ribbon weaving

This is a 6" square little page made one choice at a time. Ribbons in various colour, texture & width are woven over a piece of thick fusible interfacing - Timtex I think. I didn't take pictures in progress like I usually do. After the ribbons were woven & firmly attached I used fancy stitches & variegated thread to break up some of the larger ribbons. Then yarns for texture. There was one ribbon I had only one of and it is a rather 'electric blue'. It doesn't seem to work in there on it own so I added 2 smaller yarns in the same colour.Let's play - Can you spot the differences!! Let me know what you think. The dark doesn't stand out as much in real life as it does in the scans & photos & it is evenly balanced on two corners so I am finished tweaking. or maybe not, dark on the other two corners would finish acting like a frame. Mmmmm?

Quilt U show

Quilt University has a wonderful virtual show of quilts made from the classes. My Wildfire is in the applique section.
There are some wonderful quilts especially the portraits.

wildfire

This is a wallhanging that I finished this weekend. I took a class through Quilt University with Linda Schmidt called Elements in Fabric. It was a super class. I worked on water & fire. It includes lots of things I've never used before- Angelina, Tinzl, tulle, foil all to give wonderful light & heat of the wildfire.
The branches in the foreground have lots of thread painting & my new free motion quilting skills got a workout!

fabric charm swap

Ruth Rae hosted a fabric charm swap through the Fabric-olics group. These are the charms I sent her. She has put the charms on bracelets and they are gorgeous.
I'm not getting a bracelet as I think it would be awkward to wear at work. I'm going to put mine on a kilt pin or two. can't wait to get them. Ruth is also featured in an article in the next issue of cloth, paper scissors magazine coming out soon!

more pages in my fabric book

Chris tried some new techniques on this page. There is silk fibers punched down & hand stitched with little fly stitches in wonderful autumn colours. the tree is a combo of hand and machine stitching & little seed beads.
The other side of the page has Angelina flower petals - they look like hydrangeas to me - and wonderful leaves from Tyvek. two techniques I want to try too.
Thanks Chris

please play again

please play again, please play again that's all I ever get from Tim. you know that java guy that calls you from every corner in Southern Ontario.
please play again..........until today..............drum roll................

WIN/COFFEE............ so yes I'll be playing AGAIN.

paper inchies

I've finished my paper floral inchies for a swap. I started with a napkin in my favourite green colour with gold damask highlights. I made this more durable by adding a layer of cheesecloth with glue using Beryl Taylor's instructions in
Mixed Media Explorations.
added a backing then cut it into inch square pieces. the edges are done with a gold krylon pen. silk flower petal glued down and the centre done with micro beads in gold & copper. 40 of these will be off in the mail. It will be fun to see what I get back.

fabric inchies continued

what a great surprise. My fabric inchies were selected on a group to be the homepage picture for a week. Its a fun, creative group that holds an Artfest every weekend. You enter a picture and the previous weeks winner selects from the current weeks entries. cool eh? Anita picked my fuzzy little pieces. Anita's piece selected for Artfest was a journal quilt of one of her many animals -Mona. Her blog has lots of photos from her farm. I still think it is the best place to raise a family.

fabric inchies

I need to make some inchies to trade--some in paper & some in fabric. I don't mind making them because you can start with 1 larger piece then cut it up. This is the same wool and yarns I used for the charms. The free motion embroidery is granite stitch. It is easy to do, effective for texture. I can see why it is so popular.
I left the little tails of yarn used to trim the inchies. I quite like them that way. I've made 28 of these little guys. now off to make the paper ones.

fabric book continued

This is the page Sandi made for my book. I love the hand stitched leaves & the flower is from vintage ribbon. The real dandielions will be showing up here any day now!!

business cards

For me there will always be things that say I am a grown-up. The first was keys- maybe it was growing up in a house that didn't even have a lock - but having my own set of keys was a very big deal. Then it was business cards- I still think its cool when I give out my business card & I do it many times each day. Now I have these!!!


