Design Wall Monday #7

The frog blocks are on my design wall today. I made them some years back when one of the Black Gold  Guild (Leduc) members designed the frogs for our friendship quilts. I loved my blocks too much to hand in and thought I would make a baby quilt with them. I still have never done anything with them. They are 12" finished and I think I need at least five other blocks to go with them. I dug them out thinking I could use green scrap to make five patchwork blocks to go with them. You know the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at SoScrappy , this Feb is Green. The month is coming to an end and I did not get any patchwork done this past week, not sure I will this coming week either.
To check out the other Design Wall Mondays go and have a look at Patchwork Times.

Thanks you all for so many comments on my scarf this past Friday. We got tons of snow on the weekend and it is bitterly cold today. I think I may have jinxed our very mild winter, because we are getting it now.

Turquoise Wool Scarf Done

Lost and Missing in Leduc Walmart parking lot on March 9/2012

I only got to wear it for two weeks. Boo Hoo!!!!!

I finished it and can wear it for winter. What winter? We have been so warm this year but we did get snow last night. I think I will wear it today. I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday, And to Magic Onions Friday's Natural's Table and Confessions of a Fabric Addict Can I get a Whoop-Whoop?? (has a give way too). Give them a look for there are so many great ideas. Magic Onions has some great felt projects that I just love. I may have to try making some needle felted mushrooms someday.

I planned on making this sometime back. I think it was two years ago when I dyed the wool for it. I got most of it done with needle felting but I love the look of wet felting so I also did some wet felting to finish the look off. It will hold up better too. I love the way the edge is a little waver now.

Here is the detail. I used a loosely spun single yarn for the stems. I made spirals of two pinks for my flowers. The details were needle felted into place on the dry turquoise wool. I worked on the details with my surface design group, we met last Friday. We worked on our embellishing machines together in Jan and then in Feb I did my wet felting. I helped one of the ladies make her first wet felted scarf. I need to see it dry now. We are planning to wet felt hats next month. I will have to take pictures and show you.

Here is a photo before I wet felted it. The photo may not show it well but the fibres are still a bit fussy and it is not felted enough yet. The process of wet felting really finished it and the fibres will not pile so much now.

Book Class Preparation

I am teaching a new class on Saturday on Fabric Books for the Edmonton and District Quilters Guild . I called my class Story Telling Fabric Books. I have my finished sample on the right there. I was very careful to make the end of all my pages a folded end so the back of the book looked good. For the class I am going to show the ladies how they can hind the end of there pages if they want to. The two book binding with no pages on the left are samples ready for class. I have a tag on my samples to tell me what I did, then I know what I did and a student can repeat it.

I have a kit for the class and I now have them all packaged up ready to go to class. My dad cut and finished the wood for me last month and then I had to get Chicago screws for the posts.  I had planned to get some from the local scrapbook store but we found out the ones I had used in my sample were discontinued recently. I had to order from somewhere else at the last minute and panicked they would not get here in time and hoped that what I was ordering would work. I lucked out. They got here and they work just right. I now have two sizes of screws so the books can be thick or thinner with a different number of pages. A good friend's husband was good enough to track they down for me. I did not know the posts I was buying were called Chicago screws. The scrapbook posts were simple called Album Posts.

Now back to my class notes and get those proof read again before I print. You may have noticed I sometimes rush my typing and do not get all my spelling or grammar errors corrected just right. Sorry about that. I found writing very hard in school and just writing a blog is a big deal for me. Sometimes spell check is not always the best thing and I get the wrong word.

Happy Scrappy Saturday Green #3

Here I am again working on my green scrappy blocks (dark ones this week). I am loving these round ones more and more. If you have been following me on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012, you will know I have been playing with a few Block layouts for the units I have made. I am not sure how big to go or if I will use all colours but I am getting a nice start to a bright quilt. Check out today's post over at Soscrappy  to see the other green scrap projects.

Here is the Greek Cross layout with both the dark green and lime green units. Not to bad when you get more than one colour in the layout. Imagine this layout with 8 or more colours. 

