A boxy pouch Christmas gift and some fabric for me!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I made another pouch the other day.

This one is also a gift for Christmas.

Thankfully the recipient doesn't follow my blog.

This is for an 18 year old boy/young man.

He loves superman, or any DC comic.

So, I used that as the basis for my pouch.

Here it is.

I used the boxy pouch tutorial by Pink Stitches found here.

It's an excellent tutorial.

It was my first time trying it out and it went together no problem.

The Superman symbol that I paper pieced was a free pattern found 

on the Fandom in Stitches blog here.

I hadn't paper pieced in a really long time. 

It's was a bit intimidating for me, but it worked out so well.

I'm really pleased with it.

I know he is going to love it.

I will fill this pouch with toiletries for him as part of the gift.

Here is the picture showing the interior fabric.

All this fabric is from my stash.

With all the sales on this past weekend,

I just couldn't pass some of them up.

One store in particular, Mad About Patchwork, had a huge selection of fabric on sale.

A lot of this fabric has been out for a while, 

but since I just got back into quilting this fall, I never had any of it in my stash.

I couldn't pass up the deals.

So, I kind of went crazy with the shopping.

I bought 35 half yard cuts of fabric.

I know, it's a lot! lol!!!

But I love it all.

Since the price of fabric is going up here in Canada,

I gotta take advantage of all the deals I can get.

It's not as affordable to order from the US anymore since the Canadian dollar is so low again.

And plus, I love supporting the Canadian Shops.

Too many are closing their doors.

It's so sad.

This will fill some colour gaps in my stash too.

So excited about it.

I have more fabric coming soon too.

I know......I'm really spoiled.

Hugs

New bright fabrics......

Today, I decided to go shopping for fabric.

The local quilt shop, "Quilt & Stitch" has been having some great sales all summer.

All our extra money has gone to our renovation project, so I hadn't taken advantage of the great sales.

Until today, that is!!!

 I needed some fabric to make a gender neutral baby quilt.

So, I chose some bright fabrics in colors of the rainbow.

I was trying to get all my fabrics with dots,

since I'm participating in the 

Dots on Dots Blog Hop in September, but some colors didn't have any dotted fabric available.

Every block I make will have some dotted fabric in it though.

My brother and his wife are expecting a baby in September,

 and the sex will be a surprise at delivery time.

I find that exciting!!

I never new the sex of my three kids until they were born.

I loved how people would comment....she's carrying to the front, it's a boy.

Or try the needle and thread trick over the wrist to determine the sex.

You know....old wives tales!! LOL!!

After two boys, everyone thought my third baby was a boy, by the way I was carrying.

But, to all our surprise it was a girl.

I was so happy!!

Anyways, I will start working on this project soon.

I hope you are all well.

Hugs

Some great mail and a wonderful wedding.

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well.

This weekend I went to my youngest brother Pierre's wedding.

He married the beautiful Christa.

It was such a beautiful wedding.

We all had so much fun.

All my family attended and we danced until late in the night.

Congratulations Pierre and Christa!!!

I also received some wonderful mail today from Daisy Cottage Quilts.

I love this fabric and the pattern.

Can't wait to try it.

Hugs

It's my birthday today!!!

Well, today I celebrated my 34th birthday!!

I had a great day!

My husband took me on a quilt shop hop of the three Kingston quilt shops, and the two shops in Brockville.

He didn't come in the stores with me, but patiently waited in the car while I did my shopping.

He was so great!!!

I bought a lot of stuff!

First, I bought two GO! dies, the 1.5 inch inch strip die and the 6.5 inch HST die.

I already started using the 1.5 inch strip die.

I really love this die!

I was leary of buying the strip dies because I had heard some negative comments about them.

But, let me tell you that this die is amazing.

You have to be careful to make sure you put it in the machine straight.

But it cuts so perfectly.

I started making some blocks with my cut up strips. 

Here they are.

I'm using this pattern.

So, that was fun to sew.

But, you are probably wondering what else I bought.

Lots of fabric!!!!!

Most of it was on sale. 

I got 10.5 metres of fabric.

I never buy that much fabric at once.

I usually just by 4 or 5 fat quarters and that's it.

But, it's my birthday, so I'll shop if I want too!!!

Here's my fabric.

Some reproduction fabrics,

These are from the Hope collection,

A few Minick & Simpson fabrics,

And some Kona Cotton Yardage.