Business cards sounds too formal and stuffy for these lovely new cards I had made recently. They are called Moo cards and are about half the size of a regular business card. about the size of a piece of gum, Juicy fruit gum. Juicy cards? fun cards? play cards? contact cards? PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG CARDS?!!
The photos are from various projects I've done - you pick the photos you want printed from your Flickr album and the back has up to 6 lines for printed information.
Next thing you know I will be sitting in a coffee shop working on my laptop!!

update on sunset

10 days away from the sewing room and I did about 2 hours of hand sewing on this sunset. I didn't have enough variety in the yarns I took. I am happy with how it is looking especially the bottom part. still needs lots of work. Here is the inspirational piece.

update on convergence

I made some progress on my convergence quilt. The focus fabric is a lovely floral print of zinnias designed by Valori Wells. I have 2 of the books she has written with her mother - Jean Wells. I like them because they have delightful pictures of gardens & flowers as well as quilts and descriptions of their design process.
One of their quilts features paper pieced arcs by Karen Stone's New York Beauties joined to represent flowers. I used just one quarter circle as the sun in the corner on my quilt. The batik has a good mix of the colours in the convergence as well as some brown for the earth. The green is repeated in the opposite corner. The next step will be a combination of fussy cut zinnias from the fabric as well as some silk flower petals under tulle. Just need to decide on foliage.

I've been published!!!

Yup you heard right. I've been published or rather my ATC's in Quilting Arts newest book 1000 ATC's. I'm waiting on my copy from Chapters. Its here!! My ATc's are #'s 452 & 455. It was originally a machine embroidered design that came with my Husky D1. It was just hanging around so I hacked it up for the ATC's. They are much brighter in colour IRL. Like others I am disappointed in the quality of the colour reproductions in the book but it is still cool to see my name & stuff in a book!

I think this is my 100th post too. I started just over a year ago and want to post every single day!

I *heart* zine

I've decided to join a zine swap organized by Alma Stoller. The topic has to be about a craft or art - shall I pick quilting or quilting?! But I really need to narrow it so it has a focused theme. I'm thinking of creating texture with thread for journal quilts. I've never made a zine before but I always have words swirling in my head when I'm working on something so this will give me an opportunity to get them out into the world!!

half way there

I settled on 2 fabrics for sashing & setting blocks for this quilt and a third reddish fabric for the narrow border. I'm quite pleased with how it is looking.

fabric book part 3

These are the pages Lenna made for my fabric book. I like the dark page - a garden at night.

my fabric book

The theme I choose for my fabric book was 'In my Garden'. I used tea towels I had embroidered as a kid for the covers. I've had these for decades and wanted to use them for something. The front cover is carrots & the back inside is peppers.
My first page was made to represent gardens I had visited in Paris. Wonderful flower beds surrounded by grass paths. When I stepped into the bed to see some flowers close up I was quickly told not to step in the flower beds by a local guard. welcome to Paris!! but I quickly got over it and on other visits we found a park where we could actually sit on the grass!

fabric book part 2

Chris had a theme of Japan for her fabric book. I took photos of some beautiful bonsai we saw in a garden next to Villa Carlotta on Lake Como in Italy last year. I transferred a photocopy of the photo onto contact paper and used some free machine embroidery designs to finish the pages.

inside the garden gates fabric page

Chris's theme for her fabric book was inside the garden gate. The gate is machine stitched on gray organza and is supported by stone walls.
behind the gate is a formal garden with the urn stamped & embossed on paper. some thread painting on the topiary for dimension.
the back page is silk flower petals attached to resemble hydrangea.

another tuck

This is the third high tech tuck I've finished. I think this is my favourite especially in vertical rather than landscape orientation. Reminds me of a Carribean holiday!

I think the next tuck I make will be on a different scale. I have a fabric with large swirls of orange & greens that I want to use. After that I am all tuckered out!

class tote

This tote goes with me to any quilt related function. Classes being taken or taught. Usually crammed full of supplies. It is harder packing for a quilting class than a vacation. It has a wonderful section that zippers open with elastic loops for threads & pens & seam rippers & all those bits we need. I've yet to use it that way. I'm a tosser- in it goes but one day I'll be that organized!!
It is from a free pattern on Embroidery library projects.

I always get compliments when I use it.

fabric book part 1

I participated in a round robin fabric book with some lovely women from a group called Fabric-olics. I'm so glad I have photos of the pages I made & sent along.
The first one I received was from Lenna. Lenna has a wonderful website full of art & personal stories. The theme of her book was My Secret Lake in the shape of the lake where she & her husband now make their home. Lenna hosts and participates in many round robins & exchanges. She is making a quiltie a week for this entire year for herself and her husband.
My page for Lenna's book has a cover of vellum through which you can see the fish in the lake. Rainbow trout of course because I have one of my Dad's mounted fish watching over me everyday in my sewing room.

