Elaine Quehl: Newfoundland Trip

A few posts ago, I reported on the workshop given by Elaine Quehl called In Full Bloom. Well, Elaine wrote about her visit to Newfoundland on her blog. She has lots of photos as well as a few links. It's well worth a look! Thanks for the link back to my blog spot, Elaine.

Color

My friend just sent me this link to a color matching game called Color Method on the Smashing Color blog. I don't usually post about games but I think this is an interesting one as it will help in the understanding of color properties and harmonies.
Here are some links related to color:
Colour Lovers
Hue for the love of color
Colour Studio
Color Budz
Colorific
Color in Everyday Life
Sensational Color
Choosing Color and Color Value for your quilts
Also check a previous post here for more stuff on colour.

In Full Bloom!

Recently, I took the In Full Bloom workshop, with Elaine Quehl. Elaine is a quilt artist, teacher and dyer from Ottawa, Canada. This one-day workshop was very relaxing and enjoyable where everyone worked at their own pace. If you ever get a chance to do one of Elaine's workshops, you won't be disappointed. She does have a trunk show where you get to see many of the quilts shown on her web site. They are spectacular in real life! Check out her blog here.

I have no idea when I'll be able to get back to my piece. Having a baby visit for two weeks does not allow time for anything else.

Eastern Edge Quilt Guild Show & Tell

There was quite a variety of items for the February Show & Tell at the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild. This guild meets the first Tuesday of the month. There were quilts, Japanese Sashiko bags (from a workshop given by one of the quilters), my Sashiko tabletopper, a flock of birds, a set of cushions and a wall hanging. The wall hanging was quite lovely. It was the result of an on-line course, Darned Quilts by Dena Crain, a teacher from Quilt University. Enjoy!

Add caption

A Gem of a Find!

Bugs and Fishes by Laura "Lupin" Howard, UK, came to my attention today. One of the embroiderers (thanks Jewel) tagged it as a place to visit for a free cross stitch heart brooch. However, Laura's site has lots of other interesting handmade felty things too. Yes, she works mainly in felt.  Laura shares lots of free projects and writes tutorials for various craft publications. I own a copy of Fa la la la Felt in which she has original designs for a Gingerbread House; Star Bright; Cherry & Bright, a christmas stocking and Layer Play, a rainbow of circles ornament. Her own published book is Super-Cute Felt.
Why not drop by her site for a visit. You won't be disappointed!
Enjoy!           

Canadian Artists - textile & fibre

Today I'm highlighting some Canadian Artists. Please drop by their sites. You won't be disappointed.
Enjoy!

Quilted Textiles of Andree Fredette
Andrea Graham, Feltmaker - Fibre Artist   Blog
Fibre Artworks of Deborah Milton
Patti Morris Fabric Art Designs
Karen Neary, Nova Scotian Quilter
Lesley Turner, Stitch Artist
Nancy Yule, Fibre Artist
Lesley-Anne Green, Fibre Artist
Quilt Matters, Ottawa, Canada
Pippa Moore, quilter, teacher, designer and writer from Vancouver Island

Grab a cup of something while you look around!

February 14th.

Valentine's Day, according to the flower shops, is their best day of the year for sales! However, Saint Valentine's Day (shortened to Valentine's Day) is a holiday observed on February 14 honouring one or more early Christian martyrs. It is traditionally a day in which lovers express their love for each other by presenting gifts of flowers and / or chocolates and sending cards. Quilters and stitchers often like to mark the month of February by having special heart shaped 'stuff' around either as a hanging, coasters, table topper or small quilt. Me, I'm not into making things for every holiday that comes along. I'd rather just have something to designate the four seasons and Christmas. However, I did find some Valentine projects for you to consider. Most of them are freebies. Enjoy!

Heart Garden Quilt and Hearts Galore from Moda
Heart Wallhanging from Janome
Valentine Snow Purse (not free but cute idea) from e Quilt Patterns
Valentine Fabric Heart Treat Bag or Purse
Heart Applique Hand Towels
Free Heart Themed Patterns
Valentine Tea Card



For granddaughter Gale

Lots of stuff on my previous posts for Valentine's Day here and here.

Snow

Door Crown designed & created by Judy Cooper 1999

Apparently St. John's had 20cm of snow in just 6 hours! Wow! The hugh, fluffy snow flakes stuck to everything. By the time I cleaned my car off, I needed to do it all over again.

