Carli The Quilter

I must admit that when I saw this little pattern in the Quiltmania magazine that originates from France, I was leary. The designer is Maria Tamaoka for Pinwheels and I wan't sure if my North American skills could match the Japanese author who created this patchwork. I went my own way like many quilters who want to create something lovely that is very much their own style from any given pattern. I really enjoyed this Pretty Petals Quilt. And par for the course, I needed to 'see' more embroidery thread and decided a Blanket Stitch was in order. I thought you'd like to see my fishing tackle box repurposed to my portable thread holder, my hubby stills laughs about this one.  I find it a little cramped, its not ideal and would love to have any suggestions? I take all my hand work projects when I travel or even just go fishing. Its a neat way to work on projects when not at home and meet new people! This mini quilt started taking on a

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I was very excited about writing a book as I purchased the copyright to "Quilting on a Shoestring" back in 2003. I was struggling with the cooperative publisher who delayed and delayed and then finally admitted they were in bankruptcy!! That was a tough time for me.  I took legal action to get my book back. I was working full time plus at the time, so the time to rewrite, re-edit, remake all the projects, get each pattern tested, then hire a photographer, I soon found my book in a hole, literally! So I pulled back, took the horse to the barn and put it to bed! In the next 12 years I've learned more about photography, layout, publishing and networking! I didn't realize it then, but I was a modern quilter of sorts with a crazy style and I used all sorts of recycled cloth and I wanted to empower others to do the same.  It was a hard sell to my local area and local quilters. Except those in Women's Institute branches of the province. My lo

I really love autumn colors, but when its summer, I love summer colors and about the only time I give in to the seasonal colors is winter and Christmas. Do you have favorite colors? These Dresden Plates are coming along and you can read this post if you like by clicking on this link.  I love to make a quilt 'pop', you know?  I lean toward the color most bright against the project I'm working on. I don't care a hoot for matchy matchy! In the quilt "Oranga Finished Yet?" I leave the rush of orange to take it to more calmer colors so the orange stands out and makes a statement of some sort. For example, this "Oranga Finished Yet?" is a freeform improvisational style of quilt. In my mind, improvisational work is just that, without a plan. I use all colors in my work, this is part of what makes my upcoming book so different from other Crazy Quilting artists in the world. I don't live my life by the book or craft my art

I know there is some fast and furious debate going on about Facebook and whether it makes sense. I keep up with most of my family this way as we're all over the globe. Plus, I love to see what other quilters are doing that don't have a blog. But its also~learning about new ways of doing things. If you weren't an embroidery nut like me, you'd see this innocent container of threads and such, as a wild leap to the unknown maybe? But if you are like me, its old hat to have gazillions of threads all over the home. I do have a really great husband, now I'm thinking about how much I have "MY" around the house. He's also not on Facebook. And if you weren't a Crazy Quilter, then you'd see this little piece as really scary and click away. But if you just take some small steps, you can do it. You too, can become one of these addicted to crazy quilting quilters and sigh and move on without the fear of the unknown. I work at it to m

Well, I thought most people already knew about QAYG, but apparantly not! When I posted that brief and not at all totally finessed tutorial  at this link. I've used this method for piecing crazy quilts since I made the first one, it seemed to work really good and so then I adapted it to my T-Shirt quilts and many others. I'd been really encouraged by the comments I recieved and so I went looking for others who block there quilts for machine quilting and then using QAYG for joining. So first up is the popular British quilter Little Island Quilts.  If you start using this method, you'll be joining at least quite a few quilters out there who don't really care if the whole quilt is perfectly machine quilted with all the little feathery things lining up. That's just the whole enchalada isn't it, it about 'crazy' as you go rather. Everyone it seams has a different way entirely! This quilter even has a class on Craftsy, go here if you'd like

When I started this a few years ago, I didn't really fully understand the new ideas around "Modern Quilts." I did know I liked it. Something around the randomness and solitude in solid colors can be mystical. I set off to learn about modern quilting like many of you did also. So I just started where I was, with my own vision of what Modern Quilts were and went forward. To me going forward was like making 'crazy quilts' in solid colors or random squares and rectangles. I didn't really try to align my thinking with others or practice with any modern patterns. I've named this quilt "Oranga Finished Yet?" because its been hanging around in various stages since 2010 or so, I started with random solid green, lime green and various orange prints, but soon its took on a real Halloween kind of feel. I quickly diverted on another path and out came the rotary cutter! I rely on my instincts in quilting. I rarely allow myself to see the end

I am so happy with my new Blogger Template. I was tired of the free templates Blogger provides and wanted something fresh and new and I got it. I found Daphne of Dutch Lady Designs in June 2015 and made my decision within a few weeks. It did take time to review each page of the ones that caught my eye first.  I didn't know that my timeline and Daphne's were going to match but she was packing to go on holidays when I first contacted her. Daphne excelled at pulling it all together and got me my first newly acquired template of my own. What a sweet lady to work with, she understood and made all the changes I wanted, installed the new template complete with my Twitter, Facebook, Bloglovin, Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest! Today, Sept 18, she posted another one of her Freebie Fridays! The clipart above is one of those nice floral designs that you can use to decorate your blog. I decided earlier this year that I was not going to try to do everything.

I love to find new people doing some extensive work in embroidery. This next guest is very special indeed, let me introduce Penny Berens of Tanglewoodthreads blog. What age were you when you began hand embroidery stitching? I picked up needle and thread many, many moons ago before the age of seven.  I used to have to embroider tray cloths and tablecloths and napkins as birthday and Christmas presents for the women in our family. What teaching did you have when you started?    It was my two grandmothers and my mother who were my first teachers.  My paternal grandmother was a home economics teacher, though it was probably not called that in her day.  I still have and treasure some of her linens and darned sheets.  My maternal grandmother used to make my dolls dresses beautifully embellished with shadow embroidery.  By the age of seven my mother had instilled in me a love of crewel work which was the type of embroidery we used to decorate our tray cloths etc.