Ginger Quilts... website up and running :)

www.gingerquilts.ca

was Ittily Bits... now Ginger Quilts !

Tech savvy I cannot claim to be... creative, sure but technie... meh not so much.  This is the only way I can hope that I do not lose any people who may be reading my blog in its current guise.

Forgive me the basic nature of the following...

This is the link to my new blog... i am ginger quilts:

http://iamgingerquilts.blogspot.ca/

And my website under creation can be found here:

http://www.gingerquilts.ca/

And to make sure I have covered everything, Ginger Quilts is on the all powerful facebook too, here:

https://www.facebook.com/wearegingerquilts?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

There must be a way to forward Ittily Bits to Ginger Quilts, but I leave that challenge for another day.  My work here (for now) is done.

Meet you on the other side : )

Ginger T.

Teaching post apocalyptic life skills...

My niece Ella is 9 years old.  Last week she called to ask if she could sleep over.  Usually this would be fine, she loves to spend time with her cousins, however they were not going to be home.  I mentioned this.  She said I know, I want to come anyway and we can crochet and quilt.

Who is this kid???

I agreed to the sleepover, still surprised but curious.

Ella arrived, ready to get crafting so I suggested a simple nine patch block.  I believe in being set up to succeed!  I offered a precut stack of 5" squares... she selected fabrics for her first block... scrappy.

She picked up sewing like a pro, pinning and ironing too.  I showed her how to do one seam, one... and she was off and running.

One patch done, we retired for the evening.  The next day she decided to do one more, which turned into 3... we all know what this means...

Hallelujah another quilter is born !

In a post apocalyptic world, she will be able to keep her family warm :P

Evolution of a Machine Quilting Pattern

I have set myself a challenge... again. I am creating a custom long arm pattern for Jessie's Afghan and below are the steps in my process.

[Jessie was my grandmother... see this post for more http://ittilybits.blogspot.ca/2015/03/jessies-afghan-update-what-can-i-say-i.html]

The only option was roses, not simply because the backing had roses but because Jessie adored her them, the peace rose being her absolute favourite.  I learned a lot on those Toronto summer afternoons, listening to her talk as she dressed the soil around her roses with bone meal.  Honestly I could not have been very old and probably not terribly interested but I remember all the same. Her love of roses passed to my Dad and now to me.

It is going to be some work but I am certain it will be fabulous.

Sketching simple rose patterns until one worked

Tried at first to overlap the roses,
then put some space between them
and added straight line quilting to offset the softer lines

Placed roses even further apart...
my arm muscles trembling at this point as I was tracing each rose from the window where I had taped the original single rose pattern...
could be I need to invest in a light box

I love it and I can't wait to see what it looks like in thread

Here is a taster of the top and the backing together...

NMQG June Challenge... Starry Night... Vincent and me

My Starry Night - Tania Denyer 2015

Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh 1888

The NMQG challenge for June was Starry Night.  The moment I heard the words I thought of Vincent Van Gogh and driving home from the meeting his images were painted in my mind.  I thought it would be too easy and I did not want to do what I thought everyone else was doing. I searched as many starry night images as I could but as you will see in the pictures below, it was all in vain.  Vincent had taken over and there was nothing I could do about it.

Looking at the finished piece now, it looks like I had the original beside me the entire time.  I didn't, but clearly my brain had taken it all in.

I had several blue squares already cut from another project... who knows when

I sewed them in rows... pretty much spontaneously

And then cut them all up again

And sewed them together once more... don't bother asking, if you don't quilt, you don't get it

Cut free form leaves from the black fabrics

Round stars... like itty bitty suns, which really is what they are

Something like this... I was ready to applique and quilt on my longarm

OK so the plan was to start quilting, stop take a few pics, and finish...
but once I started, well you have heard it here before

I wrote Starry Night in quilting at the bottom... the binding cut it off but no matter, this is play after all...
see if you can find the 2015

Funny how an artist living in the late 19th century in southern France saw in his night sky what I see when I look up through the trees at the stars on a northern Ontario summer night, over a hundred years and more later.  Pretty cool, wouldn't you say?

Starry Night Over The Rhone - Van Gogh 1888

As for how modern this piece is... I am undecided but will appreciate the thoughts of my NMQG friends on this.

NMQG May Challenge - My Migration to Modern

Latest news... I joined the Niagara Modern Quilt Guild (NMQG) and I am thrilled to be spending time with my fellow creative artists.

When I heard days before the meeting that there was a challenge block, something to test our new found modern superpowers, I had to try it out.  The topic was "bird on a branch".

This task taught me that my creative mind defaults to traditional more often than I may care to admit.  Not that there is anything wrong with that! I believe testing one's superpowers is the only way to make sure you know how to use them when called upon.

This is how it went down...

Started with what ended up being a totally traditional branch block...
note to self, just because you drafted it without a pattern does not make it modern !

