Catching Up

Since we've been back in Canada we seem to be "catching up" with our friends all over the place! The last few weeks have been a diary full of dinners, visits and "popping up to college".

We enjoyed a beautiful meal at Soohwan's during our first week, before she flew back to Japan and South Korea to visit family and friends. Soohwan made yummy bread and raspberry bars for dessert. All of us (McLellans, Claire, April, and Holly) had a great time.

Later that week, our friend Jodie had her first baby. She was in labour for FOUR days and had to have an emergency C-section in the end. Wes, her husband, says she was really worried later that she had been rude to the anaesthatist - even though she had spoken politely and thanked him as he'd left! Another example of Canadians being thoroughly nice! Here is the beautiful Smith family (Wes, Jodie, and 2-day-old Synova Josephine) when Bronwyn and some others visited them in the hospital.

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for Cora, daughter of our friends David & Megan. Cora was turning one so she had fun eating cake, tasting her first hotdog, discovering presents, and generally being the centre of attention. We are told Cora also took her first steps after the guests had left!

On Tuesday we had dinner at Claire's, along with April and Sheila (Claire's house-mate), where we planned our upcoming trip to Vancouver Island. You'll be sure to see more about this in a later post!

We also have had time to catch up with Esther, Ben & Jen, Leonard, Susannah (thanks for the dahlias), the Yeohs, and the Lims at various times. We'll be seeing plenty of others soon too.

Our most recent visitor has the honour of being our first non-Vancouverite visitor. Nathan's second cousin, Rebekah(Bex) Murch, was staying with a friend in the city and came out to spend yesterday with us. She has been nannying in south London in the past year, and spent her summer as a camp counsellor in a christian camp near Chicago. We took her out to visit Jericho and Locarno Beaches for an iceblock/ice lolly/ice stick, and had long chats about family and the joys of being New Zealanders in other cultures (e.g. the difference between UK and NZ marmites).

The (Long) Story of a Handmade Quilt

Towards the end of our first semester in Vancouver I (Bronwyn) took a study break and wandered up to visit the (dangerously tempting) quilt shop nearby. After rummaging through the remnant bins I left the shop with $20-worth of various flannelette off-cuts and the beginnings of a plan to make a quilt!

Due to lack of a sewing machine, my idea was to hand-sew a lap quilt from these scraps so I could use it to keep warm when I sit and study. Nathan has encouraged me to document the quilt-making process so you can all vicariously share its warmth. So here goes...

After washing and drying all the fabric (so it won't shrink if washed in the future) I cut hundreds of 2.5 inch squares from it.

Then I tacked (used big stitches to secure) the fabric squares around a paper template - in my case some 2 inch square post-it notes!

When all my remnants (plus a few from my friend, Holly) were converted to 284 little stiff squares my desk wasn't really conducive to much study anymore. The squares were set aside until the end of the semester!

When I picked them up again, I spread the squares randomly on the floor and decided I needed a background fabric. From there, I manoeuvred the squares into a checkerboard formation with a large feature square at each corner. I then recorded this pattern on a piece of paper to maintain the "random" placement of colours.

With Holly, I hunted in fabric stores across Vancouver for a background colour to blend in with the existing fabric. I think we walked 5km that day and bussed a fair few more! The expedition was ultimately successful, as we found the perfect solution at a bargain fabric shop after a tip from a teenage boy on one of the buses. He didn't look like the type who quilted!

283 khaki-striped squares tacked to post-its later, we were back in NZ. I was ready to start sewing the pieces together! This involved putting the right sides of two tacked squares facing each other. Then I sewed along one side of the squares, joining them by catching together just the fabrics (not the paper inside) with my needle and thread. When folded open the squares were joined. Another square was put right side to one of the joined squares, and another seam sewn. When each square was completely surrounded by other squares, the tacking stitches were removed and the paper pulled out.

As our months in Wellington passed, in between teaching jobs and socialising, the joined squares came to resemble the pattern I had noted on paper back in Vancouver. Technically I was only doing the patchwork - joining the patches together. By the end of June, with the addition of a strip of background fabric on each side, the patchworked quilt top was finished. That was a good feeling!

A further shopping expedition resulted in the purchase of some batting (the fluffy polyester filling) and a large piece of black flannelette for the reverse side of the quilt. Here you can see the white batting overhanging from the edge of my quilt.

Quilting is the act of binding the three layers (top, batting, and backing) together. Initially this is also done with long tacking stitches, just to hold the layers together while a more intricate pattern is stitched. I chose to stitch a circle around each of the coloured squares, not the background fabric ones - I'm not a glutton for punishment! Here you can see the white paper circle I pinned on to guide my stitches.

