hollyhocks

Slow quilting by hand, using the double baptist fan template. Cotton batting, dark purple no 16 perle cotton thread. Lovely texture. A very happy quilt. 

My Hollyhocks finished at 60" * 72"

This quilt is a little homage to the Norwegian painter Kjell Pahr Iversen. His colourful paintings, especially a series he named Icons, inspired me to take up quilting. Paint or fabric - just two different tools for expression - right?

If you look at the previous blogpost, the Madhouse blocks started out with a pentagon center. These Hollyhock blocks start out with a hexagon center. Variation on a theme. Which I have realised I often do. Do you?

yellow xoxo

Another one alfresco:

yellow xoxo

63" * 72"

hobbs thermore polyester batting

longarm quilted by Merete Ellingsen in cotton pantograph

One of the many great traditional quilt blocks and patterns shared by the talented, hardworking and generous Bonnie K Hunter from her blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!

Also intended for a lovely young lady. Fun border fabric is by Heather Ross and was a gift from a good friend. I think it anchors the quilt in a good way. Very happy with the result, a happy, happy quilt!

; )

railroad fence

pink railroad fence

60" * 72"

hobbs thermore polyester batting

longarm quilted by Merete Ellingsen in hurricane pantograph

This is my wonky / improve take on a classic block. Easy and fun sewing, squaring up the block to 6" and gathering them in columns.  My second time using this design, the first one is blogged here.

Intended as a gift for a very lovely young lady.

; )

friday finish

Some quilts take a long time to make, others just happens .... my "vertical" finished at 55" * 72", quilted by hand with perle cotton on quilters dream select cotton batting.

The bees are still active in the garden outside, and it seems there's been more sewing activity inside, as well. Planning to use these beautiful october days to take pictures of a few more makes. 

Wish you all a lovely weekend!

; )

vertical

Vertical basting - basting on the wall. My latest quilt top "vertical", composed of horizontal rows of strings of different widths. Scrappy. Green with accompanying yellow / orange and pink.  

About 60" * 80". Quilters Dream Select cotton batting. Pinning standing up or sitting / standing on a chair... Considering how to quilt it.

Can you believe this is my post number 400! Thank you all for being part of my blogging with kind and lovely comments and questions over the years.  To celebrate I want to share how to do this vertical basting.

A short picture tutorial:

• the backing up first, curtain clips and painters tape
• the batting up second, same curtain clips, just smoothed out with the quilting ruler after softening the crinkles with a short spin in the dryer
• the quilt top up last, sticking to the batting, being smoothed out with the same ruler until satisfying result is achieved
• pinning as close as prefered

not shown: removing the quilt sandwich from the wall, cutting off excess batting (leaving at least 2" extra batting and 4" extra backing. Folding up the excess backing over the excess batting and thread basting the edge. This prevents loose fibers on your clothing while handling or hand-quilting.

Wish you all a beautiful Sunday!

; )

summertime

it is summertime, and some sewing still takes place:

a pink & green take on a previous made quilt. This is a gift to be.

Had some luck harvesting red currants, raspberries, red gooseberries and black currants yesterday. A taste of summer...

; )

al fresco

An outdoor photoshoot on a sunny and windy spring day. Quilt dancing in the wind. The intense green of the first leaves paired with the yellow green colors in the quilt. Lovely day - lovely quilt!

This is another one in my heartstring series, and I will call this "hope springs eternal / håpet er lysegrønt". It measures 60" * 72", and is longarm-quilted on hobbs thermore and gifted to a young man celebrating his special day today.

These string blocks are simple, but fun to make. I used a lot of my blue fabric precut into 2.5" strips and added thin strings of contrasting colors. Emptying out the long saved selvage strips, just cutting away the thicker selvage part. If that makes any sense. As a result, this one is a library of fabric used over many years. And that is probably part of why parting with this one feels particularly painful.

It was fun bringing the quilt outside for the pictures. I want to do that some more. Colors and light go together, really they depend on each other.

; )

And spring is greening up on the outside, here, day by day. Happy sewing!