Colours – Juanita Collins

September 5, 2016May 22, 2021

A spring-time disappearing 9-patch

I wanted to make a quilt for my aunt, who has always been a very special person in my life. But time passes and things don’t get done and you know how it goes. (sigh)

So one day last spring I was sorting my sewing room and I came upon an unfinished quilt top. It’s one I started way back when. Before I had (mostly) mastered the art of matching corners, lol.

I’m not sure why I put it away and didn’t finish it. I think maybe I felt (at the time) that the colours were too bright, or maybe I didn’t like using grey for the background neutral. I really have no idea.

Anyway, it was spring when I pulled it out and all the spring flowers were in full bloom. I carried it out and took some pictures with the tulips. And oh my gosh…the quilt just sang!

Suddenly, every spring colour just jumped out at me, and I realized that every single colour was in the quilt. It screamed Spring!

That’s one of the things I love about Kate Spain’s fabrics. She really captures the colours in nature. 🙂

I looked at the grey background and thought of the soft spring rain that comes and melts all the snow, and makes the flowers bloom.

And I thought to myself, this quilt belongs to my aunt, whose favourite season just happens to be spring.

Mine, too!

This is a lap-sized quilt made from the Cuzco collection by Kate Spain. The backing is cream flannel and it was hand quilted in a clam shell pattern. I didn’t wash and dry it before I sent it, but when she does, it will shrink a wee bit and pull around the stitches, creating that wonderful crinkly look that makes a quilt so soft and snuggly.

September 16, 2015

The Yukon Scarf in Amethyst (…to ETSY or not to ETSY, that is the question)

Introducing: The Yukon Scarf in Amethyst!

This particular scarf is 44″ in diameter and 5″ wide and loops twice around the neck (as shown in the photo.)

I think that if I’m going to knit things to sell, I’d like to help them stand out in a very crowded market by giving each pattern an individual name. I’ve decided to call all of the moss stitch infinity scarves the Yukon Scarf. I’ll then differentiate them by colour. Thus, this infinity scarf is The Yukon in Amethyst.

Right now I’m experimenting with different weights of yarn and different needle sizes to see what combination I like the best.

This one was knit on 6.5mm needles and the weave is quite dense. A larger needle will give it a looser, more open weave. I have one more skein of this, so will try that next and then compare the two.

I see some very expensive scarves for sale on ETSY that look to me like they are made from inexpensive yarns that I recognize as the kind you can buy at WalMart. Now, I’m not dissing WalMart. But here’s a question for you: Do shoppers care where the materials came from? (I’m asking legitimately, not sarcastically.)

Would it make a difference to shoppers if I advertised that I support local small business and purchase all my yarn at small independent yarn shops (like Intwined Fibre Arts in Salmon Arm, or the Itsy-Bitsy Yarn Shop in Whitehorse)?

Of course, the more specialized you get, the more you pay for your materials. And the more you pay for your materials, the less profit you make. For instance, I paid $20 for this particular skein of very high quality Peruvian fair-trade yarn. So already, the price to the purchaser has gone up to whatever my time is worth on top of that.

Where is the line between making a good quality product you can be proud of and also earning enough $$ per hour to make it worth the work? (the eternal question of all artists in all genres.)

I haven’t even gone onto ETSY to see what’s involved in opening a store, let alone figuring out what to charge for my scarves. One thing at a time.

Thoughts? And if no thoughts, what’s on your needles today, eh?

September 3, 2015

Something Purple on the Needles

I’ve been in the mood to knit, but not anything overly complicated. So I rummaged around my stash and found this beautiful skein of purple fair trade Peruvian wool that I bought years ago. I’m going to knit a chunky infinity scarf with it.

It is 98% merino wool…so soft!

It feels lovely in the hands. 🙂

I don’t need another scarf, so I think I might sell it. I’ve never sold anything I’ve made before, but I’ve been looking at prices on Etsy, and I’m thinking of opening a store of my own.

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015

K is for Knitting (really, what else could it be for?)

Melissa Peda took this picture of a flower in her garden and posted it on her blog (100BillionStars) the other day. (She has a lovely blog, by the way. You should check it out! I am inspired every single time I visit it.)

I Love This Colour! I used to have a sweater in this same shade of periwinkle blue and I loved it to death. Literally wore it out.

So when I saw this photo, a lightbulb went on and I said to myself, “Nita, you should find yarn in that colour and knit yourself something!”

