More Dyeing

I am having more computer woes. I may have to finally give in and get a new one. My computer is about 7 years old and in computer years that is ancient. I am still debating on whether I want a laptop or desktop.
Yesterday, Canada Day, was the annual Debreuil family party which has been going on for more than 70 years. The claim is that it has never once rained on the party in all those years. I can vouch for the last 40 or more. It may rain in the morning or at night but during the party, which is always outside, it never rains. Yesterday was no exception. It threatened all day and rained all around us. Some places even got a huge downpour, but we sat outside all day eating, chatting and playing Belgian Bowling, known in the family as "Les Boules".



Today I was inspired to do a bit more dyeing so I tried a gradation in burgundy. I think the colors are a little bit too close so I am doing one now in olive. It is outside stewing in the sun right now.

I also tried tie bleaching. I wrapped a dark gray piece around a stone and soaked it in bleach. I left it in the bleach a bit too long but I really like the pattern and the color it bleached to. I will try one with weaker bleach or a shorter time. Actually, I forgot this one while I was making lunch or it would have been nicer. It has many possibilities for brightening up with thread or more dye , though, so I'll hang it on the design wall for a bit and think it over. It is about 18 inches square.

Dyeing

I got my camera back yesterday. Thanks Jen.


Here are a couple of pictuers of some of the dyeing we did over the weekend. I had not done much discharging with bleach before so that is where I learned the most. There was a soft plastict toy gekko lying around and someone had the bright idea of using it as a stamp. It worked so well! Everyone went home with a gekko bleached on dark fabric, surrounded by leaves also used as stamps. The effect was beautiful. You can see one on the black fabric on the lower left rung.

Katherine discovered that if you fold fabric as for tie dyeing but dip half in bleach you also get an interesting effect. There is a particularly nice one on the left side in the middle.
I will be doing more bleaching if it ever stops raining around here.

Still Here

I am still here but have been very busy with not much time for blogging.
Last weekend we went to a friend's Artists' Weekend. I taught fabric dyeing and discharging. It was lots of fun and I probably learned more than I taught. There was also floorcloth painting, pottery making and a Raku firing in the evening. There was lots of good food as there always is when it is potluck. The only bad part is that I forgot the camera there so I can't publish any pictures until I get it back. Hopefully,that will happen this week and I'll show you some of the amazing work that was done.

Toy Sewing Machine

When we cleaned out my Dad's house I got this little toy sewing machine. I'm not sure how old it is. It was around when I was young and I always wanted to sew with it but never managed to make it sew even one stitch. It doesn't seem to have a bobbin but maybe it never had one. It needs a good cleaning and then it will look cute in the sewing studio. I tried to take a picture with my hand to show the scale but the camera chose that minute to run out of battery. It is about 7 inches high. Unfortunately the little knob that used to be on the flywheel to turn it is missing. It has gold decorations that may show up more when I clean it. I am wondering if I should use oil or soap and water to clean it. Anyone have any experience with cleaning something like that?

Thanks

I am overwhelmed and very grateful for all the sympathy I have recieved from you all. Thank you so much.
My two sons, as eldest grandchildren prepared and read the eulogy at the funeral. It was very well done so I am adding it here so you will have an idea where I come from.

Grandpa’s Eulogy

Grandpa was born in 1914, one generation removed from Ontario Pioneers. The house he was born in still stands. And he was a beautiful baby, as we all know. How do we know this? Grandpa told us. How did he know? He knew because he won the ‘Most Beautiful Baby’ contest held in the Tobacco Creek District. Think of that, the most beautiful baby in the Tobacco Creek District… and that was back when there was some real competition!

In 1920 Grandpa started school in Tobacco Creek. Sorry, ‘Tabaca Crick’. Who says Canadians don’t have accents. It was the same school that his mother Blanche began attending in 1894, and it was the same school that all his children would attend some years later. Grandpa was a good student, but the ‘Most Beautiful Baby’ didn’t turn into ‘the best student’. In those days, student’s grades were ranked and printed in the newspaper. Grandpa’s name was not at the top of the list. In fact, Grandma’s grades turned out to have been better. But as Grandpa always said, his exams were harder.

