Giveaways!

Rachel, over at p.s. i quilt has a giveaway of a $50 gift certificate from the fat quarter shop! Go check it out! Start dreaming!

Speaking of dreaming, go check out the giveaway at Bumble Beans Quilts. She's giving away this neat bag she made, plus a second lucky winner will get some strings scraps to play with.

How much fun is that!??

Whew!

It is so hot! I think I'm melting!

We have had a most unusual heat wave for this part of the world - generally we'll get the odd day in the summer time that reaches 30 C. This year we have had a couple of weeks of it. Yesterday was setting all kinds of new high temperatures through out the province. It was 37C on our home thermometer, and today its up to 35C (95F) again! Beautiful sunny skies, but unfortunately, its too hot for this camper to be out in it, so I've been staying in the basement with the AC on. I feel sorry for our roofers, though. This heat means that they can only work short days - the shingles are getting so hot they are getting too soft, and can be damaged as they are being installed. That means that they are done by about 11 a.m each day, and the job is taking way longer than anticipated.

I am managing to get out and get the garden watered in the evenings, so its not doing too badly. I have been able to do is to get some sewing done. The Irish dance dress I'm working on is coming along. I've had to do a few revisions along the way, and completely re-did the skirt today, but I'm happy with it now.

Here's what it looks like with the skirt pinned to the bodice.

I need to re-distribute the pleats some, and then I'll be able to attach it.

I had to do some math to get everything to line up the way I wanted, and then lots of stitch outs for all the embroidered parts. I work from a sketch of the design, so there is always some adjusting going on as I try to make the design work!

It doesn't show in these pictures, but the white fabric has a holographic design on it that really catches the light well. These dresses can be really over the top - bright (gaudy??) colours, tons of sequins and bling - all with the thought of catching the judges attention. Funny, I thought it was supposed to be about the dancing, not the dresses, but you make what sells! I try to keep mine more on the conservative side, and always try to incorporate some kind of knot work design somewhere. Hopefully, I'll have this one finished up in the next few days so I can get some quilting done for a few days before starting on the next one.

What are you working on?

It's been noisy!

We've been getting a new roof put on this past week - completely stripping off the old shingles, adding a layer of plywood, and then re-shingling. Most of the major noise - hopefully! is done. Chico has been pretty upset by all the racket, that's for sure.

Today, we had a visit from this little guy. Poor Chico - wasn't sure which was worse - all the banging on the roof, or a 3 week old running between his legs, and thinking he was the Alpha male! Chico, in all his old age wisdom garnered from 12+ years wasn't quite sure what to think. Eventually, they did settle down and had a nice little nap. While they were resting, I had a wonderful visit with Bailey's mum. Its nice to catch up with friends, and now that I'm not working, it so much easier to plan those dates.

I have been doing some sewing the last week or so, but no quilty stuff. After making the wallet a few weeks ago where nothing went right that day, I decided to try again, and got this one made, which I quite like, and have been using for the last week and a bit.

Hmmm - you may have noticed, I am currently on a black and white kick it would appear! I like'em! Always think they look nice and fresh together. My favorite colour is red, but too much of it and its not so good any more, but you mix that with a little black and white....

I've also been doing some playing with my embroidery software to come up with some new designs to use on Irish Dance dresses. This is one that I was working on that I've since been incorporating into a new dress. I'll post some progress pictures on that one next post.

and then, of course, there had to be a trip to the fabric store to get some new fabric for the next project or two. What comes next looks like it might be using this combination of fabrics - a glitter stretch velvet, metallic silk, lovely lace and maybe some of the sewn sequin fabric, and there's a piece of braid that missed getting into this picture. No, not some new age art quilt, but another dance dress! Think we've got that design finalized, although I haven't seen the official final sketch yet. Once the practice dress I'm currently working on is done, I'll start on this one, then there is one more currently in the design phase.

I am starting to feel like I'm suffering from some quilting withdrawal - luckily this Saturday is our monthly guild drop in, so that will make sure I get a chance to do something quilty.

And, I was so excited to find out that I won a giveaway from Geta for an e-book on her shadow trapunto technique. I'm looking forward to having some fun with that, too! Her quilts are amazing! If you haven't seen her site, please go and check it out. She's been making some fabulous bags out of velvet. Simply wonderful!

Also, check out the give-away that Julie over at jaybird quilts is having - two of her fabulous giant pin cushions that were featured on Moda Bake Shop! They are bea-uuuu-ti-ful! Hope I win, and oh, okay, good luck to you, too!

Happy sewing!

bits and pieces and firsts and lasts

its Friday already! This week I've accomplished a lot of little things that I didn't necessarily start out the week expecting to do, and some of the things I thought I'd get to just didn't happen. Such is life, or at least my life! (my apologies for the wonky layout that follows!)
I should try Camille 's over at Simplify Three things list - maybe I'd stay on track better!

Speaking of Camille, and Carrie at La Vie En Rosie, they have put a challenge out for quilters to show their first quilt, and their most recent quilt, with comments on what they have learned in the process. My first quilt, way back in 1983, was a single big star, made with half square triangles. I don't have it, or a picture of it as it was made for a wedding present for a friend. It was red, blue and tan, machine pieced and very minimally hand quilted. As I recall, it was about 4' square. I took a rather long hiatus from quilting at that point, moved across the country, went back to school, and generally got on with doing other things. I continued sewing and eventually found my way back to quilting in the late 90's. I will show you a picture of my first quilting project at that time. It was a Seminole style pieced table runner, done in a class.

