New BLog

I hope you will welcome my friend Val who just opened her blog.   Val and I are good friends.

She lives in Canmore and worked at the Sugar Pine quilt shoppe (anyone from Alberta or BC will know about the Sugar pine) and I met her at one of the retreats a few years ago.

I would love you to check out her blog and look at the quilt she made of her grand daughter. 

She should be very proud of it.   I have put her blog on my blog list. 

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It was a gorgeous day and we took a drive - however, I FORGOT  my camera and saw at least 

4 scenes which would make great landscapes.  oh well.  Talk to you all later.

Monday morning

I just thought I would drop by to say hello. Life is not too great right now,
but that is to be expected. I am doing okay.

I just heard from Wellspring and they did quite well with the auction of
the quilts. Our donations certainly were good. Over 300.00 for the post cards
and $550. for my wall hangings so I think we did make a difference. Wendy
was so appreciative of all the postcards -- and I wan't to thank you all again.

I hope to get back to normal in the next month or at the most 2 months-
Until then, I will have to 'play it by ear'

I found some pictures that I have taken over the years of Alberta --
I took this picture of one of our beautiful Alberta skies last year - It was spectacular .
I will post a few more pictures of my home Province in the next few days. Shirley

This and That

I just put a new header photo on my blog- it is one of my first wall hangings, and was the
example for a lot of my landscape classes a few years ago. I can see myself that my technique has changed but I have always liked this one.

I am preparing my class for my Athabasca class and nearly have everything ready to go for the April classes. I am really looking forward to teaching this class and also having a good visit with Debbie who is my dear friend and moved up there last year from Calgary.
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I have managed to finish 2 bindings and am working on another one so soon I will have the backlog finished. I have decided to do a tutorial on this blog of one of my wall hangings that I finished last year, called Poppies and Wildflowers. I saw a photo in the paper and loved the scene - It is an unusual scene for me - but I enjoyed doing it.
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I have sent out the emails with the tutorials for the simple landscape class and am looking forward to seeing what the girls do with this class. There were a large number of students in this class (over l00) so hopefully quite a few will be completed.
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It is another bitter cold day here in Calgary. I don't remember seeing another winter like this one since the 70's -- I understand the Richardson ground squirrels (gophers) are all over the place and some of the eagles on their way north are here, so that is a definite sign of spring.

Anyway, I will start the tutorial in a few minutes . Shirley

FINALLY!

After spending a full day on the simple landscape class, I finally got the emails away and they didn't come back!

I talked to my tech support with shaw - (they are wonderful and so helpful). He helped me find the problem. It took some work to re do my list of ll5 people but I got it done.
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I won't have much in the way of pictures in the next while, as I am going to finish binding all the work I have done in the past while. It will take me a while but I want to get them finished.
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February 1st!

We are slowly getting through winter, day by day! I decided, as it is February to change my background and title picture to represent Valentines - a nice change from the darker, and
Christmas theme. The wall hanging shown is my
first 3 fabric wall hanging and I thread painted the humming bird.

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Now that I have the top finished (Flower garden), I am binding 3 wall hangings that need finishing.
The picture of the 'floral bouquet' which is a class project I taught to 3 groups, including Learningfa
last year, has been waiting to be quilted. I don't know why I have put it off but today is the day I quilt it. I also will be doing the binding on my forest scene which I finished recently. I hope to sew it this after noon as my gd is coming over so that her Dad can watch the big game with his friends. He is such a good father, and as he doesn't get too much time to himself, we are going to have her here while the game is on. My DH
would rather have her with us than sit and watch the game. We are both pulling for the
Arizona Cardinals as we used to spend all our winters in Arizona.

It is not a bad day here in Calgary - it is above zero C so that is nice. I am thinking of
the ice storm in Kentucky - I hope that everyone is safe. What a weird winter we have all had this year.

Well, that is it for today -- have fun watching the game and take care if you are in an area where the ice storm hit. Shirley

This and That

Good morning - It is still very cold here in Alberta; it has been an endless winter and we still have a lot of time to go before spring arrives. Oh well, no use getting frustrated!

I am venturing out with my Husband this morning. I haven't been out of the house since
Thursday, as I haven't been feeling too well. It will be good to get some fresh air.
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I have been so interested in the Blogger 101 class that was held on the learningfa group this past weekend. Chris Dahl did a great job and there are lots of new blogs out there. I picked up a few tips and it was great to see what the girls accomplished. Very impressive.
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I still haven't gotten back to my Flower garden - I am nearly finished the top and hopefully I will get back at it when I get home. Some of my work seems to just fly by, while once in
awhile I have to force myself to finish it. I usually am reasonably happy when I get those finished, but I can't get up much enthusiasm - maybe because I haven't felt like doing anything except sit around for the past week.
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I did get my challenge quilts away and was happy with them. It will be interesting I think.

