Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Learning from old quilt books

Hi, welcome to the first day of the Blog Hop, "Dust off a Quilt Book". This event is hosted by Beaquilter. Thanks Bea for organising this fun blog hop, and for Frédérique for offering to make it a linking party!

Trying out a new technique

It took me over a month to decide what book and what project to do - and even then, it didn't turn out as planned. I sure did learn a lot 😊. When I was in University, a few years ago (lol), I had a poster that said: "Experience is what you get, when you didn't get what you wanted" So, this project was an Experience! This post is about how I got there.

Update: As the piece was on my wall, it finally came to me what I could do to actually like it! Here is the final version. More below.

The Light Beyond

Light (before the change)

The books

I really wanted to choose an OLD book and rummaged through my mother's quilting magazines and books. I knew that I didn't want to make anything traditional - so there were few options. I did find Missy Powell's Art Deco Quilt - a king size quilt that Missy made in 3 DAYS!

Art Deco Quilt made by Missy Powell

Quilt World August 1984
Front Cover - Missy Powell working on
a traditional quilt

The Art of Manipulating Fabric by
Colette Wolff

I had a difficult time understanding the instructions, so I found this technique in another relatively old book: The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff (1996). It's an excellent book and I found what I was looking for under Filled Reliefs - Stuffing - Connected Rolls.

The fabrics and the plan

My artist friend, Elaine Quehl gave me a huge bag of her hand-dyed fabric scraps. As you can imagine, the day I got these I felt like a kid, playing, looking and touching all of this fine fabric. Elaine use to bring these fabrics to her classes for students to use, so there were bigger and smaller pieces. Yum! 😊

This is the colour palette that I chose when I started the project. The plan was to make rolls in some kind of gradation.

Original colour palette

Giving up after making 10 connected rolls

As you can see, I started with darker fabrics and was going to make my way to lighter ones when I decided that making connected rolls was not my idea of fun!!!

Alternate idea

So now what? Well, it sort of looked like a sky. Should I make a sun set or maybe some northern lights? I decided that the northern lights would be great on this background. At this point, I really should have started looking a photos of northern lights, but I didn't 😞. I started playing around with some fabric that I thought would look like the northern lights.

From this picture, you can see how the idea evolved. I started off with wisps of fabric, sewed them down and then, on the other side, covered them with my hand-dyed silk organza....one wisp at a time! The bottom two rolls in this image was part of my original plan, to go from the dark to the lighter colours.

Not sea weed but lights 😞

When I got to covering the second set of wispy fabrics, I just covered the whole area with the organza.

No longer looking like sea weed but
not really northern lights...

This is where I was when my son and his girlfriend, Sarah, came for supper Sunday evening. I told them about my project and asked them to see if they had any ideas. They both agreed that it didn't really look like northern lights. When I told her that one way or another I would finish it, and probably just cut it up later to make something else, Sarah suggested that I might want to cut it up now and re-arrange it.

Before cutting it up, I cropped the photo into two and put it back together in PowerPoint (I don't have any fancy software, but it did the trick). I wasn't sure that it would work, but at this point, I had nothing to loose.

Re-arranging the puzzle

I played with it like a puzzle. This was what we had originally thought - not so great.

First try

Then I turned them upside down. I wasn't thrilled but this was the best that I could do. I did look at some images of the northern lights and this was starting to resemble them...a little bit.

Turning the pieces upside down

So that was my new technique experience! It's not at all what I envisioned but it's done. I added borders and attached it to a 14" x 11" canvas.

Previous version of "Light"

I am rarely really disappointed in a piece - but I really didn't like this one. As I was looking at it today (the day of the post being published), for some reason I got a flash of insight - "beyond the vail". For me, that's how my intuition and my creativity works. I don't always listen...but this time I did, and I'm very happy with the final result.

The Light Beyond

My curtain of sari silk strands are perfect for creating an aura of mystery to the lights behind it. I hope that you like this version better. I know that I do!

