35 year anniversary gift

Once again, these are pictures off my phone.  They may be blurry because I don't email them as large files.. I'm not sure.  But they are clear enough to get an idea of what went into this quilt.  It started with a text from my sister in law wondering if I had any idea what to get my mom and dad as a gift for the 35th anniversary.  So between her, another sister in law, and my sister, we came up with the idea of making a quilt.  We have a cousin that makes quilts as a business, so we made contact with her and away it went.  The layout is hard to see, but that is what she designed with the what information we gave her: there was 11 grandkids that would draw a picture on a block (the twins used one block), and then 10 kids that would choose a verse or quote which I was to embroider on another 10 squares.  Then we also wanted mom and dad's wedding text on there too.  Then he gave her a few color options, which is the next picture, the material that she came up with.. beautifully matched!

We weren't sure what fabric markers worked best, but these were the winners!

(they are found at walmart!)

So my cousin cut out 6" squares out of white material, for the grandkids drawings.  She had to mail me a package and a package to Alberta.  Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.  My brother had texted me some pics of my niece working on hers but I must have deleted them. Too bad, because they were super cute! 

The square were taped to the table so the fabric didn't move 

So all the kids picked a text, and sent it to me.  I fooled around with different fonts before I found the ones that would work best for small type.  It took alot of time to do that, but also to load them onto the machine, line it all up, cut the threads, remove the stabilizer, etc.  But it was all worth it!!

I posted this picture to show a before and after scenario.  With the embroidery machine, the letters are all connected by thread that can be cut with affecting the stitching.  The top one is complete, the bottom one still has the thread attached.  

Everything is complete!! 

Mom and Dad's wedding text, you can also see that some of the thread hasn't been trimmed. 

The finished quilt.. absolutely BEAUTIFUL. 

I was able to FaceTime my parents as they opened it. It wasn't the same as being there, but I guess it was the next best thing.  All my siblings and nieces/nephews were there at that time so they weren't able to talk much.. But when my mom called later on, and my dad talked to me, he got quite emotional when he was trying to thank me.  That made all the hardwork of organizing, texting, embroidery, etc. worth it :)

Backyard visitors

There are a few perks to living this far north. Wildlife!  When the snow gets deep, wildlife, specifically deer and moose, tend to move into town for food.  Although the snow is not that deep as we have been having very mild temperatures, a cow and calf moose ventured into our yard.  We have seen this couple before, on a walk on the path behind our house.  But to be able to open your living room window, and basically have a moose within arms reach is quite the experience.  I think the closest I got to the cow moose was about 12 feet.  I was on the deck, and the moose was on the lawn, so there was a barrier between us!  Here are a few pictures

They came from the road, and went straight for the back yard.  The first few pics are blurry cuz I got them off my phone.  My battery on my camera was dead of course so I quickly plugged it in, captured what I could on my phone, and when the battery had just enough juice in it to do its job, I used my regular camera.

The mom stayed near the house and ate from this tree, while the baby went farther into the back yard to eat off the smaller bushes

mama heading out to the calf (sorry for the crooked pictures, I was too lazy to fix them!)

calf

cow in front of calf 

this is when I was only 12 feet away.   

Mama left before the calf was done eating.  When she realized that mama was gone, she started calling for her.. The girls also heard it.  What an amazing sound!! 

Great fun!