Playing with Emerald

Despite it being Valentines Day this week, and despite being smitten with all the wonderful heart quilts and pillows around the internet, I have been playing with emerald. Here is Labyrinth so far. She is not quite square - about 19" x 20". I put a bird in the centre as I had a green one handy and thought instead of a Minotaur, I would have a bird, sort of like the canary in the coal mines - so you know all is safe.



I have long wanted to make a log cabin that was a labyrinth, and the Emerald Challenge seemed like the right time. Green makes me think of gardens and then I thought of hedges and lawns and that took me to the labyrinth. When my son reminded me that Theseus had escaped the Labyrinth by following a thread, well there was no turning back - the inspiration had hit.



Here is an action quilting shot from my instagram photos. The white walls or walkways of the Labyrinth were easy to quilt with a single start and stop. Now I am trying to decide whether to leave the green as hedges or quilt them into lawns - a lot of folks suggested that they be left to pop against the densely quilted white parts and right now I am thinking they are right. I just need to quilt around that bird to make it stand out a bit. I will show you more soon.



And the green nine patches are assembled into an Emerald Irish Chain. I hope to baste this later and maybe start quilting it later this weekend. It does actually look much nicer that that instagram photo but the sun has gone behind the clouds and I can do no better today, so trust me for now.

In other news, the "official" part of the Mod Pop QAL finishes up on Monday. Of course anyone who is trailing along can continue and I will encourage and help. All the finished quilts as of Monday will be eligible for our last prize which is a $30.00 gift certificate from Dragon Fly Fabrics, which is a lovely little on-line shop here in Canada.

All the finished Mod Pop Quilts from the QAL will be entered, and I will show them off in a post here too on Monday. I am also going to set up a linkup on Monday here that will be open for a long while so that past, present and future finishes from the QAL can link up too.

Enjoy your weekend, we have a long weekend here -  Monday is off for Family Day.

Best,

Leanne

Searching for Emerald

In the middle of that ring of green Kona fabrics - a Farmer's Market bundle I got from the Fat Quarter Shop - is a swatch I ordered from Pantone. It is Emerald, the colour of the year, Pantone 17-5641 TCX. So, it seems none of these greens are Emerald.

You will remember that last year the colour of the year was Tangerine Tango and it was the Tangerine Tango Challenge that led to me making Shattered. So I thought I might enter again this year. You can too, the details are here. And truthfully, all you have to do is use green, any and all kinds are fine.



But first I wanted to try to find the real Pantone Emerald - which frankly is not the colour I see as emerald, but that is only its name anyway. That is the Solids Crew bundle that I received from Simply Solids. No Emerald there.



Nicolette from Dutch Comfort, suggested that Emerald was more blue, so I pulled out my Kona Poseidon bundle, that I had ordered from Pink Castle Fabrics after I used the old one to make my first Mod Pop quilt - Whitewater. It seems I must always have this stack on my shelf as these are probably my most favourite colours.



There were a couple of hopefuls in the blues, Kona Emerald, Sage Candy Green and Everglade (moving clockwise from top left). But, nope, these are not Emerald either.



How about Kona Jade Green? Another no. I left this photo partly uncropped to show you how I sometimes trick my camera into getting the colours closer to right. Usually I just crop that extra bit off.



So the verdict is, not one single fabric in my sewing cupboards comes close to reading as Emerald. The closest is that a couple of Kaffe Fassetts prints have a tiny bit of Emerald in them. In fact there is no piece of clothing in my house either that is this colour. Maybe it will be everywhere in fashion in the spring?



I have cut up the Farmer's Market and Solids Crew fabrics and am hoping for inspiration to strike. I have one idea that may work, I will be trying it this afternoon.



These are just simple nine patches that I have been making in the meantime. I think that these will become a simple Irish Chain quilt, which is still one of my most favourite patterns ever. You can read about another Irish Chain I made here. Well, and I just have to show it to you too, it is under the mini Irish Chain I made in the Doll Quilt Swap a couple of summers ago.



Seriously, I have been waiting too long to make another one of these, look how great they are.



Well, I knew you wanted a closer look at that mini too.



