My New Addiction!

So since I didn't buy fabric yesterday.....I made some!!  Well I didn't exactly make it but I did dye it.  This is my attempt at triad dying....using fuchsia, turquise, yellow in different ratios.  My favorite fabric turned out to be the one i goofed on!!  So maybe just experimenting is the way to go.

Here are the first two fabrics I dyed two weeks ago...still trying to figure out why I'm getting white spots?

Here is my 'whoops' fabric on the left below and I redyed the navy fabric seen above with more turquoise to darken the white spots

Black, Red and White

There is something so striking about a black, red and white quilt.  The real head scratcher is what color of thread do you use??  When in doubt go with the color that blends in the best, in this case black was the winner ( dark sashing dark thread).   I have just pieced my own black, red and white quilt but the sashing is white so will probably go with white thread on that one. 

I originally planned to use a really nice music themed panto but it just looked like scribbles on the border so I stopped. After looking at all my pantos I realized that my tried and true Fasination panto would be perfect. It always adds the right texture and movement to a quilt.

So there is a quick end to my fabric venture story.   Lori and I headed down to The Pas today to see the fabric and talk deals with the manager.   I was pleasently surprised at how many fabric I liked and how well they would be for backing but once it came down to the numbers it just wasn't feasible for me to purchase it.  They only have their fabric on sale for 25% off.....seems kind of odd if you trying to clear it out.  Anyway I feel good I stuck to my plan.....I was only going to buy at a certain price and that just wasn't going to happen so....NO DEAL!  

I still need backings for my quilts thought.......so i have another idea!

Irish Chain and a Possible New Venture.

This quilt was so nice to work on, I absolutely love this colors my client chose and got to quilt some of my favorite designs. I really need to make an Irish Chain quilt one day, its on my 'to do' list.

I basically took last week off and am glad I can now focus on my quilting again.  Quilting can be very theraputic and relaxing but when your can't concentrate on what your doing it is best to stay away from the machine.  I listened to that little voice, see I'm learning.

So part of my morning was spent picking out stitches on a quilt because I realized that the panto I special ordered for a clients quilt didn't really suit it.  Okay that and maybe the fact I am really distracted by new potential venture.  Yesterday I got a call from a hardware store in The Pas (a town 140km away) and they wanted to know if I would be interested in buying their fabric .....all or some of there fabric stock.  They can no longer carry it in the store..as of yesterday in a sense.  The store manager really fought to keep it for the last year but upper management have now made it impossible for her to offer fabric for her customers and she wants it to stay in our area.  Our town has no fabric shop so you can see my reasons for even considering something that I said I would never do.  What to do?   My hubby is 100% supportive and I am pretty sure the local quilters would support this too.....RIGHT?????? ( I'm hoping for some comments here). The next step is to go down there and see the fabric they have.   I know the more I take the better the deal.  But I also know that if they want too much for it I can walk away.  I honestly never really wanted to sell fabric but have considered just carrying some bolts of wide backing fabric.  I also realized that shopping online whenever I need a fabric is a pain in the butt! 

So I think it will have to be a really good deal for me to take on this venture... 300 bolts of fabric is a lot to store in my house!! Am I crazy?

 

Bazaar Quilt

Here is this years St.Ann's Church Bazaar raffle quilt.  It will be raffled in October and tickets will be available starting in June so you all get an early sneek peek at this beautiful lap sized quilt.  Yes it is the one that I ripped the feathers out of and I think you'll agree that the cross hatching is more suitable for this quilt.  I have to let you in on a little ripping tip.....I used a razor blade not my seam ripper to take out the feathers.  I unpinned the top and worked between the top and the batting with the blade and had all the stitches out in 2 hours.  I'm sure a seam ripper would have taken 8 hours.

Busy..busy..busy...

I have been busy quilting up a storm and just finished another clients Magic Tile quilt. This time she used blue fabric for the lines instead of black and it has a softer effect, very pretty.  I used my Double Plume pantograph on this one and a bubble gum pink So Fine thread.

I also finished a clients small Minkie baby quilt using the Double Bubble pantograph.  This panto is one of the hardest pantos to follow as circles are very tricky on a longarm. 

Funky Flannel

My client brought me this cute flannel top and wanted butterflies quilted on it as it is for a little girl.  I used my Butterfly Charm Pantograph and turquiose thread. I really like the layout of the squares on this quilt but do not know the name of the pattern.

