Boys Walk Funny

How Boys Walk

 Well we are gearing up for our annual quilt show for the "Mile '0' Quilt Guild" April 29th (1PM at the KPAC building Dawson Creek, BC).  This will be my first show and I'm darn excited.  This quilt will be my main contribution to the competition.  I have no expectations of winning but it would sure be some serious bragging rights.  I had to give my quilts proper names for the show so I have dubbed this one 'How Boys Walk' which makes me laugh because the pattern is called Drunkard's Path (insert evil chuckle).

I really like the quilting I did on this quilt because of the circle/square contrast.  It was also really fun to quilt.  I wish I had thought to try straight lines the first time, plus there was no back tracking (travel stitching), or silly 'do not cross go' rules.  I washed my fabric for the first time too on this quilt, and I know there is a big thing that it does or doesn't matter, but personally I think it does matter.  Even just working with the fabric felt better.  The fabric is from Wal-Mart since there is no fabric store within 100 kilometers.

Back of Quilt

Anyhow, taught my oldest kid to ride a bike this weekend... She will play with glass and cut up stuff, throw flaming sticks at her sister, generally hang upside down from anything, but she won't ride her bike through a puddle!  I swear if I ever figure out how to make proper Yorkshire Pudding next is figuring out what's up with this kid.

I'm making progress on a number of projects, most notably one I've be commissioned to make for a lady (yeah that's right for real money).  Another quilt is a charity quilt I'm quilting for a lady from our guild (I traded her my services for a old sewing machine).

Here is my first attempt at feathers and leaves.        

  Not too bad. 

I joined up with Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting Blog Party, it's been great having new people read my posts and to read others, lets keep this party going!

 http://marciascraftysewing.blogspot.ca/2012/04/are-you-new-quilt-blogger.html

Kryptonite?

The Rules Of Quilting:

1. Don't bleed on the quilt

2. 'Close enough' IS a term of measurement

3. It's not a mistake, it's a creative opportunity

4. A messy house is the sign of a happy Quilter

Well this happy little quilt is the 'Care Bear Quilt' (I am aware that the names of my quilts suck). Anyhow this silly quilt sent me for a little trip right at the beginning. I started to iron the care bear fabric and thought I saw something flash... Well I shrugged that off, thinking it must be my 'lovely' children playing yet another prank on mom. But as I continued along the task of ironing out a huge unmanageable amount of happy happy fabric I was even more convinced that I had unknowingly ingested narcotics. Alas it was not true, turns out if you iron glow-in-the-dark fabric it flashes the same kind of green that kryptonite does. Well kryptonite or not the quilt went together fairly easily after that. the pieced boarder was the first that I have ever one, but it was no big deal in the end.

So I quilted it with a swirly cloud kind of design and tada it's over... or is it. When I mentioned I had ironed a whole butt ton of this fabric I wasn't kidding, now I have to make another one. Oh well the kids like them, and everyone in Dawson Creek appears to be breeding right now anyhow.

I have been working on some landscape techniques lately and I feel as though I am making progress in figuring out how to do this particular technique. I'm a little miffed that it appears to be possible to copyright a technique, I will not be honoring this particular copyright because its copywrong. I will figure it out on my own. I would like to refer you to a post a read by Leah Day that covers this subject because I feel just as strongly as she does but it would appear she is not as lazy in her typing. http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca/2012/03/copyright-terrorism.html

Well that is all for now, since we moved on Easter Long it took a while to get the internet and telephone hooked up again (it was quite peaceful). But I'm back and will post again next week.

Quilting Machine (Me)

Well as time seems to go I have found myself a quilting machine, although with my self imposed limitations I find most of my days either washing dishes with a nervous quilting twitch or annoying the hell out of my friends with my quilting lingo and hilarious quilting anecdotes (which are never appreciated to the entirety of their wit). I made this quilt for a very special little girl (Cally).

I quilted it with a pattern called Heart Flow (http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca/). It was a really fun and fast design to quilt and I would use it again (or one like it). There just seem to be a multitude of babies being born all around me at the moment so most of my recent projects seem to be a little childish. Which happens to be quite the joke at the guild since I put a lot of profanity and love into these quilts (it's that or grind my teeth into non-existence).

This is little baby Bowen's quilt, with big banana leaves quilted around the boarder.

