Thread Play Fun!

I have been having so much fun making thread play pieces for my upcoming classes that the ideas and different fibres keep calling me to my machine. Here is my most recent piece

Fall in the Okanagan
This piece consists of piecing, thread play, fibres and hand stitching. 

Today I went to the Cherry Tree Quilt shop in Summerland and had a wonderful time picking out some of Barbs amazing hand dyed fabric and Fil-Tec (glide) threads to create my next piece. Here is a sneak preview of what I will be working with...

Barb has such a great selection of threads and fibres that you can incorporate into your quilting to give it a great unique look. I am so excited to have access to such a great supply. Thanks Barb!

Keep posted to see what becomes of these great threads and fabric!

Happy quilting,
Coleen

Fil-Tec Thread

Several months ago I discovered Glide Thread by Fil-Tec. This thread is a polyester thread that leaves little to no lint behind. Not only is this thread an absolute dream to use but you can also purchase their pre-wound bobbins which seem to last forever. When creating my thread play pieces I have absolutely no issues with breakage, or that horrid birds nest that sometimes likes to build under your quilt.

To a quilter good thread is like candy to the eye and a great glass of wine to go with it. Fil-Tec without a doubt has great selection of colours that are rich, and help you to create the look you are after. Their selection is bar-none one of the better ones I have seen. The affinity line which consists of variegated  threads are wonderful to work with and does not leave that chunky look as the colours change every inch.

Now if you are after a great metallic thread they have succeeded at making one that provides great shine, wonderful colours and best of all DOES NOT BREAK every few minutes. Metallic threads are generally more difficult to work with, however I have found that the Glisten Metallic line provides beautiful sheen to your quilt while making it easy to use. Look that this great variegated metallic thread, I have used it for several projects and every time I make something for my kids they always ask for me to add a bit of bling and shimmer to their stuff and what do they pick... yep you guessed something from the Glisten Metallic line.

Now that Christmas is over and we have started a new year I made a New Years resolution to complete at least 2 projects a month. So, I set out to begin my quest and in a matter of 3 days I managed to make 4 incredible thread play pieces. I will be teaching classes in February in Summerland and in West Kelowna so watch my class blog for an update on dates and times. Please feel free to call me or the quilt shop listed under the class to register. 

Unfortunately I am having difficulty with my camera taking good quality pictures of my work so I will be uploading several photos in the  next couple of days. If you are looking for a private class please feel free to send me an email and I am happy to instruct you either in a small group or one on one. 

Till next time... Happy quilting! 

Coleen 

Christmas, my favourite time of year!

So I must start off by apologizing for the delay in my posts. After all these years I decided to get another degree, so last year I started taking some online courses towards my Bachelors of Health Sciences degree. As of next week I will be completely done all the three courses I am taking this semester and will only have 1 course left to take in January. Thank goodness!! Unfortunately... or I would prefer to say fortunately, Christmas is coming quickly and so all the wonderful tasks that accompany this festive time of year call my name!

This week I baked 16 dozen whipped shortbread cookies, 6 dozen sugar cookies which I let my kids decorate, 12 dozen double chocolate mint chip cookies, and biscotti all in one day. My kitchen was like a baking factory and I loved it. Of course my husband and kids had to "taste test" every batch that came out of the oven so that they could give me their "stamp of approval" and check, check, check I passed! I also baked some mystery appetizers, they were super good, in fact so good that I had to do a second set cause we ended up eating the first round. 

Shortbread!

I enjoyed watching my two little ones decorate the sugar cookies. Kayleigh, my 6 year old slowly iced each cookie and stratgically placed the decoration on the cookies so that they would look elegant. She is my artsy farts girl. Sydney on the other hand is my three year old that would try and put every single sparkle she had in the bowl all on one cookie till I finally took the cookie away and gave her a new one. They are so fun to bake with. 

 Now that the baking had been started I moved onto decorating my house. I didn't decorate to the extreme this year like I do every other year because of my school work load, had I not had that on my mind our house would have been done from top to bottom. My husband says I am like a Christmas Elf, everything has to be perfectly decorated with lights everywhere. I was lucky to come home one day this week with our yard completely decorated. It is beautiful. One of these years I am going to switch all my lights over to being all one colour on the tree however my husband insists that it be multi coloured. I think it was what he was raised with. He is very much a traditional kind of man. Here is a picture of my tree, its not the best picture, but it gives you an idea.

In our family its a tradition to hand make our stockings, so as our family grew I would make a stocking for our house and one for my mom's. Last year I only had the chance to do up one Sydney so I left it at moms knowing that I was going to make up another for our house. Needless to say the year has flown by and I had yet to do it so, last night I started. Here is a sneak preview. I will show you the completed stocking once completed.

 Now that I have pulled out my Christmas quilts we can snuggle up to the fire with a warm cup of coco and watch some of those Christmas classics we so enjoy. I have to say that the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is still one of my favourites. My kids love the movie Elf, and my husband all time classic is the old black and white version of scrooge we watch it every Christmas without fail after the kids are asleep.

Here is one last picture I will leave you with. This was my little one sleeping last night, it was so adorable that I couldn't help but snap a photo.

So as I finish this long winded blog I wish you all happy shopping, baking and wrapping! Have a great week!

~Coleen~