My Projects

Making Memories

2009-10-11T22:12:00.003-06:00

This year was a big birthday, which called for a big celebration. Well, maybe not big, but extended!

My sister Yvonne was able to take some time away from her 'city life' to spend my (50th) birthday 'week' with me at Dusty Acres. Gary was on the coast working so it was just us girls. We did lots of walking, spent a day geocaching, shopped for fabric for Jaina's quilt and scrapbooking stuff, got my hair chopped off (thanks Yvonne) and scrapbooked while talking about our memories from way back. I am always amazed at Yvonne's ability to remember so much about our 'history'.

I was inspired to scrapbook these pictures by my daughter. She had recently designed some beautiful cards which got me thinking about all the old photos that I had. With the 'family historian' visiting for a week it was a great time to dive in and see what the two of us could put together. We made a great team; Yvonne teaching me about our genealogy and me teaching Yvonne about using rotary cutters etc. (How to keep your fingers attached). We had lots of laugh and our fair share of wine. My studio is even more fun and cozy when shared with friends and family!

Here is the end result of our time spent scrapbooking, seven completed pages; we have lots more to do. Now that we have worked on a bunch together we both feel confident to tackle more pages on our own.

Stella's Welcome

2009-10-03T21:57:00.007-06:00

Over the summer we had a few rainy days which allowed me to have 'studio days'. This time was spent working on projects for my granddaughter to be. Her mother, Danita, picked out the focus fabrics for the quilt before she knew the sex of the baby, and I added to the selection once she let me know it was a girl. The rose border was added when I learned her name was to be Stella Rose. I designed the quilt on EQ6. I think it turned out quite pretty.

The sweater is from a pattern from Holli Yeoh called 'Peacock'. It was fun and quick to knit in a speckled sock yarn (Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Color 4-ply) for the body and a self patterning sock yarn (Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Jacquard) for the contrast. I finished it off with little pink heart buttons.

I chose the blanket pattern based on the celtic theme from Kevin and Danita's wedding. The Aran blanket pattern was a little small so I added an extra pattern repeat or two to make it a bit wider. I used 'Donna' from Schjeepes, a wool/microfiber blend. Vera, vera soft.

A chain of bear claws and other bits

2009-03-09T15:38:00.003-06:00

I decided to work on the remaining 9 blocks all at once. I started by chain piecing the bear claws. 16 bear claws per block take a while to sew. There should be 144 little claws in this pile, plus a few other pieces I thought could be chained now. Sewing those little half triangles takes patience, especially to get those seams straight without stretching them. I have tried sewing the squares together and then cross cutting, but I don't seem to get as good a result. Now just to press and square those little claws.

Bear Paws at Dusty Acres

2009-03-08T15:38:00.007-06:00

Bear Paws at Dusty Acres is a quilt I designed using EQ6. It's a pretty simple quilt; two blocks set on point. I chose the bear paw block because it tied in nicely to the theme of the fabric; the King's Crown because the simpleness of the structure complimented the bear paw block. The center block of the King's Crown also showed off the feature fabric with the pine cones. The image of the complete quilt is from EQ6 of the quilt I designed, the other image is the quilt in progress.

All the animals on this fabric we have seen in the Bull River area. Well, we have elk nearby rather than moose, but close enough. This quilt is going to be what Gary would call in hotrod speak 'a daily driver'. I chose the colours and fabric to fit into our family room. The quilt will be a large lap size, perfect for sitting on if the leather furniture is to cold or just to snuggle under.

I have 4 green and 5 white bear paw blocks to yet to sew. The block pieces are all cut, just waiting to go under the needle. I have plans for the borders, but I'll make a final decision on the fabrics once I get all the blocks sewn. This one has been fun!

Westcoast Quilt

2009-02-23T11:55:00.002-07:00

The three borders are now complete. Surprisingly the quilt is pretty square considering some of the earlier blocks were a little wonky. I became increasingly particular the more blocks I did and the more I learned. The colours in the outer border remind me of the ocean, mountains, trees and fields of the coast. Now just to decide how it should be quilted. I think I will just let it hang on my design wall until the quilt tells me what it needs.

