A Contest and "Holiday"

Are you familiar with Quilter's Connection Magazine. It is New..........Canada's first all Canadian publication dedicated to us quilters! YAY!
They are currently running a contest looking for your tips for going green in your sewing studio. What do you do to recycle, re-use and reduce. Here is your chance to share ideas and possibly win a great prize as well. There is still time to enter, the contest deadline has been extended a few days past it's original closing date and now closes January 22nd, 2010.
It is, however, open to Canadian residents only. You can read more about the contest and how to enter here

The CPP word prompt this week was appropriately, Holiday. Lots of things came to mind, but while shoveling snow (yuk) I began to think a holiday somewhere tropical would be very nice, even if only in my mind. So I doodled this palm tree.

My First Row Robin

I recently signed up to participate in "Row Robin" with other guild members. I have not done my row yet but I did have a team member's row to add to, so I stared there.
I have never done one of these before but I saw it as a great way to challenge myself and try some new techniques, not to mention reducing my ever growing pile of scraps. I am fairly sure that the owner of this row does not check my blog so she won't get a sneak peak. I knew right off that I would have to get creative cause her row measures 37 3/4" meaning that standard block sizes were just not going to work

She provided me with the applique Pumpkin/sunflower row and I have added the bees.

I adapted the bees from a Fon's and Porter's pattern called Bee Bop. I started out doing raw edge applique but part way through I thought it would be neat if the bee was a little more "plump" so I made one of them using an applique method that involves some extra batting and a dryer sheet.

I pressed the freezer paper to the right side of my "bee" stripe, laid a dryer sheet over top, and then stitched very close to the freezer paper all around. Next I trimmed the piece, clipping the outer edge and made a slit in the center of the dryer sheet. Turned it right side out and to get the bee to really pop, I stuffed it with a layer of polyester batting. Once the blocks were all sewn together I hand appliqued the fluffy bee in place, then added the antennae and stingers with a Micron pen.

I need to have my own row ready to pass on to a team member for the second week in January, so I guess I had better give some thought to what it will look like.

This Week's Doodle

The Creative Prompt Project's word #46 is Hot.
I have a collection of trivets, I guess I am drawn to them because to all of the interesting designs. These trivets were once used to rest flat or "sad" irons upon after they had been heated by fire or on a stove. I decided to design my own trivet for this week's prompt.


Sorry I have no quilting to show, as I have been spending my time lately re-organizing. After more than 30 years in this 900 square foot home it seems that every inch is filled and it was time to reclaim some space. I finally have a wall available to hang some of my quilts.

This one, Earthbound, has been rolled up and in a box since it's completion almost 2 years ago. I will hang a few more in the next couple of days and soon get my machines humming again.

Exciting News!

Well I am excited anyway.............you see, in May of 2011, The Canadian Quilters Association will bring Quilt Ontario here to London. When a call went out for a logo design, I decided to give it a whirl. It was announced last week that my design had been chosen. The call for entry requested a simple ink sketch to be submitted. Once the design had been chosen it was then sent to CQA who will now work their magic transforming this into something terrific (well I hope so, because it does need a little tweaking for sure) I am not sure how well you will be able to see this so I have also put up the design with the background darkened so the details show a bit better
For those of you unfamiliar with this area, London is known as the "Forest City" so I wanted to incorporate a tree with quilt patterns, designs, some flying geese (we have a lot of those too) and the broken lines are to represent stitching.
You can read more about it here and see the proposed colour combination that the London Organizing Committee chose. I can hardly wait to see the finished artwork.




......and of course there is yet another doodle. This week's word is Flame. Since Canada is hosting the Winter Olympics beginning very soon my response to the word flame was this torch. The Olympic torch will actually be here in town in 10 short days.

T'is the Season

Yes, it is Christmas card writing time.
I really don't send out a huge amount of cards, so this year I thought I make some Christmas postcards. I had some left over print from making place mats to bring to guild where they will be donated to the Meals On Wheels program (sorry I guess I forgot to take photos)
You won't find much Christmas fabric in my stash, but I did have a little left of a pretty Christmassy Batik which was added, along with some beads and lots of stitching.
The poinsettia cards are actually photos taken of my plants last year, played with in Pohtoshop (PSE7), printed onto fabric, then a bit of thread and beads were added and in one case inks. They will be going out in today's mail, with a couple reserved for our postcard exchange at tonight's guild meeting.

Winter

Winter is the CPP word prompt this week. Let me say right off.........I HATE winter, seriously, yes I am Canadian but I could happily skip from Autumn right into Spring. I have 2 responses to this word. ( well 3 really but I can't post the third)
The first idea came to me as I was blog hopping, I came across Geta's Quilting Studio where you can see her incredible Shadow Trapunto. Not only does she have a monthly giveaway of her quilts but you can purchase her E-Book that gives you all you need to know to begin your own journey into Shadow Trapunto.

Those of you who are regular readers know that I generally like to do my own thing and when I saw her work I thought........hmmmmm I wonder how she does this. So I set about making this piece with supplies I had on hand.........not quite it, but quick and fun to do. In this particular case, I cut my snowflake from Warm and White Cotton batting, layered it under tulle and over a regular quilt sandwich. I stitched around the snowflake with invisible thread and then spent time getting in some free motion practice.

I want to be clear that this is NOT Geta's method ....... I have since purchased her E-Book and I am not about to giveaway her secrets. I can hardly wait to give her technique a try.

and of course, there just had to be a doodle. Used one of these way too often last year, hopefully we will have just a bit less to have to move this season.



If you are unfamiliar with the Creative Prompt Project click on "Clara" the Cow on my sidebar to learn more and maybe even begin to play along

Sharing ideas and Inspiration

One of the things that I love about the quilt blogging community is the willingness to share ideas.
A little while ago I posted this feather (inspired by one of my doodles) that I stitched and then added colour to.
Diane J Evans who has been a terrific supporter of my work contacted me with a request to use my feather idea for a project she had in mind. She told me she'd like to do something similar but using thread for the colour addition. Really? well, of course I agreed and was delighted to think that something I had done had actually inspired her.........I mean wow!........go to her web site to see her absolutely amazing pieces.

Now imagine my surprise to find this in my mail box last week. Diane did this terrific postcard for me in preparation for this larger (and might I say) impressive piece, titled, Feather Play 1, which you can see and read about here. Diane explains the steps and various inspirations that led to the creation of the piece.
I now have my very own piece of original work by Diane and I could not be more thrilled. If you click on this treasure, you can see it more detailed. The stitching is fabulous!
This has in turn inspired me to begin using some of my rayon threads. I originally purchased them thinking I'd use them for embroidery but I think I'd much prefer to use them as Diane has in her Feather Play series.