We're home

I thought I'd do a few posts here for catch up... took a few more photos to share with you while we were in Manchester, but was busy enough to not get a chance to post during our last few days.

I only took a few photos at the show itself, of friend's quilts. It was different this year to not have a quilt of my own in the competition and makes me think that I'd like to really focus on getting one done for next year.



The conference itself was really well run. I don't know how Mary and Janet-Lee do it! There are so many little details and changes that happen during the conference itself, there really is no way that they could plan for every eventuality. From what I saw of them, they handled all the unexpected with grace and humour.


I took a couple of pictures in the Armory (one of the show halls) that I wanted to share. The hall shot is taken from the end of one of the rows of quilts. You can see that they are hung really well, and that the lighting shows off the quilting beautifully! There were a couple of special exibitions in this hall, one of which was these amazing paper pieced dog quilts. Unfortunately I can't find where I scribbled down this woman's name - if someone out there remembers, could you send it to me?


There were at least 5 different dog quilts, all with the breed portraits sorted according to type. Imagine how excited I was to find our dog in the Sporting Group, even though she is a Canadian breed, only recently embraced by the AKC? What a lovely portrait...it looks just like our Breezie, as she looked when she was younger.


Beautiful, isn't it?


I've got some more photos to share, but I'll break it up into several different posts.

Hope your day is good,

Lisa

Manchester walkabout

I had some time this morning and got to spend an hour or two walking around down town, around the area the the convention is at.

This little piece of paper caught my eye....


It gave me quite a laugh...



And you know me, once the camera is out I'm incorrigible.


The city is quite pretty to me. I'm definitely from wood-built-building country. Everything here is brick. The sidewalks, the buildings, and many old woolen mills along the Merrimack river.

And from time to time, you come across these wonderful manhole covers:


Aren't they just wonderful? I don't think that they custom ordered them just for the quilt show, but there's some lovely Grandmother's Flower Garden Variation stuff going on there.




Oh, and I found a little remnant of times past in a back alley not to far from our hotel. Just imagine what this sign must have been for...a dance hall? A movie theatre? A roller rink?

Who knows. Once you go up the stairs all there is is an empty lot. Kinda sad.

And......
be forwarned.....





I did it again. Hopefully this is the last time.

(I know my parents are probably cringing right now, thinking, "why couldn't she just bring back a t-shirt, like everyone else?")

:)

Lisa

Oh!

The time change is totally kicking my butt.

(yawn)

g'day!
L

We're here!!!

Jodi and I got in to Manchester, New Hampshire around 5:00 local time (our body schedules, still very much on coastal time, thought it was about 2pm...). The flights went well, we had plenty of time to make our connection in Chicago, which is always a concern with the sheer size of that terminal.

The second flight was pretty bumpy toward the end, and Oi! I came close to real, bona fide air sickness! I think my seatmates were ever so happy that I kept my -er- equilibrium...not as relieved as I was, though! Yike. It makes me think I should take some chewable Gravol or something with me for the return journey, just in case.

Yesterday, in Colville, we went to a shop called EZ-knit...a huge repository of quilting fabric, books, magazines, beads, sewing machines and wool. I came across Noro sock yarn, in real life! Of course I had to buy 2 skeins...who can resist that kind of saturated colour? I bought some really wonderful knitting needles that I stashed in Spokane, and some really crummy ones that I thought I could risk having confiscated by the airline. I needn't have been worried, there were no issues at all with bringing my knitting on the plane. I listened to my book and knit on both flights and got a WHOLE LOT of sock knitting done! I'm almost done the leg on this honey and I started it late last night. This sock has sweet mock cables on it. And yummy Noro colour.


We're staying at the Hilton Garden here. The Hilton GARDEN because.....



TAA DAAA!









It has a baseball diamond! There was a big game just after I took this picture (you can see all the fellas out there grooming the field). The photo was taken from the window of our room. We're hoping to catch at least one ball game while we're here.

And did I mention the weather is glorious?

And tomorrow we're looking forward to lots and lots of good MQX vibes. I can hardly wait.

:)
Lisa

Gettin' ready to go

to MQX! Whoo hoo! This will be the second year that I go with Jodi Beamish of Willow Leaf Studio fame...look for us! Make sure to say hi!

For those who aren't going, I'll try to keep up the blog while we're there....

As for us now, today we drive to Spokane, tomorrow we fly.

Happy trails,

Lisa

Kitchen Joy

We are back from Spring Break, getting re-adjusted to the schedule that is our regular lives...

