4 Patchwork Pouf Tutorial.

Happy Friday friends!  Just wanted to share this patchwork pouf that I made recently.  You can find the tutorial for the pouf on the Liberty Craft Blog today!

The top of the pouf features a patchwork Dresden plate made out of the Liberty Lifestyle Stile collection!  I used Essex yarn dyed linen in black for the base and the center of the Dresden.

This pouf is big, at about 20" in diameter and 15" high.  Perfect to use as an ottoman or extra seating!

Jackson is a fan!

Head over to the Liberty Craft Blog to find out how to make your own.

If you make a patchwork pouf, I'd love to see it!  You can upload it to the Bijou Lovely flickr group or use the hashtag #patchworkpouf on Instagram!

6 the big bowl.

Just wanted to share a little story about my family with you today.  My cousin Brock Rumohr, an amazing ceramist, sculptor, and teacher, was asked to develop and implement a community collaborative sculpture event to commemorate the Munising Woodenware Factory, in Munising, MI, which is where my dad's family is from.  The factory was where timber from the area was transformed into bowls, rolling pins, and clothespins, among other things by local artisans.

Photo by LAREfurbish on Etsy

If you've read the little blurb on the left about why this blog is called Bijou Lovely, you know that this blog was named after my great grandmother.  She was a talented artist who worked at the Munising Woodenware Factory in Munising, MI where she painted wooden bowls with flowers, ivy leaves, fruit, and other designs (the bowl shown above is one of hers, I just found it while writing this post and immediately bought it!).  My grandmother also worked at the factory for a while, making wooden clothespins.

Obviously, this was the perfect project for my cousin Brock, since the area and the factory have such deep ties to our family.  He finished his "The Big Bowl" sculpture over the 4th of July weekend with the help of the public and some other family members.  I'm biased of course, but I think it's pretty awesome!

Photo by Brock Rumohr

Here's a little video documenting the process.

If you ever happen to find yourself in Munising, stop by the Alger County Heritage Center and check it out.  I hope to be able to visit the sculpture myself very soon!

10 chalet sewing weekend: portraits!

Happy Friday!  I'm back home after a few days in Boston, and happy to have a mostly free weekend!  Strawberry picking and jam making are in the plans, as well as finishing up a sewing project or two.

I'm hoping you don't mind if I show you some portraits I took during our chalet sewing weekend, since they're of a few people I think you'll know?

First, Anna in some pretty fields.

Deedee (and her pretty Swoon quilt!)

Jeni, rolling in vintage sheets!

And Jacey, showing off her stash!

I had so much fun taking these, it's fun to just mess around and shoot pictures of friends.  It helps to have such pretty scenery outside your back door too!  These were all taken on the chalet property.

9 chalet sewing.

Last weekend I took a trip down to Madison and Mt. Horeb to meet up for a weekend of sewing with a few friends.

Jeni, Jacey, Deedee, Faith, Anna and I rented out a beautiful chalet in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin and spent our days sewing, shopping, eating, and dyeing fabric!   

I was very inspired just being in the chalet, the inside was so beautiful and the view outside was pretty great too.

I finished quilting my Indian Summer quilt while I was there.  I'm usually not the best at actually sewing during retreats, but it felt good to get something done this time.

I also started working on a project for a new tutorial, which should be finished soon.

It was so nice to just sit around, chatting and sewing with friends.  I don't get to do that very often!

We ate a ton of really delicious food while we were there, including gigantic pretzels for dinner at The Grumpy Troll.

We went to The Coopers Tavern in downtown Madison and had the most delicious Belgian frites with garlic aioli.

Deedee is an amazing cook, and made us fancy breakfasts every morning.  She also made an iced mocha cheesecake that was to die for!

Anna made Italian sodas and even brought cute paper straws for us!

We stopped at Jeni's apartment a few times to visit her bunny George.  It was fun to see her cute apartment and her sewing room!  We joked that it felt like we were stepping into her blog!

Back at the chalet, we tried out indigo dyeing for the first time.  I only dyed a few things, but everyone's pieces were really successful.  Here's my favorite of Jeni's pieces, which she made by tying rocks into the fabric before dyeing it.  I made a little video of the reveal on IG which was kind of fun.

 Here are all of our dyed pieces together!

Overall, it was just a really relaxing and fun weekend.  It's so nice to get together with friends!  I'm very grateful to have all of these girls so close to me (and Jacey, who was willing to make the trip up from Texas!)

Photo by Faith

We didn't think to take photos at the chalet until it was all cleaned up, and at that point, Anna and Faith had already left.  Thankfully Faith had taken a picture of all of us at The Sewcial Lounge!

By the end of the trip, we already decided that we'll be coming back again next year!  I'm already looking forward to it :)

135 giveaway from little pink rose.

Happy Friday friends!  I have a feeling I'm not going to have much time for sewing this weekend, I've got another wedding to shoot tomorrow and need to get ready for a quick trip to Boston next week.

Today I've got a great giveaway for you from one of my lovely sponsors, Little Pink Rose!

Marcia at Little Pink Rose has some great fabric in the shop right now, and is even offering pre-orders for Tula Pink's latest pre-cut quilt kit, Diamonds in the Sky!

Marcia also makes the cutest quilted Cathedral Window pincushions, which are also available in her shop.

Little Pink Rose always has amazing sales going on, and also offers flat rate $6 shipping and free shipping when you spend $150.

Today, Marcia is offering up this Petite Fat Quarter bundle (includes 10 FQs) of Riley Blake's Medium Chevrons!

To enter, simply leave a comment!  Please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you.  You can earn an additional entry by signing up for Little Pink Rose's email newsletter (on the left side of the page here).  Just leave an additional comment letting me know that you've signed up!  I'll pick a winner on Monday, 6/24.

Update:  This giveaway is now closed.  Congrats to our winner, cherylj!

Thank you to Marcia and Little Pink Rose for your support and the great giveaway!

9 plus quilt progress.

I finished my Edges plus quilt top this week!

It felt good to finish this one, even though I really haven't been working on it for that long.  These blocks come together really fast, especially when making them in small batches.  I would make at least 4 blocks all at once, chain piecing them all together for faster assembly.

Lots of random low volume prints from my stash used as backgrounds on this quilt!  Nothing new for me really, but I still love all the dimension this type of background creates.

That single black block really makes the quilt in my opinion!  I was hesistant to add it in, but now I'm happy it's there.

 This quilt has already been Jackson approved :)

You can find Edges by Laura Gunn at Fat Quarter Shop!

8 adding up.

I snuck in some sewing time this morning since I was up early with a sick pup, and added a few more Edges plus blocks to my design wall. I really like how this is coming together.

In other news, I survived the wedding last weekend!  It was a gorgeous wedding with some wonderful people.  I was a bit stressed but I enjoyed myself, and I think I might be crazy enough to actually do it again!

If you are interested in following along with my photography, please "like" my Holly DeGroot Photography page on facebook.  Then maybe I won't feel so guilty about not posting here as much recently :)