Pink Patchwork Pillow: TGIFF

She's pretty cute - yeah?

I've wanted to experiment with monochromatic blocks for awhile now.
They really are the perfect thing to practice free motion quilting on!

Pink - obviously.  You have no idea how many pink scraps I have...
I was just messing around but it was really surprisingly so much fun!  I think I am really going to enjoy the quilting part of quilting from now on...  The Juki TL-2010Q really hums like a little hive of bees is happily working inside as you sew along.

I promise I will do a review of my Juki soon...you can't rush me, after all you do want me to be thorough.  (And by thorough you know I mean entertaining right?)
In the meantime...

I'm linking up!

- rebecca lynne

still in progress

I've been doing a lot of "getting things in order" over here in my studio.  I've totally rearranged my stash and am trying to get to those projects on my 2013 FAL Q2 list.  I am also messing around with some free motion quilting on my new Juki TL 2010!

Love this design...but I had to cut it off the pillow cover I am making...  Oh well, it is just practice but I thought it was cool!  Maybe I can make a strap for something?

Trying to finish this but ran out of fabric...more on its way!

Still struggling with the Purple People Pleaser.  At least with the Juki TL the piecing went quickly!  Now just to iron and piece together...

So, what are you up to this week?

- rebecca lynne

Enjoying the affair...

or as my friend Stephanie so aptly put it...Hello Lover.  

Remember being young and in love?  That initial drunken love period when you were head over heels and so completely caught up in your beau that you were oblivious to anyone or anything else in your life?  Hours of phone calls spent talking about nothing important, late mornings lounging in bed, forgetting how long it had been since you last time you slept in your own bed, unreturned phone calls to girlfriends who thought you had fallen off the planet...

Also known as The Honeymoon Phase.

Well, the Juki TL and I are enjoying ours.  So, I apologize for the radio silence...

Here is a bit of our foreplay before I start experimenting with free motion quilting and other fun settings.

For the record, I didn't have many of those drunken loves in my life.  I married my college sweetheart.  Who, by the way, has been extremely tolerant of my affair with my new friend.  As have my daughters who were very curious and made many approving noises and "ooh pretty" kinds of comments.

I'll be back soon with fun sewing machine updates to share!

- rebecca lynne

Making House: revitalizing the couch

My couch is new relatively speaking.  Well, it is 4 years old, but it is one of the few "new" as opposed to hand-me-down pieces of furniture that we own.  However, it was bought in a huge furniture chain store and I can't help but feel like it isn't personal.  [I mean, I've seen it in this furniture store's commercials, groan...]  It has bothered me for a bit, add to that the fact that I've grown tired of its brownness amidst a room with a lot of also brown wood.  

Lightening struck when I happened to throw some Anna Maria Horner fabric across the couch one day while I was working on a project - my flash of light was the realization that I could personalize the couch by adding some of my favorite fabric to it by covering the pillows!

This fabric is Anna Maria Horner's Lou Lou Thi Zig Zag Velveteen.

Well it definitely adds some flare!  As we plan to paint the walls in this room a rich dark blue, almost navy with a sheen, I am picking colorways with blue in them to complement.  I plan to keep the larger seated cushions the same as I think the brown provides a good foundation for brightly colored cushions.  However, I intend to cover the rest of the back cushions with Anna Maria Horner Field Study Linen.

 

Now to just finish hand-sewing the last seams...

Linking up!

 

- rebecca lynne

Princess Wall Art

For months now I have been meaning to create wall art to hang over each of the girls' beds.  I thought of using their name, or initial, or even their photo.  But ultimately I have decided on an illustration of their favorite animal to signify them instead.  Miss E is all about giraffes and the color orange.  

Miss O doesn't have can't voice an opinion about her favorite animal yet but I have to say that the *mmmm-hmmmph* look that this Owl has reminds me of her little 1 year old attitude.  She most certainly has opinions whether she can voice them or not.  ;)

I am still working on Miss L.  She loves, like is head over heels crazy about, lions.  So I know the animal...I am just trying to decide what accoutrement to give it.  A bow?  A flower?  Another crown?  Hmmmph...  She is such a ball of sunshine it has to be fun, what could I use.

Think, think, think

- rebecca lynne

Aeneas's Quilt: TGIFF

Done!  Quintessential chevron in gray and white.  The simplicity says it all...
And I just love this pop of Echo on the back!  Isn't it just perfect?

Thank you to everyone who gave me binding advice and those of you that suggested I do a peak of the backing on the binding.  I love the way the yellow is like a little entry way into the quilt, a quiet spot amidst the harder charcoal border.

