SPCA Quilt

This quilt was made by our local guild and will be donated to the SPCA for a fundraising raffle.  Guild members made Pet Themed blocks and it took me a while to figure out how to approach quilting this quilt. I finally decided to write animal quotes in the outer border as it was a solid brown fabric and a great clean slate to write on.  Next was the center and felt the best way to blend all the work together on all the blocks was to use invisible thread and a very simple pantograph. I am very pleased with the results as it blended into each block and did not distract from the images.

Writing the quotes was a bit time consuming and that was mainly because I had to turn the quilt on my frame three times.  I wanted the writing to be read as you walked around a bed looking at the quilt.

Here are the quotes I picked, hope the guild and SPCA members like them.

-Animals eyes have the power to speak a great language

-The purity of a person's heart can be measured by how they regard animals

-Until one has loved an animal a part of ones soul remains unawakened.

-Animals are such agreeable friends and pass no criticisms.

Bali Pop Quilt

I bought this Bali Pop a few years ago and used it to make a Stacked Coin quilt.  I just quilted it today with a new free hand design for me.  I saw this design on Pieceful Kwilters blog and just fell in love with it.  She calls it Topo quilting because it looks like topographic lines on a map and maybe that is what drew me to it as I majored in Geology in university.

I actually had no idea what I was doing at first but I guess looking at all those maps many years ago must have stuck in my brain as this one came very naturally. Glad I pushed myself to try something new.

I used Rainbow varigated blue to purple on the top and light blue Bottom Line in the bobbin.

Snow dyed fabric for the backing.

Think i'll make a scrappy binding for this one with all the left overs.

The weather man says we are in for 25cm of snow tonight so I'm sure I'll find time to get the binding finished this weekend.

Mompreneur

My husband informed me that I am a Mompreneur.  Oh that sounds good... so what does it mean? 
The defininition of a Mompreneur from the website Investopedia is:

A slang term describing women who run their own businesses while also acting as a full time parent. Mompreneurs are more likely to run a business out of the home than out of a commercial building. Because of family obligations, mompreneurs have to balance the requirements of running a business with the demands of their children, and may do the bulk of their work during the time when their children do not require as much attention.

The next time I am asked what I do for a living I think I know my answer.
So are you a Mompreneur too?

I can't have a post without a picture.  This weekend my husband built a frame for my snow dyed fabric so I could hang it on our bedroom wall.   I just couldn't cut that piece up.

Scrap Basket Blues

Eileen finished her Scrap Basket Blues quilt that she started at the guild Retreat in November.  This pattern is out of the book Scrap Basket Surprise which is designed for quilters with a large stash...like Eileens.  I know, I've seen it!!  Puts my few drawers of fabrics to shame... maybe that is why I was in the mood to dye fabric all weekend.

Eileen didn't want the quilting to show too much since it is a scrappy quilt so I picked the Happy Times pantograph and used a beige thread.

Asian Quilt ...Plus a Surprise or Two

This is Lorna's Asian Quilt and I love the fabrics she used and the pattern.  She knew she wanted the Dragonfly Pond design and gold colored thread on this one and I completely agreed.  Something about this panto gives it a real asian feel.  It is designed by Irene Steele of Timeless Quilting Designs.

Now to my good news, actually there are two things I want to mention. 
First our little town is getting a new fabric shop!!!!  *Happy Dance**  We have been without a fabric shop for two years and lets just say that was torture!!  I am so excited and can hardly wait to fondle bolts of fabric again when I'm in the mood :) It's going to be pure bliss... Bliss Fabrics and Gifts that is. 

The second bit of news can be found on Jenny's blog here.
 http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.com/2011/01/liebster-blog-award.html
I follow both of Jenny's blogs and I would highly recommend you check both of them out, they are great!! Thanks Jenny for the great surprise and putting a smile on my face!!

30 Below

Well I have totally abandoned any notion of taking pictures outside today as it is -30'C ( or more like -40'C with the windchill).  I frozen my hands taking pictures for my last post so I think I'll use more common sense this time :)
I just finished quilting Lynn's Treasure Box batik quilt, the second one I have quilted for her ( I made two for myself as well, one of my favorites) so you would have seen this one on my blog before but it is definately worth showing again.

I used the Whirlygig pantograph and So Fine beige thread.

