Fall & Winter Projects

 I started this back in the summer, it became Part II of a wedding gift.  Cute - a modern version of Christmas trees.

The pattern is a freebee from Art Gallery Fabrics, "Tepee Adventures".  It's written as a lap quilt so I had to make more blocks and kind of re-jig things to get a queen size quilt.  Most of the fabrics came from my stash, with the exception of the backgrounds and the border, and I think a couple of fat quarters.

This was made as a gift for an animal lover.

All fabrics from my stash, although the dog panel was a recent bargain purchase that I couldn't (ahem, couldn't?) walk away from, at a quilt shop that was closing due to retirement.  Quilted with cute little paw prints, and very cozy with a flannel back.

More animal lover gifts.  These were packed up with some tea packets, chocolate balls, and a book for each.

These six quilts went to Martha House (a women's shelter in Hamilton).  I've been working on these throughout the year.  

• The cat quilt on the left was made from a panel that I picked up from the guild "take it" table.  
• The blues/yellows next to it was a guild demo for three-patch quilts, made from flying geese blocks.  
• Next the charm squares were pieced on Super Bowl Sunday, my annual project fueled by commercials, cocktails & frozen lasagne.  
• The reds/greens started as a layer cake from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  
• Next is another layer cake, which I WON at Missouri Star, pieced with a redrafted version of the Summer Slice pattern.  
• Far right is the original version of the Summer Slice pattern.  This was an example on using a border print fabric.

This Dream Big panel has been hanging on my flannel board for a few years.  Originally I put it there to give myself some Stand And Stare time.  After it had been there for about three years, though, I started to get a guilty conscience over the un-doneness of it.  

When the fearless leader of the Beach Girls announced an in-person SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators) scheduled for November (the first one since the pandemic started), I was determined to bring this finished, because the program was Show & Share.

As it turned out, I barely got it off the machine the evening before the meeting.  I took it in all it's not-quite-finished ugliness, with excess backing & batting flapping in the wind.  Whatever.  It was quilted.

This whole thing was quilted by me, as in "hand guided", as in "no computer".  I don't generally work my creative brain cells this much, so I had to pull out some of my books:  Angela Walters, Renae Haddadin, Judy Madsen, as well as go through the zillion sheets of quilting doodles that I've brought home from classes over the years.

I'll give you closeups of each quadrant because Every. Single. Petal. was quilted differently:

And the back.  You can see the various thread colours I used to accentuate the petals.  The one thread I ended up not being happy with was the pale peach, it looks washed out.  The rest were all good.

Now remember:  common folklore tells you that however you start the New Year is how the year will progress.  It is crucial that you have your stitching project planned for Sunday!  I'll be doing my usual in person AND long-distance-via-email group sewing, with Chinese Food to follow.  Happy New Year. 🎇

Jason Yenter Quilt and the Caledonia Pandemic Update

This is one of those quilts that scares me a little bit... I used lots of the "stand-and-stare" technique.

I will probably NEVER tackle a quilt like this - so much applique and paper piecing, with an on-point medallion setting.

I think at one point I had seven longarm rulers out - straight rulers, curvy rulers, circles, ...

I also needed chalk, a blue wash-out marker, and the IQ.  Along with some collaboration from the Beach Girls. 

Beautiful back.

In my last post I mentioned that some things had been cancelled with the Coronavirus epidemic, and that the grocery store was out of hand sanitizer.  Here is a timeline of things that relate to me, starting on March 9th.

