Leprechauns and a New Quilt

The leprechauns have extended their stay, which is virtually unheard of in leprechaun land, but they asked the head leprechaun Patrick, and he has granted special permission.

In other news, I have been working and finished my quilt for the Canadian Quilters' Association's biggest fundraiser.
This is where we get five fat quarters and have to turn them into a small wall hanging. The theme for the conference is 'Blowing in the Wind'.
I need to confess though, when I decided to make it, I had completely forgotten about the theme=)

I started with a sketch of a tree. I sewed strips of 2 1/2" fabric together and laid the pattern on it and moved it around till I was pleased with the layout. Then cut it out.

I then threadpainted the tree using colours that matched each section and for the yellow extended the branches out further. The bottom was several collections of browns and greens to create the roots of the tree. 

I then quilted it in matching colours to the background and added the binding.

I still wasn't happy with it, so I added buttons that matched the different colours of the tree.

What do you think?

Another Finish

As a board member of the Canadian Quilters' Association, one of my duties was to organize our annual fundraiser, the Trend-Tex Challenge. We have a silent auction at our national conference that starts next week.  I leave in 48 hours for it.   I was worried about time, so I made a cute bag as my wearable quilt.

Then when the entries started arriving, I started feeling guilty that I hadn't made something fancy enough, so I whipped this up.  The theme was 'Modern Ways'.

I did a plain white background and free motion quilted the whole thing in different stitches.

We also have a fun fb page, and you don't have to be a member to belong, we are always putting fun quilt trivia and news on it.   Take a look and maybe 'like' us.   It is under Canadian Quilters' Association.

Happy Dance

I got a fat envelope as they say in the juried quilt show world today.   It was from the International Quilt Festival for their O'Canada exhibit that starts in Chicago and goes to Houston!
It was for my quilt 'Rockin The Rainbow'.

I have been making great progress on my undie quilt too.  I have machine appliqued around all the little undies now.  And look at those adorable embellishments at the top of each underwear!! So stinking cute.

This button trim I got when I was in Utah and only bought 2 metres, ok, yards down there.  I should have bought all they had, it is so fun.

All the rest of my embellishments are from Riley Blake fabrics.   They really do have that many different kinds of embellishments!

This one just cracks me up.

Who wouldn't want to have roses on their waist band?  If you don't have them on your dining room table, put them on your underwear!

Have a great weekend=)

Undies Anyone?

Now there is a post title I thought I would never write!

I have wanted to do this for so long, and never got around to it, but when I had to look after a huge fundraiser for our national quilting organization, CQA/ACC.  I knew it was time to have some fun.

I started by sketching out 9 different types of underwear.  With this fundraiser, we purchased 5 pieces of fabric and have to use only those in the making of the quilt, which then is auctioned off.

Here are the fabrics I had to play with.  

And here are some of my undies.   

On the top of each pair, I had to use a fun embellishment.   This one has zipper tape.

This one has rose ribbon from Riley Blake Fabrics.  Actually all the embellishments are from Riley Blake, because they just have the most fun when it comes to embellishing!

This white ribbon elastic is just so fun to use.   I make bracelets out of it too with buttons on them.  

Now was this good planning on laying the pattern out?   

I have only shown you 4, and will show you the rest in the next day or two.   I now have to go and do some type of stitching around the edges of them.  I am unsure of what stitch to use as I don't want it to detract from the actual underwear.   I am considering a small machine applique stitch in a corresponding colour.   Well, except for the striped ones, may use a light grey thread for those.   

Finishing and Starting

Woohoo!  I finished up my wearable for the Canadian Quilters' Association Trend-Tex Challenge.  
It is our annual fundraiser, our only fundraiser and it helps us with operational costs.   This was under my duties this year as VP.   The theme was 'Modern Ways' and we added in a wearable category along with the quilt category.

Above is the front, and there are 3 pockets inside and it is lined.  Below is the back.   I even went all out and padded the strap so it is ultra comfortable.   

In case you didn't know (and the pics above gave no hints), I have an obsession with circles and dots.   My dear friend MT showed up at our guild meeting last month and plunked a bag of fabric down and told me it was to help my addiction.

Guess what was inside?  Hundreds of these precut colourful circles.

Does anyone have any super ideas about what I can do with them, and please do not say hand applique anything=)

During all the circle excitement, I started another project.

Our President's Challenge at my guild is a black and white quilt.   I designed a quilt on my sketch pad, made a few notes and got underway.  You can see all my black and white, with a sneak of grey in there, of fabric.   

I then pieced them together in groups of twos.   Did you notice that I added a few bits of colour to wake you up.   

I have to sew them into rows and then join them all.  But it is still not done, then comes the crazy part.

