Fabric Love! November 23, 2010

Look what came in the mail yesterday!!!

Amy Butler’s new line “Soul Blossoms” in the Joy palette.

I am seriously in LOVE with these beautiful and very saturated brights!

I have always wanted a double wedding ring quilt.

I think there is something beautiful in the tradition of receiving one as a wedding gift.

This January, D and I will be celebrating 11 years of wedded bliss

ha ha, mostly anyways ;D

and so I thought I would make us up a lovely double wedding ring quilt (since we never got one)

out of these lovely fabrics for an Anniversary gift for us.

These two bright blues, Queen Street by Jennifer Paganelli, also arrived yesterday.

I just love them along with the Kona Ash.

I plan on making up a sweet little quilt for my new Nephew Mason after Thanksgiving.

I absolutely adore all of Jennifer Paganelli’s fabrics!

Her colors are intense and her floral and paisley prints are beautiful.

I am thinking they would be really fantastic mixed in with the Soul Blossoms for my quilt???

Off to admire my new pretties

Have a lovely Thanksgiving.

Happy quilting,
Colette

Its only the beginning! November 22, 2010

R. found a Christmas Music only radio station and has been playing it for days!

We’ve been reading lots of Christmas picture books together.

It already feels like Christmas around here…but its only the beginning!

My friend Gayle and I took a Christmas tree paper-piecing class together on Friday…

and I am going to send it to my Scrappy Mug Rug Partner along with this one:

Sorry for the dark photos but it is overcast and rainy here, ugh.

My friend Gayle has a super fancy sewing machine that does embroidery

and she was sweet enough to embroider “Baby, it’s cold outside!” for me on some linen.

I drew up a mug, very like my most favorite one from the UK, and raw-edge appliqued it to the linen.

I put in an insulated batting layer to keep her mug nice and toasty and free motion quilted it.

This was my first time stippling and it is OK, but I am thinking I need to stipple an entire quilt to really get the hang of it.

BTW, I am still straight line quilting my Mum’s quilt (HERE) and should be finished this afternoon.

Oh, and I have FINALLY got the hang of it ;D There really is no better practice than actually quilting on a real quilt!

And for the back I wanted to do something really special

so I pieced some hexies (another first, and wow, this was so much work!)

and lightly quilted them by stitching (mostly) in the ditch.

I really hope I got her style right and that she loves the fabrics I chose for her.

I’ll definitely be making several more of the trees as potholders to give as gifts to my family.

I better get my tush in gear if I have any hope of making Christmas gifts for this year!

Happy quilting,
Colette

Still Quilting… November 13, 2010

I feel as though I have been quilting my Mum’s quilt (original post HERE) for forever…

and ever…

and I really am not getting very far!

I’ve been doing straight lines (in groups of 3 every 3 inches on the diagonal of this 70″x70″ quilt)

for a couple of hours a day, every day this week, and I am only now finishing up the first direction.

This has been another “What in the bleep was I thinking???” project.

I came across this lovely quilt at Little Island Quilting HERE and thought my quilt would look beautiful quilted like hers.

I thought to myself, “Self, how hard can it be to sew straight lines?”

(I even followed her lead by not drawing lines or using tape, ha ha, the joke is on me!)

Well here’s my answer…

its pretty darn hard when you have 70 inches of quilt pulling in every which way

and trying to fit under the arm of my sewing machine!

On the upside, my lines are getting much better and my stitches are becoming much more even

By the end of this quilt, I should think I will be an expert in straight line quilting, ha ha.

I am seriously hoping to finish the other diagonal next week,

so that I’ll have time to get the binding on it before Thanksgiving.

My Mum is making that super long flight from the West Coast to the East Coast

and I sincerely hope she will have a new quilt to drag back home with her!

This is the first quilt I’ve ever made for her and I know she will love it (wonky lines and all!) because she’s good like that.

Happy quilting,

Colette

 

 

Willow Cushion Top November 4, 2010

3 cups of tea and 1 aching back (and 2 aching knees) later…

but all of my teeny tiny “Willow” pieces are FINALLY fused to my linen cushion top!

Don’t Look Now! “Willow” pattern can be found HERE

My friend Gayle and I have been working on these together every Friday for the past few weeks

with homeowrk assignments to be completed by the following Friday.

You can check out her cushion top HERE.

This is quite an ambitious project for two gals who have never done applique before…

not sure what we were thinking???

But we’ve managed to muddle through with only a few mistakes ;D

We still have to sew down all of those little pieces with our sewing machines

then quilt the top

and turn it into a pillow…

I know so much more to do!

But I will happily take my time on the next few steps

and look forward to having a finished “Willow” cushion by Thanksgiving(ish)…

maybe I am being a bit overzealous with that date considering I have several other projects with deadlines, ha ha.

In good time, right?

PS ~ sorry for the lousy lighting on my photo, but it is raining here as it does every Thursday!  These Kaffe Fasset and Martha Negley fabrics on my top have the most beautiful bright colors

Happy sewing,

Colette

February Girl November 2, 2010

This lovely red oval hoop just arrived from the UK!!!

I was finally able to finish hooping up my “february” girl

and she is ready to be mailed to my secret Scrappy { Hoops } Swap partner!

“Februaury” by Sarah Jane embroidery pattern HERE.

I used THIS tutorial by Aneela to do the raw edge applique.

The back edges were cut with pinking sheers

and then glued the frame.

I used a Kaffe Fasset fabric for the back with a little raw edge applique.

This little hat was inspired by a pattern in Kajsa Wikman’s new book “Scandinavian Stitches”.

I can’t tell you how much I love THIS book and seriously want to make everything in it!

Her blog HERE is equally inspiring and fabulous!

And…I have even started on a couple of projects inspired by her lovely quilts and pillows

The little heart on the hat is cross stitched on 27 ct linen.

“february” and “mamaloves2read” were FMQ with a variegated thread on white linen.

Really, I had so much fun making this scrappy little hoop and can’t wait to make one to match R.’s new bed quilt…

more on that and my other projects later ;D

Happy sewing,

Colette