Fabric Postcards, the greatest addiction ever

By on 3-18-2010 in Fabric Postcards, Original Quilts

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I was first introduced to fabric postcards through Valerie Hearder’s Landscape Yahoo group. http://www.valeriehearder.com
These little mini quilts are so much fun to do and the possibilities are endless. Four were done for swaps and the other four were for family.

My first was the little church. I thought of our Gatineau Hills and the churches which are nestled among the trees in the Ottawa Autumn scenery. I felt there was more detail than needed in this card for such a small canvas. I learned to streamline as I went along. The second card is entitled “Flying Home in the Morning Mist”, a picture of the highway through Thunder Bay. It is the result of a monochrome challenge. I chose brown. The third is one of the bike paths approaching the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. I called it “Cycling Through an Ottawa Dawn”. The deer was the next for a Christmas swap. It is called “Christmas Morn’ at Silver Lake”. The deer are from photos of a pretty doe that visited our garden through the fall and early winter. The singing snowmen I named “Snowdust Singers” and sent to family at Christmas. Two valentines were made for my grandgirls. The latest I made for a spring swap and I chose Ontario Trilliums growing in a forest glade. This one is “Ontario Trilliums in Bloom, a Sure Sign of Spring.

Lighthouse, Prince Edward Island, Canada

By on 1-28-2010 in Original Quilts

Prince Edward Lighthouse

The lighthouse quilt was made for a black and white with one colour pop challange with the Valerie Hearder Landscape yahoo group. I could not find printed fabrics that I liked for this little quilt so I bought solid black and white and used my machine’s fancy stitches to pattern them. A tear away backing kept the stitches raised and then was removed for easy quilting. The gulls in the clouds were done with a scallop stitch. The whole quilt was machine quilted. This 17″ by 17″ quilt is the first black and white quilt I have made. I usually use a lot of colour as you can see in the Sunrise, Sunset quilt.

I designed this quilt from a photo of the Prince Edward Island lighthouse with a free piece of software called “Quilt Assistant”. Here is where you can find it:

http://www.cosman.nl/software_en.html

It is an awesome program and I plan to use it more often.

Welcome to Cotton Arts Boutique

By on 9-29-2009 in Original Quilts

Sunrise, Sunset, 2008

Sunrise, Sunset, 2008

Years ago I woke to a rising sun with the geese flying across it. I immediately drew a sketch because I knew there was a quilt there and promptly forgot it again as time and circumstances got in the way. I always knew though that it would be a quilt and it stayed with me. When I began designing the quilt I did not think of the sketch. I had different corner blocks made, but was not happy with them. Then the idea of the sun setting in all four corners would be better. Several months after making the quilt I found the sketch while looking for something else. Not only was there a sun with the geese flying through it, but the sun setting blocks for the corners.
The rising sun is made of small pieces layered onto a paper circle, then sewn with a crazy stitch on the machine. The setting suns were made the same way on smaller circles. The resting geese are an original pattern and paper pieced along with the flying geese. The quilt is 28 1/2″ wide by 22″ long. The resting geese are 3″ blocks.