Quilting Friends

Now that our computer has been rehabilitated, I can share photos of my IJQ quilting friends. On the left is my visit with Shulamit. She does lovely work and is now working on embellished crazy quilting. She also showed me some of her quilting projects. I was amazed when she told me that for many of the techniques she has done she simply followed instructions in magazines such as Quilting Arts. I am a very visual learner and usually have to have something demonstrated to me. I read instructions and blank.







This is a photo of my visit with Klara. She is an amazing artist and showed me some of her work and her studio. Earlier that day, I had been in Bustan Hagalil and seen some of her work which is on display in a museum/studio there.










This is a photo from my visit with Marlyn (to my left) and Sue and Terry in Terry's studio. The quilt in the background is one of Terry's.

From these visits, I came home inspired and set to work on Inbal's quilt whose top I have just completed. Please see the previous post for details.

I want to again thank my Israeli quilting friends for their encouragement and inspiration. They really made our trip most pleasurable.

Quilt Top Finished

This is the finished quilt top. It came out a little wonky -- some of the fabrics I used were stretchy.

The story behind the quilt? There is one fabric here which is from a robe I bought on the occasion of my daughter Inbal's birth 35 years ago. The fabric is a white background with a black, brown and yellow design. I tried to choose fabrics which either matched in colour, or had an interesting texture. So the bright yellow and the white, black and yellow fabric are waffled, and the solid black is corduroy.

I have yet to figure out how to quilt it. I will machine quilt but what kind of a pattern, I don't know. Also, I think it's a little too big for a crib quilt and the colours would probably scare a baby, so it will be a lap quilt.

And I may yet cut the border into wavy shapes as well.

Any suggestions how to make a wonky quilt less wonky?

Breathtaking

My quilt is breathtaking, if I do say so myself. I have finished piecing over half of the blocks and laid them out on the floor to see how it would look. I am so pleased. I think I will make two smaller quilts. I tried putting two blocks from the robe fabric in among the pieced blocks but they get swallowed up. Maybe if I give them a black border to set them off. Otherwise, I will leave them out. But I have used robe fabric in the piecing. And already have an idea to use the blocks in yet another quilt...

Our computer at home is sick with a virus and I'm not sure when (if) it will be well. In the meantime, I can't post photos but soon, I hope.

Inbal's quilt --started

Actually, I got started on Sunday. I made the cut out templates on freezer paper, ironed them onto the fabrics in stacks of three and four and started. I have three "lots" of fabrics and each lot will be 14 squares. The quilt calls for 48 squares. I plan to use 3 or 4 squares of the robe fabric as squares themselves (not pieced) and another 2-3 squares of light coloured fabric appliqued with robe motifs to make up the difference.

I started the first lot and finished half of the squares on Sunday. I finished the other half yesterday morning. I now have to stitch before and/or after my regular work day. I left work early yesterday. I took some sinus medication and I think a took a little too much and it just made me so drowsy. So following the instructions not to operate heavy machinery (i.e. my sewing machine) while using the medication.... I waited until the evening when I was awake to sew a few blocksk of lot 2. It is now 5:30 a.m. and I am waiting for DH to wake up so I can sew a few more.

At this rate, it should take me at least a week to piece the blocks. Hopefully I'll finish early this weekend and start playing at arranging them. I am having thoughts about making the blocks into several smaller quilts instead of one large, but I'll have to see where I am once I finish the blocks.

I also have to get back to the cq-ing. My work room is now set up so I have a separate areas for sane quilting and crazy quilting. It's just a matter of getting back into a routine.

Off to stitch.

Organized

I set myself a goal today of organizing my sewing room. Instead of having my three tables in a cluster in the centre of the room, I have arranged them against the walls. This gives me a feeling of more space and limits the surface space for mess.
I set up one table for cq-ing and another for fabric cutting. I have been using a folding wooden TV table for my sewing machine and I set up another one beside it to use as an ironing surface for when I'm assembling blocks, so I don't have to get up each time to iron after I sew a seam. We'll see how it works.

Although I had previously searched high and low for the strip scraps from my onion quilt, I hadn't searched high enough. I found them inside a box on top of my storage wall unit. I had an idea to make coasters. I may try that tomorrow. I want to shuffle and cut the pieces for my new quilt tomorrow also. Hopefully, the new and improved space will be conducive to creativity.

I am still jet-lagged but hoping to get back into a routine of stitching in the mornings and evenings.

I'm back

We returned a week ago from Israel. I have been so jet-lagged that I fall asleep early each afternoon/evening and wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. Before going away, I was usually in bed by 8, asleep by 9, and sometimes up at 2 or 3 a.m., so you could ask what's the difference... Energy is the difference. So I decided to give myself a week before I hop into my old routines.

I came back without energy but with plans to reorganize my sewing room and jump into several projects, hopefully this weekend.

Our primary reason for visiting Israel was to see our children, family and old friends. Dynamics have changed and change is always challenging. Aside from the children, family and old friends, I used this trip to meet "new" friends, of the internet and quilting variety. And came back energized and inspired.

So I'm jumping in with both feet and starting on a new quilt. It's based on a pattern in Karla Alexander's "Stack a New Deck". And it's special because I am using fabric from a robe I bought on the occasion of Inbal's birth (she'll be 35 in May...) and fabrics I've been collecting over the past two years in Perth, Toronto and Israel.

I started cutting up the fabrics (22 different patterns) this morning. I'm sure the piecing won't take more than a week or so, an hour here, an hour there. I'm excited. And I intend to quilt this one myself -- que sera sera.

I purchased all kinds of findings, ribbons, threads, stamps, etc. in Israel, received all kinds of the same from my new friends and hope to use them on my cq.

I also want to do a piece for the Pomegranate 25th anniversary exhibit. So I've got to get busy!!

I'll post my progress.