Odds 'n Ends

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First off, I just wanted to say, I just learned that Lazy Gal has dropped the Quilt Mavericks ring, and I am a little sad by this. She represented what a quilt maverick should be. She was one of the first blogs I always returned to and gained inspiration by. (listen to me, it sounds like I am eulogizing her! Don't worry, she is not dead! and I wish her all the best in her quest for finding her place!) I just wanted to say I will always think of her as a quilt maverick! And her blog will always be on my blogroll. Good Luck Tonya!

Meanwhile, what have I been quilting lately? More of the same...have started machine quilting Split Personality, but will not post photo until it's bound...every other day or so, I hand quilt a bit of the other Suske quilt:


It hasn't been going as well as I had hoped...I've learned a few lessons with this one. All the fused applique receives quite a bit of stress when held in your hands while handquilting and it also makes it hard to put in a frame, so I didn't. And it is getting a little worn, I think.

I've also started machine quilting a small kids quilt for the guild's outreach program.

I took out Jinny Beyer's Quiltmaking by Hand book, from the Library. I am really enjoying this one; it is very helpful and has great instructions on hand quilting and piecing. I think it is important to learn the old methods, so that they are not lost, and if there is another power outage like we had a few years ago, I can still keep on quilting ;)



Here, I experimented with hand piecing with some scraps:



I've tried handpiecing twice before. I first learned about it while being instructed in the making our guild's logo for our chatelaines. The guild logo was a little difficult to learn and there was much griping in the guild about it, but I was determined to learn it. I tried to do it by machine but the little 1 inch squares were just as fussy to do by machine. So I thought I should practice my hand piecing with other little scraps. Don't you hate to throw out those nice little triangles you chop off the flying geese? Well I had lots of those, so I would practice hand piecing those little buggers together. I even came up with a method of string piecing them together; I would string 6 or 7 of them on a thread:


Then, I got out Jinny's book from the library and read about her techniques and I brought out the little triangles again. The good news is there is improvement! I've gone from 6 to 10 stitches per triangle.


OK so you are thinking I am a little nuts, making 1 inch squares, what can you do with 1 inch squares? I could make a quilt for my dollhouse! 1 inch = 1 foot in my dollhouse. So it would be perfect.

Kids' Quilts-Bee

Today, I spent some time with some wonderful ladies from our guild. It was a rainy, muddy day, so it was good to be indoors making quilts for charity! There were many quilts in many stages to work on. Here is Elaine tying one on! Actually, she and I worked together on this quilt.


It was a very thick quilt that someone had pieced with corduroy, and would have been a challenge to quilt with batting, so we tied this one with a flannel backing. I think it would be a great quilt for a boy. The triangles were like little pockets, great place to park little toy cars, I'd imagine!


Others machine quilted:


and others pieced new tops:


After lunch, Linda gave us a demo of Kaye Wood's "6 Hour quilt". This is a quick method to make children's quilts for charity and a great way to use up scraps from other quilts.

Sugar Bush

Not much quilty things to report, just working on some hand quilting and UFO's. In the mean time, I took a trip to the sugar bush and a hayride with my parents on a beautiful, sunny, spring is around the corner, day!

Please note, I've added a few new blog links to my favourites: fellow guild members, Barb's Journal and Sewnut, as well as my friend's vegetarian cooking blog,Lisa's Kitchen, where you can find her favourite recipes.

Robyn Pandolph: Trunk Show and Workshop

Robyn Pandolph did her trunk show for our guild. She was a lovely lady and her quilts were beautiful! I really do love this industry for all the inspirational women you meet! I love to see women succeed in business and in life. We always need more role models. In this industry, it is especially good to see how women can make it on their own terms. In this case, Robyn was a stay at home mother, who home-schooled her children and managed to own her own pattern company and eventually moved into fabric design for major fabric manufacturers. She jokingly referred to her own children as child labourers. But it is true that she paid her children to help her make up kits to go out for sale; she felt the entrepreneurial spirit is one that is valuable for children to learn. And as a small business owner, I have to agree!


Her main inspiration for quilting is her Grandmother. So she tends to over-dye and bleach her fabrics to get that 'vintage' look. She feels quilting and applique should be peaceful. She also says we should get our inspiration from the world around us. The quilt below was inspired by the events of the Columbine shootings.


The next day, I participated in her 'Creating Your Own Folk Art Applique' workshop. She gave us a brief history of American Folk Art and how it was representative of the spirit of the country at the time, of pioneering, democracy, individualism and freedom.

She gave us a pattern to work with, but encouraged us to add our own unique element to the wallhanging to make it our own. This is her sample:


Here I try to take her advice and substitute my house for her house. Of course, I don't follow her other advice and keep it simple.... I have to add gables, stained glass windows, and trim!


