Inception Pillow - Mighty Luck Quilting Club Finish

Inception Pillow

19'' x 19''

Do you remember the movie Inception? Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, and Ellen Page doing some majorly weird mind work. And visually, some crazy things happening. As soon as I saw this fabric last spring I knew it would be perfect for the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club Challenge that I hosted in July. Originally, I was just going to play with directionality, but that changed. As you can see, the pattern is still very visible on the wrong side of the fabric. Yes, that hexagon is the wrong side of the fabric!

This was a fun little finish. I got inspired to tackle it this week after a student of mine in Montreal recently used the same fabric. Beyond being inspired by their creativity, my students sometimes give me just the kick in the butt I need!

And for fun, here is a pig standing on the pillow.

In case you didn't know, the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club is a monthly challenge to your quilting creativity. Each month, or only on the months you sign up for, a PDF arrives in your inbox encouraging creative action. Challenges have ranged from using text in your quilting to leather in your quilts, from only a single fabric to new ways to think of basic techniques. Check it out here!

Antonio's Quilt - Modern Improv Quilt for Blogger's Quilt Festival

Sneaking in under the wire for an entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I remember when Amy started the festival, in part a way for those of us at home to share, be busy, and get excited while a large part of the industry was at Quilt Market/Festival. This was before Instagram even. Now, it really comes down to all the delicious eye candy in one spot. With prizes!

I'd hoped to have a new finish to share, but I am only just getting the binding on. So I am reposting one of my favourite finishes of the year.

Antonio's Quilt started with an image shared by Katrina Hertzer of her son and his painting in progress. I was so drawn to Antonio's shape that I immediately went into the sewing room. It took me a few years to actually get to a finished quilt, but it was worth the wait!

Completely improvised. Some clear intention in shape making, some slabs for the background, and rather dense quilting with Aurifil to make the design really pop.

To read more about the quilt check out the original post.

To see all the quilts in the festival, and they run the gamut of style and technique, make sure you check out all of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

And did you know I teach these improv techniques? Check out my Classes Offered for all the details and options.

Arkison in Australia

So, I went to Australia for 2 weeks. It was rather incredible. My first, but hopefully not my last time! Enjoy a quick slide show of my trip. I was there to teach at a couple of amazing events organized by The Creative Retreat. Jules did everything to create a space for action, imagination, creativity, and laughter. More on the creativity in another post.  A few highlights:

... I had no idea how fitting it was that one of the first images I would see would be a sheep photoshoot in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House. You cannot even imagine the number of sheep in Australia.

... After a morning in Sydney and sleeping off my jet lag in Canberra we went on the road to our first retreat location: Kangaroo Valley. A glorious spot among farms, Fitzroy Falls, and creating by the fireplace. 

... The birds! I never thought of myself as a birdwatcher, but now I am totally obsessed. To see a million different kinds of parrots, rosellas, cockatoos, plus kookaburras was phenomenal. Then to spot and hear the unique Lyre bird was mind blowing. I am totally obsessed with birds now.

... After Kangaroo Valley we made our way towards Melbourne, stopping in country towns where I was introduced to the pie shops, RSLs, old buildings, and what counts as mountains in Australia. Road tripping is awesome, my favourite.

... 48 hours in Melbourne! A city I really would like to explore more. They care about architecture and public art in a way I've never seen before. We ate well, we played with Leslie at Maze and Vale (that's a whole other post), and visited Jen Kingwell at Amitie Textiles.

... The second retreat was in Point Lonsdale. The ocean!!! Long time readers know how I love the ocean, no matter which ocean or where. There I was taking my morning walks along the Pacific, but seeing the sun rise over it instead of set. Mind blowing. And, of course, I went for a swim! How could I not? Such a lovely location and another group of hysterical and creative women.

... More roadtripping and then the long flight home. (Right after that last photo Nicole Kidman walked by.)

Such a amazing experience and I am forever grateful to this job. These sorts of trips are so appreciated and I get as much out of them as my students. Their work, commitment, and creativity is inspiring. Thanks Jules, for making this all happen!

Samsquanch - A Bigfoot Quilt

Samsquanch

90'' x 90''

Take one Legendary pattern, multiply it by five, add in a family of five sewing, and you get one crazy quilt.

Our family winter project is finally finished. We took a jaunt to the mountains yesterday to capture the quilt in the wild, in some truly squatchy country. It's already made a debut at a local quilt show and is in good use on the odd chilly night in the basement. 

I quilted it with a combination of thread and techniques. The white background is done with a walking foot and using a white Aurifil 50wt. The trees are straight line with the magical olive green from Aurifil. The Bigfoot herself (we decided she was female while making her) is done with a brown variagated in 40wt from Signature. She needed fur and a face so my free motion skills got a lot of practice - once my BSR was replaced!

To make the face my husband and I spent far too much time researching Bigfoot art and representations. Then we compared them to primates and sketched and resized. Total nerds. I gave myself a chalk outline and went at it contour drawing style. Thank you Melissa Averinos for teaching me that!

The backing is a mishmash of greens and leftover browns from my stash. The only fabric we bought for this quilt was the binding. I simply had nothing at home that worked so the girls picked this ombre and it's perfect. 

It really was an incredible project to work on together. From picking fabric to sewing together I had fun. It's easy to get annoyed or stressed when the kids are sewing, but we learned to go with the flow - and their enthusiasm. I gave in to all the requests when my little guy wanted to help, including having him on my lap while doing some FMQ! We had fun stomping through the trees for photos, complete with photo bombs and blurry pictures from laughing. 

It's summer now so there isn't much couch snuggling going on. And Hubby rightly pointed out that the white background is more wintery. I had hoped to shoot this in the snow, hence that white background. But believers know, Sasquatch is always out there...

And one word on the name. My husband is a wildly sarcastic man with a unique sense of humour. He likes to make up words and stories to mess with people, the kids especially. So in our house it isn't Sasquatch or Bigfoot, it is Samsquanch.