Where do you live? Currently I'm living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We've been her for 2.5 years for my husbands work. We have one more year to go before we move back to Maine, where we are from. We really have mixed emotions about moving back. Some days I just can't wait to get back!
Tell us about your family... My amazing husband James and I have been married for six years. We have two little girls, ages 3 and 5. The five year old just started kindergarten and is going to an all French school, so we are having some trouble adjusting to that! I'm a stay ya home mom now but back in the US I was a nurse, which is how I met my husband. His wonderful stepmother set us up!
Amazing, right?
Tell us how you got started in quilting...
I had my mind set to make a little dress for my first born. She must have been about four months old. It came out a little rough around the edges! I should have kept it but didn't and she never even wore it. After that, I was hit with the sewing bug and started piecing my first quilt. I made a hue zig zag quilt without a pattern. It's awesome and I still use it!
This is still my favorite though..
How do you organize your stash?
It's a mess! We have two houses in two different countries...so of course I have two stashes! This picture is of my itty bitty Maine stash. Since we don't spend that much time there right now I keep it small. Just enough to play with when I'm bored. I don't have a photo of my Canadian stash at the moment...like I said, it's a mess!
Who is your favorite fabric designer?
I honestly don't have one. I love almost all fabric accept for really "old school" fabrics. Not a fan of typical country prints. I LOVE vintage sheets and use them a lot as backings. They are the softest fabric out there! I'm currently working on an all vintage sheet queen size quilt.
What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool?
I started using my girlies hair clips to hold binding on while I sewed it down. They are fantastic and work just as well as the expensive clips made for quilts (which I also have).
Who is your favorite fictional character and why?
I go through lots of favorites. I tend to like characters that are the opposite of my own personality. I tend to be quiet, some people say a bit shy. So I love an outgoing and strong female role. I don't watch much tv but some of my favorite female characters are from The Good Wife. I also love Nurse Jackie, since I'm a nurse...I don't agree with her choices however!
Ok so on to my block...
I would love for everyone to sew a 16 inch crazy quilt block. Here is a tutorial if you've never made a crazy quilt. Crazy Quilt Block
One of my daughters has a hand made quilt and the other does not. So this will be for a 5 year old girl. Because of that I would like to keep the colors very pastel. And I would like all low volume. I've used a lot of white in the blocks I've made so far. White on whites are looking great. A bit of gray is alright just not too much..and we love fabrics with text. As far as colors go; pale pinks, peach, pale green, pale blue, white and yellow/gold are all great!
Here's a picture for color inspiration (this is NOT the block however).
Here's how I put together a crazy quilt block;
The first step is to gather a bunch of scraps. Most sizes will work. The pieces in the picture above are about 2-5 inches. This is a great scrap buster!
The next step is to start sewing random pieces together. Sew them right side to right side. Iron toward the dark fabric.
Different shapes of fabric work really well. It doesn't matter if the sizes that you sew together don't match because at this point we'll trim. Use a ruler to create straight edges.
Keep adding scraps of fabric to any edge until you've reached approximately 16 inches. I will square up the blocks when I receive them.
The following is one that I've worked on today.
Feel free to add embellishments or decorative stitching. I enjoy adding ribbon/lace to the seems.
Enjoy! Have fun with this one!
Fun seeing my pillow as color inspiration!
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