Sashing the Westcoast Quilt

2009-02-16T15:47:00.004-07:00

This pic shows the layout of the blocks and the inside sashing. The quilt is much straighter than it looks; it is on my design wall which has a few ripples in it. The next steps are the inside border (dark blue) middle border (light colour) and a wider outer border (teal). Very westcoast colours.

I am loving the design wall and the amount of space I have to work on these projects!

Piecing it all together

2009-02-13T19:54:00.003-07:00

The Westcoast Quilt is a block of the month project from the Cloth Shop in Vancouver. I loved the colours of the batiks in the little kits and because I knew I was leaving the coast, I thought this would be a good project to do to bring a bit of the coast to our home in Bull River. The last month has been spent piecing the blocks for this quilt. More time was spent ripping than stitching some days as sewing straight seam seems to be a challenge for me. I have learned to check each piece as I go for accuracy; it seems to be helping.

Using the line drawings and diagrams from the kit I have begun the sashing. Hopefully this will not take too long cause I have a few baby quilts to plan and sew; baby shawls, the layettes and a momma wrap to knit and birth samplers and Christmas stockings to stitch. Already it is halfway though February, I must be having a lot of fun, cause time sure is flying by.

Better finished than perfect

2009-01-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

I started this project in November; it was a class at our local quilt shop, the Cotton Tree. The pattern is by Judy Niemeyer, Quiltworx.com. Judy's instructions are very detailed; for anyone who likes 'process' and organization she has some great tips.

I discovered that foundation piecing is a great way to achieve accuracy in your quilting, afterall, how hard is it to sew on a line. The hardest part for me was the free motion quilting. My sister, Barb, sent many emails and we had many online chats as she encouraged and coached me through the quilting part. I kept hearing her voice in my head, 'Breathe, breathe'. When you are concentrating so hard, it is easy to forget to relax and breathe. It's amazing how much better the quilting went when I actually relaxed. It took several attempts, and a fair bit of time with my seam ripper, before I realized it would never be as 'perfect' as I would like, but it would be better finished than perfect. I have lots more projects to work on so, and as Barb kept telling me, put the pedal to the metal (on the sewing machine) and go for it. Once I got going it went very quickly.

I am very happy with the end result, as long as I don't look too hard. I love the colours because they just seem to glow. I have a few more Quiltworx patterns in my stash which I am looking forward to working on.

Thanks for all your coaching sis!

My Studio Project: Nova by Genny Morrow

2008-12-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

As usual I have several projects on the go; this is my 'studio' project. It has been on the go for a very long time, probably ten plus years. It is stitched on 18 ct canvas; there are 396 '12 thread x 12 thread' squares . Each square takes about 45 minutes to stitch. There are a variety of stitches used from the basic diagonal tent stitch to the 'Fran Zenker' stitch. Four strands of embroidery floss (DMC, Anchor and Eva Rosenstad) are used throughout. When stitching with multiple stands of floss it is important that they lay flat to give the piece an even 'sheen'. I use a 'laying tool', which is like a long sharp skewer, to stroke the threads so that the four strands lay parallel and flat before completing a stitch. Yes, this takes time, but the end result it definitely worth the work. As of today I have completed 115 of 396 squares. When Nova is complete it will look like a 'color wash' quilt.

What's on the bars?

2008-12-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the large pile of UFOs that are left from my previous life, Heirloom Needlearts. It has been seven years since the shop closed, and I still have many, many projects to finish.

This one is a series of four seasonal samplers from Drawn Thread. The picture on the chart displays them finished as individual pincushions but I have combined them all into one sampler on a 32 count clay linen. The specialty threads used in these are from Weeks Dye Works.

I used to be able to see this thread count of linen no problem, but these aged eyes require help these days. It is almost done, just a bit more stitching and add the charms. Then to decide what it will be!