Bee Sewcial January Block - freeform, transparency, connection

Yesterday I made this block for Karen (@capitolaquilter and she blogs at CapitolaQuilter) for my bee, Bee Sewcial. It is about 19" x 19". Karen asked us for freeform, maximalist style blocks that included transparency and connections. Also she said no pink or purple. Our blocks are always made from solids only.



I started with the transparency concept. I spent a long time looking at images of transparency quilts and transparency artwork on the internet as I have trouble imagining how use opaque fabrics to make you see a transparency. Then I got to work, using improv and no rulers.



I made a number of missteps along the way, but I pushed on, as I wanted to see if I could manage something interesting at least.



I found pinning it on my design wall (ie, a wall with a layer of batting pinned on it) helped.



There is my result. Maybe you can see the three rectangles intersecting only in the one corner in the centre. While I am sure that it is possible to improv a transparency far better than I did, I think that part of the illusion is created by the use of very well defined shapes so next time I try I will use a ruler.

I shared this on instagram and Karen said it looked aquatic an maybe the end was affected by refraction of the water. Well, that comment informed the rest of the day's work.



I definitely wanted to include curves in the overall piece as I love curves in improv. So my thoughts went to water, waves, pods, fish. And while I don't think I turn to pink and purple that often, I sure felt the limit of not including them. I tried to stick to a lot of bright, yummy shades of the colours I used.

For connections, I thought that a dark blue, the deep water so to speak, could make them.



At the top of the post you see the block oriented as I designed it, with the fish or sea life on the bottom. But it looks nice oriented this way too. Adding that bit of yellow to square off the block gives it an alternative horizon line, and we all like to see those. For me, the pods become flames, the curves become the forest, the rest feels somewhat cultural and urban. But really it is what you see it to be, its meant to be pleasing shapes, colours and composition, freeform, with transparency and connections.

It's Family Day in my province today, we are having a long weekend. Enjoy!

Best,

Leanne

SCQ Blog Birthday Celebration - Giveaway Sponsored by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop

Welcome to the next celebration, because I've hit some quilty and internet milestones:

• My 5 year blog birthday is in less than a month - on March 12, 2016 
• I have over 6000 blog followers
• I have over 6500 instagram followers

To thank you for being here, as part of my quilting community,  I have arranged for some giveaways from my sponsors over the next few weeks.

Today, my friends at Sew Sisters Fabric Shop is sponsoring a give away of  beautiful bundle of 10 fat quarters of these stunning Carkai Prints designed by Carolyn Friedlander.  Thank you Sew Sisters!

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is a retail and online Canadian fabric shop. If you are in Toronto, you can check them out in person, they are not far from York University. Sew Sisters is a family business which began in 2000 and moved to the retail space in 2007. Sew Sisters also connect with the internet community via their blog and other social media.

Sew Sisters has a great variety of fabrics available online - including a large selection of Kona solids, modern prints, blenders, and more traditional prints too. There are several monthly fabric clubs as well. Sew Sisters also carry books, patterns, notions, thread and batting.

Sew Sisters regularly receive new fabric lines and they keep a huge selection of Kona solids in stock all the time. They ship all over the world and purchases over $100 ship free to Canadian destinations. Packages from Sew Sisters arrive very quickly too. The folks at Sew Sisters are lovely and their customer service is fantastic.

There are a few ways to enter this giveaway which will be selected by the random number generator:

• Leave a comment on this blog post. 

• If you have not already done so, sign up for the Sew Sisters newsletter - go here and look to the right side bar -  and then come back and leave a second comment letting me know that you did - or that you already receive it. 

• If you are a follower of my blog - existing or new - leave a third comment here letting me know how you follow me.

• Follow the instructions on my instagram post about this giveaway - I may have to wait to post that until later today, please keep an eye out for it.

• To clarify, you can enter by leaving comments here as set out above and also by following the instagram post instructions if you would like. I will take the entries from both and draw from the entire pool.

• Help me lovely people - if you don't have your email attached to your commenting profile, please leave it in your comment (emailhandle [at] provider.comorwhatever - is a way to make it more secure if you like.) If I cannot contact you I will immediately draw again. 

The giveaway will close at Midnight on Friday, March 11, 2016, MST, and I will use the random number generator to draw the winner from the comments on this post and on my instagram post and announce the winner on Saturday - which is the actual date of my blog's birthday.

Edited: This giveaway is now closed.

Thank you for all the inspiration, support and encouragement while I travel along my quilting journey!

By the way, I was sewing yesterday and will share that with you this week.

