Frog Stitch

Doll Quilt Finished

2008-12-02T09:49:00.003-05:00

So, I officially suck at blogging, but I can manage to quilt. I finished my contribution to the Doll Quilt Swap 5 and it was sent off a week ago (I told you I suck).

With this post, I think I'm closing this blog once again since I'm finding it more of a chore that a pleasure.

Thanks for reading!

Doll Quilt - Part 2

2008-10-23T18:36:00.003-04:00

So, I think I have a bit of an obsession about pre-washing fabrics. I have to wash all my new fabric, sometimes I'll even wash scraps I get from other people. For the fabrics that I know won't bleed, I'll just hand wash them and iron them dry. I use Retayne for any fabric that I think will bleed. Honestly, this is a miracle - no more rinsing fabric in endless washes to make sure all the dye is out, but maybe I just do that...

Fortunately I only had three new fabrics to wash.

I've also started to cut out strips, once I get a decent pile I'll take a picture.

Doll Quilt - Part 1

2008-10-20T22:39:00.003-04:00

Ok, so maybe this isn't the first step since I already decided what pattern I'm doing. Just for a refresher, I'm going to be doing the courthouse steps pattern. I'm thinking about doing diamonds of saturated colours (similar to the Kaffe Fassett quilt). I've really been liking teal lately, so teal it is. I've started pulling my teals (and maybe buying a few more). My fabrics usually go on the ironing board since that's usually the only clear spot in my sewing room. Here's what I have so far.

I still need an accent colour for the centre squares. I was thinking a fushia, but now I'm leaning towards an acidy green. I'll have to play a bit more...

Last Minute Decisions

2008-10-17T09:01:00.003-04:00

In a flurry of e-mails, I decided to sign up for a doll quilt swap. You're supposed to blog about the quilt you're making so the blog is getting resurrected once again.

You're not supposed to tell who you're making a quilt for, but I'm quite excited since I've decided to make I quilt I've always liked.

Since this was the first time participating in this swap, the preferences/dislikes I sent to my partner was really vague (sorry!). If they're looking for some more direction, I really don't have many dislikes, I'm just not a fan of really cutesy stuff. I love pieced quilts, but then again I love applique as well. I'm pretty sure that I like any quilt pattern there is.

I'm not sure that helped - rereading that again it was really vague.

To my swap partner (not that you know who you are) - I've started pulling fabrics and have a plan, just no pictures.

I'm off to go camping in Tobomory - maybe there'll be a picture...

Done! ...almost

2008-04-22T19:43:00.002-04:00

This is a view of my sewing room floor the past week - not exactly what I would call fun. I've been writing a grant proposal for a class I've been taking.

After our quilt show, things will be back to normal and I can get back to sewing.

Hoppy Easter!

2008-03-22T15:27:00.003-04:00

Here are a few things that have been going on the past few weeks.

Lemon meringue cupcakes for a bake-off at work.

A folded fabric trivet made in a class at a local quilt shop.

A new miniature I'm working on.

The first signs of spring

Happy Easter everyone.

Take it Further - February

2008-03-02T16:30:00.003-05:00

I haven't made anything for Take it Further, but I figured I'd share a bit about what I remember.

Ever since I can remember, my grandmother's quilts have been our beds. There's quite a few of them, with a variety of patterns. Whole cloth, applique and pieced quilts are all in our collection and each of us have our favourites. Some have been on our beds for years (and show the wear). These quilts were made when my mom was young (in the 50s) and she helped to cut the pieces.

One of the quilts I remember has always been in pieces. I'm not sure if my grandmother made it, but it's always been around. It's what's supposed to be a yo yo quilt but it's in a bit of disrepair. There's a few yo yos which are completely destroyed but then there's a lot of extra ones that aren't in the main diamond. I'm not too sure what it's supposed to look like - but I may just make something up with what I have.

I know that they're usually sewn to a piece of fabric to finish them, but if anyone knows what's usually done to finish a yo yo quilt , plase let me know.

Baby Gifts

2008-02-24T16:57:00.005-05:00

Things have gotten a little crazy around here with school, so don't expect too much from me (not that you do).

Recently, my yoga teacher had her second child - a beautiful bouncing boy. I made her new baby Hillary's turtle. To appease the older sister (because big sister's need presents too), I made her the butterfly.

The patterns were super easy and went together so quickly. I had a bit of difficulty attaching the butterfly head, but I made do.

Take it Further - Admiration

2008-01-30T21:44:00.000-05:00

I have submitted before February! This is the first (and hopefully not the last) submission for Sharons Take it Further. The first theme asks who do you admire and why.

At first I found this a little difficult. A name didn't pop up right away - I had one idea but it wasn't developing very well. My next idea came and stayed. This may be a cliche, but I really admire all of these crafters who are able to accomplish so much in they're lives. We all have our own list of these people (and they may even overlap), but these are the one who are crafty, creative, have beautiful families, blog and the million other things that they do. Some days may go smoother than others but there's always a grace in what they do.

My inspiration came from the illustrations by Tomie dePaola in a children's book called The Clown of God. It still needs a bit of finishing but the main parts are done.

The background is tiny bits of cut up fabric quilted under toile. Each ball is done differently. I tried a few new things, and some old tricks as well.

A Weekend of New

2008-01-21T13:34:00.000-05:00

This has been an exciting (and busy) weekend. First I got a new toy. My very own embelishing machine (a Pfaff)- I played with it a bit, but I need to sit down and really try things. For those who don't know what this does, it "felts" fabrics together in a very similar fashhion to needle felting, only with a motor. I really loved what it did to ribbon (flat ribbon became ruched!).

