If you have been following my blog for sometime now, or know me personally, you will know that I am pretty passionate about The Drawing Hope Project.  If you're not familiar with this project, in a nutshell, my longtime friend, Shawn Van Daele takes drawings created by children with health conditions and turns them into magical photographs starring the children and sometimes, their family or even their pets!  All of these photographs are being compiled into a storybook in hopes that these children's stories will bring hope to millions of other families who need it.  

The project began in 2012 and has gradually gained momentum.  In the past week, The Drawing Hope project has been featured by many media outlets such as The Huffington Post & The Daily Mail, just to name a few!  Words cannot describe how exciting it is that this project is being introduced to the world!!

Currently Shawn is fundraising to travel to Texas to work on a photo shoot with Baby Sal & his family.  Sal is currently battling a brain tumor and Sal's Father is awaiting a kidney transplant.  A photo shoot with The Drawing Hope Project would be priceless to their family! To learn more about Sal's story, you can click here.

And of course, I want to help in the best way I know how. A quilt!  I have one quilt for sale in my online shop.  I will donate 100% of the sale of this quilt to "Let's Make Sal a Pirate".  It is entitled "Orange Cowboy".  

A while back I fell in love with an orange fabric that has a vintage cowboy print and since then I have referred to it as the "Orange Cowboy Quilt".  It is a one-of-a-kind quilt, and there is only one for sale.

If you are interested in helping "Make Sal a Pirate" but are not interested in purchasing the quilt, you can help by donating any amount by clicking here.  

This past Christmas I received an iPad Mini.  Like most people, I absolutely love it.  Since then, I have been on the hunt for the perfect case.  Even though I do like a lot of the cases I have found, I am not a big fan of holding the flap of a case back when I use the iPad for reading.  I also don't like the idea of having to move the flap of the case when I am about to take pictures.  Since I don't plan on travelling much with it, I really just wanted something to store it and protect it in my purse or bag.

I never make anything for myself. Most things I make are either sold or given away.  The other day while wrapping my iPad in a project I was working on and stuffing it into my purse, my Husband suggested that I make my own case.  It had crossed my mind to do it myself, but never gave myself "permission" to make something just for me!

One of the reasons I don't make things for myself, is that I can't make up my mind.  I fall in love too many fabrics and designs.  The thought of making something myself makes everything seem so final.  Which is ridiculous!  In reality, I can make anything, anytime I want.  So I decided that once I saw a beautiful fabric I immediately loved, I would make a case.

Now, I'm always reluctant to actually use beautiful things.  What if I "waste" it?  What if I mess up? What if I need it for a project in the future?  (Isn't that how hoarding starts?! ) This time, I decided to use whichever fabric I loved despite my reservations.  So what if I need it for a project down the road?  There will always be more fabric I love, even if it's not these specific patterns and colours.  There is no point in keeping something beautiful packed away for "someday"!

Luck would have it that I was in the fabulous Hyggeligt Fabrics store this past Saturday for our London Modern Quilt Guild Meeting.  I came across a gorgeous Amy Butler fat quarter bundle.  Within the bundle were two fabrics that I immediately fell in love with.  Both from the Lotus Collection, Full Moon Polka Dot in Cherry and Morning Glory in Linen.  

These were mine!  I was going to use them for me!

I had found a free tutorial I liked on Fresh Lemons website.  It had a zippered pouch that would be great for holding the charging cords and it had a quick closure.  (If you would like to see the tutorial for the original case, click here.)

There were a couple of things I wanted to switch up and a couple of things I, unfortunatley, had to change.  

The original tutorial is for a full size iPad.  So I had to calculate the size to suit the iPad Mini.  (My finished size of my case was 6" wide x 8 1/2" long.)  I wanted the exterior of the case to be quilted.  So rather than cut the pieces of fabric and assemble the case, I quilted them the pieces before assembling. I also wanted the flap to be the full width of the case and I wanted the back to have two fabrics like the front.  

