My name is Michelle and I have been a maker and creator for as long as I can remember. Inspired and taught by my mom, I learned to knit, crochet and sew at an early age. My mom was always sewing and I grew up in the heart of southern Ontario Mennonite country, so quilts were everywhere. I started by hand quilting whole cloth quilts and eventually moved to machine piecing and quilting.
Today, quilting is my passion, creative outlet and stress management strategy. I love the play of colour, design and texture in quilts. Scrap quilts with their variety of colour and fabrics are my favourite and the inspiration for Bits & Pieces.
Visit my website at www.bitsandpiecesquilting.com, follow me on Instagram at: bitspiecesquilt, subscribe to my RU-vid channel and send me your thoughts and ideas for additional content.
Enjoy the process and make the most of your fabric bits and pieces. Happy Quilting!
I have some of Debbie Tucker rulers there are the best. Some of your mom’s ruler I’ve never seen before I look forward to you showing us how they work.
Hi Jeanne - such a great way to upcycle those fabrics! And I'm sure they love their quilts! I'm hooked on using denim and looking forward to trying other patterns. Thanks for watching.
I love that! Personally, I don’t think I would take it to the beach. I’m not a beach girl Sand gets into everything I can imagine it getting into those little seams.
Glad you liked it! This is a pattern I frequently turn to for the last little pieces. It looks great with a theme (like this Christmas one) or with just everything tossed in.
Hi Michelle! It was great to meet your Mom! I'll bet you are thrilled to be back in Canada with her. Interesting collection of rulers. I use my 18 degree Dresden tool for a Dresden with 20 fans, so that 9 degree tool should make a really dramatic Dresden with 40 fans. And Deb Tucker rulers - I have a few and they are great. I'm looking forward to seeing what you and your Mom come up with!
Hi Beth! It is really good to be back home. Australia was really good to us, but as they say, there is no place like home. Thanks for your input on the Dresdens and the Deb Tucker rulers. I had never seen the Deb Tucker rulers before, but lots of people have been commenting on how useful they are, so I'm keen to experiment with them. And we'll see if we can get mom in front of the camera again!!
Michelle I have made seven disappearing nine patches and it measures 13 inches should I still cut it 2 and one half inches from center of second square.. .i just want to make sure I cut it right. Thank you so much.
Hi Mary. What size were your original squares? Your best bet is to measure the finished size of your centre square in the nine patch and divide that number in half. So if your centre square in the nine patch measures 4 inches across, you cut them at 2 inches. This is the size you should have if you started with 4.5 inch squares and sewed with an accurate quarter inch seam allowance. If you started with 5 inch squares and the centre blocks are 4.5 inches in the nine patch, you should cut at 2.25 inches. If you centre block is a weird size, don't worry - just divide the number in half and be consistent across the whole project. As I've been finding recently, getting an accurate and consistent quarter inch seam can be challenging! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Absolutely thought this was gorgeous I am just not confident that a scrappy quilt I might do would turn out so awesome. You do an awesome job thanks for the handout great of you to do all of this for us.
Hi Loreen! I'm sure your scrappy quilt will look great! The secret for this one is to be sure there is a difference between your lights and darks. Mediums don't work really well in this project. And pick a "theme" for your scraps..... maybe it's Christmas like mine, or brights, or cottage, or ocean, or wild flowers. If you can select your scraps based on some sort of "theme" it makes it easier to see a cohesive final project. But crazy scrappy can also be brilliant too! Have some faith in yourself - I'm sure it will turn out well.
Wow! Mum has some great quilting rulers and I think that you both will have a ball quilting together again. I am intrigued to know if those three hexagon rulers are still available and who makes them when you have the time to speak about them. I think that the two of you will be really busy in the coming weeks.
HI Valeri! There is so much inspiration to be found in this collection of tools and I'm thrilled to be a lot closer now to be able to borrow some and work with mom on some projects. It's going to be fun! Thanks for watching.
Hi Cindy! I'm thrilled to hear that you gave this a try! I hope you are happy with results. If you would like, I'd love to see a photo - bitsandpiecesquilting@gmail.com or on Instagram @bitspiecesquilt.
I have a lot of Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design templates and use them fairly frequently. I think once you get some experience with those templates, you’ll find them very helpful.
Thanks Nikki! Others have said how much they like them and how useful they are..... I'm keen to give them a try. It can sometimes be really difficult to get what looks like a simple block all lined up properly. Thanks for watching.
Hello London Ontario! I spent a year there on a teaching exchange nearly 30 years ago. I taught at Lord Nelson Elementary. I did visit the quilt shop there to find material for my sister in law. I hadn’t started quilting then but started the following year after receiving a small kit from a St Jacobs quilt shop. The Deb Tucker ruler for square in a square is excellent. A deceptively simple looking block that ends up so inaccurate, this ruler makes such an improvement. I also have her flying geese ruler.
