Sunday Stretch For Sewists #14 Dragon

When you think of dragons, do you think of the fantasy dragons à la Tolkien with their ancient knowledge and love of treasure, or do you think of Chinese dragons and their cavorting in New Year parades, bedecked in radiant colours?

Today's post is another type of dragon, Yin yoga style.  It might make you feel and see colours in your hip joints, ha, it will definitely heat you up (think dragons' fiery breath), oh yes, and it might even bring up some strong emotions much like both fantasy and Chinese dragons can do.

The above barn quilt is a new one to me. Spotted it along Heritage Road in Essex County where there are several.  Doesn't it look beautiful against the red of the barn and framed by the maple (I think) trees in all their glory?

I zoomed in to see the pattern and beautiful colours of both the block and the trees!  It is a huge block; that's a full-size door beside it!

Now that I've planted a pleasant image or two in your mind, let's take a look at this month's Yin pose.

Dragon Pose

This particular pose can help to relieve sciatica.  It also will help you tremendously in your backbends, as it tugs on the front of the hip joints.  When you think about what a backbend looks like, bring your mind to the hip joints and you will immediately realize the importance of lengthening the ligaments in the front of those joints!  This also is a lovely stretch for the quadriceps, actually for the fascial bag that encases the quadriceps. There are many variations of the dragon pose; I will take you through three.  Hold each one for one minute.

To get into the pose the easiest way is to come to all fours on your mat.  Alternatively, you can step into it from Down Dog.

Step your right foot forward, placing it where you right hand is.  Help it ahead if need be, stacking your joints so that your ankle is under your knee.  Place one hand on either side of that leg, resting on your fingertips.  Slide your left leg back, back, coming to rest on the top of the foot, until you feel a very strong tug through the groins and the front of the left hip.  You might also feel a pretty strong compression in the front of the right hip. 

In the beginning, your left leg might be at more of a right angle than shown here; that's okay! When was the last time you attempted doing a kind of partial splits shape like this?!  So go easy.  "You want sensation, but don't make it sensational!" to quote Bernie Clark.  Relax your legs.  Close your eyes.  Breathe slowly and steadily in and out through the nose.

If it is too much to rest on your fingertips for the entire minute, go to fists, or flat hands.  Use blocks under your hands, or books if you struggle to reach the floor.  If you change hand position, note that the quads will kick in to help support you; consciously relax them, so you get deep into the hip joint, into the connective tissue, the ligaments, tendons, not the muscles.

After one minute, come upright with your torso, resting both hands just above your knee.  This is why you want to have a quilt doubled up under your knees as I have, since there is a fair amount of pressure on the left knee here.

Try to sink down into the groins; this is pretty intense as the weight of the torso puts a lot of pressure here.  If you have too much pressure on your left knee even with a quilt there, put a cushion under it.  Gaze at the ground in front of you.  Hold for one minute.

Inhale, and on your exhale bring both hands to your mat inside your right leg.  Lower down onto your forearms, resting on your mat or if that is too low, then on a block or a book

If this is too much in the beginning, then keep both hands inside that right leg, simply bending your arms slightly as you lower your torso a little.  Hold for one minute.  I set my phone timer for 3 minutes and place it where I can easily see it, so I can change every minute through the three variations.

For a wonderful but more advanced variation, twist your torso towards the right leg, looking to the sky.  Place your right hand against the inside of the knee and gently push it away from you, letting your foot come to rest on the side edge.  You can stay here one minute, breathing slowly and steadily in and out through your nose.

When you are done 2 or 3 or all 4 variations, tuck your back toes under, push into your right foot, lifting your hips up and back, straightening the right leg, leaning over it.  This is called half splits.  Take several breaths here, enjoying the warmth/coolness/tingling sensations as the blood rushes back into the compressed areas, removing toxins in much the same way a deep tissue massage does.  Alternatively, push up and back, but step back to a most delicious downward facing dog again.  After several breaths in down dog or half splits, rest back in child's pose before doing the other side.

