Author Archives: mlwilkie

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About mlwilkie

Software Developer, Mother, Wife with keen interest in art, design and crafts of all kinds.

New York Part 2: Quilting Inspiration

While in New York, we took some time just to look around the city. Isn’t it amazing when you take some time out, just the places you find, that are inspiring. Here are a few photo’s of things which may land up in some way, shape or form in my quilting projects in future.

  1. Bluish Mod-Style Window facade of the building in middle of the photo. I can already see a great pieced quilt design in this building, the blocks all made of squares, rectangles and framed; each block being of a different size:IMG_7519
  2. This building struck me with shape and the vivid white-black-blue coloring. Once reviewing the photo, I also loved the addition of the orange and red that were captured in the overall photo.IMG_7520
  3. The windows of this building amazed me…I loved the composition of a quartered circle within a square within a square.
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  4. The stain glass dome in the roof here, could be the next FMQ pattern I could use for a large hexagon pieced project.
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  5. I love the design/composition of this pop art piece. Look at the vibrancy of those primary colors, blue, red, yellow, with the white and black. There is a splash of green which works out perfectly. IMG_7485
  6. I see two things I really like in this photo….the obvious one are the irregular shapes and colors used in this outdoor art piece. Secondly, look at the windows in the background…are those log cabin blocks I see?
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  7. Lastly, I was super impressed with the walls and walls of M&M’s. The photos were made at night, which is not the best, but hopefully you can still get the idea of a cool striped quilt or blocks out of these:
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Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced WiP Wednesday (after all design is part of the work in progress right ? )

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

New York Part 1: The City Quilter fabric stash additions

After the great and timely post last night, from Chrissie @ madebychrissied.blogspot.com about her favorite fabric shop in New York….guess where I went today. As I am in New York for the weekend, you guessed it The City Quilter.

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It was everything Chrissie said it will be…here are the new additions to my stash….

Tula Pink Fabrics:
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A few dot prints:
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And finally a few pre-cut fat quarters:
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I am linking up with Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth.

40 and Lotta’s Surface Printing Workshop

First off – this is a picture heavy post. Today, I am turning 40 and decided to embrace it!! I am celebrating it with a trip to New York to attend Lotta Jansdotter Surface Printing Workshop. We (I took the family along) started the trip out with delays from Tropical Storm Andrea, but thankfully we got to the hotel, even though it was midnight (4 hours late).

This morning, I couldn’t wait to get in that yellow cab and be driven to Brooklyn to Lotta’s workshop. One of those cab’s below will be mine!!

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The workshop was held in an amazing space that included the shop, workspace and office.  And yes, in the photo below those are shelves of fabric bolts. I made a purchase while I was there, of course – a strawberry journal, a table runner and the 1 yard of the dandelion fabric from her Echo line.

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The course, itself, was run by Lotta. I shared the experience with 11 other great people who helped me celebrate. The course took you through working with potatoes, rubber blocks and stencils on both paper and fabric.

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I loved Lotta’s teaching style. She made sure that the main goal of the course was just to experiment and go with the creative flow, which was very liberating and stress-free. The four hours flew by….I so wished the course was a weekend course (2 days) – I enjoyed it that much. I would highly recommend anyone coming to New York, to check out her shop at the very least, and if possible sign-up for a class. You will love it.

Potato printing

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Block Printing 

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Inspiration – Pohutukawa flower, the New Zealand Christmas Tree:PohutukawaRed PohutukawaOrangeRedPink

Inspiration – Pacific Island tapa clothes. Designs which are typically painted on woven flax sheets:TapaOrangeSilver BlackTapaPrint

Fabric Printing
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Final Products of Work
Stationary – Pohutukawa and Tapa Cloth Card Sets.
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Tote to carry all the goodies home with 🙂
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