Fun Tips and Giggles #16

Did you see the incredible display of Trend-Tex quilts and wearables from our 2014 'Modern Ways' challenge?   It is going to be simply breathtaking having them all hanging in one show!  Thank you to all the members that participated!  This is our biggest number of entries ever!

I was on YouTube and the number of quilt tutorials is simply staggering.

For a simple yet effective block, here is a 6 minute tutorial on the Disappearing 4 Patch Block.

Ever wonder how to 'Quilt As You Go'?  Check out this video!

Now this has to be my all time favourite tutorial for making a fun and fast and oh so creative quilt.   It is just a 4 minute tutorial... you have to look at it!


And your little giggle for the day=)

Tell me at least a few of you can relate to this picture?


Jackie W.

Fun Tips and Giggles #10

There is a growing trend to add embroidery stitches to our quilts.   If you are anything like me, you only know how to do the running stitch, and wonder how everyone else can make all those other intricate stitches that make their quilts come to life.   Check out this great site that shows easy to follow videos on embroidery stitches.  There are over 85 different stitches with videos and they are broken down into  categories with a picture for each..

Have you started working on our latest challenge, Through the Eyes of a Bug?  Did you see the prizes being offered?  Fat Quarter Shop is our sponsor and they have donated a Fat Eighth bundle for First Prize and a Jelly Roll for Second Prize!  Check out the details of how to enter here.




And now for your little giggle of the day:

Fun Tips and Giggles #9

This is a wonderful video lasting 6 minutes that takes traditional quilt patterns and maneuvers them in such a way that you are left amazed and inspired.   The best part it was made by the National Film Board of Canada in 1996.  Whether you are an art quilter or traditional, you will definitely enjoy this video.

If you want to use up your scraps in under 5 minutes, check out this cute tutorial to make a tissue holder.

In the Stitch Across Canada challenge, it was brought to my attention the overwhelming generosity of Canadian quilters.   This comes from the Limestone quilt guild.  

They make quilts for orphanages in Chernobyl.

Anne Dickson and Holly Dynes holding up one of the 19 quilts going to Chernobyl.

The Limestone QG made 10 and the Farmhouse Community Quilters, a satellite group from the Heritage QG in Napanee, made the other 9.  Way to go quilters!

Fun Tips and Giggles #8

Do you ever get in a free motion quilting rut?   Sometimes it is just easier to do stippling all over than to try and think of a design.

Worry no more.  Go and check out the infamous Leah Day's blog where she has over 365 free motion designs to teach you.  Each design has a sample and a small video where she shows you how to do it.   And even better, she has all her designs broken down by either Difficulty Level, Filler Design Type, Alphabetical and Directional.   It is free motion heaven!

Your little giggle for the day.

Fun Tips and Giggles #7

Happy Valentine's Day Quilters!  Is this picture not the most perfect gift from that special someone?

Remember the days when this was all a quilter had to use to iron their precious fabric?   

Read the bottom line on this 1950 invoice.  

Hope this gave you a little laugh as you head to your studio to quilt up a storm.

Fun Tips and Giggles #6

Did you know that each year Pantone picks a colour of the year.. millions wait breathlessly to see what it will be then go like crazy to work with that.   For quilters, we like to be in the know with our colour choices and patterns.
  For 2013 Pantone chose Emerald.

Do you plan to use Emerald in your quilts this year?

While conducting the Stitch Across Canada challenge, one guild wrote me and gave their inches and stated their guild name was 'Chocolate River Quilters' from Riverview, NB.  Well, when you have a name like that, I had my sewing machine packed and ready to head out there.

Here is what guild member Betty Rice told me:

The proper name of the river is the Petiticodiac, which flows from the Bay of Fundy. You might have heard about our Tidal Bore which essentially fills the river, and then empties twice a day. With the tidal action there is a lot of buildup of silt, which makes it look muddy........kind of like chocolate, certainly not edible stuff.
This river separates the city of Moncton and the town of Riverview. 

In regards to the guild, a group of quilters were looking to start a new guild that would meet during the day. They found an available place in Riverview and someone suggested the name Chocolate River and it stuck.

Here is their banner.

This is their Pam Bono quilt challenge.

This is one way to make quilting an outdoor activity!

Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie , France , he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.

How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather. Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations. Interestingly enough, he said, 'The main reason for making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise. Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera.” Spectacular art for the sake of exercise!

If you are finding your sketch pad is just a bit too small, why not use Mother Nature's pad to create your next quilt?

