Deep Freeze!

While at my mom's I found these photos! Here's Benji keeping warm during our deep freeze! -20 degrees Celsius!


The following photos of Mom and me, out for a little cross country skiing. Mom got new skis for Christmas.

I'm back! and feeling much better! Thanks to those who sent me warm wishes! Also, thanks to those who welcomed me to Quilt Mavericks!

I have been bugging our guild executive about starting a blog for the guild. We don't have an official web site or web presence at all. So finally I was invited to their executive meeting where I could present my idea. It was great! We accomplished a lot. We now have a blog started and the beginnings of an official website, too! There is still a lot of work to do, trying to figure out who gets to post and setting all that up, but in the mean time, I am the 'editor' for now and we have made our first post and hopefully as things move into place, the postings will become more frequent. Our next guild meeting is on Thursday, where we will present the idea and the address to the membership. And hopefully this will become a place for the membership to go to get up-to-date news about the guild and new people can find out about us and what fun we have! I have used the blog for our store and it has worked well as a sort of on-line newsletter, letting everyone know about upcoming events and sales. I thought it could be easily adapted for our guild, without having to learn html, especially when there are so many older people in the guild, who may not be as savvy on the computer, blogging is so easy to learn. I've put a link to the guild's blog on the sidebar or you can get a sneak peak here.

I have made some more progress on 'Echt Hollands', but I left my camera at work, so no pics today. I am happy to report my friend Christine has started posting more frequently on her blog, you can check it out here.

Speaking of blogging more frequently, has anyone seen Hedgehog lately? I miss her posts. I hope she is well.

ugh.

Nasty cold turns out to be pneumonia. gotta rest.

More Echt Hollands

Am not feeling too well, today, I think I am getting a nasty cold that is going around. So here are few photos of my 'Echt Hollands' (Real Dutch) project I've been working on. See my October 21st post for the origins of this project.



I've run out of the fabric, I want to put in the corners. I am thinking I will applique a 'boerenbont' pattern in the corner blocks. Boerenbont is a pattern that can be found on some Dutch dishware. My mother really loves this pattern, and always brings back these dishes from Holland. And amazingly enough never breaks them! I mentioned to my mom I thought I might applique this pattern with my dutch fabric and her first reaction was it's not the right shade of red! And she is right but this is just a representation not an exact replica....really the boerenbont might do better with the country shades, but hey, this is my project.


Here are some of the plans I've drawn up, and the beginnings of some flying geese and some pinwheels. I always feel so anxious when I start to cut the fabric, like, don't screw it up! Especially, when I am making up the pattern, and I don't know how much fabric I will need. LOL

I'm a Quilt Maverick!

Woo! Hoo! I've joined the Quilt Maverick blog ring! (see side-bar) Click on the links to find 40 creative and diverse quilters and their quilting blogs! Happy blog reading!

The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

I guess the big news that I learned at Thursday's LFQGuild meeting, was that the Russians were coming! Master Quilters from Russia will be visiting Canada for a Russian Quilt Exhibit on October 15 to 20, 2007 in Ailsa Craig, Ontario hosted by Cotton-By-Post Quilt Shoppe. One of the owners, Garnet, is just thrilled with this visit! He's making all the arrangements. There will be lectures, classes all week with Russian quilters, special classes with a Russian Master quilter, demos, a merchant's mall, and a tea room. You can visit the Russian Quilters Association website to see a sampling of the type of quilts that will be brought over with them here. The page is full of photos but it can take awhile to download, so be patient. I will post more info as I get it, because I think it will be a really unique opportunity to see these amazing quilts. I was checking out their web page and they offer quilt tours of Russia, but I am not sure I will get there anytime soon! So if they're coming here, all the better! There will be a chance to meet some of these ladies in advance. They will be visiting in March to check things out and will be in the store on Saturday March 3 to greet customers.

Other Guild events included a merchant's mall and I managed to spend a few dollars! I signed up for a Quilt 'til you Wilt day on Februar 24. It's a great opportunity to spend the day quilting with friends and complete those UFO's. Robyn Pandolph will be visiting our guild on March 8 & 9, she will be doing a talk to the guild on the Thursday, non guild members welcome with a $5.00 an entrance fee. Then an all-day workshop, on the Friday; it costs extra. Unfortunately, demand is higher than the limit so there will be a lottery for the workshop. I will post a 'backstage pass' post if I win. Other than that, I managed to totally embarrass myself during Show and Tell. I am so totally afraid of public speaking, even among the friendly people of the guild. I brought my liberated 'tea' tea cozy, and couldn't hold up the cozy and speak into the microphone at the same time and even managed to get tangled in the microphone cord upon my exit! Laurel and Hardy rolled up into one ditzy blonde!

