Mother's Day 2011 - Ideas

Some great ideas for Mother's Day:
Tatertots & Jello have some handmade gifts. Also check out the projects listed at the side of the blog.
Sew News: Tasseled Tote
Jenny T's Grocery Tote Bag
Scrappy Hot Pad Tutorial from My Byrd House
Roll It Up from Sewing.com
Zakka Pincushion Tutorial from the Etsy Blog
Scottie Dog Pattern from Colorful Creative Ideas
Denim Do-it-all Bins from Up Craft (these are interesting)
Caterpillar Eyeglass Case Tutorial and  Reusable Sandwich Wrap Tutorial from Betz White
iPod Cozy Tutorial from Black Market Beagle
Tea Cozy Patterns and Potato Baker Bags from Tipnut

Also check out past posts for Mother's Day here, and here. 

St. John's Embroidery Guild - Show & Tell

Royal Wedding

Since this is Royal Wedding week in Britain, I thought you might find some of these interesting:

Wedding Quilts from the Satin Moon blog (lots of stuff here)
Royal Wedding 2011
Book: Knit Your Own Royal Wedding
Colouring pages of London
Colouring pages of Kings and Queens of England
Royal Wedding Baker  

Carrot Table Runner

The Cabot Quilt Guild just had its Spring Retreat. The quilters had a fabulous time. Of course, there is always a project to complete if one wishes to do it. This year, it was the flip and sew carrot table runner from All People Quilt.

This is one of the 21 runners made at the retreat. Aren't the orange batiks just beautiful!

Check out the Show and Tell pages for February 2011. I'm there holding my baby quilt, Sheep at Stonehenge. Our guild has a bunch of very talented quilters. Check them all out. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Sites to Visit

Today I have a variety of web sites and blogs for you to visit.

Judith Trager, an international quilt artist. See a brief video with Judith here.
Jamie Fingal, mixed media artist. Whimsical house quilt video
Sue Gilgen, landscape quilts and fiber art. Video one,  Video two.
Leni Wiener, raw edge machine applique and thread painting
Nancy Daley, fiber artist (paper making video)
Eileen Doughty, quilt artist. Check out her sculptures here!
Carolyn Lee Vehslage, quilted wall hangings
Ken Smith, textile artist from Australia
Mary Manahan, quilt artist
Judy Cooper, textile art

Easter Row x Row

Fat Cat Patterns has started another block of the month free pattern called Easter Row x Row. You can also use the various motifs for smaller wall hangings for spring and not just Easter. A new pattern is added each month but if you miss one, you will have to purchase it. Also, check out Sindy's blog here.

You will find more Block of the Month Quilts here.
Claudia's Quilt Shoppe has Block-of-the-Month Projects
Row, Row, Row Your Boat  
Row-by-Row  (Autumn)
Block of the Month from Delaware Quilts

VidCasts

I just spent some time viewing some of the VidCasts on Bonnie McCaffery's web site. I didn't realize just how many she has listed. They are well worth watching!


Other VicCasts: (I haven't watched most of these yet)
Pam Holland
Alex Anderson
Quilting Stash
Quilting Gallery
Sue Gilgen   
Lisa & Lori Lubbesmeyer 
Laurie Swim 
Embellishing With Paint Sticks
Pat Sloan
Alicia Merrett

Enjoy!

Fabric Dyeing

Over the years, I have dyed fabrics for various projects. I started out using the Colour Vie Pigment System with Gunnel Hag. In fact, I still use it as it makes the most beautiful skies as you can see in this piece, 'In All Its Glory'.

For some reason, there are two photos of this piece showing up in Internet Explorer! I post in Fire Fox.

I have over dyed commercial fabric to get the right colour for a project. In the long piece, 'Western Brook Gorge', the binding fabric and some fabric used in the mountain range, were done this way. To get the texture I wanted for the mountain, dyed cheese cloth was used, as it is easy to crunch up to give the look of ridges.This sky was also dyed using the Colour Vie Pigment System mentioned above.

For other projects, I have used a variety of fabric paints, paint sticks, stamping inks, premixed fabric dyes, water colour pencils and crayons. I haven't used Ritz dyes yet. I came across a great tutorial on using these dyes that I just might try. It was posted by Vicki Miller, from Australia, called To Dye Another Day. Check it out.

