Inspiration...Or A Lack Thereof

Back in the Spring my guild set forth a challenge, a paint chip challenge to be exact. Willing participants drew 3 random paint chips from a brown paper bag and agreed to make a quilt using only the colours drawn along with black and/or white.

To say the least, my colours did nothing to excite me. They did however give me an excuse to do a little fabric shopping. My first stab at the colours was done by memory because I had forgotten the paint chips the day I went to the fabric store. My minds eye served me well: I nailed the yellow with Kona Cheddar and played it safe by taking home two blues and two pinks. Remember this picture? These Konas have been kicking around in my stash for quite a while.

I thought of building colourful little row houses. I pondered making a pig setting sail in a yellow dory. I toyed with a block of cheese. I contemplated free pieced fishes, free pieced letters and even a funky free pieced springy thing. But nothing struck me. I bought piece after piece of fabric in these colours. I lugged home more blue chunks of fabric than I'll ever use. But still, nothing set my brain on fire.

That is until I realized that "it" was in my hand the whole time. The piece of notebook paper I had carted around for all those months was exactly what I needed to make. A big piece of white Kona, a strip of each of the matching Konas and some pink & blue thread was all it took. It happened suddenly: a lit match sets forth a fire in my brain that cannot be extinguished til the last stitch is made.

I appliqued the paint chips in the manner they were placed on the original note paper and quilted the lines to look like scribbler paper. I even used a fancy long triple stitch to make the pink line appear bolder than the blue. As the quilting took shape I became more and more giddy about this cheeky response to my uninspiring, ugly colours. I couldn't wait to finish it but the punching of holes down the left side became a bit of a stumbling block; they put a lump in my throat that was somehow tough to swallow.

It seemed to me that the cutting of holes in a finished quilt might be in direct violation of the Quilters Code of Ethics and I feared the wrath of the Quilt Police. I put a panicked call in to Linda over at Scrapmaster to ask about my guilty quilty ideas, dropped by to pick her brain and she cheered me on. Between us and some spare change we decided the holes should be somewhere between the size of a dime and a nickel and given that it was a wall hanging and not a quilt that would be washed often it didn't really matter too much about the holes fraying out.

I made a few test holes when I got home and decided that a very tiny straight stitch around the traced coin line would both define the hole and secure the fabric layers so that I could trim out the centers. I finished the inside of the holes with a bead of fray check just to stay the stray threads. I even took a scoop out of the hanging sleeve so it wouldn't show through the hole.

Challenge accepted. Mission accomplished.

The response I received from the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild gals at reveal night last week was great! So. Much. Laughter. There is a Viewers Choice online vote happening on the MMQG blog if you care to take a gander at all the paint chip challenge creations...who knows, maybe you'll take the time to vote for your favourite...wink, wink...there are some great sets of Aurifil thread up for prizes and I sure would love to win some of it!

Technical Difficulties...First World Problems

Is there anything more frustrating than not knowing how to make a computer do what you want it to do? If only I had more experience with all these gizmos's and gotta-haves; I have just enough knowledge of computers to make me dangerous and not quite enough to make me efficient. The world might well be at my fingertips, but its the curse words on the tip of my tongue that are glaringly obvious at this moment.

I have always blogged using my Samsung tablet, but this morning it was downstairs keeping the Robot company so I decided that I would attempt to write using my new laptop; a whizzy new thing that is loaded up with Windows 10...which I might add is a beast of a learning curve for someone who is still thinking in Vista terms. Because I am an Android user and all my "stuff" is linked to my Google profile I wanted this laptop to default to my Google settings. I know there is likely a simple way to make this thing do just that but do you think I can figure out how to get rid of the seemingly default "@hotmail" user settings? I can chose my Google account, but I can't make it default. Clearly an equally forceful troop of Gremlins possess the Microsoft world as they do the Google world...damn Gremlins, foiling my every attempt to make this mornings blogging an enjoyable experience. If my laziness were able to thwart my stubbornness I'd have gone to the basement to retrieve my tablet an hour and a half ago. But, here I am typing for the first time on my laptop; virtue seized, but not rewarded.

All I really wanted to do was tell you about the Maritime Modern Quilt Guilds sew in yesterday. The Enabler hosted it in the top floor sun room at her condo building that overlooks the Bedford Basin...what a view! I stayed up way too late the night before watching the Robot work its magic on Ellies quilt and didn't get much of a chance to prepare anything really new or exciting to take with me so, on my way out the door I put the Metro Twist pieces that I had been working on in the Jack Daniels tin, tucked in Voodoo Duck and took off.

