A new technology affair and some quilting

Where have I been??

I have fallen in LOVE...with an iPad. (Yes...I realize that this may make me sound like I have my priorities out of whack....and YES, I do know that it is not a person...but I still have a deep affection for my iPad). This is the first big tech item that I have ever purchased for myself, and man is it FUN!


Also...have you discovered Pinterest yet? If you are a visual person (like me) then this is the place for you. It is essentially an on-line version of an "ideas" bulletin board. So much inspiration! You can find me on Pinterest here. The combination of the iPad and Pinterest together is deadly. It's like a time sucking vortex. You have been warned.

In spite of all of the summer time spent with my family and iPad, I have managed to complete some crafting. A long time family friend had a baby this month. I didn't know if the baby was to be a boy or girl, but I did know that her parents like colour!

Tada!
Close up (with polka dot binding):


The back (you can see that I opted for my usual favourite - straight line quilting 1/4" on either side of the seams):
This quilt definitely delivers on the colour front! I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope that baby Marion and her parents like it as much as I do.

Traditional blocks can do AMAZING things!

Being relatively new to quilting, I am not awesome at looking at a quilt and deconstructing it in my mind into little bits of fabric. I am only just starting to realize the full scope of what a quilt block can do when arranged in different ways (what a tricky little chameleon you are little half square triangle!).

(OK - so not technically made with HST, but you start with HSTs and cut them in half to get hour glasses! Plus I NEEDED to have an image.)

I just saw this amazing short film by the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) that animates some of the amazing patterns that can be made with traditional blocks. It's like watching a kaleidoscope, but with quilting synapses firing! Whoa man! Funnily enough, it's simply called Quilt.

You should watch it if you are spatially dim (but otherwise lovely) like me! You could also watch if you just want to be inspired by some pretty shapes and patterns. Y'know the stacked cubes in traditional quilts??? Made from diamond shapes! I know...AMAZING right??

(image source)

Well...amazing to me anyway...

New Year - back to the old...

The New Year has started - goodbye to pneumonia infested 2010 (which was a fine year otherwise)!

As I sat behind my sewing machine this weekend, I realized that I had not actually been behind my machine since October!!! How I have missed it!

My crafty plans for the new year mostly involve revisiting abandoned projects. Remember this quilt? It was intended as a gift for my husband's 40th birthday. I am now aiming to finish it during his 40th year. Ambitious? Not really, but probably more realistic.

For quality couch and new TV show time, I have pulled out another WIP. Rember these?:

I'm working on making them into this:

This project is inspired by Yvestown's crochet blanket which I have long admired. Regrettably, I bought plastic yarn (cheap acrylic). I wasn't sure that I knew how to crochet well enough to invest in nicer fiber. I regret my choice. It's just not as much fun to crochet when you are running cheap acrylic across your winter chapped hands. Blechy! Good thing the colours are enough to draw me back into the project. Perhaps these colours will help to combat the grey, dreary weather that is happening right now? Brrr.

Creative flounder (fishy pun intended)

I have so much to post about...and nothing to post about! I have made lots of progress on several projects with few completions to show....until now.

BEHOLD! (Another!?!) patchy baby blanket.

It's for a work colleague. She is very stylish and bohemian - a perfect fit for some fabric from the fabulous Anna Maria Horner. (Yes pink lovers, she is having a girl!).

The patchwork and quilting happens to be a repeat of a quilt that I made for another work colleague. I really love making simple patchwork quilts. Does a production of two quilts make it my trademark-go-to quilt???

I was especially happy with the back. Some vintage linen (that was purchased at the Fabric Flea Market last fall) and a tiny strip of patchwork. I do like a little "surprise" on the back of a quilt.

Now that the weather has turned colder, my thought are starting to turn to Christmas projects. Too early???! When do you start tackling your Christmas list?

Loveliness...

I'm sure that you have heard by now that the Victoria & Albert Museum (in London) is having a quilting exhibit.

When I travelled to London a few years ago, missing the V&A was high on my list of "Oooo....I wish that I had more time so that I could have seen that!" regrets. I am practically frothing at the mouth now with all of the exciting details of the quilting exhibit!

I followed the links to the V&A on-line shop. Loveliness! I am particularly taken with these scarves, which are crocheted, not quilted, but remind me of all of the hex-y love that is happening in the quilting world.

link to scarf in the V&A shop

Why we are having pizza tonight...

268 - 4" hourglass squares


Half of which are currently carefully laid out on the dining room floor....


Tonight I must keep the 3-year old boy out of the dining room and off of the quilty mess. I must "randomly" lay out the rest of the squares and then create orderly little stacks to be pieced for a quilt top.

My lovely husband is celebrating his 40th birthday this year. I was so flattered when he told me that he wanted a quilt. He loves these Kaffe fabrics...and so do I!

Can I deliver this quilt by a Friday deadline? It seems doubtful. I would at least like to have the top pieced for that lovely man. It would be nice if he had an actual gift to open. I would really do almost anything to make certain that he enjoys his BIG day. He's a bit nervous about 40, and I want to make sure that the day is filled with happy, loving memories.

