Saturday 21 July 2012

Trains

One of my nephews turned 11 this month and he is the reason that I decided to make a quilt for each of my nephews and niece. When he was in preschool, my brother or sister-in-law would drop him off at our place before they headed off to teach. He would hang out at our house for an hour or so before Daryl or myself would drop him off and pick him up at school. I often had a quilt project on the go and he would want to help me with the sewing. He was most interested in the "gas pedal", so I would let him control the foot pedal.

One morning he asked me if I would make him a quilt, of course I said yes. At the time he was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. I found a paper piecing train pattern on the internet and designed a quilt that he could curl up in.

Each quilt I made for the kids has given me such joy. I have tried to think about each of their interests and create a quilt that reflects them. In the future I will feature the other quilts for my nephews and niece in their birth month.

 Train quilt 2006

Suspended train track built 2004 at Michael & Megan's King St. house
by Daryl, Papa Don & me

Saturday 14 July 2012

Family time

This morning Daryl and I wandered down to Souleio for an iced beverage (I had the strawberry & basil iced tea, yum) and a pastry. While we waited for our order, we sat outside on the bistro chairs (reminiscent of France) and watched the comings and goings of the people around us.

One family in particular grabbed my attention. A white mini van with Alberta plates parked across the street and a young couple emerged from it. The side doors were opened and closed many times, the trunk was opened and they brought out a Chariot. The Tulle roof rack was opened and more pieces to the puzzle were added. The presumed "mom", I only say this because at this point there was no other evidence of kids besides the look of a post pregnancy tummy on her slender body & the Chariot, grabbed her suitcase and a change of clothes, then she disappears. The man keeps circling the van opening and closing doors, the whole while, Daryl and I are wondering what they are up to. After 5 minutes or so, dad pulls out a little girl about 18 months old. He walks around the van with her a couple of times and then puts her back in the van. I think this is strange, because it would appear that they are getting ready to go out for a walk. After another 5 minutes, mom appears again with a new outfit on. By this time I am thinking that they are ready for their walk. Nope. Doors open and close again and baby is changed. A time later, another kid emerges, approx 7 years old. OK, now their ready to go. Nope. I then see in the reflection of a store window a smaller version of the 7 year old emerge from the van. Now we have 3 cute brown haired girls, but that's not all. I see the smaller one check out herself in the reflective window, do a little twirl and then start pushing the Chariot. No surprise really, there is one more little girl sitting in the Chariot. This family spent nearly 30 minutes getting ready for their little walk. I felt exhausted for them. I wonder what brought them into town and where their little adventure was going to take them.

Kudos to my friends and family that have children. I no longer have to wonder why it takes them so long to get ready or why they are late arriving for events.

multiple strollers :: double, triple, quad & jogging
Perhaps the family could have used something like this. 

Thursday 5 July 2012

My patriotic duty

Spending time out in the summer sun is keeping me from my quilting these days. I love the long warm summer days and nights. I often joke that if I were a pagan, I would worship the sun.

From the heat of summer to the dead cold of winter I bring you a project that kept my husband Daryl and our neighbor Christoph busy for a few hours. We live in a loft with 18' ceilings, which means loads of wall space to display art, pictures, and quilts. When we moved in to our loft, I wanted to hang a quilt on the wall above our downstairs bathroom, but I did not want to use a ladder or scaffolding every time to change it. Christoph and Daryl created an ingenious way for me to display my quilts. The used a drapery rod and clips, nylon rope, pex tubing and a few other gadgets to assemble the pulley. I am able to access the pulley design above the ceiling tiles in the upstairs bathroom to lower and raise the quilt as I desire. Whenever I change out the quilt, I think that I should have some triumphant music playing. It's like our own private flag raising ceremony. With that said, I have my Christmas quilt Holly Ribbons still hanging. I guess I better do something about that.




The change has been made, my Paris quilt is now on the wall. "I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles."