Yard work

This should have been the week to clean up the yard, but up to now the weather did not cooperate. Last year we put up a building with a diesel generator for back-up power to the buildings and at the same time dug in hyro and water lines. During the winter the ground settled and now the time has come to clean and level everything before we can put new grass seed down. One hour of working outside today made me realize, that I need more excercise! Back to quilting.Before Jeanette made her paper pieced quilts she took one workshop. She came with me to Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph and there she saw the work of Loreen Roy. She loved it and I was told, that if ever there was a possibility to take a workshop from her, she would go with me. So when the opportunity arose, we both took her workshop. This small blue wallhanging with a tree is Jeanette's result. I wanted to try and make something with flowers coming out of some rocky outcrops. This was a completely new way of doing things for me, but it was a lot of fun. I must have been too enthousiastic, because it ended up too thick to quilt. I forget how many needles of all kind I broke during the quilting. But it did get done, finally. Since I could not work outside I had time to finish the borders on Jeanette's quilt. Only the back has to be sewn and it can be taken to the machine quilter. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

Busy,busy, busy

It has been a very busy week. On Friday Jeanette and her husband Tony, with cat and dog in tow, came for the week-end.Saturday morning we spend putting her second quilt together. Last year Jeanette was asked to be a bridesmaid for her friend Cindy's wedding. She decided to make a small quilt. This was her first try at paper piecing and she ended up with a queen size quilt. I helped her with putting the blocks together and it was machine quilted.I forgot to take a good picture before it left, but here Shawn and Jeanette are showing it to their grandmother. She decided that she wanted a quilt for herself and so she made 168 paper pieced blocks. Saturday was the day to put it all together. While she pinned, I sewed and Tony ripped the paper pieces,the quilt took shape. Early afternoon the center was finished. Now a 2 inch wide dark blue batik border and a 10 inch wide multi colored border and it will be ready for quilting. On Monday I gave a trunkshow at the Dufferin Quilter's guild and a lively group it was! We had a lot of fun and I will be back in the fall for some workshops. Yesterday was guild meeting and as usual there was a fabulous show-and-tell and a good speaker. Now I'm getting ready for a 31/2 hour drive to Windsor, where I will give 2 workshops on Friday and Saturday. Next week....it will be clean-up outside and other yard work.

More cranes

Another crane finished. That is 9 done, 3 more to go. The next one is halve finished.One is a lot bigger. It is standing in water and I will have to come up with some reeds or other greenery to make it less "dull" I want to incorporate more sashiko, but I have not decided yet if that will be done before the quilting or will be part of the quilting itself. Last month Canada Post came out with a series of 4 stamps, commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Ontario Horticultural Society. I'm a member of the local society. I thought it might be fun to make postcards of each stamp. The trillium was the first one. This flower is very familiar to me, as we have lots of them growing in our tree lot at the back of the farm.In another month they should be out in bloom. After I made the card, all done on the machine, I glued the stamp on and had it hand cancelled at the local post office

Spring.......finally

What a beautiful day. Finally it is warm enough to be outside without coat or jacket. The daffodils and early tulips are up and any day now we will have the first blooming crocusses. But now that the snow is gone I can see all the damage to the lawn, so next week I will be raking and cleaning up, at least if this weather holds up. It seems that as soon as it gets nice outside I rather be outside than work inside anyway,but less applique will get done. I did manage to make this small wall hanging (24 by 24")of the life cycle of a tulip. I used some of my dyed fabrics and batiks.It is time for warm weather, so I can try to dye some more fabric. I have not much experience with this, so it is always a gamble what the end result will be. All the fabric was fused first.I made up a pattern using pictures I took of my red tulips. Everything, except some embroidery, was done on the machine. Machine quilting seems to get a little easier. Yesterday I received my Quilters Newsletter Magazine and it showed one of my quilts. This time it was the " Springtime in Ontario" It is always neat to see one of your quilts published. Right now that quilt is one of 32 Canadian quilts hanging in the Quilt Museum in Paducah. This show" Canada Uncovered" will be at the museum for the next few months.

Machine work

Not much got done this week! I ended up with a bad cold and a sore throat,but today I finally feel like doing something again. What I did finish, slowly over the last few days, was this quilt for my son. Last fall he let me know, that the quilt I made for him to take to college was in tatters and he would not mind another one to replace it. I decided to make do with what I had on hand and try something different.Try the "quilt as you go" method. This quilt is 93 by 93 inches and there is not one hand stitch in it.With fabrics I had on hand I made the 121/2 inch blocks. 4 were sewn together with strips. These bigger blocks were machine quilted,after which these bigger blocks also were put together using fabric strips. The border pieces were also quilted before they were sewn to the quilt with narrow strips. I learned a lot making this quilt, mostly things that did not work. But what is the most important after all this......he likes it and will take it home after supper. Now it will be back to some hand applique.Four more cranes are waiting to be appliqued and I think I'm ready for them now.

