friday finish

Outside pictures taken earlier this week of my finished quilt sunny, measuring 60" by 75". 

It's machine quilted in the ditch and hand quilted with perle cotton 16. Light and summery with the thin Hobbs Thermore polyester batting. I put the batting in the dryer for 20 minutes before basting the quilt. This made the batting soft and puffy, removing the wrinkles from being folded up and stored in the bag.  Happy with the effect, I will do that again...

The quilt is made from 2.5" strips, playfully arranged on my design wall. I blogged about making the top earlier. Mostly yellow fabric with splashes of contrasting purple makes for an easy recipe! What color is next?

; )

I am working my way through the stack of tops waiting to become quilts. The plan is to keep quilting until I get too distracted and need to start another top.  So, I'm trying to stay in quilting modus...

Happy friday and happy stitching!

wordy wednesday wip

I wanted to share a bit of my process quilting this cloud 9 top. A few times I have tried basting a quilt while it's hanging on the wall and not laying on a floor. Sometimes crawling on my knees and basting is not so tempting...

In the first two pictures you can see my glider curtain system. I put my back up first, right side facing the wall. Then I secure it with painters tape, stretching it out as flat as possible. This particulate backing is a 54" wide cotton voile - very slippery!!!

Then I centered and attached my light polyester batting with pins to the backing. Again, stretching it out and taping it to the wall. 

Last layer is the top; centered, pinned and taped to the wall as well.

The basting is done using my favorite bent quilters safety pins. I have to say it was great using them while standing up!!!

; )

This big star variation top is made from left over triangles from my sea glass quilt and egyptian cotton. The star blocks are 23" big, and I wanted to try something new: clam shell utility quilting. Inspired by the lovely book by Carolyn Forster: "Utility quilting -  simple solutions for quick hand quilting."  (This book was introduced to me by Mary of Molly Flanders; thank you!)

Using a full 8" diameter circle paper template. Big open quilting. Aiming for a light, summery and soft quilt. The pins ended up in the center of each clam shell by sheer luck. I love how the clam shells makes me think of clouds...

; )

Having fun with my favorite perle 16 and embroidery needles. Marking with a grey chalk pencil, three rows at a time. 

Wish you all a lovely wednesday!

pezzy spiderweb

The pezzy spiderweb is my 2013 spring string fling. It finished at 62" by 76" on Quiters Dream Request (thinnest) cotton batting, hand quilted in perle cotton no 16. It is nice and heavy with a lovely drape,  very colorful and happy! The finished blocks measures 14.5" after quilting. 

Not the first and probably not my last quilt using this great old pattern. I started making these blocks last  year, but really dove into the string bin this spring. Rachels fun festival of strings gave me an extra push to finishing it up   ; ) Thank you Rachel!

If you take a look, you will find LOTS of inspiration there...

a sunny sunday morning

It's a sunny sunday morning in may. And I have a fresh, new quilt to show you. 

My "sea glass diamonds" finished (last night) at 50" by 72". Pieced and quilted with Aurifil thread (which I have come to really love as my sometimes temperamental machine behaved perfectly).

The vintage sheets top paired with Hobbs Thermore polyester batting and the soft cotton voile (54" wide) came together like a dream. I basted it hanging on the wall, with pins. Quilted it using fixion pen to mark the lines. And it worked like a miracle... So soft and light. A true summer quilt. This is my 8th quilt from 8" like sided triangles. Probably not my last...

The hammock looks a bit lonely, so I am going to spend some time there reading my book. I'll enjoy the sweet company of my cat, and maybe even her new friend from yesterday?

Wish you a lovely sunday, too!

wednesday wip

In the end there was no choice, I had to have a go at Katy Jones popular pattern "scrap vomit". I think scrap archives would also be a fitting name. Seeing so many and so diverse fabric come together in the same quilt. I have included some of my oldest purchases, some of my newest, some gifted to me by friends and some swapped. 

My quilt will have 1225 simple 2.5" squares. The nifty sizzix machine with the right die comes in handy, here. But my own scrap system also heavily leans towards these cute squares. A quarter of a charm square. The end of a jelly roll. Extras from a bargello block, a 16 patch and so on. Over time they do collect. For this quilt I also had a proper look and slim down of my scraps. The ones I keep in smaller boxes, sorted by color. My scrap organizing system builds on inspiration from Bonnie K Hunter, Amanda Jean and Cheryl. So far I have been making popular patterns from several designers out of the 2.5" squares and the small scrap boxes:

Bonnie K Hunters / Gwen Marston Maverick stars ( two finished lap quilts)

Emily Ciers Scrap Hoover (top)

Jolene's Granny Square (finished quilt)

Elizabet's Tokyo Subway Map (wip / top)

Amanda Jean and Cheryl's Scrappers delight (wip) and The Missing U (wip)

and now:

Katy Jones Scrap Vomit (wip becoming a top)

A few of these wips are in a state of arrested development due to a shortage in scraps! I will consider this a success. A few years of quilting does produce quite a bit of scraps. As some of you may have noticed I happen to love the scrappy kind of quilts. And now there's room for more. I think it's time to turn to the stash and cut into some yardage and FQ, soon...

This latest adventure, my scrap vomit wip has been named emerald city. I do enjoy making it. The most difficult thing, so far, has been to choose the central cross colors. In the end I went with emerald, by pantone named color of the year 2013. 

"Symbolically, Emerald brings a sense of clarity, renewal and rejuvenation, which is important in today's complex world." quote from Pantone

A bit uncharacteristic for my taste in colors, I really love how well the emerald contrasts with the colors of all the other pieces in there. 

A scrappy greeting from me. Somewhat quiet these days on the blog. But still piecing my life together, bit by bit... Happy stitching!

ensemble

Thank you so much for all the quilt love!

Just wanted to share a snapshot of these 4 quilts in different stages of completion:

• top in off white and blue
• top in blue, purple and green
• back of a quilt in the progress of being quilted
• back of a quilt in need of a binding

the small quilt in front sums it all up, I think I am spotting a blue and green trend...

; )

do you have any favorite colors lately?

* ensemble: a group of separate things that contribute to a whole

cool sixteen

a show and tell with lots of pictures and a few words:

cool sixteen : 64" * 80" on hobbs thermore batting

gifted to a young man with a big smile, a big hart and a real understanding of the value of a quilt to go with the sofa...

pictures taken on a very sunny day

p.s. a great and easy pattern to play with colors. (This one uses 2.5" strips ending of with 2 8" blocks from 2 WOF strips.)

really love the colors and fabrics in this one

; )