Kitty Swap ready to ship

My kitty mini quilt is done

The second sewing item is done. This was my first case ever! First zipper too! It is far from perfect but that cute kitty fabric on the outside and my own hand water marbled as a lining sure compensate for my inexperience :)

Sending a few of those, they can be used as pin cushion or cat toys, once again made with my water marbled fabrics.

Love birds Romeo and Juliette finally have their background and are ready to appliqué.

Quilters Meet & Greet

First if you are new around my part of the blogger landscape, Welcome!

Please make yourself at home, take a few of those (everything is better with a handful of kittens) 

My name is Yanicka and I am an accidental quilt designer.

 I am a professional technical drafter for 15 years, but I got interested in quilting since way back. Already, when my first child was born, I was home alone in the Canadian North, listening to Eleanor Burns’ PBS “Quilt in a Day” show: that’s how I started quilting. And so I created quite a few traditional quilts these days in my spare time.

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More recently, I realized my favorite part of quilting was letting my creativity flow instead of following other designer’s patterns.  Besides, for me, traditional quilts made of assembling hundreds of blocs rarely tell a story.  I am motivated by trying new things, crazy colors combinations, shapes and textures! I want my quilts to have an impact.  I started a blog to show my creations and quickly, people started asking for help on how they could reproduce my quilts.

At this point, I realized I had the perfect professional training as a technical drafter to quickly create patterns on Autocad and Illustrator that everyone could easily follow.  To help communicate how to reproduce my creations, I developed a new technique I called the “fractured image”, in which complex images are broken down into shapes, traced using freezer paper, and assembled back.  I also explored appliqué, 3D textures and textile paints. I would never have been able to succeed without my amazing husband’s unconditional support!

You can find me at:

www.yanickaquilt.com

https://www.facebook.com/yanickaquilt/

https://www.instagram.com/yanickaquilt/

https://www.reddit.com/user/yanickahachez

Every blog you visit during the party
gives you a chance to enter for the Great Grand Prize.

Limited to 1 entry per blog.

Pineapple, kitty swap and fairy wings

So many things to say this week!

First my Pineapplicious Quilt is finally done! One single finish since the beginning  of  summer is really nothing to brag about but the temperatures has been so hot and muggy it has been a pain to sit in front of the sewing machines.

Secondly I am participating in a Mini Quilt Kitty swap. My first swap ever but who can resist a kitty swap?

The amazing Lisa Taylor @lisataylor1982 on Instagram started this initiative and it's been a load of fun. By the way if you want to follow me on Instagram, you can find me at @yanickaquilt and please let me know who you are and I will follow you!!!

So back to the swap! I made this mini using my usual fractured image technique.

Almost finished, purple kitty under the moon light.....he (or she??? no he) need a name.

Before quilting

I think this little kitten has a load of personality

And finally......I made a video about using Appliques with extremely slippery shimmering fabric !!! Sorry for the bad english accent. I am working on it.

It is I explain one a way to use hard fabrics for appliqué

  

JOKKMOKK to the rescue

No, it's not a cat that walked on my keyboard lol

This is the JOKKMOKK from IKEA

With my new Baby Lock, the sewing table I had was not working anymore. A few minutes on Google and we found a few amazing Ikea sewing table hacks!

Looked easy enough that my husband (a not very handyman Geek) recruited his brother (a little more handyman banker) to make my new sewing table. Let me tell you that they did a really good job :)

Wolfgang 2 and Tiara 2

My studio is really taking shape and that make me happy. The green fabric on the wall is actually my green screen for my videos.  Sometime I think my Husband go overboard but since he is the one that from now on will edit my videos, I let him express is inner Spielberg 

And the reason why we need to make more videos is because Baby Lock accepted to loan me this beautiful Tiara 2!!!!

I even made a little "unboxing" video....please do not take a shot every time I say OMG!!! you wont finish the 3 minutes video. lol

 

In other news, Wolfgang 2, (the quilt I designed and made for Elaine of Northcott and quilted by Marilyn Farquhar.) was at "Quilt at the creek" exposition. Love it when I know people can enjoy my art. 