Here is the Churn Dash layout. I am not liking this one. 

The round layout called Greek Square. 

I signed up for the Friday Night Sew In early this past week. Check out what everyone worked on. I knew I would be sewing on Friday night. I wanted to get my darker green blocks done for the scrappy Saturday. Now what to do for next week, I have so much green. I even have some poverty piecing in green left over from a few years ago.

Thanks for stopping by. I always enjoy your comments so please say something.

Friday Night Sew In #2

I am planning to sew on Friday Night. I have joined the Friday Night Sew In Over at Heidi's. You sign in before and then on Saturday you post about what you worked on and hop around and see what all the other sewers worked on too. I sew almost every Friday night. My boys want to play Xbox and that takes over the main room upstairs with noise. So I retreat to my sewing room to work on my quilts. It is a very large sewing retreat all over the world.



For today I am heading over to a friend's house to do some felting. I am not sure what kind of felting project I will work on yet. Someday I would love to do a hat, but the 3D shape is a little scary still. Maybe a scarf or a journal cover today.

So check back tomorrow and see what I did. Thanks for stopping by.

Free Motion Quilting Sample

I had some new thread I wanted to stitch out and see how it worked in my long arm machine. I did some free form feather work in the pink thread and some very dense background quilting in white. The fabric is white Kona cotton and the batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Cotton/ poly.

It is just a sample but I might finish it off into a pillow or something as it has turned out very nice.

New Fabric Found a Home

I have been very good at not buying more fabric this past two months but oops. I got some this past week. I just love a sale and drove out of my way just to go see if I needed some more fabric. The Black and white diagonal strip maybe good for my orca bay binding. I may even dye it pink to go better. We will see. All the others just had my name on it.

I had the two red polka dots already but I bought more of the same line. I am not sure yet what I will make. Yes I have fallen to the Red and Turquoise trend. If there were some baby girls in the family I would make a baby quilt but there is not any babies expected. My sister in laws both say they are done having kids too.

Many of you do stash reports. I have not wanted to count what I bought or what I used. I know I am using more than I am buying now so it is OK. Two years ago I bought fabric and hardly quilted. I am sewing lots now so I deserve to buy some more.

Happy Scrappy Saturday Green #2

I have done 6 lime green blocks for Happy Scrappy Saturday. Check out what the quilt bloggers are doing by following in the link over to So Scrappy.

I like the round blocks the best but I have to play with the units to see what else I can make. Here is the Greek Cross that started the units last month.

Next is the Churn Dash blocks. Not so good if I keep the colour all in one block.

I have done the crumb blocks (or Poverty Piecing ) for the dark green. I have tried the Flying geese crumbs. I have been thinking were did I see these. Now I got it, over here at Jo's Country Junction. She did a crumb along last year and has done some great posts on ideas for crumbs and how to do them. Check then out if you are working on your scraps.

Here is the round blocks with both the Red and the Lime green colours together. I currently have enough units to make 6 Red and 6 Lime blocks. I still have not sew the units into blocks because I can still play on the design wall. I need more colours so I can decide what I should do for a layout.

Heart Quilt Finished

I got a second quilt done this year. I started this quilt in January with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy. The colour of scrap we were working on were Red for January. I added in pink and of course  needed some neutral scraps. This photo is taken outside in the full sunshine with my son Adam trying to hold it but he is not quite tall enough yet. Someday he will be.

I have also added this post to Crazy Mom's Quilts Finish up Friday. Check out the other finished quilt projects. I have added this post to The Magic Onion were you can find more than just quilts but many crafts some are good for kids too. 

Hanging over the rail of the long arm machine.

I took this photo on my design wall and the blocks for Orca Bay are in behind.

I machine bound the quilt with a red strip fabric. This Red strip was part of the bundle I got from a lady who needed to sell her mother's stash. I got an apple box worth of fabric for $50.00 and many of the reds and neutrals used came from her.

