Monica Curry Quilt Design

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. )

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.

#1   You can fit seven bobbins in a lipstick case.   Lipstick Case Bobbin Storage

Denim scrap quilt made with denim and cotton upholstery fabric scraps.

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  

Are you looking for ways to use up small fabric scraps that are too small for anything? I discovered a fun way to do this by making what I call scrap sandwiches. It's not a new concept, but I couldn't find any good tutorials for it, so I decided to make my own instructions. I’ll sometimes spend an afternoon making these. It’s a fun and mindless project that produces interesting and beautiful textures and colour combinations that can be incorporated into your art quilts or mixed media projects. I’ve used them for quilt art postcards, makeup bags, and book covers.  Fabric sandwiches were incorporated into my art quilt Mother Ship that's on the  Fall 2012 Quilting Arts Magazine cover  in Fall 2012. Sister Moon by Monica Curry Knowledge by Monica Curry Salmon Run by Monica Curry Untitled  by Monica Curry INSTRUCTIONS YOU WILL NEED Fabric scraps. Lightweight muslin or any lightweight non-stretchy fabric cut to 9 x 12 inches. One piece of tulle cut to 11 x 14 inches. Thre...