Heritage Park Quilt Show

Oh, my – it was amazing.  I’d heard about this show, and was so happy to be able to attend.  Heritage Park in Calgary is huge, and most of the grounds were used to display the hundreds of quilts, as well as host a quilt merchant’s mall.

There were quilts everywhere:

Draped over cars in Gasoline Alley:

Hanging on balconies:

Draped over railings:

Displayed on fence rails:

Slung between trees:

In tents, on open-air racks, and displayed throughout various buildings.

I don’t know if I can even begin to select just a few favorites, but I do know I was so very impressed with this beginner quilter:

9 years old!  How fabulous!

Here are just a very few of all of those quilts displayed:

The Quilter of Distinction is Agnete Kay, a quilter of 30 years or so, with  both TV and book credits.  Here is a sampling of the display in her honor:

Happy, happy quilt show!       Blessings, Peg

Vacations–for relaxing or?

It’s been a busy few days.

We left home on Thursday, headed for Alberta – purpose: to deliver some items to our children living there, and help with some tile work at our DS1’s house.

The drive – well, rain, rain, and more rain.  But the roads were good and traffic was reasonable – no major slow-downs for construction and we made good time.  But still, 10 hours of driving meant we just basically arrived and SAT that first evening.

The biggest surprise was the amount of rain in southern Alberta – where the north is under evacuation because of forest fires, the southern province is being evacuated in places because of floods. 

We drove past this railway bridge, and a few hours later the road bridge was closed because the water washed over it.  The rain stopped, and within just hours again the bridge was opened.  Nature is constantly amazing to me. 

Both our DS1 and DD and their spouses are not in flooding areas, but it’s not all that far away.

The rain continued on Friday here, while we unloaded the utility trailer we rented and got things into their new homes.  Friday evening, we were surprised at our DD’s house with a visit from a friend from home.  

The ‘girls’ made plans for garage sale-ing on Saturday morning, and the weather cooperated for a nice morning of driving and shopping.  I only found a couple of jigsaw puzzles, but it was a good time

Then in the afternoon, K and I headed over to the Heritage Park Quilt Show in Calgary.  I’d heard about this show, and was so happy to be able to take it in.   I’ll share the quilt show in another posting.

Heritage Park itself is well worth the visit, and if you’re ever in the Calgary area, plan a day – you’ll need the whole day.

The walk-way to the park is dated and you get the sense of walking back in time:

Until you’re at the turn of the century and the streets are dirt with real boardwalks:

Gasoline Alley near the entrance displays antique cars of all sorts:

The buildings of the village certainly reflect the beginnings of towns in the prairies:

The animals in the pastures:

The horse drawn carriages:

The steam train rolling around the grounds:

All made for a wonderful trip back in time.

While we girls were out shopping and having a good time, the guys were at home working hard and the kitchen was transformed from this:

To this:

All is good!

Sunday morning was spent in finishing up the tile work, the afternoon – DD is off to a baby shower, DSIL, DS1 and K are catching up on weekend chores while Grizz is napping and I’m catching up with the blogger world.

We’re actually on vacation for a few more weeks, and I’ll keep in touch as much as I can.

Happy holidays!         Blessings, Peg

Wednesday’s Words

Words – I love words!  And I often ponder the meaning and origin of words.  I wonder how people come up with a word when something new comes along, especially in our world today with technology speeding us forward at a rate faster than sound.

A few years ago, I learned a word that by definition means ‘a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes’.     Onomatopoeia  Just try saying it!  But the words that are (this) are easy – like:

Whoosh!                  Burp!               Ahem (have I got your attention yet)

Chirp!              Moo!               Purr!                   Ruff!

Twang!              Thud!

Can’t you just hear those sounds?  Wish I could play them here for you!

 

This word came into my mind the other morning:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Do you remember Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke singing this song in the movie Mary Poppins?

Here’s a video clip – enjoy (and just see if you can get that word out of your head for the rest of the day)  LOL

Happy words!                 Blessings, Peg

Family, Quilting, Camping

It’s been a busy few days, filled with all kinds of things.

On Thursday, we went to visit my elderly aunt and uncle – fabulous how well they’re doing.  These two constantly amaze me with their love for life – and their skill on the computer!

Friday was a day at home – getting some quilting done, trying to meet a deadline.   Pumpkins and Spice was ready for quilting, but I took the time to start another project:

This Christmas table mat is a pattern that all of the members of our local quilting group are doing – some have finished months ago, I’m just late at getting going.  It needs borders yet.

Saturday, Grizz hauled our trailer to a campground for me and got it all set up – and then one of my sisters joined me for a girls’ weekend camping.  We did some geocaching (story here)  and found a few treasures like this:

We explored the town of Hope, and enjoyed the displays of chain-saw carvings in this the Chainsaw Carving Capital of Canada (how’s that for alliteration)

   

 

 

 

 

 

We visited the Othello Tunnels, left over from the days of the Kettle Valley Railway:

 

We laughed and gabbed and played cards and Skyped with another sister to include her on a virtual camping trip:

It was a great weekend!

