Keeping Warm

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~Edith Sitwell

Just keeping warm, under my new rag quilt.

The warmest blankets of peace snow only from the heart.
~Layne Russell

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

P.S. Before you go, have a look at my lastest Dear Jane block. I was up for a challenge and selected a block with 47 tiny pieces. The block is called Maze of Madness. Remember, I am doing them all by hand. No sewing machine or paper piecing. Just like Jane!

English Paper Piecing

This past weekend was a cold one. With plenty more snow, being added to an already thick white blanket, that covers my garden.

As I prepared the teapot, I planned for a lazy day of thumbing through the new garden catalogues and dreaming of warmer days and beautiful flowers. Then, I started thinking about another garden. Grandmother's Flower Garden, to be exact. Over a year ago, I watched an English Paper Piecing demonstration and thought that would be fun. Then, last week I came across a wonderful blog, called The Great Hexagon Quilt-Along. Have a look at Julia's diamond blocks, so beautiful. Before you knew it, I was sipping tea and selecting fabric. Cutting out paper templates and fabric hexagons. At least 672 hexagons, maybe a few more. Enough to start, don't you think? I have an idea, it's not exactly a Grandmother's Flower Garden, it's, well, more like a Karen's Flower Garden.

Three of my quilting books, had great step-by-step instructions for making paper pieced hexagons. All three had slight variations. I combined the best from each and was extremely pleased with the results. Very accurate. This will be a great portable project.

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

January Blues

No time for January blues this year! A new year and so much to do. As I visit blogs, I see many quilters trying to finish up last years projects. Others, will have it no other way, than to begin the year with a new one. And, lots of resolutions being made. Some even saying they are not going to purchase any fabric this year. Can you imagine? Those crazy quilter's! What a sense of humor! Don't they know.....

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

And, how about the free BOM's? Country Calender , Once Upon a Time , A Tisket, A Tasket 12 Months of Baskets , Red Delicious and A Christmas Wish and challenges like, One Project a Month , This Quilter is Going Green and Project Improv.

My Dear Jane and Quilted Diamond journey continues, but I will have to begin my Polka-Dot Girls again. Yesterday I pressed My Friends, from the back, and when I flipped it over it was covered in tiny bubbles. Just like when you hang wallpaper and if gets bubbles behind it. If you look closely at the photo (fence area shows it best) you will see the bubbles I am talking about.It appears the fabric and Pellon separated during pressing. I tried to press down the tiny bubbles with my mini iron, but it didn't work. My stitchery is ruined. On the bright side, I had only completed two and I had not yet ironed the Pellon onto the back of the rest of the stitchery blocks. Why I used a fusible in the first place, I don't know. How could that be any different then paper glued to paper. It gets wavy and in time, discolours and comes apart. I should have enough fabric left to recut the first couple of blocks. Now, how to back my stitchery?? Most likely, I will use a thin muslin. I have heard only good things about muslin. Another option is a thin batting. May Britt uses both polyester and cotton batting. Cotton being a little harder to work with. I read on the Internet, when using cotton, if you don't use a hoop, your stitchery will have a quilted look. That would be nice, on the right project. Oh well. Live and learn. No hurry I say.....

The only thing that has to be finished by next Tuesday is next Monday. ~Jennifer Yane

Before Christmas, I went through my stash, in search of red fabric. It was time to prepare for Red Delicious. How disappointing! What a sad collection of red fabric. But, Santa brought me a wonderful collection. Have you seen Quaker Quilts by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabric? This is what I will be using for Red Delicious and my background fabric will be a very bright yellow. Put your sunglasses on!

Started and finished appliqueing my Cherry Butterfly block this past week. My Dad selected all the fabric and I think it's just beautiful! The pattern is from a wonderful book called Circles of The East, by Kumiko Sudo. Now, I need to decide what to turn it into. Any ideas?

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

Going Green Challenge

I've decided to take a Going Green challenge and you are more then welcome to join me.

As you can see, I have some reading ahead of me. I'm pretty green, but I know I can be greener. Here are just a few of my green ways or soon to be: My garden is pesticide/chemical free. I compost and plan on getting a rain barrel. Household cleaners have already been changed over to environmentally friendly products. It is amazing how many uses baking soda and vinegar have around the house. Most of the light bulbs have been changed over. I hang more things to dry, then go in the dryer. I use my own fabric bags when shopping. I reduce, reuse and recycle. Try to walk more or use my bike for errands. I am considering purchasing an electric bike, for longer trips and one of the biggest challenges will be to come up with a way to eliminate the need for a car. One challenge, at a time, for a greener tomorrow.

I am also going to take this challenge to my quilting room. To help me stay focused on becoming greener, I am challenging myself to complete by Earth Day, which is April 22, a Going Green quilt. Do you remember my Quilters' Compost entry? Going Green has already begun in my quilting room. Also, for this project I have some Eco-Friendly batting to test out. One is Bamboo and the other is a corn-based synthetic fiber.

If you would like to join me in this challenge, feel free to use my This Quilter is Going Green logo. Please be sure to link it back to this posting. To link it back to this post, just click on the title of this posting, then copy the http:// at the top of your screen, as your link. This way, anyone that clicks on it will come straight to the Going Green Challenge post and get all the information they need.

I hope you can join me in my Going Green quilt challenge. As a thank you for participating in my challenge, between April 20 and 26, leave a comment on my April 20th post, for a chance to win a thank you for Going Green gift. The draw will be random and in order to qualify, you need to leave a comment on my blog (that you have made a Going Green quilt) and a link back to your blog, so I can see your Going Green quilt. If you do not have a blog, leave a comment, with your name and e-mail address. You must then, e-mail me a photo of your Going Green quilt, to qualify for the draw.

What do I mean when I say a Going Green quilt? I don't mean a quilt made from green fabric, but I am pretty sure, I will be using some green fabric in mine! A Going Green quilt is a quilt with an environmental message. There are so many things we can do or stop doing to make a greener world. Hmmm..... wonder if I could incorporate some recycled materials into my quilt?

You may find One Million Acts of Green an interesting read. Lots of green ideas. Also, David Suzuki's Nature Challenge.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world." John Muir

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen