End of 2015

I just want to say thank you so very much for supporting my creative journey in the Quilting Land.
I wish everyone out there a joy filled end of 2015!
Your encouragements, my friends, were a strong motivation for me to continue!

Have a beautiful  End of 2015!

xox Mihaela

Free printable for Christmas

I was preparing gifts for Christmas when I realized that I need paper tags or cards to attach on each one. As my printer just said to me that the color ink is low, instead of using plain pieces of paper to write my words, I quickly drew a template for 10 simple cards/tags that require only black ink.
And because sharing is caring, I am sharing them with you, my readers, as a little Thank you for the support that you have given to me throughout 2015.

I wrote "Happy Holidays" trying to enlarge the recipients circle.

Right click on the photo, choose Save As, save it in your computer and print it. I suggest you to use the " Scale to paper size" feature. Cut out the rectangles.
To use them as tags, use a paper punch to make a hole with, for the ribbon.
This free printable image is for personal use only!

A short reminder:
If you need to sew a quick project, my Granny Stocking pattern is still on sale until December 23!

Have a beautiful day!

I am linking to Linky Tuesday


  

Granny Stocking pattern - on sale!

Christmas is so close and we all have so much to do!
If you like making sewn gifts for your loved ones, I give you a helping hand:

During 19 - 23 December I will offer my Granny Stocking pattern at a reduced price. 

You can purchase it by going to my Etsy Shop.

As you may see, Granny Stocking has an original shape - inspired by Romanian traditional footwear.
It is a last-minute project, an ideal choice when your "to do list" is still long but the time is short.

For Granny Stocking you need only a few materials:
*Fabrics: 
-2 pieces of 11" x 15" for stocking body
-about 12" x 12" for cuff and shoe
*Tear-away stabilizer for cuff embroidery
*A piece of ribbon for the loop
*Coordinating threads  

You might also sew your stockings from modern fabrics to give a chic look, or using seasonal prints and no embroidery, or just a few assorted fabric scraps. Your imagination is the limit. Whatever your choice, one thing is sure: your stockings made using my Granny Stocking pattern will immediately distinguish, warming up the hearts to all who will receive them, no matter how small would be their content!

Have only beautiful sewing days, my dears!

Urban Folk Mood quilt - work in progress

Just a short post.
A new little quilt I'm working on. The hourglass block is inspired by a hand-made Romanian traditional rug.

That moment after washing the quilt for the first time!
Bliss!

Have a beautiful day!

I'm linking to Finish it up Friday!

Granny Stocking - pattern release

Just in time for the holidays!

This is a fast and easy Stocking pattern! 

Granny Stocking is 14" tall and 10" wide (from toe to heel), but you can make it larger or smaller only by printing at different scales the templates you will find at the end of the pattern.

The templates include seam allowances, so you only have to cut on markings.

The pattern has 14 pages. The instructions are clear and easy, illustrated by 28 images. 

 The little story of this Stocking is this:

Initially, I only wanted to make a Christmas Stocking using someone's pattern. I did not planned to make my own design. I started to look on the Internet but the huge number of Stockings I found overwhelmed me. Even so, I didn't find a stocking shape that I truly liked.

As usual the first thought was: So, I can't decide what to chose. How about to make my own design?

And again as usual, I did some research into my preferred source of inspiration: Romanian traditional clothing.

This time I aimed traditional winter footwear both for women and men. I noticed the shapes, colors and a few more defining details. I made a few sketches. I chose the fabrics. Only two: classical deep-red and bone-white. Cotton. Consequently, using white cross-stitch embroidery as embellishment came so naturally that I didn't need to think about alternatives.

