Geta's Quilting Studio: October 2010

29 October, 2010

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Fall 2010

Amy is organizing again the Blogger’s Quilt Festival - a great opportunity to see new gorgeous quilts and make new friends. Thank you Amy for creating such a fun time!

I've decided to share this quilt with you (some of you already know its story) because this is one of my favorite quilts.

Ten years ago I discovered quilting on Internet, absolutely by chance. I live in Romania and here quilting is an unknown craft.
I remember like it was yesterday that I searched on Google the word "quilt" and the first website I opened was the one of the famous American artist Jinny Beyer.

Her logo-quilt amazed me. It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life! The colors and shapes revealed me a world that I have never imagined it could exist. In that moment I fell in love with quilting.

Ten years after that day, I made this quilt. This is not Jinny Beyer logo-quilt, it is my quilt made using a kit from Jinny (not only fabrics and patterns, but all those diamonds and squares were already cut)!
I am so happy I made it, I always wanted to have it in order to remind me of that first day of my quilting life.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, enjoy looking at all the Quilt Festival quilts!

28 October, 2010

Christmas Gift Bags- Decorations

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. A few happy events kept me away from work.

One of them was my niece's wedding. It was so cold at the beginning of October… but the fall landscape was amazing.

The other event was my nephew's baptism. Alex is 2 months old and such a cutie!

Now, back to work!
Last week I made my "Pockets with Love" in Christmas fabrics.

Practice is the best teacher! If you bought my patterns, here are a few more tips.

For a set I used a little heavier interfacing than I usually use and I broke two needles. If you want to make some pockets, stitch using Jeans/Denim needles #90/14.

If you want to use them as gift bags or as decorations, you can make them even without interfacing.

I noticed how gorgeous are the pockets made in striped fabrics.

So I tried to make one with wider stripes. This fabric is heavy cotton. I don't use interfacing and for backing I used quilting cotton. This was a quick version, instead of two fabrics for the front I used just one.

I wrote in the pattern how to make the quickest version: fusing two pieces of fabric with Wonder Under (or something similar). This is a paper-backed fusible web that bonds fabric to fabric.

To reduce raveling of fabric edges I cut the square with a pinking blade (Wonder-Under helps too).

Cutting the strap.

In minutes I made these:

Of course I had to make miniatures. I was curious how small I can make them. For the smallest one I started with 2'' square. For the other one I used 4'' square.

A few sets are for sale (set of 3 pockets- $30 USD- $7 shipping). Please send me a message if you are interested (my email adress is in the right side bar).

Well, it's almost weekend again. More time to sew? Happy sewing !
Geta