My patterns, a reader question and time for a new quilt

I've opened a Craftsy store called Faeries and Fibres and there is a button on my sidebar that will take you directly to Craftsy. I'll  add my free patterns to the Craftsy store. The links that are already in my blog will remain but moving forward I'll post my patterns on Craftsy. If you have trouble accessing them drop me a line and I'll see what I can do to help you out!

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In the last post I wrote about some pincushions and I had a link to my Tiny World Pincushion Gallery. 

Silvana asked "Sono tutti una meraviglia, e il modello è sempre lo stesso?" which I understand to mean "are they all made from the same pattern" or something to that effect. Silvana is a no reply blogger so I was unable to email her my answer which is that I use Mimi Kirchner's pattern to get started and then I make little changes to make the worlds different. I made my own patterns for the trees and some of the houses. Thanks to Google translator I believe the Italian answer is "Io uso modello di Mimi Kirchner per iniziare e poi faccio piccoli cambiamenti per renderle diverse . Ho fatto i miei modelli per gli alberi e alcune delle case".

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I had previously mentioned that I was getting ready to start a new quilt so today I thought I would give you a hint of what I have planned. The whole design isn't worked out but I've got some ideas sorted. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to answer a question I received about how I design a quilt.

When I start a new quilt I look for inspiration. Sometimes it comes from a combination of colours I see or architecture. Old quilts are a great source of design and colour inspiration. Other times the fabric in my stash inspires me. It is the later that is my inspiration for my next quilt.

I have mentioned in the past that I am a non-denominational quilt maker which means I'll use any technique that works for me and I'll use the fabric that meets my needs. This sometimes means that I shop in the home dec department of fabric stores. They sell 100% cotton so why not? Well I found a great bolt of decorator fabric. It had a grey background with large mandalas (they are about 19" across) in yellow, gold and cream so I bought a piece of it!

I loved the print and thought it would make a fabulous centre medallion in a quilt. The grey reminds me of stone, the yellow of honey and the cream of Cornish clotted cream. All of these things spoke to me of my Cornish heritage and I knew that I wanted to make a quilt in which it would be reflected.

I also want to incorporate other aspects of my life and my family. As a child I remember chewing on chunks of honeycomb given to me by my grandmother; it was such a sweet, golden treat and when the honey was sucked from the comb we would delight in chewing on the wax!  I wonder if the honeycomb was the beginning of my romance with hexagons! Coincidentally it was that Grandmother that showed me how to make hexagons over a cardboard template.

My Mom has a love of bees and she often incorporates them in her quilts. She loves her garden and bees are critical to the success of every garden. They are also helpful when making a quilt . Mom was making a quilt that she calls Afrika and there were places where the seams didn't line up. What to do? Cover them with bees, killer bees! You can see and read about her quilt here. My new quilt will provide the perfect opportunity to incorporate bees for my Mom!

All of these elements are my inspiration and they will fire my creativity. So the plan is to design and make a quilt that I will call The Meadery. Mead is a beverage made of fermented honey and it is tasty! Have any of you watched the series Larkrise to Candleford? One of my favourite characters is Queenie Turrill. She raises bees and is renowned for the mead that she makes from their honey! A meadery is the place where mead is made and it is also a type of restaurant common in Cornwall, England.

I am going to need hexagons for this quilt and they will form the honeycomb. I'll use a variety of honey colours from the palest yellow to the richest golden orange. Many years ago I made a small quilt for my Mom. I called it Quilting Bees. I plan on making the honeycomb so that it resembles the honeycomb in this quilt.

Quilting Bees by Karen H 12 1/2" square

Close-up of Quilting Bees by Karen H

Step one is to cut oodles of strips of honey fabric. I'm planning on using 3/4" hexagons for the honeycomb so I'm using 2" strips. I'll also go through my bin of leftover hexagons that have basted and I'll add them to the pile of hexagons I'm going to need. I'll use my rapid cutting technique for cutting my hexagons from these strips so that I can get sewing as quickly as possible!

So listen people: I've decided that it is time to take a bit of a blog vacation or a blogcation as I like to call it!

I'll be off for the next couple of weeks but will be checking and replying to all emails and comments. If you leave a comment and don't hear back from me it means you are a no reply blogger and I have no way to contact you because and email address isn't linked to your profile. 

As always, until I post again happy, happy, happy sewing. I'll be back in a couple of weeks and hopefully at that time will have lots to share with you!

