Valerie Hearder on the art and soul of quilting

Fusing black outlines

via andsewitgoes.blogspot.ca

Terry Grant recently blogged about an interesting technique she's figured out. Using Liquid Thread, Terry creates dark outlines behind the applique shapes. It give a dramatic look and great effect. You can see her step by step instructions on her blog. Thanks for sharing this Terry!

Grannies in Solidarity

This hand embroidered square was made by the Intuthuko Sewing Group from Etwatwa Township near Johannesburg. There is wonderful solidarity between Grandmothers in Africa and Canada.  To learn more about the remarkable Grandmothers Campaign to support African Grannies, check out the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers site. If you're interested in more of these charming embroidered squares, please get in touch with me and I'll send you photos. They range in price from $20 to $40.

via threadlink.typepad.com

Thrummed socks for cozy toes

There’s a blizzard today. I love blizzards when I’m safe indoors with cozy woodstove going. It feels like a gift of a day off from normal routine. A day off to curl up and read and sip my herbal tea.

I want to tell you how much I love my Newfoundland thrummed socks. I feel the cold terribly, and am always looking for the best way to keep my feet warm.  Our old farmhouse, while snug, has old wooden floors that can be a bit cold. Thrummed socks are just about the warmest thing I own.

Thrum knitting is a Newfoundland tradition, their answer for sheepskin slippers. Thrums are whisps of unspun fleece that are knit into the inside, creating a cocoon of fluffy wool. Oh, so toasty!  My photo shows one sock turned inside out to reveal the thrums.   You can have thrummed hats and mitts too.  Yarn Harlot has photos showing how to knit thrums into socks.

Here is a free knitting pattern for Newfoundland thrummed socks. You can find a pattern for mittens as well.

 If you don’t knit, like me, you can buy thrummed socks at the Craft Council Shop in St. John’s. I highly recommend them.

Here is my husband shovelling out from today's blizzard.

Ndebele village Scene

It’s January, and freezing cold here in Nova Scotia. So when this tapestry arrived from South Africa the other day, it felt like a gift of sunshiny heat.

via threadlink.typepad.com

Venice Floats Softly

I just spent 3 weeks in Wales and Italy. Contrasting countries with a curious connection - canals. The trip was my 60^th birthday present from Veryan. Sweet, huh? I’ve longed to get to Venice since I was in Italy  40 years ago. Then, at 20, Florence was cold and I spent long hours in the Uffizi keeping warm and learning about the Old Masters.

We started our holiday in N.E. Wales spending 6 days on a narrow boat barge on the canals in impossibly vivid green fields. The guys maneuvered the absurdly long 55 ft barge at 4 mph and my sister said "Stand back, I'm doing the cooking!", and produced fabulous meals: Welsh roast lamb, Welsh cheeses, meats and cakes and the best bacon I've ever eaten! A happy time messing about in boats…I’m sure I saw Ratty and Mole in the reeds. See my photos of Wales .

Then to Italy, a rich feast of visual delights, like a huge box of truffles. You nibble on each one, wanting more and knowing you just can’t take it all in. Italy album. 

Art, art and more art. I loved revisiting Botticelli at the Uffizi in Florence, still sublime and sensual 500 years later, despite thousands of other sharing the moment. In Venice, we hapened upon inspiring contemporary art shows connected with the Architecture Biennale.  One was Bertil Vallien’s  solo show of art glasswork. Vallien worked with traditional glass artists of Murano Island, who shared their ancient techniques.  The work was set in a palace on the Grand Canal and Venice reflected in the work. The pieces were so deeply moving: we left understanding how art changes one’s life.

We walked 10 hours a day savouring every second. In Florence, the massive Duomo, like a big wedding cake iced in pink, white and green marble, made me gasp. Next to the Duomo was this charming shop-owner who I thought looked snappy in his stripes!

 Venice floats like a dream, quietly. The city is soft, watery light and utterly entrancing. The canals are busy, but without cars, the little streets are quiet.

Then there's Siena. A walled city with few cars. Oh, the colors! So faded and gentle: muted amber, rose, tawny mushroom colours of earth. I want to make a quilt with Siena colors. I think I'll have to do a whole blog devoted to the soft old colors of Italy.

This is the palace that housed the exhibition by Bertial Vallien. The show was called Nine Rooms.

 

Dessert with an Extraordinary Quilter

Every year the Mahone Bay Quilters prepare a feast of desserts that covers 2 banquet tables. We invite an Extraordinary Quilter to be our speaker thus creating the perfect combination of desserts and quilts. This event, Dessert with an Extraordinary Quilter, was the brainchild of Barb Robson and has been going for 12 years.

This year Lynne Edwards from England was our E.Q. What a treat! Lynne is loved for her fine quilts, her wit and wisdom. We all so enjoyed Lynne’s compassionate humour as she spoke to our hearts and had us laughing all evening.

“Relax everyone, its sewing,” reminded Lynne. “Don’t take it all so seriously. Do what you love, learn from others. Share. Be kind”. In essence, this is what quilting is about. See our guild blog for Barb's photos of Lynne’s workshops and the dessert party.

Lynne was my house-guest and it was precious to spend time catching up with each other’s lives as we reminisced on shared adventures from the past 20 years.

