A little Trip North to Canada

Our bags were packed and

we were ready to go....

Where, you ask?

North of the border and

landing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Calgary is a beautiful city where the 

skyscrapers reach for clear blue Western sky.

And the incredible Canadian Rocky Mountains 

leave the prairie behind and ascend to the clouds.

It's a destination that Running Man and I have 

always wanted to experience.

It's difficult to capture

 the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

It's everywhere.

Snow capped mountain peaks

(even in July)

Waterfalls 

Glaciers

Unbelievable blue water

Wildlife

Fabulous hotels

The Tauck tour we were on made 

our trip easy and fun with incredible views

around each curve.

Our official mountain holiday began at the Kananaska

Mountain Lodge and some Western hospitality.

From there we traveled to Lake Louise.

We watched the morning sunlight slowly

creep down the mountain and over the glacier

 at the Chateau Lake Louise.

Sunrise

Lake Moraine was unbelievable

 with its tropical blue-green glacial water.

This photo has not been enhanced!

From there we traveled north to Jasper

via the Icefields Parkway

How about getting up close and personal with the 

Athabasca Glacier.

It was freezing and very slippery. 

 I pretty much

stayed in one spot while Running Man kept on going.

The Jasper Park Lodge 

offered great hikes,

 wildlife and 

 deep valleys carved by those glaciers.

One more stop, Banff and the 

Historic Banff Springs Hotel

Complete with bagpipes.

We definitely needed more time

 to explore each location.

The weather was beautiful,

the food was delicious, and

the people warm and friendly.

Ready to pack your bags and go

for a visit?

If you do, you'll have an incredible holiday.

We did!

Until Next Time-

Kyle 

 

July's Mini Quilts

For me, July means  

red, white and blue and 

 over the years, that has meant many

patriotic minis.

This month I had two different ideas so,

while I had that color combo scattered

across the floor, I kept on sewing.

The first one is a return to a past love,

stripes and plaids.

My stash is still filled with these wonderful

fabrics that reflect that primitive homespun look.

Fireworks and Pie

35" x 35"

I had always wanted to make a log cabin quilt using

a extra large center square.

Starting with a bright red center and

using strips in roughly the same width and

then casually trimming the blocks, it was

fun to put these blocks together.

I cut many of the strips on the bias 

to add movement and interest.  

When I finished I thought the centers needed some

wool stars buttonholed with a variegated perel cotton thread.

The second one took a different direction.

Still simple, but much darker.

Patriots

24" x 28"

In honor of my family members who answered the Alarm

on April 19, 1775 and fought at the battle of Lexington and Concord.

I started piecing 2 1/2" blue and red squares together

 as 4 patches.  Nothing could be much simpler.

My first thought was to finish with a dark blue border.  

Looked pretty blah.

The blue is one that you might recognize.  It's a 

very old Jenny Beyer's VIP fabric.

It may be old, but was the perfect shade of blue.

I decided to cut down that border

and add a lighter brighter blue.

 Small pieces of batting fused together can be

easily used in a mini quilt, as well as odd pieces

of leftover fabrics for the backings

The barb wired fence display looked great with

these quilts.  

July Minis

Be sure to stop by Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter,

for the list of other Mini Makers.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

What? Another Do Over?

Recently, a dear quilting friend,

thought of me when she was doing

some purging.

She brought me a very loved and worn

quilt top that she had collected

somewhere, sometime, in her quilting career.

She thought if anyone would like to do

something with this, maybe Kyle,

would like to be challenged.

Oh, boy.

The vintage basket quilt

is hand stitched with 48  nine inch basket blocks

using a muslin background and 30's fabrics.

Most of the blocks are very faded

with lots of repeats of the same fabric.

Many solid green and pink pieces.

I forgot to take a picture of the pieced border

that was on three sides, but you can get a little peek of it

in the above photo.

The blocks were probably pieced in love,

and the blocks, of course, varied in size.

Many of the blocks are not worth saving, so

I have chosen the best of them to work with.

At this point, I'm slowly unstitching,

repressing and resizing the individual pieces.

Here we go again.

As I have been taking this quilt top apart

I noticed these holes.

They were not in an organized pattern,

but I figured out the top had probably been tied.

Sure enough, I found a few places where the yarn

was still there.

This made me wonder about the original 

use of this quilt.  

Because there were many yarn ties still in tack, what 

were they originally tied to?

If the quilt top was removed from the backing, as in a summer 

quilt with no batting, why were there still yarn ties 

on the front?

I'm guessing, not all of the ties caught the backing fabric.

I also think that this probable summer quilt was washed many times.

Take a look at the seams.  

They're pretty messy, but not raveling which would

have definitely happened if the top was washed 

after it was taken apart.

That big blob is a piece of a yarn tie.

To see if I could rework these blocks,

I practiced with one block.

I didn't want to handpiece these, so I machine stitched

the block, but hand appliqued  the handles.

4.5" finished

This isn't going to be fast project, but

 might speed up once I get the 14/15 blocks apart.

It's a good outdoor project as it

creates lots of loose threads.

I even got a couple friends to help me

when we met at the park.

Until Next Time-

Kyle