This and that...

Just a quick post to say you Hello! and share a few thoughts. I did not make anything I can show you…

I am drinking my morning coffee while I am browsing "QuilterBlogs.com". My mornings start in this way. Do you know this website ? Is your blog registered and updated there ?
I love to see so many quilting ideas in just one place.


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If you have a Blogger blog, did you notice the "STATS" link ? After you sign in your blogger account, you can see it.
It shows the most visited pages and posts today, or this week or month or in the last few months.
Also you can see where come from your visitors (from which countries and from which websites).
It's cool !
According to my stats, my most visited post is the tutorial for fabric boxes. I am thinking how I could make these boxes more attractive...I guess I would make them in other shapes…we will see…

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Are you like me and spend a lot of time browsing fabric stores for beautiful fabrics you can't afford anyway to buy? I waste a lot of time doing this, I just can't help myself! No wonder, with so many beautiful fabrics! Fortunately, I don't use a credit card for shopping so I spend only the money I have !

And speaking of fabric… here is what I bought last week, for $7, in a second hand shop.


The fabric (denim and corduroy) is in perfect condition, like new! I will use it to make some bags or wallets or pouches.

I love the already perfect stitched pockets ! I will use them!


Enjoy the weekend!

Needles for thick fabrics

I am glad you like the boxes from the previous post...but I forgot to tell you about the needles I used...
When stitching the corners of the box, 2 layers of stiff interfacing and 4 layers of fabric have to be stitched together. Use needles suited for thick fabrics -I use Jeans/Denim needles #100/16.

Enjoy the weekend!

Fabric boxes

Other box and templates here.

Do you use interfacing? For making bags, bowls? Or in clothes making?
If your answer is positive, I am sure you have many leftovers, small scraps you don’t want to throw to the trash.
I consider interfacing (especially the heavyweight one) as valuable as the fabrics I use in my projects. I am happy I found a way to use every bit of it !

These boxes use 5 squares of interfacing. I made the smallest with 4’’ squares, but if you have smaller scraps you can make them even smaller.
The medium size box used 5’’ squares and the largest 6’’.

I have leftovers of Fast2Fuse, this is a heavyweight fusible interfacing. You can use non-fusible interfacing as well.

You can make such boxes in no time.
Here are the directions:

You need:
*5 squares of interfacing;
*5 squares of fabric for the interior of the box;
*5 squares of fabric for the exterior of the box.
I used cotton quilting fabric.

*Jeans/Denim needle #100/16.

Fuse the fabric to the two sides of interfacing. You will end up with 5 heavyweight squares.

I like sturdy boxes.

• Fast2Fuse is very stiff, if your interfacing is lightweight, use more layers. You can add even batting.
• If your interfacing is not fusible, just make a sandwich with all the layers and quilt it to hold them together; then cut out of it a square in the desired size.
• You can pair lightweight interfacing with heavyweight fabric.

I added a few straight lines of quilting to my squares.

Lay the squares on a surface with the exterior facing up. To form the box, we have to attach the exterior squares to the central square.
Attach first the left and the right squares then add the top and bottom squares.

Here is how to stitch the edges of the squares together:

Place two squares next to each other under the presser foot. Do not overlap the edges.
Join the pieces using a dense zig-zag stitch and be sure you catch both edges. Use the wider zig-zag stitch you can make with your machine.
Backstitch at the beginning and ending of each seam.

Here the left and right squares are attached.
You can use a decorative thread in the needle and any thread you want in the bobbin.

Here all 4 squares are attached. This will be the exterior of the box.

Detail.

This is the interior of it.
Now we have to stitch the corners. Keep the interior facing up. Fold the piece in half on the red line (the diagonal of the center square). Keep the edges aligned.

As shown, stitch the edges together using the same dense and wide zig-zag stitch.

Detail after stitching.

And here is the first corner.

Repeat and stitch the other corners.

Finish the top edges in the same manner- zig-zag over them.

The box is finished, you can add some embellishments if you want.

Variation for more decorative boxes
Instead of plain fabric squares I used pieced blocks.

You can add even label with the content of the box or maybe the name of the kids...


I hope you will find this tutorial useful.
Have a great week.

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Would you like to try something new ?  

 Retro Fun bags

Pockets with Love - fabric origami

Building Fun quilt

 Nina's Garden quilt

Labels for quilts

One lesson I don’t want to learn: to add labels to my quilts. I have never paid attention to this detail. Probably because the permanent markers I have are not so permanent…I think that after washing the writing will fade anyway.

But my friend Mihaela helped me to become a serious quilter. A few weeks ago I received from her a beautiful box and inside of it I was so surprised and excited to find a few embroidered labels. Exactly what I need!
She made them even similar with my logo, in my favorite colors.
Did I say surprised? Excited? Well, it was more than that, but I don’t know how to say it in English! Doing happy dance? Something like that…

For those who have machine capable to do embroidery I think these labels are fantastic.
Thank you, Mihaela! I am grateful for all the work you put in them.

We have a new kitty- Tina!

Which means I have now two assistants to test my fabrics and my work!

Happy aunt ... and huge sale

Hello my dear friends,

I am still alive! So busy lately and so tired that I could not post anything on my blog!
The large project I am working on goes well, you will see soon what it is! Still a lot of work to do, but I am happy and relieved that I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Another almost finished project is my new pattern. I made a quilt for one of my sisters and it turned out wonderful so that I wrote the pattern for it. It's a very easy pieced quilt. I need just a few more hours of work for it, and maybe a few testers!

Hopefully in a month I will come back to my normal schedule!

But the biggest achievement of the last weeks is that I became aunt! We met our nephew Alex two weeks ago! He is such a cutie, I could spend all day near his crib, looking at his sweet face and kissing his chubby cheeks!

So, I am more than happy! And I am celebrating his birth with a HUGE SALE!

Happy week for all of you!