In 1929 Grandpa completed his studies, and started working. And by working, we mean working. He started as a hired man for Vern Devins, and later worked for Geordie Gibson. These years were hard, but he loved them. Or at least he loved talking about them. It was the age of the horse, and Grandpa was a horseman. He lived through the horse age, the steam age, the machine age, the space age, and the computer age, but the age he loved the best was the age of horses.

In 1940, Grandpa married Annie Corden after a whirlwind courtship that lasted just 4 years. Although they lived only a few miles apart their whole lives, they didn’t meet until they were in their twenties, when they started going to ‘House Parties’. House parties were a prairie tradition, a tradition that would be maintained with a new twist by Ron and Darianne, who started the ‘Hot Tub House Party’. I don’t think Grandpa ever attended one of those.

The first time Grandpa went over to meet Grandma’s family, he told them he could play piano. Unfortunately for Grandpa, they had a piano. Let’s just say he wasn’t asked to give an encore.

Grandpa loved to tell how when he was courting Grandma, he was supposed to leave the house by 12:30. So when the clock struck once at 12:30, it was time to go. But it also struck only once at 1:00. And it only struck once at 1:30. So that was an extra hour together! But he really had to be gone by 2:00, or there’d be trouble!

Grandma and Grandpa spent the forties farming. After living briefly in Elmwood, they worked several years managing the Earl Collins place. In 1945 they rented 3 quarters from Bob Cruise, and farmed there for 3 years. They next rented Uncle Sam’s place, and moved there in 1950.

Oh, and by the way, they also had five children; Bob, Joyce, Ken, Ray and Judy.

Grandpa was really proud of all his children, as he had every right to be.

Tragedy struck Grandpa’s family in 1953, when Grandma contracted polio. She spent a year in an iron lung, while Grandpa had to manage a farm, a young family and visits to the hospital. Of course, he had the help of his friends and neighbors, and of his children. He would tell the story of how all the kids would get themselves off to school, except for Judy who was too young for school. He would go out to do the chores, and she would wait for him in the house, standing at the window so they could see each other.

I think the thing that Grandpa was proudest of having done in his life was sticking by Grandma when she needed him the most.

1965 Grandpa’s first grandchild was born in 1965 and today I’m up here reading Grandpa’s eulogy. Grandpa had 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and every single one of us has nothing but great memories of Grandpa. He taught us to howl at the moon, he let us follow him around doing chores, he drove us crazy when he had that extra glass of juice Christmas morning before we could open any presents, he convinced us all that if you chewed wheat long enough it would turn into bubble gum (it doesn’t) and of course, he taught us all how to spit. He taught Darianne how to seven-step in the fresh snow, he taught Ron that using your brain was far better than using your back, and I’m afraid he taught Tom to be a farmer. Sorry, Tom, somebody had to do it.

Grandpa loved nothing better than a visit from one of the Alberta relatives. Okay, maybe he liked dancing better, but he really liked it when someone from Alberta came out. One time when Judy and Carrie-Anne were getting ready to head home after a nice visit, Carrie was telling Grandpa what a beautiful day it was for traveling, cool, no rain, but nice and cloudy so the sun wouldn’t be in their eyes. Grandpa said, ‘It’s 5 AM and your heading west. I wouldn’t worry too much about sun in your eyes.’

In 1983 Grandma died, and for a little while the light went out of Grandpa’s eyes. But he recovered, and a few years later he stopped full-time farming and moved into Carman, bringing his house with him. But there was one problem. When the house was on the farm, it faced south, the better to see who was driving by. Now the house was on a nice lot in Carman, but it was facing north. Suddenly, Grandpa’s perfect sense of direction was muddled, and for the first time in his life he only had a pretty good sense of direction, not perfect.

It was around 1987 that we all noticed that Grandpa was spending a lot of time with Marg Keiver. But we didn’t know how much time. After all, Grandpa did have his private side, and he was never one to kiss and tell. In fact, he could keep a secret for years. Mom still doesn’t know what comes after ‘Sally in the garden, siftin’ cinders..’

In 1995, some kids threw a stop sign right through Grandpa’s window in the middle of the night. Pretty stressful for an older man living alone. He called on his neighbor, Moe, and the police came along, investigating, asking questions and so on. Describing it later, Grandpa said it was around this time that he ‘started to feel pretty cool’ Grandpa was the definition of ‘cool’. Never mad, never too up, never too down, he was pretty ‘cool’.

