Lessons learned

This was the day I had to take my quilts to Guelph for my show at the Gallery at Greenwood Quiltery. So with 26 quilts, both big and small, old and new , and a few other items I drove over the snowy roads to Guelph. They will be hung on Thursday and be there till the end of the year. It was a good feeling to have it all done No more quilts without bindings or borders, though a few are in need of a label yet. From there I had to go to Elmira. It got blustery, but not anything to worry about. That changed, when I wanted to go home. The wind had picked up and I could not see the road through the blowing snow. A good enough reason to visit my friend. An hour later it looked better, so I did drive home, but it was not good driving. Seeing a few cars with dints on the side of the road did not help either. But I did make it home. Tomorrow Jeanette,my friend Lois and I have made plans to go to the One-of-a-kind Show in Toronto. Let's hope the wind will quiet down.
I made this wallhanging "Victorian Bouquet" as a workshop proposal for Quilt Canada in Winnipeg, so it must have been about 6 years ago. I taught it a few more times and never got it quilted. When Florence ( who quilted the crane quilt for me) wondered about quilting something for the Mennonite Relief Sale I thought right away about this one. She loved the idea and had it quilted in no time. Once I got it home it was time to put a binding on.
Lesson one: When you make a quilt top and have some extra fabric, cut enough for the binding right away. Put this in a bag with a note what it is for and put it in a safe ( and in my case somewhere I can find it again) place.I did not do that and could not find the right color. As a last resource I rummaged through my fabrics and found some left-overs. Once I cut it all out and sewed the pieces together I needed about a 6 inch strip.

Lesson number 2: Never give up. I went through my stash 2 more times and on the last time I found a small piece, rolled up in a back corner of the shelf. It was the right width and at the end I had 3 inches to spare. This is one of the quilts I took in today

The rest of the week looks very busy, but by the week-end it will be back working on the Mariner Compass blocks. 3 finished, 6 more to go.

Firsts

Yesterday was our guild meeting and some members were asked beforehand to bring traditional quilts "with a story". I brought these 2 quilts. The one above was the first quilt I owned. It was pieced by Laurence's grandmother, Margaretha Axt, when she was already in her eighties. According to my mother-in-law she was not a real quilt maker, but she did a very good job with this one. It was quilted by members of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener.
When we got married, she was bedridden, but we send her an invitation anyway and as soon as the pictures were done, we went for a visit. That's when we received this, her last, quilt.

This is my first appliqued quilt. I always wanted to make one and when I saw that Rosemary Mahkan would teach a 10 month workshop close by, I was the first one to sign up. Most of the blocks in the center were started during these classes. After one year, the quilt was finished. The hand quilting was done by my mother-in-law, Hilda Mae Helmuth.
Almost all of the blocks came out of the books by Elly Sienkiewics, but this one is my own. It shows my pride and joy, Marietha, my Frisian model mare I left behind, when I emigrated to Canada.
And I'm still working on the Mariner Compasses. It goes slower right now. Too many other things going on. Tonight I have a trunkshow in Brampton. It is snowing lightly and I hope it will stay like this. Then no other quilt commitments till next year. There are also a few Christmas project to be done.

First attempt

It must be over 10 years ago that I found a book with Mariner Compasses by Judy Matheson. I loved the book and after getting some fabrics I was brave enough to give it a try. Don't forget, this was in the days before I knew about paper piecing, rotary mats and rotary cutters.













I drew the pattern pieces on cardboard, cut them out and used those to mark the fabric. Then the fabric was cut, including a 1/4 inch seam allowance. I started to sew and oh wonders, it all came together with the first try. I guess it was beginners luck. I made the large compass in the center with the flying geese. Since I did not know what else to do, I put it away.





More than a year later I found out about paper piecing and the rest came together. At the same time I taught a workshop at my church and the ladies there made enough of these smaller compasses to make a large quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale. That quilt also had flying geese as sashing and was red and green.
Once the top was done, I marked it and my mother-in-law, Hilda Mae hand quilted it for me.
This quilt spends its time with the rest on the spare bed and only gets shown during a trunk show.
I never even took a picture, so when I had it out to take to Simcoe this week, I put it on the design wall and finally took some pictures.
Now back to today. I finished the second block and all the points turned out well. When I put it on my design wall, there appeared one spot ,that did not match at all. Very frustrating!
It will have to come out. So now I' even more carefull with the 3nd one. I figure by the time I'm working on the 9th block I will have it figured out.

