Mia Dolce Originals - Modern Quilts and DIY Projects

Painted Dresser and Changing Table

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Back when I was decorating the nursery, I came across this dresser for sale on Craigslist:

Although the picture made it seem like this dresser had seen better days, it was in fact very sturdy. So with $100 and the help of a pickup and some muscles, it was mine! After a little cleaning, two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in duck egg blue, some minor distressing, and a clear coat of wax, this dresser and mirror had a new life.

It works great in the nursery - lots of storage for clothes and blankets and the perfect height to use as a changing table.

xoxo, Megan

Groovy Triangles Vintage Sheet Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 05:28:00 +0000

Something you may not know about me is that I love looking for treasures in thrift shops and garage sales. If you're willing to spend a little time hunting, you can find some really neat items at a great price! Recently I've been thrifting a lot of picture frames, but I also can't pass up fun vintage sheets! This quilt was made from about 8 different vintage sheet patterns. To keep it from getting too busy, I alternated each print triangle with a solid white triangle (kona snow).

The back is a solid vintage sheet in colorful stripes.

I opted for simple in-the-ditch quilting along the diagonals - not fancy, but it lets the fabrics take center stage!

And finished with a machine-sewn binding.

Details
Size: approx. 47" x 51"
Fabrics: Reclaimed Vintage Sheets
Pattern: equilateral triangles
Quilting: diagonal in the ditch

Available now in the shop.
xoxo, Megan

Sticky Sweet baby quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 10:15:00 +0000

I'm calling this quilt "sticky sweet" because the colors remind me of a bag of tropical skittles. This is one of those quilts where I liked the fabrics in a stack, but as the quilt came together I liked them even more!

The pattern is just simple squares alternating with Kona snow.

I had some leftover squares to use on the back along with the floral print. The quilting is straight lines on the diagonal through the white squares. Simple!

And finished off with a hand-sewn binding.

Details
Size: approx. 39" x 39"
Fabrics: variety from Heather Bailey and Dena Designs
Pattern: alternating squares
Quilting: straight-line diagonals

Available now in the shop
xoxo, Megan

Fall Table Runner

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 10:10:00 +0000

Remember this WIP from way back in January? Well, it's finished and now adorning the dining room table. I love the warm colors, now all I need is a few pumpkins around the house to make it feel like fall.
xoxo, Megan

For good reason

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 11:15:00 +0000

This picture pretty much sums up why I haven't been blogging lately! Time is flying by and baby girl is already 6 months old. Needless to say she rocks my world :) I have been doing a little quilting and plan to share some of my recent projects over the next several weeks. Until then... xoxo, Megan

A new WIP: Wonky Stars

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:52:00 +0000

I've said before that I'm not really a "wonky" person, but this is now my second attempt at wonkiness (first one was a wonky 9-patch), and I kinda like how it's coming together :)

Linking up at Freshly Pieced.

xoxo,

Megan

Fabric Crib Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:04:00 +0000

So remember when I was making the orange peel quilt, I had a stack of circles cut out? Well... I used them to make a fabric mobile to hang in the nursery!

Each circle is actually 2 fabric circles held together (with the ribbon in between) using double-stick fusible webbing. The top part is just 2 embroidery hoops painted white. Here's baby's view from the changing table:

I used the same pastel fabrics in the mobile as I did in the orange peel quilt, which you can see reflected in the mirror. This photo also shows glimpses of three other DIY projects I completed for the nursery, which hopefully I'll blog soon :)

xoxo,

Megan

Changed forever

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:58:00 +0000

What an amazing several weeks it's been! I left off in late February, only 2 weeks from my due date with our first child, working on a quilt wallhanging for her nursery. Now I'm a mommy to a healthy baby girl and changed forever. Kathryn was born on March 14 with a full head of blonde hair (just like Daddy). We love her lots!
And yes, I did actually finish the pastel orange peel quilt before she arrived - I hung it on the wall just a mere 3 days before and it was the perfect finishing touch to the nursery.

I made each orange peel using this method, then machine-appliqued each one using a blanket stitch.

I quilted it by machine with a big free motion all over and finished it with a pink polka dot binding. The original plan was to hand-quilt in the white space with perle cotton, but I got impatient and chose to finish it faster instead :)

To hang it on the wall, I used this tutorial for hiding the hardware. I like the clean, simple look.

