Wednesday 27 March 2013

Rosie

I was so busy sewing and quilting for the past 2 to 3 weeks, but all of that has come to a halt. It may be another couple of weeks or so before I get back to my sewing room.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to our new family member, Rosie.

Rosie is our new 2 month old puppy.

She has been with us since Sunday and she is adjusting very well. I am spending most of my time with her so as to train her and help her get used to her new family. We are all totally in love with her.

I am doing a little bit of sewing, mostly hand work. So I hope to be back soon with some quilting news. I am really looking forward to finishing that Itty bitty twister mini!!

 

Saturday 23 March 2013

FNSI - a finish and some progress!

I spent about an hour and a half in my studio last night. I must say that I think it was a very productive hour and a half!

I finished my March mini:

So glad I got this one done before the end of the month!
I also made good progress on my Itty Bitty Twister:

I finished cutting out all the pinwheels so now I just need to finish sewing the rows together. I think I will add a border of the outside orange fabric and then it will be ready for quilting.

 

Friday 22 March 2013

TGIFF - Merry Christmas!

I know it is the first week of spring but with all the snow we still have out there, I am beginning to wonder if spring will ever come!
To go along with all that snow, I have a Christmas-y finish!
I have finally finished my Jelly Roll 1600 quilt!!  

I took the pictures Wednesday morning, after the 20cm dump of snow we got on Tuesday.

I quilted it on my mom's long arm machine last week.  I am so happy to say that I am no longer scared of this machine!  It was so nice to feel comfortable using it, now if only I could find more time to use it... anyways, I decided this time around to do some free motion quilting and it was so much easier than following a pattern!  I am really beginning to like this!

Close-up of quilting

As you can see in the picture above, I used the strips as my guide.  I alternated between a row of loops and a row of wavy lines.  I think it gives the quilt some nice texture.
I used a green flannel for the back and I bound it using one of the black fabrics from the same line.  It is going to be perfect to snuggle under at Christmas time!

Here it is drying after the photo shoot!
I am linking up to TGIFF over at Sew, love, live.
And I also wanted to let you know that I will be sewing again tonight for the Friday Night Sew In over at Heidi's.  Hopefully I will be finishing my itty bitty twister and my March mini.  I will let you know how that all goes tomorrow!

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Wip Wednesday 20/03/2013

I have been working on this Itty Bitty Twister for 2 days now.

It started out like this:

Then I started cutting it...

And it looked like this:

But then my hands and fingers were getting sore from cutting such tiny little 1.5 " squares! So I started sewing and it started looking like this:

 

Those are some small pieces!! I worked on it some more today but got distracted and also worked on these coasters:

 

So those are my WIPs for today. My plan is to bind the coasters tonight and finish the mini twister quilt by the end of the week. I already have another finish for the week so I will definitely be back on Friday for TGIFF!

I am linking up at TN&TN.

 

Monday 18 March 2013

A little bloglovin

As many others are doing, I am switching over to Bloglovin and I have to post this to claim my blog.
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Thanks!

Quilting Day

What did you do on National Quilting Day?  
I was lucky enough to spend an hour on Saturday teaching someone to quilt.  I was so excited when my baby girl of 5 asked me if she could sew with me!  I asked what she would like to make.  She said a big quilt with a flower on it.  After a bit of discussion and negotiation, she decided on a throw pillow for her bed with a big flower on it.

So I found a great flower pattern and gave her some steam a seam and a pencil and let her trace her patterns.  Then she picked her fabrics.  I helped her fuse on the steam a seam and let her cut out her shapes by herself.  Then we fused them together.  I think she preferred picking her thread to picking the fabric!  Then we got to the appliqué.  She has been waiting to use my sewing machine for a long time and was so excited to finally be here!  I was so impressed with her skills and her patience.
I took these photos with my phone so forgive any blurriness... it's new to me!
 She did a buttonhole stitch around the circle and a zigzag around the petals.
We ran out of time on Saturday...
 so we finished it Sunday morning while her big sister was at gymnastics with Dad.

 I have a very proud little girl!!
She was so happy with it, she brought it to school to show everyone, and she has already chosen a pattern to make another!

Friday 15 March 2013

TGIFF - A wedding gift

Yesterday I finally delivered a late wedding gift to a friend. Joanna and I went to high school together (she was there when my husband and I first started dating!). We lost touch for a while but a few years ago we touched base again and she is now my hair stylist.

Joanna got married down south at the end of January and I really wanted to make something special for her and her new husband.

I found this design for my embroidery machine at the Embroidery Library, and stitched it on a solid white background.

Then I went out and bought this hanger.

 

I added a couple of borders and quilted it with invisible thread, and it became this:

I am linking up to TGIFF over at Dreaming in Patchwork. Head on over and check out more finishes!

