Carli The Quilter

Everyone has a different slant on traditional foundation stitches. In this photo, you can see that the yellow ribbon is actually yellow fine gauze type of fabric. I liked it so in it went into this piece. Machine embroidery is another way that you can embellish your cq's with and many it have done professionally or do it themselves. It falls into "machine embroidery embellishment." I don't use a lot of machine embroidery of this a large design, but I think it looks really funky in the right setting. My fish-mates found solace in books on this rainy day of fishing. I turned to my stitching projects. I think this is "true" embellishment in the purchased netting of orange and beige, bottom right. In the center of this cq piece, I've used some sparkly braid from my upholstering materials. It fits right in and with crazy quilting, I do not believe in boundaries. The freedom to create is what I think crazy quilting is all abo...

Have you heard of the Story of Stuff? I'm having a  blast going through all sorts of things in my studio and on my old computer, just to be 100% sure that everything has been transferred to my new Christmas present. I found this and thought it to very poignant reminder that all things go around and sometimes that go around is just a reminder that we all need to make some significant changes in what we buy, what we throw away and how can we all have a novel way to tell others about it. Please visit the web site and founder of The Story of Stuff. My own quiet moment of realizing that I too, have a footprint on this earth as we all do and this helps me to realize the insanity of collecting stuff. Got to Love it, Carli

Summer is fabulous for keeping up with visits and your own vacations. Recently, we had a lovely visit from our son Paul and his girlfriend Melissa. Both live in Edmonton, Alberta. Its quite a drive to our home in the Bulkley Valley. We celebrated their arrival and had such a good visit. And then we went fishing. Little did we know how hard it was going to rain the first night we were there. Paul and Melissa were in the tent on the shore, lovely spot, but proved to be a bear walk and spent that night listened to our dog growl and patrol around the tent. Paul and Melissa kept warm  by the fire and being silly! Even Rusty got in the silly act with her bored tongue look! lol:) I carried on, bug dope on and into the threads, I relaxed and visited on the shore. No fish this trip but a great little get away! Paul and Melissa endured it with such grace and preparation~hoodies!! Thank goodness we had those or we would have been doing some other dance, the mos...

Garage sales are fun, they provide a welcome little look into a person's life. You are laying out things that were once important. And the rain didn't stop anytime soon. More tarps just went up and the wind played havoc with our tarps. The puddles grew larger. By 8 am, we were wondering what kind of a dismal display of 'garage salers' would even come by. We are located 31 km's from Smithers and this is a long way to go. But people came and laughed and talked, lots of stuff went off our property. Lucky for us, our karma swarmed with interest in both our garage sale items and our property. It was awesome fun to give away things, just because and to accept a lower price just  because you knew they couldn't afford anything more.  :) You know? Its not always about how much money is made from your garage sale! Its about community, talking, joking, selling to friends and letting things go. Letting the past wash away into the...

Everyone has to take a  break now and then, don't you think? After all, the Centennial Quilt won't fall apart if I do something else a wee bit, right!  So we gobbled down our breakfast and we went into Houston, BC to pick up a new kitchen range. City Furniture in Houston . Great price, simple without all sorts of gizmo's that require passwords kind of kitchen stove. You know what I mean? Every quilter has to take a break! I insisted that we stop at Houston, B.C.'s mall on Highway 16. Its the only one in town and has an interior walking area  between stores.It a great place for crafters of all kinds to set up a table and sell their wares.  My friend Cindy is off to Africa soon, working on a mission and  helping with many good deeds while there. Cindy and I have a strong bond around recycling, the beaded necklaces are handmade from a women's collective in Africa. She works with A Rocha , an International organization for environmental conse...

Wow, three weeks have gone by since I last posted, the time is flying by so quickly.This is what keeps me going!! I try really hard to live by this creed of Ghandi's. It has a prominent place in my sewing room. It gives me hope, when I have to make decisions that are not popular with others or have to brave ahead with only closest of friends behind me. Please don't think that making a Centennial Quilt is like my own private thing. Its strange, in my own home turf, few quilters have come forward to participate. I'm so glad that I have my good friend Nola to rescue me from the toil of the entire project on my shoulders.  Thank you Nola, you are a trooper good friend! I was chatting online with a friend of mine who lives in Grand Forks, BC. Our conversation made me think of the people that participated with the 1897-1997 quilt for Grand Forks. I was the coordinator of that quilt, but in the end, decided to have my name left off the brass plaque that was ...

Good ideas sometimes come in batches.  You know what I mean, all sorts of great ideas flying around in your head and who has time to act on all of them, so you pick and choose. This project started in my head a few months ago and I needed to learn how a 'stitch along' went. So the easiest thing to do was to jump in a do a quilt along. So I joined up with Carol at Just Let Me Quilt to do her blog hop called "Bowls With Borders" and so do go and check it, it should be a wild and interesting variety of interpretations of her paper pieced pattern called Bowls With Borders.  So this lead me to thinking again about a  blog stitch along and I mused and twisted my mouth in trying to figure out one I'd really like to do was something earthy, spiritual slightly and about empowerment of women!  We women have had a hard time gaining ground in politics, jobs and financial empowerment. But most of all, we are so resilient and provide comfort to many. Our familie...

OK, remember my big mega project? You know I must be a glutton for punishment or something. I am the lead quilter on the Smithers Centennial 2013 Quilt Project. No photos yet of the entire quilt because that is still 16 months away!! But I did have a deadline of June 30th for the blocks to be handed to me from the other 9 artist participating. Then in May one of the artists couldn't commit, then today another one decided that the deadline was not happening in her life either. So there I was in a  moment of heart pounding shock. I stayed calm on the phone, but inside my insides were turning around and exploding! I thought happy thoughts and calmed down. Its still 15 months away and well, I'm up for the challenge. Then I opened my email and there was a nice post from Funky Junk's blog and she posed a question to her readers.   As I read  her post, I found this challenge, I realized that yes, I'd make three blocks for this quilt and I'd do...

I invite you to think back to any time you've seen a crazy quilt? Most people are drawn to the 'crazy' way these special quilts look or maybe the hand stitched embroidery or the other multitudes of embellishments you can buy these days were the creativity that drew you in! Personally, I love the look of the old time crazy quilts with lots of bold colors, endless amounts of hand stitching that really spells out "hand made" and you won't need a rotary cutter etc! For those of  you who have already made one or more crazy quilts, this little tutorial can be a gift to a special friend.  Carli's Special Effects Supplies:  Used top quality evening wear clothing, even flimsy stuff upholstery fabrics of a light texture labels from clothing ribbons, lace, buttons Welcome to this first tutorial of four on how you can achieve a fabulous one of a kind crazy quilt! Starting point! Foundation muslin cut into 12.5 in.squares (Be...