Fairy Tale Wedding Quilt

Heidi brought me this lovely quilt top she had made for her niece.

The niece is living in Switzerland, and she and her husband had a "destination wedding" in Tuscany or Provence (I can't remember exactly which).  They rented a whole resort/castle/winery estate where all their family gathered to celebrate their union.  Wow!  Talk about being blown away!

Vineyards surrounding the Estate

Heidi had made this quilt with photos from the wedding, using a Stonehenge fabric to represent the stone architecture, and fabric with grapes on it representing the surrounding vineyards. 

The photos themselves were gorgeous, the bride and groom so happy!  A wedding to remember!

Because I couldn't quilt over the photos, I had to be careful not to overquilt it.  You can see I chose to "frame" the photos, and place some curly vines in between.

The quilt was completed in time to send to Switzerland in time for their 1st Anniversary!

International Quilt Festival of Ireland, Here I Come!

If you hadn't already noticed, there is a button on the right in the sidebar, that invites you to come to Ireland with me!

This is my story.

I've been a subscriber to Quiltposium Magazine http://www.quiltposium.com/  for a few years now.  Sew Many Places offers all sorts of trips around the world, specifically for Quilters, and I would drool and dream over them, as I read through this excellant free online publication.  Not to mention the interesting people featured, quilt patterns and recipes that were shared.  With most issues being around 200 pages, it often took me days to get through all the information!

the Quilter's Castle!

Anyways, in last Winter's issue, I learned about Jim West's latest project, the International Quilt Festival of Ireland, and there was an advertisement, asking if anyone was interested in being a tour escort.  It lit a fire in me, and I couldn't get it out of my mind and I finally decided "oh, what the heck" and I sent them an email.

I promptly forgot all about it till I received an email from them this summer, after the first Festival had been ruled a success, (even with the few glitches experienced, being their first year).  After a week of deliberation, I decided to join the team of escorts to my first visit to Ireland in June 2013!

Cliffs of Moher

My tour is a 9-day one, which includes 2 days at the 3-day International Quilt Festival, where we will view several different Quilting Exhibits, and have the opportunity to take classes from some high-profile quilters and shopping at the Quilter's Market!  How exciting is that!  That is my idea of fun!

But the fun just begins when we start touring around Ireland, seeing some of the historical sights and castles we've only heard about, the wonderful landscapes and experiencing the Irish hospitality.

A perfect trip to combine our love of quilting with that of travelling, and meeting like-minded people from all over the world.

Kylemore Abbey

To learn more, just "click" on the link in the sidebar, and it will take you to the International Quilt Festival website.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I'm counting down the days!

I've been tagged!

Sam, from The Quilting Curve http://quiltingcurve.blogspot.ca/2012/11/tag.html has tagged me! Normally, this would cause me to hit the DELETE button, but since I've been in a blogging funk lately, I decided to have fun with it!

These are the rules:
-Every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves.
-The person who tagged you asked 11 questions over at their blog. Answer these questions in your post
-Ask 11 questions of the people that you tag (any quilting blogger with under 200 followers)
-Mention the person who tagged you (but for heaven's sake, don't tag them back!)

So, here goes: 11 things about me:

1) I am married to an incredibly talented man, a jack of all trades, a dying breed!
2) I have two handsome, amazing young sons aged 23 and 25, living on their own, with jobs, of whom I'm very proud, but I still worry about them, in this hi-tech age and all the distractions that come with it (games, texting, videos, and mind-numbing tv shows to name a few).
3) I've been quilting for about 21 years, and longarm quilted for others for 6 or 7 years.
4) I like to do other crafts such as crochet, rug-hooking, paint furniture, and mosaic.
5) I like the outdoors, gardening, hiking, biking, kayaking, camping and cross-country skiing.
6) I am 50 years old and been married for 26 years.
7) I like old stuff, especially family heirlooms, things hand-crafted, and hand-made, they speak to me of my past, where I come from, and those who came before me.
8) I love chabby chic style of decorating, lots of white with pastel accents.
9) I like to travel. My first trip was to Tijuana Mexico and Disneyland with my parents when I was 12 years old. At 16, I went on an Educational Cruise around the Mediterranean Sea on a school ship, complete with dormitory's and classrooms. I've been to New England a few times to visit my sister-in-law. My sister and I went to Cuba last year, and had fun laying on the beach.
10) At the time of writing, I have 2 border collie dogs and one tortoiseshell cat. Bailey, the eldest dog is 17 years old, and her days are numbered. I said goodbye to our 17-1/2 year old tabby cat earlier this year.
11) I love going to garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores, searching for treasures!

a TV stand I just finished this week

Sam, here is a before photo, it started out as a new, unfinished piece .

