of grapes lately! Wonder why?

 I started two of the Morrell applique blocks. This is another that is similar to the CCCQ blocks so no thinking necessary. I hope.

 This is another Morrell applique block. It will have a saw-tooth border, but I will do that later by machine. So far I am using all French General fabrics including the creamy background.

Two more Antique Wedding Sampler blocks arrived in today's mail. Maybe next year. Blocks 24 and 25 of the Ben Biggs quilt were released today. I printed them off and filed them for now. I had a letter from my publisher today. It looks like 3-4 months once I submit the revised edited manuscript again. I will have 3 whole weeks over Christmas to do that. I am tempted to look at my 2015 goals list and see what I have accomplished but then I would be tempted to write one up for 2016, but I have a plane to catch in less than 4 days. There is still one bag of apples to make into applesauce and we had the water off all day to get the well cleaned out. First they took out the new pump and pipes, then they vacuumed out nearly twenty feet of sand. After that, the plumbers put the pump back in. The cows got some water before it quit, so the plumbers came back and finally called an electrician. I am glad I will be gone before all those bills arrive, because, I have a plane to catch. Come to think of it, I will have all those hours in the air where I cannot sleep to write all the lists I want. Or not. Might watch movies. But not taking any textbooks this time.

Blessings,
Chris

Busy

We have been making applesauce every day for the past week. About a bushel each day. We should be done soon. And Elly came over for the weekend. Something about her cat that ran away back in June showed up and they had a funeral service. Poor little girl. She was so happy the cat was found but did not understand why they were putting dirt on his box in the hole. So she came to the farm to get some animal time. Good thing she likes kielbasa since I had lots.

I am mentally packing my bags for a trip to England to visit one of my sisters for a week. Visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum is on the agenda. I wonder what amazing antique textiles will be on display? After that is a week in Poland to celebrate my aunt's 90th birthday. 

One of the things on my to-do list was to get a haircut. When the girl asked how I wanted it cut, I said like hers. Well, it looks nothing like hers. And I forgot that I wanted to get a good picture for the back cover of my book. Maybe it will grow quickly or I could wear a hat. Or maybe I can skip the picture part. Or I could submit a nice one from years ago.

I have done very little stitching since I got home from the retreat. But I knew that I had other things to do. I did a bit while babysitting the other night and then some more before going to bed a couple of nights. This might be completed before I leave so I will have to prep some more.

Morrell # 18

Good thing that I still have several BTCT blocks prepped so I will have some handwork to take along. Not sure of I will take any textbooks since what I am working on is computer stuff.

Blessings,
Chris

Shipshewana Retreat

How can life ever return to normal after 5 whole days of quilting in Shipshewana?
Thank you Gay Bomers and Brenda Papadakis for organizing these retreats.

After 8 hours on the road, we arrived at Gretchen's  farm where she invited us to stay overnight. I showed her my completed Dear Jane top and several works in progress that I had brought along, naively thinking I would get a lot of work done on each one. Then Gretchen proceeded to show us her completed quilts. Oh my goodness! She was ready and had about 20 (I forgot to count) full sized quilts that she had made over the years and the stories that go along with each one. Of course, my camera was packed away in the trunk of my car with dead batteries. I have been emailing with Gretchen since spring when we connected through our blogs and realized that our husbands have known each other for many years. We both raise Guernsey cows.

Now one the rules of quilt retreats include "what goes on at retreat stays at retreat", but I can share what I did. I started the Sarah Morrell quilt. Yup! I did.

 I got 10 of 12 foundation pieced strips for one of the blocks and prepped an applique block so I had something to hand stitch on. I did not have all the paper strips with me so could not finish it. Silly me. I thought I could get all 10 blocks foundation pieced.

Morrell Block #39

 I did have 4 BTCT blocks with me to work on, but starting on a new one is always exciting.

BTCT Block # 16

 I also took a workshop with Ann Holte.

Lancaster Diamond Sampler

 Ann made a reproduction of the original. It does look intimidating but will be very simple to make once you understand how to work with those 65 degree diamonds. It's all in the book.

 I made one block.

When I got home I started a new blog. It was easy. Too easy. The name? Quilting Morrell at the Farm.
Here I will journal my way through the making of  my Morrell quilt. If I can ever figure out how to set up a linky party, I will. That way others can come on board and share their progress also.

Blessings,
Chris

Applesauce and Laundry

Today we officially began making applesauce. Our 4 dwarf tress had another bumper crop and there are still 8 big feed bags filled with apples sitting in the porch keeping cool.  We can applesauce for the whole year or 2 if there are lots. There are two Golden Delicious, one Empire and one Mutsu.

