part 2, photo's and machine applique

Finished the nephew's wedding quilt
still need to mail it to him...
I'll put the photo of that one on the side...
then was inspired by autumn in British Columbia (Canada)
to make a quilt for my son and his girlfriend for Christmas.
I chose 3 types of leaves from the book pictured...
Made simple outline drawings...
actually folded the paper in half and cut out the side I liked the best for symetrical leaves.
I went through my stash of fabric, scraps, FQ's, etc.
selecting all sorts of autumn colors...
I didn't use any color more than once.
Pinned the leaves to the background fabric,
I used a white on white print
mostly because I had a bunch of it-
and I thought the multiple colors would all go with it
without any problems.

I used a straight stitch in a matching thread
to baste the leaves to the background fabric
and then selected a zig zag to finish the sewing.
this is not the only way to machine applique
it is the method I used for this project...
the basting allows you to get rid of all the pins
so they're out of the way when zig zagging.
on curves...
I leave the needle down on the outside of the curve
and pivot the fabric a few stitches at a time...
it makes a smoother curved edge.
on a corner...
I have yet to find a better way than
stitching right to the edge,
leaving the needle down in the outside corner of the edge...
pivoting the fabric and continue zig zagging over the stitches.
I have seen other quilters narrow the zigzag going into the corner,
and widden it coming out of the corner.
But I haven't the patience for that on the quilts I make as gifts
for family members who don't really care about that stuff.
Maybe I'd try that method if I were going to enter a quilt show?
who knows?

I also found the cutest fabric in a remnant bin,
it was a bright green with pink and orange butterflies...
I just screamed at me to take it home and make a little girls quilt.
So I also picked up some pink and orange, and lighter greens for relief...
and then found a great flannel piece for the backing (mostly pink)
I just played around,
making several 9-patch blocks,
sewed a small 1" finished border around each square,
pink on some-orange on the others. used the butterfly print as the outside border...
fussy cut a few butterflies out of the small left over pieces,
and machine appliqued them down (same method as above)...
and wallah...
had a second quilt as a Christmas gift for Christmas.
It went to the same house as the autumn leaf quilt...
my sons girlfriend has a 3 1/2 year old daughter...
sooooooooooooooo,
watch the side for the photo's of the completed quilts...
1) the nephew's wedding quilt
2) the son's autumn leaf quilt
3) the little girls quilt

I'm ashamed to report,
that I didn't do very well on my quilty new years resolutions I set last year.
Too many things kept me sidetracked...
However the one I did follow through on,
was not buying lots of new fabric for my stash...
I only purchased fabric to complete projects.
Or rescued things from the thrift store/yard sales...
but I did try to keep that to a minimum.
the only thing I bought at a frabric shop without anything in mind...
Happened to be those pieces that called to me-
and were immediately made into that butterfly quilt for the little girl.
So I think I did pretty well there.

I think I'll roll those resolutions right on over for the new year...
now that my daughter is back at University (BYU-Provo)
1) back to my sewing room, yeah! and a bit of organizing there
2) get one of those kits I picked up in the past done and finished
-fortunately one is a small wall hanging- I think that's the one I'll do first
3) keep working on my traveling applique quilt
4) start that farmer's wife quilt I have been wanting to do
-I have finally decided that I really want to do it in 30's reproduction fabrics
5) I need to make a quilt for another son and his wife as a Christmas gift next year
6) keep working on using my stash, only making purchases to finish stuff
7) get one of my UFO's done

I think that's quite enough... we'll see if I do better this year than last
(Oh, and I still have to do the winter block for my calendar wall hanging cover...LOL)
FYI
FQ -means fat quarter's
UFO -means unfinished objects
LOL -means laugh out loud (when I put that in, I really am laughing at myself)
FYI -means for your information