I'm back with this lovely thing that is making my life so much easier - a gift from my Mom-in-Law - a mandolin. Woah, what took me so long to figure this out? Why not sooner? Hunh? It certainly does let me make all those elaborate, chopping intensive things that I try to avoid...and fast. I'll just try not to take off the tips of any of my fingers...



Got a chance to start my new gift for my fella...shhhh...don't tell him, okay? The wool finally came, so I can get on with it.



We spent lovely holidays with both sides of the family and got tons of cousin/aunt/uncle/grandparents goodness in the bargain. Took our old, deaf dog with us to my parent's house after she was cared for by my sister (thanks again!) and that was interesting. We haven't tried to take her anywhere but camp (and even that not in the last couple of years), so it was new all over again with the hand signals she and I have negotiated between us. We were out in the Kootenay Lake area - a definite no-leash zone. It felt strange to be the only person walking with the dog on a leash, but with her stone-deafness, I couldn't call her if she decided to take off after an interesting smell, a deer, coyote, car or an emu(!).

A sweet local girl took care of our cats while we were gone, so today I got down to making her some sweet thank-you's.

Now, if you've been reading the blog for a while you'll know that I do a lot of whole food cooking, a lot of food from scratch. If you normally tune in for a bit of that foodie goodness....stop reading now! I made something truly decadent for our young friend and some to share with her little brother (maybe). Something that involved buying two (!) devil's food cake mixes. And cream cheese. And butter. And shortening.



It's enough to make any heart patient cringe, but lordy these are good.
They're Faux-reos...yes, Oreo cookies without the trip to the store. Both boys said that these blow the store-bought ones out of the water, and I have to say I agree.

It was a first time 'round with this recipe, and I'll be adding it to our once-a-year, diet-to-the-four-winds cook book.

I can't wait to inflict these on my book club friends.

If you think you can stand the sugar rush you can find the recipe here for the cookies, and here for the filling.

Yes, the amounts are right. There really is that much butter, sugar, shortening and cream cheese in this recipe. Please do yourself a favour and don't look at the nutritional information. It'll only make you sad.

The good news is that it made substantially more than I thought...85 cookies! We'll give away 3 dozen, and that leaves us with 49.
Oh, make that 48.

I mean 47?

Would you believe 44?

:)

Lisa

A little newsflash

We're going away for a couple of days. Happy Easter!

:)
L

Finished Rogue sweater!

I woke up this morning to this:

He asked to be the first to wear the sweater once it was done. Sweet, eh?

He took this photo of me a little later in the morning:






Happy stitching,
Lisa

Slow progress

I'd have posted some pics sooner, but Sally Stitch has been at school wearing vests for the Afghanistan project. I've got her back over spring break and was hoping to take advantage of the time and get my Rogue sweater together. Sadly, I've got most of one sleeve yet to do and don't know if I'll get it done before we go to Abbotsford later in the week.

I've been really happy with how it's going together, and love the fit! The only thing that I'm thinking I'll change is the hem. I did it differently than the pattern, and now am regretting not putting a turning ridge on it. I'll cut it and re-knit it once the whole works is done, I think. I put a turning ridge on the sleeves and the hems there behave much better.

This pattern is wonderfully written. The shaping is incorporated into the cabling at the sides beautifully. The main modifications I have made are in length...I wanted the body to be longer than the pattern, and my arms are much longer than the ones designed for the smallest size.

I haven't done a whole lot else these days aside from being sick, helping the boys while they were sick, and schoolwork for my new class. I submitted my first assignment last week - and will get it back tomorrow - I'm nailbiting a bit! It's been a really, really long time since last time I was graded on anything like this. Got my fingers crossed.

Hope all is well with you!

Happy St. Patrick's day,

Lisa

And just likethat....

I'm a student again.

And I'm sick.

Somehow, though, the weight of the textbook on my lap and the hot drink in my hand makes me feel like it's 20 years ago....trying to ground facts in my fuzzy brain. Are my crow's feet fading with this little trip back in time? Somehow I doubt it...

I'm doing a course toward a certificate program at a local college that will let me apply to work in the school system. Hopefully I'll get it done within the year allotted and not bore you all with it in the meantime. It's exciting, and a little scary...but I figure I'm learning things all the time, I just need to apply that same zeal and focus to the books.

The other night while I was reading Oldest said,"Mom?"
I said," hang on, wait 'til I finish this paragraph"
he said, "I liked it a lot better before you went back to school"

That made me laugh. I'd had my textbook precisely 2 hours by then. What a hoot, eh?