What I learned

This was an interesting experience! It would have helped a lot if I had looked at images of northern lights before starting to play with wisps of fabric.😊
It was a great exercise in problem solving. It wasn't a piece that I even liked but I am glad that I persevered. The irony is that I didn't plan enough for this project, but the other project that I was going to do, a sewing machine cover, was planned so much that I didn't feel like making it.
There is a lot to be learned about undertaking a project when I'm not in a good place - I couldn't make up my mind, and my decision making skills were far from optimal.
It is amazing fabric and I am very grateful to Elaine for giving them to me.
I'm so glad that my intuition came to me...and not too long after the posting of this blog post. I'm leaving you in a much happier state.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

A true polar bear story

Hi! Welcome to my post of the Polar Bear Plunge Blog Hop. Many thanks to CalicoJoan of MooseStash Quilting for organising this wonderful event. When I saw the theme, I had to participate....not sure why but I was really drawn to it...and then I found this. So, let me tell you a true story 😊

An unexpected visitor

Castaway of the North (1930's)

This was in May, in the 1930's. The Collin family lived in a village across from the islands of the Mingan Archipelago National Park Preserve (off the North Shore of Québec).

Map of Eastern Canada with the North Shore of Québec.
The red dot is roughly the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve.

Mrs. Collin was the village's telegraph operator. That night, she received a telegraph. After reading it, she goes up to wake her husband. While she tells her husband that the lighthouse keeper, Mr. Vigneau, has spotted a polar bear, their teenage son John wakes his brother Gerard. Intrigued, the boys decide that they will be the first to see this polar bear.

Travelling by ice flow

Although very unusual, there are sometimes sightings of animals that have drifted down on ice flows from the North.

While Mr. Collin and Mr. Vigneau are assembling a group of men, the boys take their own boat and head to the island illuminated by the lighthouse. Ashore, they see the polar bear's footprints deep in the snow. These end at the edge of the water. The bear is gone, having swum to the next island.

The boys head back to their boat and make their way there. After landing on the island, they hear heavy breathing. As they look, they can see the air coming from the large polar bear's muzzle. At that moment, the bear's eyes stare directly at them. After a moment, the bear turns away and dives back into the water.

Polar bear sighting

To read a more detailed version of this story, "The Castaway of the North - A true story", see Related links below.

The making of the art quilt

I don't have many pictures of the making of this art quilt. I did start by tracing images of polar bears on tracing paper...and then time passed. I had no idea what I was going to do with these images, but as it got closer to the date, I knew that it would have to be relatively simple.

At work, on the Parks Canada intranet, I looked up polar bear. I thought that I would find all kinds of scientific facts....but ended up reading "The Castaway of the North - A true story". I knew that it would make a simple but interesting story.

I found all the fabric in a bag of scraps of hand-dyed fabric given to me by a friend. The background blue and the light gray were perfect. I knew that I wanted a boat on the edge of the island and a lighthouse.

The polar bear and the lighthouse

As you may know, I've been taking some really great workshops with TextileArtists.org. Many of them include working with paper, so I thought that I would give this a try. The map is actually a piece of brown wrapping paper. I traced the map from the internet and then transferred it to the brown paper by roughly cutting out the tracing and marking the outline on the brown paper. I then coloured it using wax crayons...that was fun 😊 and I mostly coloured within the lines! Once the map was coloured I scrunched it up to make it more pliable. I covered it with clear silk organza and stitched it down. It was really great to work with. To finish it off, I found some perfect yard to couch down around it.

I cut out the gray foreground and added the boat. For the polar bear, I started by FMQ over the tracing paper. The picture was good, but on top of the gray fabric it barely showed up. So I added a layer of sheer white fabric and some batting over the first free motion quilted bear and then re-did the FMQ from the back, following the first outline. I then cut around the fabric and batting. It came out really well. I used black thread to embroider the eyes, nose, and ears.

The image of the lighthouse comes from a postcard of Eastern Canada. I just free motion quilted it on, once I had backed the entire piece with batting and backing.

Creating the foreground with the boat and bear

It was then time to add the facing. Instead of buying specialty clips, I use paper clips. Everyone always has tons of those!

Adding facing to the piece

What I learned

The story was posted on the Parks Canada intranet site. I didn't want to break any rules but then I found the story posted on the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve's Facebook page. The link is in Related links if you want more interesting details.
The story captured my imagination. It incredible that a polar bear should travel so far south on an ice flow, and I can just imagine those teenagers thinking that it would be so cool to see it.
I wanted to experiment with something different on this piece - so the paper map and the image from the postcard seemed right. Since I've been collecting postcards forever, it will be great to incorporate them in art pieces and let parts of them live on.
I am giving this to a colleague who is retiring shortly from Parks Canada. I know that she will appreciate it as she goes on to the next part of her life.