Here are some wintery quilted art pieces for your viewing pleasure:
Winter Snow Scene (the colours used are lovely)
Floral Winter Snow Scene
Winter's Quilt
Snow Barn (scroll down)
A Winter's Tale
Snow, Ice and Starry Nights (checks out the free patterns)
Birch in Snow
Snow melt: High Desert
Winter Quilt
Winter Beauties
Winter Wonderland
Winter Snowman

Pisci Fantasticus

The last day or so I have been selecting batik fabric and getting it ready to make more 3-D fish. All the ones at Devon House Craft Shop and Gallery sold out for Christmas. That's a good thing! I use all batiks for the fish as I like the tight weave of the cotton as well as the deep, vibrant colours. In preparation for making the fish, I back the fabric with Totally Stable stabilizer. It irons on just like freezer paper (but is not as stiff) and works well for free motion stitching. The next step is to stitch all over the fabric to give it a bit of texture before cutting out the fish shape. The fins will be in a contrasting fabric. To see some finished 3-D fish go here.

Here are links in my blog to other fish I've done:
The Deep
Applique Patterns
Journal Covers
Tea Cosy

Your Sewing Space

Guest speaker, at the January meeting of the Cabot Quilt Guild, used the book, Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space by Lois L. Hallock, as the basis for her talk. As an Occupational Therapist, she was quite willing to give us some valuable pointers on making our sewing rooms work for us. Through interaction with the audience she found out the type of activities quilters perform and the type of pains and injuries that occur. Sitting, standing, sewing, cutting, and ironing were some of the activities mentioned. Many members confessed to suffering from back, neck, shoulder, wrist, hand and finger pain. Proper lighting was also an important consideration.

Here are some common sense points she made:

1. Have a good chair that fits you - she gave some pointers for sitting / working properly
2. Get up and stretch at least every 20 minutes
3. Your arms should be at elbow height when in use
4. Have your work area set up to avoid a lot of reaching and stretching
5. Cutting tables and ironing boards need to be at the right height - blocks can be purchased to raise tables.

I realize that you are going to say that all this is common sense - it is! BUT how many of you may need to rethink at least one thing in your work space? When I got home that evening, I had a look around my room. I was satisfied with the room except that it isn't near big enough. However, the brain must have been working overtime while I slept that night. The next day I moved one of my machines further to the left of the table to give me more space to the right as I am right handed. Again, why didn't I think of that before now! I also purchased a steno chair with variable height. The one I have doesn't go low enough to use comfortably with one of my machines. It's great for working at the work table.

Check these out:
Sewing Room Organization, more here
Organization and Tools for a sewing room
Organizing Tips for a small sewing room - check out the related articles and videos

Stitching Stuff

Here lately I have been looking at a lot of stitching sites. My search is for free-style embroidery that can be both functional and decorative, and can be stitched on just about any surface. I've been using the Pintangle site (I'm a member) as a jumping off place to find 'stuff'. Since TAST has started up for another year, most members signed in giving their blog or web site address. Find them HERE (scroll down). In case a blog is not written in English, use Google Translate to help you out. Just follow the directions - it's easy to use. These sites also have favorite places to visit that may be different from anything you have seen so far.

Here's some places to visit:
Antique Pattern Library
Freebies from Kissy Cross (mostly cross stitch)
Free charts at Tantes Zolder
The Work Basket
Gazette 94 - more freebies
Tom Pudding Designs
Britain's # 1 Cross Stitcher
One Day a Grid Cross Stitch
Pattern Maker Charts
Albums D'Anyan
Craft Ideas
Tams Creations (Black work & cross stitch)
Elsa Mora (two free embroideries)

This applique is an original design based on an Elizabethan Embroidery that I had previously designed. It was done a few years ago as part of an embroidery course. My intention was to make it into a cushion but so far it just sits in my cupboard.

More Show & Tell : Cabot Quilt Guild

More Show & Tell from the Cabot Quilt Guild. 

The turquoise quilt shows the front and back. I finally finished my Sashiko Table Topper.

For some reason, Firefox is not showing all the photos posted in Internet Explorer.

Show & Tell at Cabot Quilt Guild

Here are a few pieces from Show and Tell at the Cabot Quilt Guild last evening. More photos to follow.
Enjoy!

Quilting Blogs

Since I changed the look of this blog, I have had to learn where all the editing/writing tools are. They aren't in the same easy to see places as before. Anyway, enough of that!
I found this site, Quilt Qua, and thought I'd pass it along for you to check out. There's lots of information for quilters as well as 23 pages of quilting blogs and Show & Tell. Lots of things to see and sites to visit on a cold, wintery day! Now, I just wish I had the time to do that. . .
Enjoy!

Book Review # 4

I just received Drawn Thread Embroidery by Moyra McNeill. This is from the Batsford Classic Embroidery collection. The following description was taken from the back cover of the book:

Drawn thread is a form of decorative embroidery that has been practised for many centuries. Traditionally worked on fine linen, it achieves its effects through the contrast of open and closed areas created by removing threads from the fabric. The traditional aspects of the craft are considered here in detail, but exciting and experimental innovations are given equal importance in this comprehensive guide.

