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Where was I going with that last post…

Oh yeah, I’ve been up to some craftiness. Aside from the fibre crafts, I dabble in the sewing arts. I’m the most comfortable hand stitching, because I don’t know all the variables and work arounds when using my sewing machine. I also have a surger, but have no idea how to fix it or adjust any of the settings. Threading that thing is hard enough.

I’d really love to quilt however, and Mary of Ariadne has offered to help me figure it out. It’s something I’m actually more comfortable with than sewing my own clothes, because it makes sense, however there are several guidelines and ways of going about it which I am utterly unfamiliar with. Last year, when the SOs mom came to visit from moving back from Central Asia, I asked her to bring me back some fabric prints. She asked me what kinds of fabric I liked and all I could think of was “colourful!” Three 2m pieces cotton linen (I think) blends came my way in medium/large floral and flourish patterns. They are colourful, but not exactly bright… In fact, one of the pieces was almost impossible to imagine making a pretty quilt… but, alas, a shopping trip up to the fabric district of Montreal actually produced a possibility. There is no way a quilting shop would have produced the same result, as I would have been too busy perusing the typically pretty/modern/abstract prints and my favourite colourways. 5 hours making my way up and down St-Hubert street produced only a few little prints of a particularly cool palette (I’m usually a much warmer, much funkier girl when it comes to colours), but all in all was a success. I even found the vinyl I had been craving to make a notebook cover.

Behold the one unredeamable print — redeemed! Dark green with bright yellow flourishes and pink and red flowers. Alone… Ugh, but with some bright solids to offset, I am seeing a very simple quilt top (the top half yellow, a strip or two of pink, then the lower portion in the print) with honeycomb all over quilting. It will be my practice quilt.

The other two prints from Kyrgyztan. My fave is the top one.

Some 1/4 yards found at C&M Fabrics on St-Hubert (4.50$ a yard)

Larger quantities from C&M

An idea for the quilt top using my favourite Kyrgyz print. Not my regular palette, but not so bad.

I wish I had a macro lens, but I’ll have to settle for Photoshop right now.

I think these two together will make a fabulous backside to this quilt. I am so ready to get quilting.

My awesome prototype of a notebook cover. It’s super soft and the magnet closure works quite well, although the pen slit (in the flap) and the flap itself are too small. I added a back ‘pocket’ to insert the smaller Moleskine cahier into, since it’s a touch smaller than the A5 notebooks I’ve been using. And yes, I finally picked up a second ring to bind the notebook.

Tags: sew