Hi Sue! Thanks for your message! London is such a pretty city and mom enjoys living there (it's close to her grandchildren!!). Thanks for your feedback on the Deb Tucker rulers - we'll definitely have to give them a try and discover what we are missing! Thanks for watching.
Yep! I call my mom's craft room "the cave of wonders"!! So many things to look at, boxes to look into, things to play with, things to borrow and ideas galore. It's great fun! Hope all is well with you.
Deb Tucker has RU-vid videos supporting her rulers. I think this is the one for that square squared ruler: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QrNiGcMCJ5M.html
both of the wedges can make a Dresden - you just need to do the math to determine how many wedges you need for 360 degrees. I think that Sewing with Nancy did a show using a JUMBO Dresden ruler.
That's a great idea Joette! It would be a way to use all sorts of little bits and pieces and those mini crazy quilts would be so fun as a tumbling block. Thanks for watching and sharing such a great idea!
Lovely to meet your mother Michelle. You can see how happy she is to have you back in Canada. My mother was also a quilter and we had so much fun together. Happy times. Looking forward to seeing what magic you both make with the different rulers.
Thanks so much Patricia! So many of us have learned from our mothers and grandmothers and aunties and others in the community. Mom and I try to work on some sort of project whenever we get together and it's great fun. Hope you are well.
Thanks Debee! We are still a few hours apart, but there is a lot more opportunity to work on projects now that I'm not half a world away! Thanks for watching.
I found your GORGEOUS blk and white quilt on RU-vid. I want to make it and the other one with the colored scraps. What a beautiful way to mix up half square triangles into a large distinct and beautiful Overall Quilt Pattern! Genius! Scrappy Ribbons is gorgeous!
Thanks so much Suzanka! Both patterns are available for free on my website at: www.bitsandpiecesquilting.com. I hope you will give them a try. Thanks for watching.
Hi Sara - I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. That's so tough. We can learn so much from those who come before us and hopefully do our part to pass some of that knowledge on to others as well. Take care and thanks for watching.
Hi Kathryn! I was really glad to convince mom to be on camera with me.... maybe we can convince her to do more videos next time I go visit! Thanks for watching.
Hi Jenn! As times are getting hard for some, I think it's important we spark our creativity with what we already have. For me, packing up to move made me VERY aware of just how much I already have.... time to put on the thinking cap and use it! Thanks for watching.
Loved seeing you with your mom!! Enjoy every day you have together, she was so cute about being thrilled that your back near her. I have both of those studio 180 rulers and really like making my pieces slightly oversized and then trimming them down.
Hi Jean - thanks so much for your kind words! I was really happy to be able to convince mom to join me on camera. It is good to be closer now and I'm looking forward to sewing together. And borrowing some of her rulers!! Thanks for watching.
Michelle, you need to look at Bonnie's En Provence quilt. If I remember correctly, that's the quilt I used the Tri Recs rulers for. It's a beauty quilt pattern.
Hi Annette - I just looked it up - wow, wow, wow! Bonnie has long been an inspiration and I've made a ton of her free patterns. This one looks amazing. Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching.
Hi Janice! Dig in and use your rulers! I hope you find some videos on my channel to help you make the most of what's in your collection. Thanks for watching.
Thanks so much Danna! It is good to be closer to family and be able to spend more time together. Adventures are great, but there is no place like home!
Thanks so much Patricia! I think mom was a bit nervous, but I'm glad I could convince her to be on camera with me. She was my first teacher for all my crafty habits and I'm glad I get to share this with her. Thanks for watching.
Loved Mom! Thank you for sharing w us…my Mom is gone but I share my love for quilting with one daughter and three grandchildren, (one is an 11 yr old boy)…Enjoy the adventure!!!!
Thanks so much Marq! I'm glad to hear you are passing on your passion to your grandchildren. Mom has spent a ton of time with her three grandchildren to pass on her skills and expertise. Two are her protégés in the kitchen (cookies and pastry) and one has learned to sew in order to make costumes. They are learning from the best!
Wonderful to see your mom, and AMAZING to see her ruler collection! The smaller part of the tri-rec set is great for making HRT’s. Good to see that other people “gather” rulers too? Im a bit cautious when it comes to buying rulers that only have one kind of use, which is a good thing…..more money for fabric❣️❣️🤣🤣 xoxo e. N.B. 🇨🇦
Hi Vee - great tip about using the small part of the tri-recs for HRTs! I hope this little series helps others discover or re-discover what they already have. Times are getting tougher and we need to rely on creativity rather than the latest or greatest gadget. I look forward to seeing mom more often and maybe encouraging her to be a part of more videos! Thanks for watching.
