The Road to Home Row Along - Day 3

I’ve been working on slab blocks for the quilt bee at Quilt Canada and  for this one I cut apart a panel of images from Northcott’s ‘Oh Canada’ collection and I’m building my slab block around each of those.  By the way, I think I forgot to mention the designer of the slab block in my last post!  I’m sorry about this – it was Cheryl Arkison at http://www.cherylarkison.com who designed this when High River and other parts of Alberta were flooded badly in 2013.  Cheryl put out the slab block to quilters to contribute to a drive to give quilts to the homeowners who were victims at this time.  Tens of thousands of slab blocks and many quilt tops were sent to Cheryl and then she and her buddies finished thousands of quilts and gave them away!

This collection (http://www.northcott.com/product-detail.aspx?fbid=24&colid=512&colorid=864 ) was designed by Linda Ludovico in support of Quilts of Valour (yes, we spell it ‘our’ in Canada).  No matter what country you live in the Quilts of Valour movement is wonderful – www.quiltsofvalor.com or www.quiltsofvalour.ca or www.quiltsofvalour.com.au or www.qovf.org

But....back to my slab blocks.  I’ve been trying to get out of only sewing straight lines to make these, but it’s hard!  After training myself to follow the ¼ “ straight seam to do patchwork blocks, my body doesn’t want to cut that slanted seam.  So some of the blocks have slanted sections and I’ll keep working to add more.  Once I have the quilts sandwiched, I’ve decided that this is the perfect opportunity to practise free motion quilting in the plain sections of the quilt. 

Have you visited the bloggers who have introduced their rows on the Road to Home Row Along?  I’ve picked up a few rows for my quilt about places I love and those on my bucket list.  And I’ve entered my name for some of the prizes being offered.

Here are the sites that are doing their big reveal today:

Tweety Loves Quilting at tweloquilting.blogspot.com

Quiltscapes at www.quiltscapesqs.com

Seams to be Sew (one of the hosts!) at www.seamstobesew.com

Pine Valley at 

pinevalley.co.nz/blogs/pine-valley-quilts

Enjoy!

The Road Home Row Along - Day 2

2 slab blocks

 Twice in one week!  Maybe this blogathon will lead me to more regular posts!  We had our first meeting of the year at Happy Quilters yesterday and had a pretty good turnout – I guess it takes a while for people to ‘finish’ the summer activities and get back to quilting!  I put up a few posters and taught the ‘slab’ block quilt because I think it’s a great beginning quilt – it doesn't really matter if every seam is ¼" as long as it ends up at 12 ½" square. This is the block we are hoping Canadian quilters will make this year as we head to the ‘world’s biggest quilt bee’ at  Quilt Canada next June   http://www.canadianquilter.com/events/quilt-canada-2017-quilting-bee.php   Our club decided that once more Canada 150 fabric is in the quilt stores in November, we’ll make one.  All the quilts made will be going to the Ronald McDonald houses across Canada next summer and I can’t wait to see the photographs (and be in the quilting rooms at Quilt Canada)!

One of my quilting friends also mentioned that the ‘One MillionPillowcases’ drive is getting closer to the target, so she would like all of us who are attending a quilt retreat later this month to make some and she’ll send them in.

The bloggers who are revealing their rows today are:

Sew Incredibly Crazy at http://sewincrediblycrazy.blogspot.com/

Just Let Me Quilt at http://justletmequilt.com

Quilt in Piece at http://chittenden.co.za/http://chittenden.co.za/ 

3 Patch Crafts at http://3patchcrafts.blogspot.com/

Happy blog hopping!!

The Road Home Row Along Starts Today

This is it!  My first blogathon – I’m very excited and, of course, thrilled that I’m not the first blog on the list (just because I want to see the other bloggers' posts first).  This blogathon has been masterminded by the patient Marian at Seams to be Sew and Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy

These wonderful bloggers come from all over the world, so there’s a great chance that you’ll find a pattern for a row that you just have to have – one that reminds you of a trip, your past or some place on your bucket list!  Each blog will have a free pattern for you to download and prizes that you might possibly win (some prizes are only available in the U.S. unless you want to pay for shipping).  At some of the sites, the bloggers have made their patterns available on their Craftsy site for free, so if you haven't had this experience, this is your chance!

