Butterflies

Butterflies! Yes, it's about time to bring a bit of colour to the east coast of Canada. Why not flowers? Well, I found a blog hop (that's now over) about butterflies that you can still visit. The hop is mostly jewellery but I decided to do some extra searching for other butterfly related sites. Have fun and remember, I am not responsible for all the time you spend checking out these sites (GRIN)!!

Here they are by blog / website title:

• With heart and Hands
• Little Birdie Secrets
• Moda Bakeshop
• Just Imagine Designs & Publications
• Sewing.Org
• Trish's Crafts
• Simplicity Creative
• Sew Mama Sew
• Free Quilt Patterns
• Arbee Designs
• Bing Search

I have lots more links but this should do for now. You just might find something to make for summer!
Enjoy!!

Hand Embroidery Extradionaire!

How many of you are interested in embroidery? I just found the website of Michele Carragher who is a London based hand embroiderer and illustrator. She has been working in costume for the film and television industry for 15 years. Some of the shows she has worked on include Game of Thrones, the mini series, Elizabeth 1, Prince of Persia and Stardust.

I have spent quite awhile looking through her website. The embroidery designs are incredible! Such awesome work. It is well worth a look. Michele Carragher Website

Here's a couple of video clips of her work:  Grassopher, Making Embroidery

I also found more interesting sites with her work highlighted:

• Game of Thrones Costumes (quite interesting)
• Michele Carragher on Pinterest (worth a look)
• Blog about Art
• Raspberry Rabbit's post about Michelle Carragher 
• Sensory Level (interesting site)
• Dragonscale Smocking by Dany (she demonstrates how to do the scales)

Enjoy!

Wildly Wicked

One of the exhibits at the International Quilt Festival, Chicago, was the Wicked Cherrywood Challenge. This was one of the exhibits that did not allow photographs as they had a book of all the pieces for sale. However, I did not see the sign until after I had taken a picture! Lucky the photo police didn't catch me. The colours used in this challenge were quite interesting as were the quilted pieces!

Here's a list of sites where you can read about this challenge and see some more of the quilts:

• Quilt Views
• The Quilt Show (video clip)
• Road to California
• YouTube
• Quilter in the Closet

Sheers to You

I took a workshop with Esterita Austin at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago called Sheers To You! Fused sheer fabrics were used to create a piece of wall art. As Esterita writes in her course description, fused sheer fabrics are the 'building blocks for a translucent shimmering still life that will glow and sparkle while adding depth to your fibre art piece'. No sewing machines were used in this class. Please visit her website and have a look around.

Here's a few photos of Esterita's samples (more on her website)

Home Again!

I arrived home yesterday afternoon from Chicago minus my carry-on luggage! Yep, carry-on! Go figure. I packed all my purchases from the International Quilt Festival in that bag as well as my hand embroidery projects and a couple of books. I fly Porter Airlines and wheeled carry-on luggage is tagged and placed in the baggage compartment at no extra cost. It is picked up just as you exit the plane. Normal sized pieces are sent to the carousel for pick-up. Apparently my tag came off. Did I mention that Porter stops at Ottawa and Halifax on the way to St. John's (milk run)? In Ottawa the bag was taken off but when no one claimed it, it was brought inside the plane to find the owner. Of course it was mine, so it was put back in the storage hole.

The same thing happened in Halifax except that no one came in the plane to ask about it and it was left there. What I can't figure is why it wasn't retagged in Ottawa! That would have been the logical thing to do. When I exited the plane here in St. John's, I must have looked a bit perplexed because the attendant called me by name to apologize for the mistake and that my carry-on was still in Halifax. Guess they knew someone blundered. I was guaranteed that it was in a secure location! I was concerned because all of my art / craft purchases were in that bag.

I got the luggage just after lunch today. And, yes, everything was intact.

Note the new Sari Silk Yarn in the far corner! Eye Candy!!

 

Red and White

I just got back home today from my Chicago trip. Here are a few more pieces from the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. The last quilt had an amazing amount of detailed applique and piecing as you can see from the photo.
Enjoy!

 

Art Piece From Peru

This colourful, little applique piece came from Peru. I saw it at a friend's house here in Chicago and just had to take a photo of it. There is a combination of applique and raised embroidery. I did a search for Peru, applique and wall art. HERE's what I found.

 

 

Close up

 

Happy Easter

Last evening we dyed eggs for Easter. The Easter Bunny hid them around the house and they were eagerly searched for this morning. I hope everyone has a great day!

Eggs in the pot to boil them

Cooked and dried eggs, ready for dyeing.

Mixing the dyes

The dyes are all ready

Finished!

Sisters are Wonderful!

My granddaughter turned 4 in March. She really likes the Jake the Pirate cartoon character. I couldn't find any Jake the Pirate fabric but my sister in Tennessee did. Here's the quilt she made for Gale.

The quilt label, which you can just see in the corner on the back, is a photo of Gale wearing her pirate costume on Halloween. My sister printed it from her computer.

When the parcel was opened, Gale said it was her new best birthday present!

Embracing The Silver Years

Thanks for the comments I've been getting. I haven't been sending replies as they are going to an email that I can't access here in the USA. The comments do come into blogspot so that I can post them from there. I appreciate all your comments.

I do have more quilts to show you. However, today I'm just going to show you one particular art piece. It was made to celebrate those women who embrace their 'silver years'.

The detail on this piece was very interesting as you can see from the close-up shot.
Enjoy!

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More Quilts From the International. Quilt Festival

I hope you aren't bored with seeing the quilts from the Chicago International Quilt Festival. Here are a few more.

 



Work In Progress Wednesday

Happy April 1st. 

I have linked up again with the W.I.P Wednesday Link-up @ The Needle & Thread Network. Please take a few minutes to check out the Canadian links!
More quilts from Chicago coming soon.

Shopping at Quilt Festival

I have mixed feelings toward the Quilt Market at the International Quilt Festival here in Chicago. For one thing, I had expectations that it would be bigger (guess the Houston Show years ago, spoiled me). This one is much smaller. I covered it twice in one day.

There were few books on display. None of the publishing companies were there. All the major sewing machines were represented as well as several thread manufacturers. I noticed that felt embroidery kits were a big item and Valdani threads are the ones of choice for use in these kits.

I did buy a few things! Have a look.

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Variegated Batiks 

Perfect to shred for grass in landscapes!

Hand dyed wool

Sampler kit of Wonderfil Threads

Hand Dyed Pearl Cottons

Oliver Twists Embellishment Threads / Yarns

Little Beans Cafe

I'm spending the day at Little Beans Café in Chicago. It's a wonderful place to bring preschool children. It has free WiFi (which I'm using to write this). There are comfortable seating / tables for grownups and splendid food. I'm surrounded by little kids running all over the place.

Every city should have such spaces!

Tomorrow I will share some of my purchases from Quilt Festival.

It's a sunny but cold day here in Chicago. Brrrr! However, whatever the weather, anytime is good for looking at quilted pieces. Here are a few more photos from the International Quilt Festival. If I was using my home computer and editing software, I would be grouping the photos into categories. But that is time consuming on a small tablet.
Enjoy!