Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

The kids went out for Halloween tonight. It was cold, windy and a bit wet. But my two youngest got lots of treats, while my oldest helped hand out candies. Above is a picture of my daughter in her Vampire costume. I made the little dress. It was more difficult then I expected. But I love the way it looked on her. The middle picture is a plaster mask that my second oldest made out of plaster at school. The third photo is of my second oldest. He is giving a fierce look in this picture. But when he gave his smily eyes, he looked more like a comedian. The wig and mustache made him look older. They all had fun even if the weather wasn't great. Wishing you all a safe Halloween.

Hugs Ariane

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

My placemat quilt for PQS2

I joined the Placemat Quilt Swap 2 on flickr. It was my first flickr swap. I really had fun doing this swap and loved all the comments the others shared. We had a really great group. It was organized by krommama. Thank you so much for organizing a wonderful swap. I know it's a lot of work. But I really appreciate it.

My partner is piecefulchaos. I made her a maple leaf placemat with a matching potholder, 2 coasters and a little bag. She received it today. So now I am able to share it with all of you. I love the way it turned out. I purchased the Maple leaf paper pieced block pattern on etsy from Piece by Number. I love this maple leaf pattern. Then I designed the little placemat using the four blocks that I had made.

Then I decided to make her a potholder and some coasters with the leftover material. I thought a little bag to put them in would be handy, so I made one of those. It ended up a bit smaller than I wanted, but was still cute.
I hope you like what I made. I had a lot of fun doing it. I have to make myself some placemats with the maple leaf on it. Fall is my favorite season and I love to see the changing leaves. Well, that's all for now.
Happy Stitching!!

Ariane

Monday, October 26, 2009

Another Stitcher's Angel Project, fabric and a gift!!

Today, I finally finished my Charming Bed Pocket for the Stitcher's Angel Swap. I hope my secret partner likes it. It was my first time doing this kind of project, with the coloring and then making a ruffle. Yep! This is the first time that I successfully make a ruffle. I was all proud of myself. I'm getting better at sewing. Yeah!

I also received some fabric. I ordered some Mezzanine from the Patty Young collection. I bought from two different fabric stores online; Flair for Fabric and Pink Panda Fabrics. I love these two Canadian stores. Fast delivery for both and great prices for modern designer quilting cottons.

I also received a wonderful gift in the mail today. I won Mother's Cupboard giveaway a few weeks ago. She was celebrating the launch of the new blog Among the Gum Trees. Both of these blogs are wonderful and you should check it out. Thanks you so much Fiona for the wonderful stitchery kit. I can't wait to get started.
 If you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging as much, it's because my three kids and my husband all had the flu last week. The kids were home for the whole week sick. Lots of sleepless nights. Plus, I worked the entire week. I was like a walking zombie. I guess it suits the season. I should have just added a bit of zombie make-up. Well, they are all better now. Just a bit of lingering coughs. I hope you are all avoiding the flu this season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because I'm the only one who hasn't gotten it yet. Tomorrow I'll be working on sewing a Halloween costume for my daughter. Let's hope it goes well. I'm not that confident sewing clothing yet.

Happy Stitching!

Hugs Ariane

Monday, October 19, 2009

I'm finished my Cindy Lou Who Schnibbles quilt top!!! And got great mail!!!!

Hi everyone, I finished my Cindy Lou Who Quilt top.
This was the October challenge for The Year of Schnibbles. I'm so happy I got it done because I didn't make the date last month. I used Christmas fabrics that I already had to make this top.
 I was unsure of this pattern at first, but I love it with the colors I chose.
 I was going to give it as a gift, but decided to keep this one. I really like it.
 Now, I have to make something else for that person.

I also got great mail today. I had won a giveaway on Di's blog "Quilting is Blissful".
This is one of my favorite blogs and I check it everyday.
 Thank you sooooo much Diane!!!!
I just love these. I love the little panels and the border print.
They have such cute little puppies on them. I love dogs. I have two bigs dogs at home.
These are going to make a great quilt. I can't wait to use them.
She included some lovely fall stickers too. I'm so lucky.

