Durham Craft & Gift Show

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to make a post to let everyone know that I will be a vendor at this weekend's Durham Craft and Gift show. My business, Quilter's Workshop, will be operating in booth 12A.

The show times are as follows:
 Friday October 19th : 3PM-9PM
 Saturday October 20th : 10AM-5PM
Sunday October 21st : 10AM-4PM

The show will be held at the Durham College/UOIT rec centre, 2000 Simcoe St. N, Oshawa.

General Admission is $6
Senior Admission is $5
And children are free!

See the link below to print your $1 off admission coupon!

http://www.showsdurhamregion.com/event_view.php?id=225

There will be over 100 vendors!

Hoping for a great weekend and a great turn out!

Thanksgiving 2012

First of all, I can not believe how quickly Thanksgiving has approached us! Just a few days away now!

I have the perfect Thanksgiving wall hanging to show you!

I have so many Christmas and Halloween themed wall hangings and realized I needed something strictly fall or just for Thanksgiving! I came across the idea for this design from a Youtube video by the Missouri Star Quilt Company, however their design is slightly different.

As some of you may have already noticed, I made his feathers using a "dresden plate" design. To make cutting the blades of your dresden plates easier, I highly recommend this ruler:

Here is a picture of a traditional dresden plate quilt block, in case anyone has not seen one before:

For the feathers of my turkey, I used the 7" length to create my blades. (This ruler comes with instructions on how to use it) I used 15 blades of scraps of deep reds, golds and oranges. You can choose whatever colours you would like, you could even choose to make them all the same colour, possibilities here are endless!

You can cut your background piece whatever size you would like, depending on how much space you want to be left around the edges of your turkey's feathers. I believe I cut mine approximately 15x18

Once your feathers are joined together (using the same dresden plate applique technique) you hand stitch them onto your background material. For the body of the turkey, I used a circle (just like the middle of a traditional dresden plate block, I used a bowl as a template) For his head/neck I drew an hour-glass shape (your drawings don't have to be too accurate, just have some fun with it!) Again, for the feet I drew them, free-hand on a piece of paper and when I had a template I was happy with, I then cut them out of fabric. (Dad's are also very good at assisting with sketching turkey feet....hehe thank you Daddy!) 

I machine appliqued the body, head and feet, I only hand appliqued the feathers. 

I then added his Thanksgiving tie by using one of my leftover dresden plate blades, folding the raw edges in and hand stitching it on. 

Next I added an inner border (cut 1") and an outer border (cut 2")

I quilted it on the machine and bound the edges by hand, and also added a sleeve on the back in order to hang it. I also did a decorative stitch, to enhance the look of the red outer border, using a light beige thread.

For the eyes, I hot-glued some googly-eyes that I found at the dollar store, to give him a more comical and animated look (I was originally planning on hand embroidering the eyes, but I liked the idea of the googly-eyes better). 

Here is a close-up photo so you can see the detailing a bit better!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

FALL

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a nice relaxing summer and are enjoying September so far!
I am so very happy to be back to school and back into teaching my fall & winter sewing classes!

So far my classes have been very productive and I even have some photos of completed projects to share with you!

If you are interested in classes you can send me an E-mail at quilters.workshop@gmail.com for more information!

The Canadian Quilter

Today, I received the Autumn 2012 issue of The Canadian Quilter Magazine.
This is the 2nd magazine I have ben featured in, in less than a year!
The article is based on an interview I had with one of the writers for the magazine and also includes some pictures of my work, on page 93!

I am so very honoured and excited to be featured in their prestigious magazine. Thank you CQA!

Cover of the issue:

My article on page 93:

Hand Stitched Fabric Flowers

I've recently made some flowers out of scraps of fabric and odd buttons, that are very quick to do and do NOT require the use of a "Clover yo-yo Disc".

With the help of a special friend, I now have a YouTube tutorial explaining how I made the flowers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVGJSFtDr6A

After the creation of the video, I decided that the flowers could also be turned into hair-flowers.

I purchased a package of hair clips at the dollar store, that look like this:

Since the clips had tiny holes in them, I was able to sew the clip directly to the back of one of the flowers that I made.

You can make these flowers out of any type of fabric and use them as embellishment for many sewing projects or other types of crafts.

Summer Camps

I thought I would share a few photos of some of the work my students have done so far in their summer camps!

The following photos are summer dresses made with a shirred bust, I have previously posted a tutorial on how to accomplish that look.

Lots of awesome work so far this month by my young students!


There are two articles about the PEC Quilt Show that I was the guest speaker for, published in local newspapers!

The Picton Gazette
http://issuu.com/pictongazette/docs/picton_gazette_july12

The Wellington Times
http://wellingtontimes.ca/a-stitch-in-time/

both really great articles, their guild hosted a fabulous show that I`m sure will be the talk of the town for weeks to come!




This is Lacey, my Aunt`s dog. She is going to be my new sewing buddy! 

Basket Weave Quilting

While recently the guest artist at the PEC Quilt Show, in Wellington ON, I had the opportunity to sit in on a demonstration presented by the President of their guild.
She demonstrated a technique called the Basket Weave, I`ve recently taken the technique and used it to create a small table mat.

The greater number of squares that you use, the more you will notice the basket weave design. It is recommended that your squares all be of the same print, or at least all shades within an identical colour or pattern.

I cut my main fabric into 5 inch strips, and my dark brown sashing I cut into 1 inch strips.
I sewed a sashing strip onto either side of my 5 inch strip, after they are sewn on, press the seams towards your darkest fabric.

Measure the new width of your strip, mine was 5 & 6/8"
Use this new size, to cut as many squares as possible from your strip of fabric.

To make my table mat I used 8 squares.

Lay your squares out, so that your sashing directions alternate, which forms the basket weave design.

Once your centre is sewn together, I added a 2 inch border of a coordinating colour.

Now you can quilt, back and bind your mat as desired.


*TIP: This technique would work really well in flannels to make a baby quilt.