Carli The Quilter

I invite you to give this tutorial a go. I open my heart to hand stitching in my desire to feel the thread being drawn through the two simple layers of cotton. This is an invitation to slow quilting. I've said it before, its my therapy. The simple act of threading a hand sewing needle and actually sewing two pieces together is rewarding in a sense of self mindfulness. It became my therapy for this reason. You'll want to assemble at least 6 dark scraps and 6 light scraps. Cut these strips into 2 in. width and carry on, replenishing your supplies with scraps of dark and light, you'll get this organic looking quilt that speaks to somewhere soft and cuddly in everyone. So starting is always two squares any size. In my case, I chose to start with 2 inch squares, one 2 in. square the red color I like to start a log cabin block with and an alternate color, light or dark. In the above photo, you can see the simple running stitching I do with a tiny french knot at each ...

I just love hand work of any kind. When I considered participating with Sew Sisters Blogathon Canada, I wanted to invite anyone who wants to sew, anyone who sews into the joys of quilting. I aspire to become a slow quilter. For me this is where sewing is best empowering to anyone, even those who don't have a sewing machine can sew. Simplicity is where my mind spends time. Using up fabric from clothing, from antique blocks hand sewn by another and miraculously find their way into my hands. Many of you follow this blog and the hand work of embroidery that I do to inspire your own work in whatever form that takes.  This inspires me and around we go. Sew Sisters shop located in beautiful Toronto, Ontario is a shop that is bricks and mortar as well, its an online shop for our pj's shopping experience. For me, living so far from everything, I drool over the kits and fabric supplies offered at their shop.  It takes a bunch of time and effor...

Well, I'm working between outside in the garden and taking the time to rest my back in between. But sometimes its just as good to sit and stitch, this is what I'm working on for hand stitching and catching up on a few projects for friends. I am always looking for ways to reuse clothing or otherwise fabrics. I know some of you don't think its right to call "USED' cloth fabric. But I'm a free thinker and well, I'm writing this blog so everyone can enjoy working in reuse and this is one of my latest portable projects. This is my little "lap pad" that I was given years and years ago and so its kind of crumpled now. I once had a wonderful lady who was a champion hand quilter tell me that to be a really good  hand quilter, you must also hand stitch. Her theory was that the more hand stitching you do, the more you hand remembers the memory of rocking the stitches across the seam. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't but its what I do...

I have a passion for crazy quilting. This is no surprise to all of you who read my blog posts regularly! But do you remember the posting I did on the Oh, Canada Flag Crazy Quilt? If not I'll post you a link later on. Anyway,  I made and gave away my 'Oh, Canada Flag Crazy Quilt' to Nathan Cullen. I knew that as soon as I made this quilt, that it really belonged in the company of a great leader. How I knew this is beyond me. I'm no clairvoyant. Even as I played with the fabric in the creation process, I could tell the quilt was whispering to me, that it was glad I was making it and it longed to go onto to great things. I have great faith in Nathan Cullen, Skeena- Bulkley Valley MP who represents the citizens of this northern B.C. riding. I believe that he will make a difference in our nation. I may draw your attention to the post on how this quilt was made. Nathan is a busy man as you can only imagine as a Member of Parliament of Canada and...

I have had to stop so much hand stitching, so I've turned other projects and I'm now going through many strips and placing them all into various log cabin blocks, check it out here with these photo's, enjoy!   I apologize in advance for this next poorly lit photograph. I am playing around with  making log cabins using 2 in strips from random odds and sods of fabric.   Not much of re-purposed fabric is  here, but you surely good reuse, the basic log cabin block is a great way to learn an accurate 1/4 in. seam, shaping with printed color, its a great way to start reusing. In fact, I've made a few.   This illustration I did in 2004 for a book I was in the process of writing. Then my new winter crazy block peeks out! I've progressed from there and I'll post that soon! Hope your day is going good and that more logs are in the process~ And I'm linking up with Oombawka Designs who hosts Link & Share Wednesday'...