I Spy With My Little Eye, something that is FINISHED!!

This week I finished TWO I Spy quilts!! Done! Bindings done; labels on; DONE!! Can you tell how happy I am about that?!

One is for our GrandBaby Jocelyn who lives in Florida. When her Daddy was a little boy (keeping in mind that this was before cable tv and computers, and do you understand that I mean THANKFULLY before...) we used to play I Spy With My Little Eye something that begins with the letter.... Well you know how to play the game. I am so hopeful that Chris will play this with Jocelyn, and play it on her quilt. I had so much fun shopping for these fabrics and searching high and low for appropriate pieces.

After making the top for Jocelyn's quilt, I mentioned it to a friend of mine and ended up piecing one for her as well. She is the grammie of a little boy and there were two dozen pieces in J's quilt that couldn't appear in his. The hunt was on once again. As it happened, there were many pieces purchased for his quilt and although it looks similar to J's in construction detail, it is quite a bit different. I love his. I love Jocelyn's as well but the second quilt has some corrections and some details missing from the first. That having been said, both are done and they are wonderful. They were machine quilted in Richmond County CB by Betty Gillan and she did a beautiful job on both. Jocelyn's is quilted in a dragon fly motif and the second quilt is done with a random meander with stars. Great choices!!

Two toddlers will get these for Christmas from two sets of G-parents!! What fun is this!!?

Fractured!!

As I have mentioned before, learing a new technique can be great fun and this was GREAT FUN for sure. In October, with eighty other people, I attended a quilters retreat at the beautiful Liscomb Lodge on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. In my group, there were probably fifteen participants and we were graced with the presence of the brilliant Deb Plestid who taught us her Fractured Landscape technique. Not for everyone. I, however, loved it and cannot wait to do another, in which I will correct the mistakes I made in this first attempt.

Choosing the photo was the first hurdle and although I knew from which collection I was going to choose, it took me some time to settle on this particular one. LB and I were driving home from Florida in March and took the Skyline Trail along the Shanendoah Valley with the expressed purpose of getting some photos from which I could choose one for the the retreat workshop. I believe it was a good choice, offering varieties of color and movement with a bit of drama thrown in for effect. I love the picture and I am quite satisfied with the art quilt.

The technique of producing a fractured landscape is slow and painstaking. Fabric selection and placement are key. Mine is flawed, to be sure, but I know more now than I did that day and I am looking forward to doing a second picture, perhaps from the same collection as this one. I will definitely change my fractures and I would love to do one in a monochromatic color choice. Maybe all reds. As long as the darks, mediums and lights are distinct, I think it would be dramatic to do one in just one color. That is a project for a winter's day...and right now, I am busy with those UFO's that must be completed for Christmas.

Foir myself, I would take any workshop lead by Deb Plestid. She is an accomplished and widely recognized fibre artist and she possesses a wonderful ability to break down the steps of a complicated project and make it doable for the interested quilter. Going on this retreat was a teriffic experience and I can't wait to do it again!!

Getting back to work

October is a blurr and here we are in the month before Christmas. In the past four weeks, I taught a workshop, went to a retreat, took a workshop, finished the tops of two I Spy quilts (which are currently at the machine quilter's) and flew across the country to visit our son and his wife in Saskatchewan. In addition to that, life happened and all of the usual things had to be done as well, including dinner guests and evenings out. All this having been said, I am getting back on track and finished two projects in the past few days. Attending a workshop and being a participant was great fun and although I had to leave early due to another engagement, I very much enjoyed the whole experience. The bag I completed is from fabric I bought at a lovely quilt store called Periwinkle Quilting in Saskatoon. It will henceforth be my Sask Bag. I found the fabric to be expensive in that lovely shop, perhaps because of the difference in sales tax between our two provinces. Same thing in Alberta. Nonetheless it is a great store and now I have a tangible memento from the trip.

Our Guild's Christmas challenge this year was to use a Nutcracker fabric in some project with the fabric clearly visible. I love making Christmas pillows as they are a great gift and are fun to make. This little pillow is just the right size to place on a chair and not be in the way. It's about fourteen inches square and has a zipper in the back in case it falls victim to an errant mug of egg nog during the holidays.

My biggest project currently in the mix is catching up with all of the other Guild members in making the first steps in our Mystery Quilt. Mine is done in Christmas fabric simply because it's easy to match the fabrics ... everything goes with Christmas!!! This particular quilt has dozens and dozens and then more dozens of half-square triangles and were it not for Ta-Da's, I never would have undertaken the project. I can do eighty-four HST's in MINUTES and after that, it's just cutting. Thanks to the person who devised those little gems. I was initially sold on Thangles, and I do use them for six or eight or ten HST's, but when it comes to hundreds, I prefer the Ta-Da's. There's nothing to tear off and they provide additional stability along that bias seam. I am using my stash for this quilt and had to buy only one fabric, which is a real bonus and it' good to see that the level of my stash is going down.