March 15^th was Grandpa’s birthday, a birthday that he shared with our sister Cherie. And March 15^th 2004 was Grandpa’s 90^th birthday, and I think it must have been one of the better birthdays he ever had. We held a big ‘Come and Go Tea’ at the Friendship Centre here in Miami, lots of the ‘Alberta relatives’ were in attendance, and Grandpa got to visit with friends he hadn’t seen in years. He had a great time, and often said how glad he was that everybody got together to visit him while he was still alive, instead of waiting until he died when he couldn’t enjoy their company.

In the spring of 2005, Grandpa’s dearest friend Marg Kiever passed away, and I think for the first time he started to feel old. He still took his nap everyday after lunch, he still loved to hear from friends and family and he still listened to his old-time fiddle music, but I think a little of life’s joy had left him.

And here we are today, remembering Grandpa and what he meant to us. In a strange way, even though we’re all really sad and miss Grandpa already, it’s kind of nice talking about him, remembering stories about him and kind of feeling his presence. And I hope that this feeling of his presence will stay with us all for a long, long time.

Thank you

Sad News

My father passed away quietly in his sleep Sunday night. My brother phoned him every morning and when he didn't answer the call on Monday morning they knew something was wrong. He was 93 and still living independently. He always said that when his time came he wanted to go to bed some night and just not wake up in the morning. He got his wish. His worst fear was the hospital or assisted living. We are all thankful that he was spared that.
The funeral will be on Saturday so I will probably not be blogging until after that.
He was the best of Dads and Grandfathers and we will all miss him a lot.

Silk Painting

I have finished quilting all the backgrounds of the animals and some of the animals themselves. It is at this point that I have to flog myself into keeping at it and finishing the project. It will go faster from here on I hope. I am not sure how I will quilt the barbed wire. Maybe along the wires with dark brown or maybe between the wires with beige. I'd have to go back to Fabricland to get beige thread so maybe that would be the best idea. The sale is still on. Lol.




Here are some silk scarves I painted awhile ago with Dupont dyes. This one was done by painting the flowers with red and then applying clear gutta around the edges of the red before adding shading. The little brown spots in the middle were done using a nearly dry brush and a tiny bit of dried up dye from the mixing tray. For the borders I mixed a strong salt solution and painted it on the border area. After it dried, the salt acted as a bit of an anti-fusant. I like the way the edges turned out due to the salt. Unfortunately, I got a splotch of red in the lower corner that kind of ruined the look I was going for.

This one was done by making a thick sugar solution by boiling sugar water. When it cooled I painted some on the silk and added the dye with a brush. It sort of oozed together and I quite liked the look of it. The scarf is long and narrow so I folded it to show the different effects at each end.
I should have ironed the scarves before taking the photos but they were going right back into the storage box so I didn't bother. Looking into that box made me realize that it's time to get the bolt of silk and dyes out again.

More Fabric

I innocently dropped in at Fabricland yesterday to buy a spool of white thread. What could be more bland than that. Oops! There was a sale of quilting fabric at buy one get the next 3 metres free. Then I spied the lovely Oriental looking piece and I was lost. I got 2 M of it and one of each of the others because the best part of the sale is that you don't have to buy 4M of the same fabric. There was a minimum of a 1M cut but who would want less than a metre anyway. The worst thing is that the sale is on for quite some time yet and I am almost sure to have to go back for more. Oh well, my stash is not all that big yet so I don't feel guilty. It's just the problem of which ones to take. There were at least a dozen others that I wanted but none as much as the oriental print. The next problem is what to do with it. How do you cut into something like that? I was even thinking of some item of clothing like a robe or skirt. Any ideas?

Quilting the Animals

I have finally started quilting the animals. I am never very satisfied with my quilting. Also the horse kept shedding tail hair during the quilting process. If this keeps up I'll have to somehow add a different tail. The cat looks better quilted, the goose at least not worse and as for the horse, I don't think there is much that could be done to make it look better. Good thing this is a wonky quilt and probably destined for at three-year-old. Are you reading this Carmel? Whatever Reve wants he gets. Lol.
We are getting more rain today so the green will just keep getting greener. On the next sunny day (whenever that will be) I will try to get some photos from the top of the escarpment.

