Karen's Quilt

This quilt is Karen's quilt. I have left her last name off because the quilt is a gift and we do not want her son to find out. I have shown a close up again to show the free motion quilting I have done. I loved this project. I normally do not care for browns but this quilt has so much life and many different fabrics. This quilt pattern is a new one for me and I can't wait to use it on one of mine own quilts.
I have been so busy machine quilting for Christmas that I do not have much else to show you. After some of my gifts for Christmas have been given out I can show them.

Gone back to quilting.

Christmas cards and the Cricut

I got a new baby Cricut this past week at the big sales. I got many cartridges including the Joy of the Seasons. I am planning on making many Christmas cards and tags this year. I am amazed at all the stuff I can do with it now and how well it cuts. I have a slice and this is way better.
Here is a start on two cards. They are simple to start with but I still like them. When I get going I will plan to add more stuff like glitter. These cards are small, only about 4" by 5 1/2".

Margie's Library Project

I was asked June of last year to be apart of a Public Library Art Project. My friend and fellow quilter Margie Davidson headed up the project and is the artist. I was asked to do the machine quilting on the quilts. Margie has hand painted fabric and done some machine applique, as well the text, hand written. Oh yes then there are parts with block printing from hand carved blocks. The blocks all had meaning related to the text. Margie has used Sun printing for the leaves using Seta colour and leaves from her yard. I think I have all the different type of techniques listed now. The text is about the people who have immigrated to Edmonton and Alberta from other parts of the world. It was hard not to stop quilting and just read them all.
I have done many different quilting patterns on this project. I asked Margie if I could post some photos. We desided that I should only post close up till the whole project has been released to the public for viewing. So, here are some photos. I think I will get some others to post after all the unveiling has taken place. There are three different Public Library locations in Edmonton were they will hang for a few months and then in 2010 all three parts will be displayed together at the main Branch of the Edmonton Public Library - Stanley A. Milner, downtown.
I had to quilt the vein lines on all the leaves. I was a little worried how long these would take and if a could do it well enough. Margie and I were pleased with the results. These ones are the elm. Up top is the Silver Maple leaves, I liked them best. Closer to a sugar maple and I had a Silver Maple in a past yard. I really enjoy working on this project. Margie's style and colour chooses are so similar to mine. Thank you Margie for asking me to be apart of this great project.

Please look for the final photos of this project in the new year. Or came to Edmonton and see them in person next year. Then you can read the stories.

Christmas Fiber Charm Exchange

Here are my charms I have sent in for the Christmas Fiber Charm Exchange on the Two Peas in a Bucket swap board. I made carrot noses with orange clay and drilled holes at the base so that I could sew them on. I used seed beads for the eyes and mouth. The ribbon at the top is so that the charm can be attached or hung. I hope to get a very small table tree to hang these on.

Poppy Quilt

This is a quilt I quilted early this fall. It is a Remembrance Day quilt that has been given to the National Defense office in Yellowknife. A group of four quilter's in Yellowknife has made the quilt top and then sent it to me to custom quilt. The frame of my quilt machine got in the way of the photo.
Here are two photos that show the quilting a little more.

I have been behind in posting on my blog because all the machine quilting I have done lately. I got to sew for myself this last weekend. I will have to post later as all the projects are Christmas and I do not want to spoil it. I will plan to post more quilts now and then the Christmas projects later.

Twilight Charms

I am making this quick as I am having trouble with my internet this week.
The Twilight Charms have made it in to the correct hands. WOW. and other happy yells.
They have been forwarded to the correct person and I will be able to be a part of the swap. I was getting worried. I believe they will get swapped out in the next week and in the mail. This makes me so happy.

Snow White Charm Swap

I have completed my charms and sent them in the mail for Snow White Charm Exchange. The sign ups were a little slow at first so I took three spots. I will have more charms then I know what to do with. We were to make "mixed medium" so I tried to make my three sets from different materials. The witch is a photo transfer onto cotton and them sewn to red wool. The pick axe is from polymer clay. The bunnies are a photo glued onto a plastic crystal and then sealed with Diamond Glaze.
Here are my Twilight Charms. The host of this swap was changed after I mailed mine. The old hostess has not forwarded my charms and 7 other sets. I am worried they are lost for good. The hostess was changed because there had been so many troubles getting swaps back in a timely manner. I hope this does not happen again. I guess this is the risk of swaps.

Halloween Bracelet

Here is the bracelet that I have made after getting my charms back from swaps. I was in two charm swaps, The Halloween Fiber Charm Swap and the Vintage Halloween Charm Swap. I could not use all the charms. Some were a little larger than I wanted or to fragile. If you made one and do not see your, please know I have plans for it. I am hoping to make a mini book of Halloween and plan to use some in my book and book spin. Happy Halloween.

Quilting background for Applique

Here is a close up of the quilting I recently did. The quilt is my mom's Betty. I wanted to share this quilting with you. I love this pattern that I have done. I call it spirals and flames. I do this free hand, with out marking out any parts.