Related links

Repost of the story on the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve: The Castaway of the North - A true story
Terry Aske Art Quilt Studio: My NEW favorite quilt facing technique
CalicoJoan's announcement of the Polar Bear Plunge Blog Hop

Linking parties

I will be linking this post up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of them out? Monday Making, Midweek Makers, Oh Scrap!, Put Your Foot Down, Off the Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, Peacock Party,

Participants:

Monday January 24

Creatin' in the Sticks

Samelias Mum

Purring Cottage

Patchouli Moon Studio

Scrapdash

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Tuesday January 25

Just Let Me Quilt

Beaquilter

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Wednesday January 26

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Hazel’s Daughter

Words & Stitches

Kathleen McMusing

Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! 😊You are here!

Quilted Delights

Thursday January 27

Friday January 28

Project details

Castaway of the North

10½" x 9"

Materials: hand-dyed fabric, silk organza, brown wrapping paper, postcard, commercial fabric

Techniques: drawing, colouring, free motion quilting (FMQ), embroidery

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Fairy Tales Blog Hop

Thanks so much Joan for organising this blog hop, and I'm so sorry for being late to the party. 😒

Garden Fairy

Here is Rose, my Garden Fairy.

Rose lives in my back garden

I am very privileged that Rose lives in my back garden. She loves flowers of all kinds.

She's not always easy to spot but she did stand still for a few pictures. She loves flowers but her favourites are the pink and mauve ones. She can find some of these all summer long in different parts of the garden.

Rose loves pink and mauve flowers

Rose visiting the bird feeder

Rose let me create this piece. It's mostly raw edge appliqué over some fun pink tulle with dots! I FMQ the appliqué and then hand-stitched and embroidered three of the edges. Since she loves all things translucent, that's what I used. There are even small white seed beads.

Rose, my Garden Fairy

I'm so glad that you were able to meet Rose. She is looking forward to seeing the other posts in the Blog Hop and hopes to meet other fairies 😊

What I learned

Even if a piece is done, it doesn't mean that the blog post has been written!
A quilting calendar is only useful if you actually check it!
I had a great time creating this piece - Rose was thrilled to have an art quilt made about her.
I did add any batting to this piece, so it's not technically a quilt. It just didn't seem to require it, especially since the tulle was only stitched where other pieces are over it, so it adds shadow and a third dimension to the piece.
I didn't want to bind it so I started by adding the ribbon on the right and from there just lace and embroidery stitches.

Linking parties

I'll be linking this post to many fun linking parties. Check them out as well as the other participants of the blog hop listed below. Free Motion Mavericks with Muv, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Midweek Makers, Put Your Foot Down,

Here is the list of participants. I will update the week's links as the party continues. Thanks again Carole for organising this fun event.

Monday June 21

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Samelia’s Mum

Kathleen McMusing

Becky’s Adventurers in Quilting and Travel

Tuesday June 22

Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! (you are here!)

Sewing Up My Fabric

Selina Quilts

Wednesday June 23

Just Let Me Quilt

Websterquilt

Inflorescence

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Thursday June 24

Patchouli Moon Studio

Days Filled With Joy

Goofin' Off Around the Block

Friday June 25

Thursday, December 31, 2020

What I learned in 2020

I suspect that everyone has been feeling a little off balance this year. I went from periods of incredible productivity to periods of total lethargy. Sometimes these periods lasted weeks and sometimes it was all within a few days or hours.

Without consciously choosing it, my word of the year for 2020 was Frenzy!

What I learned in 2020

The year started as every other year. I had been working from home since the beginning of December 2019, but had no idea at the time that in a few months everyone else would be doing the same!

Small Projects

This year was dominated by smaller projects. Some were quick, like most of the Project Quilting pieces, the journal covers and some of the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club 2020 projects.

Making Stitcher's Journals

Working with translucent fabrics

I'm happy to say that I used my agenda and extended it to 2021. It's so useful to have one place to put all of my quilting and blogging plans and dates.