Oh No....I Crossed the Line!

I have to admit I cross the line this time...repeatedly!   Remember how I like to go on and on about how stitching across the black lines in a Magic Tile will ruin it...well what a lie that was!  Why do you guys listen to me??  Here is my clients beautiful Magic Tile quilt and she wanted a panto across it!   Usually when asked to panto this kind of quilt I give my speech about how stitching across the black will take away the 'stained glass' look..blah blah blah.   But this time that speech didn't could out of my mouth. I loved the colors in this quilt and I had the perfect colored Rainbow thread for it and thought....I can do this! I didn't even have second thoughts as I started quilting it because it looked GOOD! 

Hummm...what other rules of mine should I break next?

There is a Bear in my Berry Patch....

...I think that's what the guild named of this quilt.  This quilt is heading to the Northern Juried Art Show in Gilliam Manitoba in April.   I was asked by the guild to take this traditional style quilt and make it "Artsy".   That was a problem...it's not an Artsy quilt and no matter what I do to it it will still be a traditional quilt.   So not wanting to disappoint my guild I did my best to have fun with it and approached it one block at a time.   I think it turned out more whimsical and folky but that is what it 'Whispered' to me.  I hope the guild members are happy with it, that is what matters.  In the quilt I hid a bee hive, bunny, butterfly, dragonfly and some bear scat ( *big grin* just had too).

Dwirling

Hope I spelt that right!   Quite a few months ago Lori lent me the Pajama Quilter book/DVD by Dawn Ramirez. It is excellent and I am now addicted to Dwirling.  This is a great quilting pattern for any quilter....beginner to experienced and is a lot of fun.  I just made two more batik tote bags...they are for my brother-in-law and his fiancee wedding social, they are looking for door prize/draw items.  I am more than happy to make them a few bags.  I just pinned the batting to my longarm frame then pinned the batik 9patch on top and dwirled away.  I then line the bag after it is quilted, that is why these was no backing on the frame.  I also made placemats awhile ago with the dwirling design too. 

Hey... did you notice that I was the weiner.....I mean winner of Pieceful Kwilters contest the other day!!  Go check out her blog and go back a post or two to see my other talents...LOL!  I won a handmade quilted pouch bag made by Shannon so that is very exciting as she is such a talented quilter, I really enjoy her blog.

Presidents Quilt

Our guild started a great tradition of making blocks for our out going Presidents....and I'm not just saying this because I'm up to bat next!   The Presidents quilt works this way.  She chooses a simple block pattern,  the guild hands out one of the colors in the block and the members are asked to use a color out of there stash to complete the block. Our president from 2006 to 2008 was Evelyn and this is the quilt she made with the blocks members made for her.  She chose the Nine Patch block for her pattern, red as her color and the guild gave out the white fabric so the background was all the same.  At our last retreat she was busy using her nine patch blocks to make a star block that turned out stunning!  I'm am so glad she asked me to quilt it and I hope she likes what I did.

I had fun with this new border design I found on one of the many quilting forums I frequent.  There are so many talented quilters out there and I am glad I have the ability to copy their designs :)

This one is called Onions and Garlic...but I saw rosebuds when I was quilting it on the red fabric.

Confessions of a Longarmer.

Yes it's true, I have a confession to make...I had a "OH NO" moment on this quilt and thought I would share.  Now the real problems with "OH NO" moments isn't what you have done...anything can be fixed...it's how you feel when you realize you just did hours worth of work only to discover something went wrong.  It's not a good feeling especial when it happens on a clients quilt.  I pride myself on doing a good job and treating someone elses quilt like it's my own.   So when this happens I am grateful that I have very understanding clients.  The issue with this quilt was a 8inch long, 1/4" deep pleat in the backing and that had never happened before. So guess who will be checking the backing fabric more often??   The fix...I hand stitched the pleat down and  it is hardly noticable on the printed backing fabric.  Happy customer, happy ending.

