Merry Christmas!

We had some cold clear weather the days leading up to Christmas.  I always love this view of the bridges and the mountains behind.

 Inside the River Market you found Christmas lights here and there.

 A bit of cotton batting and some snowflakes on a green cut out tree.

The sun was dazzling on the river.

 Strawberry plant self seeded on the stairs leading to Rita's home.

 Can you spot the red strawberry just days before Christmas.  This is why we are called the banana belt of Canada!

 I love this picture thru the lobby window with a perfect reflection and that one rogue cloud.

 Setting sun thru the trees on Poplar Island.

 Crescent moon coming into view, what a perfect sunset.

 Christmas Eve I drove my mom around the uptown neighbourhood to see some of the homes.  Santa on one side of the house.

 Rudolph on the other.

 Love the effect of blurred Christmas lights.

 This is my favourite.

 Went out for a walk along the quay.  Large Christmas lights along this neighbours balcony.

 Red and green and white for this one.

 Four low buildings in this complex, with tall towers behind.

 Looking across at the Queensborough area of New Westminster.

 Same photo with a flash.

 Looking at the Surrey Fraser docks across the river.

 Frosty and friend lit up for Christmas.

 Micky and Friend flying in to say hi!

 Simple snowflakes and garland lights.

 Neighbours lighting up their corner of the world.

 Merry Christmas.

 Star Light, Star Bright.

 Santa made by my friend Anna and gifted to me last year.

 And we awoke to a white Christmas this morning.  Just a dusting but still it snowed after midnight!

 Courtyard view, interesting there is more snow on the salted sidewalk than on the grass.

 Yesterday it never got above freezing and the water is starting to form ice.

 Not quite enough snow to make a snowman yet but take the advise from one.

 Oh how I've seen people like this, not today though!

Enjoy your day with family and friends and have a very Merry Christmas!

Wonky Star Block Instagram Swap

One of the gals in the swap asked for black on blacks for the backgrounds of her stars.  I have a lot of these and decided to make some for her and keep some for myself.  Each person will make two blocks for everyone in the swap.  Most of us agreed to be a star angel in case someone dropped out and we also agreed to ship internationally.  There are two other Canadians in my group and the rest are living in the U.S. A.  it is a person to person swap not sent into a central person who sorts and then sends out the blocks.

 Some of the fabrics work out well, some not as well as I thought they would.  The navy batik doesn't work all that well as star points but great in the centre.  If anyone is on Instagram look for #wonkystars2018 or #wonkstarswap2018 to see what other groups are doing.

 I had some scraps of turquoise left over from my Down The Rabbit Hole and Happy Days BOM that I'd see how they worked into the mix.

 The navy batik is more successful as star points against the white.

 I also used the turquoise and white print on a few of the background blocks.

 I managed to make all these blocks over two days and pleased how they came together.

 This one has a woven fabric that moves from yellow to orange to red depending on how it was cut.

 This one has two of the woven fabric as star points. Along with pencils, measuring tape and pineapples.

 When making the points I didn't really try and match the star point prints.  But if I had the same print at what was already sewn I'd put it back.  I may try and match a couple in the next sets I sew.

 This block I tried to stay in the yellow and turquoise prints.

 This one was an experiment that I'll probably keep and not trade.  I've something in mind for it.

 This will be another keeper.  Funny I never realized I had the same navy batik on opposite points until I was typing this up.

 Woven fabric centre with different pinks, yellow and oranges.

 Wild centre.

 These ones are being traded.

                                    
 These will be kept for me at the present.

Today is the Winter Solstice and this little guy wants to say hi, and enjoy the longest night of the year.

Friday Adventures and a First!

I had planned on a bit of cross border shopping on Friday morning and was disappointed by waking up to rain but decided to press on.  First stop was at Joann Fabrics in Bellingham to look for Quilt Folk issue 4, no luck.  Onto Trader Joe's to pick up Christmas treats for my mom and a friend.  Onto Mount Vernon to Calico Creations to see if they had the magazine but no luck.  Last stop was into La Conner.  I had checked my Instagram feed and Sylvia Pippen had announced she was opening her store that day.  Who Ho! I was going down anyway so decided to find it.  But I forgot to write down the address and went up and down First Street several times before I found parking and went into Country Lady and happily she pointed across the street and showed me where the shop was!

 Sylvia and her friend Mary Ann were busy arranging things and the shop is delightful.  At the end of the building with river channel views out of their windows.

Love this bird sampler

                                                       

 So much to look at it's quite overwhelming.  I met Sylvia in Summer 2016 when Anna Bates of Woolie Mommoth Blog was on one of her Quilt Roadies adventures.  If you go to her blog for August 2016 you can find the two part video that I shot of Anna and Sylvia in her studio at home.  Or you can go to her youtube channel and see what other adventures Anna. G and Enzo have been on.

 The space is well organized with patterns and samples to see and enjoy.

 I love this one.

 I've toyed with buying this one.

 Some Cyanoprint combined with Sashiko stitching.

 Love all these delicate orchid designs.

 Pink wool tulips, I may have to buy just this block when she makes it available.

 A touch of Christmas in Sashiko.

 I love the movement of jelly fish as they float about.  This kit came home with me.

 This one also called my name.

Another lovely flower sampler.
                                             
 This is a wool kit of her flowers, the wools are exquisite.

 Sylvia and Mary Ann figuring out their new software.  Turns out I was their first official customer!

 Just outside the front door was this wonderful glass piece.

Love the bridge over the channel.
                                       

 On the way in I noticed a flock of snow geese in a field and on the way back stopped to take pictures.

 Fortunately it seemed to rain hard when I was driving and almost stopped each time I got out of the car.

 This is my purchase of the pattern, turquoise Sashiko thread and some of Sue Spargo's new wool thread to try.

 On Friday night I pulled some fabrics for an Instagram Wonky Star exchange.  One of the gals wants black on black fabrics, the flash lightened them significantly, I've darken them but not quite enough.

 Decided some tools of the trade are needed for making the centres and star points.

 Had fun pulling different brights.

 Even have some scraps that will be worked in.

 The multi-coloured stripe I used in a fish swap and the grunge fabrics play nicely with it.

 I made my star points from scraps of down the rabbit hole and the red on pink dots was from my Christmas tree swap.  I played with different centres before sewing it up. This centre was the background on my Cow Jumped Over the Moon quilt.

                                           

Thought the measuring tape fabric would be cute.  Most people want white on white so that's where I started.

 This centre was from Happy Days.

 Fish.

 Pencils.

 I saw one gal make a min star for the centre and wanted to try it out.

 All white points.  I have several white on white, challenging to photograph and not get cream.

 This is what I ended up with, I'll probably keep this one but I like the look of the mini star but lots of seams to deal with.