Thursday, August 29, 2013

Published!

I have been sitting on this for so long, and am beyond excited to share it with you!

I am published in Quilter's World Holiday 2013 edition.    My quilt Modern Holiday is in there!

I designed it specifically for a quick Christmas quilt as I don't have any patterns that I can make up in a hurry.   Using only two blocks and putting a modern twist on it, I created a quilt that got accepted into a magazine.
See that pic on the bottom right...


There I am with my fancy 'Modern Holiday' quilt


I used lots of fun red and green fabric, and I might add there were lots of polka dots on the fabric!


Here is a close up of the blocks and quilting.   I used a meandering loop all over it to try and create a whimsical look.   The fabric  is Riley Blake and the batting is bamboo batting by Pellon Inc.

Now I am off to do my happy dance!




Thursday, August 22, 2013

Dyeing Alpaca Fibres


Who knew that taking my children to an Alpaca farm was going to increase my repertoire of different things to dye?

On a beautiful sunny day, my boys and I headed out to the local Alpaca farm for some fun feeding and petting of adorable alpacas.

After, we went into the owner's house and she showed me Alpaca roving.   I had to buy some, as there was a thought brewing in my head.   

I was told they were very receptive to dyes.   I love to do needle felting and then embroidery on top of it, and finally use those pieces and incorporate them into a quilt.   


 I mixed up 3 batches of dye.   Pink, blue and purple were my choices.
What I did notice instantly is the alpaca fibres absorbed the dye much faster and much more readily than cotton fabric does.

After only 4 hours, I took it out of the dye bath and rinsed it and let it dry.   Look at the vibrant colours that were produced!   You may have noticed that I purchased a light brown roving, that's because there was no white left.  I almost think the white would be more brilliant when dyed.   I was sure to ask when she is getting her next shipment of white in.

You will notice on the blue that there are bits of the brown colouring that show through.   I think it adds texture to it, and am curious to try overdyeing parts of it.



I am very excited to do more experiments with dyeing alpaca fibres and see where that leads!   




Monday, August 19, 2013

Selvedge Pin Cushion

Do you ever just want to create a small project that you can start and finish in an hour?

That was my feeling this past weekend.   I had a piece of selvedge strips sewn together that was for a project that didn't end up being needed.  



What I was in dire need of was a new pin cushion.   


I put jumbo ric rac down the diagonals to divide it so I can put hand needles in one section, machine needles in another and pins in another.  And really it makes it look prettier=)


Is anyone else doing small projects this summer?


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Modern Quilting?

I think I have scouted out every modern quilt website available to me.  I am just fascinated by this trend in quilting.   The bright colours, the solids, the movement within the quilt are so eye pleasing and so tempting to try.

I did not want to copy one of the ideas out there, so I have been sketching like crazy!   I have pages and pages filled up trying to find something I liked well enough to try on fabric.  I did 3 small fabric trials and was not happy with any of them.  

Finally I got one!   These were the fabrics I chose to use.  It was a bundle I picked up at our last Canadian Quilters' Association's Quilt Canada conference.   It almost has a linen feel and look to it.  



Here are all my scraps left over from my blocks.  I can't bear to throw them out.   Even though most are too small to use, they just look to good to get rid of.


This is what I ended up with.   If you are guessing circles, then you are correct!   

If you look carefully in the picture above, you will see my hand stitching around the perimeter of the circle.   Below shows you why.  I needed to somehow turn these into  nice clean finished circles and I didn't want to fuse, or machine applique, nor did I want a raw edge.   My solution was to draw my hand stitches tight with a cardboard circle insert to hold the shape. Using spray starch and a hot iron, I pressed the edges onto the back side and flipped the cardboard out.  

It worked!  I was left with a colourful circle ready to be attached to the background.  I will let you know how that goes....




Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Finished A Sample and Progress On Another

It was a very productive weekend of quilting for me.  I finally finished my first sample for my new workshop 'Circle Me Silly'.




Notice how I used two different types of binding?   The blocks are constructed in a fun and new way making endless possibilities!  I am pretty excited to  have this workshop ready to go!

I also was playing with my new diamond ruler from The Quilted Fish.  I am prepping for a tutorial for you in September.  


And I am plugging away on my latest art quilt.   As of yesterday I got all the free motion quilting done.   I still have to add another border of ric rac=)







Sunday, August 4, 2013

How I Started Quilting Blog Hop


One of my very first online blog friends was Cheryl.  We corresponded pretty regularily back then and she has become someone I call a friend, even though we have never met.   She rose to quilting stardom pretty fast as she does some really amazing things with lights in her quilts, her unique comic spin on quilts and generally a pretty talented girl.   In her rise, she met Pokey Bolton along the way.   You may remember I had a gargantuan  slight idolazation of Ms. Bolton.  (yes I do know idolization is not a word, but it really does work here.)  Anyway, Cheryl got her to sign a postcard for me and mailed it to me!  Is that not awesome?

Now Cheryl has invited me to join her 'How I Started Quilting Blog Hop'.   I am supposed to tell you how I got started and hopefully show you some improvements I have made along the way.

My first quilt was a Trip Around the World.   I gave it to my brother for his camp.   I used POLYESTER!   This is a picture of a quilt I made shortly after that using all fabric from Australia.
Look at the free motion quilting on the back.


Can my stitches be any bigger?   And how big did I do the fmq?   Oh my it is embarrassing just showing it=)
This is the front of the quilt.. It is all fused and I didn't even quilt the fusing at all.  So there are big blank patches on the quilt with no quilting on it.  


I like to think I have improved, here is one of my latest quilts.  This one is called ' A Walk Through Time' and was juried into the National Juried Show in 2013 in Canada.



Here are the other awesome bloggers in this Blog Hop.  Go and check them out=)


 August 1st  Cyndi Souder

August 2nd Becky Glasby

August 3rd  Cheryl Sleboda

August 4th  Barb Forrister

August 5th Me=)

August 6th Tracy Mooney

August 7th Lisa Chin

August 8th Laura Krasinski

August 9th Catherine Redford

August 10th Sylvia Lewis