We visited PennyBerens  in Granville Ferry, NS. Penny showed us her stitched journal. Penny has started hand embroidering a 6” line of stitches for each day. Even though it’s only 4 months into the scroll, it has the look of something ancient, sacred. We were both moved to see it. 

 

Lynne holding one of Penny’s quilts in Lynne’s favourite colours: "dreary”.

 

 

Heart

Here is my Valentine's Day heart. I'm very taken with wool these days. It's a dream to stitch and the hand dyed colours are lovely. I'm lucky to have two rug hooking stores in my town. The wool they supply is called Dorr wool. It's a thick, luscious weave that doesn't fray when cut.  I'm stitching a series of hearts. Happy Valentine's Day.

New take on the sampler quilt.

I drove down to the States recently and one of my stops was in Concord, near Boston where I spent 2 nights with my good friend Marianne Hatton. Marianne and I have a lot in common. Besides both being quilters, we are both originally South African. We always have a great deal to talk about over our rooibos tea.

It was great to visit Marianne’s studio and see current work on her studio wall. Marianne has just written a new book that is an exciting, fresh new take on the sampler quilt. Very impressive. It offers a creative new twist on the sampler.

Here is Marianne holding the quilt from the cover of her book, Simply Dynamic Sampler Quilts which is published by American Quilter Society. Here Marianne and I stand in front of her design wall with a new sampler quilt unfolding on it. I admired her wonderful little Elna Lotus which is sitting in front of us. Do you remember those litle gems? The perfect little workshop sewing machine. Snap one up if you see one! 

The first Elna Lotus I used belong to my freind Annie. We were about 18 and Annie lent me her little treasure to sew a dress on. Aah, back in the day when we made out own dresses...remember?

Fantasy landscape challenge

I had fun putting together this sampler of landscape fabrics  from my stash. It was the prize offered on my Landscape Quilt Group. We held a challenge last month to make a "Fantasy Landscape". Then members of the group voted on the 3 favorites. Winners were Heather Lair, Vickie Swann and Juanita Sauve. It was a great line up of very inventive and inspiring small landscapes made by the talented members of this group. The 2 runners-up each one a yard of teflon pressing sheet.

We had so much fun with this challenge we wanted to do another. So the current challenge is "Rain,Drizzle,Fog"... a landscape to interpret what many of us were experiencing this cold and rainy spring in North America. Heather Lair is offering 2 pieces of her hand painted sky fabric as the prize! Now that's an incentive! We can't wait to see the entries. The deadline is end of June. 

We welcome you to join our group and join in our challenge or take part in our post card exchanges. We're an international group with members from Ireland, South Africa, Finland, Australia and all over Canada and the USA. One of the greatest things is our photo albums which are a rich and inspiring source of small landscapes from our members.

Northcott steps up!

This just in from patti Carey of Nortcott Fabrics in Canada:

Northcott has been contacted by several interested and concerned quilters asking if we would be able to assist in getting quilts to the earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan.  The answer is YES.  At this point, we have agreed to collect quilts until end April.  We will then ship them to Japan, to the editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine.
The quilts should be NEW, and anything from crib to twin/double is acceptable, though twin is preferred.  Due to the difficulty in shipping quilts across the US border, we are asking that only quilts from Canadian addresses be shipped to Northcott.  Kindly ship the quilts to:
                Northcott – Quilts for Japan
                101 Courtland Ave.
                Vaughan, ON
                L4K 3T5
Any quilters in the USA can contact equilter.com, as they are collecting quilts from US addresses.

Comfort Quilts for Japan: Update

Since march 17th, I've been in close contact with Naomi Ichikawa, Editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin, Japan's premier quilting magazine based in Tokyo.  Naomi asked me to help spread the word about quilts for the disaster relief, here in Canada and other countries.

We have seen an outpouring of concern and support.  Here's some basic information. I'll update this blog as I get new information from Japan.

They request new quilts only.

Send  quilts to Japan after the end of May. Addressed to:

Naomi Ichikawa, Editor,  Tohoku Kanto Earthquake Relief,
Patchwork Tsushin Co., Ltd.,
2-21-2, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN 113-0034

Customs Declaration: Please mark on the package Relief goods for the affected people of Tohoku Kanto Earthquake.   

Description of contents: Don't use the word quilt, rather write bed linens, bedding or blankets instead of "quilts".

Value of Goods: Please list a low value of between $50 - $100. This will avoid duty in Japan.

Collection Points: 

South Africa:  Rene Hollenbach reports they have managed to get a company to ship quilts to Japan.
 MCC Plant Hire in conjunction with DHL will arrange for the delivery of the quilts. Send quilts to:
A. Coulson
Acacia  Street  2(b)
Riverdal, 6670, South Africa.

USA:

Please contact eQuilter direclty about shipping quilts from the USA.

 http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/quiltsforjapan.html

.First shipment to Japan in about 30 days by the U.S. Air Force.   Mission of Love  is sending quilts through their own distribution channels.

Thanks to Bente Vold Klausen for help in Norway, my cousin, Leigh Toselli for spreading the word in South Africa, Christine Porter in the UK, Patricia Cummings in the USA...and so many others, it's simply not possible to name you all, but hearfelt thanks to you all.