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 III

KF's blue garden

60" * 72"

longarm quilted on hobbs thermore

This one has a mix of lovely flowers, mostly Kaffe Fassett. Using charm packs and jellyrolls to get lots of different prints.

Gifted to a good friend with a lovely little garden.

This year was my 50th birthday, and this quilt was my quilt no 50 to part with, as one way to celebrate this milestone.

Thank you for all the kind and encouraging visits here in 2016. I hope to keep finishing up some quilts in the new year. Wish you all a happy and creative 2017!

;  )

flower garden

layout of blocks on the design wall

I have a finished top to share: my flower garden is 57" * 72". With the dark and rainy days of christmas this year, if felt good to bring out some colors and put together these easy 12" blocks.  Some Kaffe Fassett charms and jelly roll strips from stash made for easy and rewarding sewing. Playing around with the layout and try to balance the colors is one of my favorite parts of the process.  I ended up replacing a few of the outer strips trying to calm down the effect of lots of prints.

sewing the rows together with kona snow sashing

and a close up of the finished top

So happy to have started using my new camera. The hardest part was waiting for some proper light to take the pictures as the days keep being very grey...

Wish you all a good weekend and hope you'll be able to add some colors to it!

; )

sirupssnipper

Cookie making is an important part of Christmas preparations and tradition says you have to make 7 different kinds. Then you are likely to find your favorite one amongst them. 

Sirupssnipper is one of the classics. I have no idea how to translate the name but they are recognizable by their diamond shape and half an almond on top. 

So, I consider my sirupssnipper quilt part of my Christmas preparations this year. Not eatable but still a favorite. Maybe the wool batting has a lot to do with that, making it warm and soft. The quilt finished at 50" by 72",  longarm quilted in a pattern called Rosie. Thank you, Merete for your beautiful work on my quilt!

This quilt started out very innocent around Christmas time two years ago. I had a charm pack and a full bag of 2" paper hexagons to play with. Hexagons are quite addictive. Soon I started adding fabric from stash, only leaving a few of the original charms (see center diamond in picture above for the original charms that got to stay). The hexagons were made over time, only interrupted by a few trips to the chiropractor and a few longer breaks. Layout with hexagons are always a bit of a challenge to me so I dusted off my EQ for this one. The size is a compromise of stash and improvised framing of the diamonds. There were times when I questioned my sanity for making this quilt and I even considered giving it away (That's when my DH started worrying "What? You can not give this quilt away! Are you crazy?").

We have had seriously cold weather lately so I have had a chance to use my sirupssnipper quilt. Growing quite fond of it. Enjoying the soft and warm feel of the quilt. Long story short- I think sirupssnipper is my new favorite.

( a disclaimer: the cookies was purchased for photographic use only...)

Wish you a great weekend. Making or savoring your own favorites...

; )

playtime

It's friday and I have a finish to share. A bit of a long story...

Sandy Klop of American Jane was one of the first designers I fell in love with when I started quilting. The colors and retro feel of her fabric lines was so playful and plain irresistible ; )

So I started collecting charm packs: Peas and Carrots, Wee play, Recess and Punctuation. The first one ended up in my first charm quilt on a rainy day with some other favorites including Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt. 

Anyway, I wanted to make a hourglass quilt using these next three charm packs from Sandy Klop. So I paired them with some white solid and got to work:  

first layout: quite busy to the eye?

At this stage I sewed 9 hourglasses together into a block and started reviewing different options:

second layout: grouping the blocks with sashing?

third layout: checkerboard?

At this point I decided to divide the blocks in two quilts, one frame (layout 4)and one on bay(layout 5):

I think this is when the two tops were put away for some time. Until one day I had another idea:

sixth layout: an offset, asymmetrical frame

My first plan was to add a girl (see tutorial in the side bar). In the end I decided to make a big hourglass:

And here it is, my playtime finishes at 48" by 60", long arm quilted on quilters dream select cotton batting. 

The back is from her latest collection, School Days. I think it's good to pair the lively front with a more quiet back. And I was lucky to have just enough left of the red stripe binding to frame it. Just love this print, it's the perfect binding option.  

Long story, happy ending...

Sometimes it takes a while. Including a bit of shelf time. Now I am falling in love again. And I think I might have an idea on what to make from those precious Sandy Klop jelly rolls that have been maturing in my stash...

Wish you all a good weekend! 

; )

playtime

My finish it up motto for 2012 calls for some deep digging in the pile of ufo's and finished tops.

This playtime flimsy has been through a few circles of different layouts that has then been ripped apart. The first posting about playing with the charm pack was back in january of 2010. It's kind of a time-travel back to my series of exploring the charm pack format. Literary hours was spent piecing these hourglasses and enjoying the colorful Sandy Klop prints.

This last attempt for a finished top consists of adding the big hourglass. The top is 48" by 60". I think I will call it good, and move on to finding a back for it. What do you think? Is it time to finish it up and move on?