     Two of the little girl grandchildren helped Grampa pick apples two weeks ago. 

 It is such a beautiful warm fall day here. I went to waterfit this afternoon. It is one physical activity that I can do because there is little impact on my joints. Today, however, first I forgot my underwear. I usually put on my bathing suit at home. I know I put the underwear in the bag with an extra towel since I planned to wash my hair since it was going to be wet anyway. So I did, but did not have the extra towel. Then when I got home and went to hang up the $78 new bathing suit, it was not in the bag nor was my shampoo. Sigh. I probably should drive back into town and find it. It took me a few months to find a swim suit in my size. But it is a beautiful day and I could use some more sunshine. After all, it is November and lots of brilliant sunshine is a gift, one of the few things I learned in grade 11 geography. That and how to read a road map.  

Also, I must clarify that when I "pre-wash" my fabrics, I do not use soap or fabric softener. I fill up my top load machine with either warm or cold water, depending if the cold water pressure lets me. Today we had replaced the water intake valve and ran through a load of farmer work clothes and they were totally covered in sand. So, I cleaned the machine, then filled it up with cold water but it was totally filled with sand again, so I drained it and did yet another load and drained that. Then I washed a load of towels and after that some of the laundry from my trip. As it turned out, a water hose in the barn had come off and the well was draining and drawing sand. Yuk. This is one of the things we have to deal with on the farm and hard water fed well that also feeds 120 head of cows.

I do not like to agitate it too much so the threads do not ravel and get knotted up. I turn off the machine then add the fabric to the water and slosh it up and down by hand until everything is wet. I let it soak for 15-20 minutes or a couple of hours if I forget, then spin it out and dry in the dryer. I might put in a dozen fat quarters in the dryer at a time. I will add the tiniest piece of a fabric sheet to cut the static. I used to take them out when still a bit damp then press them but anymore I just let them dry totally and get them out right away. I give them a quick press before folding.

I got some applique done on BTCT circles and leaves while visiting my daughter but got more hugs and kisses in from my grandson. I got lots of homework done this trip. I will be returning there in 9 weeks to stay for the birth of their second baby.

Next week I am going to Shipshewana Indiana for the Just Takes 2 retreat with Brenda Papadakis and Gay Bomers. I have some of my bags and projects packed and will complete that as soon as I can do the rest of my laundry. Then I will be off to Europe. Sounds so adventurous. I will be going to visit my sister In England for a week then to help my aunt celebrate her 90th birthday in Poland. That I am really looking forward to.

But first, I received the completed content edit of my manuscript back and now to approve all the edits and onto the next stage of publishing my book.

I did drive back into town and found my wet bathing suit and shampoo bottle and found the underwear on the floor where they fell out of the bag when I took the bathing suit out to put on.

Blessings,
Chris

Pre-Washing Fabric

I know they do not look too white in this picture, but these colour catchers came out of the machine very white and clean.

 You have to love the French General fabrics. I first heard of them when I started the Ben Biggs QAL. I ended up purchasing not one, not two, but three fat quarter bundles from Craftsy on one of their outrageous sales last fall;  the classic selection, Rue Indienne, and Petite Prints. I also bought some yardage of the solid reds and light beigey one for the background on some of my quilt shop hops.

I cannot believe I am getting prepared to make yet another red quilt. This one will be red/pink, blues, golds/bieges and browns. Below is the second of four dryer loads of fat quarters I have been pre-washing. All this in anticipation of beginning the Sarah Morrell Quilt. I was taught to pre-wash all my fabrics for various reasons. I am making the Antique Wedding Sampler from kits from Homestead Heath and I am doing all that hand work with unwashed bits. I prefer the feel and softness of the washed fabric.

I am pulling the colours from this Winterthur Museum fabric from Andover. It took me about ten minutes to track it down on line after I saw others who had used it in their Morrell quilts for the broderie perse applique. This is going to be fun. If I can contain myself for now.

I am getting ready for the Just Takes 2 quilt retreat in Shipshewana Indiana in three weeks, but first I am flying out to New Brunswick to visit our daughter and the miracle grandson Jonathan. I have to teach him how to say "Gamma Kiss".  I have several BTCT blocks packed to take along to complete. I still have three blocks with countless circles to complete. They are all glue basted on the backgrounds so I will not have to keep track of tiny pins. The two little girl grand children were here over night Sunday and again tonight. Their daycare was closed yesterday and tomorrow so they come to the farm. They both know how to say Gramma Chris and Grampa Ken. Some of the most beautiful words in the world with little arms reaching around your neck and a sloppy "I love you" kiss. And, yes, I will be taking along just one textbook.

See you in a couple of weeks
Blessings,
Chris

Original Jane Stickle Quilt