Crochet with thread? Are you nutz?

Apparently I am! I tried my hand for the first time with crochet thread. I didn't have a crochet hook small enough, so I had to go out and buy one! The smallest I had was a US00 -- and I needed a size 10 (1.15 mm). I could barely see the little holes! Are you people crazy? (the ones who do all those beautiful doilies with the thread!) I always admired those who could crochet those beautiful things -- now I am even MORE impressed!

A few years ago, my assistant had her baby girl that I made a quilt for. She's coming up to three years old now, so I thought a little dolly blanket was in order. I found some super-soft flannel that was so yummy! I wanted to dress it up a bit and saw a great idea in Glacier Quilts when I was down there in September. I used a hemstitch needle to finish the edge and create a place to crochet into. Next time I will space out the stitches a bit more and see if I can trim a bit closer to the edge (or sew closer?) My crochet up close is a bit messy, but the end result above really doesn't show.

My hands hurt poking in the crochet hook for the first round. Once the first round was in, the rest of it was completed quickly! So while I was crocheting tonight, look who came to "Trick or Treat"! Was definately MY treat tonight!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

She's one month old today!

Georgetown Inn, Canmore, Alberta

Along with Creative Stitches -- a weekend wouldn't be complete without a wonderful getaway with Chef Murphy. He surprised me with this place in February this year and I decided to surprise him for his birthday this weekend! Take a look at how beautiful this place is! Every room is beautiful and they treated us like gold. I just love that the rooms are not cookie cutter! The food in their "pub" was fantastic and again we were not dissapointed. If you are looking for a peaceful and romantic place -- this is it. By the way, they also welcome scrapbookers and quilters as well as they have great workrooms that a group can gather in.

One of the other rooms we got to stay in! *sigh*

They have an old-fashioned elevator where you open the door yourself and have to hold the button in for it to move. The rooms are cozy and warm. What a gem of a get-away! Call them up and make a reservation! Take your honey there for a night away! ;-) You deserve it!

Creative Stitches Calgary 2012

Well! Now that was interesting! I haven't been to one in a couple of years. Did it get smaller? Where were all the people? I found it really, really quiet! I was surprised to not see so many of the quilt stores that were there years ago. I know they are still in business, but perhaps the sheer cost of renting one of the tables vs. the income they would make from sales, wasn't worth it? I did manage to find some fabulous fat quarters to add again to my stash. No rhyme or reason, but I did pick out a few black and whites that I am building on.

I also did some thread shopping. I know that so many of us use cotton, but I thought a polyester/rayon would do me well with some of those Christmas crafts that were not "heirloom" quality. I really do love the colours and I got a great deal on these. I'm thinking I may take some of them out and send to my quilting daughter up in Fort McMurray. She always seems to have to pay an arm and a leg at the quilt shop up there. My fat quarters were $1.50. Can't beat that price! The thread was $15.00 a box plus you got the third box for free. You can never have enough fabric or thread!

Speaking of thread... I have a load of cones that I am having trouble using on my machine, so I bought one of those thread stands. I hate not being able to have the right tools to use things I have right now - so the thread stand was a good buy for me. It's not pretty by any means, but it is certainly functional! I have quite a lot of thread that won't fit on the machine spool holders -- so unless someone has a better solution for me, the thread stand it is! I also grabbed one of those cute little collapsible buckets for threads and snippets. I am always taping little plastic garbage bags to my table. Until I make a cute little fabric bucket -- this is the perfect fit for now

Of course I have to give you a sneak peak at the newest project! I am excited about this one as it's a new pattern from JayBird! The instructions were fabulous and easy to follow once I got it straight in my head. I'm pretty much an "inside the box" kinda girl and I'm working towards being more spontaneous and trying new things! I love the way it all fit together easily (even if I can see my mistakes, once it's together you can't see them! YIPEE!)

Another finish

Finally completed the baby quilt that has been on the design wall for a month! It's been a busy month and now under the gun I finally finished it! The quilt has been "pre-hugged" for the new little one by "Nana and Grandpa". Very different colours, and I hope it will be worn to pieces! Gotta love it when a little one drags a quilt all over the place! I will be more than happy to fix up the holes! To me it means the quit has been well loved! The BEST compliment any quilter can get!

