Studio Kit

I don't know if you've been reading Clare O'Donohue's "Someday Quilts" series, but if you haven't, you've been missing out. But don't feel bad - I didn't know I was either!

The publisher contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in doing a giveaway of this book, and I said "Sure!" I mean, we all like givaways, right? When she sent me two copies (one for me, and one to give away) I started reading my copy and really liked it!

I pretty much only read on the way back and forth to work, and only if I get a seat - so you can imagine I don't read a lot. But this book is nice light reading, fun and entertaining, so I was quite disappointed if I didn't get a chance to read it on any given day.

I also wanted to make an oversized Devil's Puzzle quilt block for use in a tote bag or some such, but you know what, it turns out that a Devil's Puzzle quilt block is the very devil to make! (And y'all know that I suck at block making generally, anyway.)

So I found this picture of one that I posted instead. lol

Anyway, I also wanted to finish the book before I gave it away so I could honestly say I'd read the book, and I finished it last night.

Here's a blurb from the Amazon site:

After their quilting retreat upstate, the Someday Quilts ladies return to Archers Rest to prepare for the town's big anniversary celebration. But their plans are unexpectedly derailed by the discovery of a human skeleton in Nell's grandmother's backyard-making Eleanor the prime suspect in a murder. But a skeleton isn't the only thing that's long been buried. When a wave of vandalism raises fears that the town's bygone history of witchcraft has been reawakened, secrets are unearthed that could change life in Archers Rest forever.

Oooh! You've got to read it now, right? :)

You don't need to be a follower for this one: leave a comment today or tomorrow and I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, November 1.

Happy Sunday!

This is Winnie. Winnie's mommy named her Winnifred, but she hates that name, so her friends call her Winnie (you can call her Winnie too.) In addition to having bad taste in names, Winnie's mom is a witch. So Winnie has to wear silly clothes like orange and black striped tights, and has to learn how to ride a broom... and do you SEE a dog in this picture? NO. Winnie is allergic to cats and would LOVE a dog, but noooooooooooo, Mommy says "Witch's have cats. That's they way it's always been."

So Winnie plays with the neighbour's dog whenever she gets a chance. The neighbour, by the way, is named Lisa. Now THAT'S a pretty name (says Winnie.)

Anyway - if you'd like to learn how to make Winnie - here are the instructions!

I started with this "colouring sheet" from Cart Before The Horse

And used the colouring sheet as a template and traced her parts onto tracing paper in order to use them as a pattern ....

and made my decisions about what colours to use, fused the bits (this was all made of scraps of course - in fact, in a lot of cases, scraps of already fused fabric!) and then used my pattern to cut the bits out.

I free-hand cut her legs, 'cuz how hard can that be, right? :)

For her, face, a little fugitive media got thrown in -

Dark blue dye crayon for her iris, light blue pastel for her outer eye, a mircon pen for outlining, and I made a boo-boo in that picture - I also used a bright pink dye crayon for her mouth - which I didn't try to "draw" - I just made a little splooch of pink and outlined with those pink and red markers.

As you probably noticed in the pic above as compared to this one, I decided to outline her in black using more of my fused scraps. But when I was done that, something was still missing... her collar looked too bare.

So I gave her a little bow.

I also made her cute little shoes which didn't come from the pattern - but I thought she wouldn't enjoy walking around on stumps - after all, her life is hard enough!

If you'd like to make Winnie - please feel free to click/print on that colouring sheet - s/he had offered it for free (only please don't sell the result as is usual in these cases).

After I'd made her a little hanging sleeve, she was done. A fun front door decoration, that took about an hour and 1/2 from start to finish (and that was mostly quilting time). If you make one, please link up here so we can all see!

Enjoy the day!

and The Bloggers' Quilt Festival! I'm Kit Lang, a developing fiber artist, in Toronto, Canada, and I'm glad to have you here!

Thank you to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for hosting this festival, and thanks to all the lovely sponsors who help to support it!

Today, I thought I'd share with you a quilt I made called "Off To Oz!" that is completely out of my usual comfort zone, but one that I'm really happy with just the same. So, how did I end up making a quilt that wasn't what I usually do? Well see, what happened was...

Generation Q Magazine (have you heard about them? They're this great e-zine and online community for modern/contemporary quilters - you should check them out!) Anyway - GenQ had a challenge they called the Scrap Splat Challenge:

the brief was simple - Thomas Knauer would sent us 40 scraps, and we had to use them all in the completed piece. Long before the scraps came to me in the mail, I had two designs. Which design I chose would depend on what the scraps looked like when they arrived.

Well, when I saw the monkey butt (front and centre in the picture above); my design was chosen! (Process in this post.) And that was it! It was such a relaxed challenge; one that I really enjoyed, with a fun result.

Thanks for coming by, and make sure to go and see as many quilts as you can in this fabulous festival.

I began by auditioning colours. First up:

How funny. When I was pulling the solids from my stash, I was sure that that coral pink was going to be the one. But even though it works, I'm not totally loving it. So, up next:

Well now. See, I was quite surprised by this. That turquoise and teal blue were way more interesting than the coral.

So then I thought I'd try it with a yellow green. Nope!

After I made my decision, I fused all of my squares,

and drew some flowers,

and whoa! Those red stripes across the orange on the black of my ironing pad - that looks awesome! A quilt in itself!

And, what the heck is THAT? lol

Find out tomorrow! :)

I had all my posts for this week planned and just as I was ready to hit "publish" this morning, I said to BSP, "Is it Wednesday or Thursday today?" I was going to publish Thursday's post. And then I couldn't find my Wednesdy post. But it turns out I forgot about Wednesday. Poor Wednesday!

So would you like to take a walk with me instead?

We'll start by walking over this little bridge - perhaps we can stop on the bridge, and look into the water, searching for turtles and little fishes and look at the watermoss on the rocks waving in the current. We can talk about things quilty or not, or sing.

Once we cross the bridge, we'll go into the trees, following a path that's just barely there - or wandering under the trees, being drawn in deeper and deeper. (Don't worry, if you're scared, I'll hold your hand, and we'll be sure to find our way back.)

We can play hide and seek amongst the trees, look up in wonder at their trunks:

Or dance like a wood nymph!

And then we could have a picnic in a leafy glade...

before making our way home, tired but happy.

Thanks for coming on my walk with me!

Tomorrow, I'll show you the beginning of the construction of my quilt for The Bloggers' Quilt Festival which begins on Friday. Are you ready? I am!

You know, for a first effort at painting on cloth, I'm pretty chuffed with this result! I was just kind of playing with the paint on the cloth, trying to figure out what it would do - not really trying to achieve anything in particular, so when the "plain" cloth as it was, was so clearly meant to be this ...

all I needed were my charcoal sticks (the bottom row in the pic above) and some pastels (top middle section).

And of course, some thread!

As I added the charocal and pastels to the piece and it revealed itself more fully to me, I thought about time. How it moves, how we think we are standing still in it, and yet it changes us without our even knowing, moving us along to a place that's new. If we resist that movement, standing firm in the place we've claimed, it will wear us down until we no longer exist.