First Post of 2015!

Hi Everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic and safe holiday and are off to a great start in 2015!

In my last post I showed some quilt blocks that I was working on. Sadly this is all that I have done on it during the holiday. It was a very hectic break for me, so the quilt top is completed. But it is missing the three B's : borders, backing and binding! Its never too late to work on a Christmas project, right?

Now, what did I get for Christmas, you might ask? As you can see by the photo below, I got surprised with a brand new handmade hutch for my guinea pig! (Yes, his name is Pig) My boyfriend made this from scratch, it has a pull-out bottom for easy cleaning, a little hide-away so pig can burrow, with a door so that I can get him out of it if I need to, a ramp that leads to the upstairs, and the top opens fully for easy access to clean and feed mister Pig. Photos of Pig inside his new palace will follow. :)

I had a few adventures in some small towns, East of where I live in Ontario, and I came across this monument of a quilt. I was here about 5 years ago, when I did a trunk show presentation for one of the local quilt guilds. I admit I had forgotten of its existence, but it made me smile and made my day! Are there any needlework monuments where you live? Or have you ever come across any? If you know where this particular one is, then you are awesome and we need to be best friends. ;)

 Wishing everyone a great new year!
Love
Tiffany

Stippling Video & What I've Been Making...

Hi Everyone!

Christmas is quickly approaching and I've been hard at work making Christmas gifts of my own, as well as filling orders and helping my students finish off their special projects! We have just one day of sewing classes left before Christmas (this Saturday December 20th) and then we will break until the new year! :)

While I was working on a personal project last night I thought I would share a little snippet in a video. I was making some decorative pillows (photos below) and while I was stippling the fabric, I thought it might be a good idea to share a couple tips with you. To view the video, follow the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ik3IrlVQwo

Here are photos of the completed items:

Here is a close-up photo of the quilting that I was doing during the video (link posted above). I'm so thrilled about how they turned out. They are going to be a Christmas gift (hopefully the recipient doesn't see this post! haha) but I may make another set for myself, as I am a huge Charlie Brown fan :)

I also made some adorable Santa Christmas cupcakes last night...it was so much fun :)

I've also been using up some leftover vintage-inspired Christmas prints, along with a white tone-on-tone fabric, to create these Scottie-dog quilt blocks. How adorable are these? I'm going to use them to make a lap-size Christmas quilt. I drew the pattern myself, and one of the units is paper pieced, which I also drew free-hand. When I have the quilt top done I will likely post a video tutorial about it. 

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to finish this sample earlier in the fall, before Christmas, so this is going to be one of my upcoming samples for my classes in the new year. My students love Christmas fabric all year long anyways :)

Wishing everyone good luck as you finish off your Christmas gifts!

-Tiffany