Kim Hanson

Writing & Quilting

Missing a Deadline

| Leave a Comment

Something crazy happened to me a few weeks back. For the first time ever, I missed a deadline.

Heather McArthur, the editor and publisher of Quilter’s Connection magazine asked me to do a smallish project for the Winter issue of the magazine. She wanted a project featuring some machine embroidery. Naturally, I pounced on the opportunity! I really love working for industry magazines, but especially for Heather.

So, I went about my business as usual. I marked down what I believed to be the deadline on my work calendar and chipped away at my to-do-list. In September, one full month before Heather’s quilt project was due, the quilt was well underway. I was humming a happy tune, just so completely proud of myself…I was on track!

Then, an email popped up in my inbox from Heather. I’m thinking she’s likely just checking in…to see how my quilt is progressing. Instead, I was beyond shocked when she asked me if my project was ready to ship. Wait! What? Ship? I hadn’t even begun to machine quilt yet. Evidently, I was a month behind! A month! I’d been mistaken about the deadline and I got it completely wrong.

As is my habit (I like to blame this one on my Mom!) from childhood, I started the mental bob and weave game. What could I do? What could I tell Heather? What was my excuse? Perhaps I could tell her the quilt was in my car and the car was stolen. Or even better, the dog rolled around on my beautiful quilt top, soiling it irretrievably and I had to start over. Maybe, I could blame my husband and tell her that he inadvertently used my precious quilt to mop up a mess in the garage.

Nope. None of those excuses would do. Sheepishly, I responded to Heather’s email with the simple truth; I had totally messed up the deadline. As is her style, Heather was gracious. She commiserated with me and just asked that, “I ship the quilt as soon as I could.”

Needless to say, the quilt was bumped up my to-do-list to the very top. I stitched and stitched, a little frantically, and finished it in a hurry. Shipping from Calgary to Port Coquitlam, B.C. is very fast, so Heather had the quilt soon after its completion.

I checked online today and Quilter’s Connection winter issue is now available in digital format, and will be on the store shelves very soon. Looks like my quilt is on page 19. Love the snowman on page 8!

Thank you Heather for your patience with me. It was so very much appreciated.

Kim

 

Memories in Fabrics and Threads

| 2 Comments

As quilters, part of what we attempt to do is preserve memories. We preserve them in fabric – like a snapshot.

Last week online, I came across this adorable photo of quilt with a little girl nestled underneath it. I mean…just look at that little face! She’s so precious.

The quilt was designed and stitched by Robin from RobinSewCrazy. In 2007, she opened her shop on Etsy.  Here she is with one of her grandchildren.

Memory quilts are her specialty…she uses her client’s old/too small clothing as fabric for the applique hearts on the quilt top. Robin does not use a pattern for her work, creating each quilt individually and custom to her client’s request.

Robin’s quilted creations capture the imagination. Just looking at them makes me happy! I love the menagerie of fabrics and colours, and they way they all mesh together in the end.

Thanks everyone.

Kim

Ultraviolet Colour Palette

| 19 Comments

Good Wednesday to you all!  Thank you so much for joining me here.

Last Wednesday, I posted stage one of our first contest for 2018. If you scroll down to last week’s post, you can browse through all wonderful, thoughtful comments that we received.

Last week, I came across a Facebook post for Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2018 – which is Ultraviolet.  You can see the beautiful, rich colour here.

I think it’s an inspiring colour and I love pairing purples/ultraviolets with teal and pink and sometimes yellow.

Now, for stage 2 of our contest.

Here is my fabric colour palette that I put together from some fabrics in my stash. To enter the contest, please leave me a comment here on the blog – what do you think of these colours? Do you like them? Which one(s) would you remove? Which ones would you keep?

By leaving a comment on the blog,  you are entered into the contest.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you all.  Thanks quilters.

Take care.

Kim

Reading Pocket Pillow Tutorial

| 3 Comments

Welcome to Wednesday everyone! It’s January 3rd and time to get back at it. Whether you’re headed back to work, back to school or back to your sewing room it’s the dawn of a new year. Always, always, always a wonderful time for re-creating, re-discovering and re-organizing. So, why not start off 2018 by grabbing some fabrics from your stash to make your favourite child a Reading Pocket Pillow for their bed? Here’s one and here’s how you make it:

Designs by JuJu has just introduced some wonderful embroidery designs that work oh-so-well when crafting a Reading Pocket Pillow for that special little someone in your life. Word Art embroidery and Story Time applique work hand-in-hand in creating some sweet and special designs. I’ve made this particular pillow for my granddaughter, Harlow. I gave it to her for Christmas, filled with books tailored to meet her grade two reading abilities. Her name is embroidered on this pillow, but that is optional. Let’s get started!

Please be sure and read through all the instructions prior to commencing. Fabrics shown are from Robert Kaufman’s line – Blueberry Park – Bright Spectrum by Karen Lewis

Shopping List:

 Designs by JuJu DBJJ1077 Story Time Applique

Designs by JuJu DBJJ1078, 1079 Word Art Sets 1 and/or 2

Designs by JuJu DBJJ652   Simply Sweet Applique Font (optional)

Deep Purple Fat Quarter (18″x22″) for pillow front cut to 17″x17″

Lime Green Fat Quarter for pillow pocket cut to 11″x17″, scraps for applique**

Light Purple Fat Quarter for pillow pocket lining cut to 13″x17″, scraps for applique**

Pink and Purple pieces for envelope-style pillow back, each measuring 11″x17″

Green rickrack – 90″

Medium weight tearaway stabilizer – one yard

Embroidery thread, embroidery bobbin thread,

embroidery needles, embroidery scissors, hand sewing needle (optional)

White pencil, omnigrid ruler, rotary cutter

16″ pillow form (flattened out)

Spray Starch and Temporary Spray Fabric Adhesive

3 large buttons (optional)

*I use Brother Embroidery thread for all my projects

**To avoid the pattern from these two fabrics, I used the wrong side of the fabric for applique

Machine Embroidery:

  • Download your choice of one Word Art and one Story Time applique design. Load them both into your machine. (Use the 4×4 size)
  • Using a pencil, mark the center of the lime green, pillow pocket fabric. Measure one inch above the pencil mark and mark again. Use the second mark as your center point.

  • Hoop lime green fabric with corresponding piece of stabilizer.
  • Being mindful to center the design, stitch out your choice of Word Art embroidery. Remove fabric from hoop.
  • Mark the center point to both the right and left of the Word Art design. Re-hoop the fabric, center and stitch your choice of the Story Time applique designs. Stitch the tacking stitches of the design. Remove hoop from the machine.

  • Cut a fabric scrap slightly larger than the outline of the design. Spray the scrap with spray starch and the wrong (patterned) side of the fabric with spray adhesive. Adhere scrap over the outline of the design. Return hoop to the machine and stitch outline of the design.

  • Remove hoop from machine. Using embroidery scissors, cut as close to the stitched outline as possible.

  • Place the hoop back on the machine and complete the applique embroidery design.
  • Repeat for the second embroidery applique design.

Construction:

  • Stitch the pocket lining to the pocket itself. Right sides together, pin along the top edge and stitch. (The lining will measure longer than the pocket itself.

  • Flip over the lining to the right side, leaving a 1 1/2″ border on the top of the pillow pocket. Press.
  • Pin the rickrack to the bottom of the border on the pillow pocket. Stitch.
  • Line up bottom raw edges and pin the pillow pocket to the pillow top as per the photo. Stitch.

  • Pin rickrack to the perimeter of the pillow front. Stitch in place.

Machine Embroidery – If you choose to embroider your child’s name on the pillow front

  • Download the 2″ Upper Case applique letters of your childs’ name from the Simply Sweet applique font alphabet.
  • Using your omnigrid ruler, measure 1″ from the edge of the pillow pocket border, as shown in the photo.

  • Using a white fabric pencil, mark a straight line along the straight edge. Fold the pillow front in half, marking the center. Embroider your childs’ name being mindful to center. (I stitch the middle two letters first, on either side of the center mark and then work on either side of the name.)
  • Hand stitch large buttons in place, if you wish.
  • Take both pieces for the envelope-style pillow back. Fold over top edge of each piece, ½” press. Fold an additional ½” press and stitch in place.
  • Right sides together, line up the top raw edge of one pillow back piece with the pillow front and pin. Line up the bottom raw edge of the second pillow back piece with the bottom raw edge and pin, in an overlapping style, like the photo.

  • Stitch around the perimeter of the pillow front and back unit. Flip to right side out. Pull out the pillow corners. Flatten the pillow form and insert into the pillow cover.

There you go….all done.  You will have a super cute reading pocket pillow for your favourite child. Please contact me via email at km.hanson@shaw.ca if you have any questions. Thank you so much.

