kerrykatiecakes

There are two quilts heading out in the mail hopefully today.  Yes, I know this first one looks familiar - it was the quilt I made for October for AAQI.  Unfortunately, I did not measure closely enough and it was over the size limit of 9 X 12 so it came back to me.  I took the binding off and cut it down and rebound it and now it is heading back.  I actually like this smaller version better though because of the two pieces of lace that now travel across the binding.  They were too beautiful to consider cutting so I folded them back and once the binding was done stitched them down again so now they intrude on the binding - I like that!  This is my November donation to AAQI.  It is entitled "Kimono Girl Crazy Quilt" because of the little earring that is added in the bottom right hand corner.  This little art quilt started out when it arrived to me in the form of a Christmas Cracker from Juli in last year's CQI Christmas Cracker Swap! It was full of wonderful goodies too

I have recently had time to get more active in the Stitchmap Yahoo group, which is made up of apprentices and mentors and focuses on teaching all types of needlework at no charge to anymore - simply as a way of preserving these arts.  This is the first challenge I have taken part in - a Victorian Pincushion.  This thing is big!  lol  I thought I would never finish stuffing it!  I used a pale pink moire fabric for my base and did silk ribbon embroidery in a heart shaped design.  After stuffing, I used white silk ribbon to add the feather stitch down the sides.  This was a fun project and it will be my gift for the guild swap in about ten days so one more thing off my Christmas list!  I glued porcelain roses onto a couple of pinheads as the finishing touch.

Here is Week 76 of the Build a Seam (BAS) Challenge.  It is called the Ship-Ladder Stitch - for obvious reasons!  lol  It is made up of straight stitches.  There is a line of straight stitches and then a second series of straight stitches, each going from the right of the top of a vertical stitch to the left of the bottom of the same stitch.  There are a couple step by step photos below that will explain it better than my words do. Make a straight stitch from top to bottom and bring your needle out to the right of the top of that stitch. Complete that straight stitch by taking your needle down to the left of the bottom of the vertical straight and bring your needle back up in the center in position to begin the next vertical straight stitch.  This is my first attempt at the stitch so it is not perfect.  It is important to keep the slanting stitches uniform in length and angle - the regularity creates the beauty of the stitch.  Have fun with this one!

A homemade Christmas?  All the gifts to be made lovingly by hand?  Whose stupid idea was that?  Yeah, okay, it was mine!  Now here we are exactly one month before Christmas and all I have to show for this plan is a lot of ideas and piles of supplies!  The question now remains - "Can I pull this rabbit out of the hat?" I'm not sure what the answer to this one is!  Hopefully, yes, I will manage to pull it off!  One way or another, I will have a lot of stitching and craft projects to show you in the next little while - either the promised handmade Christmas gifts or the stuff I will be doing instead.  My new work schedule has been playing havoc with my stitching time, let alone my computer time, but I have decided I am simply going to HAVE to get dh into the housecleaning routine, as much as he hates it!  That should free up a little time for me!  Cross your fingers for me!

Today is the second day of howling winds of over 100 km per hour.  It is getting on my nerves!  This is my next door neighbour's greenhouse sitting upside down quite a way from where it was earlier in the week when it was right side up. In this one you can see what looks like a white platform in front of a little shed.  Well, that was the roof of the shed before it decided to go walkabout.  Everywhere there are tree branches down and shingles off.  I wish this wind would just quit!

So many exciting projects are coming up for the New Year!  Here is another one - the Bead Journal Project!  You can read all about the rules here .  If you haven`t heard about the Bead Journal Project before (do you live in a cave? LOL) you can read about it here .

Here is some great news for everyone!  Sharon Boggon has just announced that she's doing Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) again starting on the third of January.  You can get details on her blog .  Thanks Sharon!

Well, do you love them?  I so love my MOO cards - they just arrived in the mail!  I was limited in the photos I could upload because of problems with my connection but I did manage to get two of my favourite pieces loaded so they could be on my cards.  I got these because I needed them to include in the kits I put together with my classes so they were really a sensible purchase.  I just didn't expect to love them so much when they got here!  lol  Too cool!

I am very excited about this new event, orchestrated by Kathy Shaw!  We recently received the exciting news that J. M. Michler will be this year's Honourary Chairman!  How exciting is that! Just a reminder of what is involved in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project, here are a few points: -- Participants will complete one crazy quilt block each month. Size and shape can vary...but it should be at least equivalent to a 6" square. -- Participants that want their efforts published (and we hope that they do...because their work could inspire someone else to begin their own crazy quilt journey)....can submit photos to the Committee (via email to: chairperson@cqjp.org ) for inclusion on the CQJP2012 blog (link: http://www.cqjp2012.blogspot.com ). -- Complete rules, registration information, and general information about the CQJP2012 is at the website (link: http://www.cqjp.org ). -- The CQJP2012 is honored to have J. M. Michler, author of The Magic of Crazy Quilting as our Ho

If you are not familiar with the Build a Seam (BAS) Challenge, briefly, every week or two  I post a picture of the basic bare bones of a seam treatment or a new stitch, and we have a week to decide on and complete whatever other stitches and embellishments are needed to make it a complete - and gorgeous! - seam treatment. I am really enjoying training myself to see beyond the basic herringbone or cretan stitch I like to fall back on, and to learn to make more passes across the seam adding more stitches, beads. SRE, etc. - I hope you do too!  There is a list of the stitches with links to the original posts for each on the right hand side of my blog here.  Feel free to jump in anytime! So, without further ado, here is a tutorial for Build a Seam (BAS) #76, called Plaited Fly Filling Stitch.  Begin with a row of fly stitch , working horizontally and overlapping the stitches by half each time, as shown in the photo below.  Make another row of fly stitch underneath the first one, lining th

 I had the pleasure of introducing a group of 6 ladies in High River to crazy quilting today!  What a wonderful stitching group they have!  They have been meeting together for 12 years and are such a friendly, happy bunch.  They made me feel so welcome and I left feeling more than a little jealous of their group. The ladies all had their blocks already pieced so it was straight to the fun and games of embellishment - motifs and seam treatments.  We managed to experiment with several common stitches - herringbone, cretan, feather , did some combinations of stitches for more elaborate seams  and also got a good start on a sample of silk ribbon embroidery, making several types of roses and Japanese ribbon stitch leaves.  We had a little fun embossing velvet and they really enjoyed that.  It was a real pleasure to introduce such an enthusiastic group to my favourite art form!

 I was the first stitcher on Sue's FFT (Fabulous First Timers) 14 round robin block.  It is a great block made up of wonderful silks and a very cool cotton print.  I love to be first on a block because you get to set the tone on the block and are not restricted by what has already been done on the block.  Selfish, I know!   This seam you might recognize as the BAS 75 - Roman Stitch post a couple days ago.  I added a line of beads to each side of the Roman Stitch to add a bit of sparkle.  I filled in the small corner patch with a filler stitch - more on that one later - it will be BAS 76 next week.  In the top right hand corner of the block I added a fan.  Thanks to the help of my friends at CQI, I was finally able to locate the little sequin fans to use as a base for larger fans.  I love these things!  All I did to make the fan was to gather some organza ribbon with a gold edge that I had and stitch it down under the sequin fan - then I added a store bought gold tassel.  On the s

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead: Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved: and now we lie In Flanders fields! Take up our quarrel with the foe To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch: be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields Composed by Canadian physician, soldier, teacher and poet Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae at the battlefront on May 3, 1915, during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

Sorry for the huge delay in getting the next Build a Seam stitch out.  My new job and a heavy teaching schedule this month are really playing havoc with my time!  Excuse my less than perfect first attempt at this stitch and have fun creating it yourself!   Roman Stitch looks best when worked in a medium to heavy weight thread.  This silk thread I used was not quite thick enough but what can I say?  I love silk.  Start by bringing your needle up at the left hand side and take it down again directly across on the far side of the seam.  Bring your needle back up again in the center.  You can get different effects by either making your center stitch a bit lower as I have which creates a slanted chevron effect or you can make your center stitch parallel to the long stitch instead.  Whichever way you decide to go, take a tiny stitch over your long thread, catching it in the center.  So, you have a long stitch now going from left to right and a tiny stitch holding your thread in the cente

Yesterday I had the opportunity to teach a class on Fabric Manipulation & Embellishment at the Culture Centre in High River.  Six wonderful ladies joined me for a day of fun and learning, exploring new techniques that can be added to art quilts, fibre arts, mixed media and collages.  Some of the materials we explored were Tyvek, Texture Magic, Angelina fibres, alcohol inks for dying lace, acrylic paints and fabric medium for stamping on fabrics, silk velvet for embossing with stamps, encrusted beading stitch, and adding glitter.  It was so much fun to share what I have learned about playing with these "toys"!  The ladies had fun creating wonderful bubbly fabric using Texture Magic and stitching various grid shapes. The velvet embossing was a big hit and the samples turned out beautifully!  I know I will be seeing these samples again when some of the ladies return for a crazy quilting class next month!

Well, I think it is time to look at my New Year Goals again since the year is coming to a close and I'm running out of time to do anything about them.  This makes for a long post with no photos so bear with me! 1 . This year I am going to continue with teaching crazy quilting that I started last year. I will make as many opportunities for myself as I can to do this. I am also going to build a workshop or class around a specific project that I'll design and submit an application to teach it wherever the opportunity presents itself. More of the same as last year - just stretching further with it. I have worked as hard as I could on this one.  The classes I proposed in the spring did not run due to lack of registration although I taught a full day workshop to Calgary Guild of Needle & Fibre Arts.  My fall classes are running now - I have a full day workshop this Saturday on Fabric Manipulation and Embellishment and then two full day workshops on Crazy Quilting before the

Well, Blogtoberfest is over for another year but I really enjoyed the challenge of blogging every day and the fun of discovering new blogs to visit! I didn't quite achieve my goal - I had 28 posts in October, not 31, but I am fairly happy with what I did post and will be joining in again next year to try again!  It is a good motivator to get you posting so why not give it a try?

Thanks to dd, I have just discovered MyFitnessPal  online - it is great!  It is all free and you can sign up and then you are able to track your calorie intake, track your exercise and fitness, and so much more I have yet to discover!  You can even get badges for your blog with your weight loss and they update automatically.  So, you can watch for those here once I have something to report, lol.  In the meantime, this is my Day 1 so cheer me on!  Something had to be done about all that Hallowe'en candy I ate. lol.