FMQ agenda cover

Quilting and blogging agenda

Of course having an agenda is not the same as actually looking at it 😊 as I learned yesterday morning - I was sure that the 2021 - My Stitching Resolution was on December 31st....well it was not 😔 and I was late to the party. That was very typical of my year, so why should it change now?

Major Projects

With all of the small projects going on, I have to say that my major projects this year were rather small, and most of them not finished. I did finish my Exit Strategy 1. It was supposed to be the first of a series but I wouldn't put any money on it! There are just too many squirrels in my life and my attention span is very short right now.

Exit Strategy was finished in 2020

For my 350th post, I blogged about starting to piece my son's quilt. This is an ongoing project that is not quite done. My One Monthly Goal (OMG) for December was to finish the quilt top but that won't happen. I am happy to report that I'm not that far off.

Here's a bit of an update as of December 28th.

The parts that are outlined in red
have been re-done

Blue print of the quilt re-do

As you can see, I spent a lot of hours working on this project during the holiday season. Chevy was, as always, hanging around. She slept through all that was going on at the cutting table.

Chevy can sleep anywhere

I took out my large cutting mat
to work on this project

I'm really hoping to post the completed quilt top by mid-January. I'm going for my third round of making this my One Monthly Goal - my January OMG is a finished quilt top!

In May I started working on the Pinwheels and Stars baby quilt during Free Motion Mavericks. I think that working consistently on one project brought some needed stability to my ~~quilting~~ life. Of course now I'm at a part that I can't just fudge my way through, so it may take a little while to get back into it.

A new studio

My pride and joy this year is my new art studio. I am so grateful to have this place to play.

We all love the new space

What I learned

I'm quite happy to say that I reached my blogging goal, which was to write at least as many posts as last year. This is the last one, taking me to 68 for both 2019 and 2020!
This post has been about what I learned, but here is my take-away:

It's been a difficult year for everyone. I realise more than ever that self-care is important. You can't take care of others if you are not well yourself. I am physically fine but I will need to spend more time in 2021 taking care of my mental health.

Calm is my 2021 word of the year.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

2021 - My Stitching Resolution

My first resolution is to try to keep up with the dates in my calendar - sorry I'm late to the party Carla 😔

2021 Stitching Resolutions and Plans

Last year was incredibly hectic learning and stitching wise. If I resolve to keep it easier, will that really happen? I'm not convinced but here goes!

Long Promised Quilts

There were on my PHD list of UFOs to finish for 2020. This year only 2 long awaited quilts are on my list. First is my son's version 2.0 of the quilt that my mother made him, while the other is my daughter's Paddington Bear quilt.

Version 2.0 of Loved-To-Death quilt

Version 1.0 to be remade

I haven't done anything to my daughter's Paddington Bear quilt other than think about it. It's going to be modern but otherwise, it's still a pretty blank slate.

One Paddington Bear quilt
coming up this year!

Paddington Bear mini

Slow Stitching, Art Quilts, Dyeing and Surface Design

I suspect that I will be spending most of my time learning new things and practicing my slow stitching and making more mini art quilts and samplers. I have a few projects that I started this year that I would like to finish, such as my Traveller's Blanket which is made up of hexies and meditation stitching blocks. I've even been practicing some new embroidery and Sashiko stitching on it. I've been adding Sashiko stitches to my new Stitcher's Journal. I'm sure that I will get caught up in all of this and more with the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club.

Traveller's Blanket - lots of progress
made since this image was taken

Practicing my Sashiko stitching

Free Motion Quilting and Free Motion Mavericks

I'm hoping to keep it simple this year. I have a Pinwheels & Star baby quilt to finish FMQ.

An out-of-this-world FMQ centre for the baby quilt

A big space to fill!

I'm also hoping to FMQ both my son's and eventually my daughter's quilts in 2021. I'll be sharing these projects every fortnight during Free Motion Mavericks' linking parties.

What I learned

I was too ambitious last year. I suppose if I had not added the 12 UFOs to the PHD in 2020 it might at least have looked more reasonable!
You may have noticed that I didn't add any blog hops and other events on my list. I will try to participate in Project Quilting again this year but only on the weeks that excite me. I'm not committing to anything right now!