kerrykatiecakes

I had a weird experience yesterday - I was interviewed by the local paper.  I am going to be featured as the Artist of the Month at the County Office here and I am hoping that it will help to promote crazy quilting locally.  I have taught in Calgary and other places but the classes I have sent proposals in for in my home county have always been cancelled due to lack of registration.  So, I am thinking that if someone does not want to learn crazy quilting, it can only because they have never seen it!  lol  Am I right or am I right?  So, it feels important to me to do what I can to promote our art form here on the local level.  This was my reasoning behind having my work featured as the Artist of the Month and also for the local newspaper article.  But, I have to say that being interviewed feels really weird.  Luckily, it was a charming gentleman who came out to chat with me but the weirdness comes into having to promote yourself in order to pr...

It is an annual tradition on the Crazy Quilting International group to have a Christmas Cracker Exchange.  We draw names and send each other homemade Christmas crackers stuffed to the brim with all kinds of stitching stash.  Unfortunately, I ran out of time and had to use plain fabric for the outside of my crackers.  I had the best of intentions of covering them with pieced crazy quilt blocks but time just wasn't on my side.  Hopefully the goodies inside helped make up for it though.  Here is what was in the first one - yummy fabric, decoupaged buttons, charms, a butterfly applique, silk ribbon, buttons and beads.   Lots of bling in this one!  The second one was more on a blue theme with a blue butterfly applique and silk ribbon in shades of blue and mauve.  More decoupage buttons, beads, sequins, charms, buttons, trim and a silkie. This is the last one and it was more pink in colour - same fabrics, a Christmas silkie, beads, charms, butt...

Well, 2011 is quickly drawing to a close.  So, this is my going to be my last accounting to myself as well as to everyone else on how I did in meeting my goals.  So, here it is, the last rehash of them all... 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 actually did this although I had not realized it until I stopped to think about it.  In order to make the cq classes more appealing for the fall session, I put together a cq Christmas stocking and built the class around it.  Spring classes scheduled did not go through as hoped due to lack of registration but I have a little something planned for January to hopefully help ...

Now, I ask you, how Canadian is this photo?  lol  Here we are heading off to the Kananaskis to look for a tree - through a snowstorm and with a box of Tim Horton's Timbits on the dash of the truck! We found the perfect spot and all climbed out. My job is to get the fire going... and the meal ready for when everyone gets back from trudging through the snowy forest finding "the perfect tree". Even the snack after the tree hunt is a big family tradition - hot dogs over the fire, chili and hot chocolate. Here is my dh, Gary, and dd, Katie - the intrepid tree hunters! It would be easier to stop at the tree lot but how can you put a price on a smile like this?!

There seems to be a wildfire burning through the online community - of words!  It started with a blog post, sorry I can't remember whose, about her choice of a word for 2012.  Now I see almost everyone on one of the groups I belong to has chosen a word for the coming year - a word to inspire, direct, and motivate.  All the words chosen seem to be thought provoking  - light, do, enjoy, change, encourage...  Almost every word sounds wise and deep when taken by itself.  You consider the meaning, the possible nuances, and what it means to the person who has chosen it. Not one to like feeling left out, I put a little thought into it and chose my word for 2012 - journal.  It may not be as deep in meaning as some of the words but I hope it will keep me on track a bit.  It can't hurt, right?  I have signed up for two big projects for 2012 - the Bead Journal Project and the Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2012 .  Both of these pursuits promise...

I was saddened this morning to read about the passing of needlework icon, Erica Wilson.  I have several of Erica's books in my collection and it is a testimonial to her talents that I still consult these books today as I have for many many years. Erica Wilson led a rebirth of needlework, bringing crewel and other embroidery techniques to an international audience through books, magazine articles, and television.  She passed away at the age of 83 from a massive stroke but her legacy will live on.

This weekend, dd and I finally managed to see a piece of Canadian History that has been going on for thirteen years now - the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train!  This year the train visited 140 communities along its route.  Here you see the train pulling into Vulcan, Alberta, where we were waiting to see it. As the train reaches each destination, it stops and a boxcar stage opens up. I am not actually sure if these energetic elves were part of the show or members of the community but they managed to keep everyone very enthusiastic. As we all stood on the railway siding, performers including folk singer, Valdy, performed for the crowd.  This is really going to show my age, but I remembered every word to Valdy's "Rock 'n Roll Song"!  I even saw him almost forty years ago when he was the warmup act for another band!  It was great to see him again and sing along. DD, Katie, and I enjoyed the event so much!  As you can see, so did her dog, Dexter. No excus...

