Quilt Show 3

This is the setup at the quilt show, narrow rows with frames parallel to each other. It was hard to take photos until I realized I could peak in between the quilts in one row to take photos of quilts in the next row...


These squares were tiny!!! Check it out:


Another "convergence"-themed quilt!

Drunkard's Path - that's next on my list! These ones are of course arranged in circles, not a path, but I think the block is still called the same.


Isn't it amazing how 3-D this quilt looks?

This next quilt was made by a lady who was at quilt retreat with me last year. It's a PEI beach scene done as a bargello. From the bottom, you have grass, lupins (inasive here but much loved by tourists and post-card-photographers), algae washed up on shore, sand, water, a sunset, and the sky. In every colour strip the quilter did a different free-motion quilting motif. Sorry, no close-up, I was on a roll at this point, zooming from gap to gap and trying not to miss any quilts :)

Tree Of Hope

A professor I know from my post-graduate years and who helped me a lot when the going was rough has been fighting cancer for several years. He's about to get a bone marrow transplant and more chemotherapy in the coming weeks. I've stayed in touch with him since my graduation almost 3 years ago, and when I heard about the transplant, I decided to send him a little something to show that I'm thinking of him. I'm not all that good with words when it comes to sad occasions (you should have seen me struggle with a condolence card I was writing for someone else yesterday), so I did what I'm good at: quilting.


I opted for a small wall-hanging - if he likes it, maybe it'll brighten up his hospital room for him!
I zig-zagged around each leaf and the stem to hold the pieces in place.

Next, I added a bit of swirly quilting for some movement in the quilt - could be wind swirling around the tree?


I used black backing fabric...


... with the different colours of thread I used, the quilt is almost reversible :)


Because of the light background fabric, the quilting really stands out from the shadows that are created - I like that effect a lot!


Often such trees are called trees of life, but he already has life, so I'm calling it tree of hope, since that's what I hope he has lots of!
I hope he likes it and that it adds some happiness to this tough time. While I was making the quilt, I also mused about the connection of transplant and tree. I think I chose a good metaphor for the whole situation, wouldn't you say?

Filmstrip Cafe Open For Business

So, I didn't lie about having two finishes on my QUIPs list!


I've been busy binding my Filmstrip Cafe quilt - loving this quilt was enough motivation for me!
I was too lazy to clip it up to my quilt display, so I tried taking a picture of this quilt on my bed - it was difficult! Here's the best you're going to get ;)


The quilting on this puppy is straight, all of it. I did lines 1/4" from the seam on the brown sashing, then about 1" in on the printed fabrics because the 8x8" squares seemed too big to leave unquilted.


A few more parallel lines on the border...


... and quilting in the ditch for the stripy part of the quilt.


I like the picture above because the blue-brown fabric is my favourite in this quilt (and it's not even from the Bistro line of fabrics ;) I think it's tranquility...
I'm proud to say that I did an excellent job on the quilting in the ditch. I hardly ever slipped up and crossed the seam, phew!


I really enjoyed working with the binding fabric - it was a bargain purchase in a general fabric store last year and it handled really well - it ironed flat, the sewing threw it went smoothly and it felt amazingly cool and smooth.

This quilt has been done for about a week, and I've just been staring at it. I think it will migrate to my couch soon to get some usage ;)

Northern Solitude

ASIDE: Isn't today an amazing date? Can you imagine how many people are getting married today??? 10-10-10! :)

2nd ASIDE: Ah, you should know me by now ;) Of course I went and googled my question. I didn't find out how many people are planning to get married, though something might be in the news tomorrow - instead, I found out quirky stuff about this date from this site. For example:

--> In mathematics, the date of 10/10/10 or 101010 is divisible by the number of days in a week, which is seven (7), which is considered to be very lucky. However, the date also appears to have a yin and yang situation where the date is also divisible by the number six (6), which is considered to be very unlucky.

--> It is even more significant that the date 10/10/10 at 10:10am (10:10) or 10:10pm (22:10) to be a very lucky time. One reason for this comes from the story of George Inmad who had been deaf since birth. On 10/10/1910 at 10:10pm (22:10) he suddenly was able to hear with no explanation from the doctors. It was a medical mystery and the only conclusion they had was that he was very lucky. From then on, it is believed that you will have good luck if you touch your ears at 10:10am or pm.

Back to your regular feature: quilts!


