quilt as desired

Reunion retreat

2012-02-12T09:09:00.003-05:00

Ok, Blogger is giving me grief....I can't seem to rearrange my photos and put them in the order I would like!

Last week I had the opportunity to get together with some of the ladies who were on the LOC for Quilt ON with me. Diane arranged a lovely retreat at Brentwood on the Beach, a lovely Bed and Breakfast on Lake Huron. Even though it was the beginning of February we had ideal weather....No Snow!!! and Sunny!! not that we would really spend any time outside, but the view was lovely! Brentwood on the beach has a lovely indoor pool and jacuzzi, especially great after Quilt Wrestling! We all brought our own projects to work on. A large breakfast was provided for us and pairs of us were responsible for a meal each. We stayed 2 nights and 3 afternoons. Lots of quilting time!

Above is Phyllis, she finally completed the top to a paper piecing project she started years ago for her husband!

Below is Karen's Christmas rag quilt she completed:

A gorgeous sunset over Lake Huron:

Brentwood on the Beach, the view that overlooks the beach:

Ice balls that line the shore of the beach, I don't know how they form, but they look kind of cool

Quilters hard at work:

Christine also brought an old project that was started years ago and never finished and now complete!

more beach view:

I had finished my City Harbor quilt weeks ago, but there was no place at home to take a photo of this queen sized top!

The lovely indoor salt water pool!

I batted up this piece, "Pick up Sticks" I call it. A present for friends, but boy did it give me grief, trying to machine quilt this large quilt! Quilt Wrestling is more like it...Never again something that big!

Happiness is a warm puppy!

2012-01-14T15:01:00.003-05:00

Had a lot of fun with this one! A gift for a friend, who is a huge Schulz fan, and who just had his first child, a baby girl. Originally, I just wanted to do the Charlie Brown zigzag, but while doodling found a way to incorporate Snoopy. It really came together when I found the polka dot fabric at Mad About Patchwork's booth at Quilt Ontario. I used the leftovers for the back.

Why can't we be friends?

2012-01-11T19:22:00.000-05:00

Completed in 2011!

2012-01-01T20:25:00.005-05:00

Another year has gone by! 2011 was the year of Quilt Ontario...and I did not get much time for blogging or even quilting, yet somehow I managed to finish the above projects. Sometimes I amaze even myself ;) Many of the above were gifts and so I could not blog about them during progress or ruin the surprise.

Projects to finish in 2012:

-my T-shirt quilt (sandwiched, just needs to be quilted...so close! due date, before BIQR)

-my City Harbour quilt (cut and in the process of sewing together, no due date)

-gift: Pick up Sticks (blocks made, need to sew sashing, before Feb 20?)

-request: Hawaiian Shirts Quilt (a challenge of design! want to take my time but want to finish it by the summer)

There are more but those are priority.

And for those who requested it, here is Test Pattern all finished!

Happy New Year to all!

Season's Greetings!

2011-12-23T20:25:00.001-05:00

A new addition to our family, Conan, and he's keeping us on our toes!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T18:56:00.000-05:00

Brightest Day

2011-11-06T10:31:00.004-05:00

Last year I promised a friend that I would make a comic book quilt for her daughter that was born last year....I had some liberated comic book logos (and here) I had made a few years ago and not made into a quilt, this would be a great excuse to finish it....well, no way could I think of how to put it all together. So I ended up making up an entirely different quilt then I intended.

I started with the green lantern block and then I made more in the same colours of the Green Lantern Brightest Day/Blackest Night Rings. I was almost tempted to make each of the different symbols, but decided that was too much for my brain to figure out!

Using up only scraps I foundation pieced the rainbow squares and eventually settled on this layout.

Quilting it was the next challenge and the hardest part of making this quilt! I struggled with the machine, I ripped out lots of stitches, and even broke a few needles. I discovered new meaning to quantitative easing!

But in the end I think it turned out all right. I hope Vivian has lots of fun with this quilt and it keeps her warm on cold nights.

As for my other superhero quilt....I've finally got some new ideas...maybe for next year.

wordless wednesday

2011-11-02T21:23:00.002-04:00

Waiting for Jean-Marie

2011-11-01T19:42:00.004-04:00

My employee Tom is going to have his first baby...soon...in the next couple of days or week soon. He and his partner Sarah know it's going to be a girl and they are going to name her Jean-Marie. I finished this quilt for them and that is their cat Scamp waiting for Jean-Marie.

I hand pieced the scraps together over the last year or so. I needed a hand project to do in front of the TV....so I would hand sew my 5 inch scraps together in blocks of 5 or so and then I sewed them together in long strips. When Tom told me he was going to have a baby, I decided to use them for his baby's quilt. His favourite colour is purple, but I thought the orange was brighter and more cheerful, so I made the liberated stars in purple instead. I put the top together at the retreat and batted it up there,too. When I got home I machine quilted long horizontal wavy lines across the scraps and stippled the borders. It's got a nice thick flannel on the back for fuzzy warmth.

BIQR 2011: 37 Sketches

2011-10-16T19:48:00.011-04:00

Long time no blog post! Yes it has been awhile! I have been madly quilting ever since I got back from the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. There is nothing like the combination of scenic Elk Lake and the greatest quilt teacher, Gwen Marston, to get your quilting mojo going!

Gwen had plenty of her new book: 37 Sketches on hand. Gwen was extremely proud of this one, her first hardcover art book. She described in detail how fun it was to choose all the details from the debossed lettering on the cover, to the tophat, to the colour and type of end papers.

Usually the first morning of the retreat Gwen does a trunk show based on the theme of the retreat, then she leaves the quilts in a pile available to us to look through at any time. This year she hung her "37 Sketches" on the wall for better viewing and to reinforce the artistic and design component of this year's theme.

She used these quilts as an artist uses sketches to explore colour, technique, design and composition. She created a workbook of many of her ideas and techniques.

I brought a handful of matching fat quarters in solids in a colour palette that I wanted to work in plus all the solids I had on hand and started from that. But boy it was hard to get started at first. I wandered around and looked at what other people were doing, spent some time gazing at the 37 Sketches, picking out my favourites and the bits about them that excited me. Gwen's first demo was the narrow wavy line, a technique she learned from Jean Wells.

So I started with that... a snazzy, kaffe fassett fabric inserted into a plain gray...well I guess I need another wavy line in...say...orange! And so it goes, building onto each piece. You try out a bunch of different techniques and use what works, and cut up some that don't.

Some of what you don't use for one, may end up in another. On Day 2 I wanted to use lighter colours and work in a more landscape shape. In my first piece, my floating squares did not dance enough, so I experimented on that.

On Day 3 I wanted to work using a log cabin method. At first it was very prim and proper and then as I used bigger pieces I could add more interest in each side.

Gwen set up a gallery for the students to show their work, too. On the last day we were given a pointer and asked to describe how we chose the things we did.

This year Christine and I brought our friend Gail, far right, to the retreat. She was thrilled to meet Gwen and had a great time. You can read her version of the events at her blog The Cozy Quilter in One, Two, Three parts.

Another fantastic retreat!

The room is getting bigger!

2011-08-21T10:37:00.002-04:00

and the end is in sight! Just rolled over the 2 sides, I think for the last time...! 2 more weeks of work, I think.

You cannot rush handquilting!

2011-08-14T19:13:00.003-04:00

I know, I know, I have not blogged very much lately... It's been a very busy summer! Work has been busy and time consuming. We have been visiting and going out with many friends. As for quilting, it has been too hot in my sewing room which is in a kind of attic. However I have been very good and doing a bit of handquilting almost every day (in the morning, that's me in my pj's)...as long as my fingers are not too sore!

I have quilted all the way around the outside and have turned under the two ends of my frame!

I am not marking the quilt, but just quilting it as I go and am enjoying the process, but it is sooooo slow especially when a deadline looms ahead!

I have 2 baby quilts to finish and another to start (this one is designed on paper and the fabric washed and ready to be cut). I have to machine quilt my black, white and red quilt, and start my bed quilt, plus 3 other quilts in various states of completion.

Happy day after Canada Day!

2011-07-02T09:50:00.002-04:00

Woo hoo! Long weekend! Gorgeous summer day on July 1st, Canada Day! Had a bit of a party to watch the fireworks which are launched from the park at the end of our street. Great fun!

Although, I don't understand people who bring their dogs. A young couple bring their huge Rottweiler and can barely hold onto the dog, it is so strong...The dog is excited the fireworks are going off, lots of people and other people with dogs, a German Shepherd in particular...the Rottweiler wants to go sniff the other dog, the guy has to practically sit on the dog to keep it in place then decided to hand off the dog to his thin little girlfriend, who of course doesn't have the strength to hold the dog in place and it goes running to the German Shepherd. She drags it back and has to sit on the dog to keep it in place...there are hundreds of people there the potential for disaster is great and they can't even control their dog. Neither dog is muzzled even though it is the law in Ontario. who is going to break up the fight if the dogs decide to get hostile, what if someone inteferes and gets bit, will they be happy if their dog gets put down...I ask you why bring it at all???

Have been doing some quilting lately...I have finished the top to Brightest Day, it now needs to be quilted. Can only show you a teaser as it is a gift.

I have 2 more baby quilts to design and make....and have been trying to handquilt every day. I was going to do some every evening but in the summer I can never find the time, so I decided a half hour or hour each morning is better. I am now making some progress. yay! I have a deadline on that one of September.

My Plate is Full!

2011-04-02T10:24:00.006-04:00

I am working on this Tulip Quilt for my mom. The pattern by Lucy was featured in Quilt Mania #76 English version and Liberated String Quilts by Gwen Marston and is based on an antique quilt by Nancy Ray. I saw Lucy's version at BIQR 2009. My mom, despite her Dutchness, does not want orange sashing, we are thinking of yellow. very spring! I am not in a hurry with this one, I just like to keep it on hand to keep my hands busy while watching tv.

This is a sneak peek at Brightest Day, a Green Lantern themed quilt a present for a baby girl, by the time I finish this she'll have moved to a big kid's bed, that's ok, I suppose, since the quilt is taking on a life of its own, and is a lot bigger than originally envisioned.

After some encouragement, I have decided to finish my Test Pattern quilt that I made at my first BIQR retreat. In keeping with the testing part, I decided to test out my dad's quilt frame he built for me. I will be hand quilting this baby in a frame! I had to move my hubby's weights from the room-where-we-dump-things to set it up. I want to thank Gwen Marston, Joe Cunningham and True Blue Canadian for their written advice on how to set this up.

The view from below! I found some Kaffe Fassett fabric on sale at Lens Mill Store that is perfect for the back!

Those are just the quilty projects I am currently working on, not to mention a guild challenge, started, but probably won't finish.

Other obligations on my plate:

-CQA/ACC Quilt Ontario 2011 May 25-28 At work:

-Record Store Day April 16

-Free Comic Book Day May 7

-3 Magic Tournaments April 24, May 8, May 15

-Graphic Novel Group April 9, May 14

June is looking like peace and quiet! and maybe winter will be over by then!

A taste of things to come!

