Placemat Extravaganza!

I’ve been working on a lot of various projects these days, but finishing very little. I don’t really care since there aren’t deadlines looming, but if I don’t finish something, there’s very little to blog!
Last night I finished two sets of placemats for my brother, sister-in-law and family. There’s not really a deadline, but since they’re moving away for a couple of years, I guess there is a deadline unless I want to mail them to Denmark.

Both sets are variations of the same pattern - "Take Four" by Cary Flanagan. The top one has 3 side strips while the one below only has 2. It’s a great pattern that only requires 4 fat quarters, plus of course, the batting and the backing.




These placemats had smaller, move even strips, so I quilted them by using a decorative stitch between each fabric.



These placemats are quite a bit larger.  They also have 2 wider strips on the bottom that I had to quilt.

I made some loops for a couple of the fabrics; quilted in grids for the darker fabric; and even quilted a couple of oak leaves with acorns on one of the placemats. It’s a great way to practice my machine quilting.

I'll miss my brother and his family. These will be a great reminder of home.

Learning to Bead for “Walking with our Sisters collective art project”

I’m learning to bead. This will be quilting related – one day. Ultimately, I’d love to create quilts with intricate beading in them. How cool would that be!

Several hundred people and I are beading as part of the “Walking with our Sisters collective art project”.  Here’s a description of the project:

"600+ moccasin tops are being created by hundreds of caring and concerned people to create one large collaborative art piece that will be installed for the public in various galleries and sites across Canada. They will be installed in a winding path of beaded vamps on cloth over a gallery floor. Viewers would need to remove their shoes to walk over the cloth and walk along the path.

An audio recording of traditional honour songs and grieving songs is also being recorded as a non-commercial CD that will be the audio portion of the installation.

This project is about these women, paying respect to their lives and existence on this earth. They are not forgotten. They are sisters, mothers, daughters, cousins, aunties, grandmothers, friends and wives. They have been cared for, they have been loved, and they are missing."

Practice Piece - Beaded Moccasin Vamp

The artist leading the project is Christie Belcourt.  Check out her website.

View examples of moccasin vamps (tops) that have already been prepared. They are amazing to see. 

A few women who work in the same complex are meeting every Friday during lunch time to bead. There are a few artists in the group who had never beaded. Wow. It`s awesome to see talented people create - even in a medium not their own.

Here’s my practice moccasin vamp. We were told to use a design that meant a lot to us or our culture...so of course, my design is a quilt block.

I’m glad that I create a practice piece because I learned that:

• it’s true that you shouldn’t cram too many beads together (a little space is good);
• if you cram those beads in, it’ll make your straight lines go wonky; and
• as with anything else, you really do improve with practice. 

Now I have one month to make the two “real” vamps.

Eggo Inspired Quilt

Breaking it up in a percentage of colours

Eggo box-top

The Common Thread Quilt Guild's challenge this year was to use a box-top as inspiration to create a quilt. We had to use every colour found on the box-top.  My randomly picked box-top was from a package of Eggo Waffles. Aren’t those amazing colours? There’s even a couple of blueberries and a raspberry to go with the yellow, red, oranges, white and brown.


Quilted details



I calculated roughly the percentages  of each colour and came up with this lap quilt.

Since I also want to learn to machine quilt, it was the perfect project to practice on.  I don’t have a machine that does free-motion but I got to practice my “sewing in the ditch” several dozen times. By the end, it was getting pretty good.  I also tried to get fancy and machine-quilted a couple of flowers.  It wasn’t too difficult to do on a practice piece, but then there’s a whole quilt that needs to be rotated under the sewing machine...well, that’s another matter. So the rest of the strips got wavy lines!

 

Eggo Inspired Quilt



I've linked up to Sarah Goer's Show Me Something Orange linking party.

Learning to Paper Piece



Paper piecing - the back

I recently had the opportunity to try my hand at paper piecing as part of a group project.  For those of us who had little or no paper piecing experience, we got to do the easiest pieces. It will eventually be a double wedding ring in blues and white.  I’m sure the final result will be incredible.

Final result

What a learning experience!  I enjoyed how the process was similar to making a puzzle. The only really difficult part was remembering to think backwards in 3D!  I’m not usually that careful or worried about matching things, which unfortunately usually shows. Paper piecing really does give very precise results.

I suspect that as a beginner, paper piecing a double wedding ring is probably not recommended. I hope that eventually I’ll find an easy project to paper piece, or an easy class to take.

Update: August 1, 2013

The bride-to-be receives her gift

Our quilting group had a picnic and gave the bride-to-be her quilt. Isn't it wonderful?

Christmas is finally over

I did a crazy thing this Christmas.  I attempted to make 3 Christmas runners as gifts.

Close up of the runner

As you can guess from the "attempted", only 2 were done by Christmas...so Christmas was finally over last week when I finished and delivered the third runner. Of course, I was sewing the binding in the car on the way....it's a good thing that our friends live about 45 minutes away. I almost finished it before I got there!

Of course, in my rush to get the other two delivered before Christmas, I forgot to take pictures. Oh well, maybe my friends will take pictures of them next Christmas! They had snowmen on them!


Since I'm on the subject of Christmas, here are a couple of small wall hangings that I completed.

Scrappy Christmas Wall Hanging 2

Scrappy Christmas Wall Hanging 1

These are made based on Rayna Gillman's book, Create your own free-form quilts - a stress-free journey to original design.

Christmas tree skirt

The last two pictures are older Christmas projects that I finally photographed. The one on the left is my Christmas tree skirt,  Honestly, when I put up the tree this year, I thought I might have made a skirt... I'm just glad that I found it! The project on the right is my first ever Christmas runner.  I've gotten a lot of mileage from this pattern.

My First Christmas Runner

Remembering Jeannette (1915-2013)

Two weeks ago my grandmother, Jeannette Belanger, passed away at the age of 98! It wasn't a sad affair since she had lived a good, long life and wasn't really having anymore fun.


She particularly loved flowers, playing cards, good food and being active.  There were many funny stories.  As one of her grand kids said, "she was a card shark"! She did love to win! She wasn't impressed with my card playing since I couldn't count fast enough (still can't).

Flower Applique

In her last few years in the home, I did what I do best - I made her a few small quilts.  Nothing fancy but since she loved flowers, it wasn't very difficult.

Memere, as she was known to her many grandchildren and great-grand children was generous and loved to laugh.  We all, in our own ways, said goodbye.  It invariably included a few drinks and food in her honour. 

Wheelchair Quilt

We will miss her but she's having a much better time on the other side.

Crazy Nine Patch

Watch over us, Memere.


Nous t'aimons.  Tous tes enfants

Finishing Quilts!

Fall is almost over.  I've been in the mood to finish things. I've almost finished piecing that Quilt-Along quilt  - there's just the border to do. But since I want to make a piano keys border, it'll have to wait until after Christmas.

Alexandre's Quilt

I did get two quilts completed.  This colourful quilt is for Alexandre. I sure hope he likes it!

Kai's Tiger Quilt

This tiger beauty is for Kai. He loves tigers.  I hope that they will keep him warm and comfy.