• March 9 - WHO declares a Pandemic.  The Bulk Barn will no longer allow shoppers to bring their personal containers.  Toilet paper has been flying off store shelves for at least a week.
• March 10 - I made a trip to Swiss Chalet and Costco with a friend.  I needed an emergency supply of Parmesan cheese and baking cocoa.  You can't have an apocalypse without brownies, right??  My friend SHOULD have bought toilet paper because they had some and it was on sale.
• March 11 - at a guild meeting, I jokingly tried to auction off a bottle of hand sanitizer with a starting bid of $20.00.  No one would bite.  Bummer.
• March 12 - this was the date that Mark Preece Family House sent the email advising volunteers to stay home.
• March 13 - Colleges and Universities in Ontario have closed.  Mark Preece House sent an additional email advising that the House was closing and all guests were being asked to leave, asap.
• March 16 - I sent the revised SOLO invitation to the Ontario longarm quilters, changing our meeting from April to September.
• March 17 - This was a big day, item-wise.  The Province of Ontario declares a State of Emergency.  This closes many establishments and releases additional funding to some institutions.  This was the day of my last face-to-face client quilt dropoff.  My little warning antennae started going ding.ding.ding when she mentioned that she's a flight attendant.  Aaack!! deep calming breath  This was also my last face-to-face social engagement, when I had my friend over for tea & toilet paper (see March 10 item).  She'd been looking in stores for four days, with no luck.  This was also the day the travel agent advised that the final payment in March for the Italy trip (scheduled for late August) was being postponed.  Aaand my optometrist called to reschedule my appointment to mid April.  They have been ordered to close.
• March 18 - the customer booked for Saturday the 21st has emailed to cancel our appointment.  I had invited the tea & t.p. friend for dinner on Saturday, but I cancelled that in light of the current directives to "social distance".  For the life of me, I cannot remember what date we were told to social distance, so I'm going to assume it was March 17th, when the State of Emergency was declared.  I received an etransfer from a friend refunding the theatre tickets she'd bought us for a May 2nd performance.  Tonight I sent a big long email to my Singapore niece (who's actually in Vietnam).  I haven't talked to her since Christmas, so I just wanted to bring her up to date on what was happening here in Canada.  Every time I googled the virus and Vietnam, information was a bit sparse.  I wanted to know what was happening in her neck of the woods, and a little assurance that she and her family were ok.
• March 19 - Singapore niece replies to my email saying that she has no time to update me, they are leaving for Canada tomorrow.  Well, let me tell you...that brought some real tears of relief! She's the daughter I never had and I think about her all.the.time. This morning I had my first Porch Pickup with a customer.  I left her quilt out on the porch but I couldn't miss the chance to chat for a few minutes so I went out (staying away from her) and visited for a bit.
• March 20 - the Canada/US border is closed.  Only citizens (?) and commerce are allowed to cross.  DH's sister and her husband called to let us know they are back home from their winter abode in Florida.
• March 21 - the Haldimand & Norfolk Public Health Department has ordered the closure of all "personal care" establishments.  No haircuts.  No tattoos.  No facials.  Suck it up ladies - we're going to start looking like our real selves soon.  My optometrist called again, and cancelled my new April appointment - now they've been closed "indefinitely".  And speaking of looking like our real selves - I skipped the part of my day when I get dressed in "daytime" clothes.  Ha ha ha, pajama day!!  I got caught though - one of the Beach Girls accidently hit the "video call" button on Messenger and one of them noticed my jammies.  Whoops. It was a fun call, though.  Scrolling through facebook tonight I see the news that an employee at a sort-of-local McDonalds has tested positive.  There go any hopes I had of an Egg McMuffin takeout. wah wah...
• March 22 - the second Porch Pickup happens.  I have another one tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, for a quilt dropoff.  DH and I realize that we must have transitioned to "mature-and-at-risk"...our neighbours did some grocery shopping for us.  💗  The Singapore niece has posted on facebook - they have arrived in Canada.  happy happy  I had a cheque to deposit from the March 19th p.p. so we went for a little drive, and I wore a bright orange latex glove to use the banking machine.

Somewhere in there the upcoming meetings for my three quilt guilds were cancelled, too.  Every day I am GLUED to the news, and to facebook.  I hope that doesn't become a new bad habit.

Beautiful Batik Diamonds

Wow, talk about something that looks like stained glass!  I'm pretty sure I would drive myself insane if I attempted to piece this - diamonds surrounded by thin sashing.  In case you're not thinking that far ahead, this leaves bias along all the outside edges.  The quiltmaker did a great job of keeping this flat and square.

I stitched around all the sashing, then along the borders.  The diamonds were quilted with a lovely curly motif that I drafted from the curls in the border design.

It's much easier to see on the back.

While I was away on retreat with the Binbrook guild I got most of the Apple Core twosies stitched into foursies.  I had to lay out a bit of a row just to keep myself motivated - I get sick of stitching the same thing over and over again.  I still have a few more to get stitched, then they can start to become eightsies.

This weekend I've been working on the dreaded annual PAPERWORK MARATHON.  Why can't I be a smart person and keep up with this all year long?  idiot.  I must not leave it any longer because tax time is fast approaching.

Next week I'll be posting from LANCASTER PA.  I'm heading off on another bus trip with Diane's Destinations to the AQS show.  I signed up for a couple of lectures to keep myself inspired.  It should be a fun week!

A special note for Longarm Quilters in Southern Ontario - I am the invitation coordinator for SOLO (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  If you have not received your invitation to the spring meeting please send an email to soloquilt@gmail.com and I will get you on the list.

Retreat!

Sleep.  Sweet, deep sleep.   In spite of two glasses of wine and a two-pak of Dark Chocolate Reeces Pieces.
Yesterday I started at 5 am, so I could pick up Deb at 7 am, so we could be in Elmira by 9 am, so we could enjoy a trunk show/demo by Kelly Cline before we headed up to Tobermory.

Kelly was fabulous, she works with heirloom linens and creates beautiful works of art, drawing on her art degree and interior design background.  Excellent day!