An introductory section explains how to withdraw stitches and secure ends. Different stitch types and various borders are then examined and clearly illustrated with line drawings and photographs. As well as basic techniques such as ladder and zigzag hems, more experimental styles, including working with colour and weaving with fabric strips, provide plenty of design ideas.

Chapters on the many drawn thread techniques - needleweaving, reticella, Russian drawn ground, Hedebo and Hardanger - continue the exploration of both new and old approaches. A final section on experimental machine work provides many ideas for modern embroidery.

I'm looking forward to using this book in future work.

New Look!

I decided to change the look of my blog. It was time! The soft green was getting a bit dated and blogger was sugesting a new look from time to time. I do like the blue. Here's a colourful photo of row houses, downtown St. John's, to show off the new look. It was taken on a much warmer day back in September, 2011.

Photo by Judy Cooper

Book Review # 3

Vivacious Curvy Quilts by Dianne S. Hire is another book I've added to my collection. I'm not a quilter of quilts but I do like this book for its nontraditional, unlikely quilt shapes. Dianne demonstrates template-free ways to cut, sew and combine curvy pieced blocks into spectacular quilted pieces. There are lots of coloured photos and illustrations to accompany the easy to follow text. For some reason, I have always been drawn to quilts with curves and have several other books on the subject.

Book Review # 2

Another book that was added to my collection this Christmas was Mickey Lawler's Skyquilts. I already own her previous book, Skydyes. In fact, I reference it whenever I paint or dye a batch of fabric to use as sky in my textile art. Skyquilts still touches on skies but not to the extent as in Skydyes. In this newest book, Mickey Lawler introduces 12 painting techniques for painting water, sand, dry land and green fields. She provides lots of beautiful coloured photos of the painting process as well as finished pieces. To read a couple of on-line reviews of this book go here. Take a peek inside this book on Amazon.

This book is a keeper!

Harry Potter

I received the Harry Potter DVD's for Christmas and just finished watching #4. It's interesting to see the characters as they get older. Using the theme of magic and Harry Potter, I googled and found a few things of interest. Not that I'm about to do any of the projects, but I thought someone might find it useful especially if you have a H P fan at home.

Here's what I found:
H P Paper Piecing Project of Doom - quilting for Harry Potter fans
Sew Hooked
Janice Ferguson Sews - interesting embroidery (scroll down)
The Leaky Lounge - embroidery
The Crafty Cauldron - Cloth Dolls

TAST

TAST - Take a Stitch Tuesday, from Pintangle started on Tuesday. I had forgotten all about it. Now I have to scramble to do up some fabric to use for a stitch sampler. For a list of participants in the 2012 TAST with links to their blogs, go here. There's lots to see. Also, check out TAST on Facebook.
The first stitch for 2012 is the fly stitch. Go here for Sharon B's dictionary of stitches. The Art of Threads has a video of making this stitch (scroll down).

Fly Stitch from Stitch Magazine

If you are interested in doing some embroidery, Needlecrafter has a lot of free designs as well as a stitch dictionary, to get you started.
Enjoy!

Blog List

If you are interested in patchwork and quilting, please visit Red Pepper Quilts. There are 833 blogs listed. Mine is # 442. I scrolled down several times before finally seeing it as I was looking for an entirely different photo than the tea cosy shown. You can also access this blog by clicking the shortcut icon on the left side of my blog.

It is also interesting to check out the blogs and websites other quilters, stitchers and fibre artists select. You never know what you will find!

Well, I was going to publish this post but decided to have a look at a few blogs and came across a Patchwork Tree on # 8.

Book Review

Photo by Judy Cooper

I received several books for Christmas. A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color & Design by Heather Thomas was one of them. This book, with its 160 pages, has a hard cover with a spiral spine inside, so it is easy to lie flat. It is loaded with hundreds of photos, examples and illustrations. Besides providing color and design theory, Heather includes 12 Workshop Lessons with project goals and guidlines. Read here for more information from other reviews on this delightful book. You can also take a peek inside!
Heather's blog

I think I have a bit of reading to do!
Enjoy. . .

Happy Stitching

This afternoon was for relaxing! I spent some time catching up with blogs I read. My focus was on hand stitching - something I hope to do more of in 2012. Several years ago I took part in a three year, 5 level hand embroidery course. I was not a lover of crewel work and stitching with wool. However, I came across some Jacobean leaves by Kelly Fletcher, on the Feeling Stitchy blog. I just may do some of these this year! Feeling Stitchy has some wonderful stuff.

