Comic books and Quilts

I only have time for a quick post and photo! I am so tired, such a busy week! I don't usually post about work, but here it is:

We've been getting ready for Free Comic Book Day, Saturday, May 5th. We've been cleaning, stamping books, sending out press releases, advertising,etc. ( I am going to be on our local cable station again! woohoo! The tv people came to the store to tape on Thursday) This is an annual event that happens at almost all comic book stores across North America. If you have any children, or nieces or nephews, you should find the nearest comic book store (the website has a comic shop locator service so you can find the one nearest you!) and take them out for a treat! At our store, we will be giving away over 1000 comic books that are specially made for this event, and there are a lot to choose from for all ages. I recommend you visit the Free Comic Book Day website to check it out. We think it is awesome! We have a lot of fun doing it! You can see photos of past events on our store blog using the flikr badge at the side.

Oh yeah, here's a quilty photo, I am making great progress on the robyn pandolph wallhanging! I tried a new thing, reverse applique, see the applique heart. The first half I did, really sucked, but I thought I would perservere through the second half and it looked great. But then I had to take apart the first half and redo it. I had to trim it a bit so that hole is a little bigger than the first, but it still looks decent.


Tomorrow: Stitch n Bitch! Sunday: Executive Meeting AM, Staff Meeting PM, Monday: CA Meeting PM,Tuesday: Orders due, Wednesday: New Comic day, Thursday: Guild Executive Meeting PM, Friday: FCBD set up at store PM, Sat: FreeComicBookDay!!!!! Sunday: a day of rest!!!!

A Perfect Weekend!

Finally, spring has arrived! In fact I think it skipped on to summer. Sunny and warm all weekend long! 22 degrees Celcius, absolutely gorgeous! I dragged my patio furniture from the basement, we barbecued hamburgers for dinner. I raked and cleaned up the garden. Went to Home Depot bought mulch for the garden, the only flowers for sale, though, are these little pansies:

I did divide some of my hostas and moved a clematis. It is really too early to do any major planting, we could still get frost. Rule of thumb, here, is to wait until Mother's Day or Victoria Day weekend (around May 24) for the first real planting. It's a little weird though, felt like summer, but not a single tree has any leaves yet!

Old Spike doesn't mind though!


I did manage a little work on my Robyn Pandolph applique this week. I was getting all psyched up to take this work to a Stitch 'n Bitch next weekend, so I was pulling out everything I needed, when I just started working on it, anyway.


I am still having trouble with a nice sharp point. It's a good thing they're hidden under the centre circle.


I've picked up a few new quilting magazines: Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, Quilting Arts and $100,000 Quilting Challenge. I am so inspired by all of them. In Quilting Challenge, I was inspired by 'Common Threads' by Valli Schiller...I like how her patchwork border meets with her meandering bias strips. I'd like to do that with the Robyn wallhanging....Quilting Arts magazine features a stunning sea horse applique on the cover....and from the Fons and Porter, I really have to try a Mariner's Compass block one of these days.... so little time, sigh.

Well, just letting you know that I am going to be awfully busy in the next two weeks, not sure if I'll have time to post.

Odds 'n Ends

Here is the placemat I was working on for our Guild challenge. This year's guild challenge was to make a placemat; all the placemats are to be donated to Meals on Wheels and distributed to their clients with a meal. I had a block that I was working on for a pillow that just never really came together so I took it apart and re-worked it into this placemat (I added liberated sawtooth borders and handquilted it) and also into this doll quilt (centre block):


For the doll quilt, I used the quilt-as-you-go method that Linda demonstrated at the Kids' Quilts Bee that I attended. I wanted to see how quick and easy it was....it was! The doll quilt measures 17x21inches or 43x54 cm, I used 2.5 inch strips of scraps, batting, and backing, She had demonstrated a reversible quilt, but I just used up some left over muslin and heart fabric for interest for the back (I think the flash didn't go off in this photo):


I still have a little bit more left over from this unwanted pillow, that will probably show up in some future post!

I made my first postcard! Inspired by this photo from my garden in 2006:

to this! I call it Cure for the Common Cold!

I've already hand delivered it to my friend Christine. I just don't trust the post office with it!

I've just been going through the Quilt Maverick's blogring and came upon this post by Judy at Sunshine Quilts about prewashing fabrics, March 26 post. I don't have any horror stories, thank goodness, but I have a huge fear of the fabrics running and ruining all my work. Here's what she says:

"Now, I wash every piece of fabric (except white!) with a good size (maybe 12" x 12") piece of muslin. If the fabric runs, I'll sometimes wash it a second time using Retayne. If it still bleeds after the second time, it goes into the trash."

Sounds like good advice, I'll have to try it. She also mentioned another product, Synthropol, dye catching sheets, that some have had luck with to removes the unwanted dye. I am posting it on my blog so that I can find the name quickly if I need it.

Another reason to prewash fabrics is because of the chemicals they use on the new fabrics. For instance the charity quilt that I am machine quilting was pieced by someone else and the fabrics are all donated. It was obviously not prewashed, and the new fabric smell just makes my eyes and nose burn, ugh. And some say that some fusable applique products do not work as well on non-prewashed fabrics.

And to go off topic, I realized I hadn't posted, the pieced Echt Hollands quilt. I finished it up just after my 'quilt til you wilt' outing The photo was a little dark and I lightened it up in Picasa. I hope the colours don't look too washed out. Now, do you think I need a border? My mom suggested a 2-3 inch blue border... any suggestions?