Yvonne's 'Entwined' Quilt

Yvonne has been quilting on yhe long arm for two days straight on a wedding gift for her niece. She has about a five inch square patch left to sew and has run out of bobbin thread.  Murphy's Law!!  

The quilt, Entwined, is a pattern that Yvonne designed herself. She began piecing when we were at Camp Assiniboia on the May long weekend. I love the gradation of the greenish blue colour from light to dark. 

Yvonne has done more quilting per square inch on this quilt than any other quilt she has ever done. It took a total of just over nine bobbins to complete!  This is definitely an heirloom quilt to be treasured!

Another first for us was repairing some borders while the quilt was on the long arm frame. When Yvonne got near the bottom of the quilt she noticed that there were puckers due to too much material on the bottom border. Part of the problem was that the triangles she sewed the border onto were on the bias and probably stretched as she sewed. She had about three inches too much fabric in the border, so we stitch ripped the border off, repinned it and brought my sewing machine over to the long arm frame instead of taking it off. Quite the process!!

Bobbin Lace

Yvonne has always been interested in learning how to make lace. This spring when she was in Belgium she bought some bobbins and was given some hand made lace from relatives. 

Last month she attended Lace Day at Northern Lights Lace Makers.  She learned the basic knots and bought a book that she is working her way through. 

Yvonne brought her bobbin lace tools and gave us a short demonstration. The steps to make the knots are very simple, but the precision needed for such a fine craft is where the skill comes in. Looks like Yvonne is going to be a lace maker, along with all her other crafts and skills!!

Premiere of Aaron's "Born Out of Love"

     The night of Friday the 13th with a full moon, I (Don) attended the premiere of Aaron's documentary, "Born Out of Love " at the Cinematheque Theatre in Winnipeg's Old Market Square district. 

     The doc is about the Bonnycastle family and the company they founded in Winnipeg in the 50's, Harlequin Publishing. It delves into many aspects of Harlequin from their readers, the writers and much more in the romantic genre up to present day.  The romantic genre presently has the largest sales volume of any paperback genre. 

     There was a full house and many of those attending had glowing remarks of the screening. The film will be available online and also on MTS On Demand from MTS TV.  

Aaron and Ryan on stage for Q&A after the screening

Some of the graphics and animation 

Aaron pre -show dressed "Harlequinesque"

Interviews. 

Tsukeniko Inks Class with Judy Coates Perez

Awesome class that I was able to get in to today at the last moment. Wow!  I learned a lot about how to paint with this ink. Oddly enough I had purchased some of this ink in Tucson this winter. I did play with it one day with Marj and Annette, but now I have a much better understanding of how to use it. 

In the morning we used special ink brushes called Fantastics, really a pencil pointed tip sponge in the shape of a crayon. You dip the fantastic stick into the ink. The sponge hold a lot of ink and you can shade with it. Once you have one area or colour completed you can heat set it with an iron. Then you can apply other colours without the first colour smudging. 

In the afternoon we painted with regular bristle paint brushes with the inks, thickening them into a paint consistency with clear aloe vera gel. It will take some practice, but I can see how that will be very workable too. 

Another great class at CQA!!

Judy Coates Perez Lecture

Wow!  If you want artistic inspiration check out this artists web site. She is amazing!!

www.judycoatesperez.com

I learned a lot about painting on fabric from her lecture. Sure wish I had taken one of her classes. She recommends using Transparent Paints as they are the Softest.  Metallics are slightly stiffer and reflective, they are good for large areas because you can't see where it meets with where you started. 

Opaque are the stiffest but are good for covering underneath colours. 

She suggested to use freezer paper as a mask when painting.  Another great use for freezer paper. What a valuable art tool. 

Another great tip, that I keep hearing is to use Wool batting as it doesn't crease even if folded.  It is light weight and gives great stitch definition. 

June uses Facing binding and explains how to make them on her web site. A faced binding is great for art quilts. It is how Coreen and I finished Serengeti Moment. 

One unusual tip was to use Misty fuse as basting with very slippery materials. For example silk charmouse to wool batting. 

Another Binding style she uses is twisted yarns. She will begin the binding by drawing a pencil line at the squared off edge. Then she will sew a tight Stitch at pencil line edge, followed by a Zigzag stitch.  To finish she will couch the complimenting Twisted threads. A tip is to Put small balls of threads for twisting in baggies to keep them from tangling. 

Niagara Heritage Quilters' Guild

Over the lunch hour I raced to see another quilting exhibit by a local quilt guild. It was a very nice display. I was allowed to take pictures, so here are a few of my favourite.

Holes as a Design Element

Birgit Schuller is a quilting instructor from Germany. She is a long arm quilter and most of her classes are about free motion quilting. However, the class I took from her today was more about piecing. 

We learned how to create holes - circles, squares, really any simple shape, in our blocks. Then to put the blocks together you use the quilt as you go method. It was a fairly simple idea, but will be a great strategy to have in my 'toolbox'.