The blocks look so nice all stacked up - they are 6.5" square, I think I have almost enough for a whole quilt. And I have a niece who adores green - what do you think, maybe it will be for her.

I have a couple more of the colour swatches, if you want me to send you one, just let me know. If  a bunch of folks are interested I will draw by random number. 

It is my birthday today. Besides searching for Emerald and playing with greens, I am eating cupcakes and relaxing. Loads of cupcakes - my diet has been going well and I will be back on it tomorrow, but we all know there are no calories on your birthday, right.

Enjoy your day.

Best,

Leanne

Mod Pop - Ta Da!

I am all done this huge Mod Pop! I had my tall teenagers stand on chairs and reach up to hold her today, as it was sort of clear and not at all cold. This king size quilt is 98" x 91", which is 8.2 feet tall by 7.6 feet wide. She is made from cottons in pink, orange and red, most but not all of them are Konas. The turquoise and royal blue chains are Essex linen. Julie from Distant Pickles designed this excellent pattern and it is available here.



I quilted this quilt my self on my Janome Horizon - which has an extra wide harp for quilting. I free motioned a squareish stipple on the background red bits and I used my walking foot to echo the chains. I used a whole bunch of red/orange/pink and blue/turquoise variegated and plain threads - Aurafil, Superior Threads King Tut and Sulky.

 

You can see the quilting on the back a bit better - for the back I used a king size grey sheet. That photo was taken before I washed her.



I call this quilting "modern industrial" because it is not even close to perfect. The heavy quilt - there are a lot of seams - pulled the needle every time I stopped and although I tried hard to hold everything in place, the quilt shifted and pulled on the needle, often making little jogs, especially in the lines echoing the chains. But as I expected, you really don't notice that at all once the quilt is washed and dried.



There she is on my king size bed. I made the binding out of left over bits of the reds, pinks and oranges. In the spirit of modern industrial, and because I could not bring my self to hand stitch about 41 feet, I machine stitched the binding down. I followed the excellent tutorials from my friend Marianne from The Quilting Edge here and here. I did have to redo a couple of the corners, but I am getting better at them.



These last two photos are from before I washed this quilt. If you look you can see that there is a fair bit of drawing in from the wash and dry. I pre-washed all the fabrics, so that draw in is coming from the shrinkage in the cotton batting and the thread.



The colours for this quilt were inspired to a large degree by the Andy Warhol portraits that use the turquoise and navy with aquas and blues. His images and colours are sort etched in my brain and they just felt like the right fit for this pattern. These colours are really hard to photograph, all I can say it that she is pretty bright in real life, sometimes I wonder if sunglasses are required.

So, all I have to do is think up a name for her. My small Mod Pop was named Whitewater and you all helped me to find that name. Do you have some name ideas for me for this one?

I started the Mod Pop QAL because I wanted to make a large size version of quilt and needed some friends to work along with me. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been quilting along with me. I don't know if I would have hung in there to finish this huge project without all the support from the group.

There is another prize for everyone who finishes their Mod Pop quilts by February 17. However if you are going to be trailing along after, not to worry, I will keep the flickr group open and am happy to help anyone who needs it.

Oh and this is my first finish for the the FAL, so I get to show off my other button again too.

I hope you are all doing well on your finishes, I keep coming across them all over blogland. I have an update on sponsors coming soon for the FAL so stay tuned.

I keep posting on the wrong days for the link ups I know but today is Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story so I will link there and visit the others for inspiration. I hope you do too.
Best,

Leanne

Who is going to QuiltCon? Or to the FQ Retreat in London?

First, that is Lightning, and he is getting better. That is his spot, next to my sewing machine, which sits just to the left of that basket you see in the photo. Thank you again for everyone who has wished him well. Surprising to me, having a sick pet, especially one as nice as this dog is, is really hard, or maybe I really have become crazy dog woman. But, he is not going to QuiltCon or to the FQ Retreat.

The folks at the Modern Quilt Guild have set up a link so people going to QuiltCon can share their faces and a five facts you might not know about them. Those of you who know me well know there are almost no pictures of me because I really detest getting my picture taken. So today I decided to get over it already, and took a picture in the mirror. It is not great but they never are, but it will give you an idea so you can find me at QuiltCon.

And for the 5 things about me:

1. I love to garden. I am not a great gardener, but I love it all the same.

2. I love to read but I read so much at my work that I go for months without reading a novel, and I miss that a lot. I have a house full of books, many of which I want to read again soon.

3. I am a problem solver, a fixer, the calm, reliable one in the storm or crisis. Later when everything fine, then I crash, but not until then. 

4. I carefully guard my free time. Between a crazy busy job, a busy family, the pets and my hobbies, I really have little time for things that are not fun, interesting, and enjoyable. I have zero patience - outside of my work where there is no choice -  for things and people who don't make me happy.

5. I love to work with colour and textiles. Quilting is my most recent thing but I also love knitting, needle point, embroidery, weaving, and spinning. 

So if you going to QuiltCon, do let me know so I can look for you. It will be time to go in no time at all. And if you are not, but you are going to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in July, let me know that too, because I am going to London again too and am so looking forward to meeting those of you I missed last year!

Best,

Leanne

be - a mini quilt

This is be. Be is my 12" square mini quilt made as my second project in the 4 in Art group that I am in with Elizabeth who blogs at OP Quilt, Rachel who blogs at Life of Riley, and Betty who is on flickr here. Last quarter, I explained my concerns about the whole idea of making art instead of a quilt, and although I continue to feel the same way, it was easier to make be than to make Garden.



The theme for this quarter was tree(s). I spent 2.75 months of the quarter thinking about trees. I love trees, and I have a lot that I care for at my little farm on the coast. To get to Canada's west coast, I often drive my car - it takes me about 14 hours. The trip takes you first over the prairie, quickly into and over the Rocky Mountains - which are stunning and some of the most beautiful in the world, and then into one of the hugest evergreen forests you can imagine - this forest covers basically all of the interior of the Province of British Columbia, which is almost 4 times as large as the whole of the United Kingdom.



For hours and hours you just drive past those trees. One huge oxygen pumping, wildlife supporting, wild and beautiful forest. The forest is mostly free of people, there is the occassional tiny town along the highway. Again, comparing to the UK, BC has 4.4 million people and 2.3 million of them live in metro Vancouver, which is on the other side of the forest. The UK has 63.2 million people in 1/4 of the space. The B.C. forest is mostly pristine - almost no people.



This forest has the same impact on me as the majestic Rocky Mountains or the seemingly infinite Pacific (world) Ocean, I feel both part of wonder of the natural world that powers our planet and reminded about how insignificant most of the daily problems that occupy me and most people actually are.



After a while of driving at highway speeds along that the road that crosses the forest at its narrow point, about 500 kms, it starts to look all the same. Then I look again and I see each unique tree and its neighbours. This sameness and uniqueness becomes a thing.



I breathe the clean air, full of oxygen from those billions of trees. I watch out for bears running past my car - the worst is when a baby bear appears because you know the mama may be there too and hitting a bear is not good. I think about the power of nature and the importance of each and every single tree (and bear too). I think about the health of the planet.



You drive out of that forest into the lush Fraser River Valley, more often than not into the shining late afternoon sun. And then I just feel excellent. The vastness of Canada, the power of the forest, it all makes me feel complete. I am reminded to just be. Be me, be the best, be what I can be, be one of the people, and also to be myself.

I wish I could take every one of you on that drive.



There is no way I can quilt that for you, and I have not even tried. Be is a representation, and I don't think many folks would see this whole story if I did not tell them. But I hope that be does suggest that it is important to be, be what you can be, be unique, be the best and that you are still part of the uniqueness and the sameness of the rest of us too. You are also part of the community,  part of nature, part of the most amazing thing - the world.

Be was made with various quilting cottons and Osnaburg which is a cotton that has a linen texture. The quilting was done with a variegated gold, green, grey Valdani thread. The quilt is about 12" square.

Well, I am certain you are sick of my artsy fartsy ramblings. You can see Rachel, Betty and Elizabeth's interpretations of this theme by clicking their names.

I almost forgot to mention next quarter's theme - it is fire. Energy, warmth, power, fire as a force of nature.

It's Friday, my dog is home safely in his bed and improving, enjoy your day.

Best,

Leanne