Quilt

One of my friends sent me this short video, titled Quilt. According to the information given, this short video 'uses computer and experimental techniques to illustrate traditional quilting motifs choreographed to music.' There is also a link after the video to an interview with film maker Gayle Thomas.

From traditional to contemporary, check out this video of the Door Challenge, by members of Journey Thru Art Group. Bonnie McCaffery talks to each quilter and looks at each door quilt. It's interesting to hear about the various surface techniques used. This video is worth a look.

Bonnie also did an interview with Gail Lawther on 'Glimpes of New Zealand'. Another inspiring bunch of art quilts!!

Enjoy!

Hand Embroidery

Since my previous post showcased hand embroidery from the St. John's Embroidery Guild, I thought I'd follow up with some free embroidery patterns as well as some interesting 'stuff ' to see.

Enjoy!

French Poem Napkins
Kelly Fletcher Needlework Designs
Little Fish from Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread - lots to see on Mary's site
Needlework from Craft Gossip
Friday Freebies at Pin Tangle
Stitch Punk - interesting site
Cats
Bustle & Sew - cute chickens!
Blackwork
Spring Finger Puppets 

Bugs and Fishes - interesting place to visit

Here's some of my hand embroidery:

Show & Tell at the Embroidery Guild

Last evening the St. John's Embroidery Guild had their May meeting. I took photos of the items on the Show & Tell table. A couple of them are a bit fuzzy and I apologize for that. Anyway, have a look. Members are as busy as bees these days making items to donate to the guild's auction in the fall. I will post more on this as the date gets nearer.
Enjoy!

Needle Felting

This morning was spent packaging some of my card sets for retail. I also have a new set from the last four commissioned pieces I've done. Those still have to be printed. Now I'm 'playing' around with my needle felting machine. I need to get some felted sheets ready to make some art cards and wearable art pins. HERE's a video on machine needle felting. Tips for machine needle felting can be found on Linda Matthews blog HERE.

• I started out with a piece of dark gray felt which I covered with different colours of wool roving and decorative yarns. 
• Next, I let my felting machine / embellisher do the work! This machine takes the place of doing it the hard way - by hand! 
• Using Sulky Sliver thread, I free motion stitched over the entire sheet of embellished felt.
• The sheet was trimmed and cut into 2 1/2" x 2" pieces.
• Each piece was taped to a blank card, initialled and packaged.

It's difficult in a photo to see the glitz in the Sliver thread but the cards pop! 

Tutorials to Check 01

Today I'm posting some web sites / blogs that have tutorials for you to check. Every time I see a listing for tutorials, I save the address in Microsoft One Note so they are easy to find. Check these out:

The Long Thread - 100 Top Tutorials
Monkeyroom - tutorials are to the right
Sulky
Sew Many Ways - sewing tutorials (lots more to see here)
Clover and Violet
Field Trips in Fiber - Tutorials and Free Projects
Stitched in Color - Tutorials & Quilt-Alongs
That Girl ... That Quilt
Diary of a Quilter
Bugglebee
Fairy Face Designs
A Girl In Paradise

These should keep you busy for a while (I have lots more).

Quilting Blogs from Canada

I was just catching up on some on-line reading, specifically the Quilting Gallery Newsletter. They have been doing some updating to the Quilting Bloggers Directory. So if you have a blog and it's not listed, just add it to the mix! Mine is on page 13 HERE. There are 345 blogs listed from Canada starting HERE.

If you want to search for blogs from other countries, go HERE. Give yourself lots of time as there is much to see!
Enjoy!!




PS - Free Quilting Projects & Tutorials to check out HERE!!

Quidi Vidi - Finished At Last!

I've been working on a commissioned piece for the last month. It has been a bit challenging as I was unsure where I was going with it. The cliffs are dyed cheesecloth over hand dyed cotton. Free motion stitching with a smoke coloured invisible thread was used to give more texture in the background. I used this method for the mountains in my quilted piece, Western Brook Gorge (scroll down). The shed is broadcloth. This fabric isn't as heavy as cotton and very easy to fold without the bulk. The windows are cut out with grey organza over black fabric to give the look of glass. The water is black organza over black cotton. Some black tulle was used for shadows.  If you go HERE you will see a photo of this scene before any renovations were made on the building.

A Few More Quilts!

Some more quilts to view from the Cabot Quilters' Guild!!

More From The Quilt Show

I spent some time yesterday working on the photos I took at the Cabot Quilters' 2012 Show. I then proceeded to post them on flickr only to find they went over my limit for free space which is 200 photos. Since I want to keep the flickr space for my own 'stuff', I took them off again. Any suggestions for an alternate free space to post these photos would be appreciated. In the meantime, enjoy more from the show.

Virtual Journey to Japan

I was checking out an Australian site, Auchenflower to Whereever With Chris (well worth a visit by the way). Chris recommended Kimono Reincarnate by Melanie Gray Augustin. She takes you on a virtual tour of her trip to Japan. Today was day 9. Her photos are fantastic!

I noticed she had a couple of photos showing very decorative manhole covers. When I attended the Houston Quilt Festival, 2001, I purchased two quilting books on this theme, Quilting with Manhole Covers and Treasures Underfoot by Shirley MacGregor. These are beautiful books to add to any quilt library. Did I mention that I just love Japanese art - its simplicity of line, colour? You get the message. I have always intended to do something from one of these books but I got caught up in doing my own art instead. Check HERE for photos from these books. I have quite a collection of books on Japanese inspired art quilts.

Enjoy your visit to Japan! Don't forget to check out Chris's blog.

Links

I've been spending some time working on my Links page. I have favorite web sites listed on the side of the blog but this doesn't always indicate a specific project or tutorial that I might like to check on. So, I'm going through all my posts to date and putting the links from them on the links page. Does this make sense? Or is it as clear as mud!! It's a work in progress.

Victoria Day Weekend

The Victoria Day weekend is here! For once, the weather here in St. John's is suppose to be very good. In fact, the forecast is for double digits. We have often had snow on the 24th May weekend! I won't ramble about this Canadian holiday as you can read about it HERE and HERE (previous posts with lots of links and patterns to check out).

Instead, I'll post a few more photos from the Cabot Quilters' Show last weekend. These are some of the smaller pieces.
Enjoy!