Flowers in my garden

Finished quilting this beauty for a client. I can't believe this is her first quilt. The stitching is so neat and the blocks, perfect.

Did lots of free motion quilting on this one after some SID around the green 'paths'; lotus buds in each of the four corners inside the squares and stippling all around them. I used the BSR, the patented Bernina Stitch Regulator, and it made the FMQ-ing so so so smooth. I must've saved boatloads in terms of effort and energy expended! And no shoulder pain ! I don't think I ever, EVER want to do FMQ without the BSR. Ever !

Finished the border with multiple wavy lines, done with a walking foot.

 

 

It has the most amazing texture and its a piece I can finally say I am proud of. Every quilt I do usually leaves me a wee bit dissatisfied, but this one, I'm pretty happy with ! :-)

 

Happy quilting ! Or whatevering !

 

Around the World Blog Hop

Hellooo, people of the World ! I am participating in the “Around the World Blog Hop” that's been going around and have been tagged by the absolutely wonderful Carol, the Happy Turtle. She is one of the earliest bloggers from India who stepped into blogosphere and, in fact, has a second blog dedicated to quilting in India, called, well, 'Quilting in India'.

The Blog Hop needs me to answer a few questions and if text bores you, please feel free to skip straight to the much more interesting pics :-)

1. What am I working on? 

Since I JUST finished this adorable quilt for a friend's 6 year old son who is a huge Lego fan, I guess I am working on 'putting up the pics on the blog' ! Surely, that counts :-)

The center panel is resized and adapted from the tute by 'Designed by Mom'.



The backing fabric was perfect for a li'l boy, with monsters, dinos and motorbikes.



The young man looks pretty happy I'd say :-)




I am working on the awesome and challenging MMDQ (Madhu Mathur-Desi Quilters) BoM and here's my first block.



Whilst I gather the courage to start the second one, in the meantime, I hope to make companion placemats to this lovely commissioned Christmas Table Runner. (pattern inspiration - Pinterest)






Maybe this year I will have some Christmas Tree Skirts ready for the store, 'The Square Inch'. The Studio, meanwhile, has been busy hosting Sewing, Quilting, Pouch Making and Zentangle Workshops.






And I have been busy hopping between cities holding demos and impromptu sew-ins.








Oh, forgot...we need to move on to question #2 !

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

Having a Bernina showroom with a creative centre attached makes my work kinda different. I now look forward to learning from the great masters and in turn enjoy helping other quilters find their wings.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

 'coz I don't know any better and the day I do, I'll write/create better.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

Starts with a germ of an idea..usually a nagging, irritating one. And it won't go away until I start chopping fabric. Sometimes I do a rough sketch to do the math but its mostly improv. I let it take me where it wants to. Sometimes its absolute genius and sometimes, pure stupidity.

So, thanks for visiting. My turn to tag two other bloggers. Do visit their blogs and you'l be happy you did. Trust me.

Tagging the lovely and multi-talented Madhu who blogs at 'Betukbandi', and, the very dynamic and very creative Shruti who blogs at 13 Woodhouse Road.

Both ladies are extremely skilled sewists and can turn a mere thought into fabric art.

Happy blog hopping !

Pink Posies 1

As promised in my previous post, here's a look at 'Pink Posies 1'. Of course it didn't have a numeral at the end of its name then !

Size 48"x60"













Nice? Glad those orphan pinwheels found a place :-).

Pink Posies - 2

This is totally dumb. I just named my latest quilt Pink Posies 2. Yes, there was a Pink Posies 1 and I am JUST realizing that I never got around to posting the pics on the blog ! Shame on me ! Will do it tomorrow.

Anyway, a dear friend of mine was going though my quilt pics on Facebook and decided she wanted something like Pink Posies 1 for her daughter and asked me if I could make her one. Well, yes and no. I like trying out different techniques and styles and try to make no two quilts alike. So using that one (pic tomorrow, promise) as an inspiration, I made this one as I wanted to try out my brand new Dresden Ruler.





Four flowers, a couple of buds, a couple of pretty butterflies, some swaying blades of grass and its a perfect quilt for a li'l girl.







Love the texture created by the FMQed grass..











Diagonally pieced back to incorporate the princess fabric that my friend loved. A word of advice for those wanting to attempt a diagonal pieced back - DON'T. It gave me such a hard time !

Appliqued the li'l darling's name on the back.




Even put my label there! First time :-)



Here it is in all its glory in my studio. Love love love !

Fussy Love

Ever since I made this block for one of the Bees of my FB group 'Desi Quilters', I've been wanting to do a full quilt in those colours (yes, orange and pink, don't laugh) and that pattern (Denyse Schmidt's Drunk love in a log cabin, again, don't laugh).

I am just looking at the dates realizing this was made exactly a year back.. in September 2012 ! O.M.G. !! Is it too late to blog about it?

Anyway, since this was to be for a friend's lovely li'l girl, I bravely went ahead with the pink and orange colour scheme and gave the blocks some interest by fussy cutting the centers. Therefore the name. Not bad I think. The quilt, not the name. Actually the name too. Er..it's pretty late in the night and I'm beginning to not make much sense, so I better let the pics do the talking.

Ta-da...Fussy Love..

The orange logs are at 1" wide and by the time I was done with them I was ready to burn the whole cottage cabin down. And so to save my sanity  the quilt, the pink logs were cut half an inch wider and thank heavens for that !

Why? So many seams ! So very many seams !! Thats why.

Luckily I had with me this gorgeous print for the backing which was like a match made in heaven.

And here's my little elf cum model, helping me with the photoshoot. Oh, you should see her when she's grumpy.

Like here..
                           

Isn't she adorable? Fussy Love indeed :-)

Ovie's Window

There are still a few quilts that I haven't documented and this is was one of them. Made wayyyy back in Jan 2011. Okay its not all that long back but it was right in the beginning of my quilting journey.

Knowing of my obsession with fabric and my new found love for quilting, a dear friend gifted me this awesome book called 'Material Obsession' by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. Inscribed inside was, " Dear Tina, Just a bribe for my first personalized designer quilt :-)", signed by Ovie, the adorable (then) 2 year old daughter of said friend. Well, of course I had to make one rightaway. From. the. book.

In the book was this cute pattern called 'Holiday Morning'.



 I added to the design idea and came up with this quilt for li'l Ovie.

The tree branches are pieced; the leaves, flowers and birdies are appliqued and the words embroidered.

 It was fun playing around with the leaves and birdies, trying to give each block a different look.

The sashing was a disaster tho. I wanted it to look like wooden window frames and instead, it ended up looking like a lepeord had swallowed the poor birdies ! Didn't stop me from naming the quilt 'Ovie's window'  :-).

I hand quilted around the appliques and the rest I stitched in the ditch by machine.

And so it was sent off to Ovie, all bundled with love, eagerly awaiting her verdict. She loved it. Phew.

Just spoke with her daddy today and I think it's time Ovie, who is not so little anymore, got another personalized designer quilt. :-)

Love you, Ovie. God bless !