 

Fun Tips & Giggles #5

Tin Eye Labs is one of the most stimulating and inspiring places on the web for colour.

You simply have to try this.   It is free and takes 3 simple steps.   Click here to go to the website.

It will look like this:

On the right hand side it says 'Step 1'  and here you select up to 5 different colours.

You can see I chose the colours blue, green and pink.  So the computer searches the 10 million Creative Commons images on Flickr (these are the ones that people have allowed to be shared) and finds pictures with these colours.   

Now if you want to just focus on pink, slide your cursor over the 'Step 2' box of colour and adjust the percentages by dragging the pink box up and by deleting the other colours.   If you hold your cursor over the colour a little garbage can comes up and if you click on that, it will delete the colour.  Below I got rid of all the colours but pink.

If you see a photo you like, click on it and it will take you directly to that photo.

At the bottom of the page you will see 'Previous....Next', so don't think there is just that one page of photos for you to chose from!  

This is the best place for colour ideas and inspiration.  Let's see if you can spend just a few minutes on it!

Let's end with a little giggle for the day.

Fun Tips and Giggles #4

Do you love going to quilt shows, yet sometimes travelling can be a little difficult?   How about seeing the 2012 quilt winners of the Des Moines AQS show right from your own home?

Click on this link and enjoy a wonderful show.

Do you want to see one more quilt show?   Go grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair and take a peak at the 2012 Pacific International Quilt Festival at this blog.

'Never Again...Again' by Joan Dorsay

1st Place - 2012 NJS

Excellence for Traditional Wallquilts and Bed Quilts from Books/Patterns

Here is a quote found on www.facebook.com/auntyacid:
"You haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running."

Fun Tips and Giggles #2

We had such great responses to our first ever 'Fun Tips and Giggles, that we are back with another one!
Do you love going to workshops, but detest waiting in line to use the iron?   Here is a simple, fast and very inexpensive way to make your own mini ironing board using a TV tray.   Click here for the tutorial.  It took  23 minutes to make mine.

Do any of you have a lovely chair that you just can't part with but it desperately needs a new cover?   Our very own Vice President Judy Kelly came up with a fantastic way to cover her grandmother's chair.

Here is what Judy had to say about her 'Grandma's Going Green' chair.

Last spring when I moved into my new studio, I brought my Grandma’s old armchair with me. At the time I wondered what I could do to make it “fit in”?

I asked the ladies in my quilting guilds to save selvedges from their quilting projects. Every month they came with little piles of brightly coloured selvedges, so I quickly built up my stash! 

Reading the various names on the selvedges was exciting. One can only imagine what ”Chalking It Up To Success” or “A Quilters Home” fabric looked like?

During the summer I sewed the selvedges to a muslin base, layering a woven edge on top of a raw edge, so everything was covered. I removed the original upholstery fabric and used it as a template to cut my selvedge fabric . I then stretched it in place and stapled it with a heavy duty staple gun.

The chair “fits in” quite nicely and has a special place in my studio. I wonder what my Grandma would say if she saw it now?

Everyday, while raising her family, she practiced 'going green'and didn’t even realize she was doing it! 

Thank you Judy for the great idea and wonderful instructions!   I bet a few of you are going to take another look at that old chair in the corner of your room.

Lastly, your giggle for the day.

Fun Tips and Giggles #1

Have you ever wanted to print something off the internet, such as a quilt tutorial, but did not want all the extra 'stuff' that shows up when printing?   Here is a free and very easy to use solution.   It is called Print Friendly.

This site allows you to type in a url (webpage) and it transforms it right onto the screen into an easy to read document that you can print without getting all the excess stuff.  Or you can email it to your friend and they can print it.

 It gets better than that, you can choose to get it with or without images, which when downloading a tutorial, sometimes you get  more than you need in a paper copy format.

 It also allows you to download into a PDF format.  This is a great website to use for quilt tutorials,recipes and so many other things.

Now this is camping!   Eliza Fernand goes around with her tape recorder and camera and records stories about quilts.

 

Courtesy of Eliza Fernand

In the last 'Canadian Quilter' newsletter, Sandra Reford wrote an article and showcasing several quilters.  One struck a cord and I googled it and found Gordana Brelih's fibre art.   If you want inspiration, you should check out her gallery.   Are there any galleries of quilters that you look to for inspiration online?  If so, leave a link in the comment section.


I will sign off with how my husband sees my machine.

Found here on Facebook.