The Farm... finished

This morning the ground was covered with snow. It is time to find hats, mittens and winter boots.But inside it is warm and there will be lots of time for quilting.
The farm quilt is done, finally. All it really needed was some embroidery, binding and a sleeve. The last 2 are not my favorite activities, so I have a bad habit of putting a quilt away before it gets done. Than, when I need to take the quilt somewhere, it is a scramble to get it done in time. But with the show in Guelph coming up I have been busy getting things done. All my quilts have sleeves now!
I'm not totally happy with this quilt. The applique is fine, but trouble started when I did the machine quilting. I quilted once around the light colored inner border and then around the green outer border. This distorted the green border enough, that when I squared the quilt, the mitered corners did not match. It is not too bad, but it bugs me none the less.
I find the sky too wavy. I quilted that before I put the foliage on.I should have quilted closer together, but once the foliage was on, it was too late.
This was my first attempt to applique a building and it will be my last for a while. But according to my brother and niece it "looks just like it used to be" and that is good to know.
It seems I'm better with plants and flowers.
Now it is back to the Mariner Compasses. I was worried that I did not buy enough fabric. So after teaching in Paris(Ontario that is!) yesterday I managed to get to the Creative Sisters store in Kitchener 5 minutes after closing time. They were still there and were very willing to help me. I found enough of the background fabric and the light green ,. the rest was gone. But I can make do. This morning I cut out patches and soon I will start with the second block. In total there will be 9. The sashing and border will be decided on once I know how much fabric I have left, but I hope to put some smaller compasses somewhere.

First frost

Sunday evening we had our first frost. I took this picture of one of my begonias just in time. I love these begonias with their bright colors. By now their bulbs have been taken in and are drying on the picnic table in the workshop. Once dry I will over winter them in peat moss. Now that we had our first frost it is time to clean up the garden. The weather has been cooperating. It is cool, but sunny.






This week I have made my first Mariner Compass block. And I managed to get the one with 64 points together. I used the paper piecing method and it went easier than I thought it would. Some of the points are a little on the short side, but I can correct that next time. But it is laying flat, my main concern. Before I go on I have to go and get more of the background fabric. It takes a lot of make 9 of these and then a border.



















Right now I'm working on the center of the MCC quilt or the postcard quilt. I ironed Wonder Under on one side of the dark blue fabric and cut the different parts of the world out of that. I ironed all the pieces on with a hot, dry iron.
The next step is the go around all the pieces with a narrow blanket stitch. That will take some doing with all the little pieces. Than it will go to a friend, who will embroider the names of the countries.
While she is working on that I will go and finish the farm quilt. It is still on my design wall. It needs a few things added and corrected and I have not quite decided how to go about it.
I did find some more of my favorite dark brown fabric to use for the binding.

Machine quilting......grrrrrrr!

This is what I could see from out of my window this morning. A beautiful fall day. The harvest is over for the year and the yield was above expectation. The year has been the dryest on record. We have had some rain, but could use more. I still have not done my fall clean-up in the garden. The begonias are still blooming and I like to see color as long as possible. The winter is long enough. And what did I find this morning? A new pansy. I had some blooming under the snow this spring and it looks like I will still have some once the snow comes. I love their cheery colors.

This last week I have been working hard on machine quilting the farm quilt and it did not go well at all. The sky went ok. After that I quilted around the tree trunks. I found out, that this made the roof puffy, so the next step was to quilt along all the roof tiles. But, after a good look I realized that one corner of the barn seemed to have sunk in the clay. Laurence told me to leave it like this( it is an old barn,, right!) ,but I could not do it, so there had to be some remedial work done. By that time the border looked all frilly. First I tackled the inner border, so far so good. Then I quilted the outside border in straight lines, 1/4 inch apart and ...it started to look much better. Today I sewed the foliage down and after going through a whole pack of needles that job is also finished. This picture shows a part of the back.Now the finishing touches yet. You notice that for the back I choose fabric with a maple leaf?
I have the next project all ready. When I asked Shawn and Emily what quilt they would like me to make for their wedding, the answer was a red and green Mariner Compass ...and not those with 8 points!
So I thought that this one had 32 points, but after having a closer look I find, that there are 64 points. Now I'm not a good piecer at the best of times, even using the paper piecing method.
I will give it ONE try. If it does not work out, the next one will have 32 points and so down the line till I can manage it.