I also went to a free(!) bookbinding workshop but on by the Church of Craft at The Workroom. This was my first trip there and it was a beautiful, creative space.

Here's my book. It was really easy to make. The cover is a postcard, and we used random paper (including from deconstructed books) for the pages. I have a feeling more books will be coming in the future...

New Year, New Motivation

2008-01-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what re-organizing your sewing room will do. One feature that I created was some shelves where I can lay out my current projects. Now they're off the floor and just below my eye level so they can remind me that they're still there.

Well their gentle reminders worked. For the last day of my Christmas holiday I spent some time working on a few of these. I finished my yoga bag. This is an Amy Butler free pattern. I added a drawstring to the top rather than leaving it open like the patten.

I also finished a quilt I started at a workshop by Lorraine Roy. It's basically a collage of tiny pieces of fabric quilted underneath netting. It was really easy and really effective (we were working on sunsets).

I also worked on my Guild Challenge quilt (I'll show you later) and an applique nutcracker that has been sitting around. Now I'll have to put a few more things on that shelf.

Christmas Thrifting

2008-01-04T18:58:00.000-05:00

During our Boxing Day shopping the Mister and I ended up at Value Village (a large chain of second hand stores) looking for some bargains. I didn't find any emboidery (which is what I usually look for), but I did find this...

I've always been looking for a tree skirt pattern to make, but never did I expect to find one this FANTASTIC!!!

After a quick bath, it's ready for next year's tree.

Beginning 2008

2008-01-02T18:51:00.000-05:00

After a brief sabbatical (that's what I'm calling it) and Christmas holidays, I think I'm ready to blog again.

The thing I love about blogs is the openess and sharing of ideas and inspiration. I thought since I'm tapping into this great resource, I needed to give a little back. I knew blogging was work, but I think my ideas about my blog were on the grandiose size - being inspired by many of my favourite, beautiful blogs. I found that blogging slowly began to be a chore, and I was getting disappointed and a bit overwhelmed with other commitments - and so the sabbatical.

Now 2008 has begun, and the amazing Sharon has started a new challenge called Take it Forward. This is a monthly challenge and all the work is shown on your blog/flicker - and so I introduce Frog Stitch version 2.0 (which looks very similar to the original).

Other than Sharon's challenge, I have a few other goals for 2008.

1. Try to post regularly (weekly maybe) - shorter posts may be the best option.

2. I need to take up music again - I played violin all my life up until 4 years ago when I started graduate school. Now it's just been sitting in my sewing room. I think it's time to pick it up again.

3. I want to learn how to tat. I keep wanting to put those cute little rings on crazy quilts - I just need to learn how to do this (if anyone has a good resource please let me know).

4. I want to finish some of my UFOs - I don't have many but they're just sitting there taunting me.

5. I would like to make a conscious effort to tidy up more (ie do dishes promptly). Okay, this one has nothing to do with quilting/crafting, but it needed to get written up.

Those are all my big ideas so far.

I hope everyone has a happy and creative New Year!

Input needed please

2007-05-14T19:13:00.000-04:00

Hi again,

I know it's been a while but is it OK because I've been sewing? I'm finishing up a bunch of quilts that I've been procrastinating about and I'll show you very soon (I promise).

I've also been working on a new quilt, which I am totally addicted to. I've ben english paper piecing similar to other people. Each of the stars are about 1 3/4". Each piece is also one of the fabrics I own - a little crazy I know, but I wanted it to be scrappy. The question that I need help with is what colour I should use for the background black

or white

There is also the question of setting where I can do diamonds as above or hexagons.

Please, please let me know what you like.

Outside

2007-04-22T16:53:00.000-04:00

After a pretty icky spring the weather this weekend has been absolutely beautiful. 20+ weather (that's in Celcius) had the mister and I outside for most of the weekend in sandals. Our garden's cleaned up, the bikes are ready to go (now blogging then sewing outside). Now we just have to do some landscaping and I can begin gardening in earnest.

We've been in our house for a little less than a year now, so I've hit the point where I can stop dreaming and planning and start doing. This year, is the backyard. We're going to build a vegetable garden (small), add a few more beds for gardens and do some levelling of our yard. All we need now is a few more free weekends.

I'm back!

2007-04-18T19:41:00.000-04:00

Hi there, remember me?. It's been ages since I've posted but I have a good excuse. The mister and I just got back from a 3 week vacation to Japan. In my head this was our second anniversary present. We've been following the traditional wedding presents (I know it's only been two years) and year 2 is (be still my beating heart) cotton.

And so we (OK, I) went to Japan to buy fabric... and see family, and do touristy things. Needless to say, the trip was awesome. It was cherry blossom season so we saw lots of gorgeous streets as well as fantastic temples. Here are a few pictures of some of the sights.

A new magazine

2007-03-11T20:08:00.000-04:00

Things have been pretty busy around here. I'm almost finished a project that I need in a couple weeks (I'll show you later) . My local quilt guild has started planning for it's next quilt show (in 2008) so I've started to think about planning and how to organized paperwork (I'm in charge of registration).

I picked up a new magazine (for me) this weekend. I've seen Marie Claire Idees before but never bought one. I must say I really liked it. Every other page I was pointing out projects to the mister (which I'm sure he appreciated). Here are a few of my favourites - just a note the magazine is in French, which is OK with me since I'm fluent.

TAST: Cross stitch

2007-03-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

I decided to try something new (but still pretty traditional) with TAST this week. During my snow day, I started a new heart for Chain of Hearts. I've read about other people using waste canvas, and have been wanting to try it for a while (I even went out and bought some almost a year ago). This week was the time to try it (and make good use of my cross stitch). The pattern I used is from http://www.birdcrossstitch.com. I'm going to be adding some flowers to the bottom corner and this heart will be ready to swap.