2011-02-04T20:09:00.004-05:00

Yes, I have a new project on the horizon....I just spent my christmas gift certificates from Hyggeligt on this luscious bundle of fabrics! Hyggeligt is just down the street from my store so I can pop down there for a break and get my dose of sunshine in fabrics! Chantal has the brightest selection of fabrics I have ever seen in London. She specializes in Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, and Liberty fabrics, the only place in London where you can get that type of fabric (and she does mail order for you outoftowners!) I also picked up earlier from her Cherry House's City Quilts book. I really like Cherry's urban styles and use of solids....but having said that I will be adapting her City Harbor pattern with the above fabrics and making a queen size spread for my bed.
I can't wait to see how it turns out! Her original pattern is 66x71 in and I will be increasing it to 96x104 with each of the bars being 4in, so I will still have the same number of bars.

It may be awhile before you see any photos for this piece as I have vowed to quilt my t-shirt quilt first and make some more blocks for a comic book quilt I am working on...and then this project will be my reward!

Plaidtastic, quilted, bound and done!

2011-01-29T18:52:00.003-05:00

Inspired by Amish designs, driven to wonkiness, with a splash of batik, and quilted with the spirit of Gee's Bend...it's Plaidtastic!

Lazy Gal Liberated Amish Quilt Challenge 2010

2010 Year in Review

2011-01-11T20:39:00.001-05:00

This represents only items completed in 2010. More than I thought, but mostly small items.

Keeping busy

2011-01-10T07:50:00.004-05:00

What I was not able to finish before Christmas, I was able to do in the couple of weeks after! Here are a couple of placemats I started in November 2009! finally done! I am using these small pieces to practice my machine quilting. I think I am getting better. Free pieced letters inspired by Lazy Gal.

Here is a doll quilt I made for a friend's daughter. I made the top ages ago from scraps my SIL gave me...I think they were left over from a jelly roll, so I tried out a bargello style from them.

Again I am practicing my machine quilting.

I pieced the back and even the batting from leftovers.

This top for a crib quilt is made from leftovers from my cousin's baby quilt I made last year...when I ran out of the green fabric, I used the stripey fabric.

Snowmageddon and Sue Spargo

2010-12-26T09:36:00.004-05:00

I picked up a Sue Spargo pattern for the Victoria tote bag when I was in Michigan. I fell in love with the sample they had hanging in the Cousins Quilt Shop. I finally finished it a few weeks ago. Being me I had to make my own applique design, which of course included a kitty!

I've been pretty pre-occupied with Christmas sales at the store and recovering from Snowmageddon I & II. London received record amount of snow on the weekend of the 6th, and then another dump of snow the following weekend! Leading to more snow in those 2 weekends than all of last winter! We also had to deal with some pretty wicked icicles at home (see below) and at the store!

Keep in mind my windows are 6 feet long! The next 2 photos show the view of the icicles from inside the house!

It's like living in the jaws of the Abominable Snowman!

We have since paid a couple of people to remove the icicles! I had fear they would come crashing through the window!

I didn't finish any handmade gifts this year, just way too busy. I did manage to make a few gift bags, though. Usually I just make simple drawstring bags out of scrap holiday fabric, but I did manage to make this one from Lazy Gal's website...perfect for the dvd's.

Happy Holidays everyone! Promise to blog more often in the new year!

Congratulations Tonya!

2010-12-07T17:30:00.005-05:00

To celebrate Tonya's new book many of us are showing off the Word Play Quilts that she has inspired us to make. This is one of my favourites that I made for her first on line class:

Thanks Tonya for the inspiration and good luck with the book!

Row Robins

2010-11-14T17:47:00.003-05:00

Below is my final piece all quilted.

This is how they hung it at the guild quilt show, in the corner...

Remember Frog legs? This is the final result of that quilt.... a close up of my row,

...and here is the whole quilt! What a unique border! Beth did a fabulous job on this.

And this is Karen's final piece...I love the fall colours! My row is the bottom one with the house and fence.

BIQR 2010 What is black and white, and red all over?

2010-10-30T19:15:00.010-04:00

My T-shirt Quilt!

I have seen many black, white and red quilts that have really caught my eye and then one day I got the brilliant idea to convert my old t-shirts, which were primarily all black, white and red, into one of these quilts. Then going through the Collaborative Quiltmaking books I figured the parts department was the best way to construct blocks around these shirts, and I got 2 of these made about..oh... 6 months ago and then nothing...in the mean time I started collecting black, white and red fabrics and throwing them in a bag with the t-shirts.

Then while thinking about getting ready for BIQR, I resurrected the idea and decided to bring them with me to the retreat to work on.

At the retreat many of us talked about the influence of African-american quilts and the quilts of Gee's Bend on liberated quiltmaking. This reminded me that I neatly cut all my shirts into perfect squares and maybe I needed to shake this up with a reminder that these were once t-shirts. So I decided to leave the neckline in my Wonder Woman shirt. I also recreated a 'w' using the zig-zag border technique (that's one of my favourite borders!). I also introduced a new colour: yellow....

wow. I think I went a little crazy with that block and I didn't know what to do after that. So Christine and I went shopping. :) I found this really nice black and white floral Bethany Reynolds Stack-n-whack fabric. I added it to my Love Fights t-shirt block,

and my Ruby Gloom t-shirt block,

and my Trailer Park Boys t-shirt block.

I added some sawtooth to my Supergirl t-shirt block,

and went a little 'broken dishes' with my Emily the Strange: Split Purrsonality t-shirt.

In total, I ended up with 9 blocks. I put the Wonder Woman in the middle. I needed to go shopping again! I need some black!

but still, 9 blocks makes a square lap quilt...maybe I should put a red inner border and more black on the outside? but it still will be square. I had to sleep on it. Each night at the retreat before I went to sleep I would flip through one of Gwen's books, absorbing the ideas.

And there it was on 158 page in the original Liberated Quiltmaking book, Red Square! Red squares all floating on a white background, but mine will be a black background and I will just have a row at the top and one at the bottom!

For an added touch, I particularly liked my Emily t-shirts because they even had nice tags, I saved those and added them to the quilt top.

The one below says, "Join the Posse: Emilystrange.com"

The sides of the shirts always had these cat eyes tags, which I really liked.

Ah. Now it is done. All I have to do is quilt as desired :P

BIQR 2010: Gwen Marston, Teacher!

2010-10-23T18:50:00.006-04:00

Every retreat starts early Wednesday morning with Gwen's Trunk Show. Not only do we get to see her quilts "live and in person,"

but we get to hear in her words the stories behind the quilts...and how it relates to this year's theme.

When she is done she leaves the quilts out on display for the whole retreat so anyone can use them for reference and just to take a closer look at all those wonderful quilts!

Gwen's teaching style is relaxed, engaging and fun! She gears her lessons to the individual, but invites all to participate. If someone needs instruction in a particular method, she makes an announcement and all are welcome to join in.

Later in the week, she gave tiny demos of next year's retreat topic Small Studies.

These small studies focus on abstract quilts pieced using liberated techniques.

Gwen makes all her students feel welcome and makes sure the new ones don't feel out of place. She usually tries to join them for dinner on the first night and give them the scoop on all the best places to eat in Elk Rapids. Mary, who came with her mom Donna, told me how before they arrived, they stopped at the local grocery store in Elk Rapids and there was Gwen shopping! How excited she was to spot her favourite quilter at the grocery store, but too shy to say anything, she didn't know that later that night they would be dining with her!

Of course, Gwen is always ready to take photos with her students and friends!

BIQR 2010: Addiction, The Characters part 2

2010-10-18T20:45:00.007-04:00

Hello, my name is Carol and I am a fabricaholic. It's true poor Carol, she is addicted to buying fabric! At each retreat she is on a new Fabric Reduction Program...last year it was the oriental fabrics, this year the 30's prints! Clutched in her hands are the last crumbs of her 30's prints and the last small wallhanging she made from it hanging beside her! Way to go!

Above one more 30's print top! Below, well... she is still working on those oriental fabrics....maybe next year.

They say it can start with just 2....

but for Allyn it leads to 5 and 6, and eventually 9 martinis!

It didn't help when Penny fed her addiction with this saucy little tumbler!

Poor Allyn after so many martinis, soon she was seeing spots, I mean, squares!

Where's Christine???

Can it get any worse than this? Digging and rummaging for scraps? While on her cel phone, no less!

Are you still on that phone? multi-tasking, I guess!

Some people are chain smokers, but Sue, well she was a chain piecer!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone chain piece 4 rows at a time!

Below you see one of the rare photos of Elisa. I never actually saw her sew...but she must have because, there they are, all her liberated blocks. Elisa, I think she is addicted to work...some people go on retreats to get away from work, but not Elisa. She tried, but being the editor of Quilters World magazine, well that job keeps you busy!

BIQR 2010: The Characters

2010-10-17T08:45:00.013-04:00

First there are the 4 Carol's! (left to right) Carol from Rochester Hills, MI, Carol from Houghton Lake, MI. These are a couple of Gwen's people...veterans of retreats from the past. If Gwen is not available these ladies know what's going on. Then there is newbie, Carol from California and me simply known as Canadian Carol.

California Carol came with Martha to the retreat. Martha was liberating her 30's prints with polka dots.

We had quite a few newbies actually! Joni and Penny were from Kentucky. Joni is a natural at liberating quilting and the parts department. Her quilts were full of brilliant colours and designs.

Penny worked with solids...

Kathy's work was inspired by her cottage on an island in Maine. She came with these blocks already made, but looking for input. Each block is a pieced representation of each of the cottages that are on that island. She wants them to all hang individually not as one quilt.

One of the pieces she worked on at the retreat were liberated buoys based on those that the lobster fishermen use. Each fisherman's buoy is painted differently to identify them.

Cats were Sally's inspiration. She decided she was going to use up her cat fabric.

There is a little bit of Canadian Carol in this quilt! I donated the Emily the Strange cat eyes tag!

Sara from Grand Rapids also has a quilting blog and you can check it out here. She and I are both participants in Tonya's Liberated Amish Quilt Challenge. She brought her Triangles project, adding "Amish Lib." and "MMX Sara" to finish it up.

Another one of her projects is this cut up crumb piece, gorgeous in its boldness! There was apparently quite the discussion about what colour borders to put on it! But Red won out! Striking!

Watch out though! Sara can sew you under the table, she is quite the industrious lady, starting early in the morning!

When in doubt make a sampler! Liberated quiltmaking is so limitless that is often hard to know where to start. So trying a little bit of everything and putting it all together is fun! Bev made this gem:

Next Post: Addiction, The Characters part 2

BIQR 2010: The Setting

2010-10-16T11:39:00.004-04:00

The setting is northern Michigan, in early fall. A road trip from London, Ontario, Canada to Elk Rapids, Michigan. Two best friends going to a quilt retreat hosted by the amazing Gwen Marston. A short detour to avoid the busy traffic of Flint, revealed quaint rural communities readying themselves for harvest and halloween, many untouched by the big box invasion of Walmarts and outlet stores, still bearing the signs of the past.

The final destination was White Birch Lodge in Elk Rapids.
The lodge was getting ready for its winter hibernation, with the small boats resting on the beach,...

leaves dropping into the puddles of water collecting on board...

The view from the sewing room was the beautiful Elk Lake, sun streaming in every day!

