november stars

A morning without rain is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Grey and wet november days are replaced by a grey and cold november day. So, I am having a little photo session outside.

My november stars finishes at 50" * 75", all soft and light with it's tuscany silk batting. Quilted with baptist fans on a long arm machine, and with a bit of added hand-quilted in perle cotton to emphasize a few of the stars.

These "maverick stars" (Bonnie K Hunter's phrase) are a fun invention from Gwen Marston. Both women are among my quilting hero's. The beautiful quilting is done by Anne, and the colors are among my most favorite combinations. So, there's lots to like about this one  ; )

I have been a bit quiet lately on the blog. A sore shoulder is preventing me from doing to much of anything. Including cutting, sewing and quilting. A test of my patience, I'm afraid...

Lesson learned, I don't expect to make any presents this december... So a reminder to myself: next year I will make a few small quilts and gifts throughout the year. Is it too early for new years resolutions, yet?

Enjoy your makings!

february finish

Mmmm finished at 57" * 72", long arm quilted in baptist fans by the lovely Anne. The batting is Quilters Dream Select, wonderful and soft.

This quilt is a total Homage a Gwen Marston. You may recognize it from her book "Liberated String Quilts". Her quilt is called Amish Rectangular String.

The quilt top was made in 2008 and blogged earlier.

It's quite vibrant. Not so easy to photograph inside on a very cold february morning.

It feels so good to shrink my stack of finished tops. Slowly, and one by one - that's my plan...

Right now I have a dozen quilt tops waiting in line. How tall is your stack?

(I won't hold it against you if you don't want to reveal it - we all need to keep some secrets...)

; )

Wish you all a lovely weekend!

it's getting cold

Temperatures are falling. For the first time this season I have burned some firewood this week.

The warm palette of my Cherrywood fabric was looking very tempting. My stash consisted of 6" by 9" pieces from a few scrap bags purchased some years ago. I took a leap of faith and started cutting / ripping them into strings. Playing with contrast and sewing them together. Not thinking to much, just cutting and sewing. Until I used it all. Very inspired by Gwen Marston.

"That looks a lot like Gee's Bend" was my DH's comment. Clever man! You can't live in this house and stay ignorant about quilts and quilting...

; )

I ended up with 6 strata. Arranged them on my design wall, adjusting the length of them. Cutting two of them up to become narrower rows. And just viewing them side by side. A fun process.

The size is about 45" by 60". I want to try wool batting, making it nice and warm.

Not sure about the quilting. Hand-quilting is tempting, but not so good for my shoulder ; (

Any ideas of how to quilt this on machine / by hand is welcome! A bit worried about quilting with wool batting. There's so many skills to learn!

Wish you all stay warm on a winterly wednesday!

Liberated Amish 2010 Challenge

I found a fun class / challenge hosted by Tonya that I could not pass on.

I will play with solids, Amish inspiration, liberated techniques, and even add some letters and numbers.

So I have been cutting into my precious Cherrywood fabrics, just smaller pieces (7" * 9" from their Scrap bags). It will be a scrappy look...

These are 5.5" blocks. I am aiming for a doll / crib size. There's no bigger pieces of fabric in my stash for borders. I will play a bit with layouts and see...

If it looks like fun, head over to the blog. There's still time to join in!

solid string top

Inspired by Gwen Marston's book Liberated String quilts I put together a quilt top.This is my first attempt working with solids. Her book is full of inspiring quilts and I am sure I'll have to try more of her techniqes.