Quilted Calendar Holder

Well,
the time just keeps moving on
doesn't it?
I don't know where it all goes.
Sometimes it surprizes me
that so much has passed.
I had not gotten much quilting done for a while,
but recently I was able to finish a couple of things.
I have finished the calendar holder...
whoopee!!
I use a tension rod
to hold it up between two door frames in my kitchen.
the calendar holder has added
a nice quilted touch to the kitchen.
I know that I've mentioned the
plan to have a different square for the 4 seasons.
the first is of course the spring season
with my humingbird square.
Also the inspiration for the entire project.
I have now finished the 2nd season
summer...
I did a lot of thinking about what summer means to me.
I could have done a simple picnic type thing...
you know
the watermellon, the kite flying, the running in the sprinklers.
Any of those would have looked summery.
But my most favorite memories of summers,
were the family camp outs in the mountains.
So I did a simple sketch of a tent in the woods.
You have to have a camp fire in the camp.
My grandson thought I needed to have water nearby
for fishing of course.
My granddaughter thought there should
be snow on the mountain tops.
And
we all thought
(grandson, granddaughter, and me)
that it needed to be night time under the stars.
I found this great tie dyed purple that
I thought looked like snowy mountain peaks in the dark.
the trees close by needed to be a little brighter in the firelight,
as did the front of the tent.
and there needed to be a reflection of the moon
on the calm lake in the background.
I used the same silver thread that I
used for the braces on the girl,
to make the french knot stars in the sky.
They sparkle just a little...
I used the sketch as an idea only,
and free cut the mountains
to fit the dyed purple fabric.
And did the same with the trees
and the flames in the fire.
which was another piece of tie died fabric I found in my scrap box.
The moon was done using a penny,
and a slip stitch drawing the fabric taut around it.
I pressed it well,
then clips the thread to remove the penny.
then I pressed it again.
The penny was a little thick for this proccess
-so it the moon is not exactly round,
that's my excuse
and I'm sticking to it.
I am quite pleased over all with how it turned out.
My granddaughter is already
planning out the next two squares
for autumn and winter.
I decided to sew three buttons across the top
of the calendar holder...
and 3 pieces of ribbon sewn into the binding
across the top of the square to hook over the three buttons.

photo inspiration quilt

Soooooo,
I finished lesson #3 in the art quilt workbook.
I have the authors names in the previous blog -so I'm referring to that one if anyone needs it for reference.
We were to use a photo for inspiration.
The book had used a photo of a boy,
and for some reason I thought I had to use a photo of a person.
I stressed over this for a long time.
I've never been able to draw people.
Even though we were told we could enlarge the picture and trace over it with tracing paper, it still stressed me out. I think it's a mental block I have. LOL.
(When I say LOL, I really am laughing here at my lap top.)
I finally decided to use one of my daughter at age 14.
Got the picture all drawn out for making the applique pattern;
and read through the lesson one more time before cutting out fabrics and such.
Why is it that this time I notice that I could have used any photo for inspiration, and that the photo of the boy was just an example? I could have saved myself a whole bunch of stress.
But, since I had this one ready to go, I went ahead and used it.
I am actually pleasantly surprized at how well it turned out.
My husband recognized our daughter and knew the specific photo, when I showed him the finished little quilt.
But I do have to say, that I am dissapointed at one thing that I hadn't thought of while planning out the pattern and fabrics for this little quilt.
A lesson learned the hard way so to speak.
That is - the shadowing of the underlaying fabrics through the lighter top layers of fabrics.
So I need to figure out now, how to avoid that in the future. I think there was a little paragraph about that in the lesson that I overlooked. I most likely thought,"Oh I won't worry about that, a little shadowing won't bother me..." I was wrong, it does bother me.
During this time, my daughter had wanted to dye her hair a really dark maroon. I actually did it for her at home using a temporary style coloring -one that washes out over time. I figured it was better than other things she might want to experiment with, and hair does grow out, and the temporary dye washes out. It wasn't a battle worth taking up, and fighting over. I do know that this attitude of mine surprized a lot of people. But once again, it wasn't something I thought was worth causing a rift in our relationship. Also, I am not a hair stylist or anything, but on doing the hair coloring with her I could have some control over the kind to use (temporary -wash out type). When I found that piece of fabric, it very much looked like her curly red hair... I was happy with that choice of fabric.
I've included the inspiration photo, as well as the photo of the little quilt.
Just one last little side note, I couldn't resist buying some silver thread and embroidering braces to complete the little quilt. Details like that really add a lot of fun. I think I was giggling the whole 10-15 minutes it took me to do the little bit of embroidery.

Nelson

I thought I'd share some photo's of Nelson, British Columbia,
and talk a little about the photo's and quilts already posted.

The bottom photo I believe is the Coke Quilt.
(It was made in 2002)
That was made out of liscenced Coca Cola fabrics,
(sorry don't know who made them.)
This quilt was made as a Christmas gift for my father-in-law.
He and his friend at the time collected Coca Cola Memorabilia.
They were thrilled with the gift.
Since they're not together anymore
I don't know who has custody of the quilt.

The next one up I believe is John's Quilt.
(It was made in 2003)
I hadn't intended it to look so western.
One of the fabrics in the quilt, has a golfing motif on it.
It was made for John's wedding.
He is my husbands cousin.

The Irish Chain Quilt...
(made also in 2003)
It was also made for a wedding gift.
When asked about colors the bride liked
I was told that she loved the dark reds...
I had always wanted to do a double Irish chain quilt,
thought this was the perfect oportunity.
Even though it comes across as a red and white quilt
the reds are very scrappy.
I used a lot of different reds in this quilt.
This one was for my niece Malissa.

