Good morning, my loves!

Oh man, this end of the year stuff has my head in 47495 places! My mama's birthday is this week, so this weekend I took some time to play to make her a little something (don't worry-- she opened it last night, so I'm not giving away any surprises). This week's FriYAY Friends (now here's a spoiler) is Minki Kim. As I've been getting to know Minki, I've been captivated by her sewing illustrations. I haven't read her book, but her Instagram photos make me drool, so I couldn't help a little "play time" in my sewing room to see what I could come up with. 

My mama loves pansies. She and I taught Nature Study together for 4 years, and she taught another 6 years (I hope I have those years right, Mama) after our time teaming up. Pansies were one of the favorite subjects we painted. I've painted  a LOT of them, so they felt like a good thing for the subject of my experiments as well as something Mama would enjoy.

While it's not our typical Monday quilting, I thought I'd share my fun in case you want to give it a shot. 

1) Choose a subject and a reference image (see mine above)

2) Select fabrics (this is GREAT for scrap busting)

3) Place the background fabric inside the hoop so you have a clear picture of your working space 

4) Cut out your shapes and glue them down with a handy glue stick

5) Use a basic straight stitch to secure the pieces permanently, about 1/8" from the edge. Also, hem your background fabric about 1/4" from the edge

6) Consider adding embroidery details for added depth

While this post is not sponsored by Daylight, I am an affiliate with them, am totally in love with their products, and used both my Wafter 3 light box and Slimline lamp while working on this pansy today. If you are interested in investing in the best lamps of your life, use my code SSTORY1117 for 20% off at www.daylightcompany.com.

I would love for YOU to be part of my inside circle. My newsletter folks get the VIP treatment-- exclusive offers, special giveaways, and weekly updates. In fact (another spoiler-- look at me go!) there will be a special giveaway this weekend! PLUS, when you sign up, I send you a FREE copy of "3 Easy Steps to Improve Your Free Motion Quilting," so you can have the strongest foundation possible for your FMQ adventure. 

Talk to you soon, friends! Until then, happy quilting!

XO,

HollyAnne