I will say that using the waste canvas was really easy - and tweezers really helped in removing all of the strands. I think I may be making a few more hearts like this.

Snow/ice/slush day!

2007-03-02T08:19:00.000-05:00

After a dumping of snow, ice and rain, I've decided to stay home today. I tried to shovel our sidewalk which was about 2 inches of slush. Water filled up the space immediately so now there's a great big puddle on our sidewalk instead (I'm not too sure that's better).

I have a bit of work to do (I came home prepared yesterday), some furniture to move, but after that I can sew! I'll update you this weekend.

Recap

2007-02-24T09:49:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how adding one thing (yoga classes) to your week completely overwhelms a schedule. Hopefully I'll soon be finding some balance with my new activities (and still make time for sewing).

In addition to being busy, I've finished a new heart for Chain of Hearts. This one's already sent out to Gayle in California.

The TAST stitch for this week was fly stitch. I've highlighted the wheels using this stitch. I'm getting a little disappointed in myself that I'm not being quite as creative. Hopefully I'll be able to get may stitching groove on soon.

I've also got a new pile for postcards. The hubby and I are going on a trip and as gifts to family for their hospitality, it was suggested (by the hubby) that I make them something - his family is also interested in fabric arts (and quilting) as well. I've got a nice little pile of Canadian postcards for them. The first trial is on top and still needs to be quilted.

This weekend, the World of Threads starts in Oakville. It's an exhibit of work from the various guilds of Oakville. I have one quilt in an exhibit and hopefully I'll be able to show pictures later.

Finally, I've started a new quilt. It's funny how some projects that I think of just get started right away while others which I've been sitting on for quite a while (years) still are just in my head. I guess I'm just waiting for the right inspiration to come and hit me.

In the mean time, who said diamonds weren't a girl's best friend...

TAST: catch up

2007-02-12T19:15:00.000-05:00

There hasn't been a lot of experimenting with the chevron and algerian eye stitch. Things have still been pretty busy around here and spare sewing time has been really rare.

I've decided to try both stitches on a heart for the chain of hearts group. I realized that I don't hate the chevron stitch as much if I make it BIG. That's one thing I'm learning doing this challenge: I can make stitches much bigger than I think. I was also thinking of adding beads to the chevron stitch - but I thought I was getting to be a bit much.

Also please note the feather stitch on this heart as well - man, I'm caught up already :) I'll try to do some more since that's one of my favourite stitches.

Playing Hookey

2007-02-04T20:41:00.000-05:00

It seems like things aren't going to calm down for a while. Because of this, I've decided to play hookey from Take a Stitch Tuesday (chevron stitch) this week. I will admit, this isn't one of my favourite stitches, but I really wasn't trying to avoid it (really).

Other than that, I'm getting ready for an English paper piecing workshop that I'm teaching on Saturday, which means I'm going to get all my materials together basically (all my samples are stitched and posted here).

Have a great week!

Weekly recap

2007-01-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Wow, time has flown by. It's been so busy - basically I've come home, eat dinner and go to bed. Three main events have occured since my last post.

1) TAST: Cretan stitch
I played with curvs on this stitch - everytime I look at this it looks like a spine to me. I also like the hexagons that I made - I think it would be an interesting overall effect.

For the overlapping stitch, I think a hoop would have been really useful (and using all 6 strands to fill in the stitch more).

2) I finished a quilt top. This is my miniature bargello quilt (about 9 x 14"). It got a little warped and I'm probaby going to make another one with a slightly different technique (don't worry I'll finish this one too).

3) If you look back in my archives, I entered the Northcott Quilt for a Cure block challenge. They annouced the winners quite a while ago (which I didn't win), but they were also featured in the current edition of The Quilter magazine. I went to my local bookstore to check it out and what did I see. My block. It was apparently a finalist! I was in shock for a little bit and I kind of hugged the magazine in the bookstore (I then bought it). Here's the picture (my block is in the bottom row, second to the left - the hexagon flowers).

Also one quick question for the quilters out there. The mister keeps calling my bargello quilt a bordello quilt so I told him I'm going to make him one (a bordello quilt) for work. I'm thinking it needs to be red. Does anyone have any suggestions?

TAST: Detached Chain Stitch

2007-01-19T20:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I read a bit quickly. This week, when reading Sharon's TAST post I missed a not so small word - detached. So I happily went about chain stitcheing away (a stitch I really like). Upon realizing that I missed a word, I started again. Don't worry - I save the other one for when chain stitch comes up - it will come up? Sharon? It will come up, right?
Look I clumped stitches together!

Other than that I've been getting over a killer cold. I had no voice for about 5 days (if someone else says I sound terrible...)

A new quilt top will be shown soon (hopefully this weekend).

TAST: Buttonhole stitch

2007-01-10T20:20:00.000-05:00

Thanks all for letting me vent. I have restarted my quilt and things are going smoothly (if not carefully).

I was competely blown away by everyone's work last week for the herringbone stitch. Many pieces, including some of the samples were stand-alone pieces of art. I didn't really consider mine in that calibre, but this is a process and I know what I can strive for.

For me doing the stitches and combinations isn't horribly difficult (although there are so many variations that amaze me). So instead I think I'll use this project to interpret stitches differently that things to do on a seam/straight/curvy line (although I may still do some of that).

For this week I thought I would use buttonhole stitch to interpret an image. The first thing that popped into my head were the aurora borealis (northern lights). Here is the result.

