Decision Making

To any quilters out there - how do you not go crazy deciding between options? There are so many options!

Where did that thought come from? Well, I'm working on a quilt block. One quilt block. A local quilting group is doing this for a fundraiser, and Mom and I decided to get in on it. Each person doing a block gets a packet with 2 pieces of fabric (the same 2 for everyone), and instructions. Basically, the idea is to add 2-4 more fabrics, and make a 12" quilt block. That's really all the guidelines you have.

First things first, I needed to find two more fabrics. Mom and I went through a couple baskets of scraps.  When your starting point is a blue solid and a blue print, there are a lot of colours that go with them. After trying several different combinations, I ended up with a buttery yellow and a white with a flower print that picked up the blue and the yellow.

Next, pattern. I'm pretty much a novice, so I wanted something fairly simple - i.e., nothing where I had to accurately match eight points together or something. But not too boring. And of course it had to be doable in 4 colours. Um, so we have a couple books with names like "400 Quilt Blocks". And a few with a more specialized focus. I skipped the magazines; that would have been too much input. Finally settled on a block called Canadian Gardens, which seemed appropriate.

Four fabrics, quilt block, all right...Wait, I still have to decide which colours are going where. So out come the coloured pencils and the paper. I'm sure this is a lot easier if you have a vision of the finished quilt in mind - which colours you want to emphasize, for instance. If all you see is a pattern of triangles and squares, there are a lot of possibilities. (If I was doing a whole quilt, in fact, I would be tempted to try out all the various permutations and combinations of colour arrangement for the same block layout.) But since I had only one block, and didn't want to spend two days choosing the colour placement, I sketched just four and picked one of those (the top left one, if you're wondering).

Got the pattern pieces drawn and cut out (the 8-squares-per-inch graph paper I had for school made that SO easy), traced onto cardboard and cut out for templates, and traced and cut appropriate pieces of fabric. Which was a job, not because of the cutting, but because the cat decided she needed attention, and accurately tracing and cutting pieces of fabric is much harder when there's four feet and a tail in the way and a cute face purring and trying to rub your face...Now I get to do the sewing, and hope everything lines up.

But not right now. Because it's beautifully sunny and nice out (supposed to be 23C today!), the birds are chirping, the crocuses are blooming, and I need to finish cleaning up the garden before work starts later this week.

Farm Show

Last year, what with school and all, I didn't get a chance to go out and do too many demos with the Weaving and Spinning Guild. But I've managed a couple this winter, and yesterday was the demo at the Ottawa Farm Show. I did this one a couple years ago too, the first year they were at the Ernst and Young Centre, when we scored fleeces from Rare Breeds Canada to sample.

It's a fun show, for several reasons. I always get a kick out of seeing the contrast between the EY Centre, which is shiny-modern-new, and the show clientele, which is heavy on pick-up trucks in the lot and feed-caps, plaid shirts, and jeans on the people. And even if you're not interested in the latest breed of wheat or model of John Deere tractor, there's plenty to see in the way of antiques and fun things in the exhibition area. Our station was right outside there.

We had a  good variety of things to show people about the Guild and what we do.

Across from us was a rope maker, who also had some wooden toys and games, and who got people to help make plied and cabled ropes from cakes of baler twine. Inside the exhibition there was leather-working, antique implements, quilts, detailed wooden models, and a sock-knitting machine.

Some of the booths in the show had what definitely could be called eye-catching displays, like the stuffed bison I passed on my way in.

And then there's the loot. We saw people passing with foam #1 fingers, wooden staffs, Kubota bags, balloons, and who knows what else. I think the best, though, was the T-shirts that were for sale. Both of my demo partners bought shirts. One said 'Kiss me, I'm a farmer', and the other said, '100% Farm-Raised'.

The only draw-back, in fact, was the weather. Snow and wind all afternoon and evening, making getting home lots of fun. Sigh. More white stuff to melt before we can do more than plan gardens and start seedlings, and dream of going outside without a coat and boots...

Computer Bad; Quilts Good; News Sad

Still playing 'Fight the Computer'. Now it turns out the download from school, which I thought was Windows 7, is only an update. This after 2 attempts at downloading and a visit to IT at school. Which means I still need to beg or borrow a disk from someone of a reasonably recent Windows OS (Vista or XP), install it and partition the drive, THEN update to Windows 7 before I can put in the program I need. Beginning to wonder if the hassle is worth it.

Right, so now I've got that off my chest, something more fun...I skipped the Weaving and Spinning Guild meeting the other week in favor of the Quilter's Guild. The program for the night was a trunk show by Elaine Quehl, and a traveling display of mini art quilts from SAQA, which stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Elaine I had met a couple times before, through a mutual friend. She does hand-dyed fabric, and the most incredible, often botanically inspired, art quilts using her fabrics. Click the link. Check them out in the gallery. Wonderful use of color and form.

SAQA was completely new to me. I must admit I'm not really drawn to abstract art, but I do think their idea of a traveling show is pretty neat. A whole group of small quilted panels by all different people, each piece maybe a foot square and framed individually, and sent from place to place to show people what art quilting can be. I think someone said this particular group had Hong Kong on its itinerary, so they are really traveling around. A virtual look at the show can be found on the SAQA website, for anyone curious.