The Kona Cotton is for a quilt I'm making for my brother's wedding quilt.

I haven't started it yet.

But, I have the design.

So, I thought I would update my photo.

My other photo was taken several years ago, and I've changed.

I don't take a lot of photo's.

I'm kind of camera shy.

But, I thought since it's my birthday, I should have some kind of record.

And you know what? 

I'm good with it.

So, this is me!!

I hope you all had a great day!

Hugs

Ariane

Wonderful Mail!!!

Hi everyone!

I got home from work this evening and found a package waiting for me on the table.

I couldn't remember if I was supposed to receive something in the mail.

Then, I looked at it and realized that it was a prize I won in a giveaway.

I'm like.....YEAH!!!!

I rip it open!!!!

I got two wonderful books from Melinda Evaul.

One for me, and one I gave to a great friend.

This is her new book called "Grow Old With Me".

I can't wait to start reading it.

I also got 10 beautiful note cards with quilts on barns.

I love, love, love these!!!!!

And last but not least, 5 beautiful fat quarters of different shades of blue.

I'm so excited.

I drove over to my friends house and gave her one book.

It was a surprise.

I thought she might need some weekend reading!!!

Go visit Melinda's web site.

I'm definitely going to order more of the quilt barn note cards.

They are perfect to use for the packages you send out for swaps, or with gifts.

Thank you so much Melinda.

I'm working all weekend.

Note: My back is getting better. I still have to be really careful how I walk or move, but I'm just taking it slow.

Hugs



Wonderful Mail!!!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are well.

I worked today and I'm really, really tired tonight.

It's mostly due to not sleeping well last night.

But when I got home, I got this wonderful package in the mail.

It cheered me right up.

I had won four fabric bundles from Darlene aka SewCalGal for the Christmas Quilt Show.

Aren't they gorgeous?

I just love the different shades of all the colors.

This really made my day.

Thank you Darlene for the wonderful gift.

I feel very blessed to have received it.

On another note, I'm sorry if I haven't been replying to my emails. I'm just so busy and beat. I will do my best to get better at responding once things slow down.

Hugs

Ariane

No sewing...but lots of buying!!!

Okay, well maybe not lots of spending. Just buying!!

One of the ladies in my quilt guild passed away not long ago,

and her family was selling a lot of her stash, books, magazines and notions.

They let all the members of the guild know.

I just had to go.

Oh my gosh!!! It was like quilters heaven.

Luckily, I only brought so much money. LOL!!!

There must have been over 200 quilting books. These were selling for $5 each.

I decided to buy two.

I know.....that's not much....but I was on a budget.

These are the two that I bought.



The reason I only bought two books is because she was selling bundles of magazines. Many which were new from this year, even this summer. Most of the bundles were magazines from the last five years.

Each bundle had about 12 magazines, and were selling for $1 per bundle. Needless to say, I bought a lot.
I think I got about 100 magazines. I had a lot of fun going through them today with my daughter. We sorted them all out by year, the organized them in the bookcase in my sewing room. Now, I did have to move fabric off that shelf. So, now I have to find another spot for it or use it.......
In all those magazine, I only had one already. So they were all new to me. Yeah!!!

Lastly, I bought some fabric. Most of the really good fabric had already gone before I got to the sale. It was packed and we were all like vultures trying to get the best stuff.
But, I did get some good stuff. I found a box that didn't have a price marked. It had a bunch of scraps in it, but it also had lots of yardage in it too. I guess they just didn't have the time to go through it.
It was all Kaffe Fasset fabric, and also had 3 blocks in it. I was like jackpot. Let me find out what they want for it.
So, I asked the lady and she said $5.00.
Yeah!!! I was so happy.
Some of the pieces in that box had about 4 metre of fabric.
Then, I found two bundles of homespun fabrics.
I thought that would make a nice manly quilt. The bundles were $4.00 each. There was about 10 metres of fabric all together in both bundles. Yeah for me!!!
I also picked up a couple more little bundles of country fabrics.

So, in all it was a great day. I only spent $40. But it was well worth it. All together I think I got about 20 metres of fabric, 100 magazines and 2 books.
Pretty good deal eh!!!

So, even though I didn't do any sewing in the last two days,
I did some great shopping.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

Hugs

Ariane

What machine do you use to make your quilts?

Hi everyone!

I thought I would share with you the sewing machine I use to make my quilts, bags and clothing projects. It's an old one. It's about 25 years old. It's a White, Blue Jean machine. It used to be my Mom's sewing machine. She used it for mending clothes and for making everyday quilts. After I got married, she gave it to me so that I could hem pants and do small mending. I didn't use it very much in the beginning, because I could never figure out the tension. I just didn't know enough about sewing, and had very little experience using a sewing machine. When I decided to start making quilts two years ago, I did some research online about sewing machines, and how to fix tension problems. It was like a light bulb moment. Everything made sense. I figured out how the tension worked on my machine and was able to troubleshoot problems when I was sewing. The internet had so much information to help me.

Well, last night I visited Michelle. She needed some advice about one of her quilting projects. She mentionned that some people do free motion quilting with the feed dogs up. I thought to myself....hey, if I had the right darning foot for my machine......maybe I could do some free motion quilting on it. So today, I went to my LQS and they just happened to have a darning foot for "White" machines. It only cost $4.98+tax. I was so excited.

 I had promised my daughter I would make her a pencil case for school. So, I decided to do a bit of creative sewing with my new darning foot. This is the pencil case I made. I really love it. I did some reverse applique, inspired by Amy. I had the denim on hand and used scraps of fabric for the appliques. It was a fun quick project.

Now that I have this darning foot, I will try some free motion quilting on small projects. I hope to show you my progress in the next few weeks. I'm trying to watch my money, with school starting and the kids needing so much new clothes and paying for extra curricular activities. It's eating up a lot of my budget. So, I will be using what I have in my stash for the next few weeks....months. Hopefully not too long. I already didn't buy any new fabric the entire month of August.There are so many new fabric lines that I want to buy. But we do what we can.

I did have one set back the other day when my Mom was visiting. She wanted to go to a quilt shop and I purchased 3 fat quarters of Christmas fabric. But I love these, because they could also be used in regular projects too. They are not your traditional Christmas fabric. I just love them.

I don't even know what collection they are from. Oh well! I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend.

Hugs

Ariane

A sneak peak and some yummy fabric!!!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I've been working on some sketches lately. Trying to see if I could come up with something good enough to make into a pattern. The other day when I was at work on my break. I was finishing up my Tim Hortons coffee and started using the coffee cup as a circle template to draw on scrap pieces of paper.

I drew so many little designs in these circles. It's like I was inspired all of a sudden and the images that I was seeing in my head were actually getting drawn on paper. You know how it is sometimes you imagine stuff that would look great, but you can't seem to get it right on paper. Happens to me most times. Well, this time I was doing a really good job. I was so proud of myself. Needless to say the scraps of paper with the drawings came home with me.

I've been working at them here and there seeing what I could make with them. A few of the designs are  inspired by Christmas. I've started to put one of the designs together on fabric. I'm very excited about how it looks. So I thought I would share a sneak peak. I have just started, so there are still a lot of details missing in the pic. I hope you like it!!

On the fabric front, Alison from the Sew Modern Bee had sent some wonderful red fabric to make her blocks and I just loved it. I wanted to know who had designed it so that I could get some. She offered to do a swap with me. I had some Mermaid fabric that she wanted, so we did a swap. My piece of fabric was bigger then hers, so I told her to just throw in a few scraps (which I love) in to make it even. Well, I was so surprised today when I received the package. She sent me so many scraps. It was like hitting the jackpot. I love them all. Now I feel guilty 'cause she sent so much more that I did. Hmmmm....I think I can even it out with some fabric she would like. Well, that was a wonderful experience. I think I might just do it again. 

Hugs 

Ariane 

Borders and a Sweet gift!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a nice day. I finally put the borders on my Shabby Roses BOM quilt top. I have had the blocks put together for quite a while now. So today I wanted to get a little farther along with this project. This is definitely one of my favorite quilts that I have made. I just love these blocks designed by Jenny of Elephantz blog. They are adorable.

I also received a sweet gift in my mail box from Michelle at Dresden Quilter. I had given her a tiny piece of fabric about a month ago, so that she could finish one of her Bee blocks. It was just a tiny little piece. She bought me a fat quarter and a card to say thanks. Wow!!! I was so blown away. This was so generous of  you Michelle. I didn't mind sharing with you and the gift was not necessary. But I am very grateful. Thanks so much!!!!! It goes perfectly with the two other fat quarters that I bought from the same collection.