I like to work small (see my previous post) so this is about 3 x 3.5 inches. I am completely in love with Sharon's use of overlapping stitches, but to be honest, doing it myself scares the crap out of me (who knows why). I guess you could consider this a baby step in the process.

Grrr...

2007-01-07T20:07:00.000-05:00

So I designed a quilt. It was going to be a bargello, a miniature bargello quilt. The bargello part was going to be 10 x 12" plus a border. Anyways, over Chrismas I started making my strips. I cut them, sewed them together and made a tube perfectly - easy peasy. Then I started to cut my strips to make it an actual bargello.

I have a philosophy when making quilts. I can do anything with only a bit of patience and the knowedge that I may have to rip something out every so often. When I started this project I knew it was ambitious - the 1/8" strips made most of my friends cringe. When I got to the third strip (so the middle one is 1/8") things went wrong.

Apparently I can't sew a straight line on 12" of fabric which is almost entirely a seam allowance. That's fine I decided to rip out the part (in the middle of course) to fix that area. By this time, I freaked right out about the size and so now it's going to be about 7" square (a much more manageable size in my opinion).

So now I fixed that 1/8" strip I went onto next piece. Fortunately, it's a bigger piece, I thought I knew what I was doing so I went on with confidence. I cut my next piece, started to place it and what did I see. The last piece (the one I suffered with) was upside down.

TAST: Herringbone stitch

2007-01-02T15:21:00.000-05:00

My stash of embellishments doesn't include a lot of different threads, most embroidery floss - so I'll definately make my samplers colourful!

I played with the sizes, number of strands of floss, weaving other floss in, couching down ribbon, different double herringbones and adding different accent stitches. Some stitches are still looking a little bare - I may go back and add more.

I'm already looking forward to the next stitch...

Holiday Recap; Looking Forward

2007-01-01T17:19:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. My holiday was filled with parties with friends and family at our house.

I got some lovely presents this year. I received two crazy quilted hearts in the mail from Susan from South Dakota (USA) and Kate of Denmark.

The mister and I only exchanged stockings this year but he managed to fill it with all sorts of sewing notions. There was also this book.Rather than doing a Dear Jane quilt, I've been thinking of making some diamonds instead. We have a trip coming up so some hand piecing is needed.

As for this year coming up, there's a lot of thing I'm excited about. Take a Stitch Tuesday starts tomorrow which is about experiment with embrodery stitches. With this, I'm wanting to expand my repertoire and get some more inspiration for my projects. I'm also planning on finishing some projects (aren't we all) and starting some quilts that I've been thinking about for a long time. I've already started in on some of these plans.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T12:39:00.000-05:00

Wishing you a happy and joyful holiday.

Melissa

Tutorial: Slanted Buttonhole Stitch

2006-12-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

or how to make the butterflies in my last heart (the green one).

Step 1) Pull needle out at point A.
Step 2) Take a stitch from point B to point A.
Step 3) Take a stitch from point B to point C - make sure that the loop of floss is UNDERNEATH your needle (similar to a blanket stitch).
Step 4) Pull triangle to desired tightness.
If you want to continue making triangles, go back to step 2. To finish, take a stitch over the floss to secure the last point. Here are some more variations of the slanted button hole stitch (sorry about the glare).
This is a page from Crazy Quilting by Christine Dabbs.

Nine people for dinner...

2006-12-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

equals one big mess in the morning.
And this is after a load of dishes.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

A new challenge

2006-12-15T08:57:00.000-05:00

Wow a blog in the week (I know it's almost the weekend).

I just thought I would plug the challenge that Sharon B has make for crazy quilters. It's called Take a Stitch Tuesday.

"Each week I am going to work a stitch and experiment with it, and blog the results. What does it look like worked in different threads? What happens when you change the size? How does it behave on a curve or can it be stacked to create patterns? What happens if you work it in a free form manner? What are the inherent design possibilities of this stitch? Anyone who wants to join in and blog their discoveries is welcome."

I'm quite excited about this project for a number of reasons. This challenge will push me to be more creative with my stitches, I may get a few more hearts done for swapping (I'm thinking of experimenting on hearts) and last but not least I may actually post during the week. We'll see...

Balls and Books

2006-12-12T20:19:00.000-05:00

Wow, so much has been going on this past week. I really should try to post more often - maybe that will be a New Year's resolution. There's been some decorating going on in the house.

I love my antique glass balls. They're really fragile and I'm so afraid to pick them up since I can almost feel them shattering in my hand.

In other news, I went to check out the Japan Foundation library. From what I can tell, the Japan Foundation promotes Japanese culture to the masses. There was an art exhibit by non-Japanese artists who are influenced by Japanese art. Among those were some great pieces using shibori (a tye-dying process) and sashiko (similar to quilting which is quite popular). I don't think I've mentioned this but the mister is Japanese, so I'm familiar with both these methods (although I haven't done them).

Now, I've heard about the greatness of Japanese craft books in blogland, but I've never experienced them for myself. I have to tell you, all the pictures that you see don't do them justice. There were a few books at the library, so I signed out one not to be greedy. It was about embroidery and here are a few of my favourite pictures.

Cute crickets!
I love how they show you different techniques with the same design.

In the future: some more about shibori, and a tutorial for a stich on my last heart I made.

Preparing for Christmas - mentally at least

2006-12-03T20:16:00.000-05:00

Winter (and Christmas) is fast approching. There's been a smattering of snow flakes but nothing that accumulating. I'm really looking forward to the first real snowfall. I love the great big giant flakes that just glow at night - hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas. Our Christmas ornaments aren't quite out yet but I've been decorating in my head, thinking about where to put different things around the house. Hopefully I'll manage to put some decorations up this week. I'll keep you posted.

