Ringle and Kerr have a new book coming this fall

Have you heard about "Quilts Made Modern"? Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, who wrote the popular book "The Modern Quilt Workshop" and others about colour theory, have written a new book that's coming out in December 2010. I read a sneak peek post on Week's blog and was happily surprised. I hadn't heard about this book on any of my other quilting blogs, so I thought it might be news to some of my readers. In Week's words:

It’s a big book. It’s 160 pages of quilting A to Z. There are 10 never-before-seen patterns using a wide variety of techniques. In addition to pieced quilts, we show you how to tackle hand applique as well as machine applique. There are designs for solids as well as those for large-scale prints.

I am drawn to the skinny coin quilt on the cover and I look forward to seeing more new quilt patterns from this talented team!

Coming soon - the 2nd Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild meeting

Photo by Sonja Callaghan

It's almost time for the second meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! I'm excited to go back to Spool of Thread and see my new quilting friends again! The first meeting was a great success with 45 quilters present and I'm curious to see how many people come out tomorrow night.

If you're coming, it would be a great help if you could bring along a folding chair or blanket/cushion to sit on and a mug! Of course, we would love to see any modern quilts you'd like to share as well as a tool of the trade for our tool talk section of the evening.

Event details:
Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Meeting
7-9pm, Thursday, July 15, 2010
Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge
101-649 E. 15th Ave.
Vancouver, BC

Get more info and RSVP here: http://vancouvermodernquiltguild.ning.com/events/vancouver-modern-quilt-guild

1. Make a quilt for Mia's baby by May 2009.

It's been awhile since I've updated my 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days List. I've just taken a look and realized I've accomplished at least 15 goals without logging them. Shame on me!

I'm going to try to catch up and I'll start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Goal #1 was to make a quilt for Mia's baby. I made my first really modern quilt for little Gabriel and gave it to him in July, 2009. He was already three months old, but he was still small enough to enjoy it, so I'm counting this as a win.

I wrote all about this quilt in my Blogger's Quilt Festival post so you can look there for lots of process photos.

Photo by Sonja Callaghan

I actually have this quilt in my possession right now, as I borrowed it from Gabriel to share at the first meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild!

Atticus, Jem & Scout

Atticus, Jem & Scout. I don't even have to mention Boo Radley and I'm sure you already know what I'm talking about. The characters from Harper Lee's literary masterpiece are etched into our collective consciousness and seem as real to me as my friends and family. Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird".

This is the version we have in our home library and I re-read it this spring. Have you read it lately? Have you watched the movie? It's one of those rare cases where the movie is as good as the book, thanks to Gregory Peck and the way he became Atticus Finch.

Thank you to Katie who blogs at The Dundee Writer for tipping me off about this event!

The bike of my dreams

This Patchwork cruiser bike by Felt Bicycles has stolen my heart. Two of my favourite activities are quilting and cycling so this is clearly the perfect bike for me! I spotted it on the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show blog and saw that they are raffling one of these beauties off tomorrow at their big show in Oregon.

I did a little research and it looks like you can't get this bike in Canada. I may just have to go on a road trip to Bellingham, WA and then ride my shiny new patchwork bike home across the border!

What of my red bike you ask? My red Norco Monterey will always be my first love and I still need and want it! I think there's room for two bikes in my life. I have no complaints with my red, 15-speed, hybrid bike with rim brakes and it has served me faithfully for nine years. I'll still need a bike with gears to get me up and down the hills of my neighbourhood, but I can certainly see going for a ride along a seaside path on a quilting-themed cruiser. Oh, yes, that would be sweet!

What do you think of this bike? Have you ever ridden a one-speed cruiser with coaster brakes?

My Kona color card

When my birthday came around this May, I thought I'd treat myself and finally get a Kona colour card. Here it is in all its glory - 221 fabulous colours! Each 1'x1' swatch represents a colour from Robert Kaufman's Kona cottons line of solid fabrics. I've been using it to find the perfect solids to coordinate with various prints. I got my card in early May and it still gives me a thrill of delight when I open it up. I'm geeky like that.

Happy Birthday to me!

Inside the mystery gift. What are the elastic loops for?

I got my card from the lovely Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Fabrics just down across the border in Washington state. She packaged up my order so carefully and thoughtfully included a little birthday present for me! I'm still a little puzzled about what it actually is (a needle wallet? a regular wallet?), but the thought was definitely appreciated.

