Last weekend, I finally got around to picking my fabric and pattern for the Doll Quilt Swap. I’ve been wanting to do a paper-pieced project for a while, so I could put to use the mini iron my folks bought me at Christmas and also to try out the paper made specifically for paper piecing.

I chose a geometric pattern from Carol Doak’s Easy Paper-Pieced Keepsake Quilts book. I picked four coordinating fat quarters that I purchased from Connecting Threads a couple of months ago. I decided on the stars fabric pictured below. I love the fabric I purchased from there, the quality is great and it washed up very nicely. Needs a higher than normal iron setting, but that’s not a big deal. I purchased a bunch of threads from them too that I can’t wait to use in upcoming projects.

The next picture shows the progress I’ve made and my set-up next to the sewing machine, which is to the right of the photo. It’s very comfortable and I can easily roll from one side of the table to the other. The mini iron is fabulous to work with. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great gift. I use the 1/4″ masking-like tape to hold the pieces to the paper while sewing instead of pins as I find pins distort too much. I’m loving the special paper too, it’s very easy to sew and ironing doesn’t make it wobbly (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever used every-day paper).

So far, I have 9 of the 12, 4″ blocks completed. I’ll probably do a 1″ sashing between each block and finish off with a 2″ border.

I’m hoping to wrap the project up this weekend, but we’ll see how nice or not the weather is.

I think this quilt pattern has been secretly calling out to me to make it. Several months ago, my mom was given a huge stash of fabric and quilt books & magazines from a friend of a friend who was downsizing. My mom doesn’t sew, she knits and paints, but sewing is not her forte. So, I was the lucky recipient of all these wonderful gifts. I kept some of the fabric, and the rest I donated to Victoria Quilts Canada.

One magazine in particular caught my attention and has lived on my window ledge, on my desk, on the sewing table and on the TV hutch for the past while, calling me to pick it up every time I walk by. It is Quilting Ideas, Fall 2003 issue from Better Homes and Gardens.

See the adorable quilt on the cover? Well, imagine my surprise when I was browsing the All People Quilt web site a week or so ago and discovered this pattern, Hearts & Flowers Appliqué Quilt featured on their home page. Of course, I stared at the picture for a long time, then went in search of the magazine, and sure enough it is exactly the same pattern.

While I don’t have kids of my own, I do have a wonderful 2+ year old niece, Lucy. I’ve had great ambitions to make Lucy her first quilt since before she was even born, yet I still haven’t. I have made her a wall hanging and crocheted her a blanket. I’ve had a few patterns picked out for her, and even the fabric purchased for each, yet still no quilt.

Well, she’ll be getting this one, either for Christmas or her third birthday next February. I’ve already traced and rough cut all 70 pieces of the fusible web. I’ve been going through my stash of fat quarters picking out the various pieces of fabric. I’ll be doing the blanket stitch around each piece by hand. I can’t wait to see how this one comes together.

Yes, I do need to clean house … no I’m not going to show you photos of the mess. However, a few things I wanted to mention this wonderful Monday morning.

If you’ve sent me an email, and I haven’t responded yet, and you think I should have… I apologize. If you don’t get an answer by end of day today, please get in touch again. I discovered this morning that I had inadvertently set up a mail filter, which resulted in me missing a tonne of messages, so I’m trying to play catch up now.

I’m looking for some prize donations for an upcoming contest this month. If you’ve written a book or pattern(s), can donate fabric or other supplies.. I’d love to hear from you. Minimum donation $10 value, please, and you take responsibility for mailing it to the winner. What you’ll get in return, lots of link love, good will, free advertising. Drop me a line, let’s talk!

July is Charity Quilting Month … more to come in the next few days. If you make quilts for charity or belong to an organization that does, please check back as I’ll have the details posted on here about how to submit your information.

Approval for new Quilting Bloggers will be slightly delayed over the next couple of days, as I play catch up and focus on other things. I’ll get to them once a day, instead of several times throughout the day.