After some calculations, modifications, and a little bit of seam ripping, here is the result.  I am so happy with the final product!  My calculations were surprisingly (or accidentally?!) exact.  The iPad Mini fits nice and snug. AND I am happy to report that there is a bit of fabric for me to save for "someday"!  Maybe I should make things for myself more often?

Back in October, The Modern Quilt Guild announced that they were holding their 3rd annual Fabric Challenge.  This year the challenge was sponsored by Riley Blake Fabrics.  Each member was given 6 fat eighths of fabric.

The rules were simple:

• Members can make anything they want as long as it is quilted.
• Add in any solids fabric or Riley Blake printed fabric.
• You do not need to use all the fabrics given to you. 

The deadline for this challenge is tomorrow (February 17, 2014).  In true form, I finished my quilt today! 

My creation changed designs many, many times.  I impulsively cut the fabric long ago with a specific design in mind.  However, the more I thought about it, the more the design changed.  

I fell in love with this graphic I found on Pinterest.  It was a graphic that was being sold by Etsy Artist, Noelle O'Reilly.  Sadly, this print is no longer being sold on Etsy.  I thought that it would make a great modern quilt!  

Creating this quilt was definitely a challenge for me as the pieces are very asymmetrical and therefore required me to have a "go-with-it" attitude.  Here is the result:

It would have been a shame if I didn't use up the rest of the fabric I had cut, so I used it all on the back.

After swearing off pebble free motion quilting after quilting the king sized "Olde Stone House Delft Quilt", I decided it was time to use it again.  I quilted the "birch trees" in a very linear quilting and filled in the rest with pebbles.  It went a lot faster this time around and I am very happy with the result.  Here are a few close up shots:

If you are interested in seeing what other Modern Quilt Guild Members came up with you can search #mqgrileyblakechallenge on Twitter, Instagram or Flickr.  It was interesting to see what everyone came up  with.  There are so many wonderful and talented quilters out there!

Last April I began working on the Broken Dishes Quilt.  It had been planned since June 2012 and I was waiting to finish the Old Stone House Quilt before beginning this piece.  Looking back, I think (and hope) it was worth the wait.  

The layout and colour scheme of the queen sized quilt was designed by its very patient owner.  The colour scheme is very beautiful and is different from anything I have ever seen.  The original intent of the design was to create a "Country Chic" quilt with purples, greys and a citron accent using organic prints.  I had a very hard time finding purple patterned fabrics that I felt suited the design.  This led to a very interesting compromise in design.  All of the fabrics used were solids and the "country chic" theme would be met by using different free motion designs.  Each "square" (2 triangles) received a quilted border and the center was infilled with an organic free motion quilting design.  Every other square received a leaf "mash-up" pattern, designed by me. The remaining squares alternated between this design by Leah Day and this design by Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts (a favourite blog of mine!).  The border of the quilt was quilted with a free motion pebble pattern.  I envisioned that the inside of the quilt was the garden and the pebble border was the edging of the garden.

October has always been a very special time of year for me.  Aside from its beauty, it was my Bubbie's favourite time of year.  It also happened to be her birthday month and as of 3 years ago, the month of her death.  For those that know me personally, you know who Bubbie was and who she was to me. For those of you who don't, she was my Grandmother, my hero and my friend.

This past summer my Sister-In-Law, Bianca, married her long time love David.  It was a beautiful and sweet ceremony that took place in a small vintage theater.  The reception took place in her friend's backyard.  It really was one of the most beautiful, personalized weddings I have ever attended.

Knowing that both Bianca and David are avid readers I was inspired by the look of this quilt to make them their very own "library" quilt. I debated about making this quilt for far too long and then decided to go for it with very little time to create it. If you know me, creating quickly is definitely not my thing!  I did not have much time to "hmmm and ha" over my fabric choices.  I had to dive right in.  Taking a bit of inspiration from their invitation, I decided on some vintage-inspired fabrics and a very soft colour pallet. The overall quilt size was 60" x 72", which I believe is a great size for cuddling.  

I quilted the entire thing with straight lines about 1/2" apart using a walking foot.  I have to say I am very obsessed with this look.  I will definitely be using it on many more projects to come.

For those of you who may not know, I am a member of the London Modern Quilt Guild Canada which is a smaller branch of the worldwide Modern Quilt Guild.  I have been a member for a couple of months now. Meetings are held every second Saturday of each month at Hyggeligt Fabrics on Richmond row (beautiful shop by the way).  I look forward to it every month.  I don't know many people who share my love for quilting so this is a great venue to learn and share all things quilty.

The Modern Quilt Guild is holding its 3rd annual fabric challenge sponsored by Riley Blake Designs.  Each member that signed up for the challenge received 6 fat-eighths of fabric.  Free fabric is always welcome and very cool!  Our guild split up the fabric in 3 1/2" strips.  A little bit different than a fat eighth.  It switches up the challenge just a tiny bit.  

The rules of the challenge are simple:

• Members can make anything they want as long as it is quilted.
• Add in any solids fabric or Riley Blake printed fabric.
• You do not need to use all the fabrics given to you. 

The original deadline has been extended to February 17, 2014. This lessens the pressure to be super creative in a short period of time.


Now the question is, WHAT to create?  Any suggestions?

Last weekend my Sister, Hilary & I ventured to Milton, Ontario to deliver Marco's Quilt to Marco, his Parents, Julia and Miro, his big sister , Nicole and his Babka.  It was a beautiful sunny day and a great day for a road trip.  

Marco was in great spirits that day, playing with his legos, stuffies and his friends.

I was very eager to deliver this quilt as I know it had a lot of meaning to not only this family but to all of those that love them on a daily basis.

The basic idea of this quilt is that it is an "I Spy" quilt and contains a whole array of colourful themed fabrics. However it really is much more than that.  There were a total of 421 squares sponsored by people near and far that have been following Marco's story.  To say that there was a whole lot of love put into this quilt is an understatement!  

Since there were only 400 squares on the front of the quilt, the additional 21 squares sponsored were represented on the back of the quilt in a scrappy "M" (for Marco).

Originally I wanted to create a card listing each and every person who sponsored this quilt, but with such an overwhelming response the card evolved into a small book.  Each sponsor had their own page in the book listing their name and location.  If they provided a message of Love and Hope, it was included.  If no message was provided an "I Spy" clue was added to their name and location.

I want to thank Julia & Miro for welcoming us into their home and filling our bellies with delicious treats. Thank you so much for allowing me to create this quilt for Marco & your family.  It truly was an honour. You will always be forever in my heart!

If you would like to see more pictures of this day, please click here to see pictures taken by my friend Shawn Van Daele.

This is Marco.  He is a very brave, beautiful 7 year old boy who has overcome some enormous challenges.  

"Marco was born with Aortic Stenosis. This required a heart Transplant. At the young age of 1 month our little heart hero received his gift of life. At age 3 Marco was faced with another fight. He was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma. Marco began an intense Chemo therapy treatment and he won. Marco recovered and was doing well until recently. Marco's Cancer is back.

The Cancer is now in Marco's airway which has left Marco on a trach and constant care at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Marcos cancer is also in his spinal fluid and brain. Marco's parents have been given the devastating news that the Cancer in his brain cannot be treated. Marco's parents are both undergoing training in hopes that they can bring their son home for the next journey."  - Love for Marco

I have come to follow Marco's journey through The Drawing Hope Project.  Some of you who know me may know that I am pretty passionate about this Project.  I am so incredibly inspired by ALL of the children, their families, their strength and perseverance.

A very special donation website and Facebook page have been setup by friends of Marco's family asking for donations, prayers and support.  Marco's parents, Miro & Julia have not asked for this support, however, we know that they could use it during this difficult time.

Like so many, I want to help.  I don't have much to give, but I want to help.  So I have offered my support in the best way I know how.  A quilt.