Update (July 17/10): I just heard from Kathy, "Yes, the Sweetwater wallet is a needle case. The elastic loops are for holding thread spools. An on-the-go carrier for thread and needle." Mystery solved!

Of course, I had to make sure the envelope was full (I was just being efficient!), so I ordered some great Kona colours, a little of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley, a Single Girl quilt pattern, and a charm pack of Kona brights for Sophie to play with. Kathy's service, packaging and attention to detail was impeccable and I know I'll be shopping Pink Chalk Fabrics again! (she just got in Robert Kaufman's Pure Organic collection of 15 organic cotton solids!) Are you a fan of Kona cottons? Do you have your own colour card?

Eight years ago today

Ice Cream Social SewAlong

Amy (of badskirt) and Kate (of One Flew Over) are hosting an Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress SewAlong from July 18th-31st and I can't wait for it to start! I've been wanting to dust of my garment sewing skills (hmm... I think the last thing I made from a pattern was a pair of boxer shorts back in Grade 8) and this is the perfect chance. Amy and Kate will answer questions, blog about each step you take to make this cute dress, and they've already started a Flickr group where you can share your photos.

I've wanted to make this dress for Sophie ever since I saw it on the Oliver + S blog and when I saw the pattern at Spool of Thread, I just had to buy it! It's my duty to support a new local business, isn't it? I'm going to make View B, which is a colour-blocked dress. I'm going to be my literal self and use solid fabric in the colours of Neapolitan ice cream (strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, yum!).

I wanted to get started cutting the fabric, so I bought my first ever roll of freezer paper at Safeway and used it to trace the pattern pieces. I've purchased the pattern for size 5-12 and I hope to use it again in a larger size, so I didn't want to cut it up. To preserve the original, I traced the pattern pieces I'd need onto the paper side of the freezer paper. The cool thing was ironing the freezer paper straight onto the fabric before cutting. Using a hot but dry iron allowed the freezer paper to stick to the fabric temporarily so I could easily cut the fabric with my rotary cutter. After I was done, I easily peeled off the paper and ironed it to the next piece of fabric!

There's plenty of time to buy your pattern and fabric and join in! Check out the fabric and pattern giveaway going on in the Flickr group until July 8th!

What I learned in June 2010

I was inspired to write monthly reviews by Amber Strocel of Strocel.com. See her June review and learn what she's been harvesting from her garden here.

Here's what I learned in June:

1. I'm going to be spending a lot of time at Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge. I went to their highly-anticipated grand opening in early June and brought the whole family with me. Here I am buying fabric for a quilt Dean is going to design for me.

2. My family is so supportive that they'll listen to me talk about quilting for hours on end. My father-in-law can now distinguish modern quilts from art quilts and traditional quilts!

3. Sophie can run/walk a 1K with ease! She was a star at the Child Run and had fun high-fiving all the cheerleaders.

4. I have a junior quilter on my hands. Here she is carefully arranging her Kona cotton charm pack. I bought it for her so she could have her own fabric to play with while I quilt.

5. There is an enthusiastic group of modern quilters in Vancouver who are excited to make the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild a success!

6. Dean's still a kid a heart. Of course, I knew this, but here's some visual proof.

7. Sophie's not about to win an Olympic medal in the sack race, but she sure had fun jumping up and down in one place!

Rainbow Girl

Rainbow Jello by Sakurako Kitsa

Back in Grade 1, in Kingston, Ontario, Mrs. Smith gave me the nickname "Rainbow Girl". I painted her a rainbow that hung on her classroom door for years after I'd moved to BC. She was the sweetest teacher and we still keep in touch. I'll always remember how she made us rainbow jello on the last day of school! I loved rainbows then and I love rainbows to this day!

I've been having fun this week, cutting out a rainbow of fabrics for my colour wheel quilt. Instead of keeping all the rainbow-y goodness to myself, I'm sharing it with you, thanks to a little prompting by Kate Conklin. Kate is an Australian quilter and designer who has just made a gorgeous quilt with Cloud9's Beyond the Sea organic fabrics. You should go check it out! Kate, this post's for you!

I'm using the colour wheel quilt pattern from Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts and it calls for 52 different monochromatic prints. So far, I've cut out just over half that. I've been so happy watching the rainbow come together. Most of the fabrics are from my stash, but I've bought a few extra pinks and purples with this project in mind. It hardly takes any fabric at all (just 4'x12') for each wedge, so you need less than a fat eighth of each colour.

Have any of you made this quilt?