Peace Bag

Well, it's been the craziest time since my last post. Life keeps moving and changing. Since my last post in June, I believe, we've downsized and moved, and i've made a transition from working contract to working full time (salary). These were fairly significant changes in our lives, and we are still working through the transition, and it looks like we're still not through to where we want to be yet (whatever that looks like). So the adventure has been focused on things outside of quilting. We moved into our new house at the end of November, and outside of the hot tub going up in flames at the end of January, all seems to be going well. Routines are being made. Long walks with the dog are happening. Friends are coming to visit. Toby (the Best Dog) wanders freely around the house. David (the Dear Husband) wanders all over the house too. It's our little sanctuary.

More to come on all of that. The big surprise is that I have been quilting. I have been working to make my creative work my default work, when I'm not at the office job. That is a lot harder than it sounds. So there are 2 posts here, maybe 3...after all, one should be devoted to my new sewing room.

Anyways, we'll start back with my Peace bag. This is a bag i created using a free template i found on line. Caveat Emptor, of course - the free template did have very unclear directions and the measurements didn't exactly add up. However. I did make do. It was my first bag ever, and I am surely proud of it. The two squares are paper pieced. The triangle is spiral based, and comes from a design out of RaNae Merrill's book: Simply Amazing Quilts. This was my first attempt at a spiral and i loved it. The second block is Mariner's Compass , another free design that I am happy to advertise.

Why these 2 blocks? The 2 blocks are test blocks for a quilt i am designing (my first design ever) - my Peace Quilt. That will take up several blogs at a later date. The Mariner's Compass is for direction, for starting to learn and trust my own true north and true self. My higher self already knows all the answers i need to live my life - i just need to access them and understand them. The triangle is symbolic of many things that i have learned over the last few years - the move from victim/fixer/aggressor to creator/coach/challenger paradigms, the move to a self love paradigm of nurture/custody/letting go...and there are a few other triangle paradigms in there too. The spiral reflects a couple of symbols of well - spiral of life, and also the spiral of conflict. For me, the spiral helped me learn to understand where conflicts in my life exist, and what level of healing they require.

Anyways, the bag was a fun exercise. the pictures will start with the making of the blocks, to the design of the circle for the triangle (which my facebook friends know was quite the mathematical challenge for me!), through to the end product.

Mariner's Compass  - Block

Nested Triangle Spiral - Design

Triangle - working out the math to do the circle....

Nested Triangle Spiral - Block

Thread SNAFU

The majority of the material came from my stash, although i did go out and pick up some lovely batik fat quarters to assist with the Triangle Spiral. And all i will say to end it off is that i will always remind myself to wash all material before using, especially dark blue flannel that I may use for lining...let's just say the bag has lots of "character" after it's first washing...


And quilting plans for the next year? finishing up the Joy Quilt - my sister Lenore's wedding quilt; 2 baby quilts (for Eadie and Norah), and my peace quilt. Maybe more bags...Another blog at a later date...finally finishing my sampler quilt that I started in 2006.


What adventure are you having today? this week?

Happy New Year!

I celebrated the start of the New Year in several ways. These included:

• celebration with close friends and family (kids and dogs included!)
• long meditation on peace and energy, at least for today
• walk with Toby in the pouring and blowing rain (well, the first 10 minutes anyways)
• and...actually some sewing!

I've finally made headway on a kit that I've had since 2006. When I pulled this out a few months ago, I realized that I really wasn't that fond of the prints now. However, cut fabric is cut fabric, and there is always a space for another quilt, and it's always great to have something to practice machine quilting on. Started & finished the quilt top today, now I need to figure out a border (suggestions welcome!) in terms of colour and width, and the binding, and then put it all together,

Picture was taken with my iphone, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the glare in the top corner. Photography is not a strong suit of mine. I'm if I had asked the DH (dear husband) to help me, it would have been better. However, he's down on the couch watching football with a full tissue box and a big pile of used tissues beside him. Better leave him be!

So, what to do now while I'm waiting to get to a store and work out the border? I can start on my christmas presents for next year!! The nice thing about not getting them done this year is that I now have a head start on next year's presents. Great planning, Liz!

What else - there's another baby on the way, due in May. Maybe I can get this baby quilt done by the time the baby arrives. This baby will sure have the advantage of all the lessons I've learned with the previous 4 quilts. And I'm looking at a pattern or tutorial online, and purchasing fabric online. These will be the new things for this quilt! There may be at least one more baby this year, so I will start keeping an eye out for ideas for that one too. And then, keep dreaming of my peace quilt. I got a Chapter's gift certificate for christmas, and I have a few quilting books earmarked - one particularly on spiral blocks. Very appropriate for the peace quilt! and something for Toby is brewing as well...some sort of Toby specific quilt for his bed(s)..

