Carli The Quilter

Well, you may not know this, but some of my friends might think I've lost my mind! Remember, this is the same quilter, namely me that takes a little portable bag of hand piecing in my purse all the time and if a few minutes present themselves.... That's right, I don't watch TV or read loads of romance novels or self help  books. I simply quilt a hell of a lot! Be calm my heart, admitting things are good for me! But admitting that I'm already in the middle of the mega project of my lifetime is another thing! Check out this link below to try and figure it out. http://www.azquiltersguild.org/events.php?ID=13   This link might give you and idea, but in all fairness if I told you it wouldn't make the same impact, I'm learning that for a quilt to have that wow effect that makes us drool, you need to build up to the whole quilt, in all its beauty. In this photo below, I'm 17yrs old. I'd have put on something cuter than this old t-shir

Ok, I admit it, I was slightly distracted the past week and I missed posting at least one new post each week. But I had good reason! Our northern temperatures dipped wayyyyyyy down to -38 C and I was back and forth between the barns and the house all week! It was so cold, I couldn't just grab any old  jacket and check the chickens! I had to have: all over my face touque, with drawstring for the tiny opening so I can see then another touque over that my serious ice fishing insulated pants two sweaters under my big yard coat my double thickness work mits my two puffs on my puffer before I go outside at these temperatures So now, you can see why I was a little distracted. I had rest up in between just to do the next shift! But thankfully I'm able to report that we are back to normal winter temperature of -10 C so all I'm back to posting!  While it was so darn cold that going outside was an ordeal, I started into my favorite Quilt Mania magazines. Sure e

This fun bag was made with reuse in mind. I had a bunch of medium sized chunks of various fabrics from a quilt I'd made reusing clothing and this bag wanted to take the stage just as well! I made the hexagon flower for the center, the broken petals around the hexagon are vintage hand pieced parts of a Wedding Ring pieces. The yellow bottom is a small piece from a jacket, quite tough and sturdy. Its about realizing the value of recycled clothing in quilts.  This little quilt is almost entirely reused cotton from dresses and shirts. I donated this to a good cause for an auction. It sold! This quilt is an wool/fortrel table runner. Hand quilted. I called it Poppy Lane. This quilt has become my car quilt, for when its cold outside like today, I'll put it over my knees while the car gets warm as we travel into town. Its made from recycled blue jeans and corduroy, the biege is denim also and the butterflies are recycled cotton from shirts.

Yep, it was just one of those darn things that I should have done several years ago, but procrastinated on it! Our laundry hamper had seen better days for sure. But what to use for it, I really wanted something open weave cotton, but then I came across the fine set of table cloths made from linen. Perfect! Yes, that's my Oh! Canada quilt in the background. Here it is, the offending Grey colored crappy tire version of a laundry hamper. I think this fabric is something that would have gone inside auto seats or something! Really ugly and didn't let anything breathe. You  know what I mean?  I had a major seam which I sewed 5/8 in. wide and then sewn the inside of the seam down with a simple zig zag stitch. The important thing here is to conserve what you have, not buy new, just because its ugly or not totally functional, redo it! Reuse whatever you can, otherwise its such a waste of energy. You know so many researchers talk about the reuse problem facing our nati

Wow, the previous post on this "Summer on the Range" Quilt Along is a very popula. I am so pleased and honored that so many of you want to participate. This is what you need to get prepared! Decide on a group of reused fabrics, new fabrics and these don't all have to be 100% cotton? I often don't stick to using only cotton. What I do is to sit down in front of my various stash shelves and squint my eyes. I see what blends in and disappears, what stands out and what is a group of colors that you really like AND you wouldn't normally place these colors together. This quilt is going to take you out of your comfort zone. Take a deep breath and keep breathing! You'll do fine, the way I love to blend fabrics is all about that, taking a few risks! Decide on what size of quilt you want to make? Decide if this is for someone else or for you? Decide on what size of a Dresden Plate you want to make? http://goodearthquilting.blogspot.ca/2012/02/carl

Over the holidays, I read through various quilting magazines as I usually do when kicking back and sipping tea while the snow falls outside. It hit me like a ton of bricks, I was left with a profound feeling of the "sameness" in each magazine.  For a look at some awesome new patterns from my friend Laurraine, click the link below. http://patchworkpottery.blogspot.com/ The sameness I speak of is the constant over use of single collections in each pattern. Do you know what I mean? I see this as "homogenization" in our global quilting arts community. But do we all want to be the same, look the same, feel the same and behave the same way? I dare say that we don't want that. I recommend creating without a pattern. I'm writing several tutorials and individual posts on creating without a pattern for future posts, stay tuned! Lets start at the beginning shall we. Making quilts began with simple tools. How do you do that? You can