On Facebook, there is a page for this event:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stbs.blog.events/?ref=bookmarks

And if you'd like to see the rows that are sewn, check out Flickr at
https://www.flickr.com/groups/3054920@N21/

Let's not leave Pinterest out!  Here's a place for images as well:
https://www.pinterest.com/stbs_blogs/the-road-home-row-along/

Every Tuesday and Thursday from today until almost Canadian Thanksgiving will see the launch of new patterns. 

 I hope you will check out these sites that publish on Sept. 6^th, 2016:

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life at http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/

Cynthia’s Creating Ark at http://www.cynthiasark.blogspot.com.au

Kissed Quilts at http://kissedquilts.blogspot.com

Renee’s Quilting Addiction at http://reneechester.wordpress.com/

Thread Painting

A beautiful sunrise today

and it looked like there were mountains rising behind Barrie Island so I had to take a photo of it!  I wonder if I could translate this into a thread painted image?  After taking a workshop in March with Nancy Prince http://www.nancyprince.com, I tried my first thread painted quilt for the Trend-Tex challenge for Quilt Canada 2016.  The CQA/ACC http://www.canadianquilter.com uses the challenge to raise money for its operating expenses and Trend-Tex donates the fabric that is then cut up into sets of 5 fat quarters.  The current vice-president has that honour, along with the privilege of choosing the theme for the challenge, which was ‘Living a Life in Green’.  Well....that took months of thinking!  You can see most of the challenge items in the CQA/ACC gallery.  From money to ecology to nature and eventually I wandered in my thoughts to the hobbits from ‘The Lord of the Rings’, who certainly lived their lives in ‘green’ in their shire.  After looking through the photos online of the village set up in New Zealand for the movies made from this series, I developed a wall hanging design with aspects of the photos and my own ideas. 

I designed the quilt with EQ7 http://electricquilt.com, layered the fabrics then started embellishing with pieces of photos and then thread.  I made lots of mistakes! I added the borders before I started thread painting.  Well I didn’t stabilize the fabric as well as I should have, so the first set of borders had to be cut off.  Then I finished the thread painting, added new borders and then layered it with wool batting and 80/20.  I heard that some quilters were using the 2 layers and wanted to try it.  The wool batting really ‘puffed up’ the sections, so I ended up doing lots of quilting to hold down parts.  On the first border, I had done bobbin work to print part of the elf language verse:

And for those of you who don’t speak Elvish:

One Ring to rule them all,

One Ring to find them;

One Ring to bring them all

And in the darkness bind them

I did this border twice as I figured out how to actually write the lines using perle cotton in the bobbin.  I tried using paper with the verse written on it (reversed), sewed it from the top with regular thread and then went over the thread with bobbin work.  It was ok, but not great.  In the end, after practising several times on paper with pencil, I just laid out the copy beside the sewing machine and wrote one line at a time.

 The black border has quilted 'flames' on it and is wider on the bottom right because Mordor is in that direction (and if it really isn't, please be kind!  I'm directionally challenged).

You can see that this is definitely a first effort in thread painting, but as I see scenes around me that tempt, I may be thread painting again!  And I did win a first place at the Providence Bay Fair!

Below is the label I put on the back of it - I do all my labels in Electric Quilt 7 because combining photos and text is so easy there and I can do a couple of labels and print them out on one piece of fabric!

More Evidence for Fixing Fabric Bleeds

In my previous post I wrote about finally getting rid of the fabric bleeds from the quilt I made for my Mom.  I also tried to fix a camera bag I had made, but with no success.  But....I thought that I would try a second time and this time I agitated the bag more in the water before weighing it down with a juice bottle filled with water.  I left it a full 12 hours in the tub before rinsing it and voilà!  This time it worked!  If you look at the photos below, you can see the fabric bleed in the top one (near the button) and the one below shows that it has gone.  I love this method!  I also had to use it with some potholders I made for part of a shower gift because I had some bleed when I was taking of the quilt marking I put on one of the pieces.  Oh well - potholders are a lot easier to handle than a queen size quilt!

Before soaking

After soaking

Despair over an old bleeding quilt!

Over the years, I've come to fear bleeding fabrics!  I prewash now, more consistently ever since I made a memory quilt for my mom in 2011.  Apparently I didn't prewash all the reds and the black fabric I used for one of the borders.  When I washed it before giving it to her, one of the reds bled as well as part of the black border!
I was really, really upset, because I had spent a lot of time picking out blocks that 'described'  my mom's life - lots of garden related blocks - she would make a garden in sand!  Travel fabrics because we travelled so much with my army father and she had immigrated to Canada in her mother's uterus!