I managed to recover my self esteem by Friday, and was interviewed by the local cable station for 'Today's Londoner' as a business owner. That went well for the most part and I hope to digitize it and add it to my store blog.

As for actually quilting, I haven't done too much. This year's guild challenge is for each member to make a placemat that will be donated to Meals on Wheels and be given out to their clients. I took apart an old project I wasn't too crazy about and am going to turn it into 2 placemats. I also made these dice bags to sell in the store. We sell Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games (D&D) and you need all sorts of dice to play. Many players collect dice and they need dice bags. I discovered that the game suppliers don't have a lot of variety of dice bags. So I started making them out of left over quilting fabrics and as long as they're not too girly, they sell pretty well. Now I actually look for fabric just to make the bags, the ones with dragons on it do well.

Liberated Tea Cozies

Here is the liberated tea cozy, that I made for a friend for Christmas. I was using Marston's idea for variable stars and sawtooth borders. I am really pleased with the overall look of this one!

SideB:

For the next cozy, I used Tonya's free-pieced letters for one side, and made my own free-pieced tea cup for the other side. I appliqued a tea bag label to it, which looks better in person than in photo (the flash wrecks the colour a bit I think).

Liberated Quiltmaking in Practice

Happy New Year one and all!

It's been a very hectic Christmas season for those of us who work in retail, and I am glad the worst is over! Now I can get back to quilting and blogging in my spare time!

A few notes on posts: CA stands for Canada, not California....although sometimes I wish I was in California...the wooden cats came from a store called Sea Jewels, which specializes in carved wooden imports and such...Can someone tell me the etiquette for responding to people's questions in their posts?...oh and in case anybody noticed...my posting name is now comicbooklady, instead of Carol. It all started with beta blogger and having 2 blogs....don't ask...and I changed my photo :)

I haven't been completely out of it though. I managed to make a tea cozy, a Christmas present for a friend. As well as practicing the stuff I learned from Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking book. I have found out that Fridays for me are good liberated quilt making days. I am too tired to be precise or follow directions, but I still have the desire to quilt and create. I started to go through the book in order; here is my liberated strips:



I sewed some strips together from my stash (ironically my stash is filled with very neat, rotary cut strips, oh well), then I cut it into 3 pieces and then sewed the background fabric between them. I like the simplicity of this piece...It was after all my first attempt at liberated quiltmaking... I was thinking, I could hand quilt a leaf pattern onto it, to bring out the fall theme...or it would make a lovely tea cozy...:)

After I moved onto liberated log cabins, which I had a lot of fun with, more fun than strips I think. It was fun just to pull stuff out of my scrap bin and use up those bits, the colour and pattern is a bit more lively, that's probably what made it more fun.



I am enjoying liberated quiltmaking; it certainly is a great exercise in creativity, but I don't think I'll give up my rotary cutter quite yet. I am not that good at cutting with my scissors!:)

Next: liberated tea cozies...stay tuned!

It's Melting!

Sigh. Almost all of that snow has melted :( Now it is so dreary outside. They are now talking of a
green Christmas! I think I'll post some Christmas decorations to cheer myself up! The soft tree pattern I got from Little Birds (November 22, 2006 post) or go to the soft tree group on flikr . They are fun, quick and easy.



That's Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas at the top my tree and I also have a set of Simpsons Tree Lights. It looks cool when it is lit up, but in the photo it looks a little spooky :)

This is my Simpsons figurine tree. It lights up! When I was little, we used to have a porcelein Christmas tree that lit up. This reminds me of that, only this is way cooler!

Walk to Work

Indulge me folks, as I post a few more Winter Wonderland photos of my walk to work. It's sunny now and the snow is already melting. This all could be mud in a few days!

Snow Day!!!

I ran into neighbours, Kevin and Lilly, tobaggoning at the end of the street on my way to work. That's what you're supposed to do on Snow Day!

Winter Wonderland

Sorry about the gloves in front of the lens. I discovered, one should take the gloves off before clicking the photo! It would have been a great photo, too.

At the Store

We're open!!!Take that old man winter!!!

First Snowstorm!