Stay tuned!

My Trend-Tex Challenge and Leprechauns

First, let me say that 'Lisa in Port Hope' won a copy of 'Kitchen Stitches', the book published by Martingale that has 2 of my projects in.    Congratulations Lisa!

I have been working away on my 'wearable' for the Canadian Quilters' Association Trend-Tex challenge.  I have sewn the outside of the bag together.  This is the back.  I went with the bright green fabric for the sides and bottom.

Excuse the clutter, I do quilt in a mess when I get creative!

Above is the front of the bag.

I started working on the lining and put in a few pockets for keys and iphones.   I even used the selvedge.

Now you may be wondering why I put leprechauns in my title.  Each year a few weeks before St. Patrick's Day, the leprechauns visit my 2 little boys and my kids try and trap them.  Over the years they have begun writing letters to them as well and for the past 3 years the same two leprechauns have come to visit them - Jeff and Eric.   They have become good friends with them.   My kids still try and trap them but they also are really nice to them.   

Last year they made them quilts.  This year they felt that Jeff and Eric needed beds.   Of course green is a leprechaun's favourite colour and I happen to have green on my cutting table, along with the rest of my Trend-Tex fabrics, so guess what happened?

This is my youngest son's creation.  The blue blanket slips inside the green bed to give him a very warm sleep and you can see how trendy that pillow is.  I wonder if I can enter this into the challenge as a wearable?  The instructions didn't say it had to be for humans=)

My oldest son made a bed but didn't want his leprechaun to worry about losing his top sheet so he ingeniously sewed it down on one side.

And just to show you how caring my kids are, they left food out for them on tiny leprechaun sized plates with matching sized cutlery.

The bottom left is green rice!   Jeff, the leprechaun turned it green while we weren't paying attention right before supper tonight.  The little stinker=)

Trend-Tex Challenge

I belong to our national quilt association CQA/ACC , and each year we have a fundraiser at our annual conference.   It is called the Trend-Tex Challenge because Trend-Tex Fabrics donates ALL the fabric.   This year I got to organize it.   I made a theme of 'Modern Ways' and instead of just a small quilt entry, you had another alternative, a quilted wearable entry to choose from.

You were mailed 5 fat quarters.  I also got to pick out the fabric=)   This is what I chose:

I had to have a zinger in there=)  Here is what it looks like opened up.

I chose to do a wearable and decided  a bag would be fun, and I should mention, all the quilts are auctioned off and I wanted something practical.   

Of course, my modern bag had to have circles on it.  I used my Baby Go by Accuquilt to cut out fabric that had fusing put on the back of it.  

I decided to use the pink as my background for my bag, and laid out the circles on the fabric in a manner that I liked.  I had to do a front and back and decided that the back would just have a few circles on it.  Pictured below is the front.

I fused them down and did straight line stitching in a contrasting white thread so it would not only show up but I think the lines add some texture and fun to it.

 Here is what the front of the bag is going to look like.

And the back.

I am going to line it and put in lots of pockets for keys, phone, pens etc.   I have some interesting ideas for the straps but will have to audition them to see what will work with this bright fabric.

One more thing, we do have a fb page and it is not just Canadian quilting stuff, but rather a great source of quilt info...   so if you are interested in joining us, we are here.

Trend Tex Challenge

Here in Canada, we have a nation wide quilting organization called the Canadian Quilters' Association.      (CQA/ACC) I am actively involved in it and love how it connects quilters right across the country.

Each year they hold a conference somewhere in the country. As well as having fabulous instructors, a giant merchant mall, and the National Juried Show, they hold a silent auction.   This auction is the biggest fundraiser for CQA/ACC. It is sponsored by Trend-Tex Fabrics who donate all the fabric.

Here is how it works.   I buy 5 fat quarters of fabric.   Every person gets the same fat quarter bundle and a theme is given.  This year it is 'Sunshine and Vines.'   You have to make a small wall quilt up and send it back for judging.  At the conference all the quilts are displayed and you can bid on them.  

Here is the fabric that I had to use.  There are only 4, I used all of the yellow as my background.

I have done this for several years now, but never had a quilt there being bid on while I am at the conference.  I will be so nervous that no one bids on mine!  I am already plotting how to use a fake name to ensure that it looks like someone liked it=)

This is the finished product.   I really liked the modern quilts that came out of Quilt Con last week.  Even though these are not 'modern' fabrics, I did my own interpretation of modern.  Pictured are two paths leading towards sunshine.   One is out of the fabrics and one is threadpainted.

This is the yellow that I used all of.   I decided to do straight line quilting as I would be quilting on top of that to mimic rocks.

Here you can see the free motion stones I created intersecting the vibrant fabric ones.