Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to say Thank you for being here and support my trip through the Wonderful World of Quilting.
I wish everyone out there a joy filled holiday!
This is one of my recent coasters I finished just a few days before Christmas.

  Have a beautiful week, my dears!

One mini quilt = one pouch -- # 1

I made a few pouches for one of my friends. She wants to give them as Christmas presents.
Luckily the design was my choice.

I decided to make for the fronts of three of them three different mini quilts. But the fabrics from my stash have not encouraged at all my imagination, so I painted a few pieces of fabric and I started working.

Here is #1
I named it Surprise Mini quilt

I liked very much improvising this log cabin design using pieces of commercial fabrics and painted fabrics.The quilting is simple just to calm down a little the bright composition.

On the pouch back I inserted a line of zig-zag stitches, playing just a little bit with the zig-zag width.

  I have put all together and the pouch was ready in no time.

 Have a beautiful day, my dears!

Lovely Stocking Pattern for our gifts

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one starting the to-do sewing list for Christmas gifts.
If you are like me, you give so much attention to the gifts you are sewing, that almost always the time left for thinking about how to pack them is so limited that you end up making a last minute improvisation. Sometimes it turns out well but only sometimes, not always.
That's why this year I added on the list, next to each gift project, a very brief description of how I will pack it and I am trying to prepare ahead all I need for packaging.

Here is one project that could serve both as a gift and as a package to host a gift.

For those of you loving the folk style and wanting a fresh look for your traditional projects,  I listed again the Granny Stocking Pattern in my Etsy shop.
It will be listed for a limited time. So, if you like it and need it,  just take this opportunity.
If you want to learn more about the Granny Stocking Pattern, you might find useful this post.

Enjoy!
Have only beautiful sewing days, my dears!
Thank you for your support!

To give or not to give. About quilt giving

I have been trying to write this post for about three weeks. A lot of things interfered my blogging life and all I see now is the fact that I was out of here for about two months.
I kept working and I have a lot of projects to show you.
I will take the thread of my stories slowly, trying to get over the time gap.  

I chose for today an interesting subject from Kat's blog:
What are your thoughts on quilt giving?

If you have a little time to read or share your opinion about this subject, please follow the above link. 

The comments are as interesting as the post.

One single photo for today. The story about the project illustrated by it, in the next posts.

 Have a beautiful weekend, my dears!

Quilted and embroidered All-In-One Tablet Case

Drawing using the mouse on a daily basis is difficult for the wrist and time consuming. I know it from my own experience because I'm doing this for years.
Recently I went to the next level: using a graphic tablet. For now, my brain still believes it is a mouse pad and I tend not to go near the edges with the pencil, but it is so fun to see my doodle on the screen, that I'm sure I'll get used to it.
Because I don't need it all the time, I have to protect it from dust and scratches when standing aside. And so comes the reason to create a new sewing pattern.

All-In-One Tablet Case

I have not found in my closet fabrics to match it, so I quickly painted a piece of cloth. While it was drying, I had drawn and digitized a cat face. Don't ask me why a cat, it just came to me as I was drawing.

I embroidered...

...and quilted the front panel...

...I quilted the back panel and added my little label.

I even quilted a little ball of string for the cat. Do you see it? It's above the label.

"All-in-one" means that the case keeps inside not only the tablet but also the needed accessories, in this tricky zippered pocket.

And this is my All-In-One quilted and embroidered Tablet Case.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

How to finish the quilt - The Self binding method

I decided to try different methods for finishing the quilts. 

Until now, the only way I did this was sewing a folded in half strip of fabric around the outside of the quilt.

This time, I used the one known as the self-binding method.

Here are the steps I followed finishing my recent Forever Together quilt:

The quilt had the backing and batting wider than the top.

1. After I quilted it so that not overcome the edges of the quilt top,  I laid the quilt on the working table. Using the scissors, I trimmed first, the batting right to the edge of the top.

2. Then I trimmed the backing, 1" wider than the quilt top all around.

3. On one side of the quilt, I began folding the edge of the backing in half so that the raw edge lines up with the edge of the quilt top.

4. I folded it again so that overlapping the quilt top by ½ " and pinned in place.

5. At the corner, I folded the backing edge like in the photo below.

6. I continued on the next backing side, by folding it first in half ...

...and then folding it again in half, overlapping the quilt top by ½ " so that obtaining a neat mitered corner. I pinned it in place and I continued all the way around the quilt until I had the whole backing folded and pinned. 

7. I stitched close to the edge. 

And that was all.

Conclusions:

This method is good when: 

- you are sure that the quilt edges are straight because you can't square it up;  

- the backing fabric looks good next to the quilt top fabric, as it will be used for binding too; 

- you don't mind that the quilting stitches might be visible over the binding, on the back side of the quilt. In this regard, when quilting, backstitch when reaching the quilt top edges.

