Carli The Quilter

Hi my merry quilter friends, I apologise its been a very busy fall and now into December, its even busier than Santa's workshop over here. My husband is all about the fit and this croch is too low for my man! He likes that they are upcycled jeans, but he's got a paticular fit in mind. I cut most of the seams out of the jeans first, then began laying my pattern piece overtop of pieced jean material to find just the right amount, drape is important, don't cross your grain with upcycled jeans and expect that they are going to work, NOT!  My new Christmas Crazy Quilt is about done, hand quilting around the border and tacking inside the embroidered part of this quilt and hanging sleeve and binding and label to do. I have been working on building crumb blocks and I eventually have enough to make a quilt, this one sewed up in a matter of days, a lovely border is going on to this Dog Bone quilt which is intended for a gift. And of course, I had to take several days and dung out my ...

My cazy quilting has come to pass by me again, like a muse, the crazies are alwasy present and watching me like a crone would do. (If you wish to see a closer photo of this work, click on the image) Have you read anything about crones my friend? I stumbled upon the work of Barbara G. Walker about a decade ago. Women's spirituality is the main thrust of her work and its wonderful to learn more about being a crone yourself.  A lot of my character is based on giving, improving their lives in some way and encouraging women. I used stitching to help teens become more confident and women to aspire to a different calling via stitching.  In all the workshops I've taught, I have enjoyed a group of 5 - 7 women, its seems to be a good amount of voices. I am a women who lives with a man, has raised 2 male children to adulthood and have only a few female friends, but of those few, these women are proud, sensitive, worldly yet a little naive and love nature. Upcycling, gardening, hiking, wa...

 It seemed to make sense earlier this year, when I just gave up on goals for stitching. With working full time, I just don't have time to actually make a deadline, so that went out the window and suddenly I felt a lot better once I knew that the 37 quilts I have in various stages of completion were never getting done it lit a flame under me like no other.  First up is what is now called 2020 Christmas Crazy Quilt and I'm almost finished a flimsy! Finally these beautiful blocks are put together and a border has begun taking shape. I finished these blocks back in about 2015, but with moving 2016 they were in storage and then we bought our home in Duncan, they also went into a drawer. So now, we are making progress. I'll have an improved finish as soon as I can, but I'd say before the end of September this flimsy will be a finished quilt for Christmas Decorating. Happy Stitching everyone!  Hope your Long weekend in Canada is going well and you are sticking to your bubble o...

Hi folks, I am feeling quite settled with staying home and washing hands and of course wearing a face mask out and about. Like many people I watch the news and read details of the various levels of loss our country is experiencing and those other countries facing a lot more sadness. The Unites States of America is not great. I doubt that their has it in him to be compassionate or demonstrate really good leadership quite frankly. With him it sounds as though its all about continuing capitalism. But in the doom and gloom of adapting the deadly virus COVID 19 and bright light has shown itself as the winner of global warming, our pollution is down by recod amounts everywhere.   Who knew that by just staying home we could have that huge impact on our beautful air around the globe? We have known for quite sometime that we were on the wrong road, that WE really were the problem and we are seeing total evidence of this around the world. Just by not driving places around the world we've not...

I love making quilts with two sides of interest. There, I've said it and its a fact. I've made several of them. I like to be able to turn the quilt over and have a different look. This is not a new thing and many of us make two sided quilts. My start on this large Modern Crazy Quilt-Reversible was designed with out any over seam embellishment. Each of the center blocks started with 1 (12.5 inch square) for the back, 1 (12.5 in batting) and then forming the crazy free form topping of each square. I invisioned a center of darker colored fabrics surrounded by less crazy pieced modern design around it in a minimalist kinda way. Borders will come next, pre-quilted before assembly.  They will be measured to fit each side with a corner stone block in each cormer. Then I will have a look at that and decide if its going to be bigger. This throw quilt is going to be a house warming gift in December. I had decided to put one border around measuring 12.5 b...

You know sometimes, I get so excited about making a quilt that I completely forget to eat. I always drink lots of water though and that's a good thing. But today I want to focus on the children learning outdoors. Yes, not in a school classroom or stuffy building, but in the fresh air, learning how to become competant in using tools and experiencing the learning first hand, not only from a book. I support the work of Muddy Boot Prints in Vancouver.  and its my pleasure to make some sturdy, down to earth hard working, pulled through the dirt by littles and loved by all. These quilts are constructed fairly easy beginner style. They can be made using hand stitching or machine stitching. They are truly scraps with no real plan except to use them up and make an outdoor quilt from moving blankets. Simply easy to do and the kids love them, the staff loves them and they are washable to the nines! This has become my go to quilting to do by hand while watching A...

Hi everyone, Its good to be back to the sewing room after a busy summer. I am working on a long time project and determined to get it finished before the coldest part of our rainy winter in Duncan begins. I am making little crazy stitched blocks for a future slow stitching project. I must admit I've been slightly distracted this last year with ailments etc, that thank goodness I had some crazy blocks to embellish and my ankle is finalling healing.  I'm able to start doing more walking, tendon injuries really do take a long time to heal. Embellishing your Quilts Embellishment doesn't have to be going out and buying more stuff! Really people, I find the best embellishments are the fun stuff that fall into your lap and you wrinkle you brow and go wtf, could it work?  As you may know, I am not a wall flower type of personality. I will jump in and try out stuff that may not have been tried before and why not, just because I can. Its my therapy t...

I just love crazy quilts. This 32 1/2 in square quilt is one that again, I worked on over years.😊😊 I believe I started the centerpiece Heart back in 2006 while recovering from total knee replacement. The hand embroidery was a fun activity in between all the exercises in recovery.  I did Feather stitch across all the seams on the heart shape. Then I was stuck with what to do for the continuing project.  You know how that goes. But as time went on, I discovered the beautiful rust colored satin in a vintage thrift store and I knew the next stage immediately. On this Heart Crazy quilt, I actually combined braid piecing in the heart, not crazy at all, but then the stitiching helps to pull all that into focus. You'd hardly notice the variance if I hadn't brought it up. Nevertheless, its taken to a new home with gusto. As always I love the autumn colors and so does my sister who this quilt was made for and delivered to her recently, therefore I...

I have just decided that the time has come for me to start really altering some favorite shirts purchased recently that when laundered they shrunk up and became too short for me to comfortably wear. You know? And I have become inspired again! My time these days are less frequently allowed for working on finishing quilts is coming along too. I have made progress on two wedding gifts from one of the weddings from last summer. Love birds requested two table runners. This blue and red zig zag is coming along. I think its just about ready for machine or hand quilting and I haven't decided on which for those yet. And I've finally begun playing around with the Japanese 'Boro" form of quilting and big stitches that I new I'd to love to do. And my son's childhood sewing project that I have begun to crazy quilt around is on the table again with more improvements that is going well.  Photos on how that progresses is coming alon...