I have however been able to finish two more hearts to swap with the Chain of Hearts. I've started to do some stitches with beads which I really like the effect of.

From my travels in blog land, I think I'm going to have to take Sharon's on-line embroidery class. The samples are amazing and I would love to get the confidence to combine stitches to create a whole new layer to my work.

P.S. Can anyone tell me if Blogger beta has most of the bugs worked out of it. I don't think I'll be able to hold out for very much longer.

Wednesday already?

2006-11-29T12:09:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can’t believe how quickly this week is going. Similar to other people, there’s been some internet problems at our house, so I’m posting at work without pictures (sorry).

Last weekend we enjoyed the balmy November weather. Walking around in a t-shirt and no coat was really wrong but it felt so good! We finished up our yard work including The Great Bonsai Experiment of 2006. There is a mulberry tree at our door which was a little out of control. It was big and blocked our path so everyone (except me – I’m 5 feet tall) had to walk on the grass to get around it. On Sunday, we chopped it off about 8 inches above the graft. The hope is that the branches will sprout from there and we will have a lovely short under control mulberry tree. If not, the hubby didn’t like it anyway so we’ll get something new. I’ll keep you posted.

Other than that, all my projects are carrying on. I’ve been English paper piecing and making hearts to swap. I may even start quilting this quilt – I have accumulated all the threads I needed. The goal was to have it done for some Christmas parties, but that’s 2 and a half weeks away. I’ve been hesitating when it came to quilting this, but my nerve is slowly building (very slowly). Maybe tonight…

Hearts and hexagons

2006-11-20T22:21:00.000-05:00

Wowza! Two weeks just flew by. I know I let my blog slip when I’m busy, but I think this takes the cake. Although life has been getting in the way, I have been doing some crafting.

I swapped the two hearts I showed in the last post for these two amazing hearts. This one is from Lori in Connecticut,

and this heart is from Margreet in the Netherlands.

I really enjoyed both of these swaps and I can’t wait to finish some more hearts to swap (soon, very soon).

I also found out that I’ll be teaching a workshop for my local quilt guild. It’s going to be an English paper piecing class so I’ve been busy making samples. Since the class is going to be only 3 hours the project will be to make a coaster or a gift pouch (which will hopefully be finished in 3 hours). The inspiration came from two books: The Impatient Patchworker by Jayne Emerson, which has the coaster pattern I modified, and Kokoro No Te by Kumiko Sudo. Her book has all sorts of great gift bags you can make. I’ve adapted the coaster pattern so that you make a pouch, which could hold gift cards etc. (I’ve always hated just putting gift cards into a regular card).

I’ve been really intrigued by monochromatic projects and so I’ve been playing with this in my samples. Here’s a finished pouch.

And here are two more unfinished samples.

One I’ll make into a coaster and the other will be a different variation on the pouch (I’m still experimenting). I’m glad I started this early. There’s still a bunch of stuff I want to do for the class including writing instructions and finding books that have examples of English paper piecing – thank goodness the workshop is in February.

Go figure

2006-11-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

I have a nice quiet Sunday morning to make an entry and the internet was down. Oh well, it was one less thing to deal with this weekend. I was quite impressed with myself. I was really impressed with myself. It was 10:00 in the morning and looking around there wasn’t much to do. What did I do with myself you might ask? I started my next block of the month and I put the finishing touches on my hearts, which are now ready for swapping.

The main reason why I was finishing all of my chores early was because I went to a benefit concert in the afternoon. There is a 250+ year old oak tree which has been slated to be cut down to expand a road in Oakville. Since the name of my fair town means “town of oaks”, the residents are trying to save the tree. The city has made a compromise where if $343 000 is raised, the road will be diverted around the tree. The performers at the concert were two locals, ohbijou from Toronto and Sarah Harmer (she’s quite famous in Canada). I hadn’t heard anything by ohbijou before but I really liked them. I like Sarah’s music but hearing her live was amazing. It was a really intimate concert with about 500 people there. The sound may have been a little funky partially because we were in a gym, and the sound guys were probably volunteers. To save a tree, it was a great concert and a really relaxing weekend.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T20:09:00.000-05:00

I would have to say that our first Halloween was a success. We didn't go too overboard. I carved a pumpkin, put up some spider webs and wore a tiara - pretty low key. We had lots of kids (which we expected), and I may still have some leftover candy for myself - mmmmm mini chocolate bars...

All in all a great Halloween.

Finding Balance

2006-10-28T15:24:00.000-04:00

It seems that a post a week is about all that I can manage lately. When I started this, I was hoping to do about 3 a week but I'm finding there's not much time in the evening once I get home and I don't even have kids! I'm really impressed by the people who finding a balance that works for them and are able to blog quite regularly. I'm sure my balance will come in time.

This week, I'm very excited since I've joined a swapping group called Chain of Hearts. It's a crazy quilting group where you make 6 inch hearts that are embellished to swap. Right now I have two naked hearts that need some embroidery and two more foundations that I can piece on.

It's interesting how I seem to be attracted to a lot of crafting by hand lately. When we were in the apartment, I was quilting in our dining room, which is essentially part of the main room. I was in the center of all the action and could cook and sew at the same. In our house, now that I have my very own sewing room (which I still love). I'm finding it harder to do other things around the house and sew at the same time and so quilting is seems to be taking a back seat.

Right now, I'm off to scrub my bathtub and wash some fabric. See you next weekend.

