Arkison in Australia

So, I went to Australia for 2 weeks. It was rather incredible. My first, but hopefully not my last time! Enjoy a quick slide show of my trip. I was there to teach at a couple of amazing events organized by The Creative Retreat. Jules did everything to create a space for action, imagination, creativity, and laughter. More on the creativity in another post.  A few highlights:

... I had no idea how fitting it was that one of the first images I would see would be a sheep photoshoot in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House. You cannot even imagine the number of sheep in Australia.

... After a morning in Sydney and sleeping off my jet lag in Canberra we went on the road to our first retreat location: Kangaroo Valley. A glorious spot among farms, Fitzroy Falls, and creating by the fireplace. 

... The birds! I never thought of myself as a birdwatcher, but now I am totally obsessed. To see a million different kinds of parrots, rosellas, cockatoos, plus kookaburras was phenomenal. Then to spot and hear the unique Lyre bird was mind blowing. I am totally obsessed with birds now.

... After Kangaroo Valley we made our way towards Melbourne, stopping in country towns where I was introduced to the pie shops, RSLs, old buildings, and what counts as mountains in Australia. Road tripping is awesome, my favourite.

... 48 hours in Melbourne! A city I really would like to explore more. They care about architecture and public art in a way I've never seen before. We ate well, we played with Leslie at Maze and Vale (that's a whole other post), and visited Jen Kingwell at Amitie Textiles.

... The second retreat was in Point Lonsdale. The ocean!!! Long time readers know how I love the ocean, no matter which ocean or where. There I was taking my morning walks along the Pacific, but seeing the sun rise over it instead of set. Mind blowing. And, of course, I went for a swim! How could I not? Such a lovely location and another group of hysterical and creative women.

... More roadtripping and then the long flight home. (Right after that last photo Nicole Kidman walked by.)

Such a amazing experience and I am forever grateful to this job. These sorts of trips are so appreciated and I get as much out of them as my students. Their work, commitment, and creativity is inspiring. Thanks Jules, for making this all happen!

Molehills

Molehills

60'' x 75''

A long belated wedding present. One of those quilt tops that had been sitting around without a home to go to. My husband declared that I need to make a quilt for a wedding present for an old friend. So we went through my Quilts Under Construction list and he picked one for me to finish. It was quite the perfect choice because our friend is quite gregarious/outgoing and this is a bold quilt!

This quilt was initially started as an experiment. I wanted to play with improv curves and some layering techniques. The experiment was a success and this quilt came together in a day of sewing. Seriously, it was so fast. 

And now, I teach the technique in my Improv Curves class.

A bit of rented time on the long arm got this quilt finished quickly. Just loops all over to give texture, but not take away from the bold fabrics and colours. I used a turquoise thread - a variegated turquoise in 50wt from Wonderfil.

The binding is a scrappy turquoise one. Most of the fabrics are from the quilt itself. And this time I hand finished it, my favourite way. The wedding was last summer so the deadline had long passed!

One thing I am good at when it comes to gifting quilts is making labels and actually getting them on. (Not so much on quilts that live in my home.) So on a sunny morning the day we were meeting our friend I stitched down the label made on my computer. Sometimes I do this raw edge running stitch. Sometimes I needle turn the edges. That day I had no thimble and this label fabric is thick, so in the interest of not bleeding all over the quilt, I went with the former.

As for the name, I give credit to my kids. I held up the quilt for the family and they threw out a lot of names related to hills. Molehills jumped out because of the expression "Don't make mountains out of molehills." It is sage marriage advice. 

Orange is for Nerds

ORANGE IS FOR NERDS

84'' BY 84''

As my son's 4th birthday approached in March I frantically tried to get his special orange quilt done in time to celebrate. For one, he'd been asking for it and was being remarkably patient for a maniac his age. Two, I really wanted to surprise him with this gift, especially because I hadn't made him his own quilt yet. Finally, a quilt is a not a toy to add to the clutter in the house.