A little of this....a little of that

Last week I received the new book "Points of View" by Valerie Hearder. It is a beautiful book with lots of very good information. And the quilts in the gallery are almost all by Canadian quilters ,what was very nice to see.
Inside you can find one of my landscape quilts, Waterloo County, aerial view. With it is a short description of how I go about making a landscape. This is the first time, that I have seen one of my quilts in a book and it is really of neat. And it is an honor to have it in such a good book.

This week I have been doing more machine quilting. The second Tuscany landscape is finished , except for the binding, and today I did the last little bit of the sky of the Farm quilt. That was a very slow process. It was about 5 minutes sewing with a half hour of tucking in the ends. The next step will be the tree trunks. This is the biggest piece I have done on the machine up to now and I cannot understand how you can do a full size quilt. Now I know, that you are not supposed to turn the quilt, but I have not been able to master that trick. Today was our guild meeting and it was good to see so many friends again. I had not been there since June. It seems ,that a lot of guilds have their meetings on the 3nd Wednesday of the month, so I miss some because I'm talking at another guild.

I have a show coming up in December at Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph. More about that later. That's one of the reasons I'm trying to get things finished. Today I bought more doweling and screws for hanging the quilts.
About my spinning wheel. I had some nice remarks with some very good advise. I know now, that there are guilds not far from here , that I could join. But that will have to wait for a while. There is first of all this show and than the MCC postcard quilt and the Mariner Compass for our son to finish. Than it would be nice to take a break and give spinning a try.

One done....2 more to go

Machine quilting is not my favorite thing to do. I seem to get very tense and that means it does not take long and I have a sore back and shoulders. It is not that I don't like it, just that I do not like the discomfort that seems to go with it.
I did finish one small piece, that I made earlier this year. In the center I went around all the appliqued pieces with a smoky invisible thread. The inside border has the little pebbles I like to do and the outside has straight lines in a variegated thread. I'm working on number 2 right now
Then it will be on to the The Farm. This one will be harder to do on my regular machine, because it is much bigger. I do have the threads and I will give it a try.









I have made a start with the "Postcard quilt" This will be the working title. Later it will get a better name.
The center is made with 2 inch squares in different blues.
I want to put a fused world map in dark blue on top. This piece of North America is a trial. Today I went to my friend Audry, who is very good with embroidery and she will try out different ways of making little squares with the names of the countries, where MCC is working. Around that you see some of the cards. I want to put 2 rows of cards around the center. They will be put together, so that I can make a 2-sided quilt. How I have not decided quite yet. It seems that we have to take it one step at a time. I figured out how much fabric I would need and I was very lucky that the store had enough for me.

Spinning wheel

Earlier this year my mother moved to a smaller apartment in a retirement home. That meant, that a lot of her things could not go along. My brother and sister-in-law were very good in getting a big box ready with things for me. And an excellent job they did! Nothing got damaged, not even the dishes.
Included was this chip carved box, made by my great grandfather around 1920. It is about 30 cm across and was used by my grandmother, his daughter, as sewing box. He made one of these for all his children.
This spinning wheel was also included.
I had my eye on that since I was a small child. I remember it standing in the hall on the farm. I loved to see how fast I could make the wheel go around. My mother had been after me to take it along years ago, but it would have been very difficult to take in a plane with me.

