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 :-)

Something exciting is happening!

On the Esty site is a Quilter who has a shop...I discovered her when I was browsing through various shops. She'd made this beautiful pillow cover that I just fell in love with. If you'd like to see it click here. I added her shop to mine as a favourite and then I dropped her a line telling her how I loved her pillow cover and asked her if she'd be interested in buying some of my work...make it up into something and then sell it in her shop...sending me some photo's to put up in my shop. This would help people to see how great my quilt blocks would look when they are made up into something that can be useful at the same time...

I waited for her answer and she didn't take long..so my nails are still in good repair. :-) she said YES! Cool idea! I wanted to dance around the boat with happiness...This was going to be good I thought. This is giving me a really good feeling....

So we've worked out which pieces she wants to work with and I'll be posting them off to her after the Easter holidays...and then holding my breath, thumbs and crossing my toes..all those silly things in anticipation of the final product......

No pressure MooseCarolQuilter!!! ha ha


I have posted her name "MooseCarolQuilter" under "Other sites I love" on the right  hand side of the blog. Just click on that and it will take you right to it!


So you'll have to watch the blog to see when and what happens... :-D

Making a 'T' shirt special.

Sometimes you buy a T shirt and you'd like to make it special for the person you're giving it to. I did this with a T shirt I gave to my Daughter-in-Law. It was a shirt from St Martin in the Caribbean. She says she likes it..ha ha..well anyway I hope she does. Here are some photographs for you to look at.

The Shells were screen printed with the islands name under it.

I threw some dye at it and then cut out the shapes of fish and corals from a piece of printed fabric. I appliqued them on into what I thought was a pretty design.
The seaweed is cut from some taffeta that I have on board.

A close-up of the shell printing.

I cut the fabric and inserted the dolphin. :-)

Some little fish swimming up to the top right shoulder.

The bubbles normally come from the sand or the shells....I thought that it was a nice extra touch.

A close-up of the fish and corals at the bottom of the T shirt.

Oh yes, some of the seaweed was cut from a vari-dyed fabric....perfect.
Then on the back I did something else....

I cut this image out of some fabric and appliqued it on...

You could do the same with a T shirt that has developed some holes in awkward places ...make it new again!

So there we are :-) some fun and you end up with something pretty. Have a go!
Cheers...

Looking for Inspiration

I've been spending a lot of time recently writing to all the quilt groups I can find. I really would like them to write a short blurb and send me pictures of what they are doing. Then I'll post them here. It would be great for those quilt groups who don't have a web page. I think it would be great inspiration to others who are just beginners or someone who is far away from a group and wants to be able to see what's going on. I know there are magazines around, but somehow I think that this would be more personal because people could leave comments for the people to whom the particular blurb belongs, and they could answer ...you can't do that with a magazine.

There has been one quilt group in Mexico, The La Paz Quilters, that have sent me some great photo's of things that they have been up to. They have also been involved in making bags out of fabric...I'm waiting on them for the photo's of the finished articles. It's so much fun seeing what others are creating.

Just about anything can give you inspiration. For example, here is a photo of a plate that I saw. I wondered if I could create something similar with fabric, into squares or rectangles or triangles and then make it into something.

The glass plate.

Wouldn't that be wild? I really must try it sometime..or maybe one of you can.

I painted a birthday card to my brother, but it could have been done in fabric I think. being from Africa, things like this are always popping into my head.

The Card.

Then there is the wild bird life that can inspire you. I dyed and painted this cushion cover for a customer in France..umm I think in about 1998 or 9. She recently emailed me and sent these photo's of the cover. She said that she still uses them all the time. I must admit , I'm pleased they are doing so well... :-)She has a table cloth for her dining room table as well.

The cushion cover.

The kingfishers close up.

 It is great to know that people appreciate your work. And so by putting photo's of your quilts up on the site, may get you a few comments....of course you'll have to tell everyone you know to take a look and leave a comment ha ha....

 Well that's it for today...stay well all and don't be shy!

Inspiration from afar...The La Paz Quilters

We've been sailing down the west coast of the Americas, from Mexico to Nicaragua to Costa Rica and then to here, Panama City. It's a huge place with wall to wall skyscrapers, some of them pretty impressive with very unusual architecture.  We've also spent a week sailing with friends around the Las Perlas Islands....had a fantastic time, but in the process I've been slacking on the blog. :-p

Some news for you though: A quilting group in Mexico, made up of quilters from all over the States down at their winter getaway, had previously bought some of my artworks and have made them into various items. They sent me some pics. Also they did a miniature landscaping meeting and sent me a photo of one of those pieces too....

The miniature landscape.

 The sand on the landscape is made using some soft upholstery fabric. Now the Cactus  was made using the exact same fabric, except the lady who made this, used fabric paint to change it's colour and added little black marks to depict the spikes. So ingenious I thought.!

Two scatter cushions made with art bought from me.

The Spider Conch Shell, used in a cushion.

A Pelican flying home at sunset.

These are two of the cushions made from pieces she bought. Sue tells me that she'll be sending another picture soon of other pieces she has finished.

I love to see what has been done with my art once it leaves my hands. :-D

Thank you Sue, for these lovely photos. I look forward to more inspiration from your group.....Didn't you mention a bag that your group was making? How did that go? Can you send me a photo or two, to show the folks who read this?

Manipulating fabric to create an effect.

I've been doing a lot of sailing lately and haven't had the time to do any painted work on fabric....but what I have done is hand sewed a British Ensign for our yacht and I thought you'd like to see how I did it. It's just another way to manipulate fabric into a picture. I used the 'Mola' idea except that you have to be able to look at the flag from both sides so I had to cut away at the back as well as from the front. It took me a bit of time to work it all out but I think it is looking OK. :-D

Three layers of fabric basted together....draw the lines and cut.

Two corners done ...on the front.

The back of the flag so far.

More work done.

Almost done.

A close-up of how I'm folding the edges back and sewing them to make them neat.

I have to cut it down to size and sew the red background onto it....maybe tomorrow...but then maybe I'm going snorkeling tomorrow...
I'll post updated photo's on here in the next day or so..Ciao
The day has dawned and I've found an internet connection here in Golfito...so here are some more photo's...

The finished front.

The finished Flag!

Flying proud.

She looks great we think. Here on the west coast of Costa Rica we can't buy a new flag anywhere so my sewing skills, ( not great at the best of times ), have been tested, and we're quite happy with the result....The next one I'm making will be for Panama....and I only have a few days to do it.....