x y z

..waiting anxiously for holiday goodies to come in the post.. Mail man is having trouble delivering parcels on time with snow cover everywhere.

Granny is busy busy sweeping and scrubbing, making the house sparkle with holiday decorations. Then there is baking to do and presents to wrap.. so much to do in so little time!

I am kind of cheating with letter 'Y'. . showing a sail boat and telling everyone, it is a Yacht :/ 

Snowing can be a hindrance to postman but not to little boys who insist on visiting zoo even in the thick of winter! 

I am piecing sashing strips with cuddly characters and text prints in place of corner stones. Maybe when I see you in the New year I will have a quilt top ready to show you :)

It seems fitting to finish this year with X Y Z s. Thank you for cheering me all along ( * v * )
Instructions for making these alphabets are on Temecula Quilt Company blog.

Wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and peaceful holidays ♫♫♫

scrappy string quilt top

We are waking up to see either rain or snow every day. Only these scrappy strings are saving me from becoming dull and sleepy. Sewing these colorful blocks really brightened my mood and I am able to ignore the grey sky outside.

Isn't this blue fisherman the cutest! It is one of the scraps sent by my dear friend, Beverly. As I was putting the blocks together, I kept spotting her adorable scraps, and thinking how special they make this quilt.

Beverly is the kindest sweetest soul one could imagine.. more I get to know her, more I realize what a rare gem she is! Her cheerful patchwork style is so unique and amazing! I easily drop everything to simply sit and gawk at her projects. She is a great inspiration for me! Thank you, Beverly!! ( ' u ' )

With 12 string X blocks of 14" size, it is a small quilt, only 41" x 55". I like the casual way these X's are spread out, so I am thinking of leaving the quilt top as it is without adding borders.

The blocks are slightly wobbly due to the stretchy linen I used for the background. I am hoping it won't be a problem when the quilting is done ;)

It only takes a few stolen moments to make this quilt, so simple and relaxing to sew. I am excited to see a good dent in the string pile too! Pattern for this quilt is on Quiltville blog.

Thank you for visiting! Have a wonderful weekend! ( ' v ' )

little letters

Nap time is a struggle for Chutki.. a friend made this tiny cute quilt to tempt her to sleep ..zzz

I couldn't decide between pig and panda since both are equally cute and tempting, in the end Panda managed to sneak in to this letter and Pig is noticeably miffed at my choice.

A long Queue to see the Queen in the castle.. she seem to be popular with not just people but also their pets.. I see that their patience is wearing thin from waiting, Pig is rushing to go in and duck found something more interesting at the back of the line ;)

Mm.. should I snatch that carrot and run or should I swap it with a strawberry...

Owl in an old tree.

I am planning this quilt for a little girl and her baby brother, I thought this Seesaw print is perfect for the S block.

Looks like it is going to rain, I better take my Umbrella with me. I adore this fabric. It is one of the scraps Ayumi sent me sometime back.

Vegetables, fresh and healthy right to your door step, truck comes every Tuesday, don't forget! 

Only a handful of letters left to make for this quilt along. I am going to miss making tiny blocks that are done in a snap with instant satisfaction! :)

 Have a Merry month of December! Eat lots of green vegetables to stay away from colds and coughs! ( * v * )

Happy Holidays!

Make time for a cup of tea to rest and refresh during holiday rush.. 

Wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving and happiest of holidays! ( ' v ' )

Scrapitude mystery quilt

Here is the mystery scrap quilt in its completed state.. after patiently waiting for almost a year, it is suitably rewarded with quilting and binding.. I can almost hear its sigh of relief :)

The only reason I believe it got finished is due to a long arm quilting class I recently took. Quilting large quilts on my small sewing machine is getting bothersome. I could clearly sense the danger of quilt tops stacking up if the same situation continues.

I thought I will just take this class and see if I am up to any good. My first trial on a practice piece provided by our teacher was really hopeless. My hands were shaky and shoulders were tense and being watched by a number of friendly, equally anxious eyes in the class made me even more nervous. My quilting went all over the place except where it should be!

My second trial another day went a little better than I expected. Spending some lone time with the machine helped me to know it slightly better and having a cheerful teacher close by was a lovely bonus to loosen up.

Our teacher Laurena @ Laurena Longarm quilting is an amazing person, so sweet always with a ready smile and limitless patience. As I could guess from the few times I was there, she is very busy with quilting work she does for customers, but when someone happens to rent a Longarm machine to use, she puts all her personal work aside and gives priority to helping the quilter. She is really like a fairy with an invisible ring over her.

I did feel guilty to hog her time plenty of times but Laurena is always smiling with an encouraging word and makes us laugh with her sweet sense of humor soothing away any anxieties on our part. If you are around Boston, planning to learn Long arm quilting, I would highly recommend taking a class from her ( ' u ' )

I chose a butterfly design called Angel wings and picked a light yellow thread to hide my irregular quilting and beginner mistakes. On the whole, quilting went smoothly. After 3 or so rows, I became more comfortable with moving the long arm even if my quilting was only up to a low standard. Selecting a thread that blends into the background was a good idea ;)

My friend is a school teacher, she loves anything bright and cheery, so I pieced this apple print and a green chalk board print for the back. Quilt size is 83" x 83".  Her Birthday is next month, so I am excited to finish it just in time and mail it to her.

Charlotte who designed Scrapitude mystery quilt last year is planning another mystery called 'Scrap in a box ' to start in January. She already gave cutting instructions which are posted on her friend Sandy's blog if you are interested. Charlotte is a genius at making beautiful quilts with scraps.. on popular demand, she started a blog to share her delightful quilts and clever tricks to manage our own scraps. It is going to be a great chance to learn from her. Thank you, Charlotte!! 

A huge thanks to Sandy for organizing first round of mystery quilt along, introducing her dear friend Charlotte to us!! ( ' u ' )

Diwali friendship road / Corduroy road

A very pretty pink quilt arrived in Spring sweeping me off my feet with its beauty as well as the generous spirit of a friend it contained.. I still can't believe this sweetie has come to live with us and keeping us extra warm lately. Thank you very much Candace, I can only imagine the amount of care and affection that went into every stitch you put into it, not to mention hours of planning, plotting and sewing!!!

Knobs and grooves of corduroy, cotton candy colors, a gorgeous green print combined with Candace's incredible paisley quilting, this quilt has so many lovely layers both for the eyes and to the touch., too beautiful to describe but I am sorry that I failed to capture it in the pictures. 

When Candace explained the Diwali inspiration for this quilt and the Indian connection it has, I was deeply moved to the core. Please visit Squash house quilts to read about it in Candace's own words, since I know very well I won't be able to do proper justice if I attempt to spell out the special meaning behind it. 

I am falling short of words to express even my own emotions here.. to say the least, I am doubly flattered and humbled that this quilt evolved from the creativity and hard work of two friends I admire and cherish! 

Corduroy road quilt pattern is another of Stephanie's brilliant ideas. Being such a big block, it allows the prettiness of fabric to shine through, provides a playground to experiment with colors or show off stunning quilting designs like Candace did.

Stephanie is one of the first friends who nudged me gently towards starting a blog all those years ago and ever since then she stayed by my side with her unwavering encouragement. Soon after that, I was lucky to meet Candace and some wonderful friends who opened up my world to a much happier brighter spot. It warms my heart to think that by coincidence, the name of this quilt also reflects the friendship road I've taken ( ' u ' )

Thank you Stephanie, Candace for all the love you shower on us, Kalyan and I are going to be enjoying this quilt for many many years collecting nice memories along the way, thinking of you and what a blessing you have been in our lives!!!

Stephanie shared a mesmerizing green and blue version of this quilt on her blog, the colors she chose and the intricate quilting done by her very talented quilter are pure magic!!
Corduroy road quilt pattern is available on Connecting threads website.

Thank you to all my great friends, Love you soooo much!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

scrappy strings

It's a growing problem to keep up with scraps that sneakily take over space in the sewing room. Most of the bigger pieces found a place in my Scrapitude quilt last year, but with strings I had no idea what to do with their odd sizes. 

After looking around for a simple mindless sort of project I came across String-X pattern by Bonnie Hunter on Quiltville blog and loved the concept of foundation piecing the strings. There are lot of tissue papers lying around the house, so I just cut them into 4.5" x 10.5" rectangles and started sewing the strings on to the paper. Tutorial is here, if you want to check it out :)

After string piecing, I have around 56 of these units. It's a content feeling to see the pile of strings getting smaller and smaller. There are still a bunch of leftovers but they happily fit in a ziplock bag, it won't be long before they are bulging out again, right! ;)

And there is this pesky linen which was bothering me. Though it looks innocent in the picture, it is somewhat stretchy and slippery and not at all suitable for precise piecing. I got it randomly online and was not very cheap. So I felt this might be a quilt that could welcome it openly.. keeping fingers crossed that the blocks will fit reasonably well ;)
I haven't cut the background pieces yet, maybe I will do some of this work today.

Thank you for stopping by, stay warm and have a great weekend! ( ' u ' )

L for Little letters

Wednesdays and Sundays are favorite days of the week lately because a new Letter pops up on Temecula blog on these days.

Sewing the block in this quilt along is like munching on a potato chip, only lasts for a brief blissful moment in the mouth and not possible to pause in the middle without emptying the whole packet ;)

There is also some tension in this process, because I keep thinking if I have the right fabric suitable for that alphabet or not.

Luckily, I was able to cover for the letters until now and also discovering fabrics that I almost forgot about.

Like this fat quarter with kitchen theme, I haven't noticed a Jar of Jam on it before., I felt a relief to find it!

I am also having fun making up silly stories in my head like this Little lamb who lost its way during a treasure hunt. I really hope there is a happy ending to the story.

Mouse family is too busy preparing for milk and cheese breakfast to notice anything else, their life is so simple and salty!

Salty is only for mouse who loves cheese! For you, I wish for sweet cinnamon scents, pumpkin pies, 

and a Hauntingly Happy Halloween!!! (^ W ^)

Apple picking quilt

Apple picking quilt in butter cream, and sunny yellow patches is ready to flap its wings to a new home.   ( ^ v ^ )

We missed going to the farm to pick apples this year, but looking at the bunnies, farm house and fruit trees in this quilt gave me lot of the same enjoyment.

I can almost smell crisp green apples on trees, hear the sounds of ripening red apples falling to the ground, rustle in the bushes where bunnies are hiding and also lively piglets snorting and chomping in their pen..

Fluffy blue clouds passing along and bright balloons floating above make it more fun to be outdoors for the visitors.

Elephants are busy busy filling the trolleys with fruit, only these turtles are having the luxury to stare at the colorful sky.

Even worms are sneakily munching away on the apples. Before we can count 1, 2, 3.. a whole apple is gone! When I found a Shinzi Katoh linen tape with green apples in my trim box, I got excited and appliquéd it here on the side. I think the farmer might be really sad to see that :(

For the side borders and sashing I used Nani Iro Pocho, it has silver dots on pale lavender. I tried few options for the binding, but only this Nani Iro stripe in shades of red and pink felt right. These two fabrics are cotton double gauze. Backing fabric is tiny red dots on white. 

The focus print that I cut out squares from is by Puti de pome. It is a linen cotton mix and slightly thicker than regular cotton. Border print is also another Japanese import fabric but I am not sure of the maker. 

Quilt size is around 42" x 50".  ( ' u ' )

Thank you for stopping by! Hope you have a great start into week!

laying out bricks

I am working a new job as a brick layer, in this minute coated in cement and dirt from the repairs I am doing on an old wall.

With its moss covered bricks, layers of peeling paint, weeds in the cracks, fading posters, and love messages.. it carries plenty of emotions and hidden stories about the previous owners and people who walk past this wise wall in their daily lives.

I am using lot of Heather Ross prints and some Japanese favorites in this quilt. 

Clover fork pins that I came across at Jo-Anns are making it easy for setting the seams together. They are quickly becoming my trusty companions for piecing.

ABC's for 'Little letters' quilt along so far. I am enjoying coming up with interesting characters for each alphabet. I wish I could spend my time freely in a garden like this lively girl with her watering can and a shovel. But both my plants and I are shrinking down from the cold wind blowing this week!

I didn't forget my apple quilt though, I will get back to it soon., maybe after I get over this itch to be a brick mason for a bit ;)

Have a sunshiny October! ( '  u  ' ) 

happy harvest

Elephants are working hard, harvesting apples and pears while their friend, Turtle seems content to watch with no intention to help! Her eyes are only for the fruit ;)

And a happy sky with balloons floating on the top. After adding borders, I noticed there is no batting for this baby quilt. I am hoping it will come in the mail next week. 

In the mean time, I am playing with Little letters for an Alphabet quilt along at Temecula Quilt company blog. These blocks are tiny at 4.5". They are so easy and quick to sew. I hope you can join in the fun ( ' u ' )

Have a lovely weekend!