Monica Curry Quilt Design

This stash buster is well suited for beginners or anyone who might need a quick gift. You can use the combination of light and dark fabrics or mix it up with a variety of scraps. Instructions are given for light/dark checkerboard. This pattern would be perfect for a young quilter's first project.

My Precious Bundle baby quilt pattern is now CHARM PACK FRIENDLY! I designed this sweet little quilt some time ago and finally finished it this week. I love shabby chic and used some beautiful retro-style fabrics from Connecting Threads called Line Dried by Mama's Cottons. The fabric design was perfect for this quilt. It's going to be a gift for a very special someone.

This quilt, Happy Hour , was created for the Manitoba Crafts Council 2013 annual members' For the Love of Craft art show. I enjoyed making this art quilt. It was inspired by Rayna Gillman's book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts . I named it Happy Hour because the polka-dots reminded me of Leonard Cohen's song Closing Time. There's a line in the song that goes "and the men they dance on the polka-dots." I was humming that tune much of the time I was finishing up the quilt, and I couldn't get that line out of my head. One of the most enjoyable things about free-form quilting is that it keeps you thinking outside the box. There's no real plan, which means all kinds of cool things can happen.

This modern drunkard's path pattern was made with my own ice dyed cotton. I titled it Many Moons because the colours and textures of the fabric reminded me of the moon's surface, and the pattern is laid out similar to a moon cycle chart. The moon is also considered to be the symbol for women. This was my first try at the Drunkard's Path block. I avoided this block because of the curves, but once I did a few, I got the hang of it. Below are links to get this free pattern, instructions for ice dying and a video on a simple technique to sew accurate curves for this block. (I wish I'd seen this video before I made this quilt). Glue basting??  Fons & Porter video demonstrating the glue basting technique for drunkard path blocks.

Halloween is my favourite time of year. I did this floral arrangement for the season and made a Halloween table topper to go with it. I think the whole thing looks quite cheerful. Also, check out my Halloween door wreath.

I made a sewing machine cover with an old art quilt that hung in our office. I had been trying out improv aka free form quilting for the first time and created this mini quilt Summer Aspen . I love the colours but grew tired of it on the wall. I used Rayna Gillman's book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts to make this quilt art. This book guides you along very well and has beautiful examples of some of Ryana's pieces. At first, I thought it might look nice as a bag, but I changed my mind about that and decided to turn it into a sewing machine cover. I love how it turned out.

I made these crazy quilt block pillows for our couch, and they really inject a bit of character into the room. I love crazy quilts but lack the patience and time for all that embroidery. So, now I use the fancy stitches on my sewing machine instead. My little Singer has the best decorative stitches, so I use that machine for crazy quilt blocks. Below is a great tutorial by Fons & Porter for creating crazy blocks. (FYI: The quilt in the left background inspired my denim scrap quilt beach blanket. )