A Done Deal

Over the long weekend we all congregated at Jane's cottage, stitching in hand, and Betty's mission was to put the finishing touches on her Fruit Salad top. Mission accomplished, and wonderfully so.

Before she left for home she laid it out in the garden to get a good look at it. All I can say is OMG! It is so fabulously stunning she will have a hard time closing her eyes to sleep under it. The pics are taken with her phone so they aren't that clear but I will have more as she quilts it - promise.

The transition to the border from blue & pink/yellow triangles to just yellow & pink worked beautifully and that border fabric is still as amazing as ever with it. In the dappled sunlight it looked even more so.

Of course, a certain someone had to road test it to confirm that it was bed ready. I think it passed the test - those eyes are looking pretty sleepy.

She also snapped a shot of a collection of potholders that Jane has made - she has lots of fun with these....M

Between The Covers

A very special friend celebrated a milestone birthday recently so a small group of us met for lunch last week to fête her and I decided it was the perfect excuse to make a journal cover. She's a quilter and likes batiks so even if she never writes a note in it she will have some lovely fabric to look at :).

It's been a while since I have put one together so I needed to get my brain thinking the right way again, but it kicked in eventually. I did have to dig up the tutorial once it got to sizing the batting, but after that it was sort of like riding a bike - once you know how it all comes back with a little practice.

I'm getting smarter about cutting and laying out all my strips before I sew and it makes things go a lot more quickly and smoothly.

It seems a shame not to include a little colour on the inside flaps so I added a few there as well to make things interesting.

When it was all wrapped and ready to go I couldn't help but think that this pattern would be lovely to appliqué some day. There's inspiration everywhere.....M

For The Birds

All of the hand stitching that I wanted to do on the weekend required a little more cutting so I opted to pick up my little red felt birds and put a few of them together - the Holly Bazaar will be here before I know it.

I had a few cut out and ready to go so three more came together in fairly short order. I still have to put on the bead eyes and the ribbon hanger, but I can do those in a batch.

Having the little guys ready to assemble was a really handy so I've cut several more and have them waiting in the 'wings', so to speak, for whenever the mood strikes me. They're cute little things.

After my last post I had a lovely note from Mimi. She's been busy making flags for Lac-Mégantic too; last month she sent 4 flags and Wednesday she was mailing 5 more. You can see a few of them on her Flickr page, and a few more here. Aren't they lovely? It's cool to see everyone's interpretation of the message that they want to send. Thanks for sharing, Mimi.

Just a reminded that if you are planning to send a flag or two the deadline for them to receive them is August 24; shipping details are in my last post....M

All You Need Is Love

The community of Lac-Mégantic continues to try and heal from the recent devastating train derailment that destroyed the centre of the town and killed so many. At times like this we always wonder what we can do to help - just in some small way, something that might bring comfort and support.

Not surprisingly, the quilting community is coming together to offer a helping hand. Courtepoint Claire in Montreal has been inspired by the flag project that Berene Campbell created for the residents of Boston earlier this year, To Boston With Love - a public exhibition of flags strung into banners that will be displayed in Lac-Mégantic, hopefully in September. Details are yet to come, and given the chaos, it may take a few weeks to finalize the venue and exact date so, in the meantime, they are moving forward in the creation of flags.

 

 

 

 

 

Think it's too small to make an impact? Check out images from the To Boston with Love flickr group and be inspired.

This is a small project that can easily be made in an afternoon; make one or as many flags as you like. The more flags, the bigger the impact. The idea is to provide Lac-Mégantic with an uplifting experience from quilters and sewists around the globe. I thought I'd make one and ended up having so much fun that between yesterday and today I've finished six. Who knows, maybe there will be more before they are shipped.

All the flags are 6 x 8" finished and here's a great tutorial to get you started. And if you’re looking for even more inspiration, there are tons of tutorials out there to chose from; the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has compiled a great list - just scroll down past the links to the first two tutorials. Keep in mind that, unlike Berene’s patterns, these tutorials aren’t specifically for the flags, so you might need to resize them. PLEASE NOTE : they have asked that we avoid flame colours and use soothing blues and greens instead.

I made 2 using the String Heart tutorial and then branched out into other styles. It was total play and the perfect excuse to try out new patterns/styles with quick results.
 

The deadline is August 24, 2013; please send your flags to:

Claire Haillot
Courtepointe Claire
Re : Lac-Mégantic Flags
3143 Boul. Dagenais ouest
Laval, Québec
H7P 1T8
Canada


Tell your friends....M