Friday, November 26, 2010

Catching Up

I had promised Karen a side shot of Whimsical Wonder.  She wanted to see the 3D aspect a little more clearly.  Here you are Karen.



My order from Etsy came in the other day.  The fabric is just so scrumptious.  Those candy canes, it looks like you could actually just stick your hand in and grab a bunch.  The cupcakes and ice cream cones are for my reusable snack bags for our little craft store.   I think kids will just love taking them to school.  I will make a few up as Christmas gifts too.


I do pattern testing for my friend Amanda. Click on her name and check out her blog.   It is fabulous.   As a thank you she sent me 12" squares of her whole new fabric line.... that was 21 different squares.  And they are gorgeous.  She also sent me 3 patterns as well.  

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

3D Pinwheels


I have been playing in my studio.   I mentioned that at our last guild meeting, we learned about paperless paper piecing.  We were also given a quick demo in pinwheels. 

I have been experimenting with both.   Tomorrow I will show you what I accomplished with the paper piecing, and how small I can go with the pinwheel.  

For now, I will show you my trial run of the pinwheels.   I think you will be seeing this shape in my Trend Tex Challenge for CQA.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Paperless Paper Piecing

I had never heard of this before, have you?  Paperless paper piecing!  And not only that, it is way faster and way simpler.  It only involves the pattern, a glue stick, your fabric and an iron.  Okay, who am I kidding, I didn't use the iron, but finger pressed 1/4" seams when placing fabric down.  

Did I mention how fast and simple it was?   I think it is the greatest invention yet in quilting.   And you can do it with paper, especially fancy scrapbooking paper and make little cards. 

I think I may find some simple Christmas patterns and have my kids try it out.  It is that easy!


This was my demo.  I used scrap fabric and it is still not quilted.   I had never bothered with paper piecing books before.  Now I am scouring the internet like crazy for free patterns.    Circles, I want circles in some form of paper piecing.   Lately I have a thing for these shapes. 

Now I gotta go and find me some patterns=)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Touching Up

I love this quilt.   It is called Whimsical Wonder and it hangs in our bedroom.   It is so sunny and happy, but the binding bothered me.

I felt it needed more.   So the other day, I took out some fun green buttons and sewed them partway down the side and top of the quilt.   I am more satisfied, but not completely.    It still needs something else.
Here is a before and after, the colours are not very matching.  The top one is more indicative of the actual colour.


   




Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Giveaway in Blog land

Go and check out Linda's blog for some lovely beaded giveaways. 
I will be back soon, after deer hunting is over.

Jackie

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Marilyn's Flowers




Introducing Marilyn's Flowers.
Finished, and a big sigh.   I do love it.   The outer border is polyester!  I know, but it is vintage and was given to me by a church member and I fell head over heels in love with it.   I had it for a year before I could figure out a design that would work with it.    It would have been tricky to piece and I didn't want to take away from the flow of it. 

There is no stippling, but all free motion quilting using various designs.   And all done on my little machine that I am really noticing has a very small space between the arm and the needle!   I need to win a few prizes to upgrade to my dream machine - Janome 7700.

It is not hanging nice at the moment, as I have a dowel in the top rather than a flat board.  But I had to take pics of it to show you so couldn't wait.   When I take pics for jurying purposes, it will look nicer.

You can see that my flowers are 3D and the centre has a funky little button in each.  


Monday, November 8, 2010

Binding and Goals

No pictures with this post.  But I will have some fabulous pictures shortly.   I am putting the binding on my quilt.   I haven't even turned it over to look at the right side to see how it all looks.   The flowers will go on after I attach the sleeves to it.   They are 3D, of course=)  Therefore are put on last.  

Might I just say that I love it!   All will be revealed soon.

You may notice that I put my 2011 goals up in the right hand column at the top.   I thought it would be fun to share them.   For my out of country quilting friends, I will explain.  CQA is our Canadian Quilting Association.  Each year they put on a juried show and each year I submit.   I have had my quilts accepted twice.  But I have never attended a show, so have never seen my quilts hang in a juried exhibition.  

This year, it is in my province and I am determined to go.  One, to meet all the people I have met online.   Two, because I so want to see one of my quilts hanging in the show.   Now I realize that I may be going down and no quilts will have been accepted.   But I will cross that bridge when the time comes.  

The Trend Tex Challenge I mentioned is CQA's fundraiser.   You purchase 5 fat quarters and have to follow a theme and size and make a quilt based on that.   The quilt is then donated to be auctioned off at the CQA convention.   So even if none of my quilts get juried into the show, I can donate this quilt and see it hanging at Quilt London.  

Lastly, my comment about 'keep trying'... that will be told when the time is right.  

I will leave you with my quote for 2011:

Anais Nin “ And the day came when it become more painful to remain tightly closed in a bud then the risk it took to bloom."

Friday, November 5, 2010

Quilting is Done



My mom went fabric shopping and I always tell her to pretend she has $20 of mine in her wallet.  That way if she sees something she thinks I may like, she can buy it.   The top fabric is a little risque, but come on, how much fun is it.  I just don't know what to use it for, so if you have any ideas, throw them at me.  I don't want it to be that piece of fabric that never gets cut.
These 2 pieces are so yummy I could eat them.  I am going to make them into my reusable sandwich bags and give them to my nieces for Christmas gifts. 
This is a glimpse of my quilt.  I have totally finished quilting it.  Which is why I am sooo happy.  Will work on binding, and adding embellishing next week.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Still Life



 
I have joined an art quilt challenge group. 
Each month one of us gets to post a theme and the others are to make a 12 x 12 art quilt representing this theme.  

The first theme was Still Life.  I also decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try all those techniques I don't try on a large art quilt for fear of ruining the quilt.   Having said that, the first picture is my beginning of my project.  The fabric was batik and I discharged it, then fused circles on and did some free motion quilting.  My idea of still life is a photograph of anything, instantly making it a still life moment.  In this case, I seem to be having a thing with circles, water and bubbles so followed that theme. 

Now, I did like the quilt when I was done, but I have always wanted to just take my ruler and rotary cutter and just cut into a finished quilt.... but have never done so.  Who wants to ruin a large quilt?  So I did.  Then I just resewed it back together as best I could and couched some yarn over the seam lines.  

Here are a couple comments from members of the group:
The slashed version is more lively or active, your eye wants to move around it, while the first one is restful.
 your results are very successful after slashing and reconstructing. There is a tension between the visual elements in the final piece that did not occur in your original piece.







What do you think?