Sunny and warm for 5 days straight!

Next post: The Characters

It's not dead yet!

2010-09-18T17:06:00.008-04:00

I am in a hurry to finish up some projects for our upcoming guild show on October 1st. I took a workshop at the guild with Renske Helmuth to learn how to make a landscape wall hanging....I am not sure if landscapes are for me. I found it very difficult to choose the fabrics for an imaginary landscape....I think if I had make it from a photograph I could match up fabrics much better. I did finish the top, I just had to quilt it so I can put it in the show.

I am a novice machine quilter, and I didn't have a clue how to quilt this thing. I first stitched around the beige border 1/4 inch...that was fine, then I did 1/2 inch around that...that sucked...picked it all out...stared at it and stared at it, could not decide what to do....did not want to do any more picking out....so then I did just inside the green border...fine, then I stippled around the outer border fine, but now the lighter border was a little loose and needed to be flattened...so I quilted lines in there and that's when I thought I had killed it! OMG the landscape in the middle was all puffy! it looked ridiculous! now I know why they always want you to quilt from the middle out instead of from the outside in! I was pretty much ready to chuck it! but I thought well maybe I can quilt in some clouds and flatten it a bit, that worked but now the bottom was puffy, so I quilted in some grass along the bottom. It was a lot better but not perfect.

This is how it looks on the bottom:

Finished product; ta-da!

Not my finest work, but I sure learned a lot! Will I ever do another landscape? not sure, the jury is still out.

Gee's Bend Quilts in London, Ontario!

2010-08-21T08:18:00.006-04:00

Last week I attended the Quilts of Gee's Bend show at the London Convention Centre. It was awesome! At first I was a little shocked, it didn't seem like there were a lot of quilts for my $9 entry fee. But I knew about these quilts, I knew there was more to them then that, I just had to find it. Unfortunately there were no descriptions on the quilts, telling you who made them and what their stories were...that didn't help. In my second round of viewing the quilts I noticed a trio of ladies sitting behind a table hand sewing blocks.

On the table were small wall hangings for sale....I asked them if it was alright to take photos and they said sure it was, and that started the conversation. My friend Chantal came over and wanted to see what they were working on and that got them more animated. China got up and showed me her quilts that were hanging up and I was even allowed to take this photo in front of my favourite of her quits.

Then Chantal came over with her copy of Architect of the Quilt Book and asked the ladies to sign it. I noticed the dwindling pile of books and thought its now or never, I should pick up one and have it signed. so I did! and I am so glad I did, I picked up The Quilts of Gee's Bend (the other was sold out) I have been reading this book every day, it is awesome!

What a story, what living history! Bev at the Cotton By Post booth and Chantal said that you really have to go to the lecture, but I missed the lecture that day...so Chantal and I agreed to go on Thursday for the lecture. Boy, am I glad I went! What a story. The lecture started with China singing a gospel tune and then Matt Arnett telling us the history of the quilts and then China talking about what it was like to live in Gee's Bend. Fascinating!

The label on this quilt says Faded Glory Jeans, an apt name for this quilt!

It puts all those quilts into perspective, it gives you the story, the culture, and the art of Gee's Bend. If you did not go to the lecture you really missed half the show. My only regret is that I was unable to return to do the workshop too. Matt mentioned that they are hoping to do a showing at the AGO in Toronto, some time in the future...I am hoping that they do, because I will go again!

I love the blue, red and beige in this house top variations quilt.

I fell in love with the corduroy quilts, the colours were so strong!

Woo Hoo! Another project done!

2010-08-07T08:36:00.003-04:00

Just finished my floor scrap quilt from Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat 2009! On the last day of the retreat Gwen encourages us to search the floor for scraps and create something from it. It's a lot of fun! and inside this piece are a lot of memories...I can remember other participants by their fabric! I really like this one way more than my 2008 one...this one almost has a story to tell. At first I think of the song "Sunshine, Lolipops, and Rainbows", but then I think that the purple "lolipop" is Gwen, our mentor, and the other smaller "lolipops" are her devoted students, the crazy background is the place where creativity comes from. kinda corny, I know, but it reminds me of a happy place!

This piece measures 12x 14.5 inches on the longest sides and is hand quilted with black thread.

Remember the Row Robin?

2010-08-02T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well we finally received out rows from the other participants in May....and they have been up on my "design wall" since then. But finally I just bit the bullet and said "let's get this thing done!" For the longest time I thought I was going to applique some stems and leaves on those giant lilies, but could not get it to look right...so I made up some more 4 patch borders and rearranged the order. I think with some clever machine stitching I could zip it up a notch.

I will probably make some yo-yo centres for the pairs of flowers and embroider some tea pouring out of the spout....maybe an applique butterfly or two with the baskets...I think I will call it Garden Tea Party.

More Block Challenges

2010-06-20T10:44:00.003-04:00

Christine and I took a road trip to the Shedden quilt show. What a surprise to see that the block I entered in a challenge was displayed, finished in a quilt, at the greeting table! My block can be seen over the right shoulder of the lady on the left.

I had entered another block challenge, this time from Trend-Tex. You bought a kit with fabric and had to create a 12.5 inch block from the fabric provided. Easier said than done! The amount of each fabric are not equal in size. I called my block Bamboo Nights.

In total there were 4 quilts made from all the blocks and it was fun to see how many were blocks made from LFQGuild members!

Challenges

2010-05-28T07:29:00.004-04:00

I do love a challenge! I've only won once, but I still like taking a concept and turning it into a block or a quilt. It is a great mental exercise and keeps the creative juices flowing.

First up is our Guild's London Challenge. Our guild is so excited to be hosting the CQA Quilt Ontario in 2011, that we issued a challenge to create a 12 inch block that represents our city of London. These pieces will be hung together as a Welcome to London greeting to the visitors. You can read about the winners here and see all the pieces here.

I knew early on I wanted to practice my reverse applique. Our city is known as the Forest City, so a tree or trees would definitely be in my piece...Just like the other London we have a Thames River. I live right at the forks of the river and walk over the river every day to get to work... I incorporated the tree and the forks of the river into the word London...I machine quilted buildings in the background to indicate the urban setting that is nestled between the trees and the river as well as the extensive bicycle paths that run along the river. I blanket stitched the edges with beads.

The other challenge I participated in was the Joseph Schneider Haus Block challenge "Snow on the Roof, Fire in the Hearth"...I almost didn't participate, because the only thing that I could think of was just a plain log cabin block...but eventually I came up with 4 log cabin blocks combined to actually look like a log cabin...not too outstanding, but it does the trick.

We had to use plain white fabric and some red fabric in our design. The next couple of photos are courtesy of the Quilt Rat and show the block made into the quilt which will be used for fundraising. Congratulations to the Quilt Rat for her first place block! You can read about her block and see more photos here.

Baby quilt done!

2010-05-25T09:28:00.002-04:00

I got my cousin's baby quilt done! My first time trying free motion machine quilting on something larger than a placemat!

I made a matching kitty:

I made 2 postcards for Mother's Day. I cut the birds out of a linen dish towel and machine appliqued and lightly thread painted them...

My Monthly post!

2010-04-18T10:59:00.003-04:00

I must be busy, I am only posting once a month! Above another row in the row robin done! That is our final row, next month we will receive our original row, plus the others back and then we have to put them all together! Exciting! We'll have over the summer to complete the top and hopefully have it done for our October 2010 Harvest of Quilts Show. I have also completed the Guild London Challenge, but cannot reveal until after the May guild meeting.

I have completed the top for my cousin's baby quilt. I hope to start machine quilting it this weekend.

While twiddling my thumbs between quilting projects, I remembered that I was working on Lazy Gal's Liberated Amish Quilt Get Together Challenge... I added my initials and the date and declared it finished! I really love this block! I love how the yellow pops, and the little bit of batik I used! I love how the initials, although big and bold really just fade to the background. I feel satisfied every time I look at it...I like how I took something real precise and liberated it!

Paper Piecing Frog's Toes

2010-03-22T20:04:00.004-04:00

Have been very busy lately, each month I need to finish a row for the Guild Row Robin. Above I decided to make my own paper piecing patterns, the tricky part is figuring out the order in which to sew....not so easy! the lily pad was easy compared to those toes!

Below a little bit of piecing, a little bit of applique... that makes 4 rows done, one more row to go! It's getting harder as more rows are added! There are 5 ladies in our group (and there are 5 groups) and we each have to make a row for 5 different tops. I can't wait to see them all done!

I've been doing a lot of guild activities lately. I participated in a Kids' Quilts Marathon one weekend. We set up stations for different activities like basting, cutting, piecing and machine quilting. Another weekend I participated in making String Quilts for Soldiers as part of the Quilts of Valour initiative. This was one of our completed tops....(and to my SIL, those scraps you sent me are very useful for all these projects!)

I have also been working on my guild's London Challenge, and the top is done, now it needs to be quilted. I have my pieces cut for my cousin's baby quilt, hope to show progress pics for that next week, and on top of that it is tax time, year end and all the stuff that is work, whew! no wonder I am blogging only once a month!

Should I stop or should I go?

2010-02-24T09:35:00.006-05:00

Finished adding the last 2 rows...I don't want to put anymore hour glass blocks on... but am debating whether I should add some more borders, perhaps some vine applique. However, right now, the size is perfect for a wallhanging, it measures 38.5x34.5 inches. This wallhanging was started at Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. Gwen asked me to remind those bloggers out there that have gone to her retreats in the past to send any photos you may have of Floor Scrap Quilts you may have completed to floorscrapquilts @ gmail.com (if you cut and paste this email address, remove the spaces), with your name, year completed or retreat attended and a brief description.

This is the fabric for a baby quilt, that I will be making for a cousin of mine, that is having a baby in the spring.

We visite our friends in Michigan last weekend. We usually take the train to Windsor and then they pick us up and take us across the border. Our passports are expiring soon, and customs gave us a little more grilling then usual. He asked us what we did in London, we told him we own a comic book store, he wanted to know what is the most expensive comic we had in the store! We laughed! We did check out a couple of comic book stores while we were there, though. We always take graphic novels on the train with us to read. I read Wolverine by Claremont and Miller, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken and Clyde Fans by Seth,

and Blankets by Craig Thompson, and just so you know, hinted by the title, a quilt figures prominently in the book....I might have to start a list of Graphic Novels that have quilts or quilting in it....a very niche market! Ha! Blankets was very good, I quite enjoyed it, very personal story of coming of age and his struggle with coming to terms with his faith. And speaking of Faith, while we were in Michigan we went to see the movie Creation about Darwin's struggle with faith when writing the Origin of the Species. I liked the movie, although it dragged in places, and it claims it is "The True Story of Charles Darwin", not so sure about that... And to complete this unintentional study of Faith I had this weekend, I also read the book A God Who Hates by Wafa Sultan...So as not to offend the quilting bloggers out there, I will keep my views on Faith to myself, but just say, it was a weekend of interesting discussions!

2 more rows!

2010-02-03T20:18:00.003-05:00

I've added 2 more rows, this time along the bottom....Next the top....then, should I stop or add more applique?...hmmm...

I've also joined Lazy Gal's Liberated Amish Quilt Group. You can check out my first post here. What am I thinking? When do I have time for all this?

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that...

2010-01-30T16:56:00.002-05:00

So my little wallhanging for Jeff is done! I call it "Gus and Crow". I hand quilted it with black and gold perle cotton 8. The backing is made with a light denim, but it was still difficult to quilt through, but I like the big, primitive stitches.

Here is my second row for the Guild Row Robin...the first row and the package contained panels and some blue fabric with a small red print...the themes of the panels were shopping, sewing, and friendship. I decided early on that I was going to make some spool blocks, but how to incorporate the panels...I chose fabrics from my stash that were similar to the blue print and added some green to widen the palette. My spools are holding these two ladies up like bookends!

I have been doing a lot of hand sewing...remember my BIQR applique? I had decided on using hour glass blocks to surround it. I did a few on my machine, but I needed some needle work for in front of the tv. Then I started joining them by hand, but as you can see my applique piece is not big enough

so I added some strips to the side and one across the bottom. I thought I was going to use the machine to do the long seams, but it turned out not a big deal to hand sew the long seams too.

A hint of things to come!

2010-01-22T20:27:00.004-05:00

Well here is my row for our guild's first row robin...a few liberated baskets.

Below is a peak at a present I am making, and to kill 2 birds with one stone, it will also work for my calendar challenge...My calendar challenge started with words in a hat and make a small, roughly 12x12 inch piece from those words...but I have too much on my plate to do that on a regular basis...so any original piece I make that is that size will do...

Anyway, this is a gift for creator Jeff Lemire who will be doing a signing at our store in February...it is an applique piece based on the cover of his comic Sweet Tooth #1 and the crow in his Essex County Trilogy. Why a wallhanging? Well, there is a character that quilts in his Essex County book so I am hoping he will appreciate the gesture, and I had this red plaid that shouts out "Gus!"

I am so looking forward to his visit to our store, I think Essex County is The Great Canadian Graphic Novel!

Have a Happy, Quilty New Year!

2010-01-02T08:16:00.005-05:00

This is what I completed in 2009 (not including postcards)...it doesn't look like much, I admit. I guess I started lots, but finished little!

So here is my list of quilt tops to be quilted, I would like to say, I will finish them all in 2010, but I doubt it...

Round Robin (with Christine)

Moody Blues

Test Pattern (BIQR 2008)

Floor Scrap Quilt (BIQR 2009)

Starlings at the Break of Dawn

Joy Christmas Placemats (2x)

LFQG Kids' Quilt

The Birds (Calendar challenge)

On my design wall:

Flower pot applique (BIQR 2009)

Challenges:

Calendar challenge: 10 to go...end date....?

Guild London challenge: designed on paper...due May 2010

Guild Row Robin: one row done, 4 to go...monthly to be completed by Sept 2010

Guild postcards: monthly, on going

I almost forgot to post this...I entered the International Plowing Match 2010 Quilt Block Challenge. You bought a package that contained Northcott Silk Inc fabrics and you had to create a 12.5 inch block, using only those fabrics. You could embellish with embroidery floss....I call this Bamboo Nights...

The pieces of fabric they provided varied in size...too much blue and not enough green. I used every bit of green, too! I used running stitches to gather the fabric to give it a more texture...The blue was too strong a colour, they also gave you too many small print fabrics.

The Great Blue Heron by Ted Goodden

2009-12-21T07:56:00.003-05:00

I don't usually like public art, most of the time it is too pretentious for me or absolutely head scratching, "huh? I don't get it!", but this one I like! The Tricar Group commissioned this piece for its new downtown apartment building. Every day I walk by it on my way to work.

It's called the Great Blue Heron by Ted Goodden, a stained glass artist that lives in my neighbourhood.

Starlings at the Break of Dawn

2009-12-07T20:31:00.003-05:00

Another project I am working on...thinking of quilting it, then mounting it to the back of an old window frame....just a thought... manwhile Suske thinks she can catch these birds...

It Rained Teddy Bears!

2009-12-06T09:45:00.004-05:00

It rained Teddy Bears at the 2009 London Knights' SunLife Financial Teddy Bear Toss. Once a year at London Knights home game they ask the fans to bring teddy bears or plush toys to donate to the Salvation Army Toy Drive for Christmas. When the Knights score their first goal of the game the fans are to pitch the teddies onto the ice rink! What fun! Obviously the teddies don't always make it onto the rink in the first toss, so you just keep tossing until it goes over...there is a mad rush of tossing at the boards! But look out! hubby got grazed once and bopped once! and the older lady a few seats down had her glasses knocked right off...and some people bring some pretty big bears!

Swarms of volunteers from the Salvation Army and a local girls' hockey team are scooping up the plushies.

The final tally of Teddy Bears was 8232 from a possible 9079 fans that attended the game!

And so with that over and done with it, it was back to the game!

Final score, London Knights win 8-1 over the Guelph Storm!

Thanks Christine and Mark for the tickets! We had a great time!

More Placemats!

2009-11-28T17:00:00.004-05:00

This one I adapted Gwen's Liberated Wedding block and made it a wreath for Christmas, appliqued some berries and machine stitched some holly + stippling.

I fixed my puffy tree and house, it lies flat, now!

You might think I work super fast, but I don't...I started making the tops at the guild's Quilt til you Wilt day, the first week of November, and have been machine quilting them only since yesterday.

Machine Quilting: Placemats

2009-11-28T09:42:00.004-05:00

My friend Quilt Rat lent me her old Pfaff machine, as I do not have a machine that lowers its feed dogs. My machine quilting has been limited to straight lines. So this is my first successful attempt at stippling!

Our guild is donating placemats to Meals on Wheels at the December meeting, so I thought this might be the right size project to practice my machine quilting. Of course I have been practicing all summer on scrap sandwiches before attempting something 'real'. I made another placemat with a house and a tree on it, and I stippled in between but ended up with a puffy tree and house, quite awful! But I learned and this one turned out quite flat...so I am pleased with my efforts!

Almost everything I make has a name and this one is 3Trees

2009-11-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

Nothing new to report...just the end of another season...

The Singing Bridge

2009-10-30T19:48:00.005-04:00

Don't you just love fall? Today was a breezy, dull day with a hint of rain, but then there are the leaves! So pretty despite the weather! On my way to work I walk over this foot bridge. Some local school children have collected sticks to make the bridge sing!

So I did!

left my message,

continued on to work with a smile on my face!

Progress!

2009-10-26T17:48:00.003-04:00

I've finished my BIQR applique, now to put borders on...I am trying out these hour glass blocks in fall colours...my flash does not work so I had to add light in picasa...

I finished my 9 Lives quilt, putting on the binding at the retreat, but I didn't get around to taking a photo of it until today.

Is your name not Susan?

2009-10-12T15:47:00.006-04:00

Here's a gallery of WIP's from the BIQR final show and tell. I had some problems with the flash so I apologize if some are not as clear as I would have liked.

Isabeau's piece grew from one flower on a stem to this!

Sue sat behind me and it is from her I got my great fussy-cut-circle-scraps! This one is so Moran/Marston! with the bright colours and the wild black and white fabrics! I love the long legs of the bird with the berry that has a bite out of it!

Katie and Meg worked on these pieces. Katie did the one with the half vase and the girl with ATTITUDE! I love the hat and the floppy legs! We met Katie last year at the retreat and she brought Meg for her first time to the retreat.

This is another Sue's work. (there were 4 Sue's , 3 Carol's and 3 Linda's!) This Sue used wool for the applique and left over baskets from BIQR 2007.

Below, the one on the left is by Carol (one of "Gwen's people", veterans of BIQR)....this was just one of many UFO's she worked on at the retreat. She coined the term ORP, Oriental Reduction Program....She discovered she had way too many oriental fabrics in her stash and decided to make a conscious effort to use it up....She made at least 5 pieces out of her oriental fabrics....this was not one of them! The one on the right is by Sally.

Below, and top right, Susan (Sally's sister) worked on an vintage poppy pattern. My stuff is on the left and the 3 left in the middle are from the Wild Girls from California, 2 Linda's and a Sue!

Christine worked on baskets, her pomegranate applique, and fabric postcards! I received the basket postcard in the mail on tuesday, postmarked Elk Rapids! Thanks, Chris!

Below, The Pit! The lighting is terrible, luckily I took these before the flash died on my camera! From left to right, Jolene, Denise, Lucy, and then Bonnie. Jolene also sat at the table behind me and showed me that if you use the right needle your applique turns out way better! Thanks Jolene!

MJ brought applique started at a past BIQR. She had the applique all done but had never put the four pieces together. She used a bold red diamond border that is really striking!

Joyce cut all these pieces free hand and arranged them as she went, she really likes a folksy look to her applique. The three chickens represent her grandchildren!

It was an amazing week of inspiration, we all had a lot of fun, I highly recommend it!

BIQR 2009 Report

2009-10-12T15:47:00.005-04:00

The weather started out cold, windy, and rainy, but that blew away and the next day was beautiful. The leaves in northern Michigan were turning colour and squirrels were collecting acorns for the winter...these squirrels were quite literate and left us this note ;)....

The retreat started off with Gwen's wonderful trunk show, she was raring to go despite this being the 5th time in the past month to give this show! What a wonderful lady!

Christine and Bonnie both had a turn at helping Gwen show off her quilts. It was amazing to see up close some of the quilts we've only seen in her books, like this antique Whig Rose from 1900:

Gwen told us that she once read, that your applique should be in scale with your blocks...well she thought, I don't think so... and Gwenny's Little Bitsy Nine Patch was born.

She reminded us that the old quiltmakers didn't have patterns to follow they just designed their quilts themselves. All your tulips don't have to be exact, and if you run out of a fabric you can use something else. That is why no two antique quilts are alike, they are similar but not exact copies. There are some basic formats you can follow, such as four-block applique, or medallion quilts with the applique in the centre.

Each day Gwen treated us to her mini demos. If you wanted to learn one of her techniques she was on hand to give it to you. She taught her serpentine borders, how to cut out flower templates from folded paper, how to make yo-yos, how to draw feather quilting patterns, to name a few. This year she had a quilt frame set up for hand-quilting demos.

She had plenty of her books on sale, I think she sold out of her Classic Four-Block Applique Quilts book. I used my copy as a yearbook and had all the participants sign it as a keepsake. It is an excellent book for applique!

Christine and I were a little more relaxed this year and we headed out to explore the Michigan countryside and visit quilt stores. We visited The Quilt Cottage in East Jordan, Cousins Quilt Shop in Bellaire, Rene's Quilt Shop in Williamsburg, Now and Then in Elk Rapids, and the Quilting Bee in Traverse City.

We were lucky to have 3 visitors from the Netherlands during our week. Lucy from Haarlem (Quilting from the Past), Joes (Dutch Quilt Cat) and Isabeau from Amsterdam. All 3 of them have been featured in Quilt Mania, a quilting magazine from France. They agreed to give us a talk about Dutch quiltmaking and fabrics from Holland. They knew so much! It was fabulous, a dutch treat!

Below, you can see Lucy holding my Echt Hollands quilt and my Cathedral windows pillow as examples of fabric from Holland. The fabric I used, my cousin bought for me at the store that Lucy works at(!)

Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville, best friends with Lucy, was also there. It was very exciting to meet such an amazing lady! That lady never quits! She had been on the road for weeks before driving up to Elk Rapids. You can read about her experiences at BIQR already on her blog.

Last but not least, here is what I accomplished at the retreat. On the right is the applique I was working on. The applique is not finished, some of the pieces are still just pinned on...I am planning to add some borders, but I don't know what yet. I made 3 little appliqued postcards. I like to make postcards at the retreat and send them from Elk Rapids as surprises. And the final piece on the left is my floor scrap quilt. Every year Gwen tells everyone to just throw your scraps onto the floor and let everybody go "shopping". The centre piece I created and the colourful strips on the borders are all found scraps, I did add the solid purple and black as borders from my stash.

Most of my scraps were from Sue, who was sitting behind me! She was doing this amazing applique where she had fussy cut all these berries and there were some on the floor and I was happy to include them in my piece as flowers or are they just wacky lolipops, I'm not sure!

On Sunday, we woke up to snowflakes! brrrrrrrrr! and it was Good-bye!

In the next few weeks, I will try and put up a few photos of some of the other amazing projects that were being worked on at the retreat.

Round Robin tops done!

2009-10-04T14:55:00.002-04:00

Here's my poppy round robin, I love the liberated sawtooth border Christine added to it! I don't have a photo yet of Christine's finished top, but I will get one soon.

I've also finished the handquilting on my 9Lives wallhanging, but it's been too dark in my sewing room and it's been rainy and overcast so I haven't been able to take an outdoor photo of it either. So you will have to wait.

My friend Quilt Rat has lent me an old Pfaff sewing machine of hers to practice machine quilting on...my Kenmore machine does not lower the feed dogs. So, I have been practicing. It's is as hard as it looks! I might have to stick to hand quilting!

Christine and I are off to Gwen Marston's BIQR 2009 in Michigan on Tuesday so will post lots of photos when we get back!

Postcards and stuff

2009-09-17T09:01:00.004-04:00

It's postcard exchange time at Guild again...I like to make more than one postcard at a time, one for guild exchange and one to send to someone else. From the ones above, I sent the bottom flower to my sister in law, because most of the fabrics I used were ones that she sent me and they are perfect! The one with the bee, I am saving for the October meeting, as I will not be there and I made in advance.

From the photos below, I submitted the single bird one for exchange and the one with the birdhouse(I call it Home Tweet Home) is for a friend who just bought his first home with his new bride.

This is a project I have been working on for a long time, and the top is finally completed. It is called Moody Blues, because it is mainly blue fabric and the quote is from a song of theirs, Thinking is the best way to travel.

It's very scrappy and primitive in the lettering, it is supposed to represents the child's sense of wonder to space and space travel, not to mention that Man can achieve so much by using his brain.

Paris, Ontario

2009-09-05T07:55:00.002-04:00

Still haven't done much quilting lately, but I did go to Paris last weekend with friends, Paris, Ontario that is! There you will find the closest Mary Maxim store and they had a tent sale and we had to check it out. Me, I didn't find any bargains, but I did pick up some much needed batting to finish up some UFO's.

Paris is a small rural community located on the Grand River. Around this area you can find old buildings made of stone. The main street backs onto the river and in between a couple of buildings they made this cute lookout over the river.

Above, Kathy and Ann, fellow bargain hunters!

My Photos won!

2009-08-18T20:28:00.002-04:00

The London Community Resource Centre which organizes all the community gardens in our city had their First Annual Green Thumb Shutterbug Community Photo Contest. There were four categories and 3 photos were chosen from each category.

This one was chosen in the Bountiful Harvest category:

And this was chosen in The Wild Side category:

I won 2 gift certificates to VanHorik's Greenhouse and Garden Centre! Woo hoo!

The other winners can be seen here, and all the submissions can be seen here.

New Postcards

2009-08-16T09:47:00.003-04:00

The Thistle postcard I sent to a friend and the mouse one is based on a comic called Mouse Guard by David Petersen. Lieam, the mouse with the green cape fights a snake. I really like the artwork in this comic, it is superb! David Petersen is from Michigan and is doing a signing at Paradise Comics in Toronto on August 22!

I have not been quilting too much lately, and have been spending a lot of time in my garden. Here is some sunshine for those plagued by too much rain!

Thanks!

2009-08-02T11:28:00.002-04:00

Quilt Rat gave me this award and I thank her! She is an enormous source of inspiration for me, as well. I've nominated my favourite blogs before and most appear on the blog list at the side...so I am going to choose one that is not on my list but I really do enjoy the photos she takes....the envelope, please..........................

Little Red Hen!

Check it out!

The Birds

2009-07-28T07:30:00.002-04:00

With all this lousy, rainy, cloudy weather we have been having, I've actually spent a bit of time trying to clean my sewing room! Ha! As I was sorting all the lovely scraps given to me by my sister-in-law, I was inspired! among those scraps were some charm squares. Lo! These would go great with my Hitchcock I was working on!

et voila!

It measures approximately 13x13 inches, I might use it for my calendar of challenges, since it was an Art Quilt Workbook exercise.

Radishes and Tomatoes!

2009-07-16T07:28:00.005-04:00

We have had a lot of rain lately and our gardens are very plush and lots of weeds too! But my tomato plants are huge! and I've even got a few fruit on them! Just waiting for them to ripen.

In the mean time I have been eating lots of radishes!

If you want to see more progress of my veggie patch visit my other blog Riverforksgarden.blogspot.com

I am a Tree!

2009-07-16T07:28:00.004-04:00

While on vacation, I was able to finish hand quilting my Art Quilt Workbook exercise. Essentially, you put some words in a hat and pull them and create something from those words. I asked my husband to choose the words, so I wouldn't have a clue what was coming....that is very challenging! The one thing I asked him was to put 5 song titles in there. The words I chose were "I am a Tree" (a song by Guided by Voices), Rhythm, and Wacky.

I started by sketching, every day, ideas that those words inspired. Early on, I sketched a happy tree with a face dancing in a field, later a musical staff represented rhythm and it became the fence in my landscape. The fabric I chose represented the wacky... a sky with tiny carrots, and the field of giant VanGogh-like sunflowers, plus a tree with a face, dancing..isn't that wacky enough?!

I fused the tree, and birds, apples and apple basket on. I machine stitched them all in place. The apples and birds were fussy cut from some left over Debbie Mumm fabric, just the right size and proportions! I actually sewed on 2 different fabrics for binding and didn't like them, so I faced the piece. The finished piece measures 9x9.5 inches.

I plan on making 12 of these and then making a 12 month calendar with the photos. It gives me an end goal.

Next words: "I am Mine" (a song by Pearl Jam..thanks Gord!), Whale, Monthly!.... Wish me luck!

Quilter's Road Trip!

2009-07-14T19:47:00.006-04:00

My friends Christine and Jill and I went for a drive to Cambridge and Kitchener on Sunday. We visited the McDougall Cottage, built in 1858 in downtown Cambridge, home to the Baird and McDougall families. Now it is a museum, tea house (sort of) and gallery. Each year it holds the Wee Quilt Challenge and displays the submissions on its walls. Jill had 2 pieces entered, which we had to see! This year's theme is Plaidvertising. Below Jill's piece is the top right one, called Plaids behind the Ads. For more about her entries you can read them on her blog here.

Next we visited Joseph Schneiderhaus in Kitchener. This house was built in 1816 by the Schneider family, Mennonites that travelled from Lancaster County, PA.

Part art gallery and part a re-enactment museum, we caught the volunteers, dressed in period costumes, taking part in their Sunday activities. The site houses a outdoor oven where they bake bread, a pump house to pump water, a vegetable garden grown from heritage seeds. One lady showed us her quilted petticoats which she had to sew herself.

The art gallery housed this year's Grand National Quilted Postcard Collection. Jill submitted 2 postcards and I submitted one. (that's me with my postcard :) 2nd from the right)

Jill's were chosen to be put into a postcard book! They blew hers up for display purposes, the actual one is dangling in front of it. It was kind of hard to take a photo of it swirling around.

This is just another one on display, it was so cute, I had to share....unfortunately I didn't catch the name of the person who did it, but isn't is just darling!

It was a fun day!

Next Post: I am a Tree!

Cloudy! the sky is grey and white and cloudy!

2009-07-07T19:06:00.004-04:00

Here are some pics from our trip last week to our friends' cottage on Oxtongue Lake. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us. We did manage a short trek in the kayaks, you can see how omninous the sky was!

A short trip into Huntsville, we checked out this beautiful bookshop for the first time called The Bookcase.
Waiting around for the bibliophiles...

It's always fun to spend time at the cottage with bibliophiles and pyromaniacs!

The clouds parted for us on Canada Day and we were able to build a fire and watch fireworks over the lake!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T10:56:00.002-04:00

Thanks, Dad, for all the things you do for me and letting me be me!

Love Carol

Feeling Creative!

2009-06-21T09:41:00.001-04:00

"I am a Tree"......a hint of things to come!

A Quilted Bird

2009-06-14T08:07:00.002-04:00

I received this lovely, hand-painted bird from a friend and blogger! It's a metal napkin holder, but she has painted quilt blocks on it. It's gorgeous and sits in my window! Thanks friend!

I've done a bad thing! I've joined Facebook! I said I wouldn't do it but I did! Egads another computer time-consuming activity! It's mostly work related, but I have some quilting friends on there (you know who you are!) and joined the Liberated Quilters Facebook page...will I ever have time to quilt, or just talk about it!!?? and what about gardening?...I can't help it I started another blog (that makes 5)! I guess I like to compartmentalize....this one will follow my struggles with vegetable gardening, you can visit that blog here.

2009-06-09T17:06:00.003-04:00

No quilting last weekend. A new community garden has been started in a park near where we live, and we decided to rent a plot to try some vegetable gardening. Where we live, we have barely any property, let alone enough sunlight for veggie gardening. It is brand new and has no fence or rainbarrels yet, but I have been told we will get them.

Here's our plot (below), the southwest corner. More space than I need, I think! I will probably share the rest with the neighbour!

On Sunday my dad helped me rough in 2, 4'x4' square plots. I got this book out of the library about square foot gardening, it made vegetable gardening sound easy and not overwhelming, so why not give it a go? The hardest part was building this trellis for our vine climbing veggies.

Got some good rain the last 2 days, didn't have to go down to water, but I did check to make sure my garden didn't wash away! There are lots of people who have kids running around there, my mom thought we might trap some children in our trellis contraption. Ha, I checked, we didn't catch a single one!...and it is still standing!

Odds and ends or May confessions

2009-05-28T07:18:00.007-04:00

What is it about May, so many of the blogs I follow have hit a stop in posting around the middle of May, even mine...my excuse is that I am so busy! I can hardly catch my breath. One project or event ends another begins! and of course Spring finally arrived and so much work to do in the garden...last year I let it slide and now my garden is in much need of TLC, also this year we've got to put in a new fence and gate, so quilting may get pushed to the back of the priority list! Also, I have been a bad blogger, I have been reading a few blogs regularly but rarely commenting...and what is the etiquette for responding to comments? I appreciate all the comments I get, but unless you ask a specific question I don't usually respond back. So to all those who enjoyed my Canada wallhanging, I say Thanks!

