T-Shirt Totes

Another quick post, as I still don't have internet from my computer, and I have to share with hubby at home. Here are some tote bags I made from my husband's old t-shirts. Since they are comic book characters, I am selling them at my store. I've already sold the Death one, within a week of putting them out for display!

The first pic shows Shade the Changing Man and the back of the other tote:


The second pic shows DC/Vertigo's Death as drawn by Chris Bachalo (one of my favourite versions of Death) on the left and Shade on the right. I am not sure, but Bachalo may have done the Shade art as well, although the signature is different, it just says "Christopher".


And remember those hand pieced triangles I was working on? They've graduated into blocks! They're a little wonky, but I love them! I am thinking a wall hanging or a doll quilt. We'll see how many I can make.


I did manage to finish off some quilts, while I was away on holidays, but I haven't photographed them yet....so, hopefully, next post.

Vacation Pics

Reading the last Harry Potter! My cousin and her two teenagers all read it...in English, too! The Dutch version doesn't come out until November; they couldn't wait either!


Davey and me at Ragged Falls:

I attempted and mastered Kiyaking! Me in the foreground, my hubby in the background. He found it much more comfortable (surprisingly) with his arthritis (AS) than canoeing. The new drugs help, Yay Enbrel!!

The view, peace and tranquility, at Oxtongue Lake:

The cottage! (Thanks Christine and Mark!):

I miss it, already!

I'm Back!

As you can see, I am having a great time visiting with my cousin and her family! My cousin and her family did a 2 week camping tour of the US: New York, Gettysburg and Washington, and then spent a week with me and my husband renting a cottage near Algonquin Park in Ontario. They spent their final 2 days in London with my parents and in this photo we just completed a walking tour of downtown London. Unfortunately I left my camera at my parents and won't get it back until the weekend, then I can post more photos. I am also temporarily off-line at home so I posting from work, it's handy to be one's own boss :)

Echt Hollands Done?!

I think the top is done! My mom brought me back some more fabric from Holland and I was able to complete the top. It measures 42.5 inches square (about 108cm square). I think I will have it professionally machine quilted. I am afraid I will ruin it if I do it myself! Any suggestions on how it should be done. I am partial to wavy circular designs or should it be floral in nature, should they use white thread? Help!

Here are few photos of my mom's trip. My mom is originally from Haarlem, the same city where Lucy lives and here is the store where she works part time. I had specific instructions for my mom to pick up more Dutch fabric for me there. This photo shows my mom, nearest to the door, with my aunt Janny.
What a beautiful shop! Is there any of Lucy's work in the window?

The next couple of photos, I believe, my mom took in Leiden.(oops, no I found out the town is Schagen) There was a parade of people dressed in traditional costumes, even the babies in the antique carriages!




So cute!

Mini Quilt

When my cousin from Holland came over last October she brought me some beautiful real Dutch fabric and I started my Echt Hollands quilt. She also brought me some mini quilt patterns. I thought I would give them a try. Holy Smokes! They're mini alright!

First I had to relearn my paper piecing. After not doing it for a long time I forget how to do it and I get everything backwards! Even after I get into the groove, I can still find myself having to redo the same seam over 2 or 3 times! I'll forget to press open the seams, or I'll accidentally trim the good part, or when the seams are open it doesn't fit the space! eeek! Here are a few of the things I learned:

1) I copy the pattern onto tracing paper or tissue paper. It is a lot thinner and easier to tear away as well as see through. Make 2 copies of each page in case, like me, you have to do it over due to excessive seam ripping. :P


2) I set my stitch length to 2 (very small) on my sewing machine, because it is easier to tear away the paper and the seams are not very long on this project.
3) Fabric pieces right sides together and paper on top of first fabric. On paper side, sew seam on line, starting a little before the line and ending a little beyond the line.
4) After my first seam I fold back the paper along the seam and cut a 1/8th inch seam allowance. This gets rid of excess bulk especially important in this mini quilt.




5) Finger press open, then fold paper along the next sewing line and again trim a 1/8th seam allowance. This will give you a guide to how to place your next piece of fabric. If I didn't do this, I was more likely to screw up the placement of fabric.
6) Place your next fabric right sides together and sew on the next seam line. Continue in this manner.

Here is how it looks in progress:

7) Once I've done to the outer seam, I will trim the excess from that side:



8) This boat is done in 2 separate pieces, then sewed together. I leave the paper on to match up the seams more accurately.



Here are the few I've done so far, each still take me an hour to do. I do one per night, to avoid frustration. It's kind of addictive but intense, when working with such small things! One night I ripped out the same seam 3 times...it was time to give it a rest!


Did I mention the instructions are in Dutch? I don't speak or read Dutch and I couldn't find many of these words in my small pocket dictionary!

Tea'se

My mother-in-law (MIL) had her 80th birthday last week and my FIL hosted a smorgasbord in her honour. I ate too much! It was a cozy affair filled with old friends, neighbours and family. She received flowers, cards, and a few gifts.


What do you get a woman who has lived so long and has pretty much everything she's needed or wanted? She has already many quilts from her daughter in Calgary. Something personal and handmade is good, though. My in-laws, like my husband and I, love cats and we introduced them to their now spoiled companion Rusty. Rusty was a stray, that showed up at our doorstep in the winter time about 12 years ago! My in-laws, like us, also have to have our daily doses of tea....so a tea cozy it is, with cats on it of course! (I am starting to believe tea cozies are my specialty!)

I chose the orange fabric to go with their living room. I pieced the tabby cats. I would have loved to have tried this in the "liberated" fashion but I only had one fat quarter of the back ground fabric, so I had no fabric to waste in experimentation. I planned it out on graph paper.


This is the "tail end" as I like to call it! I appliqued the bird. Boy did I have a time with that! Drawing birds is not my strong suit. It started as one piece until I cut off its head! Then I cut wings out and added a beak and feet in another colour. I am happy with the result. So I call this cozy "Tea'se".


Happy Birthday Lois!

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Also, please check out our guild's website for a post about my first quilt. We are hosting an on-line show and tell for members in the theme of "my first quilt".

Cat and Mouse

It's done! Cat and Mouse! It measures 14x15.5 inches. I'm happy with how it turned out, although I am sure I broke a few quilting rules. I chose fused applique, because it was a small piece and I thought I could get better detail, but my little stars were beginning to fray and even some of the branches. I am not sure if it is because of the type of bond I used (Steam-a-Seam2 lite) or if my scissors were too dull....any thoughts? I am not too worried, because it is a wallhanging, it won't get any real wear and tear. I handquilted around the tree with a single embroidery thread. I really like the look of larger stitches with embroidery threads, but handquilting around fused applique does really wear at the fused pieces. so I quilted through only the top layer and the batting. When I did add the backing I hand quilted four straight lines (with 2 threads) in the ditch. I also hand quilted the words...I should have embroidered them first instead, but hey live and learn.


Below is a side by side photo, with the source of inspiration: Spectre #17 cover by Dave Johnson. I used only fabric from my stash, and didn't have any of the lighter green, so I chose instead the fabric with the vines, it does have the green in it. It reminded me of roots, which reflected the whole tendril/tentacle thing going on.


I like how this piece did not take a lot of time and yet it gave me so much satisfaction. I am in the mood for getting things done. I also finished the kids' quilt for the guild, that I took home in March. Next on the list is binding my Suske II: Split Personality quilt, finishing the top for Echt Hollands, when my Mom brings me some fabric from Holland, and I want to start on cutting my Amy Butler fabric....I am thinking the 'Flora' design from Valerie Wells Designs...This is the trendiest fabric, I've ever bought, I want to use it before it goes out of style :)

Happy Canada Day!

Today is July 1st and we are celebrating Canada's birthday. I live near the centre of the London, Ontario and they always shoot off fireworks at the forks of the Thames River (yes many things are named after the 'real London'). We always invite our friends over for a party to watch the fireworks from our front steps. Today I will share a few of my Canada inspired work and musings.

These are from my exercises in black and white:




I am a first generation Canadian, my parents immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in the 60's, they lived in the States first and were married in NYC, but the Americans didn't want them. My Dad says he wrote a letter to the government begging to stay. It wasn't in the cards and it was off to Canada, when their green card expired. Soon I was born, and then 5 years later they became Canadian citizens. I never really learned Dutch as a child, my parents believed that when you become a citizen of another country, you learn their language. We had no other family here, we moved a lot because of my father's job, so we never hung out with other Dutch people. We visited Holland a few times when I was young but I was very shy and I didn't know the language. I felt I was more Canadian than Dutch. But as I got older, I met more people who's family had been in Canada for generations, then I felt more Dutch than Canadian. I spent a lot of time in high school trying to understand what is a Canadian. I took Canadian literature courses and still I felt more Dutch than Canadian, but not when I was in Holland.