Here's the other thing I've been learning - or relearning, rather - Cables. These cables are different than any I've done before, as they're a little more Celtic in nature, and they don't all originate from some lower stitching. Some of these babies just start or end on the ground stitching without flowing into anything else...nifty, eh?

It's really a dry run for a sweater I want to make for DH. He doesn't know yet, so keep it quiet, okay? I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive....



Happy stitching,

Lisa

The news is out....

This is the class and teacher that I've been privileged to work with since the Christmas break - and look! We're in the newspaper! As the students' final project, they'll each be knitting a vest for a needy child in Afghanistan. Our teacher has put out a call to the community to match us, vest for vest, or at least to join in the fun by donating some wool or money to buy wool. The paper came out this morning and we've already got 18 community members signed up to help by knitting, and several skeins of yarn have already popped up in community drop boxes that have been placed around town.

Exciting stuff!

I first read about this charity while reading Debra's blog last fall...and had it in the back of my mind, thinking it would be a great one to contribute to. Our classroom teacher thought it was a great idea, and it ties into other parts of the class curriculum around citizenship, global issues and other things. I'm so excited to be part of this project! Normally our family tend to volunteer for things closer to home (Christmas boxes, charity quilts, local fund raising). I think this will be the first really large contribution to an international charity that I've been part of, and it's so exciting. I'm glad that these kids will have the chance to participate in making a difference. What a great experience for them at this young age.

More to report soon on life, the universe, and everything....

Lisa

Cora, finally done

I finshed it last night, got the binding on and everything.

This is by far the largest quilt I've made for us! I've made larger ones for customers (some with the piecing and all - the largest one that springs to mind was one for a lady in Germany a few years ago, a huge red and white lone star about 100 X 120").

This quilt finished 97" square after the quilting. It did 'take up' a little, but it's quilted pretty heavily. I keep going in and petting it.


Here's a little shot of it right after trimming, before the binding went on...





Yummy texture, eh? Gotta love cotton batting. It's going to be wonderfully rumply after it's washed.







And a little shot here of the top edge of the quilt after binding:









Don't bright colours just make you happy?






And a little arty oblique shot, just 'cause I can't help myself.






Happy stitching,

Lisa

Youngest makes Raviolini

Guess what we had for supper?

:)
L

The things that make a girl happy....

You know you've irrevocably crossed the line into adulthood when household appliances can make you giddy with joy.

If you've been reading for a while, then you know that I do quite a bit of 'scratch' cooking. I make the majority of our bread, granola and baked goods...we try to eat a very natural, mostly whole foods diet - and I love cooking.

One of the things that I'd moved away from in recent years and am just now re-discovering is how much we all love homemade pasta. A LOOOONG time ago I bought a Marcato pasta rolling machine. It came with cutters for both spaghettini and linguine. I always wanted a ravioli attachment, but never could see myself affording one. I made our spaghetti, our linguine, our lasagna noodles - all manner of flat noodles (even won ton and egg roll wrappers) with my trusty Marcato.
Recently I found myself looking online researching vegetable cutting mandolins. I've been wanting one for a while (my Mom in Law uses one religiously, and I think it would be a good solution to our 'never a sharp knife' problem) when I ran across ads for my old Marcato! Not old, mind you, but current! It would seem they are still making this wonderful tool, and all the attachments. I came across the ravioli and raviolini cutters and thought -" jeez, I'm a grown up - I can have a raviolini cutter - what am I actually waiting for?"

Well, I didn't buy a mandolin. Yet. But my raviolini attachment arrived today....

and I almost kissed the delivery guy! I can't believe how excited I am to have this gadget! Since I ordered it I've been brainstorming ideas for fillings, looking up ones in old cookbooks and hoping that a couple recipes would be included. There are two - but honestly, the manual is in at least 6 languages...2 pages per language, - two recipes is plenty from there.

And here it is, on my trusty Marcato.

I can hardly wait to start some pasta dough, clamp this honey to the counter and give it a crank.

I've already got the spinach thawing upstairs for spinach/ricotta filling....


Oh, it is the little things in life, isn't it?

:)

Lisa

for the love of squares

That just might end up being the new title for this quilt. It's all about squares. Squares next to squares, squares within squares, square borders...

Yep. This is becomeing my ode to squares.