Wish I could have taken a better photo, but it's late for the mail as it is!

I contemplated putting the baby's name on the back, but then of course because I'm a paranoid Nana, if it was out in public, strangers would know the baby's name. Still in the era of "Stranger Danger" I opted on "B A B Y". I had a big band that I had to fill in with something. Chef Murphy picked out the fabric for the letters and I rolled with it.

Another new thing for me (don't know if you can see it or not), was to piece the binding in different fabric. As it was a "make as you go" quilt, I just pieced together what I had and went with it. I hope they like it! Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get a photo with the wee one and the quilt to share! Happy stitchin' all and oh! HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Pink Chalk Fabrics AND Chef Murphy's Schnitzels!

How lucky can a girl get? A package in the mail on a Sunday no less and Chef Murphy is making me Schnitzels for dinner!

Building on your stash is always a good thing! One of the quilts that I thought should be in my future is a scrap quilt by colour. All those little pieces that I have been tossing out will be now saved and will go towards the new colour quilt that I have planned. I love the Kona Cotton Starter! Look at those beautiful colours! I couldn't resist getting a yard of Dena McKenzie fabric. I thought when I ordered that it was purely black and white, but once you look at it IRL (in real life), there is a bit of pink. Love it anyways! The bobbin saver is something new. I am always having issues with keeping thread and bobbins in an organized manner! So many of the old threads in the studio are mixed (i.e. polyester, rayon etc.) I am still trying to find a way to manage those. Slowly, but surely those too will be organized and under control! Loving Pink Chalk Fabrics! Their service was a bit slow, but I am sure that it's the postal system and NOT the company! My order was sent out within 2 days of my ordering -- but took a while to get here! (My order was on Sept 22 and arrived here today!) Needless to say -- it was worth the wait! Check them out! You won't be dissapointed! www.pinkchalkfabrics.com

Quilting Gloves and free-motion bomb!

I tried to "free-motion" stipples on a baby quilt that I just finished. Of course I was excited with my new machine and have done stippling on smaller projects, but this time I wanted to do something different. I got out the cute little flower motif stencil and drew that on my squares. I was thinking I would do the flower and then stipple around it. BOMB! MAJOR BOMB! I did two flowers. Of course I didn't check. Why check? It was going ok. Hah! I pulled it off the machine and looked on the back in horror! I had "E's" all over the back. Looked like stitches with eyelashes. I spend the next hour ripping out both of the pretty little flower and was so discouraged! Thank heavens I am going to a free-motion class/machine quilting class in November! I figure I have my Symphony...and it was anything BUT an orchestra! I came out of the studio totally crushed. I know that "perfection" should be out of the vocabulary, but seriously??? It's a simple little flower! Surely I could quilt a measly little flower! The internet is an amazing resource. As Chef Murphy was making lunch, I browsed and looked for a solution to my problem. I knew that you needed to have your hands in a good position. I tried the Neutrogena hand cream on my hands so it would grip a bit better (seriously it works!). But my research indicates my hand speed is too fast for my foot pedal. I move my hands and turn the quilt much faster than the speed of the foot pedal. The reason why I was getting those eyelashes was because I would turn the quilt around corners faster than the speed of the machine. BIG PROBLEM. It's like barely touching the accelerator on a car and turning way too far! The solution to this of course is more practice! Unfortunately the baby quilt cannot wait as it needs to get in the mail asap! So, the short-term solution was to use my walking foot to get something on the quilt. I did what I thought would be good, then realized the quilting was too far apart in some areas. Did I read the instructions on the quilt batting? Of course not! I grabbed the bag that the batting came in and read it was ok to quilt up to 3.5" apart. Some areas were bigger than that, so back in for some more lines! By this time, my hands were sore from wrestling this tiny quilt through the machine. How am I going to ever manage a bigger quilt?

To the rescue...Fons and Porter quilting gloves! I tried them on and thought how stupid I looked with gloves on my hands, but then quickly tossed that aside when I realized how much easier it was to move the quilt! I really had a grip on that quilt and felt more confident moving it on the bed of the machine. Some of the other things I thought about a little too late was the Supreme Slider that I bought a while back.

