my may finish - bloggers quilt festival 2012

Welcome to my blog, and please have a look around!

I have a newly finished quilt to share with you. It has been very rainy and wet in my neck of the woods for a long time now. Just in time for the quilt festival we are finally having a beautiful and sunny friday providing photo opportunities...

(my helpful quilt inspector, testing the quilt's softness?)

My hip to be square finished at 46" by 57". You may recognize Jolene's very popular design. Mine is hand quilted with black perle cotton on Quilters Dream Request Cotton batting and a very soft backing (Anna Maria Horners Little Folks voile in Saffron). Feeling bold, I chose a black binding for it.

You don't think there's anything strange in taping quilts to your house in plain view, do you?

Somehow that does feel a bit awkward... Well, I really wanted to share this with you all. 

Thank you, Amy, for organizing this lovely event! 

Wishing you a nice weekend, and hope there will be a chance for some happy stitching, along with the blog hopping,  too...

; )

hommage a Denyse

It's cold and dark this time of year. Time for a taste of colors. So I cooked me up some colorful cookies. An easy recipe:

one small piece of pattern per block, add solids strings from the scrap bin

Courthouse blocks, inspired by and infused with Denyse Schmidts lovely products.

No sugar, no calories, no regrets...

test pilot...

quilts are softer and warmer than snow...

My little Hommage a Denyse measures 26" by 28", uses the leftover piece of Kyoto bamboo batting and is quilted with perle 16 in my favorite baptist fan pattern.

Grey, dark, cold days...

is enough to make us all dream of new adventures....

It's a busy time of the year. Hope there's still time for you to do some sewing, or if not, to dream up some new quilting adventures!

(I'm dreaming of Denyse's latest fabric line, still not available from the stores yet)

; )

wip

This is pretty nice and warm.... perfect to curl up in - on a cold winter day....
What do you mean, I have to move???? You are trying to put on a binding?

show and tell

Early layout and some help rearranging the patches for Kattelatte aka Cats in my garden.

This quilt was started back in 2008 and blogged about here. It has been a slow process, on and off, and was finished this spring / summer.

Cats in my garden uses a mix of thrifted clothes: linen trousers, cotton shirts and silk kimonos, with some homespun from my stash as well. It uses 6" squares from my batting scraps, and is handpieced together like english paper piecing. The batting is not removed, but stays. I used a double cotton sheet for backing, and folded it to the front as a binding / finish. The quilt is handquilted. Some of the blocks are sewn by machine.

The colors of the quilt is inspired by the colors of our two cats: Mars and Venus, as is the title.

Butterflies made of vintage kimono silk and silk brocade as in a norwegian national costume...

Bumble bees from shirttails...

Cats faces made of thrifted linen trousers and gifted mother of pearl buttons...

The quilt measures about 70" * 82". It is used as a wall quilt for our dining room or living room, and hung by curtain gliders. I am quite happy with the final result, warm and cosy colors adds a nice atmosphere to the room.

I had fun finding fabric for this quilt. And I want to play some more. If you want to be inspired too, take a look at this great reclaimed clothing quilt-a-long for inspiration. I think I will be on the hunt for cotton shirts now!

improv top

Good morning - sunshine ...

Come on ...

Hurry up!

Some know how to enjoy an indoor garden. And some can't wait to get outside to the real thing...

I have started making improv blocks. My first attempt is these simple box in a box squares. I wanted to make an indoor garden, and looked trough my scraps and stash for big flower prints and fussy cut them into rectangles of different shapes. Arranging them on my design wall quilt, I wasn't happy until I made them square. I centered them and lined them up i 9 inch blocks. The solid is a Kona Snow. This top is now 27" by 72" and will be a wallhanging: "Peonies".

The quilt is inspired by this beauty.

Next on my list is to try some improv wonky log cabins. But for now, I'll just enjoy some of the beautiful sunny Sunday ; )

Enjoy your weekend...

spring string fling

There has been a bit of sewing going on lately, and my second string quilt is coming together. It's sewn on foundation muslin that was intended for kaleidoscope blocks. Nice and thin muslin. I enjoyed sewing on foundation, making the blocks a bit bigger and then cutting them down to 10.5". The foundation makes the quilt a bit thicker and heavier. I would like this to be quilted on a longarm, we'll see...

The colorscheme is planned a bit: red x-es on pink background with a contrasting color for each block: yellow/ orange / green / turquoise. I like the result, young and colorful....

The strips are varied in with: 1.5" red x-es, 2.0" most pinks and 0.75" for the contrasting stripe. The finished quilt will be about 60"x 70". I think this would work well in other color combos as well. How about orange?

stars and stripes ...

With a bit of "help"? I put together this top. The stars were made earlier. Not sure how to quilt it...

sneek peek

I have been working on the swap quilt and this is all I can show for now...

Oh, look who's hiding in he closet on a rainy day....

Keep stitching, everyone...

quilting it

Backing arrived in the mail for this quilt. Sometimes it's kind of scary to start the quilting part. Nice corners that match, well ironed quilttop... Inspired by lauren I decided to do a bit of freemotion straight stitch quilting. She does the most beautiful leaves shapes. I made a bit simpler wavy lines. Pretty happy with the result!!!

And how can I not be happy with these fresh colors and Heather Ross' whimsical designs? The backing is the gigant octopi - love it!

Venus - the quilt inspector is testing it. She's thinking about the new year coming up, maybe dreaming of next summer...

Wish you all a peacefull New Year celebration ...

; )