One last quilt photo for you! Sunday Stash is today, and I finally finally redeemed my winnings from Fluffy Sheep Quilting for Scraptastic Tuesday from several months back.  Cindy was unbelievably kind to let me redeem my certificate after forgetting/remembering/forgetting for such a while.  Helen of Midget Gem Quilts put me on to her Skinny Bolts...so as Helen would say, it would be rude to just buy one, right?  These two pretty lengths arrived this past week:

Woo hoo!

Remember to read my previous post for the Autumn Abundance Blog Hop (that link will take you to Bernie's site where you can get the links to all the posts, giveeways at each one) as I have two giveaway prizes up for grabs.  The draw ends tonight and I will announce the winners tomorrow below this paragraph. Speaking of grabbing, you may want to grab yourself a Craftsy class or two; they are all on for less than $20 this weekend.  Click the button on the sidebar to have a look. :-)

Update Monday morning.  From 160 comments (wow!) Mr. Random Generator picked...

1.  The little button basket:

Kelli at Seriously I Think It Needs Stitches  Isn't that a great blog name? And yep she's a RN.


2. The fabric charms, label and selvages:

Linda!
Both winners have been contacted.  Sadly, for each draw I had to draw twice because of no-reply bloggers.  However, yay, in that there were loads of no-reply bloggers and the majority wrote their email address within their comment. :-)

Thank you again for all the comment love and looks like we may have a QAL in 2017. 

Autumn Abundance Blog Hop - Windfall

It's Day 5 and it's my turn to show you my project that I have been super-excited about since its inception for this Autumn Abundance Blog Hop.

First of all a tremendous thank you to Bernie of Needle and Foot for birthing this idea of a Fall inspiration blog hop this summer.  When she asked me if I'd like to be a part, I was like hell ya!  I mean, ahem, I was like, oh for sure! And then kicked up my heels at the thought of getting some free fabric and license to play and create...  Second, a massive thank you and wow-wee from my heart goes to Paintbrush Studio who so generously agreed to sponsor this hop.  Be sure to check out their blog, which I follow by bloglovin' and by email so I never miss a post, Inspired By Fabric.  I also follow on Instagram.

Strong and Free

That's my country.  A line from our national anthem.  We Canadians are a rather laid back breed for the most part.  Quiet.  Polite. Peacemakers.  I am very proud of that description of us.  I'm also very proud of my country and I love it.  This post has a few Canadian images and thoughts for you.

Sunset on Lake Erie October 15 at the home of friends of ours

Maple Leaf Forever

Not sure of the variety, or wait, I think this may be an oak?!! My friend Doug taught me that red oaks have pointed leaves...please do let me know.

Okay this next definitely is a maple, known as Autumn Blaze.  I got that name from the guy who owns these spectacular beauties, trees I have photographed every year for the past five Falls that I have walked past them.

I think the big one right in front of me and on my right is a silver maple. Maybe a red maple!  Autumn Blaze is a hybrid of those two I learned.

A little maple of my own has been a-happenin' in my sewing corner...

Love it when seams line up purr-fectly!

Speaking of purring, Bella has been right beside me every step of the way on this secret project which will be revealed this coming Friday!

From cutting, to discovering my desk lamp throws some lovely warm heat (don't worry; the iron wasn't on), to settling down all nice and cosy, ensuring both sides of her head got toasty, to oops!  Guess she sat too near the pile of HST trimmings...

Back in the summer Bernie of Needle and Foot asked me if I'd like to be a part of a hop she was planning for the Fall, to showcase a fabric company's Fall line of fabrics.  For sure!  Paintbrush Studio is our sponsor and I picked Windfall for my project.

Some of the incredibly rich hues in this gorgeous line.

Here is a teaser photo during construction:

And during quilting:

The Autumn Abundance blog hop runs all this week.  Be sure to check back as I will update the links below as each post goes live.  You should get some great Fall inspiration!

