Sew Karen-ly Created: Original designs for today's busy quilters
Look at the beautiful even brood pattern on this frame; this shows the queen has been busy laying eggs. The brood will soon hatch and this queen's colony will grow even larger.
The colours in the blueberry field are soothing and peaceful: greens, dark reds and the pink-white of the blossoms. The bees could not help but be content with such an idyllic quilt covering their landscape.
With the cover removed from the hive, you can see workers returning back with their booty. The pollen sacs on their legs are swollen huge; the yellow is no doubt from the many dandelions growing in the nearby field but you can also see several with bright orange sacs.
Haven't they been busy? The ends of the wooden frames are stained yellow with the pollen on sunny days.
Last weekend we began moving hives into the blueberry fields, as the blossoms are now open. We will move the last of them early tomorrow morning. Rain is predicted which is good for moving day, as that means all the bees are home when the hives are moved and no one gets left behind. After that, we hope for sun!
Blame it on a weak batch of Miss Clairol Nice ‘N Easy if you will, but my piece suddenly took on a life of its own and morphed itself into saying “My Roots Are Showing”. It isn’t difficult for me to determine the tuber of my own quilting; as a Maritimer, my roots are historically and firmly planted in patchwork. I began with a sketch on freezer paper.
I was determined to use only the 5 Fat Quarters so I needed to make sure the bias binding for the circular outer edge was made first. For this I chose the stripe and cut my binding strips 2-1/4" wide.
The wildest piece would be my background, and the binding picked up the colours in it very nicely.
I traced my appliqué pieces onto fusible web.
With only 5 prints, I needed to get creative to add variety to the patchwork, so I used the wrong side of the orange to give a softer shade for skintone. The orange was used again, right side up, for the lips. The white teeth were cut from a selvedge edge on one of the fabrics. When the hair tentacles were laid in place, they were lost in the busy background.
I decided to use some of the plain blue underneath to add definition.
Better!
2” Log Cabin blocks were pieced for the hair roots (Oops…! how did Paul get in there?! That's a pic with his beloved Hofner from his Quebec 400 concert last July...)
The blocks were sewn together, and then cut to shape for the hair.
At this point, the piece is mega busy…too much going on. When I added the outer blocks, it got worse. 
My solution was to turn the background piece to the wrong side, as I had done to soften the orange face. The blocks shown circling the perimeter of the quilt represent some of the myriad of techniques used in quilting: trapunto, satin stitch appliqué, blind stitch appliqué, raw edge appliqué, hand appliqué, faced appliqué, selvedge edge patchwork, embroidery, embellishments, ragwork, yo-yo’s, crazy quilting, foundation piecing, and strip-piecing. Each block uses a different technique.
An extra layer of batting was applied for trapunto under the face.
The excess was removed with scissors. Then I layered the quilt, pin basted and began machine quilting.
I really like the dimension achieved in the quilting from the extra layer of batting. 
For me, quilting is as firmly rooted in the patchwork tradition of the past as are Hairiet’s wild tresses in log cabin blocks. 
Here's Clara, Organizer-Extraordinaire:
The Maritime Beauty blocks that I took along to show are now sewn together, basted, and the quilting has begun. The colours in this were reminiscent of sunshine, so I quilted free-motion wavy lines to look like rays.
There's a bit more quilting left to do on the bow-tie shaped pieces, then on to the bias binding.
The Keswick Ridge Guild have promised to send along finished pictures of their Beauties, and it will be interesting to see these. The fabric choices on Saturday were gorgeous, including many batiks and hand dyes. 
Today I am sorting through quilts to choose which ones to take to Keswick Ridge on Saturday. In addition to piecing a tabletopper with curved seams, we will also be binding curved outer edges. Many of my quilts feature scalloped borders so there are lots to choose from. If the quilts were not so heavy, I would love to take them all - does anyone ever tire of looking at quilts? I sure don't.
And look...you can see my Log Canada just peeking around the corner!
In all there were 44 quilts chosen from across Canada to be part of this special exhibit. Regina was even kind enough to pick up a brochure from the show which she is mailing to me.
These shots made me feel like I was at the show.
Wonder what's she's thinking...?
Here's Regina, waving :
As Will Rogers said: "A stranger is just a friend I haven't met yet."
These blocks were pieced using muslin as a foundation. The muslin stays in place after the blocks are pieced, creating a sturdy block. 
18 blocks are used, laid out in 3 rows of 6. Sew the blocks together, pressing the seams to one side. At this point, use your patchwork as a pattern and cut a piece of plain cotton for the lining this size. 
Fold the patchwork right sides together and sew along the side seam and across the bottom. Meet the bottom seam to each side seam and mark a line 2-1/2" up from the point. Stitch across this line. Turn bag right side out. Fold your lining right sides together and stitch side and bottom seams as for bag, remembering to leave an 8" opening on one side for turning. 
Sew to top of patchwork 4" in from each side seam.
Slip the bag inside the lining, right sides together and pin along top edge.
Turn the bag right side out through the opening in the lining. Press lining to inside and top stitch along upper edge of bag to hold lining in place. Close opening in lining with machine or hand stitches.
Voila, you're finished. Sobeys, here I come!
Hope this helps, Jackie - good luck with your version!
Even though I have been kept very busy this week, there isn't much to show as I am working on assembling workshop kits - 50 altogether. This involves making many metres of bias binding which the students will use for practise in joining ends and binding curved edges. As I finish up a spool of thread, I toss it into a small basket; the pack rat in me cannot seem to part with the spools just in case some fabulous use for them materializes. I fondly remember as a child gluing my Gram's discarded wooden thread spools into wonderful beds for my dolls. These plastic spools don't have the same charm their wooden forerunners did. It's a little scary to think that I have gone through this much thread since the beginning of the year.
Yesterday I worked on a small market basket. This was a prototype but it turned out not so badly and will get put into service accompanying me on my shopping trips. I applaud the efforts of our grocery stores in phasing out plastic bags. A piece of TimTex in the bottom was just enough to help define the basket shape. The fabrics came from Dayle's (of course!): a SSI basket weave, and a piece of red from Stephanie Brandenburg's Hollyhock collection:
