It’s really cold here in Toronto right now, so I thought I would try to warm every one up with some blanket talk. (Lies, it’s actually 32 right now and not going below 30 for the next five days. Barf!)
I had another adventure in quilting the past few weeks, which I totally enjoyed until the very end when I wanted to rip it to shreds.
Congratulations to Christine and John and big sister Margot on the arrival of little Cole! I made him this floor quilt- in the hopes that he uses it for tummy time.
It looks way better in the dark! It looks really good lit by candles after a few glasses of wine. Not sure if this photo is doing it justice, but it’s kind of got that “so ugly it’s beautiful” thing happening. And so lumpy! Why? It gave me such pains during the machine quilting process. My heart decided that I should put 3 layers of polar fleece (my batting of choice) in between to make it extra cushiony for the precious little human. My brain didn’t rationalize how difficult it would be to quilt the extra thickness without a walking foot so anyway as the pressure foot pushed as it’s supposed to do, it ultimately created lots of bunchy lumps. Oh well. Each lump is like a tiny pillow for a little head.
I put a special tag on, because it needed a little pizazz. And if it’s high end then I can get away with anything. I have been using a lot of men’s shirts lately, so I happened to have this gem on hand.
Ha!
Dom and Loenne and I went to Black Creek Pioneer Village on Canada Day, which was a dream come true for me. If you know me, you know that I love pioneers. Everything about them! I wish I had some other nerds to start a pioneer club with. Pioneer Village is basically a pioneer town with fake pioneers going about their business.
It was a really nice day. We lounged in the shade and munched on 100 year old candy, that we bought with some eggs our hens had layed that morning. We were dressed in our Sunday best, no less. There were a couple special Canada Day activities like a citizenship ceremony for 30 new Canadians going on in the backround, which was very patriot making, and 19th century lawn games such as croquet, badminton, and stilt walking. Everyone was looking like fools trying their hand at the stilts, and my manly husband was like “watch this” and he sauntered over and grabbed a pair and strutted all over the field like a champ! What a nerd! I nearly choked when he hobbled on over and stilted up a stair onto the deck where Loenne and I were lounging. Clomp, clomp, clomp. And it was his first time, yeah right! He probably brought stilts with him along with his devil sticks to all those Lollapalooza festivals and Phish concerts he used to frequent in the 90′s. He’s gonna kill me for writing that because he is so not one of those guys.
Speaking of blankets, I noticed a few lovely woven cotton ones in the Village. The first is a bed in the pioneer house, and the second is the wall in the weaving establishment. I would love to have one of these on my bed in the summer!
makes a girl want to take up weaving
So I hope you’re feeling nice and cozy now, ready to cuddle up by the fire with a nice blanket and perhaps a well worn copy of Anne of Green Gables. If you’re into that, maybe you and I should start a club. . .
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Back in the 80s, my friend Grant got us all to cut the designer tags out of clothes we weren’t wearing anymore, and along with a bunch of other tags he got from Value Village and Goodwill, he made a jacket covered in dozens of tags like the one on that quilt.
Wasn’t that a trend in the 80′s? There was that brand Ikeda that used to put collages of labels on everything. I remember I had a white blouse with labels all down the placket that I used to wear with a little acid wash jumper. Super rad.