A Quilt For Yelena

Two of my dearest friends are getting married later this month, so of course I made a quilt. This isn't a wedding quilt -- they've yet to decide on what they want -- but a quilt for her. He has a quilt which she had me make for his birthday several years ago. She steals the quilt to lay under for cosy naps, because according to her, the quilt makes naps that much better. 

I love seeing my quilts being loved and used, but that quilt represents him, not her. So in honour of her special day, I thought she should have a quilt of her own to lay under. 

It wouldn't stop sliding off the stool, so I had a cookbook weigh it down. She likes to cook so I thought it was quite fitting hehe 

It's a super scrappy quilt with many pops of colour and lots of low volume. Both of us enjoy that in a quilt :) She has no idea what I've made her, and I told her if she doesn't like it, don't tell me or I'll steal it back. Not sure if I want her to like it anymore lol!

I saw this quilt on Pinterest and thought it was something she'd like (the woman is a great fan of HSTs), so I sized it down to a smaller lap and started pulling fabrics from my scrap pile and my stash. There are sooo many favourites in there... Denyse Schmidt, Carolyn Friedlander, Jen Kingwell, Kate Spain, Lizzy House, Tula Pink, Cotton + Steel... the list goes on.

The quilt's fairly simple, but I took my time going block by block to try and get a nice balance of colour. Plus my little baby boss doesn't allow me to stay in my sewing room for too long hehe It might be the Stockholm Syndrome talking, but I don't mind it one bit. (By the way, she's already 5 months old. How'd that happen?!)

But I digress.

I quilted it in a crosshatch in white thread, used Lizzy House's pearl bracelets on the back (one of Y's faves) and the binding is a teeeeny little dot by Jen Kingwell. Those tiny dots were too good not to be used!!

[I didn't use the pattern but it's Braque by Melinda Lin.]

Fingers crossed she likes it! Can't wait to see them walk down that aisle in a couple of weeks! :)

Back At It

Oh how I've missed sewing. I've done a little sewing since I had Alexa, but it's been sporadic at best. But we've sort of gotten into a good enough rhythm that I manage to steal away for a few hours each day (an hour here and there, but still better than nothing!) to work on something.

The something I'm working on right now is a gift for a friend who's getting married next month. Yup, next month as in I'm totally insane to start this so close to the wedding but whatever. I'm going to do it and if not then well, I tried.

The quilt pattern is based on Melinda Lin's Braque... I saw the version done in Jennifer Sampou's Studio Stash yarn dyes, and it caught my eye. But I didn't think my friend's very much into woven fabrics, so I dug into my stash instead.

Honestly, I didn't quite fancy it when I started because I thought it was too all over the place for her. Me, I love scrappy, so the crazier the better. But I think she'll like it... I've sort of found the colour scheme I need to stick to and that's made it easier. If you're wondering, this is how I function 80% of the time. No plan, just throw stuff on the wall that I think might work and then hope for the best hehe!

Okay, back to work I go :)

What's everyone working on these days?

New Old Photos

I was poking around my photographs on one of my memory cards and found a bunch of photographs I'd totally forgotten about. I don't think I've ever saved or processed them, so tada! They're from about two and a half years ago when we stopped by Brattleboro, VT on our way home from NH.

The photos make me miss autumn... my favouritest season of all. But spring is on its way with all the daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths popping up in our front yard :)

I realise it got a bit silent around here again... Looking after an infant doesn't give me too much time to do much of anything, let alone anything quilty or blogworthy. I have plans... but definitely am not in a hurry to get to them. I'm soaking up every minute of her and her meatball head (seriously, her cute head is like a delicious meatball lol), because soon this will all be a distant memory. She'll be four months old in a week... How'd that happen??

Giant Triangles

Many moons ago, a lovely client bought a triangle baby quilt from me (I believe I neglected to blog about it... oops) that looked very much like this one, just with slightly larger triangles. She had no grandkids to buy it for but bought it anyway! I thought that was insanely sweet and very flattering :)

Soon after, she contacted me to see if I'd make her daughter and son-in-law a bed-sized version. Of course, this was all while I was pregnant, and quite heavily so. And I still said yes. Haaaaa...

I started cutting and sewing the triangles together before Alexa arrived, but I never quite got round to putting the quilt together. Thankfully my client is beyond patient, and told me to take my time since there wasn't any rush. Bless her heart. I was so relieved to hear this because I'd had a cesarean so all quilting had come to a crashing halt... and basting a queen-sized quilt was just incredibly impossible.

Fast forward to present times! I've finished the quilt... FINALLY! Well, a few weeks ago, but you get the picture. I hated making my client wait, but I've had to accept that I can't work as quickly as I once did. And it turned out really great, even though quilting a queen wasn't the most fun I've had hehe! But I did it! And that's what's important!!! :)

I tried to keep it from being too colourful and girly since it's for a couple, and I'm given to understand he's not particularly fond of pink. But I realised that the quilt I was basing it on had lots of those awesome pops of colours, and that's what made it fun. So apologies to the son-in-law, but he just has to deal with the pink. Some men are funny that way... thankfully my hubs doesn't care.

I gave the client a few choices of backs and bindings... She wanted something funky on the back so she went with this Amy Butler print, and the Denyse Schmidt voltage dots for the binding. She asked if I'd put their names and wedding date on a label, and seeing as her daughter's favourite colour is red, I framed it in a DS dot.

They received the quilt a tiny while ago and I'm told they love it! Phew! Monica and Antoine, I hope you have a beautiful and colourful marriage :)

Alexa's Room... A WIP

Three months in, and I've finally made a crack at decorating my child's room. Go me. But in all fairness, she's pretty damn cute, so cuddling with her is top priority these days! 

But there's something to be said for baby monitors because there's only so much sitting around you can do while mentally writing your to-do list. Bless whoever made them as awesome as they are today, with the video and sound, and being able to talk to the baby without having to walk down the hall or up the stairs. And we didn't get one that hooks up to Wi-Fi because the stories of idiots hacking into baby monitors and talking to the babies freaks me the hell out. No. Thank. You. 

Yikes, did you enjoy that little trip we took on my tangent... Anyway...

My sister, Averil, brought the ribbon bunting thing over from Singapore, and amazingly enough, it matches the quilt I'd made Alexa almost perfectly. And it's not as if we coordinated our efforts either. She'd gotten that for a friend's wedding, and brought it over since her friend didn't want to hang on to it. I love when things work out like that :)

Plus I didn't want to hang anything too heavy over her crib because I'm paranoid about things falling. Not that anything ever has fallen... Just paranoid because why the hell not :)

And yes, of course there's kitties on the quilt. Kitties all over the place. This kid of mine is going to love cats whether she wants to or not :)

I'll do a separate post on the quilt... I need to take photos when it's nice and sunny. Somehow when it's sunny, I've got my arms wrapped around the baby. 

Aside from the ribbon bunting thing (seriously, what is it called?!) I made her this banner. This is my third go at a banner... The hubs just hung his head and laughed when I told him how many times I attempted it lol! The first one, I'd used skinny lettering and absolutely hated it. The second one's lettering was super wonky and it made me want to stab it a lot. Third time's a charm, right?

While it still isn't perfect (I'm looking at it now and thinking that's still super wonky... dammit! I drew a line and everything!), I'm quite happy with it. And if I try again, the hubs might have me committed. The banner is pretty much a copy of Secret Holiday & Co's lovely banners, but I'm not about to pay $90 when I can make them myself. I say them because you know my house is going to be filled with banners that say silly things... and I'm going to make a couple for my sisters too.

Of course being a quilter, I had to stick some fabric in there. I used a tiny floral print for the back just for something special. No idea what it's called or where I even got it from... I just found a FQ of it in one of my drawers. Yeah yeah, fabric hoarder, yada yada yada.

Isn't that little doll peeking out just so cute??? My bestie Margie sent that to Alexa and I love it so hard. It's keeping the crib warm while the baby still sleeps in the bassinet in our room.

Also, the more I look at the YAY banner, the more it seems a bit sarcastic to me. YAY. No exclamation point. Just YAY. Hehehe! Suits the doll's face!

The neon pink string on the banner makes me all kinds of giddy :) Alexa has a onesie that's got tiny neon pink flowers and it's the one clothing item I can't wait to get out of the wash and slap back on hehe

There'll be more to come... I hope? There are pictures to hang (that reminds me... Self, go buy frames) and a couple of other things I'd like to get for the room... hopefully it'll be done soon. If not, well, what's she going to do about it? Haha!

Introducing... Alexa Rose!

Sooooo... I might've gone and had a baby. That'll explain my absence. That, and a good dose of laziness :)

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already know that I birthed this little cutie patootie you see here. Her name is Alexa Rose, and she came screaming into this world on December 1, 2015, bum first (I had a cesarean), peeing and pooping on everyone. That's my girl :) Haha! She's been quite the handful but oh good grief, do I love her.

Alexa arrived a couple of weeks early, and thankfully, one week after my sisters arrived. My water broke right after the hubs left for work one morning. I yelled for my sisters to ring him so he could turn right back as I sat on the toilet in full panic lol Fun times indeed.

Her daddy took this picture and it's one of my faves. He must've been singing at her or something... I feel your pain, kiddo. But we love him anyway.

And here she is relaxing on her auntie. My sisters flew over from Singapore and Australia to help with Alexa, and to just soak up their niece. I'm so thankful they did because with my cesarean, I don't know how I'd have coped without them. They cooked, cleaned, helped me figure out this whole Mum thing, and it was just so much fun to have them around!

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to get back to posting more regularly as I find my feet in this whole motherhood thing. It's not easy, but that little face makes it all worthwhile :)

Geometric Tribal Baby Quilt... Maybe?

My cousin Cheryl had her little bub Samantha in May, and I'd been so busy that I forgot to ask her what she wanted for a quilt! She told me to make whatever I wanted, as long as it wasn't too girly and pink. I studied her Pinterest board for the baby's room, and this is what I came up with! I almost don't want to send it off to Australia!!! 

I think it came out really nicely, if I do say so myself! I just hope she likes it!

I used mainly solids (she's not a very busy, patterny sort of person) and threw in a little yellow tone-on-tone action just to break it up a little.

And the backing... ah the backing. My cousin asked for geometric tribal. I do not know what that is, but I believe this backing comes close. And if it doesn't, then... well... tough :)

It'll be off to Australia shortly for little Samantha Rose to snuggle in. The roundest baby in the world :)

A 30s Quilt

A friend of mine asked me to make her a patchwork quilt out of 30s fabric. In tiny, tiny squares. And I said, "Okay!" because I'm clearly insane lol! But look how pretty it turned out! Definitely well worth the time and effort!

Plus I have a tonne of 30s fabric in my stash that I never, ever touch! And who better for them to go live with than a dear friend, right? :)

By the way, this only made a small dent in my 30s stash. I have problems... Sigh.

Pretty, pretty squares! They finish at 1.5" I strip-pieced the prints with the white just to cut down some sewing, and then sewed the quilt together in strips. It took forever. Just ask my very (VERY) patient friend. Plus somewhere in between I lost my sewing mojo, but thankfully got it back soon enough. And then I sewed the strips together, quilted it and bound it in two afternoons. Sewing mojo is a weird thing, no?

The hubs held it and asked me why it's so damn heavy. Because of...

All. Those. Seams.

We decided on quilting in a crosshatch on the white squares, and that really turned out so nicely. I'd originally picked out a different binding that matched the backing (which by the way, how awesome is it?!) but absolutely made no sense with the front. Good job, me.

Then it occurred to me... scrappy. Make a scrappy binding out of the leftover fabrics from what I used on the top! Duh! When in doubt, go scrappy!

My dear friend loves this quilt and it's off to Colorado for her to snuggle with in this lovely summer weather lol

Pink & Grey Rail Fence Baby Quilt

A close friend of mine is having her first baby (approximately four weeks till baby's debut!!!) so of course I made her a quilt! When she told me her colours were pink and grey, we'd just gotten bolts of Whitewashed Cottage by Moda at work, and I thought they'd be perfect for her quilt :)

This was actually the first rail fence baby quilt that I'd made, followed by the one in the previous quilty post. It's seriously so much fun, and so easy... I put the strips in pile and just sewed them together!

I finally met up with her again and gifted it to her... and thankfully, she loves it! Phew! Can't wait to meet the little bundle!!

Me And My Brown Thumb

I'm famous for having a brown thumb. Plants die when they're in my care. Mostly because I eventually forget that they exist, which means the watering stops, which in turn means the plants turn to dust. Good, eh? In my defence, it's mostly because they're outside and I just don't do outside. It doesn't occur to me to go outside, to look outside, do anything outside. Indoors is my jam. It's where I keep my things clean. 

The hubs and I went to the nursery and bought a bunch of plants... and then I left them in the garage for a couple of days without watering them. Oops. Then I moved them to the back deck for sunshine... and forgot to water them. For a week. Bottom line is, they looked like death by the time I actually got around to planting the sorry things. So the fact that these petunias look like that now is nothing short of a damn miracle. 

I've been good about watering them since. These ridiculously beautiful petunias are bright and gorgeous, and whenever I walk by the front door, I see them (there's another pot on the other side of the front porch). Which means they get watered and fed yummy fertiliser and they don't die. 

So the key is to get brightly coloured plants if I want them to live. Got it. 

And because I remember the petunias exist, I also remember that I've got four tomato plants out the back. AND THERE ARE TWO TOMATO BABIES ALREADY!!! I squee'd a lot. Like a giant idiot but who's going to see while I'm dancing around on my back deck? There's actually a couple more itty bitty ones popping out... so excited!

These tomato plants were withered and slumped over by the time they actually made it into their pots. I truly thought I was going to have to dump them and get new ones. But by the next day they popped right back up and forgave me. I think. I hope. I love you tomato plants.

We've got the stakes in there but I'm going to have to get cages because soon they'll be heavy with fruit, and the last time I left it too late and had to wrangle the branches in the cages trying very hard not to break any. I did not succeed. Sigh. Bad plant mummy.

So this is my 2015 attempt at gardening. I took a couple of years off from growing tomatoes but I really missed picking cherry tomatoes for salads. So sweet and fresh, absolutely nothing like it!

What are you growing this summer?

Rail Fence Baby Quilt

On my list of quilts-I've-never-made-but-probably-should sat the rail fence quilt. How'd I go almost six years without making one of these?

This was so fun to make, and quick too. I just threw all the strips into a box and pulled them out two by two to sew together. Much fun was had :)

There are lots of yummies in there... DS, Joel Dewberry, Lotta Jansdotter, Carrie Bloomston, Lizzy House, C+S, Tula Pink etc. LOVE.

I used two different fabrics for the back... my favourite Juliana Horner print and my favourite solid (for now!), Kona Wasabi. I quilted it with a white cotton thread in a crosshatch to keep it nice and simple. The binding is a Robert Kaufman grey and white dot with a small sliver of the Juliana Horner print :) So pretty *pet pet*.

The quilt is currently available in my Etsy shop :)

Quick Change Blog Hop

***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

Updated: The winner is Carol! Congratulations! :) 

Hello! I'm delighted to be a part of a new book called Quick Change: Refresh a Room Fast with Quilted Bed Runners. I was lucky enough to have two runners picked for this book (and I kind of even have my own section, "Bold and Bright"... Fitting, no? Hehe!)

We've got a little Q&A from Martingale, so here goes...

What inspired your bed runners?

The first runner I designed is called Wild Goose Chase and I've always liked flying geese placed very randomly, going in different directions. The swirls of the quilting are meant to mimic the wind as the geese flapped away! 

My other runner design was inspired by my friend Katy's Spring Carnival EPP pattern. I played around with the idea of taking one section and making the pieces bigger so that they could be machine-sewn. The name Jewel Rings came from the fact that I wanted to use jewel tone colours so that they'd shine beautifully against the dark background. 

Do you have other favourite projects from Quick Change?

I think Winding Roads by Megan Jimenez of Quilt Story is really great, and Vintage Petal by Heather Andrus and Megan Jimenez of Quilt Story is just adorable.

What does the master bedroom of your dreams look like?

This. It would look like this. I mean, I love my bedroom... it's bright yet cosy, and my quilt / doona came is on point. But this room is just so soft and put together. Love! 

And now, for the fun part! Martingale is giving away one free eBook, so please feel free to join this giveaway! Simply make a comment, and I'll choose a winner on Tuesday, May 12. Good luck! 

Follow the Quick Change blog hop for fun designer Q&As, plus more chances to win the eBook!

Tuesday, April 28: Blog-hop kickoff at Stitch This!

Wednesday, April 29: Kimberly Jolly and Jocelyn Ueng at Fat Quarter Shop

Thursday, April 30: Heather Andrus & Megan Jimenez at Quilt Story

Friday, May 1: Brigitte Heitland at Zen Chic

Saturday, May 2: Heidi Pridemore at the Whimsical Workshop Studio

Monday, May 4: Amanda Leins at Mandalei

Tuesday, May 5: Doug Leko at Antler Quilt Design

Wednesday, May 6: Audrie Bidwell at Blue is Bleu

Thursday, May 7: Stephanie Prescott giveaway via Facebook

Pictures from here and here.