More Retreat Makes

We're at the end of school crazy time around here and while classes finished yesterday we are now in the throes of exam prep. Each of them have 5 exams to write to write this week. I may lock myself in my sewing room to keep from incessantly nagging them to "Get the heck off Facebook and study!"  Honestly, how does anyone make it through university these days with all the social media they have to keep up on?

Ok, so I'm really dragging this retreat thing out, but here are a few more pics. My spring retreat buddies are French General Fanatics. When we retreat, they both just bring bags and bags of every line of FG. And I mean every line. Then they proceed to make the most beautiful quilts, pillows, pin cushions, table runners and bags out of it!

To start, here was our basement sweat shop! The set up was perfect - big cutting table, individual work stations, a heater and carpeted floor. Our iron was just around the corner in the laundry room.

Isn't Rossie's bed gorgeous?! That's my dresden plate pillow pattern on the right - she 

made a beautiful one!

This is the quilt top Sandi got together. That border print is a fav of all three of us.

Here are our farm fresh breakfast eggs from local friend Sue's hens. And a sweet table topper by Rossie under the rose glass bowl.

Rossie's hand-quilted couch throw was super cozy in the mornings.

She made this gorgeous 241 Bag with Martha Negley's Farmdale feathers print and a French General linen look blue solid.

I was the beneficiary of a few choice selvage pieces and had some of my own to add so I got a start on this pillow top and made a few little pin cushions of similar design with leftovers

My second Scrap Vomit top is together. This time I used Kona pomegranate and a grey/white dot for the accent blocks.

I started free-motion quilting my first Scrap top that's been basted for weeks already. I was struggling with shredded top thread (I'm using a gorgeous variegated Sulky Blendable in 40wt). I tried 90/14 and 100/16 topstitch needles but the problem wasn't solved. I said a few choice words and soldiered on, but it was very frustrating.

A neighbourhood of tiny houses destined to become tape measure holders. I'm making these for the Fat Quarterly retreat sample swap. Laurraine's pattern can be found here.

I also made my secret partner's nametag for FQRLondon. I have to get that in the mail this week! The idea is that we send them in advance so we can arrive all nametag-equipped at the retreat Friday afternoon.

I think that just about wraps it up for spring retreat 2013. Only 31 more sleeps 'till I leave for London and I'm running a day retreat next Saturday as well, so there's plenty more social sewing in my near future. Yay!

Super Duper

My first retreat project was to sew up two Super Totes using Anna's newest bag pattern. My mom has a birthday and I have a trip coming up in July so I thought I'd make two at once. Mom's a full-time knitter and I know this will be a perfect bag for her projects. I love the size and shape for myself to use as a shopping tote - this will accompany me to the FQ Retreat in London where I hope to fill it with Liberty lovelies.

I took all of the pattern pieces pre-cut to retreat so that I could start sewing right away (I really don't like to do lots of cutting/prep work while on retreat because I will often make mistakes while chatting!). Turns out I wasn't paying enough attention at home either, I forgot to cut the lining side pieces of both bags so the very final assembly had to wait until I returned home! Since the .pdf pattern was loaded onto my iPad bookshelf, I only had to print the actual pattern pages. I followed all of the assembly instructions on the iPad.

This one is my Mom's and B was able to personally deliver it thanks to a last minute business trip (which is why I finished it at midnight and took Ott-light photos before his crack of dawn departure to Toronto).

The pattern calls for piping across the top of the large outer pocket. Due to my long recovery from the Weekender piping fiasco, I opted out of this cute design feature. I still wanted an accent there, so I cut my lining an extra 1/2" longer than the pocket piece. The seam allowance is 1/2" on this bag, so after sewing the lining to the outer pocket piece RST, I pressed the seam allowance in half to 1/4", then folded the lining to the wrong side, wrapping it around the 4-layer seam allowance. Then I used my stitch in the ditch foot to topstitch right in the seam along the front (which you can't actually see in this picture, above!). Presto: cheater piping.

This one is for me. I love the bright red flower centres of this print.


I only had FQ's of the AMH flower print, so I used the linen on the 'back' of the bag. I just had enough print to cut the top strip so there would be consistency around the top of the bag.

Lining of my tote showing the non-elastic pockets. I read several pattern reviews that mentioned they would probably not make elasticated pockets on both sides if they made the bag again, so I took the hint and did a straight/lined pocket on one side.

Mom's lining showing the elastic pockets (as per the pattern) and the key fob I added. The fob is at one end of the zipper and  slips in and out without having to unzip the bag.

A last-step option is to satin stitch across the end of the pleat to secure the seam and attach the lining to the outer bag. I like this detail very much!

As with all of Anna's patterns, the instructions are clear and easy and the results fabulous. My friends tease me that I have way too many bags, but I absolutely love making them and never tire of trying new designs. This is a seriously Super Tote and not difficult to make. The zipper closure is not only clever, it's a breeze (if Zipperphobes aren't convinced, it's completely optional - Anna explains how to make your tote without one as well).  

Are you going to give it a try? 

Ruminants on Retreat

Last weekend was my annual getaway with two of my quilting buddies. In previous years you've seen lakeside happy hour shots because we visited Sandi's lakehouse in the interior of B.C. Last fall, Rossie purchased a house back in her home town on the west coast of Vancouver Island so we went there for 5 days of sewing, eating, drinking, shopping and general relaxing.  This break has become so important to me each year as it is one retreat I don't organize, manage or plan in advance other than writing the dates on the family calendar. It truly is rejuvenating to take 5 days off of family life and I am thankful for my accommodating husband and two teenagers who support my creativity.

Aside from the usual quilting retreat stuff (chocolate, wine, potato chips, cheese & crackers) we did something that I'm quite sure no one else has done on a retreat: we visited a water buffalo farm! Seriously! J & R are old friends of Rossie's and they have a herd of 24 of these quirky animals. They're breeding them, but the focus is on milk production to sell to local organic cheese producers for buffalo mozzarella.

here is one of the girls in the dairy

J explained how nervous the animals are of new people and told us the history of building this herd and getting them used to being handled and milked. They don't produce as much  milk as regular dairy cows, but apparently the milk is lower in fat and lasts much longer before spoiling. No, we didn't taste it (not sure I would have unless it was steamed with 2 shots of quality espresso mixed in). She's named every animal and it's obvious how much they mean to her - not everyone could kiss a water buffalo on the forehead, but she does!

nice hairdo, eh?

the business 

maybe she was trying to tell me something...

camera shy

The farm is so beautiful and just as we were leaving, the sun peeked through and we caught a glimpse of the surrounding mountains. In addition to the dairy, they also keep a gorgeous flower and food garden beside the farmhouse.

That wasn't the end of our farm animal visits. Another day we drove to the famous village of Coombs where you'll find the quirky Goats on the Roof market with delicious baking, culinary delights from around the world and massive ice cream cones. A visit to the island is not complete without a visit to Coombs!

it was pouring rain, not snowing!

I didn't take my DSLR along, so these pics are from my iphone. Not the usual quality I like to share here, but I thought you'd find the water buffalo shots fun! I'll be back soon to show you some of the stuff we worked on.

I was without wifi while away, so I completely missed out on the Bloggers Quilt Festival voting. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who nominated Ayumi's baby quilt so that it made it into the Viewer's Choice voting. Wow! That was really fun to see.

Tiny Pink Penguin Quilt in the Bloggers Quilt Festival

This is my second quilt entry for Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival. The first is here.

I am beyond tickled to be able to share this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival Group Category.

This special quilt was made by 30 women. Most of us have never met in person. All of us love Ayumi Takahashi, the generous creator of Pink Penguin blog and most recently Patchwork Please! a must-have Zakka project book.  When my suspicions were confirmed and Ayumi publicly announced her pregnancy last fall, I got straight to work on a Flickr group of people I knew would want to help make a special quilt for her and Joe's baby.  Many more names of helpers were suggested by members of her online quilting bees and swap friends. A very happy discussion thread allowed us to settle on an alphabet quilt design using Kumiko Fujita's Patchwork 318 book for many of the blocks. Ayumi loves Kumiko and her style of quilting! Since the book is out of print, impossible to find and only 6 people in the group own a copy, Ms. Fujita graciously gave us her permission to share her alphabet and motif designs with each other. Several of the motif blocks were designed by members of the group 'specially for this quilt.

Ayumi is Japanese and speaks English. Joe is American and speaks Japanese. We know this baby will learn both languages and hope this sweet quilt will provide many hours of happy learning and eye-spy fun.

quilt photo by Ayumi

 
Here are the two blocks I made - the kite is my first attempt at designing a foundation pattern.

Over the course of five months and on a few continents, 56 quilt blocks were constructed. 54 of them were successfully mailed to me....IN CANADA...this is quite a shocker considering our super slow postal system.  Participants also provided scraps for setting squares so that I could sash and assemble the blocks with an assortment of fabrics in Ayumi's style. Lori Holt provided her bias gingham for the backing (a print Ayumi loves). Berene provided the sashing and binding.