I am supposed to be on my way to work, but this is my unplowed street! We woke up to 2 feet of snow!! I am serious! See photos below! My cheeks are still burning from being outside shovelling. I thought I should make a path from door to street in case of emergency. I always walk to work, anyway, so digging out the car isn't a priority, but if we do get that warm weather that's going to change that light fluffy snow to heavy snow, to ice, ugh. So I cleared the top of the car. The city buses are not even running yet, so I doubt there will be a line up at the door of my store, but I will get there in due time to shovel some more! I had to blog these photos first! We haven't had this much snow since the blizzard of 1977! They call this the 'lake effect'; I believe the snow develops over the great lakes and then comes inland, in this case over Lake Huron.

To my in-laws: We are holding your car hostage and you cannot get it back until spring...or at least until the weekend where the temperature is to go up to 6 or 7 degrees Celsius!

This was the view from my back door. In the top photo, that's a four foot fence on the right. The bottom photo is my gate buried in snow!

If you guessed this was a photo of me up to my thighs in snow; you were right!!!

Dutch Sampler

This is my Dutch Sampler wallhanging. The pattern idea I got from APQ #71 (12/04), Dutch Doll Quilt. The fabric I bought was a bundle of 4 inch square fabric samples, the centre fabric and binding were from my stash. I made up my own centre design, which I cross-stitched. I love old cross-stitch samplers. I made up the 2 cats myself, one black Spike and one brown Suske.

What have I done for my quilting lately?

I've been busy, but no photos to show for it. First I have been reading Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marsten. I thought I would check it out since it seems to be inspiration to many. I found it at the public library, but had to put it on reserve because it was out and finally I received my email saying it was in! woohoo! It is an amazing book! But am I a liberated quilter? Sometimes, I think. I think my Spike quilt comes pretty close; it was made with scraps and although I arranged it on the floor I didn't have a pattern, just an idea. My Lest we Forget, I just made it up as I sewed and that was a new challenge. But I have to confess there is a part of me that wants my colours to match, and I have a compulsion to plan my scrappy quilts. I am trying to pull things from my scraps and just sew to see what I come up with. I've made one creation so far, but I am planning to dig in some more.

Other 'quilty' things I've done....I've hung more quilt stuff up in my house, and I like it. It makes me smile to see my stuff hanging on the walls. Also I have been going through all my magazines trying to figure out what to do with my Dutch fabric. I like the fabric so much I am afraid to cut it :(, but I think I've narrowed it down to a few contenders. I also finished a tea cosy for my mom's birthday. oops and I forgot to take a photo of it.....Oh and I cleaned my sewing room! what a mess! You'll always know I am thinking about a big project when I start cleaning! The music I am listening to lately while cleaning and quilting is David Gilmour's On an Island and Dave Brubeck's Greatest hits. Partly because they're the only 2 CD's my stupid CD player recognizes right now. And of course I blog and I read quilting blogs.

Next, I think I will have to dig out the Christmas quilts and start decorating for christmas. I am not sure if I will put up a tree or not. I have been bringing my artificial tree to the store and decorating it there. It is a very unusual tree, full of Simpsons and comic book decorations! With no kids at home or even visiting, I find I get more pleasure from it at the store.

Spike Quilt Completed!!!!

Here it is! I am really proud of this one! I think it captures the essence of my Spike, as you can see by the following photo!

Also, thanks to Tonya and her free hand fans idea for hand quilting. It worked well on this piece.

"Personally, I don't see the resemblance; I am obviously taller, and my whiskers! Where are my whiskers?"

Friendship Offerings Wallhanging

Here's the finished top of the Friendship Offerings wallhanging, that we did in Cynthia's workshop. The colours I chose are much darker than Cynthia's cheerful brights, but I fell in love with the outer border fabric!

Here are 2 close-ups of the applique. Cynthia taught us needle turn applique using freezer paper (leaves) and fusible web applique (petals of flowers), and we made bias strips for the stems using a 1/4 inch Clover brand bias maker. What a wonderful tool! I used a blanket stitch around the petals and Cynthia taught us a lovely feather stitch, which I used radiating from the centre of 2 of the flowers.

Backstage Pass part 2

This photo was just sent to me today! Myself, Cynthia Tomaszewski, and Christine.

Backstage Pass

On Thursday, Cynthia Tomaszewski, was the guest speaker for our LFQG meeting. Cynthia is the designer and owner of Simple Pleasures, a pattern company which markets over 50 different quilting designs. She's published 2 books Garden Party: Applique Quilts that Bloom and Tea in the Garden: Quilts for a Summer Afternoon, published by Martingdale and Company. She and her family have traveled extensively throughout the world and currently lives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emerites.