I also quilted Lynn's Black, White and Red Circle quilt using the Dragonfly Pond panto and a medium grey So Fine thread.  This is the same quilt Yvonne just did as well as my Beach quilt from the summer and I used the dragonflies on all three quilts.  That panto just suits the Circle quilts that we all made from acrylic templates from Elisa's Backporch Designs.  They were at big seller at our Quilt Show's merchant mall in the Spring.

Alphabet and Circle Quilts

This is Yvonne's adorable pink Alphabet quilt.    I used variagated pink King Tut thread and Heart's In Bloom pantograph.

This is also Yvonne's Circle quilt using a fabric collection from Connecting Threads.  The fabrics have a oriental print so we decided to go with Dragonfly Pond for a panto and beige thread to blend into the bright fabrics.

Block of the Month

So I have put away the dyeing gloves and am back into quilting full swing.  This is Darlene's quilt and it was the local fabric shops BOM project from 2005. I have quilted a few of these and this time I did a combination of custom quilting on the borders and a panto in the center. 

The outer border is a free hand feathers in Navy thread, the inner border is my favorite quilting design the feather feather swirl in red thread and the centre pantograph is called Rhapsody, quilted with beige thread.  The backing fabric was white... so white bobbin thread it is for a nice wholecloth look on the back.

Rhapsody is a Willow Leaf Studio design.

Snow Dyeing - Day 3 The Experiments Continue

Day 3....the screen test. Okay it is more like the lack of screen in this experiment.  I needed a backing for my Jelly roll quilt  and I snow dyed this piece the same color that I used in the sashing of the quilt.  But this time I tried just putting the fabric in a bucket with no screen to see what happens. Here it is a few hours into the melting.

And the result is the same great texture as with the screen...

So why use the screens if it give the same texture as without? That led me to my next set of experiments.

I wanted to snow dye two pieces of fabric the same color with the only variable being the screen/ no screen to truly see if there is a difference.  I went through my hand dyed samples and picked this color to try.

Snow dyed one fabric in the bucket and the second one on the screen.

  

 

The results where quite different. The fabric on the left is the no screen has a darker intensity and has what I texture similar to Immersion Dyeing.  The fabric on the right is with the screen and has the softer texture and more muted colors that have separated more.  So it basically comes down to the look you want.  I like both but find the screen dyed one more pleasing to they eye and I would likely pick that one to put in a quilt over the more intense one. But that is just me :)

Hope you enjoyed my experiments but now I hear my longarm calling...



Snow Dyeing - Day 2

I am having way too much fun with this snow dyeing and the results just keep getting better and better.  I'm addicted!!  Yesterday I decided to try mixing Teal and Brown, my two favorite colors at the moment, and was just thrilled with the results.  I use Procion MX dyes from G&S Dyes.  I have two brown dyes, #611 Soft Brown and #615 Brown so tried them both with my teal recipe. 

Here they are on the screens with the snow just after pouring the dye on.

  I cut all my dyed fabrics that I have the recipes for (all 172) with my 6 1/2" Square Go cutter die last week so I have nice size samples to refer to when needed. 

 Here are the samples of my teal and #611 Soft Brown...

...snow dyed they made this piece, my new favorite!

My teal and #615 Brown...

...snow dyed made this piece.

And here they are together!  So pretty!

I might get Tim to build some wooden frames so I can stretch these and make wall art.  He received a new uphostery gun for his air compresser this xmas so that would be a great project for him to try, right dear :)

I have two more fabrics in the works down in my dungeon (crawl space) at the moment and I am comparing the difference between snow dyeing on a screen or just dyeing it in a bucket without the screen.  The results I have seen on a few blogs without the screens look very similar to the results with screens so I thought that was a worthwhile experiment.  Are you starting to realize I am quite the GEEK!!!  LOL!

I started working on my clients quilt again on Monday, I haven't abandoned quilting for dyeing....yet!  The nice thing about snow dyeing is it takes 5 hours for the snow to melt giving me lots of time to quilt.  I have a large semi-custom quilt on my machine so should be done that one soon.

Oh, I made this placemats for myself over that holidays and just finished hand stitching the binding on all 10 of them!  I bought a fat quarter pack from Fat Quarter Shop called Honeysuckle Bali Batiks from Hoffman Fabrics, I can't resist a bali sale!!