Details

Size: approx. 44" x 44"
Fabrics: Kona snow (background) and an assortment of pastels from my stash
Pattern: Orange Peel
Quilting: free motion meandering
Made for: daughter's nursery

xoxo,

Megan

Orange Peels in Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:40:00 +0000

The latest WIP on the design board is an orange peel quilt!

I have been wanting to make one of these for quite some time, but was slightly put off by the thought of applique... but since I'm planning to keep this one, I decided to invest the extra time & effort :)

I'm loving the pastel colors, this is going to be a wall hanging in the baby's nursery. The circles below are not part of the quilt, but rather another little nursery project I'll share soon!

So now the countdown is really on: less than 2 weeks until my due date! Hard to believe :)

xoxo,

Megan

X marks the Dining Table? A new WIP

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:55:00 +0000

Here's what's on my design wall today:

Our dining room recently got a new coat of paint, and this will be a new table runner for the table... our dining chairs have an "x" pattern on the back, so I liked the idea of repeating the theme :)

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

xoxo,
Megan

Friday Night Sew-in... sort of

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:17:00 +0000

Yesterday was my Friday off, and I had high hopes of spending quality time in my sewing room. BUT..... I spent practically all day on my feet doing projects around the house. Finally my feet (which btw look like Stay Puft Marshmallow Man these days) couldn't take any more, and all I managed to accomplish sewing-wise was to pull a bunch of fabrics from my stash:

Oh well, such is life. I'm planning to use these in a wall-hanging quilt for the baby's room. Less than 7 weeks now until the due date - think I can finish it in time?? :)

Linked up to Heidi's FNSI.

xoxo,

Megan

Hello Betty Patchwork Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:10:00 +0000

Here's another one that sat in my unfinished WIP pile for well over a year! I originally bought a layer cake of the Hello Betty collection, then ended up dividing it into 4 different quilts, finished 2, then let the other 2 sit for a while... but alas, this one is finished and just one more left :)

The back is fairly simple with dot prints...

I quilted it with simple straight lines...

and finished it with hand-sewn binding.

I just love the red and blue and vintage-y feel of these prints!

Details

Size: approx. 36" x 42"
Fabrics: Hello Betty Moda
Pattern: simple rectangles
Quilting: straight lines

Available now in the shop

xoxo,

Megan

Aqua Pop Garden Rag Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:19:00 +0000

For those of you who have been visiting this blog awhile, you might remember a certain red rag quilt I did a couple years ago...

Keeping in line with using up old scraps/leftovers, I had enough to make another baby-sized rag quilt, this time with aqua minky instead.

It's neat how just changing one element can transform the look of a quilt!

Details
Size: approx. 35" x 40"
Fabrics: Pop Garden by Heather Bailey with aqua minky
Quilting: rag quilt with x-pattern & hand-snipped seams

Available in my Etsy shop.

xoxo,

Megan

Bliss Double Hourglass Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:25:00 +0000

My little double hourglass quilt is finished! Not a bad little quilt for using up my leftover scraps from the Wonky 9-patch.

I did big 12" blocks and even used up the leftovers from the leftovers on the back in a little pinwheel pattern:

It's free motion quilted with loops and I used a pink polka-dot print from my stash for the binding.

This quilt is smaller - but would be a perfect play mat for a baby :)

Details

Size: approx. 34" x 34"
Fabrics: Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda
Pattern: Double Hourglass
Quilting: free motion loopys

Available now in the shop

xoxo,

Megan

2012: My Year of Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:30:00 +0000

If I look back at 2012, the main theme for me was traveling - near and far. And I loved every bit of it!

By the numbers:

US States visited: 9 (TX, LA, FL, MI, NV, CA, IN, PA, CO)
Countries visited: 11 (USA, UK, Angola, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, UAE)
Flights: 37

And here is a sampling of photos:

London, United Kingdom - Big Ben & Parliament Building

Luanda, Angola - deep sea fishing

La Romana, Dominican Republic - vacation rental

London, United Kingdom - St. James's Park

Cairo, Egypt - Pyramids of Giza

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -Independence Hall

Miami, Florida - swamp tour

Midland, Michigan - the Tridge

Rome, Italy - the Colosseum

Santorini, Greece- cliffs of Oia

Austin, Texas - hill country weekend

Austin, Texas - UT football game

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - view from the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa

Lake Tahoe, California - Emerald Bay

Whew! I'm so thankful to have gotten so much travel out of my system... something tells me next year won't be quite the same with a baby arriving :)

Happy New Year!

xoxo,

Megan

Stack-o-WIPs

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:43:00 +0000

In cleaning up my sewing room, I found these 7 quilt tops waiting to be finished. I really don't like half-finished projects laying around taking up space, so I got busy over the weekend and finished 2 of the baby-sized quilts. As for the bigger ones, you might recognize my Kaleidoscope, Scrappy Strings, Soul Blossom, and my oldest WIP an Hourglass throw quilt which I haven't touched in almost 2 years (ahem, and I used to kid my mother about taking 12 years to finish up a queen-size hand-quilted quilt...)

But.... getting up the motivation to baste a larger quilt (let alone actually quilt it!) takes way more energy than starting a smaller project, so what did I do? You got it, I started another baby quilt with some leftover Bliss scraps from my Wonky 9 Patch.

I've been wanting to do another double hourglass since I made this Christmas stocking last year. But this time instead of 3" blocks, these babies are 12" - this top should come together in no time (hopefully!)

xoxo,

Megan

Repurposed China Cabinet: Fabric Storage

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:16:00 +0000

So I mentioned in my last couple posts that I've been redecorating in the sewing room. Since we replaced the carpet, I took the opportunity to do some rearranging, downsizing, and making pretty. I'll share the full remodel soon, but this new cabinet is one of my favorite pieces! For those of you new to my blog, here's the old sewing room layout.

Here's the $50 Craigslist china cabinet the day I brought her home:

Not horrible, but needed a little freshening up in my opinion. And after a good cleaning, a few coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint (old white), some sanding, and clear wax (not to mention all the muscles involved toting this around for me inside, outside, and upstairs), here she is:

You can also see a glimpse of the new wall color: it's Travertine by Sherwin Williams. A very sunny, happy color. And a few close-ups of the details... the drawers are perfect for storing all those little loose items like ribbon and zippers and scissors/tape and books - nicely tucked out of the way.

I bought the antique Singer machine from a thrift store for $5 a long time ago, but never had just the right place to showcase it. Now it has a proper home in the new cabinet.

I've painted a few pieces of furniture before, but not one this big or with windows or that needed paint on the inside. I won't lie - it was time intensive, but I absolutely love the end result!

Linking up at Quilt Story.

xoxo,

Megan

Recent happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:18:00 +0000

Wow, where does the time go?? Although I haven't done much sewing over the last month, I have....

painted the sewing room and nursery
watched my belly grow and finally shopped at the maternity store
scoured Craigslist for some new finds
presented to a bunch of oil big-wigs during a business trip in Dubai
ate two turkey dinners with family at Thanksgiving
celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary
vacationed at Lake Tahoe with the hubby
started Christmas shopping...

whew! Still so many projects on my to-do list, so gotta run... but I'll leave you with a peaceful photo from Lake Tahoe...

xoxo,

Megan

Special WIP: Sewing Room Facelift

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:47:00 +0000

This week's WIP is a facelift for my sewing studio! Thanks to a sweet puppy with separation anxiety issues, we were finally given the push to replace the carpet in the secondary bedrooms - a project we've only been talking about since we moved in almost 5 years ago :)

But wow, cleaning out those rooms and the corresponding closets has made me realize how much junk we've accumulated. So I'm taking this opportunity to purge and reorganize. Actually, I thought hell had frozen over earlier this week when the hubby actually agreed to get rid of 3 garbage bags full of his clothes, suits, & shoes. You don't know how much I struggle with him to let go of stuff - I was seriously over the moon - that gift was better than any flowers, jewelry, etc could ever be :) Now I hope he keeps the momentum going to tackle his mancave (a girl can dream, right??)

Anyways, I'm planning to repaint the sewing room and potentially shuffle the furniture around - I'll keep yall posted!

xoxo,

Megan

Hey Soul Sister

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:44:00 +0000

Not much to say right now, but here's the latest WIP on the design wall. Gotta love those Amy Butler prints! The colors in this one are quite the change from my last quilt.

xoxo,

Megan

Hometown Zig-Zag Quilt and the Biggest Announcement Yet!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Ta-da! Another finish :) And this one took less than 2 weeks start to finish. Thanks to everyone for your nice comments when I was designing this one.

