Calgary Quilt Festival

Hi everyone!

Today I went to Calgary's Heritage Park to see this years Quilt Festival. Luckily the weather improved yesterday from the rain we'd been having, and today was warm and dry. Heritage Park is a recreated town as it would have looked at about the start of the 20th century.There is a Main Street with all the businesses, private homes, the church, a farm, and a railroad with a station and a steam train to pick up passengers. It is educational and great fun.

These are just a few quilts that caught my eye.

You can tell I like red, I like scrappy quilts,

And I love a bit of humour and whimsy!

The quilts were displayed in some of the buildings, outside along the roads, in some gardens, and in large tents brought in for the purpose. I took lots of pictures of colours, patterns and quilting. Then lastly I treated myself to the Merchants Mall. I think I was restrained, but I got some fat quarters and some half metres of batiks. A very enjoyable day!

Until next time,

Sue

Central Park is too small!

I've started assembling my Central Park (fabric line by Kate Spain) quilt, as I suspected there's more cutting and sewing to be done. Here it is, laid out completely randomly, no rearranging done:

I think it looks fresh and pretty. Now to calculate how many more HSTs and strippy blocks to make.

Looking at the pattern now, I think I would like to make it again with the bigger 4 colour blocks random colours and the small squares and smaller 4 patches in two colours, one colour running diagonally one way, and one the other. I'll have to try that and see how it looks. I'm thinking maybe aqua and the dark pinky purple colour. And less green. I'm trying to get to like and use green more, but it's a struggle!

Until next time,

Sue

My favourite colour is...what?

For most of my life my favourite colour was blue. Cobalt blue to be exact. But since I started quilting I've noticed a change in the colours I'm drawn to. Now I'm drawn to a larger range of colours, and blue is far down the list. I'd have to say red is my overall favourite, I check out the reds in the fabric store first!

This quilt started my interest in red, I collected lots of shades and patterns. My next quilt was red and cream too, partly because I had so many scraps! My Flower Fairy quilt has a very vibrant red bordering each square. I see lots more red in my future!

Have you noticed a change in your preferences too? What's your overall favourite?

It's another rainy day here, so I hope to get some quilting done.

Until next time,

Sue

New project!

I've found an online store stocking my floral fabric to finish the Flower fairy quilt.

 So while I wait for that to come (I live in Canada, so orders often take two weeks or more to reach me - curses!) I've started piecing another quilt.

The pattern is on Moda Bake Shop and is called Jewel Box - gosh it's pretty! The picture doesn't do it justice, there's a better picture on the last page of the instructions. I'm using Kate Spain's Central Park. I love this line of fabrics! I've got 2 layer cakes, so I should be able to make it bigger than the instructions - go big or go home! The other colour I'm using is Kona Ivory.

                                              Here's a pic of some of the strips before I cut.
                           
                                            

And here's a pic of some of the hourglass shapes.

           

                     And here's a pic of Sammy, my quilting companion.  He looks about as interested as the rest of my family when I talk quilting!

That's it for today. I hope the sun is shining where you are too.

Sue

Quilting as therapy

Have you found how comforting making a quilt can be when things are tough in your life? It may not work the same way for people with no interest in sewing, but I found quilting challenging enough to keep my mind occupied, and at the same time designing and handling the fabrics is soothing.
I wonder how many quilts have a hidden story ? What were those other events in the quilter's life that affected the quilt making ?
This is a picture of my first quilt, made as a memory quilt and very satisfying as a project.
What's the story behind some of your quilts?

Until next time

Sue

WIP

It's a rainy Thursday morning and I hope to spend it quilting. Here's a picture of my current project, a Flower Fairy quilt for my GD.  I ran out of the flowery middle border fabric, and have 3 orphan squares. I've got some alternative fabric, near in colour. I think I'll have to make at least 5 that way to look right. The sashing to join is Kona Solids Snow. I'll make some more squares with the new fabric and see how it looks.

Here it is, my first post!

Hi everyone! 

This is my first post, drumroll and trumpets!  I'm already several hours at the computer setting up the page and I'm sure there'll be changes, so I hope you are tolerant.

What makes me think I can talk to you about quilting?  I'm no expert, perhaps I have the same problems and questions as you do. Maybe we'll both find out the answers along the way. Let's experiment with different styles and get out of our colour and pattern comfort zone. Interesting things will happen, some good, some not so.

I started quilting 2 1/2 years ago, but I've been sewing for many years. And I love (bold print, underlined!) fabric!  A quilt store feels to me like a candy shop, and I just must have one more piece! I plan projects, and then something I see inspires me to start a collection of fabric for another project. Sometimes I come across collections in my stash and I can't remember what the plan was. I blush to say this!  Good thing I also love scrap quilts.

So that's my background. Tomorrow I'll start talking about some of my projects. It's good to meet you!