Procrastination

2006-10-22T15:50:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like looking out my window and loving the view. Since we just moved in June, each of the seasons holds something new which makes me love our house even more. Right now, its the vibrant colours of our trees.

We have a birch and a maple tree in our front yard. I'm really loving our maple just for its red leaves. The maples at my parents are mostly orange and yellow - it's not very often I see red trees.

Besides procrastinating by looking our my window, I've been procrastinating with my quilting. Instead of quilting this...

I've made this block instead.

I picked up the landscape as a kit on our honeymoon to Banff and Jasper. Outside of Banff National Park, there a mountain range called The Three Sisters which is shown on this quilt. It's put together with fusible web, which was really easy, but now I'm afraid to machine quilt it. This however has happened before, the last quilt I machine quilted sat for over a year before I got the courage to quilt it. It's funny that I can piece/applique most projects without hesitation, but machine quilting scares me to death. You can do something but the perfectionist in your head makes you think that it's going to get screwed up and then the entire quilt will be ruined. I keep thinking that I should take a class and that might help with my confidence, but I still haven't gotten around to it.

There's really only one thing to do... take a deep breath and start quilting.

Book Review - Fabric Art Journals

2006-10-15T11:43:00.000-04:00

I found out about this book from a guild member and after seeing Soulemama's book she had posted, I had to take a look myself at Fabric Art Journals by Pam Sussman. It's a beautiful book that tells you how to make your own Fabric books.

I think this book is written for people who already do some bookbinding and want to get into using fabric instead. It's really heavy on quilting basics and really light on bookbinding basics. There are some terms which she throws around that don't have definitions but you can figure out on your own.

There's a really extensive section on embellishing using tea dying, image transfers, embroidery and using beads and buttons. Each section gives you a lot of options to generate the effect that you would want.

The projects that are in the book all deal with different ways to bind your book ranking from easy to difficult. All the instructions have simple figures and I found I could follow them fairly easily in my head.

At the very end is the gallery which showcases a variety of artists books which are all stunning. It's a really beautiful book that goes into lots of detail and shows a lot of ideas that you can do with your fabric books.

All in all, the projects in the book are really beautiful and has tons of ideas for what you can do with fabric books. Most of the fabric books are small art quilts rather than something sentimental which could be made for other people (which is what I could see my self doing with these), but I think it would be really easy to translate the ideas from the book into a "story".

P.S. Soulemama's fabric book can be found in the September archive

P.P.S I apologize for the crappy pictures - taking pictures at night, flash, and really glossy paper is not a good combination

Random entry

2006-10-13T10:17:00.000-04:00

I seem to have a desire to post a entry, but an idea for content is a bit lacking today. Right now in crafting, there's a lot of thinking and dreaming and not all that much doing (although I've been procrastinating with applique that has no need of getting done). I'm almost thinking a list of my potential projects would be helpful and maybe even motivating (I apologize - this entry is mostly trying to get some stuff out of my head).

Current (and active) projects
-landscape from my honeymoon (~75% done)
-applique a nutcracker block (my procrastination)

Projects that I have all the materials for
-iPod holder similar to Amanda's
-purse which I saw for $100 that I thought "I can make that myself"
-embroidery quilt

Projects that are still in my head (and on paper)
-miniature bargello (see previous post)
-double wedding ring quilt
-storm at sea quilt
-quilted diamonds

See you later this weekend.

It's been a while

2006-10-06T16:44:00.000-04:00

Hello again!

It's been a while since I posted, but I do have a good excuse. The mister and I went to Algonquin Provincial Park on a canoe trip for four days. Not only did we enjoy the fall colours,

we also waded through swamps on floating logs and travelled over beaver dams. This was our most adventurous canoe trip so far. It was a great challenge with long portages and a rainy day, but it was a perfect, quiet trip.

As for crafty things, the Oakville Quilter's Guild (of which I'm a member) had their first meeting. Christine Fries-Ureel gave a fantastic talk, and brought some of her quilts. The pictures on the web pages doesn't do them justice - the detail and love that she puts into them is simply stunning. I've always been interested in learning how to do thread painting, but her work has inspired me to maybe do something about this.

At the meeting, I also had some fun designing a new quilt.
It's going to be a miniature bargello. I think the smallest pieces are going to be 1/2" by 1/8". I think the bargello part will be around 10"x12". This was the first colour combination I tried and I fell in love with it instantly. Now comes the fun part - finding the right fabrics. There's some local shop hops so I'll have to see what I can find.

I've also started a block of the month at my local quilt shop. It's a Christmas themed quilt, where each month you get a pieced and appliqued nutcracker block to do. The pieced one has to be finished for the next class otherwise there's a penalty. I finished my first block last night.
Instead of making one big quilt with all the nutcrackers (which would probably be a bit too Christmasy), I think I'll make smaller quilts to give away.

It's funny how in a week I can go from having one project to now having all these projects as well as other ideas that I'm thinking of starting. It's amazing how seeing other people's work can fuel your own creativity and can act as a jumping off point for so many other projects.

Clearing the Decks

2006-09-24T17:50:00.000-04:00

Curiously enough, I only have one project on the go right now. Usually, I have a few going and I'll switch between them whenever I loose interest or need some space to think. I have lots of ideas in my head as to projects and a lot of bins with materials for those projects, but it's that first cut which I think I'm trying to avoid. Many of these projects have come out of my own head, rather than from a pattern so starting them is seeming a bit daunting. I have a feeling I'm just going to have to take a deep breath and start cutting (and hopefully I won't screw up too badly)

Another reason for my procrastination, was the disaster that is my sewing room. Since we've moved, I have the great fortune of no longer have to work on half of the dining room table (we did need to eat). My messes have gotten a bit out of control so it was time to tidy up.