I am thinking that if I would have known all this and used those nifty tools BEFORE I started my cute little flowers, perhaps I would have been a tad more successful! Learn by your mistakes! Looking forward to my class now more than ever! I'll make sure I take the gloves and the Supreme Slider! Maybe I should start practicing more beofre I put it on a quilt that's headed out the door?

My blocks are done! United Way here we come!

I spent last night sewing strips together and tonight after work made up the blocks. They measure approx 16 1/2 " each. Six blocks will make a nice size quilt. One of my co-workers, also a quilter, will be trimming up the squares and putting the strips on and assembling the quilt top. The left-over fabric strips will be cut into the piano border. It was frustrating as I discovered the strips of fabric (that came in a package) were different weights. Normally I would deliver the blocks perfectly squared, but think I have to let her have the option of cutting them down even more if she needs to. *sigh* This is the second go at the same pattern and I found the finished squares do not measure what the pattern says it should. I was a very good girl and made sure my 1/4" was dead on by sewing up a sample piece and measuring! (ha! I even surprised myself as I normally just wing it!) I'm not dissapointed. The outcome is beautiful don't you think?

The colours are quite different than my Arizona quilt, but just as effective. I'm curious as to what the color choice will be for the strips and how it's put together. My co-worker is working on it this weekend and we hope to have it to the longarmer by next weekend. It will be ready for binding well before the auction for the United Way fundraising we have planned! (Just in case you wanted to see a closer view, here is a closeup!)

I was looking for some patterns for another baby quilt. I searched through the magazines that I have and the books.... sigh...still nothing that I really loved. So, I headed over to the library and for $10 I renewed my library card and picked up some books. While I was signing them out, I spied a table with books for sale! Of course, books and fabric are two of my favorite things! Wonders never cease! I found some quilting books they were selling for $1 each! WHAT?????????

So as I was taking out my wallet, the librarian tells me there is a mistake. WHAT? I'm thinking, ok, a little more won't be so bad -- it's a deal already! She says, "They are 2 for $1.00, so 50 cents each!" YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!! So today, one of the books that I "borrowed" I fell in love with and had to take a trip to Chapters after work to pick up a copy!

I'm looking at my scraps now and know there was a reason I was keeping them! I can see some scrap quilts in my future!

and of course.... I couldn't resist another photo of the Little Man! Happy quilting everyone! I'll be at my sewing machine this weekend!

United Way here we come!

Here's the next project! At work we have been trying to find new ways to raise money for this great cause. Voila! What do you think of the fabrics?

Another co-worker and I are working together to get a quilt together! Wish us luck! We have a limited amount of time in which to get the quilt top done and then off to the longarmer! I think I want to get some raffle tickets on this. The fabrics are wonderful and rich.

Two new quilters and a couple of helping hands!

Well Ms. A and Chris were over for finalizing the quilts! As promised, a photo of Ms. A working on her quilt! You would think she's been at a sewing machine for years! She found some great ice cream cone fabric that she backed with some cozy minkee-type fabric. She found with the fabric stretching, but what an amazing outcome! Congrats Ms. A on your first quilt! Has been a honor watching you work on it!

Ms. A was sharing her "secret" with her mom. We managed to get her name and year in the corner and we hid it from Mom until she was done!

The final product was attending a sleepover last night! I am sure it got tons of hugs! Chris was on the final stretch to finish the quilt top with the final border! She did a great job as she "hates" cutting as much as I do! I think a Baby Go is in my future one day! For her first quilt, I am incredibly proud of her! Like I said before, her points, seams and all top notch. I know I didn't do as well as she has on my first quilt. I know without a doubt that her Angel Momma was helping her hands along as they worked on the labour of love.

...and the little "secret" that she was working on for the back (we'll show you later after it's off the longarmer!). No time for photo's of our wonderful lunch! Chris bought a great quinoa salad and Chef Murphy put in a pizza of spinach and goat cheese. We had to fortify ourselves for the final afternoon push! Thanks ladies for allowing me on your quilting journey!

