I’ve been thinking about my fabric choices for the upcoming Amish Bars quilt camp. It should be easier to pick, since I really only need two fabric choices, but I can’t decide. I thought it would be fun to mock up some options and see what this quilt could look like. These were done rather crudely in Photoshop, but it helps to get a visual. Sometimes with quilts it’s hard to imagine how all those fabrics will look together. I still haven’t quite settled on a combination, but luckily I have a couple more weeks to play around with it and get it just right. I love the graphic simplicity of this design so much.

Fabric selections : 1. Karyn (Blue Geo Print with Cream Text) 2. Jerisse (Black Dressmaker’s Form with Mauve Bramble & Vintage Lady Illustrations) 3. Rosalyn (Nectarine Mini Check with French General Plaid) 4. Debbie (Ash Grey Fusions with Aqua French General)

For one person out there, this post will present a little surprise. I made this patchwork picnic blanket as a gift for my friend Marie Beath. Surprise!! MB loves to picnic and is most deserving of a special blanket for which to do this on. Also, perhaps it would be good for outdoor re-readings of Harry Potter or Twilight novels?

The inspiration for the colours of this blanket came from some amazing ‘ribbon’/shoestring from Mokuba with all lovely shades of purple and grey. In fact, I bought three different colour ways of this awesome stuff and plan to make two more picnic blankets for two other girlfriends. This is a seriously fun gift to make.

The pattern was designed by Reva and features handy built-in pockets, along the ties to roll it all up for transport. I used a sturdy coloured canvas for the backing. In the class, we finish the blanket with embroidery floss ties to hold the two layers together. I opted to go the extra mile and ‘quilted’ on either side of all of the seams. (with variegated thread, of course!)

Lastly, my newly standard label. A tiny bit of patchwork attached to a hand embroidered label. I think I’ve actually turned making the label into a fun activity!

MB – let’s get together soon for a picnic and I’ll bring your blanket!

I had technically finished my buzz saw quilt a little while ago, but had dilly-dallied in completing a label for it. In the few quilts that I have completed, I’ve made sure to carefully label them. (you know, for quilt historians 100 years from now)

This ‘ode to green’ quilt is absolutely perfect for our couch. It worked out to be just the right length. For the backing, I used a large swath of Denyse Schmidt’s wallflower in piney woods green. I just love this vintage-y print! I also used scraps from the front to create the stripe down the side. To echo the buzz saw points on the front, I cut the scraps on an angle. I machine quilted it with two different Valdani variegated threads and echoed the buzz saw pattern about a half inch around the inside and then the outside. I really like the effect this gives.

The binding is also made from scraps from the quilt. I find this most satisfying when I get to the end to use up leftover bits to make the binding.

For the quilt label, I hand embroidered using the dark variegated thread I used to machine quilt. To make the label a bit more interesting, I did a teeny tiny bit of patchwork and attached it to the end. Cute! I think I will always do this for future labels.

Yay! I can finally cross something else off my finishing list. Which is perfect timing because tonight I’m starting to make the Cog & Wheel quilt!

I’ve been so curious about cathedral windows since I first heard of them from Jill. It seemed like a very complicated fabric origami process that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. In situations like these, it’s best to call in an expert. Lucky for us, Johanna is not only a quilting whiz, but she also has an uncanny knack for cracking open complicated patchwork and devising a clever and simplified solution. (see – English Paper Piecing & Double Wedding Ring Quilt)

At the first Cathedral Windows class, an eager group of quilters gathered round the table to learn Johanna’s wonderful new method for this sculptural patchwork. It does not disappoint. This method is quick, easy and saves loads of fabric too. I wanted to make a cathedral windows pillow to go with the new quilt I’m working on. The quilt will have lots of greys and purples. I chose to use the Moda Crossweaves as my background fabric. It has more texture than a plain solid and I love the soft feel of it. I had a really hard time choosing my ‘feature fabrics’ to go in the middle of the windows. I wanted to make them all different, but in the end went with some Liberty of London scraps from a coat I made a few years ago and a plum tonal print. I left the squares in the outer perimeter without feature fabrics and I really like the way that looks.

For my next cathedral windows project, I’d like to add some to a piece of clothing!

I have to warn you that what I’m about to tell you about is a bit addictive and you may find yourself hours from now completely obsessed. At least that’s what happened to me when Debbie told me about the V&A Patchwork Pattern Maker. In conjunction with the current quilt exhibit, The Victoria & Albert Museum has an amazing online tool on their website that allows you to upload an image and it will turn it into your own personal quilt pattern. You get to choose how many colours you’d like your pattern to have (up to 20) and the level of difficulty (larger squares = easy, small squares + triangles = expert). The pattern maker creates a complete pattern for you that you can download and use to create your custom quilt.