Fast forward to the internet...because of the internet I made contact with my cousin Marjon in Holland. Through letters to her I re-discovered my Dutch family and heritage. My husband and I have visited my family in Holland twice and we've really enjoyed going there. I made a few of these as gifts, 'From our home to yours', I wrote on the back. I hand quilted these folksy Dutch and Canadian flags:


In an earlier post I wrote that I love the primary colours, but I guess it would be truer to say that I love the combo of red, white and blue. In my exploration of what is a Canadian, you always have to explore what is an American. In Canada, many people define themselves as 'not an American'. I think that is sad. We Canadians are more like Americans then we want to believe. One thing I like about America is their unabashed love of freedom and their spirit of entrepreneurship (capitalism; I own my own business, after all). My Dad says Canada was more like that in the 60's, than it is now. Unfortunately, in Canada, there is often a spirit of entitlement that comes without deserving and a hollow patriotism that comes out of being anti-American. Canadians love freedom, except for...(fill in: whatever I am currently against, smoking, speech, trans fats, pit bulls... make me a new law). What I do like about Canada, is it's ties to Britain, without it we would be lost, and it's still a place of opportunity for immigrants and it's beautiful wide open spaces.

The next photo is of a flag I made after 9-11. It symbolized my support of the Americans after this horrifying act of terrorism.


I want to also extend a Happy Independence Day to all the Americans out there, in many ways, we were born out of the fight between you and the Brits, but we get to enjoy the best of both worlds. I am glad to have you as a neighbour. Let's have great holiday week!

I've been reading a lot of Quilting Arts Magazine, lately...in fact I have a subscription. Don't get me wrong I'm no artist. I have no art classes under my belt, not even in highschool, but I have been finding so much inspiration in these magazines! I am starting to think outside the box when it comes to my quilting. There are many things in these magazines I am not ready for or even want to try. I don't think I'll ever be an embellisher. I've never worn a lot of jewelry, I don't think I want to put it on my quilt. Don't get offended if that is your thing. I still can appreciate other people's work in that area. I love Hilary Rice's Ethlyndryal the Protector, but I doubt that type of work will come from inside me. But who knows, I am still discovering the creative person inside me. I've always been a basic kind of person, I like primary colours: red, blue, yellow. In comic books I've always liked the black and white art: Paul Chadwick, Jeff Smith, DS Barrick (local talent), Jill Thompson, Roman Dirge, Frank Cho, to name a few. But I also like the crazy fantastical cover art of Dave McKean, David Mack, Bill Seinkewicz. And of course I love patterns, which is one of the reasons I like quilting, I love the geometry, which is also why I like MC Escher art.

But I digress... Lately QA Magazine has been discussing the keeping of sketchbooks and this has inspired me to keep my own sketchbooks. I figured it was a good idea anyway because I was always loosing my sketches for quilting ideas, anyway. The magazine also has exercises in design, a few of which I have been trying. One of these exercises has been so fun I've dedicated one complete sketchbook to it. Jane Dunnewold calls it the expanded square, you cut out black and white shapes from squares and then you can make repeated patterns with it. I haven't made the repeated patterns yet, but here is where it has led me:


Another idea, I've been working on came from a book about landscape quilts, I don't remember the name, but the idea was to take a photo and pick out the colours from it, rank the proportion of colour and then create a quilt from those proportions. A similar idea is to take some everyday item like a macaroni and cheese box or a kleenex box and use the colour scheme of the packaging for a quilt idea. I picked out comic book cover I liked and came up with these:



Well, as usual my camera fails me, you can't see the fabric too well. I've kept the original concept of the cover (by Dave Johnson), because I liked it so much, but I changed the Spectre to a cat and added a mouse to the base of my tree. I am calling it Cat and Mouse. My first drawing was more of a copy of the original, so in the second and third small drawings I decided to centre my tree. I've got an idea of how this is going to look in my head, I am now trying to figure out the details, what type of applique, size, etc. It's too bad the colour is off in the photo, because I think the fabric matches the cover quite nicely. That's all I've done for now.

