Posts

County Claire Progress

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I am not sure about this jumble of colors in my recent County Clair handpiecing project, something inside me is  conflicting with this project  that I must figure out soon.   I started this Kawandi quilt last Saturday. I took the whole day off and stitched to my heart's content. I have been following @margaretfabrizio and her work in the Kwandi style is stunning! Simply put, her art pieces are beautiful and the are all made in this Kawandi style. From the Fidi people of Africa who have Indian roots apparantly?  This is all consuming and fun to take a total break from all you are dealing with right now in self isolation and avoiding going anywhere unnecessarily. What are you up to in your quilting projects? I see people already working on Christmas projects? I can't even think that far ahead. I've been very happy with my gardening this year. And making a cold frame for winter fesh veggies. Happy Quilting everyone! Thanks so much for continuing to follow my progress. W...

Textile Learning Moments

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I made this quilt back in 2002. Made from men's pant material harvested lovingly. And some plain men's work style shirts. I tied and it would still be around if someone hadn't taken in on  date and spilled coke all over it. It was thrown into a lake to 'clean'it and no one thought to ask about wool pant materials or the best way to wash it. Sour faces brought it home and with heavy hearts they handed it to me without too much crying. Shit happens and I learned a fair thing. Don't make and then call quilts Camper Quilts then others think they are hardy and can be washed like another other cotton material. I'm sure you've got some stories like that, if it hadn't been for my inexperienced upcycler habits that I included teh red/black tartan, it would still be in use. Instead the wool tartan shrunk and everthing around it came too. Rumples, canyons and wired twisting occured after the lake experience. I was ahead of the MODERN quilting curve back in 2002...

New Projects and a new Magazine- Piecework

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Good Morning Ladies and Gents, Them or They! Its been hot as blazes in Duncan, B.C. this past couple of weeks, we went from spring time cloudy days of 22-25 degrees to 32 to 35 and not a cloud anywhere! Enough on the weather. I wanted to catch you all up on more projects that I've been up to in my stitching life. I don't know about you, but this self isolation has not been tough. I like being on my own, stitching away, chatting on IS and sorting through projects way too long to talk about that are still not finished. But County Claire blocks are busy evening blocks, getting these done so I can place them into quilt for my sister.Of course, she doesn't know this and we won't tell her, will we?? As you can see, I'm really out on a limb of getting creative using up what I have in my stash. I do have an overall GOLD color that is the general directions for her new quilt. And I highly recommend this new magazine cause its cool! Upcycling is becoming mainstream. Due to th...

County Claire Discoveries

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I just fell in love with these blocks some time back while the world was learning about COVID 19. I discovered the handpieced and applique quilts of Australian designers like Judy Newman. I've followed Margaret Sampson George for ages now, and really suggested google searching AU Quilters. So as I began stitching the first block as a beginner to this block. My hand piecing experience had been a few projects I designed myself. I know the routine of tranferring the markings from the templates to each block, if you are familiar with hand piecing this block won't be too challenging. These blocks are proving to be just awesome for my hand stitching in the evening. My County Claire quilt will be made up of random chosen pieced Orange Peel blocks and the alternate is as seen below. I decided that my overall look of these blocks would benefit from a calming affect of the alternates having very little scrappy bits and more of the orange for outer border and the blue/purple corner bit al...

Wonky Rail Fence

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Hi Everyone, I have been unsuccessful in posting any of my new work since early June when I posted last. Google Suite upgrade has changed many things and settings, etc have been disrupted. But now, after muddling through, I've found that now Blogger allows adding photos directly from Google Photos. Well that is an improvement. But I missed the memo! 😀 This quilt is for my son and he's an Arborist so he wanted prints of a manly color and without too many girly fabric, so I had to dig deep. I love this pattern Wonky Rail Fence from Sujata Shah's book Cultural Fusion Quilts. I need 42 16 inch blocks to be ready for a flimsy. This quilt has a deadline, Dec 25th!! So I've been using up the pre-cut, pre-sewn main strips and working on individual blocks in between all my other quilting projects. You can kinda see how it will eventually look from the photo below. I recommend her book! And on other notes, I've started the Purple Quilt, the 2 Blue Quilts and been happily han...

Hexie Quilt Top WIP

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Some of my days of late have been drafting, measuring, pressing, sorting and the like. I stumbled on a very organized-Value-Village-COVID-19 in Nanaimo. I glove-masked up and went in. Lots of decent, reasonable priced for a retail market. Maybe I'm just forgetting prices but these prices in VV and other "thrift shops" are becoming unreasonable for many seniors and low income folks to afford. The pricing seemed higher than previous times. Leave me your comnents below. I felt suddenly without much blue or green in my stash. But the good news is that it means I'm using it up at least my green and blue stash. And this is the first really sized load of fabrics I've purchased since 2016. Not bad! And that the green and blue fabrics might just find its way into new family quilts that I'm working on. Plus, I'm starting another Canadian Flag quilt for my youngest son.He's been wanting one since I gave the first one I made and then gave...