Who's that sniffing at my screen?

It's little Miss Mouse!

She was part of the pincushion swap we held at our last meeting f the year for Montreal Modern Quilt Guild. 
I made her by following this tutorial. I printed out the pattern and then enlarged it by 150%. 

 She stands about 6" tall.

In return, I received this adorable little pincushion from another MMQG member, Paule. She is extremely talented! She has 2 beautiful blogs: one about illustration here; and one about quilting & knitting here.

An improv-y, perfectly wonky little cushion. Complete with tassel! I love it! It has found a perfect place on my shelf to hold my basting needles!

Here's a picture of the other pincushions that were made by the members.

It was so much fun to see what everyone made!

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BTW: you can now follow my blog on Bloglovin!

Sweet and Simple!

As usual when I clean up my studio and rearrange my fabric stack, I fall upon a color combo that sparks an idea for a quilt.

Such was the case with these fabrics. 

And what you see on the wall was really all I had of each fabric. 

So I was limited to making a very small baby quilt. 

And when I think of babies, I think of hearts. 

I had to carefully calculate how I cut the green fabric in order to maximize the size of the quilt.

 And, as I was cutting it, I realized that a section of the fabric had some stains on it so I had to rethink the size.

The final quilt top measures 34" X 34". What I consider to be a take-along 'cuddle quilt'. Great for the stroller or the car seat.

Or it can be wall hanging.

 Whatever the case, I love this color combo! And I promise to post better pictures of the finished quilt. I need to do something about the lighting in my studio...

Time to vote!

Just a reminder that the voting is on for the Blogger's Quilt Festival contest.

I have an entry for the Throw Quilt category

and one for the Two-Color Quilt category.

                   

Make sure you hop on over to see all the entries! There are so many lovely quilts!

You have until May 30th to vote for your favorites in each category or to nominate an overall favorite for the viewer's choice award.

Blogger's quilt festival: Lift Your Heart!

I've entered a second quilt into Amy Ellis' Blogger's Quilt Festival.

This one is for the throw quilt category.

"Lift Your Heart" is the biggest quilt I've made to date. it measures 65" X 86". It is machine pieced and quilted. You can read about my inspiration and my process here.

And if you want to know how I did the quilting, click to see my cross-hatch quilting tutorial. 

The back features the name of the quilt in free-pieced letters and a scrappy heart.

Hop on over to the Blogger's Quilt Festival to see the other entries and visit again from May 24-30 to cast your vote!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Freshly Squeezed!

Hello and welcome if you are hopping over from Blogger's Quilt Festival and if you are new to my blog!

For those of you who have been here before, you might remember me mentioning my plans for an orange peel quilt. I started it last summer and finished it just at the beginning of this year. And I realized just last week that I never showed to finished quilt. 

So here it is: Freshly Squeezed!

 It was a pleasure to make, since it involved lots of hand work (applique and quilting).

I had a fat quarter bundle of 12 different orange fabrics. I managed to cut 4 peels from each fat quarter and was left with just enough scraps to use as part of the binding (in the upper right corner). It measures 60" X 62". 

I love this quilt as it holds many fond memories. It travelled with me to 2 family vacations (it was appliqued during our summer vacation in Italy and quilted by the fire during our winter vacation).

I've entered it into the two-color quilt category.

Voting takes place from May 24 to 30th! Hop on over to see the other entries and remember to vote! 

And thank you to Amy for hosting the festival! I can only imagine how much work goes into it!

Learn To Do Hand Quilting in Just One Day

That's the title of a little book I picked up at a used book sale recently. 

Sounds a little ambitious, yes, but what is important to note is the sub-title of the book:

...and then practice for the rest of your life.

Lately, I've been itching to do some hand quilting. I've done some before and it is something that I always enjoy doing. 

 These are some of the quilts I quilted by hand:

These first 2 are hand pieced and quilted.

     

 

This next one is hand appliqued, machine pieced and both machine and hand quilted.

   

This last quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted. You get soo much more control when quilting circles by hand!       

I enjoy it a lot more than machine quilting. And to be honest, machine quilting is the part of quilt making that I least enjoy. I like hand quilting more for several reasons: I feel as though I have more control, I can take the quilt with me anywhere, and I find the 'slowing down' of it very meditative. It's a stark contrast to how I usually do things...It allows me to be 'in the moment'. 

The little book I bought is full of practical tips. Some that I knew, others that are new to me. 

Most of the tips are of a technical nature, like how to mark your quilting lines, how to rock your needle, and how to bury the knot. 

The author, Nancy Brenan Daniel, even talks about proper lighting, posture, and breathing (all things, by the way, that we do in yoga class. See how it relates to meditation?).

But the tip that I found most useful is about developing the right mental attitude.  Among other things, the author urges to "do it because you enjoy the process and the results". She explains that sometimes your physical surroundings and your physical state are not conducive to achieving good results, so it's important to modify our expectations for the day. 

Yes! Many times I put off taking my quilt sandwiches to the machine because I just don't enjoy it. But when I have  quilt basted for hand quilting, I find myself stealing a few minutes here and there to put in a few stitches. It's also something that I can do in the evening while being together with the family. 

Does this mean that I will forgo machine quilting altogether? No, but I do plan on doing more hand quilting. 

Last week I took some time to baste my latest quilt (I found even hand basting enjoyable!) and am looking forward to taking the time to quilt it.  

What about you? Is hand quilting something you've ever considered? 

on my design wall

It's been awhile since I've had something new on my wall. I've been busy teaching, and prepping for classes takes up a lot of my time. I'm not complaining, teaching is fun, but when I don't get much time to sew i feel a little out of sorts. 

These fabrics have been sitting on my shelf together for awhile and ideas have been brewing inside my head as to what to do with them. So today i put some time aside to play around with them. 

As with my "I Don't Wear Blue" quilt, I just spread the fabrics out on the wall 

and shifted them around

and cut and sewed

  until I was had a finished top. 

This one will definitely be hand quilted.