Summer Blogging Break

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer.  I'm taking a blogging break to enjoy the sunshine.  See you in the Fall! 

Weekend WIP

 My goal for the weekend is to get this quilt all sewn together.

 It is supposed to be rainy, so it should be doable.  Many of the blocks are already together. 

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You may remember me posting these squares earlier this year.  I thought it was time I started finishing up some unfinished things.  I don't have many incomplete projects, but this one was the easiest to start with.  It is huge (almost queen size) so I will be sending it out to have it quilted.  I just have to get it pieced and make a nice simple backing.

It will be for my daughter's bed.

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Have a great weekend!  Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

I Spy A Birthday Quilt

 I finally got the binding on this I Spy Quilt and I am so happy with how it turned out!  It is a gift for my nephew who turned 6 yesterday.

 Every square is different.  There are well over 100 spy squares. 

This shows the binding -- a favourite for sure! 

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Have a great week!  Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

Hey That's Me!: Some Quilting Magazine Fun

 I think I mentioned this on Facebook one day, but I realised I had never posted about it on the blog.  I am actually in the current issues of two quilting magazines -- Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson's The Quilt Life and The Canadian Quilter.

 In The Quilt Life magazine (June, 2012), quilt journalist extraordinaire Meg Cox featured me in a lovely 4 page (!) piece with numerous full color photos of my quilts.  I am an "Unexpected Quilter" -- which I must say is a pretty darn apt description.  I am so thrilled to be the first Canadian in this ongoing "Look Who's Quilting Now" feature.  Thank so much to everyone who emailed and said they stumbled upon me in the magazine pages.  And for anyone wondering how it came about:  Meg saw my blog.  That's it.  She saw my selvage quilts and contacted me out of the blue.  Cool, eh?  See, you never know who's checking out your posts! :-)

And there is a wee pic of me in The Canadian Quilter magazine (Summer, 2012). One of my quilts (2010 Selvage Sampler) is being included in a Canadian quilt exhibit at the Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork in September in France and then in an exhibit in Oakville, Ontario at the Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre in November.  The article is about the whole exhibit and I am still totally wowed that my quilt was chosen to be exhibited alongside so many other fabulous textile artists.

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So that's it for now.  I'll probably post a few more times before my big summer blogging break.

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

Mr. Halloween Patchwork Quilt Finished

 All done.  The pictures can tell the story ...

Happy Weekend!

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

Mr. Halloween Patchwork Quilt Top Done

 As mentioned in my post yesterday, I did manage to get this quilt top all sewn together.

 It is all pin basted and ready to quilt.

 I'm still really pleased with how the fabrics work together.

 I'm not 100% on how I'll quilt it yet, but it will be something quite simple.

Have a great week!  Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U.

Mr. Halloween Patchwork Quilt in Progress

 So, just one new Halloween quilt wasn't enough and I decided to make another.  I wanted to make a quilt for my son.  He is 7 now, so it is the age that is right on the borderline between cute and cool, right?  I think you Moms will know what I mean.  I wanted a modern, very masculine-looking quilt with still some Halloween childlike whimsy mixed in.

 These were the fabrics I gathered to use, all of which I had in my stash (and some of which I bought recently at Quilt Canada).  I love the combo of black, white and GREY especially with the orange.  I haven't really used grey before, but after seeing how the grey Ghastlies fabric looked in the spiderweb quilt I'm making (previous post) I thought I'd try it again.

 I am calling this quilt "Mr. Halloween Patchwork."  It just seems like a Mr. quilt, for sure.

I'll show this as a completed top very soon, probably tomorrow.

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See you then.  Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

Ghastlies Spiderweb Halloween Quilt: Progress

 So yesterday I mentioned that I was attempting to make a somewhat "traditional" quilt ... I had decided to make a spiderweb quilt with a fussy-cut Ghastlies Halloween twist ...

 It is busy, wild, colourful, I-spyish, almost overwhelming to look at -- everything I love in a quilt!

 I love that I had so many scraps to use for the string pieces.

 Lots done ...

A bit of the border ... I think I'm still going to add another!

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

WIP Wednesday: Ghastlies Spiderweb Quilt

 Guess what?  It's June and I'm making a Halloween quilt.  I know.  Seasonally inappropriate, but it's just what I do here. :-)

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I have been wanting to make a "traditional" quilt for a long time.  "Traditional" meaning a quilt made of a single repeating well-established quilt block that has been around forever.  In the past whenever I started to think about what to do, some other crazy idea took over and I couldn't settle myself to do something straight-ahead and old school ... but then I thought of this little twist for a Halloween version of the traditional spiderweb quilt and off I went.

 Each triangle section has a fussy-cut Ghastly character (from the Alexander Henry Ghastlies fabric line) in the middle and then all the fabric strings are from about a million Halloween scraps I had. 

 Here is the massive pile of trimmings (which I am saving for who-knows-what in the future).

 My table.  And if I may say so, the spiderweb quilt is looking awesome!  These pics are from a little while back and I have made more progress on it that I will post soon. 

And now, in honour of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations I thought I'd post this pic I took of Prince Charles and Camilla (along with New Brunswick Premier David Alward).  We went to see them when they visited Saint John a couple of weeks back.  We were able to get very close to them.  I thought they were a lovely looking couple. 

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I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network.  Why not surf on over and see what everyone else is up to?

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U



Quilt Canada: National Juried Show

 Okay, so I'm alive and I did something quilty and I'm blogging about it!  I had a brief but fun visit to Quilt Canada and the National Juried Show in Halifax, NS on Friday and Saturday.

 I needed to see this guy hanging with the cool kids in the National Juried Show!  No photos were allowed in the show UNLESS it was your own quilt.  So even though I've shown this Selvage Mummy a mere million times before on the blog, there he is all official-like.

 I hardly took any photos to be honest, but I liked this quilt in the Invitational Show.  I like the colours and energy of it. It is "Ball Joints" by Susan Purney Mark.

 These mini quilts were in the Trendtex challenge.

 More.

 And more.  These quilts were up for silent auction.

 Now to the serious stuff -- my purchases!  I bought the Flea Market Fancy fat quarters above.  I bought them from Pam at Mad About Patchwork who I met IRL (in real life) after buying things from her online.  (If you are in Canada and want fabulous modern fabrics, check her out.)

And here's the whole pile.  I bought 37 fat quarters total -- my first big fabric purchase in a looooong time.  I have top-secret plans for a lot of this.

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I did get to see a few quilty friends.  I ran into a lot of ladies from my guild (KVQG).  I also met Jackie White who blogs at Jackie's Art Quilts.  Jackie had not one but TWO quilts in the NJS. And although she wasn't there, I saw Monika Kinner-Whalen's fabulous Prairie Dress at the NJS.  (Looked awesome Monika! I was looking at it thinking I would love to see it on a real person along with a cool hairstyle.)  Monika blogs at My Sweet Prairie.

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And finally THANK YOU so much everyone for all the congrats about the Commonwealth Book Prize (see previous post).  It has been a lot of fun here doing interviews.  I am so so grateful for all the interest in me and the book (The Town That Drowned). 

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So, until next time ...  And, quite honestly, it may be sooner, but it is more likely going to be later ...

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U