Workshop with Jacquie Gering

This month our guild had Jacquie Gering from Tall Prairie Grass Studio as guest. What a speaker what an inspiration! As I was listening to her, even though we make different type quilts, we had similar experiences and inspirations along our quilting journeys. Above and below are two of her log cabin quilts, the colourful one was a tribute to Josef Albers and his book Interaction of Color. (see my Albers' post from 2013)

I was thrilled to participate in her workshop on  the Saturday. She taught her stitch and flip method. I was already familiar with this method having done something very similar at Gwen's workshops. It is amazing that 2 people can get the same ideas but coming from different places and taking them in different directions!

For the workshop I had a 5 inch charm pack for my scraps and then I selected 2 yards of solid orange to match. I then raided my own scraps for added variety.  I made 3.5 inch orange squares and cut my charm packs both ways on the diagonal. I zipped through my first batch of chain piecing and then it was onto the design wall. Then more chain piecing, then more on the design wall, more piecing, etc. I completed over 90 squares, and still need lots more!

The hardest part of this was the designing, putting the pieces together as Jacquie says it is not block piecing it is quilt piecing.

There is something wrong with this one....what is it? you can stare at it and not see it...it was not until I got home and looked at the photos did I see the mistake....

ta da!

Still lots more to do! but I got my quilting mojo back! thanks Jacquie!

My biggest fear - conquered!

Like most people, my biggest fear is public speaking, so when my guild asked me to do a trunk show, I emailed back and said sorry but no, appreciate the offer but....but, I hesitated before I hit send. why do I not want to do it? 1. fear 2. I make weird quilts.

2. I make weird quilts....that is not a good reason to not do it, but a great reason to do it. People might actually find the stories about my quilts interesting. I think I have a motivation that is different than a lot of people. Sharing that would be entertaining to other quilters, I would hope. Lots of quilters are quite happy to make their quilts from other people's patterns, but it is hard to move out of that box, perhaps if I show them how I did, maybe they could to.

1. So that leaves Fear...that they will laugh at me? no that was my fear in highschool, humiliation and inadequacy.....I actually do not have that fear anymore, then fear of what? It is the fear of not being able to get my point across, to articulate my position....but I have been blogging about quilting for 8 years now, and I think I have been able to get my stories about my quilts out there, now I just have to say them out loud and not just in my head! surely exposing myself to the world in cyberspace is much more scary than in front of your friends who all share the same passion.

So I deleted that email and said I would do it! They asked me in August last year, so March 2014 was so far off into the future anyway! Well March is here and my husband deserted me in my hour of need to go visit a friend in Texas, could he go any further away?! but that actually turned out to be a blessing. I had no distractions in getting all my quilts in order and an overview written up. I practiced out loud in front of the cats....rewrite! practice again....much better. I was ready but nervous.

The big day! I got my closest quilting friends to help me, 2 of them to hold up my quilts, Christine and Gail and then Jill in the audience to take photos for me. And you know what? it went fine! I did not read everything off my paper, but when I lost my place it was there to get me back on track. I did not say everything I wanted to say, but I think it was well received. So I am proud of myself for taking the chance and overcoming this fear!

here is a link to guild version of my trunk show

Paper Piecing Frog's Toes

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!

But what have I done lately?

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.

LFQGuild Challenge 2008

Well, we finally had our Guild Challenge Meeting. We had 36 entries (3 of which were mine and I know Christine submitted 2) out of 126 members. It seemed like a fair amount. What is the participation rate for challenges at your guild, or does it just depend on the type of challenge? You can watch the slideshow here and you can see the winners here.

Here is my first piece I entered. Keep in mind I only used fabric from my stash and the Challenge fabric. This one is called Blowing Bubbles. That is supposed to be a Blue Whale blowing bubbles from his blow hole. I had an idea that I wanted the fish to be inside bubbles using the reverse applique method. This piece also uses fusible applique and freezer paper-needle turn applique.


The second piece is called Heads or Tails. I tried the facing the piece instead of using binding. This will be a gift to my friends in Michigan, after I show it in our Guild Show in October.


The third piece is called 2 Lost Souls, after the song How I Wish You Were Here by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd..."We are just 2 lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year..." That is such a moving song!


I've also managed to finally finish my Amy Butler quilt, from fabric I bought a year ago at the Kitchener-Waterloo show. My working title has been Rob and Amy Go on a Picnic. The quilt contains Amy Butler and Robert Kaufman fabrics. Now I am just calling it Picnic for short. All though I am not really firm on the name :)

Woohoo! I Was Published!

This was the highlight of February for me! An article that I wrote, about how quilters' guilds can use blogs to improve their presence on the internet, was published in the Canadian Quilter a quarterly publication of the Canadian Quilters' Association!


Besides this blog and my store blog, I also edit our guild's blog. As our guild president often says, "I'm doing the happy dance!"

More Postcard Swap

Here are my latest postcards that I received from the LFQG postcard swap. The blue Let it Snow one, has loose snowflakes trapped under a layer of tulle. When you shake it, it snows! How cool is that?!

Below are my October postcards I received. I didn't participate in November's swap. Basically, you drop off your postcards into the box at the guild meeting. Then for every one you drop off, you receive one (that is not your own) back in the real mail. I like to drop off 2 at a time! Beats getting bills in the mail!