New Blogger Blog Hop

So I've been taking part in this New Blogger Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Beth at Plum and June. And this is my week. So far, the experience has been great. Thanks to everyone that has been involved and to Beth for putting this on!

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to write about for my post for the hop. I'm so bad about introductions. I always feel like I'm filling out an online dating profile or something. I like long walks on the beach, etc. (um, actually long walks on the beach sounds really nice). And I do have an 'about me' page on my blog (so I feel like I'm covered, um, kind of).

But here's something that is maybe new to you (whether you've been here before or not). I'm a little bit of a an academic (I can hear the doubt and snorts of derision now, but its true). Books and information are like food to me (and libraries give me this little high- I shouldn't be allowed into them). In fact, I've noticed that most quilters are highly educated highly intelligent people.

That being that, the origin of my quilting journey actually started long ago with my study of the origin of all goodness- fabric (well, textiles as a more encompassing term). I had almost forgotten about it. It almost seems like a different life now (kids will do that to you). I even forgot that I have a bin of fabric that I collected in India- a stash before I even knew I had a stash (or even used the word)!

Celebrating a local god in India, Tamil Nadu

I spent two tours of duty, so to speak, in India researching and studying textiles/fabric.

Left to right: Hallway of temple in Tamil Nadu, Taj Mahal, and a holy man, or sadhu (who wanted me to take his picture)

This is the place to buy fabric. It's like one of the birthplaces of weaving and textiles and cotton- lots of cotton.

Wall of fabric, silk sari (modelled by a man), and a bunch of local women buying saris (it's a group decision)

I studied the social and economic aspects of saris (the local dress) and spent sometime researching the handlooming industry of India. I even co-curated a museum exhibition on textiles from around the world. Someday I have to write about it all (other than the papers and theses I've already written about it).

Handloom workshop in India. All the looms are recessed into the floor.

So I have more background in fabric than I would ever remember to admit.

And I would call myself an artist before I would call myself a quilter (or academic). You can read about the transition from a paint media to quilting here (and see the reason why the boys are part of the blog).

From left to right: Mini quilt,  first quilt ever

Star Wars quilt

I haven't completed many quilts yet. I like to say I'm into the slow sewing movement (like the slow food movement, but with sewing), but it's usually not by choice (hence the 'boys' added to the name of this blog).

Wedding quilt

From left to right: Melodie's quilt, Feathers quilt

Currently I'm working on a double wedding ring quilt for my brothers wedding. Never mind I have relatively new quilting skills and no experience with sewing curves. But I like to jump into things like that. I mean if you're going to do it, man... just really do it (for better, or for worse, this seems to be my mantra).

 

Lastly, here's my one little bit of knowledge that I will leave you with (gleaned from all those years researching, studying, etc). Ikat (pronounced ee-cot), is a term that often connotes a certain design. But ikat is really a technique, where the warp threads (ones that run up and down) and the weft threads (ones that run across) are dyed before they are woven together. The result is patterns and designs that are slightly feathered on the edges (because it's pretty hard to match up the threads when weaving them). Real ikat material will look the same on the back and the front (and usually costs more because it requires more skill to achieve).

Ikat sari from India

And now you are a little bit smarter and can carry on to visit all the rest of the awesome bloggers that are taking part in this hop!

Elli @ Lovelli Quilts

Sharon @ Motherdragon's Musings

Cynthia @ Cynthia's Creating Ark

Sally @ Wonky Patchwork

Bee @ Pink Almond Quilt

Debbie @ Quilting Makes My Heart Sing

Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

Karen @  Capitola Quilter

Marcie @ Marcie's Quilt Therapy

Jane @ Jersey Jane Quilts

Q3 FAL list

So, I thought maybe that I wouldn't do a list this quarter for the 2014 Finish Along hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle. After all, in the last quarter of the year I only managed one finish.

But then I changed my mind. I need some motivation some accountability (and more time. Always more time.)
So in true 'Jehnny' form, it's a big list (I might have been an overachiever in school):

1. The sunnyside quilt. Finish top, finish quilt!! How can I be so close and yet so far away?

2. The triangle quilt (you'll notice I have very creative names for my quilts, haha). All it needs is a baste and a quilt. BASTE and QUILT! (sorry, I feel like a gym coach all of a sudden).

3. Double wedding ring quilt. Why does it seem like I'm doing a flipping wedding quilt every quarter? This one is for my brother. But if finishing this means my bro is married and out of my parents house, I'll do it (um, I'd do two, or three..).

Modern bargello. It's coming, I just keep getting interrupted... by things... and little people... and things.

Ok, actually that's it. Really not a big list (guess I lied).

I could add more. I should add more, but really my goal is to finish more than I did last time (which won't be hard. I think I can top one. I REALLY hope I can top one).

Here's to more finishes and to winning prizes (which I haven't yet- seriously people stop finishing things and give me a chance)! If you'd like to join, you have like a few hours until the link up closes. Head over to The Littlest Thistle and get sewing!

Hang Your Head in Shame- FAL Q2 Reckoning

Actually it should be 'hang my head in shame' because this is where I tell you all the wonderful things that I accomplished from the Finish Along with Katy at The Littlest Thistle for the second quarter.

Um... well... not much. In fact, just one. One measly finish (see the list here).

 
I could tell you all the reasons why, but do you really want to hear me complain more than I probably already do. The funny thing is, I did finish quite a few things, I just didn't work on any of the projects I was suppose to.

The Star Wars quilt is my one finish. I already did a post on it (here), but to make myself feel like I did something I'm posting it again.

It's gone through quite a few washings now and I'm happy (and a little surprised) to say that the stitching has held together. I'm probably most proud of this quilt because of the back.

I came up with my own pattern for the Death Star and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (despite all the cursing I did while piecing the sucker. And honestly, when I say cursing I mean a lot of "for Pete's sake" cause that is my cursing- because I'm just one of those people who can't curse well. I've tried, real swear words just sound ridiculous coming out of my mouth. People laugh when I swear. Well, people laugh when I say "for Pete's sake" too so...).

Anyway, the quilt is loved. Here's hoping the next few months are more productive!

And linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts!

Wedding Ring WIP (and other stuff)

So with a new month came the start of a new quilt. My brother is getting married in a month and I had planned on making him and his soon-to-be wife a double wedding quilt. I had seen the one by Victoria Findlay Wolfe  and loved it, so I wanted to make a similar one for my brother (unfortunately for me, her book on double wedding ring quilts doesn't come out until next year).

This is it so far as I got ( I apologise in advance for the photos in this post. They seem really blurry to me, but I can't seem to fix them. My husband keeps telling me we need a new monitor, maybe he's right this time :)

I didn't get much finished on it yesterday as it was Canada Day and we spent the day out at the Millarville Races.  It's kind of a country fair with a farmers market, combined with some horse races. If you've never had the experience of feeling and hearing a horse thunder past you at a million miles per hour, you should, it's something else that's for sure.

My kids rode the mechanical bull, petted goats, lambs, pigs, bunnies and chicks forever, and participated in the kid races. But by far the biggest draw was the big pile of dirt that was loaded with money for kids to dig in(in Canada our $1 and $2 denominations are in coin form). I swear they spent hours digging through that pile planning their retirement (they found two nickels).

It was about then that I wanted to be back home sewing. After all a month is not that long. I managed to finish some of the improv pieced fabric that I will use for the quilt. I keep second guessing the fabric choices and changing how I'm piecing it all together. The pile of material I pulled was enormous and gradually some of it has been axed.

I'm a little nervous as to how this is all going to come together. Hopefully there will be enough cohesive fabric to give it some unity. I'm already working with more black than I ever have before.
I also gave in and bought double wedding ring templates (instead of making my own cheap cardboard ones. It just about destroyed my inner cheap side to do so). But I have to tell you I already love them. They are going to make cutting so much easier (and probably more accurate as well).

And not everything is in the midst of chaos and cutting. I did manage to make some more pouches (seriously I need an intervention) and a snappy manicure case for my sister's birthday.

I am in love with the pattern I made for the arrows. And Essex Yarn Dyed linen in Flax goes so well with Anna Maria Horner prints (just saying).

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and

Mini Finish

The beginning of my week was this- don't worry this isn't a post about food.

I was hosting and doing all the food for a bridal shower for a family friend. I was in the kitchen for two days prepping and cooking and setting up and... and..

And I thought I'd never get to my sewing machine, but here it is!

So the mini quilt that I am doing for the swap is done! Hurray!

It measures 23.5" x 25 3/4", which means the one side is a little longer than the 24x24" maximum size allowed, but I figure if you average out all the sides then it comes out pretty close. I wasn't about to make those little triangles any smaller, I'll tell you that.

I'm not even going to tell you all the problems I had with this quilt (yes, I will). You'd think that a mini quilt would mean that there are less things to go wrong.

Wrong.

It was mostly the quilting. I couldn't decide (surprise, surprise) how to quilt it. So I started with circles, and didn't like those, so I unpicked it all (well, I should say that I didn't like the way I did the circles. Or, no, actually it's my machine... yeah, my machine does terrible circles).

Then I tried some straight line stitching, and ended up unpicking all of that (all in all, there was a lot of unpicking going on). I ended up quilting it pretty organically, in other words, I just did what I felt like. There's some symmetry, but not much.

I finished it off with a scrappy binding. I hand stitched the binding on (I can hear the collective gasps of disbelief now). There was no blood, but I did manage to stick the needle up underneath my thumb nail a couple of times (don't ask how...it's me and needles, it just happens). Anyway, it looks way better than when I machine bind my quilts (the fault of my horrible machine again of course).

I included some pockets on the corners so that it be hung easily. I put pockets on all the corners, just in case the recipient likes to hang it one way or the other. 

Most of the material is Denyse Schmidt with some Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry thrown in (because I can't help myself when it comes to AMH).

Anyway, I'm now off to host and organize a party for seventy kids at the church today.

