Hi there and welcome to my blog. This year, I’m part of the Blog Hop organised by the very sweet Beth from Plum and June.
I’m so excited to be part of this new quilter blogger group. It is now my turn to present myself: my name is Alice, I’m 30 years old and I’m French.
First of all: a big thank you for being here! I’m starting to discover the online quilting community and I love all the connections I have made so far (I have even registered to a Round Robin, go Possum Magic!). I can’t wait to discover more about the Blog Hop members.
Let me tell you how I started quilting and what quilting means to me. I made my first quilt in 2012 when I was living in London with my, then boyfriend, now husband. It was for the first of my friends having a baby, and thought it would be a nice baby gift. I bought a charm pack from Moda and simply sew all the squares randomly together. I didn’t know what I was doing or suppose to do but loved it. I loved the process AND the result.
Later that same year, one of my friends was getting married and I wanted to offer her something handmade to celebrate this amazing milestone with her. She lives by a lake in France and often has picnics and little gatherings along the lake. So, of course, a quilt was ideal. This time, I researched a bit more what I could do with quilting and even registered to a Craftsy class with Amy Gibson (BOM 2012). I loved the Half Square Triangles class and went on experimenting with this technique (you can find more about this quilt here).
Since then, I have created 15 other quilts while moving country twice, changing career path, getting engaged AND getting married with my lovely husband. Phew, what a busy two years it has been!
I love travelling and living in different countries with my husband. We lived in Australia for 3 years, England for 2 years and now in New-Zealand. We have been in Wellington, in a share accommodation since December 2013. I brought some sewing essentials and a small fabric stash with me but didn’t travel with a sewing machine. Luckily for me, my flatmate has a Bernette 56 that she lets me borrow whenever I want.
One of the quilt I really love making and gifting was the maple leaf quilt that I made for my sister. She now lives in Canada. I haven’t had the chance to visit her yet, but my cousin has. When he came back, he shared some pictures with us and I was so impressed by the beautiful vibrant colours from the forest during fall. I tried to recreate this feeling on a quilt that would keep her warm during the cold months. This quilt has already well travelled as I started it in France just after the wedding, left it at a long arm quilter while honeymooning in Bali and did the binding it here in NZ before sending it to my sister in Canada.
When I offer a quilt, for me, it means much more than just offering a random object. It also means: “I care about you”, “I care about your comfort and your well-being”. It is offering a bit of your presence during tough times or happy times. It means “I might not be here physically but I’m here for you”. I’m here when you are sick and cuddle under my quilt in front of crap TV, I’m here when you are having a picnic in the park with your friends, I’m here when your baby just smiled back at you, I’m here when it’s snowing outside and it’s so cold that you just want to lie down with a cup of tea and read a book. There is something so emotional about quilts and that’s why I love them so much!
Two things I want to challenge myself “quiltwise” this year are: free motion quilting and paper piecing.
I recently bought a freehand embroidery foot and registered to “Start free-motion quilting” class on Craftsy (conveniently on sale at the moment). If anyone from the Blog Hop (or outside the Blog Hop) is keen to join me to discover free motion quilting, it would be rad. I will share my future progress (and potential failure) on this blog.
I also registered to a paper piecing class, as I have never tried it before and I am quite intrigued by the technique. If anyone wants to join me, we could do a “paper piecing for beginner along”. The class is with Carol Doak and is also on sale now. She has 4 different blocks, and seems to explain every step very well. So, I guess it’s manageable for beginners.
My Blogging Tip: include a picture of yourself on your “About me” page. I find it really hard to relate and connect with people if I don’t know their faces. Also include your name, it will be easier to be remembered if you share your name and face to the world. I don’t really enjoy commenting on blog post if I can’t mention the person’s name. I find it awkward. I prefer saying “Nice choice of fabric Stephanie”, rather than just “Nice choice of fabric”. I feel I’m talking to the person mentioning their name rather than just saying general comment.
My Quilting Tip: I am new to the quilting world, so I can’t really provide tip. Instead, I will share a tip that changed my sewing habit recently: use thread catcher (small piece of your fabric scrap). Simple yet SO genius. It will prevent you from wasting thread and avoiding this annoying tangled up when you forget to put your threads away.
Just to finish off, something random about me: I do NOT have milk with my tea! To the horror of my family, I’ve adjusted pretty well to some of the English speaking countries culinary queerness (Vegemite, chutney, fruits with cheese, crackers and cheese, beans on toast, mint jelly is border line but still ok-ish) but milk and tea remains and will remain forever a big no no for me.
Please make sure to visit my new Blog Hop friends:
- Carole from Fresh Off The Frame
- Camelia from The Recovering Perfectionist
- Nurdan from Hug-a-Bit Quilts
- Paula from Mud, Pies and Pins
- Lori from SewPsyched!
- Kitty from The Night Quilter
- Christina from Wips & Tuts
- Diana from Sew Crafty Chick!
- Marcia from Cozy Capatiller
- Judy from Quilt Paradigm
- Jasmine from Quilt Kisses
- Beth from Cooking Up Quilts
PS: if you missed the first round of amazing new quilt bloggers, you can check them up here.
Hello, remember when I did my presentation post for the 2014 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop? I discovered so many lovely quilters reading through all the presentation posts from my group, we are now on the third week and I would encourage you to visit the new blogs bellow.
Blossom Quilts & Crafts 