Sunday, January 29, 2017

Sunday Stretch For Sewists #16 - Caterpillar

Here we are at the end of January, and everyone seems to be saying, "Wow, how did that happen?" Well, it did and it's time for a Sunday stretch and this one is a good 'un. 
This is a teaser for another post, but the geese here, which are called Migrating Geese, flow, much like a caterpillar, across a quilt, don't they?!

Caterpillar is a bit deeper of a forward bend than Butterfly which we did last month.  It's basically the Dangling Pose done sitting down; in fact, if you suffer from high blood pressure, then you want to avoid Dangling Pose and do Caterpillar instead.

Remember these poses are given to you here as Yin poses, not as Yang poses which are active, use-your-muscles poses.  So enter slowly, listening to your breath, which is supposed to be slow, calm and steady, matching your inhales to exhales, and relaxing as much as you can.  I also refer to The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga by Bernie Clark as well as to his website, yinyoga.com and also to Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers.

Caterpillar

This will tug nicely along the ligaments of your spine, while compressing the stomach organs, which helps with digestion. Because of the stretch along your back, you are stimulating your kidneys.  Leaning forward also massages your heart.

Begin by sitting on a cushion or a folded up quilt as I am, on the floor, legs straight in front of you.

Lean forward, letting your back round, if it's okay for your back.  If not, then don't; simply lean from the hips, as I am here, keeping your tummy pulled in to protect your low back.  You can keep your head in line with your spine if you have neck issues.  We elevate the hips because we want the hips to rotate forward.  Because we rarely live on the floor in the West, our hips tend to tilt backward, creating tight hamstrings, and making it very difficult to do forward bends.  This pose can also aggravate sciatica, so that is a second reason to elevate your hips.  Notice I am sitting on the edge of the quilt.  If you feel your sit bones right on the edge, almost as if you are going to slip off, this is perfect for helping to forward tilt that pelvis.

Breathe in and out slowly  through your nose, maybe to a count of 3 or 4.

If you keep relaxing, you may find you start to go further forward...
...letting your head go too, if it's okay for your neck.  This does give a lovely tug on the vertebrae in your neck!  Don't pull; let gravity take you forward.  You may wonder why we round in Yin; many yoga classes insist on doing forward bends with a flat back.  Not so here, and the benefit is that you will get a better, longer stretch along the back of your vertebrae. Think of the shortest distance between to points: a straight line, right?  So curving that line is longer, which translates to more tug along the back of your vertebrae.  Also allowing the rounding allows your muscles to relax which is what we want in Yin.

If it's too intense on the backs of your knees, try rolling up the quilt and placing it behind your knees, or getting a second one and rolling it up so you can still elevate the hips.

This takes the pressure off the backs of the knees, so you can continue to relax and not be thinking, 'Ow! Ow!'  Remember we want to feel tugging, but not so intense that we cannot get our mind off it, and never pain.

Hold for 3 -5 minutes or more if you like.  Close your eyes. You may be surprised at how far you get as you feel your body letting go with the breath.

See how relaxed my arms and feet are though, no effort; surrender.  Yes! I had to keep my hoodie on today as it's not warm out, and overcast.  A good day to stay inside and sew right?  Which I have been doing, which is why this post is out much later than it could be. 😉

This pose pulls along the entire back body, right from your heels, along your hamstrings, and along both sides of your spine to the base of your skull.  It is the line of the Urinary Bladder Meridian, the longest meridian in the body with 67 acupressure points.  Bernie Clark says this helps strengthen the organs of digestion through compression of the stomach organs, and Paul Grilley says this pose is excellent for balancing Chi (energy) flow and as a preparation for meditation.

To come out, slowly sit back up again, and remain in the L-shape, breathing slowly while you are aware of, and enjoy, the rush of the blood and chi within the blood as it flows back into those compressed areas.  This both removes toxins from and nourishes these areas.  If you feel this isn't enough of a release, maybe lie down on your stomach for a few breaths.  Slowly get back up and go back to your machine!
Ahhh!

If you'd like another ahhh! Check this out:
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=1074126&b=253536&m=29190&afftrack=&urllink=www%2Ecraftsy%2Ecom%2Fquilting%2Fkits%2Fsuburbia%2Dmoon%2Dshadow%2Dquilt%2Dkit%2F466182

Yep, this is Suburbia, a purchase I made at Craftsy this weekend, and at $42.90US or $56.91CA for 6 yards of fabric, it was a screaming good deal IMHO.  There is yardage ($5.50US/$7.30CA) to be had too, just sayin'...There are LOTS more good deals to be had and hundreds of classes under $20 too remember.  Once I try out their new Boundless Botanicals fabric, I will let you know what I think.  In the photos it looks divine. (Note that the links in this paragraph are affiliate links.)