The day I found out about this, I spent about four hours searching through my photos and trying out quilt patterns for everything. So fun and so addictive! Since you get to work on the quilt project of your choice for our new Quilt Clinic class, I’m going to try doing the triangular quilt pattern (last photo). The original image was of a paper collage by Carl Kleiner. Most of the people taking the class are working on getting help finishing a current quilt project, but I can’t resist the opportunity to start a new quilt and get some help with that. I know Johanna will have some good advice on how to best organize this project and get it done with the least amount of fuss. I have the crazy notion that this is going to be a queen sized quilt for my bed. I think the expert supervision will come in quite handy.

p.s. I want to apologize right now, if you don’t get much work done today because of this.

I am so excited to finally be able to check off #6 on My Crafty List of Things to Do – design a skateboard! I received my blank deck back in February and looked at it everyday, pondering just what I was going to do. I had the idea to make a piece of patchwork that I might somehow wrap around the deck. I also had triangles on my mind, inspired by the fabric bunting in the workroom’s window that I just can’t seem to bear to take down.

I decided to make use of the workroom’s laser cutter to help with all the cutting. I’ve been wanting to test this out to help doing patchwork. Every single fabric triangle was laser cut and they are all the exact same size. I knew this kind of precision would be really helpful, especially since I had it in my head that I was going to hand piece the entire thing.

Before attempting to put the real thing together. I did a little test piece. I made a small triangle patchwork sample that I tested wrapping and gluing around a piece of plywood. I had purchased a bottle of Martha Stewart’s Decoupage Glue a while ago, hoping it would do the trick. It worked perfectly. To adhere the patchwork to the wood, I applied the glue to the wood and smoothed the fabric on top. I then brushed on a layer of the glue over top the fabric. The two things I learned from doing this test were 1. the wood showed through the muslin pieces more than I liked once it was glued and 2. one layer of glue on top of the fabric was enough. More than that and the fabric started looking dull and plastic-y. To compensate for the show-through on the muslin, I decided to glue a solid piece of muslin to the skateboard deck first and then glue my patchwork on top of that.

Of course all this was started about a week before I needed to submit my finished deck. Even being short on time, I was absolutely determined to sew the entire thing by hand. After doing our Hand Work class, I love having a hand sewing project on the go. Sitting in bed and sewing is so fun! There were a couple late nights, but when I finished sewing all 200+ triangles together, I was so happy with how it turned out.

When I had finished gluing the finished patchwork to the deck, I realized that the back of the deck wasn’t so pretty. I couldn’t have that, so I found a large scrap of Liberty of London ‘Wiltshire’ (from this dress), glued it over the back and then hand embroidered a little label.

The actual auction night was super fun. Tons of people came out to see all the artwork and finished decks. All the decks were so different and lots of them were really clever. Even though Andrew bid on my deck a couple times (so sweet!), by the end of the night someone else had outbid him, so it’s gone to another home. I couldn’t resist bidding on Derrick Hodgson’s deck and I actually won it! I haven’t picked it up yet, but I’m currently trying to decide where it’s going to hang.

All my photos of my work in progress and the Disposable Artshow night are here. Thanks to Freedom Fighter Skateboards and Joey for letting me take part. I’ll admit that I’m already hatching ideas for another deck for next year’s event. Why stop at just one?

April 21, 2010 of 365 : laser cut triangles of muslin for my skateboard design

The Disposable Artshow is quickly approaching. I’m furiously hand sewing hundreds of fabric triangles together for my skateboard design. The auction will be taking place on Saturday May 8!

April 16, 2010 of 365 : my finished buzz saw quilt top.

I love how this quilt top turned out. I was worried that my all green colour palette might be a bit boring, but I think it’s going to look great on our couch. Actually, all the quilt tops from the Buzz Saw class are pretty awesome. I have already basted all the layers together and have even started machine quilting!

March 31, 2010 of 365 : oksana machine quilting her nine patch quilt

Oksana has been working hard on completing her Presto Nine Patch quilt. She put in a lot of extra work to make it a larger size and has been diligently coming by the shop to complete her machine quilting. She’s now finishing off the quilt with some hand quilting and I’m looking forward to seeing the quilt completed!

It’s time to choose fabrics for another quilt. It’s one of the hardest/funnest parts. For some reason it is so much easier when I’m helping someone else choose their fabrics.

These fabrics are for our new quilting class, the Buzz Saw Quilt. I got especially excited when I realized that the Banksy print over our couch has a buzz saw in it AND we could definitely use a bigger quilt for the couch. It couldn’t be more perfect.

After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to do a very tonal quilt in dark and light greens. Our couch is dark espresso brown and there are touches of dark green in the room, including curtains in one of Tula Pink’s scalloped Neptune fabrics.

All my green fat quarters are now pre-washed and I’m ready to get started on yet another quilt. I think I’m going for the world record of ‘most quilts on the go’!