  

For Granny Stocking you need only a few materials:
*Fabrics: 
-2 pieces of 11" x 15" for stocking body
-about 12" x 12" for cuff and shoe
*Tear-away stabilizer for cuff embroidery
*A piece of ribbon for the loop
*Coordinating threads 

For my stocking I chose the simplest way to beautify it: embroidery using sewing machine's decorative stitches. 
If you don't have decorative stitches on your sewing machine you could use utility stitches as decorative stitches by simply changing the length and width of stitches. Look bellow at my sample:

  

Utility stitches

It is preferable to use stabilizer for the embroidered section mainly to obtain a well formed stitch.

If you don't have stabilizer you might use a piece of lightweight interfacing, but you need to reinforce the whole cuff wrong side not only the embroidered area in order to have the same thickness of the fabric allover the cuff.

 

Granny Stocking might be even a graceful decoration long after the Christmas holidays are over. Of course, if the chosen fabrics will not betrayed this!

If you want more for your stocking, giving it a deeper traditional accent, you might add crossed ribbon or cord over the stocking body. Like here:

 

It can also be sewn with modern fabrics to give a chic look. 

I designed Granny Stocking to be graceful but also to be easily sewn and to give endless possibilities to show your creativity.

Look how gorgeous is Silvia's test-stocking with her personal twist:

Thank you, Silvia and Geta for your reviews and suggestions!

If you'd like to refresh your Christmas stockings look  - I think they would make great Christmas presents too- you are welcome on my Etsy Shop.

I'm offering all my patterns at a discounted  price for a limited time. 

Have a beautiful day! 

 

Bluebell Handbag Pattern release

Hello, my Friends!
Have you been looking for a nice new bag pattern?

Today I am happy to launch my first bag pattern!

 It is a handy and roomy bag: 14" (36 cm) wide; 14" (36 cm) tall; 7" (18 cm) deep. This means that you have enough place for all necessary things: wallet, phone, tablet, a few books, and even for small shopping! 

It is a versatile bag. It is suitable for quilting cotton reinforced with fusible interfacing and/or batting, but it is suitable even for home decor weight fabrics.

The pattern includes:

            - fabric reinforcement tips

            - guidance to make up and apply piping to the bag base

            - detailed instructions for magnetic snap closure

            - detailed instructions to sew a zippered pocket on one side of the bag

            - directions for attaching metal rings to handles

 

You will receive 32 pages of easy to follow step by step instructions and 89 color photos and diagrams, plus one printable template to make this handbag.

The measurements are in both inches and centimeters.

Thank you, Geta, Kat, and Silvia for reviewing the instructions! Your help was so precious for me!

To celebrate this launch, Bluebell Handbag Pattern but also Country Home Pillow Cover Pattern are for one week at a reduced price.

Here, in my shop.

Click on the photo above

Thank you for your support!

I am linking to Finish it up Friday!

Have only beautiful sewing days, my dears!

 

Black & White second sight - quilting "Time is Running" block (II)

I finished quilting the two versions of my new pattern.

The two tops are washed and are waiting to be transformed in pillow covers.
In my quilting design I assumed I'm weaving canvas pieces.

I used the same thread colors on both versions: black, white and grey, but the two main background colors played their parts in the final different look of each quilt .

The backing is quiet and beautiful like a whole cloth quilt top!

All in all, I like how they came out!
Have you seen the other interpretation of this pattern? Is here, in my past post.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!
Moving on! Time is Running!

I am linking to Finish it up Friday!

Quilting in an autumn day - Time is Running block (I)

It's a cold autumn day and it's raining. The natural light is so poor that I use two lamps while I'm quilting my new patchwork block "Time is Running".
I have made three versions of it: this, this and this. They will become pillows tops.

The gray version is ready.

 

I started with it because its quilting design came up to me first.
I wanted an accurate quilting, so even I new I will use the walking foot, I decided to mark the design onto the fabric top.
I taped the paper design to the window .

Then I taped over the paper the fabric top and copied the design onto the fabric using washable fine-liner pens.

The quilting was fast and easy.

I washed the pillow top and now it looks like this.

I had only one bad surprise: a small portion of a marking line is still visible.

I hope that at the next wash it will disappear.