One last reminder, if you are one of those bit-by-a-squirrel, diverted-by-a-shiny-bauble quilters who found yourself diverted this past month by an attractive quilt project, I have the linky party for you!  Check out my previous post here.  Warning: visiting the other links in that post may lead to more DrEAMi! moments...




Saturday, January 28, 2017

DrEAMi! Linky #1

 Welcome to the very first DrEAMi! linky party and my very first time hosting a linky. 

For a detailed explanation of a DrEAMi! click here.  Just like darling Brandy in the video above, who becomes blind to her surroundings, extraneous noises and objects when tracking the elusive squirrel, we, as quilters have experienced that blinders on, nothing else matters, get-your-own-meals, I-gotta-SEW-this-and-sew-it-NOW feeling.  That brilliant bauble of a quilt project, glittery gem of an idea, and, (cue Metallica) "Nothing Else Matters" until it's done.

My frst DrEAMi! (oh yeah, I've had more than one this month, heaven help me, no wonder my family's quilts are always late) was the Modern Trees Christmas quilt you see in that intro post using the Henry Glass Fabrics I won.

My second DrEAMi! happened when I created my first house block for the RSC2017 and promised a tutorial.  Well, I had no photos of that purple house, so what's a girl to do but make another block for the tutorial, (you can find the PDF pattern here), using her favourite colour, buh-LOO!!  These are leftovers from the Meadow Mystery quilt.
Updated to add: I had no idea (note this was posted Jan. 28) that these would be February colours for Angela's RSC2017!  So I was actually ahead of the curve for the first time since I joined her challenge in 2015 LOL!!

I knew right away I wanted to turn this one into a new cushion cover for my new sewing room.
I set it aside.  But it called to me.  It wouldn't take long to quilt up...

I couldn't focus on anything else until it was done....

Sweet Naala... This is not on my Q1FAL list, totally not planned for this quarter, just scurried up in front of my nose and flicked its bushy tail at me.  But I couldn't be happier that I followed my nose and let myself get diverted!

I started with the spirals in the sky separated by wiggly lines, an Angela Walters design I saw online and saved a photo of (and now cannot find where I saved it ugh!), moved onto the gingerbread-type roof scallops, and it just got a-hold of me...
The back before it becomes a cushion cover and this gets hidden! I did write my name and details on the lines across the bottom
...until it was done:


I bound it with the turquoise I used in the star centre. Why I brought that down here and none of the navy outside of half a dozen under 5" scraps I do not know, but turquoise is part of this Northcott line and I snagged a bit of it thinking I might work it into the Meadow Mystery, maybe as binding.
Artisan Spirit Painter's Passion is the name of this line - isn't it sumptuous?

I did an envelope back, not quite like Amanda Jean's at Crazy Mom Quilts, but very similar. I hand-stitched the binding down, my favourite way to finish off a binding.
Here it is off the cushion so you can see it in its entirety.  The top and bottom kind of get hidden by the fat belly of the cushion!
Yep I had fun: the grass (can you spot my initials?!) dot to dot, bricks, the heart, the clapboard, windows...makes me smile!
A trio of cushions in my house right now, two from last year and now this one:

Seems to be a colour trend, no?! If you take a look at my Craftsy pattern store page, you may notice a similar trend!  Incidentally I didn't buy one of the pillow forms for these covers; I simply recovered existing ones I no longer liked or wanted to change up!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Original Design: House Block Tutorial
Size: 19.5" square
Fabric:  scraps and leftovers except for the binding
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann, quilted with Gütermann, Essential cotton variegated "Ocean Jewels", Sulky rayon 40 wt 942 2209 and 942 1177

So!
What has got you diverted this past month?  Have you 'become the squirrel'?!  I'd love it if you'd share it with us! Remember that a DrEAMi! does not have to be a finished project, but it must be an unplanned something that has had you dropping everything just to sew, sew, sew...
The DrEAMi! will remain open for one week.
Linking up with:
Cooking Up Quilts
soscrappy



Friday, January 27, 2017

Whirling Stars - A Finish

When Angela at soscrappy said in mid-January that she noticed that a LOT of people in her Rainbow Scrap Challenge keep making blocks year after year but not always finishing the quilts, I realized I was one of those people!  I only have participated for two years, but I have two flimsies and one set of blocks.  Well I am happy to announce today that one of the flimsies is now a finished quilt!  This is my first finish of 2017 and one of the goals on my Q1 FAL list which you can see right here.

