Wedding cake like a quilt

Four years ago I was asked by my sister to make her wedding cake. Both excited and nervous I was honoured to be asked to take on such a task for my sister. Its not that I had never done cakes before, what made me nervous was wondering how I was going to manage to make a wedding cake and take care of my 2 year old and 2 month old all at the same time. After I agreed (which was right away of course) images stated to pop into my head of all the possibilities this cake could look like. Lynn provided me with a few guidelines such as 1) make sure it had fresh flowers, 2) it had to be 3 tiers, and 3) and that she wanted 3 different flavours, aside from that she let me run wild. Being a quilter I had to add my own flair .... a quilters flair... and voila here is my mater piece.

My master piece!

This was the bottom tier... My goal was to make it look like a quilt

This was the middle tier I wanted it to be whimsical yet elegant. 

Top tier... simple yet beautiful I wanted the the flowers on top to be the focal point.

It was so much fun! Thanks to my girls for being such great kids the whole time I was pre occupied with the making of the cake. The funniest part was when it was time to transport the cake to the venue. Given that I lived in Peachland and the event was in Kelowna I needed to be sure that I could get all 5 of us ( my 3 girls, husband and myself ) into the van while transporting all three tiers safely with no incidents. So, we loaded everyone up then loaded up the cakes only to start to back out of the driveway when we discover that we have a flat tire on the van... urggg... frantically we called my husbands uncle and he was gracious enough to lend us one of his vehicles to get there. Luckly it all worked out and the cakes made it there safely. Here is to a great night!

Cheers!

Please feel free to share with me anything that you have made that was outside of your quilting box!

Till next time, happy quilting!
Coleen

Summer Snap Shots

Today I was going through some my summer photos I have taken over the past few years and thought I would share with you some of my favourites.

Nakusp, BC (2010)

Alberta (2013) - It was a great day travelling back home from a great week in Calgary.

Flowers in my yard between the rocks. (2006)

Jackpine Lake, BC. (2007) The sun was setting it was so beautiful 

Jackpine Lake, BC. (2007) Sunrise

Jackpine Lake, BC (2007)

Burton, BC. (2010)

This was a great evening in my sisters back yard. The sun was setting over Kelowna and the sky was absolutely beautiful reflecting on the lake. 

Peachland, BC. (2012) Check out the double rainbow, you need to look close. 

Peachland, BC (2012)

Peachland, BC (2011) 

Its great look at these pictures. Each of them will be used as inspirations for my upcoming work. 

Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Happy Quilting!

Oh boy its been forever since I have had the opportunity to put a post on here. Since my last post I finished my Bachelors of Health Science degree, was awarded a new job, joined the Fibre Art Network and have been teaching many Free Motion Thread Play classes. Of course I have also been really busy creating new pieced to add to my collection.

Upon joining the Fibre Art Network group I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to create a piece for the Abstracted show in Washington. This pieced consisted of two quilters, one was to create a abstract piece while the other partner was to create a realistic piece. The goal was to create two pieced that were representational of a common theme. We chose to do an Okanagan scene, Peachland scene to be exact. I had the honour of doing the realistic version here is what I came up with...

 Here is the background fabric I used. I choose to paint the sky and water on white fabric to get the effect that I was after as I can never find good sky fabric. There is nothing better than creating your own fabric!

Next I added some appliqué and then did some heavy free motion quilting. Once my background was done I did some trapplique (a cross between trapunto and appliqué) and created my tree trunk. Once created I then made some 3D branches and added them onto my piece and here is what I ended up with...

I was very happy with the final effect. Here are a few more close ups...

Hope this inspires you to branch out of your normal and try something new!

Happy Quilting,
Coleen