I’ll leave you with a photo of the card I made for my friends that were married on Friday. The card uses the same fabric as I’ve used for their quilt, which I’m in the process of quilting. I hope to give it to them in a couple of weeks. Which reminds me, I’m looking for a quilt pattern or instructions to make a bag for the quilt, if you have one, please post it in the comments, or send me a message directly.

Happy Monday!
Michele aka Mishka

Here are a couple of wall hangings that are in my living room/sewing area. They are pre-printed fabric, which I quilted (not easy to see). In the centre of the panel, I did my first free motion meandering that wasn’t on a piece of scrap. It turned out fine, but I need lots of practice.

Here’s a quilt I made for my sister’s birthday that I gave to her a couple of weeks ago. I had hoped for it to be a Christmas present, but that didn’t happen. It uses 168 hour glasses. I used up all of the 6 inch Charm squares I had collected. It’s the biggest quilt that I’ve ever machine quilted. (I must ask my sister to measure it for me … hey sis, can you measure the quilt, please.)

I used Spray Basting for it, and it worked really well, in most cases. I had some puckering problems in one area, on the front (back is fine), and I’m not sure whether I didn’t spray enough or what happened. It’s towards one of the edges in the middle of the quilt. Any ideas? Once it was all quilted and washed, the puckering is hardly noticable anymore.

I quilted all seams, stitch in the ditch style. First I did the rows, both horizontal and vertical, then I did the diagonals in both directions. The quilting took me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I got much faster as time went on too. I’m far more confident now too.

I used Shelley’s updated tutorial on Joining the Ends of Double-Folded Binding, and it worked flawlessly the first time. I was so thrilled.

I thought the back looked nice, so here’s a picture, showing off the quilting lines.

Several years ago I participated in a Christmas paper-piecing exchange. Each person was responsible for completing 12 blocks, 11 of which were then sent to a coordinator, who in turn sent you back 11 blocks that others completed. I assembled the blocks into this small wall hanging. My block is the Christmas ornament, third row down in the middle.

I hope to do more exhanges like this as they are so much fun. If you know of any that will accept Canadian participants, please let me know.

I started this quilt several years ago, but wasn’t happy with the results, so I put it away, out of sight. In the meantime, I purchased a new sewing machine, Janome, to replace my Singer that would eat my fabric, and make nothing but a mess. I dug this project out last summer and after several hours, finished it. It’s certainly not perfect, but I love it.

It hangs in my living room above the TV area and makes me smile every time I look at it, because while it took me several years, I finally finished it!

I made this appliqued wall hanging with beading for my niece’s first birthday.

I made this Purple Magic Tiles quilt for my parents this past Christmas. It’s a Kathleen Bissett pattern, and was pretty easy to accomplish.

On the other hand, the binding I did was rather difficult. 2.5″ pieces separated by 1″ black pieces, stripped together. I had pressed towards the black strips, which resulted in a few too many layers to sew through once I was attaching the binding to the wrong side of the quilt. Next time, I’d press the seams open to balance out the thickness some. I’d even be tempted to run a basting stitch 1/8″ from the end of the binding before attaching it to the quilt to keep those little pieces from coming apart.

Next up, make one for myself… but I used all the pretty purples for my folks, so I guess a shopping trip is in order to replenish my stock.

I made this banner several years ago using 1″ squares, which finished at just under 0.5″ each.

This was my first bed quilt I ever made, a very simple nine-patch block alternating with solids. I prefer smaller projects… quicker to finish, and easier to quilt. I ended up tying this one.

A rather unusual wall hanging I made for myself. I’m not sure what I was going for, but I don’t think the end result was what I had in mind originally. hehe Oh well, it used up the extra fabric left over from making my bed quilt.

A pre-printed wall hanging I made. One of the few pieces I’ve hand quilted. It’s not really my thing, but who knows, maybe I’ll try it again one day.

A simple nine-patch and appliqued heart wall hanging that I made for my folks many years ago.

I made this lap quilt for my sister.