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?"