I am a lucky girl.

I am lucky to have a caring Mom.  She sends me replacement mukluks every decade or so. The brown ones have been shedding for some time now, truth be told, the furry balls haven't been furry for years as all kittens have had a great time with them.  I am happy with the new ones, no balls to get tangled in, and shorter so they aren't as heavy.  The fur is tall and soft, and they have a  deep tread sole. Wahoo, eh!

 I saw a pair of purple running shoes in my size for a bargain...can any girl resist

In the experimental quilting side of things, I used this decade old panel to work with multiple layers of batting.  There were stitch quality issues to start,  I but got that sorted. Switched to a stronger thread.  It was difficult to get smooth curves and curls, however as I got to the bottom, I changed the spacing, which helped. Note, thick batts and close designs are difficult. The end result for this machine trapunto experiment is a fun little quilt with lots of texture.

Closer view of the texture created

Today is another snowy day and I am doing some dyeing on the kitchen stove....I hope it is going to be a yummy plum colour.

gudrun

Easy Street.

I have not had the time or perhaps the energy to blog of late.  ( I haveaberybadcold.)

So...this is Easy Street via Bay St.

This picture was taken outside and shows the lovely colours a lot better than the picture below which is indoors.... the colours look dull.
The centre is an all over feathery fern, the border is a veined leafy feathery bit as well.

The back is a white and black print.  I used a variegated thread on the top and white in the bobbin.
Looks great!!
gudrun

New Picture

I was sent the header picture, and I am totally taken with it.  I am heading out to see those mountains really soon.  In the meantime, I have several quilts that need finishing.  Also want to take some made  gifty things, and there is a project with Community Quilts in my Guild that needs doing.

Yesterday I had a machine mishap. I always test tension, and in doing so run any oil residue off on to a scrap, imagine my surprise after starting the quilting about 10 inches into the work I see a black 'thread' for about 3".  Of, course I am looking at white thread on white fabric.  Ohohwhyme!

• First cover this in cornstarch, go away and eat a giant piece of cake and drink a soothing cuppa.
•  Vacuum the cornstarch.  
•  Unsew the offending section, carefully so as to not to get more smudges. 
• Locate yellow laundry bar soap, water, clean white terry towel, clean soft tooth brush, then gently rub soap on and dab off with damp corner of terry cloth, don't rub too hard or the fabric will show a wear spot.  Do this twice, insure soap is out, dab back with water and cloth.
• Think happy thoughts and all will be well.    And it was.
• This is not the quilt, this is a happy scrappy practice piece for quilting patterns. 

Happy Friday,  gudrun

An Ugly Finish

A few years ago I made this quilt top.  It was a design exercise that failed miserably.  Can't throw it out.  So, what if I just quilt it?  And while quilting I  tried " a quilt as u go" technique for long armers.

The part hanging down was added on the machine. So  now this ugly thing is quilted.

It still wasn't getting any positive reviews in my mind.  The wool batt made it soft, the colours are engaging if you like blue....it was too long and too narrow too weird.  So What if  I cut it  and make two generous snuggle quilts one for me and one for some one else.  

Machine binding, trying out stitch #120

 Lazy girl label.

And that's what happened.

A young feller who's family had a house fire got the other half  of this.

Yeah!

Happy Monday,

gudrun

Scrappy Strings

A young lady is going to receive this lovely quilt her Grandmother made for her. You guessed right, she's moving into a big bed.
It was quilted  E2E (edge to edge) with flowers and butterflies. The variegated thread shows up beautifully in the solid sashings and border, back is a solid blue thread.

It was a bright sunny morning, so the quilt pictures appear a bit washed out.  And on that note here is what is happening with real flowers at our back door.

We are back to seasonal temperatures, so after several days of 25C + temps. The growth of things is again slowing down, and hopefully no harm will come to precious fruit trees that show buds beginning to swell

.

Happy Monday,

gudrun

Starry Starry Night

I believe this is a shadow box quilt, it is to be a gift for a young grandson.  It was just a charm to quilt.
Yes, I do believe I have taken the photo sideways, but I didn't want it dragging on the deck, and then I forgot to rotate the picture.  Hopefully you'll get the picture.(grin)

 What 10 year old won't love this one?

A simple meander with a star.

I call it yummy......William Morris Prints

I had the pleasure of quilting an original design using William Morris prints. This was very enjoyable to quilt.... though doing a pantograph,  keeps me at the back of the machine.  Long armers know this means one doesn't have as intimate a relationship with the fabrics :(   When I work from the front I can really look at the fabric (So know you know my secret !)    Who likes  Wm. Morris prints.....me!

I am also looking forward to quilting a little Kaffee Fassett does W. Morris number hanging on my to do wall. It too is a yummy piece.
Happy Monday and Happy Quilting,
gudrun

Hockey

I am working on what I think of as a Boston Bruins quilt. I am quilting hockey players on it. I got this little image, and reproduced it on tracing paper, tried stitching through a printer image but there was ink transfer. Pencil seemed the better choice.

The yellow fabric is not the usual quilting cotton and requires a little caution but it's coming along. Of course there will be some paper bits to clean.
Happy Quilting,
gudrun

Raffle Quilt

I had a great opportunity recently to quilt for a community group called the Beaver Valley Agricultural Association, they organize and hold the Beaver Valley Fall Fair each Sept.

  Last year, BVAA purchased a quilt from Georgian Quilters' Guild for  raffle. It  happens I quilted that raffle quilt, that quilt now resides in the Philippines, but I digress.   This year a BVAA member gathered together blocks from previous challenges,  put them together with sashing and borders, and asked me to quilt the piece for BVAA.  It came together nicely, wouldn't you say.

                                                              

TGIF folks,

gudrun

A bit more about the "Attic".

(In answer to Teresa's comment)
Discovering this space was the best! I realize I have been blessed.

My sweetie calls it the 'Quiltorium'. This space would not work for anyone taller, 
there are a couple of spots where I feel the 'ceiling. I am 5'4",
The slant walls or knee walls in the 'alley' where I have the Beast fit me well enough, and 
it is big enough on the far end to get around without wacking myself on something :)
I am not the most graceful of creatures :))
The alley width is also more generous then it appears, I have a small shelf in one corner
and and old sheet music cupboard for pantos in the other corner. I am 
guess-timating the alley is about 8 ft. wide, and I have a 14' frame.

The first consideration I had was getting the poles for the frame up into the attic. We thought of hoisting them through a window, but luckily it wasn't required.

We did not do much to make this space serviceable mostly organization and elbow grease
It is a work in progress. I am keen on it :)

gudrun

Congratulations Lesley, Oh and me too!

The Lucky Lesley from our lovely West Coast will be receiving
a set of pillow cases I  made.  In her email she sounded
more excited  then any pillow cases  I have know are able to
excite....and I was right. As it happens she was also
 just hired as a teacher in her neighbourhood.
She'll be teaching music to children from k to 4.
  Her first job in her field of training.  Wow!

The Fall Fair season is upon us here in Ontario.  I was convinced  by friends, I should
participate in my towns Fair so I did.  I entered a new category "long arm quilting' and the
floral section.  I received two firsts and 2 seconds in the long arm category, the quilt at the top of the
page took a first.
I recd a second in a challenge called " I made it form my old jeans"  click this link  to see the quilt I used.

I entered four florals and took  two firsts in the florals category. I didn't take a picture of the cosmos I entered but the Pic below is of a design challenge called "No Blooms".

All in all a wonderful Fair for me :))

"No Blooms" is sitting on top of canning,   I did the day before the fair.

Floral arrangement " No Blooms"

Antipasto 2010

Here's a really good picture of the work that day.  I had lots of help. DH and DS pitched in with chopping and stirring .....

Antipasto Inspector and Assistant

Happy Thursday,
gudrun

Scrappy

Here is a scrappy quilt, described by the customer as an everyday quilt, no need to concern oneself with  dogs or children (jumping?) on the bed. I admit I don't get excited about basic scrappy quilts, and as you know if you read this blog, I don't care for the colours beige or brown.  I am slowly becoming a convert.

Basic beige backing, gold thread, simple meander, and the result is what I hope the client asked for when she said, 'do whatever..... '

.

Happy Thursday
gudrun

Confession

Not everyone will find this quilt ugly. It is, and it was poorly constructed,  make it impossible for me to quilt.  The centre is larger than the outside, using an extra layer of batting in the middle helped a little, but lots of other problems.
I got this in an auction.  I took a 12 inch outer border off, before I started. I tried quilting this as a newbie long armer, realized I was out of my depth, threw it in a corner. Pulled it out again a few weeks ago, for the third time and decided I needed to get it out of my life. Just not worth the effort.  So I took all the pins out, wrapped it up nicely and donated it.  Maybe some one will give it a life, maybe not.  I feel so much better, like when you take the tight pants off and put on elastic waisted sweats. (grin)

"Recycle" The story of Trish's Quilt

This quilt is called "Recycle".  It is going home to the maker's

son.  Son works in our neighbourhood's solid waste management arena  (where is this

going?) Well, the symbols for this industry are green and circular, the quilt was made

with mostly scraps. It is a happy quilt, all those lovely bits of fabric. It sure made this long armed quilter happy as she recognized so many fabrics and  hung out in the memories 

that belong with them for a few hours.

