Carli The Quilter

We are helping to tidy up my father in law's home and get him settled into a new home. Its tough, not easy to deal with and we are trying our best to hold down all that we have going on. But thank you for all the kind comments on my spring posts, its been kinda dismal in terms of my stitching, nothing really new, just a bunch of little pages for my weight loss journal. The following pages are some of what I've been mindlessly stitching out the stress of these times. Rusty is aging fast and this is a common view of Rusty whenever we find a shady spot to sit and watch the waves come in. She is 14.5 yrs old this year. We are taking time in small bites to reset our extra busy-ness this summer, elder care and a wedding, its way too busy. Happy quilting everyone. Carli  

This year end post of the most "unprecedented" year of 2020 is all about the various stitching projects I started, are in WIP's or are completed. I also drift into the topic of coping with COVID 19, self isolation and the nasty year this has been for many folks worldwide. Its a bit chaotic in its presentation. We had our 1/2 hr outside masked visit to deliver gifts to our family and friends on Christmas Eve.  I am writing this from my living room. Its quite cozy on this chilly wet day in Duncan, B.C. My sweetie has his playlist for 'Relaxed' playing and the fire is cracklingh on the big screen T.V. I have felt all this year that I hadn't really kept up and made many things this year, but as it turns out this photo reflection is only part of my year. I was so busy, I missed photos. This quilt below is one in my collection. Its called "The Happy Quilt." Some quilts you just can't part with and they must remain beside me. This is one of them. The ce...

Hi and welcome to my blog! If you want to start right now making a crazy quilt block use my tutorial link below. Crazy Quilt Piecing Tutorial No planning or real decisions should go into making a crazy quilt block. This is of course my opinion and each one of us makes different choices along the way, I just plunk down prints or plain fabric scraps that appeal to me, onto any sized foundation fabric and I get busy. Its important to have less bulk when machine embroiderying or using a regular sewing machine to do some fancy stitches along the seams. Once your original crazy pieced block is finished to your liking, then I pull fabrics to place around the block to proceed with finishing. At this point its just like you are finishing a regular quilt block or top. I usually try to make the border big enough that the center block is nicely framed. This alternate color print is too much for this block, it loses its loveliness in the busy print as seen be...

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...

Last summer was one of the busiest on record, buying, moving and two weddings! While the summer was very busy, I started on some more autumnal colored circles for the first table runner for Monique. You know I've recently had to put them aside as its all way tooooo addictive. Who knew I'd love hand applique of simple circles, as much as I do? And her husband to be wanted something in red and blue.  And as I look back on it, its a total wonder how I managed to make anything with my sewing womb a total uproar. I'm culling and giving away to local good charities and still I have too much stuff! But this Denim Wedding quilt was a 2017 finish and it completely went right by me!  Again, between moving and then buying, it was a hectic summer and I envy of you quilters who are so organized. But slowly I've gained ground with all this culling, its actually quite freeing and is allowing me to focus on what's important to me. Getting out into the na...

I am happy to report progress is  happening on several projects. Fall is upon us now, suddenly summer went without so much as a "see ya later" as I lay my head down to sleep one night. The  next day it was fall. I know my hubby will laugh and say "You always say fall is here and its only September!" but my bones know for sure. I have decided to add my contribution over at AHIQ:Improvisational Quilts to this year's challenge. Map Challenge. You can tell its fall with this awful photo! Dark, grey days of rain is the only outside light and my sewing womb overhead light sucks! These blocks were just the beginning of my expression of Mind Mapping trails of my childhood. When I started this challenge, I was thinking memories of my fond days as a child walking and playing in the wild bush of Northern B.C. Its that time of year when dog pads need to be refreshed, cleaned and repaired. Rusty seems to need a little help with positioning. Her lates...

I've had the beginnings of this modern art project sitting around for eons. I decided it would be perfect for a Halloween quilt. I love free form quilting, I really do. It leaves me open to other possibilities that don't become apparent until you sit down and focus. Now, you might think that this looks kinda crazy right? I've not decided if the Modern crazy patch making of fabric is the same as real Crazy Quilting. What do you think about making of fabric from scraps and do you think its a kinda crazy? I'm finishing this one today. Check back tomorrow for this gorgeous and creepy finish. \ Happy Quilting everyone!

I'm on a UFO busting assault on the blue bins. I have reached a point in my life where what's around me must reinforce my life in a positive way. Part of me feels that if I'd really wanted to finish them I would have done so long ago. I'm designing behind the scenes and writing stuff that makes me happy.  Some of these UFO's are just going to have to find their way without me. You know what I mean? I'm really serious quilters, my UFO's must go out into the universe.  I've left those memories aside along the path I'm on now.  My life is my own and I can share what I want to do, even if its a bit of a rant! I am not seeing a clear path, but a path has opened up for me and things that don't simply move me forward with new ideas just cannot stay any longer. Read about this lead up here  as I tried to convey how many beautiful half done or almost done projects. Oh my Lord, I need some Blogger Love quilters. This long...

When doing photo transfers, I usually have no issues and even years later the transferred photos are beautiful. At first, my anxiety was huge, worrying how the heck I'd ever make it look like the new quality it started with, but thankfully, my son talked me down to a normal level of anxiety. You know just the kind of anxiety felt when you're in the middle of big project and something goes wrong. So this is the problem. In this photo below, the red color from previously sewn on playing cards ran into the white fabric from several drops of water. Its shaded and looks worse than it is in this photo, but the local photo transfer business was not at fault, it was the company I used in Smithers that had obviously forgotten that my playing cards transfer MUST be properly water proof and of an excellent quality for my commission. I have my work cut out for me now! I've been slowly but surely hand extracting the tiny stitches around each one of the playing car...

I've just spent some quiet time this Christmas Eve morning reading posts from all sorts of blogger's that I follow. When I look back on this 2014, I declare that it was a year of hits and misses. I am very excited to have found many interesting and lovely people who crazy quilt.  I am sorry that I simply lost track of my own hosted Crazy Quilt Along 2014, but hope to do another one in the future. And I know many crazy quilters follow my blog and would heartily join up again.  I did intend this one to be finished with scrappy dresden plates happily playing alongside daisies and it still awaits my ability to work on them. I love this photo of carved faces in cottonwood trees I found along the trails of Riverside Park in Terrace, B.C. I enjoy traveling in our truck and camper.  And then the numerous crazy quilted projects await me too. My life has taken a turn of reflection and has slowed down. There is no other alternative when sciatic nerve p...