I've decided to take a short break from my current project to make an "I Spy" quilt for Marco.  If you're not familiar with an "I Spy" quilt, it is simply a bunch of fabrics with random themes combined into a quilt. Marco can use the quilt to play "I Spy", or just simply for cuddling.  The quilt will be 60" x 60" composed of 400 3" squares.

To build this quilt, I am asking for your help.  Each one of the 400 squares can be sponsored for $5.  It's a small amount that can collectively make a HUGE impact!  When all is said and done we hope to raise $2000 for Marco's family. 

This idea was posted on the Love for Marco website and Facebook page this afternoon and we have already sold 45 squares.  Amazing!!!

If you would like to sponsor a square, please visit Marco's Quilt. 

If you are a quilter and happen to have some boy-themed fabric scraps you would like to donate, please email me.

Thank you all for your support.  I know Marco and his family truly appreciate it!!!!

When I am designing a new quilt or blanket I often use the 3D Rendering program SketchUp.  This is a program that I use in my everyday real life and it is intended for 3D drawing, such as buildings, furniture, etc.  Although quilts are not 3D (yet?!), it is a great tool to try out size, shapes, colour, textures and even a rough estimate of materials required.   The program is free to download and use.  You can download it here.

In a very round about way I recently discovered the London Modern Quilt Guild, which is a group of modern quilters that meet once a month to share ,inspire and discuss modern quilting.  It is a smaller branch of the much larger Modern Quilt Guild. The meetings are held the second Saturday of every month at Hyggeligt Fabrics (another great discovery) in downtown London.  Last Saturday I was able to demonstrate how I use SketchUp in my quilting.  

I promised to post the tutorial and I also thought it may be helpful to others.  The tutorial is fairly lengthy, as I tried to add as much detail as much as possible. Once you get the hang of the program it really can be a lot of fun!

Please have a look!

Before we begin....
Because I use SketchUp everyday, I have found that I take for granted little tricks and commands that others don't know.  I strongly recommend watching this 10 minute you tutorial.  This tutorial provided by the folks at ShetchUp cover using your mouse, navigation (zoom, pan etc) and axis in a video.  It is everything you need for my tutorial.  

Note:  For the purposes of this tutorial, when I mention 'click' this will mean a left click.  If I you need to right click I will use the words 'right click'.

Survival Tip #1...
If you find yourself in a situation where you've drawn something you want to undo, hold the 'CTRL' key and then hit 'Z'.  If you want to redo a command, hold the key 'CTRL' then hit 'Y'.

Survival Tip #2...
If you find yourself in a command that you don't know how to get out of you can press the 'ESC' or click on the 'Select' button.

Survival Tip #3 - A Note about the Axis' and Quilting

Typically Sketch Up is used as a 3D tool to draw pretty much anything you can imagine.  However for drawing a quilt we won’t need to draw that 3rd dimension.  It’s important to know that there are 3 axis to drawing 3D and we will only use 2.  We will need to make sure that we avoid drawing in the the Blue axis.  We only Require the Green and Red axis.  Think of them as width (red), length (green), height (blue).

Hover your cursor over the lady on screen and click on her. When she is selected there will be a blue highlighted box around her.

You now have a couple of options to remove her from the screen after you have selected the figure:

A) Right click and click on 'ERASE' in the right click menu.

B) Hit the 'DELETE' button on your keyboard.

C) Alternately you could click the ‘ERASE’ icon at the top of the screen that looks like an eraser.  If you use this tool, you need to click on that icon first.
Personally, I almost always use the delete button on my keyboard.

You have now learned to 'ERASE'!

Step 2 - Drawing the Base of the Quilt

It’s time to start drawing the quilt!  For this exercise we will be drawing a 64”wide x 64”long quilt.