It was easier to stitch when the layers of fabric and batting were taut, so I used a giant embroidery hoop to hold them in place. I got pretty fast at completing each circle - I think about 8 minutes was my best time. It was a good activity to have while we had long conversations with our parents in Palmerston North and Feilding during July. I had hoped to have finished this stage by the time we left NZ but I didn't quite make it. With less than 20 circles to quilt, it was packed in our suitcase again.

Back in Vancouver the summer weather put me off for a few days. It sure gets warm under a quilt when you're sewing! When I'd acclimatised, I finished the circles and began sewing some satin blanket ribbon around the edge of the quilt, still binding the layers together. Here you can see the post-it note I used as a guide to try to keep the border an even width.


Eventually, the quilt was quilted and the satin binding was attached. At last the tacking threads that had initially bound the layers of the quilt together were removed.



The next step was to cut off the excess batting and backing fabric.

Then I folded the ribbon over the raw edges and attached it to the back of the quilt, trying to hide any unsightly stitches!


Here is a picture of a corner, showing some detail of the more decorative circle stitching on the feature square, as well as the ribbon binding.




Nathan insisted on taking a picture of the very last stitch!




Of course, a quilt isn't finished until it is signed and dated. Again you can see the decorative quilting in the corner.

And here is the well-travelled finished product out in the summer sunshine in our Vancouver backyard. Now the quilt is neatly folded up on our couch, waiting for some cooler weather to prompt me to snuggle up in its warmth. If you've managed to read the whole of this blog-post, you'll be feeling some of the relief I felt at finally finishing my project!

The only problem is that now Nathan is wanting me to finish the first quilt project I started... perhaps when a study break is needed... you know, quilts do fly!

Celebrations Galore

Our visit 'home' to NZ is now over and we are back 'home' in Vancouver. The last two months of our stay seemed to fly past, yet so much happened.

June saw us continue working (Nathan at Treasury and Bronwyn relieving at various schools in the Tawa area). That filled in most of our time, but we managed to squeeze in some TV (which we don't have in Vancouver - too distracting!), some quilting, some visiting of friends, and visiting of churches (in Tawa, Johnsonville, Feilding, Palmerston North, and Linton).

We also had the chance to meet with two lovely couples to talk about Regent College. Lex & Barb have done summer courses before, and are thinking about bringing their family over to Vancouver for fulltime study. John & Jenny were just 'testing the water' before John headed over for a summer course in July. We hope both John & Lex were blessed in their recent courses.

The highlight of the month was the engagement of Nathan's brother, Alastair, to Kim. We were staying with them at the time, and got to vicariously relive the excitement of being newly-engaged. We'd forgotten how much happens in those first few weeks! The engagement party in July was a time for the McLellans and Beauchamps to celebrate together. We trust all the wedding preparations are continuing smoothly, Al & Kim.

We finished working at the end of June, and spent July with our parents. This involved a lot of lovingly 'mum-cooked' food, cups of tea, and conversation, with a small sprinkle of exercise (walking with Nath's parents, and digging out the carport base with Bron's parents). Needless to say, our clothes fit a little more snugly now, and our regular walks to the local beach are far more necessary!

Bronwyn also celebrated her birthday in July with more food (dinner and afternoon tea) and various family members. Her Vancouver friends even sent her a birthday card with lots of lovely messages. Now birthday blessings reach around the world!

Nathan preached at two services at St Columba's, Linton. His messages, based on the 'River of Life' (Ezek 47 & Rev 22), gave him a chance to put some of his recent learning into practice, and both were well-received by the congregation.

One reason behind our stay in NZ was Nath's dad's health. While we were there, Ian received a report saying his cancer had been cleared. There was much rejoicing in the McLellan clan again! This culminated in a thanksgiving service on the last weekend of July. Friends and family from all around the country descended upon St Columba's (where extra chairs were needed to seat everyone) to join Ian in offering God thanks for his healing, the many answered prayers, and the comfort of many who shared the journey. It was a very special time, and an opportunity for Christian witness that Ian did not pass up!

We left NZ on August 1st, with the maximum baggage limit once again. How we'll ever get all this stuff back to NZ at the end of our time here is still a mystery! No doubt the suitcase of Kiwi consumables (pineapple lumps, biscuits, honey, NZ keepsakes to give away, etc.) will lighten the eventual load a little. We're well-stocked until the next trip anyway.