It was a lot of fun to make, and I still use it regularly - at the moment its on the coffee table in the living room. Picking fabric is always over whelming for me - I think with this one, I walked into the store, spotted the fabric I used in the border, grabbed the first things I saw that went with it, and that was that. I'm not necessarily a yellow and blue kinda person, but I do find the colours nice and cheerful!





My most recent completed quilt (I have made and completed a small quilted purse shown a few days ago) would be this one that I made in a Judy Farrow workshop. This was an incredible amount of fun, and very freeing! Judy is such fun! Curved free form piecing - no worrying about whether you have an exact 1/4" seam, or if anything actually matches up. Fabric was from my stash and is not limited to cottons - I have velvet, satin, silks and what I call liquid metal lame in it.
These more "exotic" fabrics are leftovers from dance costumes I make.




The picture is not great and doesn't show the true gradations, but do you get the idea??!
The detail shows the silk insert in some of the pieces. This was also used as the stopper strip in the border.








What have I learned over the years? a consistent 1/4" seam is really nice with traditional piecing and does get easier to achieve over time, but not to get hung up with it as sometimes interesting results can be achieved with curved piecing that doesn't need such consistency. Not to worry about the quilt police - I make quilts for my enjoyment and creativity and they may not be liked by everyone. Experiment! I explore as many different techniques and methods as I can. I have great fun with art quilts, and enjoy more traditional ones as well. Mixing fabrics, dyeing, painting and all kinds of manipulations can be a lot of fun.
Always looking for what comes next,
Janet

Some Days

I just should have stayed in bed.

Today is one of those days when tomorrow just has to get better! Today started out okay - overcast with light rain - no complaints, we've had it very hot lately. Took my best bud Chico for his walk, that was fine.

My "puppy" (he's 12 and a half!) just does not like to have his picture taken! This is a good one as he is not blinking or looking away. However, he's far more handsome in person.

Snapped a few pics of my lilies that are just opening - wanted to make sure I got them before the heavy rains come, expected tomorrow, but the wind was blowing so they may not be as sharp as I'd like. They are gorgeous, though.

Then it was time for my workout - I do a twenty minute step and weight routine and just as I'm about finished, POP! goes my calf muscle as it decides its had enough so now I'm limping around with a major charlie horse in my calf. Stairs are interesting, and since my studio is downstairs, and everything I seem to need today is upstairs, I'm hobbling up and down more then usual.
Had all kinds of problems yesterday updating my Embroidery software. Finally got it done last night and now today its not talking to the laptop any more. Several more frustrating moments while I tried various things. Finally, changed the USB port and it worked! Go figure, I'll have to remember that for next time. I've been wanting to make a wallet for a couple of months - it was the embroidery project at club a couple of months ago. Today was the day. Since my machines were communicating, it was time. Merrily motoring along, when it was time for a thread change and to place my applique pieces in place and I realized that it had not stitched out the outline for my applique placements for half the design! At this point I figured I'd just let it stitch out sans those pieces and see what I could selvage. I've decided I actually like the side without the applique better and think I'll make another one with just the embroidery.

As I was working on it, I've managed to scald my fingers on my iron, drop my scissors and foolishly try to catch them and jabbed them into my knuckle, which then proceeded to bleed all over the lining fabric for the wallet, and now is swollen and sore.

But....

the wallet is finished, the dog is walked, the flowers are blooming and I'll be back at it again tomorrow!

Where does the time go?

I can't believe how quickly the day disappears when I don't have "have to do's", and deadlines to deal with. Such freedom, although I'd better start setting some deadlines of my own, or nothing will get done! I have been doing some sewing since the last post, and also some gardening, although we are having another incredible spell of hot weather for the Vancouver area - we barely had any rain for the entire month of June, and now July is starting out nice and hot, too. I haven't finished all my planting yet for fear they will get fried! Can't complain, we had a brutal winter for us this past year.

I had to try one of those cute lil purses on Rachel's blog ("Not So Plain Jane") - her tutorial was great - very easy to follow, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I've also been working on a guild summer challenge - well, last year's challenge - figured I'd better get it done before this year's came out! Almost have the top done - just have a couple of borders to put on. This challenge actually came out in installments all year. We started a year ago June with the directive to make / use 20 4"sq blocks as our focus. I decided on making the New York Beauty blocks, others did a larger applique or a fussy cut panel to the equivalent size, or whatever they wanted. Then, each month we were given options for additional blocks to make, and quantities to make of them. With the help of my EQ6 I came up with this design. I'm really happy with it. Of course, once I took the picture, I realized I had put one of the rows together wrong. It has since been fixed, but not in this picture - can you spot the error of my ways???

What comes next? The border - it will be a yellow "stopper" strip and then a blue outer border. I'm hoping to get this quilted this summer, ready to show at our first guild meeting in the fall.

Of course, I was suppose to be working on it when the cute l'il purse distracted me!

What's distracting you these days?