Finally a finish!

Finally, a finished (even delivered to its new owner) project. I don't think I've had one of those in a while. I suppose I could check my past posts to be sure, but I digress. This is what I was working on the last time I posted.  I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to go to the quilt shop to work out my freemotion woes so I planned out a quilting motif of squares, all nice straight lines, and used the quilting foot.  It came out OK, though I don't feel the picture does the runner justice.

I made this runner and placemats set for my good friend Monica.

 She and her hubby invited us to spend a few days with them and their two kids at their family cottage on Lake Manitoba.  We had a marvelous time.  In fact I was so busy having a marvelous time that I forgot to take any pictures of the fun we were having.  My friends who scrapbook would be appalled!  It was wonderful to see her.  I think this visit, at three nights, two days, is the longest we have visited in person in 17 years.  Thanks to regular letter-writing we just picked up where we left off the last time we saw each other 2 years ago.  The husbands even obliged by retiring early one evening so the two of us could catch up till the wee hours (very wee, about 4 am).

Since we were up in Manitoba, we used the opportunity to visit Winnipeg a bit and steep the kids in a little of their Canadian heritage.  This particular area was new to me too.  I've lived in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, and have family in New Brunswick, but all the middle part of Canada is brand new to me.  On the way up to the cottage we stopped in Morden so my husband could meet Bruce at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre:

The hubby loves dinosaurs, and while Bruce the mosasaur is not technically a dinosaur, this prehistoric marine reptile has a head bigger than a T-Rex's.  Bruce was the best I could do without doing way more driving than the kids and I could stomach in our little "purple cramper", as my daughter called our valiant little Neon on day 2 of our drive.

I'm a sucker for living history museums and Parks Canada does a wonderful job with those, so Lower Fort Garry was a must.  We ended up spending most of a day there because we are a curious bunch and ask a lot of questions and look at everything.  The Manitoba Museum was also a big hit, and the kids were fascinated during our tour of the Royal Canadian Mint. 

There was supposed to be a visit to a quilt shop in there too to see if I could bring back some Canadiana prints, but I left it to the end of the visit.  I had found an address for a shop on our way out of town, drove through some construction to get there, and found it closed.  Sigh.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Now we're home again in mid-Iowa, the laundry is done, the fridge is restocked and I have drawn up a list of projects to move along:

1. Astro quilt - all quilted, just needs binding!

2. Mom's table runner and placemats - add borders and quilt

3. Hearts quilt - still quilting, still quilting...

4. Swap blocks quilt - add borders and prairie points then set aside till my freemotion skills improve

5. Leaf quilt - add prairie points and quilt (machine or hand? haven't decided yet)

6. Whimsy - lots of piecing still

I'm off to work on number one.  It's so close to completion!

*Edit*  I forgot to give credit for the runner pattern.  It was inspired by the pattern "Choc-O-Cherry Turnover Treat" by Monica Solorio-Snow over at Moda Bakeshop, but I pieced it entirely differently than she did to avoid cutting a zillion triangles and dealing with the corresponding nmber of bias edges.  The placemat design is all mine.