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Monday, October 8, 2007

Thanksgiving

I've been knitting the soon-to-be-felted backpack all day (when not preparing a full turkey dinner). I looked online to see if I could find any tips on making a needlefelted pumpkin and came across a blog that had a great recipe for an apple crisp. Silly me, though; instead of apples, I used pears. Pears are much moister than apples. It ended like most of my adventures in baking.
It's not exactly a crisp, as much as a soft. My own fault though. I used to do the same thing that aniexma used to do - sprinkle the topping rather than pressing it, so the juices cook the topping. Her blog name is Madly Off in All Directions...I thought she must be a Canadian by the blog's name.
I still haven't found any tips on making a needlefelted pumpkin. I just don't know if you're supposed to work around a base or not. Back to searching....

Sunday, October 7, 2007

I bought MORE books!

You just wouldn't think it's possible for me to want to buy more books. My catalogue on Librarything right now stands at 318 books, and I'm nowhere near done cataloguing. So... what did I do yesterday? Found a $30 gift certificate from Chapters, and headed out to buy yet more books. To be fair, I spent most of it in the cheaper section, but I did get a cool book on felting called, not surprisingly, Felt It! by Maggie Pace of Pick Up Sticks. There's a cool little backpack I want to make, because sometimes I just don't want to carry around a purse. Plus - since I now have the embellishing machine, I want to use it on something I've made myself. I'm going to make an effort to talk more about new books/sites/blogs/techniques I come across, because there's a HUGE amount of great information on fibrearts out there!
I don't think I posted this picture of a coffee cozy I made for one of the co-op students at work. She's such a sweet girl, and is a Barrista at Starbuck's. She's shared with me some of the coffee she gets, and Starbuck's gets their money's worth from it - believe me!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Saturday at last

I lost a very long post, and now am ticked.
Hitting save didn't seem to work, and the claims that Blogger save drafts automatically just doesn't seem to be entirely accurate...I waxed poetic about this morning's thunderstorm, which seems to be more or less over. It was rain that was sorely needed here.

I've updated my classes, as I've firmed up a lecture and class with the Niagara Heritage Quilters' Guild for March. I didn't propose any classes to shops this season, as I knew I'd be too busy with the 2 night classes I'm taking. I'm very glad I backed off teaching a bit, but I really do miss it. I just love the interaction with participants, and I especially love what I learn from them! Perhaps in the spring I can get back to it in earnest.

I've added slideshows from Karen Harrison's and Susan Kraftcheck's webshots albums of the Rankin Quilt Show, organized by Val Champ to raise funds for their community Centre. I had Pomegranates and Lemons, along with Jane Asea in the show. I get to see Val on Friday as she drives to Shipshewana for a retreat with other Janiacs next weekend. Since my office is a stone's throw from the 401, I've enticed her with a Starbuck's visit and she'll return my quilts then. I was sad I wasn't able to get up to the show, but see the paragraph above for the reason...

I ordered some lovely fabrics from Hancock's of Paducah, and they arrived yesterday! They included a catalogue, which is much harder to ignore than web pages. With the Canadian dollar even higher than the USD right now, it's definitely a good deal. I did check around the LQSs I love before ordering the fabric I was looking for. I support my LQSs like I do any good candy store, but I admit I am very pleased with the quality, speed and prices at Hancock's.

Off to Chapters now, to see if the latest Quilter's Home is in. It's a great READ, which is why I buy it. I love Mark, and his magazine is a reflection of his humour.