The View

Since every single comment suggested leaving the quilt as it is, I began pinning this morning. After a false start (I forgot the batting, duh) I am half finished. I'll finish pinning after lunch but then I need to do a bit of thinking about how I will quilt it. I may try to texture the animals a bit but I've never done that before so I'm not sure how it will look. Of course, I've never done most things on this quilt so that shouldn't be a problem. My three-year-old grandson thinks it's his so maybe he won't be too fussy about the quilting quality.

Clare asked about the view out my studio windows. It's not a very sunny day and two of the windows have screens so the pictures aren't as good as they could be but here they are anyway.


This is to the North where there is half a mile of bush with a deep ravine and a small creek. There are lots of different plants there and it's cool and shady in the summer. Since it has rained pretty well steadily for two weeks, the grass was very long and needs to be mowed twice. This is after the first mowing. All the rows will disappear after the second mowing and it will look like a lawn again. Unfortunately, it has started to rain again.

This one is looking through the screen, SouthEast toward the house. This is the view from the window in front of my sewing machine.

This one is looking west up the hill. It is much steeper than it looks and from the top you can see for miles and miles. We live on the shore of a pre-historic lake bed so it's very flat to the East. Once you get to the top of the hill it is flat again. I'll post pictures from up there another day.

Oops!

I was all ready to start quilting Maggie's Farm. I put it on the design wall to look at it from a distance to help decide what I should do for the quilting. As soon as I looked at it I saw a big mistake. Yes, I forgot to put the orange inner border on the bottom. Don't ask me how that happened. Now I have to remove the brown border, add the orange and then of course the brown side borders will be too short so I'll have to add a piece to them. They are already pieced so I'll have to decide whether to take the piece off and add a longer one or just add a couple of inches to the one that's already there. It will probably look better to rip back and add a whole new piece. The added piece is not that long so it won't be a lot of ripping back.
It is strange how you don't see things until you step back. What would I do without my design wall????

Flin Flon Fat Quarters

The best gift in the world for a quilter is fabric and it happens that there is a quilting store in Flin Flon. Guess what I got for a gift? Right first try. Here are the fat quarters Marcel brought me from Flin Flon. I really love them all but the one with the autumn leaves is incredible. I also like the one with the dragon flies a lot. And the other green ones.


If you had an hour to spare before you had to be at the airport and there was a fabric store very near the airport, where would you spend that extra hour (and any extra dollars you might have on hand)? Right again. Here are the fabrics I got at Fabricland. I loved the way the dotted fabric looked on my jungle quilt so I bought lots this time. It is not quite the same. The dots on the jungle quilt are much bigger but this will be fine too. I'm thinking of doing one with very bright colors again and I hope it will come in handy then. The orange and green fabric looks like flowers, maybe dandelions, and I think it will make great background fabric for more chickens or other animals.

I got some wonderful barbed wire fabric from Nellie at Nellie's Needles . I want to use it for a border on Maggie's Farm so that will come next before I get to cut into any of my new fabrics.

Studio Pictures

I don't have the camera until Saturday evening. Marcel took it up to Flin Flon when he went to adjudicate an art show. Flin Flon is about 8 hours north of here so the scenery is quite different .
Meanwhile, here is a picture of my (messy) studio from the door. He was about to leave so I just shot off a few pictures so I would have something for my blog while he's gone. You can see the split nine patch that I am plugging away at. The problem with quilt as you go is all the hand sewing on the back when you start to assemble it. I also didn't get it assembled very well. Some of the blocks don't match very well but I am sick of the thing so it's getting finished as it is with no ripping out. I really wish I had assembled it and then quilted it as I usually do.
The left foreground is a little corner of my dyeing table. If it ever stops raining I will get to some more work there. The forecast is sunny for the weekend so maybe...

Here's Maggie!

Definitely not the look I was going for. Who knew that the orange would look so much like swirling flames and the fork would look so demonic. Maybe I will make a morality quilt with Heaven and Hell on it. I can't think of any other use for this block.

