Sigh

Doesn't that look fantastic? It was the lovely view from our room on the weekend. Hubby and I had a romantic weekend planned, sans kids. A day of skiing, some spa time, a book, a few extravagant meals, and sleeping in. I mentioned that the kids weren't with us, right?

We arrived at Lake Louise, rented our skis, bought our lift tickets, and took a warm-up run. On our second run I had a freakish, lame but spectacular wipeout. It's hard to fully describe, but suffice it to say that it involved my ski edge getting caught on something invisible, the splits, a face plant, and some somersaults. Then it involved a trip to the ER, X-Rays, a knee brace or two, crutches, and lots of ice.

Needless to say, with a handful of torn ligaments, one of which will likely require surgery, there won't be much quilting going on in the coming weeks. There isn't even that much walking going on.

Colour Everywhere

It's the depths of winter here.  Okay, it should be, but we are having a warm break and thaw.  I refuse to get too comfortable, because I know winter is going to return with a harsh slap in the face any day now. With the colour blocks I'm working on I find myself returning to and finding new, colour-focused posts and pictures. I thought I would share another round of inspirational links with you.

For one of the most comprehensive free posts explaining the basics of colour and how it can be used to best effect for us quilters I love this colour tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh Fransson. 

What colour are you? I loved this recent post from Victoria where she asked her readers what colour they think they are. I actually had to stop and think about it. My first thoughts go to red because that is, without a doubt, my favourite colour. But if you look at my stash I have more greens and blues that any other fabric. When it comes down to it though orange is the colour I first go to and the one I surround myself with. I am an orange.

If you dye your own fabric you probably have a good understanding of colour and the colour wheel. Even if you don't dye then it still helps to have a detailed understanding of colour theory. In this post you can get into some of the nitty gritty details of different colour theories. It's perfect for colour geeks like me.

Color Mastery author Maria Peagler has a great slidecast tutorial on creating a colour wheel from your own stash.  She is worth listening to as she has some great ideas on personalizing it for your own stash and taste. And since finding this post I feel the need to burn the credit card on her book and this one too. Did I mention that I was a colour geek?

Now, what about some real-life inspiration? I've come across many version of colour wheel quilts, coin quilts in rainbow shades, and so many perfect examples of different fabric combinations. You can always do your own browsing through Flickr. Here are some of my favourites.

Spot On by Red Pepper Quilts

Crazy Colorful Circles Colliding Create a Chaotic Constellation by quiltedoma

Palette is not a quilt, per se, but a photo collage by jakerome

Color Swirls by jgmehlin

Hubby and I are off for a weekend of ski and spa.  I'm sure I'll come back with tonnes of white and grey inspiration after all this colour talk.

Soup Kind of Days

Nothing particularly bad has happened in our little house lately - unless you count completely forgetting to give my mother-in-law her Christmas present. Thankfully she's forgiven us and we've promised her a CSA membership. And just in time because she offered us a weekend sans kids for skiing and relaxing as our Christmas present. Hubby and I are escaping to Banff this weekend while Grandma and her girls have some serious bonding time.

Sadly, she won't be serving soup. Well, she can grab some but good luck trying to get the girls to eat it. No Borscht, no Chicken Noodle, not even Mama's Tomato Soup. I have no idea what their issue is with soup. From 9 months on they've insisted on feeding themselves and even The Monster hasn't mastered her knife or spoon skills. That might be it, but heaven forbid you try to feed them!

Soup is my go-to meal for a bad day, for providing a meal to a sad friend or new mom, for bread day from Aviv, and for the days that I feel fat or cold. Maybe because toddlers and preschoolers don't have days like those that's why they don't like soup.

Tomato, Bacon, and Blue Soup

Makes 7-8 cups

4 slices bacon (not maple flavoured)

1 small onion

1 garlic clove

2 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)

2 cups water or stock

1 bay leaf

3 ounces blue cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream or whole milk

1. Chop bacon cross-wise. Saute in pan on medium-high heat until just starting to crisp up. Remove 2 tablespoons cooked bacon and reserve for garnish. Pour off almost all the grease left in the pan.

2. While bacon is cooking finely chop onion and garlic. When bacon is cooked add the onion and garlic to the pan. Saute until the onions are soft.

3. Add tomatoes with liquid. Stir in water or stock and bay leaf. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

4. Puree with an immersion blender, food processor, or in a blender. Be careful when blending hot liquids.

5. Stir in blue cheese and cream/milk. Season well.

6. Garnish with reserved bacon and crumbled blue cheese, if desired.

Quilt Along Week 7 - All Done

I'm done! For a while I was calling this quilt Pinstripes, but after finishing it and seeing that it doesn't match my original concept I am simply calling it Gratitude II. When I say it doesn't match my original concept, I mean that it is busier than expected and has less of the subtlety that my Pinstripe suit inspiration.  I still like it and I know it will be quite cosy in our eventual finished basement.

The back is a simple mix of three of my favourite yellows. Arcadia, a Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope, and this fantastic yellow and grey leaf pattern whose name escapes me. I'm going to get a label on there eventually, using the scraps from the front strips to frame it.  I promise I'll share it when I do complete it.

The binding was an Amy Butler Midwest Modern.  I used a few of her prints on the front, so I knew that the binding would be perfect.  It was nice to use such a soft print to finish it off. I didn't want to use a blue print, as would be expected, because I thought they were standing out quite a bit already.

 
Finally, the quilting. Particularly because the top ended up rather busy, whatever I did for quilting was just going to get lost.  So I went with the loopy quilting found here instead of stippling.  And honestly, why wouldn't you?  Loopy is so much easier than stippling. It's fast and perfectly contrasts the angles of the design.

Thank-you so much for your support in this Quilt Along. I'll admit, I'd hoped more of you would participate after such a good response to Gratitude.  Then again, there was the little break life brought our family. And when I did re-start this?  Just before Christmas?  Not my smartest move. But I am so pleased with the results I've seen from those of you that have participated.

Over on Flickr, baileygirl_5 posted her fabric choices and the beginning of her strip sets. I love where she is going with this, using darks as her background and lights as her accents.  Nice twist!

Elle in Da Coop is an old quilting friend and she was inspired to tackle another project on her always growing list.  Look what picking similar colours to mine can do when you make the background pieces just a little more subdued. Browse around her December posts to see what she also did on the back and with all the leftover pieces. Fantastic!

And while there are a few more that have picked fabric or cut fabric, here is another set of blocks that have been started.  Diane at Life Scraps used a few of the same fabrics which I used, but with a totally different effect.

If you come back to this at some point in the future, be sure to let me know, I would love to see what you create. Thanks for Quilting Along with me!