Interesting Times

When I started this blog, it was to laugh at myself while I learned to do long arm quilting.  Well, I do still laugh at myself but not as much.  I have learned so much.  Thanks to the internet, pictures on Pinterest and videos on You Tube I have had a huge classroom.  And most of all I have had people have confidence that I will do a good job on their very precious quilt.

This does not mean that I have stopped learning.  Learning is a life time objective  but I have come a long way.  I do my quilting hand guided with a stitch regulator.   I have a robot but prefer the more organic way things turn out. Excuse the organic.  It is a bit overused but it fits the bill.  I do use the robot for complex designs or designs I have created myself but I do not use it for overall quilting.  Also, I do not use it for appliqued quilts.  The computerized designs are beautiful but when you see quilt after quilt with exactly the same pattern perfect to a tee it gets a bit boring.  A squiggle here and there and a motif not absolutely positively in scale to the last one adds a human touch.  And I fully subscribe to Angela Walters philosophy.  If you are just starting out to do long arm quilting or quilting on a domestic machine, look up her YouTube Videos, subscribe to her blog posts.

I had the honour to quilt this quilt.  The owner has worked on the applique for 3 years.  Talk about the shakes starting on this one.  But it came alive as I worked.  The borders around each block were like picture frames.  All was helped by a second batting of wool.  It truly makes applique pop.  Here is the quilt.  Each applique block was quilted differently after the applique was outlined.

The owner kindly allowed me to post the picture.  I also took a picture while working on the quilt which shows the lovely detail of the applique. The fabric of the background was ideal for quilting around the blue to make the clouds puff out and look like a snowy day with patches of blue.

Isn't the applique gorgeous?.  Every block was beautiful.  

Quilting for others can be scary.  But it can be so rewarding when you a see the smile of pleasure you have wrought.

Other sources of designs, techniques is to go to Trunk Shows and Quilt Shows.  In the past 10 days I attended a Trunk Show by Karen Neary who is a Nova Scotia treasure who is well known across the North American continent and in Europe.  In a small village hall, she showed off beautiful quilts, talked about their creation and provided itineraries of where they had traveled to after being finished and before returning home.  It was a wonderful show. 

The week before I had seen a Trunk Show by Celeste Thibodeay Stacey a well known Art Quilter.  She too is from Nova Scotia.  There were gasps from the audience at the creativity displayed and the detail of her quilts.  Lucky me.  I have been a pupil on a couple of occasions.  

Then today I escaped to a Quilt Show in a little town called Centerville in Nova Scotia.  There were gorgeous quilts.  This show is put on by a group of women who meet regularly in a hall.  They are not a formal guild but they put on a beautiful show every year.  This year there were quilts that took your breath away.  And I came away with ideas of all kinds.  

All of this inspiration was seen within a 1.5 hour drive from my home.  Any surprise I took up quilting when I moved here.  

If you are not inclined to quilt just enjoy the many artists who do.  And in Nova Scotia we have a wealth of them.  We have those who design and create quilts; those who are artists at quilting them and true art quilters all of whom bring and share pleasure.  We are a little province, hanging into the Atlantic ocean but we are mighty quilters.

Where does time go?

Posting on my blog has been subjegated throught March.  If I ever try to think about the things that have taken me away from posting they seem like frittering away my time. But some of it was what I considered a mandatory down time for me after a health issue was discovered.  We all need them but not necessarily health triggered.  Changing your focus can allow your mind to resolve things that have been blocked.  Some time was spent working on a volunteer assignment which is proving to be quite time consuming and challenging but we need those just like we need down time.

I did a lot of quilting and piecing and handwork.  Of the 48 blocks required for a large quilt I want to enter into a show, 2/3rds of the work is done.  I put a picture of the block in a previous post.  The fabric colours have brightened up the dull days of March.  Assembly sewing is at time mind numbing but it is also a quiet time to listen to good music.  I finally have my computer hooked up to a BOSE speaker which can travel throughout the house and makes music resound as if in the concert hall.  My music collection, in boxes since I dismantled my old stereo, is back and brightens even the dullest day and the dullest sewing.  Listening to the opera on Saturday afternoons with full, vibrant sound is a pleasure.  Loved Madame Butterfly from New York last Saturday.  It was the first opera I went to in Rome.  Memories.  The Baths of Carracula; the Italian gentleman behind singing with the performers.  It made me an opera lover.

Some quilts for others have come and gone off the frame to homes where they will be cherished. So that is time spent creatively.

But happiest of all a quilt, for which the fabric was purchased probably before 2005 and the top made in 2008, is finally finished.  One thing I know is my piecing and applique skills are much improved.  The quilt was used as a display for hand quilting for two years at a local exhibition.  I really wanted to hand quilt it and when it came back to me I tried to finish the hand quilting already begun.  I did discover that when a quilt is used for this purpose, it has 'variable' stitching.  My own stitching was not as good as the best but most of all I cannot sit at a hand quilting frame without some physical discomfort.  So the quilt which had been stuffed in a bag was taken out and all the stitching removed.  Threads, threads, threads which the swishy tails of golden retrievers have a tendency to spread.  Everywhere!! After all the mess was removed, the quilt was put on the big frame and quilted by Hortense with a bit of help from hands. Thank goodness for talking books during the tear out process.  It was lovely to have the blues and yellows of summer to look at when the days were dull.  

I also tried a different border treatment after I had done so much straight stitching.  I made myself small 'rulers' out of large washers from the hardware store and used them to have random intersecting circles on the border.  It was an exercise in patience but adds some interest.  I would certainly incorporate it in future quilts when it is appropriate.

The quilt on the back of the bed with the hexagons is a damaged one I found which when time permits will become the headboard cover.  And behind is the 2nd quilt I did on a big stand up quilt frame.  The 1st was a disaster.  Enough said.  Learning happens through doing.

I mentioned handwork above.  This handwork is for an art quilt based on a challenge.  And it is a challenge.  When it is finally finished and given away, I will publish a picture.  The poem on which it is based is Emily Dickinson's poem.  'hope is a bird'.  Right now HOPE is important.  Hope my choices of design are right; hope my use of the fabric is right and hope that the ideas can be executed and hope the quilting will make the piece come alive.  Amazing what ideas come in the early morning hours as one listens to the quiet of the house, gentle dog snoring and snuffling as they chase squirrels in their dreams and kitties snuggle with soft purring.

Hope you like this quilt and thank you for reading my post.

Merry Christmas

An old fashioned greeting in these days of the commercial holiday.  It is a special time of families for some, friends for others and for some, being alone.  It is primarily a time of giving; not necessarily gifts from Santa but of giving of your time and yourself.

If you know of someone who might be alone or lonely tomorrow, please take some time to call or drop in.  You have no idea what good it can do.  And giving should take place all year.  This kind of giving is not expensive; no mall struggling crowds; no worry about the cost; just being kind to someone who needs it.

Light up your life tomorrow and all through the year.

My tree; none cut down; and no time dragging out decorations but lots of time enjoying the act of creating.  Lots of scraps of felt and fabric with beads and the lovely lights from a local bead store in Middleton, Nova Scotia. The embroideries are a pastime I have enjoyed for years.  My machine got a good work out the past weeks.  The fun is in design and creation.  They make great appliques.

Like everyone 'Yikes it is December already'

The month has begun with winds sweeping in overnight and freezing everything.  No dog walks early in the morning and a desire to stay inside until spring arrives.  In fairness, we have had a lovely fall but it is now definitely gone.  The roses still need to be hilled up and there are some leaves that might be more tidily placed.  Perhaps winter will recede for a day or two or maybe the sun will shine for several hours and make it feel warmer.

The bonus in winter is that there is more quilting time.  I have finished a quilt which was started so long ago.  A shop called Jillybeans Pride, which is no more, had a lovely quilt with Chinese symbols.  I was not a quilter at that time.  I occasionally took a class (very occasionally) when I needed a stress break from work.  This quilt was a block of the month and before I moved to my present home I had done 7.5 of the blocks.  I think there were 12 in total.  I had bitten off so much more than I could chew because the blocks are applique with several layers in each.  The backing fabric got lost in the move.  The backing fabric was found on line thanks to a store in Manitoba.  But the blocks hung around unfinished.  They got stained.  Finally I dug out some fabric from my stash, got the blocks that were presentable but not perfect and made a quilt.  It is very different from what the original one.