I love you sweetie! I'm racing to finish on time....but I know that you really know me. I'm always running late. You love that about me, right? RIGHT???

Everybody out of the dining room! No time for dinner preparation! Quilting-palooza all week at my house!

Whoopsy! Not all colour and pattern are created equal

I finished this quilt for a co-worker (and friend)'s baby quite some time ago. I must confess that I was slightly embarrassed to give it to him...and I am slightly embarrassed to show it here.

As you can see, I was trying to pay homage to my friend's love of bright colour. I love it too! I also love lots of pattern. Yeeeeeaaaahhhhh....While I love almost all colour and almost all pattern, it turns out that I don't love them all together at the same time. May I suggest that you don your sunglasses? BEHOLD:


I did warn you! Bright, non? Do you see how some of the colours and some of the patterns compete? It's like they are locked in a mortal combat. Not pretty. I wonder also if it could be the battle of solid versus pattern???

While the colours and patterns are not serene, the quilting is simple and straight forward (plain ole' straight line). Good thing...your eyes might have exploded if this quilt had also had busy quilting.

Fortunately, something can be salvaged from this brutal lesson in colour and pattern...the very simple back turned out quite well. I love this recycled IKEA bedding and vintage turquoise linen together. The gingham binding makes me deliriously happy. Yeah...I know that it is weird, but I really do love gingham that much - to the point of delirium!

What do I learn from this quilting experience besides some more humility??? I need to read a bit more about colour theory. OK - true confession, when I say "read a bit more" it really means "I really should bother to read something - anything at all - about colour theory since it is clearly not innate to me". Any suggestions for reading material to hone my fabric selecting skills????

Smarch.

I have never been a big fan of March. Generally it is the loooooongest month. It is the month when you think winter should end, but it doesn't - generally. This month it has been bEEEeautiful! Sunny and warm and lovely.

Unfortunately, it has been a rough month in our house where the weather has not been adequately enjoyed. We spent the first week sick (again! How can that even be possible???) and just when we were on the mend our daycare provider had a serious fall. This means that we have been trying to cover full time work and full time daycare duties. MAN - it makes you really appreciate just how great our daycare provider really is (she is going to be fine BTW!).

At any rate...we are nearly out of March (SSSssmarch), our least favourite month of the year and into lovely April! C'mon April! 3 cheers for Spring! Hooray, Hoora, Yippee!

The new "schedule" has severely limited my actual crafting time, but I do have a completed project to share. It is a lovely zig-zag quilt that was started many moons ago. I had completed the top quite some time ago and it sat unfinished while I hemmed and hawed over the back. Just my usual dither until simple inspiration hits (or at least until my indecisiveness is set aside and I proceed with the project exactly how I had first planned to before indecision took hold).

This quilt is lovely and cheerful and bright - exactly everything that Spring should be!

Without further ado, I am excited to show you the finished quilt:

Back:

Close up of the back:

I don't always name my quilts, but I have decided to call this one Spring Zig, March Zag.

Bunting goodness

I have been wanting to make some bunting for my son's room for quite some time...and here it is finished and on the walls:



Cute, non?

The entire house (well nearly!) was painted this beige colour when we moved in. It was not offensive, but lately I am finding it dull, dull, dull (and then dull some more). It could be that there has been very little natural light, but it could also be that the beige is dull.

Don't these cheery little flags go a good way in brightening up the room? I suppose that I could just bite the bullet and repaint the room....but I haven't! In the meanwhile, this bunting makes the room cheery enough for a three year old again.

There is even a bit of his favourite fabric (Tot Town by Michael Miller). Yes...I had only very small scraps left so I had to add some solid in to streeeeeeeetch the Tot Town scraps far enough for 2 flags.



You may recognize that I have used this fabric before for the boy in quilt format. He insists on using the "back" as the top, because he can look a the large piece of construction machine fabric. Hmph.


He has a point though...it is nice to look at such bright colours!

We have been with flu

Hello all! January has been the month of illness in our house. Both my husband and son have been sick twice. One cold, one TERRrrrRRIBLE flu. No sickness for me, though. I must admit that I feel like a germ fighting power house!

We are back to full health and getting back into the swing of things.

I have been a focused little craft-producing machine, so I have much to share with you! (I'll try to resist the urge to show everything in a single post).

There is a baby shower for a co-worker tomorrow, so much of last weekend included this view:

Here is the finished view of the quilt for the new baby boy:

(Momo Odyssea charm pack, blue gingham (!LOVE!) flannel backing and Amy Butler Full Moon binding - yummy!). The quilting was inspired by this one from Film in the Fridge.

Another baby quilt, more cross-stitching and a project for the boy's room to follow...

HoHoHo...it's on it's way!

FINALLY! Finished.

Ladies and gentlemen....I present to you (drum roll please!)...the completed quilt!:


This lovely was very inspired by a quilt made by Ashley at Film in the Fridge.