After Mysore the other day, we met up with John and Brandy for a dog walk around the Sarasota Harbor.  I carried Whirling Stars under my arm because I knew I could get some great shots.
There wasn't much time to fuss, just get the guys to hang onto the three dogs, quick pose the quilt, and snap the photo.  It was pretty windy to boot.  I love how bright the colours are in the Florida sunshine.
Hoping to show the texture here by the water's edge
The dogs love to paddle and swim out for sticks at this spot.  It's so interesting because this is a peninsula that juts out into the harbor, with a cement wall on one side and this beach on the other, where several sailboats are moored.  I'd hoped to get a good shot by the dolphin statues fountain but the wind was too strong.

You get the idea of the west-facing side of the peninsula.  That apartment building was under construction on our first trip here in 2004. Can it really be 13 years this summer since Dayna's fateful trip?

I quilted this with wavy lines in groups of three, between which I quilted a string of beads or bubbles, big pebbles really.  It was fast and fun.  How I adore my Bernina!  She loves any kind of thread, never has an issue with tension.  Only problem is her small throatplate (kinda like her operator's mouth at the dentist, LOL) but this motif was a breeze.  After I did one row of blocks I had the idea (or rather I was already getting bored!) to switch direction with the lines.  So it has a bit of a woven effect. 

I used Gütermann cotton thread to quilt this quilt.  Not.  One.  Break.  How I love their thread.  I went with white across the entire quilt, first time for doing that. I wasn't sure about it on some of the rich purples and deep reds, but it looks just fine!  It was wonderful not to change threads as I often do.
Of course I made the binding scrappy in rainbow ROYGBIV order!  I machine sewed it to the front and then stitched in the ditch from the front to sew down the back.

I spied some Jen Kingwell Gardenvale fabric on sale for $5.38 at Fat Quarter Shop that I thought might just be perfect for the back:
You can see the rainbow binding and the mmm!quilts label here too
The fabric is still there, in a few colourways, and nope I am not an affiliate, just always on the lookout for good backing fabrics in the sale sections.  I did also apply, as I always do, a cloth label with quilt details written upon it:
 Of course I hung the quilt in a tree! That massive banyan from the first picture to be exact:

and this one:

rolled up:


Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 Original Design (yes, I plan to write up the pattern)
Size: 48.5 X 60.5 as a flimsy; 46 7/8" X 59.5" after quilting and washing
Fabric:  scraps and leftovers, except for the backing which is Gardenvale "Meg" by Jen Kingwell for Moda
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced mostly with Gütermann 100% cotton and some Mettler 100% cotton; quilted with Gütermann white 100% cotton

In other news of finishes, I finished my second book of 2017, A Walk Across France by Miles Morland (good), finished watching "The Queen" on Netflix, (loved it) and completed a second quilt project!  I've been pretty productive so far.  I'm 2/3 of the way through season 1 of "Gilmore Girls", two episodes into to Season 1 of "Murdoch Mysteries", and back to finishing season 3 of "Call the Midwife".  Also started season 2 of "Nikita", a show I love and watched a lot of when it aired in the late 90s. It was ahead of its time and is eerily similar to events going on today in the world. So I am definitely watching more TV, as well as reading a bit more.  No knitting yet.  I've started Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote, which has pulled me in immediately.  It's a dog story, another non-fiction.  I've completed 12 designs in the #30quiltdesignschallenge2017.  There will be a second draw this evening for a $15 gift certificate to The Red Hen Shop.  It's not too late to join the group of us.  Here are my latest two:
#11 Oh My Stars! and #12 Raspberry Swing, on the Quiltography for iPad app which is a terrific little app. Those are all my own fabrics I scanned in (take a photo and it adds it to your library of stash)

Be sure to check out Craftsy today and all weekend. They put on a surprise classes sale (hundreds of 'em under $20) and they are also having a big supplies sale this weekend, up to 60% off.  Have you kept up with all seven of "The Midnight Quilt Show" episodes?  Not only great quilts does Angela whip up after the kids are in bed, but she's a hoot to watch! But first, I think I'll take a leedle peek at the supplies...
Bella taking a 'leedle peek' at me as I bent over the last few hand stitches of the binding for second finish of 2017.  She kept reaching through, gently swatting at me.  This is also a sneak peek at a my second DrEAMi! (no wonder I'm behind in birthday quilts)

The first DrEAMi! linkup is tomorrow, Saturday, January 28!  That link explains it more fully if you haven't heard of this yet.  Hope you'll join me, either to link up your distracted moment or squirrel, or to check out some others, or to do both!