I'm loving the sewing surface we made. It was really easy and IKEA has the perfect counters (they're thick so I don't think I'll have to worry about warping). Now all it needs is a pad for pressing seams on. The walls are pretty bare, but I have some quilts and fabric still to go up.

While cleaning, I noticed my scrap bag was getting a little too full. I have packaged up three bags for anyone who would like to swap some scraps. I have a lot of batiks as well as some prints.

Most of the pieces should be sewable but a few really small pieces may have snuck in as well. The first three people to comment are the lucky ones to swap (I'll e-mail you after). If you happen to miss out and really wanted one, I can make some more bags as well.

Holy Crap!

2006-09-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

I was at my local quilt shop tonight to start my latest block of the month project when I found out that my block I told you about earlier won a prize in their local competition. 2nd place for Viewer's Choice!!!! I was second only to a woman who publishes quilt books (which I can totally deal with). The prize I was initially going for was for the most pieces, which I didn't win. There was a postage stamp block with quarter inch squares (407 in total) which I'm assuming won.

This is the first thing I've won with my quilting and I have to tell you I'm pleased as punch. Along with an incredibly useful gift certificate, I also got a fat quarter and a spool of thread (both of which I will be sure to use).

Towel Rack -> Quilt Rack

2006-09-16T17:37:00.000-04:00

The number of quilts are slowly increasing in our house. I've been looking at quilt racks, but they're always a bit expensive. In a recent wandering at IKEA, I found this.
The rack tilts so I can place it at a nice angle. I covered all the rails with fabric to protect my quilts. It's now holding the various lab blankets we've accumulated.

I've also nearly fogetten to show the quilt I've showed you as a sneak peak. I started this quilt as a class a very long time ago. There was a delay in finishing it because I wasn't quite comfortable quilting it yet. I ended up quilting it how they suggested, which turned out really well. The bias "tape" I made is an 1/8 inch and the quilt is 21x17 inches.

Labels

2006-09-15T16:51:00.000-04:00

My dear sweet hubby said the nicest thing to me when I was creating my latest label. His comment was that I should put my labels on the front of my quilts since I put so much work into them (OK I'm paraphrasing - but its the general idea).

I find I always need to add something else to my labels besides the title, name and date. For some of my quilts I've added a quotation I've found that suits my quilts,

the simplest label I;ve made only has a border,
my most complicated label is actually a block.

All of my labels are a little different and allow a for a bit of experimenting or else a bit of review (such as do I remember how to make bias strips? - the answer was yes).

Project Spectrum Postcard Swap - August

2006-09-10T20:03:00.000-04:00

This month's Project Spectrum's colours were black, white and neutrals. I swapped with Christine from California. I decided to do either a black and white or a neutral postcard. Here is the postcard I sent. It was really fun playing with different embroidery stitch combinations.

Christine sent me this fantastic collage. I'm still looking at it and finding new things to admire.

I think this swap was really successful. When we both got each other's post cards and were worried the other person would be disappointed.

I'm sad to say but I think this is the last postcard swap for Project Spectrum. I really enjoyed swapping the last two months. Not only because of the excitement of receiving beautiful things in the mail, but I only got to experiment a bit with my own work and be introduced to new blogs as well. I am definately going to have to find some more swaps to do. If anyone knows of any interesting swaps, or would like to swap...

Any Suggestions?

2006-09-08T19:46:00.000-04:00

Last spring I went to the Textile Museum of Canada's Yardage Sale. It's their annual fundraiser where people donate fabric, books and notions which they sell for amazing prices. This was the first year I went, and I was really impressed with what was there.

One thing that I picked up was a panel of painted fabric. It has some damage but I couldn't pass up the elephants.

I want to hang it up but I can't really think of a good way. The edges are a little rough so I can't sew it around something. It's also too big to fit in between a poster sized frame from Michaels (I was hoping to just squish it between glass. I saw what Bella Dia did with her fabric panels on foam core, but I don't really want to use adhesive on the panel.

Does anyone have any slightly inexpensive ideas? I would love to hear them.

That Damn Book Thing

2006-09-05T21:22:00.000-04:00

Sara invited others to do this, and since I read way too many books...

One book that changed your life: I think the title is Quick Classic Quilts. This is book that started me quilting, and the first one I made a quilt from.

One book that you've read more than once: I don't usually reread books, but I want to read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez again - I don't think I appreciated it as much the first time as I should have

One book you'd want on a desert island: This is the hardest question I think. It would have to be something epic (ie large). A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, anything by Margaret George, Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - wait, that's more than one book :)

One book that made you laugh: Hapiness by Will Ferguson, J Pod by Douglas Copeland.

One book that made you cry: I read a trilogy by Marie Laberge - a Quebec author. In the third book, one of the characters I "lived" with died - of course I read this part on the commuter train.

One book that you wish had been written: A simple book on home design.

One book you wish had never been written: Sorry, can't think of any (I'm pretty easy going when it comes to books)

One book you are currently reading: I'm reading Please, Mr. Einstein by Jean-Claude Carriere. It's basically conversations about physics and philosophy. It's a slow read, but not too shabby.

One book you've been meaning to read: I'm collecting a series of books by Jack Whyte which centers around Camelot. I almost have the whole series so I can start reading them.

Instead of tagging people, since I just started blogging. If you would like to do this meme, write me a comment and I'll come check it out on your blog.

