Monday, June 30, 2014

More on Canvas, and a little quilting


My friend Cindy, made these wonderful picnic napkins with my Canvas pattern and these colours and prints are so exactly Cindy's style. I can just see her using them when she is off in her camper in the wilds of Ireland. It's time, I think, for me to make some Canvas napkins too.

Cindy showed her napkins off today on her blog as she officially announces that Canvas is available in her shop, Fluffy Sheep Quilting. Thank you Cindy for supporting my pattern, I am starting to feel like a "real" designer. Canvas is the first available pdf pattern in Cindy's shop, I am betting there will be more patterns from others there soon.


Edited:  I am dawdling over my breakfast and just saw this beautiful Canvas mini on Mary's blog, Fairly Merry, so I thought I would share it today too. I love the colours and the quilting, it sort of sums up how summer feels to me.

Michael Miller fabric challenge fabrics

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time working on quilting but only have little to show off today. I did pull out and pre-wash the Michael Miller fabrics that I received from the Modern Quilt Guild for the Michael Miller fabric challenge. My EMQG is participating in this challenge, and I might just make it to the next meeting so I wanted to have my project to show. Oh, and it is due to be posted at the MQG website a week or so before the end of this month.

Improv diamonds

I wanted to do something improv again for this fabric challenge. And everywhere I looked on the internet, folks were making diamonds. So improv diamonds it is. These are fast and fun to put together.

Improv diamonds

This is where I ended up at the end of my sewing time yesterday. I have since rearranged them several times but the overall plan is to arrange them in a sort of diamond shape. I think this may be enough diamonds and now the process of puzzling them together will begin.

I will spare you yet another in progress photo of Breathe but I did spend a few hours hand stitching her binding down. Now all that is left is mending in the thread ends, of which there are a lot more than I had hoped for. If I finish her off later today she will be ready to claim as a finish for A Year of Lovely Finishes, but it will be touch and go - if I do you will see another post saying so tonight before the midnight deadline. Today is one of those days that should be a holiday, as tomorrow is Canada Day which is a day off, but I have to pop into the office and then I have lunch planned with Marianne from The Quilting Edge.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish a pattern for submission to Fat Quarterly for its next issue. I battled Adobe Illustrator and wrote and re-wrote the pattern to meet the clear guidelines provided, but the writing and illustrating took several hours of what would have been sewing time. I truly need to invest my time in a proper Illustrator course - as I read somewhere this weekend as I was searching for specific tutorials on what I was trying to do, one should not expect to be proficient with a full vector graphic design program by just poking around in it (which is my usual MO for learning computer stuff). Anyway, my pattern has been submitted, cross your fingers that they like it.

Off to get ready for work now. Luckily, it will be time for lunch before I know it.

Best,

Leanne


13 comments:

Debbie said...

Very fun napkins! And cool where your diamonds are going - good luck getting things to fit just as you envision!

Unknown said...

I love your breathe quilt and the napkins are lovely too. Hope you have a wonderful lunch. You've worked hard....take a break and enjoy some good food and conversation....treat yourself!

Catherine said...

I love the orange/grey/aqua palette you have chosen for the diamonds. Looks great.

Rachel said...

Love those improv diamonds! Rx

What Comes Next? said...

using Canvas to make napkins is a brilliant idea - Cindy's look picnic ready! I like where your improv diamonds are going - it will be another great quilt. I'll be poking around with my fabrics for that challenge today, I hope. Enjoy your lunch with Marianne, and good luck getting the threads buried on Breathe.

Vera said...

Your improv project looks pretty cool!

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

I hear you on the poking around in Illustrator. That's how I've learned and I do ok but I'm convinced I do a lot of things the hard way. Then it's time to call the hubs in for a rescue.

margaret said...

very nice napkins and I love your improv diamonds, no 2 alike very good

elle said...

Luv the diamonds! Happy Canada Day!

SewPsyched! said...

The napkins!! Just what a girl needs out in the wilds! and wow, check out Mary's quilt. It is just lovely!
XX!

Sheila said...

Look forward to seeing your improv diamonds develop - they make me think of funky envelopes.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I love Cindy's napkins!

MariQuilts said...

Love those diamonds.....and a lovely lunch it was!!!