"...it sings because it has a song." - Maya Angelou

During the summer I bought some gorgeous fabrics from Hyggeligt Fabrics (London, Ontario). Bright pink and orange and green, flowers, vegetable leaves and polka dots by Kaffe Fassett and other Rowan fabric artists.  They were magically delicious!

I was not sure what to do with them but I had to do something, they were calling and calling me, like birds as it turns out.

I needed to quiet the voices in my head, I thought of using my own quilt design, Sliding Doors, and it looks like this.  It was a great way to use the fabrics while testing out my written design.

As I worked on the blocks I was not convinced I had it right, not the pattern but the colours. This was probably because this colour scheme was so far from the original.  But as I do, I kept going, not giving up.

I finished the top in a few weeks and put it away.  I was not entirely enthusiastic with the result.

That was until I took it over to my sister's.  When she opened the door she looked at the folded top in my arms and said I assume that is for me.  She does have quite a number of my quilts.  As I opened the quilt top, my littlest niece Lola, reached out her hands for it.  If anything was going to ensure this quilt was hers, that was it. Granted my sister's decor is a lot of black and white and grey and maybe Lola was thirsty for some colour, but it does not matter.  What Lola wants, Lola gets.

Next was the step of deciding on the quilting.  I did not want to quilt it with the word quilting as on my original Sliding Doors.

I waited patiently for inspiration to strike and it did with the magical combination of Lola and IKEA.  While following Lola around IKEA on her triumphant march through the merchandise (she has just learned to walk with some confidence), I saw a pattern of birds perched on lines. Hmm.

It stuck in my head.  Later as I sat in the car with Lola, waiting for my sister to pick up faucets for her new bathroom at Rona, I drew this.

Then when I got home I drew this.

Then I started quilting...

The back of the quilt is white seersucker and yellow gingham.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."  Maya Angelou

A Lola doesn't walk because she knows where she is going, a Lola walks for the pleasure of it. Couldn't we all learn from that?

p.s. This is Lola, she sent me a message... she wants her quilt !

Let It Be

Here is my third Union Jack quilt.  This time I re-drafted the design a bit, making it paper pieced. It could be my British heritage, the graphic nature of the design, whatever it is, I can't stop making it.

When deciding on a machine quilting design I looked into Celtic and Anglo Saxon designs, eventually settling on a triskele...This is my version.

I also wanted to add some words from the Beatles, Let It Be.  I find that as popular as Let It Go is right now, let it be is more me.

Let it be.  Don't go poking your nose in.  Don't think everyone wants your help as much as you want to give it.  Leave things alone.  Let sleeping dogs lie and all that.  OK so it may sound a little much, but I am learning that the people and situations that want your help will indicate in some way.  My habit has been trying to fix/help everything, whether it wanted my fixing or helping or not.  Things can work out fine without my help, truly.

Hmm this post is more introspective than I had intended... perhaps January is the time in the year for introspection to surface more easily.

And finally... I changed one of the lines in my quilting to - "For though WE may be parted, there is still a chance that WE can see, there will be an answer, let it be."  I believe WE are all in this together :)

http://youtu.be/xSmZyRP_ZX0

p.s. This quilt is for sale on etsy

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/TalullahLou?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Swiss Cross - the finale (for now...)

Swiss Cross part 3... as though you had not heard enough.

This is what can happen in the days after Christmas, what I feel are an endless stream of Sundays.  If one does not choose to shop, clean the piles of dishes and pots, put away decorations... sewing is a lovely option :)

After I had made the two blocks shown in an earlier post, I had to see what more blocks would look like.

I used the cream and red fabrics I already had....

Eventually I ended up with 12, one reversed in the interest of variety.  My curiosity is endless.

Here is my Swiss Cross Quilt !

On my kitchen table, yes I swept the floor before taking these pics

The quilt measures approximately 60" square, off white quilted in the off white/cream and red quilted in the red.  The cream on cream did do a number on my eyes though until I got used to it !  I continued the cream/cream and red/red in the bobbin but it does not show up strongly on the reverse but I know it is there.

My eyes are not what they used to be, honestly they were never great

I used the remaining reds to create the binding and the backing is an IKEA red and white botanical print.

Trying more simple modern quilting designs, started as doodles on paper

I hope you were able to enjoy a week of Sundays as well, stay tuned to this channel for continued news of what else I accomplished during the week of Sundays.

Thanks to my sister for letting me play with her cool camera !

Swiss Cross Block Pattern

Here is the Swiss Cross block outlined step by step, a gift to my fellow quilters.  I had hoped to have it ready to post on Christmas Day but here it is all the same...  I did make a slight revision to the original pattern I posted earlier when I realized that the red cross was made up of only three pieces, instead of the 5 originally noted.

Swiss Cross Block Pattern - finished size 15" square

Step 1:

Cut the following...
for this pattern I am using red and cream but any colour combination is possible

Fabric A (red)

1 @ 3 1/2 x 9 1/2"
2 @ 3 1/2 x 3 1/2"

Fabric B and C (two shades of cream)

Cut for EACH fabric:
2 @ 2 x 3 1/2"
4 @ 2 x 6 1/2"
2 @ 2 x 15 1/2"

You will end up with the following cream (or equivalent) pieces in total:
4 @ 2 x 3 1/2"
8 @ 2 x 6 1/2"
4 @ 2 x 15 1/2"

Arrange pieces

Step 2:

Sew 2" strips together as shown

Step 3:

Continue to sew sections together, making sure to lay them out if you are wanting a specific repeat in the background

Step 4:

TA DA !

Turned so the strips are horizontal

Two blocks done !

Please let me know what you come up with :) and send me your pictures.  This pattern is simple, good for beginner and experienced sewers alike.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

Do You Want to Quilt a Frozen? ... or two

You may have heard about this movie Disney recently released... Frozen.  Honestly unless you have been living under a rock, or holed up in your house, you have happened across the Frozen Phenomenon.  My children are too old to be really interested in it, but even my son has taken to singing Olaf's words of snow in summer, again and again and again.

So did I think I would avoid getting on this particular icy bandwagon?  I confess I did, more fool me. Recently a friend contacted me to long arm a Frozen quilt for her, in fact two, one for each of her granddaughters.  My first thought was oh great, as I believed myself above the commercialism of Disney. Wrong again !

I googled the pattern to see what I was in for.  It seemed pleasing enough however I could not find any detailed pictures to show the quilting to give me a clue of where to go.  Luckily my daughter showed me a few clips of the movie and a video of the song Let It Go and we were off.

I made a swirly wind pattern for the border, a regular repeat of the same for the inner borders, tiny swirls for around the snowflakes... the fabric is encrusted with glitter so I was keen to avoid trying to quilt over that.  I added the words Frozen, Do You Want to Build a Snowman?, Let It Go... Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Sven and Hans (at my friend's request), all in the inner blue borders.  Finally I silhouetted the panel in the middle with various patterns, avoiding the faces as I had avoided the snowflakes.  Quilting faces can be a dangerous territory, either working well enough or going horribly wrong.  Luckily my friend was in agreement on this and I quilted as close as I could get without entering the facial danger zone.

This turned out to be WAY more fun than I thought it would be, even to do it twice.

I had looked up the song Do You Want To Build A Snowman? a sad but catchy little song and I found myself humming it over and over (not unlike my son) as I quilted.  This quilt had all the hints I needed in the fabric and in the songs, I only had to open up my imagination to let everything play together.

I hope that the girls who receive these lovely quilts from their Grandma feel the whimsy and happiness I felt quilting them.

First Aid Cross Block

I made a visit to the church whose red front doors inspired me to make my church door quilt... St. John's Anglican Church in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.  I was given a tour and saw the gorgeous interior, the breathtaking stained glass windows and the beautiful carved wood beams.  It was heaven ;)

As I looked around absorbing the multitude of patterns, motifs and designs I spotted an old first aid cross flag, it drew me across the church immediately. I think it dated from 1932.  It is made of linen.  I fell in love with the construction they used in making the cross, strips instead of square pieces.  I was entranced...  you could even see the hand stitched repairs from where holes had been made, maybe in nailing the flag up somewhere as they were in each corner.  What history this flag must know... (I have an Honours History degree from Laurier, you can NEVER take the historian away from the history).

I quickly jotted it down in my notebook and I worked a block pattern up this morning from my hastily scribbled notes, complete with red crayon to colour with :) honestly who does not love colouring with crayons !

I am going to make candle mats for my family in this pattern (for Christmas... using what I already have) but of course it could be worked up into a table runner or a full size quilt.  This block measures 15 1/2" unfinished.

I need to get back in that church and get a photo of the original flag to post it here :)

Step One: Draft pattern from scribbled notebook

Step Two: cut out fabrics and audition on design wall

Step Three: the completed block

OH that IKEA !

Sometimes I am asked where my inspiration comes from... OK maybe I ask myself when I am pretending to be interviewed for a feature in a quilt magazine, don't crush a girl's dreams...  but it is a good question. Where does inspiration come from?  Can you make it happen?

I think you find inspiration by being curious.  You cannot demand it to appear, as people do with things like respect... you must respect me !  OK, good luck with that.  Same with inspiration. Inspiration appear ! Nope. Nothing.

The curious mind finds inspiration when she least expects it.  Or when she has just had a lovely $1 breakfast at IKEA with her sister and niece.

This is what struck me last time...

My VINTERFINT mug... ooooo la la and made in France no less !

I think IKEA designers are amazing... the things they come up with to fill our lives with wonderful designs to please the eye.  VINTERFINT is their Christmas/Winter line this year and it is a treat.  I highly recommend a morning visit to your local IKEA to have a $1 breakfast and then peruse the wares.  This is not to say that IKEA is forcing me to endorse their store... they have no idea who I am... yet :P

To my eye this mug is a quilting design waiting to be let free from glass.

This is what I have come up with so far... I am calling it FLEGG... combination of flower and egg.  If IKEA designers can have fun making up names that we have to say when ordering their creations, then so can I.  "I would like my quilt done in an allover FLEGG design please."

The amazing thing is this is only one possible design.  I am doodling endless other options.

FLEGG practice number 1

FLEGG on the other side...

Keep your eyes, mind and heart open.  Inspiration is everywhere waiting for you to slow down and pay attention long enough to notice !