Carli The Quilter

Let me tell you something funny. The bins and boxes of quilting supplies and fabric chunks of all kinds were going into the bins beginning in the summer and fall of 2015. I began culling the supplies I decided to pass on to others. On one of my trips into Smithers, I pulled up to the thrift shop back door unloading area and a helper came out. She took one look at me, turned around and closed the door.  I thought that was a little wierd reaction, but wasn't going to worry about it. I was far too busy to worry about a door closed in my face. I placed with my boxes onto the table at the back door and suddenly the woman reappeared with a few more ladies in tow.  She came out and explained to the other women 'This is the lady who made the centennial quilt' and 'look, she is giving more fabric away again!" She then went onto explain, that they started noticing an increase in their sales of fabric pieces and wondered if a quilter had died! We all had ...

Wow, I'm so flattered. Thank you so much readers and Internet folk that find me and my blog Good Earth Quilting.  My 2004 Award winning "Silver Linings Crazy Quilt" It was the simple win of that quilt that made me start looking around online for something I could I use to share my quilts.  And here we are 15 years later and going strong online. Do you remember all the histeria around the clock turning over in 2000? I was working full time back then, I remember working on the border pieces, hand embroidering on my coffee and lunch breaks. It must have been soothing for me during that time when the student I worked with was a true challenge to remain calm and nurturing for her. As my little light began to shine, I began to find my niche. I'd love to read about how you found your niche? And so, to the changes coming to Good Earth Quilting. I'm working behind the scenes on an e-book that I hope will be out before Christmas and I'm wo...

I'm outside lots this year and it feels so good to get outside and play in dirt!! Spring is here and we're  busy outside with gardening and camping! I can't remember if I have already posted this, but these two wall quilts are made by me for my friend Myrtle. Myrtle hand beaded the owl and flower, both of these are going to Myrtle's grand-daughters. Lots quad riders checking out the river a few weeks ago. No more ice on the river, just its usual spring run off water event as in the little ditch run off by Quick Station Rd. Then new stuff with angels in mind is on my design desk . And I'm finishing up a Christmas gift for my son, Jon as in the photo below! So this is all for me today. I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Network. Happy quilting and gardening folks! Carli

So pleasant to sit down and read my first email that I had one two lovely patterns over at Geta's Studio! I've been really intrigued with her patterns and wanted to try something, but I thought, "Darn, I'm not buying anything new until my challenge is over on June 30th, 2014. So delayed and then she  had a giveaway posted and I entered myself with my gmail address in the post as I'm a no-reply blogger. I fell in love with this pouch purse and so its my first choice of two patterns that I could pick for free! Then I also really saw possiblilities in this one up next! If you haven't found this Romanian Studio , then you are missing something! Geta's work is impeccible and her insight into sphere styled quilts is remarkable. I recommend her work and hope you can find the time to visit her blog.

Spring and summer, all at once has arrived in the Bulkley Valley . In this photo, I'm sitting in my living room looking out onto our back lawn. Our two storey workshop/rugged shop party place and huge upper storage area sits resting beside the Bulkley River.  We have decided to move to Terrace, B.C. and we're hoping that you might like to help us? Rick is my #1 handy man, dinner maker and house husband! He's keeping our property looking lovely. And you remember in an earlier post of the broken dish mosaic I did on the kitchen back splash? Not to mention the awesome Dresden Plate quilt I did? My favorite thing to do is to crazy quilt!  I ts part of my DNA I believe. Its so relaxing, creative and attention grabbing, why wouldn't anyone do crazy quilting? I know, its all that fussy, irregular, not precise bit of the work, right? We all have our 'things' that we do love and no one really gets it outside of another crazy quilter! ...

You know I live in the boonies and I love the simple life of raising our chickens, tending to and mucking out the layers three times a year, its about being close to my food! I'm a modern quilter and really excited about our upcoming September start back at quilting with other members of the BV Modern Quilt Guild in Smithers/Telkwa and my friend and one of our members is Kirsten, who's  fish biologist by day and damn great cook by night! This is her second quilt and one of her modern ideas, can hardly wait to see how this turns out.  I like basic food, without preservatives, raw is preferred except mea t and potatoes. A view of our garden.   My  hubby Rick, with a 27 lb spring salmon, caught moments before this photo in the Skeena River. But what about cooking in the boonies. Which when you live northern life, often the boonies where you live and cooking has to be superb and gourmet, even in the boonies. I recommend you che...

Our local community of Smithers , B.C. is a busy, energetic place in the summer. Our local BV Farmer's Market opens on the Saturday before Mother's Day each year. Families, locals and tourists enjoy the Highway 16 location rain or shine! Once every two years, our local Smithers Art Gallery hosts a local quilt show. Locals this year will gather to drop off, help out and celebrate in the wonder of local talented quilters on June 30th with meeting and handing over families heirlooms and recent completes.  No one really cares what your level of quilting competency, just so long as you've made a quilt, we're good. We're a lively and laid back group of people who inhabit this region. Multicultural and first nations live side by side. We're miners, loggers, business people, artists and sport enthusiast alike.  We don't hold too many airs of our thriving community in the midst of changing environments, threats to  habitat, sluggish economy or glo...

One of my favorite colors is purple. I love deep dark purple, burgundy and deep rust colors. In 1985 I created quite a stir for my own wedding dress that had deep rust colored velvet in the bodice. Meadow flowers danced on beige background cotton, low bodice with laces on the front of the bodice. It was not white! So how I came to be inspired to make the Purple Crazy now in a private collection  here in the Bulkley Valley. See the center of this block with the "winged dancers" with a multi colored background? The slight purple colors in this background was the start of the choices I made along the way towards the finished quilt. As I have progressed with crazy quilting, I have become less focused on following the seams with embroidery or other embellishment. I tend to let go and fall off the seam into the main area. Following your bliss is an excellent start, reusing embellished clothing items is a handy way to import some embroidery without the time to do ...

This little quilt became a winner for me! It was made a really stressful time of my life. Without going into all kinds of this and that of why it was a stressful time, trust me, it was! I was struggling to find solace in my life. I don't have daughters and sons were only so interested in quilting. My husband married me without knowing the quilt addict that lived inside me would erupt and take over many parts of me.  This quilt is special because its one of the first quilts that I made using only cotton fabric. Most of the cotton fabric had  been hand me downs from wealthier quilters than myself. I could buy new fabric and make lovely quilts as is evident in my batik paper pieced center piece below. It was 1997 and I had had a major run in with the Quilt Police! I admit it, I was a newby and committed a big crime in my new quilt guild at the time. I had used thrifted cottons! "You can't be a quilter using thrift store crap" one whispered! ...

I'm had a bunch of things on my plate lately. I'm an active long time member of British Columbia Women's Institute, I reside in the Bulkley Tweedsmuir District and I'm VP of our rural Quick WI. Having said all this, what does it all have to do with my plate being full. 1. I am the lead and chair of the Smithers Centennial 2013 Quilt Project, which is 11 artists collaborating on a block of all different sizes which will form the center area of the Centennial Quilt. It takes planning to keep all the balls in the air for this one. Its the big mega project that I eluded to earlier in the year. I have one completed block turned in to me which I'll share just bit of it so you can get the gist of what we are doing. http://www.smithers2013.com/ 2. Annually, each of our BC Women's Institute districts hold a Spring Conference around this time of the year and this year ours is in the lovely little town of Hazelton, BC. Delegates and members from the Sout...