In the afternoon the Little Man joined us and Ms. A watched over him while her mom and I finished up the last bits of quilting. After dinner, Little Man and I went to the basement and dug in the box of Halloween costumes. There are so many things in the basement that need to go, but I just couldn't let go of the costumes that I sewed so long ago. My first sewing machine was a White. I remember so many years ago when the kids were little. My mom and dad had a friend who was going through an incredibly hard cancer journey (I think they are all hard and pray that all cancers will be eradicated!) Anyways, this lady was on her own and my parents were there for her throughout her journey. Through the process, she was trying to get rid of things as she had no children or family. I was the lucky recipient of her White sewing machine. I remember trying my hand at the first Halloween costumes that I made. My eldest was a California Raisin and the two younger ones were Dinosaur's! After the costumes were done, I took all the kids and headed to the hospice to share the costumes with the lady who gave me the White sewing machine. She was thrilled! What an amazing gift she gave me. More than she will ever know! So here's to all those angels up there! For your helping hands, have helped mine! Here's Litte Man in his uncle's costume. I'm guessing it's about 20 years old!

Happy sewing all!

"Cyber" FART!

Fabric Aquisition Road Trip! OK, not quite on the road, but did do some more on-line shopping! Can barely wait for it to arrive! http://www.pinkchalkfabrics.com has been a wonderful new find for "me". I am sure a lot of you found Pink Chalk years ago, but I'm excited to discover this new adventure of blogging and finding all the new trends! I bought the new hexi ruler from Jaybird as well as one of her patterns! What a talented young lady! You can check her out here: http://www.jaybirdquilts.com I am yet to try out the new ruler, but I have a project planned in the next month! Stay tuned! I have also ordered from Hancock's of Paducah as well as Keepsake Quilting. Both of which have been fabulous! I am so pleased with any of the products that I have ordered on line and have not been disappointed. Realize that I am new to ordering anything on line, unlike my adult children who just roll their eyes when I questioned them about the safety and "what if I don't get it and they charge me????" It's all good! Don't get me wrong -- absolutely support your local quilt stores! (When you can!) Realize that a lot of our fabrics in Canada can be double if not triple the price we can order on line.(yes, even though our measurements are a bit bigger than a yard!) If I can make three times the amount of quilts for the price of the cost of ONE here, I am going to order on line. Is that bad? I try to be very budget conscious with my passion. I have been a single mom for far too long being frugal and stretching that dollar as far as it can go. If I can get it here, for a decent price, I do -- however if it's a deal on fabric that I have been drooling over -- you bet I'll order it online! I won't even get into re-cycling fabrics here, because I'll have you know that I've done that as well! So check out Pink Chalk Fabrics, Hancock's and Keepsake or give them a try on line ordering! I can bet that you won't be disappointed! Happy Cyber-Farting!

Arizona meets Calgary

January of this year, Chef Murphy and I went to Arizona. He took me on a FART (Fabric Aquisition Road Trip)! We had a great time, however with my back and being off work, I didn't touch the new sewing machine I got for my birthday until the beginning of June of this year! YIKES! The fabric is from 3 Dudes Quilting -- the pattern is courtesy of Ray Steeves. His pattern "Majestic Mountain Quilt" is his own. I used 2 1/2" strips of Bali fabric (which I love!) The pattern is super easy and has a great dramatic effect!

Ray has kindly shared his pattern for FREE and has given permission to use it at my quilt guild. Check out their website: www.3dudesquilting.com , you will find a great collection of free quilt patterns! They also offer on-line orders as well. The website is growing, so stay tuned. If you are in the area of Phoenix, stop by and say "hi". They are a great bunch of guys! Chef Murphy even got in on a lesson and he said it was the ONLY quilt shop where he felt he wasn't shunned and ushered out the door! He seems to feel that quilt shops are very unwelcoming to men -- even though I think he's got a great eye for fabric and colors! He's a great person to have amongst bolts and bolts of fabric and will find the "one" that's just perfect! (Thanks honey! ;-)

The lovely quilting is courtesy of Karen Morrison of Queen B Quilting Designs. The both of us will be working on yet another quilt with this pattern that will be donated for a United Way Raffle! We picked a tighter design as this is my living room quilt that will be in and out of the washing machine. You'll note that I have some reds in this quilt. I used Retayne in the wash estimating how much yardage there is in the total quilt. I put approx 1 tsp. per yard into the wash with HOT -- yes, HOT water and a cold rinse. It was then tossed in the dryer for 30 minutes on medium heat (cause I love the puckers the heat brings out) This is what it looks like now:

Now before you all GASP... I toss my quilts in and out of the washing machine. I don't panic and I don't worry about it. I don't lecture any recipient of my quilts on how to take care of them. If they ask, I tell them to gently wash and toss in a cool dryer for about 20 minutes to get most of the water out, then lay flat IF POSSIBLE to totally dry it. Reality is, people will toss it in with their regular laundry and toss it in the dryer. So what? I want my quilts to live life! If it's THAT important, it's not going to be used. The biggest compliment that I can have is someone telling me that they have worn the quilt to pieces. Then I know it was "much loved".