Following that was a very tedious drive which seemed to take forever, up to Tobermory.  I slept until 8:30 this morning!  Cause for celebration!
Today my project is the Kleenex Box Challenge for the Caledonia guild.

Minor Quilt Corrections & Followup to SOLO Meeting

This past Sunday was the semi-annual SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  We had a big show & share, a brown bag lunch, and then we split into groups and discussed multiple topics.  Afterwards we shared a recap of our discussions with the whole group.

One of the topics of discussion was "What do you do with a quilt that has issues?"  Issues could be wonky borders, turned blocks, open seams, etc.  I was really surprised at the number of quilters who send those quilts home to be fixed.  If you've followed my blog for any length of time you know that I fix boo-boos on a regular basis.  Here's yesterdays fix.  These two blocks were both facing the wrong direction.  I caught it while the customer was still here, so we discussed it and she elected to have me fix it for her.  It ended up taking me 75 minutes to frog and restitch, which will just get added to her invoice.

BLOCKS PICKED OUT

BLOCKS REINSERTED

Some of the other topics:

• pricing & payment methods
• intake process & contracts/work orders
• cool new tools/books/rulers

The meeting closed with a discussion around the future direction of SOLO.  Since it is totally informal and meetings only happen when a brave & beloved soul decides to throw their hand up and say "I'll do the next meeting!" this was an interesting discussion.  In October we will, hopefully, be having a trunk show & lecture/demo by a well known longarm quilter.  This will mean a higher entrance charge, but will also be a great opportunity to learn something without having to travel a long distance.  Yay.

If you don't currently receive an invitation to SOLO but would like to be added to the list, send me an email.  I'm the current sucker volunteer who looks after the guest spreadsheet and the invitations.

Pansy Park by Thimbleberries

This quilt has been around for a long time.

I'm sorry... did you say EIGHT borders???  OK!  Well then, we're just going to pretend the skinny ones aren't there, alright?

You know I love sampler quilts, though.

The old ruler got a good workout.

This past Sunday was the semi-annual SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  There was an EXTRA prize for costume-wearers.  Sadly, I did not win - that went to Louise from Tillsonburg, the lucky duck.  I still had fun with my like-minded friends.  And I DID win a door prize - a $25.00 gift certificate from the Quilting Bee in Fonthill.  Now, to find an afternoon for a field trip.

Our guest speaker was Kathy Wylie, taking us through the judging process for juried quilt shows.  She did a great presentation and I think we all learned a lot.

Speaking of juried quilt shows, the IQA show in Houston opens today.  If you're there, please have some fun for me while I stay here, slaving over a hot needle. Thankyou.  If you are stuck at home too, HERE is a link to the winning quilts.

Fancy Lone Star & Stash Report

I am sure there is a better name than Fancy Lone Star for this quilt,  but I have no idea what it might be.  :-)

Those three outer borders were treated like one and got a border design.
The setting squares were s.i.d. along the outside, and the inside (which outlined the star).

The small inner star was also s.i.d. then quilted with a motif to match the border.  As you can clearly see, straight line quilting finishes off the star.

Cross hatching in the green background talks nicely with the straight line quilting in the star.

Ooh,  Pretty back.

STASH REPORT
Good heavens.  Once again I have a 'not my fault' report.  I was the discussion leader at the last SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators) where the topic was Modern Quilting.  I was given a thankyou gift of 8 m. worth of batik fabrics. I'm not sure what to do with it.  Make a quilt??  ha ha ha...
The other two meters was fabric I purchased at Keepsake Quilting.  We'll call that a souvenir, shall we?

Added this month 10 m.
Added y.t.d.           35 m
Used this month     0.  yup.  big.fat.zero.
Used y.t.d.             48.9 m
Net 2015              -13.9 m  So, I'm still down yardage, which is the important thing, right?

On the GARDENING front, my radishes have popped through the ground, and the volunteer lettuces are visible.  The peas should be out tomorrow - there is a wee bit of green showing but not enough to consider them sprouted.  Now that I've said that the darned birds will eat them all before morning.  (pea sprouts are much tastier than bean sprouts, in case you have never tried them)
And today's big news - I harvested TWO spears of asparagus.  Yay me.  :-)

Dresden Fan with Applique

Some quilters just looove applique.  They love it enough that they will sit down for many, many hours, tracing leaves & flower bits.

That border treatment is so pretty.  It would also make a stupendous scalloped border if it was flipped over and faced the other direction.

Setting triangle with a block design modified to fit.

I love Dresden Fan and Dresden Plate blocks.  I think it's the circular motif idea that appeals to me so much.  I have one D.P. quilt of my own all finished. There's another top ready for quilting that is, um, marinating in the cedar chest until I have some spare time.  (You can see both on the separate page for UFO Challenge 2011.)

