archiTEXTURE

The opening is now just 2 weeks away!

It is pretty exciting!  Here are a few more pictures of some of my pieces:

800 Columbia
32" x 31"
original photograph, colour enhanced, digitally printed, machine quilted

It's a WOW kind of day
20" x 20"
inspired by José Resende's WOW Westminster
machine pieced and quilted

Happy quilting!
Janet

memories...

like the corners of my mind...
or something like that!  Remember me?  probably not, and that's okay, I have definitely not been here very frequently, so there is no reason you should...

However, I have been somewhat busy, primarily with an exhibit that is coming up, oh so fast!

This August and September, myself and three of my very creative friends (Terry Aske, Mardell Rampton and Judy Villett) have an exhibit that will be on at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster, called archiTEXTURE - Hard Edges in a Soft Medium.  

Here's some info on it.

We are pretty excited that our opening coincides with the opening of the New Westminster Cultural Crawl . We will be in the Community Art Space which is upstairs at the Anvil Centre in downtown New Westminster.  Opening reception is Friday, August 11, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, I would love to see some of you there!

Here's a tease of some of my pieces:

Happy quilting! 
Janet

The quilting that never ends

I've been home from work for  a few days - nasty cold that I didn't want to share - and have been puttering away at a few quilty things.  My quilts are going to be showcased at the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild quilt show - Quilt Fever, coming up in October, and I'm trying to sort out what to put in the show.  They'd like to see a "from where I started to where I am now" kind of display, which means I'm sorting through some of my older quilts and checking for labels and hanging sleeves, and working at adding those.  I was/am not very good at labeling my quilts - I had to go into mass production mode, and now I'm slowly getting them stitched on!  Same with hanging sleeves.  My fingers are getting sore from all that hand-stitching!

I've also been working on some exchange blocks and still working on the challenge quilt for the show, but no pictures of those.  Also no pictures of the quilt designs that are in the works - boy, I need more hours in the day.

Today, for a change of pace, I pulled out my Pineapple Blossom quilt which has been sadly neglected for most of the summer. Yikes!  Looks like I last worked on it in March.  It won't get done that way.

It is going to be awhile before it is done - there is a lot of dot-to-dot involved, and it is a big quilt, being pushed through a not so big sewing machine harp. but if I commit to just tackling it a bit at a time, it will get done!  I'm using a combination of ruler work and freemotion stitching to do the geese - all ruler is tough with this much quilt.

Once I finish the dot-to-dot I need to decide on whether there will be any fill around them   The photo below shows that I've echoed the dot to dot sections, but I'm trying to decide if I need a fill between them and the diamond shapes.  What do you think?  Any ideas for me?  I'm thinking I do, just to flatten them down some, but I want to keep the quilt soft, too, as this one is going to be used.

I'd love to hear what you think!

Happy quilting!
Janet

VMQG Modern Quilt showcase

Wow!  What a weekend last weekend was!  Very little sleep, lots of steps involved, and a spectacular quilt showcase for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.

I was so busy I didn't take pictures (my pictures tend to be pretty bad anyway 😕), but luckily, lots of people more talented than me did!  Click here to see the VMQG's IG account, where you will see a lot of great pictures. And here for VMQG's Flickr page where huge kudos go to Sonja for her fabulous picture taking!

I'm working on a challenge quilt so no pictures at the moment, but hopefully something soon...

Happy quilting!
Janet

VMQG Showcase!

For the past week, almost all my quilty time has been spent getting things ready for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Showcase.

This is our first show and we are pretty excited about the quilts and the venue!  I really hope, if you are in the Vancouver area next weekend, that you take some time to come see.  The location is pretty fabulous all by itself - right next to the Lonsdale Quay.  Add some wonderful quilts into the mix, and it makes for a perfect outing in my opinion!  Being part of the organizing committee, I will be there all weekend, so come say "Hi!"

I did say it took almost all my time.  I did manage to get the binding on the three table runners from last weekend, two are machine done and finished:

I decided to hand-stitch the binding on the third one, and it is still in progress.

I've also been working on my black & white plus 1 colour challenge for the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild show in October.  Progress is being made!  Yay!

Happy quilting!
Janet

Summer stitching

Hi!
I hope you've been having a great summer!  While we've had a mixed bag as far as the weather is concerned, this weekend is beautiful and hot!  In fact it was so hot, I actually stayed in my sewing space and did some quilting!  That has not happened in a loooooong time.  Have too say, it did feel good to be there, and even more surprising, I still remembered how to quilt.  I did say it has been awhile, and I am getting older...

What was I working on? Well a few months ago I put together some scrappy strings that were lying about my space.  These were leftovers from the Bunky quilts that I made last year, and then some other strips and strings that were just hanging about.  My intention, way back then, was to link up to Scraptastic Tuesday.  I never did, but I am now!

Lots of goodness over there - click the image to go see what scrappy goodness others have been working on!

strip pieced the neutral scraps, attached as borders to some larger scraps, viola! a runner

stitch in the ditch all the piano key scrappy bits, with the odd "X" thrown in on bigger scraps

the battening is also scraps - Frankenbatting for the win!

and even the backing was a scrap left over from a wide back on something else

But it doesn't end there.  I had some blue, green and grey scrappy strings and some scrap HST cutoffs.  They became this runner.

Improv pieced

straight line quilting

flip side uses the scraps from the HSTs

But the quilting that I enjoyed the most was working on this runner which had lots of solid clear space.  This was also made from leftovers, but in this case, they were pretty big scraps.  The runner is reversible, with the fabrics reversed on the flip-side.  I usually do pretty organic free-form feathers, but I decided that I would try some bump back feathers.  These are a more traditional feather, but I think I've still managed to keep them organic!

Green runner

Bump back feathers

reversible - the feathers and cross hatch don't show on the print, but stand out nicely on the green

All of these runners are destined for the boutique at the Blue Mountain Quilters Guild quilt show in October.  Judging from the number of scraps that I still have, there may be more to come!

Quilting on all was done with Superior Bottomline in the bobbin and Superior Magnifico on top.  Unknown scrappy batting.  Quilting done on my good old  workhorse MegaQuilter.

Happy quilting!
Janet

new distraction!

Hi there!  Here on the west coast of Canada we are enjoying a beautiful early spring.  I've been out working in the garden, trying to whip it into shape, and it is getting there!  We're planning on putting a few vegetable beds in the front yard this year, and I've been busy trying to get rid of the weeds.  A loosing battle I'm sure, but at least I shall start with good intentions!  One of these days I'll take a few pictures.

Progress is slow on my Pineapple Blossom quilt, I've been distracted with smaller quicker projects, and am quite happy with this one!

Art deco Rose 

I had fun using some hand-dyed fabric I did a while ago, and then really had fun with the quilting!  It is going to lead to a few other projects and ideas, I'm sure!


Happy quilting!
Janet