Home for Now

I have been home for 4 days now after being away for 49 days in the last 4 months.  I am hosting a Quilting at the Farm retreat here next weekend. The farm files need to be completed for the bookkeeper and its raining outside. It is 2 days away from the middle of winter and my next trip will be back to visit the little boy grand children mid March, although my daughter would be glad to have me return next week. Three week old David rolled over today and 19 month old Jonathan said excuse me after burping and pooped in the toilet. Major developmental milestones. The plan this time is to take 8 year old Ava with me. If she wants to go that is.           

Serious progress on a  Beyond the Cherry Trees block. It still needs a bias wreath to complete it. There is another block similar to this one with fewer leaves and flowers. It should be easier. I might use a different colour for the flowers.

BTCT Block # 12

I finally made a simple phone call to our internet provider about the slow upload issue and they tweaked something and suddenly I can upload photos in 6 seconds instead of 60 minutes. Can I keep pace with that kind of speed? I can now stream lectures so no more excuses and procrastination about school work. 

Did I mention that I missed my flight home? Craziest thing. We picked up the other grandma at 4 and my flight out was for 8. We went for a quick supper then back to the airport for 6 for an early check-in. It was then that I found out that the flight I booked in October had been cancelled and they emailed me Dec 11 to inform me of the changes. I was in Europe then and had done something to mess up my net book so had no internet the final week in New Brunswick. So I did not see the check-in email that had the new flight details. Oops. So, I missed the 4:30 flight back to Toronto. It did not kill  me. One of  my anxiety triggers has been getting to the airport late if you want to see my stress levels skyrocket. Now I know what it feels like. They were very kind and put me on a flight the next day no charge. That was very nice of Air Canada.

Blessings,
Chris

New Little Boy Grand Baby

I have been visiting my daughter in New Brunswick for a week now. Baby David was born on Monday weighing in at a mere 8lb 15oz with dark hair and dimples. We are getting into a new routine here and the 19 month old Jonathan is still trying to figure out this big brother thing. I have had access to incredible internet access here and the unheard of less than 10 seconds to upload photos. So why is it taking me up to an hour at home???? Might be time to make some changes.

In the meantime, I have been working on BTCT block # 12. I started the thing more than a year ago when visiting my sister in England. I did the easy part by stitching on the oak leaves using my favourite needle turn hand applique. but it sat for more than a year in the box as I worked on easier blocks.

When I was at the Shipshewana retreat in November, I asked Brenda Papadakis for help with the back basting technique. I had done a workshop years ago, but it just was not working for me. I showed her what I was doing and she suggested using a larger (size 8) needle to baste with and then she said she traces around the basting stitches on the top of the pieces before starting to needle turn and stitch. So . . . I traced the designs onto the back of the background. I used a common pencil.

Then I traced around the shape. This is similar to what I had been doing with my needle turn technique.

The problem was what to do with those basting threads. Before I traced the design, I could not see just where to turn it under. Now I have a chalk pencil line. And I went around and clipped the basting threads half way up those fingers on each side. This way, I am able to remove a few of those basting stitches easily as I move forward. It wasn't working for me unpicking as I went.

Most of my stitches landed in the pencil line in the back. This is good.

Now layering is easier.

Well, most of the time. Not sure if I will redo this one. The stitches landed on the pencil lines.

I will wait until I have the rest of the leaves and flowers on and see how it all looks together. There will be a round bias ring to complete the wreath.

Got more circles stitched down on block # 16. There are 28-30 grapes in each cluster so a few more to add yet.

And I completed this one in Poland last month but had camera and internet issues. There will be some embroidered stems connecting those cherries.

Did I  mention I bought another new camera? One of the little girl grand children broke the new one I bought in England and so I bought a nice Canon rechargeable. No more batteries, at least for now. And, it has a beautiful flash thingy on it that will make taking pictures of my blocks more efficient.
Now I can take lots more pictures of my little boy grand children.

I am so Blessed,
Gramma Kiss

Victoria and Albert Museum Part 2

It has taken me the entire day to upload these photos today. I did it on my desktop and hovered here all day waiting up to half an hour for some. In the meantime, I hemmed curtains for my granddaughter's bedroom. Well, I started but ended up cutting the second panel 5 inches shorter than the first. Oops. With the parts I cut off, I will get her to help make a pair of pillowcases. I also pre-washed and pressed the rest of the many blues and beiges and greens of the mountain of fat quarters and some of the pieces I bought in Shipshewana. I also started prepping some blocks for my trip next week. I am going to give back-basting another try now that I got some tips from Brenda.

So now, without further ado, here are more pictures from our brief visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London England last month. It is no secret that I love architecture. And this place did not disappoint. The building had 4 floors and then we found the basement level. We did not get around to all the exhibits and none of the ones you pay to see. We only had 4 hours.

From the 4th floor gallery, we viewed some spectacular Greek stuff. This was my niece's favourite part.

More floor tiles

 

 I really enjoyed the glass artifacts. There were many quilty specimens.

 Drawers and drawers filled with bits and pieces.

Not sure what these were supposed to have been.

These looked like tiles.

Now we get to the one and only quilt I saw. It was a whole cloth and this is about 1/20th of it.

 I could not get the whole thing in one frame.

Looks like a lot of stuffed work. Amazing.

And the story of the quilt:

 

"About 1360-1400. Faded by time, this huge bed covering or hanging depicts Tristan, one of the heroes of medieval romance literature. Fourteen episodes from his adventures, captioned in Italian, relate to the oppression of Cornwall by King Languis of Ireland. They are now slightly jumbled by later restoration. King Mark of Cornwall sits enthroned and crowned. His nephew Tristan, is recognisable by his shield emblazoned with three horns."

It was not so easy taking pictures through the glass.
New Year's Blessings,
Chris