I was checking out Camp Follower Bag's blog and noticed that my 2 blocks I sent in for the Bushfire quilt relief project have been made into a quilt. Wow! What a job she has done organizing such a huge project and sewing all these lovely quilts! I am so proud to have had even a small part of it. My blocks are the middle ones in the top and bottom rows. What a lovely quilt! What a great job she and her volunteers have done! Kudos!

I have been handquilting my 9 Lives quilt a lot lately, so I expect I will get the whole thing done by the fall; I am trying not to rush, but enjoy the process. I am using bamboo batting, left over from Andrew's Scrappy Bargello quilt, and I must say I am not too happy how linty it is and how the white batting is popping up through the dark fabric...it is too late to take out all I've done so far, so I am hoping a lint brush will help to get those stray pufts...

I have the book Art Quilt Workbook, and every once in a while I dabble in some of the projects they suggest. I am not committed to doing them on a schedule, but whenever I feel I need some new stimulation. I am currently dabbling in 2 of them. One is taking a photo, drawing it and then recreating it with fabric. In the book they used a pear...me I used Alfred Hitchcock.

The colours are a little odd, and I have no idea where I am going to go with this...but hey...it's just fabric doodling.

The other project I am working on is the one where you put somewords in a box and randomly pick one and randomly pick a colour palette and create something out of it...well, I didn't really like the words they suggested and I thought, it's not too challenging to work with my words, so I asked my husband to write on slips of paper:

5x song titles, 5x verbs, 5x animals, 5x emotions, 5x comic related, 5x adjectives, 5x music related words.

Then I created a list of colours and themes, such as plaids, or primatives, or pastels, happy, sad, etc. I chose 2 slips from his box and one from my box. So right now I am doodling "I am a tree", rhythm, and wacky. I am giving myself a couple of weeks of doodling and then a couple of weeks of creating and they will be no bigger than 8.5x11. I'd like to do one per month, but....I don't know...

I have been watching a new TV show that is probably not that well known. It is Canadian, it is called Rabbit Fall. It is about a lady cop who moves to Rabbit Fall, Saskatchewan from Toronto and the strange characters and aboriginal mysticism she experiences. It is a little Twin Peak-ish. I really like it, it is only a half hour show, and each episode has a crime to solve, but everything is not wrapped up in a tidy "murder she wrote" little bow at the end. The acting is realistic without being "too Canadian" and the directing is awesome! I like it because it is not predictable and cliche....and you know what this cop dresses like and looks like a lady cop, not some hollywood starlet pretending to be a cop. (on the other hand, my other favourite show right now is Burn Notice, which is just the complete opposite of Rabbit Fall!)

O Canada Guild Challenge

2009-05-15T21:05:00.006-04:00

Thursday was our reveal for our Guild Challenge. The theme was O Canada, what Canada means to me... and the other stipulation was that it had to have a maple leaf on it.

I doodled many a complicated drawing and then in the end, I thought what do I want out of this challenge...just something to hang up on Canada Day. So it's really just my scrappy version of the canada flag, not too much in the deep meaning, but it is all my design. I designed my own paper-pieced maple leaf and randomly pieced the red and white strips and using the lazy gal letters technique I spelled out Canada.

It looks really great at my house.... away from the competition of the guild! There were some really great entries, so great I didn't even vote for myself! You can view the rest of the guild challenge entries here.

Round Robin thanks!

2009-05-12T20:40:00.002-04:00

Thanks for all the kind words about our round robin. If you click here you can see all the past posts about the round robin, since, gasp, January 2008!

And for those that are curious, I get to keep the one with the "poppies" in the middle and Christine gets to keep the one with "Daisy on a stick".

For those attempting round robins, I recommend the Collaborative Quilting books by Marston and Moran! The "parts department" is a wonderful resource/idea!

Round Robin reaching the finishing line!

2009-05-10T16:10:00.003-04:00

Two Christmases ago my friend Christine and I exchanged these blocks for a round robin...

....well, life gets in the way and things slowed down with our round robin, but Christine surprised me by giving me this:

...and I am going to pass this one on to her.....

I think we are getting close to the end!

Grand National at the Joseph Schneider Haus

2009-05-09T17:23:00.004-04:00

My friend The Quilt Rat and I sent quilted postcards to the Grand National this year. They selected the "Terrific Twelve" postcards to print into a postcard book. The Quilt Rat had both her entries chosen for the book!!! She is so talented!You can read about her entries on her blog. Mine, although not chosen, was displayed in the Joseph Schneider Haus along with all the other submissions. I have not been to see them yet, but Quilt Rat sent me this photo showing my postcard (it is the 4th from the left) hanging on the wall...way cool!

Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again!

2009-04-14T20:54:00.002-04:00

Can't talk! This just arrived! too busy reading! drooling! woohoo!

Birds and Canal Houses

2009-04-12T12:16:00.006-04:00

My neighbour left a bag of scraps in my mailbox, there were some weird bits of fabric in there, fabric I wouldn't normally use, some terry cloth, faux suede, bits of jeans, etc...there was also this square of randomly pieced red and white fabric. It was uneven and the seams were thick and varied in width, top-stitched in places... I thought hmmph...I found out later that she and her daughter made gift bags for a party out these pieces and this was left over...anyway, they went away for easter and I am taking care of their cat, so I am giving this piece back to them, altered my way...!

Spring Grackle!

I am obsessed with birds lately! I guess it is spring!

Anyway, I'll leave it on their table, for when they come home and they can do with it what they will, maybe they'll hang it on their wall or turn it into a pillow, or whatever...It's their turn in this make shift round robin!

***************

I've got this great Eyewitness Travel Guide to Amsterdam, and inside they have this pull out section of the houses along each of the canals. I've always wanted to make some pieced canal houses. Most pieced houses are a door, window, roof and chimney, but these canal houses are so interesting.

It shows details of the different types of gables of these houses.

So I drew some of my favourites. Trying to keep it simple, and using scraps I attempted my first house (below, based on sketch on left)

I think my windows are too square and the pink is a little lost, but I am just trying to build not be perfect on my first attempt. My second attempt is the warehouse style house, it has those great big shutters.

Much better, I think the windows are better proportioned and the colours are a better contrast, I like my pink shutters.

Goodbye Winter!

2009-04-05T10:18:00.003-04:00

There are 5 cardinals in this photo, can you spot them all?

My parents sent this photo taken in their backyard. They attract a lot of birds with their birdfeeders, but usually the cardinals visit singly or in pairs, but what a treat to see 5 at a time! This is an older photo, the snow has melted in London, Ontario!

This photo, below...just because, who can resist those yellow characters with their googly eyes.

Sorry, no quilting here today, have been working on Secret projects...finished my Guild Challenge quilt! Woo Hoo!

Garden Visitors

2009-03-26T21:00:00.002-04:00

I had a really nice tea towel called Garden Visitors, but it was too nice to actually use, so I cut out the nice pictures of birds and made postcards out of them. Does that make sense? I experimented with embellishing it with my version of thread painting,...well, more like trying to colour within the lines...

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

2009-03-15T11:22:00.004-04:00

Sorry I haven't blogged lately! I have been busy, of course. We took a weekend off to visit our friends in Michigan. It was a great visit and it was completely geeky! We visited the Star Trek Exhibit at the Detroit Science Center. You can get your photo taken on the bridge of the Enterprise or on the transporter pad! It was fun. They had props and costumes from the various shows and movies. The hallways look like the interior halls of the Next Gen Enterprise. It was cool but you were absolutely not allowed to take photos and you could buy the photos of your group on the bridge or transporter. A nice souvenier albeit a bit expensive.

We also visited the Flint Institute for the Arts to see an exhibit of original comic book art. That was quite nice too! It's a nice little art Gallery, we even took some time to look at their other art collections. I took photos there, without the flash, so they are a bit grainy. I probably was not allowed to but no one saw me...I don't really get why you are not to take photos...a trip fades away so quickly for me without the photo memories.

It is year end time, tax time, and event time at the store. So I have been wiped out with the work load. We are getting ready for the following events Worldwide D&D Day and Free Comic Book Day. Besides my duties maintaining the blog for the guild, I am now on a committee to submit a proposal for our guild to host a CQA event in our city for 2011. (What was I thinking!? I am thrilled but a little overwhelmed by the work that will be involved and a lot of energy and my time will be invested until 2011!)

As for quilting projects, I have been handquilting my 9Lives slowly. I have been working on my O Canada Guild Challenge (can't show you that until May), and I made these postcards. The Dutch fabric cathedral windows one was an anniversary card for my parents and the other was for the guild exchange.

Oh yeah and here are some gratuitous cat photos! Suske loves fresh laundry out of the dryer! I often throw the pile of warm laundry on the couch to fold it, and Suske will jump up and start kneading and purring and sticking her nose into the laundry. Then curl up and sleep in it.

chickens go bok, bok!

2009-02-16T10:46:00.003-05:00

I got a chicken in the mail! Sewnut sent me this PIF and I was quite thrilled as it arrived at work and I was not expecting it all! Thanks Sewnut! So now I have to send some handmade gifts to 3 others.

I've decided to send a block to this flickr group who are making Bushfire quilts for the victims of the fires in Australia. The guidelines and the address to send the blocks is here.

I am sending the pattern of my Cathedral Window pillow to someone in the guild, and I will make some fabric postcards to mail out.

Apollo 14 February 5, 1971

2009-02-03T20:00:00.007-05:00

My dad recently came across an old school project of mine from 1971. It was a book about the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. The teacher gave us pre-printed pages with the story of Apollo 14's trip to the moon, and we were to draw the pictures and then it gets stapled together as a book. What a hoot! My moon likes like a chocolate chip cookie!

In those days we were excited about the trips to the moon and the teacher would wheel in this TV on tall legs and we would watch it live on TV at school. It was a big deal....now many people actually believe it never happened, that it was a hoax. How sad. One of my favourite movies is Apollo 13, I don't remember that mission in particular, but it is amazing that they made it home alive! One part in the movie that stayed with me was how the astronauts were all excited to say hello to all the people on Earth, but they didn't know that it wasn't going to be broadcast because the networks believed people were already finding the space missions too boring. We still don't appreciate the risks that they took and choose to believe it was a hoax. Astronauts were heroes back then and they still are in my book! Can you imagine being one of the few people to actually set foot on the moon or hit a golf ball on the moon!

Anyway, if you would like to see all of my school project from 1971, I created this little slideshow movie in Picasa (2 and a half minutes). The music is "Hey, Hey Spaceman" by Guided by Voices. I think it captures the kids' point of view.

You know, I was going to pick Rocket Man by Elton John for the music, but someone else has made a wonderful video of the missions to the moon using that song, which you can watch here. (4 minutes)

Which brings me to this challenge: My husband and I are creating a CD with "space" music. Help me make a playlist of songs I should put on this CD and leave your suggestions in the comments.