Like maybe Waterlily by Meghan Fernande:

Or the February Fitted Pullover by Any Herzog:

You know, I haven’t actually set out to knit a just for me item in…decades.

I knit gifts for other people … Scarves, slippers, socks, baby things. The last thing I knit for myself was a sweater way back about 1990.

Well, okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. I think I’ve got a pair of slippers in a drawer somewhere. And I wore a me-made lace knit scarf all winter (…actually, I made it for my mom, but wasn’t happy with it. So I kept the substandard item for myself and knit a better one for her. Have you ever done that?)

So I think it’s time I knit something luscious just for me.

On purpose.

Something in periwinkle blue.

This yarn,maybe?

The search for the perfect colour is on!

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

January 19, 2015February 4, 2015

The Friendship Garden Quilt

Warning: this post is photo intensive!

Let me introduce you to The Friendship Garden Quilt!

It comes by its name honestly, because it started out life as a bee block!

I am part of a Flickr group quilting bee with 5 other ladies. We call ourselves We Bee Canadian. We each make 2 blocks for the month’s Queen Bee.

When it was my month to pick a block (a couple of years ago!), I asked everyone to please make me two bow tie blocks using garden-themed fabric.

Because we were all pretty much beginners, nobody’s 1/4″ seams were very good and the blocks didn’t square up very well. There were an awful lot of mismatched seams.

Then I had an idea!

I decided to cover some of the wonky seams with English paper pieced rosettes. Perfect! Before you knew it, I had hand-appliqued a flower in every single blank square, wonky or not!

Because a garden should be an absolute riot of colour, don’t you agree?

I used a bed sheet on the back. I think it would qualify as a vintage sheet. I remember having sheets like this on my bed in the 70s.

The quilt is hand quilted in circles.

I don’t think I’ll try to do hand quilting through a bed sheet again. I actually bent needles and had to use pliers to pull the needle through the layers. Ouch!

Mr. C. did a marvelous job behind the scenes, don’t you think?

I used black for the binding to set off the colours. Oh, how I love this quilt! It is so cheerful and bright and sunny! A bit of summer in the depths of winter.

I hope it will be as loved in its new home as it is in mine 🙂

These photos were taken at the sweet little Notch Hill Community Hall and Church on the only sunny day in January.

Linking up with the binding blitz at Julie Quilts and Lets Bee Social at SewFreshQuilts.

January 1, 2015January 1, 2015

A woeful, sewful tale

I’ve been doing the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion mystery quilt. “What is that?” asks my non-quilty friend. Bonnie Hunter is a master quilter with many books etc under her … Er…seam ripper. Every year in December & January she hosts a mystery where a clue is posted each week. Each clue is a piece of the quilt that you make. Nothing is left to chance. She even gives you paint chip numbers so you can match your colours accurately. Bonnie Hunter is the absolute queen of scrappy.

I love scrappy. Love love love scrappy quilts. I also try to challenge myself with each new project. And, Bonnie’s quilts are challenging. So it seemed like a match made in heaven.

I made clue number one:

280 broken dish units. Two Hundred. and Eighty.

Loved ’em!
Then I made clue number two:

There are 100 (One Hundred) of these whatever-you-call-em units. 600 pieces/800 seams. Wozers! It took me, like, for-ever, but I did it! Now I am really pumped about the mystery quilt! It’s going to be fabulous! It’s going to be a big quilt, too…over 80″ square. I can’t wait! I love the scrappy turquoise and the scrappy pinks together. Love the pops of yellow and black.

But…I am waaaay behind. Clue number 5 was posted last week. I’m running out of time! I’ve got to get caught up! I get up this morning totally pumped to sew up clue number 3. Maybe even clue number 4 if I really fly at it and work hard.

I turn on my computer before I’ve even had my coffee.

Eee gads! Today the mystery quilt is revealed! Spoiler alert, spoiler alert! Argh, I looked! I couldn’t help myself.

I don’t like it. At all.

For the first time ever, I am looking at a Bonnie Hunter quilt that I don’t like. To me it looks like a hot scrappy mess. And it is the one I am making.

I don’t know what to do. Finish it anyway? Take the blocks I’ve already made (and that I like so far) and make something different?

Honestly, I think I’m going to go have a good bawl now.

(Please, Bonnie, don’t be reading this. I love you to pieces, I really do. But just not this particular quilt)

Sob