I chose to straight line quilt mine. Originally I had intended to space the lines by only 1", but the Christmas deadline forced my hand and the quilting lines are 2" apart. I think that this is a happy turn of fate...I'm really happy with the quilting.

Another close up with lovely wrinkliness to enjoy:

For the hearty few that have been reading my blog since the start - you may remember that I started this quilt in JUNE. It was very held up by the back. First off, I needed some really big pieces of fabric (that is 2 yards of "Red Peonies" from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line), so I had to order. Then the top was bigger than I had anticipated (OK...truth - I hadn't actually measured. I just "guestimated"), so I needed more fabric (yummy Kona solids). Then I couldn't quite decide what design to use. This one was sort of improvised as I went along. I really like how it turned out!

My lovely husband stood out in the -30C temperatures so that I could indulge in a last minute photo session before it was shipped across the country.

The quilt is now in the hands of Canada Post (as well as $70 of my $$!!!).

Note for next year: Be more organized and send presents early to avoid very high shipping costs!

Extra note: Pay attention to this note next year! (I make myself this note every darn year...).

It feels really good to have everything shipped out. Now all there is to do is get through the next 2 days of work and sit back and enjoy the holidays!

The one in which I am not that smart...

My crafty stories today very clearly demonstrate what a quilting novice I truly am. I wonder if when other people say "self taught" they have had to rip out the same (very high!) number of stitches that I am ripping out in my new hobby? Oh well...I see seam ripping time as time to come out of the sewing room and enjoy a bit of television.

I (FINALLY!) started quilting my zig zag quilt. I thought that I would do some straight line quilting because I really admire how clean the straight line quilting at Red Pepper Quilts looks.

I had measured the width of my walking foot and decided that I would use the edge of the foot as my guide for 3/4" spaced lines. Here is the part where I am not smart - I didn't really account for the fact that the needle travels down the centre of the 3/4" measurement. The result? Extreme busy-ness on busy-ness. Not pretty.



So....I learned something about how to measure.

I also came to the realisation that what I really liked about the quilts that I had seen at Red Pepper was exactly what my quilt is NOT! Calm, quiet, soothing and linear. This does not mean that I don't like my quilt...it is bright and bohemian. It just means that this is not the quilt with which I should try to emulate a crisp, clean style.

Here is the plain old zig zag quilting that I did (once I had finished watching some TV and ripping out the previous straight quilting):

Much cleaner stitching against all the ziggy-zagginess and the bright, bold colours and pattern.

I also enjoyed some quality time with a glass (or two!) of red wine and a movie (Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Clearly I was too into the movie (or the wine!) and I made a mistake in my ripple blanket. Can you spot it? I didn't until I was a few hours past my mistake. Boo!

I'm off for some quality time with the TV and crochet ripping out.

Riding the waves...

Here is the most recent quilt top completed. Mmmm...love it so!





As I was stitching everything together, I realised that I had given no consideration for the direction of the print. (You can see what I mean pretty clearly in the close up below.) I was certain that this was really going to bother me, but I must say - it doesn't really. When you step back it's all just pattern and colour loveliness!



The seams on the back seem quite thick. Have I missed a clever trick? It does lay flat when pressed.



Other than that I have been working on the crochet waves. The waves look the same as before. There are just more of them...

And so it begins...

Look what arrived for me in the mail today! Hooray!

I immediately set about readying this stack for quilt production (washing, drying, ironing, folding, stacking and re-stacking). I had already passed many minutes daydreaming about the sort of quilt that this fabric might become and had decided that it is destined to be a zig zag quilt for some lucky baby. Once I had the fabric in hand I couldn't resist sketching out some plans:

How does everybody else go about planning a quilt? I love this phase. It's all day dreaming and planning! I usually sketch something out. It helps me to understand how the pieces will fit together. I am often WRONG in my measurements...but I must admit that it doesn't really bother me much. I'll just add rows as needed to get to the measurement that I want in the end.

It was a really quiet night spent on my own. My son was sleeping upstairs and my husband retired to bed early to try to fight off a nasty cold that is brewing. I put my iPod on shuffle and opened the windows so I could listen to the mix of music and the fantastic thunderstorm that was brewing outside. While I listened, I cut & cut and stitched. I have always thought of myself as a very social person, but sewing has really made me value the time I get to spend on my own - a LOT!

Aaallll done!

I finished the Tula Pink baby quilt. Now we just have to wait for my friend to have her baby girl! While we wait for sweet baby pictures, here are some sweet quilt pictures (you'll just have to add the cute baby to the images with your mind):

Final measurement 36X37

I really love the Tula Pink fabric that was used for the back. If you look closely, you will see turtles, sea horses and anchors in the pattern. Originally, there was supposed to be another fabric as the binding, but a fabric store mistake meant that I used the same fabric for the binding and the backing. I think that it might have been a happy mistake.

OK - this looks kind of yellow-ish because it was taken inside in bad light while it rained (AGAIN!). I wanted to show you the tone-on-tone white that was used for the sashing. I love it so...and thought that you should see it close up, so that you could love it too!

There is something really lovely about a folded quilt...so here you go!