Monday - Bernie at Needle and Foot
Tuesday - Janine at Quilts From the Little House
Wednesday - Mari at The Academic Quilter
Thursday - Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Friday - moi!

Back to Canada.  I've been thoroughly engrossed in another fantasy by Ottawa, Ontario resident Charles de Lint, Trader.  I am nearly finished; if you like a good fantasy, especially one that paints the veil between Faerie/Spiritworld and ours as being very thin, and blends Celtic lore with Native American, then you will love his work.  The Little Country is the first of his that I read, with Moonheart and its sequel, Spiritwalk, in a three-way tie for favourites.

While working on my quilt, I decided to go through some CDs that I was organizing, ensuring they are loaded into the laptop (and therefore my devices) for easy transport.  This was the point at which I realized how I'd unknowingly been surrounding myself with Canadian art while I worked on my Autumn Abundance quilt.  I'd completely forgotten about this gift from my mum from several years ago, a Canadian Brass CD, love!  Bach's fugues have mesmerized me since I first was learning them (and they are hard!); the intricacy and interweaving of themes in each 'voice' quite a work of art and organization, not to mention genius.  In keeping with the fantasy atmosphere, Canadian Loreena McKennit's haunting melodies are just the ticket.  They've been getting a fair bit of play recently.  I do believe I own every one of her CDs, and, imported into the laptop though they all may be, I will still keep the hard copies!

Canada is such a rich country in many ways from resources, to a variety of peoples, cultures (we are multicultural and proud of it), vistas, and interesting weather to be sure!  Out west in Alberta, they had an unwelcome blast from Old Man Winter a couple of weeks ago, and he is hanging on yet with his icy fingers...
Still, there is incredible beauty and magic to be found:

Photo courtesy of my sister Linda, taken by her son

I think she should enter that photo in a contest.  I just love it!  The snow is pretty much gone now.

2000 miles to the east and 700 miles south of Edmonton, I sat and enjoyed the sun and water on my walk yesterday.  Canada is indeed diverse.

Can you spot the black Lab swimming? Ah, would Rocco have loved to be with him...

A little later on that same walk, I had to stop and take a photo of this fabulously decorated house.  People really go all out in my little town, but this circle of dancing ghosts was just so creative! I immediately heard the music of "Outlander" in my head, thoughts of the dancing white witches in the standing stones overlaying the ghosts in front of me.

Ahh, Outlander...Scotland...one day I hope to go there...  Finally, a nod to Canada's 'mother' country, from none other than my own proud to be English, mum.  She sent me this photo the other day, her lunch of homemade broccoli soup (she makes the best) on her Union Jack placemat I made her last year, and in the background a tablerunner from probably about 15 years ago that I also made her. How I love seeing my quilts being used and loved.  

Photo courtesy of my mum. Thanks Mum!

Be sure to check out the Autumn Abundance Day 1 post right here!

Linking up with
Cooking Up Quilts
Sew Fresh Quilts

Blue and White Antique Quilt

I showed you a photo of the antique quilt I picked up at Fence Row Antiques in New Bedford, Ohio a week ago (was it already a week ago? Seems like just yesterday in some ways, and seems like last month in others, sniff...).

At first I thought those were faded areas, but upon closer inspection, I'm not so sure.  The blue fabrics look like shirting, and the paler blues are not the same pattern as the darker ones.

Maybe this quilt was made from old shirts or dresses? Maybe the quiltmaker bought or was given some fabric but there wasn't enough to make her queen sized quilt?  It is big, measuring 75X90"!

The block is new to me; I've never seen this.

It isn't square, as I'd first thought; it's a hexagon with triangles and diamonds pieced in along the sides, and lots of Y-seams.

Look what appears when they are placed together!

MacGyver saw it with the blue ones; said it reminds him of a Maltese cross.  I saw a white 'star' where the blocks come together.  It has a 3D effect to me here!