One other piece of news to share, rather sad. (Stop here if you wish). The parents are back to one dog, and down one chicken. Allie made it rather obvious that even after being there for several weeks, she couldn't be trusted with the other animals unless under supervision. Mom had already scolded her away from the chickens that day, and she was being good. The minute Mom went off to check on the laundry, though, Allie tore one of the chickens to pieces, then compounded the felony by trying to hide the evidence, asking for the body back when it was discovered, and terrorizing one of the cats into hiding in the woodpile all night (found the next morning, cold and hungry but unharmed). Add that to the fact that she was showing a bit of a tendency to snap at people over the holidays, when everyone was home, and Mom felt they had no real choice but to put her down. She said she cried all day about it, but they couldn't risk keeping her, and wouldn't have felt right about giving someone else a dog that might harm them or their animals, especially in a rural area. Best case, she'd have to be chained or confined all the time (and what kind of life is that?); worst case, someone would abandon her again, or put her down after another person or animal got hurt. So there was no real way to make that a happy ending, unfortunately. Sometimes it just doesn't work, hard as you try.

Fiber and Color

What a lovely couple of days. Yesterday was meet-up for spinning in the park, and yummy lunch stuff. I didn't bring my wheel, since I was coming from an errand beforehand, but I brought some knitting with handspun. Mittens in alpaca, in a nicely textured bubbly pattern.

We're getting a bit more formal in our park set-up. Drinks used to mean a thermos of whatever. But this time there was a portable Coleman stove, and a table, and all the fixings for tea and coffee. Wonderfully luxurious, really. And happily, the rain which was threatening held off, but there was enough breeze to keep cool by. Of course, then I didn't notice until I got home that I had a bit of a burn, and a funny one. Heavier on one side, and with the position of the necklace I was wearing clearly marked!

After a quick stop home to drop things mid-afternoon, I headed for Colonnade. Warehouse sale at Wool-Tyme, and I kinda found a few things. 

I have this little problem resisting pretty colors. All fingering-weight alpaca and alpaca blends, and my excuse is that they will turn into colorwork mittens for selling at craft fairs. Having done that damage, I met up with a friend and we did a flying tour to Brockville, as the Thousand Islands Guild was having a quilt show. I forgot the camera in the car, but there were so many pretty things, and we were so pressed for time, that I barely had time to see everything myself, and only glanced at the vendors. Really, the quilters are expanding their creative range as fast as the knitters - every time I see a quilt show there's new and interesting ideas to take in. 

Off again this morning to the annual Glebe Garage Sale. And oddly enough, the fiber and dyeing theme continued here, as I found three books on the topic.

 Casselman's dye book I've heard cited as a good one, the Weaving and Dyeing book looks intriguing, has the old recipes, and weaving patterns, so will be of interest to my mother as well, and Women's Work I had from the library and loved, so was thrilled to find a paperback copy. Besides my book pile, I found a few movies, but nothing big. I did, of course, get some edibles...lemonade from a kid's stand, a hot dog from the Scouts, and half a pound of homemade maple fudge by way of dessert. Really, the limiting factor for the Glebe sale is how long my feet will hold out. Otherwise I could really spend longer there, listening to bands and buskers, nibbling at various bake sales, seeing what treasures people have found, looking at the houses and landscaping...but as it was, I was very happy to get home, and put my feet up for a bit. 

Multimedia Week

I suspect this is going to be a very inspiring week. Of course that means by the end of it I'll be itching to take up a half-dozen projects in various fiber media...

Yesterday I went with a friend, Meredith, to a show by one of the quilter's Guilds in town. I have the one quilt in progress which I haven't worked on in a couple years, and going to the shows like this always makes me feel like I want to get back to it. And then do more - lots more! The show was amazing, always is. I wish I had brought a camera, so I could show you some of the stuff - but I didn't know we were allowed cameras until we got there. There was one quilt, which had about three award ribbons, where the quilter had designed something like stained glass, with celtic knot-patterned vertical panels as the 'leading', and batik fabric in jewel tones for the 'glass'. Quilts like abstract paintings, exploring light and shade. Quilts with fine floral applique. Whimsical quilts for children - one had a collection of cartoon animals wearing a variety of shoes. Another had an open book titled 'A Collection of Animal Tails', with all the tails sticking out of the book, Swiss-Army-knife fashion, including a pompom for the bunny tail. Quilts with lace or jewels or charms added. Exchanges and challenges where you could see what several people had made out of the same collection of patches or a set theme.

Included in the set theme category was a popular exhibit, where each person had had to create a square that was a rebus of a flower name. They had a contest going, for visitors to try and figure out what they all were, and people were into it. Sitting on the benches, flipping through seed catalogs provided, Googling ideas on their phones... I think we spent at least 10-15 minutes there. Some were obvious (heart with drops of blood = bleeding heart), some funny (black bird with swearing symbols at it's beak = crow-cuss, crocus), some requiring more thought that others (plain beige square plus letter C = tan-C, tansy).

I didn't buy anything from the vendors, but it was tempting. Fabrics in every sort of print and color, alone or packaged in lovely combinations of colors, threads ranging from silk to metallic, books and patterns...sigh. Must do more quilting.

We ran into someone from the Knitting Guild, and I discovered a) the meeting is tonight and not next week, and b) Cat Bordhi is the speaker. She's been in town doing workshops this weekend, and from what I understand, she has a math background, and is known for novel ways of getting to a particular result. Right, so, must go. I think that would definitely be an interesting talk.

I also found out that the Embroiderer's Guild has a show on at the Almonte Textile Museum. So Friday afternoon, that's where I'm off to with my mother. Meredith said it was definitely worth seeing, only poorly advertised. Since I've dabbled in embroidery as well, I expect I will come away with more ideas and wishes to start something. Again.