It is a quick and easy method to bind a quilt. You don't have to take out the quilt of the sewing machine, you don't have to join the ends of the binding.

I will use it again, for sure.

Have a beautiful sewing week, my dears!

Forever Together quilt

It's finally done!

The quilt edges are so wavy because of the wire fence pattern.

I name it "Forever Together", inspired by the lovely couple who will own it.
The design embodies an old traditional motif, the Tree of Life, which I gave a particular layout, making it out of two mirrored stylized trees, one composing the top half of the quilt and the other - the bottom half, as you look at the picture above.
This is The Marriage Tree and brings together His Tree of Life and Her Tree of Life (the two quilt's halves).
At least that was my vision, for the sake of quilt's aesthetics.

The quilt measures 72" x 86".
I chose to try binding it using the quilt back. It was so simple, fast and fun! I am sure I will use this method again.

I have a few conclusions arising out of using this method, but they will make the subject of a  future post.
The quilt is not heavy, despite its dimensions, due to the cotton batting.

For the first time, I used for quilting Aurifil thread 50 wt. My sewing machine liked it so much that there was no need of any special tension adjustment. The thread has not broken even once.

I also liked so much using this Aurifill thread that I was close to change the quilting design on the go, by adding a denser pattern. Eventually, I said to myself to let the things as I initially thought and to preserve the thread for a future project having a quilting design that will put it in better value.

Until next post,
Have only beautiful days, my dears!

I'm linking to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

A sneak peek of a new quilt

I'm about to finish a big quilt (72" x 86").
I just washed it and while it dries I will prepare the binding.

Of all stages of working on a quilt, I really love piecing, I'm not quite fond of quilting and I do not like at all binding.
I'm thinking about to try another method to finish this quilt. If so, my quilt will have white edges, as this is the backing's color. If I would choose the usual binding method, I would like to make it solid beige.
I'm still pondering over it.

A serious problem I have when making large quilts is handling them under the arm of my little sewing machine while quilting.

I designed the quilting pattern so that requires pushing the quilt mainly back and forth under the needle because almost the whole space is filled with the folded quilt, blocking the right-left or circular directions. That's why I used only straight and slightly curved quilting lines.

Moreover, I organized the process of quilting in sections, filling the space from the quilt's center towards the right edge, this way getting increasingly more space, by unfolding the quilt.
Oh, how hard it is to make yourself understood in a foreign language! I hope you understand something of what I described here.

I forgot to tell you how wonderful I feel while sewing, covered by the quilt hanging sides, at over 30 degrees Celsius (over 86 degrees Fahrenheit) in a lovely august day.

Back to work now.
Let's hope that the binding will go smoothly!

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

One of these days.....

My blog is a small virtual place. It is a window opened into a special side of my life: designing fabric objects.
Most of the day, I look for inspiration, draw, calculate, or test a new quilt block, a bag shape or a fabric toy pattern. Only a small number of them become finished objects or patterns. A lot of failures - only a  few worthing to be shown. Sad but true.
Sometimes, browsing on Pinterest, or Flickr, or the sites I'm following,  I feel like a snail on a highway when I discover that the quilt whose pattern I am working someone has already created, or someone else has already embodied a toy cuter than the one I am still polishing in my notebook....
But these are all part of the creative process, they are assumed risks. They mean that I might change my research perspective and refine my designing work.
That's why I don't post frequently. I like to keep the good spirit on the blog and to share only the mistakes from which I consider one would have to learn. Maybe I'm wrong. I will think about the blog posts subjects.

But what makes me really angry is that after all the hard work and frustrations, when I want to see  my blog statistics, I see again that I have nothing to do with them, because someone unknown deliberately messed up my data. Again. They think I am so stupid that they will drive me to believe my blog they keep inducing false inputs, needs just them to optimize it.
I promise not opening again the statistics page! It's useless.And depressive.

Have a beautiful day, my dear real readers!

Geta's Quilting Studio new website

Hello, my friends!

I have good news for you!

One of the most talented and creative quilters, Geta Grama, just launched her new website

 http://www.getasquiltingstudio.com/

Besides many ideas, free quilt designs, tutorials, and tips, you will find there her precise, detailed and clear patterns for quilts, bags, fabric boxes and for a lot of useful and quick projects.

Click here

Click here

Click here

You will not leave her website empty-handed.

Click here to access Geta's blog

I'm sure you will want to come back over and over again to her website. Geta is a good teacher too and you will learn a lot from her quality posts.
Keeping in touch with her  is super-easy and rewarding: if you will subscribe to her newsletters you will have access to a library with over 50 free designs and to other surprises that Geta prepares occasionally for her subscribers.

Go to convince yourselves!

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

Tenacious of Life - working on a new quilt design

My mom needs new decorative pillows. As I am working on a new quilt design, I took the opportunity to test it by making her a pillow cover . The only condition was to use assorted colors with the room.
I was happy with it, mainly because this meets one of my goals: creating designs equally suitable for objects intended for men. These colors were perfect from this point of view.

