My sewing studio is constantly evolving

 This is the view from the door leading down the two stairs into my studio.  As this was once a garage a long time ago there is only the one window.  I have lamps scattered throughout my space,

but I cherish the daytime hours when I do not really need them. 

I look out on to the street, so it isn't very exciting.

 For our anniversary, Carnell bought me a ping pong table.  This is wonderful as I am hoping to use it for not only a cutting and pressing station but also to sandwich my quilts. 

This means I will not have to crawl around or constantly get up and down off the floor when I am spray basting!  Thanks Carnell - you are the best!  I am looking forward to trying the huge Horn cutting mat that came with my sewing table now.

 There isn't a lot of floor space now, but enough to use as a design floor.  That is a scrappy foundation pieced quilt from a magazine.  One of the shelves houses the games and

 puzzles for our granddaughter that lives near us.

 I am quite the thrifty person - can you see the green shelf behind the fan?  I found that in the alley behind our school one morning.  It folds up flat and is made of laminated

wood a perfect addition to my sewing studio.

The multi-colored box was given to me by a co-worker - it's original purpose was a cd holder

 with slots but no shelves.  I put a couple of cd's in there and

now I can store some thread in a dust free space.

 The cardboard box in the middle of the table is full of scraps.

 A gel mat on the floor cuts down on fatigue especially if you have planter's fasciitis!

My rug is from St Joseph's thrift store and keeps my chair from sliding

away on the laminate flooring.



Summer Fireplace Quilt

 Here is my summer addition to "let's try and disguise and ugly fireplace" quilts.  This shall be the month of August quilt.  The fabric is from the Summer Breeze collection by Moda.  It was

 originally intended for my youngest daughter's guest room, but after some discussion it was

decided these weren't her colours.

 I used my little twister template and a charm pack, Moda White yard and some blue paisley yardage. I used some of the scraps to make a 9 patch in each corner instead

of tossing the scraps in the every growing scrappy quilt pile.

I should have used a darker square in the upper right hand corner to define the quilt center more dramatically, but what the heck looks good to me.  I used a poly batting to try

and give it an illusion of clouds - you see the clouds right?

Coffee Quilt Wall Hanging

For my birthday, my g/f June in Vancouver gave me a quilt kit.  I have never really had a kit before and got right busy sewing it up when I returned home.  The original panel was a square and I had not a single wall in my kitchen to accommodate a square - so I made it into a rectangle and have one square of the panel left over for a potholder perhaps.

 The kit included everything but the batting and thread!  It would have made a much larger wall quilt but I simply didn't have the room.  I will figure out what to do with the other fabric one day.

See, even the backing was coffee themed!

Thanks June!

Owlish Dolly Blanket

Owlish Dolly Quilt

Our middle granddaughter McKenna has a thing for owls!  My good friend and fellow quilter in Canada gave me the centre squares to do with as I please, so I fashioned a dolly quilt for McKenna's 3rd birthday.  We are off to visit them on August 1st in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

Finally a quilt for the guest room!

So often we make quilts for others, but forget about the beauty that a quilt can bring to our home home.  I have purchased a set of 1 yard fabric at a very reasonable price on the Quilting Board that I frequent and had been waiting for the right pattern.  Carnell, my husband and gotten me a subscription to a quilting magazine and I found a single Irish Chain pattern in the latest issure that I thought would be perfect.

 I added three borders to the pattern as it had none, and made 2 stes of 

coordinating pillowcases also.  I try to remember to buy extra yardage,

 so that I can make pillowcases - it just completes the bed so nicely

I FMQ it with polyester thread and once again the backing is from the clearance section

of the online store called Connecting Threads.  I used a Warm and Natural cotton

 batting and I really like how it drapes on the bed.

Once again, I did the binding by hand while watching TV with Carnell.

Now to make another dresser runner to coordinate also :)

AAQLA 2012 Mystery Quilt/Olivia's Quilt

My guild had a Mystery Quilt for the months of January - June this year. I used material totally from my stash for this quilt. It was not difficult and I will likely give it to my special needs student

next year for Christmas as I used fabric that she would like.

The black is the background and the white is the path,  the path leads to all the novelty squares.
I do all my own quilting on a domestic Viking Sapphire 830.  I usually use backing from the clearance section of Connecting Thread and Connecting Thread's poly cone thread.  For this quilt I had some Sulky variegated in aqua and by using a 110 Singer needle and turning the tension up I was able to achieve a really excellent result.  For a change I hand did the back binding.