This is the first time I have ever tried a zig zag binding.  I figure it is a baby quilt which will hopefully be used and washed often so a sturdy binding was the way to go.  I think the zig zag works well with this chevron piecing!

I just love that yellow corner!

Quilt Stats
Size: 36x36
Front: 8" HST Blocks made of White Muslin & Timeless Treasures Sketch Charcoal
Back: Lotta Jansdotter Echo Florine in Brass
Binding: Kona Charcoal & Lotta Jansdotter Echo Florine in Brass; completed by machine on Bernina Activa 130 in zigzag
Machine Quilted: straight stitch that mimics the zig zag piecing done on a Juki TL2010-Q

Linking up...go check out all the awesomeness over at Quokka Quilts

- rebecca lynne

Crap!  I totally forgot!  This is one of my proposed finishes for the 2013 FAL!  AGH!!!  [See?  I am not very good at this finishing thing...roll eyes.]  Alright, 1 down...4 to go?  Hahahahahaha!

Colour Theory for Quilters Series

How often have you thought to yourself while picking fabrics or throwing fabrics onto the design board "hmmph, I bet some colour theory would help me cinch this design right about now..."  Yes, I think we have all at one time or another been visitors in the land of color doubt.  Even the most amazing artists go through moments of stepping back and thinking "well THAT probably wasn't the best colour choice"

Lucky for us then that...

Jess of The Elven Garden is hosting 
The Colour Theory for Quilters Series!

AND --- lucky for me that she has asked that I write a guest post on Value, including a discussion on Low Volume!  I cannot tell you how flattered I was when she emailed me!

The schedule for the theory posts is:

 1.  Using the Colour Wheel and Understanding Colour Terminology – Monday 10^th June

Guest Post by Molli at Molli Sparkles 

   2.       Colour Harmony – Monday 17^th June

Guest Post by Jess of Quilty Habit

3.       Colour Context – Monday 24^th June

Guest post by Jennifer of SecondhandDinosaur

4.       Value, including low volume – Monday 1^st July

Guest post by Rebecca of Making Rebecca Lynne

In the week following my guest post (wow, pressure much?), Jess has asked the following quilters of blogging notoriety to discuss their colour inspiration for their work!  How awesome is that?    

Monday 8^th July - Amy (Badskirt)

Tuesday 9^th July – Jeannette (Heidi Gone Aussie) 

Wednesday 10^th July – Alison (Little Island Quilting)

Thursday 11^th July – Joanna (Shapemoth)

Friday 12^th July – Julianna (Sewing under rainbow)

Mark your calendars and prepare to be educated - quilter style.

So what do you think?  Have any fabric/quilting/textile specific colour theory questions?  Do tell...

- rebecca lynne

I'm Feeling Lost and Found

For my regular readers you may have been wondering where in the hell is that MRL chica?  I have been a horrible absent bloggy friend and owe all of you well deserved blog comments and visits.  Well, I have been taking a Making/blogging break.  This has been for totally selfish reasons as I am spending some seriously needed quality time with my mother who is visiting from Colorado.  For those non-Americans let's just say Colorado and Far Far Away, New York are, well, far far away from each other.  So, I have been thoroughly enjoying this much needed time with her and my girls.

Before hanging with my parental unit ensued, I have been working on a dual project for Mother's Day in fact.  Some of you may remember that I have been a paper piecing fiend recently, mmmmmm paper piecing.  Love the precision.  I am so surprised at myself but see that is why you need to try all sorts of things to be sure you aren't going to fall head over heels!  (um, definitely not an endorsement you hear in Sex Education class now is it...)

I made these Matryoshka dolls for my mother (linen trio) and mother-in-law (white trio).  Each doll represents one of my girls and they each picked their color fabric with the exception of Miss O who acquiesced to her older sisters' insistence that if she had been able she would have chosen pink.  I plan to begin making them into Mega Zipper Pouches.  Just trying to decide what lining to use and whether to give them fat bums like my original pattern.  I do enjoy how the fat bottom gives it the ability to stand up!  

  

Now that I think of it I haven't been totally free of Making during my bonding break with my mother...  The Mr. and I made a wicked Cuban feast this weekend...but...not being in blogging mode I took no photos!  Ooops my bad...  

I also have a finish which I will be featuring this Friday via TGIFF so do come back to visit.  

And, for those following my Sewing Machine Adultery Series, I have done some ridiculous research over the last few weeks and am closer to my personal decision regarding a new sewing machine.

Linking up for the first time EVER to Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up because it is being hosted by my most fabulous blogging friend Annabella at Life's Rich Pattern!

Be back soon...

- rebecca lynne

UPDATED: Sorry!  I always forget to include where I found this awesome Matryoshka pattern.  You can find it in Volume 5 of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.