I am so excited to announce that LUKE is coming to #YYC the first weekend in May 2016. He has agreed, with a lot of arm twisting, to teach how he does his amazing figures! For the FIRST TIME EVER. He says this will be the one and only time he will do this. It is a big favour to me. Love this guy!
We are currently deciding where in Calgary to hold the three day course so that we have a lot of space to work and a large printer. This is being kept to a small group and the first people to submit payment will secure their place. I will not hold spots without payment. Please go to this attached link for details and for the registration:
We will also have a fun event on the Friday or Saturday night that you can join, even if you do not attend the workshop, this will be limited in numbers as well and LUKE and I will be leading the tour. Use the LINK above to register. If you have any questions or cannot get the link to work please email me at kdundas2009@gmail.com
Well, I must apologize for my disappearance over the last few days! Millie is 100% to blame. One hundred percent. I am very much in love and maybe a little obsessed or is it just lust?
Millie
In all seriousness I want to say I love APQS. The service has been great. They came out and set up and I will have my official training in September up at Sparrows Studios in Edmonton.
The longarm actually did not take up as much room as I had anticipated so I was able to put one big table against the other wall where the girls and I can sew. DH is happy about this as he feels he can now maybe corral my sewing into one room. He should know better by now! I also moved my design wall behind her so that I can see it from the new sewing area.
Millie in all her glory!
I am happy with my first finish – a quilt I had pieced for one of twins back in 2003. They were due March 10, 2004, my birthday but decided to come December 10, 2003. My world abruptly changed with three months being spent in NICU with 27 week old premature twins. Twenty eight weeks is the golden week where the lungs are more developed. Having come the one week earlier created many more medical issues and I count my blessings to this day that they survived. Finishing this top that had to be abandoned and just having picked up my sewing again last year felt like some closure and a celebration at the same time.
Lexi’s Quilt
I am working on my Giant Bear Paw for DH next.
Giant Bear Paw
It has been loaded and I’m a third of the way through but we lost power for a day and have had to go on summer holidays! Millie will have to await my return – back to my little one for now.
Random Things About Me
Okay I owe you five more! After this I can see if I am able to come up with one per blog – it could be hard!
1) I love Outlander – I am part Scottish. My maiden last name is Dundas. There is a castle, Dundas Castle, I so want to see one day as it is where my family came from.
2) I am also part Norwegian
3) My husband is half Latvian.
4) We did a Baltic Cruise on our honeymoon as neither one of us had been to Norway nor Latvia and we hit both places on the cruise. We were both mistaken for locals respectively and will definitely return to explore more hopefully with all the kids.
5) The four kidlets look like they belong in Norway. I call my oldest, Brock, my Viking. I am 5’8″ and he is 13 years old and already taller than me!
Blogging Tip
Connect with other bloggers and follow what they do too. This is such a great community and there is a lot to learn from one another and the support is unbelievable – as well as the friendships that develop.
Quilting Tip
Trust your gut.
This is a big one. We are always second guessing our creative process, from colour selection, to block placement, to thread choice.
Well, I asked my DH to tell me what thread he wanted me to use in his giant quilt for the longarm and well, you cannot even see it.
Giant Bear Paw with disappearing thread
Lots of work quilting lost in the thread choice. I was going to go darker but he wanted a cream thread throughout. As you can see by this picture it doesn’t even look quilted in parts. I knew it and should have stood firm. Live and learn and good practice for Millie!
I promise you that I will do my post on Swaps this week. Millie is nowhere near me so this should happen!
Here is my submission picture of September Dawn to QuiltCon 2015.
September Dawn – shown at QuiltCon 2015, Austin, Texas
It was accepted in the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge and I was lucky enough to go to Austin, Texas to see it in person.
My first large quilt (original design, pieced by myself and quilted on a domestic machine). My first entry (and acceptance) into a quilt show and the first quilt show I’d ever been to. More importantly my first
QuiltCon.
Set up took a little longer than expected and we did not finish until around 6pm. Dinner with DH then I had to try it out! Busy playing! They forgot the leaders so I am just pinning right now – first time using a long arm other than the demos I tried at Quilt shows. I am loving it and will post pictures tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who helped this dream become a reality and thank you for delivering out in the middle of nowhere Sparrow Studios!
Here is the link for the Google Form to sign up – if you have any questions you can comment here or email me at kdundas2009@gmail.com :
This swap is now closed – thank you to all who submitted a form. I will be reviewing and assigning partners this week. You will receive an email from me with either a need for more information or your partner assignment. I will make posts as we progress under #TULAYAH on IG.
This was such a fun quilt to work on with my guild & my first introduction to the Calgary MQG was in this little coffee shop meeting in November 2014. I am third from the right in group photo. My quilt block is the bottom right block!
The Calgary Modern Quilt Guild completed its QuiltCon charity project with the direction and spirit of Becca Cleaver. From an energetic and laughter-filled coffee shop meeting to designing the quilt to making the final stitches, she led the commitment.
Our design is built off of blocks from guild member Bernadette Kent’s book, Rubies, Diamonds and Garnet, Too. Bern also helped sew the quilt. With its on point layout, a million HSTs and that great gray slab background, the quilt takes some seemingly traditional blocks to a wonderfully modern level. We decided to use the chosen fabrics to represent the four seasons, and the machine quilting reflects that as well.
We had members piecing, a long arm volunteer, others squaring up, another binding, someone attaching the sleeve. It was a true group effort completed around everyone’s busy schedules. That quilt traveled a lot in the city!