Karen H

Festival purchases and Hexagon and Blue Star quilt

Yesterday I went to the Creativ Festival with The Girl. There were hundreds of booths selling all sorts of interesting things. This year there were many vendors with wool and since The Girl is a knitter she was in heaven! She is partial to yarn made with alpaca and so bought herself some skeins in rich colours. She also bought a little box of mini skeins of variegated wool which is used to make honeycombs. They are stuffed with a little fibrefill and then stitched together to make "The Beekeepers Quilt"!

These colours of these little mini skeins are delicious.

I was almost tempted to buy some yarn for myself but I resisted the urge. Instead I bought myself six fat quarters from Log Cabin Yardage. I think all of these fabrics have possibilities!

 

I also visited a rug hooking booth where I was able to purchase some fat quarters of wool in drab earthy colours. Won't these be great for the ground of my tiny world pincushions?

The third purchase was six fat quarters for Mom. These fabrics are from South Africa and they are printed from old copper plates. Historically the fabric was heavily starch to protect it during shipping. The manufacturer continues this tradition so that they fabrics are stiff as a board. A gentle wash removes all of the starch leaving a soft quality cotton. I think these fabrics will be great for her African themed quilts!

Today I'll start sewing the Hexagon and Blue Star blocks into rows. Time permitting I'll work on stitching the rows together. I think this quilt will come together nicely and quickly. It is a miserable, rainy day today so this cheery quilt is the perfect project!

I want to thank Kath of Railway Cottage for providing me with a link to another really lovely blog. If it is rainy and dreary where you are and you need some pretty pictures to brighten your day and inspire click your way over to Super-Goof. Don't let the name fool you - it is a very nice blog and I guarantee that you will be charmed and delighted with what you see! Ingrid has a wonderful colour sense and she had given me loads of ideas for new quilts!

Until I post again, keep dry and happy sewing!

Quilts that have a story

Not all quilts have a story but when they do it makes the quilt just a little more special. Big or small stories add something. I have one such quilt and I would like to share the story of my quilt which I call Stars in the Loft.

Stars in the Loft, 2002

 

In 1999 I was snooping in a hayloft in an old barn turned antique shop on Manitoulin Island. I found an old quilting book and bought it for fifty cents. The book was published by Dover and on the inside cover Dover's publications were listed along with their prices. This book was $4.95. The best I can tell it was published in the late 1950s or the early 1960s (but I could be wrong).
 

 

Browsing through the pages I came across a black and white picture of a hexagon quilt. Other than saying it was a “mosaic quilt" there were no further details about the quilt and there was no information about its history or the maker. For years I searched everywhere trying to find out about this quilt but was unsuccessful.

 

The opening paragraph reads “This illustrated quilt is known also as the Honeycomb Quilt for its resemblance to waxen cells made for storage by the honey bees. The pattern is an all-over design of entirely pieced workmanship”.

There were instructions for making a honeycomb quilt and a pattern for but clearly the template was not intended to make this “mosaic”. At its widest point the templace measures 2 1/2"! No pattern? Not a problem because I draft patterns all the time. I pulled out my paper, pencils, erasers and pencil crayons and was off to the races!

 

 

My Dad was an artist and enjoyed seeing my creations as much as I enjoyed seeing his. We were very much alike in so many ways; we were both uncomfortable with praise or compliments. For us it was the doing and making that was important and that gave us the greatest pleasure. In the Spring of 2002 the quilt top was nearing completion and my Dad fell ill. He hadn’t seen the quilt because I was so proud of it and I wanted it to be a surprise. Dad was in the ICU and it was clear he would not be coming home but I wanted to be able to share the quilt with him. I worked away feverishly and was able to complete the quilt top. Stars in the Loft would the last quilt I would be able to share with Dad. When he saw it he nodded and smiled. Not many days after he died. I went on to finish my quilt and eventually displayed it at my Guild’s Quilt Show where it won a ribbon for something or other. I treasure this quilt; it is loaded with memories of my Dad and Manitoulin Island.

There’s a little bit more to this story and I’ll share that with you tomorrow along with some close-up pictures of the quilt. In making the quilt I learned several lessons that I’ve since applied to other quilts and I'll tell you about that as well.

Look what was blooming in the garden this morning! I don't kow what it is but it is pretty darned cute.

 

White violets in Mom's garden

 

 Close-up of white violets

Shooting stars in Mom's garden (she has pink and white)

 

Pink shooting stars embroidered by Mom

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!