 

Thursday 14 March 2013

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who came to visit for the giveaway and especially to those of you who are new followers!

I had an amazing response to my question about seeing a "famous" quilter. I didn't get to respond to all of your comments so I thought I would do that now.

I think we are all SO lucky to have this online community. It allows us to take classes, find patterns, "meet" other like minded people, share and learn, no matter where we are in the world. That is amazing!

Some of you have had great opportunities to take classes or see quilters speak, whether it be at a big event or at your local quilt shops. Others have said that they are brand new to the quilting world or that they are self-taught and have not had the chance to take classes.

No matter how new you are to quilting or where you are in the world, I hope you get the opportunity to share with other quilters, famous or not, whether it be online or in person. The quilting community is amazing and quilters are such giving people. It is so inspiring and fun to be able to share your hobby or passion with others, it is also an opportunity to learn something new about your craft, or maybe even yourself. I am honoured that some of you follow my blog and like to read what I am making or learning and hope you can take something from my experiences.

I have heard of most of the "famous" quilters you mentioned in your comments but some I have never heard of and I will definitely look them up! Thank you for sharing!

Now on to the winner of the giveaway!

Random Number Generator chose number 77, which is crafter1953. I have sent you an e-mail and am waiting for your address so I can mail you your goodies!

I will be back tomorrow with a fantastic finish for TGIFF!

 

Tuesday 12 March 2013

A few finishes!

If you are here for the Blog Hop Party giveaway, click here.

It is March break week here so I am not sure how much sewing and quilting will get done. So far I have been able to work on a few things and tomorrow I am planning a trip to one of our quilt shops...hopefully the girls will cooperate.

Anyhow I have had a few finishes in the last week that I thought I would share.

My 7 year old went to a birthday party last Saturday. Here is the gift she made for her friend:

She designed the embroidery herself.
Back is made of minky.

(I apologize for the quality of the photos. I took these to show my mom and forgot to take better ones before the party.)

On Friday night, I made scarves!

This one is made with 2 different voiles for my mom.
This one is made of velveteen and voile for me!

I ordered scarf kits from Pink Castle Fabrics 2 weeks ago. I was so happy to get them last week!

The fabrics are already cut to the right size, you simply have to sew them together using this pattern from Anna-Maria Horner. The others will be gifts!

I also finished another EPP block for my medallion quilt:

 

And now these guys are on my design wall:

They are 2.5" squares. I will be putting an orange border around them and then cutting them up using my new Itty Bitty Twister Ruler! This is gonna be one cute little mini quilt!

And although this post is already picture heavy, I leave you with another cute one of my babies. I suspect we will be doing a lot of this this week!

 

Friday 8 March 2013

Blog Hop Party with Giveaways!

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you.

Michele over at the Quilting Gallery is at it again... She is hosting another fantastic Blog Hop Party with Giveaways!

If you are new here, welcome! My name is Ginette and I am a 4th generation quilter from the Ottawa area, in Ontario Canada. I love quilting and everything about it. Please feel free to look around, I love sharing my passion!

If you are a regular here, welcome back!

I can't think of a better way to beat the winter blues than to have a party, and one with giveaways is that much better!

This time around, I am offering a Frixion pen, some decorative buttons and a mug rug, made by yours truly!

I just bought a ticket to go see Ricky Tims on August 1st. I am so excited! It is the first time I see someone who is so well known in the quilting world!

So to enter my giveaway, please leave me a comment and tell me if you have ever taken a class or been to a lecture featuring someone well known in the quilting world. If not, maybe you can share who you would like to see some day.

I will be picking a winner via the Random Number Generator on March 14th. I am willing to ship internationally so anyone is eligible to win, as long as you leave an e-mail address so I can contact you.

Now head on over to the Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Party page and enter the other awesome giveaways!

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

 

Monday 4 March 2013

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

I spent a big part of Saturday watching the lectures from QuiltCon.  Did you know that Craftsy has them available for free?  
I was so excited when I found out that I headed over to Craftsy right away and got them.  I saw so many posts on Instagram about QuiltCon and it looked like so much fun, being able to watch the lectures made me feel like I could be part of it.  I haven't watched them all but so far I am really enjoying them.  You should definitely go take a look!

Saturday night I worked on this baby:

I really love the way this is going!  The best part is that I haven't bought a thing except pearl cotton thread and needles.  All of the fabrics and embroidery floss are from my stash.  I am thinking this one will hang in my dining room when it is done.

I also just finished printing off all of the instructions for the blocks for the Moda Friendship Quilt Along.  I think I might have to start cutting some of those this afternoon...

Hope you have a wonderful week!