UFO's

I don't think I know a quilter who doesn't have a few ufo's (for the non-quilting readers, a ufo is an un-finished object) just waiting to be finished, given away or thrown out. At our Quilter's Retreat we have a fund raising auction every year and we all take stuff to donate - fabric, books, patterns and ufo's. As I was making a pile of stuff to take I found a bag with about 30 pineapple blocks, lots of cut fabric and some flannel squares. As much as I loved this project I knew it was way down my priority list to finiah. So into the auction it went.

I was thrilled that my good quilt friend Anne Morrell Robinson "won" my ufo. Anne is one of the most dedicated and disciplined quilters I know. I knew she would finish it and she has!

I just love the touches of turquoise and how they add some "spark" to the quilt. I hope Anne will bring it to this year's Retreat so I can see it in person.

This has inspired me to dig out another ufo and really put my mind to getting it done. Several years ago Anne came to the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild to teach a workshop on her "Antique Flower Vase" pattern. I loved the applique and decided that this had to be a full queen sized quilt. I finished the centre, added a couple of highlight borders then a hand pieced border. The next border would be an applique vine. I have one finished, one almost and then 2 more to go.

The triangle border is hand pieced and had to be "fudged" in to fit! 

I used this ruler, Terry Thompson's The Vine Line to draw the vine and it is wonderful, makes the drawing of the vine for the placement so much easier.

The applique border is hand appliquéd, the flowers etc on each side will be slightly different I will add another pieced border but I am not sure yet what that will be. I just want to really at least get the top finished to take to the Retreat in September.

The beige background fabric is a Jinny Beyer print. When I started this project I had no idea it was going to be a full sized quilt. The centre piece was pretty much all I had. Once the vase and flowers were appliquéd I soon realized it wasn't quite big enough so I took out the stitches around the bottom of the vase and added the border print for the vase to sit on, a tablecloth perhaps? I had just barely enough of the beige for the triangles. I looked on Jinny's website to see if they still had the fabric, there it was but there were 2 or 3 that were similar. In the meantime we had decided to go on a raod trip to the Virginia and Washington DC area to meet up with our friends from England. Cheryl, who is also a quilter, was keen to go to Jinny Beyer's studio so I took my quilt top with me in hopes of matching the fabric. Long story short, I was able to get another 4 yards, lots to finish the quilt! Now to get back to work. Thanks Anne!

Collections

I have just read a post written by fellow Canadian quilter Gail Hunt about her collection of miniature/toy/small sewing machines. It reminded me that I too have a "collection" though small of miniature/toy/small sewing machines. Just three, but it is a start!

My daughter was given this one by her Grandmother. I seem to recall it sort of worked but it hasn't seen thread for well over 30 years. It is a Kay an El Sew Master. I am not sure where it came from but probably a yard sale or flea market knowing my Mother-in-Law!

Then I found this one at an antique store in Berwick, NS. The paint is in rough shape, it must have been really quite pretty when it was new. It is a Gold Medal Sewing Machine probably made in the late 1800's. The company was in Orange, Massachusetts, it was established in 1860 by Johnson, Clark & Co. to manufacture sewing machines. The company introduced it's Home Shuttle machine in 1870 which was subsequently redesigned and improved. In 1882 the firm was reorganised and became the New Home Sewing Machine Co. In 1927 the company was taken over by the Free Sewing Machine Co. who continued to use the New Home brand name but Free itself was taken over by the National Sewing Machine Co. in 1953.

The third one came from the estate of a quilt friend, it is a Casige brand which was made in Berlin, Germany probably soon after WWll.

I found this "dreamy" picture ages ago while browsing on Google. I have no idea who the woman in the picture is or where I found the picture (my apologies to whoever originally posted it) but she sure looks like my Mother-in-Law and I just had to save it. From the looks of it that is a Singer Sewing Machine, maybe a Featherweight? I must go and look at the back of mine and see if it is.

It has been interesting to Google these sewing machines and learn more about them but also I am amazed by the huge number of miniature/toy/small sewing machines there are out there. Now, I need to stop in to a few antique stores and see what I can find to add to my collection, 3 just doesn't seem like enough! Thanks Gail!

Christmas Came and Went

Christmas 2012 is history and as soon as our guests left after dinner I got sick! That dreaded head cold and cough came back with a vengeance and I spent the next 2 weeks in a head cold and sleepless haze. Not much quality sleep and no energy to accomplish much. Thank goodness we had lots of turkey leftovers, the house was tidy and we had lots recorded on the pvr! I am grateful for small things - no one else got it! I guess that is a big thing as I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to get it. I did rally for a lovely lobster dinner on New Year's Eve - lobster will do that!

It seems to be odd writing about Christmas now but I really wanted to just highlight these 6 ornaments that my Mother-in-Law made for us from 1969-1974. We always wished she had kept going but she didn't like the stress of having to pick 2 events from our year to commemorate.

1969 was the year we got married, November 15 and 9 days later we left for a year to teach in Sydney, Australia.

We spent 1970 in Australia and flew back to Nova Scotia on January 1, 1971. We left Sydney on a beautiful hot sunny day, landed in Fiji an it was 110 degrees and pouring rain. Arrived home (on time!) the day after a huge blizzard, beautiful sun and what seemed like 4 feet of snow!

1971, we bought a little red Fiat car (loved that car!) and our son Andrew was born in July.

In 1972 we bought our first house on Tower Rd in Halifax and  Andrew started to walk.

1973 our daughter Kate was born, she just loved the Jolly Jumper and we painted our much loved house a deep red.

In 1974 we traded in our much loved Fiat for a secondhand station wagon and Kate just had to climb everything!

I think next year it will be time to pass on the ornaments to the kids, hopefully they will treasure them as much as we do. I think they will.