I just love the scalloped edge.

Yep, you see that some edges are fraying.  I'm okay with a well-used quilt!  The texture is just incredible:

It is hand-quilted, 10 stitches to the inch.  Do you count the top and bottom stitches?  I presume you do not; I counted 10 stitches on the top per inch, 19-20 if you count the gaps where those on the bottom layer show.  Way better than this girl's handquilting! 

There are wreaths in the large white areas...

...and straight lines of echo-quilting in the other parts of the blocks.

Here is a better photo showing the overlapping wavy lines quilted in the borders.  I think this is called a cable design.  It's one of my favourite quilting motifs.  In fact, on my Stars Christmas runner, I did this very one along the edges. :-)  Well, not as many lines; there are 8 altogether here!

I am so pleased that with all this white there is barely a mark on it.  I did wash it after talking to Julie of Pink Doxies, on the delicate cycle in my tumbling washing machine.   I laid it flat to dry, easing the scallops into place.  It didn't come out as soft because of air-drying, so right near the end when it was barely damp, I put it in the dryer for 10 minutes.  It softened up a bit, but not like it was originally.  So I'm a bit sad I did wash it after all.

A cotton batting was used, but it has let go in most places except around the quilting lines.  I'm guessing it to be from the 1930s/1940s.  Any thoughts on that?  It came from New York State.

This brings my antique quilt collection to a total of three!

No sombrero needed on MacGyver's head this time; he used his head and both arms spread wide but still couldn't hold out straight the entire quilt!

I plan to recreate this in smaller form; I'm curious to figure out the block construction.  I will keep you posted on that development.  Always more projects right?!  Quick note: if you would like to create your own version of an antique quilt, I got an email this morning showing a new Craftsy fabric collection just out, a Civil War reproduction line by Boundless Fabrics, that happens to be on sale this weekend.  It's not just on kits (but all kits are on sale, even the newest as this antique-inspired one), but all supplies, and fabrics.  Debbie Caffrey, a well-known designer, has created an Ocean Waves quilt measuring 69X89", that is gorgeous, and mimics the original Civil War quilt that inspired the collection.  That kit is also on sale, for a great price, $99!  (Note: these are affiliate links, that I think/hope will work with the new website, which I really like btw!)

Linking up with some favourite parties on my sidebar and in the Linky Parties tab up top.

Q4 FAL List

First of all, how did I do from Q3?
The first goal was finishing Dayna's grad quilt.  Done!

The second was finishing the Rainbow Rose QAL which I named Rainbow Kitty Rows.  Done!

Third was a half hexagon quilt which I called Fall Resplendence.  Done!

Fourth was making a walleye potholder/hot mat/mini quilt for MacGyver.  Done!

The next five did not happen.
4/9 is not so good.  However I am still very very pleased with these four.  Let's not forget I finished my mini round robin which wasn't on the list, although it was on OMG for September.  I finished it Oct 1 LOL.  I also made a few little fabric baskets, another rounded edge bag, a mini, and two pairs of pj bottoms.

Q4List

Here is what I hope to accomplish by the end of 2016!
1.  A secret project for a blog hop sponsored by Paintbrush Studio.

2.  A second small giveaway project with the above fabric leftovers.

3.  Radiance

4. Midnight Mystery - the top is done and I have the backing; just need to throw it on Avril and quilt it up fast.

5.  This other secret project

And I will stop there.  I know!  I always have 8-10 items (in reality there's about 20 probably; who am I kidding).  This next one is not going to count, as in order to qualify for the prizes, the item has to be a finished, usable project.

Finish the flimsy by the end of 2016 for the Cows quilt, but this one won't count for the Q4 FAL.

Ten done! An eleventh is 3/4 done! Getting close...