Best,

Leanne

The Fabric Spark winner and some quilting

First, congratulations to Renee, who blogs at Quilts of a Feather, the lucky winner in my ongoing blog birthday celebration. Congratulations Renee!

Renee wins this beautiful bundle, curated by me for the Fabric Spark Monthly Sparks Club and donated by Fabric Spark for this giveaway. Thank you again Daryl and Fabric Spark!

Renee was commenter #15 - sometimes the Random Number Generator picks those who are the very first to the party. I even now know Renee, who is lovely and nice - I met her at QuiltCon, where she won a major award for her fantastic quilting.

And I have some quilting to show off. First up are my Bee Sewcial blocks for Karen, who blogs at Capitola Quilter. Her theme was Stretch, and she asked for blocks in the colours of denim and also greys. I had a lot of fun making improv stretched out curves.



 I was thinking I might add some more grey curves but I had to leave it as is when I saw the curvy bottom in the stretched out jeans.



This was actually the first block I made, and I was going to take it to Karen at QuiltCon but then I dropped in a puddle of water my iron had released on my cutting board. So it has been hand washed now and pressed again. As Karen pointed out, one gets their jeans wet regularly.



And I also added this improv herringbone onto Ethne's quilt in my Pips Round Robin - I have to say that I am smitten with improv herringbone now and hope to make more soon. We are making a mini quilt in this round robin with the quilts going from the UK, to France, to the USA to Canada, to Australia and then to the UK again. This has been a very challenging project and I am just loving the results - it is fun to work with such a talented group of women.



Look at that mini quilt so far, it has only one more addition before it is done. Isn't it fantastic?

Well, it is going to be a warm day, I hope to sew and to garden and maybe even take a nap.

Best,

Leanne

Last Call - Fabric Spark Blog Birthday giveaway!

Don't forget to enter to win the beautiful  Fabric Spark bundle!

You can enter on my Monday blog post here and on my Monday Instagram photo.

The giveaway will close at Midnight on Friday, March 4, 2016, MST, and I will use the random number generator to draw the winner from the comments on this post and on my instagram post and announce the winner on Saturday.

 Thank you to Fabric Spark!

Best,

Leanne

SCQ Blog Birthday Celebration - Giveaway sponsored by Fabric Spark

Welcome to the next celebration, because I've hit some quilty and internet milestones:

• My 5 year blog birthday is in less than a month - on March 12, 2016 
• I have over 6000 blog followers
• I have over 6500 instagram followers

To thank you for being here, as part of my quilting community,  I have arranged for some giveaways from my sponsors over the next few weeks, and I will have a giveaway from me in the week of my actual blog birthday too.

Today, I'm giving away this beautiful bundle for 12 fat quarters that Daryl at Fabric Spark invited me to curate for her Monthly Sparks Fabric Club. This is the March bundle for this club, and Daryl was kind enough to cut an extra one to help us celebrate my blog birthday. Thank you to Fabric Spark!

Fabric Spark is a Canadian online fabric shop run by my friend Daryl out of the Toronto area. I have had the chance to meet with Daryl in Toronto, where Fabric Spark is based and also at Quilt Market. She is fabulous and has been a supportive sponsor of my blog for a long time now.

Daryl personally curates each fabric choice for Fabric Spark, and only stocks fabrics she loves. When you stop to look at a particular fabric in her shop, you can read not only about the fabric, but also about Daryl's spark, her ideas and thoughts about the fabric and what it might be used for.

Fabric Spark regularly receives new fabrics - quilting cottons and also a wide range of other substrates too. Daryl also stocks Big Wool which is a lovely, soft, very chunky yarn in beautiful colours. She ships in both Canada and the USA for very reasonable prices and her orders arrive quickly. Daryl is lovely to deal with - her customer service is top notch.

There are a few ways to enter this giveaway which will be selected by the random number generator:

• Leave a comment on this blog post. 

• If you have not already done so, sign up for the Fabric Spark newsletter - go here and scroll to the bottom -  and then come back and leave a second comment letting me know that you did - or that you already receive it. 

• If you are a follower of my blog - existing or new - leave a third comment here letting me know how you follow me.

• Follow the instructions on my instagram post about this giveaway - I may have to wait to post that until later today, please keep an eye out for it.

• To clarify, you can enter by leaving comments here as set out above and also by following the instagram post instructions if you would like. I will take the entries from both and draw from the entire pool.

• Help me lovely people - if you don't have your email attached to your commenting profile, please leave it in your comment (emailhandle [at] provider.comorwhatever - is a way to make it more secure if you like.) If I cannot contact you I will immediately draw again. 

