Back to Work We Go...

It's official, the holidays passed us by so quickly this year! I am glad to be back at school though and I'm sure I will regret those words as soon as the semester starts getting heavy!

Last night I finished binding the quilt I gave to my brother for his 23rd Birthday. I made it with warm earth-tones, beige, brown, green and shades of blue. It is quilted using beige thread, and since the backing is green, you can see the stitching designs nicely on the back. I'm very happy with it.

I taught my first sewing class of 2012 on Monday evening, and am pleased with the work some of my ladies did over the holidays! Their quilt tops are almost complete and soon they will be quilting and binding!

Looking forward to my Saturday class to begin as well. I'm sure there will be more projects being completed and some brand new pieces to begin!

My favourite part of quilting is always picking the fabrics. Sometimes I don't even know what pattern I am going to do, but I find it helps if I am inspired by a specific print, then I can go from there and decide what I want to use it for. The problem with this however is that it is extremely addicting and tempting to pick out lots and lots of projects, and then I get ahead of myself and want to start too many projects at once. I often get bored working away at just one project though, I find it boring to stare at the same colour palette for so long, especially if I decide to work on a project for a whole day. I like to have at least two projects going, with drastic differences in colour palettes, so I can switch when I get tired.

I had a meeting tonight with one of my fabric sales reps, so many beautiful new prints out for spring! It makes it so hard to choose only a few, or else I would be absolutely broke! I'm so excited for the bolts to arrive!

"A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars" -my excuse to make more quilts.

2012

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday, and is having a fantastic start to their new year!

Also, I hope that everyone is taking some time to relax and sew!

I am working away at a new quilt using batiks. It will be an original design, so far I have the centre complete, I just need to finish deciding how large I want the finished size to be, and what I want to add for borders etc. Photo to come soon!

I got a wonderful gift for Christmas and thought I would share with everyone. It is a Dresden Plate ruler, absolutely fantastic! And you can use it for making other things, aside from just a Dresden Plate block. It allows you to make your fan strips up to 8 inches in length and comes with easy to follow instructions on using it and making blocks. I found a great link that gives lots of good information about it!

Sew many new notions out, the industry really does spoil us!

http://www.sewn.net.au/TipsTools/Tutorials/DresdenPlates.aspx

Christmas Break

All of the gifts that I sewed as gifts this year were a success, as usual! LOL

My Mom's Birthday is on December 24th, and I made her a set of stain glass style place mats.

I wanted to post the photo earlier but she reads my blog so I couldn't let her see!

I selected six Christmas prints (which yield a set of 6), I cut my piping 1" and made 4 cuts. Stain glass is an awesome technique and can be used to make stockings, tree skirts, table runners or even full sized quilts.

Since I am spending a few days of my Christmas break at the cottage I was able to continue quilting my baby panel. I purchased my 1600P Janome machine and the frame at the end of the summer, and decided to set it up at my cottage as I did not have a big enough area in my home to use it. The only problem with it is that I do not get to come here often during the school year. I began quilting it over Thanksgiving weekend and just completed it today (my second day working on it).

Done School!

I'm so happy today, I am finished writing all my final exams and can finally relax for a couple weeks!

For anyone who knows me well enough, "relax" just means hours and hours of sewing! My sewing room is by far the happiest place on earth.

I have recently purchased a White treadle sewing machine off of Kijiji, thanks to a very good friend and student of mine who discovered it online. It is in excellent condition and was made in late 1800's. The greatest thing is that it still works perfectly!

I have recently made a new Facebook fan page, instead of the group that I used to have. If anyone has Facebook, "Like" my page! I appreciate everyone's support.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quilters-Workshop/287773971268183?sk=wall

Janet's Quilt

One of my adult students, Janet, successfully finished her Christmas wall hanging on Saturday during class. I am very proud of her accomplishments, this was originally a UFO and we were determined to have it completed for this Christmas. I'm glad she reached her goal! It also was the first time she hand embroidered and did applique by machine!

Great work Janet!

Inspiration

Just thought I would upload a photo I took today during one of my classes. This is Alexis and Sydney, they are both 9 years old and have each made a heart photo frame, using paper piecing, as Christmas gifts.

I'm very proud of all my student's accomplishments this year!

After seeing many of my students working on gifts today it makes me sad that I will be spending the rest of my weekend, and this upcoming week studying and writing exams.

Age is just a number!

Quilter's Connection Magazine

I received my copy of the Winter issue of Quilter's Connection Magazine. My three page article is featured on page 16. There are also two photos of my students' work! I'm so excited!

There are also some great patterns in this issue! The magazine is available at Chapters and select quilt stores.

My cheerleading team placed 4th at our PCA Nationals competition last weekend! Now I just need to tackle my final exams before I can finish all my Christmas gifts!

I'm so excited for the holidays!

Happy Sewing Everyone!