I'm slow to jump on trends, but I do love how this zig-zag turned out.

The back is a fun red polka-dot and I didn't let any of those HSTs go to waste!

For the quilting, I did straight line zig zags only through the cream areas.

Hand-sewn binding in a coordinating gray print.

Details

Size: approx. 39" x 39"
Fabrics: Hometown by Sweetwater for Moda
Pattern: HST arranged in zig-zags
Quilting: straight-line zig-zags

Available now in the shop

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

OK, so are you ready for the big announcement?!?

Maybe I should rephrase that..... am I ready for it?!?

Ready or not....

Yes, we're expecting our first baby - due in March. We are very excited, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little terrified too. I have already started the nesting process which brings me to the next order of business:

I'm trying to downsize my fabric stash. Please take a peek in my fabric shop - I have Art Gallery Fabrics, vintage sheets, and lots of destash & scrap packs for sale. And more coming soon!

Linking up at Freshly Pieced, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

xoxo,

Megan

Zig-zag through Hometown

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Friday was another Friday Night Sew-in hosted by Handmade by Heidi. I had plans Friday night, so I sewed during the day (thank goodness for 9/80 schedule and my precious Fridays off!). What were my plans you ask? We went to the Eric Church / Justin Moore / Kip Moore concert. Kip is actually my country boyfriend by the way... although I doubt he knows it :) Anyways, I digress...

Lately I've been cleaning up my sewing room, and I had some leftover Hometown fabric from this kaleidoscope quilt. So I got busy making 120 HSTs...

and then started playing on the design board - I'm thinking perhaps a zig zag quilt? We'll see...

Linking up at Handmade by Heidi - (more great projects at the FNSI Flickr group) and Freshly Pieced.

Coquette Patchwork Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:47:00 +0000

This quilt was actually made from scraps I purchased from another quilter. Does anyone else do that? I love the Coquette fabric line, but wasn't sure I wanted to commit to a large fabric purchase, so buying a small scrap bundle was just perfect for me.

Just a simple alternating squares pattern using Kona snow for the background fabric. I love how the pale pink and floral prints give this a vintage feel - perfect for a sweet baby girl :)

I used some leftover squares on the back as well as a mottled pink print from my stash.

The quilting was done with straight diagonal lines through the background squares.

And finished up with a binding in spring green. See? I did have a productive week last week!

Details

Size: approx. 36" x 44"
Fabrics: Coquette by Art Gallery Fabrics
Pattern: Alternating 2.5" squares
Quilting: straight-line diagonals

Available now in the shop

Linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Wonky Bliss Patchwork Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:42:00 +0000

Last week was a productive week quilt-wise. I finished this one and another. This time of year, the secret is having a quilt ready for binding on Saturday (aka college football day in our house). That way I can multitask - cheer on my Horns while getting something accomplished at the same time :)

I used a fat quarter bundle of Bliss fabrics to make these wonky 9-patch blocks using this great tutorial from Oh Fransson! The turquoise and red is really fun together.

Since I ended up with 18 total blocks, the 2 leftovers found a home on the quilt backing.

For the quilting, I did big free motion pebbles. I've used this technique once before on my Butler Blue quilt, and it's relatively easy to do. I'd say it's great if you can deal with "coloring outside the lines", but if you need precision, probably not the best technique for you :)

And I love the pretty red binding - this is what I was finishing off during the game.

Details

Size: approx. 42" x 42"
Fabrics: Bliss by Bonnie & Camille for Moda
Pattern: Wonky 9-patch with sashing
Quilting: free motion big pebbles

Available now in the shop.

Linked up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Scraps under control

noreply@blogger.com (Megan @ MiaDolceOriginals) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:26:00 +0000

I feel like my house is a downright disaster area. I have projects (physically in progress) or wannabe projects (those only in my head at this point) going on in almost every room. New paint colors, garage sale finds waiting to be transformed, pictures waiting to be edited & printed & hung, on and on... But Sunday I tackled some stacks in my sewing room. So while the rest of the house may feel chaotic to me, my scrap bin is now under control and wonderfully organized by color :)

And I'm doing a major downsizing on my fabric stash - check out my Etsy fabric shop for lots of destash fabric.