Spring has sprung....or has it?

These tulips were potted up last fall and spend the winter in the 'cool' workshop. Once up I took them in the house and put them in a sunny spot. These are the first tulips to bloom. I took some pictures and hope to make a wallhanging of tulips in different stages. After a few nice days, with most of the snow gone, I found these little snowflakes against the shed.It made me think of spring. But it was too soon. Yesterday winter came back with a vengeance. And wouldn't you know, I had another trunkshow. This one was in Mount Forest, only 35 km from here. At 6 I received a phone call. Conditions were not good around there, but since most of the members were in town, they would have a meeting even if I decided to cancel. My husband looked at me and said: Just ask me if you want me to take you. He took me, all the way down complaining to me that I could have easlily done it myself. But things got worse around town and the trip back was not nice at all. I was glad he came along. Because of the weather the turn-out was low, but we had a good time. Today was our monthly guild meeting.The winds were still howling and there was some drifting snow, but while hubby took a tractor to the Farm Protest in Teviotdale, I set out for Waterloo. And I'm glad I went. Sharon Pederson (www.sharonquilts.com)talked about reversable quilts and machine sashiko. Great program and as usual a very good "show and tell" Right now the wind is still howling outside, but inside I have a little bit of spring right in front of me. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

Postcard

This small wallhanging was made for my mother in Holland.I cannot visit with her often, although we talk on the phone weekly. She loves plants and flowers and I hope that these tulips will cheer her up on some of those rainy Dutch days. A few months ago I saw an article in the Quilters Newsletter Magazine that showed how you could make your own postcard. Since I had some extra fused fabric around I decided to make a card ( 4 by 6 inches)and see if it would work. I took a picture of an orchid and made a pattern.The pieces were fused to the bat and machine quilted. I decided to send this card to myself, just to see if it would come back. With Micron pen I wrote the address and signed with my middle name.I glued a stamp, also with an orchid on the back and it was ready for the post office. I had no trouble. The lady in the post office was very interested and hand stamped the card. Three days later it was in our mailbox. So now I like to make a few more and send one to my mother in Holland once in a while. Today I received some good news. Another one of my quilts will be in Quilters Newsletter Magazine. That will be the second one in 2 months.Who would have ever thought, that this might happen!!!

Fun and fast

This coming Sunday I will have all the relatives in driving distance here for dinner. From the 16 there are 8 with a birthday in the second part of February or the first part of March, so I was in need of a few presents. Since my fingers were sore from applique anyway,I decided to make a few quick projects. Since I have not done much fusing, I read Frieda Anderson's book " Fun and Fast Fusies" first. Then with a roll of Wonderunder, batiks and some left over dyed fabric I went to work. This was a big change for me. Instead of working on something for weeks or months it took only hours. The 2 small wallhangings are fused and then machine quilted. The only thing I did by hand is the back of the binding. A 3nd, slightly bigger one, has to be quilted yet. And at last I made a very small ,4 by 6 inches, postcard. I addressed it to myself and this morning I took it into a bigger town( not our own post office),and had it hand cancelled. My husband did not think that something so weird would be allowed, but the lady was very interested and did not ask any questions.Now we wait and see what will happen. I will take a picture once it has arrived "home" again. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

Workshop

On Saturday I had antoher workshop in Guelph. As has happened more this year the weather did not look good outside, but neither radio nor Internet showed any road closures in the area, so I set out.Once I was halfway I discovered that the barricades were up,going the other way, so officially the road was closed, but it was too late than. And....the road was fine, slippery but the visability was good . The students for the workshop were all from the area, so no problems there. Here Lida is hard at work on her small landscape. This is an easy pattern and is for all levels. It always amazes me to see the difference at the end of the day. Some use bright, summery colors, others go for the cool winter colors. Here is the group at the end of the day with their work. I think we all had a good time. 2 days ago I received the April Issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. I knew that the Critter Quilt would be in it. Friends had let me know that they had seen it already, but because of bad weather we did not get our mail on Friday. But it was worth the wait. It gives me a good feeling to see something I made in a magazine of that calibre.

Orchid

I was all ready to take some more pictures of finished projects, but my digital camera refuses to co-operate.This after I had it along to the guild meeting this afternoon and went right past the store. So it will mean an extra trip into town. So instead a close-up of part of a wallhanging that I made last year. A few years ago I got introduced to orchids on one of my trips to California. Here at home it was right in the middle of the winter and there orchids bloomed outside. For me it was incredible. Once home I received one as a gift and right now it is blooming for the third time. I'm up to 3 by now, since that is all the room I have in the "perfect" window, but they give me a lot of pleasure. The flowers are hand appliqued with some added embroidery. There were a lot of fiddly little pieces and I was glad when they were done. Stil trying out my machine quilting, but it is still not good enough to show here. Maybe next week I will have something to show, with pictures.

More of the same

A few weeks ago Jeanette, our daughter, asked if I could make some drawstring bags for health kits.She would buy the neccessary items, but she knew that she would not have the time to sew the bags. I bought 3 meters of a sturdy fabric and had enough to make 15 bags.Each bag will have a towel, bar of soap, toothbrush , toothpaste and a nail clipper.They will go to the Mennonite Central Committee and from there they will be distributed wherever there is a need. More information you can find at www.mcc.org. It did not take me very long to sew up the bags. 8 will be filled right away ,the rest we will put away for now What a week it has been. A big snow storm dumped over 20 inches of heavy snow over the week-end. We were lucky not to loose hydro for more than a few minutes. Wit the roads being closed, it was good to be inside, where it was warm. I worked on my applique and finished 2 cranes. Each is about 6 inches tall and has from 65 to 85 pieces. 6 more to go. I hope to have them all done by the end of March. It seems that if I set myself a goal I get things done. I use only 2 different fabrics for all the cranes. One is a variegated white with blue and brown marbled blotches, the other a black with dark grey batik. I have one meter of the white and I hope it will do all of the cranes.The beak is a orangy red and the legs I cut from a multi colored striped batik.

Chinese garden path

This small wall hanging was made for the mother of our son-in-law. It was funny how it all happened.Our son-in-law is from Chinese decent. Our daughter decided to wear a Chinese dress for the wedding reception last year. So...of to the Pacific Mall near Toronto with the couple and parents. We ended up in a very small dress makers store, where there were lots of dresses and fabrics to choose from. I could not understand what Helen and the lady in the store talked about, but out came a large bag of scraps. I was encouraged to take as much as I wanted. So, here I was, sitting on the floor in the middle of this small store, sorting through the scraps. Once home again I had to decide what to make. The book "Quilting with Japanese Fabric" by Kitty Pippen" was a good source forgetting ideas. Once I started working with the silk I found out, that it frays very easily. The pieces were first hand basted on a paper pattern and after that appliqued to the back ground. The red piece in the center is from our daughter's dress. I filled it up with some sashiko and quilted it on the machine. Then I gave it as a gift to Helen and discovered later, that I did not take a picture. Last Saturday we were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family, so I had the opportunity to finally take that picture. Still working on my cranes and I should have a few finished by next week.

For the birds

Yesterday I tried to post these pictures and whatever I tried, the camera and dock did not work. One more try this morning and it worked fine.The flying cranes are paper cut-outs with all the pieces numbered. I will make another copy and as I applique,I will cut out each number and the "hole" will be used as a guide for the piece that has to be appliqued. The blue jay is one of the birds of my new bird quilt. It is about 7 inches tall. The 30 inch by 36 inch wall hanging came back from the quilters and I hope to have it ready for some shows this year.Why I did not quilt it? I have a lot of problems with my back and shoulders, so I can spend a limited amount of time on this kind of work. Since I love applique I decided to specialize in that and get the hand quilting done. Not a perfect solution, but it is the best I can come up with.

Be careful what you wish for

No pictures today. I have some problems with my camera and I will need help before I can post some more pictures. Two weeks ago I wished that the rain would go away and that we would get more snow. Last night and this morning my wish came true, but not the way I wanted it. This was the day I had a workshop for my guild with 20 people signed up. Last night the hydro was of for over 2 hours, always a bad sign. This morning the wind was howling around the house. When my husband came back from doing chores in a barn up the road he mentioned that the visability was very bad, so I made the decision to cancel, the first time I have had to do that. Later in the day the winds quieted down. I did make it to the workshop on Saturday. The roads were icy, but as long as you took the time, it was fine. I think that we had a good day. I did get things done at home. I drew 6 flying cranes around the top of the quilt, each with about 65 to 80 pieces. One larger standing crane will be in the right bottom corner and 3 more small ones, standing in water, will be around the border at the bottom.If I get one done a week I might finish it by the end of April.

why now

After complaining about the lack of snow, things changed yesterday. In the morning enough snow came dow to make things difficult. And just on the day I was scheduled to give 2 trunk shows for my own guild! I left early and made it in lots of time. The afternoon was well attended despite the weather. Supper in between the meetings was great. There were less people in the evening. When everythings was packed back in the car, I phoned home. When I was told that " it was not too bad at times" I decided to stay overnight in town.I'm not as adventurous as I used to be. This morning the drive was much easier, although I did see one car upside down in the ditch. The hall where our guild has the meetings has 2 levels with a railing in between. This works very well for displaying quilts. It is not often that I get to see most of my quilts all at the same time. Now I have to get ready for 2 workshops, one Saturday and one next Wednesday. It looks like the weather will co-operate at least for the next few days. I'm still trying to get some machine quilting in, but I cannot see much improvement.

