From idea to application:

I had a brilliant idea, I was going to put a patchwork border around my Robyn Pandolph applique, but when it came to doing it was a little more difficult than anticipated. The problem was that the applique was on a dome shape in the original.

First I made four strips of patchwork for each side, then I made up a piece for the 2 top corners.



Then I placed the corner piece in the corner, wrong sides together, then I place my side piece on top, right sides together and made a straight seam through the 3 pieces. On bottom right corner, you can see that I made a freezer paper template of the curve and ironed it to the back of the corner piece. Then I trimmed a quarter inch from the freezer paper, flipped it back onto the applique background (top right). I then needle-turn appliqued around the freezer paper, leaving the top open to pull out the freezer paper (bottom left)


I did the same for both sides:


Then I sewed on the top and bottom pieces. I made my patchwork in nine-patches and then sewed them together to make the side strips. I was then able to make my patches line up better, by adjusting a few seams here and there. I am always amazed that no matter how hard you try, you cannot match up the seams perfectly. sigh.

Here's the back:


Ta Da! Here's the front:


I'm a genius! (if I do say so myself :P)

Anyway, it's still not done, more applique to come in future posts!

Stitch 'n Bitch in Grand Bend

Here are a few pics of our Stitch 'n Bitch. There were only 4 of us, so there was more stitchin' than bitchin', I think :) We did have a chance to take a walk down to the beach and it was very quiet. You could see the steam/fog rising off the warm sand and hitting the cool air.


I was totally fascinated by the patterns in the sand, the shells collected along the shore and the strange teepee someone had constructed:


It is quite refreshing, yet peaceful after a long winter. And yes we did sew:

Comic books and Quilts

I only have time for a quick post and photo! I am so tired, such a busy week! I don't usually post about work, but here it is:

We've been getting ready for Free Comic Book Day, Saturday, May 5th. We've been cleaning, stamping books, sending out press releases, advertising,etc. ( I am going to be on our local cable station again! woohoo! The tv people came to the store to tape on Thursday) This is an annual event that happens at almost all comic book stores across North America. If you have any children, or nieces or nephews, you should find the nearest comic book store (the website has a comic shop locator service so you can find the one nearest you!) and take them out for a treat! At our store, we will be giving away over 1000 comic books that are specially made for this event, and there are a lot to choose from for all ages. I recommend you visit the Free Comic Book Day website to check it out. We think it is awesome! We have a lot of fun doing it! You can see photos of past events on our store blog using the flikr badge at the side.

Oh yeah, here's a quilty photo, I am making great progress on the robyn pandolph wallhanging! I tried a new thing, reverse applique, see the applique heart. The first half I did, really sucked, but I thought I would perservere through the second half and it looked great. But then I had to take apart the first half and redo it. I had to trim it a bit so that hole is a little bigger than the first, but it still looks decent.


Tomorrow: Stitch n Bitch! Sunday: Executive Meeting AM, Staff Meeting PM, Monday: CA Meeting PM,Tuesday: Orders due, Wednesday: New Comic day, Thursday: Guild Executive Meeting PM, Friday: FCBD set up at store PM, Sat: FreeComicBookDay!!!!! Sunday: a day of rest!!!!

A Perfect Weekend!

Finally, spring has arrived! In fact I think it skipped on to summer. Sunny and warm all weekend long! 22 degrees Celcius, absolutely gorgeous! I dragged my patio furniture from the basement, we barbecued hamburgers for dinner. I raked and cleaned up the garden. Went to Home Depot bought mulch for the garden, the only flowers for sale, though, are these little pansies:

I did divide some of my hostas and moved a clematis. It is really too early to do any major planting, we could still get frost. Rule of thumb, here, is to wait until Mother's Day or Victoria Day weekend (around May 24) for the first real planting. It's a little weird though, felt like summer, but not a single tree has any leaves yet!

Old Spike doesn't mind though!


I did manage a little work on my Robyn Pandolph applique this week. I was getting all psyched up to take this work to a Stitch 'n Bitch next weekend, so I was pulling out everything I needed, when I just started working on it, anyway.


I am still having trouble with a nice sharp point. It's a good thing they're hidden under the centre circle.


I've picked up a few new quilting magazines: Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, Quilting Arts and $100,000 Quilting Challenge. I am so inspired by all of them. In Quilting Challenge, I was inspired by 'Common Threads' by Valli Schiller...I like how her patchwork border meets with her meandering bias strips. I'd like to do that with the Robyn wallhanging....Quilting Arts magazine features a stunning sea horse applique on the cover....and from the Fons and Porter, I really have to try a Mariner's Compass block one of these days.... so little time, sigh.

Well, just letting you know that I am going to be awfully busy in the next two weeks, not sure if I'll have time to post.

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.