at the end of 2011

on a grey

 

and windy morning

with the help of mr quilt it

I'd like to share my "cool cherrywood coins" with you. With baptist fans on wool batting it's both soft and warm. The last finish it of 2011...

I want to thank all of my blog friends for visits and kind comments in 2011. And I wish you all a happy and creative 2012! May there be many new opportunities for dancing with quilts...

... see you in a little while!

february finish

Mmmm finished at 57" * 72", long arm quilted in baptist fans by the lovely Anne. The batting is Quilters Dream Select, wonderful and soft.

This quilt is a total Homage a Gwen Marston. You may recognize it from her book "Liberated String Quilts". Her quilt is called Amish Rectangular String.

The quilt top was made in 2008 and blogged earlier.

It's quite vibrant. Not so easy to photograph inside on a very cold february morning.

It feels so good to shrink my stack of finished tops. Slowly, and one by one - that's my plan...

Right now I have a dozen quilt tops waiting in line. How tall is your stack?

(I won't hold it against you if you don't want to reveal it - we all need to keep some secrets...)

; )

Wish you all a lovely weekend!

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!

; )

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)

; )

it's getting cold

Temperatures are falling. For the first time this season I have burned some firewood this week.

The warm palette of my Cherrywood fabric was looking very tempting. My stash consisted of 6" by 9" pieces from a few scrap bags purchased some years ago. I took a leap of faith and started cutting / ripping them into strings. Playing with contrast and sewing them together. Not thinking to much, just cutting and sewing. Until I used it all. Very inspired by Gwen Marston.

"That looks a lot like Gee's Bend" was my DH's comment. Clever man! You can't live in this house and stay ignorant about quilts and quilting...

; )

I ended up with 6 strata. Arranged them on my design wall, adjusting the length of them. Cutting two of them up to become narrower rows. And just viewing them side by side. A fun process.

The size is about 45" by 60". I want to try wool batting, making it nice and warm.

Not sure about the quilting. Hand-quilting is tempting, but not so good for my shoulder ; (

Any ideas of how to quilt this on machine / by hand is welcome! A bit worried about quilting with wool batting. There's so many skills to learn!

Wish you all stay warm on a winterly wednesday!