My answers to questions asked of me:

Q-Did you have an artistic background leading up to quilting?
A- No. I just took up sewing clothing for myself as a teen, and made my first quilt at 17 years of age from scraps. I still have it!

Q-What would you change about your quilting/studio space?
A- Not much at this time. I just moved into it a couple of years ago, and it is a good size already. It is my "public" sewing space, and I still have a private sewing space in the laundry room, that's where I keep my stash under lock and key!

Q-If you could describe your quilting style in one word, what would that word be?
A- QuickAndEasy for the moment, need to use up some fabric.

Q-How many UFO's do you have?
A-Too many! I am good at starting projects, but not good at finishing them! 15 might be a good guess.

Q-What inspires you to quilt?
A-Photographs of nature, others quilts, sayings and quotations that would make a good quilt name....

Q-What kind of information quilt-wise, have you had trouble finding on the internet?
A-Nothing, really, the internet has way more info than I can use!

Q-What is your favorite organization technique? (quilt-wise)
A- Organized?  Who, me?  My peg board. I can hang up alot of tools, they are visible and accessable.

Q-What colour would you like to paint in your quilting/studio space?
A-Pink and black

Q-If you could visit any country or place, where would you go?
A-Russia. That is where my ancestors are from.

Q- What is your favorite meal right now?
A- Anything with Tomatoes, Spinach and Feta!

Q-Where do you buy your fabric?
A- Ouch! I've been behaving myself lately, but I do love shopping online from the States. (Head hanging down in shame) And locally at Flamingo Quiltworx http://flamingodebra.wordpress.com/


Okay, so that is it, folks! Since I do not want to torture anyone else by tagging them individually, anyone who reads this post and has a blog, consider yourself tagged if you want to! And just use the same questions I had! Leave me a comment with your blog address, so I can read what you've written!

Happy Blogging!

It's Been A Long Time.....

Well, I suppose some of you are wondering if I dropped off the face of the Earth or something!

I got busy and stopped writing posts, and I missed reading yours, too!  So, I have alot of catching up to do!

When life gets too busy, something has to give, and I guess blogging had to drop off my plate.  But I'm going to attempt to get back at it, as I've missed seeing what you all have been up to, and getting inspired by all your amazing projects, and being jealous of all that you accomplish!  (I'm speaking to the fellow bloggers out there). 

And I've missed not keeping in touch with my other followers and supporters, whom I've receieved much encouragement from.

I've got a year's worth of client quilts I still want to show off, as it has been a priviledge to be a part of their completion, and I'm so proud of my customers!  I just have to show off their work. 

Since this summer, I have considerably down-sized my business, choosing to semi-retire from custom quilting.  I have felt the need to try to simplify my life, and get back to the basics, having time for my retired husband, who likes the freedom of just picking up and going somewhere, to spending time finishing my own projects and exploring a few more out there. 

So, wish me luck, and hope to hear from all my friends out there!

Antique Wholecloth

My friend Ineke brought me this antique quilt top to do for her sister Rita. She and another sister had trimmed it up and put the borders onto it

It was gifted to Rita, so little is know about it, but after examining it, I could see that it was very well hand-appliqued, with the tiniest of stitches.  There were some also less-pretty stitches, indicating that another person had also contributed some time to the work.

If you think this is a machine satin-stitch, look again!

And from the back you could see part numbers, printed on the cloth, showing where the pieces were to go.  Obviously, this was a kit quilt.
 











It was a great opportunity for me to practice some wholecloth designing and quilting, which was a challenge, yet quite an enjoyable experience.

I used a water-soluable blue marker to mark the quilting designs.  I love the way the quilt quilted up, and how nice it looked on the frame, but because of the amount of blue marker used, it needed a washing, and then it became the antique it really was!

We used a bamboo batting .

Rock 'N Roses Quilt

I made this quilt for my niece, supposedly for her graduation, which was last June, but she only took ownership of it a couple of days ago, while she watched me put the last stitches into it.

 I used a Rock 'N Roses panel from Northcott Fabrics, and a few of the coordinating fabrics.

 

I made an error into an opportunity.  I needed to insert the big black spaces in the center ends in order for the borders to fit properly, so I used that space for some freehand curls.  I loved the way the Rainbow threads stood out against the black.