Monica Curry Quilt Design

                              . . . the more they stay the same. I bought two irons this month that were manufactured over 100 years apart and was intrigued by how similar they were in design. Both have a double point base, a rounded handle, and need to be placed on a heat source before ironing. The technology for each iron was vastly different, but the concept was the same. I bought the older iron at my favourite antique shop. It's a Mrs. Potts Cold Handle Sad Iron. The "sad" in sad iron is from the Middle English word  sad  which meant solid or heavy.  The second iron was a Panasonic Cordless 360° Freestyle™ Steam/Dry Iron . This iron is so similar to the Sad Iron I suspect the designers at Panasonic really knew their clothes iron history. Who is Mrs. Potts and What is a Sad Iron? Mrs. Potts was born Mary Florence Webber in 1850 in Iowa, US. When she was 17 she married Joseph Potts...

Like most of you, my studio had humble beginnings but, over time, evolved into a creative sanctuary. As in any good studio, there are special items that keep me inspired, grounded, and working efficiently. In no special order, these are the Top 10 things in my studio I would never part with. 1.  MY ART QUILT ON THE COVER OF  QUILTING ARTS MAGAZINE This framed  Quilting Arts  magazine cover featuring one of my art quilts helps to remind me that hard work and perseverance can pay off and that even though I've created some epic fails, I've also created some beautiful work that others can appreciate. In 2012 my art quilt Mother Ship was selected to be published for the  Quilting Arts  magazine Readers Challenge. I was even more excited when I was told my art was going to be on the front cover of the magazine. The Readers Challenge was to create an art quilt interpreting the phrase "What If." Being a UFO/alien buff, I wondered "What if I saw a UFO over my house...

This is a great storage idea that I wanted to share. I can't afford much for storage furniture so I normally have to think outside the box to furnish my sewing room. I picked this little mid-century modern dresser at a thrift store. I desperately needed more storage for my batting, backing and those miscellaneous things that needed a home. I forgot to take the before picture but, basically, the original was sprayed in a dark stain and had super ugly drawer handles. After combing over ideas on Pinterest, I came up with this. I really love how it turned out. And I can keep an awful lot of stuff in these drawers. UPDATE: June 2021 Dresser was sold for $150. I paid $40 for the original so I made a $110 profit.😀 I used that $$ to buy IKEA shelving for my studio.

Last weekend hubby and I took a nice drive in the country to pick up these incredible vintage sewing machine bookends for my sewing room. Aren't these the coolest things you've ever seen? I first saw similar bookends on Pinterest, so I had my eye on these for a while after seeing them on a Facebook group. I was happy the artist, Greg at Prairiepickers.com , still had the bookends when I finally texted him last week to buy them. They cost $100. I thought that was a very good deal considering all the work that went into them. The sewing machine is circa 1920s. Even the wooden bases are from an old sewing machine table. Greg told me he normally upcycles the bases of vintage sewing machines into tables. He said he's usually left with the machine when the table is finished. So, he decided to make something out of a machine because he didn't want to throw it out. The set even came with some vintage wooden spools of thread. I would love to find more of these spools...

A couple of years ago I posted a  Halloween floral arrangement that I made for my home. This year, I made a Halloween wreath for my front door. I turn 60 this October and I love Halloween, so I'm having a birthday/Halloween party for my big day. I wanted a pretty wreath on the door to greet my guests. I saw some beautiful wreaths on Pinterest with skulls and  ghoulish stuff, but I wanted a floral wreath. Everything I used to make this wreath is from the dollar store. It cost about $15 to make which proves you don't need a lot of money to pretty up your home for Halloween.  Happy Halloween one and all!

I haven't been able to post very much these days because I have a great new part-time job. Besides loving to quilt, I'm also a floral arranger. I love my job, but I'm now juggling my time between job, blogging, sewing, and housework. It's totally doable (I have no kiddies running around), but I really have to plan my time better for my sewing. I have a Halloween table runner on the design wall and on deck is a beautiful Christmas table topper. Here are some of my floral design creations. It's been a long time since I did any floral work, but I'm starting to get the hang of it again, and I'm learning from some very talented designers at work.

UPDATED: June 06, 2021 Back when I first started quilting, I struggled with yardage calculations, resizing blocks and any other kind of quilting math. Everything was done manually back then. Most of the time I'd just wing it when it came to buying yardage, but that was risky. Resizing blocks was done with graph paper and pencil unless I had a magazine to give me the templates. I didn't even have a rotary cutter! Now technology is helping quilters with all this math stuff and I love it. Here are four quilting apps that will make your quilting a little easier. 1. The Quilter's Little Helper by Robert Kaufman "Master the math involved in quilting! Robert Kaufman Fabrics and Quilters Paradise have joined forces to bring you this updated collection of eight essential quilting calculators. Designed by quilters, the calculators work with both U.S. and metric measurements. With these tools you’ll easily and accurately work out how many rectangular pieces can be cut from a la...

Well, a new year has begun. 2015 was full of positive changes, both for me personally and for our home. Personally, I overcame my lifelong battle with depression with top notch professional help and a lot of hard work. Our home has a new kitchen and our yard has a new pond. As of June 2016, we will have lived in our little house for 10 years, and we finally have it just the way we like it. I started my quilting blog in 2015 and, after a number of changes, finally have it set up the way I like it. The setup took a lot of time away from my quilting, which is kind of ironic, but I have ideas for some great block and wall quilt designs for 2016. I can't wait to start posting them! Happy New Year! I hope your 2016 is full of joy and love.

I'm very proud of this little desk I created from a vintage sewing machine. I think the machine is circa 20s or 30s. I got it free from a friend of a friend, and it sat in my studio gathering dust for over a year until I finally had the time to make it useful. Some may think it's sacrilegious to hack a vintage machine like this, but it makes a great desk. I'm amazed at how much I could fit into those four little drawers.

This is my art quilt Spirit Dancers . I created this piece for a local art show called Stone Age . It was the first art show I'd been in, so I was pretty excited. I think my piece was the only fabric art in the show. I sold the piece quickly and then received a call from the gallery curator. Someone from Australia also wanted one before they flew back home. I then had to rush around to make a duplicate. I was lucky to still have some of the hand-dyed fabric I used. Monica at the Stone Age art show with her fabric art Spirit Dancers