Hollis Chatelain earned a “hat trick” and the coveted MVP award for “Hollow,” a 16″ x 16″ thread-painted, machine quilted image of a woman’s face.  Chatelain’s quilt raised $2,570 for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) in the “Stanley Cup Quilt-Off” online auction which ended November 10th. This is the third year in a row her quilt earned top dollar in the charity auction. Twelve quilters in two teams competed for bragging rights, the highest selling quilt earning its maker the MVP award in this spirited competition between The Feed Dogs (Alex Anderson, Hollis Chatelain, John Flynn, Becky Goldsmith, Renae Haddadin, and Sue Nickels) and The Rotary Blades (Caryl Bryer Fallert, Pat Holly, Libby Lehman, Judy Mathieson, Mary Sorensen, and Ricky Tims. The annual celebrity quilt auction was the most successful online auction in AAQI history raising $14,025 for the nonprofit. A Viewer’s Choice component to the “Stanley Cup Quilt-Off” was also offered at the International Quilt F...

I am tempted to quote Monty Python here - "And now for something completely different...!" This is my quilt donation to AAQI for this month.  I've named it "The Cathedral Walls are Falling Down".  It started life as a rectangle of vintage quilting - cathedral window blocks to be exact.  As soon as I found it I knew it wanted to become an AAQI quilt but it took me awhile to figure out how.  I ended up deconstructing it into pieces with quite a bit of hand sewing involved.  Then I reassembled the pieces into a random shape which fit the size requirements. I added buttons at all the junctions and corners.  I like the idea of it portraying something as solid as a cathedral slowly falling apart.  We look to our elders for guidance and wisdom but Alzheimers robs us of this privilege by making their minds crumble and fall apart like my imaginary cathedral.  Hopefully someone else will see what I see in this piece.

I have just finished up another Christmas gift - this time for my granddaughter.  (She doesn't read my blog so it is safe to share here).  The idea started with these kits I picked up at the thrift store.  They were complete and the original price tag on each was $35 - I paid $4 each for them so I was off to a good start! My granddaughter does artwork on the computer, creating anime characters using the Paint program.  So, the first thing I did was lay my hands on two of her pictures.  The kits came with a stretched canvas and a foam brush, scraper and jar of medium.  First step is to copy the pictures on a laser copier on the special paper provided, making mirror images. Next you brush a layer of the medium over the artwork and the canvas. Once this is dry, you do the same again, this time brushing in the opposite direction.  Easy Peasy!  After the second coat is dry, you put a generous coat of the medium on the canvas and then place the ...

First of all, let me say right off the bat that I can't take credit for this beautiful stitching.  I didn't do it - it was the cover of one of my Christmas Crackers I received in a CQI swap last year from a wonderful crazy quilting friend.  I can, however, take credit for the finishing!  I am always on the lookout for boxes and things I can take apart and reassemble to hold crazy quilting pieces.  This box from the thrift store was a great find and I paid under $5 for it.  It held a pretty ugly grouping of ceramic bits and bobs but now it holds this beautiful stitching.  There was lots of depth to the original collection in there so the bullion stitch insects and other dimensional stitching have lots of room to breath. I love it when a plan comes together!  I will be keeping this for myself and finally I have a wonderful way to protect the treasured gift of stitching and display it for everyone to admire.

Before I get into the quilts in Houston, I need to remind everyone there are two days left on December's AAQI auction!  There are still some bargains to be had so think about your Christmas shopping list.  Here is a sampler but check out the rest here . Quilt #7475 - Tis the Season Donated by: Charlotte Rayl Quilt #7791 - Driven Snow Donated by: Marlene Woodfield Quilt #8505 - Phoenix Donated by: Ann Louise Mullard-Pugh And now the news from Houston!   The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) raised $62,000 during International Quilt Festival (IQF) in Houston, Texas. From November 2-6, 2011, volunteers sold 1,141 Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts (mini quilts measuring 9" x 12" or less) breaking all previous sales records for the all-volunteer nonprofit organization. Click here to see the ...

This week's Thrifty Thursday post has nothing to do with stitching at all - it is just something I came across yesterday that I could not resist!  I love this colourful firescreen I found at the Salvage Center.  It is sturdy, made of painted tin, and makes me smile every time I look at it.  The price on the still attached tag is for $45.00 which I wouldn't consider a bad price but probably would never have paid.  So when I saw it there and asked for a price and was told $10, I thought why not treat myself?  I came right home and set it up in front of the woodstove and it is jumpstarting my urge to decorate for the holidays! 

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of teaching a class for the Town of High River on how to make a Crazy Quilted Christmas Stocking.  As you can see, Glyn looks very happy with  hers! All the ladies worked very hard and I think the class was enjoyable for them as well as me.  I kept harping to "press, press, press!"  As you can see, Debra was listening!  lol Here is Debra's stocking - the results certainly were beautiful!  She was very patient with my drooling over her grandmother's button box too!  If you enlarge this photo I hope you can see the motif with the ruched ribbon and the darling little brass buttons.  They came from the button box and were just perfect in this spot! We held the class at The Culture Centre in High River - a wonderful facility!  We had all the room we needed to spread our stash out and get right into it. This is the second time Jasmine has taken a crazy quilting class from me so it was really nice to see h...