Little Treasures

The program at the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild on Tuesday evening was called 'Little Treasures' by Carol Fletcher. This project was published in issue 20 of the Quilting Arts Magazine, 2005.

The pattern was enlarged to make a casserole carrier as shown in the first photo. Several sizes of 'Little Treasures' were on display during the evening. Some of them were embellished with dimensional flowers. 

For some reason, Internet Explorer doesn't like the posts I do in Fire Fox! It has added an extra large photo of one of the Little Treasures. The post is shown correctly in the Fire Fox version.

Paper Piecing - Eastern Edge Guild

Paper Piecing was the topic for last month's guild challenge. Here are the ones brought to guild last night.

The first piece with the three iris and the one showing the sail boat were wrapped around a canvas frame. It is a very nice way to display a small textile art piece.

Chasing Cottons

Just when I was wondering what I would post today, I came across Chasing Cottons by Rebecca Johnson from Central Coast, Australia. Her latest venture into quilting is by offering Quilt Class 101 which starts on Wednesday (April 6) and continues for 12 weeks. The class runs every Wednesday. The best part - it's free. Here's her class outline:

The Course Outline

Week 1 - Fabric - Choosing fabric, fabric designers, fabric bundles, Fat Quarters, jelly Rolls etc, Where to buy fabric locally or online overseas, shipping costs.. My favorite online shops etc.
Week 2 - Design - 'Sew as you go' OR the Designer - Using a graph book and planning, no rules.. Books/ blogs/ flickr... all the online sources or inspiration..
Week 3 - Cutting - Tools I use, how to cut your material properly, to wash or not to wash, incorporating seam allowances etc.
Week 4 - Sewing - Your machine, threads, needles, 1/4" foot, seam allowances, joining seams accurately, pins,
Week 5 - Constructing your Quilt Top - sections etc
Week 6 - Borders - adding borders the correct way,
Week 7 - Batting - The different types and what each one is used for..
Week 8 - Basting - how to Baste your quilt, spray? Pins? Types of pins? Tape etc..
Week 9 - Quilting by machine - Straight line Quilting, using a guide, free motion quilting, stitching in the ditch etc..
Week 10 - Quilting by hand - Cottons to use, technique, needles, hoops...
Week 11 - Binding - By machine or by hand.. or both.
Week 12 - Quilt block techniques.... This last tutorial will prob run over another 6 week period where i will teach the basics to make various traditional and modern quilt blocks. Sewing curves, 9 Patch, Stars and diamonds, Stack and Slash, Raw edge applique, Needle turn applique, paper piecing, log cabin, spider block, etc... 

If you have not quilted before or are new to quilting, this just might be what you are looking for.

 

Graft Paper Generator

I was reading the most recent post from a blog called Sol Y Sombra, United Arab Emirates.  Ansie was looking for some triangular graph paper and came across a free online graph creator which is pretty neat. Quite a few years ago, I needed some specific sized graph paper too. At that time, I had to create my own. But with this handy tool, any type of graph paper is possible to make. Just think of the possibilities for your own design work! The best thing about it - it's free. Design and print. . .

Creating Art

On one of the sites I frequent, I found a unique way to use a cleaning product called Citra Solv. This is a natural cleaner that cuts through grease and grime, but did you know that textile artists are printing with it? Check out the Cirta Solv Artist Site. You will also find some How-To art videos as well as work by artists who have used this product. Stampington & Company also has a free how-to video and artists gallery using Citra Solv.

Now I have another method for image transfer on fabric to add to my list of things to try - maybe!

Happy April

Well, April is here! I hope we are done with snow. St. John's had more snow in March that the rest of the winter. Thank goodness I missed most of it as I was in Chicago and I can now get back to blogging on a regular basis. The Apple ipad is great for travel but I don't like it for blogging. I prefer to be able to add pictures and websites on a much larger monitor where I can open multiple screens and move from one to the other by one click. I do like the ipad as a photo album. Right now there are over 4000 photos on it. The latest are those of my new granddaughter (the reason I was in Chicago).
The quilt, Ducks at Stonehenge, was a hit! I have some wonderful photos of the baby on it.