Halloween 2010

I haven't carved a pumpkin for quite a few years. I think I'm going to start doing one every year, I forgot how much fun it is. I bought the clothes for this man at the thrift shop. He is stuffed with rolled up sheets, towels, quilt batting and polyester stuffing. There is a wooden stick shoved into the neck to hold the pumpkin on. He takes up quite a bit of room, so I put him under a table. I'll be able to use the body in future years, just put a new head on each time. Maybe he should have a girlfriend for next year.....

Baby Quilt

This is one of the first quilts I ever made, it's made in the "quilt as you go" method. I didn't know about using 100% cotton at the time, this one is made from polycotton. Just about 24 years ago, I started getting interested in quilts. I went to a quilt show put on by our local guild. They had a baby quilt raffle at the show, I wanted to win that quilt really bad because I was pregnant. I bought many tickets, but didn't win the quilt. I wasn't going to do without a baby quilt for my daughter, Lindsay, so I made the one that's in the picture. The rest is history, I don't know how many quilts I've made since then, I've never counted them.

Table Mat

My sister, Linda Huntrods made this table mat for me quite a few years ago. I stopped using it because I moved to a different place and the sun blasts into the kitchen. I didn't want the mat to get bleached out from the strong sunlight. I should find a different location for it. I learned my lesson about sunlight on quilts. I had a quilt on the wall one time and the sun faded it terribly and ruined it. Too much work goes into a quilt to let that happen to it!

Jacket

My sister, Linda Huntrods designed and this jacket for me. It has an Asian theme, I love Oriental type fabrics!

Halloween Wedding

My sister, Linda Huntrods made this fabric card as a gift for a family friend who got married on Halloween a few years ago. I think this is the coolest card ever!

I Don't Know What it's Called

This is a WIP (work in progress), I was experimenting with the stack and slash method, it's not big enough to be a quilt. I think i'll finish it the size it is and hang it up on the wall in my bedroom, it'll coordinate with the bright quilt on the bed. Sometimes I just like to try different blocks and colour arrangements to see what they would look like. That's why I have so many UFO's.

Table Runner

It's time to start making those Christmas gifts! I've made countless table runners over the years, this one's the only one I ever kept for myself. This is a good pattern for using up odds and ends of Christmas prints. I made a smaller version of it and donated it for a door prize when I had a memebership at Curves. They let me have a free month because of the donation, I thought that was nice.

Future Baby Quilt

This is a baby quilt top that I made a few years ago. It's made from 1930's reproduction fabrics. My quilt tops sit there and "ripen" for awhile before I get around to quilting them. I don't know of anybody who is going to have a baby, so there is no rush. It said on the news that in Canada, more people are not having children than are having them these days.
Maybe this baby quilt will end up being a lap quilt for a little old lady. That could work because I don't use baby type fabrics.

Mask

When I was up north this summer, I saw some cool masks made by First Nations people.
I thought it would be fun to try to make one, but I don't have any woodworking tools. I bought some packages of Sculpey and made this one just to try it. The Sculpey cracked in one spot when I was trying to get the crumpled foil out that I was using for a base while it was baking. I was just experimenting until I can get some tools for wood.

Quilt Made with "Tri Recs" Rulers

This quilt doesn't have a name, I made it with the Tri Recs set of rulers. They work great for making those long points on the stars. I call them the "Tri- Rectal
Tools", just to be silly. :D The fabrics in this quilt are all chicken themed, eggs and tone on tone chickens on the red and green. I made it to sell but nobody bought it, there it sits in my closet. I have given up trying to sell quilts, I'm just going to make them because I feel like it. They can pile up to the ceiling for all I care. The important thing is that I'm exercising my creativity. I feel like I'm wasting my life if I'm not being creative. The clock is ticking, I have to remain healthy in mind and body so I can continue making quilts until I'm 120 years old.
I've got too much fabric and too many ideas in my head to quit.