Party at the beginning of the week, party at the end- it's how we roll around here!

Linking up: Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF

Mini Quilt WIP and Triangle Tips

So I decided that I would do this mini quilt swap. The Schnitzel and Boo swap.

I've never done a swap before (not even swapping gum with my best friend in middle school/junior high. Did you? Really? Haha, gross, or you loved your best friend way more than me. Although, I have to say that if my best friend needed gum and I was chewing some, she got half. Gross, yes. So I might not be a swapper, but definitely a giver. Don't want your germs, but I'll for sure give you mine).

Anyway, so I decided to do the swap (not the gum, the mini quilt). Along with, I think, like 600 other people. So far, so fun. My swap partner- that is, the person I am giving to- likes Denyse Schmidt and hexagons (that's all I'll tell you in case I give my partner away). Um, I have never bought any material from that designer before and I'm kind of a lazy quilter, so hexes are not my sort of party.

So I got some Denyse Schmidt (ha, always a reason to buy fabric) and then decided I'd do hexes via triangles. That way no y-seams, no applique, no English paper piecing (I have strong thoughts on English paper piecing... and so do you, so we will just leave it at that).

I've done a triangle quilt before (see here, it's still sitting waiting to be basted and then quilted...still). I always just make my own triangle templates. That way I can control the measurements and type of triangle (I tend to go isosceles, not equilateral. And let's be blunt, scalene is just absurd- poor thing will never make it into a quilt).

I used Adobe Illustrator to make my template this time, although I have used good ol' paper and pencil and they still seem to work just fine. Illustrator can measure your object for you, so as I draw a triangle I can see how big it is. Then it is just a matter of printing it actual size, cutting it out, and pasting it to a cereal box for some stability and thickness. I leave a quarter inch around the template to account for seam allowance. I guess I could do this in Illustrator, but it's just as easy to do it on the cutting table. While I'm making my triangle, I also fill it with smaller triangles. This gives me the template for a smaller triangle that I can use in my design also.

I was going to try and create an isometric grid so that I could design the little quilt in Illustrator, but then I found this website which tells you how to create an isometric grid yourself. It also provides you with a PDF that you can import into your photoshop/illustrating programs, or print out and use good ol' pencil crayons to colour in your design.

I just printed it out and drew in the design. I had planned to make some of the hexagons smaller, but, well, I'm lazy (told you), and I wanted the hexagons to fill the space. I felt like making them smaller would leave me with more negative space (white background) than I wanted.

I also cut my triangles off a quarter inch from the top. This makes its easier to sew for me. All I have to do is place the top of the triangle so that the two top points meet the bottom triangle's edges. That way I don't have to do the regular "place the triangle tips 1/4" apart", (or whatever you're suppose to do) thing. In fact, it's probably better to cut all the corners off your triangles- less bulk in the seams and easier to piece- but I'm always so impatient to sew that I usually settle for only one corner.

I'm in the midst of sewing it right now. I might even get it done this week (there's a little part of me that laughed at this). If you want to check out some of mini quilts being made you can check out the Flickr group or on Instagram at #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap.

Oh, and look one template has already been goobed by the boys (it was encased in playdough, don't ask why...)

Linking up: 

Later is Better than Never

Later is better than never, so I'm posting this WIP a little later this evening.

Also in keeping with later is better than never, my brother got engaged this week! You know that movie the 40-year Old Virgin... well, he's 37. And up until this point has also been living with my parents. Really, he's every terrible cliche that has gone into every confirmed-bachelor-finds-love movie. So listen folks, MIRACLES HAPPEN! (That was a quote from my grandma concerning the whole affair). Or maybe happy endings really do come true.

So needless to say, I decided I should make a quilt for their wedding. A Double Wedding Ring one, you know, because that won't be hard, and like, I have nothing else going on at the moment (can you feel the sarcasm running off that one?)

Ha, but like I'm going to pass up an opportunity to make a quilt! And a DWR is traditional.

Look, honey, I have to make a quilt for their wedding! I can just hear the justification in my voice as I say that to my ever-supportive husband.

Meanwhile, I signed up for the Mini Quilt Swap over at Schnitzel and Boo. I've been stalking my victim and changing my design everyday. In terms of colour, so far I've got some greens, purple and oranges. A secondary colour scheme I suppose. I'm still waiting for some more material I ordered to arrive.  Then I need to get to work! I can do it right? We have to have the quilt gone and in the post by the 25th of this month!

And hogging the design wall is the bargello that I've been working on. I've been slowly sewing the rows together. I finished one piece. The strips to go in-between each row are 3/4", which means they are 1/4" finished. Um, they're skinny, but I'm hoping the effect will be worth it.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, I used the scraps to piece together a musical themed Sew Together bag for our music teacher, who is moving. (Yes, another one)

Of course, I didn't get a picture of the whole thing. Just the treble clef. The whole thing is about 5" tall. I found the pattern here and reduced the whole thing by 50% so it would fit on the side of the bag. So holy super small pieces Batman!

So, better late than never?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced