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?

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!

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?

one last flimsy...

"There's always room for one more" - I think this goes both for christmas cookies and new quilt projects...

After sewing together my warm palette cherrywood top in improvised strings, I found the cool palette scraps kept popping into mind.

I find myself often doing quilts in odd pairs, twisting the palette or the pattern a bit(theme for another post - next year).

I mentioned in my last post how much I look forward to Denyse Schmidts new fabric line. She has a picture of a lovely quilt made up. So the two ideas brewed in my mind for a while. And I decided there was time to whip up another quick and easy recipe:

ingredients: 3 or 4 packs of cherrywood scrap bag + 2 yrd of indigo

preparing: divide the scraps into 2 groups by length 9" and 6"

• • 1. then cut or rip each group of scraps into strings of random width

• 1. 
     

• 1. mix: working with the two groups separately, randomly pick strings and sew together

1. distribute light and dark colors, and group strings in pleasing neighborhoods

arrange: using your design wall, pair them up in columns of one or two

cut, distribute and rearrange until they have reached the same length

cut: take your yardage piece and rip or cut into strips, including a top/ bottom one

final step:sew the bars together, using random widths

Mine ended up at 60" by 72". I think I'll use wool batting. Just leave it to cool off a bit...

Wishing upon a star...

Someone special is still sick - poor thing.

It's time for me to wish you all a happy, peaceful, safe and creative New Year!

And may 2011 be a fun one!

; )

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...

; )

wip

... hang in there ...

the quilt top is coming together...

and I need a break...

going on a vacation, maybe...

... oh, no! It's raining so bad, I would have to be a mermaid...

improv top

The improv top is coming together. I am thinking about calling it "There's always two sides..." Just because...

It was intended as a lap quilt, a gift for somebody who will be 40 next year. So there is 40 strips or candles lined up. Then I decided to add the solid squares. And at some point I figured out it was the new wall quilt for the dining room I had been wanting for a long time. All that pretty aqua and a bit of sunny yellow:

I am going to add some white both to the top and bottom to complete the design and make it a good length for the wall. The finished size will be 60" * 85". All the white will look nice quilted with straight lines, something like this.

There is still enough time to make the gift. I have a finished quilt top that might work. Or I could go back to one of the two patterns that was a mixed inspiration for this improv top. I like them both...

wip's and a new start

I am making progress on my Kaffe Fassett Diagonal Madness Quilt. The center is sewn together and the 9 patches are ready to be sewed into borders:

The Heather Ross hexagons are progressing steadily:

And over the weekend I have had a chance to play with a new quilt top:

These have been "maturing" in my stash for some time, now: a bit of Amy Butler, Ana Maria Horner and Heather Bailey. I have been looking for a pattern to showcase them, and considering at least three different options (two of them are patterns I have purcased).

Back and forth and all over again.

Do you sometimes think that your fabric is so pretty and precious that you hesitate cutting into it? I was feeling a bit paralyzed about these fabrics, and it was starting to annoy me a bit. Quilting is supposed to be fun, isn't it? I wanted to make something, and I decided to just do it. Design as you go.

I made a sketch of a design and choose fabrics ranging from dark to light within my palette. First I cut 6" strips across the with of fabric. Then I divided the fabrics in two groups. The big patterned was subcut into 4.5" + 1.5". The other fabrics were cut into 2.5" + 2.5" + 1.0".

I put the batting up on my wall and started playing.

Next step i "randomly" cut the bold pattern strings into shorter pieces, then organized the strips into 4 groups on the batting. Playing with design and contrast. Playing with asymmetry. It was fun and liberating.

After a bit of playing, I was happy with the layout. And had a lot of 2.5" strips left over... Well, thats a home made jelly roll to be used for my next design, right?

Next day I started sewing the strips. Going with my first layout. Making a few adjustments. It felt good to go with my instincts....

Here is a little peek:

Love the colors! Thinking about the next step of the design...

Have a good week, and dream some quilty dreams, too!

december

is not so far away?

Have had to slow down on sewing for a couple of weeks due to a very stiff neck. No sewing, no reading, no computer, seeing the chiropractor and getting some more exercise has been the recipe around here. I am feeling better, and have dusted off the sewing machine, try to take it slow and easy with lots of breaks.

The scrappy christmas swap got me started thinking about christmas, and then a new quilt has been brewing in my mind:

This jolly family has been fussy cut and framed, waiting to be part of a bigger family portrait or advent calendar if you like.

As I said, slow and easy on the sewing. I am taking breaks. Next step, they will all be framed in white, and I can start playing with the layout.

This sweetie has been out, playing in the rain. It seems like summer is over for now. More time indoors, more sewing. (Or not - must not get too carried away, or I will be back to no sewing at all ; ( that would be a shame)

So, wish you all a nice weekend. Take care and enjoy sewing if you can!

busy bee...

The improv blocks inspired from the colors in my garden are put together into little table-toppers and mini-quilts.

On purpose I experimented a bit with a variety in fabrics to achieve different textures:

The top one is 14" * 14", machine quilted with diagonal straight lines 1" apart, has cotton batting and the rest of the coarse and heavy linen from the book-bag as a backing. It makes a sturdy little quilt to put under a vase of flowers on our dining table.

This next one is 18" * 19" with crosshatch straight line quilting 1.5" apart, thin polyester batting and cotton sheet backing. The block is framed with 100% linen. This one has a very soft and nice drape. The linen is a bit more challenging to sew with. It makes a nice little quilt for a table, too.

The third quilt is 18.5" * 19" machine quilted with straight lines 1" apart, cotton batting and cotton sheet backing. The sashing is the same white linen. This can be a little wall or table quilt. The difference between the second and third is the batting. I like to use these as a reference for the softness and drape of these two different battings. There is nothing like feeling both of them to compare and decide which qualities you are looking for in a particular quilt. So, in a way it is a start of building small sample quilts....

This last one is 20" * 38.5", machine quilted with straight diagonal lines 2" apart, cotton batting and quilters cotton backing. The sashing is a soft cotton/ linen mix from Pink Chalk, lovely and soft. (Look like she is sold out?) This table-topper also has a nice soft drape. I like the contrast of the bright colors in the natural cotton / linen sashing.

This is my second attempt to use a different quality fabric (linen or cotton/linen) for sashing. I admit it is a bit more challenging than using 100% cotton, but the contrast in texture adds a different quality to the quilt.

This is my first attempt at using a tool to space out the lines evenly without marking the top. It comes with the machine and is easily attached with a screw. I don't know why I have never done this before, it is easy and saves the trouble of marking, except for a first reference line!

I am thinking of adding to this small collection of reference quilts with more samples of different machine and hand-quilting. It makes sense to try things out in a small scale. Even if I have been known to do the very opposite! At least this is an ambition...

So this finishes my long post of basic "experiments". Happy stitching everyone...