Carli The Quilter

Well, you all know I love to read about or see something lovely made up from reused materials. Sheila Munro from Nova Scotia emailed a link to me and I'm so excited to see others taking the bull by the horns and reining in our lack of appreciation of quilts made from reused materials. Now, I'm not dissing anyone, but sometimes all I read about its what is happening with new 100% cotton. So you know what I mean hopefully. You may know of this "New to Me" blog called Quilt Inspiration and so these are some of the photos I have not gained permission to use, but I'm  not saying they are mine, they are ladies who also write for this blog I think. Just a little taste of this great article, just check this jean inspiration here. Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off the local pub to watch 'open Mike' tonight. Tootles! Carli

Crazy quilting is not for the faint of heart, that is a certainty! You must be willing to stretch your creative muscles and do things that FEEL right to you, not anyone else.  I don't make my crazy quilt to please anyone or to attract anyone for a sale. They are mine, simply what I love in stitching. I love to play with stitches, like a cowboy with a lariat.   I'm building, growing and listening to my life. Its saying to me, let it go and be free. So these special, delightful bundles are going up for sale soon. The hot new color for 2014 and I'm locating some delicious satin and velvet I have in these colors. Its a bold color that has been in clothing for decades, funny how that is, its now hot!  I enjoy the give and take of reclaimed fabric with "life" in it. Its for a beginner to start with of an experienced crazy quilter to really get into the whole art of crazy quilting. I do speak about the joy of...

Cloud 9 Fabrics is one fabric manufacturer who seems to  have a great talent at picking awesome collections and they specialize in organic cotton. This one is a unique bundle that I bought a few years ago, so I'm sorry that its dated now, but what the heck, new fabric if new fabric, am I right? When I buy fabric I buy organic cotton, because I know the standard are set up to promote growers NOT using pesticides in the growing of the cotton and the milling, manufacturing has other standards to eliminate the less than desirable chemical use. I've made several with these fat quarters and I love the way they feel to hand quilt afterwards. So soft and seem to be just the right density for smooth hand quilting.  Here in this way I've made the Monkey Wrench block into a really earthy feeling small wall quilt! What you have to do to enter this giveaway is make a comment on my Facebook page here. I'm listed as Caroline Heinrichs, Te...

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

My story as quirky as my life is with such a focus as quilting in my life, I'm so overwhelmed with the kind comments, the new followers and to be featured anywhere is such an honor! As you all know by now, the SCQP has been the main focus of my work over the past year. But I love to take a little break and do something that is well, how should I say, less taxing on my brain, my skill and not so stressful with real deadlines! So when my good friend and Bulkley Valley neighbor won the door prize at our recent 1st. Annual Re-Crafting Fair, I jumped at the opportunity to make a T-Shirt quilt. Here's a few shots of the progress so far. While these photos are not my best, you get the idea of the new techniques I'm using to finish a T-Shirt Quilt. If you've not ever made a t-shirt quilt, there are no mysteries  here, its straight forward with cutting the logo's back and front simultaneously in 12.5 inch or 16 inch blocks.  Notice the...

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...

Its quick and so handy for saving money and we all need to do that these days! Check out my new tutorial in the "Sewing/Quilting Tutorials" link to that page on my top bar. All the best, Carli

Last year I was invited to a "Ladies Luncheon" and of course, I went. Well it was truly the most fun I've had in years! We laughed so much some of us had to run to the bathroom! It was definately not a luncheon, but rather a sleep over party till you drop. The silly antics that happened still make me giggle, but it was all good clean fun "girls style."   This shop is located in Prince George, B.C. This year, the luncheon included a road trip and we had to stop at some thrift stores, right? I was looking for some awesome fabric and I found some awesome clothes. But the manager wasn't around and I couldn't take any photos. I've since cleared this up with the Manager who was very sweet and totally understood how wonderful thrift stores are for the variety of fabric in clothing.  Sometimes in thrift stores, you'll find a quilt top, made perhaps in BC goldrush years and is fine shape, It was found and purchased for $5 in the tren...

 Its Valentines Day and I made an awesome little ditty for my sweetheart and then I discovered my digital camera card was full, so off to my hubby's office it went. In the meantime, I have begun working on my totally reused wool project from some time back.  This piece is bold, soft and whimsical all in one. More when its done!  Hope you are having an awesome day on this love knot filled time of the year! Cheers, Carli

This fun bag was made with reuse in mind. I had a bunch of medium sized chunks of various fabrics from a quilt I'd made reusing clothing and this bag wanted to take the stage just as well! I made the hexagon flower for the center, the broken petals around the hexagon are vintage hand pieced parts of a Wedding Ring pieces. The yellow bottom is a small piece from a jacket, quite tough and sturdy. Its about realizing the value of recycled clothing in quilts.  This little quilt is almost entirely reused cotton from dresses and shirts. I donated this to a good cause for an auction. It sold! This quilt is an wool/fortrel table runner. Hand quilted. I called it Poppy Lane. This quilt has become my car quilt, for when its cold outside like today, I'll put it over my knees while the car gets warm as we travel into town. Its made from recycled blue jeans and corduroy, the biege is denim also and the butterflies are recycled cotton from shirts. ...

Over the holidays, I read through various quilting magazines as I usually do when kicking back and sipping tea while the snow falls outside. It hit me like a ton of bricks, I was left with a profound feeling of the "sameness" in each magazine.  For a look at some awesome new patterns from my friend Laurraine, click the link below. http://patchworkpottery.blogspot.com/ The sameness I speak of is the constant over use of single collections in each pattern. Do you know what I mean? I see this as "homogenization" in our global quilting arts community. But do we all want to be the same, look the same, feel the same and behave the same way? I dare say that we don't want that. I recommend creating without a pattern. I'm writing several tutorials and individual posts on creating without a pattern for future posts, stay tuned! Lets start at the beginning shall we. Making quilts began with simple tools. How do you do that? You can...