Fabric Friday

I have my best intention for the coming year to post every Friday a stash of fabric vintage or new!
These are one of my favorite cottons for the last week of 2012.

Playful Fox by Sarah Watts
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Socks the fox in coral by Patty Sloniger

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Fawn in Birch in blue by Sarah Watts

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Typewriter in Parchment by Julia Rothman

Wishing you all happy holidays!

Make 2013 a year where you make things you would like,

believe in and want to happen, happen.

The week before Christmas

Shop or not to shop - I always ask myself  the question after waiting for one hour in line to print out a photo at a Kodak kiosk. I am thinking how would it feel to skip the Christmas hassle and spent time in an old snowed- in farmhouse (like you read in CountryLivingUK), hundred miles away from the next shopping center. Content! All I need is a hot water bottle, flannel pajamas ,some good novels, a pile of magazines, good coffee, my sewing machine, family and dog.

Machine Foundation Paper Piecing

It was time again to treat myself to take a class with Johanna Masko at the workroom. Her brand new class: sewing arrows and using the foundation paper piecing method. So much fun - take a bag of fabric scraps and follow her design. I have to say that I didn't take scraps, just dipping my hands into the stash of beautiful fat quarters at the store.

first arrow - done!

6 more arrows to go!

great wall collage from everyone

At home I finished my cushion late night which is on the way to Germany for Christmas.

it might be a little wee bit late....

I couldn't resist to add Heather Ross sleeping beauty.

Merry Christmas Ursula.

City of Craft

Where to buy unique gifts for friends and family? 

Right here in Toronto on 1087 Queen St W .

Looking down on a packed house of admirers and vendors.

The entrance had an undersea world of lushes free form crochet.

Great music spinning the real vinyl .

DJ The Vinyl Den

Here are my Christmas picks:

After the game

The laneway is empty, the kids are gone home and the soccer ball is left behind.

    Photos are taken with a Nikon D90 and a 40mm lens.

Serious goalkeeper - my border collie Skip.

Inspiration

I got my inspiration from this:

I love wooden blocks, specially these ones with a nautical look. I have a whole wire basket full of them to arrange them in different patterns.
For a Christmas gift I had great ambitions to make a lap quilt with HST's. I didn't know how much time it takes to sew, cut, iron and assemble the rows for the flying geese pattern - one of my favourites.

I decided to make a very small quilt - like a picture you hang up on the wall.

I just have to finish the binding but these 3 little rows took me forever to sew. Sometime you have to acknowledge to yourself to take a break from the sewing machine.

Early mornings at the cottage

There is nothing more beautiful to see the sunlight hitting the corner of my shed, blush rosebuds , dew on leaves and the soft silk of the milkweed pods.

Upcycling ideas for the holidays

It's never too early to start with self made presents and even better canadian made. Oh yah! Roots ( a true Canadian store) has their shopping bags this season with a grey/red knit image. If you kindly ask they are happy to give you one.
I took the larger shopping bag to cut two panels 9"x14" to make a zipper bag. For the lining I used the red monkey print.

Fuzzy cut three monkeys and hand sew the fabric on the hexagon shapes. Machine sew it on the front panel of the zipper bag .

There are several tutorials for zipper bags on-line . I matched the bag with a red zipper and topstitched.
The lining gets a clean edge with a serger.

If you are very ambitious make your own sock monkey or stuff it the original pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks.

Feeling better again...

At the end of the week even my dog Skip looks forward to run up north. Everything was fine but on Saturday night she acted very restless going out through the front door and coming in through the back door. I knew something was off but I couldn't read her mind. The next day I knew something was very wrong with her, she was lying in her favourite spot and breathing very rapidly and getting up with an arched back I know she was in pain.

We took her to our vet and the blood test showed that she had pancreatitis, an inflammation of the organ which is life threatening and has to be treated immediately. Administration of the medication wasn't easy and I had to get creative  with my border collie. So we had birthday cakes every 8 hours, spiked with little dried liver pieces. It paid off and we are taking her for short walks. I am so happy to see her eating again and waiting at the door to go for a walk.

Hexagon craze!

I have been to a few quilt shows and seeing a grandma's garden quilt I thought one day I will start....
The one day started last week and my first 100 hexagons are nicely stacked in a tray. Will this be a two year project??? I remember reading the labeled quilts at show "2500 pieces/ hand sewn/ 1994-1998" .
Hexagons are everywhere, even my xmas light I put up this weekend had this bokeh effect.

One of my favorite places to shop for small print fabric is bee modern fabrics in Niagara-on-the lake, Ontario.

There are different methods how to approach the production of a large number of hexagons. You need patients and many evenings in front of a fireplace. There is the freezer paper method, inexpensive and lots of prep-work to make the shapes, the other one is to download the pattern and print it out on a heavier text stock, but you have to cut each one out by hand. I am ordering my shapes online from Paper Pieces here. You safe time and instead of sewing I am dabbing water soluble fabric glue at the corners. 

This granny quilt will have a fresh look and might be ready in 2013!