The giveaway will close at Midnight on Friday, March 4, 2016, MST, and I will use the random number generator to draw the winner from the comments on this post and on my instagram post and announce the winner on Saturday.

Isn't that just the best bundle- it was so fun to curate it.

Thank you for all the inspiration, support and encouragement while I travel along my quilting journey!

Edited: This giveaway is now closed.

I still have not really been able to sew since QuiltCon - just too much inspiration overload - but I have a plan for later on today after work. Wish me luck.

Best,

Leanne

The winner of the Fat Quarter Shop SCQ Blog Birthday Giveaway

Thank you all for entering this giveaway, both here and on instagram. There will be a couple more, I have been enjoying this blog birthday celebration and I hope you have too.

And thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring a wonderful giveaway of t this Cool Colours, Blueberry Park Rollup designed by Karen Lewis Textiles.

The lucky winner is Terry (blog comment #263), who kindly left me her email in her comment too. Congratulations Terry, I will send you an email in a minute.

I am hoping to spend my day in my sewing space, getting over the crazy quilt overload from QuiltCon. I have photos of quilts to edit and share with you too, but I have just been unable to do anything quilty this week, it was just so much to process but I think I am done now. Stay tuned.

Best,

Leanne

SCQ Blog Birthday Giveaway - Sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop

Welcome to the next celebration, because I've hit some quilty and internet milestones:

• My 5 year blog birthday is in less than a month - on March 12, 2016 
• I have over 6000 blog followers, as of today
• I have over 6000 instagram followers

To thank you for being here, as part of my quilting community,  I have arranged for some giveaways from my sponsors over the next few weeks, and I will have a giveaway from me in the week of my actual blog birthday too.

Today, the Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring a wonderful giveaway of this bundle of this Cool Colours, Blueberry Park Rollup designed by Karen Lewis Textiles.

The Fat Quarter Shop was the very first sponsor of my blog, and they have been a great and generous support to me and to all the quilting events that I have presented here. I think that you might already know that the FQS is a great place to shop for pretty much anything you will need for quilting -  from fabric to thread to notions to books, and anything else too.

More than that, the Fat Quarter Shop enthusiastically supports the quilting community. They are involved in Quilt Alongs, Block of the Months, and Charity events. The Fat Quarter Shop regularly shares knowledge with the quilting community through their YouTube Channel and on their blog. They pretty much do it all.

There are a few ways to enter this giveaway which will be selected by the random number generator:

• Leave a comment on this blog post. 

• If you have not already done so, sign up for the Fat Quarter Shop newsletter - go here and scroll to the bottom -  and then come back and leave a second comment letting me know that you did - or that you already receive it. 

• If you are a follower of my blog - existing or new - leave a third comment here letting me know how you follow me.

• Follow the instructions on my instagram post about this giveaway - I may have to wait to post that until later today, please keep an eye out for it.

• To clarify, you can enter by leaving comments here as set out above and also by following the instagram post instructions if you would like. I will take the entries from both and draw from the entire pool.

• Help me lovely people - if you don't have your email attached to your commenting profile, please leave it in your comment (emailhandle [at] provider.comorwhatever - is a way to make it more secure if you like.) If I cannot contact you I will immediately draw again. 

The giveaway will close at Midnight on Friday, February 26, MST, and I will use the random number generator to draw the winner from the comments on this post and on my instagram post and announce the winner on Saturday.

Thank you for all the inspiration, support and encouragement while I travel along my quilting journey!

I am on my way home from QuiltCon this morning and I'm writing this at the LA airport - which is less glamorous than it sounds. I'll share about QuiltCon tomorrow, it was a lot of fun.

Edited: This giveaway is now closed.

Best,

Leanne

The winner of the Green Fairy Quilts Giveaway

Thank you all for the well wishes and the entries into this wonderful giveaway sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts.

The lucky winner of the wonderful giveaway of this bundle of 40 fat eights of Strawberry Fields Revisited by Fig Tree & Co, sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts is Maria Villar (mvillar on instagram).

Congratulations Maria, and thank you to Clint and Judi over at  Green Fairy Quilts!

I'm off for another day at QuiltCon, I'll have lots to share when I get home on Monday.

Best,

Leanne

Spin - Ta Da!

Let me tell you about Spin. After a wash and dry, she is about 56" x 58", drawing in a bit more in one direction than the other it seems. The math for the pattern gives you an un-quilted quilt top of 60" square. If you wanted it bigger it would be a simple thing to add more of the background squares.