Unfortunately, I never got it finished in time for his birthday. However, by not trying to keep it a secret I could pull it out when he was awake and actually get it done. Bonus, he helped me attach the binding to the quilt. Memories built right in.

The quilt started as samples for a Scrapper's Delight class. That is a pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts and was written by Amanda Jean. The same fabric then became a variety of log cabins and was used for more samples for my Improv Log Cabin class. I still have all the other samples, but stuck with the quarter log cabins in this quilt. 

To make this many blocks I cut up a whole bunch of strips in oranges, greens, yellows, and low volume prints with those colours plus blue and black. It was a bit of a hot mess on the days I sewed, with strips and trimmings flying everywhere. I would chain piece, often 7 blocks at a time. It took me 3-4 hours to get all seven blocks done - there is a lot of piecing in there. Each block was squared up at 12.5'' by 12.5''. There are 49 of them in the quilt. If there was a bit at least 1'' wide after squaring up I used those as a strip in another block. It provides great dimension and movement in an already busy quilt.

It's a bit large for my boy's double bed, but that just means there is plenty of overhang and snuggling room. And something tells me that there will come a time in his life where this quilt seems small.

I waited until Carkai from Carolyn Friedlander was released because I wanted the Bones print in this blue for the backing. Nothing else would do. The whole thing is simply quilted with an improvised grid (meaning: I didn't mark) in Aurifil 2235 - pretty much an impossibly perfect orange. The grid was easy with my walking foot. With such a scrappy design there was no point in doing detailed quilting that would only get lost in the fabrics. 

Orange is my son's favourite colour. We think we know why too. My husband has a great orange jacket (so does my daughter, actually). The first couple of times the kids commented on his jacket he always responded with, "Orange is for nerds!". Now it is a family joke. This all started as my boy was learning to speak so he got in on it from the get go. So now it is his favourite colour and the quilt has its name.

Not sure how often he'll be pulling his quilt off the bed for slides at the park, but it sure was fun to do this with a friend for a photo! As soon as we came home he had me spread it out on his bed, ready for nap time.

Sherbet, Take 2

Last month I had the privilege of teaching at Quilt Canada. This is the national event of the Canadian Quilters' Association. I've already spoken about

my amazing experience in my Improv class

, but I also had the chance to teach my Sherbet quilt.

Sherbet is a quilt from

A Month of Sunday

s

. It is a straightforward quilt design, but it takes a few steps to get there. Strip piecing, cutting, sewing together, long strips. A day wasn't nearly enough to get the whole top together, unfortunately. But my students sewed and sewed and cut and cut. I pressed for them and cut for them (I'm a hands on teacher!). And we chatted all day. I had a lot of fun, I hope they did too.

The quilt that I cut is destined for one of my nephews. He's a bright, energetic kid who loves colour. So we went quite the opposite of low-volume for him. Not to toot my own horn, but this just goes to show that just because the quilts in the book are low-volume, it doesn't mean you have to stick to low-volume fabrics to make them yours. Turn it up!

Check out the fabric choices and work of my students.

This one is destined to be a king sized bright and pretty version. We played with the math of the pattern to size it up, making the columns a bit longer and adding some. But I can't wait to see a finished top from this!

My modern quilter in the group had an amazing fabric selection for her quilt, paired with this grey. The longer I am in the industry the more excited I get when I see people using friends' fabric in quilts. She had so many fun fabrics and the purple, navy, pale blue, and grey combo was dreamy.

Bright fabrics in candy colours with a pale blue background. This comes very close to my original inspiration for this quilt. I saw a store window from a cab. I couldn't say exactly what was in the window, but the bright colours hanging down are what caught my imagination.

I am a total sucker for a green and white quilt. That's why there is one in

Sunday Morning Quilts

and one in

A Month of Sundays

. Needless to say I was thrilled when this student started her quilt! What a great version of the design.

Sherbet is a bold quilt. It isn't difficult so you get great impact for straightforward techniques. But it takes a bit of time. Now that I have all my fabric cut, I just need to sit down and sew. That's the best part anyway!