50 shades of green

I do love the lush greenery of the month of may. And how it displays itself in 50 shades of green.

This top is 63" * 63" and I am planning to quilt it by machine. My first attempt at trying out the fun Quick Curve Ruler. Finishing the top in mid may, it really mirrors the wonder that is happening outside my window in the south west corner of Norway. My favourite season and the prettiest time of the year around here.

The idea for making a green version of the pretty pattern Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful has been on my mind for a while.

As a quilter I am inspired by colour, and take this opportunity to enter my 50 shades of green in the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2017 : Greenery.

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...

; )

garden of eva

We have the best neighbors. And I found a way to say thank you. It does include a quilt...

Eva has a lovely front garden full of flowers. Her requested colors were green and brown.

Looking through my stash I found some flowers from Anna Maria Horner's Garden party and Loulouthi lines.

Adding solids.

Fuzzy cutting and building some square in a square blocks of different sizes.

Filling up the 4 by 5 grid on the flimsy design wall (piece of cotton batting hanging in curtain clips).

Framing the blocks in Chocolate by Free Spirit Designers Solids.

And then, just waiting for the Apple Hugs and Kisses backing fabric that's been ordered...

It's like a box of chocolate, don't you think?

friday finish

These cute tumblers from Heather Ross prints made a small panel. My first idea was to make it into a pillow. When I looked through my stash I found to different yard cuts that complemented the color palette nicely. Both of these pieces happened to be a full yard. Most of my stash are in 1/2 yrd pieces.

This unexpected find tempted me to frame the panel and make it into a little quilt. There's a lot to be said about diving into ones stash. It might surprise you what you find, there! Of course, it's taken some years to build it up. And It will take serious effort to use it all...

Sometimes when I look through or rearrange my stash I come across fabric that refuses to blend with the others, a different tone of color, a special design... My first thought is to remove these "loners". A few times now, these fabrics who refuses to blend with the rest, have been the PERFECT fabrics for a work in progress. This have taught me to hold on to them. When I am looking for a bit of contrast, they might be just the one I need...

These two yard cuts both came in this "loner" category. (the fabrics are Lizzy Dish (honey) and Lecien (purple)). I love how they complement the colors of the tumbler panel! Cheers for the oddballs, loners ... need a better word to describe them.

My HR tumbler finished at 35" * 40". I used Hobbs cotton batting for this one. Conveniently, a bit of snow was provided yesterday. Perfect backdrop!

Have a lovely weekend. It might be time for a stash treasure hunt?

; )

quick or slow cutting ...

Thank you for all the tumbler love. There was a big vote for the traditional (checkerboard) layout, and that's what I ended up using. I will keep the idea of the other layout, and hopefully play with it some more later on.

These new tumblers are a slightly different shape from the ones I have made previous with my plastic template. I think the Go cutter makes it easier to cut a number of tumblers quicker, and that the plastic template is better for fuzzy cutting.

I had a few (precious) fuzzy cut by hand Heather Ross tumblers in my drawers. They were sewn together in a 7 by 7 panel:

The plastic template makes fuzzy cutting a lot easier than the Go cutter. So for a small project I might still want to do that.

Just love how the corners so easily comes together on these tumbler shapes. The trick is to alternate ironing the seam allowance in and out.

As you can see, it's easy to get carried away with these fun shape. Once you have cut the patches, the rest is a lot of fun...

Wish you all a lovely Sunday. I might have some quilting to do...

; )

god jul ...

... it is time, now...

... the 6 jolly snowmen quilt is finished

... and they are ready to be merry ...

Christmas decorations in this house includes a couple of quilts. My christmas calendar from last year is turned with the back facing forward, the perfect backdrop for the jolly 6...

18" by 27" sitting on top of 27" by 72", my christmas quilt in the narrow series

Now the house is ready for the holidays.

And this happens to be my post # 200!

It's time for me to wish you all Happy Holidays ( God Jul is the norwegian phrase).

Please enjoy time with loved ones, relax and be merry...

; )

friday flimsy

The maple tree outside our house is gradually turning from green to orange -

inspiring the color palette and shift of colors in my spiderweb flimsy...

Thank you for all your encouraging comments about this wip! I have spent some time sewing, and some time with my trusted seam ripper.

I started out using several halloween themed fabrics. The blocks got quite busy, so I changed the mix a bit, removing most of the halloween prints and keeping the cats and some bats...

The halloween spiderweb quilt-top is now finished at 45" by 60". I am considering framing it with a white border. What do you think, does it need a frame or not?

Fall is being challenged by a (hopefully) short visit of winter. These last pictures were taken yesterday. The crows are regular passers by. Snow in october is too early, catching everybody off guard...

Wish you all a great weekend!

short stories

A finish! I have been following Penny's quilt-along. It has been a lot of fun.

All the fun Heather Ross prints in the center of the blocks gave name to this quilt - "Short Stories".

Here the quilt is on display for the photographer. You can see the curtain clips holding the top edge. I used them to wall baste this quilt, and am quite happy with my new technique:

the quilt was hung on the wall, secured by the clips, top facing the wall

I used some painters tape to stretch it out and fasten the sides and bottom to the wall

the backing was aligned (center length and width) to the top and pinned to the top edge with quilters safety pins

then I just kept smoothing out the back and pinning ...

In addition to the 'quilt as you go', I quilted in the ditch between the blocks, and added some additional L shaped in the ditch quilting in each block a well. The batting is Warm and White 100% cotton.

My blocks ended up 13.25" from a start at 14.5". I think calculating an additional 1.5" to your finished block gives you a bit of room for squaring up your blocks.

The finished quilt measures 66" * 80". It is backed and bound with some of my favorite fabrics from Denyse Schmidts' "Katie Jump Rope" line.

Thank you Penny for hosting this fun quilt-along! Next time I may try making these blocks in a courthouse style. They are a lot of fun to make...

; )

... and 12

So this is it: the wall quilt with 24 jolly little faces. No more teasing.

I started working on this in september - october, thinking about adding the numbers from 1 to 24 and a little ring to attach little gifties on each block. But there's no children living in this house, and I wanted to keep this for myself ; ) ...

So, now I get to see all the jolly little faces greeting me for breakfast every morning of december - not a bad deal!

This fabric is T'is the season by Debbie Taylor-Kerman (Henry Glass Fabrics). I think it is last years collection. The fabric itself is quite busy, but so fun to fuzzy cut. Not sure its still available, but the idea would work well with other cute prints. From my last posts, it's easy to tell I have been playing a lot with fussy-cutting this print in different ways.

So, last picture, all 24 of them ...

... and that's it. I promise!

almost 7...