Friday 27 September 2013

Main hoon hi nahi iss duniya ki

In rare phase of updating blog.
Blogpost written in head.
Awesome pics for blogpost in laptop.
Feet on dog.
Dog chews power cord.
Laptop dies.
No pics, no quilty blogpost.
Replace blogpost in head with fav song.
Post song from antique lappy.
Enjoy.



Thursday 26 September 2013

Fussy Love

Ever since I made this block for one of the Bees of my FB group 'Desi Quilters', I've been wanting to do a full quilt in those colours (yes, orange and pink, don't laugh) and that pattern (Denyse Schmidt's Drunk love in a log cabin, again, don't laugh).

I am just looking at the dates realizing this was made exactly a year back.. in September 2012 ! O.M.G. !! Is it too late to blog about it?

Anyway, since this was to be for a friend's lovely li'l girl, I bravely went ahead with the pink and orange colour scheme and gave the blocks some interest by fussy cutting the centers. Therefore the name. Not bad I think. The quilt, not the name. Actually the name too. Er..it's pretty late in the night and I'm beginning to not make much sense, so I better let the pics do the talking.

Ta-da...Fussy Love..




The orange logs are at 1" wide and by the time I was done with them I was ready to burn the whole cottage cabin down. And so to save my sanity  the quilt, the pink logs were cut half an inch wider and thank heavens for that !


Why? So many seams ! So very many seams !! Thats why.






Luckily I had with me this gorgeous print for the backing which was like a match made in heaven.




And here's my little elf cum model, helping me with the photoshoot. Oh, you should see her when she's grumpy.


Like here..
                           

Isn't she adorable? Fussy Love indeed :-)

Monday 23 September 2013

Ovie's Window

There are still a few quilts that I haven't documented and this is was one of them. Made wayyyy back in Jan 2011. Okay its not all that long back but it was right in the beginning of my quilting journey.

Knowing of my obsession with fabric and my new found love for quilting, a dear friend gifted me this awesome book called 'Material Obsession' by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. Inscribed inside was, " Dear Tina, Just a bribe for my first personalized designer quilt :-)", signed by Ovie, the adorable (then) 2 year old daughter of said friend. Well, of course I had to make one rightaway. From. the. book.

In the book was this cute pattern called 'Holiday Morning'.



 I added to the design idea and came up with this quilt for li'l Ovie.


The tree branches are pieced; the leaves, flowers and birdies are appliqued and the words embroidered.


 It was fun playing around with the leaves and birdies, trying to give each block a different look.


The sashing was a disaster tho. I wanted it to look like wooden window frames and instead, it ended up looking like a lepeord had swallowed the poor birdies ! Didn't stop me from naming the quilt 'Ovie's window'  :-).


I hand quilted around the appliques and the rest I stitched in the ditch by machine.


And so it was sent off to Ovie, all bundled with love, eagerly awaiting her verdict. She loved it. Phew.


Just spoke with her daddy today and I think it's time Ovie, who is not so little anymore, got another personalized designer quilt. :-)


Love you, Ovie. God bless !




Friday 13 September 2013

'The Log Cabin Cousins' Workshop

Workshops are addictive. Ask the folks who attended my previous one. No sooner had they recovered from the first one, than they were thirsting for punishment again ! And so off to Bangalore I went.This time we tackled the many variations of the log cabin, ranging from the traditional to the modern.

Guess I'll let the pics do the talking..


Or maybe I'll talk a bit too. Like any blue blooded quilter, the minute Pooja picked me up from the station, off we went to pay our respects to Oklipoo !

Here's my adorable class listening to my talk on the history of log cabins. Or at least, seeming to.



Started them off with a traditional log cabin with a red hearth, pieced the traditional way on a foundation. And Pooja just HAD to break into a jig on finishing the first block. Its not her fault. Its her Himachali genes.



And Smita followed soon, officially graduating from her 'novice'status.



This is li'l Gowri, full of enthusiasm. And a hundred questions.



Shwetha's machine was a sight for sore eyes. Easily kept up with the fancy ones too.



Varsha, with her neat piecing and ready smile.



And our host, sweet sweet Nikhat. Didn't need a workshop, but played along all the same.



..and..er..me. Proud. Just look at 'em blocks !



We were graced with a visit by none other than Ms.Leela Cherian, the amazing quilt artist. Her words of encouragement filled our souls.



And Nikhat, our gracious host, filled our bellies. With the most delicious food. At regular intervals !



Aww..see my girls, hard at work..





Hard at play too..

Love my horns. The above pic was miraculously captured in a rare moment of stillness and non-blurryness. Sample this..


Well, cheers !


Some awesome street food the next morning.. (Poo, we need to go there again.)



Thanks Shwetha for the beautiful terracotta ear rings. She made them herself !



Oh, here's what's behind us on the design wall..



Lovely, no? And then around lunchtime on day 2, everybody started slipping into a food fatigue induced stupor and it took a "Pack Up" bellow threat to get everybody moving their as.. machines.




We also did a small session on block arrangement and design development. A bit of show and tell too. And more tea and cake, of course !



Thanks Nikhat, for having us. Thanks Damayanthi, for dropping in. Thank you girls, for making the workshop enjoyable. Proud of y'all !