I decided that I would totally wing the placement of these blocks...so with wild abandonment (think shaken AND stirred) I tossed all the pieces into two big bags that I could reach into sewing together what ever units came to hand. I sewed and sewed...I even pressed the center seam of the finished blocks open! Surprised? Yah, I was too...try not to wet your pants, sometimes I do things properly but I do complain the whole time.

The result? 25 finished blocks of pure random delight and a fabulous day chatting with the peeps from the guild. I love these ladies. We covered a lot of topics yesterday...everything from the working in the justice system, the price of fabric, the importance of having a job that "works" for you, new babies, secret Santa gift exchanges, the hopefulness that Canada seems to be feeling with our new government and the importance of chocolate chip cookies that bend with out breaking. You know, the big stuff!

The Kinda Quick Curve Ruler

The Quick Curve Ruler came into the house a couple years ago,  a souvenir from our Ottawa/Hamilton family road trip in March of 2013. I saw it at The Running Stitch quilting shop near Ottawa next to an oh-so beautiful sample quilt and just had to have it. You know how those "had-to-have-it" things often play out, right? Often, at least in my world, I figure out pretty quickly that I was wrong and the highly coveted "latest and greatest" sits and sits.

Such was the case with this Quick Curve Ruler. Everytime I opened the package my eyes crossed and I quickly put it back in the drawer and slammed it shut! Gah, so confusing! I simply couldn't focus on the instructions,  too much text for my ADHD afflicted brain to compute. Then my little Maritime Modern Quilt Guild offered up a workshop using this ruler last weekend...so I pulled it out, dug out some fabrics, loaded my stuff and Voodoo Duck in the Jeep and off we went!

Our guilds PEI leader, Heather Jarmyn, is quite the master of the QCR and taught us what we needed to know to get our curves on. The night before the class I had precut my fabrics into the necessary rectangles required for the pattern "Metro Twist" and so once she showed the ruler in use, I was pretty well good to go. I am very much a visual/hands-on learner...show me, it works every time.

So I kicked off my boots and away I went.....

All the gals at the work shop were working away...each of us excited about the others fabrics and pattern choices. All of us pleased with our new found skills and curvy goodness. The temporary design wall gave us a spot to share our blocks...

The Metro Twist pattern calls for 160 curved patches that sew up into 20 blocks...that's  a LOT of repetitive sewing for someone who hates repetitive sewing...80 curves in one orientation and 80 more in the other ...b-o-r-i-n-g!!! That would have given me a quilt that measures about 40 by 55 inches. So did I stop there? Nope, of course not. I am a sucker for punishment. What the heck would that teeny weeny quilt be any good for? I didn't use baby appropriate fabric and you clearly cannot snuggle a springy thing in a quilt that would barely cover your lap, now can ya? So, I decided that I'd  make even more curves and add another row to the width of the quilt. Can I break that down for you? That's 5 more blocks which equates to another 40 curved patches...or 40 more reasons to pour some Jack down my throat.

So that's where I am. All those wretched curved patches are sewn & trimmed...and yes, the stacks are uneven in number of course because I cannot count with my eyes crossed and have the tendency to get carried away with my cutter.

One day, when my eyes uncross, I'll lay them out and stitch up a flimsy. Until then, I'll slam that had-to-have-Kinda-Quick-Curve Ruler back in the drawer.

Adventures of Voodoo Duck: Charity Sew In

It's not every day that Voodoo Duck leaves the confines of my sewing space but every once in a while I jam him in a Jack Daniels tin and take him someplace exciting.  Yesterday he was carted off to the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild's Sew-In, the one where we'd assemble the charity quilts that we've been working toward for months.

The guild collected 8.5" HST blocks from members all year. All the squares had a solid grey on one side and the other side had to be one of (I think) 6 colours. I took a bundle of 80 blocks home quite a long time ago and placed it on the proverbial back burner, you know...like you would when there's lots of time to do the job. Somehow the months flew by and left me only days, where does the time go anyway? So, Wednesday while the Robot was working away putting beautiful leaves across Ellies batik flimsy I jumped in and stitched up my bundle of blocks.

Ellies batik quilt being quilted with a design called Trillium.
It's a gorgeous pattern, but it's a very slow one to stitch out.
All the time it took the Robot to complete a row though gave me time
 to sew up the Charity flimsy...so no complaints here! 

There really is nothing quite like a deadline to suddenly kick your butt in gear! I had a real mish mash of blocks...prints & solids and not enough of any one to come up with any really exciting layouts. With the Robot limiting my time for head scratching, it quickly dawned on me that I could do some diagonal stripes of sorts and this is what I came up with...

Then, on Friday between hairdoos I managed to get it quilted up and ready for binding. I quilted it with Apricot Moons design called City Windows, I really love the modern simplicity of this quilting pattern.

Saturday morning with all my gear and a duck in a tin I set off for the Sew In. Lot's of hands were on site to put the quilts together and it was a lot of fun to part of the energy in the room. I got a scrappy binding put on my quilt, pieced a back for another, and helped with some basting. The quilts are being donated to The Lodge That Gives in Halifax. This is a place close to the hospital where people can stay while they are having treatments for cancer when they don't live close enough for a daily commute. It's a very special place. My uncle stayed there when he was battling lung cancer. When we were brainstorming to come up with the recipient of this years quilts one of our guild mates suggested the Lodge as she herself stayed there while she was waging her own battle. I know that the folks who eventually rest under these quilts will feel the good wishes, healing energy and love that has been sewn into each of the 10 quilts that will be placed on the beds there.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of the quilts as we were building and finishing them but I didn't, I was too busy trying to keep Voodoo Duck in line. He was having a good time visiting some of our favourite bloggers...Adrienne, Linda, Lesley, Kathy and Jen...if you're looking for some quilty goodness check these gals out! Then pop on over to the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild's Blog to see lots of pictures of the charity quilts...I think four or five were complete by days end!

Swappin For Ale

This little project was released from Quilters Protection Services last week. It's been in the works for a couple months and was my mini quilt for the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild's summer swap. This whole swap thing was pretty fun. You had to fill out a questionnaire about your abilities, likes and dislikes and then the fabulous Amanda (the guilds swap momma) matched each of us up with an appropriate partner. I got teamed up with my pal Linda over at Scrapmaster! (No pressure there....sheesh!)

Now, our wee Linda hails from a little coastal community called Prospect not too far from me. I've been there plenty of times and I knew I just had to make her a treasure from her home town; her fathers fish store seemed like the perfect choice. I practically disregarded everything she wrote on her questionnaire and blazed a trail to my own idea of what she might like...have I ever mentioned I like to do things my way? Poor gal never stood a chance of getting something with Alison Glass fabrics in turquoise  and aqua once my brain caught fire!!  I had so much fun with this free pieced fish store and have been sitting on hot bricks for a whole month just waiting for the time to come to give it to her because I finished it up early.

I pulled fabrics that whimsically spoke to me according to a photo I found of it on her blog post, For Ale and set to work. I wasn't setting out to build an identical representation of the stage, I wanted it to be fun! A quick sketch, some slicing and stitching, more slicing, more stitching, some head scratching, a little ripping, some cutting off and some adding more on led me here....

And last week, even though I was on the way to the airport, I had to make a quick stop in to Patch where the meeting was being held to do our swap. I couldn't stay long enough to see all the gals swapping and we had to do ours before the meeting even started but I wouldn't have missed this for anything.

SHE LOVED IT!


I couldn't wait to see what she had come up with for me. I might as well admit here and now that my old buddy Jack Daniel had a hand in the filling out of my questionnaire. Poor Linda. I don't think she had much to go on but man-oh-man, somehow she nailed it! I just love my mini! She even put in some free pieced fishes on the back and you all know how much fun I had with those this winter! Linda is the free motion quilting queen in our little guild and she pebbled out her little heart. There are so many bits and pieces of me in there...wonky houses, lots of purple, free pieced letters and even some fabrics we traded at a workshop once! It's a treasure for sure...

It's perfect. And it's me.

A Cuppa & A Catch-Up

Mornin' peeps! Been a crazy week around here...
Despite having a hairy week in the shoppe, I managed to get in some quilty stuff.

Sister PurpleBoots has given into the the pull & started her first
quilty project, a dog bed cover. I say it's a matrimonial quilt for
Izzy and The Mexican...see their pictures? She chose, cut and
pieced these squares without any alcohol or temper tantrums!
She's got a way to go yet, but I can't wait to see it all finished!

I figured it was time for The Robot to start earning his keep. A friend told me I could do whatever I wanted to this scrappy string quilt so in the end I settled on this edge to edge pattern called Starlets, designed by Lisa Calle. It seemed to work because I was really drawn to the red star fabric...red sucks me in every time...it demands my attention. It's really rather bothersome to me, I blame it on my ADHD.

Other people scraps are so entertaining! 

Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it was...after I ripped out a whole row of robot stitching from the first design choice that I absolutely hated. And...in order to do hours of said stitch ripping I had to swallow my pride and dash out for a pair of magnifying glasses. Why? Because I couldn't see a damn thing! Apparently this is a cruel joke that Mother Nature plays on the 40 something crowd; bitch steals our vision! It's official, I'm old.

After I got the Scrappy String Quilt finished up I figured it was time to add the last of the bits and pieces to The Robot: an idler rail.  This piece took its good ole time coming in and then I took my good ole time getting around to installing it. Such a great feature, I wish I had been motivated sooner to open that box! A little help from Mr. PurpleBoots got me back up and running in no time! This means I no longer have to adjust the take-up roller as the bulk of quilt accumulates on the roller...and what a difference it makes! I loves it!

A super-special someone is having a super-special birthday so I am quilting up some ponies for her. She loves her horses, even though they try to kill her occasionally! At least now she will be able to wrap herself up in a cozy hug next time she gets hurt. It's possible I may have just ruined the surprise but I was just so excited by this and these fancy dudes are too cute not to share!!

On Saturday I went to a paper piecing workshop that the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild was hosting; not so much because I needed to learn but because I love hanging out with my quilty peeps! I even brought my buddy Miss Maime along so she could meet some of my guild mates.  We always have so much fun together laughing, stitching, bitching...you know how it goes, right? I made this sweet 16" block that looks an awful lot like the one Linda made! We swapped fabrics so we'd have more variety and now we have matching pillow tops! Afterwards, we shopped at Atlanic Fabrics for a some new stash additions and popped in to rescue Anja who was having a Wee Wiggler emergency. 

Well peeps, my brown holy water is all but gone and The Robot beckons. 

Happy Monday!

The Riley Blake Challenge

A while ago all members of the Modern Quilt Guild were invited by the "mothership" to participate in a multi national challenge. I signed up mostly because I wanted the free fabric...uh, who doesn't? So after a bit a little box came with 6 wee pieces of Riley Blake's collection, "The Cottage Garden", all tied up with a pretty ribbon and a note outlining the rules.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

But, right off the get-go we had a problem: the Riley Blake solids weren't available anywhere in Canada. So, our little guild said, "Well then, let's just have our own little challenge and allow Kona!"  Okeedokee Smokee! Works for me. I loves me some Kona now and then! So, off to the fabric store I went to pick up some matching Konas and I even managed to find a hunk of a Riley Blake mottled white. But what to make? It had to be something fantastic I hadn't done before, and I had to learn something new along the way. Okay!?!

I wasn't feeling very well yesterday, that stupid plague has returned, so I was having a lazy day at home. What better way to avoid the housework than to get that oh-so-important challenge done? The deadline is looming & I know my priorities people. Play comes first! Poking around downstairs I found that little whizzy circle attachment from Pfaff that I had only used once in a class. I saw a guild mate applique circles with it once and since I'm kinda liking circles these days, I sat down & figured it out...

First, I cut a square and folded it in quarters to mark the center and layed it on the base fabric with tear away interfacing underneath. With the whizzy circle thing attached to the machine, I then set the push pin to the size of circle I wanted and straight stitched around it. It's so cool. And perfect.

Then, I trimmed very closely to that stitching. After that I just replaced the push pin, changed my stitch and went around again with the tight applique stitch to cover the first stitches and secure the raw edge. I used 50wt. cotton thread but a 30wt. would have given a nicer, more dense finish. Next time.

Before I quilted it I cut away the 2 layers of fabric (the white and the Kona) from under the 6 print circles that were stacked up 3 high. It made it lay nicer when I pressed it and I expected that the Robot might be happier with less bulk to quilt through.

I was a little sad about the garbage can. To be honest I don't like to toss scraps and all that used interfacing troubled me. I reused the big circles under the smaller circles, but beyond that saving it seemed silly. Where would I store it? So it's trash. My inner tree hugger cried a little when my practical self slapped her.

So. Much. Waste.

Then came the quilting. Another challenge. Haven't mastered the Robot yet, not by a long shot, but I did know that none of the on board quilting designs suited the runner; I wanted something more modern. Although I'd never done it, I knew you could download designs so I Googled it and voila! Everything a robot needs on one little site: Intelligent Quilting. With a little help from the websites FAQ section I figured out how to download, unzip, save and transfer to the robot! Not bad for a technically challenged sick girl!

All done!
Quilting design is "Round About" by Apricot Moon

Quilting designs are like chocolates. Once you start you can't stop. 4 new designs are loaded up on the robot now...and my Visa? It's loaded up too. This could easily become my latest slippery slope of money eating madness, but this time it was justified. It was medicinal. I'm sick. I needed some retail therapy and boy, this digital stuff came fast and easy! Figuring out how to nest the pattern? Not so fast and easy. But eventually I got it done, with a little help from my stitch ripper. A pieced binding finished if off and used up some scraps.

Anyway, this little runner checks all the boxes for our Maritime Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad to have some new tricks up my sleeve. I even used the ribbon that the fabric bundle came tied up with, it made the perfect compliment to my "selvage label" on the back...another a new trick!