What I Love: Finishing Projects

2006-09-02T07:57:00.000-04:00

Call me crazy, but I love the feel of finishing things. It doesn't matter what it is, from quilts to pens. Maybe it's the idea of sticking with something until completion. I took a quilting class a very long time ago and all that was left on the quilt was to quilt and bind it. I waited a bit, then figured out the quilting pattern I was going to use, then waited some more (I wasn't prepared to quilt it yet). In the past couple of weeks I've had the urge to quilt it, and so I've started. It should only take about a week to finish (it's a miniature quilt), but here's a sneak peak.

I've also started one of my projects that have been sitting on a shelf for over a year - I'll post more about that when it's done.

What I Love

2006-08-29T19:46:00.000-04:00

Inspired by Soule Mama.

1. My yellow reading chair. My parents bought it at an auction years ago. It's travelled to and from university and now proudly sits in our library. It's a gold tub chair with green and a slightly darker gold flowers. It is sooo comfortable. It also has a matching 6' + couch which I'm not taking.

2. The fact that my tomato plant has no green leaves left on it but it is still able to ripen the last tomatoes of the season.

3. I'm making macaroni and cheese from scratch, halving the recipe, but putting in probably the same amount of cheese as before (I really like cheese).

4. Sitting on our deck in our new house (this has been going on for the last couple of months).

I heart bookshelves

2006-08-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

The mister and I recently moved into our first house in June. We've been settled for a little bit, and now I'm thinking about adding a bit more of ourselves to the house.

One thing that we have a lot of (much to the chagrin of the people who moved us) is books. We have bookshelves galore each filled with books. I think our personal goal is a bookshelf in each room. We're pretty much there, including a library, which is what we transformed the living room into. There's only one room that's lacking any books. This is our family room (rec room). I think I saw these bookshelves on someone's blog (I think) and I've been coveting ever since. They're called conceal bookshelves by Umbra.

My plan (which I have clumsily drawn), would be to put a few of these above our couch so they would double as art and bookshelves.

Frog Stitching Away

2006-08-19T14:39:00.000-04:00

I decided this summer to enter my first fabric challenge. It was the Northcott's Quest for a Cure Block Challenge. You had to make a 12" block using a specific line of fabrics, which they will then use for future fundraising events (I liked this because it was the block that keeps on giving). My local quilt shop was participating and they also had extra prizes as well. I figured if I was going to enter, I might as well try to win a prize. My goal: the block with the most pieces.

I english paper pieced my block by hand - which I really enjoyed and would recommend to anyone to do. It's a great techinque to get precise piecing, and you can take it anywhere. I was also going to put on a fancy mitered border with the border fabric in the line - this was where it got complicated.

Melissa's suggestions for mitered corners
1) Don't do this unless it will make your quilt (the concept is simple but achieving some form of accuracy is difficult - I had to try a couple of times).

2) If you choose to ignore the first suggestion (I did). I highly recommend that you sew the seams that are at a 45 degree angle from the block by hand - you get the precision, and this seam isn't usually all that big. I did the four seams in about half an hour.

3) Make sure you account for the fact that your border will go around your entire block. After completing my block, taking a picture and filling out the entry form, I decided to measure my block - 13.5 inches!!!! (I only accounted for a 1 inch border on one side). This meant I had to frog stitch my entire border, trim down my block (and loose 8 pieces in the mean time) and sew it back on again. The second time was much easier I will admit.

The end result? 191 pieces in a 12.5" unfinshed block.

Garage Sale Finds

2006-08-17T19:44:00.000-04:00

Last weekend (I know its Thursday - it was a fast week), the mister and I went to a couple garage sales. When we do this our strategy is fairly consistent. We go through the local newspaper looking for the potentially good garage sales (key words: estate, moving, downsizing). We then will stop at any other garage sales along the route.

Beside finding some uninteresting things that we need for our house (shop vac, gardening tools). I also found a pile of embroidery at one sale. I got a dresser set for next to nothing.

I also found this hankerchief. Its not too often you see embroidery with a duck on it.

What am I going to do with this? One idea came from the book Make Your Own Contemporary Quilts. It has lots of different ideas for using different collections of textiles. Laural has a great review of this book. I've been collecting embroidery for quite a while now to do something similar to this quilt. I don't think however that I'll be able to cut up the dresser set - its much to pretty.

(photo by Laural)

Project Spectrum Postcard Swap - July

2006-08-11T20:04:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned before, I love making miniature quilts. They're so much quicker that making a regular-sized quilt, and you can try out so many different techniques.

I signed up for my first swap at Project Spectrum. Sara from New Hampshire and I swapped purple postcards. After much waiting (blast no mail on statutory holidays) I finally received Sara's beautiful postcard with embellished fabric. Sara also included purple jar openers that whe made as well.

This is the postcard that I sent her. My first try at drawing while quilting . The first leaf was a little nerve-wracking but the second was pretty easy.

I also sent some charm squares of purple (what else?) fabrics I've been collecting.

Thank you Sara!!

A bit about me

2006-08-11T19:45:00.000-04:00

After reading other people's fantastic blogs, I decided that I would create my own to show people my inspiration and projects that are currently underway on a regular basis - hopefully.

I have been quilting for two years now, and am totally addicted. I'm on a miniature quilt kick right now. Postcards are the perfect size - I'll write about the postcard swap I did recently. I also have been inspired by so many of the other crafting projects out there, I may have to start trying those as well.

Besides quilting, I'm a graduate student doing my Ph.D. in biochemistry, which involves lots of research and playing in a lab. My husband and I have also recently moved into a house so there are lots of plans going on in our house.

I think that's all for now. Wish me luck and I hope you enjoy my blog!

Welcome to Frog Stitch!

2006-08-10T16:33:00.000-04:00

I'll post more later (this is just a test)