Back in the Land of Ice and Snow

I am back home, the temperature is minus 19 degrees celcius, and I am not happy. After 2 weeks with temperatures in the high 20s and 30s, this is pretty hard to take. The good news is that I have now had over 1000 visitors to my blog since I put the counter on my site in late January. It is always fascinating to see where all the visitors come from.

I am doing my interview for QNN with Tricia Sherman tomorrow and I will have pictures of the event on my blog. This should be an exciting day!

More Pictures from Winter Park

This is such a beautiful city, I thought you might like to see some more pictures.

A Visit to Winter Park

Today I visited the city of Winter Park near Orlando. The city was founded as a resort destination by wealthy New England Industrialists before the turn of the 20th century. It is recognized as the first centrally planned community in Florida; its main street includes not only public civic buildings and retail, but also art galleries, a private liberal arts college, museums (the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world), a park, a train station, a golf course country club, a historic cemetery, and a beach and boat launch.

Winter Park is celebrated for a sense of place and history, uncommon to many parts of Central Florida. Many structures are more than 100 years old. The scenic “olde Winter Park” area is punctuated by small, winding brick streets, and a canopy of old Southern Live Oak and Camphor trees, draped with Spanish Moss. The city draws thousands of visitors to annual festivals including the Bach Festival, the nationally ranked Sidewalk Art Festival, and the Winter Park Concours d'Elegance.

If you are from a land of ice and snow in the winter, as I am, you are sure to enjoy these pictures of the green grass and flowers!

Thanks for the Memories!

Last November, I traveled to South Africa with my quilting friend, Colleen. At Christmas, we were part of a quilt exchange group. I had 3 weeks to design and make a quilt for Colleen using fabric that she had given me 10 months earlier. We had shared so many wonderful experiences on our South Africa trip, that I decided to use some of my pictures in her quilt. The quilt is 41" square and uses 20 photographs that were printed on EQ Printables fabric. And yes, I did get it completely finished in 3 weeks! It’s amazing how the job always takes the amount of time you have.

This quilt then became my newest pattern called Thanks for the Memories (#330). It is now ready to be printed and will be available on my website at the beginning of March.

When I wrote the pattern, I also included instructions for using removable paper photographs instead of printed ones. This makes the quilt even more versatile because you can change the pictures whenever you wish.

Close up views

Statistics

It is fascinating to watch the statistics for my Blog and website and to see where all the visitors are coming from. To date, I have had visitors to my Blog from 25 different countries. Most are from Canada and the USA, but there have also been visits from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

My web site, Upper Canada Quiltworks, has had visits from even more countries (27 in total) including Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden Switzerland, Thailand and Venezuela.

I guess it is a small world after all!

Flea Market Finds

I spent this morning at a huge flea market at Mount Dora in Florida. The temperature was 75 degrees (that’s 24 degrees C for my Canadian friends). Of course I am always drawn to the textile and photograph booths (more instant ancestors just waiting to be found!). I love using vintage linens and combining photographs with them in my quilts.

I also found some costume jewelry that I’m sure I can use for embellishments. I have been asked to do a Christmas project for a magazine that will be published in the Fall, and as soon as I saw the tray full of Christmas jewelry, I started thinking of how I could use it in my project.

I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures of some of these Flea Market finds. No, I did not buy everything you see in the pictures!

The ARTYgator Community Art Project

The ARTYgator project is a public/private art exhibit that benefits non-profit organizations and causes in Central Florida. The sculptures include solar power, audio, fiber optics, LED lighting and fountain design. ARTYgators will be auctioned at a Swamp Party event in May 2008. Companies, individuals and organizations can sponsor an ARTYgator and name the non-profit organization or cause of their choice to receive the auction proceeds.

These fascinating works of art, created by some of Central Florida’s most talented artists, are now displayed along the main street in Winter Park, Florida. For more information, visit the ARTYgators website. I hope you will enjoy these pictures that I took this afternoon!

The Great Canadian Shop Hop

I have just been invited to be interviewed by Tricia Sherman of Vancouver BC for her Great Canadian Shop Hop show which is seen on QNN (Quilters’ News Network). Tricia has been filming her shows in quilt shops all across Canada and I feel very honoured to have been asked to participate in this event.

The show in which I will be involved is focusing on THE QUILT: A Breast Cancer Support Project that was started by Canadian, Carol Miller (a breast cancer survivor) over eight years ago. THE QUILT has raised more than $1.5 million to fund programs that provide emotional and physical support to breast cancer survivors and their loved ones. The show will be filmed at The Country Quilter in Richmond, Ontario

I will have more information and lots of pictures from this event very soon.

More About "Hang Ups"

My little Hang Ups designs can be finished in many different ways. The metal hangers shown in the pictures in yesterday's post were originally designed to hold small stained glass pieces, but I found them to be ideal for holding these small quilts. I used a stiff, fusible interfacing instead of batting. This makes a quick-to-finish project that does not even require quilting. There are little hooks on the metal hangers and I used a small hook on each corner of the quilt to attach it to the hanger.

You can also finish these projects in the traditional way, using batting and a hanging sleeve. Then you can hang them on the wall just as you would any other small hanging.

These make great gifts for someone special. You might even be able to get one finished in time for Valentine's Day!

Hang Ups Pattern #327
More Hang Ups Pattern #328
Even More Hang Ups Pattern #329

More Instant Ancestors!

Hang Ups

I have a large collection of old photographs which I enjoy using in my quilts. I have collected these pictures over the years at flea markets and antique shows. Friends have given me pictures of long forgotten relatives as well. I refer to this collection as my "instant ancestors" because I have no idea who any of these people are either!

When I published the "Hang Ups" series of patterns last fall, I used many of these photographs by printing them on fabric (EQ Printables is my favourite product to use) and then incorporating them into the design. I decided that there should be information about the picture on the back of each little quilt, and so I had a wonderful time making up stories of my instant ancestors. The story labels were printed on fabric, just as the pictures were.

For the "More Hang Ups" pattern, I made a little pocket on the back of the quilt, printed the story on fabric, and then made a separate little "postcard" to slip in the pocket.


Hang Ups Pattern #327


Even More Hang Ups Pattern #329


More Hang Ups Pattern #328

"Reading" While Sewing

I often listen to books on CD while I am sewing. For the past couple of days I have been sewing bindings on samples made from my "Hang-Ups" series of patterns. This is pretty mindless work, so it is always nice to have a good book to listen to while working. This week I have been listening to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini who is also the author of "The Kite Runner". It is a fascinating story of life in Afghanistan during the last thirty years. Although the book is a work of fiction, it is based on fact. If you enjoyed either the book or movie, "The Kite Runner", I would certainly recommend this latest book by Hosseini.

I am also enjoying working with the new spring fabrics. We have had so much snow and ice here this winter, it is a pleasure to see something bright and cheerful. I especially like using the popular striped fabrics for the bindings. The fabrics used in these samples are from the new Strawberry Lemonade and Swell fabric collections by Moda.

Hang-Ups: Pattern #327

More Hang-Ups: Pattern #328

Little Picture Quilts

Here are 2 Little Picture Quilts made with some new fabrics by Northcott. Each little quilt has a picture pocket that holds a 4" x 6" photograph. You can change the pictures whenever you wish! These are quick projects that make wonderful gifts.

You can see more patterns using this technique on my web site. Look for the "Pop-Out Picture Quilts" page.

Little Picture Quilt #4 (Pattern #308)

Made with "Bubbles and Blooms" fabric by Northcott

A Touch of Nostalgia (Pattern #312)
Made with "Seems Like Old Times" fabric by Northcott