Getting ready

Not a good day. First of all, this is Ontario, Canada in January. We are used to having lots of snow, not the rain we have right now. The snowmobile is sitting in the shed, all ready with no place to go. A visit to the dentist did not help either. But I did manage to finish most of the left side of my wall hanging. The plans I had for the rest do not seem right anymore, so it is back to paper and pencil. But I have to get ready for my first trunkshow of this year and it will be right at my own guild. This will be different. Usually hardly anybody knows you, this time I have known a lot of members for a long time. I became a member of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild (www.wcquiltersguild.on.ca) about 10 years ago. I had made a few quilts,including my first album quilt, but only knew of one quilt store and knew no other quilters, except my mother-in-law. I had never heard of a guild.It took a while to get in, because at that time there was a waiting list. It well certainly was worth the wait. My eyes opened when I saw all the beautiful quilts. I was so scared that I kept my quilt, my first Album quilt in a pillow case under my chair. I did show it after some prodding. Joining the guild was one of the best things I have done. Interesting speakers, an amazing show and tell and lots of friendly people. And I received a lot of encouragement. If it would not have been for some of my guild friends, I would never have entered my quilts nationally or all the way to Houston. And ....if I ask for advise I will get it. So next Wednesday it will be to Waterloo for a trunkshow in the afternoon and one in the evening. Then 3 workshops in the following weeks, all for the guild.

Work in progress

This week I have been busy with machine quilting and applique. The one goes better than the other. Every morning I try and do some machine work, but my shoulders and back are complaining mightily. The machine is set up just right, I have lots of light, maybe the chair is not right.I'm working on 24 inch blocks with a different design in each corner. Once the blocks are done,they will be sewn together.So I will struggle onwards! The applique is going much better. For now the applique in the center of my crane quilt is finished. Maybe when it comes all together it will need some more. Right now I'm working on the left side. It will be bamboo. The stalks are done with sashiko and now I have to applique the leaves. In case you wonder what the white circles in the top are, they will be reverse appliqued with the same fabric as in the center and then over top of that I will applique flying cranes in different poses. I have not decided what to do on the other sides yet, but I have some ideas.

Sewing machine

Today I bit the bullet and bought another sewing machine. All my life I have had problems with my back and more recently my shoulders. Hand quilting is not possible anymore and hand applique very hard at times. I have done some machine quilting over the last few years. That also is not easy, but by spacing myself I do manage. Though I love my sewing machine, a Husquevarna, I find that there is not enough room for machine quilting. After some research I decided to buy a Janome 6500, which has 9 inches of room from needle to machine. It is still in the box. Tomorrow I will take the Christmas tree down,( a little early this year), clean the room and install the machine right in front of a window. Than the trick will be to find out how much I can do without getting into trouble. I have enough practice tops ready to last me a long time. I also have to get back to my hand applique!

Last minute

Two days ago I found out, that we will have en extra guest for Christmas. I decided to make a pillow from things I had on hand. The weather is snowy and stormy, so I rather not drive into town. I found a 6 inch square with a crane done in sashiko, left over from another project.Also found Japanese fabric with cranes on it. To set it of I used a strip of dark blue and finished with another patterned Japanese piece. I hope she will like it. This will be it till Christmas time. We will have guests overnight, so that means that I have to move the quilts from the guest bed to a table in my sewing room. I store all my larger quilts on the bed, so they will not get creases. Works well, except when guests arrive. After the holidays I will go back to my "crane" quilt. The center is almost ready and will be put in an oval shape. What I will do after that I have not decided yet, but there will be more cranes, bamboo and cherry blossoms, maybe some koi.

greenery day

I did get my landscape finished. I will not quilt it, so it will fit in my portfolio with the other ones. This way it is easier to take to workshops and trunk shows. I only used, beside the sky fabric, 5 fabrics , not including the small pieces for the roofs. These I found in a bag with scraps, that I received from my friend Melissa. There were 3 snips, just enough. Today was our yearly "greenery day" A few days ago I went around the farm and collected pine, cedar, boxwood and whatever else I could find. My husband was kind enough to clean up the ( heated) workshop.Today my friend Carol came over and we made Christmas designs with no worry about making a mess.All we have to do after we are done,is get a broom and sweep the mess into the loader of the tractor! I like to make as many designs as I can and most will be given away. This year I even got an order from my son!