Apertura... an opening, a commencement, a beginning...

Pondering apertura, in the form of windows and doors.  Apparently I have always had a desire to look out on my world in this way.

The door of St. John's Anglican Church in Ancaster, Ontario.  I have decided to call it "In the Beginning"... because it is the beginning of this series of work that I feel will extend over the next few years, and for the Biblical play on words too.

Then the Paris Plains Church in Paris, Ontario.  Built in 1845 and made of cobblestones gathered from the fields around the site.  Below is the quilt as far as I have it done, pebbling soon to commence.  I will call this one "Perseverance".

I have ideas for future quilts... one of a set of windows at Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

And the outside wall of the Mosque at Cordoba.

Then closer to home again, there is McNab Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario. These are a few of the windows.

And as I thought of windows and doors, I remembered an old photo I had taken of my childhood home, 311 Sutton Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This is the picture and the sketch I doodled to see where a quilt design might emerge...

And not finally, but last for this post is my Great Grandmother Bridget.  This is a picture of her door at 37 Kelvin Drive, Shotts, Scotland.

Apparently she used to paint her steps red, a Scottish practice?  I have to research this but her door and front steps will also feature in this series, as it is also part of my story.  She tells a tale of these very steps in a family letter... but I will wait to reveal her story until her quilt is done.  And one more note about Bridget, apparently she loved to quilt and preferred to work with her own patterns. I only found out recently.

Apertura, Latin and Spanish for opening.  Windows, doors... openings that represent a myriad of things that enter our homes and our lives.

"...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