Well, I'm working night shift for the next three nights. I'm going try to do a bit of stitchery this weekend. I did want to do some hand quilting but realized that I don't have enough bigger pieces of fabric to do the backing on the quilts. The fabrics that I do have are just NOT the right colors either. Hmmm......more shopping! LOL!!!

Have a good night everyone!

Hugs

Ariane

Scrappy Pincushion Swap Received!!!!!

I received the most beautiful pincushion in the mail today.

Melanie from Texas Freckles made me this wonderful red and white pincushion.

Red is my favorite colour!!!

I absolutely love it!!!!

It's gorgeous.

It's a very nice size too. I love big pincushions.

They are my favorite ones.

 She also sent me a wonderful postcard, pins and a fabric swatch.

I feel like I hit the jackpot with this one.

Thank you so much Melanie.

This made my day.

Hugs

Ariane

Some Japanese fabric....love it!!!

Today was a very busy day for me. I was running around all day. But I did manage to convince my husband to take me to the Picton Quilt Show. We managed to make it there late in the afternoon for the last hour of the show. I forgot to bring my camera. I was very disappointed about that. The quilts were gorgeous!! I didn't have a lot of money to spend. But I just couldn't resist some Japanese fabric at one of the booths. I purchased it from Kallisti Quilts. This is a Canadian online quilt shop that specializes in Japanese and African fabric. I had never heard of it before today. They have an online catalogue that you can order from and also an etsy shop. Their online catalogue has more selection and you can request specific amounts. I ended up purchasing 6 fat quarters. They are so cute, and they are in my favorite colours. I'm very happy that my husband came with me to the quilt show. He kind of felt out of place. He said that he was the only guy under the age of 70 there. Which was not true, but there weren't many guys there. LOL!!! I'm so glad he did this for me. He is so sweet. He was also very encouraging, by telling me that my quilts were just as nice as any in the show. I gave him a hug & kiss for that one. LOL!!!

Hugs

Ariane

Has it really been a week?

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted. I've been very busy working and spending time with the family. This weekend I was off work and we had a great weekend together as a family. We went out together many times and it was really great. It was a lot of fun.

On Friday, the LQS's were having their annual shop hop. I wasn't planning on going, but decided at the last minute to go. I put the kids off to school and drove to Brockville and stopped at the two shops there. Then I drove to Harrowsmith and then back to Kingston. I stopped at all 5 quilt shops. They were selling a kit at each shop, to put a quilt together. But it wasn't really my taste. So instead I bought a quilt book at each shop and some fabric. I really enjoyed doing this and bought books I had wanted for a while.

I bought fabrics that were on sale, or ones I just really liked. Some are fat eighths, fat quarters and the larger piece is a metre cut. That one is for my Sew Modern Bee quilt.

You can tell that I love all kinds of different styles of fabric.

I also joined the "Between Charming Friends" Quilt Along. My daughter "B-Sew cute" and I will be doing this together. She wanted to use the two charm packs she received. I thought this project would be easy enough for her to tackle.

I will be using two charm packs of "Make Life."

B-Sew cute will be using two charm packs of "Sweet".

I ordered some aqua fabric for her to use as the background fabric.

 She didn't want to use white.

So, once she gets her fabric we will be cutting our fabric.

I'm excited to do this project with her. It should be a lot of fun.

We are making the small version of the quilt.

We are going to be quilting along with Kelly @ Charming Chatter.

Well, I hope you have a great night.

Hugs

Ariane

A bit of sewing and some fabric!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. It has been a busy week for me. I worked that last 6 days and I am very excited to have the next three days off. I have lots of housework to catch up on, but I do hope to get some sewing time in too.

I did do a little bit of sewing. I have been working on my March Schnibbles quilt. I have a few blocks done, and a bunch that are half done. I have to cut more fabric to finish this. I am using the Snippets fabric by American Jane. I bought these last year. I have used this fabric for other projects, but I had quite a bit left over. I thought it would be perfect for this pattern. Hopefully I will get the top done before the end of the month deadline.

I also got a package in the mail today from Sew Love Fabrics etsy store. I bought a scrap bag and two metre cuts of some "Apple" fabric by Timeless Treasures. I was really excited to see what I got in my scrap bag. I got some beautiful pieces and I can't wait to use some of these.

I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday. I had to work evening shift, but my husband gave me some money to buy more fabric. He knows me very well. LOL! I ordered some from the Fat Quarter Shop. It was all on sale too. I should get it next week. Can't wait!!! I hope you all have a great night!

Hugs

Ariane