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Faith and Fabric today
soscrappy for her special finished RSC quilts linky on Jan. 31
Scraptastic Tuesday 
Cut and Alter for the Q1 FAL Link Up

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

I See Dead People...and Dead Fish

Well now THAT is a catchy title right?!

Dead People
Three more Kickass Canadian 'Nasty Women' (interjection: that's a reference to Ashely Judd's speech a few days ago which, if you didn't see it, is here).
31 - Florence Lawrence, silent movie star, one of the first women to own a production company, she also sought to improve cars by developing automobile accessories; 32 -  Mary Pickford, Hollywood's first superstar; with second husband Douglas Fairbanks, she helped create the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; 33 - Eleanor Milne - a stone whisperer (love that description!) suffered from dyslexia (was made to wear a dunce cap) yet she was Canada's national stone carver for 31 years, until age 68(!)
These went together in a snap, as Kathryn of Next Step Quilt Designs promised.  I love the quote from Eleanor, "The building (Parliament Hill in Ottawa) and I were discussing things."  I can relate this to the many quilts and I who "discuss things"!! I chose a bit of a maverick fabric for her, almost in the purple family, with intricate scrollwork.

Dead Fish
Went to the beach at sunrise again yesterday.  It is a serene place with a different crowd at that time.  This time it was not serene...the SURF--!!
Note the foam where the water spills up the beach. We had some terrific winds two days prior to the walk.
The girls I walked with, seasoned beachcombers for decades upon decades, hoped to discover treasure washed up by these winds and some storms that blew through.  No such luck.  Red tide had all three of us coughing and wheezing near the end of the couple of hours, and the beach was quite devoid of treasure.  Not one piece of coral was found by any of us.  However.

Sadly, there was quite the treasure trove of dead fish.  Interestingly, they didn't smell, they weren't pecked at by birds, and they were incredibly lifelike.  I think they may have succumbed to red tide which is an algal bloom that releases a toxic chemical that affects the central nervous system of fish and other vertebrates, killing them; waves break open the cells, releasing the toxins into the air which affects the respiratory system of humans.
*If you're squeamish, you may want to skip to the end.
With a little research, I believe this is a spiny boxfish, aka burrfish.
Further along I saw this beauty:

I am not a fish aficionado; I have never in my life been able to eat fish (wish I could because they're so good for you) but these specimens fascinated me.

The one below made me think of Dori!
Dori and a Sand Collar

I was intrigued by the yellow on her and the little bit of blue/violet...but upon closer inspection I realized she has a hexagon pattern on her skin!  On the right is what my friend Donna was pretty sure is a sand collar, something I had never seen nor heard of.  She was hoping to be able to preserve it. I thought it was some partially broken down plastic! It was like a soft plastic in feel and texture, similar to firm jelly.  A moment of research tells me it is a Neverita duplicata and found on the Atlantic beaches of Florida, but we were on the Gulf!  Here is a link, and here is a good old Wikipedia link where they are described as gelatinous.  I read that after I wrote 'firm jelly'. 😊

A little further on I came across another 'Dori'; it took me a few search engine phrases, but Google did finally give me the answer: I believe she is a Scrawled Cowfish.  Here is a link.
Setting all squeamishness aside, I carefully touched her.  Just rubbery.  So I stood her up to see how skinny she is.  Look at her lips! And those horns--!!

But LOOK at the side that was protected from the air...
Can you begin to imagine how incredibly stunning she must be in real life in the ocean?  How I'd love to see that one day...yep on the bucket list is at the very least snorkelling, and hopefully one day scuba-diving.  The hexagons just leave me speechless.  Nature, as I said in my last post, is not always warm and fuzzy, often cruel, but always, without fail ahhh-mazing, awe-invoking. Glory of the kind I hear when a choir full-on belts out one sustained note...

I asked my friends who would clean up all the carnage. Was there a team?  They said volunteers do it.  I love feel-good moments like that.  I love quiet, good deeds.