Since that isn't my worst '"OH NO" moment let me share what happened earlier this year.   I was quilting on a clients quilt when my needle broke right at the eye creating a U shape at the end of the needle.  Even thought it took me only a second to stop the machine the result was a 2" rip the fabric in my clients quilt.  Join me on this emotional rollercoaster....shock, disbelief, then the nausa sets in and you question all the reasons you have a longarm business.  But once I got over that I realized the rip was in a 3" square in the border and I could pick out that square and replace with a new piece of fabric... if my client has more of that fabric.  When I called my clients and she said she had more I could breath again.  Again a happy client and a very happy ending.

Okay, back to this quilt.

This is a new pantograph, it is called Ground Cover and I am very happy with how it stitched out and the even density of the design.  I really suits my clients Northwoods BOM quilt...I wonder how many more of these quilts are still out there just waiting to be finshed?

Keep those Mystery Quilts a Coming

I'm amazed that I'm not getting tired of these Mystery quilts but they all look so different.  I love how the green in the flying geese just pop in this picture.  I used the Flourish Pantograph and black thread on my clients quilt and she said it will be used as a cuddle quilt on her couch at the lake.

I just spent the morning at the dentist...had two filling redone so half my face is frozen :(  

Think I'll go out to the Shack turn my music up loud and quilt, that will make me feel better!

Frosty Day

I spent the weekend getting re-acquainted with my Janome and pieced a quilt top from what seems to be my never ending Northcott winnings.   And since I do not have a 'real' stash of fabric I had to go online to search for borders and backing.  I think I spent more time on the computer this weekend than at the sewing machine but I was victorious!  Found the same fabric line at a shop called Knots and Bolts ...on sale for $3.50/yd and it was still in stock when I ordered it!! Woo Hoo!!!!  Of course I bought more fabric than I was looking for,  22 yards more but it only came too $108 ( including shipping and exchange). Can you tell I'm excited?  Check out http://shop.knotsandbolts.com/  .   I think this year I will be a buying year as I now have quilts tops that are almost finished and just need border.  I think these are call UFO's (Gasp!) and that is new to me.   I have, up until now, been a very focus quilter and could stick with a project until it was done before moving on to another project.  I now have to confess I have a large project that is sitting in a box and I am not concerned about it at all and have no desire to work on.  Now it is offical...I'm a REAL quilter!  

Since I do not have any quilts to show you I thought I would share some photos I took today of the frost on the trees. 

Okay one more.  Here are my boys playing on the rink the other night.  Tim set up some lights so the boys could actually use the rink as it is dark by the time they get home from school.  They had to pose for this picture as I had to keep the shutter open for 2 seconds to get the night shot.

And The Most Improved Award Goes To.....

...ME!   This quilt, that I just finished for a client, is a good example of how I feel my skills have improved over my first year as a longarmer. I was looking back at the quilts I worked on last year and wow....huge improvement.  Not a stencil was used on this quilt, only a little chalk to mark the stem of the feather border, I use a ruler with my longarm (easier said than done), and I created my own motifs in the white area of the blocks.    I throughly enjoyed playing....I mean quilting this quilt.  The one area I have to improve on for this year is my confidence.   As I quilt any quilt I have this overshadowing feeling that maybe I didn't pick the best quilting designs for it but once it comes off the frame and I can actually see the depth of the quilting then I have that *WHEW* moment and know it looks just fine.  The stitches always look so flat when the quilt is on the frame so you don't get the true effect of the quilting until if is off the machine.

Stashbusting!

That is a popular word on the quilting forums these days and even thought I don't really have a stash, well not like the ones I read about that take up a closet or whole room, I thought I would start using the patterns and fabric I have.   I do feel fabric 'goes bad' if left too long.  What I 'have to have' one year is not what I would buy the next so why let it get to that point, time to dig into my little pile of fabric and start sewing. Honestly I only have enough cotton fabric to fill a large Rubbermaid tote, that is it.

I bought this carrot pattern a year and a half ago along with a metre of orange fabric.  I looked through my bits and pieces and had enough orange to make two!  I think I'll keep one for me and put the other in my new 'Gift Box'.  The Gift Box is where I'm putting all my new creations that I want to make but don't really need and will save them for gifts for this year, that is the key...THIS YEAR! I don't want this box to get too full as these items are to be gifted not saved.  This way I will not be sewing like crazy before Christmas or the quilt show this spring as I like to have a few items in the silent auction.

I also finished two batik aprons using the many leftover 2 1/2" strips I accumulate as I love to sew with batiks.  I have made these aprons before and have two myself so off to the Gift Box they go.