1. At the top of your screen click the “RECTANGLE” icon.  
2. Once you have selected this icon you will be prompted in the prompt line to select the first corner.  You can click anywhere on the screen to select the first corner, however, for this exercise I would recommend that you select the point where all axis meet (blue, red & green axis). 
3. Note: When you hover over this point a text box with the text ‘orgin’ will appear and you cursor should snap to this point.
4. Once you have selected your first point, lift your finger and drag you mouse away from the origin point along the green or red axis.  You will see a rectangle appear on the screen.  To ensure that you draw this rectangle at the exact dimension you want type “64,64” and hit 'ENTER'.  Because you have entered this dimension and hit 'ENTER' there is no need to click again.  The numbers you enter will appear in the dimensions window in the bottom right side of your screen.  This represents the 64” length (green axis) and the 64” width (red axis) of the quilt we are going to draw.  

You will now have a rectangle on your screen.  Notice that the middle of the rectangle has changed to a      solid colour.  This will be our quilt surface. 

Hover your cursor over the blue rectangle quilt.  You will notice that the blue surface highlights.  This means that the surface is ready to be offset.  Select a point near the inner edge of the rectangle and HOLD & DRAG  the cursor to the centre of the quilt.  Without lifting your finger off the mouse, type ‘2’ and hit 'ENTER'.

Hover your cursor over the blue rectangle quilt.  You will notice that the blue surface highlights.  This means that the surface is ready to be offset.  Select a point near the inner edge of the rectangle and HOLD & DRAG  the cursor to the centre of the quilt.  Without lifting your finger off the mouse, type ‘2’ and hit 'ENTER'.

Step 4 - Drawing a Quilting Block

Now that we have the quilt base and the border set up, it is time to create our quilting blocks.  We know that the overall quilt size is 64” x 64" and we have a 2” border on each side. That leaves us with 60” to play with.  To make things easier we're going to draw a 12” wide x 12” long block.  This will allow 5 blocks across the width of the quilt.

To draw the first block, repeat Step 2 and create a ‘Rectangle’ in the top left had side of the quilt.  Instead of using the start point at the axis I am going to pick the corner of the inside edge of the border.  Once this is done, type “12,12” and hit 'ENTER'.  This will give me a 12" x 12" block in the top left hand corner.

Step 5 - Detailing the Block

Now that we have the outline of the first block defined we can detail the inside of the block.  For this step we are going to create another border within the block.  In order to do this, repeat Step 3.

This time instead of hovering over the overall quilt, hover only over the smaller 12x12 rectangle that we just created.  This time offset this rectangle 3” by typing “3” in the DIMENSION WINDOW.

Step 6 - Making a Group (aka Basting a Block)

We want to repeat this exact block all the way across the top of the quilt.  We also do not want to draw and offset each block over and over again.  Instead we will turn the block we just created into a 'GROUP'.  If you were to relate this group in sewing terms you could compare it to basting.  For our purposes it is a temporary way to join items together.

Starting in the top left hand corner click on a spot anywhere outside of the quilt.  HOLD down the left mouse button and DRAG your cursor over the block that we just created.  Once you have selected the quilt using this method lift your finger off the mouse.  This is called SELECTION WINDOW. All surfaces and lines of the block should be highlighted in blue and the rest of the quilt should remain un-highlighted.  RIGHT-CLICK and select ‘MAKE GROUP’ from right click menu.

This will join all items in the block so that we can copy it with ease.

Step 7 - Copying and Moving the "Basted" Block

Now that the block has been "basted" we can copy it across the top of the quilt.  Select the ‘MOVE’ Icon at the top of your screen.  Using your cursor, click once on the top left hand corner of the block we just created.  The outline of the block should highlight in blue. After clicking the corner, HOLD ‘CTRL’.  You will notice that there is a small '+' beside the 'MOVE' icon.  This will ensure that we are COPYING the block.  If you do not see the '+' sign, the block will MOVE instead of copy.  Move the block to the top right hand corner of the block and click again at that corner.    The command is complete and you should see a copy of the block.  Repeat this process all the way across the top of the quilt.

Note: You can toggle between copying an object and moving an object by hitting the 'CTRL' button.

Step 8 - Fill the Quilt with Blocks

To repeat the original block down the length of the quilt there are a couple of options. 

