My diamond quilt

When I was at the quilt show in Ottawa last May, I bought an assortment of Japanese butterfly and dragonfly fabrics from Kallisti Quilts. I ended up having to buy more fabric for the border off of her website: http://www.kallistiquilts.com/ - she has a great selection - check it out.

I wanted to make a quilt using all of these fabrics together and came up with this diamond design - only problem was that when i finished piecing the top it WASN'T SQUARE - by A LOT!!! So, instead of crying, I mounted it on my frame and just kept tugging at the sides as I quilted it - it really is amazing how you can "Quilt it out". It's almost perfectly squared now!

Saying goodbye to a friend

It's been a hard week in the Baker household. Our good friend Steve Armstrong passed away suddenly last week of an aneurysm - he would have been 45 last Friday. He and my husband Mike have been friends since grade 2 - over 37 years. I've been his friend since I met Mike - 20 years ago. He was an usher at our wedding, and gave the most hilarious toast to the bride EVER. We travelled to Cancun with him for a week's vacation a couple years after we got married, and when our area was hit with the big Ice Storm of 1998, Mike, our dog Casey and I moved in with Steve for 5 days as he had a gas furnace and therefore had heat AND hot water for showers. Steve never married, or had kids, so for the last 10 years or so we would only see him sporadically, but he could always make me laugh so hard that I would think my sides would burst. I just realized today that he is the first friend that I have ever had die. We've had lots of family members pass away and family members of friends, but he was the very first "friend" that we have lost - and I just can't believe that he is gone. Today was the visitation at the funeral home - i couldn't look at the open casket - I didn't want to remember him that way. I will remember him with these pictures and all of the funny things we all did together. Goodbye our friend - love Mike and Christine.

Winter Warm-Ups

New pattern number two is finally ready and now available on my website.

"Winter Warm-Ups" features a snow globe, fuzzy mittens and a nice warm mug of hot chocolate. What fun it was to do applique with batiks! I'll be dipping into my stash again - SOON!

Sunny Days of Summer

My newest pattern is FINALLY published and available on my website http://www.fairfieldroaddesigns.com/ .
Here it is... "Sunny Days of Summer".

Have a peek at the back...

I was so impressed by the back of Cathy's quilt that I just HAD to take a picture of it. The fabric is actually light yellow with white polka-dots. This picture makes me want to make a whole cloth quilt. Maybe someday...

A Beautiful String Quilt

My latest machine quilting involved this lovely quilt made by Cathy Wood. Although Cathy says it was "totally out of the box" for her, I think it turned out just beautifully. I used one of my favourite quilting designs - this great echoed flower design! The fabrics were just perfect for it.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!!!!

Wow - how did that happen???????

Long haired boy

Aidan has decided to not cut his hair - for awhile now. As you can see from this picture, he could be easily mistaken for a girl (and has had that happen a few times now). But I still love this picture - he looks so happy, a boy and his dog. Today is Willows 1st birthday! Happy Birthday Willow!

An anniversary too!

Last Tuesday was also my Mom and Dad's 42nd anniversary. To celebrate both occasions we all went out for dinner. While there Mom presented Carson with his birthday present - a new quilt for his bed! He just loves it - and tells me so EVERY night when he crawls in under it. Thanks Grandma!

Happy Birthday Carson!!

Carson's 9th birthday was last Tuesday. I can't believe that my "baby" is NINE YEARS OLD! But he was so happy with his presents and VERY excited that we had a huge SNOWSTORM on his birthday - that has NEVER happened before. It wasn't enough snow to cancel the buses, but it was exciting anyway.