Review of February Focus and Goals

Saturday I spent the day at a friend's sewing half square triangles together into blocks and then into pairs.  At home I sat down and ironed the pairs to prep the 26 star centres and corner blocks and went OPPS!  I had forgotten I made the half square triangles oversized so I could trim them down.  By the time I realized this error I realized I needed daylight to trim them and put them away for the evening.

 I did get them all trimmed and paired up to be resewed on Monday.

 Yesterday I got the information for the next month of sewing for March.  We will add flower circles with centres for the 26 stems and add a bias edge to the circle.

 I got my first cotton and wool pieces down for my House Party Revival window 1 I'm about halfway down window two.  My plan is to do all the wool and cotton applique and then have fun with the embellishing stitches.

 Yesterday we had an unexpected snowfall.  This was my place about ten o'clock.

 It did come down heavier for awhile before stopping.

 And by one o'clock it was all gone.  Farther east they got quite a lot.  My cousin is in Palm Desert and says the desert is greener than she has ever seen it before.  She also mentioned that Chicago has set a record for snow free days this winter!  We have an aunt who lives there.

 Other February unexpected goals were designing and finishing my challenge quilt in four days.  No prizes but I was told it was Lorna's husband's favourite.  Prize enough for me.  There was a tie for second and third prize and my friend Mary was one of the tied people.

 Got the borders on my Valentine's quilt.

 Friday I went for a walk and found these crocuses and snowdrops outside the condo door.

 Witch hazel is in full display but the yellow one has almost none on display.

 This Hellebore reminded me of a dogwood bloom.

 And a pink version.

 Love the dark contrast on this yellow crocus.

 These were more of a daffodil yellow.

 The early rhododendron is out in bloom already.

 One of the crows needed a closer read of the information signs along the boardwalk.

 Love these purple crocuses that look so delicate.

 This year is Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1st and all National Parks are free for entry.  I decided to get one of the passes.

 Time to write down my finishes and maybe get a couple of February goals that I missed started on.  I didn't get my Mika or Sunflower Gathering backgrounds stitched so maybe that will be my final February Focus goals for today.  Then to list the March ones.

Focusing in February.

My Focus shifted a bit this month as part one of a three month kit arrived from The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon.  I've long admired Tonye B. Phillips work and have always wanted to do one of her patterns.

 Unfortunately she only has done House Party as a class project and not released this pattern.  I borrowed the image from her website.

 She is doing House Party Revival at the store starting this weekend and I found out that I could order the kit.  Tonye sent me pictures of the house and the details of the window so I can do it from afar.  So far I've traced the four window items onto freezer paper and cut out the fabrics.  I do the starch way of applique and just need to prep them and I'm ready to start stitching.

 I finally got all my templates for my Down the Rabbit Hole last Thursday despite giving the wrong suite number on the invoice.  Luckily I checked and saw them sitting on the floor of our mail area along with another package that I miss-addressed.

 Here is my centre Dresden Plate along with the stems for the flowers will will do next month.  I had thought of doing it in browns to represent the Rabbit Hole and dirt but as it is the centre of the quilt I chose to use yellows instead.

 I'm trying only to use my stash for this project but wanted a third yellow so I invested in a Moda Grunge Yellow to go with my Earth Series by Dianne Leone for Northcott Silk that has been ageing nicely and Rainforest Honeycomb by Alexander Glass.

I've also finished my Hawaiian Applique for Happy Days, the last of the applique blocks for this quilt. On Saturday my friend Tricia is hosting a group in her amenities room and my plan is to work on some of the many pieced blocks I've avoided since November!

 The second recovered package was my King Tut Threads for my 2016 Row by Row projects.

 I also got some 30" zippers from Sew Much Nicer for these projects.

 During our snowy period I worked on a multicoloured shawl that is now finished.  The colours are brighter than the photo.

Feeling good about my adjusted focus in February, and still have time to piece those other Mika and Sunflower Gathering blocks.

Journaling, Fibre Arts Network and Valentines Top

Back in 2001 I decided I would try and journal about my quilting experiences.  

 I wrote down in January what goals I hoped to keep in this book and until June 2013 I managed to do this monthly making notes of what classes I took, new techniques.  Travels I took that involved quilting, new quilting friends etc.

 On January 31 I found the journal again and decided to start it again.  My friend Anna from Woolie Mammoth shared her keeping goals on a white board and recently decided to also keep a journal.  But she is thinking of doing it more on a daily basis, I'm doing it monthly but with occasional new entries.

 I shared that while at Lorna's I saw some friends and later that evening one called to say they had gone to the Fibre Art Network show at Van Dusen Garden.  Rita and I had forgotten about it and had headed down to Granville Island instead.  So Sunday I decided it would be a nice outing to take my mom to see.  Ironically we ran into Lorna and her mom; they had just finished seeing it.  Here are some overview pictures of the show.

 The FAN is a group of west coast Canadian and American quilt artist and youcan visit their website here for more information about their journey and many shows.

 Last year the garden had a show in March featuring some of our Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild members here.

 Several of those artist and some more I recognized from the lower mainland participated this time.

 All the pieces were the same size in either the portrait or landscape orientation.

 This is a free exhibit found in a gallery adjacent to where you enter to view the gardens.

 We were still in the midst of our heavy snow and viewing the garden was not a great choice on that day.

 There were some spectacular pieces hung for viewing.

 Some photographic in their style and others more representative.

 Some were dimensional and other visually textural.

 This piece was done by Robin Fischer a member of my guild.

 Terry Aske.

 Janet Archibald.

 Former member Patt Wilson

Leslie Forbes from Lion's Gate Quilters.

 Mardel Rempell another former member and part of the 100 Braid St. New Westminster Cultural Crawl show I attended.

 Unfortunately I don't recall many of the names and I had hoped that the signage would be more legible.

 Marianne Parsons.

 Judy Leslie.

 Emilie Belak.

 Susan Jensen.

 Vivien Kaputo.

 Valentine's Day I felt like I was getting a cold and flue so I didn't go to my guild meeting.  Later in the day I started feeling better and decided to add some borders to my Hoochy Heart swap quilt.  It now measures 43" x 52" and is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.