Carli The Quilter

Louisa Quilts: A Quilt for Canada Day Louisa is a former teacher and good friend and this gorgeous "O Canada Day' Quilt is in celebration of our upcoming July 1 Canada Day.  I've still wondering who is going to be the first blogger to pop into Nathan Cullen's office in the House of Parliament  in Ottawa to take a selfie with my "O Canada " quilt that is a crazy quilt. Good Luck,something special goes out to each and every one of you who do this, the challenge is on! Happy Quilting! Carli

I heard a knock on the door and we live rural, so when it happens and it surprises you, its rate. My WI friend Judy greeted me on the other side of our riverside cabin screen door. Smiling, she announced she was delivering a birthday present to my door from my QWI Secret Friends. This  beautiful bundle arrived wrapped in this colorful fabric wrap and its such a vibrant color group, its simply happy! I wondered what was inside. It took me by surprise and darn it, that is the idea of our rural women's club's way of bonding. Its total fun! These colorful wraps are made by a collective of rural Indian women who work hard and dream  big! The not-for-profit organization is self-funded social enterprise that promotes income for the collective of disadvantaged communities. The following statements is copied from the web site of  www.re-wrap.com Quote: "Established in 2002 re-wrap is a self-funded social enterprise. We are an innovative and...

We all love fast table runners and recently I decided to make up one of these fast runners. I mean fast! In fact I posted about this fast little runner in several older posts. So just to be familiar with how to get started, this is what you need. 1.     Start with 5 fat quarters, one the focus fabric, 2 light colors and 2 dark colors. Or in colors for an Arctic landscape as this mix of colors!! Using this same technique I made this awesome throw. My friend Anne became excited with quilting, then life suggested a different turn and so Anne asked me to make her a table runner from her fabrics and so this is the where the Blues Three Hour Table Runner came to be. I used Anne's fabrics. If you want to make one of my Two Hour Table Runner , but before you link up, please read on as I've learned a few more things about this technique that you'd value. I totally hate picking out a seam, UGH! But I do this on this block because its reall...

Well, I'm working between outside in the garden and taking the time to rest my back in between. But sometimes its just as good to sit and stitch, this is what I'm working on for hand stitching and catching up on a few projects for friends. I am always looking for ways to reuse clothing or otherwise fabrics. I know some of you don't think its right to call "USED' cloth fabric. But I'm a free thinker and well, I'm writing this blog so everyone can enjoy working in reuse and this is one of my latest portable projects. This is my little "lap pad" that I was given years and years ago and so its kind of crumpled now. I once had a wonderful lady who was a champion hand quilter tell me that to be a really good  hand quilter, you must also hand stitch. Her theory was that the more hand stitching you do, the more you hand remembers the memory of rocking the stitches across the seam. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't but its what I do...

Yes, I decided to join another "Quilt Along" after having such a great time with "Midnight Over The Oasis" by Jen Kingwell from Australia. and my version turned out like this and its finally made it to my pile of "MUST QUILT" I stopped a wee bit earlier than others but it was a great way to participate with a quilt along. Cora's Quilts is doing a fun quilt along, mind you, I'm late joining up, but its fun to go at your own pace and the block patterns and finishing the quilt will be up for longer than the July date which ends the quilt along. I was looking around for a sampler because I've not done a sampler and this cannot go on. I am in and so can you, if its up your alley. I'm busy today while waiting to help out my hubby on our new greenhouse and potting shed. Keep on quilting and thanks so much for hanging out and reading about the unfortunate shop that I won't be shopping in ever again. It ...

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11096833/?claim=8zb3h6ka9dp">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> I've known for a long time that the many quilters I know wantonly photo copy patterns from magazines.  Some even photo copy a whole pattern from a paper purchase and her friend gladly allowed her or him to do so.  This practice has always eked me. I even see it going on with plagiarizing of some online work! I think that maybe I'll have my own work plagiarized like this if I teach at her shop? I'd by pissed big time if I knew that had happened to my work. Wouldn't you? Am I alone in this feeling of giving the author the credit if using someone else's pattern? This is my lovely "Medusa's Hair" quilt. I made in the mid 1990's and was learning how to work with curves. It holds a ton of memories, it even contains some fabric from my maternity shirts.  I don't get it? Why is this still going on? I even ...

