Pages

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Car-free no more!

After nearly nine years of living car-free (with the help of our Co-operative Auto Network membership), we finally bit the bullet and bought a car! We are now the proud owners of a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid!

The obligatory cheesy shot as Dean accepts his first ever set of car keys

A brief history of my car ownership:
1995: I bought my first car, a 1991 Toyota Tercel that served me well through university.
2001: I became a member of CAN, Vancouver's car sharing network
2002: We said goodbye to the Tercel in favour of living car-free
2007: Sophie was born and we kept on living car-free
October 26, 2010: Hello Honda Civic!

Our car! (sorry, we picked it up at night, so the photos aren't great)

By daylight (photo credit: Pacific Honda)

I have to admit, as an environmentalist, I've been quite proud to go almost a decade car-free. I've expanded my walking radius, gotten to know the bus system extremely well, commuted by bike, and I've been a loyal CAN member. I even wrote about our car-free lifestyle for Blog Action Day 2009. So, it's a little humbling to have to say, "I'm a car owner." However, I'm proud to say I stood by my 2001 pledge to Honda written during the heady, idealistic days of my early twenties: 
"I have pledged to never buy another solely gas powered car."

Why the need for a car, you ask? Let's see if you can figure it out...


Yes! We're expecting our second child in the spring! We're thrilled that Sophie is going to be a big sister. We have decided that the transition to a family of four necessitates the transition to a car-owning family. We'll still keep our CAN membership for those cases when we could use a van or a truck. Dean will still commute to work on his bike and we'll never give up transit, walking and cycling. But, frankly, this environmentalist stay-at-home-mom is pretty darn excited about the freedom that our new car promises! Any suggestions for our first road trip?



Friday, October 22, 2010

October VMQG recap - membership cards, pumpkins & selfless photographers

As of October 21, 2010, I am now a card-carrying member of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! We had our October meeting last night and welcomed our first official members. Thirty members paid their dues - hooray! Another reason this meeting was a momentous occasion was that it was the first VMQG meeting I didn't chair. I sat back, relaxed, and let our new president Kalin take the reins. She was organized and kept us on track and efficiently got through the important guild business so we could have lots of show and tell time. Thank you, Kalin!

Kalin at work

We started by sharing our Halloween blocks. I liked this little paper-pieced pumpkin that I whipped up yesterday afternoon (yes, I'm a terrible procrastinator!). To the person who won my pumpkin, I'm sorry that it's six inches rather than six and a half! I hope you can add a little extra sashing!

 Show and tell, as usual, was the highlight of the evening. This was Arita's wonky Halloween houses quilt. I took a few quick photos, but many more will be available soon on our Flickr group

 Paul's monkey quilt created from our very first challenge blocks.

 Paul always has creative ideas for the back of his quilts! Thanks to Anna and Terry for being our quilt holders last night!

 Sonja, our amazing photographer, is also a talented pattern designer. Here she is showing off her Chuck Wolfman block.

And here she is, showing her dedication to "getting the shot" and her complete disregard for her physical comfort. What a pro!

I'm already looking forward to our next meeting!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

October Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

It's nearly time for the next meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! Looking forward to seeing you at Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge from 7-9pm on Thursday, October 21st!

I'm excited to officially become a member of the VMQG (don't forget your dues!), see all the Halloween challenge blocks, and, of course, admire the many beautiful quilts at show and tell!

p.s. Check out our brand new VMQG logo, designed by the amazing Cynthia Frenette of greencouchdesigns.com. Thank you, Cynthia!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

I love my bike!

Isn't this the perfect button? My sister surprised me with it this week and I love it! If you, too, love your bike, you can pick up your own button, plus oodles of fresh local produce at one of the Vancouver Farmer's Markets like the Kitsilano Market (today at the Kits Community Centre parking lot from 10am-2pm). I love riding my bike to the market and taking advantage of the bike valet!

Art by Jane Koo

The "I Love My Bike" button was designed by the very talented Jane Koo, who created this year's amazing poster for the Farmer's Markets.

Friday, September 3, 2010

My proposal story

Minutes before our fateful dive (Dean had no idea what he was in for!)
September 3, 2001

Nine years ago today, I asked Dean to marry me while SCUBA diving in the Pacific Ocean. I haven't told this story on my nearly-two-year-old blog, so I thought today would be an appropriate day to share. 

In 2001, Dean and I had been dating for eight years, I had graduated from SFU with my degree in Biology and I was working as a naturalist at the Vancouver Aquarium. I was ready to take the next step, so I took matters into my own hands. We went for a dive off of Ogden Point in Victoria and after seeing a variety of amazing marine life, I wrote "Will you marry me?" on my dive slate. I can still remember how Dean's blue eyes widened in surprise as I showed him the slate and then popped open a box with a dive watch inside. All he could do was signal, "OK!"


We came back to the surface and shared our news with our parents, who happened to be there to "watch us dive". We assured them that the wedding would be held on dry land, and everyone was happy!

The happy couple with dive watch and proposal slate

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Announcing the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild



There's a new Canadian Modern Quilt Guild! I'm excited to announce that the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild is getting started! They have a brand new website and are looking for members! 

The FVMQG is being organized by the amazing duo of Cynthia Frenette and Lysa Mair. I'll let Cynthia introduce the group in her own words:

I had joined the Vancouver Modern Quilt Group and met my new pal Lysa thanks to the thoughtful Van group's organizer and hitched a ride with her in to one of the meetings one night. We soon discovered that the drive to the city in total being longer than the actual meeting itself, while it was fabulous in every way and we loved being part of it, was not really that easy for us to get to each month. So after a few chats, we decided to start a Fraser Valley group to make it more accessible for those like-minded quilters out this way.

We hope you'll join and share the love of modern quilting with us and fellow Valley modern quilters! We hope to make this group accessible and fun for everyone at all levels of modern quilting, whether you're a beginner, a master, a teacher, or anything in between, and will look forward to being part of a great Valley group! We also plan to stay in affiliation with the Vancouver Group, perhaps with intergroup challenges or meetings, the sky's the limit! Won't you join us? And please feel free to share suggestions, ideas, links, activities, anything to help get our new group growing and sharing.

As of yet, this group is just getting going, so they don't have their first meeting posted yet. I believe they're planning to hold meetings in Abbotsford. If you're a modern quilter in the valley, please check out the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Ringle and Kerr have a new book coming this fall

Have you heard about "Quilts Made Modern"? Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, who wrote the popular book "The Modern Quilt Workshop" and others about colour theory, have written a new book that's coming out in December 2010. I read a sneak peek post on Week's blog and was happily surprised. I hadn't heard about this book on any of my other quilting blogs, so I thought it might be news to some of my readers. In Week's words:

It’s a big book. It’s 160 pages of quilting A to Z. There are 10 never-before-seen patterns using a wide variety of techniques. In addition to pieced quilts, we show you how to tackle hand applique as well as machine applique. There are designs for solids as well as those for large-scale prints.

I am drawn to the skinny coin quilt on the cover and I look forward to seeing more new quilt patterns from this talented team!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails