Doodle stitch along baby quilt

With the hustle and bustle of Diwali where i made a lot of stuff that i couldn't eat and went through the agony of watching people eat my stuff and pitying me.....i was caught up with a few family gatherings and engagements which lasted till last week. All through this i could only look at my fabric and my machine and sigh. I was then inspired by my neighbor and friend, whose duties include prodding and pushing me to quilt,  to make a baby quilt. Here it is - the kiddo kindly obliged to hold it up...

IMQG Swap and WIP

Things are picking up at the India Modern Quilt Guild.  After the buddy challenge we are onto the IMQG Swap. The partners are informed and everyone seems to be busy sewing. Everyone is being super secretive and I just cannot wait to find out who is doing what for whom! I know my partner so I have an idea what she would prefer and knowing her skills I know I am going to get something very beautiful.  I just cannot reveal what I have made for her but trust me I am dying to! So here’s a sneak peak. 

I am also in the middle of a project that i am absolutely in love with. I generally prefer to work with solids more than prints. A few days back i saw this quilt called the 1930's Summer perspective at the Moda Bake shop. I loved it so much that i couldn't get it out of my head. Coincidentally, i had all the fabric i needed in my stash. So here's the quilt top ready to be sandwiched and quilted. The kiddo has claimed this one for her own and has helped me a lot while working on this quilt. She named it as 'The Rainbow Quilt'.

A WIP baby Quilt

I am not so imaginative when it comes to quilting. I prefer making stuff that i like though i seldom copy any design as it is. Since i use everything that i make myself i do not have to deal with breaking any copyrights.  Why am i telling you all this? A few days back i found a this tutorial from Cara for a lovely baby quilt which i absolutely fell in love with. I also happened to have a charm pack of Robert Kaufman that matched with that quilt. Lucky me!  Here's a sneak peak. I will post more photos when the quilt is done! Meanwhile, i have to think of a name for this quilt. 

A mug rug for a friend!

I recently went out for lunch with a friend of mine. With my maid still doing the disappearing act i didn't get a lot of time to make something for her. So i decided on a simple mug rug. She said she liked it......!!! :)

Grey steps doll quilt

My daughter has for a while demanded a quilt for her Barbie's bed. This one is quilted and ready to bind. I had some beautiful green scraps left over from another doll quilt which i used with the grey. I love how it has turned out and obviously the kiddo loves it too. 

I used this tutorial for the pattern. 

My FNSI result

I know i am dreadfully behind this post however i can easily blame the kiddo's homework and the husband's work from home schedule for not getting any computer time :).

This is what i finished on last Friday. I am calling it the cutting corners quilt. I still have to take pictures of the back and the whole quilt together but here's something to give you an idea.

Time for FNSI again!

It is that time of the year when the kid is well fed and in a good mood and the husband is too busy with work to bother about fabric scraps strewn across the house. I have 2 projects that are almost complete and i am participating in the FNSI again for that reason (sneaky, i know!). Will reveal my finish on Saturday!. Do take a look at what others are doing as well! 

The Beginner's Quilt Along

Pat Sloan is one lady whom i admire. I have been following her work for ages now. So when i heard she is hosting the Beginner's Quilt Along i was excited. The blocks would be all fairly easy to make and i am sure they will give ample practice to people who are new to piecing. I have my hands full at the moment so i am a couple of blocks behind however i hope to catch up over this weekend. Do take a look!

A quick post!

This entire month has gone in a mad rush with relatives and engagements and dinners and parties. I just have the time to show you my first quilt that i actually charged for. It is a baby quilt with cushions ans i hope baby Malhar loves it as much as his parents have. More on this later.......for now....just the snaps.

I am off to shop for my daughter's birthday party. Do let me know if you like this one.....being the first custom quilt i am feeling rather proud of myself :).

Yay! My very first blog award!

I have been awarded the Libster Blog Award by Chumkie Mukerjee. Thank you dear lady! 

This award is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers. As you can see, i am well below that mark :). 

The Rules for this award are -

1. Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them.
2. Pick 5 blogs who have 200 followers or less and pass on the award to them.
3. Leave a comment on their blog informing them of the same.
4. Post the award on your blog.

All i have to do now is to pass it on to 5 deserving bloggers.

Here's my pick -

1. Riddhi Kapoor at I Made It!!.
2. Elvira at Chez Vies.
3. Shweta at Scribbling Pad.
4. Sayali at My World Today.
5. Ishani at Moments of Life.

Congratulations to all the new recipients of the Liebster Blog Award!

Small steps

When i renovated my home i had packed this little one away with my other quilting stuff. I thought i would hang it where i can see it now so that i remember to quilt a bit each day! So it will stay in my kitchen....that's the place where i am most of the day. I love the scraps that went into it and i have saved bits of all those fabrics to use again. The binding fabric is part of what i have used for the backing. It is what i picked up from my mom's stash when i went visiting her last. 

IMQG Meet, Pune and the Good Times!

I must be the last one to talk about the meet!. Facebook is buzzing with the news of the meet and the discussions about the wonderful time we had. What i liked personally was that feeling of oneness that only one single hobby brought into us. We just didn't feel like we didn't know each other. The bonding was instantaneous and wonderful! We were a bunch of girls out to have fun and we did have lots of it! The lovely Bernina machines, the yummy fabric, the giggling, chatting to glory without bothering whose listening to whom.......all this was so refreshing. And the icing on the cake was the bundle of Snuggles that i won! :)

IMQG Meet in Pune

       
Contact: Ms.Shruti Dandekar +91 9423873055                                   For immediate release
Ms Tina Katwal +91 9551655776                                                          indiamqg@gmail.com
  

MODERN QUILTING COMES TO INDIA IN A BIG WAY

India chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild to hold its first meet

The Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) with over 100 chapters across the globe makes its entry into India with an All India Meet at Pune from 20th to 22nd April, 2012.  Its mission is to support and encourage the growth and development of modern quilting through art, education, and community.

Modern quilting is a new and rapidly growing movement in the quilting world. A group of quilters applied their current tastes and points of view to this traditional craft and shared their work online.  Their fresh approach and new designs attracted sewers and quilters and the modern quilting movement was born. Modern quilting, like all art, changes, grows and adapts from quilter to quilter as they find their own voice.

Though Modern quilting has its roots in rebellion and the desire to do something different, its feet are firmly planted in the field of tradition. The MQG developed out of the thriving online community of modern quilters and their desire to start meeting in person. The founding guild was formed in Los Angeles in October of 2009. Through blogs and the Internet, word spread quickly of the fun they were having and soon guilds started popping up everywhere.

          The India MQG was launched initially with just a Facebook page in Sep 2011 and has grown from 3 to 142 members in a short span of 8 months. The members are a diverse group of mostly women, young and old, experienced and novice, all bound by their common love for quilting and united in their struggles due to lack of quilting-specific tools and materials in a non-quilting country. The mission of the IMQG is to change all that. It aims to provide a platform for sharing ideas, skills, resources on  quilt making, to encourage quilt making as an art form as well as a profession, to nurture India’s traditional quilting heritage and showcase it to the world and to give something back to society through the ‘Nimble fingers, Noble threads’ project.    

The IMQG meet includes a  formal session by the office bearers followed by 3 days of workshop and fun activities. There are training sessions for beginners as well as advanced quilters, show and tell sessions, challenges, etc. There are also exciting prizes on offer by Bernina and Fat Quarterly among others. The venue is : House of Laptops, 6&7 Tilak Road, Sadashiv Peth, Pune-30. To join the meet or guild, contact : Ms.Shruti Dandekar at +91 9423873055 or Ms.Tina Katwal at +91 9551655776 or email indiamqg@gmail.com.   

The hustle and bustle in my life and IMQG updates

There is so much activity happening around me that my mind is struggling to cope with all.

There are a few reasons to celebrate though  - 

1. The IMQG's first ever meet in Pune will happen from April 20th to 22nd. I am super excited about it since it will benchmark the beginning of an exciting period for all the quilters in India (I don't see any male quilters in the group yet.......but i am hopeful! :)). When we started the Guild we didn't honestly have an idea that we would have more than a hundred members so soon!!

2. My home finally looks livable after a month of cement and sand and broken flooring. Trust me, renovating the house 'sounds' like a lovely idea. When it becomes reality....it is a nightmare. What with a spouse whose working hours start extending miraculously the day the workers start pulling up the flooring......and the kid chooses the same couple of weeks to fall ill.......well...you get the picture.

3. This is something i look forward to every April....my birthday! Next Sunday! I have always had a great fascination for the day and i ensure that everyone around me is aware of my birthday :). Even my almost 4 year old daughter isn't half as excited as me about getting birthday presents.

All in all, no time for quilting or even picking up the cutter or fabric. I intend to finish of Madhu's block for the IMQG block party first as soon as i find the box with my quilting tools. Check out the block party details.....it is fun! 

Sneak peak in my life...

I sincerely hope people are wondering about my absence in the blog land. If not, well..... i will still give you an account of what i am up to. Since this year has begun the kiddo has caught cold so many times that her staple diet now consists of cold medications and cough syrups. On the home front.....the flooring of my home had for a while steadily started puffing. When i say puffing....i mean puffing. It feels like walking between mounds of floor. Like we do everything else....we thought for a while about how to tackle the problem. It was finally decided to bring in a contractor and get a professional opinion. We then had a string of contractors telling us that the flooring needed to be replaced. So we then decided to go tile hunting however the kiddo and DH again  caught the cold virus and were down for a couple of days. So i am the only one left to think about the problem and to plan the next step. Whew!!! Now you know how busy i am. 

I had decided on completing one project a month hoping to make a slow dent in my WIP's. I failed to keep my vow for the moth of Feb which means i will have to finish 2 projects in March to catch up with my resolution. :) Do you do the same? I did manage to get something crafty done though. The kiddo's school is holding an arts and craft exhibition. Which means the parents make whatever is required and the kids are only expected to figure out what their parents have done. I made a veggie stall and happily Ira could recognize most of the veggies. 

Purple doll quilt

I absolutely love purple. This purple hand loom fabric was sitting in my stash for around a couple of years. So was this charm pack. I had a sudden inspiration yesterday while i was doing other mundane stuff around the house and voila! here's the result of that inspiration. :) I can now proudly say that i can finish a project in a day. The DH liked the quilt, which was a first. He also asked me very sweetly when the inspiration would strike me again......which i think was a bit sarcastic. Regardless, i am happy and i have vowed to finish atleast one more WIP this week. That will perhaps make a tiny dent in my stack of WIP's. Fingers crossed! :)

Resolutions and resolves to keep them.

Very early in my childhood, it learnt that it is a norm to make new year resolutions every January. As i grew older i also learnt (mostly from my own experiences) that most of these resolutions....normally made under the euphoria of a new year party or other influencing emotions....are never kept. I had, therefore, very prudently given up making resolutions. This year though, i have decided to play smart and make resolutions that i know i will keep. So here's my list - 

1. Finish all the WIP's from the last year. 

2. Learn to piece perfectly.

3. Learn to bake.

Now that's what i call doable resolutions. :)