Quitls and Cushions

Last winter when I was not able to work and it was too cold to be outside I began working on various sewing projects, some with the thought of having children in the future (I will post some of those later). One was a New Zealand ABC quilt. When my nephew in NZ saw it he said "Aunty, can you make me a blanky like that". Well, I thought seeing as I had extra fabric I would love to do that for him. And then began the projects as then I wanted to make one for each of the NZ nieces and nephews.

This was the first one I made for Curtis, he loves Lego and these were the colours that I had. 

The circles are fabric yoyos
with batting in them and
sewn upside down. Because
they stick up I could only
quilt around the outside
edge and then sew around
the individual rectangles.

When looking in the local sewing shop I saw a panel hanging on a wall. Thinking it looked familiar I saw that it was in fact the NZ emergency vehicles. So after much thought decided that it would be less work to use a panel and that it would work well for Zeth.

Then for the girls, I started with a simple tri-coloured square pattern for Emily.

For Leira I worked out a pattern that would work with the amount of fabric I had left and added the brown which was left over from a project I did for a friend. The quilting pattern took away from it a bit but the flowers in the centre and corners are embroidered.



We wanted to get the quilts to the children for Christmas, and so decided to post them as there are no plans for anyone coming to take them back. So I had a deadline and that meant hand quilting would take way to long. I was able to use a long-arm quilting machine at the sewing shop which was fun to learn to use.

One day when some of our Canadian nieces and nephew were visiting, one of the girls asked if I could make her one too. I told her that I was doing them for the NZ nieces and nephews because I don't get to visit them and wanted them to know we think of them. She told me that she would rather have me spend time with them than have a quilt. I thought that was pretty special and when I was not able to do much due to being sick with pregnancy I began work on a project for the Canadian nieces and nephews. The first three cushions are made with what I had left over from other projects.

I got to the point where sewing was too much for me and so Davis' Mom taught me to knit. Then I got an idea, why not knit cushions for our other niece and nephews. Well, that was sure a trickier job than I had thought but this was the finished project.

Growing Family

Here is a picture of the youngest member of our family whom we shall call Penguin till the day we get to met and hold him/her. We expect Penguin to join us in this cold world (I say cold as we got out first real snow fall today and it will almost certainly still be white when Penguin is born) in March.

This past week has been exciting with feeling movement for the first time and getting to see Penguin in the ultrasound.

We are thankful for the blessing of new life and for all the ways in which God is already teaching us through this little one. I am already learning a lot about patience, trusting and depending on God for each day. We are aware that life is going to change (already has really) once Penguin joins us and will be trusting God for strength and wisdom to raise this little one for His glory.

Visiting in Jasper

In November we had planned to make a trip to Jasper to visit Davis' Grandma Nickel but the weather was not suitable to travelling. We got something like 15 cm of snow that weekend and there was also freezing rain. A combination that does not make for good roads.

With Davis' work being closed over Christmas-New Year we planned to head off again. And this time we had good weather, even if it was rather cold. We forgot our camera so Davis' phone had to suffice in trying to capture the beauty of that area.

The price of gas was good for a road trip also!

Us with Grandma Nickel, she is 92.

Taken from standing on Lac Beauvert.
They were frozen enough for walking or skating on
but we decided the wind was too cold for skating.

Athabasca Falls - partially frozen

On the last section going into Jasper I was commenting on how it almost felt like I was back in NZ, narrow road with corners, mountains, water and there was even a section with sand. But the snow falling then a herd of elk on the side of the road quickly changed that perception. The road was to busy to stop for a photo but on the way out we saw a group of bull elk which we were able to stop to admire.

Two of the four bull elk.

A Coyote that ran beside us nicely for the photo.

While in Jasper we had our third Christmas dinner with Grandma and Davis' Uncle Roy's family. It was an enjoayble time and it was so lovely to meet Grandma Nickel and some others from Davis' family. 

We were very thankful for good roads as one never knows what you will get at this time of a year. I will end with two sets of pictures taken two days after we got back.

Photos are taken 24 hours apart.

By the end of the day
over 30cm of snow had fallen.