Happy New Year!

Kim

A Canadian Quilter in Russia

| Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered if there are quilters in Russia? Do they embrace the art of quilting with fabrics in the same way that North Americans do? Gail Heller, a Canadian businesswoman and Certified Instructor for Studio 180 Design happens to know the answer and it’s a resounding “yes”!

Gail recently returned to Calgary from a trip to Russia, teaching quilting skills to women in the quaint and charming medieval-style town of Suzdal, located on the banks of the Kamenka River a four hour drive from Moscow. Suzdal’s warm, friendly and welcoming citizens quickly put Gail and her Canadian travelling companion Sharon Thompson, at ease.

As part of the Suzdal second annual International Quilt Festival, Gail was invited to attend as international quilt instructor. She feels privileged to have given a trunk show and taught three classes to 36 willing and eager Russian students.

Each student, working within a three hour time frame, made four quilt blocks using the Petite Hunter Star tool and Studio 180 method of piecing. At the conclusion of the class, the ladies used the floor as their design wall and “pooled” their individual blocks to make one pleasing integrated pattern. Gail quickly discovered that design skills in quilters is universal. The students were thrilled with their efforts. Apparently “thumbs up” means the same in Russia as it does in Canada!

Gail loved and appreciated the enthusiasm of the quilters. She was struck by their wonderful work ethic, their talents and their willingness to learn and embrace the North American style of quilting. Subtle differences in their quilting habits however make their style unique.

  • Although Russian quilters love the unbeatable quality of North American quilting cottons, these fabrics are not readily available to them. Proving their amazing resourcefulness, Russians will tend to use whatever fabrics they have on hand for their quilting.
  • A patchwork style is very popular in Russia, with quilt tops being “backed” only and not quilted.
  • Long arm finishing is just being introduced to the country.
  • Time is of the essence to these ladies – they want to work hard; efficiently and quickly. Gail distilled her usual five hour quilt class down to a mere three hours to better accommodate the needs of her women students.

In our country, mothers leave their children at home when attending quilt class. Not so for Russian mothers. Gail had several women arrive to class with their daughters in tow. In the case of one mother, she brought along her adorable daughter dressed in Russian costume, who did all Mom’s pressing and ironing as the blocks were pieced together.

Gail, Hunter Star quilt, mom and daughter

There is a greater desire in Russia that children are to be included in sewing instruction…..in fact, there is a wonderful feeling of community and support in passing down sewing and quilting skills from one generation to the next.

Teaching a quilt class in English to a group of Russian-speaking students presented its own set of challenges. But Gail was armed and ready. As part of her pre-class preparation, she learned a few Russian sentences to help her students feel at ease. Я рад быть здесь means, “I am pleased to be here” and Я надеюсь, вам понравится мой класс translates to “I hope you enjoy my class”. Rimma Bybina, Russian quilt festival organizer is fluent in both English and Russian and helped Gail effectively communicate with her keen students. A useful translation app, the pattern book itself and “charades” kept the ladies learning and moving forward.

Language barrier aside, another teaching obstacle for Gail came in the form of measurements. Quilting in Russia is taught using the metric system. Even though Canada is a metric country, quilting here is taught using yards, feet and inches – the imperial system of measurement. Gail had to convert the quilt patterns to metric and assisted her students with their fabric cuts in order to avoid any confusion.

Gail is home, back working at her company in Calgary. She is grateful for her wonderful experiences abroad and would encourage Canadians to visit Russia and the annual International Quilt Festival without trepidation. Her visit has left her with many new Russian Facebook friends….her translation app is working overtime!

Gail and quilt festival organizer Rimma at the Applefest in Suzdal. Applefest ran concurrent with the quilt festival.

Quilts hanging from the balcony at Applefest

 

 

 

 

 

At the Field of Quilts – Marina (Moscow host), Gail, Nina (St Petersburg host) Sharon

Note:

Gail Heller is a transplant to Calgary, Alberta from Port Stanley, Ontario. She runs Erie Quilt Art, a Calgary based distribution company selling quilting products to quilt shops across Canada. She is one of only four fully accredited Studio 180 Design Certified Instructors in Canada. Gail is also the exclusive Canadian distributor for Studio 180 Design (Deb Tucker) patterns and tools.

 

This article previously appeared in Quilter’s Connection magazine.

 

Thank you everyone.

Kim