A close up of the front to show the quilting. I may give this quilt away and wanted to finish it quickly. I kept the quilting simple and did an all over hearts and loops free hand.

The back side shows the quilting again.

Gel Medium Photo Transfer Class

I am teaching a Fabric Book Class for the Edmonton and District Quilter Guild on Feb 25/12. There is still room if you live near Edmonton and want to join us.  For the class the students need to come with at least some photos (4 or more) already transferred onto the fabric and the paper rubbed off. They should be dry and ready to sew into place. Please use what ever way you would like if you prefer another method. I will try to show you here today the gel medium transfer that I like to use.  I will be bring the supplies and demo in class too but the photos will not be dry and ready to use for two or three days. If you want to get them placed on fabric professionally or with bubble jet or TAP(Transfer Art Paper)  please do that. This method has a plastic feel and is not easy to sew though. I would not hand sew or plan to quilt thought this photo. I still like it.

First gather all your supplies. Colour ink jet photo printed onto plain (the cheaper the better not the glossy or heavy paper) copy paper. You may need to flip your image on the computer if you want it to transfer correct direction. Flipping your photo will be very important if your image has any text or has a direction to it.  Wax paper, rolling pin, Soft gel medium ( I have Golden brand), paint brush and fabric white and cut about 2 inches larger around the outside. I like to trim my photo down to have a white edge of 1/2" or so. I like my fabric to be larger than this photo paper size by about 2" around.  My book has very old photos and I used cream muslin with cotton flecks in the fabric. I feel it added to the old look. I also wanted Black and White photos and did print some with my toner black and white printer and not the jet ink. You can try both printers. Both worked well for me.

Use a large piece of wax paper under your fabric. Do not stir or shake the gel medium you do not want to add bubbles into it. Using the paint brush ( I really dislike foam brushes here, they do not let me put enough medium on) brush a good layer on to your fabric. Go left and right and up and down. Make sure the gel is on an area larger than your image. If you do not use enough some areas will not transfer. If you use to much you can get a wrinkle - I used some of mine like this it added to the old folded look. 

When you have enough gel down on your fabric place your image face down. I like to lay down from one corner to another. See photo. Sorry it is out of focus a little.

Do not lift or shift the image around. It may start to move the colour around. Place another wax paper on top and roll very gentle up and down then left and right with the rolling pin. Not much pressure here. Just once or twice and just enough to help remove any bubbles. Some gel is going to swish out on to the wax paper, that is OK.  Set the sandwich of wax paper (2 pieces) and fabric and image with gel aside to dry. Leave them in a place were they can remain flat for the next few hours. Do not stack many sandwiches or it will take longer to dry. I sometimes remove the top layer of wax paper after several hours. It may help speed drying time. If you see wrinkles developing you may not be able to save this image but next one use a little less gel medium.

When your sandwich is dry (not cool to the touch) it may take 24 hours or longer, it will be time to remove the paper. When you are sure the gel is dry you can start to remove the paper. How, you ask, do we do that?  Remove all wax paper by pulling it off the best you can. Then I use warm water, soak in sink for just a few minutes. You will see the paper get watery. Then take it out of sink and rub off paper with your finger tips. Soak and rub. Soak and rub. It may take 15 min or more to rub off paper. You may find the paper come off when the image is more damp and not real wet. I have a towel close by. Keep rubbing. When you think you have all the paper removed dry with towel and check it a a few minutes of air drying. If it is looking white and cloudy you may need to rub more with a little dampness again.  Some ink from the printer comes off more than other brands or printers. You will have to be the judge as to when to much ink is coming off and when to stop.

Students Please email me or call me if you have any questions. Your supply list sheet should have my home phone number and email address. Non students I would be happy to help you too please send me a message or comment. I hope you have enjoyed this.

Design Wall Monday #6 Orca Bays

This Design wall is my Mother's, Betty's wall. She was away when Orca Bay mystery got started in Nov but when she got home in Dec she was speedy. She used Green instead of Red and Coral instead of Blue. She has just a few crabby eye pieces to do and then she is ready to sew her rows together. I thought some of you would like to see a different colour way.

