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.