About the inspiration source: an old Romanian traditional rug.

About the name - Tenacious of life - it came into my mind quite easily. It's related to one of my favorite characters of the classic literature: Jane Eyre from the Charlotte Bronte's novel of the same name.

Mr. Rochester questioning Jane:

"You have been resident in my house three months?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you came from -- ?"
"From Lowood school, in -shire."
"Ah! a charitable concern. How long were you there?"
"Eight years."
"Eight years! you must be tenacious of life. I thought half the time in such a place would have done up any constitution!

And that was it!
I thought that nothing would be better than this name.

I have to see how this design will look by using other colors.
The tests must go on.
But first, let's finish my mom pillow cover!

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

I'm linking to Finish it up Friday!

Opposites Attract Blog Hop - Country Home pillow cover

This is the third day of the Opposites Attract blog hop, hosted by Marian, here.
The challenge is to use only three colors and keep the project under 35 x 50".
Here is my project:

Country Home pillow cover

pattern by Mihaela Alexandrescu (me)

17" x 17"

The first impulse was to express the theme through the colors: two complementary colors on the white background. But I liked too much how this warm green and navy blue looks together. Because they are both cold colors I expressed the complementarity in the way they participate to the layout: placing them symmetrically, facing each other.

When I designed the quilting I continued the theme, on the one hand, by alternating the straight lines with the curved lines and on the other hand, by alternating the surfaces with different quilting density.

The binding relaxes the whole composition. It gathers all the three colors but refuses the opposition. Even if it was also about attraction in there :) One corner is a little different than the others. No more symetry!

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't forget to check out the other participants of the blog hop!

June 03

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
A beautiful day (me)
MooseStash Quilting
Patchwork Breeze

Here are the giveaways offered by Marian:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

Opposites Attract Blog Hop

Today started Opposites Attract Blog Hop organized by Marian on her site Seams To Be Sew.

Here is the Full Schedule:

June 01
Tweety Loves Quilting
Quilt In A Not-Shell
Life in the Scrapatch
My Quilty Musings

June 02
DesertSky Quilting
RidgeTop Quilts
Words & Stitches
VROOMANS QUILTS

June 03
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
A beautiful day (me)
MooseStash Quilting
Patchwork Breeze

June 06
Ravelly1
Mary Mack’s Blog
Tea Time Creations
123 Quilt
Sew Many Yarns

June 07
ICANQUILT2
Marjorie’s Busy Corner
Finding myself as an artist
Seams To Be Sew

Check out these blogs to see the creative works of the participants and take advantage of the opportunity to win some goodies offered by the sponsors!

Have a beautiful day!

Urban Folk Quilt Pattern release

I am so happy to have this quilt pattern finished!

 I created the design inspired by a Romanian traditional handcrafted rug. In the same time, I wanted to get a quilt design suitable both for a girl and for a boy.For my tests, I chose the fabrics so that the quilt would go into a boy/man room. For the girl variant, I was pretty sure it would look fine. But for the boy variant, I had doubts. So I made these ones: here, here, here.

The quilt measures 16 ½" x 16 ½" before quilting and washing and it's scraps and strings friendly.

It's fast and easy to make. You need only a few hours to sew the quilt top. It's one of these perfect-weekend-projects.

The 19 pages of the pattern include:

-         instructions for cutting and preparing the units and piecing the blocks

-         detailed instructions and tips for piecing stripes without to bow once they are pieced together

-         step-by-step instructions for adding the binding

-         suggestions for layout variations

-         43 photos and diagrams

In order to give you an overall view of the pattern structure and to help you save time browsing, I inserted a Contents page right at the beginning of the pattern.

The materials needed are:

Top - four fabric fat quarters (you will not use them entirely);

Binding - one strip 2 ½ " x  80";

Backing fabric  -  19" x 19";

Batting - 19"x19"

Thank you, Kat, Bernie and Tessa for reviewing and testing the pattern! 

You have awesome souls and spirits!

The pattern is available in my pattern shop at a special price for a limited time.

To celebrate this launch, all my other patterns are also at a reduced price.

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

I am linking to Finish it up Friday!

Happy Scrappy Coasters

Yesterday.
I was too tired and bored. And I had a lot to do. I didn't know what to do first. And when I was just about to fall into the low spirit, a strong curiosity pushed me to the scraps box.
I forgot everything else and I started to piece a few of them and after a couple of hours, these four little coasters were done.

No stress, no thinking, no worries, nothing. Only playing. Pure playing.

I think, instinctively, my  brain chose the best therapy.

When I finished them I was so happy and fresh!

Maybe the saying "One nail drives out another" is true, after all.

Have a beautiful day, you too!

Linking to Finish it up Friday!