Also check out the following:
Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread
Stitchin Fingers
Hand Embroidery Network (HEN)
Curiosities 808 (from Hawaii) - not just crochet
Racaire's Embroidery & Needlework (Ausrtia)
DMC Threads with Emma Broidery
Polka & Bloom
French-Knots: all things stitchy
Hand Embroidery from Sadalas
Pin Tangle


Hand & Machine Embroidery by Judy Cooper

Happy New Year

2011 was a very eventful year full of wonderful things - the best of which was the birth of  my granddaughter in March. I even managed to get some quilting and other art work completed. My goal for the new year is to experiment with new techniques and apply them to my textile work. I received a few new books for Christmas which I will report on in the new year.

Post Espresso

Post Espresso has opened up in downtown St. John's. As part of my nephew's christmas present I made a small quilted rug mug with the logo of his new business on it. I've also included a couple of photos of the inside. If you ever get a chance to vist our colourful city, please drop by 168 Water Street, (YouTube) St. John's, NL.

In fact, to learn more about this new establishment and see more photos, please read Darcy Fitzpatrick's review in Signal, the St. John's blog. Also check it out on Mark Bennett's blog.

Merry Christmas - one day late!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I am one day late in doing this but family comes first. I do have to tell you that the commissioned piece, Gower Street, St. John's, was a hit with the new owner. I received a very nice call yesterday about it and a message today.

I hope Boxing Day sales are a hit wherever you are. Newfoundland stores aren't opened on Boxing Day - we have to wait until tomorrow.
Enjoy your shopping!

Gingerbread Houses from Rock Recipes

The gingerbread houses (scroll down) shown on the Rock Recipes web site aren't the typical ones you associate with gingerbread house construction. These houses are similiar to the ones found in the St. John's area. Barry Parsons has provided a gingerbread recipe and instructions on making one of the houses. It is rather late to be posting this but I just found this quite by accident. Anyway, better late than never. Now you can file it away for next year.




Also check out the following:
Tipnut has a collection of gingerbread house designs (free patterns & ideas)
Gingerbread House Ornament
Gingerbread Man sewing project

Enjoy!

Quilts from Houston

Please have a look at the beautiful quilts from Houston that are shown on Joen Wolfrom's blog. Also click on quilt show at the side of the blog for more quilts. They are well worth a look.
Enjoy!

Last Minute Gift? . . .

I just have to share this one with you. Do you need a last minute gift - one that is quick to make? Well check out this table topper/runner using two fabrics from Sugar Town Quilt Co. The tutorial shows how to make this with beautiful mitered corners. And - this is a Canadian company from Alberta, Canada.

This table topper is also featured on Sew We Quilt. This link has lots of things to make for the holidays.

Christmas 2011

I can't believe that Christmas is just days away! I have been busy making 'stuff' for gifts as well as for my home. The tree has been up for awhile. Here are a couple of my favorite ornaments. The peacock was a gift from my daughter when she lived in Toronto. It is always the first one on the tree. The fairy was one I bought for myself in California many years ago.

Here are a few links on making some of your own ornaments:
Felt Christmas Ornament from Fanastic Toys
Plush Christmas Ornament and Tutorial from Mariska's Blog
Around the World from Creative Breathing
Quick Embroidered Ornament from Scissor Quirk
Matryoshka Doll Ornament from My Sparkle
Stuffed Star Ornaments from Wee Folk Art

Most of the ornaments can be made quickly.
Enjoy!

Work in Progress - It's finished!

The commissioned piece, Gower Street, St. John's, is finally framed and ready to go. I am very pleased with the results. The trees worked out very well and I will making more to use in future work. A friend told me that these houses are Heritage Homes. The pink one was owned by a Captain Moss. It burnt down and he rebuilt it in its original design.
Check out my previous piece, View from The Rooms as well as In All Its Glory.

Show and Tell at Eastern Edge Quilt Guild

Tuesday evening was the last meeting of the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild for this year. There were a number of lovely pieces shown. Unfortunately, I didn't get photos of all of them.

Christmas Quilt Show

After a morning of shopping downtown and an afternoon of working on my commissioned piece (all the greenery is in place - I just have to stitch them down), I found some down time to check out a few web sites. I came across Insights From Sew Cal Gal. Check out the Christmas Quilt Show entries. The two categories are Christmas and Winter. It will take a bit of time to see them all!
Enjoy!

Work in Progress # 4

I have most of the building construction completed except for some surface additions. Most of my time today was spent stitching trees. The first photo was an experiment. In the second photo, the same tree skeleton was used with various bits of organza foliage put in place. It worked out well and I may use it. However, I like the tree still in the hoop. I added some foliage before cutting it out. Extra bits of foliage will be added to the back and front to give dimension.

You can see more trees in the last photo. They are not in a permanent placement yet and extra foliage will be added when stitched to the background.