Spin is a version of my own design - a pattern I call Twirl. A minimalist medallion using the Allium block I designed when I made Echoes. This pattern will be available to purchase very soon. In the meantime, if you are impatient, feel free to just make your own version if you are able to figure her out, although I would love it if you would let me know and credit me for your inspiration.



I waited just a bit too late for the best photo light, but that one above is probably the closest to right. Spin was made with some wonderful orange bits and lots of low volume neutrals. There are a lot of Carolyn Friedlander prints in this quilt but several others too. I have to say that orange is my current favourite quilting colour.



I quilted and quilted Spin. I have already written about the quilting here and here. All the quilting was done on my Millenium Longarm machine. I drew every line free hand, without the help of rulers or channel locks or markings on the fabric, and with no computer or panto either.

I used 100% cotton thread for the quilting. The top and the bottom, as I quilted her used a medium orange Superior Threads King Tut - that close up above is the orange thread. The middle portion uses a Star variegated orange, pink/red thread. I used the same thread in the bobbin as on the top.



I consider my style - this style - to be modern industrial - think warehouse, brick wall, rough and functional - organic, not precise. I filled the spaces with lines, every which way.  For the orange curvy bits, I echoed the curves. The final step to show off this style of quilting is to wash and dry the quilt so that the 100% cotton batting and thread draws in a bit and adds some texture. I prewash all my fabrics so the draw in is not from the fabric shrinking.



For her back, I used four prints that I love. Two by Zen Chic, one by Denyse Schmidt and one by Suzuko Koseki. You can see the quilting well on the light prints on the back. The binding is scrappy, made of 7 different Carolyn Friedlander orange prints.



The above photo is before I washed this quilt. You can see the flatness in the quilting and the stiffness in the drape. There is just no way for me that the quilt is finished at this stage, this is not the look I am seeking.



Here is a close up of the unwashed quilting. The quilting is easier to see but it is so less textured and dynamic.



Here is another photo after the wash and dry. You can see that the cardboard-y stiffness has gone and the quilt is drapey like a blanket. This photo also gives you a bit of proportion.



I am so smitten with this quilt. I am going to enter her in the Quilt Canada National Juried Show - the entry must be in by noon tomorrow. I am going to try for one more photo shoot first thing in the morning to see if I can get a better full on shot for the entry, but either way, I am hoping that she will be accepted into that show.

I am off to the Lethbridge Modern Quilt Guild meeting - they will be the first quilters to see Spin in person.

Thank you to all of you here and on Instagram for all the encouragement and enthusiasm about this quilt. I am already keen to make another, but I have some other designs using this block in mind too.

I've linked this post up to some excellent and inspiring, sharing posts: Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Hearts, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Finish it up Friday with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts, and maybe I'll add some more links as the week goes along.

By the way, Spin was on my Q1 FAL List too, so I have one finish already!

Best,

Leanne

I quilted a lot on Saturday

The quilting is done! I used all the moments available to me yesterday to quilt. Today I will trim and start binding this quilt. Also I have to mend in all those thread ends from the thread breaks - a couple of them are from bobbins emptying too. Mostly I was able to just transition from one quilting area to the next without cutting the thread.



I am sure there are several names for this ariel view, linear graffiti, industrial line style of quilting - these are mine. It is all freehand - no rulers, no computer, no channel locks used on my longarm. The lines wobble, the spacing varies, the turns and travelling are often jiggly - and it gives an overall organic, industrial feel. Sort of like a warehouse or a rough brick wall. It is fun and easy to do on any kind of sewing machine, maybe you will give it a try too.

It is exactly the look I intended. I am pretty certain that washing and drying will also improve it and the wobbles and jiggles will melt into the design and the planned texture will be the feature. We will know soon.



I realized that I could also go back and add a bit of matchstick quilting, so I did that in a couple of places. I was hesitant to add too many really dense patches as that might affect the drape of the quilt.

If you were part of the instagram cheerleaders, thank you and thank you for not being tired of seeing photos of the quilting of this project. And yes, there are many Carolyn Friedlander fabrics in this quilt, along with others. Yes, the quilting was inspired by Carolyn's fabric, her work, her quilting in her book, and also inspired by others, including Krista Withers - I have been lucky enough to take classes from both of these talented women. I have quilted like this many times before, it is also just my own journey to use straight lines for quilting because I love them.

Today it is binding, mending threads and I want to work more with my scrap boxes too, and maybe some other project will call my name. Oh and there are the chores I neglected yesterday, sigh.

Have a lovely day!

Best,

Leanne