Her talk was inspiring! Her motto is "Quilt where you are planted", and it was reflected in the story of her year living in Indonesia. She formed her own group of quilters, in a country where there were no quilters; she imported the tools needed, when there were no tools; she arranged to have tools manufactured, when it was too difficult or expensive to import. Overcoming a language and cultural problem, she arranged to have 50+ quilt hoops made for her quilting group! When there was no batting, she found a bra factory that could supply her with what her group needed! She's a woman that doesn't give up!

On Friday, she gave a workshop on applique techniques. I wasn't really sure I wanted to take this workshop. The wallhanging was nice, but it really wasn't my style. I was wrong to be hesitant, because this workshop was like a backstage pass to meet the band! The other message Cynthia has, is that quilts are about people. They are about the people you meet, the stories they tell, the memories you have. And that is what I got from the workshop. I met a wonderful lady who passed on her experiences and knowledge about quilting; I enjoyed the comraderie of my fellow quilters, and picked up so many tips that are etched deeper into me because of the experience I had. It was better than just reading it from a book.

I've posted a few photos below from the workshop. Later I will post a photo of the completed wallhanging.

Here is Cynthia in front of the class holding up her wallhanging. It was a great opportunity to have this intimate workshop!

Cool door prize, that Cynthia donated! Inside it contained a pair of scissors on a handmade string of beads and a small pincushion made by palestinian women! I'll hang this pincushion with one I have from Hungary....I just might start a collection of pincushions around the world. cool!

Quilt Show part 2

Here is another one of my entries into the quilt show. They are not good photos, sorry. I call it Lenore, Butterfly Hunter. Again, I took it from a Lenore comic by Roman Dirge. Lenore, with her butterfly net and baseball bat in the top frame (it's called extreme butterfly hunting!), and her mounted butterfly prize in the bottom. I also wanted to try out some butterfly blocks that I saw in Quiltmaker magazine (issue May/June '01 #79), these ones are only 4 in square instead of 6 inches. The top photo is a close up I made before I had completed it; the second is from the show. (I haven't figured out how to manoevre the photos, they never seem to go up on the page in the order I want them :( ) ....also you might have noticed a Lenore lunch box...I now use that for my sewing kit which I bring to workshops....I always get comments like, oh my daughter would just love that!... I guess I'll never grow up!

Here is another one of my entries in the quilt show: 'Gord's T-Shirts'. I made this quilt using my husband's old t-shirts, some flannels and I used a cheap fleece throw blanket for the back, so it is really warm! It was thick enough it didn't need batting. My hubby's office is the coldest room in the house, so he needed a warm lapquilt. I got the idea from an old Fons & Porter magazine, issue May 1996 (egad!) Sew Many Quilts. The top photo shows a close up of the label I made for the back of the quilt, that pic of the queen was on the sleeve of the Sex Pistols shirt.

Harvest of Quilts

Here is myself and my quilting buddy Christine (right). We volunteered for a shift at the welcome table at the London Friendship Quilters Guild 'Harvest of Quilts' quilt show. This was our first show with the guild and we had a great time! Christine entered 6 pieces in the show and I entered 4 plus the challenge quilt in the show. There were over 200 entries! It was amazing. We currently do not have a web page for our guild, but there are many proposals, for getting our guild onto the net. I have suggested having a blog for the guild....so we'll see what happens next.

Quilt Challenge

My aunt and cousin pointing to my prize (!) winning quilt! Our guild is celebrating its 25th anniversary and the challenge was 5x5 (or 25). There were 21 entries and mine was chosen for first prize by the guild members! (It's my first ribbon!) There are 5 rows of 5 blocks, 5x5 inches each. Row 1 are trees to represent London ( which is also known as the Forest City); row 2 are hearts to represent 'Friendship'; row 3 are spools to represent 'Quilters'; row 4 are hands that represent the members of the'Guild...London Friendship Quilters Guild...row 5 contains the Guild logo block and the anniversary years.

Circle of Life

This wallhanging is my own design. I bought these neat japanese fabrics from Kallisti Quilts. The animals I chose are pulled from the fabrics and are dependent on each other in the 'circle of life'. When I hand quilted this one, I chose shadow quilting because it is like ripples in a pond. I designed a type of chinese coin pattern to link the four blocks together. I originally designed a baby crib quilt for a gift, but reduced it to this wallhanging when I decided on another pattern for the gift.

This wallhanging is based on a comic book by Roman Dirge, called Lenore (the cute little dead girl). If you cannot find death amusing, this comic book is not for you! I loved the cover of his first collection and thought that I could adapt it for a Halloween wallhanging.

Here's a good photo of my cousin (right) and myself (left) on our last night together.