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

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