bee friends flimsy

First letters of 2011...

This weekend I pulled out my bee blocks from the Eurovision Quilters. Sketching a bit brought out an idea of organizing the blocks into columns.

Putting all the blocks up on the design wall, my first step was to put their bare feet in some grass, connecting them and emphasize the columns. I chose white to bind it all together, contrasting the sky blue background in the blocks.

Then there was room for more. I had an 10" by 11" free space to fill... and I wanted to add some letters. A bit more planning on paper first:

The dresses are partly from Denyse's Katie Jump Rope line, and as a play on words this phrase just stuck on my mind.

Here they are, all playing nicely together...

The top is 50" * 67" and I have started thinking about batting and backing. One step at a time...

; )

Wish you all a lovely week!

a small gift

This is the first finish of 2011. A 4.5" coaster, heading for the Tokyo Quilt Festival.

I have joined with Ayumi's group to make a set of coasters for the fabric artist and quilter Suzuko Koseki. I was assigned the letter "u".

My first encounter with Suzuko was through Penny's quilt-as-you-go quilt-along. I enjoyed this qayg technique so much, and purchased her lovely book.

My coaster doesn't use any of Suzuki Koseki's lovely fabric (haven't got a stash - yet). Inspired by her qayg technique I adapted it into building the letter u.

The back is a sweet print for a coaster, I think.

It's a small gift on it's own, but I think it will be lovely as a part of the whole set. Looking forward to hear from Ayumi's about meeting with Suzuko and presenting her the gift.

quilt festival - fall 2010

It's time for the very popular Bloggers Quilt Festival. Thank you so much Amy for hosting this event for the 4th time!

I want to share a quilt that I recently finished. It is a wall quilt, and it started out with some "blueberry fool blocks" that I received in a swap with my friend Clare. Lovely palette of blues...

I started playing with them, forming them into a medallion. Adding some solids and a star.

By then the top reminded me of a norwegian winter landscape: snow and crisp, blue shadows...

So, I added a phrase from a favorite norwegian singer, Anne Grete Preus (in my translation it will say something like: the sun sits low on the horizon, under the tall sky).

The letters are inspired by Tonya.

The quilt is long and narrow, 30" by 60", fitting for a wall hanging.

I had a lot of fun quilting by hand, creating different textures.

Sometimes its fun to start playing with some fabric and see where it takes you. Trusting yourself to create as you go... Trying not to put on a lot of pressure.

Thank you for your visit! And please, enjoy more beautiful and special quilts at the festival here.

a book and a quilt

I finished both this week. This is her third novel, I think. I have enjoyed all of them. Now I'm waiting for the next...

The quilt is finished too. I took some outdoor pictures. No-one to help me hold it up, so just bits and pieces...

The cherrywood fabrics are so soft to touch - lovely. "Quilt it - make do" finished at 34" * 66". I used Quilters Dream cotton Select for batting, and perle cotton no 16 for the hand quilting.

You can still see the chalk pencil marks for baptist fan on the background fabric. I'm sure it will disappear over time, or in washing.

Feels good to have sunny days. Let's hope they will stay for a while.

Happy sewing!

big stitch quilting and more

I am enjoying hand quilting the top I made from Tonya's class. For the first time I am trying big stitch quilting with perle cotton size 16 thread / embroidery needle size 8. Quite pleased to find out how smooth the needle and thread is sliding through the fabric and the 100% cotton batting (Quilter's Dream Cotton).

All new to me, the thread, the batting and also just making up the quilting design for the top as I stitch.
Just sharing some pics from the process:

The top is so narrow, it fits on my dining table. I taped the backing to the table itself, before stretching out the batting and then the quilt top. I ironed all three layers, even the batting gets pressed with a steam iron for making it flatter.

I tried something new to me for the basting as well; Janet had a very interesting post about basting before hand-quilting. So I tried basting with these long, sideway stitches instead of my normal straight running ones. I did this for both horizontal and vertical lines.

The deep, rich purple color is not easy to get good pictures of!

Here the basting looks a bit like it's been stapled on. After removing the tape, I was quite happy with how this new basting stitch made the top quite stable. And as I have been quilting it, I am convinced this stitch makes a difference. Please see Janet's post for better pictures of how too do this.

Thank you, Janet for sharing!

; )

After some evenings of quilting, most of the churn dash and letters are done. Now I need to decide on how to proceed to the solid areas of the quilt. For now the choice is between fans or crosshatch grid. We'll see...

There's a new " I took the progress pledge" badge to the right. Thank you to Cheryl and Rossie and the rest of you for sharing your thoughts on blogging. I am strengthened in my view of blogs as a tool for sharing both inspiration and techniques to build skills and venture out and experiment a bit.

If this badge is new to you, it is also a link to lots of great posts and blogs!

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. I still have a lot of great blogs to visit for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, it will take me some time to read through that list! And I'm amazed at how many lovely comments I've received for my contribution - thank you all for taking the time!

; )

winter blues

A little swap with Clare made these pretty "Blueberry Fool" blocks appear in my mailbox last week. Lots of lovely blue.

It has been a long winter. The snow is still around. (coldest, longest winter in 30 years in these necks of the wood). Feeling a bit of winter blues...

So I started playing, improv style.

Shaping a medallion.

Adding some letters - lyrics from an old song favorite by Anne Grete Preus:

lav sol (the sun is low)

høy himmel (the sky is high)

Adding the star.

The letters are 7" high. The full top is about 30" * 60":

I had a lot of fun, Clare. Practicing for my Lazy Gal Liberated Amish 2010 Get Together quilt.

Happy sharing, swapping, sewing and playing...

; )

summer class

I started a quilt called Cuppaz by Jan Mullen years ago. These unfinished blocks have been laying around for a long time now. Inspired by Tonya's Summer class I desided to give it a try - piecing letters to complement the blocks. After a lot of different layouts had been tested it ended up like this:

For now the top is basted. Not sure how to quilt it yet. It was fun making the letters - got to make more of those. Designing as you go is also a good choise, espesially with old and abandoned blocks like these. Still can't believe they're actually put into a quilt after all this time...