Carli The Quilter

Finishing Hand Embroidered CQ Block Quilt Tutorial If you are a crazy quilter beginner and you've got a CQ block started somewhere, take it out and use my hand tutorial for finishing a CQ Quilt or Block with batting and messy background showing and its kinda bulky. Of if you are a new-to-sewing and want to get your stitching fingers tuned up, this is the tutorial for you too. This is the tutorial for you! And when you are done, please post your work on Instagram using  #thegreatcrazyquiltalong When you comes to sandwiching this bulky CQ Block, I always add more batting to the border for instance, like this as seen below finished and the 2nd photo of messy stuff backside. You can't quite tell from this photo, but the red border is quite puffy in between the machine quilting leaf meandering along is kinda like trapunto-ish. This Silver Linings Crazy Quilt was the first quilt win that got me so excited. This quilt has many unique featu...

Hi everyone, Its good to be back to the sewing room after a busy summer. I am working on a long time project and determined to get it finished before the coldest part of our rainy winter in Duncan begins. I am making little crazy stitched blocks for a future slow stitching project. I must admit I've been slightly distracted this last year with ailments etc, that thank goodness I had some crazy blocks to embellish and my ankle is finalling healing.  I'm able to start doing more walking, tendon injuries really do take a long time to heal. Embellishing your Quilts Embellishment doesn't have to be going out and buying more stuff! Really people, I find the best embellishments are the fun stuff that fall into your lap and you wrinkle you brow and go wtf, could it work?  As you may know, I am not a wall flower type of personality. I will jump in and try out stuff that may not have been tried before and why not, just because I can. Its my therapy t...

As the last bit of a chill is hovering over the Cowichian Valley, the ground, plants, trees and birds are just bursting at the warmth of spring to come. Its just not planting weather yet. I have been enjoying my altered clothing experience! I highly recommend it for anyone who knows how to sew! The purple/blue plaid shirt purchased from Hudson's Bay store in Victoria shrunk badly after the first wash. I love these colors and wanted to get more use from brand new shirt. The shirt after washing and hanging to dry was too short. I didn't want to lose the cowboy shirt rounded front style but I think most of us would prefer a little more belly coverage than this length offered me? This upcycling adventure was not the first altered clothing I had done since in my late teens. I learned upcycling from a German trained tailor while living part time on Long Beach before it was a National Park. I was quite dissapointed when I took this shirt out of the washer. I ...

Hi everyone! I woke up this morning in the Cowichian Valley to a chilly -5 C. I know to my northern friends this is "no big deal" of any real kind of chilly. But to me who craves less cold, its a chill! I was up this Monday morning to the visit my new quilting friends, women of a wide age category, wide experience in all forms of quilting and many that are Canadian Snow Birds. But none the less, they are now my support for conversations, questions, idea exchange and sharing of our mutual love of quilting! But alas, time is getting away from me again. Up first is my finished on my dining table from last week. My African Violet Craz Quilt table runner. My husband now affectionately calls it the Black Hole table runner. Over the weekend, I did get some time to actually get started on the finishing of this Mexacali Heat Quilt. I have begun making the Nine Patch Blocks for the broders. As you can see, its coming along. I found that as I cut, se...

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...

I encourage anyone to have a photo transfer done for an upcoming quilt, Its so easy and I prefer to use a professional embroidery company or sometimes, its a dry cleaner or others. Photo transfers when done properly by a reputable company is a great way to share photos in a quilt. But if the company doesn't use inks that are NOT water soluble, then they will run into your quilt. So when I get up north again, I'll be going back to this company who has cost me 17 hrs of unpicking on a commission project. I'm breathing a sigh of relief after the nasty offending playing cards that are made from regular ink and water soluble OUT of my flimsey. I'm recreating a poker table including cards, chips and Royal Flush, I discovered the offending ink well into this quilt. And so the rule of the day, check your photo transfers for water solubility. I'm really enjoying the Rail Fence Blocks that Sujata Shah has written about in her new book "Cultural F...

Pheuff!  We had the most wonderful Christmas with our family. We reserved a local lakefront cabin for our sons and girlfriends, we had such a great time and I received such enthusiasm from them about my blog! Its really nice to have this support and encouragement.  I'm hoping all of you are ready for a great 2014! I've so much on the go and in progress and the planning! Wow, even my husband is impressed with my planning abilities and I'm grateful to have a great hubby who takes my hand and leads me to an improved planner relationship with my work. And so in the planning is my recent decision to help out with the lovely Monika of My Sweet Prairie blog . Now if you haven't seen her work, you are in for an extraordinary look into a busy full time Mom and artist who portrays our Beautiful Canadian Prairies in thread! Things like this. So who are you? Canadian Fibre Bloggers are called to attention . We'd love to profile you, your work, your...

 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

Come on now, lets pull out the box or the bin with those quilt tops resting and waiting for completion? I tried in 2011 to complete 11 UFO's and I did manage to get quite a five done.   I needed to be reminded of what I actually did complete this past year! I needed a little extra encouragement to go forth and tackle the ones in waiting. So far, the angel quilt and the blue jean circle quilt and the bastardized Mosaic Tiles quilt are the only ones that are finished. I was inspired by  Patchworktimes.com and her challenge of committing to complete UFO's. I did get the machine quilting done on the green log cabin round robin quilt and machine quilted on the colorful log cabin/drunkard's path quilt. They need only the binding, so if I get cracking, I can have two more in 2011. But I have several on the go and not complete. Here is my 2012 UFO List to complete: 1. Merry Modern Christmas (below) is a table runner that will have addit...