Fabric Dyeing - Flour Paste Resist

In our January fabric dyeing class we did flour paste resist. I loved the crackle effect you get and can see these fabrics being used in landscape quilts.  I tried it on both white dyers cloth and a piece I had previously dyed a mottled orange.

A mixture of flour and water is made into a paste and brushed onto the fabric and allowed to dry overnight

After the flour dries then you scrunch up the fabric to create cracks in the flour.

My friend Jan is now applying the thickened dyes to the crackled fabric

Burgandy thickened dyes used on this mottled orange piece

Chino thickened dye used on white fabric then over dyed using stormy grey

Stay tuned.....today I have been having too much fun doing some snow dyeing.  I will post the results tomorrow.

Time Flys!!

It's hard to believe we are heading into the second week of February.  I had great intentions of sharing all of my projects that I made for Christmas and those ongoing into January. I think I will just bite the bullet and share them all at once to get myself and you up to date on what's been happening.  January usually is a slow month - but not this one.  Between putting our house up for sale in Ottawa (and having to keep it pristine clean YUK - would rather be quilting), taking classes, giving classes and keeping up with customer quilts time just fly’s very quickly!

My niece Jocelyn and her Christmas quilt

My niece Gillian and her Christmas Quilt



My son Robert and his T-Shirt Quilt

In my fabric dyeing course we did some Shibori.  I made scarves for all my sister-in-laws, sister and mom.  Here they are showing them off....



My sister-in-laws, Frances, Susan and Pleasance



Tree of Life Quilt

I fell in love with this quilt. It's out of Edyta Sitar's book Friendship Triangles. The quilt is square - honest - it's just the perspective of where it is hung. I would have to be 7 feet tall to get it to show correctly. I made it out of my stash of batiks and used Eleanor Burns fabulous Half Square Triangle Ruler. It has raw edge appliqué - which I didn't stitch down until I loaded in on my longarm quilting machine which was great because I was able to save a step and I did not have all of that extra stitching on the quilt.

I will be teaching this quilt at The Country Quilter, starting February 26th http://thecountryquilter.ca/

Check out my teaching schedule for more upcoming classes.

Exciting News for 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year and all the best in 2011.

There has been quite a bit happening in our household of late. New challenges and opportunities in 2010, and many more to come in 2011.

As many of you know my husband Sam and I have been toying with the idea of retiring in British Columbia and in the past couple of months this idea has come to fruition. On December 3rd we put in an offer on a beautiful lake view home in Summerland, British Columbia and to our delight the offer was accepted. We are both looking forward to having coffee on the deck overlooking the vineyards, orchards and Okanagan Lake to watch the morning sun come up over the mountains. Life does not get any better then this.

The move is not planned until the summer as our daughter is to graduate high school in June and then she plans on taking the Nursing program at UBC Okanagan.  

My quilting machine will be moving with me to British Columbia and I have a new studio especially waiting for me – very exciting. I will continue to offer my quilting services and have had many requests from my customers in the Ottawa area to mail their quilts to me for quilting. I am in the process of setting up mail order quilting. So please stay tuned to my Blog for further updates.

In the meantime I will be quilting up to the bitter end....The movers will need to pry the machine out of my hands.

In celebration of the New Year and our new home I would like to offer a discount of $25.00 to you on your next quilting project booked by February 15th, 2011. Please call or email to reserve your spot.

It’s been a pleasure and honour to quilt your quilts for you and I hope to be able to continue to do so in the future.

Thank you for all your support.

Barb

Happy Holidays!!

I would like to extend my warmish wishes for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

It's been a crazy few months - hence the lack of updates.  Customer quilts have been flying off the quilting machine (a few of mine too - shhhhh) and I am finally all finished and ready for Christmas. Well almost - there are a few gifts yet to purchase - so I am sending out my husband, Santa Sam to get the last few for under the tree.  Thank goodness for him - I am dead on my feet and am looking forward to the break over the holidays.

It's been quite a year and I look forward to new adventures and challenges in 2011.  Please stay tuned for all the exciting news to follow.

Liberated Strip Piecing

This past weekend I took a class with Elaine Quehl on Liberated Strip Piecing.  Rotary cutters but NO rulers allowed.  It was fun to step out of my comfort zone.  I used my hand dyed fabrics from my Dye Happy class and I am very pleased with the results.  It's nice starting a new project and finishing it in two days!!!

Check out Elaine's website (http://www.elainequehl.blogspot.com/ ) and Blog (http://www.elainequehl.blogspot.com/) for more on this class and hand dyed fabrics.

Woven Wall Hanging

I would like to share one of my wall hangings that I completed this year.  I took a class at Machine Quilters Expo in Rhode Island back in April with Debbie Travino.  The wall hanging has a woven background and is based on Anna Faustino's book "Simply Stunning Woven Quilts".  The flower petals are individual silk petals sewn on in layers.  These petals are from Bella Nona - http://www.bellanonnaquilt.com/  Ann at The Country Quilter also has some in stock for those of you in the Ottawa area.

I will be teaching this class May 14th, 2011 for The Ottawa Quilters Guild.