Heather's Quilt
(made in 2000)
The year we moved from Boise, Idaho out to Nampa, Idaho.
I let my daughter Heather have some say in decorating her new room.
We went shopping to pick out fabrics,
She picked out a couple of great Japanese prints
I stirred her towards some lovely batiks for fillers...
I had to talk her into a couple of the pieces,
she was in love with many of the prints...
She tells me she still loves the quilt and wants it
when she's done with University and ready to set up house.

A side note...
I get things done quicker when there is a deadline
such as a birthday, wedding, Christmas, etc.
I tend to think I have plenty of time
and so take plenty of time
when I am doing things for me
or for fun- so to speak.

The new pictures added-
Current Projects...
Include the items I am working on here.
I did talk about them in a previous blog.
I did label the items.
A-is that book bag I was making- in conjunction with teaching my grand-daughter how to knit.
B-is that sweater I started-in which I was leaving out the bobbles.
C-a greatsock yarn, Wisdom Yarns "Chicago" color 232. It's 75% wool 25% polyamide
I picked it up here in Nelson at "That Craft Store"
address- 534 Josephine Street email- thatcraftstore@telus.net
to me the yarn has a denim look, I was thinking about making something for my grand-son
the brother to the one who's learning to knit. He's a bit envious of the time I'm spending with
his sister. Of course if I make the one something, the other will want something also.
So we shall have to see. The yarn has enough to make a pair of adult socks. So who knows.
D-is that cross stitch picture, but you can see there's not much done yet.
it's harder to work on in front of the TV. It needs more concentration, and I need a lot of
light to see the pattern correctly.
E-Some really great batik's I picked up at Shannon's Fabric's
tiny little fabric shop, but a great sellection of batik's. They're located at 562 Baker Street.
which happens to be the main down town street in Nelson. They didn't have an email address
listed.

I included photo's of the shops, both "Shannon's" and "That Craft Store."
The top photo is looking up Baker Street in Nelson.
The building on the corner was built in 1900.

This town was featured in two movies that I know of, maybe more.
One is "Roxanne" starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah.
The other is "Gold Diggers, The Secret of Bear Mountain"
with Anna Chlumsky and Christina Ricci.

I've decided to put aside some of the boxes for a while,
and get things cleaned up and organized a bit around here.
I am begining a project journal,
purchased a nice bound journal (black bound)
with grid pages, rather than lined (or blank)
and it has a ribbon for keeping your place.
I want to list every project I have going on,
and approximately when I started them
and be able to put a completion date in as well.
For instance, the quilt I'm making for a wedding gift,
a quilt I'm making for a Christmas present,
the cross stitch- projects I have going,
the knitting project's I have going.
(I probably have about a hundred started things)
the problem is where to begin with the list...
I don't know how I could possibly start with the oldes one,
because I may find an even older one somewhere...
meanwhile...
I'm taking off for my home in Canada for a week...
don't know that I'll be able to do anything till I get back.
My home is in Nelson, British Columbia...
one of the prettiest spots in the world.
By lake Kootenay, in the Selkirk mountains.
We weren't rich enough to afford lake front property,
but we can see it through the neighbors across the street from us.
We are below the Kokanee Glacier about 9miles outside of the town of Nelson.
Have made some really good friends there,
so I'm heading up there to see them
as well as winterize the house.
There are year round neighbors
who keep an eye out on things-
we hope to retire there and be year round residents one day.
We found the spot,
because my husband was born there in Nelson,
and still has a few relatives left there.
So maybe we are odd people,
but we dream of mountains and lakes
rather than sand and sun
as our ideal place for retirement...
I find it easier to bundle up than to find some way to cool down.

Thought it might be fun to keep an account of my escapades...
that is, my hoped for projects in crafting and quilting.
at this time, I am going through boxes that have been waiting 6 years
(yes I really mean 6 years) to be sorted out.
They're full of crafting and quilting projects and materials.
I long to have a sewing/craft room in my home,
but the rooms get filled as soon as they get empty.
One kid leaves and another needs to come back.
What am I to do, let my grandchildren live in a cardboard box under a bridge?
I don't think so...not when I really do have space for them to come home for a short time.
I have found several projects I want to finish, several I want to start,
and a bunch of things I will probably sell on ebay.
as things get going, projects and ideas for projects, maybe eventually the sewing room,
I hope to post pictures. If people want to follow my blog, great...If not, it's theraputic for me.
meanwhile, I also spend a lot of time traveling, and will post thoughts and info about that.