Big Bee Progress

Its almost time for the Canadian Quilters Association's annual conference and the Big Quilt Bee. I talked about this initiative in an earlier post. Quilters across Canada (and beyond) have really stepped up to make this happen. (in case you did not know...the goal is to make and donate 1,000 quilts for kids at Ronald MacDonald house)
The Big Quilt Bee will be held June 14-17, 2017 at Quilt Canada 2017 in Toronto, ON., there will be sewing machines, long arms, mid arms and an LOTS of volunteers ready to work on the quilt tops and blocks sent in by hundreds of Canadian quilters and judging by the number of finished quilts already received, it does appear that goal is sure to be achieved. You may have seen the graphics popping up on social media over the past few months.
I had the distinct pleasure of creating the "hive" being used as the count down (count "up")

I was initially asked for a thermometer type graphic to show the progress as the count of finished quilts climbed....since it is the Big Quilt Bee, this is what I came up with......this little black and white doodle.

Then colour and numbers were added to allow the graphic to change as the numbers go up (all done digitally on my iPad using Concepts app)

The most recent count has reached 800

What will the final count Bee?

Feeling BUGGED!!!!

I have no idea how long it has been....but apparently, none of my gallery links worked. I thought the problem had been corrected.....nope, it seems not.... learned today that they just sent you to an "error"page.    ARRRRRGH!!!! 

BUT.....they ARE  working now.....gosh...at least I sure hope so.
By clicking on the photos on my side bar, Project Gallery, Doodle Gallery, Snowflakes and My Toy Sewing Machines...you should be taken to a photo gallery of each of them.....you can  also find links on "Galleries" page in the tool bar above.

This doodle was inspired by the variety of bugs I have been dealing with...technical and otherwise.

Nature's Weather Forecasters

I really enjoy being able to simply sit and watch the birds. (and maybe doodle a bit)
One of my favourites are the comical Juncos.  In my area, these little guys show up in the late fall....as soon as I see them I know that the cold weather is here to stay......in the same way, they forecast the return of warm temperatures by their disappearance......well....they have not packed their bags yet so I guess we are not quite done with cooler temperatures.  Year after year these birds have been pretty reliable weather forecasters

Merry Christmas

Bookmark design

In August, I came across a call for entries into a bookmark design competition. The competition would see 5 favorite entries chosen and another 60 shortlisted to be voted on (for another 5) to determine the top ten "winners"

well......I did not even crack the top 65...oh well...that is how it goes.

But....actually, I am not all that disappointed, because I really, REALLY like my design. Now, I am considering various ways I might use it. I had originally left it fairly "uncluttered" as it was to be a bookmark aimed at the adult colouring book market....my plan is to develop the design a little further and add those extra details that are more "me"

The Big Quilt Bee

Recently, I was asked if I would be interested in creating a design specifically for an upcoming event. Of course, I eagerly said yes and got straight to work.  The Canadian Quilters' Association will be holding a Big Quilt Bee at their national conference in 2017. You can find out more about it here

This bee will appear on posters at quilt shops, web pages and a variety social media sites and who knows where else.  When I design something for a specific purpose I always keep quiet about it until the end user sets it free......I saw it land a few places last evening so I thought I should be safe to show it here.

I did a few different versions for the organization to use (wanted to give them options....turned out they liked them all)     :-)

CQA designed a poster to feature him on (this is just the top of it)

You will see a black and yellow version winging its way through cyberspace

And, because the Big Quilt Bee initiative involves quilts made up of "slab" blocks that will be sent in by quilters across the country, I designed these blocks to accompany the bee.

I am excited to play a small part in this project.

A quick note about the design process......this was hand drawn on my iPad mini using the Concepts app and my Pencil by Paper 53