 Drew a bird... maybe googled modern bird for inspiration, maybe not... decided on a colour...
closer to modern... fabric does not resemble feathers... 
unless you have plucked all the feathers and arranged them in circles...
 which is not a nice thing to do to a bird...

Had a wing, a bead for the eye and some legs set to go but they were too safe...
I had to go out on a limb...

Scratched the yellow beak...changed it to blue...
was trying for a offset block but the habit of putting things in the middle is so central a habit... 

Quilted carefully on my longarm...
chose a more modern design and swirled the raw edges of the bird to stop it from flying away...

Done... pretty decent attempt but I have far to go before I rest...
I am reassured that I have others in my flock to help me on my migration to modern.

To wash or not to wash...

 Update on Breeze Block Quilt...

I decided to practice my doodle quilting and it was more challenging than I thought... but I got the hang of it eventually.  It creates a lot of movement on the quilt so I can see how it would not necessarily work for every project.

And then just because I don't have enough to do, I decided to see what it would look like laundered.  (look like laundered... love alliteration)

So...

Pre-washed... (and unbound) --- you know that sounds like a title of a book.

Post-washed

And here is a picture of my niece Ella on the quilt.  The moment you lay a quilt down anywhere, guaranteed a cat or a child will be on it in no time flat.  This one clearly belongs to her... :)

*** from doodle to design ***

Today instead of being sucked into the endless vortex of images that is Pinterest (not that I mind, I do adore a good dose of Pinterest)... I decided to doodle. Coffee, lots of paper and a fresh Sharpie, no need to change out of pjs yet.

Machine quilting is experimenting with shapes and designs.  If you can doodle, you can machine quilt. We over think things. Tap into your high school self who endlessly doodled in every available space, whether your notes on foolscap or inside a textbook.  (Aaah the smell of fresh foolscap in the morning...)

It is a word... look it up !     http://www.thefreedictionary.com/foolscap

Recently I have been watching Karlee Porter draw and then quilt her graffiti designs which are amazing.  I have always doodled flowers so this time instead of stopping at a few repeats I carried on until I ran out of space.

Now to practice on the long arm... I feel it is going to be TOTALLY AWESOME !!! Growing up in the 80s never truly leaves you.

Breeze Blocks Abound

Breeze Block Part Two

Creating a business, particularly a new business that you are technically not supposed to talk about until your business plan is approved, is A LOT of work.  The things I did not know that I did not know.  Sheesh!  You may be able to deduce that I am awful at keeping secrets, who knows how much longer I can hold out.

From time to time my creative self insists, well to be honest demands, that she be heard.  My business self (who knew I had one) needs to let her out to play... and the pictures below are what happened in the last few days. These mid century concrete breeze block designs have captured my imagination.  I decided to draft another block...

More math

 

One down... now what to make it into?  I mean how many quilts does a person really need?

Added some more turquoise and decided to quilt it too :)

Using a fabulous feather pillow form from... you guessed it... IKEA !
And here is the link http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/80230894/ 

At this point Blake (who has his computer at the kitchen table where he is playing online with a friend) says to his friend, "my Mum is outside taking pictures of a pillow" ... "no I don't know why"

Hopefully this will hold me over for a few days before I have to make something else

p.s. you can only find the buttons you need if you dump them ALL out !

Mid Century MODERN Breeze Blocks

I find inspiration in the strangest places.  One night I could not sleep after being awoken by Falter screaming that awful cat/child yowl, no doubt directed at a raccoon or some other animal going about its nightly adventures.  It was about 2 a.m. and the house was quiet... my mind racing here, there and everywhere.  I decided to peruse Pinterest.  It has become an obsession, all those pretty images.  Minutes become hours.

Not sure how I happened upon concrete breeze blocks, but the moment I did I knew it was a quilt pattern.  These blocks come in so many designs you could easily create a book around them.

Later... not that night mind you, I drafted the block, and after some math difficulty and a test block that ended up wonky, I figured it out.

I have been in Business School for the past month learning how to start a proper business. I am restricted from saying more by the government rules, honestly I am not kidding, but if you stay tuned you will hear more... shortly.

Scrappy Cross... Quilted

 Here are some pictures of my scrappy cross quilt... quilted.

The background is a bright yellow linen that I cannot get to translate well in photos.  My specialty is quilts and as much I think I can do everything, clearly I have much to learn when it comes to successfully using a camera.  Flash shows the colour, no flash shows the quilting... you can see what I opted for.

playing with linear pattern 

the texture of linen is delicious

thread is variegated

I heard modern quilts did not allow for variegated thread... no need to remind everyone what happens when I hear a quilt "rule"

backing fabric and binding done with yellow gingham

The quote is: "I am not afraid.  I was meant to do this." Joan of Arc (apparently, though who can know for sure - being a history major causes all sorts of untold mental grief).