I have added my post today to the Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times and Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville is doing a final linky thing for our Orca Bay Mystery. Check them both out as there will be many to see.

Here is my Design wall today. The same it was three weeks ago. I have not been feeling 100% and have not had the energy to sew the rows together. I have been working on customer quilting on the week days and in the evenings I might get a little sewing for myself but I have been working on my scrap challenge. I posted Saturday on my new blocks in Green.

Happy Scrappy Saturday Green #1

Today is Happy Scrappy Saturday over at Soscrappy. Follow the link and see what the other ladies have started in Green ( not many when I posted). I have so many Green scraps it will be a very busy month of sewing scraps. I found out last weekend what colour was next by checking out This Post that was made at the beginning of the year. Looks like she is updating the colour each month.

I have sorted out my lime green scraps separate form the darker green scraps because I like lime. In my eyes it is another whole colour. I got two more blocks done for a scrappy quilt. I started this in Nov when I found Soscrappy. It was This Quilt, I want to make one kind of like it. As I started in Nov and Dec's colour was green (and Red) I had two done before. Now I have four green blocks done. This quilt now has eight blocks done.

Note the horse in the above block. I like horses and fussy pieced that in.

They are a little different from each other.

I have changed how I sort my scraps and thought I would share this with you.  The old way I had boxes like this. Left over from a project or two or three all dumped together. Some big, some small and any colour and some parts sewn but left over. With the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I wanted to change it.

I have two types of scraps. My small yardage or fat quarters that are more then half gone go in a laundry basket. They are some what sorted by colour and I will leave then in the basket of now. My small scraps, smaller then 6" wide but can be a long strip, needed help sorting out.

Old way I had a 2" strip box, 1 1/2" strip box, A bag in here with 1 3/4", a box for 1". I never got around to digging much out. There was never any colour sorting. Some pieces of fabric never fit in to one of the boxes.

Here is a box with triangles sorted the old way. All the small ones are from the joining of Binding and tend to be the same size. Some larger ones. I did many years ago make a whole quilt out of Triangles. It was even Rainbow like.

Back in Dec, I thought I want to sort by colour more. So slowly I have made boxes like this one. Green in one big pile. It is still a mess but I have found I like to go to it for the Rainbow Challenge. I have a blue, pink, red, and purple box.

Here is Orange, Yellow and Brown (with some pink that should be moved out) that is mostly sorted. They are in one box together and it is more or less sorted. Larger chucks on bottom (+3" wide) then wide strips to 2" strips, 1 1/2" then little squares and triangles on top. So far not to bad. But I had to sort that bigger Green box to start off the month of green.

Here it is all sorted out in the ironing board. I have piles of the different strip widths. I tend to think some are > then 2", 2", 1 1/2", then smaller then 1 1/2". In the back row there is small triangles and larger triangles. Then chucks that are +3" on one or both sides. I have a ton of 3" squares left from some past project. I may have to use them this month. There is also smaller blocks and rectangles. I did finish up my blocks today and get this all back in the one box. I will have to lay out the piles to use it again but it should work.

Not pictured is also some sewn strip set ends in all green. Not sure how to handle the half sewn stuff. Even worse is the end of strip sets with many colours. What to do with them all. While I did once make This Journal Cover. I had done some Poverty Piecing Here. But I never know how to store these bits until it is time to use them. Maybe just another box of sorted chaos.

String Thing Along

Today I have made a post on the new Blog String Thing Along. You may want to check it out.

Tin Box Exchange Round #3

Tonight is the Black Gold Quilt Patch meeting in Leduc tonight. I almost forgot to do my block exchange for round 3. I got started after 2 pm today, but it is done now. I have the tin box #1 and it is a theme of Spring. The fabric we are to use is the pale light green, I have used it as a background for my tree.

I had my green scraps out and thought a tree would be great for spring. I love it when the leaves come out on the trees. That is spring for me.

These two were in the box already.

Here are the three all together and the fabric in the top right.