Bags are really fun to make and I've got a few on the go in my studio. I'm preparing for some shows for the summer at various festivals in B.C. A friend called and needed some help with a bag she is making, so we got together and quilted!! This is what I call the All Round Great Bag and I'm writing up a bag tute for you in a later post. Myrtle has picked out some awesome colors! And I made my first rhubarb crumb bars in 3 years. Now that I'm not limited to gluten free foods, the door has opened again to some awesome family recipes. More on why I'm not gluten free anymore in another post. The recipe below. As our sewing day whined down, I caught some awesome evening photos of my flowers and lilacs. Then later on I visited another friend of mine and we made cute garden aprons from donated upholstery fabrics. I sat down last evening to start on my some great jean bags and found this nice surprise in a pocket. I checked ...

I'm in a bit of a shock. I moved into a full blown 'Avoidance of Wheat and Gluten" on June 1 2011. I had tried all sorts of other things and was desperate. You know how it goes, your local GP is concerned  but not the authority on everything and you really need to be in charge of  your health. I try to keep the ambiance of my environment pollution free, filled with nature and this is why this event is such an eye opener for me.  I live a pretty clean life. No more Gluten Free Expense! I recently accidentally completely ate an ice cream cone to the last lick of my finger! OMG, I was instantly tense when I realized I'd been yacking with my hubby and usually stop at the edge of the cone and chuck it out the window for the crows to eat. But this time I didn't. I simply forgot. 10 days later, I can still eat wheat. I'm keeping it all to minimum but wow, I'm really in shock that I'm not spending the day with cramps and ...

Yes, I'm up to my ears in scrappy fabrics for another Dresden Plate quilt of some kind. I know its proper to plan first, but I simply don't work that way. I get an idea and run with it to see what will turn out! As summer has begun in the beautiful Bulkley Valley area of Northern B.C. the weather has been its usual unpredictable style and its typical for us to have a wee cloudy June. When its raining, its often cool weather and its not as appealing as when its sandals and tank top weather. I have started with this stack of solids from Mad About Patchwork and I'm really seeing some interesting patterns to play with from this group. AND if you follow this link to visit this Mad About Patchwork, Canadian online shop, you're in for a treat with solid color Kona Flame Cotton on sale with a bundle of , which I've come to really appreciate with this project. I'm tempted to buy this bundle, but have lots to work with in the photo below. I am thank...

Recently, I received an email from one of dedicated readers and she said that I'm still "a no reply comment blogger."  I was quite miffed by that and wondered the what the heck you have to do to get this little item changed. I have sought the help of other bloggers and some gave some good advice, but their pages are often different from mine and with all the various settings one has these days, OMG you can get lost! Then I received an invite to view a new blogger. Happy Hour Projects hosts a information blog on all sorts of quilting, jewelry etc stuff and I started searching her blog for anything she may have written about this "NO-Reply blogger setting" and she did, wow, I've solved my problem I believe.  Adrianne is one smart cookie and I think, if you know that you are a no-reply  blogger, do read this post she posted in 2012 on her blog, it has  helped me. http://happyhourprojects.com/blog-tips-are-you-noreply-commentblogger-c...

Well, the solids are working into interesting Dresden Plates, but I have nothing yet to show you, so I started working on "Hand-Work-Projects" for my upcoming summer of fishing. Thank goodness, that I've finally figured out what to change in my life to help my back, so I can get back to our favorite couple activity of fishing! When I think of hand work projects, I go right to either hexies or log cabin blocks. This was my last effort with hexies, so I've overdue to start of up something with my little hexies and larger hexies as well.  This cute table runner did win first prize in our 2004 Bulkley Valley Fall Fair in hand quilting and hand piecing category. I do love hand piecing as well, as I blogged about when I was working on the Midnight Over the Oasis quilt along with the lovely Jess of TheElvenGarden . This was hand piecing from my start on the Midnight Over the Oasis by Jen Kingsley. Then I fell in love again when I saw this little cutey fr...