Recipe Card Swaps

I have signed up for the Betty 5 swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. We are doing Christmas Side Dishes. One part of this swap is to send the hostess 16 recipe cards that are 6"x6". It has my recipe which is Barley Salad. My Mom, Betty started making it this summer and it is good. It uses Quick Cooking Barley and chopped Veggies. We were to add some embellishments to the card, so I have ribbon, flower and some snowflakes. I will get one of each person's back. There is more to the Betty 5 swap. I have a partner that I send a great box of goods and she sends me stuff too. More about that closer to Christmas.

I have two more recipe card swaps on Two Peas. Above is the appetizer swap. There are 16 of us in that swap. I have sent in Salmon Spread that my grandma and mom and I make.

Then below is the ABC Dessert swap. I have sent my Ginger snaps for the letter G. There is one person for each alphabet, so 26 or us. I expect that each of these will be home by Christmas. I can then make mini recipe books with each set of recipe cards.

Harry Potter Charms

I have made more charms for a swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. This time it is the books or movies from Harry Potter. I have the Sorting Hat done here in Fimo Clay. I did not get all the wrinkles in the hat but I was pleased with the face and he way the jump-ring attached. My kids were quick to tell me that Sorting Hat was more gray than brown. This is artist free will and I changed it to more of a brown with sparkle in it. I had real trouble getting a photo to show the face so I placed them in full sunlight.
The second charm set I made is Dobby Socks. I did not watch all of the movie to get the colours just so. But I saw clip were Harry gives Dobby a gray or black sock. I think he gives him another one but it did not match. So here is the mismatched socks. My Son Adam often wears two socks that do not match. He has gray and black ones so his pairs of socks look just like this. If I did not get the sock colour correct it was because I was thinking of Adams mismatches.

Vintage Christmas Charm Swap

Here are the latest charms I have made. These are for a swap on Two Peas in a Bucket called Vintage Christmas Charm Swap . I have use a soft gold sew on plastic crystal. They have two holes, so one is used to attach to the clasp and the other has the red bell and beads. I got this vintage Santa image a few years ago from a fellow mixed media artist. She had a collection of old Christmas cards she had scanned and was sharing.

Leduc Black Gold Quilt Show

The Leduc Quilt show was this past weekend. Here is me at my booth selling dyed fabric, dyed thread, buttons, and some jewelry made with polymer clay. I was also promoting my Machine Quilting. I had five quilts in the show but then you can see I had some at my booth as well. It was a good show with lots of room. The quilt show committee did a great job. Hats off to you ladies.Here is June taking in the quilts and the cookies on Friday. We have the members make three dozen cookies and then serve cookies, juice and coffee. The men and kids love the goodies.
The quilt stands all have to go up. My dad is always in there helping set them up. We get as many husbands as we can to come help with this part and again at take down. Next will be to hang. This is in the large gym of the local high school. We had the market mall in the smaller gym and the cookies and drinks in the cafeteria.

The first and the third quilt in this photos are mine. I am sorry to my fellow member but I do not remember who's quilt is in the middle. Crop Circles is the purple and green quilt, one of my original art quilts. Then at the back is Luminous Diamonds, a more traditional quilt for me. Luminous Diamonds is my original design and was published in the American Quilter this summer. My first published article. I believe you can still order back issues of the July/Aug issue.
Here is a bigger view of the room and the large quilts. We had over 200 quilted items. We plan our show every two years. You have missed it this year but next Friday and Saturday, coming up, is the Sherwood Park Quilt Show. I do not remember were in the Park but I am sure you can find it if you are local.
My next big sale is in Calgary in April. The Canadian Quilter's Association is having Quilt Canada in Calgary at the end of April 2010. Google it. I have a booth booked with a friend in the market mall. Came and say hi to me if you can go.This is the raffle quilt that the quilt guild members made. They were selling tickets at the show. Half the money raised will be going to Stars Air Ambulance here in Alberta and the other will help with the cost of our friendship quilts and the cost of the quilt show. I believe the draw is in early November.I did the machine quilting on it. The members did the hand appliqued blocks. I know Marge and my mine mom each did a block. I forget who else, sorry I do not remember. I try to give credit for the work done by the quilters. You know who you are and you did a great job.
Great job on the quilt show and the raffle quilt ladies.

Shopping Bag

I made this with some instructions from a friend Janet. It is a basic reusable shopping bag. I got the fabric from a garage sale of a quilting friend for about 2 or 3 dollars. Love the lime green and turquoise, they are my colours these days. I made this a few weeks ago but have been bad about up dating my blog. My machine quilting business is very busy now with Christmas coming.

The Leduc Quilt Show is this weekend coming up Sat 17th from 10 till 6 and Sunday 18 from 10 till 4. It is at the Leduc Composite High school. You can find me in the market mall selling my hand dyed fabric and thread. I will have to get a photo or two to post for those of you that are to far way to visit us.

