Quilting and other Things

A few years ago I saw the pattern for Common Bride by Edita Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts at a shop in St Jacobs.  I didn't buy the pattern the first time because it looked so complicated and I wasn't sure I want to get involved in somthing that complicated.  A few weeks later, I ended up going back over to St Jacobs and buying it.  I sat down at some point that year with the pattern to go over it and analyze what was involved in it.  That's when I discovered I hadn't really analyzed a pattern in years -- lots of $10 quilts with Elaine telling us what to do.  But I did eventually work my way through it. Started collecting fabrics and looking for blogs of others working on the quilt.  Didn't find many although I did find Karen and Sue .  This fall at a local quilt show there were 6 completed Common Bride quilts by a group of friends. Last weekend Elaine had a sit and sew day so I took the snow flakes to stitch and 24 1.25 inch wide stripes to sew fo...

Hello to those who have come through Sew Sisters blogathon. I hope you are enjoying the blog hop. You can find other Ontario quilters listed here and here .  I've been quilting since the mid 1990s. I started out sewing and giving the cotton scraps for my Mom. Eventually I started a quilt of my own and Mom lost the scraps but we had fun quilting together. This quilt has been sitting in a box on the floor for two years. Its designed by two Canadian Quilters It's finally in progress. All the fusible pieces are cut and most are in place. There are a few stars and a snowman arm still to add but they overlap some seams so need to wait. Here are all the fused pieces waiting to be stitched One snow flake is done. Only (?) 23 left to go. This is an unstitched snow flake up close. The big snowman is stitched and the threads are ready to be buried. I started to do the scarf last night but the thread broke and got messy so I quit and went to sleep. Hopefully it wil...

I'm linking up with Esther's WOW .  I had a couple of days off work as the office is closed for Remembrance Day and I took Monday as well to have a long weekend. That gave me a chance to catch up on some errands and to dos.   The Remembrance Day service from Ottawa was really good.  I watch it on tv most years. I have two community outreach quilt tops for the guild almost complete.  The kit was short a piece of yellow for one border.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything in a similar shade so I've labelled it and set it aside for the guild meeting next month. At a quilt show last month I bought a nativity pattern -- its a laser cut black scene and I needed to pick a fabric for the background -- like a stain glass.  I went through the collection of "pretty" fabrics and found several that looked promising -- until I put the black cutout on them.  There was only one that I liked so its trimmed and the cut out is finger pressed in place.  I need...

On Saturday the museum was closed so they arranged for members to get free admission to two other local museums.  We decided to go to the Bata Shoe Museum for the first time. At first I didn't see the shoes in the display window, just lots of colours.  It was a really interesting visit.  There was information about making shoes and different types of shoes people have worn over the years. The earliest was a replica of the shoe worn by the Ice Man.  There were shoes for many cultures.  These four were some of my favorites.  Each has some very intricate designs which I liked. These are Nalins (Turkish bathhouse sandles) from Ottoman Turkey in the 19th century These are mojaris worn by a temple dancer in Rajasthan, India c 1840 These are children's booties from early 20th Century China These are from Jaipur, India and are Paduka from the 18th century.  They would have been for an important occasion like a wedding. There ...

In March I finished the top, made the binding and tucked it all away to be quilted at some point.  The other week, I had a week's vacation and on the last day arranged to rent Elaine 's long arm.  It took all day but it got loaded (and then fixed cause I loaded the backing on the wrong roller -- note to self -- check the leaders on the rolls, they are label which one is which) and then quilted.  The first picture is the product of a long, fun day draped over Elaine's machine.  Its all quilted with a pattern called Dancing Ribbons. After some dinner and a rest that evening, I added the binding and started the hand stitching. It took a week to finish but the quilt now has binding and a sleeve in preparation for the guild show next spring. The label is written out and sitting on the ironing board waiting to be pressed and added to the quilt. Two of the alternate blocks. I liked Bonnie 's design and an alternate I saw on one of the linky parties. So I ...

The guild chunk of the month top was finished in time for the June meeting.  Mary and Elaine did a good job of design this.  No hints as to what they have in store for us come September.  Elaine has lots of pictures from guild night on her blog here  Late last year I read about a lady in Toronto who is organizing people to cross stitch the Torah.  We signed up and I spent some time this month stitching.  The pattern indicated to start in the bottom right of the first row.  I did stitch that row from right to left but I don't read Hebrew and found it difficult to stitch that way so I switched and started working from left to right.  Eventually I found a Hebrew/English website to help me understand what I was stitching.  My sister has the stitching now and is finishing off our section. For this year's monthly quilt, Northern Lights, I did decide that I wanted the smaller blocks but big enough to fit my bed. Means a lot of extra blocks...

One of my favorite quilts is a one block wonder.  I look for the at quilt shows and love to see the original fabric and what it came become when chopped into matching 60 degree triangles. I bought the first book a few years ago and some flower headed pins the book recommends.  Last spring I bought a fabric to make myself a one block wonder quilt.  Its was a shinny fish fabric Its been sitting on the corner of my cutting table or in a box on the shelf ever since waiting for me to get a round to it.  Earlier this year, the guild announced a One Block Wonder workshop in May with Maggie Butterfield Dickinson  So I signed up.  Yesterday was the day.  In the morning we cut our six matching sections and got everything pinned and lined up nicely.  Then trimmed edges and cut strips.  I took a 60 degree triangle I bought for a workshop with Jackie Black many years ago.  I was thinking this was the first time I've used it since that worksho...

The Royal Ontario Museum is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.  Today (and tomorrow), they are offering free admission and two behind the scenes tours -- a chance to go into where the collections are stored and cared for and see some of the work.  It felt like the behind section was bigger than the front section.  In some places they had 10,000's or 100,000's object in the collection.  It was interesting to see the way some of the things were stored -- surround by acid free paper, cushioned by foam, flat in drawers, carefully wrapped up or hung from shelves.  I didn't click the members link soon enough so all the advanced member tickets were gone and I had to line up in the non-ticket holders line.  The line started at the main doors and went along Bloor to University, turned the corner and went to the old main entrance -- or at least that's where I joined it at 9:30.  I think it ended up down by the Planetarium before the doors opened...

Its been a fun day.  I've been watching Disney animated movies -- Frozen, Beauty & the Beast, Robin Hood and Snow White.  Frozen helped me chop up the fruit salad and clean the kitchen.  Beauty and the Beast helped stitch most of this month's guild block. Robin Hood finished the guild block, helped to fix the twisted seams on the guild community outreach quilt and started the borders on a mystery quilt that's been lurking long enough to feel like it must have come of the ark.  All it needed was a border.  It was a mystery quilt called Calico Conundrum in Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts in 1994/5.  Mom made one with a violet fabric.  I used purple elephants.  I had debated adding a very thin border between the top and the main border to separate the elephants from the centre but decided today it wasn't necessary. Snow White helped finish the borders and make the binding then start the final border for Celtic Solstice....