Carli The Quilter

When I started this a few years ago, I didn't really fully understand the new ideas around "Modern Quilts." I did know I liked it. Something around the randomness and solitude in solid colors can be mystical. I set off to learn about modern quilting like many of you did also. So I just started where I was, with my own vision of what Modern Quilts were and went forward. To me going forward was like making 'crazy quilts' in solid colors or random squares and rectangles. I didn't really try to align my thinking with others or practice with any modern patterns. I've named this quilt "Oranga Finished Yet?" because its been hanging around in various stages since 2010 or so, I started with random solid green, lime green and various orange prints, but soon its took on a real Halloween kind of feel. I quickly diverted on another path and out came the rotary cutter! I rely on my instincts in quilting. I rarely allow myself to see the end...

  I just love working with the personalized history in t-shirts of my commissioned clients. Recently, Victoria contacted me about making a t-shirt quilt for her....she's off to university! I started by stabilizing each t-shirt with an iron on fusible webbing on the back of each logo to be used. This is where it starts! I spend time thinking about the events that may have contributed to the events portrayed in the logo. I use organic cotton and decided that a 'modern' approach to this quilt was needed. I began with piecing varied backgrounds onto the logos in the colors of hot pink, black, light blue and lime green. As you can see in this photo, the blocks sort of take on a life of their own into sections. This part progressed quite fast. Once all the blocks appropriately start working together, then the sections are created waiting for the backings to be created to sandwiching with the front sections! The backing sections grow in a modern way,...

Sometimes, when a call comes related to friends with health issues, its like a 'call to arms'. That call came last year and the members of the Quick Women's Institute, gathered for a one day marathon of quilting! A former member needed the comfort of our love and respect wrapped and stitched into a quilt! Below member Bonnie is pinning the next set of sashing to the sewn row of blocks in preparation for sewing it down and proceeding onto the next row. Our fearless quilting related leader, mainly me, organized a fast quilt as  you go block by block quilt! This entails simply starting with any size of blocks, I prefer 12.5 in squares. Add a 13 in. square of batting and backing. I like to have the backing and batting slightly bigger to offset changes once machine quilting is done. This process is NOT your mama's hand made quilt! Its a fast version that is the one I turn to when time is of the essence.  You start with precut blocks, battin...

This New Modern quilting tutorial got started after I heard from several locals and received some emails from my blog readers that they are confused with the "New Modern Thing" and rightly so. I kind of knew something about the use of 'negative space' on quilts, as in this pillow cover I made many years ago now. Who wouldn't be if you have been learning how to make quilts the 'old fashioned way' and then came along the gadgets, rulers, etc. So I've had some time to reflect on this and did suggest in previous posts that some tutorials were coming and here is one! Modern Quilting has taken a great run at the the establishment of traditional quilters! Modern Quilting seems to be driven by young women and men that like to use 'negative' space in their quilt making process. There is nothing wrong with this, its just what it is. The same rules apply if you are looking for a great quilt that will last many generations and be ha...

Sometimes, a quilt becomes a statement and its not intentional. It just is what it is, you know? My statement became my dedication to completion. As you may remember, I started this quilt in I think 1997, when I took a great workshop done by friend Louisa Robertson. She taught the "Stack n Whack" technique made very popular in the 1990's and its originator Bethany Reynolds can  be found on this site, I recommend it for in depth look of the Stack and Whack creator. ( Note: if  you click on each photo, you'll get a larger image and then all the photo can be made larger from the roster at the bottom of the new screen, simple click the X to come back and read again:) This is me, with my first outing of my stack and whack blocks. I attended the 1st. Annual Quilters Connection Retreat at a farm in Abbotsford. Our organizers and hosts, Heather, Sue and Trish having a good laugh. Just one of the fabulous quilts by Ursula, one of my roomies and ...

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...

A special hello to all my followers! Thank you so much for reading my  blog and being interested in learning more about how to be a green quilter! I'll be posting all the finishes I'm currently working on as they are done. This little quilt is actually my own quilt. Yep after the dozens of quilts I've made over the years, even before this blog, I didn't make any quilts for myself. You know how it went back then, I didn't think about taking photos, that was before I became a blogger! I started this quilt in the 1990's, hand sewing the various log cabin blocks from random scraps. I took this scraps along in a special back pack when I went bar fishing with my hubby.  Then we moved three times since starting this. Then the inner off white muslin border became stained, then I had to wash the unfinished quilt. Again, absent mindedly, I didn't think of the mess of snags from the fabric on the back side. So then I had to hand snip all those ...