Faded Roses

This post is journalling the quilt I finished for the 2013 Timberlane Quilter's Show, "Pieces of Passion."

It was inspired by a Craftsy course I took online called "Design It, Quilt It." The funny thing was, I had already started to talk to my friend Cheri about designing quilts using recycled linens, denims and thrift store finds when I signed up for the course. I had no idea that the instructor, Cindy Needham, had been creating quilts out of vintage linens for a long time.

I purchased a vintage tablecloth with hand-embroidered detail in each corner, probably dating from the fifties, on E-bay. (Don't even let me get started on how hard it is to resist online auctions for vintage linens, lace etc. The best thing to do is never log on and start looking or you will be lost...and broke...)
As I spread it out to inspect it, my eye fell on the Dresden plates I was creating for a crazy quilted project. 

Crazy Quilt and Dresden Plates

With little ado, the tablecloth hijacked my plates, and now I have to make some more for the original project. 

I added an 18 inch wide cotton border to the tablecloth, and english paper pieced the dresden plates for the centre of the cloth and the borders. They are hand appliqued to the quilt. A vintage doily was added to the centre plate. (A kind donation by my friend Sandra!)

Quilting "Faded Roses"

I quilted it on a domestic machine, and tried machine trapunto quilting on the fans and all the feather and flower motifs. I was quite surprised at how much volume the fans gained with the trapunto, they are quite fat!

Trapunto detail

Quilting detail, embroidered motifs

When I basted the quilt for quilting, I had no tablecloth clamps and tried another method to secure the backing to my folding table. It did not go so well, and the backing was a bit overstretched in the end, which led to wavy borders. I think that this might settle with blocking, but I had no time to block the quilt, and no place. My house is quite tiny. The only place I could even lay it out was my bed! I had made a goal to finish the quilt for our local quilt show, and did so about 1 day prior to hanging it!

Faded Roses, Finished.

Much to my surprise, it won the ribbon for Best In Show. Even more to my surprise, the quilt our embroidery and quilting groups made for my friend Sandra, as a wedding present, ribboned as well. It got a second place ribbon in the medium sized quilt category. 

Best in Show Ribbon

A Victorian Romance, design by myself, blocks by the members of the Texada Embroider's Guild and the Texada Quilter's Guild. Quilted by myself. 

After a long absence....

It has been way too long since I have posted. It is not because I have not been finishing things....Au contraire, I have been creating on many of my hobby fronts-knitting, quilting and embroidery. I finally finished my Silk Sampler, which was stitched with hand-dyed silk floss. I also departed from the original pattern and stitched the border with several Hardanger variations.

I also finished (and started, unfortunately) a couple new projects at our annual spring quilting retreat:

1. Violets Table Runner, a kit sent to me by my dear friend Cheri, started but not finished last year.

2. The Girly Tool Belt, a new project that several of us started on a whim at our retreat, just because the pattern was cute. I am proud to say I have been wearing it when gardening.

3. A new bag to match said tool belt, in order to use up extra fabric.

4. Placemats. Originally I started making ONE placemat for retreat, as each participant is supposed to have their own placemat. This is my 5th year of retreats, at least, and I have yet to finish one. So I cut out one and ended up making eight. Now I need another one for retreat, as I can't spoil the set.

5. Neat little change purse, made with -get this-broken/worn out carpenter's tape measures. I love recycling stuff.

6. Red, black and white quilt. Of course, not the one already cut out and brought to retreat for finishing. No, I gave in to temptation and cut out an entirely new quilt. Hmm. I must have a mental problem.

It made a nice gift for my brother-in-law's 65th birthday though. 

Cocoa Quilts

It has been too long since I posted! Life has been way too busy. I have been working on some new quilting ideas, and gardening furiously, and I have a new love in my life....

Meet Cocoa...

She is very active and curious and wants to be right in the middle of everything I do. I don't seem to mind though. She is my first pet in several years and I am enjoying her thoroughly, although my husband was not too impressed when I brought her home. Here she is helping me work on my latest design, Strawberries and Lace.

I had a small exhibit at our local coffee house and made the quilt in honour of the show, which took place during a Strawberry Moon. Nothing like a deadline to make me finish a project - It was completed about 1 hour before the show. I am going to go back and redo the applique of the lace doily. I want to stretch out the chain stitches on the edge a bit more.

It is a prototype for a larger project, I want to make a full-sized bed quilt using some of the ideas from this quilt.

Here Cocoa is helping me work out ideas for applique motifs using real strawberry plants and vintage illustrations of strawberry plants

A little help from my friend.

Work in progress, quilting detail

It's a miracle my quilt isn't completely full of runs. Silk and kitty paws are not a good combo.

Inspiration for the name of my budding quilt design business, Cocoa Quilts Design Studio. Logo: Kitty playing with thread on sewing machine. 

Quilting detail, almost done now.  Morning of exhibit.

Detail, strawberry flowers made of gathered yo-yos and embroidered with rayon boucle thread.

It's funny how finishing a project just makes you want to start another to replace it. So I started cutting out the wool appliques for this project: 

 Isn't this just the cutest? Not that I need another project.....

20 Different Directions at Once

I started this post in January, but never posted it. Busy life, no time for computer. Anyway I am intending to pay more attention to the blog and get back into it. Here it is!

You know how it is when you finish something, and can hardly wait to start something else? I have been in a frenzy working on all my Christmas presents. Alas,  a couple people got items still in progress. Like Lorrie, whose socks still had knitting needles in them. I finished quite a few things, including some UFO's which I gave as Christmas presents.

I knitted socks for my Dad.
I knitted thrum mittens for my niece Leah. And started two more pairs for siblings Ethan and Ayda. Sadly not finished, but they will get them by the end of January.
I made handbags for friends and family.

