Macarons in Spring Bloom

Hello and welcome to the Spring Bloom Blog Hop!! I've only just met Amanda Caronia, the talented designer behind Spring Bloom, but already I know she's going to make a splash in fabric design. Her bright, colourful and fresh palette are a welcome sight for spring.  Read on to find out how you could win a FQ stack of Spring Bloom to play with!

In my quest to make every contributor's project in my book, I decided to sew up a delicious Macaron Quilt with Amanda's fabric. Christina's quilt design is really interesting; there are no blocks in this quilt. The macaron shapes are pieced right into a long strip of background fabric that has been cut like a hunk of swiss cheese. Once all the cutting prep was complete, I could not believe how fast this generous lap-sized quilt sewed up!  I didn't pin any of the curves. I don't do tons of curved piecing, but when I do, I follow this awesome video tutorial by my friend Leanne. It works like a charm for 1/4 circles and these 1/2 oval macaron shapes.

As my deadline for today was approaching, I needed to figure out quilting designs. I considered vertical wavy lines right across the quilt using my machine's triple zig zag stitch set wide and long. I considered an art-deco pattern that was a combination of straight lines up the middle of the macarons and curved back down around them, echoing the shapes in thread colours that matched the fabrics. Finally, I considered FMQ my recent standard of all-over looping meanders.  Then I had a little chat with myself that turned into a pep talk ( I'd been convincing myself I wasn't able to do all that negative space justice with my out-of-practice FMQ skills).

I had another look at Amanda's fabric to see if there were some shapes I could adopt for quilting. I grabbed some old practice quilt sandwiches from a previous class (and said, hey, you did a great job on these practice designs, just get busy and go for it!). Seriously, I did have to pull on my big girl panties and just GO!

The flowers in this print inspired my petalled paisley quilting.

The first thing I did was define the vertical columns between the macarons with a stitch in the ditch of the seam and then a line 1/4" away. Between these lines, I did a loopy back and forth thingy that I've always liked - I think it looks great in a long narrow space and on this quilt, sort of like the delicious cream filling for the macarons!  Everywhere else in the negative space I quilted a sort of petalled paisley shape.  In spots where I needed to fill to the edges, I went around with a second row of petals here and there. For now the macarons are not quilted. I'm contemplating a handstitch with coordinating perle cotton about 1/2" inside each macaron (what do you think about that?).

All of the quilting was done in one long day at Quilt By the Bay on Saturday. I think my Pfaff was running for about 8 hours!  I'm so glad I went for it. It's just been ages since I filled so much negative space with FMQ and to be honest, I've seen so much incredible work from talented long-armers, that I had psyched myself out.  I'm happy to say that this finish has renewed my confidence, so yay!

Amanda's fabric makes the prettiest macaron's don't you think? Strawberry, lemon, blueberry, pistachio and raspberry flavours come to mind.  There have been so many pretty makes with this line already. Check out the other stops on the tour to see some adorable little dresses, colourful quilts, pillows and bags. I'm excited to see Felicity's quilt tomorrow and was super impressed by Cindy's cool idea from yesterday!

If you'd like a chance to win a FQ stack of Spring Bloom, leave ONE comment here (your comment must contain your email address, or link to your email to win). I'll choose a random winner  on Thursday at 10:00 p.m. PST. Good luck!!  ETA: Comments are now closed. Congratulations Janet of WhatComesNext, you've won a FQ set of Spring Bloom!

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely fabric, Amanda and Windham!


SPRING BLOOM MAKERS BLOG HOP SCHEDULE

April 20 Windham Fabrics Snip-its, Bella Caronia Blog

April 21 Leah and Bea Koch – Wintergreen and the Bee

April 22 Nell Timmer - Nell’s Notions

April 23 Jessica Darling

April 24 Kristy Daum - St. Louis Folk Victorian  

April 25 Sherri Sylvester - Thread Riding Hood

April 26 Cindy Wiens - Live a Colorful Life

April 27 Krista Hennebury - Poppyprint  

April 28 Felicity Ronaghan - Felicity Quilts

April 29 Casey York - The Studiolo

April 30 Janice Ryan - Better Off Thread

May 1 Deborah Moebes - Whipstitch

May 2 Bella Caronia Blog That’s a Wrap

Signs of Spring: West Vancouver edition

Yesterday while D was at Field Hockey camp, I took a stroll on the seawall. Here are a few of the views I enjoyed while the sun made a very brief appearance through many and various clouds.