Only 1.5 years after I started it, this little quilt is finished! What pushed me in the end??? Someone I know wanted to buy it for his first grandchild :)


I added a label and a bit of extra quilting on the squares, and two days later it went to its new home.

In the end, the quilting consists of outline quilting on the squares:


... some motives being outlined in the squares and something I saw on Dianne Gaudinsky's blog (see my blog list on the right) in the narrow light blue border:

(This photo makes the quilt look huge with the background glimpse, doesn't it? It's only the regular 30x40" I use for baby quilts...)

In some squares, I quilted along lines of the print, e.g. along the green vines in the dark square below:


This border seemed like a good idea when I started, but was very intense - when I finally finished it, I was in no mood to do anything in the wide border, so it's left unquilted - incidentally, having finished the blue border quilting was also when I put the quilt away until last week.

Tsh-tshing, Finish #1 on my "QUIPs To Finish in 2010" list on the right! :)


PS: I wonder why I put the dark green square next to the brown square in the centre... hmm. Must not have known the trick of taking a photo of my layout and then checking that out instead of the actual quilt - photos give a much better impression of the overall layout, I find. Do you have a trick like that?

Yesterday, I baked a lovely apple cake with caramel sauce that Leslie showed on her beautiful blog:


I thought I had a bundt pan but couldn't find it despite searching and searching - only then did I realize that I thought about buying one and then ended up not to ;) Senility is setting in!

Also, I went to a National Park yesterday to go for a hike. I had a kite along that I bought this summer. I've realized there is no easier way to recapture childhood than to go and fly a simple kite (i.e. nothing fancy, just the regular diamond shape with a tail!).

Go ahead, try it!

Quilt Show 2

Let's do 10 quilts today! Just photos! We'll start off with something familiar :)

Quilt Show Part 1

Alright, here come the quilt show installments. I'll show them to you in small groups to avoid overload, and this way, you'll probably get to see almost all the quilts in the show without feeling like you just spent 3 hours in an art gallery and your head is bursting! :)

Here are some of the small ones:

Drunkard's path - I liked the colours in this one. I really want to make a curvy quilt! I probably just have to sit down and start is all.

The cream quilt on the bottom left won best of show - a quilt guild award for best craftsmanship in a quilt done entirely by the same person (a lot of guild members have their quilts quilted by another hand-quilter or a long-arm machine-quilter).

Detail of the hand-quilting and applique. The quilt is "Anne of Green Gables"-themed. In case you're not familiar with this book - it's written my L.M. Montgomery who lived on PEI. It's quite a famous book especially among young girls and even more so among Asian (Japan!) young girls but also women (not sure if they just all read the book when they were younger). According to a newspaper article for the 100 year anniversary of the book's publication, Anne's popularity in Japan is explained by her red hair (rare among the Japanese :)), her perseverance in the face of difficulties (a trait highly respected in Japan; Anne is an orphan that had a pretty crappy childhood in Nova Soctia until she is adopted by an elderly couple in PEI), and her free-spirit and imagination. So the hand-written part between the two figures (Anne and Gilbert - her sweet-heart in later books after she cracks a writing tablet on his head when he calls her carrot-head in the first book) just states their names and the book's anniversary.


The round quilt in the picture above (2 up) was pretty neat-looking: a round bargello:


In the next few pictures, you can see several convergence quilts

(bottom middle in the pastel colours)

(bottom right, purple and black curves)

(Top left, grey and white)

Itwas neat to see what type of fabrics other people used compared to my example I'm working on (see sidebar). I think this lady used the same book by Ricky Tims and tried all the different versions described in the book. Here are some close-ups of the appliqued versions she did:




I liked the border on this quilt because it wasn't straight. The quilter tried to explain to me how that was done but I didn't follow her at all...

This next one is a neat idea but I don't think I'd ever make one, wouldn't know what to do with it. I think you make two quilt tops (very small), then cut them in strips and alternate the strips from the two pieces onto some firm (interfaced?) fabric. Then it is sewn onto a background like an accordion and depending on which side of the quilt you stand on, you'll see either the first or second quilt top. A bit like those images you tilt and something in the image moves, e.g. a frog leaping...



And funny enough, I just had a conversion with Crispy about New York Beauty blocks, asking her if there are more complicated ones that the one she was showing on her blog - well, here I had a picture of some variations all along!