Blue Jeans and Buttons

Torn and faded blue jeans have been given a new lease on life by Judith Tinkl. To me these are no longer just slices of ripped denim, destined for the used clothing recycling bin, but have been turned in to lovely landscapes and architectural drawings, even maps.

Judith Tinkl's quilts and textile creations are not meant to keep you warm at night, although they could. They are meant to be displayed on the wall, and I think they are beautiful.

This one is called Oma, Opa, Obi and was stitched in 2011.

Post scheduled while I'm away this week.

Peculiar? Possibly

Not only is the outside of Viktor Tinkl's property fascinating... inside his "showroom" is just as quirky and different and rather morbid too. Lots of words can be used to describe his art.... peculiar, eccentric, unconventional, strange, bizarre.... they all fit.

Turn the wheel on the left on this device and the playing card skeletons come to life. Wish I had made a video of this.

Judith Tinkl is an accomplished quilt maker and textile artist and many of her works are on display along with her husband's weird and wonderful creations. Look closely at these pieces... what are they made of?

 A new use for surplus office supplies?

More photos to come. Post scheduled while I'm away this week.

Random This Week

Summer is coming to an end. It's been a "Back to School" week. My grandies all have new teachers who they seem to like. My Thursday Art Group is starting up again, Tuesday Line Dancing is back. It's still warm and sunny during the day, but nights are definitely chillier.

 A stunning sunset reflecting on storm clouds and a flock of Canada geese flying back to the pond where they roost for the night.

Here's Spidey: A huge spider (a bit out of focus, sorry!) who has been living on my geraniums for the past couple of weeks. It's been fascinating watching him (or her) repair the web each morning and every time an unfortunate fly or insect gets caught, he scurries over to the victim and wraps it up in spider web to save for dinner later.

A handmade quilt quoting the words of our national anthem, "O CANADA", by Canadian filmmaker and artist Joyce Weiland.  I saw many pieces of her work exhibited at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in the picturesque little town of Kleinberg, Ontario.

And the view from one of the windows at the McMichael. A painting in itself! The gallery is situated in ten acres of scenic wooded land with public trails through the trees. The building itself started as a four room log house built with salvaged pioneer hand hewn logs, but has since been enlarged, housing an extensive collection of Canadian art, including many works by the Group of Seven.

Stuff Sorted

I've been a really bad blogger recently, no excuses, I know. January and February weather does that to me. It has been a surprisingly mild winter, with not even one huge blogworthy snowstorm. And I haven't been to Florida, or Arizona, or anywhere hot to get away from Old Man Winter. But tonight the clocks "Spring Forward", the evenings will be longer and signs of Spring will start to appear. Hooray!

Stuff Sorted over the past few weeks:

1. YoungerSon, my techie genius, helped me change my internet provider to one that gives me 6 times more download room than I had before, and for a much lesser price. And he also set up getting rid of my expensive phone land line and connecting an internet phone. So far it's worked perfectly...... fingers crossed.
2. Finished making a multicolour baby/toddler quilt for a baby expected on May 1. No, not my family, but very dear friends are becoming grandparents for the first time. So exciting.
   
3. While I was in the sewing mood, I cut multicolour strips of leftover cotton quilting fabric, and started making another toddler quilt. Stay tuned for pictures.
4. Set up a weekly "Dinner Date" with the grandies who live just down the road from me. The 3 of them are always together, so they take it in turns once a week to come to Nana's house for dinner after school. It's good to have some one-on-one time with each of them, and they can't wait until it is their turn. Last week it was Isaac (6). Dinner was sausage, egg, chips (that's French Fries to the non-Brits) and Heinz baked beans (has to be the one with the green label) and ketchup.... mmmm gourmet dining.
5. Our Art Group has been asked to display paintings at the Town Offices.... there are about 30 paintings exhibited until March 31. The moo-cows are mine.
   
   
   
6. Grandie Callum celebrated being 8 years old by inviting 14 6 to 8 year olds to Laser Lounge for 2 games of laser tag. It was mayhem!  Warriors are divided into a red team and a green team, outfitted with vests with flashing lights in the appropriate colour, and given laser guns, and the battle is on! The battle ground is filled with smoke so the laser rays can be seen, and parents can watch through the window.... looked like so much fun creeping around shooting people that next time I want to play too. The kids ended up red faced and sweaty, but still had enough energy to consume 8 large pizzas and birthday cake in the shape of a Star Wars robot. 
7. Birthday parties weren't anything like that when I was 8.