The rainbow trout fish are embellished with metallic thread sewn on from the bobbin and the back is some more funky fish.

sunset background

all ready for hand stitching. This is a piece of the wool felt from the scarf I'm making. Little bits of wool roving and silk felted down. I forgot how luxurious silk rovings are. Some of the yarns ready to stitch a sunset. Or it could be a sunrise!

its a charming life

all thing small have taken over the swapping community. Inchies from paper and fabric charms. I need to get mine out soon. used the new toy to felt some yarns & wool roving to felt.Then free motion machine embroidery with variegated thread. The leaves are from felted organza then ironed to flatten.
The charms are about 1" wide & 1 &1/2" long with an eyelet. theme was Mother Nature & colours were blue,greens &sepia.

variegated

what is it about variegated stuff - thread, floss ,yarn that is so attractive?
these are DMC embroidery floss I bought at Michael's to do some hand work when I will be separated from my beloved sewing machine! I haven't done cross-stitch in years. I still have 2 beautiful roosters done languishing in the UFO box.
Its been eons since I've done any work by hand. I even resist finishing bindings by hand. I am interested in the following TAST has generated and my favourite magazine is Stitch by the Embroiderers' Guild in the UK. I recently saw it at a Chapters store but I get it when I'm in Northern Ireland because a special lady gets the magazine for me the day it hits the bookstores.
So its time I actually did some handwork again.
I'm thinking of something like this. the background is felted and then has stitching. I'll keep ya posted!

Northcott Quilting Marathon

Northcott fabrics has supported breast cancer research and support systems for many years. This year over 3000 blocks were submitted. The president of Twisted Stitcher's Guild won an honourable mention in applique & is going for the win this year. Some of those blocks are in 2 beautiful quilt tops at Quilter's Cupboard in Uxbridge. They will be sandwiched & up in frames for hand quilting March 30 & 31. There are similar Marathons those days at many quilt shops around the country so check it out. The sameprogram in running in 2007.

Dad went fishing wallhanging

Dad went fishing wallhanging
Originally uploaded by Creative gleanings.

wallhanging

wallhanging
Originally uploaded by Creative gleanings.

a new quilt shop

You know you are a true fabric-olic when going to a new quilt store is more exciting than going to a great mall. Cock-a-doodle quilts is not very far from Yorkdale and is next door to The Door Store and Elte.
It is a very nice store, nice variety of fabric- reasonable priced, books, some threads, bright spaceous classroom and friendly staff. My favourite part was what was missing-the crowded feeling of many quilt stores. I liked that there was space to breath and view the fabrics from a reasonable distance.

another one bites the dust

yup another UFO is done! I can't get over how fast machine quilting goes once the right needle, thread, tension etc is sorted out!
A little wallhanging from a pattern by Mary Sorensen.

expressions

I haven't really played with my new machine that much. Here is my first real attempt at a scarf. The base in 100% wool felt. It is absolutely divine to feel and costs about 10 times more than the poly stuff. I rescued one of the scarf kits for myself and along with dyed wool from Wales have started machine needle felting. You can see on the blue felt the tiny bits of yarn that have been punched through to the back.
I've separated sections of the wool to spread out over the yarns. I'm happy with the start but need to 'take it to the next level'.

the rest of the blocks

These blocks whipped together in no time at all. and the variety is great.
You know when the cutting and sewing are accurate when the little slivers of colour on the seams are all the same. not bad Eh?!
I found a few playmates in the stash. The small print will probably end up as binding.

large scale fabric

I love that large scale fabrics are now readily available but it can be hard to decide what to do with them.Weekes Ringle discusses these challenges on Whipup. I bought what seems like miles but is about 5 metres of this floral for under $10. It has wonderful dusty greyed colours that I don't usually buy.
I did the Stack'n Whack technique like everyone else a few years back. It lingers in the UFO category. A much easier way is to cut 4 repeats of the fabric, stack and cut into square blocks.You still get lots of variety and options and wonderful movement in the blocks at a fraction of the work. This fabric has repeat of just under 24". My cut blocks are 5 & 1/2" square, making the pieced block 10 & 1/2" unfinished. I love the blocks. Some have more ground fabric that cuts the busyiness. I am going to look for a grey mustardy yellow for setting corners and one of the other colours for sashing. The conventional borders would be the uncut fabric but I want something in the same colour family but from a different line of fabric.