Textile Museum, Toronto

Lynn, Sandy and I, all members of crazyquilters.ca met this morning at the Textile Museum in downtown Toronto. Mr. & Mrs. Tannenbaum are the owners of a wonderful quilt collection which is on view at the Museum. Many of the quilts are crazy and are absolutely beautiful. We read that Mrs. Tannenbaum collected the quilts because they were art pieces. The crazy quilts on show were mostly made around 1880 and there were many that were made from tiny plain and patterned silk pieces which absolutely glowed. Much of the stitching was of shiny thread which added another glow! As you will see from the photos, there are some traditional quilting patterns, one in particular the log cabin, which almost became a crazy quilt with the rich fabric and some embroidery, here and there. I appreciate more so the work done by Miss Carole Samples in documenting hundreds of seams and motifs from old quilts in her book "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches". The three of us decided that we would meet again in the New Year to share our talents, and of course if there any other crazyquilters.ca in the GTA, Lynn said she could seat 10 comfortably! By the way, there was not a bead to be seen on any of the quilts! Lynn and Sandy standing beside a Kashmir shawl.

The embroidery on this was mostly chenile. Close ups of this one are below

Close up of the quilt above

This is stunning, and below it I have several close ups.

I think this was my favourite. There was just so much embroidery, and it was very colourful. I found that if you double click on the photos to enlarge them, then click on the elargement to get it even more magnified.

Crazyquilters-ca Monday Challenge

This challenge suggested by our Canadian group of Crazy Quilters may spur me on to finish some projects that have been on the back burner for ages. I have several that I need to complete before the end of the year. Two projects are well on their way - a cream tea cosy and a baby birth announcement block, and shouldn't take too long to finish. I also have a Christmas Cracker swap to prepare and a special Christmas tree decoration to make, both of which are due to be mailed out by the middle of November. The tea cosy embroidery is done, it needs batting and lining. The baby block needs the photo in the middle and the birth details for the baby. Right now there is a patch of paper in place of a photo. When I prepared the block I set my machine to the largest stitch so that the paper would be easy to remove later. On the Retreat I bought a roll of silk for printing photos from the computer so I'll be trying that out soon.

Crazyquilters-ca - UTS Stitchalong - Friday

Another bit done on the sandbar, and a picture showing the sandbar from the side. With the seashells and "rocks" it's very three-dimensional.

Crazyquilters-ca - UTS Stitchalong

I've been working on the sandbar on my under the sea block. It's a Stitch Along with Crazyquilters-ca and we're following suggestions by Rose Anne, our moderator. A lot of it is chain stitch with an 8 perle variegated thread and some gold thread highlights. The rest is in thin fluffy yellow wool that gives a bit of height. There are some pretty shells, but looking from the top down makes them look flat. It's coming along OK. Another area that I have to think about is closer to the top of the block and i need to make sunbeams coming through the water. Click on one of the labels below to see the naked whole block.

Crazyquilters-ca - UTS Stitchalong

Our Canadian group of crazy quilters (crazyquilters-ca), under the direction of Rose Anne B. are working on an Under the Sea block. It's a stitchalong and so far we have worked on seaweed and a sandbar. This is my naked block.Some seaweed added, but it needs lots more of everything, thread, ribbons and beads! This is the start of my sandbar, the thread colour works well (Wildflowers) but it may have to come out because my tight stitching is pulling my block out of shape.