I'm not sure whether I've ever shown you this little guy - it's a quilted tissue cover I made to go with those little paintings - together they rest on one of the walls of my cubicle area.  The black background is a heavy (HEAVY) satin, and you may recognize the bird as being cut out from the immensely popular "bird" fabric that Ikea had a couple of years ago.  I still have a precious yard of that left.

And here's my list of why I love Fridays:



(card from Blyberg.net).

Next week, I'll have a finished art quilt to show you, a finished quilt, a fabric painting technique and one last giveaway (a fun one, I promise!); over the weekend I'll do a couple of slice o'lifes - should be a great week.

See you tomorrow!  Or not, if we're raptured... if we are, thanks for the memories!  ;)

In addition to being a long weekend, labour day weekend most often falls on my birthday.  This year, I spent a lot of time in my sewing room, but for the most part, not sewing:



 I was re-organizing my sewing room and stash, building furniture from Ikea for my sewing room (those dressers will be red soon, as will the dining table [six feet long!] I bought at a yard sale about a month ago), but I did find time for some sewing - namely those sewing machine covers at the back of my sewing room. 

The first is Reuben.


Isn't he sweet?

I had the pleasure this week of pattern testing this little guy for Jodie Carleton at Ric Rac  There are a couple of differences  - hers is Rueben instead of Reuben (as we spell it - my oldest son's middle name is Reuben); and of course, hers is much more beautifully constructed.

But I think he's very expressive for my first time making a stuffie:




But I wanted you to see how completely adorable it is - that Jodie has a lot of talent! Could you even begin to think of making something so cute?!


I liked Reuben so much I decided that he should be Diva Quilt's mascot - and ought to oversee all that happens in the sewing room.  But then I thought, he might be lonely - so I decided to make him a little friend to keep him company.
Which is where Maddie came in!


I  may have mentioned in the past, how much I adore elephants - so his friend had to be an elephant. At first I was going to make a boy elephant, but then was tempted by the idea of cute dresses and bows.  And er... cute dresses won.  :)

And you know how great Jodie's pattern is? This is how great it is:

with my vast experience making stuffies (after all, I'd made ONE); her pattern writing was so easy to follow that  I was able to riff off  hers to make an a: slightly smaller stuffy with a slightly larger belly (she is an ELEPHANT after all); and franknpattern an elephant head out of a donkey



I mean check out that cute nose!

And so, now Reuben has a friend to hang out with. (Don't worry Reuben, I shall make you some new clothes too)


Don't they look happy together?

And be sure to watch check out Jodie's blog, (which is incredibly entertaining); (seriously, if nothing else, click on those last two links to read her amazing stories) and keep an eye out for Rueben's availability as a pattern!

Next week - a finished quilt.  I promise!  :)

I work at a Ministry of the Government, and today we had a charity Fashion Show Fundraiser. Each division within the Ministry had to produce an item of clothing for the fashion show, made from recyclable office supplies.



My office knowing that I quilt and sew clothing, immediately came running to me for ideas, and because I had seen Sunny Fong on Project Runway Canada make a dress out of Post-it notes, I knew that I could make one too.

I first cut out the pattern pieces in fabric, and then sewed "feathered" post-it notes to the pieces, then I sewed the pieces of the dress together. Here it is on my 4'11" dynamo of a model. Surprisingly, it wasn't hard, just time consuming. The only part that was fidgety, was putting the zipper in. It kept wanting to get caught in the paper!

The end result was what I had imagined - a kind of go-go dress. I was very pleased with it!



The judges picked this dress as the winner:
And it is very well done, but I thought it was cheating - after all, since when are magazines office supplies?

Instead, we won "Fan Favourite". Which I think is really winning. As BSP says "Who cares what the judges think, anyway?" (BSP always unfailingly supports me. :) )


Stephanie (my model) added her own touches in the paper chain bracelet and post-it noted shoes (if you look closely, you can see that she even made a hair ornament out of more recyclable goods).




In the end though, I think what really counts is that I was pleased with it. I called it "Sunny Daze" as an homage to Sunny Fong's amazing dress - which was my inspiration.




(and, as always, pics are clickable to "embiggen").