I have been so inspired by my school project I made this block to add to my Secret project:

Old Squaw and Red Star

2009-01-27T18:43:00.003-05:00

I spotted this awesome duck in the Thames River on my way to work last week! It dove under water for a bit and I grabbed my camera out of my knapsack (I always carry my camera with me) and waited for it to re-emerge. Unfortunately I don't have the strongest zoom and this was the best shot I got. I had never seen a duck like this before. I went home and tried to find it in my bird book (Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Birds), the closest that I could find was the Old Squaw Duck (re-named Long Tailed Duck) but this bird is in its winter plumage and the photo in the book was not, but the description was pretty accurate, but the range is Northern Canada and the Arctic tundra! Does this bird come this far south? I emailed the London Free Press wildlife columnist, who passed me on to someone at the McIlwraith Naturalist Society and he confirmed my identification and said it does come this far south in the winter, but not often spotted in London. Isn't that so cool? I feel so lucky that I saw such a rare sight.

And in quilting news... I finished my Red Star top. Welcome new UFO! May you be finished sometime this year!ha! I have also started handquilting 9 Lives and more piecing on my secret project.

Memories of BIQR 2008

2009-01-18T19:58:00.002-05:00

BIQR 2008 Floor Scrap Quilt done!

Minus 20 Degrees Celcius! with a windchill of minus 30!

2009-01-16T20:30:00.003-05:00

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is so cold outside!!!aaaaaaaaaagh! unfreakingbelieveable!
I feel like I am wearing 20 lbs of extra clothing!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

2009-01-10T17:01:00.002-05:00

Cats will find the most inconvenient spot to take a nap, won't they?

(that's hubby trying to straighten his back) That Suske, she's a big girl, isn't she? Of course, hubby lost 20 lbs in the last year, I think Suske found them!

I finished my Dutch Cathedral Window Sampler pillow:

Here's a new project on my design wall, Red Star:

and a few more blocks on the way!

And to think that it happened on Becher Street!

2009-01-03T09:12:00.004-05:00

Photo by Derek Ruttan from Sun Media

The above photo was the front page photo of the London Free Press on December 24th. It is a stained glass made by Ted Gooden of a hill at the end of my street that we called Lawyer's Hill. We called it that because at the top of the hill there is an old apartment building with lawyers' offices on the main floor. In this piece you can see the footbridge I cross every day on my way to work. ( I wish I owned this piece but it is someone's private collection) My house on this street used to be a Montessori School, at which I taught for 5 years. One of my students was Ted's daughter. At lunch time, in the winter, we would take the children to the hill and they would slide down the hill in their snowpants; they didn't even need a toboggan. It was great fun for the kids! Ted is a renowned stained glass artist in London and still has a studio on an adjacent street.

Here is what Lawyer's Hill looked like this winter so far...from snowy to floody, to frozen but dry!

Christmas decorations

2009-01-01T20:32:00.002-05:00

Above is a table runner I designed and made for my mom for Christmas a few years ago. I never had a photo of it until now.

Below is a Gift Card Stockings wallhanging I designed and made for my sister-in-law and her family this year. I knew I was sending gift cards but I needed to give it some oomph. I added some stuffing into the bottom of the stockings so that the gift cards don't fall too far down.

I think he likes it!

2008-12-26T19:39:00.002-05:00

I think he likes it!

More work on my Dutch Cathedral windows...

I think I will make a decorative pillow out of it. I bought the blue background fabric when I was in Holland. It is the fabric they would use to make the traditional costumes that they wore. I bought it at the Zuiderzee Museum; it is an outdoor museum like a pioneer village, where there are demonstrations done by people in period costume.

Sub zero temperatures!

2008-12-24T06:55:00.003-05:00

Here are a few photos of our Thames River on Monday when it was minus 11 degrees Celcius. The sides of the river was frozen with chunks of ice floating rather quickly by. The Canada geese and ducks are huddling together at the forks of the river...haven't made it far enough south, I guess.

These 2 specks are merganzers swimming against the flow, I watched them as they kept diving under water...brrrrr! I have only seen the merganzers in the river in the winter.

The forecast today is a high of plus 6 degrees Celcius and rain! and then tomorrow it will dip down again to -3 and then back up over zero. It's going to be icy out there!

We had to make Christmas decorations to demo at our guild, and I chose these Cathedral Window ornaments to do...I had never made cathedral windows before...and now I am addicted!

I've decided this will be a fun way to showcase my dutch fabric collection! and so it begins...!

December postcards: Let it Snow!

2008-12-22T08:42:00.002-05:00

For this month's guild postcard exchange I took an old stained doily I had and cut out some of the circles.

Then I tacked them onto a beautiful snowy background print and then added some tiny embroidery snowflakes et voila!

Let it Snow! and has it ever! We have just had 2 major snowfalls come through since Friday and now it is snowing again...there is rain/snow coming in the next few days...will it be an icy Christmas this year?

Andrew's Scrappy Bargello done!

2008-12-14T18:30:00.005-05:00

Yay! My brother's Christmas present is done, with a couple of weeks to spare! I am pretty happy the way it turned out. I decided to just do straight line criss cross machine quilting...(does this have a name?). Many thanks to Jacquie at Tall Grass Prairie Studio for her advice and to Bonnie at Quiltville for the free pattern!

And whenever I have time I have been handquilting my BIQR floor scrap quilt. I designed this celtic knot but I am not big on marking my quilts, I usually eyeball it.

But with this pattern I can't even draw it on paper without making a bit of a mess of it and it turns out all uneven. So I came up with making templates of the inner shapes and handquilting around them and then just eyeballing the rest.

Unfortunately, I should have spaced them farther apart, so that my double lines don't get too narrow, and I also had to take care that they looked like they were inter weaving.

Christmas Open House

2008-12-06T19:16:00.004-05:00

Haven't been in a blogging mood lately, sorry. So I will tell you about a lovely open house I went to last sunday. I received this lovely invitation in my mailbox, inviting me to an open house featuring the "whimsical paintings an greeting cards of Nicole Campbell. All are welcome! Apple cider, hot chocolate, and cookies!" Oh how nice, I thought, and only a block away from my house!

So my mom, dad and I went, a perfect day for a Christmas open house, big white fluffy snowflakes flying! I am so glad I went, what a lovely house she had, christmas music playing, her artwork displayed on the walls and her greeting cards on the dining room table, or tucked in baskets on tables in different rooms. You could buy packages of single cards or make up your own assortment. So hard to choose! She had the most beautiful Christmas tree I had ever seen, I wished I had my camera to take a photo of it. You could see the bottom of the tree from the dining room and then you walked into what is usually her living room, and there was this giant 16 foot tree beautifully decorated with fairies and glass pine cones and acorns, a tree skirt with real pine cones scattered across it and ceramic bunnies. Oh so cute, and magical!

I asked her where she got such a beautiful tree and she said they trudged out in snow thigh deep to cut it down. It turns out she has family that lives on my street and she saw my Black Cats Staring in my window, and thought I might like an invitation and popped it in my mailbox! So how lucky is that?!

So dear readers, I send you to her website Moonboots to see the Christmas card I pick out for you! Please check out the rest of her gallery of cards, they are a delight!

Season's Greetings!

My Etsy Shop!

2008-11-29T09:27:00.004-05:00

I've decided to sell a few of my extras, so check out my etsy shop, there's a link on the sidebar under my profile, click on "quilt as desired". If it works, I will probably make some more tote bags, for sure, and we'll see what else.

November winter

2008-11-23T20:51:00.002-05:00

Don't have any quilting photos, although have been handquilting my floor scrap quilt and have done some machine sewing on Andrew's scrappy bargello this weekend. It's been very wintery here. Lots of snow, which is unusual for November. It usually snows once or twice and then melts, this time we have had a whole week of snow, it hasn't melted away yet.

This was the snowy scenery on my way to work last Wednesday.

These are icicles forming on my coneflowers. I don't cut them back so the birds can eat them during the winter...but eventually they get covered with snow, here the ice formed a ball around the seeds, from the dripping icicles above.

November Postcards

2008-11-15T15:08:00.002-05:00

I made 3 postcards, top for my mom for her birthday, middle for my sister-in-law to thank her for the fabric, and one for the guild postcard exchange, a poppy for Remembrance Day.

Muppin had a wonderful tutorial on her blog on how to make fabric poppies, check it out!

But what have I done lately?

2008-11-02T08:58:00.003-05:00

Now, that the saga of BIQR is over, it's time to get back to 'what have I done lately?' Our guild had their bi-annual quilt show Harvest of Quilts 2008. I submitted 10 pieces this year, 3 of which were part of the Guild Challenge display. I am the official photographer for the guild blog and have made one post, but I am still working on getting a slideshow up, you'll have to wait for that. This pic shows my Robyn Pandolph folk art wallhanging with 2 other interpretations. Isn't it great when 3 people take the same workshop and each comes up with such different interpretations!

(I've upgraded to picasa 3 and have been trying out some of the new features, one is a watermark...I lay claim to taking the photos not necessarily the content therein.) For instance this next photo is not of my quilt but of fellow guild member Jill, The Quilt Rat (she's just started her own blog and is on my blog roll, so check it out...her stuff is amazing and very unique!). This piece is called Earthbound.

Next, I forgot to tell you of my sister-in-law's visit from Calgary in September. We don't see her that often so it was nice to catch up and we took her out for dinner one night. She was in London only for a few days and had many other friends to catch up with too. BUT she did bring me a wonderful present, Anne is a quilter too and she brought me a bag full of her scraps!!! Her bag-full practically doubled my stash! And they were big pieces, too, and so many wonderful fabrics that I wouldn't already have, florals, jungle prints, some left overs from jelly rolls. (If you are reading this Anne, I know I owe you a postcard...I am working on it!)

I have been using some already...there were these nice polka dots, I think from a jelly roll, left over, and I thought it might make a nice bargello... I also used some of my left over solids to add to it. I thought it might make a nice doll quilt, but it is a little narrow, perhaps a topper for a dresser in a girl's room...

Next, remember my 9 Lives, inspired by this comic? Well, I felt like it needed some borders, and I was really stuck on what to do, but after Gwen's retreat, I was inspired by her Wedges and Slivers piece in her new book and wanted that colour pallette. I ended up using her strippy borders in those colours and of course some more left over solids. I look at those solid pieces as a blank canvas for hand quilting and can't wait to get these batted up!

My UFO list is growing, the following need to be batted up and quilted:

Andrew's Scrappy Bargello

Carol's Floor Scrap Quilt 1

Test Pattern

9 Lives

Pink Bargello

Liberated Strips

Tomasziewski wall hanging

and....

Top Secret Quilt, still working on the piecing.

First snowfall of the season!

2008-10-29T20:30:00.002-04:00

When you get 4-6 inches of snow and the leaves are still on most of the trees then you get broken branches and downed hydro poles and downed trees on parked cars! Our electricity was fine on our street but just a little further they haven't had electricity all day! The neighbour's garage took the brunt of this tree. All I got were a few stray branches in the backyard which I hauled to the end of my driveway when I got home from work. My property is just left of the garage.

Nope, I just spent a half hour rescuing my small trees and bushes, like this poor Japanese maple. I went around shaking out the snow from all the branches. I was soaking wet when I was done, I had to throw my pants in the dryer afterwards!

We're supposed to get more snow overnight and then it will all melt by the afternoon! Yay! I'm not ready!!!

