A little every day

I have endeavoured to do something for quilting every day, for at least an hour. Most days, I do something for quilting, and occasionally skip a day. This might be cutting out fabric pieces, printing fabric, sorting my stash, sewing blocks, pattern work, reading quilt books or magazines, hemming pants, surfing the net to see what other quilters are up to. . . . Sometimes, if I don't feel like sewing, I'll go for a drive, and take my camera to see what's out in the world. Or go pick raspberries!

For example, today I was creating another vest pattern for myself. This is a plain vest, to be used for wearable art. It didn't take long, because it doesn't have a lot of details. I have a couple of heavy weight shirts hanging around that would be better suited if they were cut up into something else, so their destiny is about to change. Nothing is too sacred around here to avoid the scissors!

Can you tell, I'm good at coming up with ideas, and starting things. I have way more ideas than I can ever hope to get finished. I'm lucky if I can get everything written down in my sketch book, which I keep in case I ever run out of things to make. Ha, like that would ever happen.

Amazing Embroidery

I was speaking with 2 guilds from the Ontario Needle Network last Saturday. It was fascinating to see the work they were showing. As a wee lass, part of my education on becoming a sewing/crafty person was a bit of embroidery. So I can say I have done some, along with knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, etc.

I was looking at various styles like Stumpwork, Swedish Weaving, and Ruskan Lace. Most interesting to me was the freestyle, where a picture is created purely out of colourful stitches, of maybe a bird, a flower, or a landscape scene. While I can't see myself creating such a work, I can see using some of these elements in the work I'm doing with my photos.


From the perspective I have now, it's very different to see this work. I have a great appreciation for the time, creativity, and precision it takes to do this exquisite handwork. I have a piece or two my great-aunt made many years ago, which I love. I feel very connected to my ancestors and other women, and inspired to do my own brand of needlework.

And with that, it is back to my sewing machine.

Busy, Busy

People have been trying to pry me away from my sewing machine, to no avail. I've been joining those blue and yellow blocks together. It is a big job, not only because there are so many blocks, but also because there are so many star points that I like to get all (mostly) accurate about. I've been considering how I might set them up in a quilt, too.

I've also been tearing apart the seams on a whole bunch of my uniform shirts for work. This leads to a nicely tailored look, but doesn't much advance my quilting cause. It is tempting to wear the shirts the way they come out of the package, but I like being a little non-standard, wearing my talent so to speak. Ladies at work are asking if I'll do the same to their shirts. No! It takes a lot of time, time I'd rather be quilting. I'm sure all you other quilters understand.

And the other thing I have going is printing. I tend to do things in big numbers, so I treated a bunch of fabric, cut it into printer sizes, then print, print, print. My next stage will be to treat them again, and then I can start quilting them. The printing experiment didn't work out the way I wanted, so I'm thinking of other things I can try. I was aiming to get brighter colours on my cotton prints. So I tried steaming to heat set, but this just blended the colours together. I would like to try a resist of some sort, but that will have to wait.

Oh, yeah, one other thing competing for my time. Garden planting is in full swing here in S. Ontario. We do quite a flower show in our yard, and plant many annuals and baskets, and a few vegetables. Poppies and peonies in bloom right now. We have a big heat wave going on, and I'm more comfortable inside, sewing of course.

Blue and Yellow

I have a couple of things on the go at the moment. I've been getting set to print more photos onto fabric, and have an experiment to try with that. Will explain after the trials. It takes some time to get everything set up and organized.


The other project is one I've been at for a long time. A few years ago, I decided to make a blue and yellow star quilt. I made a lot of these 6" blocks, almost 400 of them. I had this layout in mind, but decided to use some of them for a small wall quilt. I put away the rest of them to work on later. A couple of months ago, I pulled them out, and decided to get working on them. They all needed squareing up, so I'm almost finished that. Tedious, that trimming, but it needs doing. Soon, I'll be joining them together. I have to create a different layout, but that's ok.

Success at Last

I've been working on something for a while now, and I finally have a result that I'm happy with. I've been figuring out how to use my photo printer to print on fabric, then turn the fabric into quilts, no colours washing out. I know, I know, you're thinking this is nothing new, this has been done before. Sure, many other quilters and fibre artists have successfully used this technique.

But for me it's new, and it's very exciting to see my own photos transformed into another artform. These are small pieces, 4x6", and have thread painting. I am thinking of other possibilities, like larger pieces, adding painting, embroidery, beading, applique, yarn couching, and many other embellishments.