Now I just finished the second top. After I will wash it, I will show you.

Have a beautiful week, my dears!

Lazy Cat - a toy pillow

The perfect companion in a rainy day - a lazy cat, isn't it ?

I'm still working on this project trying to turn the drawn character of my friend, visual artist Elena Dragulelei, in a cute and comfortable toy-pillow both for children and the adults with the soul of a child.

Here are my first four tests:

And here is my fifth:

Others may follow, but in a completely different register of colors.
One big problem is that we didn't decided how we will call him. Any suggestion?

You may see other results of our collaboration here, here and here.

Back to work now.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

  

The first sign of autumn

The first days of autumn reminded me of a project started earlier. Of course, it's still in testing.
My work-in-progress-projects-pile keeps growing. But sometimes that's the way the things are going.

It's all I'm showing you for now!

Have a beautiful autumn, my dears!

Time is Running block - WIP3

The third test of my new block "Time is Running" is ready.

You may see the other ones here and here.
With every test I love it more and more.
It offers so many ways for the layout without losing its crisp and bold visual expression.

In this third test I used my favorite fabric colors/print combination.

At least for now I'm very attached to the white-red-black-gingham. But I think I will try to make one more block using other colors.

Have a beautiful week, my dears!

Time is Running block - WIP2

This is the second test of my block. The first one is in my previous post.

This time I wanted to see how it looks changing the colors and using a few fabric scraps.

One thing is obvious: the colored/patterned rectangles broke the narrow sashing and lead the shapes to melting in the background. So, the block boundaries are less visible and the quilt graphic composition looks totally different compared with the black & white version.   
I keep working on this block. I try to see with my mind eyes the right quilting design too.

Back to work!

Have a beautiful weekend!

I'm linking to Finish it up Friday!

Back to sewing. Time is running

Finally, hot weather left us alone!
Almost two months with hot air, day and night. Not a single little cloud or a little drop of rain. In a city full of cars and concrete. Hard to breathe. Hard to think. Hard to live.

Having a better sleep in the fresh air of the last night, I woke up with fresh strengths and optimistic mood.
So, how about testing one of my patchwork designs, I said!

 

I named it Time Is Running and as (almost) always, my inspiration source was Romanian needlework.
It's about the diamond motif.
In Traditional Art the diamond symbolizes fertility, Mother Goddess, Goddess of the Earth.

But in this first test I placed the design so that at the first glance you see only a simple composition of squares and triangles. Because I wanted to keep everything simple: straight cuts, simple geometric shapes, simple stitching. And because my first impulse was to not show my point of view explicitly .

So, being a work in progress, that's all about it for now.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

I am linking to Linky Tuesday

Free Design

I'm still working on some designs. In the last post I showed you a few.
Today I will share with you one more.

 
It is a printable design for my subscribers. More details about it are in my newsletter.
The main motif of this design might be used for composing quilting patterns but also for raw edge applique or for block printing and for many mixed media projects.

These being said, I wish you to enjoy my design and of course,

Have a beautiful day!

A peek inside my sketch folder

Needlepoint and maps.
This is my play ground now.
I'm working on a few graphic design projects. Less sewing for the time being.

one motif - four possibilities

Art map. It would be great if I will manage to make a version for a quilt eventually.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

Out and About

I try to find inspiration everywhere I go.
An unexpected invitation and a mini-holiday nourished my soul and imagination with a lot of beauties.
A 400 years old village, Valea Zalanului, secluded in the heart of a forest, on a mountain with mild slopes in the Romanian Carpathians was chosen by Prince Charles for buying an old property. He transformed it in Guesthouse opened to the public, helping the financing the Prince of Wales Foundation which activities are aiming the preservation of the local rich biodiversity of plants, mushrooms, insects, birds and large mammals. 
It was difficult what photos to chose for sharing in this post, because it is so much to show!
Eventually, I decided.
Here they are!
Enjoy! 

 

Have a beautiful day, my dears!