Crayon Quilt & Magic Binding

I made this Crayon quilt to use as a sample for a project I will be doing with the Ukrainian Immersion students in Dauphin. The Manitoba Parents for Ukrainian Education contacted me to create a fabric art piece for the 200 years of Taras Shevchenko Celebration.  There are 92 students in grades K-8 that need to work together to create one piece, and I thought crayon quilting would be the perfect choice.  I also knew that I wanted my sample to have a totally different subject matter so that students wouldn't feel compelled to copy something I had done.  My wonderful family helped me with the sample, and we decided that memories of the 11 years we spent living in Flin Flon would be perfect.

The crayon technique is quite simple.  

You need only need a few supplies:

• 100 % cotton fabric that has been washed to remove any sizing etc.
• freezer paper cut to the same size as your squares to stabilize the fabric for coloring
• good quality standard crayons (not the washable kind)
• paper towel 
• iron

I cut my fabric into 6" squares and ironed freezer paper to the back.  Some of us drew directly on the the fabric, and some chose to trace images before coloring them in.  You can easily see through the fabric so drawing your idea out on paper first is a viable option. The beauty of this technique is that you color directly on to the fabric as if it were paper.  No chemicals or complicated processes involved.  Just remember that you will lose a 1/4" to a seam allowance all around your design, so don't sign it in the very corner!  Once you are satisfied with your design, remove the freezer paper.  Place a few layers of paper towel over your image and press with a dry iron until no more wax transfers onto the paper towel.

For this project I decided to try a new binding technique and I was quite pleased with the results.  You can find the tutorial for "Susie's Magic Binding" here.  The binding is completely sewn on by machine and the bonus is the piping that is also created.  The binding is sewn to the back of the quilt and top stitched down from the front in the ditch between the piping and the main binding fabric.

 There is an extra line of stitching on the back, but it was neat and tidy, staying on the backing fabric, and not wavering between the binding and the backing as sometimes happens.

The corners were a breeze as well.  I know I won't always use this technique, but I happy to have it in my bag of tricks.

 Last but not least, one of our Highway 10 Designs customers shared photos of her Pedal to the Metal quilt that she is making for her grandson.  Judy said this is only the second quilt she has ever made.  I think she chose great masculine fabrics, and that it is looking fabulous.  Thanks for sharing Judy, you made our day!

Reneta's Lug Nuts

This is Reneta's version of our Highway 10 Designs Lug Nuts pattern.  This is the first time I have quilted this pattern so it was a lot of fun for me.

Reneta loved the plaid fabric that you see in the above hexagon, so all the rest of the fabrics were picked around it. A really nice mix of grey, green and teal.

Reneta left the choice of panto up to me and I called in my girls for their opinions as this quilt might be destined for a young lady.  We decided on the "Plush" panto and I used a leafy green thread.

I love the fresh modern fabric choices Reneta made, it give Lug Nuts a whole different look.

Antique Rose

 This quilt belongs to Sandra. (It is a full queen size, which makes it trickier to get a nice shot in my living room.) The pattern came from the Spring 2006 issue of Quilts and More magazine and is called "Antique Rose".  I was a little surprised when I first saw this quilt as it strays from Sandra's current taste in fabric (like this one I did for her), but it is good to get those older projects done up and moved out to make room for the new!

I used a  Light Sage Omni thread on top and a brown Bottom line on the back.  The Stonehenge fabric she choose for the back really shows off the "Trellis Vine" panto beautifully!

If you have a few extra minutes check out all the giveaways Vicki is having on her blog this week - lots of beautiful things up for grabs!

Anita's Christmas

I recently had the pleasure of quilting this stunning applique quilt for Dorothy.  The pattern is called "Anita's Christmas Quilt" by P3 Designs.  Dorothy's color choices are very different from the original and give the quilt a totally different look.  (These pictures really don't do it justice!)

 Dorothy does exquisite hand applique.  The amount of work involved to complete the 12 blocks is almost hard for me to imagine, but when you add in the scallop detail around every block and in the outside border - wow!  My goal was to let Dorothy's fabrics and hand work shine, which meant a lot of stitching in the ditch.  I chose simple piano keys in the outer border to frame the quilt, feathers in the dark green and a simple swirl in the black sashing that mimicked the motif in the fabric.

I am going to include lots of pictures for you to enjoy.  I loved looking at every single block so I couldn't leave any out.

 

Thank you for trusting me with your quilt Dorothy, it was truly a pleasure!

Road Trip & Round Robins

I had the opportunity this weekend to hit the road with a few quilting buddies from Dauphin to travel to one of our "local" quilt stores to meet up with some other quilting buddies from Flin Flon.  We traveled 170 km from Dauphin to Swan River to meet at Fabriculous, but you won't hear me complaining as the trip from Flin Flon to Swan River is 370 km!  What quilters won't do for fabric!

The hospitality was great and everyone seemed to find something they needed. Here we are just before getting back on the road - Audrey, Kathy, Sandra, Lynn, me and Reneta.

Fabriculous was having a 40% off sale on Stonehenge fabrics so I took the opportunity to stock up on some backings.  

Kathy and I also did a little Highway 10 Designs "business".  We have an idea for a new pattern that uses fat quarters and we thought the piles from our stashes were going to work together, but until you see them in person you just never know.  On the left was my fabric, the center was Kathy's and the right was some new pieces we picked up for more variety.  I am excited to start playing with these!

Kathy had also received the paper copies of our Lug Nuts pattern so I got my hands on those too.  Kathy and I both have them available for our local quilters, and they are also available in our Etsy shop.

The other thing that Kathy and I did was exchange blocks for a Round Robin that we are participating in with two quilters from Australia.  The 4 of us participating are Kathy from Tamarack Shack, Desley from Addicted to Quilts, Bronwyn from Pussycat Quilts and me. We will each take a turn working on each other's block, but receive our own back in the end.  Kathy is overseeing this Round Robin exchange and the first instruction was to create a 12" non directional block of our choice.  This is how everyone's started out.

Bronwyn

Kathy

Lori

Desley

We were given a deadline to have them in the mail so they could arrive on the other side of the world before the second instruction was revealed.  The second instruction was to add any kind of border we liked, the only restriction was no applique.

I worked on Bronwyn's block.  I knew I wanted to work the half square triangles from the corners of Bronwyn's original block into my border design. We are only sending blocks and no fabric for this exchange, so I have to thank Sherry for letting me shop her stash to find a fabric that complimented the block better than what I had!

Desley worked on my block.  I wish I could see it in person!

Bronwyn worked on Kathy's.

And Kathy worked on Desley's.  I now have this one to work on for the next round.  Time to put my thinking cap on!  Thanks for letting me play this game with you ladies, it is fun to be surprised!