Country Roads

I was listening to a John Denver CD when I thought that these words would be great on a quilt. I am thinking of trying a landscape quilt. I have a great photo but I need to decide whether to piece the sky or paint it with dyes. I may try the dyes and if I don't like the results go to the piecing. I couldn't wait to start on the letters so here they are so far. I am going to re-do the A in Roads. It's too small, too high and looks too much like an O. I much prefer the one in Take. It's easy to change one letter so I'll do that first thing tomorrow.

Maggie is on the back burner while I wait for some barbed wire for the sashing. I thought I might piece a woman to be Maggie so I did it with the same orange fabric as the letters in the background. I thought that it might work to put a pitchfork in her hand sort of like the painting American Gothic. Sounds like a good idea, right? I'll post the results tomorrow. It's not something that's going to end up on that quilt or probably any other one. Stay tuned.

New Fabric

We went to Winnipeg on Thursday for an art show opening for Heidi Hunter. The link will lead you to her website. Her show is being held at Galery Lacosse if anyone in the area wants to check it out. The show is up until June 9.

During the afternoon I was able to visit three fabric stores. I was looking for a bit of gray to finish my split nine patch quilt (didn't find it but managed to get it together with what I had on hand) and ended up with three pieces that I liked. The green one is actually wire fencing which I thought might come in handy if I ever have to pen in more animals. The blue is shirting fabric and it may end up in a shirt of skirt. I bought it at Economy Textiles by the pound. I also bought a large piece of white for dyeing. Not so interesting to look at but lots of fun to use.




It has been raining and raining and raining around here. We are water-logged and it's still pouring down. We need some sunshine so I can till and plant the garden and we need to mow the grass soon. The forecast, unfortunately, is looking pretty wet.

More Thrift Shop Treasures

Look what I found yesterday for 50 or 35 cents each depending on how old they were. Excuse the horrible photography and the dangling lens cover. I have never claimed to be a photographer, as you may have guessed from some of the photos I have shown. Some of the magazines are Quilters' Newsletters from the last few years. I love finding a big pile of quilting magazines. Even though I seldom follow the patterns, I get ideas for color and arrangements. Also, there is nothing better than a cup of coffee and a pile of magazines to "waste" most of a morning. Add some chocolate or pastry and it's perfect.



This one particularly impressed me. It's from 1989, which goes to show you that quilts never go out of style. I have been wanting to try Celtic Knots and also a stained glass quilt. Maybe when I am finished the farm quilt...

I also bought some new sewing machine needles. The store had titanium tipped quilting needles. They are about twice the price of regular quilting needles but I bought a package just to try them out. Now I have to be sure not to set a zigzag stitch without changing from my quarter inch foot which just has a small hole for the needle, not a slot. That takes care of a needle in half a second! I wouldn't want to do that to a $3 titanium needle, especially a new one.

Maggie's Farm

I decided to go with Maggie's Farm. (Nedra, you'll like this one, having grown up on Maggie's farm.) I will probably add Down On to make it more Bob Dylan.
The dog's tail has not fallen off, it's just turned back from when I was trying different borders. If I can find a wide stripe in brown and white, I'll go with that to look a bit like a fence. I have a red and white stripe but it doesn't look that good because the stripes are too narrow. The fabric that is up there has little stones on it. It will be my second choice.



Here is a scene about half a mile from our house . It is very typical of the prairies. You can see round bales in a row on the left. We went for a walk and picked up about a hundred wood ticks each. The walk was beautiful aside from the ticks.

Cat and Sheep

I changed the bib on the cat but I think Molly is right. It does look a bit like a kangaroo. I'm pretty sure it's the angle of the front legs. I may put it aside for an Aultralian quilt and use the first cat I made.
I have also made a second sheep. The fabric has little swirls on it that don't show up in the photo, so it's a very appropriate fabric. The piecing method matches more with the rest of the quilt than the fused one. I think I like it best of all the animals I've made.



And finally, here is a picture of all the animals and people so far. I might make one more chicken and then I think it's about time to start putting them all together. Now that is going to be a challenge! I also want to make some words to go on it. So far I am thinking of "Maggie's Farm" from Bob Dylan or "Down on the Farm". If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.

How Does She Do It?

