Carli The Quilter

Charlene is a sweetie, she is so enthused by all the crafting going on in the Bulkley Valley. She was our lucky winner of our door prize for our 1st. Annual Re-Crafting Fair on Feb 9th.  Her name was picked out of the hat and when I called her, she immediately said she was going to have me do a special t-shirt quilt for her son, Billy. So I started. By sewing down sashing on the sides as seen below to start attaching the same size  blocks throughout this t-shirt quilt.   The finished quilt hung in my woodshed. If you haven't made a t-shirt quilt, there are several different ways you can make a t-shirt quilt. I had the instructions for this quilt "It can't be too girly, its for my son and he's a skier" so this quilt became my opportunity to get to know Billy a little more. But I knew that some fun had to be instilled into these manly quilt despite the  need for a handsome quilt.  So I made the borders something special. This...

I tried  how to take an acrylic painting and put it directly into the quilt. This one to be exact. My poor little Janome was beside herself with my request. First the walking foot didn't like it under foot.  It stuck, snagged and generally didn't want to move with the the surface of the painting. I stopped. I pondered the consequences of loosing my machine. I didn't like that image in my mind. So then I trimmed this next painting that my friend Martha painted and is holding, to more the size of the block I needed. My trimming allowed the opportunity to play with the 'trimmings' from Alpine Al  block that Martha depicts in her acrylic painting. I tried placing voile between my walking foot and the surface of the painting strip. Its sputtered and created an uneven kind of gait in my machine. Then I noticed my needle. I was too aghast to grab a photo of it. I immediately realized my folly was not with the foot,, but rather I was gu...

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 ...

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. ...

When I walk by a thrift store or see a garage sale sign on the side of the road, I have to stop! I pick up all sorts of discard pottery and make new things with it. Yep, that's it, no real plan of it, just to reuse a reclaimed item into a new life. These little pincushions are just that, hand picked finds of pottery that I've remade into a pincushion. I encourage anyone to do the same, they make ideal gifts and are a great seller at a craft table. Plus, there is just no end to what is out there to reuse. Let your imagination go!  I'm sure that these pottery finds are in your area and what an original gift for a quilter or sewer? I came across some of these cute little egg cups that the potter wasn't too happy with and I bought them all from her. What do you think?  This tea cup and saucer sets were discards at the Reuse Shed. Not cracked, chipped or wrong in any way, so they found a new life!  All of the fabrics used are reclaimed from ...

I love a fast and easy way to sew strips and make interesting blocks. This tutorial is a short demonstration of how we can make the process of block building in a modern, fast way. This tutorial will help you step out of the box of traditional thinking about always having everything straight and even and time consuming. This tutorial is just the beginning of using this technique to make fun bags, quilts, table runners and gifts of all kinds. Step 1: Start with three fat quarters, don’t trim, just lay them on top of each other on a cutting mat. Step 2: Using a long enough ruler to reach both sides of the fat quarters, make two off center kind of cuts in the way I’ve done in this photo. The secret to this technique is about going out of the box. Step 3: From the first stack on your left, take the top piece and put it under the same stack. Then on the next stack, take the top two pieces and put them at the bottom of the pile. Leave the third stack intac...

On this past Sunday, women met at the Multiplex Centre in Moricetown to learn more about how to turn clothing into quilts. I arrived, set up and got busy as the women filed in with their gear!    Charrine worked hard on her new bag, applique, pressing so carefully, measuring, all the things we do as designers. Her cape which I forgot to take photo of is gorgeous!  Betty sizing up her new feasting  bag!  Lucy, got right into it and began following my instructions so well, she was done by the end of the day. Making a sweater baby quilt in this manner is so fast, its incredible! Lucy Gagnon, Band Manager was so kind and donated many new fabrics to blend with recycled clothing and donated the lovely conference room for the day. Thanks Lucy! One man Todd Lace, joined us to learn how to make a custom drum bag. This was a first for any man to show up at any textile recycling workshop. I was real  happy to have Todd al...

 We started here on Wed Morning August 24th. We had to sweep and vacuum the whole booth. Unloaded and moved around several times as cleaned. We really like the booth we had this year and will secure it for next year. On Tuesday night, I was inspired to make "Mr. Rooster" and determined that the back of the Bulkley Valley Fall Fair Guide Book was just right for me to start.  I began with free hand drawing the chicken's head parts on the paper side of fusible interfacing. I had turned it over from the side you iron it on with.  As I began cutting, the shapes of his comb and wattles took shape. This photo was really a hen, but I went with gusto into a larger, more prociding kind of demeanor, he who rules the kitchen  house wins, kind of thinking to really get into the head becoming transformed onto the background. This comb and wattles shape on the red fabric "Nature" collection from Cloud 9 Fabrics . He's coming along nicely.

Congratulations to Undomesticated Scientist for entering our little fat quarter draw. Your help was invaluable in assisting me make a decision to use brown as the background color. We're really pleased with all the entries for this competition and please check back for more as time goes on. Happy Quilting!

You know, sometimes it just good to get together and play with fabric. Many of my friends agree. Some of my friends are pictured here with their quilts from a quilting weekend a few years ago, but  had not posted anything about it. What's with that, Carli? The first photo is Joanne with her crazy pieced quilt. Great idea to take the 'crazy star' and make it really crazy in her original style.  Nancy's quilt is part of the Round Robin exchange we did that year. We each started with a 12.5 in. block and sent along one prominent fabric and Nancy's quilt turned out really awesome. Her theme was Winter.  I was the instigator of the RR and so talking about it here, with the Telkwa Mayor's wife in the photo, I'm talking about how RR's can be done, swap blocks, swap rows, swap all sorts of things. My quilt is in the theme of Country Cabin. I'll post a better photo of this one now its all finished in another blog.  Joanne's lovely "...