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

Tidy Up Time

Procrastination has hit an all time high in the Attic.  I stay busy whileI procrastinate.  I  'tidy' when I procrastinate, or another way to put it is to say I  sharpen All my pencils before I start. In this case I sorted fabric.  I felt every last piece.  I folded and sorted. Any piece less then a 1/4 m.  is in a laundry basket. (A project for another pencil sharpening attack.) Pieces between .25 and 1 m. are folded one way, one meter or larger is folded another way, both are folded to fit the storage unit.   I am so impressed....I impress easily, tis true. But look at this,  is it not marvelous!

From this to 


this,

and this and four fully folded drawers more. (Great alliteration eh!)

 Now I really must get those Christmas sewing projects

started.  hee hee 

gudrun

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

Canadian Grade School Reader Quilt

Do you remember Dick and Jane? Here's  2009  quilted version





Oh oh what fun! Sorry about the soft focus...I will get better with the camera I promise.

Happy Tuesday!

Gudrun

Mystery Quilt

Greetings,

I have been on a lovely vacation. I have lots of vacation pictures. To be edited and

such before I can begin to share them.

  I am going to get back into the swing of blogging again, with this gem.

Prior to my vacation in Beautiful Northwest British Columbia, I had the pleasure of quilting this  one.   The colour choices are lovely.  This picture doesn't do it  justice. (they never do) Except for the borders this was a 'mindless' job, of  SID.  Mindless, yes but concentration is a must :)) As my fellow quilters know.

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

A Quilting Challenge

I belong to a wonderful internet group. It is a teaching group for folks who dabble in fibre arts. I am learning some new techniques. The phrase  "stretching my abilities" is what comes to mind, when I think of what I do with this group. My latest is an attempt of a portrait of my home. My teacher/coach has a photo of my home and several other students homes on her blog, Chris.

I can see from the instructions...which I read carefully,  this project is not a going to be a quick one. But I am sure pumped to get going on it!  Thing is, I need to finish client quilts this week and  of course it is a short week.  That isn't a complaint, I 'd like all Mondays to belong to the

weekend. 

 

A Little hand made Quilted item

I am a machine quilter, but I do like making small things by hand. 

Here's a Kumiko Sudo style flower.

These bleeding hearts were made in memory of my Dad.   As a wee girl, he taught me how me  to see them as the ladies in bath tubs.

                                                                           Also the 2008  Guild challenge called "A Snippet of My Life", and this little memory was that.  I used the challenge fabric, but too many of my own colours. So, I didn't qualify. I like this piece. I filled in a few spots with 'found items'.  I took a piece of bamboo from our garden to keep this taut through the middle, a partial bead bracelet from a child's unfinished project is the hanging loop. Building this one was fun.

gudrun

Finished is finished

                                                   

 My  version of a quilt to re-use jeans materials,  also with previously used flannel & several smallish pieces of batting.  Heavy? a little, I also mucked about with two threads in the needle. I wanted a thicker red thread.  I use a  cone of a pink cotton with various reds,  ends of spools. 

I am feeling good 1. to have finished it, 2.  to have used up  a bit of stuff that's been hangin about the studio for what feels like much too long.  and 3. one RTO off of my 'list'.

This weekend I hope to bring my Guild mystery quilt, up to date.  My intent was to try and finish mine (quilted and all) before I quilted any from clients.  Ha!  good intentions are funny things. And I Know I will bypass making mystery quilts, in the future. Not my cuppa.

And I am off for a cuppa hot  lemon 'cold medicine' and a small pity party for one...colds aren't fun.

gudrun

I sure missed quilting.

Yesterday I did a Happy Dance!
I enjoy my work, and yesterday I was back at it.
The Edge Rider wheels were installed, and I did a small
charity quilt to test the new wheels. A noticeable improvement
in machine handling. I am glad I made the switch, instead of
merely replacing the broken wheel. Replacing the wheels wasn't
difficult, just frustrating :) my anticipation level was high, and
patience level low. Not a great combination for "mechanical stuff".

I am not quilting today however, as I invited a group of quilters for
lunch. Last weeks hard work (housework) needs to be shown, it
isn't often that the place looks this good. Hopefully no one will
have the need to visit the studio, it took a beating yesterday.

The Thread of A Quilter's Life....or Thread Happens

I have thread.  I need thread. I like thread and its many beautiful colours. Check out the lost thread I have been saving, for no particular reason.

      I use to keep spools in containers, and it was a bother keeping it sorted and for clients to

see the possibilities. So I put them out in the open. Mostly they have wee bags on them, and 

they are out of the sunlight. There's no dust in the attic so I don't worry about it.  Or maybe there is but I still don't worry about it.

 This Quilter's darling husband likes thread too, read on.

    My wife is a professional long arm quilter, with a geezly (can't use geezly in scrabble, Wilma!)

great machine that could only fit in the bowling lane side of our attic.  The house is approaching the century mark and has settled as much as it's going to, but I still do a double take when I look at the wobble to the old pine floors below her machine.  But along with the knots in the pine...there are other things lurking at foot level. But first a little clarification on the division of labour is required.  You see when the long arm sewing machine arrived and the resident quilter turned pro, I offered to take on increased duties, vacuuming among them. Big mistake.  You see, not only do we have a brown carpet and a yellow lab (she who has already devasted 3 vacuums in her 13 hair ridden years) but said resident Quilter is also a devout stair climber.  She is up and down, to and from the attic a couple dozen times a day, bringing hand projects to work on while sitting on the couch, her collection of cups and plates and so on.  AND unbeknownst to her, every time she does so, she carries with her enough thread to keep the local spring flocks in nest lining for years to come. Bits and pieces of multi-coloured spaghetti cling fervently to socks, pants, blouses and particularly polar fleece, all of which participate in the thread transfer process from clothing to carpet and just about any other surface. Try as she may to de-thread at the top of the stairs (please note de-threading is different from de-materializing), by the time she reaches the main floor she has succeeded in turning our brown wool carpet into a rainbow berber. But I am the vacuum guy. I take my job seriously.  Yes the current vacuum is up to the increased duties, and as I've discovered it also does double duty as a sewing device.  As a professional, my Quilt Queen winds umpteen bobbins a day and has dozens of spools of thread scattered about the house in working stashes of project gear.  The cat enjoys her play time and not surprisingly the not-so-occasional spool hits the floor. Enter the vacuumer, blithely doing his duty, said vacuum turns into an industial bobbin winder with a voracious appetite.  The spinning carpet brush snags the leading edge of the thread and even though I am vigilant and fast on the foot switch, the beast usually doesn't stop before the spool has done its dizzying disappearing dance across the floor, following a retreating vacuum and its unwitting driver.

That vacuum can clean off a spool like nobody's business...the spent naked spool continuing to spin like a top...to the delight of the cat,  and the dismay of the resident Quilter and her vacuum meister. "Gone in 60 sec0nds" is an under statement.

Next to fabric, thread is the stuff of my Quilter's life and it is with mixed emotions that we turn the vacuum over to follow the thread of her life. I used to dutifully cut the thread, cleaning the carpet head back down to plastic and rubber but recently I have begun to leave it.  It's not only colourful, but I imagine and or rationalize that it also acts as a 'pre ' air filter, as well as a vibrant reminder that life is too short to continually cut thread. Thread has become the multi-coloured link in our mechanical lives....her long arm and my vacuum.  And now that I've come to accept the inevitability of the threads in our lives mingling, I am a more relaxed cohabitant.

I've become zen like in my approach .  In order for quilts to appear....threads happen.

Wishing you a Good Day,

gudrun

ps the carpet is a rust colour