Getting Creative

I've recently applied for a table to sell some of my Baby Quilts at the local Arts and Crafts sale to be held in November. It is the annual fundraiser for the town Art Gallery. I haven't been told if my work will be accepted yet, but now that summer's over (almost! it's still sunny and warm out there!) it's time to get back to the sewing machine.

Pretty pinks and white, just right for a sweet baby girl.  Just a couple more pinwheel blocks to sew and then I'll start putting it all together.

I love the combination of all these assorted blues, and the tiny red and yellow squares give it that "POP" that it needs.

The fabric collection is Ten Little Things by Jenn Ski for Moda Fabrics.  I love the owls.... and the trucks and traffic signs..... I wish I had more of this fabric!  It's just right for a baby boy.

These projects will show up on my Etsy shop as soon as they are completed.

Open for Business

New baby in your family? Check out my new Etsy Shop.... the link is on my sidebar to the right! I have some lovely handmade baby quilts for sale. And I take custom orders too. Tell all your friends.

Blogger Break!

When I'm going to be absent from blogging for a couple of weeks, I usually schedule some posts while I'm away, but not this time. I may be able to post on someone else's internet connection, but probably not. I'm going to concentrate on being on vacation instead.
So I'm adding some pictures of the baby quilts that I've been making.

Citrus

Candyfloss

Wonky Nine Patch

Sparkling Diamonds

Wonky Windows

 I'll be back with an account of my adventures in a couple of weeks!

Dolly Mixture

I've been making some baby quilts recently, and there is always a mixture of colourful fabric scraps leftover, and I hate to throw anything away if it could be useful, so I stitched some of the scraps together to make a little doll quilt.

Dontcha just love the backing fabric? It was a remnant at Fabricland. You'll have to click on the pic to see the details!

O Canada!

September

A pinch and a punch, the first of the month.
And No Returns! Of Any Kind!

Does that take you back to your school days? The first of the month was always a good excuse to pinch and punch and otherwise abuse your friends (and enemies) and if you said it before they did, they couldn't legally get you back until next month. The law of the school playground.

September's here. Labour Day is the last long weekend of the summer and school resumes on Tuesday. Bye bye summer. I'm always sad to see the summer go, but September is beautiful. The leaves start to turn to red and gold, and the evenings have that chilly bite that makes me dig out those sweaters I packed away in the spring.

This is the sky yesterday morning at 6:00.a.m. when the sun came up.... stunning!

This weekend I spent an afternoon at Sharon Temple. If you're interested in this elegant building's history, I blogged about it here.

It's open to the public all summer, and is the venue for a variety of open air concerts, recitals and arts and crafts shows. There's a penny carnival in July when all the games activities and competitions cost just a penny. (Note to self.... must remember that for next year!)

Last weekend, it was home to a 3 day quilt show held by the local Gwillimbury Quilt Guild.

The inside of the Temple was transformed into a colourful display of hand made quilts, beautifully lit by the sun streaming in the huge windows. I wandered round with my camera, recording the colour combinations and patterns, hoping to take home some inspiration for future projects.

When I had enough of quilt admiration, I got myself a coffee and a yummy lemon cranberry muffin from the coffee shop across the road, and relaxed on a shady bench under a huge 100 year old maple tree in the Temple grounds..... a lovely end to a sunny afternoon.

Another One!

The only one of my four (four! WOW!) grandchildren who didn't get a crib quilt made by Nana when he was born was Callum, so I had to remedy that ASAP. And here it is. It has his name and birthdate embroidered on the back, just like the others. And a message telling him that his Nana loves him.

I know, he's three and a half and doesn't need a crib quilt now that he's a Big Boy, but I just had to make one for him.
And I've enjoyed making these baby quilts so much that once I get going, I just can't stop.

So I went shopping and added to my fabric stash. (Fabricland had a sale!!!) Today I washed it all, ironed it and folded it, ready to start cutting. Watch this space for more quilts coming this way.

