Halloween at the new house...

warning image heavy...

My little mario and big batman...

stairs leading up to my home....

our pumpkins, carved artistically by moi.... please note the creative use of triangles (lol)
my front display....
my culdesac - we all pitched in to make the Tide Place Cemetery...

neighbour homes....truly, this is an immense, insane amount of work, that I would rather partake with fabric and my sewing machine...

I ran out of candy.

They came in cars.

They came in vans.

They came by bus.

There were many haunted houses.

Many foggy scenes.

Fireworks galore.

I was warned.

It was insane.

*truly, it was so busy, no car could get though, there were so many people. It was like a huge long lineup of people filing up and down from house to house. I couldn't even enjoy the wee cute trick or treaters, because there were just too many people, no pauses, no breaks for 2.5 hours straight!

Bloggers Quilt Festival October 2010

Welcome to my entry for the Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2010

Thank you to Amy, for organizing this wonderful event. It's always such a treat to go and visit new blogs and view such inspiring work!

My entry this year is a quilt that I have shown before, the Bedford quilt:

I really like the look of square in square quilts, but I wanted to do something different - with rectangles instead.

For some reason, in my design process, I'm always trying to making things that are just slightly different than the norm. I don't like to use patterns, and like to figure out a design on my own, mistakes and all.

Solids are my favourite fabrics so I chose a wide selection of coordinating greens, browns and blues, et voila - Bedford was created. There is no emotional story today for my post. It was just a beautiful (to me) quilt, and the colours just seem to go together in harmony.

I am really proud of the machine quilting I attempted with this quilt... I made large circles all over, which was a first for me. It was a lot of fun, and once it washed up, I just loved the effect. AND any mistakes that I made in the machine quilting, all crinkled up!

In between the circles, I made curve/feather/paisley type shapes....

I completed the quilt with white sashing, and a pieced border around.... the binding was done in a solid brown.

Thanks for visiting - if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away!

A good thing..

I'm probably the only one who didn't know this.... but in case you are like me and figuring things out as you go, here's a tip. NUMBER your rows after you have laid them out. That way, when you're doing Indy 500 sewing like I was with the sashing, you don't have to get up an down and remember where they were to be placed.

I know. You've heard it before.

**I used scrap address label stickers, marked them with the numbers and cut them up, stuck em down.

Thanks for your input on the sashing. I have come up with a totally different colour than white or charcoal. Stay tuned.

Loving rectangles..

I love rectangular blocks. At about 9:30pm last night, I got a simple quilt idea (which I'm sure has been done many o times) to use my new fabric in a simple quilt with large and small rectangles. Easy peasy right?

Piecing is easy - except when you randomly pair them together, and then hang them to position them on your design wall..... This is where I use up wayyyyyy too much time making sure the combinations are just right. Time waster.

So, do I put any white or charcoal vertical sashing in between the rows? yes or no?

The UNprocess..

In an attempt to make a baby quilt for a friend, I have discovered that part of the process is the knowing when to stop and halt all production.

I was trying to make a baby quilt out of stash and scraps that I already had. I almost was there, until I put the brown snuggles fabric around it. ick. I just didn't have enough fabric to really make something of it - even if just a small travel quilt. So I unprocessed - and removed, and placed the partial blocks away.


I know I need more fabric. But I'm on a spending freeze until I can use up some of my stash.

Except when I bought this set of fq's for 1/2 price at Fabric Flair on etsy. I know it's not solids which I covet - but I really love the charcoal and orange combo of these prints!

Eye Candy...