For some unknown reason, I have not been able to get a quilt on my frame this fall. That is the next project and perhaps it will happen sooner rather than later...at least I hope so!!

Smaller pieces are fun to make

I like this cheery little hanging. Again, late in the summer, I decided to start something I could finish in a short time and this was the item.
I had bought it as a kit from Harbour Quilts and if you know HQ, then you can see Kim's colors all through it. I like that it's dimensional with the stems and leaves left 'unattached' and the buttons add a bit of detail as well. This will hang in the laundry room which I am finding is a great place for those projects that really don't belong anywhere else but that I had to do for some obscure reason. It will be the third piece to go in that space as it has been recently renovated and needs a little 'interest'. A great place for my projects...I am really the ONLY person who uses that room regularly so it's a bit self serving, but who really cares!?

Bonnie's Sandcastle

I love paper piecing. Sometimes. Not that often, actually, but I had this pattern in my queue for some time and late in the summer, when I was feeling rather unproductive, I decided to have at it and settled in. I decided this time to use wash-away paper and probably won't bother with that again. I used the whole package of paper on this project and didn't find any real benefit to using it. There are people who love it. For me, it just wasn't necessary ..and there were MANY little pieces in this project. The sun, the umbrella, and even the castle itself took a lot of time but I am very pleased with the end result. It's for my friend Bonnie who lives at the beach. I hope she likes it...she will receive it this week.

I Spy With My Little Eye...

When most of my friends were making their I Spy quilts (otherwise known as Talking Quilts), I didn't have a Grandbaby to my name. They shared their fabrics and pooled their resources and finished up with interesting quilts that will be treasured for years to come. Now that I have a grand daughter Jocelyn, I decided it was time for me to jump into the I Spy craze and make her a quilt to play on and with, learning colors and letters and all that! It was a great project to piece together and now that it's finished, I am taking it to a quilter to have it machine done and Jocelyn will have it for Christmas. I am left with DOZENS AND DOZENS of fabric pieces that are part of the quilt...approximately 130 different patterns: animals, fruits and vegetables, toys, passtimes, sports equipment....you name it. My friend Lillian has a grandbaby boy and I am going to piece a quilt for him in the next little while. All of the pink pieces that appear in Jocelyn's quilt will be replaced with 'boy' pieces for this little guy. I have been shopping again for the fabrics to make this quilt for the opposite sex (seems odd to say that about one-year-olds!!)and really can't wait to get started.

The fussy cutting takes time!!!!! I am making these quilts with blocks a little bigger than the ones made by my friends. The blocks finish at 12 inches and in each block there are two six inch squares and two half aquare triangles or one HST and one stripped square. These blocks are framed with 1 1/2" strips rather than using posts and sashing. Jocelyn's quilt is 20 blocks, set in a 4 x 5 layout. It's larger than I originally planned but just couldn't stop!! I think it will be a quilt she will enjoy and I hope it will be used again and again.

Mock Mola quilting

Well I didn't know quite what I was getting into when I attended a workshop in a neighbouring community a few weeks ago. Not much fabric was required...a few fats and some dark batting; the usual tools...but I had been having back spasms for about four days and my level of concentration and comprehension were suffering and I found myself sitting with nineteen women who seemed to know what they were doing and I was a bit of the odd quilter out. Being such a strong visual learner, I needed samples or EXAMPLES and perhaps a pattern or a template.... Carol had taken a similar course at a major show and her group was given templates to work from. I needed that kind of concrete help and then, after doing the first one, I would be able to do a second project knowing what I wanted to improve on or what I cared to repeat. I find myself in possession of a half-completed hanging and no intention of ever finishing it. Kind of disappointing. The lesson from this is...do the research and presume nothing when you are attending a workshop you are not really familiar with. Check out the internet for some videos and take the time to do the groundwork so as not to be discouraged. At the same time, avoid being over prepared. There is nothing worse for a teacher than to find someone who is well underway with the project you are teaching when you expected to be the one giving the instruction. More than likely I will do another of these Mock Mola pieces but I will know more before I start this time, and for sure, it will be finished!! If you are interested in this Mock Mola work, you can go to www.singingquilter.com and check out Cathy's work. Shd did a great job of the instruction and it was my fault that I didn't come away satisfied. Her projects are beautiful and her talent goes beyond being able to sing!! I would encourage anyone to attend her sessions if she happens to be in your area.