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!

wednesday wip

; )

summer breeze

Today I have a little finish to share: my summer breeze is ready for some good use. It finished at 60" by 72", hand-quilted with perle cotton on soft and thin Quilters Dream Request (my favorite cotton batting for quilting by hand). I use embroidery needles and perle cotton no 16. Hand quilting takes longer than machine quilting, but is more relaxing and enjoyable too. The cotton batting needs denser quilting than the Hobbs Thermore polyester (another favorite) that I uses in my two previous triangle quilts. In fact this has three times the quilting... Love the weight and feel of it.

You have seen a lot of triangle quilt and quilt-tops on this blog lately. In this one I'm using a low contrast in value. I think it makes the colors blend nicely in a soft look. The cold morning light doesn't do the colors full justice...

It's backed with a nice Amy Butler, too. Love the dark (periwinkle?) binding. In fact, very happy with this finish ; ) this will be staying with me.

This summers mission to make a proper dent in the good stash is moving along nicely. I do have a lot of these big prints and they do pair up nicely with the triangles. This is my third finished triangle quilt. Even if it's the same pattern, the different fabric and individual palette makes these fun to make. Great utility and garden quilts...

I have a few names on my gifting list. Now, where are those green Anna Maria Horner garden prints. Or those pink Amy Butler's... I may be making a few tops for the gift pile.

Wish you all a wonderful sunday!

; )

wip

flimsy

Thank you for advise on how to put the triangles together!

I had an epiphany when I started sewing. The dog-ears of this 60 degree triangle gives a perfect guide when sewing the shapes together! For each and every seam! I love them! My clear view triangle template is my new best friend!

; )

I choose to sew the eight pieces in the block together to a big diamond,

finger pressing seams,

sew diagonal rows together,

and press the seams with my steam iron while they were still in sections.

Another outside quick photo session:

The finished top is about 60 by 72, and my Amy Butler stash has slimmed down a bit...

These are so fun to puzzle together, I'm thinking of making another one!

; )

Could I tempt anyone to have a go? I think this 60 degree triangle is brilliant!

summer breeze ...

 makes me feel fine...

inspired by many pretty quilts using triangles 

and also by the idea of cutting into some of my most treasured stash...

cutting the triangles went like a breeze and the layout just happened...

sometimes inspiration hits and it's good to just run with it

I like this kind of puzzle...

and I might have to get a bigger batting / design wall...

not sure how to best sew these 60 degree triangles together, so I please share if you have some good advice...

Wish you all a great weekend, diving into your precious stash, or not...

; )

march finish

I keep up my quest of turning quilt tops into quilts, this year. This one is quilted by the lovely Merete. My "Peonies" finished at 45" * 60". The batting is a favorite: Quilters Dream Select.

This one looks quite simple and innocent, don't you think?

The truth be told, it wasn't a straight forward process, at all. The romantic, big prints from Amy Butler tempted me into making big simple blocks, some 3 years ago? And I put them all together, side by side. (No picture) A bit busy, and overwhelming, the top was put aside for more than 2 years. Next attempt was to make those blocks into rows with some Kona Snow to let them breath. It worked a lot better, but the shape was clumsy (4 bars made an almost square size). The break-through in the design came when I moved one of the bars onto the back...

a pink cotton/ linen blend. I'm glad I didn't give up on this one.

Thank you all for leaving me your lovely and friendly comments. Please know that I appreciate this. For the time being I am a bit more quiet than usual, and this will probably last for a while longer. My family needs more attention than normal, and I need to spend more time with them. And I need to keep sewing, too. Because it is very calming...

So take care, and hopefully you have some sewing to keep you busy, too...

improv top

The improv top is coming together. I am thinking about calling it "There's always two sides..." Just because...

It was intended as a lap quilt, a gift for somebody who will be 40 next year. So there is 40 strips or candles lined up. Then I decided to add the solid squares. And at some point I figured out it was the new wall quilt for the dining room I had been wanting for a long time. All that pretty aqua and a bit of sunny yellow:

I am going to add some white both to the top and bottom to complete the design and make it a good length for the wall. The finished size will be 60" * 85". All the white will look nice quilted with straight lines, something like this.

There is still enough time to make the gift. I have a finished quilt top that might work. Or I could go back to one of the two patterns that was a mixed inspiration for this improv top. I like them both...

wip's and a new start

I am making progress on my Kaffe Fassett Diagonal Madness Quilt. The center is sewn together and the 9 patches are ready to be sewed into borders:

The Heather Ross hexagons are progressing steadily:

And over the weekend I have had a chance to play with a new quilt top:

These have been "maturing" in my stash for some time, now: a bit of Amy Butler, Ana Maria Horner and Heather Bailey. I have been looking for a pattern to showcase them, and considering at least three different options (two of them are patterns I have purcased).

Back and forth and all over again.

Do you sometimes think that your fabric is so pretty and precious that you hesitate cutting into it? I was feeling a bit paralyzed about these fabrics, and it was starting to annoy me a bit. Quilting is supposed to be fun, isn't it? I wanted to make something, and I decided to just do it. Design as you go.

I made a sketch of a design and choose fabrics ranging from dark to light within my palette. First I cut 6" strips across the with of fabric. Then I divided the fabrics in two groups. The big patterned was subcut into 4.5" + 1.5". The other fabrics were cut into 2.5" + 2.5" + 1.0".

I put the batting up on my wall and started playing.

Next step i "randomly" cut the bold pattern strings into shorter pieces, then organized the strips into 4 groups on the batting. Playing with design and contrast. Playing with asymmetry. It was fun and liberating.

After a bit of playing, I was happy with the layout. And had a lot of 2.5" strips left over... Well, thats a home made jelly roll to be used for my next design, right?

Next day I started sewing the strips. Going with my first layout. Making a few adjustments. It felt good to go with my instincts....

Here is a little peek:

Love the colors! Thinking about the next step of the design...

Have a good week, and dream some quilty dreams, too!

a new beginning

Like many, I like the bold design and beautiful colors of Amy Butler's fabric. Purchasing charm packs (5" squares of an entire collection) is a good way to get to see these pretties. I really like how charm packs gives you a lot of different designs to play with and I have tried to use the 5" patches in some different patterns. These are medium prints and I don't want to cut them any smaller. So I started playing....

So far, the top will be 50" by 50". I want to add a 4th row and need another 18 patches. Maybe I have to wait a year for the next collection?