Scrappy

Lots of tiny scraps and strips were leftover from my recent baby quilts, plus I seem to have aquired more fabric than I need by rummaging through the remnant bins of the local fabric stores, so I created some placemats.

Crazy wild colours and my first attempt at freehand machine quilting... not entirely successful as my Singer is almost 45 years old and probably not really suitable. However, I'm learning.

I used metallic thread for the top quilting. Hard to work with, but it got easier as I got the hang of it. I found quite a few tutorials on the internet, e.g.: how to make perfect HSTs, and how to mitre the corners of the quilt binding.

The placemats weren't made with any specific patterns in mind, they just grew according to the scraps I had left. And it's amazing to me that they all ended up roughly the same size without a lot of planning.

My next project, now that my grandtwins have arrived, is to embroider the babies' names and birthdates on their quilts. And then I start on the next quilt!

Sew Sew Sew

A couple of months ago I got my faithful Singer sewing machine out of the cupboard where it had been gathering dust for a while, chose some colourful fabrics, found my quilting tools and started designing a baby quilt. The last quilt I made was for Isaac's arrival two years ago.

It's the sort of project that I love. My own design, my own choice of colours, and I can take as long as I want to make it. Here's the final design, photographed on my bedroom floor, while I stood on the bed.

And then I decided to make another one, this time in autumn colors. Again, photographed on my bedroom floor, you can see the toe of my not-so-elegant slipper!

The quilts were finally finished last week. They consist of the pieced top, a layer of soft cotton quilt batting, and the back of the quilt is a layer of one of the fabrics used in the quilt top. And to hold it all together, I machine quilted the three layers together.

The edge binding is sewn by machine on the front and then finished by hand on the back. The whole binding could be sewn by machine but I think the hand stitching is so much neater.

And there was a finishing touch that was made to the edge of each quilt.... well... not quite finished, a little bit more to add, but that will have to wait for a few more days....

Any guesses why I've been so busy? And why did I make TWO quilts? Hmmm....

One Of A Kind Show

The One Of A Kind Show happens in Toronto twice a year, at Easter and Christmas. I went with my neighbours yesterday. A very special place to do some Christmas shopping for unique handmade items.
Aisle after aisle of colourful well-stocked booths selling everything from tobogganing Christmas geese for your roof.....


....to a lifesize woodnymph emerging from a treetrunk, with driftwood hair blowing in the breeze.

Beautiful quilted table runners and placemats......


.... and gorgeous handmade quilts and teacosies, in vivid colours that lift your spirits and light your home with gladness.

Oh boy, I wish I was one of the rich'n'famous.... I'd buy one of everything!

And a special treat.... I met fellow blogger Shawn of Island Sweet in her booth. Shawn knits and spins in Newfoundland and creates beautiful handmade textiles and yarns. She told me she had sold all her stock, and was taking orders.... visit her at Island Sweet to see the gorgeous things she makes. Lovely to meet you at last, Shawn!

Bow Ties for a Special Boy

When The Bride knew that Baby Isaac was on the way (although we didn't know he was Baby Isaac back then), she asked me to make a special baby crib quilt. So she looked through my quilt books, chose a quilt pattern, and we went shopping. Fabricland here we come!

The baby's room is painted a lovely celery green and white, with dark brown baby furniture and accents, so this combination of fabrics was just right.

After lots of careful measuring and cutting, the quilt assembly began. The basic quilt block is called Bow Tie and consists of 4 squares, 2 of them with corners in contrasting colour, see the picture below.

These Bow Tie blocks can be sewn together to form lots of different geometric patterns, but after many rearrangements on hands and knees on the floor, and sketches going back and forth via the internet, we chose this layout.
This took 48 blocks, each containing 6 pieces of fabric.... that's 288 separate pieces, not counting the strips around the edge.

After the blocks are sewn together and pressed, the next task is to layer the pieced top with soft batting and the backing material, pin it securely, baste the layers together, and then sew through all the layers of fabric, emphasising the block pattern.

I love the cute little animals on the backing fabric.

And the finished product.... Ta Daaaa!

I've since embroidered Isaac's name and date of birth on the backing fabric.
He loves it!