Round, round, get around

In my new wheels, in my new city, I was able to find two great fabric stores in Kingston ( 2 so far...)

The first was Stitch By Stitch - a huge quilter's/sewing paradise recently moved to new quarters on Days Road at Bath Road. Lots of friendly quilty feeling there. Chatting with other customers, checking out the classes offered. I shall return.

The second - and don't laugh, Ottawa folks - was Fabricland in the same neck of the woods, in Gardiner's Town Centre, corner of Bath Road. This Fabricland in Kingston is the cleanest, brightest, best organized Fabricland I have ever seen.This one's a delight. Large quilting cotton section though I always get distracted by the huge array of other material there...

Oh and here's my new car that's taking me places I really like going.


http://bit.ly/1sSw48C

:D

I got the hatchback.
In red.
Venetian Red.

I am in love with it, for real. In love. With a car.
Just like a boy!
lol

PS: Nobody paid me to say any of this.

Writing and Packing

Well it's been awhile.
A year of big changes, still underway.
I'm in the process of selling house and moving forward.
I stopped quilting/sewing last March as I began writing again with a lot of new found energy. It's been great.
Also secured the services of  a super declutter maven who helped me clear the chi and get the house ready for sale. We ended up making a dedicated sewing room, where I cannot sew lest I mess it up! Have to stay neat for the Showings.
I guess I hoped the house would be "sold in 4 days, above asking!", as some of the real estate flyers I get boast. Two weeks isn't long but it feels like so much longer when you are ready to leave and don't know yet where you'll be when the - ack! - snow flies.
So that's what's been happening here.
I still browse quilts and quilt blogs and wave to those who pop in here from time to time.
I've put my studiozuzu etsy store on hold for the time being but the digital store, pixelzuzu.etsy.com is still open, with instant printable downloads, including a Hallowe'en sheet and some Sherlock bookmarks.




.

Over-Quilting?

No, we're not "over" quilting, as in finished.
Especially now that researchers in Scotland have found that quilting has health benefits that exercise can't give you - : D.
I mean "over-quilting", as in - to my own taste - over-doing it on one piece.

I see some amazing things, many  truly accomplished and spectacular  but I am also baffled by super heavily quilted pieces.
I always wonder - why?
I guess that's a silly question - one could ask Why? about all kinds of art. Maybe being Amazing is the sum total answer to Why.
Someone else might rightfully ask- Why Not?

But as for me,  minimalism is cool.

This is a finished snack mat/mug rug.

It is not "waiting to be quilted"; it is quilted, with an outline and 2 straight lines.I consider it  Done.

(The only other thing I might do here is some straight line stitching horizontally in the border fabric.

But not between every line.)  lol

If , like me, you quilt for fun, satisfaction, relaxation, and small (very small) profit, life is too short! I have a pretty hefty stash to plough through!!

I just want to make things. Lots of things. 

My rallying cry is: "Go to your studio and Make Something" .

Today.

Right now.

So - catch you later. 

But do weigh in with your own thoughts on the subject of over-quilting.

Flag Finishes for Lac-Megantic

Edited Aug 17:

 I mailed these today.

First, I made the one that is second from the right - *then* read the directions more closely. I accidentally put batting into it where none is the requirement. Heh.
I was very happy to find a good way to use some of the quilt top I made with Aviary fabric awhile ago for the 3 other flags. Machined appliqued a batik heart on each one.
The backs of the flags are the same colour as the acidy-green ties. The outline of the hearts shows up nicely on the back too. Forgot to take a picture of them...

Original post:

Today I can report 4 finishes.

Similar to the To Boston With Love project, banner flags are being made to send to the Quebec town that was so horribly devastated by the railway accident a month ago.
Flags are being collected by [ courtepointeclaire.ca ], a sewing store in Laval.
Note: The deadline is  Saturday August 24th.  (I erred in a previous mention.)
They hope to have a display hung sometime in September.
I'll upload the pictures of my flags later; just wanted to add this link now, since I am a little late to the sew-in.

Fast & Easy HST's, 4 at a time

This is a fast fast easy easy way to make 4 half-square triangles in one go, with no fuss.

Place 2 squared fabric pieces right sides together and sew all around the square. My squares here are 9 X 9 inches.

quilting

Prepare to cut on the diagonal from corner to corner.

Be sure to align the ruler from stitched corner to corner.

Cut :)

Cut one of the triangles along the Red Line I photoshopped onto the picture. In real life, just use your ruler and cutting mat lines.

Open.

Repeat with the other triangle.
Open them all, finger-press or iron and arrange as desired , here as a pinwheel.

There - 4 fast and easy easy easy HST's with no fuss - no chain piecing, no drawing, no double line sewing.
:)

Fearless Hexies and first time Machine Applique

Hexagons, everywhere these days - including here now.
Way back when I first tried quilting - many many years ago - I tried to make a hexagon piece but bombed spectacularly.  It's haunted me since! (Not really, but sort of.) This time, I used 2 secret weapons.

After finding a template on line, I printed it then traced out a variety of hexagons, about 10, with no plan in mind. 

