Carli The Quilter

Phew , this has been a stretch for me to complete this and attend to the commission art pieces being requested for Christmas! But luckily I had made up Chevron Braid pieces for the completion of my Summer Dresdens and then didn't use it and when I put these together on my new design sheet I new right away it must be. I think it looks really cute and add's a new twist to this quilt version for anyone else who might want to do something unique into any pattern. As you may have understood about me and Good Earth Quilting; we love to recycle and its not only from our new fabric scraps, its from clothing, vintage mostly and I love the old fashioned 1970's corner background fabric for the 4 corner blocks. I used these pressing bars in all the applique vines on the flower border! I am total fan of these Quilter's Press Bars. Here's why: The perform a great function of using up scraps in 12 inch lengths and so you can make your bias vine on any...

I began my Mother's Day with a phone call with my oldest son who called at 7:45 am and I was still sleeping. How nice before I was even awake! Then shortly a few hours later, my youngest called and it is REALLY nice when they call their ol'mama! After breakfast of an egg omelet, thanks to my sweetie!  I began to play with solids from MAP and thought maybe there was some discussion going on between the rail fence blocks and the solids Pam had sent me.   I love solids. You can do so many things with them if you allow yourself to be committed. I decided here with this grouping of colours. Then I cut blocks to fit the measurement of each block created with the rail fence blocks. My squares of solid purple were 6.5 in. squares cut in  half and placed on either side. This is where I cut off the little wee tail that forms on the second triangle added to the new block. I've beens spring cleaning and painting our home and getting into...

Sometimes you feel like your crawling along with so little progress. You know what I mean don't you? Then this past weekend I had two days off work and my mind, body and soul was in 'quilting' mode. But then my hubby reminded me had a trip to town to take care of and it wasn't until 2:30 we were home. My heart was sinking with the feeling like I'd never finish this mega centennial thinga-ma-jig quilt. I was on a rant! I am not angry or anything, just impatient. Suddenly, I had to retreat, go to my 'woom' and settle into a nice little rythum and all would be well again. And I did get into a nice little rythum. The pieced black/grey prints that form the background are good to do, they require patience and allowed me to get into a good rhythm.   So the "Flying Geese' blocks were coming along nicely and the bonus of my flying geese is always the triangle corners become a half triangle pieced block too! I always draw a second line and ...

Hello and so glad you dropped by! I'm so thrilled that people still keep reading and following me. I can't than you enough for being interested in what I do. As you may know I've been a busy quilter working pretty steady on the donation quilt for Town of Smithers to help commerate the 100th Birthday of Smithers, B.C. Part One can be found here. As the summer progressed and I bit off finger nails in my preoccupied state of creative madness. I waited for the blocks submitted by seven other artists who made a piece art for the Centennial Quilt. I fretted, started a new job, had new work schedules, pretty soon I was embroidering at midnight and the wee hours of the morning. Part Two can be found here. My good friend Nola, whipped up three blocks made with crazy piecing and then I started onto the hand embroidery embellishment for these blocks. I began with open landscapes in my brain, but as you know, if you are a crazy quilter, the blocks ...

  Sometimes I just get so excited by working with my hands, needle in hand, stitches patiently settling into their new home on my crazy quilt. I do use a machine occasionnally if I'm in big rush and the item is going to be washed numerous times. But the machine stitches doesn't give you the same feeling of meditation. The stitches slowly and proudly taking their place in my art. Recently, I found a beautiful crazy quilted piece on a Quilting Fiesta, where the work was so lovely, I asked if I could use her photo in one of my posts and this is the post. But first, lets take a snowy walk to my house and see the various crazy quilted pieces made and sold over the years. Such as this one above. Its now in a private collection here in the Northwest. Most of the lovely satin and brocade fabrics are straight from elegant clothing.  Beads, thread, wool and buttons adorn this piece, even my first attempt at 'rauching' I think its spelt like this. The little biege flowe...

I made a comment recently on Debra's blog . I highly recommend it, she is "most def" an addict to crazy quilting. Talent beyond the door for sure and a pleasure to read her posts on my favorite theme. I made a comment about how much I love to use black and very bold colors.   Most of my work in crazy quilting has been reaching back in time and finding those colors that make a quilt pop and I think black is one those colors that makes a quilt pop. Its like this crazy quilt below, its yet unnamed ? As of earlier in 2012, I didn't have a name, but its now its called "Tropical Sunset" Working on this crazy quilt blocks keeps my fingers well used for the hand embroidery involved with the Smithers 2013 Centennial Quilt. I don't like boredom in any way, shape or form. I like to have changing colors, textures and highlights that make my mind reel with more ideas! In fact, upon reflection of my photo collection, I can see my Mexac...

 My quilt is done for the Pipeline Art Exhibit around the protest of Enbridge's Proposed Pipeline through pristine wilderness, farms and communities, rivers are our life blood!  My home  is located on the beautiful Bulkley Valley. The rich, alive and responsive Bulkley River runs alongside our river campsite, at our home. I'm so lucky to have such a peaceful, tranquil place to live. We are surrounded by wilderness, ranchers, miners and families. We have plenty of open space, wild areas minutes from downtown Smithers, BC. We have lots of industry, mining and forestry and tourism. We have a few unemployed folks, but most are employed and moving ahead with their lives in the beautiful Bulkley Valley. Unfortunately, The Bulkley River is one of those rivers that you might have heard about that is threatened  by potential spills from crude oil being transported from Alberta tar sands to the BC coastline by Enbridge for freighter trips across the Pacific Ocean. ...

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...

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 ...