Hanging up a Quilt

This is a way to hang a quilt on the wall if there isn't much space. I was given this wooden hanger for a gift. Later on when I had my store, I got a carpenter to make some for me to sell. I think only one or two of them sold, then I had to give the rest of them away. I guess it was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" moments, which there were too many of. That's why the store went by the way of the dodo bird. I'll never go into the retail business again. If that ever crosses my path again, I'll set my hair on fire and run out the door! :D

Challenge Quilt

There was a challenge at a local quilt shop several years ago. We had to make a quilt using the fabrics supplied and could only use a small percentage of another fabric of our own. This was a really touch challenge because all the fabrics were of a medium tone, there was no contrast. It also had to have a theme "A Journey Through Time". The name of mine is "Waves of Coffee Through Time" I've included a picture of the label on the back.

Coming Along...

You know that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it".
Well, that's happened to me now. I was wishing I would have more time to sew. I switched over to a mobile internet stick at home because all I could get there was a horrible dial up connection. It turned out that the internet stick is too expensive to use, I exceeded my month's worth of usage in one day. Now I have to wait another month before I can go on it again. That means I'll have to do my blogging when I'm away working, using somebody else's computer. Now I have more time to sew at home because I can't use my computer! Funny how things work.
This is a picture of the quilt I've been working on, I showed one block a few posts ago. I don't think I'll put a border on it, just a few more rows of blocks to go.
This will make a good utility quilt, maybe for camping.

Nine Patch

I tried to post this yesterday, but the computer was in a snit and wouldn't put the picture on.
I don't think I've shown this quilt before, but if I have, please ignore.
When I had my store, the suppliers often sent three inch square samples. I kept all of them and made several quilts, also adding fabrics of my own. This quilt was a gift I made for somebody last Christmas.
I have umpteen bolts of fabric left from my store, but I keep choosing to make things with free sample squares, hehe! Waste not, want not, I suppose.

Another Quilt by Linda

This is another quilt made by my sister, Linda Huntrods, I don't know the name of the pattern.
I don't have too many more quilt pictures in my photo albums, but I've got lots of projects that I haven't taken pics of yet, I'll have to get my camera out.
It would be nice to have a longarm machine to finish up my 29+ UFO's and WIPs.
I wouldn't want to do quilts for customers, I have enough of my own to do :)
let's see, I could chuck everything out of the spare room to fit the machine in......

Maple Leaf

My sister, Linda Huntrods made this Maple Leaf quilt. At first, she was going to give this as a gift to ....., I won't mention any names. The quilt was a tremendous amount of work and she'd grown quite attached to it and wanted to keep it, so another quilt was made instead which was equally as nice. The quilt was given away to this person, there was no thank you, not one word was ever mentioned about it. It was like the quilt disappeared into the great abyss. I guess some people just don't appreciate the months of work, the big cost of fabric and supplies and the good thoughts that go into making a quilt. It would have been better if the woman gave the quilt back to Linda, saying "sorry, quilts aren't my thing, I don't want it"
At least in that case, it wouldn't end up in the landfill or be put in a garage sale or whatever possibly happened with it. That's my rant for the day :)

Oxymoron

We had a challenge in our guild one time to make a quilt that was based on an oxymoron. That was a fun challenge, I'd like to do it again sometime. There are endless oxymorons to use as subject matter.
This is the one my sister, Linda Huntrods made, it's called "Genuine Imitation".
It's made entirely of polyester fabrics.
I need to have a time stretcher so I can make projects of all the ideas I have in mind. Work seriously cuts into my creative time! Now I'm thinking of more oxymorons, hmmmm......

Finally!

I waited for more than a month for the mobile internet stick to arrive from Virgin Mobile. It never did show up, so I got fed up and bought one from Telus instead.
Why would a large company like Virgin be so slack with their orders? They won't remain successful if that's how they treat their customers! I was so tired of the extremely slow dial up connection that I didn't want to fight with it anymore, that's why I didn't post for so long. I'm happy with the stick from Telus, but it's going to be very expensive to use, I used my limit of MB for a month in only the first day. I'll have to try to do most of my blogging when I'm working away from home. It's a pain in the butt no matter how you look at it.
Anyway, here is what I've been working on- a quilt made entirely of 2 1/2" squares, it's just about half done. I'll send pics of its progress. It's very scrappy, I started using a bagful of squares that were already cut, then I just keep cutting more to add to them.