I then fearlessly (and somewhat  messily, I admit) used my first secret weapon spraying them with Easy-On Speed Starch which I got at Home Hardware for $4.29. A similar product in the big chain fabric store here cost $8.98 so yay me. 

I actually over-saturated the cut outs and they sat in a bubbly pool of white water on the back of one of my purple cutting mats. I finally put the dripping hexies on top of paper towels to dry, a bit.

After that I fearlessly eye-balled a 1/4 inch seam and began turning the edges down, finger pressing as I went along. Let me tell you - finger pressing sopping fabric is no picnic but I am impatient! I wanted some guideline before I used the (auxiliary) iron. Not using the Good Iron on these soppy, starched pieces.

As I ironed them the fabric began to dry. The seam took best for me when the fabric was about 50/50 wet/dry. The instructions say "damp or dry"

I cleaned up the mat using a paper towel - easy. 

I decided to arrange a few hexies to make the top of a new pot holder/mug rug. And go Bold with the colour. This was my first venture into machine applique, again just eye-balling things not measuring.

I offset one hexagon for more design interest. And used my second secret weapon: to position the hexies without using pins for top stitching -

I dabbed this in the middle of each hexagon then sewed each one down. The Lapel Stick was bought at a quilt show but is probably available in stores or on line. I'll definitely be using it more in the future.

The finished applique.

I had the red thread in for the hexies and due to impatience - or laziness - I kept going with it onto the turquoise chevron background which had some natural design lines to follow.

Here's the finished mug rug. The actual colours are truest in the previous picture, the close up above this one.

I now feel fully cured of my hexagon haunting!

:D

OVQG Festival of Quillts May 2013

First Set of treasures from my photos of the Ottawa Valley Quilter's Guild Festival of Quilts held on Mother's Day weekend in Ottawa. Strangely enough, they all feature amazing applique work which I don't do at all.
(Edited: June 9 to add another name)
(Edited May 20 to add 2 new larger views)

Like this traditional but fresh Double Wedding Ring. It was a huge bed quilt. (If there are no names attached to some of the following pictures it's because I didn't write them down and the OVQG website has not yet put pictures up. When they do, everyone will be attributed here.)

I loved this beautiful applique wall hanging. The red-orange batik is so vivid and so perfect with the cream.This was all hand-pieced and hand quilted by Lynda Smyth. It won 4 ribbons.  It was fresh and modern without being minimalist.Not sure if I got a full photo or just detail shots like these...open border! The name of the quilt is Sunset Rose.

I found a larger view ; still not the whole quilt but so gorgeous.

This huge star quilt was composed with Kaffe Fassett fabrics on a background with tiny blue dots. I believe this is the winning large bed quilt - Garden Flowers by Brenda Davidson Payer.

Close-up of the applique block on the lower left.

And this was among my favourites. It's just fun, friendly and fresh. I t's by Evelyne Power and won a Viewer's Choice ribbon. The pattern is called Love Birds, designed by Don't Look Now.

A close-up of the right hand center panel gives a better idea of  the intricacy of the machine quilting by Jan Kittle and the joy in the applique piecing. 

You can visit the  OVQG website  for a full list of winners.

:)

all photos (c) 2013 Susan Beyer. 

Welcome

This will now be my quilting/fabric blog.

What makes more sense than to name it after the all-purpose childhood nickname (that  all girls named Susan get)...but SusieQ was taken. And many variations thereof.

So the name to bookmark is: allsuziQ.blogspot.ca

I started quilting in 2009, I think.
Photos of some of my earliest stuff can be found here.
You'll see some of the baby quilts I made for the Ottawa Valley Quilter's Guild when I was a member there for a few years and a quilt that was exhibited in their last  show in 2011. I dropped out for a number of reasons and wasn't sewing too much.
And yet, I am pleased to say that I was able to inspire at least one very good and natural quilter - my daughter. :)
Her blog And Sew Forth is [ here ]
The arrival of her first child has put her quilting on hold for awhile, after she made a batch of quilts and blankets for the little one.

The good news is that I am re-inspired on the quilting front after going to the
 OVQG's Festival of Quilts on Mother's Day weekend. My logo above shows a fdew of my most recent mug rugs, soon to be available at [ my etsy store ]
This time, it was nice to go merely as an interested observer...and shopper!

The bad news which I knew before the weekend is that my favourite closest local quilt shop Dragonfly Fabrics is closing at the end of May. Owner Linda Doyle feels it's time to move on and so she is.
It was Dragonfly that made a quilter out of me. I didn't even know what a fat quarter was when I first walked in to the bright, clean, open space filled with wonderful colours and patterns. I took a number of classes there too. It's where I learned free motion quilting, and lived to tell the tale. Made tumbling blocks, did elementary paper piecing (pass), more advanced paper piecing (fail), tried to do a photo-realistic poppy - made 1/4 of it, was done.

Meanwhile, back the quilt show it was great seeing a bunch of  people that I know now from my first rush in to quilting. That including Sue Shute from the Quilting Quarters in Almonte. She  and the store are the only Canadian store currently featured in the Better Homes Shop Hop issue. Richly deserved.

Photos from the OVQG quilt show to come.