After making the quilt, piecing the back and letting them rest (aka UFOs) I quilted it.  I am truly pleased.  The machine clocked 20 hours of quilting time; just quilting.  Everything is hand guided long arm.  Here are some pictures.   I am glad I did not turf the stained blocks.  Now on to other projects.

Catch up

A couple of quilts finished this month and backs for 4 quilts made.  Making backs is like making a 2nd quilt sometimes but the result is worth it.  The sense of satisfaction as the quilts get closer to being completed is a good medicine in the depths of January.

I also took some time to play or if you prefer, practice this month.  Like with any skill or expertise, practice is necessary.  Oh, how easy and flowing quilting on a long arm looks on video.  But you are generally not on a video unless you have earned recognition and that takes practice.  But each time you watch videos, your mind latches onto something new that you know will help you.  A simple thing like saying to relax.  Of course if your shoulders are hunched and your hands in a death grip on the machine handles, your work will be jerky.  But when your mind is on getting going and of course making it perfect you forget that quilting is fun.  It is also nice to hear the presenter say that nothing is ever perfect.  You have to step back from the detail to look at the whole and then decide on your level of satisfaction with your work.  It is quite a different view from the stitching right under your nose from a quilt laid out or hung up and viewed from a much longer distance or through someone else's eyes.

This quilt I posted when it was being made.  Making a sampler from a panel is a lot of fun and I will be happy to do more.  Panels can be really colourful and detailed in ways piecing cannot especially with today's printing capabilies,so combined with some relatively simple pieced section it can make a nice wall hanging or lap quilt.

It is hard to hang quilts on the line in the winter especially when there is a skating rink between you and the line so here is the finished quilt draped on the sofa.  The cats look just as supercilious in the finished quilt as they did on the original panel but they have been enhanced with the stitching.  I picked up on the simple flower shape in the borders just as I did on the block of 3 flowers which were embroidered on a black background to fill in the last gap in the sampler.  Striped binding really adds to a quilt.  I try whenever possible to find a fabric that has movement in it to use as binding.  I was fortunate to have fabrics that coordinated in my stash but I do have another panel I purchased where I hit the fat quarter bin at the store and purchased coordinating fabric for the panel.  It is fun to quilt pictures as you get to make the pictures have more dimension.

Here is my resident supercilious cat but he is napping and has forgotten to be upright and proud. 

I drool over applique quilts that have masses of quilting with the applique sitting proud on the quilt.   So before I do another quilt which is all applique, I took a left over block and practiced.  The applique is not very good but I think was the first block I did in applique quite a long time ago.  This has languished in boxes and bags for several years.   I am not sure how much I like doing hand applique but I sure love the quilting. 

It is amazing how the quilting brings the applique to life.  So, I put on a binding and put this practice piece on the wall in my quilting room.  My hope is that it will serve to encourage me when I get my quilt with the applique  from the same series of blocks on the frame.  But now I think I will drool even more and might think about more applique in the future but probably more of the machine applique type.

I belong to a guild that has great teachers come to give classes, Mahone Bay Quilt Guild.  This fall, we had Sylvia Naylor a fibre artist , http://www.sylvianaylor.com/ who taught a class in embellishment.  She had fabulous ideas including using wonky tension to create thread elements in your art piece.  There were so many possibilities in thread, fabric, design, texture explored. 

I love sunrises and sunsets and in particular the sunrise on a summer morning when the sky is lit in beautiful colours as the ground remains still encased in the remains of night.  The light coming in flashes off the pots and pans and any reflective surface until my kitchen is alive with light.  So with the help of some bits of fabric, thread, surface elements, beads and netting I did this abstract to remind me of this beauty and what a wonderful start to the day it is.  Finally the mornings are now a bit lighter and there is a hint sometimes of pale colours in the early morning sky but nothing like in the middle of summer.  Welcome to my imagined summer mornings.  The reality is wonderful and I cannot wait until it returns. Unfortunately indoor light does not catch all the sparkle on this piece but outdoors is too cold and too icy for picture taking.  

Well there are couple of quilts with deadlines looming in my sewing room so time to be practical and constructive.  I hope you enjoy what I have posted.