1) We can ‘COPY’ the block we first ‘basted’/‘GROUPED’ repeatedly (Step 7).
Or
2) We can ‘GROUP’ the first row and ‘COPY’ it down the length of you quilt. (Steps 6 & 7)

The choice is up to you.

Step 9 - Explode (aka Seam Rip)

The outline of our new quilt is complete and we are almost ready to start colouring!  But before we do, we need to remove the “basting” or ‘GROUP’ we created earlier. 

Starting in the top left hand corner click on a spot anywhere outside of the quilt and HOLD down the left mouse button and DRAG your cursor over the entire quilt. Left click again after selecting the entire quilt. Right click somewhere over the quilt and select ‘EXPLODE’ from the right click menu.  This will break apart all of the groupings that we previously created, similar to the sewing equivalent of seam ripping.

If you are having trouble selecting the entire quilt, you can also use this step to 'EXPLODE' each block individually.

Note: You may be asking why we can’t just apply colour to the groups?  If we apply colour to the blocks while they are in group form, the entire group will take on that colour.  We will not be able to apply individual colours to the components within the block (smaller squares, borders, triangles etc.)

Step 10 - Adding Colour & Texture

Now for the fun part!  Applying COLOUR!  Select the ‘PAINT BUCKET’ icon.  Once you do this, a window titled ‘Materials’ will pop up.  SketchUP provides preset textures and colours that would typically be found in or around a building, but it also provides an opportunity for you to add your own textures, and colours.

At the top right hand side of the ‘Materials’ window click on the ‘CREATE MATERIAL’ icon. 

After you select the ‘Create Material’ icon a ‘Create Material’ window will open. Within this window there is a ‘Browse’ icon that will allow you to upload almost any image file to the material library.  Click on this icon and the typical Windows browsing window will appear.  Browse as you typically would to the file where your images are stored.    Select your image and hit open.

Once you have selected an image file, it will appear as an option for selection in the ‘Materials’ window.  Select your image and hover over the are you want to apply it to and click to apply.

Repeat this process for all of the textures you would like to apply. 

In the image below, I have applied all of the patterns I want to my quilt.  You will notice that there are some light blue areas that have not received a colour yet.  I want to consider using a solid blue that matches one of my uploaded textures.  

There are several options for selecting a solid colour.  One methods is to use one of the pre-loaded colours provided by SketchUp.  Another method is to draw out a colour found in the textures I have uploaded. Select the texture you want to draw from.

In the ‘Materials’ window there is a tab titled ‘Edit’. If you select this tab there are some editing options that appear. Click on the 'Create New Material' icon.  You will notice that the texture I am drawing from is in the preview window.  Below there is a box that is checked ‘Use texture image’.  If you un-check that box, a solid colour appears.  This is now my new solid colour that coordinates.

To apply the new solid colour you can paint each area remaining or you can hold ‘SHIFT’ while clicking in an unpainted area and each area that is the default colour will automatically become the new colour.

Note:  This is an easy way to apply colour quickly.  However it only applies when painting a new colour to coloured areas that have the same starting colour.

Step 11 - Estimating Materials

Now that the quilt is drawn and coloured we can quickly and roughly estimate how much material of each colour/texture we will need to complete this quilt.

Click on any colour in the quilt. Right click and select ‘Area’ from the right click menu.  You are given the option to find the area of the ‘Selection’, ‘Layer’ or ‘Material’.  In this case, we want to know the total square footage of the ‘Material’.  An ‘Area’ window will pop up giving the overall square footage of the material that is used in this quilt.

Extras - Tape Measure

At the beginning of this tutorial we defined the size of our quilt with a quilt base of 64" x 64".  You don't always have to define the quilt base.  You can just begin to draw and play.  If you do this you may want to eventually know what size of quilt or block you end up with.  This is where the 'TAPE MEASURE TOOL’ comes in handy.  

Click on the first corner of what want to measure and then click again on the second corner.  The measurement you just took will be displayed in the length window at the bottom right hand of the screen and also on screen at the second selection point.

This tool could also come in handy for determining sizes of pieces required to assemble the quilt.