Here is my treasure. Besides the photos I took, I came home with several fossilized shark teeth to add to my growing collection.  They are resting on the back of a new quilted cushion cover.  I've turned the free House Block tutorial block into one that will go in my new sewing room!  There have been almost 250 downloads in one week since I uploaded it. 😃 Stay tuned for the reveal.

Have you ever had a quilt idea or an image grab you like this and you drop everything you are supposed to be stitching and hone in on the one project?  We often refer to these eye candy projects, shiny baubles, as 'squirrels' because, like the dog who hones in on that squirrel, we get tunnel vision and refuse to be dissuaded by anything else.  Well Saturday is the launch of my new linky party for people like you and myself...

If you've already had a DrEAMi! in January, no need to write up a new post.  In order to link up, your DrEAMi! does not have to be a finished project.  Yikes, as well as enabling you to get sidetracked, I now appear to be enabling you to create more UFOs...  Well, I do know there are four Quarter Finish Alongs throughout the year that you can join to get guilted motivated into finishing DrEAMi! and UFO or WIP projects.  I also happen to know that a good friend of mine, who helped me create the squirrel DrEAMi! button, Tish, is cooking up another idea for helping get the UFOs into finished quilts!  Hope you grab my button (I've set it up to open in a new page, just so you know) and join me this coming Saturday!

Linking up 
Sew Fresh Quilts  If you are scarred by all the dead, (but bright!) things, head over to Lorna's blog to see fun brightly-coloured reindeer!

Friday, January 20, 2017

I Like/Love...

This is a (mostly) photos post.  Good luck with that, Sandra, I can hear you thinking! Here are about 10 items for which I am grateful.

I've stashed some of these photos for a while..
A few weeks ago we went to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.  It is a place I've wanted to visit for ages.  It did not disappoint.  Clockwise from top left: Mysore Fig Tree in the distance on the left and a stately row of palms leading to the Caloosahatchee River on Ford's estate.  Next is a closeup of another massive Mysore Fig in front of Edison's home. I wanted to do a headstand in front of Ford's tree. Too many people around but that would've been so cool! Mysore is the style of Ashtanga I practise, which originated in Mysore, India.  (yes I'M-sore LOL after some days of practice!)  Close-up of one of my all-time favourite Florida plants, Bougainvillea, and then a row of a few colours of these "paper flower" bushes on the estates.

I love animals.  I love my own three fur kids; they are a part of our family, each with their own wonderful personality. I love that they often gravitate to my sewing room, clearly a place of extreme happiness, completeness, and peace.  I love that Bella, like Naala, will often lie beside her cushion, and use it to rest an elbow and head on!
Clockwise from top left: turkey buzzards; Norfolk Pine and bougainvillea; Design #8 Sunset in the City; a leaf bug
We live in an area that is not built up very much, although it sure has had a housing boom over the past two winters.  As a result of the lack of houses, there is a lot of wildlife and nature.  I find turkey buzzards both hilarious and a bit creepy.  Hilarious because they are so big and perch in these dead trees, or on the neighbours' rooftop , two of them, a few days ago, much to Naala's annoyance.  She raced around the yard, deep growling in her chest and leapt into the air at them!  They, in turn, flipped her the bird, lol, by buzzing relatively low overhead, flapping (loudly! they're huge!) their wings. Nature is beautiful but also cruel: I saw a dead (looked agonizing) possum yesterday at the side of the road, mostly eaten out but head and legs and fur very much there.  Quite possibly killed or half-eaten by one of the many bobcats we see; munched on, or will be, as well by buzzards.  I love Norfolk Pine trees (not as much as those Mysore Figs) which also get humongous. I just found out they are native to Norfolk Island in the Southern Hemisphere, east of Australia, not Norfolk, VA! Orlando is their limit for how far north they can grow. Seems so odd because when I think of a pine tree, I think snow, northern climate, right?
Design #8 - Sunset on the City: I am quite amazed at how much I am enjoying fiddling around with design, especially colouring with pencil crayons! This design above, #8, was inspired by the fabric below,

which I purchased on sale from Hawthorne Threads.  May I interject that I love sale fabric as well?! I couldn't afford to quilt without finding deals. I bought it to go on the back of my House Blocks RSC2017 quilt.  I wrote a tutorial for the block in my last post, or you can download a PDF for free right here. That is an affiliate link.😉  Finally, last photo in the collage above, I am not a fan of bugs per se, but of some, yes.  No clue what this leaf bug is that MacGyver scared out of the jasmine when he was watering, but look at the size of it! At first I thought it was a Praying Mantis. I actually saw it wipe its face on the leaves of the viburnum right after I took the photo!

