Carli The Quilter

Do you love the look of crazy quilts but didn't feel qualified to make a crazy quilt? I'm here to tell you that I feel crazy quilting can be the conduet to more inspiration into your journey of becoming a quilt maker. Whether you've made many quilts or you are just starting out. Crazy quilts free your mind and your maker instincts to go CRAZY! Its simple and free-wheeling which becomes a simple block of crazy piecing or it can become an inspired landscape, a jeweled beauty of the kind that win awards.  Most times, the only criteria is that each seam sewn is flipped to the good side and pressed. Grab another chunk and sew and flip.  Covering each raw edge is one technique, the sky is the limit.  Adding the hand or machine embroidery is done as you go or after each block is all done. Its your choice. At this point, I'd really like to invite you to check out my Crazy Quilting Tutorial. Make your own one block or a set of 4 blocks makes...

Hi everyone! Spring has sprung in my part of the word and upcycling tops for summer fever has hit my sewing room. This top was a lovely pleated top when I bought it at a garage sale. But alas, once I got home and tried it on, it was shorter and I suspected that was why it was being sold. So onto my list of unfinished things came this sweet top. At the very next garage sale, I found an equaly lovely pillow case in the splatter pattern using lime green, black and white colors. This was a perfect fit for upcycling this linen top by adding in the bottom edge, a slight ruffle was sewn on to being showing just about 3-4 inches. But working with clothing that has already been washed and dried takes patience. Once the ruffled addition was on, I went straight to covering up the machine seam with hand embroidery. Black, White embroidery X stitches across the seam while leaving room for a repeat of a second color. I think it was very effective and I soo lov...

I've been playing with Contained Crazy Quilts for quite some time. I like to put borders around things, its true. I love putting borders around my scribbles, in my writing, doodling around the edge. I really like this border in bold RED and black. Pink Birds crazy block is a contained crazy block, I liked the calming influence of this setting the one crazy block inside its dark beige border. Now, for me to put beige anywhere near by work is a rare thing to see. Beige is not a color to me, I find it all too often in homes these days and can hardly wait to cover it up with some awesome orange or red paint. But this time, for this piece, it just called out for a low key background. Beige and pink give this piece a patient femenine feel as pint sized birds south, settling in like they'd been there all the time! But I'm loving getting back to making fun feminine clothing, some made from "new from my stash" and some upcycled from other cloth...

I just love crazy quilts. This 32 1/2 in square quilt is one that again, I worked on over years.😊😊 I believe I started the centerpiece Heart back in 2006 while recovering from total knee replacement. The hand embroidery was a fun activity in between all the exercises in recovery.  I did Feather stitch across all the seams on the heart shape. Then I was stuck with what to do for the continuing project.  You know how that goes. But as time went on, I discovered the beautiful rust colored satin in a vintage thrift store and I knew the next stage immediately. On this Heart Crazy quilt, I actually combined braid piecing in the heart, not crazy at all, but then the stitiching helps to pull all that into focus. You'd hardly notice the variance if I hadn't brought it up. Nevertheless, its taken to a new home with gusto. As always I love the autumn colors and so does my sister who this quilt was made for and delivered to her recently, therefore I...

We find ourselves in a Global Pandemic. Face mask must help. I have decided seeing I canjot find any face masks available for purchase, I will sew my own. And while you might be thinking the same thing, go visit www. craftpassion.com. They are sharing the face mask pattern for anyone to use for free. Happy Sewing folks. Wishing you all the best, stay healthy. 

I have soooo many things to finish, I don't know if I can even come up with a list of it all.  #FAL2019 really got me thinking. I have to get serious about finishing my work. I confess, I do tend to lean towards eclectic. I walk with my hand of creation diaily and the load gets heavier instead of lighter. When I opened a drawer of two of unfinished projects, I closed it immediately! Phuef! That was close to a stressful moment. I am avoiding stress in any form these days. But after a while, the drawer memory crept back in and I opened it. I need to do that for self protection. Ok, so here is the one photo for now to let you really see my 'unfinishedness" problem. I have been moving around far too much and have accumulated 19 finished tops in one drawer and 27 various bits, blocks and roundy things in the other drawer. Plus upon my tidying up today, I discovered at least that more in another area of my sewing room. So that is it for me. Time to knuck...

I laboured over spoiled images going into the garbage can until I realized that sometimes, its just a great idea for a professional to do the printing instead. So begin by researching and speaking with your local professionals who do machine embroidery as well as photo printing on YOUR fabric.  This is really key, quilters to get a great long lasting image transferred to fabric. Ask them to show you some samples of images transferred.  Ask about the level of qualified staff they may have on hand, this is not something for the newest member of their team to do.  Speak about resolution that is best for them to transfer. In this Denim Wedding quilt, I began with having the photographs selected to actually go onto the quilt. Decide how many images are necessary? Choose photo's that are crisp and clear, not any blurring or overexposure is recommended.  And sometimes you can tweek the photos emailed to you for the project.  Sett...