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?

madhouse

spring is late this year and I will share a quilt I finished a bit earlier

here is madhouse:

• finished at 72" * 72"
• hand quilted in perle cotton no 16 on quilters dream wool batting
• logcabin variation, starting with a pentagon shape
• basted on the wall with quilters safety pins

using 2.5", 3.0" and 6.0" strips and charm pack squares from my many boxes of precut fabric, I managed to scale down and free up some storage space. Rearranging fabric is an neverending activity. I think it's also a way to find new inspiration.

The quilt is soft and warm, quite happy with the finish. I have used a bit of black color, and think it adds a lot of dept to the palette.

More hand quilting is going on behind the scenes, and hopefully there will be more quilty goodness to share in a while...

; )

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!

; )

scrap buster medallion

A public photoshoot on a sunny october day by the sea,  airing the newly finished "scrap buster medallion" and taking advantage of having an extra pair of hands / capable photographer helping out. The quilt finishes at 60" by 80", is hand-quilted with perle cotton no 16 on a soft and lovely hobbs cotton batting. 

This one have been 6 years in the making, including a long hibernation waiting for me to find a way to make it a bit wider. The aqua frame was added this spring, using small fussy-cut motives from the african butterfly print by alexander henry I used for the back. 

It feels a bit strange bringing your creation out in the open. It is a good way to display a bigger quilt if you don't have a big garden of your own. I always appreciate the way daylight presents the colours of the quilts. So hopefully this first will not be the last outdoor in public photoshoot adventure for me...

; )

windy

Photoshoot on a windy afternoon. Stargazing with Amy finishes at 28" * 36", quilted with perle cotton on Quilters Dream Request batting using big baptist fan stencil to mark the quilting lines.

The blocks are made of spare parts from a previous quilt: Sizzix stars. They are purposely fragmented with star points swapped between them. Dark on light background and the other way around. Quite playful or chaotic, depending on the observer... 

I think of this as a sketch, wanting to experiment with other colorways and other fabrics than quilting cottons. Another result from emptying out the boxes of pre-cuts, wip's and ufo's. That's the theme of 2016 for me so far...

; )

Happy stitching to all!

Ziggy Stardust

Meet ziggy stardust, 42" * 50" hand-quilted with perle cotton on a piece of leftover hobbs wool batting. 

I started out with 6 log cabins that was made some years ago. Inspired by a few pretty quilts with this fun layout, the blocks were cut in four and arranged on my design wall until I liked the composition. Luckily I found a larger cut of light blue to fill out the rest of the top. The band of quartered log cabins was supposed to run horizontally, until the batting surfaced from my stash and had a different opinion. (Not big enough.) The joy of using what you have on hand means sometimes changing direction as you go. 

As I was putting this top together, the news of David Bowie's passing made head news. So the name just came to me. I was watching several documentaries and listen to his music as I quilted this by hand. So many great songs from a big artist!

better late than never...

Late spring I finished my moody blue. The top was made last summer using the last pieces of my blue vintage linens that were left after making two lap size quilts: sea glass diamonds and cloud 9. It measures 48" * 80" and is hand-quilted with perle cotton no 16 on quilters dream request cotton batting (a favourite). The big baptist fans pattern on the solids part of the quilt was marked using a favourite stensil from Barb Vedder. I used a cotton linen mix for the bigger solid pieces of the quilt. This adds to the weight and also creates a lovely drape. 

The quilt has spent the summer decorating the wall of my dining room. As the seasons change, it is now put away... And I just wanted to share some pictures....

; )

friday finish

Finally a friday finish to share:

my pushing up daisies is 67" by 85"

partly quilted by hand (the background) and partly by machine (the daisies)

started a year ago, inspired by Kathy Doughty's quilt garden party from her book making quilts.

My aim was to use the growing pile of scraps and bigger left over pieces of blue and green. I also finally got a chance to play with the dresden block. The process has taken some time, including a bit of considering how to proceed. The background came together fairly quick after grouping my scraps by color, the dresdens took quite a bit longer to materialize. This design is a play in contrasts of value. Some of the daisies blend into the background, others seam lifted out from the background. I spent a long time playing around with placement of the daisies. 

The binding is also quite scrappy, as I happily cleaned out the leftover green and blue excess pieces of binding that I keep in a little plastic box, all cut at 1.25"

This quilt is very soft due to the hand quilting and the thin cotton batting. (quilters dream request). And I am still considering adding some quilting to the yellow flower centers (which is just hand sewn to the petals,) either by hand or by machine. For now I am just happy to snuggle up and test it

; )

Happy friday!

may day

a wonderful time of the year

a sunny morning

a holiday celebrating international workers day

a handsome, longarmed husband aka quilt holder available

a sweet kitty

a few tulips surviving the april showers

and the new leaves of the wild rose

what better set up for a quick photoshoot of my finished sweet sixteen quilt?

size: 48" * 72"

vintage linens (cotton / polyester) top, cotton batting and a voile back

hand quilted in perle 16 

the colors of this quilt will match the wild roses hiding in the early buds...

can't wait... we're all set for summer, now

; )

wish all of you a beautiful day!