Trial Bouquet for May Long Weekend Wedding

This was a trial bouquet for a friend who will be having her wedding this coming May long weekend. Her colours are hot pink, purple, white and blue. Very fitting for a spring wedding. She had hoped to have all tulips but they can be hard to come by in May. I know it is a spring flower but they are best in early part of the year. So I thought the best that would fit the smooth and uniform look would be freesias. We added calla posies, mini lisianthus and delphiniums in her bouquet to make it different from her maids. It's had to tell but the calla posies have purple centres. They are called "Picassa" and it has to be one of the most unique colours on flowers I have seen. I had asked for white posies but they turned out more cream then white. Fortunately, it worked out great cause her dress is off white, almost cream so it will work out perfectly. Her dress is more vintage 50's look so the cream callas will fit the vintage look.

Her maids will only have white and purple freesias against raspberry dresses. Can you just imagine the colours. It will be so colourful and beautiful.

Visit from an Old Friend

Spring? Spring is that you? I've missed you for awhile. I hope the colour change on this bunny friend of ours is a sign you are coming back soon. Oh please oh please.

These pictures were taken a few days ago but it got me a little excited cause the white stuff should be gone soon. This has been a long winter. So Spring, you are cordially invited to visit and stay as long as you like.

Houseplant Revisted

Maybe I was influenced by the new orchid plant or the final thawing of the weather, but I had the need to get some green in the house. I headed down the store and pretty much got the same plants as the last attempt. There was no maiden hair fern (one of my favourite) so I settled for the variegated ivy. The terrarium just didn't work so I made sure I got a nice pot and tried my second attempt.

Love the new and green look on the mantle. Can't wait till all the plants grow into the pot. Crossing my fingers.

Halfway Point

I sewed a black border on the front of the quilt and I hope you agree that all quilts need a border to finish it off.




We are half way done as I just finish the back of the quilt. I don't know why but as I was huffing and puffing last night, I realize I always forget to plan the back when I shop for fabric. I don't want to make a novel out of this post so I will save you the pain of reading all the roadblocks I encountered to get to this point. I posted two problems yesterday but seriously, I had more then 5. When it's after 8:00 p.m. and you have been working on the quilt for more then 3 hours straight, huffing and puffing seems appropriate.

As you can see, the extra bento box blocks didn't make the cut and a new fabric was added. The extra blocks will be used for couch cushions. It was just going to be more complicated if I added the blocks to the back instead of using a large piece of material.


I hope to go shopping tomorrow and get a big piece of batting so I can finally start to quilt the pieces together.

I Heart Sundays!

Have I told you that I love Sundays?! Well, I really love sundays. Woke up early (that I still don't like very much) and met up with my parents for dim sum. MMM! I have been craving for it for awhile. That greasy meaty "h'orderves" always hits the spot and I was pretty much ready for my nap. But the best part was a little present from my parents. They got me a little moth orchid plant. My mom has a real green thumb when it comes to orchids and was probably shameful of me when she watched my plant wither away. It was a sad sight. Well, wish me luck as I try again.



Thanks mom and dad!

Roadblocks

It was a nice day off and my sewing machine was whizzing away when roadblock #1 appeared. I ran out of beige coloured thread. Okay, no problem. A small road trip to the store to get some thread. I had to go sooner or later cause I had to get thread for the quilting part. So I picked up a jumbo spool of variegated blue thread for the top.

I did the "thread" test and it looks really nice over the blues, blacks and whites.




Roadblock #1 solved. So I continued to sew some more and stopped when I had all but the last row of bento box block to sew on. Roadblock #2. I totally forgot that the batting I usually use is 90" wide. This means if I sewed another row of blocks, it would make the quilt measure 75" x 90". Doesn't sound like a problem but it is. I have made it a standard for all the quilts I make to have some sort of border. I think it makes the quilt look polished and well thought out. As you can see, I didn't really think this one thoroughly.

So I decided that the last row of bento box blocks will go on the back and just finish the front with a simple black fabric border like I had plan. I will let you know later how this new plan has worked out.

Keep on Truckin'

This was what was on my dining table a few days ago. Usually I would be gun-ho on getting the quilt finished. Not this time. I think I was dreading leaving all the squares on the floor if I didn't have enough time to organize it and sew the major pieces together.



So today was time. I was going to give the quilt a good chunk of the afternoon and sew as much as I possibility could.

After much musical chair with all the squares, this is what I think is the best layout. Sew, sew, sew some more.

It's 10:00 p.m. I think I put in enough time.

Therapy Continues

I love Sundays! It's so nice to sleep in and I mean sleep till past noon. Some ladies at work would tell me that sleeping in till 8 o'clock was nice but I am not sure how that is considered sleeping in. Anyways, the day then continued with some more sewing. I am so excited how well this quilt has progressed.



I am already more then half way done all the blocks. YAH!

My ironing board started to become an extension of my table. But I think this is all the sewing I will do for today. I have a bunch of small fabric scraps and I want to incorporate on the back. Going to do some research.

A Need to De-Stress

Work has been crazy. CRAZY!!! I realized to rid yourself of stress, you need to actually do something about it. Coming home sometimes is not the answer to forget about it. So I dug up the fabrics and start the bento box quilt for the living room that I recently bought.

As you can see, we won't be inviting anyone over this week as there won't be any space on the dining table.

I only have 4 out of 30 blocks finished but I am on my way. Right now I need a break. Dinner is calling.

Almost There!

It's been awhile but I have been busy. The spring inspired floral fabric quilt is coming together. My quilting partner and I strategically cut out the beautiful peony flowers from the fabric to fill in the spaces of the lattice design. One of the sewing days was a good 4-5 hours of an assembly line sewing the strips and squares together. I did most of the ironing while she did most of the sewing.
When we were done sewing the "lattices", we were ready to sew the pink borders around. It was initially going to be the medium pink and dark raspberry borders but some how it didn't work out. Strange thing but the colours did not match. There was something missing. We both put the quilt aside for the day and decided to come back another day. But my oh so smart sewing partner, took the extra cream coloured fabric and made a small border before sewing the planned pink borders. It worked perfectly. The cream was the missing piece and it tied all the texture and colour elements together nicely.




The other special piece about this quilt was the fabric used for the back. Typically we would pick another fabric that would compliment the colours in the quilt but we wanted to use this up and coming fabric called minky. Minky is made from polyester but it is so soft and plush that it gives the quilt a very luxurious feel. It is used mostly in baby blankets but there are so many variety in colours that it can easily be integrated into quilts for all ages.

We both are so in love with the outcome that we hope to sew another quilt with similar designs.