My brother took it carefully apart and at the same time took pictures. Once it was here, it did not take long to put it together again.
I never knew where it came from, but when I asked my mother it had an interesting history.
During the second world war my grandfather was supervisor for part of the sea dikes in Friesland. He would receive large logs that were used as pilings to be driven in the sea. Groups of these logs were held together by large pieces of oak. Since things were scarce at that time, he would keep these pieces of lumber and take them to the furniture maker in town. Now this was not just any town. This was Hindelopen with a long seafaring history.
Ideas from the long journeys were used to paint the furniture. You can see some of this if you google Hindeloopen
My grandfather ordered a spinning wheel from this furniture maker and friend of his. They had the sheep and it would be my mother's job to spin the wool to be used to knit the socks for her father and 5 brothers. So each evening she sat there spinning away. After the war, when she got married she could take the spinning wheel with her. But by that time she could not stand even the sight of it, so as long as I can remember it stood out of the way, upstairs in a corner.
So now it is here in Canada. I have nver done any spinning, but it would be fun to give it a try. I could spin the wool and Jeannette could knit it. So the roles would be reversed.
In 1/2 hour the corn harvest will start, so it will be busy around here for a few weeks.
I do hope to get some machine quilting done though. 2 small landscapes are ready to go. They will be my practice pieces before I will start with the farm, but that one is also ready to go.

Finally......

I feel like I have accomplished something......finally. The farm is ready for quilting. The foliage of the trees is missing, but I will machine quilt the sky and the tree trunks first. It will be easier that way. Than put the foliage on and quilt the rest. The orchids are also ready for quilting. This morning I took the rest of the paper out of the back and pressed the top. I have not quite decided, but I think that hand quilting would look better. At first I thought some more sashiko in the dark areas of the border might work, but now I think that it might get too busy. Maybe some sashiko with a light colored regular quilting thread. So you can see it, but just barely.

Yesterday I took my quilts in for our bi-annual quilt show and on my way home stopped at the Creative Sisters quilt store in Kitchener. They had their monthly "full moon madness sale"
I did very well and found fabric for the back of the orchid quilt, red and green batiks for the Marnier Compass quilt I will make for our son's wedding and blue batiks for the project below.
I also picked up 3 more returned postcards at the MCC office for my next project. The total now is 53 returned from the 80- send out in the spring. A few straglers might show up, but next week I will start with this project.







These pictures show you the back and front of the 3 cards I picked up.
I have it all figured out in my head, but now we will see if it is possible. The first step is to make a piece in the "trip around the worls" pattern and have that quilted for a base.

It has been a dry year

Yesterday my friend Betty came for a chat. She has moved further away, so we do not see each other very often. But she will stop on her way to Kitchenere once in while. Since her husband and her travel a lot, she decided to store her threads in plastic boxes. That meant, that these 2 (yes, there is a second one) beautiful, wooden spool racks were not used anymore. And they are mine to do with what I please.
I will not have any problems filling them ,though it will not all be threads, once I get Laurence convinced to get the drill out and put some screws in the wall.
She had some beautiful quilts along also. These will be in our bi-annual show next week.
The Waterloo County Quilters Guild will have their quilt show next week, September 28 and 29 at the RIM Center in Waterloo.

The last week has been very busy with other things than quilting. I did get a few orchids done, but there are still 3 more and a few buds.
We are busy with the harvest. The yields have been disappointing, but this morning we heard on the radio, that this year has been the dryest on record in our area, not a surprise really. Going by that, it could have been worse.
The white beans are off and next will be the soybeans and the planting of winterwheat.
The harvest is about 2 to 3 weeks earlier than normal. I try to stay home as much as possible during that time. Mid September has been a safe time to book a trunkshow/workshop, but not this year. In a few hours I will be on my way to Chattam for a trunkshow tonight and a workshop tomorrow.
Got to run. The call to help move equipment from one place to the other just came.
One thing we cannot complain about this week, is the weather. Sunny and up to 28C

Woodstock, Ontario that is

We are in the second week of September and that means for the farmers in this area one thing, the Outdoor Farm Show near Woodstock.Today was our day and we left early, because we had free entry tickets and free breakfasts, thanks to hubbie's involvement with the Soil and Crop Association and a sponsoring Company. And a good breakfast it was! Later it was for lunch to a special, and free, BBQ lunch for poultry producers, also good. In between we could get water, coffee, apples, popcorn, candies, all free. And in the afternoon the wheelbarrows with peanuts in the shell were placed all over the grounds. By missing the cup playing a golf game, I even got a ticket for a free ice cream cone.
Total cost for the three of us ( a niece went along for the day), was 75 cents to upgrate to a waffle cone for the ice cream.
And what did I learn? Not much, just that things change fast in agriculture, just like everywhere else. The machinery is getting bigger and more expensive. More computers and GPS. More rules and regulations.
And hubby had a good look at some pieces of equipment, that he thinks need to be upgraded, but that will have to wait till winter.
It looks like tomorrow will be a sunny day and that means the start of the bean harvest. So more time outside for me.
I have been working on the last orchid and this is what I have accomplished so far. There are 8 more flowers to do.

Last days of summer

We can notice, that summer is nearing the end. Evenings are cooler and at times a jacket comes in handy. Saturday I picked some flowers and leaves around the house. Jenny gave me a handy tool for using with flower arrangements, that I had not used yet.
It did work very well. It fits in the large vase and holds the flowers and leaves straight.
Around it,but inside the vase, I put some hosta leaves to conceal it.
The begonias are at their best, but they are better left outside.
Back to quilting. Whatever I had in mind for the front of the farm did not work. Instead I appliqued one piece along the front, what seems to work much better. I cut the pieces for the border and pinned them on the board. And there it will sit for a few weeks, while I will be looking at it. I wonder if I should quilt the sky, before I will sew the foliage of the trees down. It would make it much easier.


I think I have to machine quilt it, because in places there are a lot of layers of fabric.
And it will need some more hand embroidery.
While I'm taking a break from this one, I picked up the quilt with the orchids. The 2 orchids at the bottom were finished a while ago and by that time I had run out of steam. This time I managed to come up with suitable orchids for the top. This one is a pansy orchid and as the name implies, it looks a lot like a pansy. The leaves and stems are sashiko, done with 2 different kinds of variegated thread. It looks nice, but the extra thickness made it hard to pull the needle through the fabric. I hope to get this side done this week. Than it is one to the last side, all ready to go.

My goal is to get both tops ready for quilting by the end of the month. We have our guild quilt show (Waterloo County Quilters Guild) on the last week-end in September and after that's all behind me, I want to start on the "postcard" quilt for the MCC sale. I'm just hoping for a few more cards to return!

Another quilt to make

A week ago our son phoned us. He let us know, that he was engaged and that we could expect a wedding next year. Great news!
It will be here in Ontario and they are busy planning.
That also means for me that I will have to make another quilt. At least I have almost a year to get it done. This is a picture of the quilt I made for Jeanette and Tony. It is called Raspberry Parfait and Jeanette saw the pattern in Quilters Newsletter Magazine.I realized that I have not a good digital picture. I tried to scan one in, but it just did not work for me. This one was taken at their shower at our church with grandma inspecting my work.
Shawn and Emily are trying to come up with something they would like.
Last week I spend a few days at the YMCA Center in Orillia. The Ontario Quilting Connection had their bi-annual conference there.

The classes were small, but we had a lot of fun. Here they are working hard on the sashiko pieces.
And the food......great. It was good for my waistline that I did not stay any longer.
Once home again I worked on the farm and appliqued the field in the front. I did not really like, it, but kept on, just in case more would be better. Of course it did not improve . I put it up on the wall last night with the hope that it would look better this morning, but surprise, it looked just as bad. So out came the ripper and I took it all out, even before doing the chores. Now it will stay on the wall, till I have found a better solution.

Plodding on

Only 50 more pieces to applique and the top is finished. It is getting time, because there are other projects to start.Last winter I taught 2 postcard workshops for my guild and as a result 80 cards were made and send to volunteers from the Mennonite Central Committee all over the world. They were asked to put a stamp on the card and pop it in the mail Yesterday I picked up more cards and 50 have come back. I do hope that a few more will return.
I have a few ideas and as soon the farm is done, I will start on that project.
I'm busy getting ready to go up north for a few days. I will be teaching at the Ontario Quilting Connection in Orillia. I was there once before and I enjoyed it very much.
But right now we have another emergency. I broke the top of the kitchen faucet and we cannot find a new one that will fill the hole. For the time being we can manage with a vice grip attached to the broken end, but it is not very handy.Laurence has gone to town, again, to see what he can come up with.