Sunday I headed up to Elora for a SOLO meeting. (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators).  It was one of the biggest meetings that we've ever had, I think.  75 people confirmed, less the usual number who have to cancel at the last minute.  I love these networking sessions.  I get to meet up with some old friends I haven't seen in a while and there is always a diet lunch HUGE pot luck.  There was a swap sale, then the meeting covered topics such as favorite tools, keeping quilts flat & square, marketing techniques, and of course, show & tell.  Even though I have over 13 years experience in this field I still come away with great information.  You cannot exist in a rabbit hole and expect to stay current.  Even with the internet.  :-)

B.S. REPORT
Picked last week: 5 (4 small ones went into soup, 1 LARGE one was traded for a dozen eggs at the farm behind us)
Picked YTD 23

BS Tidbit of the week:  I have to take some pants in because I've stayed away from alcohol and dessert and lost a few pounds.  ha ha ha ha ha.

SOLO Recap

Thirty longarm quilters descended on Caledonia at noon on Saturday.
They heard there was dessert.

Jane & Kristyn gave us the lowdown on their January sewing mission trip to Nicaragua. You can check out their respective blogs for details. Our meeting on Saturday garnered them $55 in contribution cash.
We had a flip chart for doodling quilting ideas. Too many were shy and needed some strongarming to get them over there to pick up a crayon. Or, maybe they were just preoccupied with my huge pan of (I Can't Believe It's Zucchini) Crisp?Trish from Quality Time Quilting came with her wares - many items specifically geared towards longarm quilters. 'Cause we all like to shop, eh?And as you would expect, show & tell was all about the BACK of the quilts.

Longarm Meeting - Saturday Aug. 28th - Caledonia

If you have not received this information from anywhere else, here is the poop.

================================================================

SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators/Owners/Other word that starts with 'O')

Saturday Aug. 28, 2010

11:30 – 4:30

Grace United Church

174 Caithness St. E., Caledonia, On.

Hosted by Helen Hubert (thehuberts@mountaincable.net) & Debbie Winn (dkwinn@hotmail.com)

Pot Luck lunch starting at noon.

Theme: bring your brain. OMG, seriously!! We will have flip charts and/or white boards to show & share quilting ideas. Think specifically about weird blocks you have felt really good about quilting. Personally, I struggle with Bears Paw blocks, so I’d love ideas on that.

We will also have show & tell, so bring quilts.

We will be collecting at the door to pay the hall rental (less than $5 per person).

Jane & Kristyn will be talking about their upcoming mission trip to Nicaragua. Check Jane’s blog www.janesinstitches2.blogspot.com for details of requested donations.

PLEASE RSVP BY AUGUST 27^TH TO EITHER HELEN OR DEBBIE.

Happy Birthday to meee....

This past Saturday was my birthday and we're not discussing which birthday, ok? I find the more I (ahem!) mature, the more I value my women friends. You may notice the high percentage of 'shoe' cards in the photo. And you can easily tell which one was from DH.
I spent my day at a SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators) in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I was a little bummed out over the weather. We've had absolutely NO snow for months, but this week we get a huge forecast for 20 cm. with 70 km/hr. winds. This prevented three of my out-of-town friends from coming - they were to come early on Friday and spend the night, then all of us go to Saturday's meeting. I had this whole pajama party planned. pout pout. The fourth out-of-towner made it down on Saturday and was able to spend some time with her b & s.i.l. in Ancaster, AND come to the meeting.

The meeting at Jane Sandercock's (with assistance from Kristyn McCoy) was a huge success. Jane now has 3 Gammill machines so we were able to play. Jane will be teaching Longarm Quilting both at her studio and at the new quilt shop opening soon in St. Catharines. She had a thread rep from Aurifil Threads there tempting everyone with her luscious wares. Quilters who become longarmers pick up a new addiction and turn into thread junkies. Honestly?... Jane had more thread than the thread rep.

We had show 'n tell, show 'n help me please, info about classes by the CMQA, talked about batting, talked about thread, gossiped, and ate. Pot luck - yum. Debbie brought a birthday cake and candles, for moi, and they all sang. Jane and Kristyn made me wear a birthday crown so I would remember who was Queen for the Day. They also gave me a beautiful bouquet of Gerbera Daisies.

However, my ORIGINAL comment was about my women friends. I had the best day with the girls. Most of us work in isolation and sometimes the creative well runs pretty dry. Spending these precious hours with like-minded souls gives us a chance to vent, question our abilities, find a better way of doing things or decide NOT to do some things. It was interesting to hear Jane talk about her struggle with building a web site - I am going through the same struggle. Technology - ick!

The day ended all too soon but hopefully Jane will have us all back again... soon.
THANK YOU JANE!