The winner...

... of the cups is...

Fleurette

http://fleuretteellis.blogspot.com/

Fleurette, I need your address. I am glad to send them to South Africa !

Enjoy the weekend !

Geta

PS. The quilt is quilted, I have to add the binding !

Quilt top finished

I am happy and excited…I finished the quilt top I started a few days ago. It wasn’t too hard to make it…though I said it’s so hard to piece diamonds and stitch Y seams ! It’s hard only in my head !

Yesterday I wasn’t in a good mood and in the morning I intended just to sew a few stitches on this quilt and then I thought that I will work on other projects. I though that I will put it aside and I will finish some day…

But after those “a few stitches” I couldn’t let the quilt out of my hands and at 8 PM I stitched the last border ! And then for a half of hour, very touched, I stared at this quilt…
Because it is not just a quilt, it’s a story… my story… Can’t wait to tell you about it…
But first, I have to quilt it…

Last week I saw in a shop ( Hornbach – in Romania) a few plastic boxes that would have been great for organizing my stuff. But I said myself: “Save the money for other things, you can live without them ” and I did not buy them.
But after a few days my husband bought them for me…We often organize the space to make room for my new projects (of course, his space became smaller and smaller… )

I will start to quilt soon…Have fun working on your projects !

EQ7 is coming soon !

The Electric Quilt Company announces a new version of Electric Quilt software.They will begin shipping EQ7 on June 7, 2010.
I was glad to hear the news because, as some of you know, I am a big fan of Electric Quilt software.
In my first years of quilting I used it to design patchwork quilts. I spent countless hours playing with blocks and fabrics.
I love that I can make paper pieced blocks or print templates for appliqués. I can even see how my quilt will look like without cutting a single piece of fabric.

But I love it most because I can use it to design my shadow trapunto quilts(wholecloth quilts).

And I am sometimes lazy and I love when a computer can make the hard work for me, this is another reason I love EQ.

Here are a few articles on my blog ( tutorials on how to use EQ or projects made using EQ).

On the Electric Quilt website you can see how EQ7 can help you to make beautiful quilts.

April Giveaway

This giveaway is closed now. Thank you all for participating.

I will choose a winner soon.

I love this piece of fabric. It's from Clothworks' Spill the beans collection. I bought it two years ago, I think.

Last year, before Christmas, I wanted to make coasters as gifts for my family and friends. I cut the fabric but I managed to make only two.
With so many colors, it was easy to find in my stash assorted fabric strips (these are borders, not bindings). I quilted them very quickly.

Would you like to have a cup of coffee with me, even if only "virtual" ? You could take to your home a few cups ! This is the April giveaway.

If you want 12 cups (you could make coasters or a table runner), leave a comment at the end of this post. Pieces measure about 5"x6".

I will randomly choose their new owner in a few days.

Have a great weekend,

Geta

Swatches…

Could anyone resist to these colors? I have a small piece of every color !

The owner of a shop (in my town) that sells fabrics for interior decorating gave me (for free) a few boxes filled with swatches like these, after I explained her what is patchwork.

Most of them are polyester fabrics and I can’t use them for quilts. But they are wonderful for bags.

Most of the pieces measure about 8”-10” square. But the best thing is that for every set of swatches there is a large piece of fabric (even 0.5 yard or one yard).
I have taffeta, brocade, satin, spandex, heavy cotton, linen, organza for curtains, even a few pieces of suede …

It takes a lot to cut pieces from them, but at least I can enjoy so many colors…
Piecing is a little difficult because of the slippery fabrics, but after that I quilt the pieced fabric, than I cut the panels for bags than there is no problem to assemble a bag…

These are the bags I made last year.

I hope you too have near by such shops and such owners ! Who could offer you colorful little pieces…

Have a beautiful day,
Geta

****
I finished diamonds piecing ...now I have to do something I hate even more... Y seams...

****
If you bought my bag patterns, I will send you today the templates for a miniature bag (35% from the original bag - very easy to make). In case you want to sew such a little bag, it will be easier for you to have all the templates on a single page for printing.
You can enlarge or reduce all the templates at once.

The last miniature bag

I was so glad to see you like my miniature bags ! Thank you all for the nice messages!

I had no intention to make another one ! But looking at my collection I noticed that only Amelie has tiny sisters and Belle doesn't have any.

So that I had to make a mini-Belle bag.

I used ric-rac for outlining the pockets and for straps...

I stitched the ric-rac by hand and of course, it is not perfect...
I had to attach the lining by hand too, but all the other stitches were sewn by machine.

It measures 2.5"x2.75" (6.25x6.75 cm).

Though it is smaller than the green one, I stitched it more easily ( no curved edges at top).

And this is the collection. I definitely have to replace the red one with one in matching colors...Some day... next year...!

They are hanging on the wall near my monitor. They make me smile...so I don't sell them, I don't give them to a little girl... I keep them for me...

Today I started to piece together diamonds. I hate to do this...tomorrow I have to finish sewing...

Have a great weekend !

Happy days, happy weeks....

... for me and for the two or three Mylene Farmer's fans who visit my blog (are you many more out there ??? - please leave me a message!).

7 months after the two concerts I attended in Paris, we can live again the excitement and the joy and the happiness...because the DVD of the concert was released...
Amazon France sent it to me since Saturday, maybe tomorrow I will have it...

Until then, I am checking out YouTube every hour !

If you are curious who is Mylene, you can watch the entire show in just 5 minutes !

Of course I will not sew in the next days ( OK, I will not sew too much !).
Anyway, today I made something ! Cute! I will show you in the next days...if Mylene will let me...

Miniature bags (or...I lost my mind !)

I was serious when I said I would like a collection of miniature bags.
Last evening at 8 PM, after a full day of quilting, I started to make other two miniatures.

The smallest is 25% from my original Amelie bag.

I love them but it wasn't piece of cake to make them....If I would have had a miniature sewing machine, a miniature iron, even miniature hands...

I used ribbon for straps...

Someone who enjoy stitching by hand could stitch even a smaller version.

It measures only 2.75" x 3.75" (7x9.5 cm) .

I am sure I will not make a smaller version... I don't have time ! :)

New portfolios

I followed my own tutorial (how glad I am that I wrote it!) and I made two new portfolios. These are improved versions !

They are stiffer...much more stiffer than the original version.

Instead of quilting weight fabric I used heavyweight cotton.

And instead of batting, between the two layers of fabric I used for one of the portfolios Timtex interfacing,

and for the other I used Fast2Fuse, a double sided fusible interfacing.

If something is quilted, it doesn't need ironing after washing, so that I quilted the sandwiches...
I used a jeans needle (#100/16) for quilting through two layers of heavyweight fabric and one layer of thick interfacing.

Here are the quilted pieces...

I made for them two-colors handles, I added buttons and yo-yos. I could not add monograms on these busy prints.

It's very tempting to make one for myself, but where to go with it? I stay at home all day long and I quilt...

Happy Easter !

I hope you enjoy a wonderful Holiday Weekend!
------------------------------------------------
Make your own digital Easter eggs with Dumpr:
http://www.dumpr.net/easter-egg.php

The winners...

of the bag patterns giveaway are...

Vicki (http://tozzscorner.blogspot.com/);
Gene Black (http://artbygene.blogspot.com/);
Nancy (http://withthreadinhand.blogspot.com/).

Congratulations !
Gene and Vicki please write me which bag pattern you prefer - Amelie or Belle.

Thank you all for taking the time to enter this giveaway.
A special thanks to all of you who blogged about it. I appreciate your effort.