Bags bags bags!

I love bags!

I love bags almost as much as I love rag quilts. I made this one on the fly, by combining what I've read/seen about making a messenger back, and what I already knew from making a rag bag purse (my very first project).

This was a fun project, and a small scale of the type I want to make. As you can see my daughter really loved it, and I certainly learned from a few mistakes while making it.

Maybe the next one will have some zippers and pockets. I love learning as I go!

Dear Canada Post..

Please go back to work. I know that you want more money, and you want more from your pension plan, but please, please go back to work so that the rest of us that rely on you can return to our normal activities and lives.

I stay at home so that I don't have to give my children to others everyday in hopes they teach them what I want them to learn. I keep myself from getting the blah's by creating and selling things. It feels good to produce something in my spare time. Something I can see where all my time went. Something someone else will feel is beautiful and useful. Something someone else will buy so I can continue to keep myself occupied in my free time.

I know I am not alone in this. Some people actually supplement their income in this way, and if they are very good at it, some can and have been supporting themselves by doing just this. .

Canada Post.. You are not only hurting the people that own the company that gives you 19$ as a starting wage (pretty sure that's 9$ more then min wage at least, which a lot of people DO live off) but you are hurting the small guys who rely on you to keep ourselves in business and afloat as well..

So in short, anytime you are ready to go back to work now, please do.

My first baby clothes quilt.

One day I was talking to my good friend, and she said she had a ton of baby clothes she just could not stand to part with. So I had seen another etsy member who made baby clothes quilts in her shop. I suggested that she send me the clothes and I would make a quilt out of them for her! She thought that was a great idea and got right on sorting and boxing clothes to send me! She's good, she'd sent me JUST enough clothes to make the twin sized quilt she wanted! This was an excellent project for me, most rag quilts I have made so far, the only creative part is picking the fabrics, the rest is just sewing pinning and cutting. This was fun!! If I couldn't fit a label, or picture, embroidered section of the clothes, then I cut them out and sewed them onto other squares that had nothing on them. I suggest anyone who does rag quilts to give this a try at some point! I would love to do another one, however I would suggest if you are going to do one, try to make most of the fabric cotton clothing, it gets really hard to work with when you had a lot of denim, fleece and corduroy! (and very heavy!)

I wanted to share the end result with everyone, so here it is! Hope you enjoy!
If anyone who reads this wishes to have one made, or wants to learn/ask questions regarding how feel free to email me @ canadianquilts@gmail.com

Any quilters who'd like to join a quilting team on etsy, please click here!!

Completed Twin Twins!

They are done! And they are sent off!! They will travel half way around the world before arriving at their new home in Australia!! I hope that the lovely girls they belong to love them as much as my little girls love their quilts ;)
These Twin twins took approx 3 weeks to finish, and I enjoyed making them a lot. This was my first sale from etsy!! super exciting!!

Work in Progress

I thought that I would share a project I'm currently working on. It's for someone on etsy who contacted me about getting two twin quilts, for two lovely girls. ( I've dubbed them "The twin twins") Up till now every quilt I have made have been unique, with the exception of my own daughters quilts. I started these quilts almost two weeks ago and have been working on them in much of my spare time.

When I start making a quilt, I first cut all the fabric into 6" X 6" squares, and the cotton batting is next. I start sandwiching them with the same pattern on the top as on the bottom. I have seen most people use one colour fabric on the back and have wondered if they do that because they get that fabric cheaper, of if they think it looks better.. I like the quilt on the underside to look like the top!

Then After I have them all sandwiched and pinned, I sew the traditional X threw every square and start to lay out my squares in the pattern I want. After I've gotten it the way I want it, I start to pin the squares together in vertical lines and take them to the machine to sew!

I start sewing the verticals lines together as I go lining up seams carefully! (because I use the same pattern on the top as bottom, sloppiness will show!) Then its on to the border! I machine stitch all the way around the blanket twice to help ensure longevity of the quilt.

Then the part that takes the longest!! The snipping! Every seam gets a snip every 1/4 inch!!

Here are some photo's of my progress so far.. there are two quilts here, one on top of the other. So that i don't get them mixed up, whatever I do to one, I do to the other!

Bottom pic is before snipping occurs!

Sorry for the bad lighting, I wish I was a better photographer!

My obsession!!

Hi there, My name is Tracey, and I am Obsessed. Yeap, I'm obsessed with the way rag quilts look, feel and are made. As soon as I seen my first one online, I HAD to learn and start to make them. Today I have a few in my etsy shop for sale. They are fuzzy and warm, like I said.. Obsessed!

I would like to thanks Sylvie For Inviting me to her wonderful blog!

As you can see, I've uploaded some pictures of some of the quilts that I've created. If you are interested in having a custom quilt made, or learning how to make these awesome quilts, please feel free to contact me @ Candianquilts@gmail.com ! Check out my shop here!!

WELCOME CANADIAN QUILTS!

I have a new guest blogger. She owns a shop at Etsy.com called Canadian Quilts. She'll tell us somethings about herself and hopefully load some photo's of various projects!
WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!

We all look forward to your blogs.

A crazy quilted card of welcome :-)