Ta da! My House! Just in case you were wondering, the little blue bits are supposed to represent the stained glass.


She also taught us her method of needle-turn applique. I think I could use a little more instruction on how to do those pointy corners! But all in all I think I learned a lot. I only got a start on the needle work by the end of her workshop, I finished the house this morning. I will save the flower work for another day. I am not going to rush on this project, I will take my time. Quilting and applique should be a peaceful hobby, says Robyn, and I think the results will be better for it.

If you would like to read more about her visit, you can see what I posted at our guild's blog, the March 11 post.

Quilt 'til You Wilt!

10 hours of quilting and female bonding! Saturday, Christine and I went to our guild's Quilt 'til You Wilt day at the Stoneridge Inn. It was lovely! Coffee, tea, lunch and supper and a day of non-stop quilting!


I brought my Suske (McKenna Ryan 'Dora' pattern) wall hanging. I had fused the pieces on but I had not appliqued it yet. This was a perfect project to work on, because there were so many small pieces to sew down, I would need a good block of time for this. I used invisible thread on top and black in the bobbin for the dark pieces and off-white for the light pieces.


It's my first applique of this type, and I'm not sure I'm the right sort for this. The bonding stuff gums up your needle and sometimes it leaves big needle holes, which might have been a tension problem, I'm not sure. I think I will embellish a bit with some hand embroidery to distract from the slightly sloppy sewing I did around the flowers. Those petals were difficult! Christine said when people are looking at the wall hanging they are looking at the big picture and not so much the tiny details. After I finished that, I was able to work on 'Suske II: Split Personality' and I finished my applique on 'Echt Hollands'. A truly productive quilty day!

For Gwen,
I ironed on my flower petals first, using Lite Steam-A-Seam2 as a bond, then I drew in pencil lightly the line of the stem. Using a running stitch in matching DMC floss (I am sure any matching thread will do) I hand sewed the ribbon over my pencil line. Then I ironed on the blue petals. I will finish the petals with a blanket stitch. It was very easy to manipulate the ribbon around the curves and it is only 1/8 inch (3mm) wide, so a single running stitch is all it needed.

Boerenbont

I found some darker blue ribbon for my boerenbont applique. I was also considering doing it in embroidery, but when I made a sampler up, I definitely liked the ribbon better. I still have to blanket stitch the petals and leaves, but I thought I would show you the progress. I also borrowed from my mom, a saucer with the boerenbont pattern on it for reference. I put it in the photo so you can see what boerenbont looks like. Most people have seen Delft blue patterns, but many have never seen the boerenbont.

Split Personality

I hit a road block with my Echt Hollands quilt, I definitely need a darker blue ribbon. I haven't found any yet. So I was sitting in my sewing room with my measly stash....unlike others, I do not yet need to go on a fabric diet. I found some neat left over cat fabric and I was making little piles of matching fabrics, and I found I that some of the matching fabrics were from my Suske Quilt. So what could I do with this? Perusing APQ October 2005 I found this Block Party pattern by Jason Yenter that might do!


First you make these courthouse blocks, mine are one strip smaller than in the pattern, and I only made nine of them.



Then, you split them into four pieces and join them with a thin sashing. Above, I had already cut my blocks, when I realized I hadn't taken any photos yet, so you can see the cut lines. Below I show you how they are split and then rejoined. I hadn't finished the piecing yet.


I've decided to call this wallhanging Suske II: Split Personality. However I have hit another road block...I have the perfect fabric for the sashing, but I don't think I'll have enough. Will the store I got them at still have it.....? Will keep you posted.

Below is Suske's take on the whole thing!


I am also getting ready for our Robyn Pandolph's visit to our guild and her workshop. Here are the fabrics I bought for the workshop. Aren't they yummy?! Very feminine, not really my style, but I like this colour combo. Some are her fabrics and the others are some Robert Kaufman blends. Those are great! When I first saw them by themselves, I shrugged, but when you put them with the prints they are fabulous. You know why I like these fabrics, even though they are not really me? They remind me of spring and I am getting so sick of winter! There I said it! It had to be said. It was minus 18 degrees Celsius yesterday! We just got out of another snowstorm! egad!...although today was sunny...yes, the fabrics remind me of spring.

I've made the flying geese and the pinwheels border. I haven't sewn it completely together yet, as I thought I would wait until I get the corner appliques done. This way I can applique on a small corner piece rather than the whole thing. I found some nice white fabric in my stash, that I could use for the applique background. It kind of softens all the busy fabric.


I tried a sample boerenbont, but I thought the blue pieces were a little too small to work with and needed a bit of exaggeration to look better.


Here is the bolder version:


I used some ribbon for the stem; it's only pinned on, I might need a darker shade of blue.

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!