Mind the sea monsters, hungry from a long winter under the waves....

I may try some remote blogging while hanging out around the pool on vacation, but if (a) I can't figure it out, or (b) I'm too relaxed to type, or (c) I'm having too much fun with my family, then you won't be hearing from me for about a week. Sometimes we need a little break, so I've loaded a new book that I can't wait to read and I'm leaving my stitching at home.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Miss Flavia de Luce, might I suggest you immediately read her debut in The Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie. Bradley's writing is a joy and she is a perfect 11 year old heroine.

Toodle-oo friends.

Wee Bit of Weekend Work

I managed a bee block over the weekend. While my family watched our homeboys, the Vancouver Canucks, kick some serious Dallas a** last night (sorry Texas bloggy friends, but I ask you: is hockey really supposed to be played in Texas? Seriously!), I was busy next door in my sewing lair creating this for Amy :

Amy sent lots of fun fabric, plus the white and peach borders, and asked for a block made with only triangle shapes. Fun!

The sun shone brightly all weekend. I considered cleaning up all the dead stuff from last fall still standing/lying/dying all over the garden. I considered it again. Then decided to photograph the new stuff that isn't clued into the fact that it's only February 20.

Like the hellebore. An early spring keener, who loves her spot and grows defiantly where no other plant cares to grow: under the cedar tree.

Even the poppies are anxious. Fuzzy foliage is up 8 or 10" already!

I used to have hundreds of crocuses, but now only a hardy few remain. Truth be told (as has been done here a few times), I am a confirmed "plant it and hope it lives" gardener. My garden doesn't get a whole lot of Tender Loving Care from me - it is on its own. The lawn is another story. I love me a good push-mower session.

Is your garden still sleeping under a blanket of snow? I fear mine may be in for a nasty late-winter shock. We had a thunder and lightening hail storm on Friday night just to remind us that winter may still have a few plans for us yet!

Be Still

Be Mine

Dicentra spp.

Bloomin' great!

That's how I'm feeling today after completing another project last night while simultaneously zipping through the latest wacky episode of Lost, followed by a refreshing spring walk with the dog this morning. I am working away, ticking the 'done' box beside my March projects one by one.

I can't show you the whole thing until my Mini QT swap partner receives this (cos that would just spoil the surprise, wouldn't it?), but here's a wee peek at what's been blooming in my sewing room since the weekend:

Amy already spotted that photo on my Flickr stream and asked if it was inspired by my photos from last week. Roger that! I'm loving the cherry blossoms this spring. The giant magnolia trees have busted their buds as well and they are breathtaking (must get some pix today for you). Once I hear that Lisa has received this mini in the mail, I'll show you the whole works.

In other finishing news, the double-Irish Chain went off in the mail yesterday. I hope it will bring some comfort to my friend who is having surgery for breast cancer today. She has a long journey ahead. I have quite a bit of coordinating fabric left over, so I sent it along in the box. Her 10 year old daughter is an enthusiastic little sewist and maybe she'd like to make her mommy something, too.

In domestic news, the house is filled with tulips, which have been abundant at every grocer and corner store here for weeks. I filled my prized Delft Tulip vase (my special mommy souvenir from our 2008 visit with B's relatives in the Netherlands) with pink frilly ones.

Are these called parrot tulips? The ones with the delicate, feathery edges on their petals?

This vase is on the living room coffee table with my Easter table runner (the one you see up there on my banner). Check out the buttery yellow centres - aren't they amazing?!

And on the dining room table, aaaaah. I just love this colour but I don't know exactly how to describe it...cranberry pink? spring wine? What would you call it?

I'm off to the post office. I don't want to keep Lisa waiting any longer!

Just one more reason to live here....

Ornamental Cherry blossoms. Everywhere.

It's snowing soft pink petals...tiny drifts are forming at the sidewalk edges, piling up against the tufts of long, green grass. As our visiting Dutch cousin remarked on the weekend "there is a lot of spring happening here."

...but unfortunately (for me) not a lot of sewing. I hope to have something fabric-related to show you later in the week.

What are you working on? Any fun Easter projects happening out there?