And if you ever wondered what I use for marking - - for the most part, just good 'ol chalkboard chalk. It goes on easy, shows on most fabrics, brushes off with the lint brush. If I'm feeling picky and need some VERY precise markings, I sharpen it with a pencil sharpener. It dulls quickly, but that's okay. Mostly it's only needed for basic guidelines, anyway.

Hope your days are full of colour,

Lisa

Whaaaat? Can this be? A quilty post?

Ooooh, how I love fancy, closely stitched feathers....And continuous curve....


Ah, working on one of my own quilts. You may remember last May/June I was part of a group of test piecers for this quilt pattern....hey, it's getting quilted less than 12 months after it was pieced. For me, that's a GOOD time frame.

This may well be a late night.

Happy stitching,

Lisa

Snow photos....

Considering my Mom is on her way to warmer climes for a vacation with her brother this morning, I thought I'd post a little of what she's getting away from....

This is the view out our laundry room window this morning at about 7:00 am. Check out those icicles! We're in the middle of a big snowfall right now that is predicted to last most of the day.


This is the snow on our back gate. I love it like this, all these perfect flakes piling up so delicately! Even the slightest breeze will push them off. You might notice we don't try to open our gate at this point in the year, we just step right over the fence next to it. Our old dog is just not interested in the effort it would take to get over, so we don't have to dig big trenches along the fence the way we had to when she was young.


Walking down the pristine alleyway to go to school. Man I love how fresh snow transforms everything.


And this is how we deal with snow in this part of Canada. You can get an idea of how high the snowpiles are by the height of the basketball hoop. This fella is cleaning the high school parking lot. What you can't see from the picture is that those piles are deeper than they are high. They've been pushing snow out into the field for almost 3 months now, and the piles are quite impressive. The boys call them Mt. SnEverest and love climbing on them and sliding down. Standing on top of them it is easy to see the roof of the high school.



This is the view from our back gate this morning when I got home from dropping the boys off at school. Although you can see the sun peeking through, what you can't see is that it has just crested the valley...there are some really big mountains out there that are obscured completely by the falling snow.

A good day to stay in and stitch, wouldn't you say? Maybe after I shovel out the driveway.....

:)
Lisa

Another finish...my Buttony all done.

Did it.

Went with the short sleeve after all, and am glad I did. I think I'll make another one, a long sleeve version, but add some cables and other interesting things. I may try to knit the new one bottom up instead of top down, but I've not decided that part yet.

I had my youngest take some pictures, but won't post those...I'm glad he loves me, 'cause the angle he looks up at me from is not a visually flattering one!

Hope your day has a bit of completion in it.

Lisa

Last post for the day

It's my sister's birthday.

I think I'm lucky to have been almost 5 when Mom and Dad got out of our Toyota Corolla wood-sided station wagon with her in Mom's arms, because I remember it. She's been a constant in my life, and though I have memories of before she was born most of my childhood memories are of her, or of playing with her.

I can remember when we lived at the farm and would dress one of the cats up in doll clothes (!) and try to get her to stay in the doll crib...I think she was the one who got most scratched. I remember laughing our heads off.

She was always a better swimmer than me, and a much, MUCH better card player. Good enough that I even marked my own deck of cards so that I could have a fighting chance playing against her (boy did I ever get in trouble for that). I think she beat me anyway 3 games out of 4.

We played together a lot, and we bickered a lot, too. I can remember one summer day realizing that we hadn't fought the whole day and thinking that was a huge accomplishment.

The photo at left is one I've had for a long, long time. She was only about 2 years old, maybe 3 in the photo. I long thought that this was the moment of inter-species connection that planted the seeds for her many years of vegetarianism.

And yes, she still is that cute.

Maybe even cuter, if it's at all possible.


Love you H,

Lisa

One other thing, finally finished

I've been hunting for one skein of this discontinued yarn colour since before Christmas as I'd knit this vest and run out before I was able to do this neck band. I lovely person at Ravelry was kind enough to part with an odd skein she had in her stash, so I was able to purchase it from her. I finished the vest in 2 evenings, and have since worn it. I think it's going to be a winter staple in my wardrobe. The yarn used was Noro Silk Garden, a combination of lamb's wool and recycled silk. It's soft, lovely and warm.

I did modify the pattern a little, as I'm a small person, but not a lot. The largest mod I did was to continue the ribbing up to the armhole, but just 15 stitches on each side to help with the shaping. Oh, and I knit it mostly on circular needles, all in one piece instead of doing each of the pieces separately and then sewing them together. I wanted the colour to be more continuous, and that method helped me achieve that.

Lisa