Today I took pictures as I made a cat. I thought you might be interested in how they evolve.
I start with a picture, this time from the internet. I don't worry about copyrigt because the final product will bear almost no resemblance to the original. I draw squares and triangles on the picture so I can see how I need to cut the fabric. I love the tilt on the head on this one but that is going to be a challenge to do.

I start with the head, in this case a 2.5 inch square and add white to the corners to make the faces more triangular. The white will be part of the white bib. I decided that I would do free-standing ears so I drew them on the back of a doubled scrap, sewed around the shape, cut them and turned them. Now I will place them on the corners and sew green background scraps over them so the head will look more rounded at the top.

Oh, oh. I have a problem. I didn't leave a wide enough space on the left side to be able to sew the background fabric there. What to do? Most people would take the ear off and re-do it but I thought I would try just folding the ear back a bit. It turned out so great that I undid the other ear and folded it too. Mistakes often turn out to be the best part.

Now I have cut the white bib at an angle and added the front legs. The bib part had to be cut at an angle so the head would be tipped as in the picture. For the leg I took a rectangle of brown and added triangles of green on each side. It took a couple of tries to get the right look. Looking back, I wish I had made brown angles on the white bib so it wouldn't be so square. It's one of those things that you notice when it's all done and think that next time you'll do it diffenently. It would require ripping back to nearly the beginning to change it now.

Now the back of the cat is on. It was a rectangle with a green triangle on the front and then I also added one on the top back to make it look rounder.

Now I thought it needed back legs and front feet. I made a strip with brown and green to sew on the bottom. It took about 6 tries before I got it right. Sometimes what looks the easiest is actually the hardest to do. You will notice in the last picture that I did some work on the front foot so it doesn't look quite so angular.

Last, I made a tail and attached it when I put on the green border all around. I haven't decided whether in the end the tail will go forward around the feet or to the back as in the picture. Both look all right. I guess it will depend on what is in the square behind it. I make the final border quite wide so I have lots of leeway for squaring the whole piece.
When I see this cat online, the square white bib is really bugging me so I may take it apart and at least put a brown triangle on the left side. That would only require undoing one seam. Of course, if I go back that far I might as well do both sides. Stay tuned.

Seven Things

Judy at Judy in the Dyes has tagged me to tell seven things about myself that you don't already know. I guess family members who read this can just ignore it because these seven things are probably no surprise.

1. I am deathly afraid of heights. I stayed at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower when everyone else went up. When I went up to the top of the Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona I thought I'd have a heart attack. I've been that way all my life.
2. I haven't been to a hairdresser for probably thirty years. That would explain the long gray hair!
3. I can't remember numbers, especially prices. I can remember book and movie plots in detail though.
4. I love to read maps. When we travel I always have a map on my knee and check it regularly.
5. I like to tell stories. I used to tell my kids a new original bedtime story every night. We had the same characters doing different things every night. Too bad I never wrote any of them down.
6. I like to draw, although I'm not very good at it. I used to illlustrate stories for the kids as I was telling them, adding things as the story progressed. They never criticized the drawing no matter how strange it turned out.
7. I'm a sucker for gadgets. One look in my kitchen drawers or sewing room would tell you that.

Whew! That was not easy. I'm tagging Meg, Clare, Anne, Dawn,Norma,Debbi,Donna,and Lily.

Dog

I finished the farm dog today as well as the small goose. The dog has a bit of the same expression that Simba gets when he hears the word "walk". I would have liked to make it just like Simba but I don't have any nice blonde fabric on hand. Simba has legs that are a bit longer than this dog. His tongue and tail are not pieced in so they look quite realistic. I make a lined piece, turn it rightside out and sew it into a seam. I really like the tongue done that way.
It's funny that no matter how I plan these animals, they turn out the way they want. Each one has a different expression even if I use the same method as in the two geese.
I have a cat ready to start but I'd like to find some fabric that looks a bit like a gray tabby cat. We'll see.

Geese

I made a goose that I am quite happy with except that it is bigger than the horse. I started a smaller one but have not yet put on the feet. I may also make the tail feathers stick up a bit more so it will seem a bit more perky. I'll save the big one for another quilt. Maybe I need to make Chicken Little and friends.
The batteries just died in my wireless mouse so I am doing everything with the digital pen and drawing pad. I have found out that I am a creature of habit. I have reached for the mouse dozens of times in the last few minutes. I found lots of batteries but of course I can't find two that work.

More Quilt Show

Thanks for all the comments on the quilt show. I'm glad I was standing beside the chickens so you could all see the size (of the chickens, that is!). Most people thought it was smaller than it is.
Since the last few days have been full of meetings, appointments, quilt shows and art shows, I have nothing quilty to show you so I'll give you a few more quilt photos from the show.




You might also want to check out Blue Meadow Designs. They are two former students of my husband's art class who have been featured in several magazines, have written books and designed their own fabric line. Their quilts are wonderful and their books inspiring especially if you enjoy paper piecing. They had several quilts in the show.

Quilt Show

The quilt show was wonderful and inspiring as it always is. There were well over 200 items in it. It always amazes me that a rural area like ours can come up with so many new quilts every year. There are some master quilters in this area including some who have written books and one who is a finalist for applique in that $100,000 quilt challenge magazine. The good thing about the show (especially for a beginner like me) is that anyone can enter and they don't judge the work. I was also very imrpessed with the way it was hung. They managed to put quilts that complimented each other together, making both look better.


Try to focus on the quilt and not on the horrible picture of me. I always hate pictures of myself and this one is no exception. I got a lot of comments about the chickens and many quilters were curious about how they were done.

I love the colors in this quilt by my friend, Jen.


This one really captures Northern Canada at it's most romantic.

This one was inspired by the design on the t-shirt hung on the right side of the quilt.

This one was done by their featured quilter and she used all her own hand-dyes.
The butterflies managed to hold their own even though the quilt is quite small.

I didn't win the bag challenge but I was fine with that because the winning bags were absolutely wonderful. It is interesting to see what different people do with the same bits of fabric.

Animal Farm

Here is the horse all finished. Someone commented that he is robust and I have to agree with that. I fused the sheep but I think I will save it for some different use. It doesn't look much like a sheep with those huge google eyes and also it doesn't match the other animals in style enough. I will look for a piece of quilting cotton that has a sheep-like pattern. Or, if that fails, I'll just use a piece of white.
I went to the quilt show on Friday without my camera but I'll be going back later today for another look and to pick up my quilts after 5, so hopefully I will remember the camera this time. It is very impressive as usual. I am amazed at what a good hanging job they do, putting quilts that go together side by side. It has a very professional look. I'm proud to have some of my quilts hanging there.

Hats

Here is a website that some of you might find interesting. It is called HandcraftedCedar
These hats are made by my niece and I think they are just fabulous.


This one might be my favorite because you can dress it up or down with scarves. Think hand-dyed silk. The two great things about cedar are the wonderful woodsy smell and the fact that it is waterproof.
Meanwhile, I am plugging away at my animals but won't get much done today because I am off to our local quilt show. I am hoping to be inspired as I usually am.

Horse

Yesterday at the thrift shop I found some long craft fake fur. There was quite a large piece of black, perfect for a horse's mane. I also got some yarn for the tail. I have been working a couple of hours on it but there is still a lot to do. I have to shape the legs, especially the back one and finish the background. The legs are quite difficult to get anywhere near right on these animals. Partly it's because they are so thin that there isn't much room for error. Now that I look at the picture, I think I may not do that much more shaping on the legs. It's funny how you see it differently in a picture than when you are worknig on it. Mistakes do show up more but sometimes you see that more shaping wouldn't necessarily make it look better.
What do you think?

Legs and a Goat

Bossy now has real legs and I figured out how to put her udder behind her leg. It took a couple of stitches by hand but they are invisible.
Mr. Goat is going well but I ran out of time today so he will have to get his legs put on tomorrow.
I still have in mind to do a horse and a sheep. The horse will probably be a bay with a black mane and tail. For the sheep I will look among my polar fleece fabrics to see if I still have a bit of white. I know it's not quilting fabric but it looks so sheepish. I might applique the sheep so I don't have to piece the fleece. It would be horrible to piece because it's so stretchy, unless I iron on some interfacing. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'd add some chickens but they woud have to be so tiny to be anywhere near the scale of these animals.
Probably the biggest challenge will be how to fit all these odd pieces together into some kind of cohesive whole.