Spirals and a small circle, and a small swirly thing along the

edges.  The edges were serged, and there was a generous seam allowance for points. 

Every quilt has its challenges, true here too. This one is large, lots of piecing, bias edges.

 Translates into a  heavy quilt and  some wonk to the edges. Having quilted many quilts I say

fore warned makes life a bit easier.

As I got closer to the end (even though I was careful with "the wax off wax on")

I knew there would be stretch as I got to the end of the quilt.

To tug on a quilt, or moosh it around too much (there is a lot of stretch in fabric)

 is to give myself a big head ache. (Gently, gently always gently. )  


It looks like a lot of fullness, not really though, carefully as  George watches, I pin down the edge easing in the fullness, watching that the pattern lines are straight.

 

Sew...go back to the top for  another look at the finish  ...turned out great.  Trish's idea of the spirals was a great finish to this happy quilt.

Happy Sunday,

gudrun

ps the picture was the correct orientation on the desk top, don't know how

to fix it, don't strain your neck muscles looking   :)

Straight but not Square (saving at your long armer))

 There are some folks do not understand  'square'. 
Certainly not as it applies to fabric.....as in large pieces of fabric.
This is a picture of backing fabric. The pieces are all cut straight, 

and seamed straight.  But the end result is not a square piece.
And no,  I don't know why that happens,  it just does.



Those large 108" wide fabrics need to be squared as well. 

As you see several inches may be lost squaring fabric, take this  fact

into consideration when purchasing backing.
Squaring a large back is no different then squaring fabric for cutting strips.
It is bulky and awkward to handle, but needs to be done.
So here's a quick how to, and one can check the web for lots of visuals

 if this is too obtuse.

1.  Find the centre of the back, lengthwise. Fold in half. Carefully smooth the 

fabric and fold again to fit on the cutting surface.  This will take a minute or

 two as you need to make sure the fabric is smoothed out.  The rough edges 

that appear, are now ready to be trimmed.
2.  Repeat this process for the width....or you can do width and then length

 if your feeling contrary  :)

I allow my clients the first 'unsquare' back adjustment gratis, because some 

folks just don't know.  
Then I explain, because there is a charge and who needs to pay

 that when it is sew simple and you can do it yourself.
Happy Wednesday,

gudrun

Embellishing the Lily

Our last trip to the summer place was a short one, the sewing machine stayed home. A small quilt and container of 'things' and a few beads did however come on vacation with me. (smile) 

I only took a few things along so this is far from finished.  I think it is coming

along nicely.  

I am now in the process of looking for a box (somewhere in the studio) that contains

a small supply of silk ribbon, and some silver embroidery floss. Every garden needs a  spider and  its web.

 
These are parts of a set of ear rings that I bought from a street vendor on Queen Street, when I first lived in Toronto.  The only reason they are still a set after all these many years, is of course due to the difficulty I had putting them in, consequently I think I probably wore them less times then fingers on one hand. What a way to break a set... I am well know for single earrings, and gave up worrying about it a long time ago.  I wear 'odd' pairs all the time, the ear ring police haven't found me yet!
Happy Hump  Day Folks!
gudrun

Little Lily & Oriental with Metallic Fabrics

I am a lucky gal....

I found this top for sale at a local quilt store. I quilted and bound it, now I am going to 'highlight' it.

I am starting with some trapunto and beading.

More to come....

I also worked this week, (tsk tsk...ya' ll thought I vacation all summer eh!) quilted this Oriental fabrics quilt, with a simple Gingko leaf.  The backing is a gold metallic fabric, as well lots of metallic fabrics on the front.  I found lots of 'metallic gunk' ( a specially specific name for a new to me phenomena ) in the bobbin race.  I am thinking this stuff is what gave the long arm tension headaches. sigh. I did all the tricks and tips I have learned over the past 5 years (yikes already!) of long arming to deal with tension.   I ended up blowing a fuse and having to make a trip to purchase a replacement and spares, in a near but still away hardware store  blah blah not the way I planned that day.  The good  news is Client is coming over this am so that means payday..Yeah!  I hope she likes it.  

It is a gift from the bride to a sister that  is 'standing' up with her on the big day. The pictures here do it little justice many large scale prints where left in large pieces to get a 'picture' of the fabric,  some are large portions of panels...of which I own one. 

wishing you all a happy Thursday,

gudrun

Looking for Fabric

I am wanting (I don't need) more of this fabric. I'd like it in this colourway but would be pleased to find it in any colour combinations.  I have this on the back of the first quilt made for DH, on the longarm in 04.  I am very fond of this print, have no more anywhere, so no selvedges to see who makes it.  If anyone recognizes this or better yet, has some to dispose of I would be so happy :0   I will try posting this to other search places if I can get more information about it.

gudrun