Last week I was able to complete my patchwork baby quilt.

As planned, I tried out free-motion quilting an orange peel pattern following Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial. It went quite well. My quarter circles are not perfect, but I like the overall effect. As I was going I discovered that I was more comfortable pushing the quilt sandwich instead of pulling it toward me as suggestead in the tutorial. Pushing allowed me to see more clearly were my needle was going to next. This way I could anticipate more easily my moves.

The only thing I would say is that trying a new quilting pattern on high contrasting quilt like this one is not such a great idea. I hesitated on the thread color to use. Then I went for white as I felt that they were more lighter squares. But, the white showed off a lot my little imperfections on the black squares and on the back which was a flannel with white polka dots on black.

Here is my quilt photographed at the April meeting of the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild which append last Friday. This was quite fun. It is great to share with people online. But there is nothing like talking with people with the same passion live and see their eyes shine as they talk about it. It was not only me and Cinzia from deux petites souris this time. We were seven. I really enjoyed meeting all of them. It is encouraging to see that the word is starting to spread and that it’s generating interest.

My quilt is now for sale in my Etsy shop for anyone interested.

For the month of April in the Joy circle of do. Good Stitches, we were asked to make two Star Weaving blocks following this tutorial. This is mainly made out of Half-Square Triangles (HST). I never tried this out before. It was great to do so on two blocks first.

We had to use Kona in Ash for the background color and the other fabrics had to be from the Twirl fabric line by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda. Or fabrics in the same color scheme. Here are my two blocks.

I really like how the ash color make the summery colors pop! This will make yet another lovely quilt for someone in need!

On another matter, it is pretty rainy out here these days. So, last Friday I decided to do a little sewing craft with the kids. Here is what we came up with: a little cat and a owl!

It was inspired by these on Etsy (which a really cute), but we did take a few shortcuts I would say. Both my boys choose their felt colors and buttons. The cat was for the eldest, and he did the cutting. I did the sewing. They don’t really play with them, but at least it kept us busy for a few hours!

Did you see the Fat Quarter Idol contest over at Sew Mama Sew?

This is a whole lot of fun. You need to virtually select 12 fabrics from their shop using Pinterest. Each week there is a theme for the bundle. I love coordinating fabrics, so this contest is perfect for me. And what is to win? Well, being mentioned on their blog and a Fat Quarter bundle of the 12 fabrics you’ve selected. Wow! The biggest difficulty is that you don’t get to touch the fabric and see it with your own eyes.

When I saw this last week, I couldn’t stop my-self from creating my bundle right away. The theme was Sweet Child of Mine. You can see it here.

And guess what? I’m in the top 10 finalists. You can go at Sew Mama Sew! to vote for the ones you prefer. There is some really nice ones that would make lovely child quilts.

This weeks theme is Meet Me Up at the Picnic! I couldn’t resist participating a second time. The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about picnic was a plaid blanket. The Grace’s Garden Cool Dusk from the Reunion fabric collection by Sweetwater for Moda has a gingham pattern in the background. This fabric combined with the Daisy Dots in Green and Turquoise from the Flea Market Fancy fabric collection designed by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit Fabrics inspired me this bundle.

I can wait to see what everyone comes up with and what will be next week’s theme.

I finished up assembling all the fabric I had cut while my machine was away for repair. The last one was a baby size patchwork square quilt.

The main print is Zoology from Michael Miller. There is also Ta Dot in Black and in Lime. There is Kona in Cactus. Sorry, I don’t have the names of the other fabrics.

When my little one saw this on my design wall, he recognize the fabrics from his bedroom. And he said right away that he wanted it. Unfortunately for him, this wasn’t my plan. He already have a duvet cover and a quilt in those fabrics. So, I thought I would make one to sell. I think I still have enough for another quilt. If anyone is interested let me know.

I’ll start by quilting this baby quilt before finishing up my machine covers (here and here). I really want to try out Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial on orange peel quilting.

I finished up the top panel for my serger cover today. My husband had taken a few days of vacation this week to extend the Easter Holidays. That is why I had a bit more time to sew and make some progress on a few projects. Back to normal tomorrow.