1. square motion #2 in sage and espresso brown, 2. City Scapes, 3. Muslin Table Runner - Detail, 4. Color Weave no.2 - Art Quilt, 5. Color Weave no.2 - Art Quilt - Detail, 6. City Lot, 7. Primary Squares, 8. Finally done!, 9. straight on, finished, 10. finished!, 11. LinesFall, 12. Circle Quilt 2009, 13. Muslin Table Runner - Detail, 14. Mod Mood Quilt ~ Get Your Curve On, 15. Circle Quilt (detail 1), 16. Imperfection_1

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

What is your favourite flickr group for inspiration? Simply Solid Quilts is mine. I have really continued to know, that I love solids, I love plain jane, I love the clean lines and beauty of the understated. Above are some of my flickr favourites...

Could it be that my stash will one day become only solids, and a variation of solids - cross weaves, handweaves, hand dyed... and the threads I use will be the embellishment? I'm leaning that way.

I look at all of the different fabric lines out there, and none of them really grab me. Unless, it's two colour, simple dots or stripes. I know. How adventurous.

My stash of patterned fabric will soon become quilts for others... and then I can see a journey continued with solids.

So do you have a flickr group you just love to follow for inspiration? Is there one artist or quilter that you just always identify with, or get inspiration from? Does this reflect or run parallel with your own personality?

I'm not sure my inspirations or aspirations reflect my personality....

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! For all of my American friends, here is an article explaining similarities and differences of the Canadian Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Looking forward to that tryptophan drowsy state tonight LOL

I should be painting...

I should be painting my raspberry coloured basement. (it's going white) But I am trying to catch up on my bees so I can lessen my to-do list...

Loved doing this Mondrian block. Every single aspect of this block screams 'me'. I love the solids, the blank white canvas, the gemoetric clean lines...Love.
This was a fantastic use of greys and stripes - it will be such a handsome quilt. I will definately keep this colour design in mind for a male quilt.

And finally, some inspiration I found wayyyyyyyyyyyy back in June. This father's day card was the perfect quilt layout to me. I wonder if it would have the same appeal if the squares didn't have the rounded edges. This is where that GO cutter would help with the circles, for sure! what a neat idea - using the cutter on your already cut squares. Applique the squares on beige background... Or just cut a bunch of beige circles. ;-) I'm going to keep this card on hand... I really love the colour combination, and somehow, I'll modify it to work into a quilt.

My new sewing room unfolds...

The view from my living room window.. believe it or not, if I drive 1 minute down the hill, it's a major shopping area!

My sewing room closet - already had shelving in there. I've mashed my fabric in. I need to organize by colour, etc. My sister thought I had too much fabric. What??? Is that possible?

The room needs to be painted, and we intend to put new carpeting in (well, I'd love hardwood, but that's just not in the budget) It has alot of natural light, so it's a great little corner.

My new sewing cabinet, which I absolutely adore. It's a little taller than a normal table, and works fabulous for cutting and sewing:

I intend to make a design wall right above this desk - for inspiration and for project work. I thought of taking just regular chair rail lengths and frame it around a piece of batting.. hope it works!

This is another view of my new table. Note the drawers are on each end of the table, and the bottom one is full length of the table. Great storage for the unsightly stuff like batting. I love that the table can be extended or folded up to a narrow length... I only have one leaf extended here... The other leaf, I plan to cover with Insulbrite batting and fabric, to make it into an ironing side.
My first bee project in my new home....
I forgot to photograph the next one which was a spiderweb string block. Oh my gosh, those were so fun to do! I definately will be making string blocks again!

I feel bogged by being behind in the bee blocks, but they will get done slowly but surely. Thankfully, there aren't too many red alert speed demons needed.

Finally.. thoughts on this?

Is the internet blogging world buzzing with this new product or what? Do you have one? What do you think? They are incredible marketers of this product - going for the bloggers to spread the word. They know how word of mouth travels...I love that!

I'm not sure what I think about this tool. My first thought is - another thing to find a 'spot' for in my room. Also, I actually enjoy the process of cutting the fabric for my quilts. I love folding and cutting and stacking and watching the colours blend together in their little piles. Would it take away from that - would I become a little factory? Would I REALLY use this to control my stash, or would it just create more to-do projects? Thoughts?