BIQR: It's a wrap!

2008-10-24T20:14:00.005-04:00

I almost forgot to show a pic of my floor scrap quilt! I am quite pleased with it. I've got a couple of raw edges happening, which I think gives it some interest. I plan on doing some cool hand-quilting in the wide outer borders.

I almost forgot to tell you that Mary Jo got me a copy of Liberated Quiltmaking!!! Can you believe it? This book is out of print! but this girl she's got her connections I guess! I was so thrilled when I received it, that I had to make it my yearbook of the event. I got all the ladies at the retreat to sign it on the inside covers.....

and of course Gwen signed it too!

We went out for dinner to the Fish n Shanty with Gwen and MJ; excellent food! Apparently, new name, new owners, but the same chef!

It's time for the good-byes!

And the packing up!

Oh yes, and the mailing of a postcard to a Lazy friend in Paris, postmarked Elk Rapids, MI!

Anyway, that concludes my awesome experience at Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat in Elk Rapids, Michigan. She's posted the dates for next year's retreat Mixing it up! Quilts that combine Piecing and Applique. Sign up now!!!! I highly recommend any of Gwen Marston's Retreats, because you get way more than you paid for! You learn so much!

BIQR: Final Show and Tell

2008-10-24T07:43:00.006-04:00

On the last day, we had a show and tell of all our work. It was very hard for me not to include everyone's here....as it is I limited it to 14 (sheesh). Many people accomplished more than one piece, but hopefully this is representative.

Christy, below, is proud of her liberated flower, she spent a lot of time on other projects, but on the last day spent time on this beauty! She had a lovely machine that did embroidery, too. She designs her own patterns. She designed a really neat Beaver Island Retreat pattern, and put them on t-shirts (as seen below) as a surprise for sister-and-mother-in-laws, with whom she attended the retreat.
Not everyone made liberated patterns, a few took store bought patterns and used solids with stunning results. The following is a Maple Island BQ Quilt pattern.

I am not sure of the pattern name but, if I remember correctly, it came from a magazine and the sample used Kaffe Fassett fabrics, so imagine the difference with this one!

Next, Cathy's liberated stars with liberated sawtooth borders:

Cathy's abstract piece:

Allyn used a lot of Cherrywood fabrics:

This was her amazing left over quilt:

Christine and I made postcards:

Mine:

Rita's bars look like stained glass against the window:

Karin's:

Joyce's quilt dedicated to her dog Flash:

Christine's completed red squares:

Next post: It's a wrap!

BIQR 2008: Creating with Solids

2008-10-19T14:31:00.005-04:00

After Gwen finished her trunk show on solids, she basically said Go to it! But the hardest part is cutting your first fabric! It was so hard to actually start! You look at all your fabrics and you can't decide what to do! I figure there was 2 ways to start with a block or a colour palette. I chose a block...I liked her red square quilts and thought I will start with something simple to get going, knowing I could always change my path. Instead of red sqares I chose 3 yellows, cut 16 yellow squares and just got going.

I don't know how well the colour in the photos will turn out, but I added dark purples and blues, with a splash of green! This is how I ended my first day of sewing:

That night at bed time, I went through Gwen's book before I slept, Mexican Hat Dance was a favourite of mine, I knew I would have to try that block, even if I only made 4 of them. I chose random colours. I mixed them up,

I tried them together:

Eventually, I thought it needed a frame around it and made a blue inner border, that didn't go right so I added a red border, and from the left over pieces from the Mexican Hat Dance blocks I made a couple of sawtooth borders...that wasn't my idea...I stole it from someone in the middle of the room...can't remember who...

Anyway, I got stuck here I needed more fabric, didn't have the right colour to frame it...So it was time for a trip to the fabric store. Found what I needed at the cute store in Elk Rapids and what a deal, many of the quilt stores gave discounts to Retreat participants. It's a deep plum colour.

I added Gwen's serpentine borders and appliqued some circles...one of those circles, is strategically placed to cover a tiny error... of which will remain nameless.

I haven't decided what to call this piece yet, it reminds me of a test pattern on a TV, and since it is a bit of a sampler...I tried out many of the tutorials Gwen gave...maybe Test Pattern is a good name, or maybe Do not Adjust your Set, This is just a Test.

BIQR 2008 part 3: Meet and Greet

2008-10-14T08:12:00.008-04:00

On Wednesday evening, we all got together for pizza in the wicker room for our Meet and Greet. Everyone was asked to bring something for show and tell to introduce ourselves to the group. Since many of the attendees had been to past retreats, many of them brought stuff they had worked on at those retreats. I am not going to show you all the wonderful quilts shown, but focus instead on those from the Liberated Basket retreat, since there were a fair number of them.

I finally got to meet MJ in Michigan in person, I had met her in Lazy Gal's First Ever On-Line Class. She took what she practiced there and applied to Gwen's Liberated Baskets and came up with this beauty:

Joyce insisted she had failed liberated baskets and when she got home she took hers apart and created this lovely folk art piece dedicated to her grandson. Her grandson is blind and says frequently, "Can you hear the birds?"

Joanne's liberated baskets:

If I remember the story correctly, Sylvia had quite a few of these large basket blocks and didn't know what to do with them. Gwen's retreat inspired this arrangement, front:

back:

more Liberated baskets:

OK, the next one wasn't from a Gwen retreat, but you know how I like quilts and things made from t-shirts and it does contain some liberated piecing...This one was made for a husband out of his racing t-shirts, and do you know what his reaction was? " Don't you know, hon, you can't mix Formula One and Nascar!"

Next post: Creating with Solids

BIQR 2008: Gwen's Trunk Show and Lecture

2008-10-11T08:13:00.005-04:00

She gave her lecture 9AM Wednesday morning; as you can see we had a great view. She gave a brief summary of why she chose to do a retreat about solids, much of which can be found in her introduction to her new book Ideas and Inspirations: Abstract Quilts in Solids. She created the book with photographer Gregory Case to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Beaver Island Quilt Retreats. Most of the pieces in the book were newly created as samples for BIQR.

She showed all of the quilts in her book and then some! I will not bore you (as if you can get bored looking at Gwen's quilts) with a photo of each one that appears in the book, Gregory's photos do it better justice, of course, but will focus on some of the bonuses. I have to tell you, every night before I turned off the light I journeyed through that book and still do since I've been home. Of course each photo has a memory attached and that is something I cannot give to you, you'll have to meet Gwen and her quilts in person for that!

This was one of her first quilts using her "Tulip Block". She gave demos in the making of this block. I knew I would be putting some of these in my piece, since Mexican Hat Dance (the one on the cover of her book) was one of my favourite pieces! This is a fun block to play with, above with sashing and she showed how you could put stems and on them to create another block.

She says that quilts stitched in solids, are more like contemporary art. Your solids are your colour palette. Instead of the patterns being in the fabric, you have to create the pattern with the fabric and the stitching. Definitely, hand quilting shows up more effectively on solids than on prints. And solids are not dated....you like those prints and colours now, but will you still, 10 years from now?

I just love the hand quilting in this piece and had to take close ups.

After the trunk show, the quilts were laid out on the counter and stayed there the whole time, so we could visit, hug, fondle, drool, (no skip that, there was absolutely no drooling), yearn, peruse, take photos of her quilts for ideas. "it starts with an idea, plant a seed and let it grow."

Just go ahead and sew blocks, "arranging them is like jigsaw puzzles", she says. Each block does not have to be an exact duplicate of the last one, these differences are "what holds people's interest longer and takes it out of the predictable."

This is one quilt not in the book, where she just added liberated triangles at the ends of sashing to create the stars. Here she added interest in the centre blocks. The next pic is of Gwen's pinwheels, this quilt can be found in her Liberated Quiltmaking book. She says they look like Jacks and we were calling them Jacks blocks. It was a favourite and she gave a demo on that block too.

Here is another surprise quilt she showed, she was very enamoured with those Cherrywood fabrics. A few of the students also had those fabrics, "Luscious" as Karin liked to say!

She then told us about floor scrap quilts. "Don't worry about cleaning up your scraps", she said, because after each week of retreats she collects the floor scraps and makes quilts out of them. She encouraged us to do the same. It was funny, as many of us were searching the aisles for floor scraps. Our end of the room was much messier than the other end for some reason.

Another surprise, she showed us this basket quilt she made with 219, 4 inch blocks! Rumour has it, this will be appearing in an upcoming book by 2 Toronto ladies, Biz Storm and Mary Elizabeth Kinch, called Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts, due out in December.

Next Post: Meet and Greet, Show and Tell. Stay Tuned!

Beaver Island part 1: Arrival

2008-10-07T21:05:00.004-04:00

So here we are! The wonderful gadget the GPS works like a charm getting us safely to White Birch Lodge in Elk Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday, September 30th. It even has a little checkered flag when you "cross the finish line"! ha!

Here is a view from our room overlooking the Elk Rapids Lake. That was about as sunny as it got, because we had pretty rainy weather for the most part, but since we were inside sewing most of the time it didn't matter too much.

We were first shown to our room and then to the big sewing room to stake a claim at a table. We were probably the last ones to arrive. Apparently some had been there since 9 AM! Many were already sewing! We chose what tables were left and Gwen introduced herself to us. She was wonderful and made us feel right at home. She invited us to have dinner with her and 2 other women, Cathy and Krys, also from Beaver Island. They gave us the scoop on how things go at the retreat. We went to dinner at Siren Hall, excellent food....in fact all the restaurants we visited were excellent!

Wednesday, was our first official Retreat day. We were all to meet in the Sewing room at 9AM for Gwen's lecture and trunk show on solids. Then we could get right into the sewing part. We used her lecture as a starting point, a map, on our journey. Then when needed she would do small demos of her techniques, and she would do them as often as needed, and more than once, so you didn't need to worry if you missed one if you had left to go fabric shopping or out for lunch. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I just noticed in the above photo Gwen is showing us a mock up of the new Collaborative Quilting with Freddy Moran book that will be coming out next summer. What a treat!

Next post: part 2, Gwen's Lecture and Trunk Show, stay tuned!

I'm Back from Beaver Island!!!

2008-10-06T16:44:00.004-04:00

And I got a signed copy of Gwen's book!!! My friend Christine and I went to Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Retreat for the first time and it was amazing! And meeting Gwen in person was such a treat! We actually went out for dinner with her the first night we there, it was so warm and welcoming and we never felt out of place as newbies. Everyone was very supportive. It was such a positive, creative, and inspiring environment. (You have to realize, and this is a secret, all that go to the retreat get first chance to sign up for next year's retreat, which is why it fills up so quickly ;) At least one lady there, got in because of a cancellation, so get on the list! So many of the ladies have met each other before at previous retreats, but they were never exclusive and we went out for dinner with different groups each night. You are allowed a lot of freedom for meals, people just go out to eat whenever the mood strikes them and the sewing room is open all night long(!) if you need/want it!

You'll have to wait a bit for photos, because my computer at home has been giving me grief, and I have not down loaded my 4 memory cards of photos (!) It will be a hard time deciding what photos go up on the blog, I might do a picasa web album...I got permission from everyone there to put the photos up on the net, only one person declined. So hopefully by Sunday I'll have edited my photos and made my posts.