Jun 30, 2017
Well here we go again another two weeks goes by and no post. Last post I mentioned maybe quilting one of my own quilts before my schedule got crazy. I should have known better, life got really crazy and still is. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel though so that is good.
I was just sitting at my computer with a brownie in the oven that I was making for the church Canada Day picnic. I don’t like to leave the room when I have things in the oven. I tend to forget them and not hear the timer, this never turns out well. I received an email from Craftsy regarding a sale they had on this weekend, I haven’t looked at Craftsy lately so with 20 minutes to kill I thought I would take a look and see what was new.
There was one class that I hadn’t seen before on machine quilting so I watched the trailer and then went down to the reviews. Sometimes I don’t know whether to shake my head or just laugh. I actually do a bit of both. This particular class got mostly rave reviews but there were a few 1 and 2 star reviews so I read them.
This is where the head shaking comes in, after reading the reviews it is quite obvious that the writers reading compression is not very good. The few bad reviews all complained about how disappointed they were etc etc re whatever it was but here’s the deal, the class wasn’t about those things, in fact it clearly says it in the description of the class and in the trailer!!! These people are leaving bad reviews not because the teacher can’t teach but because these people can’t READ!
Oh well, I feel sorry for the class instructor though as these people who obviously have issues are bringing down the overall score of the class which is a shame. Hopefully the instructor realizes this and doesn’t take these comments personally.
On Sunday there was a silent auction for Dee’s Orphan Kitten Fund. It was fun catching up with an old work friend and seeing all of the items up for action. Kevin and I adopted our Mia through Dee’s and my friend had asked me to make a quilt for the auction. I heard it went for $180.00 which is below it’s value but still better than it could have been. I had taken a bigger picture of this from my phone but when I moved it over to the larger screen realized it was fuzzy. This was a small lap size although I put a hanging sleeve on it in case someone wanted to hang it.
The other quilt I finished was a custom made quilt.
This was a graduation present and it was made of fabrics that all had meaning for my client. Some of the fabrics she picked out at the Cloth Castle and some were from old duvet covers she had growing up. The pattern was one she saw on pinterest and wanted me to make. It is just 2.5 inch strips cut at different lengths and made into 12.5 inch blocks. I cut some of the panels of the duvets apart and used them on the back of the quilt. I used the Bora Bora pantograph from Urban Elementz which you can purchase at the Cloth Castle. I love the way this turned out and hope she gets many more years from her memories.
So Happy Canada 150 to all.
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Jun 17, 2017
Well the days are whizzing by, or at least it seems like that. I remember being told that time moves faster the older you get. I could never figure that one out when I was younger but I am beginning to see how that saying came into being. Of course being busy helps with time appearing to move faster.
The weather here in Victoria continues to be unusual or at least it seems that way. It appeared to jump from winter to summer overnight, a few wonderful days and then back to winter overnight again. So far we appear to have missed spring altogether this year.
Here are a couple of random photos taken while Cocoa and I were on one of our daily walks. We ran across this turtle behind the pond near where we live. He/she had come out to enjoy the sun that had finally shown itself that day. Don’t worry Cocoa didn’t harm it. I picked Cocoa up and we carefully stepped over the turtle and left it in peace to enjoy the day.
My crazy work schedule has slowed down a bit and that is both good and bad. Good as I finally have time to relax and do some planning and maybe actually quilt one of my own quilts (we’ll see how that goes), and bad because slower work means less money coming in. Oh well, I am enjoying having a little time to sit back and actually think about what I want re the future. Besides come July 10 the schedule will go back into crazy mode again so I need to just enjoy the time I have while I have it.
Recently I got the chance to work on this wonderful quilt. This was really fun to work on, the only drawback I had is that the silver Superior Sew Fine 50 thread I used as the background colour for a large part of the quilt ended up being back ordered. I had one small spool of the thread so I ordered a cone the same day I started working on this quilt and I didn’t receive the thread in the mail until 10 days later. Not great however it all turned out well and I love how this quilt turned out.
Even though I previously posted that I am not a huge fan of doing pantographs there are quilts that call for just an all over edge to edge design. I am very good at doing simple edge to edge for kids and baby quilts and I really enjoy those however I thought it would be nice to have a couple more sophisticated edge to edge designs available for people who want them. The Cloth Castle where I work recently brought some pantographs in so I purchased two that I liked. Both are by Urban Elementz, one is Deja Vu and the other is Bora Bora.
I have used the Deja Vu on a client king size quilt (which I forgot to take pictures of) and it turned out great and I have also used it on a smaller quilt for a client that needed a quick wedding present.
I did like the way these turned out. I just finished a custom quilt (one I completed from start to finish) with the Bora Bora pantograph which also turned out really well, however I am still sewing down the binding on that one so the client hasn’t seen it yet other than in pictures I have sent so that will have to be posted later.
Good friends are like quilts they never lose their warmth
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