I considered several quilting options, but in the end just went with straight diagonal lines with white thread to accentuate the layout and let the sweet blocks shine.  Initially, one member of the group had planned a trip to Japan and the quilt was to be hand-delivered, but when that didn't work out we held our breath and went with good old mail (I did drive across the border and leave it, nervously, in the hands of the USPS). Within a week, the quilt was in Ayumi and Joe's hands!

You can read all about Ayumi and Joe's receipt of the quilt, see more photos and read Ayumi's unbelievably sweet thank you messages that identifies all of the quilters and the blocks they contributed, here. Please do!

Sweet label embroidered by Jesse in England

For me, this quilt epitomizes the concept of a "group" project. It is not something I could have completed by myself before the baby started elementary school, but more than that, it's got the love and best wishes of a caring community stitched right in. The perfect gift for a Tiny Pink Penguin coming soon. The added bonus is that I got to meet a lot of new friends in the process and feel a tremendous amount of support from everyone.

Check out the rest of the festival entries, nominate your favs and vote!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Hello! Welcome to Poppyprint and the Blogger's Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy's Creative side twice a year to coincide with Fall and Spring Quilt Markets.

There haven't been many quilt finishes here since the last festival - I seem to have become a bag lady and have enjoyed making smaller projects that I can finish in an afternoon or two. I do have many quilts on the go in my brain, many sets of bee blocks awaiting assembly, two Scrap Vomit quilts (one basted for quilting, one a set of blocks) and a strong desire to start new projects. I know many of you are with me on this!

For the festival I'd like to share a small quilt with a rather big story. Three of my good blogging friends were a part of it's making and finishing, in addition to my small piecing effort.  The whole story is here for you to peruse if you feel like knowing more, but since there are hundreds of quilts to see in the festival, I'll keep it brief(er) here.

Cosmic Lipari

The fabrics are all luminescent Oakshott Lipari cottons sent to me from Michael Oakshott via Lynne . The pattern is an incredibly complicated-looking but easy to piece huge star block designed by Tracey (pattern and acrylic templates available on her blog! There isn't one single Y-seam, I promise) and finally, the completely mind-blowing quilting was done in trade by my local VMQG friend Janet. She's so talented and does this detailed work on her domestic machine. I knew the Lipari's deserved special treatment and she nailed it!

You've gotta see the back to really appreciate all of Janet's work!

I love the luxury, sheen and rich colours of the Lipari cotton so much (it's coloured thread shot with black thread) but man, it's really hard to do it justice in photos.

Just look at those perfectly plump feathers!

Check out the rest of the amazing festival, nominate your favs and then head back later this week to vote!

Circus in Wonderland - a photo essay

What a whirlwind couple of weeks! I've been thoroughly entrenched in a tiny, windowless, airless sewing lair at the circus school sewing my little heart out for 43 incredible teenage performers. There were four wonderful moms working on the over 100 costumes required for the show and we had a great time supporting CircusWest  in A Circus in Wonderland. After spending almost 40 hours at the gym over the last four days, repairing popped seams, washing make up and blood out of costumes (a cut toe!), attaching D's unicorn horn part way though each performance, mopping dirty floors, bobby-pinning buns and braids into place, I am really looking forward to getting back to working with cotton in the peace and quiet of my sewing room tomorrow.

It takes a small army of dedicated volunteer moms, former CirKids and make up artist students from the Blanche MacDonald School to prep the kids and get them into character.

The morning starts with an airbrush machine,

 then lots of braiding/backcombing/pinning and hairspray, then to detailed makeup, finally ending with this:

The unicorn is my D, the lion is one of her circus BFFs. They did a fun acrobatic act representing the unicorn and lion's duel for the crown.

The show was even better than last year's and the Alice theme brought in hundreds of audience members (30 members of the Vancouver Lolita cosplay group came in elaborate costumes!) that might not otherwise have been exposed to this amazing youth circus. I think 5 out of 8 shows were oversold, which is amazing since 400 seats was considered a sell-out.

Here are just a few photos so you can get a sense of it.

Alice first goes through the looking glass

A whirlwind of Alice imposters dance inside the looking glass

The Red Queen on her trapeze

The card queens enjoy a cuppa on the double trapeze before getting down to business

Alice and the Mad Hatter enjoy a flower poi act

A backstage silhouette of the tissu (aerial silks) performance

Super cool tightwire trick!

A stack of Blind Mice

Stacking cards handstand act final style (D in lower right)

The amazing cast of Circus in Wonderland!

There you go! It was really a pleasure to spend so much time around positive, supportive, motivated and hard-working kids. They are total slobs, but hey, you can't have it all.

I completely missed out on participating in SewMamaSew's giveaway day and I feel rather disconnected from blogland, but I'll try my best to get back in the swing. I'm eager to get sewing for myself again. Hope you are all well and working on fun projects!


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