I'm not setting a resolution this year to post more regularly or frequently - rather the resolution is to not put too much pressure on myself to have to post!! Generally, as I'm sewing, I'm posting. If I'm not working in the sewing room...posts don't go up!!

Thanks for reading, all - comments are welcome & appreciated! If you are reading this as an email update, you can follow the link to the blog site. To leave a comment, you likely have to become a google member. To become a follower, you certainly do need to become a member of something!

And thanks to the 2 followers I do have!! it's nice to know someone is out there! It makes me realize that when I am following via a blog reader, that I need to mark myself as a follower on the sites still, so that the blogger knows that someone is out there.

Happy New Year, all!

The Tulip Quilt

This quilt was made for my sister Rose, who lives in the States. I picked the pattern out say way back in 2005, and bought the material before we sold the cottage, from a great fabric store just outside of Bancroft. This woman had a fabric store in Bancroft for many years, but just couldn't manage the rent. I think she was 75 years old or so in 2005. So she moved the store out to her home, and built a large structure on her property. I have not, in all my visiting of fabric stores, seen such a selection of fabric. I think I spent 3 hours there picking out the material. I started with my preferences, and then came back to earth, reminding myself that the quilt wasn't for me - it was for my sister and her husband. hmm. just looked for the store listing on line, and maybe it's not there any more. Too bad. This lady was running this store, and in her house, she had more fabric and 2 quilt frames that I could see.

I wanted to give my sister a garden full of tulips, butterflies and sunshine with a breeze blowing through. The offwhite background actually has butterflies in the fabric. I had the quilt machine quilted by Creative Sisters  in Kitchener, using a Wind pantogram. This was a fun quilt to make - it was set on the diagonal - that was the first new thing for me on this quilt. What else - I learned about keeping my bobbin casing clean. Screwed up the tension and I didn't bother to correct it. I took the quilt down in May 2009 when I went to visit my sister, and we found some seams were giving already (because of my tension problem). So when my mother went to visit, in June of that year, she fixed it - by machine sewing the seam, around the quilt, to hold it in place. My bad for not dealing with the tension. Now the lovely wind pantogram has a straight line around all 4 borders. Sigh. At least it will keep it together. That's what happens with living, usable art! and that's what I want to make...living, functional art, which is why I'm so fond of quilts.

I've got one more quilt to post up, when I take the pictures -this will be my first large (queen size) quilt - the cottage quilt. More on this one when I do that post...then I'll be all caught up!

Emma's Cobblestone quilt...done! ( 2 weeks ago)

And there the 3rd one is finished. Learned so much on this one, specifically on the quilting - about tension, and positioning of the quilting, understanding how best to put a label one (let's just say that the next one will have a better label on it). The binding doesn't throw me any more either. The design is simple, which really works with the primary colours of the quilt. Gave the quilt to Emma (via Steve and Krista, of course) on the July weekend. I'm interested in seeing how the invisible thread works out!

And now...taking a break. Getting pack to the quilt on my hand quilting frame (pictures below). What a different pace. Cleaned up the patterns I've been using, organized the training material I have. Need to get the sewing room organized next - there is material everywhere. And thinking about the next project...one more baby quilt to do for Anna; completion of this sampler; I have a block quilt kit (precut squares from material selected by the quilt store); I want to do a mariner's compass wallhanging of green and blue and yellow; and earlier this week, I had my first quilt dream - where I worked through foundation piecing together a human figure (OK, more like a gingerbread man) in greens and blues. And, like I said, this is besides organizing the room! Oh yeah, and taking the stray practice machine quilting blocks, and putting together a Toby blanket. Hmm. I have to see how many of those I have! I've done a lot of practicing over these 3 quilts!

and here's a bit of the sampler on the quilting frame...

on a roll

OK, we're on a roll this week. Yesterday - finished Garrett's quilt!! hand tacked the binding...for the first time in my quilt making history, the binding seemed very straightfoward. Nice to get to that point. Next quilt, I'll machine tack the binding, to give it a nice finished edge. Pix of garrett's quilt ..somewhere in here.
NOW!! zooming through Emma's quilt...decided to keep to the cobblestone theme, and do grid quilting rather than free motion. Had to work out how to handle the yellow blue and red (pix next post), without changing thread every 2 minutes, and also to not have the quilting thread over power the yellow and blue. SO solution...invisible thread on top, red on the bottom. Having some issues working out the tension so that the red thread does not pull through to the top, but I think I may have worked that out on the wall hanging portion of the project...so have just put my quilt sandwich together, machine is all suited up, have my face mask on (multi tasking of course!!), Toby and I are going to head out to get some chips...and then we are in for long haul tonight. GOAL!!! finish the quilting on Emma J's quilt tonight! and then just need to bind it...in time for Emma's potential visit this weekend! Rose, Garrett's quilt should be in the mail on Monday!!!