Everything's Blooming & Major Website Update

A couple of days ago I headed out to the Canadian Tulip Festival, which takes place in Canada's capital city (my city!) every May. Although the tulips were beautiful, I found myself a little bored photographing them. Perhaps because I have photographed them many times before? So here are some requisite tulip photos..

I remembered that I had once seen magnolias blooming not too far away, at the Ottawa Arboretum, around this time of year. Much to my delight, I found five different varieties. I believe this is the first time I've found them in yellow.

Most were pink, either a deep fuchsia such as these

or a pale delicate pink such as these.

A pink-tinged white was also in bloom,

as well as an almost-pure white.

I did not find the green-tinged white that was the inspiration for this quilt, "Forgiveness", that I made in 2009. Looking at it now, there are things I would change and improve about it, but that is to be expected since it has been nine years since I made it.

This was the inspiration photo.

A bit further along down the road, the apple blossoms were in bloom. I already shared two photos in my last post. They have not peaked yet. At peak, they form a long row of pink down Prince of Wales Dr.

Next to autumn, this is my favorite time of year. Without winter, how would we ever appreciate the beauty of everything that is coming back to life?

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful day. It is a long weekend in Canada in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. While we have not been under British rule since 1867, we are still a Commonwealth country.

Yesterday was cloudy and rainy, so a perfect day to finish a substantial website update I'd been working on for a few days. Here it is! www.elainequehl.com

Most of the changes relate to my Gallery of Quilts, where I added five new galleries. I've included all the new works I've made over the last three years. You'll find that some galleries only have one or two quilts, but the fact that I felt they warrant a separate Gallery is because I am planning on adding more work in those series. 

What's Up? What's Coming Up?

I cleaned up my studio, cleared the decks, and got back to work quilting the pieces I made this past winter!

But then I learned that my website had been hacked! What ensued was a frustrating week of fumbling in unfamiliar territory, a lot of calls to my web hosting company, and learning things I never hoped or expected to learn. The end result is that the problem seems finally to be resolved.

I've also been experimenting with brown dyes. My favorite Chino brown dye colour from G&S Dye has changed so much that I had to go shopping for something that might be similar. I ordered 6 different browns from Dharma, expecting that Brazil Nut would be just the ticket (stack on left), but it turns out that Bronze is very close to my old Chino. You can see it in the fabrics in centre and on right. I'm a happy camper to find such a good likeness of Chino on only my second try.

My main reason for writing today is to share details of some workshops I have coming up this fall.

I will be giving a lecture and workshop to the Region of York Quilters' Guild in Newmarket, Ontario  on October 25 and 26.

In addition, I'll be teaching two workshops for The Quilt Store in Newmarket, Ontario:

On October 31 I'll be teaching Liberated Radial Piecing. You will learn how to create a radial design similar to mine while using improv cutting and piecing methods.

On November I will be teaching an Introduction to Fabric Dyeing. In this class you will learn about colour by dyeing a 12 step colourwheel using only three dye colours. You will have a choice between a bright colourwheel

or an earthy colourwheel.

In addition, you will learn how I dye my multi-coloured fabrics.

If you've always wanted to learn how to dye fabric, or if you are curious about how I obtain my saturated colours, this is a great opportunity for those of you who live in or near the Greater Toronto Area.

On the weekend of December 1- 3 I will be teaching my "In Full Bloom" class in a retreat format at Inspired Getaways in Arnprior, Ontario. You will have a choice of either my peony pattern or my poppy pattern. You can bring your own fabric or purchase a kit of hand-dyed fabrics from me. Treat yourself to a fun and productive weekend with all meals provided.

Kits available for the peony in pink.

Kits available for the poppy in either red or blue.

If designing your own botanical art quilt appeals to you, I'll be offering my "Inspired by Nature, Designed by You" class in a retreat format the weekend of May 10-13, 2018. Check out some of the amazing quilts some of my students have created in previous classes here or here.

Christine Earl designed this lovely trillium quilt in the class I taught in London, Ontario.

I am Pleased to Share My New Website

In my last post I hinted at a big project I have been working on that was nearing completion. Today I am pleased to share my new website! You can reach it from either my old address of www.equarelle.ca, or at www.elainequehl.com. Eventually the old address will be discontinued, but not for at least the next year.

I can't believe it is finally finished. The web site project started late last year, and was delayed while I made new work, while I worked on Northcott patterns, while I published some of my own patterns, and during the busy spring teaching and travel season. It was also delayed by my own fear and procrastination. It was a steep learning curve for me, and at times I was way out of my league. Thanks to the wonderful help of Lisa Ellis, the light at the end of the tunnel.has finally reached me and I finished the project yesterday!

I can move on to new things. Well sort of. Next steps for the website will be to figure out how to handle shipping for purchases and add a shopping cart. But that will have to wait a few weeks while I do some work for Northcott, teach Part 3 of Dye Happy, and get some time in the studio to save my sanity :-)  Oh, I should also mention, that I also have a new and revised "Lectures and Workshops" brochure. You can download it at the Workshops and Lectures link on my website.

You will notice that this blog also has a new logo at the top. That was added to keep the look consistent with my new website.

Should you visit my web site and notice any typos, broken links, or any other issues, please don't hesitate to let me know.