Carli The Quilter

I have a big front window in my home that faces south east. Its a big window that allow sunshine and heat of summer sunshine to over heat my home. Its got some blinds on it that don't appear to be working properly.  In an effort to save the cost to our budget for air conditioning, I strongly voted for window quilts. Our window is a bay window and thus, its a little complicated because of this, but none the less, its got a window quilt now. This is not the first time, a quilt found a home for the summer over top of a window. But this time, its staying up until it cools off. Its been a God Send new item in our living room. It has allowed us to live quite nicely without air conditioning or the cost. This quilt was a purchased second hand manufactured quilt that was king size and it was so densely machine quilted that it was way too warm for our climate. But for a sun block this quilt opened my eyes to what can be done to upcycle manufactured quilts.  I had several...

Last year I turned my attention to upcycling some favorite fashions into new upcycled garment.  Little did I know that you would spark a return to my high school days of sewing my clothing again. Its a little known fact that in my teens I made money not from baby sitting but rather embroidering classmates jeans with peace signs and flowers. This is what happens to stitch crazy people, they adapt and go all sorts of new and wonderful places. Just like this, I saw some fashions on the runway in Paris on my cell phone Instagram account and went, 'wait a minute, this is not new to those of us who grew up in the 60's and 70's, we were already reusing clothing into new clothing, into cushions and rugs, but back then, people thought we were crazy high on pot as most adults of that time, thought everyone under the age of 30 smoked something and this explained those reusing ideas to spawn in your head, you know the ones you might get if you were so inclined.  I...

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.