So I know that everyone has a 'stash' (or as I like to view it; Essential materials accumulation) and I'm sure mine looks a lot like anyone elses, but due to the lack of a fabric store within a reasonable distance (the next town) and lack of funds I actually have to use my 'stash'. I have been fortunate enough to acquire the dregs of stashes all around the province... I'm not sure if I've been lucky or cursed with this haul. Why does everything seem like such a good idea at the time only to become the biggest headache since the last time you turned on your sewing machine? I have been wrestling with all sorts of material that my skill and

knowledge base is completely unprepared to handle. I will go and google all sorts of things about animals or cooking, but when it comes to quilting I get this blocky look in my eye and just do it! Then of course I fix it, then fix it again, throw it in a corner, and fix it once I've ruined something else. I do one day plan to take photos of these mistakes so hopefully I could stop someone else from this horror but I'm usually happy when I don't throw my machine out the window. I have been following the free motion quilt along lead by Leah Day (http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca/) And the first couple of weeks were based upon how to quilt on a larger scale, I have been wrestling with this problem. When you quilt on a home machine you can only move the quilt so far and so fast and see so much before you've sewn your finger into your quilt. So with a little guidance and a glass or two of wine (I knew a problem for my temper would naturally present itself) I did a pretty good job. Well the projects are mounting so I'm off to the curve again.

The Curve

I received my sewing machine for Christmas from my parents in 2010... Mom set it up for me and made sure it was threaded properly and said "There you go, good luck, call your def grandmother if you need help, hahaha". Well great... That machine sat at our table for months and months until finally my husband told me to step up or move the damn machine. The fear had built to such a level my eyes would almost cross in horror at the thought of breaking this fine piece of equipment. To tell you the truth I don't know exactly how it came about but I started to cut some dollar store fleece into squares and took the plunge into quilting hell (little did I know that a real square wasn't supposed to be hacked out using my dollar store scissors). I have learned more swear words from that sewing machine than working in a sawmill!!! But soon my fear faded and the beginning of a wonderful relationship was born. My first fleecy blankets were abominable and I'm so happy I gave them away to those people I rarely see.

I continued to snip and sew with varying degrees of success, I finally moved down to the basement and took over the spare room when I tackled the biggest project to date applique (smack self in head)! If I had known how hard it was going to be I would never had attempted it, YouTube makes things look easy. Anyhow below is a photo of my results.

As I sunk deeper into my quilting madness (and YouTube). I discovered a local guild called "The Mile '0' Quilters Guild". i called and found out when the meetings were and knocked on the door the following Tuesday, all the ladies looked up at me and continued to inform me that the ballet studio was the next room down... I can't really blame them (actually I was quite flattered), since I was the youngest person there by about 20-30 years. Well once we worked out that I was actually here for the quilting I was welcomed with open arms and as much advice/help/experience anyone could ask for. That is when I finally discovered Leah Day (http://www.daystyledesigns.com/) and the free motion quilting project. I just had to try this machine quilting thing!

So I began the horror of the 'Quilting Curve' again. When you attempt this particular quilting

skill it's kind of appalling how many grinding, clunking, screeching sounds you can make your machine scream (it was kind of nice to make the stupid thing feel my pain for once). But once that I finished this 70's wannabe quilt I had worked out most of the bugs (if not all the clunking) of free motion quilting. So I started finishing up my quilt tops and planning other projects. Anyone need some advice? Stop, think, plan, repeat. Anyhow I tackled another quilt that involved applique mostly because I thought both my children deserved a quilt that mommy slaved over (plus I started to like the pain).

I did better on this second applique quilt mostly because it almost ended up to be the size I had originally planned. It's hard to see the detail of the pieced background (since it's all white) but I needed the practice. I cruised Leah Day's (http://www.daystyledesigns.com/) website until I found a quilting design I liked and I knew would push me beyond sanity and gave 'er a go. I'm pleased with the results but holy crap no you cannot see the back side and the cursed pleats that reside there.

After quilting this yellow bubble quilt (for lack of a better name) I was feeling very comfortable about my quilting ability. I have continued to quilt and am coming up on my one year quilting anniversary. I have a number of projects on the go (including one that is proving to be a real problem). I'm learning that the further I delve into the world of quilting the longer the quilting curve seems to get, but I'm alright with that.