There's a little block on the side of the Carolina lilies for each of her 4 children, with references to our lives.  I used the block design you see below for all 4 kids - but then chose fabrics and printed out images and logos from their jobs to highlight their lives.  You probably can't see these well for my sister, Lyn, but it shows her work as a nurse, a nursing home administrator, her life with her 3 sons (I personally believe that any woman who has 3 sons should automatically receive angel wings!)  her love of knitting, sewing and quilting!
Anyway....fast forward to this summer.  My mom died last year and I have her quilt back.  I did a last search for a solution and found it!!!!!  Colorways by Vicki  If you look down her tab for 'Tutorials', you'll find her article 'Save My Bleeding Quilt' and you can print it out.  I read it and didn't really want to use this solution for this queen size quilt, BUT....  So I experimented  with a small wall hanging that also had some bleeding on it and it worked!  Beautifully!  So into the bathtub it went for 24 hours.  I did rinse it twice in the bathtub, but then I gave up and put it on the delicate cycle and cold water.  My neighbour let me hang it out on her clothesline.
Pros:  the commercial fabric bleeds, came out of the quilt, even after 5 years.
Cons:  the fabric blocks that I printed on my inkjet printer faded.
Conclusion:  I love this method and will use it whenever I have to!  Although I said that I prewash all my fabric and take care, you will see by reading the article that you still sometimes get bleeding!  And if you use the rubbing alcohol and flour recipe to baste the quilt top, batting and backing together, then you really have to wash the quilt after you finish quilting it!

Quilt Canada 2016

So I've been back a few weeks from Quilt Canada, but does that mean it's too late to comment?  Too bad!  I was sick and then had some driving to do, so here goes.... my 2 cents worth.
My friend, Jackie http://jabotquilt.blogspot.ca had a LOT to do with this show as did the directors (Linda, Leslie, Judy, Bonnie) of the CQA/ACC www.canadianquilter.com, Jackie Philpott (the registrar), Liz (the conference coordinator) and then ALL the fabulous VOLUNTEERS who made the show so great for the visitors, the teachers and the vendors.

My friends, Rolanda and Pat, and I booked into a hotel for the week and then signed up to volunteer in various ways.  I think that volunteering really enhanced our trip - we met lots of new people, saw some great classes in progress and, of course, bought one or two items!  (found a couple of good restaurants nearby - which we'll talk about more next year!)  While I was volunteering at the Trend-Tex Challenge exhibit, I met an Indian visitor and after chatting with her for a while, she told me about her family in India sending her a quilt made by her 90-year old grandmother.  The next day she brought in the quilt made from diamond shapes cut out of saris (I remember that my grandmother only used our old clothes for quilts!).

So you'll see a photo below of Sabia in the CQA/ACC booth, as well as a photo of what her grandmother had sewn.  Apparently she started with making the star shape and then added to it.  Maybe next year, we'll see Sabia's own quilt in our show!
I volunteered in Sue Patten's long arm quilting class and I neither have one of these machines, nor will I ever have one.  But Melissa (Melissa's Quilting Service on Manitoulin Island) assured me that I would still learn a LOT that I could apply to my domestic machine.  She was right.  She is a dynamic, knowledgeable teacher and had lots of ideas.
Then I took a New York Beauty class from Ana Buzzalion http://anabuzzalino.com.  I saw Ana on Quilting Arts many times teaching free motion quilting and wanted to take a quilting class.  Well that didn't work out, but I did love the class and one day, I may even finish it!
And I was able to make some new friends - Val Tucker, and run into quilters I really wanted to see - Cindy Simpson, Judy Kelly, Catherine Henderson - to name a few.
Here are some of my other highlights of the weekend (the last 4 are some of my favourite of the Trend-Tex Challenge pieces - I am always amazed at how quilters can take the same 5 pieces of fabric and make such different pieces!):

Toronto Modern Quilt Guild - Break Free by Jeannie Jenkins

by Joanne Love - I love the eyes on this little guy!

by Jim Wilford - I really admire his piecing and quilting.

I really enjoyed spending time with my sister and her friends!

Me with my sister, Lyn, and cousin, Dianne - we had a good time!

This was in the vendor's area, but I love this design!  I think it's by Judy Martin.

This was amazing!  by Rosana Kantarjian - I can see how she quilted it, but piecing it? Amazing.

Sorry - don't know who made this, but I want to do waves well one day!

by Cindy Simpson - those are large zipper sections on either side.

by Francine Carriere

by Myra Tallman - note the hand stitching!

by Susan Wilson - so clever!