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I just scrolled through all my posts since I opened the blog in August - there are 3 or 4 quite helpful tutorials and lots of information, so I hope you will scroll back- Lots of
pictures of my work, and the work of our students are there too. If you have the time, I hope you will scroll back. There is a good tree tutorial (how to include trees in a landscape- shapes, sizes, thread painted, etc.) as well as the instructions for
increasing the size from a photo , and also a tutorial on the Press n seal use for transferring patterns.
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I hope you like my Header picture. I made that wall hanging a few years ago; it was the first time I really got into the quilting,and since I made this one, quilting has become very important for my work. I would strongly recommend to those who are doing landscapes, carefully think out your quilting patterns, as they can add to your work. (note the sky).
Shirley

Thought for today.

"There are two kinds of people: those who don't do what they want to do, so they
write down in a diary about what they haven't done, and those who haven't time to
write about it because they are out doing it".

Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster

Good morning!

The weather is not nearly as bad as it was that past 3 weeks. It is still cold but not bitter.

I finished binding and making the bag to hold 'The Three Sisters' so it is nice that it is done and I can go on with something else. I am debating what to start next - Seriously thinking of doing another wildflower quilt, using Alberta wild flowers in a fields, something like my
'Poppies and wildflowers' that I did last year. I had never done one like it before, and
I really enjoyed making it. The next picture for the series will likely be Mt. Rundle again as the one I just finished was a gift. I hope to do 5 or 6 of the Rockies over the next year.

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Our 'little one' spent the day with us yesterday. We worked on some 'Art' with Nana, and then she went outside with Papa and played in the huge snow drift right outside our
patio of our condo. She played outside for an hour and the two of them came in
completed covered with snow. She is coming for a sleepover on New Year's eve so that
her parents can celebrate the New Year together. We enjoy having her.

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We are taking a bit of a break on learningfa - we take the Christmas week off without
doing any classes, as everyone is so busy. I am looking forward to the classes we have
planned for 2009. One that will be very useful, is the beginner Quilting group by Deb- she will walk everyone through making a quilt from beginning to end and then follow up in the spring with instructions for quilting the finished top. There is lots of interest shown
for this class and I just posted it on learning fa.
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Well, I think I will have another cup of coffee and decide what I am going to work on next.
Have a good day, everyone! Shirley

This and that

Good morning everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas! We did. Our
little grand daughter is the best age for Christmas and it was a joy to see her opening her gifts and welcoming us all. She was so sweet. It was very relaxing and the dinner was great.

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Today is our big shopping day, something like the day after Thanksgiving in the States, but not quite as overwhelming. The stores open early and it is a good time to pick up bargains.
Not for me though , I am quite happy to stay at home and work on a wall hanging.
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I am reading a good book by Barbara Taylor Bradford - "The Heir" and I also have the following book for the same series "Being Elizabeth" I love her books.
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Finally it is turning a bit warmer here in Calgary - thankfully. I don't remember a
long spell as cold as this one has been. It is still cold but when it is -28 - 30 C with a windchill at least l5degrees colder it is pretty hard to take. Hard on our cars, hard on the roads (as we got a huge snow storm which added to the problems) - oh well, that is what we get every once in awhile in this part of the world. It seems that all over North America the weather has been bad and flying a real problem.
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We have taken a hiatus for the Christmas season, from our Learningfa group but will be
getting a good start right after the New Year. We have some great classes organized and
I do hope you will join us if you want to take some of our classes. We will have a
new class ' Learning to quilt from scratch" where you will learn how to quilt from beginning to end. We will carry on with our Thread painting classes for those who are
signed up. We are also going to have a blogger l01 class, a 'make a little book' class.
I will be teaching the a landscape course, and that is just some of our classes. We will also be teaching repeats so do go to the group and join us.

Take care everyone! Shirley

Hi everyone!

I have been working away on a wall hanging and have nearly finished the quilting. I got side tracked with a couple of other projects and so I am glad to get working on this one.
This one is for my dear friend Debbie,and I hope she likes it.
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I don't have a lot of Christmas preparations to worry about. We put up a small table tree and my grand daughter helps us decorate it. The family has decided to donate to our favorite charity this year rather than buy presents. Pat (dh) and have decided to donate funds to the 'Mustard Seed' which is a homeless shelter. With our bitter winters it is a big problem here to make sure that people have a safe, warm place to go to. It is a wonderful organization and we felt that as we have so much, it would be a great way to celebrate the meaning of Christmas.

As a result I don't have a lot of presents to buy or a turkey to cook as we will be at our son's for Christmas. Time is flying by , it is hard to believe Christmas is nearly here! I always look forward to the Christmas season, especially if I don't have to do a lot of shopping for presents in the crowds. I used to enjoy it but as I get older I get less enjoyment from
fighting the crowds!.
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I am having so much fun each week, helping our sweet 4 year old granddaughter to make decorations and gifts for the family. We decorated large pine cones with glitter and paint last week, and we are going to get them ready for 'all the people she loves'. I bought little Christmas bags and she will write her name on the tag I made as well as the person's name that will receive the gift. She is so excited. We decorated 6 of them last week and she is so proud of them. I have 3 more so we will do them up for her preschool teachers.
I also will help her make a gingerbread house for the 3rd year, as well as Santa and the sleigh with the reindeer (all gingerbread). So that will be lots of fun. Just as much fun for Nana as for Hayley. We have also started making a paper chain like I did when I was a child, for her Christmas tree. I had forgotten how much I love doing Christmas
decorations with children.
Shirley

Another Chinook arch today!