The past two days, I worked on assembling the fabric I had cut for my serger cover, I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Just like my sewing machine cover, the prints are all from the Early Bird collection by Cosmo Cricket. The background is Kona in Olive.

I’m unsure of how I will quilt it. For my sewing machine cover, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to achieve. But, for this one I don’t have a clue. Any suggestions?

My inspiration for this was Jolene’s Granny Square block tutorial at Blue Elephant Stitches. I don’t if you can still call this a granny square. Or maybe there is a specific term for such patchwork. I would love to know. Anyway, I’ll try to look around on how people usually quilt this.

Saturday, I had a package waiting for me at the post office. It was my copy of Stitch Summer 2012 from Interweave.

It came with my hip squares table runner. It’s the second time I get a project published in Stitch and it is something really rewarding to actually hold the magazine in your hand and see your project. The first time was for my lily pillow covers, see this post for the details.

I really like the photo they made to feature it. All the surrounding white make the bright colors of the table runner pop!

 

 

For the fabrics, I have used Kona in Turquoise, Peackock, Orange and Lime for the solid colors. The floral print is the Gypsy Flower in red from the Gypsy Bandana collection by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller. I ordered it from Tonic Living which is a Canadian online shop with a nice selection of prints in quilting cottons and heavier cotton weights. The remaining is Essex linen blend in Natural.

Here is the back. I think we can say it’s reversible!

One my favorite part is the little detail I put in the binding.

I got my sewing machine back this week. Just like new. As a first project, I decided to sew the machine cover for it. I had cut the fabrics while my machine was away and I just finished up the top today.

The prints are all from the Early Bird collection by Cosmo Cricket. The solid color cottons are honey (ColorWorks by Northcott) for the background and olive for the strips (Kona). I changed my mind for the center piece. I originally had planned another print from the Early Bird collection, but I felt it was too busy. So, I used the same honey.

I also shorten the top compared to my original design. I realized that I usually have my table extension installed and that at some point I would really like to have a sewing table in which you insert the machine. Something similar to this one. So, I don’t want the cover to go lower than the machine bed.

And now, the serger machine cover. I’ll try to sew up my modified granny square block tomorrow.

A few weeks ago, I received an award for my blog from one of my follower, JanuaryT who blogs at Sew Sew Go: the Liebster Blog Award. Thanks again!

The Liebster award (German for favorite) is for bloggers with 200 followers or less. As a recipient of the award, you have the chance to thank and link back to the blogger who gave it to you as well as pass it along to five other deserving blogs.


It was the first time I heard about this award. Probably because I don’t follow that many blogs and because the ones I do follow have more than 200 followers. Just today I got the award a second time, before I took the time to pass the first one along. I’m a bit ashamed of this. This time, I received it from Cinzia from Deux Petites Souris. Thank you so much Cinzia!

The funniest thing is that I was planning to pass it along to her. Me and Cinzia have been following each others blog for about half a year now. And we met in person a few weeks ago to team up to found the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild. I really love her quilts which her mostly done from solid color cottons and all in vibrant colors. I had the chance to see some of them last Friday at our first guild meeting. I really enjoy reading each one of her posts.

Here are the 4 other persons I want to pass it along:

•  There is Chelsea from Pins and Bobbins. I got to know her in a bee I was in, the Fat Stash Bee. She always seems to have such a nice selection of fabrics in her stash. And from what I can see, she is really precise in her work. She just started a long arm quilting business and I want to wish her the best.
• I also want to give the award to Debbie from Esch House Quilts. She has a little over 200 followers, but I couldn’t resist mentioning her. I love her style. She design her quilts. She uses a lot of solid color and that makes her graphic elements stand out.
• Then there is Brigitte Heitland from Farbstoff. When I see some of her quilts on Flickr, they always catch my eyes. She is also a long arm quilter and her quilting is amazing. Her blog is a real source of inspiration for modern quilters, from color and fabric combinations to pattern suggestions.
• And the last one is Terri Carpenter from The Fox’s Den. Maybe she has more than 200 followers, her blog doesn’t show. But in any case, her work deserve this award. I stumble upon her blog a few times and I enjoyed browsing it. I think her Traditional and Modern series is such a nice idea. I like her modern version of square within a square pattern. I also love these two mini-quilts: here and here.