Hi Ladies, thought I would share a quilting tutorial of one of my favourite techniques: Chenille. For those of you who have never tried this or who don't know of it...enjoy.

1) Use contrasting fabrics to get a good effect. Mine are blue, beige, blue reversed, orange marble, beige b, stiff interfacing, dupioni silk with fuse right side face down as this is my lining. You don't need the interfacing if you are using the chenille blocks in a quilt. I based this tutorial on my new Scissor Keeper pattern and kit (to come)

Line the edges of your fabrics up in a nice pile, mark "X" with choco-liner

Sew the cross lines then begin to sew the chenille lines using your foot as your width guide

finish each quadrant the same way

Once you are done sewing, cut in between each sewn line, in all sections in all quadrants. You will need the sharpest scissors you own as you will be cutting through the top 4 layers. Again, if you are doing these chenille blocks for a quilt you not use interfacing and you will cut through all top layers.

Rinse really well in cool water (if using silks) or warm water if using cottons, you want this to be completely soaked make sure you get every layer. Dry, you may want to add this to a load of clothes so there is some substance in the dryer to help the chenille process.

Here's what it looks like once washed and dried - don't you just love it!! It's so warm and cozy :)

Have I got you inspired?

Here's projects I've completed using this technique, some of you might have seen: 

for my niece who loves cats.

monthly embroidery project that I added the chenille too.

My newest pattern, Chenille Scissor Keeper with matching needle keeper

This set is for my Mum, which she loved!

for my SIL, and she loved this also...

Any questions, just email.

Hi Ladies, this post is going back to Christmas because I have to share with you the quilty goodness stuff that I received for our family "home-made" Christmas.

Say "hi" to Joey from my in-laws

Chenille pot-holders from my Mum

this wasn't from this Christmas but a few years ago from my Mum, cute hey?

Here's my Inchie Quilt for the swap I did through quilting gallery, look at the beading.

here's the cute bag my Inchie came in

a new Singer from my Sister Lisa, to add to my collection...I think that's 6 antique sewing machines...

This is what my SIL made for Tig - what a nice Auntie  :)

my SIL made this skinny-minnie quilt for me...and my BIL made the candle - sitting on the back of my toilet for the holidays - Love it!

how adorable is this? A thread spool holder complete with magnet for your needle from my Aunt in Law, Karen and Reg. It was in the same box as a beautiful collectors silver dish...unfortunately I like this better :)

and Tig, sitting in her favourite chair on her favourite faux fur blankie...thanks MIL.

Until next time...have a happy & creative day,

Hi Ladies, how's everyone today? I've been listening to a pile of podcasts lately and loving all of the good information on them. Allison Rosen just interview Jennifer from CraftSanity and it was soo good.

I love getting to know all of you in this huge online world, more personally. Thus my e-interviews. I have quite a few ladies that I have asked and they have accepted...just waiting for their little write ups and I'll be posting all about THEM!! If you want to be e-interviewed just let me know!!

So...I've taken this amazing fabric painting class with a wonderful teacher, Ana Buzzalino. I painted only one other time in my life on a hard piece of canvas (I'm not sure where that art piece is today...) with my Grandma when I was about 7 maybe, in acrylics.

Anyway, I wanted to learn a new technique and that, I did! Check out my Masterpiece - I'm so proud...it was a day that started out with some frustrations trying to get my head around this painting thing, mixing colours, added water to the right thing - paint not brush- and remembering where the light is coming from...but about halfway through the day we started enjoying ourselves and look at how it turned out.

Here's the 3 of us that sat together and enjoyed the day learning this amazing new technique

Our finished pears...what do you think? Could you do this? Would you like to try this? If you are in the Calgary area and would like to take a class, email me and we'll set one up. Also, for those of you who are taking the class May 29th - please tell a friend. We have space for 15 or so and about 8 are taken.

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I've also completed two of the cutest birthday presents (Chenille Scissor & Needle Keeper) I've made to-date...well except Gracie's Quilt!!

my Mum's

My SILs

Which one do you like better? What colour scheme would you prefer?

I'm just in the process of finishing up a free chenille tutorial, pattern & kits - so stay turned to learn a great technique.

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I'm also working on getting my Freebie 15 block...98 pieces. I've cut two blocks wrong and had to re-piece then proceeded to cut one of these two wrong again...can you say "frustrating" and now I can't seem to get them to fit...so I've put it aside for the moment. I have to have it done by Friday morning at 9:30...I'm sure some of you can relate.

Here's my most recent pizza box, I can say I'm not the biggest fan of the batiks never mind with this lovely metallic fleck added to the design - it's so hard to sew through...any suggestions? I do however, like the way it turned out in the end :)

(can you tell I love this block design?)

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Here's Tig waiting for me...well I think she's waiting but she's just catching some zzzzzz's :)

she always seems to have her socks on her feet perfectly matched up - little cutie.

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Until next time, have a happy & creative day & please pass my blog on and leave a comment :)

PS...

THANKS to all of you ladies who signed up for Journey of a Quilter - I'm at 20 people, the cut off is this Sunday (17th). So for those of you who've procrastinated...your time is running out and I would LOVE for you to join me...For those interested in Kitten's Tale I'm still accepting sign-ups for another couple of weeks or so...so let me know if you want to be added to the contact-signups sheet and you'll be notified when the BOM is ready to start :)