I have never seen as many Chinook Arches in one short period of time, as we have had this past month! Today we had a perfect arch, and this was the 3rd one since last Wednesday.
Usually, if we are lucky, we get one every 6 - 8 weeks. They always mean warm weather which is really nice in this part of the world.
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I am finished quilting the wall hanging I will be giving as a prize for the girls in the learningfa group who completed one of the two projects which were in the draw. Each person who finished the sampler quilt and/or the Southwest Wall hanging will be eligible.

I just have to put the backing, sleeve, binding and label on it. It needs to be ready for the end of November. Once I have it done I want to finish my winter scene which is ready for the borders. It should be finished soon. I think I will take it easy after that until after Christmas. (Unless I get bored, grin).

I had hoped to spend some time on the learningfa site today and sort out the photos and clean up the files, but yahoo must be closed down as I can't get in either through Firefox
or Explorer. Hopefully they will get back to normal tomorrow.
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Thanks to all the people who have taken the time to put comments on my different posts
I do appreciate hearing from you. It is so nice to see the number of hits building up so quickly. I really am enjoying having this blog! I hope to learn more about doing different things with it when we have the blogger 101 class with Chris D on learningfa. There are lots of other things I can do with it from the sounds of things.

I hope our American friends are all prepared for their Thanksgiving feast. Shirley

This and that

We are going to celebrate my daughter's birthday as well as have a late Thanksgiving dinner tonight atmy son's .I am really looking forward it.

We had a dusting of snow yesterday morning but it melted very quickly. We had our
Election yesterday so we went to vote- I will have to admit it, I am glad our election doesn't last as long as the US elections! They called ours 3 months ago and we voted last night.
We once again have a minority government but they gained a lot of seats so it will take all three other parties to vote together to defeat them. Our Prime Minister is from Calgary and I think he is a very good man.

I have become very interested in the US election and it will be interesting to see who becomes President. It affects Canada in so many ways.
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I have decided to carry on with the tutorials. The first one on Press N Seal went very well and I have had good feedback on it.

Tomorrow or Friday I will start a series on THREAD PAINTING. We will learn to thread paint a rosebud. It will be a good subject to learn a bit about how to use your machine and how to shade with thread. I have taught it on my group and it was well received. We will use the press N Seal to transfer the pattern. I hope to carry it on for the next few months.
We will do about ten different subjects including how to do trees for landscapes, autumn leaves, different birds and on and on . We will learn the technique and then we will do a thread painted landscape. We will also make a table topper using a thread painted block for the center and your choice of 6 or 8 inch blocks to surround it.I hope you will join us and let your friends know.
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I am feeling really good as I have finished my Wellspring quilts so now I can get back to making gifts and getting some classes organized for my learningfa yahoo group as well as this blog. see side bar if you are interested in joining.


well, I had better get at it. I am still sitting in my housecoat finishing my coffee.
Shirley

Good Morning!

Well I finally figured out how to get my pictures in - I think it was that this is a new blog and I think my pictures were too big. A couple are here now so I think the problems are solved.

It is a dull, windy day here in Alberta - it is a shame as it is the last long weekend
of this year- The leaves are beginning to turn gold - our summer was so short this year! Soon our Province will be covered in Gold -- (we don't get the bright reds and oranges that they do in Ontario,Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces and points south), but our autumns are glorious anyway. I love it when we drive up to Canmore or Banff and see the bright yellow larches below the tree line of the rockies- We get a
little bit of red. Soon we will see snow on the peaks. It is so beautiful. I
Love this part of the world!

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I have a couple of projects coming up - I will be teaching on my Learningfa (fiberarts) group - we are going to do the 'Poppies & wildflowers'- I have the classes all prepared in emails with pictures which will show the students step by step how to
make this wall hanging. Judith from Cdnquiltswappers is going to teach us how to do
a Jean quilt at the end of the month too. She has been such a help with the traditional quilting as I am not a traditional quilter, although once in a very long while I get the urge! We just finished organzing and teaching a Sampler quilt - the ladies from the group sent in blocks with detailed instructions and the quilts have been just beautiful. I will put in a picture of one of them.

I am going to teach a class on Valerie Hearder's Landscape group in the next while - I will be teaching 'Quiet Morning' which I taught on my group- I will post a picture of the wall hanging. It was a door prize for the Western Retreat this past June and
my new friend Mel won it.

Well that should do it for now. Take care everyone!