Guest Blogger July 2016

For this month's guest blogger, we have another Canadian Modern quilter, one who just happens to run an online store. Can you imagine having all that fabric at your fingertips???  Please welcome our sponsor...   My name is Alicia, and I run Dinkydoo Fabrics with the help of my husband and kids! Our shop is online only (for now), but we can't wait to open up our own little quilt shop when the time is right. We are located in Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada (The Greater Vancouver area). Aside from running the  store, I'm an avid quilter who loves quilting as much as free time (and the children) allow.  I'm the current President of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I love doing my part to help the VMQG, all the lovely sew ins, events and retreats! Dinkydoo is also a Platinum Sponsor of the Modern Quilt Guild, and we love to help out other Quilt Guilds across Canada!  What's a Dinkydoo?  We always come up with goofy nicknames for our kids and pets. When our son was born, we started calling him Dinkydoo - it just fit. It's a silly name, but we love it! So we decided to use that for our store and make it just as memorable. It's fun meeting people who've heard of us and hear them say "Dinkydoooooo!" (Everyone always extends the O sound) If we make people smile, we're OK with that! Q&A:     1. What do you love about (Modern) quilting/fabrics? For fabrics, I love all the bright colours and interesting patterns. Like Carolyn Friedlander's collections. They have great colours but very creative and/or unique designs on the fabrics! As for quilting, I really enjoy seeing people take a more traditional block or technique and completely re-work it.       2. Where do you draw inspiration?  Instagram is a great source of inspiration. There are so many quilt patterns and techniques that I want to try out. There are so many talented people out there! It's so great to be connected to other Modern Quilt Guilds as well! Such talent!    3. What are you currently working on? (Can we have a sneak peek?) I'm currently working on quilting my daughters very pink quilt. It's my first time that it's a completely non-continuous quilt design on it. LOTS of burying of threads which I'm slowly starting to regret. I also just took a class with Latifah Saafir and started the Rocket 88 Quilt with bias tape applique which is so much fun! I'm also making a quilt for my mom in so many gorgeous purples!             4. Solids or Prints? Ooooh this is a tough one. I do love both. Prints are so fun but I really do want to try out an all solids quilt at some point, like the Postcards quilt or Moda's Building Blocks quilt.      5. Precuts or Stash?  I am a terrible stash user. I get so attached to the fabric I buy on whim which almost makes it pointless to buy!      6. Favorite Tool/Trick you can’t live without? Oh definitely the Bloc Loc Ruler. I have a major love/hate relationship with Half Square Triangles, which I think a lot of quilters can relate too. I will cut all those HST's out, trim and sew and say "I'm never doing that again" but then the next quilt I see or have an idea for will be full of HST's. The Bloc Loc definitely saves time.       7. What’s your Favorite Blog and/or Designer?  I would have to say right now it's Rashida Coleman Hale. I just adore her colour palettes.      8. What’s one thing we should know about you?  I still relatively new to quilting! I have been sewing my whole life but my first quilt was only about 6 years ago. There is still so many things I want to learn and try out!                                                                                                                            Thank you so much Alicia for being our guest blogger this month, Don't forget to check out her shop at:https://www.dinkydoo.com/