Longarm

Safari

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I am afraid this situation will go on a lot longer than we think right now, and I am trying to get back to normal as much as possible. I am still posting quilts that I quilted last year, yes, I am way behind. Somebody pointed out the other day that I needed to change my watermark. I won’t because I processed these pictures last year, and it takes too much time to do it all over again. But before we go back to looking at quilts, I would like to thank everyone here in Chilliwack who has been diligently following the rules of physical distance. There are exceptions everywhere, of course, but the vast majority have been really good about it, very patient and polite. And it will look like nothing is happening for a while, the case numbers will continue to go up which can be very frustrating. Hang in there, people, and be patient. We are doing the right thing, and staying home saves lives. And now let’s get back to quilting.

Lisa made this baby quilt featuring exotic animals as a gift, and she let me choose the quilting design. I auditioned a few, and then I came across a pattern that came with my machine called “Elephant Walk”. The elephant was cartoonish enough to work with the quilt, and since there probably won’t be another chance to use this design anytime soon, I decided to go with it. The original pattern had some grass between the elephants that I didn’t like. It was smaller than the elephants and left too much space unquilted. I took it out and then flipped every other row to make the elephants walk in the opposite direction. Can you tell how much fun I had with this quilt?

Safari


Safari Back

Miscellaneous

Yes, I am still here…

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These sure are scary times that we live in! If you wondered what happened to me, I needed some time to deal with the evolving situation and my mental health. I have been aware of what was coming for a bit longer than many of you. Having a pharmacy degree and a math major son, I understand the threat of exponential growth very well. In addition to that, COVID-19 seems to have spread in the WA square dance community before we were really aware of it. We usually danced in Kirkland, WA once a month, and we knew that in February lots of dancers suddenly seemed to be ill. But we didn’t know what it was until March 2, when one of them, a man in his 40s, passed away, and it was confirmed that respiratory failure due to COVID-19 was the cause. Several other square dancers tested positive afterwards, and while most of them are on the mend by now, one very sweet gentleman in his 90s is still in ICU fighting for his life.

(UPDATE: I just received the news that 92-year-old Wayne passed away today. What a sad day for our dance community.)

We had two square dancing weekends in WA planned for March and immediately cancelled everything. The last time we danced with any of the infected dancers was February 9, so we were not worried about our personal health. But there is a lot of mixing and mingling between BC and WA dancers. All events never took place in the end, and for good reason, but I started campaigning to close down square dancing here in Canada right away. At the time people still thought I was overreacting but as you know things progressed quickly. By the time square dancing was shut down and I started working on the quilt guild meetings, people had begun to realize that something was very wrong and we had everything cancelled before large groups were officially banned.

The last week has been one huge mental health emergency for me. I am usually very good at keeping my anxiety under control with progressive muscle relaxation and similar techniques but right now I find it very hard. I am sure many of you feel the same pressure. Be kind to yourself. Sometimes all you are able to do is make a cup of tea and sit on the couch. And that’s okay. These are scary times but we will get through this. It might just take a bit longer than we originally thought. The best thing we can do right now is stay home and avoid all unnecessary contact.

For those of you who are local and use my quilting services, I will continue to quilt for others. I will post an update on the “Quilting Services” page on how I have been handling this without any direct contact. My regular customers have been wonderful in accepting these changes and dropped off bags on my doorstep and discussed quilting options on the phone and via email. But I will have a lot more time to work on my patterns, and I am trying to get my head back into the right place to be able to do this.

I am happy to announce that I have another BOM project with nine blocks almost ready. It should have been ready two weeks ago before the situation started to escalate but I will get my act together and get it ready over the weekend. So stay tuned for next week, and we should be able to start on April 1. In the meantime, please be safe and stay home and healthy.

Longarm

Garden Fence

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This interesting quilt in soft colours that gives the impression of woven strips was also made by Linda. The quilting design that I used for this one is called “Lapis”.

Garden Fence


Miscellaneous

Wild Roses

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This pretty floral quilt in blue and yellow was made by Linda. She asked for low density quilting, and we picked “Ginger Flower” for her quilt, a floral swirly pattern that picks up the five-petal flowers of the outer border fabric.

Wild Roses


Miscellaneous

Butterflies

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Nancy made this pretty butterfly quilt using floral fabrics in soft colours. She stitched around the shapes using a machine blanket stitch and switched from matching thread to contrasting threads after a while to make the quilt more interesting. The quilting design is called “Wild Wind”.

Butterflies


Longarm

Blue Flannel Squares

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Darcie made this cozy flannel quilt in blue as a gift for her son. The quilting pattern “Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut” is my new favourite design for quilts with squares, and it looks fabulous on Darcie’s quilt.

Blue Flannel Squares


 

Personal Projects

Fruit Salad

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More than a year ago my friend Doris gave me a box of berry fabrics, saying she had made several quilts using these fabrics and was tired of them now. She thought maybe I would have a use for them. Well, it was a box of free fabric… what was I supposed to do, right? I took it home, and when I opened it I saw that there were even a few blocks inside. I don’t remember how many, maybe six or seven. I decided to make more blocks and turn this into a donation quilt for our guild. I didn’t have a plan, and that is not the way I usually work. I need a plan and a backup plan and possibly even a backup backup plan. Just making blocks not knowing where I was going was hard work for me, and that’s why it took so long to finish this quilt. That and a lack of time, of course.


I finished the top before Christmas and managed to quilt it over the holidays. Although I usually like to custom quilt all my own projects, I decided to use a pantograph this time and picked “Strawberry Fields”. I figured I might as well add more berries to the mix. And the quilt is so busy that any custom quilting would have been lost anyway. Then other things took priority, and I finally managed to put on the binding this week, yay. Now I just have to sew on the label, and it will be ready to be donated at the March meeting.

 

Longarm

Autumn Woods

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Jean made this quilt in autumn colours from a batik jelly roll. We thought that a pattern with leaves would be a good quilting design for her project, and going with the fall theme, she chose “Acorns and Oak Leaves”.

Autumn Woods


Longarm

Dancing Umbrella

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“Dancing Umbrella” is a design by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, and this version was made by Karen. I just love the rainbow of colours. We considered all kinds of clouds, rain and umbrella designs for quilting but nothing seemed right until I came across this swirly pattern called “Wild Wind”. It really makes the umbrellas look like the wind is blowing them all over the quilt.

Dancing Umbrella


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