Blog Around the World Tour

I was nominated to participate in a Blog Around the World by Carole  who blogs from her Carolina Home.

I got to 'know' Carole from Machine Quilters Resource (MQR) which is a fabulous web forum for machine quilters...a great place to get inspiration, support, education, sympathy and some laughs.

When Carole asked me to participate in this blog, it sounded like fun, so I quickly agreed.   And then there was a list of questions to answer !?!

The first question was what are you working on now?

I am working on several different things at once right now.   I just finished quilting up the 4th and final top I made at retreat last October, so now my personal TBQ (to be quilted) bin is empty and I'm working on re-filling it. 

  I have been participating in a block of the month from Along Came Quilting, which has been fun.  It was in 2009/10 that I last participated in one of those (that one is the only occupant in my UFO pile, but on my list for this fall to finish the top).  The current BOM is  100 Modern Quilt Blocks from Tula Pink's book, and I'm really enjoying it.  I don't have a large stash nor a large scrap bin, so I wouldn't have been able to have the fabric and color variety in this quilt by doing it on my own.  My first month in this program can be seen here. And here's a few other months worth of blocks.  The others can all be found in my blog archive. 

I've got the pieces cut (above) for the 10th and final set of blocks, so I just need to piece them, and pick a layout and background fabric. 

I also went to Chinook Fabrics a few weeks ago and was able to successfully buy fabrics for two projects for retreat.

 I hadn't intended to buy the same color palette as on the pattern, but I loved these Adorn It fabrics, and Lucie helped me pick the perfect background, the tan on the far right.  I had in my mind before I bought fabrics a black background, but the Adorn It fabrics didn't have enough black in them to make that work.

And for Lug Nuts, I bought fabrics from the Little Black Dress collection.  I've had the pattern for quite some time, and the cover quilt does use LBD fabrics...I've also had my eye on these fabrics for quite some time, so it seemed appropriate (and easy) to pick from that collection.  This will be my third time making a Highway 10 Designs quilt...I do like their patterns.    Kathy and Lori are pattern designers and quilters in Manitoba. 

The next question was how does my work differ from others...I don't think I bring anything particularly special or unique to the quilting world, it's just what works for me and what I enjoy, which ties into the next question  why do I create what I do?    I started quilting for sanity--I had 3 very young kids in the house, and at that stage of the game, nothing stays done for very long...the laundry's only done for about 1/2 day, feeding kids happens 6 times a day, the kitchen constantly needs cleaning, but by golly...that seam is done and never needs to be sewn again!  (there might be 128 just like it waiting to be sewn, but that one is done).  And once I tried free motion quilting, that was it, I was hooked.  In a few years I had a short-arm (9" husqvarna Mega Quilter) on a grace frame and a few years later I had graduated to an Innova 26" longarm.

And this provides a nice segue into nominating a few other bloggers to participate in the Blog Around the World.  First I'm sending you to the Scottish Borderlands to meet Kay Bell.    When I first met Kay online in a Yahoo quilting group, she was also working with a 9" MegaQuilter on a Grace frame, and wow, did she accomplish amazing things on that machine.  First of all, you are constrained to about a 4-6" wide quilting path across the quilt, and secondly, because the frame isn't as sturdy as a professional frame, and the carriage and rails (my rails were plastic and tended to crack...were yours Kay?)   and wheels not as accurate, it can be extremely challenging at times to get the machine to move precisely.  A few months before I got my Innova, Kay bought an APQS machine, and continues to do wonders with it.  She's won several major ribbons and is a representative for APQS.  I was lucky enough to meet Kay (and see one of her quilts) in person at MQX last year...

And I will also keep you here in Calgary...MQR is where I first met Nancy, even though she and I live in the same city!  (we've got a population of 1,100,000 people though, and we live at opposite ends of the city, so we wouldn't just trip over each other on our own).  I am inspired by Nancy's quilting, which can be seen here at Crazy Creek Creations 

Nancy does amazing freehand work, mostly what she calls "Meandering with Attitude", where she adds all sorts of shapes to a meandering pattern,

and does exquisite custom work as well, on her HandiQuilter machine.  This picture below is a fun quilt Nancy just posted last week.

Thanks for reading along.