yellow xoxo

Another one alfresco:

yellow xoxo

63" * 72"

hobbs thermore polyester batting

longarm quilted by Merete Ellingsen in cotton pantograph

One of the many great traditional quilt blocks and patterns shared by the talented, hardworking and generous Bonnie K Hunter from her blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!

Also intended for a lovely young lady. Fun border fabric is by Heather Ross and was a gift from a good friend. I think it anchors the quilt in a good way. Very happy with the result, a happy, happy quilt!

; )

railroad fence

pink railroad fence

60" * 72"

hobbs thermore polyester batting

longarm quilted by Merete Ellingsen in hurricane pantograph

This is my wonky / improve take on a classic block. Easy and fun sewing, squaring up the block to 6" and gathering them in columns.  My second time using this design, the first one is blogged here.

Intended as a gift for a very lovely young lady.

; )

fractured diamond

This spring my focus has been on finishing up a few quilts. I finally have had a chance to take some pictures:

fractured diamond

60" * 72"

hobbs thermore polyester batting

longarm quilted by Merete Ellingsen with hurricane pantograph

The design is a variation on a classic string block, with a fun asymmetrical layout.  The blocks were sewn on paper, and the quilt is intended as a gift for a lovely young lady...

; )

friday finish

Some quilts take a long time to make, others just happens .... my "vertical" finished at 55" * 72", quilted by hand with perle cotton on quilters dream select cotton batting.

The bees are still active in the garden outside, and it seems there's been more sewing activity inside, as well. Planning to use these beautiful october days to take pictures of a few more makes. 

Wish you all a lovely weekend!

; )

vertical

Vertical basting - basting on the wall. My latest quilt top "vertical", composed of horizontal rows of strings of different widths. Scrappy. Green with accompanying yellow / orange and pink.  

About 60" * 80". Quilters Dream Select cotton batting. Pinning standing up or sitting / standing on a chair... Considering how to quilt it.

Can you believe this is my post number 400! Thank you all for being part of my blogging with kind and lovely comments and questions over the years.  To celebrate I want to share how to do this vertical basting.

A short picture tutorial:

• the backing up first, curtain clips and painters tape
• the batting up second, same curtain clips, just smoothed out with the quilting ruler after softening the crinkles with a short spin in the dryer
• the quilt top up last, sticking to the batting, being smoothed out with the same ruler until satisfying result is achieved
• pinning as close as prefered

not shown: removing the quilt sandwich from the wall, cutting off excess batting (leaving at least 2" extra batting and 4" extra backing. Folding up the excess backing over the excess batting and thread basting the edge. This prevents loose fibers on your clothing while handling or hand-quilting.

Wish you all a beautiful Sunday!

; )

edgy

First friday finish of fourteen & a freezing photoshoot:

my edgy outside in the cold, 60" * 72" with hobbs thermore polyester batting

This quilt is part of my using up scrap mission. It was started and blogged last summer. Sewing uneven strips (made when trueing up fabric after pre washing, into strips wof) to paper it was easy and fun making the top. Concentrating on paring up the colors.

I can see fabric from at least 7 different quilts in there, at least 3 of them are quilt backs... A good record of 2013 and even 2012 quilts.

If my stack of quilt tops wasn't piled so high, I would have loved to hand quilt it in perle cotton.  Hopefully there will be another one as there is and will be more strips from trueing up fabric...

This one is quilted by long arm in a favorite pantogram called "hurricane". Love the result!

From my last post you are right to assume it is my lap quilt no 100. Happy to not keep all of them to myself, this one I'm not going to part with. How could I?

; )))

Finish it up in fourteen is to be continued. Wish you all a happy weekend and hope you'll have enough quilts to keep you warm. Or that you lucky ones will enjoy your summer!

scrap busting III

Inspired by Bonnie Hunter's string piecing on paper I set out to make these 12.5" blocks. A newspaper provided big enough pages to cut out the paper base. Using shorter stitches and the bin of wonky strips I have been saving up for some time (a year or so). I have started separating my strings into three groups:

2.5" strips

any other even width strip

wonky (end of fabric with frayed edges or cut at an angle)

It is fun to revisit fabric from the tops I've made over the last year, combining them in a new way, yet still being a bit selective of what colors to put together. Saving most of my warm color strips for another  project. These uneven strips makes for a bit more lively blocks - really love the bit of whimsy...

There's still more strips in the bin. Enough for a few more batches...

Happy sewing!

friday finish

Outside pictures taken earlier this week of my finished quilt sunny, measuring 60" by 75". 

It's machine quilted in the ditch and hand quilted with perle cotton 16. Light and summery with the thin Hobbs Thermore polyester batting. I put the batting in the dryer for 20 minutes before basting the quilt. This made the batting soft and puffy, removing the wrinkles from being folded up and stored in the bag.  Happy with the effect, I will do that again...

The quilt is made from 2.5" strips, playfully arranged on my design wall. I blogged about making the top earlier. Mostly yellow fabric with splashes of contrasting purple makes for an easy recipe! What color is next?

; )

I am working my way through the stack of tops waiting to become quilts. The plan is to keep quilting until I get too distracted and need to start another top.  So, I'm trying to stay in quilting modus...

Happy friday and happy stitching!

pezzy spiderweb

The pezzy spiderweb is my 2013 spring string fling. It finished at 62" by 76" on Quiters Dream Request (thinnest) cotton batting, hand quilted in perle cotton no 16. It is nice and heavy with a lovely drape,  very colorful and happy! The finished blocks measures 14.5" after quilting. 

Not the first and probably not my last quilt using this great old pattern. I started making these blocks last  year, but really dove into the string bin this spring. Rachels fun festival of strings gave me an extra push to finishing it up   ; ) Thank you Rachel!

If you take a look, you will find LOTS of inspiration there...