Back to the farm

Wheat weaving is out of my system for the time being, so it is back to the farm quilt. I'm finished with most of the embroidery. The next step was the trees. The trunks were cut out of one varigated brown batik, a lot of fiddly work, but not hard. But how to do the foliage? Solid fabric would be too much and snippits of fabric just did not do it.
So the next to try was thread painting. I had done a little of that before , but only very small pieces.
I did have a good variety of green threads on hand and I found some water soluble stabilizer. I made a few small samples and it seemed to work.
I drew the outline on the stabilizer and starting with the darkest thread I would fill in the bottom, using a zig-zag stitch and later a straight stitch. By using these 5 colors I got the results I wanted. The small holes will let some of the sky through I hope.
Once finished I cut around each shape and put it in luke warm water for 15 minutes. By that time the stabilizer has disappeared and, after drying, I can use the pieces on the quilt.


Most of these pieces I did today, so I have not had time to put them in the water. That's why some of the stabilizer is still showing.
Next up will be the biggest tree and I will use a few different colors for that one.
The front is not done yet.
There will be a fence, small meadow and a ditch.

Wheat weavings

Last week I showed you a picture of the different kinds of wheat I had picked on our farm. This was the week to make something with the wheat.
I was at Jeanette's for the week-end to look after the cat and dog, so I figured I had lots of time. What I did not figure on was the cat. She wanted to eat, play, scratch in the wheat. And when I pulled her away, she seemed to be mad at me for the rest of the week-end.
I did manage to get a few done though.
Starting on the left, the first is a 5 and a 6 braid out of unbearded wheat, The next is a small 3 braid ( that's all I had), than 2 out of bearded winter wheat both with 6 braids, just put together different.
This one is out of barley. The straw was very fine and it was hard to work with, but the result is very nice with those long "beards"
This one is also with 6 braids.
It will take some tender loving care. One drop on the floor and it will not look nice anymore( don't ask me how I know).
The last 2 are out of spring wheat. These are larger, because the straw was longer.
The one on the left is made with a flat 7 braid, the one on the right is a double "modiford" an old name for a heart shaped weaving. This one is also done with 6 braids.
There is some wheat left, but I have put it away. It is out of my system, so it is back to applique. Next week I should have some more to show.I'm working on the trees around the farm.
The trunks are easy, but I have to decide how to do the foliage. Thread painting might be the way to go, but I do not have much experience with that.

Wheat harvest

Last week-end was very busy. We should have been in 2 places at the same time. First there was the yearly antique tractor show in Drayton. Since we lacked the time, only this J.D A got to go. If you have a good look you can see the roses behind the tractor. They have been blooming for over a month now.
We did go to a wedding in Algonquin Park, a 41/2 hour drive up north from here.
The weather was beautiful and still is.
Once home again we had to get to work. The wheat was ready, so was the c0mbine.
After the dew was gone on Monday morning, Laurence started to combine.By now, Wednesday, he is almost finished at home. He usually does some custom work for neighbours next.
This year the yield and the price is good. Most years it is one or the other.
But that was not all the harvesting that got done.
It must be about 25 years ago ,that I saw a small decoration made out of straw. When an evening course was offered at the local High School I took it. I wanted to know more, but could not find any more information. I knew that it was an old English craft, so I send a letter to the Women's Institute in England. They got me into contact with Janet Brewin, a teacher /judge. She has been a very good friend ever since. And so the journey started. She kept me up to date and send me books. I even managed to go to England twice. Once I made it to the Wheat Gathering of England. Then about 1o years ago I developed more problems with my back and shoulders and it got harder to do. Slowly quilting took over.
But I never totally forgot about wheat weaving( in North America) or corn dollies (England)
I usually gather at least a few handfulls of grain. Here you can see this years crop.
There are 2 different kinds of wheat. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, stays in the ground over the winter and is harvested the next summer. Springwheat is planted in the spring and harvested also during the summer, usually a week or so later.
There are also a lot of varieties. Most noticable are the long "hairs" on some. These are called beards.

So starting from the left we have:
winter wheat, beardless
red winter wheat, bearded
winter wheat, bearded
barley, very long beards ( taken from a neighbour's field. Promised them to make something)
spring wheat, bearded. I cut this before it was ripe. It will keep a soft green tinge.
spring wheat, bearded.
This coming week-end I will be at Jenny's and I have everthing ready to make at least one weaving out of each variety. I hope to show you some results next week.