Simple Stained Glass Class at Calico Cupboard

I taught three very enthusiastic students how to use my simple stained glass technique yesterday. Here are their great quilts.

Wendy and Liz have been friends for many years and they used the same 'On Golden Pond' fabric from Northcott for their windows. They used different parts of the fabrics so their quilts look very different.

Judy used a 'Father Christmas' fabric and used part of the design to create a very interesting accent border. She has four more santas in the fabric so can make three more quilts for gifts.

Quilting Day

Peggy F., Darlene D. and I spent the day with Daisy June. Who is Daisy June? She's an APQS Millennium longarm who belongs to our friend Moira C. She very kindly volunteers her machine to the members of our Monday night quilters and we are practicing our skills as time permits. Today we quilted 3 quilts - all to be donated to various groups.

The first quilt was made by our friend Jill G. Jill makes these great baby quilts, full of fun fabrics. They will be wonderful learning quilts for the children who receive them. This one is being donated to the Baby Quilt program of our local guild (the Victoria Quilters' Guild). Do YOU have some fun fabrics to make a quilt like this? I can imagine a parent asking a child - can you find the boy with the green shirt? Can you find the child with glasses? There are also cats, bunnies and even a cow jumping over the moon in Jill's windows.

Peggy quilted a swirling floral design on this one.

Darlene made a four-patch quilt to donate to our local Transition House. She quilted a 'loops' design on this one. I really like the way she arranged her four-patch squares with the plain squares to create this straight furrows design. Very effective.

Jill made another quilt using blocks she received in a block exchange. We wanted to try a new design so Peggy and I quilted this one, also to donate to Transition House. Now, we just have to get the binding on these quilts and off they will go to their new homes.

Last Minute Gift Countdown

Cotton Spice magazine is hosting a Last Minute Gift Countdown from November 20 to December 4 - just in time for the holidays!

Here is a fun project to make for holiday gifts – "Quick to Sew" Holiday Napkin Rings. They are easy to make, use scraps of fabric and will be used for years to come. The person you give them to will think of you each year! Be sure to make a set for your holiday table too. You could make different ones for each season. Or use a different fabric for each member of your family to identify their cloth napkin if they are re-used for a few meals. We use cloth napkins all the time to save paper and they are so much nicer. You can make your own with a fat quarter of fabric by turning all the edges under twice and topstitching. Or cut a strip off the long end and make a matching napkin ring following these directions:

Materials (for one napkin ring):

Double sided fusible stiff interfacing(fast2fuse® or Peltex® 72 by pellon®) : 1¾” x 7½” rectangle
Outside fabric: 2¾” x 8½” rectangle
Lining fabric: 2” x 7¾” rectangle
One ½” to 1” button
Thread to contrast with outside fabric

To make one napkin ring:

Centre the interfacing rectangle on the wrong side of the outside fabric.

Fold the excess fabric over the rectangle and press in place with the tip of the iron, being careful not to set the iron on the fusible interfacing.

The corners can be folded ‘square’.

Turn under all the edges of the lining rectangle ¼” and press.

Place the lining rectangle on the fabric/interfacing rectangle, wrong sides together and press to fuse all the layers together. The lining rectangle should be slightly smaller than the outside rectangle.

Use contrasting thread in your sewing machine to sew a decorative stitch along both long edges of the napkin ring. You may want to test a few stitches on scraps to see which one you like best.

Form a ring with the finished rectangle, overlap the edges about ¾” and sew the button through all the layers. Here is my napkin ring all ready for our Christmas table.

No – I don’t really have the table set now! But I will have it set before we go to my Mother’s for our traditional Christmas Eve clam chowder supper. Saves one thing to do on Christmas Day.

Be sure to check the Cotton Spice Blog for more last minute gift ideas.

Upcoming Workshop

I will be presenting my 'What's Behind Your Attic Windows?' workshop for the Vancouver Quitlers' Guild in February 2009. I decided to make a couple of new samples. I will also be add these to the design options for students in my Quilt University online class. Attic Windows is scheduled at QuiltU to begin on January 9th. You can see the entire first semester QuiltU schedule here.

Satin Moon Workshop

Last Saturday I presented two workshops at Satin Moon Quilt Shop here in Victoria. Students were learning all about machine quilting, both with a walking foot and their first steps with free motion stitching. This is always an exciting class for me to teach as I watch students experiment with these new techniques and practice their skills. This is a class that I offer at least once every session so watch Satin Moon's website for their new class schedule coming in a few weeks.

BC's Creative Expo

I had a great time meeting students in Vancouver over the weekend. Here are some pictures from a couple of the classes I was teaching.

First is Sheer Collage - students were creating small works of art with batik fabrics, silk, sheer fabrics, embroidery and beads.

Here are a few of the students from Little Landscape Quilts with their super landscape creations.

Quilter's World Magazine Article

The latest issus of Quilter's World magazine includes my Give & Take Applique design, Give & Take Ornaments. This is a very simple technique - 1 Shape = 2 Fused Designs, The pattern includes a wall quilt and a gift bag. Look for the magazine on newsstands now.

Transparency Collage

I am travelling to the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre for the BC Creative Expo on Friday and Saturday. I'll be teaching four workshops during the 2 days.

One of the workshops is Photo Transfer with Transparencies. I've been having great fun creating small collage pieces to show my students. Here are a few examples:

Sheer Illusions - Nanaimo Serge & Sew

I travelled to Nanaimo last Monday to teach Sheer Illusions to a great group of enthusiastic students. My hosts at Serge & Sew were very welcoming and all the staff kept popping in to see the progress on the students' projects. Here are a few pictures of the wonderful creations from that day.