I buy good cottons and use decent batting and good cotton for the back. My quilting stitches are within reason (meaning that once it's ready to quilt, I read the directions to the batting to determine what the maximum distance is to quilt). I haven't had a problem. I find the more it goes in the wash and dryer, the more cozy and soft it gets! Happy stitching! Margo

A New Quilter is Born!

This is Chris. Chris is an amazing mom of two who manages all those soccer games, lessons, running a household, taking on all the household errands and works full time. She's a scrapbooker in her "spare" time. Wonderfully creative, I was surprised she wasn't a quilter! Anyways ... to make a long story short, her mom was a quilter. Grandma made Chris' young daughter a quilt and was in the process of making her grandson a quilt when grandma was diagnosed with cancer. It was a rough year and sadly :-( goodbyes had to be said to Grandma. Grandma had a few pieces cut to start a quilt. I think Grandma was whispering in my ear because the thought of that quilt just sitting there couldn't be ignored. Chris agreed to come over and work on her mom's quilt for her son. Grandma had cut pieces with cardboard templates. Pieces were cut, but we couldn't determine what block Grandma had planned, but Chris said her mom loved stars -- so the star quilt was begun. The fabric choices were made years ago, and Chris was a diligent student. She cut with the rotary cutter, put the blocks together with perfect points and matched the seams. She has one border left and then off to the longarm quilter it goes!

We were busy pressing and sewing! Her daughter was also along and I didn't have my camera out to catch her wonderful creations! She made a sleeve for her game system and a cute little mouse! Oh, and the best part was Chris made us a wonderful lunch to break up the day! We all managed to fit into the studio with a table or two moved. Chris kindly broke in the new Babylock and said she liked it better than the Symphony because it didn't have all the "bells and whistles"! I bought the BL9 to take to classes. Chris liked that it was what she was used to. Her daughter though took a lesson on the Symphony and liked all the buttons "that did everything!"

We even took a break to go and buy some contrasting fabric for the final border. Chris' little one has planned a throw for herself that we will be doing next weekend. Chris will work on incorporating her Mom's starter block on the back with the pieces her Mom cut. It will be the side that is closest to Chris' son and will have special meaning to the whole quilt. I'll ask Chris for a photo of the completed quilt to share! For now, both of them have homework to complete before our next get together! Maybe TWO quilter's have been born! Special thanks to Chris' mom who has been whispering in my ear! I heard you! Happy quilting everyone!

A little fabric...can be a POWERFUL thing!

The Little Man has a vision that he is powerful and can save the world! He told me his name was not "Little Man" but was now "Batman!" Thus, while he was in character, I was to address him as "Batman!" Oh the joys of little people!

"Batman" of course needed a cape and mask! What a great little man. Once he showed Grandpa what it looked like, he ran into the studio wrapping his arms around my legs and said "Nana, I love you! Thank you!" :-) Shucks...it was a bit of of fabric and a bit of time..worth EVERY moment behind the machine! I had another baby blanket that I did a couple of years ago. The biggest compliment is when you hear someone say, "she's worn the quilt thin and insists that we snuggle with it under the stars in the summer!" Gotta love the feeling that they've "loved" it so much that it's worn thin!

Tigger of course, thinks that if he looks the other way, no one will see him!

Most of the time he sits beside the machine and watches intently as the fabric glides through the machine. He's a pain though when there is tons of fabric I am moving around and he wants to snuggle down into the folds! One day I hope to learn how to post the blogs on here that I love reading. So many talented people out there that keep me motivated and give me new ideas! My WOP's are growing exponentially as is my stash (slowly but surely!) I was excited to learn how to post photo's on my blog and maybe the rest, ok I am sure the rest will come in time. Happy quilting everyone! If you have any tips to pass along I am a most eager student! Margo