12 days of Christmas Charms

Here are the charms that I have made for the 12 Days of Christmas. There were two groups of 12 people so I was able to take a spot in each group. We were to do a charm with the number and a charm with the subject, 24 for each group. I did Three French Hens and 10 Lords a Leaping. I had made a big mistake and made the number 4 for the hens. I guess I do not sing the song enough to know which number the hens were. I had to remake it correctly. The lords are traced onto shrink dink art, coloured, cutout, hole punched and then placed in the oven and shrink. The others are all images printed on the ink jet and then sealed with Mog Pog.
I then cut the image to fit the plastic crystal. I found these "sew on" crystals on sale, they were perfect. Hope I can get more. Once they are glued on the back side, I had to put a jump ring in one of the holes. Then I put Diamond Glaze over the image giving it a raised glassy affect. I love that they look like a Christmas glass ball.

Dyed Thread, some fabric

Here is the eight colour ways of thread that I have dyed this week. I have a few sales coming were I can sell my thread and fabric. I took longer showing photos because I started to wash it out and decided to a few times rinse and soak it over night. Today was warm and sunny and a little breezy so the thread dried in about 3 hours outside. In the winter, inside, it takes three days to dry. I can start to wind the thread into skeins and prepare them for the sale. Someday I may have to do a Etsy site.
Here is only some of the fabric that I dyed.
These two pieces of fabric are fat quarters (20"x20") that have been wrapped on a rope and dyed each in one dye bath. I took the photos and then re-wrapped the fabric again on the ropes and in another dye bath. They are still soaking and I need to wash them out tomorrow. They look good now but wait, they get better as I do more to them. Lets hope I get a good result now that I said that.

Dyeing Fabric

Here are the dyes mixed and ready to use on the Thread or Fabric. Note the back ground. I have moved the saddle racks to the main barn and set up my table in the tack room, close to the sink. In the back of the photo is the bridles hanging on the wall. I have mixed some of my primary colours to make the green, brown and the oranges I need to make this thread. I am trying to copy a thread I made a few years ago. I do not keep real records on the thread dying as there is always a change, thread type, amount of thread how much dye and at what strength. I have been dying thread for long enough that I can just mix and see. I know that what I see wet is also going to lighten many times.
Here is a great thread rainbow coloured.
Here are the eight trays of thread that I got dyed today.
I also did some fat quarters on rope and dyed in one colour. I will have to show more photos of this to explain. I plan to wash and redye these smaller pieces. I also did about 10 to 12 meters of fabric in some soft pinks, blue, and purple. Sorry no photos of these fabrics, but when they are washed they look great and I should take photos.

Fabric Dyeing Day

Today is a record breaking high temperature and I have decided to dye fabric and thread in the barn. I am on a break and hope to go take some photos after lunch. Thursday I will have to wash it all out. And then more photos. I have a sales table at our upcoming Quilt Show in Leduc Oct 17 and 18th. I will be promoting my custom quilting and selling thread and fabric. I have planned a table at the Market mall in Calgary next April when the CQA Quilt Canada is in town. I am sharing a table with a friend Margie. So this is only the beginning of fabric dyeing for the sales. I have been dyeing fabric for more than 10 years.

Fall Mixed Media Swap

I am in a mixed media swap on Two Peas in a Bucket (scrapbook forum). I have done the felt pumpkins for the Halloween group. The leaves are for Fall group. The two tags with felt and batting as backing are for Vintage Halloween. I have used vintage postcards and photo transfer to get the image on fabric. I needed to reverse the image on the computer before printing so it would come out correct. I used a method I like with Gel Medium. I am thinking of writting up more about how I do the photo transfers.
The leaves are hand dyed fabric and craft felt quilted and then some paint added.

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I have had a great day. My and my boys picked the last of the tomatoes in the garden. We are to get frost tonight which is a few weeks later then normal. Then we played with our horses. The boys rode and I did some ground training on Jester. Brad and my mom had a nice dinner for us all. My youngest son made me a card with us riding our horses. My Bother's boy also made a picture of me on my horse. It has been a great day.

Honey the Horse

Here is Honey. We bought her on Saturday at the Olds Auction. We are very pleased with her. My two boys both like her. She is nice and quite to work around except her swishing tail. Both boys got to ride her this week but my camera batteries quit so no photo of Adam yet. Here is Wyatt on her. Can you see that smile on his face?
Honey has been a trail riding horse for kids camps for the past two years. We have been doing more trail riding and hope the kids can join us more and more. We have plans to take the two kids and two horses to some riding lesson at a local trainer's.

Wings and Things Charms

I just got my bracelet together this week from the Wings and Things Charm swap on Two Peas. I think the sign up for the swap was back in April. I did not use all the charms as there were too many. I left off a few of the larger charms. I am sure I will use them on a book spin some day.
Here are the charms that I made for the swap. I took two spots so that I could give my mom one set for her birthday. They were late but she was still glad to get a bracelet and the charms. The dragonfly and the green ladybug are hand made out of Fimo canes. Here are the canes of Fimo that I build and then slice off and piece to use in the charms or a button. A thicker slice can be cut and made into a bead too.