I finished my snowflake quilt and gifted it to my son-in-law.

Finished my Mexican Star quilt, which was gifted to Lynda, who stays in Mexico every year for 2-3 months.

Now it is New Year's Day. I feel like going off on several different paths at once. I want to knit, embroider, quilt, spin, crochet, paint etc. There are so many possibilities! And I have so much stash to use up. Of course, that does not prevent me from acquiring more stash. I think I need to have another rummage through the lot and generate some shame. Then I will get back on my "do not buy more stuff" wagon again. I was doing really, really well for 3 or 4 months. And then I went to Fabricland. I think the key is not to put myself in temptation's way. I have no willpower at all. I know this. I have been deleting all the e-mails from Elann, Knitpicks, Treenway Silks, and  the Nordic Needle without opening them. That is the only thing that saves me. I love internet shopping. And don't even talk about being able to fondle the fibres in person.

I have decided, in honor of my recent 45th birthday, to reinstate "The Year of ME" once again. For my 40th year, I decided I was going to finish all the UFO's I could that were languishing because they were not gifts for others, but for me personally. I rarely finish objects made for myself because I have no deadlines for myself. I spent most of the year finishing items that were presents for myself. It was very nice.

What objects should be on the roster??? Hmmm. I think I should pick at least one project in each of my interests. Maybe 12 in all, one for each month. Or is that too ambitious?

1. The Kiss. Cross stitch started at least 18 years ago. I think it may be the oldest UFO on my list.

2. Dreamcatcher. Another cross stitch project dating back about 12 years.

3. Santa's Midnight Runner. Made one as a present, never finished my own.

Santa's Midnight Runner

4. Christmas Bellpull, quilted. Ditto.

5. Sweater in need of sewing up and button band.

6. Shiri Mor gloves. Lost interest after 1.25 gloves completed. Should try to get these done for winter.
7. Uniforms. Not interesting but would be useful for work. Would only take a couple of days to finish.
8. Cat Bordi's socks. A concentrating project

9. Lace mystery shawl.

10. Felt purse. Embroidery complete. Needs to be put together.
11. Tanja Berlin's Red Fox. From EAC Seminar at least 3 years ago. Threadpainting. I loved this technique. Hopefully I remember how.

12. The Charity Sampler. Also ancient embroidery UFO.

I think I will start this endeavor as of New Years Day 2012. I would have started on my actual birthday, but I was not able able to resist working on Christmas Presents. So I cheated and set my start date a couple weeks late.

Consumed

Lately I have caught a couple of episodes of "Consumed" on HGTV. It is all about folks that are living in chaos because of all the stuff they have accumulated. Basically, the host of the show goes in, takes everything but absolute necessities away for 30 days, then the people try to work on relationships and address the reasons for the accumulation of possessions. At the end of the month they all go to the warehouse and try to get rid of at least 50% of the junk.

This is ringing a bell. I am not exactly a hoarder. Hmm. Maybe I am in denial. Ok. I AM A HOARDER.
Mostly of hobby stuff.  I have loads of hobby stuff that I have bought over the past several years, as well as things I have inherited. I have been through many craft phases and have the detrius from all of them stored in a shed on our property. Lately, this shed is also a junk repository. Whenever I don't know what to do with something, it goes into the shed. I can hardly walk in there. There are also little caches of wool, fabric, books etc all over the house. Also lots of clothes to go through. On my days off next week, I intend to start a ruthless sort through all this stuff. Goal: get rid of all the things I have been storing for years and never used.

Estimated start date: October 8th. Watch me go.

Adventures in Dying

Well, we hauled out the dyepot again. Had a lovely time dying all sorts of fibery goodness. However, all this fun was preceded by some misery. Note to self: never, ever put damp items in a rubbermaid tote and close it up for several months. I opened my tote of dying accessories and had to pitch most of them out because of mold. None of it was very expensive, thank goodness. Plastic tablecloths, paintbrushes, and a bamboo steamer. But still a waste. Last time I dyed stuff I was visiting my friend Lynda, and we packed everything up and I headed for the ferry, completely forgetting to dry everything out on my arrival home. Once the clean up ordeal was over, Joelene and I got to work and dyed wool for her own Swirl! jacket. She wants a jacket that looks like fall leaves and moss. I think she has succeeded.

Joelene's Fall Frenzy

I was in a mood for bright colors, as usual. I dyed some lovely light mohair and some 50/50 wool silk for another Swirl! jacket too. Yes, I know I am not finished the first one yet. I also dyed alpaca laceweight and some wool roving for spinning. Only darkness kept us from going further.

Susan's Royal Peacock Plumage

Roving, Color - Black Cherry

Now everything is drying out in the bathroom. It is amazing how much water wool can soak up. Even with the dehumidifier running it has taken 3 days to dry out. Then we had to wind it up into balls. Do you know how long it takes to wind up 2800 yds of laceweight alpaca? Too long.

Baby Turns One

Another last minute finish, this time binding stitched on while riding the ferry to visit my Granddaughter, Leota. This quilt was completed in time for her first birthday. Not bad. I had originally planned to make it for a baby shower present a couple weeks after she was born.

Last minute ferry finish

 I love this quilt. I am enchanted by the bright colors, the interesting blocks, the texture etc. I had to use the last piece of my treasured Laurel Burch stripe fabric for the border. It was the only contender in the end.

Bluebird block. Fancy stitching, hand embroidery

Fuzzy sheep. Leota's favorite block. Too cute.

Teddy bear. Machine and hand embroidery, rick rack. What's not to love?

Leota seems to like it almost as much as me. She keeps playing with all the fuzzy fabrics, particularly the sheep block. I think I will make this quilt again. There is another family baby due in January.

Leota and her quilt

Now, on to my next deadline. Another wedding present.