Gratitude and Glimmers #101

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of November. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

—Gilbert Keith Chesterton

English author, philosopher

Creator of the character Father Brown

1. The sky a couple of days ago at sunset caught my eye and never mind gave me a glimmer; it set my heart on fire! This is without any kind of filter, and it still does not do it justice how jaw-dropping vibrant the colours were. If only I had taken my phone out with me when I first stepped onto the back deck to look up--a big flock of Canada geese were flying over at that very moment , silhouetted against this fiery backdrop. By the time I ran back into the kitchen to grab my phone, they were over the next street away.

I posted it to Instagram the next day, and an even better shot was sent to me by my friend Mieke who lives right on Lake Erie's shore. We live about ten houses up. Look at this:

Looking southwest over the lake; used with permission.

I asked her if these magical sunsets are because the sun is lower at this time of year, and she said she thinks that's part of it but also because of the evaporation from the lake, there are a lot more clouds. This reminded me of a comment from the caption of the catamaran we were on in Key West years ago, a sunset cruise. When clouds were building up and everyone was starting to get disappointed, he said that sunsets are actually better when there is cloud because the light bounces off them. I think a quilt shot might have to happen here, and Mieke has said to walk on over anytime!

A Bag Lady That’s Me

I’ve been a bit quiet this month but my sewing machine has not. My two best customers, now two people whom I consider friends since we've been texting back and forth over the past several months (Lana) and couple of months (Audrey) have made sure of that!

Knitting Project Bag

Lana put in two more requests for when we'd returned from our Maritimes trip. One was a cat bag for a good friend of hers, small size (the usual makeup bags I've been selling for many years), and the other was a surprise bag for herself. I had free rein to choose fabrics and colours, knowing now what she likes; the only stipulation was the size, the 'tall small bag', sizing phrase as determined by her! Instead of my usual SandraJaneQuilts label, I sewed onto the bag side a piece of the selvage from this fabric, most fitting for a bag that will hold beautiful knitted projects.

I'm Screaming!

I actually dropped my phone on Monday morning when I saw who ordered a mug cosy from me on Sunday night. An author. A Canadian author who is "renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre" (from his site). One of my absolute favourite fantasy authors whose books I've read and loved and owned since 1995. None other than Charles de Lint!!

So ya, I was screaming, and I still am. He ordered this mug cosy:

Made in February

My first thought was, Maybe there's another Charles de Lint. Checked the address. Ottawa. Nope. Second thought, He cannot pay; I'll refund him, but then I thought well, I do have to mail it, and my time is worth something, and I have bought his books because I believe in supporting artists of all mediums. So I had the idea to make him a matching coaster! Did I still have any of the butterfly fabric left? It had only been a fat quarter... I did: a 5" square coaster would work!

Gratitude and Glimmers #100

Holy moly! One hundred gratitude posts (brain emoji). My first one is here, written on May 8, 2014. This was before it was a 'thing', and it was an idea I'd had all on my own. I like, no I love that I have done this for so long. I keep thinking that each year I should print the twelve posts I write and put them into a booklet... There, I've put it in writing, so I will investigate!

A grateful heart

is a magnet for miracles.

--Unkown

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of October. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1a. I've been often in the "I hate humans" mode because of Gaza, of world leaders' NOT doing their job, of the rampant destruction of our planet, because of greed, and of the pervasive negativity... However, our recent Maritimes trip had me several times thinking how much I love humans, and how no matter what province we are from, we have common ground on many levels.

Cavendish Beach PE

At one charging station in Quebec, we couldn't get our Chargepoint user card to work in the Circuit Éléctrique charger. These Quebec chargers do not accept credit cards either, something that we think needs to change, as other networks do this as well. A gentleman came up to us and asked, "Y a-ti-il un problème?" to which I responded, "Notre carte ne marche pas; la machine ne l'accepte pas." and then he continued in English and when he couldn't get it to accept our card, he said, "I can do something else..." He did something on his phone, held it to the card reader, and voilà! Charging started. When we realized he had prepaid for a charge, I said I had cash and turned to the car to get it but he stopped me, saying no it's just fine, not to worry, and off he went! It got us to 75%. MacGyver figured out that the balance on the Chargepoint card, which is a prepaid system, had gone below $5 and he hadn't realized it to reload it. All went well after that learning moment. But what a kind human.

Groovy Ghosties

I’ve got a cute wallhanging finish today. 

This is from Michelle Lander Cain’s new book Not Your Typical Jellyroll Quilts. She has been hosting a quilt along on her blog From Bolt to Beauty using the Five Little Ghosts table runner from her book. You can make the runner or an entire quilt (she has a free PDF for how to extend the pattern). I thought the little ghosts in the quilt on pastels was so cute that I couldn’t resist making just one block. 

Cheerio!

I have a finish on a Friday! Here is Cheerio!, a collaborative effort between my friend Cathy and me. 

Hot off the ... sewing machine last night!

Isn’t it just so bright and cheery? Cheerio! was the original name of this design which I did for Island Batik quite a few years ago. When I released the pattern, I renamed it Sunset Strip, because the batiks I used evoked colours of the sunset. This quilt now, it’s definitely got a Cheerio! vibe: a common salutation in England, an ‘o’ shaped cereal, and of course, this cheery quilt. The pattern is available in my Etsy Shop. It has two sizes, this baby quilt size and a throw.

Sewcial Bee Sampler Blocks

Like an itch you just have to scratch, I continued making the rest of the 25 blocks for the 2017 Sewcial Bee Sampler. I knew that if I started focusing on the next pattern I plan to release, the stack of blocks might get put back in the cupboard and I really didn’t want that. Here are the last nine blocks I made since I pulled this UFO project out last week. The first two were in a previous post, and all been shown on Instagram.

Top row: Block 17 Spools and Block 18 Square Peg; Bottom: Block 19 Circle of Friends and Block 20 Irish Chain Variation

This quilt along was hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell, both designers for Art Gallery Fabrics. It was the first one they did.