Sorry for not blogging as much this month. I've been so busy. I'll try to do better.
Happy Stitching!!!

Hugs Ariane

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A little bit of this....and that

Hi everyone, Sorry for not posting more. I've been having computer troubles. I'm still trying to figure some of the things out. Well, last week I got the first issue of the Quilter's Connection Magasine. This is a new Canadian quilting magazine. I subscribed to it a bit late to get the first issue. So, I bought the first issue from Laurraine at Patchwork Pottery's etsy shop. She is the designer of the pattern on the front cover. She even signed her pattern for me. She is so sweat. I love her pattern.

I also got my Cindy Lou Who Schnibbles pattern. I bought it from a shop that was a bit closer to where I live so that the post wouldn't take so long. It helped!!! I started cutting the pieces last night. I'm not using a charm pack for this. I'm just using material I have in my stash. It's going to be a Christmas table topper and I hope to use it as a gift.

My daughter's also been doing a little bit of hand stitching. She wanted me to put her work on my blog too. She embroidered  a cute little bird. So cute!!!

Well, I hope you all have a great day. I have to work this evening. I couldn't sleep last night so I'm really tired this morning. I may have to go lay down a bit before work. Otherwise it will be a long night.

Hugs Ariane

Sunday, October 11, 2009

A sneak peak of my finished placemat!!

Hi everyone! Today, I did a little bit of sewing. I finished the placemat I have been working on for my first Flickr swap called the Placemat Quilt Swap.
 I really enjoyed working on this placemat. I was able to finish it today, but I can't show you the finished product because I want to keep it a surprise for my swap partner.
I know she checks my blog. So I'm just going to show you a sneak peak. I just have a few more items to finish then I can send out the package in the mail.


I also want to thank everyone who has been commenting on my favorite quilt for the Quilt Festival. It's been a lot of fun reading all your wonderful comments.
 I've made it through the first one hundred blog in Amy's list. There are so many wonderful participants. It's been so much fun and inspirational looking at all those quilts.
 If you haven't been to Amy's Blog aka Park City Girl, you need to go now and check out the fall festival entries. It's just amazing.





Happy Stitching Everyone!!

Ariane

Friday, October 9, 2009

Quilt Festival - Fall 2009




Hi everyone, I hope you like the quilt I've chosen to share with you. It's a quilt I made for my brother and his wife who are expecting their first baby any day now. It's my Log Cabin Beatrix Potter Quilt. It's more of a lap quilt than a baby quilt because it's quite large. I paper pieced all the log cabin blocks using a template I made myself. The strips finished at 3/4 inch wide. The fabrics I chose came from all the local shops in the region. 6 shops in total. I chose many different kinds of fabrics from modern, country, reproduction and contemporary. I love to mix all these fabrics in my quilts. I just made sure they were all in the same color range. The back of the quilt was more challenging for me. I decided to put a pieced strip across the back, but when I quilted it all, I notice that it was crooked. Well, I didn't want to take it all apart. I had spent 3 hours quilting it on my little sewing machine. So I decided to add some appliques to the back. All the appliques on this quilt were sewn on by hand and used fusible web. I hope you like this quilt. I know my brother and his wife were extremely happy with it. I love this quilt. It really was fun to make and turned out really nice.

Hugs Ariane :o)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

I got the center panel done!


This morning I had a little bit of time after the kids went to school to do some sewing. I finished the center panel of my Winter White quilt. I hope you like it. It's not perfect. I do struggle with flying geese blocks. But I still think it looks pretty good. I'm still learning. I didn't use a charm pack to make this top. The local stores don't sell many charm packs. Since I bought so many fat quarters, I had a pretty good selection of different fabrics. So I just went through my stash and used fabric that I already had. Now I just have to do the borders. I may do it a bit differently than the pattern. I don't really want to have to go buy a bigger piece of fabric to finish the border. I want to use what I already have. So you will just have to wait and see what I come up with.

Take care!!!

Hugs Ariane :o)