I love the first installment of my Christmas present from MacGyver, a fat eighth subscription to Art Gallery fabrics from Pink Castle Fabrics.
Nope, I would not have bought a lot of these...lemons anyone, for example!  But seeing and petting them, possibilities are forming.

I love hummus.  Tomatoes.  Good cheese (this is Swiss) and spinach on a wrap for lunch.

I love scraps.  I love figuring out ways to get more out of my scraps.  This Card Trick block called for cutting 3.5" squares in half twice diagonally which would leave two extra for all four colours used in this block. I used two white triangles cut from a 3.5" square as templates so I only had to cut a 1.75" rectangle to get two.  This also is a great block for another love, playing with gradation in colour.
I like Tuesdays because we get three more 6" blocks!  We are now 20% done the 150 Canadian Women Project at Next Step Quilt Designs.  Here are this week's ladies:
28 - Emily Carr, famous Canadian painter; 29 - Madeleine de Verchères, who, when her parents were away in Montreal, successfully defended her family's fort at the age of 14 against an Iroquois attack; 30 - Henrietta Laetitia Tuzo, first Canadian born woman mountaineer.  Mount Tuzo, on the BC/Alberta border, bears her name.
Here are the first 30 blocks! I will be sewing sashing and cornerstones to them, but haven't got the fabric from Sew Sisters yet because it's been delivered to my friend in Ontario!
Yep, I LOVE!
I love my country, Canada; I've made no secret of that.  It has inadvertently sneaked into this blog over the past year, unplanned, but I'm happy that it has. We celebrate 150 years as a country this July.  I feel very fortunate to be able to escape a few months of the Canadian winter and sojourn in Florida's sunshine.  I love sunshine.  I admire and deeply respect American's outgoing president and, without getting too political, because I don't have the right to express my opinion on choices for president here since I can't vote, but I do have the right to express my opinion on a fellow human being.  Let me just say this phrase: President Obama and Chelsea Manning, which makes me both smile and choke up at the same time with emotion.  So thankful.  Kudos to you, Mr. President.

I like pattern-testing.  I've learned about writing my own patterns by testing for others.  The 10" blocks I've done for Cindy over the past several months have challenged me:  to find the right fabric for the various components, to evaluate the instructions for clarity, and to apply pieces a quarter the size or less of my pinkie fingernail!  I am so thankful for Lara's Crafted Appliqué!  I've done no stitching on the four appliquéd blocks I've made and they all have held wonderfully.
Tried for a nighttime scene for the moose block. It's actually a bit darker in real life.

The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa.  I added some greenery on either side of the main building, the walk and an attempt at the Centennial Flame that burns at the approach to the walk.  Might have to add a bit there.  I also was true to the roof colour as of the present.  They are replacing the copper roof, which has a lifespan.  So the Peace Tower is still the light green that aged copper goes, while the Centre Block building has changed to chocolate brown, which I read it does shortly after being installed.  I've had that sky fabric about as long as the twinkle stars one, but this sunset piece was just an 8X10" piece I picked up on a shop hop somewhere.  Thanks for the flag Cindy! And for being patient with my slow testing.  Appliqué and I are not always the best of friends...

I love the saying on Instagram posted by Fat Quarter Shop.  This could apply to anything: yoga, your body, your parenting, or any hobby or activity.  I love Angela Walters, who said in this week's episode, "Finished is better than perfect" and notes on her blog that she purposely left mistakes in her videos to show that she herself is not perfect and she is totally okay with that.  "Fibre in my wine...hmmph!...meh, I'm okay with that, " and she takes another swig.  I LOVE her.  None of what you see in her videos is forced; she is truly that spontaneously funny in person.  Another great quilter whose YouTube channel I subscribe to, is Jamie Wallen and ...... DRUM ROLL .... I am going to be taking a couple of his classes when he is at The Quilt Bee in Ontario this May!!! EEEP!

Linking up
Whims and Fancies
You can hop over to Not Afraid of Color if you'd like to read LeeAnna's "I Like" Thursday post and find a few other bloggers who write similar ones.
and also with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilts (no finish here, unless you count the finish of pattern testing Cindy's Canada blocks😉)