Today at home, a quiet day getting some more quilting done, and starting to get ready for a trip to visit our kids.

Getting things done

I’ve been madly at work trying to finish up projects for the PhD Challenge.  The challenge isn’t officially over until the end of June, but we’re headed away for vacation soon, and I’d like to have these done before then.  I committed to 6 projects.  Well, # 5 is done!

This is a sampler of blocks used in the titles of Earlene Fowler’s books – love her books!  A great project with lots of scope for learning.  Here it’s draped over our sofa – but it will be living on our coffee table.

The last project is the Pumpkins and Spice quilt that Jo and I have been doing together at Cross-Border Quilters.  It’s all pieced and ready for sandwiching and quilting.  Plan to quilt this week, then if necessary take it with us to Alberta to do the binding.

In the meantime, we’ve been gathering together the things that we want to take to our kids in Alberta – some furniture, appliances, and a few odds and ends.  DS1 is a hunter and has quite a collection of guns – so Grizz has made him a couple of gun racks:

We put the finishing touches on yesterday, and they’re ready to go.  Do you see Tobin checking it out, she just has to make sure we do it right!

I just love finishes – such a great sense of accomplishment!

Happy achievements!            Blessings, Peg

Wednesday’s Words

Quilting is Murder!

No, that’s not a statement of fact, or even what I’m feeling right now.  It’s a web-site/newsletter/blog where one can follow a quilting mystery story, do a weekly quilt shop-hop, get a weekly block pattern, win some prizes, learn about some fascinating people (real ones), and just have fun. 

(If clicking on this image doesn’t link, try the link on my side-bar)

This past week, the questions was asked: what are the Top Ten ways that quilters pass on.  Here’s the list they published:

• Keeling over a warm machine (Life can't get any better than this....)
• Fondling Fabric (Over Stimulation)
• Drooling Over Patterns (Dehydration)
• Getting electrocuted by a faulty machine (suspicious handiwork by an unknown!!)
• Pins & needles dipped in Poison dart frog's toxic secretions by "unknown".
• Buried alive by the fabric stash she had on shelves that collapsed in her basement (Suffocation)
• LQS had 50% off all in stock fabric to make room for new fabrics being introduced at Quilt Market. (Trampled)
• Abducted by UFOs (unfinished objects), never to be seen again. :-)
• "Bobbin" in and out of consciousness, in a tangle of twisted threads. (Strangled)
• box of stash staged to drop on her as she sews (a head injury)
• Dying while dyeing. (poisoning, asphyxiation or drowning)
• Bled to death from a bad cut on the wrist from a rotary cutter.
• Death from fumes from ironing with tainted spray starch.
• Never took a break from determination to finish that quilt that's been sitting on the shelf for years. (Starvation).

I guess if we have to go, wouldn’t it be nice to go doing something we love!

Happy mysteries!   Blessings, Peg

Design Wall Monday

The wall is almost empty – all that is there right now are these 5 blocks:

They are the first five of the Canadian Quilter’s BOM.  It’ll be another 7 months before the last block is done, and then I can start on laying them out.

Over the weekend I made this little diaper bag for a friend’s daughter’s baby shower:

This new mom-to-be lives in Hawaii, home for a visit with her family, so I used fabrics I picked up in Hawaii earlier this year – thought that would be useful beyond the baby years. 

Happy gifting!             Blessings, Peg

It’s all getting there!

The borders are on Pumpkins and Spice – you can follow Jo and me as we make this quilt together at Cross-Border Quilters.

Now for quilting, and hopefully I can take it on vacation with me to do the binding.

I also took a few minutes yesterday to put together the May block for the Canadian Quilters BOM

 

We spent most of the day yesterday at the local hospital waiting for Grizz to have a scope (look/see and cleaning out) of his sore knee – but in the end it didn’t happen.  Too many emergencies and they ran out of time.  So we’re going to try again on Monday.

Happy day all!          Blessings, Peg

Wednesday’s Words/Design Wall

I’m running late this week, a long weekend away has really messed up my internal calendar.

But….together at last!

On the weekend, Jo and her hubby came to spend a few hours with us at the campground at Burlington – we were together at last.  After these last few months of weekly ‘chats’, we met in person.  Wonderful time getting to know each other a bit better, and sharing quilting projects, stories and tips.  And I got to see the fabrics that Jo had sent for our Pumpkins and Spice ‘together’ project, that were floating around in the mail/customs system somewhere.

On Monday, the mail held a parcel notice for me – and lo and behold the actual fabrics had arrived! 

The panel and some coordinating fabrics for our next project (in the fall), Winterberry Lane:

 

Pieces to coordinate with Pumpkins and Spice that we’re doing together on our Cross Border Quilters blog:

With the arrival of these, I was able to get the center of P&S together at last:

So this is on the design wall, yet again.  Now on to borders, quilting, binding.

Jo has some friends who want to join in making the Winterberry Lane project, so we’re opening up CBQ to include others – if you’re interested in joining, let us know and we’ll work with you to get the panel and to add you as a member of the blog.

Happy together quilting!   Blessings, Peg