Phew! The week is coming to an end. Not much quilting done - just handwork, which I cannot show yet as it is for a tutorial I am preparing for another blog. I am focusing right now on tonight's birthday party for my now 13-year-old. We had our quilt guild meeting yesterday. How fun! Geri showed us the beautiful things we can make with salvages, the ultimate in upcycling in my opinion! Then, we had a quilt show judge come and give us some tips on how to improve our workmanship and quilt design. … [Read more...] about Busy week!
Iris quilting wall hanging
This is the wall hanging I made featuring Maruscha Gaasenbeek's iris folding technique. The heart block is from her book "Iris quilting" (see my previous post). Here is the story behind this quilt: I had tested my Big Shot machine as soon as it arrived, and cut some hearts out of a pretty fat quarter I had. Satisfied that the machine worked, I kept the heart cutouts near it, hoping to use them in a project. When I read Maruscha's book and saw the Heart to Heart pattern, it was love at first … [Read more...] about Iris quilting wall hanging
Iris Quilting
What a cool book! Iris quilting by Maruscha Gaasenbeek features 16 designs, and I have already turned one of them into a wall hanging! Maruscha started using her iris folding technique to make greeting cards, and later used the same technique with fabric. The results are beautiful. She copies the design onto lightweight interfacing and sew pieces of fabric onto the interfacing. Are you thinking paper piecing? That is exactly what I did... I chose the first design, Heart to Heart, but traced it … [Read more...] about Iris Quilting
Finger pads
Connie, a friend of mine who loves handwork, introduced me to these awesome finger pads. I don't know about you, but when I am hand sewing, the middle finger of my right hand gets stabbed as it is pushing the needle towards the fabric. I used to work with Thimble-It, but these are much softer, last a long time, and are very convenient to use. Thimble-It is made of plastic, so often the needle would slip and hurt me. ThimblePad is a piece of soft leather with adhesive on the back. The adhesive … [Read more...] about Finger pads
Ribbon Embroidery
Have you seen this book - Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork by Di van Niekerk? I love the embroidery designs and stitches, particularly as they involve ribbons... The photographs are beautiful, the instructions are clear, and the project, illustrated on the cover of the book, is to die for! Stumpwork is another reason why I purchased this book. I would love to incorporate it in my embroidery projects. It is great how we can cover beads with ribbons to form flowers, stuff embroidered motifs … [Read more...] about Ribbon Embroidery
Miniature block
I made this block a few months ago during a class I took with Sally Collins. It measures 2.5"... and it took me about four hours to make it. As you can see, the seams at the bottom of the basket did not quite match, but I was pleased with the overall result as it was my first attempt at miniature blocks. By the way, this block was not paper pieced. Just think about the tiny pieces of fabric I had to hold and sew together... Miniature quilts intrigue me. The key to them is PRECISION. Period. … [Read more...] about Miniature block