Carli The Quilter

These times are stressful for sure. I've begun restricting how much news I read and watch! I am feeling like I need to just get on with some special people quilt projects. We are living in times that the prey sought by this COVID 19 is US!!! So telling the most important people how you feel. LOVE can be expressed in so many ways. Crafting, sewing and quilting has always been the way I express myself. So Rail Fence done using Sujuta Shah's method outlined in her fabulous book. The cover quilt is my favorite! So here goes, the happy, heartfelt Rail Fence big picks of lights and dark fabric for what will end up measuring 116 inches square. And gor thise if you not following me on Instagram @carlithequilter will not know about the County Clair hand pieced blocks I've also begun in next post. Happy Quilting!!

As you know, this fun quilt began coming together in the early days of 2017. I did start hand appliquing the Dresden Plates on to their respective back ground fabric in early 2014. Having made these colorful Dresden Blocks many years before this as I wrote about back in a post I auditioned the potential backgrounds. Some of the background block fabrics were shirt material from nearly new men's attire at the thrift shop and the red print was organic cotton from Cloud9 Fabrics. Many, many hours of hand appliquing the Dresden Plates to their backgrounds. I did some with new fabric and others in vintage fabric. But slowly but surely, this quilt is coming along and its been a nice project to realize is actually close to being a flimsey, I carried on, determined to get the blocks out of my drawers and into a project.  These Scrappy Dresden Plates were more of the scraps I've used up over several decades. I began cutting and storing small scraps into...

When I was a wild Bohemian chick living on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, I was dirt poor. I worked, but the cost of living for a 'worker' in a tourist destination was heavy, food costs were even more, housing costs even more and basically, you have to go into the forest to live. I was leery of dark, wet forests with huge skunk cabbage with razor sharp stems. Mud is a dark chocolate with a squishiness not found anywhere else. I hiked along Long Beach, now a National Park, found two paralell giant Cedars long embedded into the the sand of the long beach facing the Pacific. I erected and secured a big tarp and settled in. Soon people discovered my little home and helped by using their chainsaw to cut out several flat areas, one became my bed and the other a seating area. Many a good time was had that summer, music, freedom and living off the land, it was a myth, but one I still aspire to today. What I learned from this way of life, was the everything h...

Well, I'm sure you have all heard we are in a Global Pandemic and I do present a weakened immune system with asthma during these trying times.  I am staying home. I never really liked shopping in the first place. Really, I know it may sound weird but buying produce and goodies at the open air farmer's market is my preferred way of doing things. If I was buyjng fabric, I love that, but really I don't really need to go anywhere. I am.makinng face masks for my family though. Highly recommend yoh consider making some. Search online for "face mask pattern craft passion" Thud sunny Sunday was gorgeoys blue skies but a brisk cold wind kept me inside today. And I actually finished my most recent "caring" quilt for a friend of ours who has had his own battle with the flu, he became critical verh sokn, we fearsd the worse and he came back.  This little quilt began 2018 when I participated with an online Maps Challenge. My thinking took me down trails, ...

I love my sister and she is my all time best support in quilting. I started this quilt center more than 5 years ago, in our lovely woodland riverside property of Northern B.C. I absoloutely love hand piecing, hand embroidery and hand embellishment. This began inside with the heart applique on the rich rust colored satin. Along the way, a little of this and a little of that, I made my way. I have come to realize that I do mostly improv in all my quilting! Easy peasy heart shape filled with strips of a favorite color group. Then I cut the satin fabric away and began filling the surrounding area with crazy bits and stitching. I love taking my quilt tops outside to experience the wind and sun for themselves. This quilt is an easy beginner to crazy quilting block. 

I've quietly working away on multiple projects. Some hand work, some machine work and some in between. Its been a wee bit sad around our home with two friends being ill with similar issues and losing one of them has taken its tole on me. I get reflective and don't chat much. I have sewing more clothing for myself. I'm really getting off on it actually! And our busy girl who goes to work with her Master needed a work gear upgrade which I happily made for her. Plus springtime is finally happening in the Cowichan Valley. And my shoes with a lift on my left shoe has become the new normal.  I've had to undergo a lot of pain, swelling, repeated injections and I walked with a left a waking cast for nearly 7 months. All in an effort to save the mobility I still have. I have arthritis, asthma and a sciatic nerve that gets pointy and excited really easy. This new project is scheduled for completion by March 1...

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...