Reorganizing the studio

My studio is a mountain of stuff piled on top of more stuff right now. lol Me and honey decided to move everything in working space and also have a fixed recording studio rather then take everything out when I want to film for my Youtube channel. We used to have my studio in my living room, now it is a living room in my studio :)

In the middle of all the moving I was able to start doing free motion quilting on my new baby lock Sophie. It's funny how we have to go backward every time I start FMQ on a new machine but the lack of tension problems has been a welcomed surprise.

(and I need to wash the window again!!!!!! )

Here is a very bad picture of the Montreal Olympic stadium that is just beside where I work. It is a beautiful place with the botanical gardens, the Insectarium , the Biodome and the Planetarium just beside. It is a great place to go eat lunch and watch tourists :) I will try to get better pictures to show you. In fall and spring, in early morning the stadium look like a big white ghost in the mist. I really have to show you.

History of Cactus and Ouchies

But the ouchies has nothing to do with the cactus

First the cactus is virtual so it's pretty safe. :) I have been asked if I could do a fractured image cactus because it seem that they are very IN right now (writing that I had a flashback to the amazing series on Netflix "A series of Unfortunate Events" season 2, if you saw it, you know why)

The ouchies come from having surgery to remove a wisdom teeth that was giving me trouble.

I tried some designing and some sewing but between pain, hot flash, cold sweat and dizziness it was just better for me to just lay down.

So on my plate this week, I have a Cactus to design and pineapple to finish.

I hope your weekend was better than mine.

One bright note was this happy mail from "Friday's off Fabric Shop"

Some amazing low volume. I love newsprints fabrics and this blueprint make my technical designer heart sing :)

Pineapplelicious

Here is the story of how I quilted myself in a corner

I had an idea about making a pixel pineapple table runner.

Schema were made, size of pieces of fabrics calculated (maths were made!!!)
and off we go.

First problem is when I noticed that the leafs are bigger than the body of the pineapple and to add to this problem, I manage to applique the leafs a bit crooked so it look unbalanced.

Well ok, I have more of the background fabrics so I add some strips on each side.

The result is a top too big to be a table runner, too small for a quilt top (and anyway, who want to have a big pineapple as a nursery theme LOL)

I guess I am not the proud designer and owner of a pineapple wall hanging.

Birds, pineapple and Baby Lock

First let me present you Sophie!!!  My new Baby Lock Soprano. We are still getting used to each other but it was love at first stitch! 

And bigger news! Baby Lock is giving me a TIARA II !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get ready to see new videos 

Birdy has now been zigzag stitch but a love bird can't be alone! So I am working on his/her/it's sweetheart. They will need names.

- Romeo and Juliette is a bit overdone (and quite tragic)

- Harold and Maude (it does not feel like a spring/fall relationship)

- Brad and Angelina

If you have an idea, it is more than welcomed

I also started this pineapple. It had nothing to do with the July project Quilting challenge theme but it is a good incentive!  

Quilty math is the best kind of math!

Auditioning fabrics

Birds!!!!

This week I am working on this little guy

On the computer

In fabrics

This little guy is actually not that little, I made him 35" tall and he has about 20 different Fabrics

How not be inspired by those lovely creatures?

He should be in my store very soon :)

Madame Jackie's quilt part 2

She is done! she is done! All ready to be gifted. It is lovely to be able to do a simple quilt. She is not very big, just enough to cuddle under on the couch or hang on the wall as a nice accent.

Now on to new things. My cat Quilt pattern as a huge success at Quebec Quilt and I had multiple people asked for a dog quilt. Well I got 10's of different suggestions going from a gecko to a buck :D

Sneak peak, I am working on this very good boy :)

And those love birds have been living in my computer for almost 6 months, it would be nice to make them live on fabrics :)

Tell me what low poly beast (or other) would you like to see?