Linking up with
She Can Quilt for the Q4 FAL

Quilt Bloggers' International Retreat

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen photos of the glorious fun-, friends- and fabrication-filled three days I had recently.  You've probably read posts from some of the other bloggers who gathered at Julie's.  I haven't read any of their posts yet; I wanted my take on the retreat to be authentic and mine, you know?  So if I'm repeating stuff you've already seen and read about, this would be why.  Notice I make no apologies!  Nor do I for the many photos. I'm still soaking it all in.

You may recall from this post, this post, and this post, that I'd been down to visit Julie last summer. I was so excited to be going back!

So you see where I live in relation to Julie, about 300 km south of me as the crow flies.  We didn't take the ferry across Lake Erie, but drove around the west end of the lake and on down, about 4.5-5 hours.

Shoot For the Moon

Well this has been a LONG time coming.  Three, maybe four times on goals -alongs, both OMG and the 2016 Finish Along.  She's finally done!  This is the first goal on my Q3FAL List.

It was a hot 80-degree day here in Ohio (yes you read that right)  when I took these photos.

Tish took a bunch too.  Yep you read that right too!

What is going on?

We are here:

At the very first Quilt Bloggers International Retreat in Gnadenhutten Ohio!  It was a wonderful first day. :-)  But that's another post or two.  This one is to show you Dayna's quilt.  Hold onto your Olfa rotary cutters, there's several pics coming up:

Judy at Quilt Paradigm gave me the idea for most of the centres of the stars, a Spirograph type design with such movement! Swoops in the star points, swirls and pebbles and then some dot to dot in the star shadows completed the lightest blocks.

These got a Judi Madsen design in the stars, Matrix by Leah Day and the dot to dot.

More of the spirograph (Angela Walters does a similar one), and dot to dot.  So glad I used Quilter's Dream Wool batting!

The quilt surprised me when I was drawing it out on clear vinyl (at full size), trying out various designs.  It was no surprise to see how much negative space there was to fill; the surprise was realizing the centre was not a square, and it was offset.

It's rectangular! A checkerboard design and dot to dot and feathers designs both of Kathleen Riggins' (Kathleen Quilts) filled in this area

There is quite the story to go with this quilt, but I will write it all another time, when I can devote my all to the telling.  I want to post this by the deadline (tomorrow) for the Q3FAL, and as I will be cruising around Amish country, shopping and lunching and wining and dining and soaking up every fabulous minutes with blogger girlfriends like Tish, Julie, Beth, Jennifer, and don't forget Dave the Quilt Engineer, I won't have time...

I hope to get some better photos (Tish has some with her good camera I'm sure) for that post.  Here are a few more from this afternoon:

The lower left corner so you can see the designs I did in the chevron border and the final two borders, which I treated as one, doing a fancy feather design of Angela's she teaches in her borders class on Craftsy. The brackets border highlighted with matchstick quilting is also Angela's as is the "windy" (my term) swirls border between the star blocks.

The block is designed by Judy Martin but the quilt is my own design.  I may be writing up the pattern...

I got the white wide backing, as well as the medium purple in the second last border, last summer at Zinck's when I was here visiting Julie! You can read about that trip here and here.  Because Dayna said, "You are going to make it bigger right?" when I gave it to her as a flimsy, on her grad in May 2015 from Wayne State University, (and I did make it bigger), I didn't have enough of the backing.  Inspiration struck when I had various pieces left from making the stars, and a strip insert was concocted and inserted.  I love the effect.

Stylized moon in the upper left corner, kind of a henna swirls design - more on that in the full story post

Julie and I held onto the quilt while Tish snapped a few pics from below.  Julie has a great hillside bungalow with a perfect wall from which to hang large quilts such as this one which measures somewhere around 94" square!

We'd stood on a bench in order to reach up and hang onto the quilt, and when Tish joined us up there, she saw a perfect setup for a final shot or two:

I am so happy with how this turned out!

Linking up with:

She Can Quilt

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF at Georgia Girl Quilts