Winter Wheat in Summer

Yesterday, Christine and I took a drive to Winter Wheat in Sparta. I went last fall with my cousin (see October 29 post). Last fall they were getting ready for Christmas and they had many Christmas themed stuff, so it was nice to go in the summer and see more garden stuff! It is run by folk artist Lucy Ogletree and her husband Mike. The small farm consists of their storybook home and a rustic house that is the main shop, plus some quaint little buildings: 2 tea rooms and a shed for the goats, all resting in a grove of huge pine trees. Sprinkled throughout the grove are a few picnic tables and giant wooden, whimsical folk sculptures, see above: the tea lady and her flowers made of teacups and teapots and below: the angel with the Robert Frost poem on her wings.


I've finished the Robyn Pandolph applique!!! It still has to be quilted.


Here is the thank you postcard I made for our friends in Michigan. They are crazy about tropical fish. I remembered there was an advertising in a magazine for a simple tropical fish quilt. Of course, could I find that ad??!!No! Then I thought, maybe I could draw it from memory. When I started drawing it I remembered it was only 2 triangles who needs a pattern for that! Scissors and scraps, that's all one needs! Beads for eyes. So may I present my tiny liberated fish!


Here's the back:


There was no fusing in this postcard, just regular quilting stuff: patchwork, batting, and muslin. I didn't even trim off the batting, looks kind of like an aquarium, this way. Still don't trust the post office with this and it went wrapped with a gift.

More Quilt Festival

Here is another one of my favourites,"Elephant Walk" by Winnifred Masson. She won Best Large Quilt in the Ontario Juried Quilt Show 2007.


The elephants are made up of one inch squares!


And she stitched an elephant pattern in the 'paths' of the elephants!


I hope these quilters don't mind people taking photos of their incredible work. This way I can enjoy her quilt again and again. Seeing it once, especially when there are sooooo many quilts to see, is not enough. I have to tell you, I think the Waterloo Quilt Festival should make up a better program, with a list of all the participants and the names of the quilts. I am having a heck of a time finding all the names of the quilts and their makers. I found the name of this one through another blog from someone who was a participant. She had a link to the OJQS 2007 winners that is on the Waterloo Quilt Festival website, but I couldn't find it there when I looked.

Quilting Treasures

Here are a few quilting treasures I picked up in Michigan... some inexpensive fat quarters and Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran's Collaborative Quilting!!!


And at the Waterloo Quilt Festival....some Amy Butler and Robert Kaufman fabric, as well as a couple of half price books! (my camera doesn't seem to pick up the warmness of the brown and blue polkadot fabric, trust me it is chocolatey yummy!)


Here is another neat quilt to show you from the Waterloo Quilt Festival, my personal favourite, Camelot by Judy Garden. It won the CQA 2006 Juried Show award for Excellence for a Bed Quilt.

It seems it is mostly reverse applique. I really liked the choice of blue and green in this quilt. The blue fabric seemed to be a brushed cotton, it had an almost suede like quality to it.

Hah! You guys are funny! I didn't expect so much agreement to my genius comment! Anyway here is the latest progress on my 'robyn' project. I've been busy the last 2 weekends; first we were away in Michigan visiting friends. I managed to work on my piece on the train ride to Windsor and finished up the dome border and vines and added a few berries. Still left to do are to add a few more leaves. While in Michigan, we visited Ann Arbor, a business expo, a few comic book stores, a few used book stores, and a Jo Ann's for some cheap fabric and some quilting tools...a little bit cheaper in the US than Canada. I will show photos on my next post of my latest quilt treasures, when I download them.


Saturday, we had our guild's roadtrip to the Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery or kw/ag for the Grand National Quilt Show and the Waterloo County International Quilt Festival. This is the mecca of quilting in Ontario as it is also Mennonite country.

Below is Ethlyndryal the Protector by Rice 2007 from the Grand National. This year's theme is Fantasy.This was an amazing 3D piece, mixed media with metal, stones and more. We were not supposed to take any photos, so I don't have many photos to show.


After visiting the kw/ag, we travelled on to the quilt festival located at Rim Park. I have more photos that I will post later, after I try and find most of the names of the quilts. I should have written them down, there didn't seem to be a program of the entries, or I missed it somehow. Here was one of the more popular pieces 'Zodiac' by Martha Brown: