Flower boxes

I bought a roll of Kaffe Fassett Collective fat quarters in purple and teal at a show a while back, and thought they needed to be cut into rather large pieces to shine. I ended up with a bento box variation with small and large "boxes". I used Kona snow as a contrast. Once I started laying out the blocks, I discovered that at was all a bit meh... I loved the colours , but they needed something more to make them shine. After an audition with members from my stash, I ended up with a couple of yellows and that seemed to do the trick.

Once I had assembled the top and had a good look, I realized that one member of the cast wasn't pulling his own weight. he fabric in itself was lovely, a light blue with pink polka dots, but there was just too little contrast to the white. I ended up with making four blocks with a bright pink, unpicked the bland blocks and inserted the pink ones. Ah! Much better!

I quilted this one with wavy lines through the blocks, creating large petal shapes, using a petal shape cut from thick paper as a guide. In between the petals I used a tight meander to make the petals stand out.

The back is a lovely chrysanthemum print by Philip Jacobs that I just couldn't bring myself to cut into. Here it comes into its own and brings a smile to my face every time i look at it. A triangular label sewn into a corner an purple binding finishes the quilt.

Bali pop

I bought a roll of Bali Pops - precut 2 1/2" strips of Bali fabric from a show a couple of years ago and have had a hard time talking myself into opening it up and start cutting. Instead it has been a colourful decoration on a shelf in my sewing room for so long I was worried that the outer strip would fade away. Eventually I got started, sewed the strips together in threes and cut them into triangles, using the 45 degree line on my standard ruler.

I started sewing the triangles together in pairs, using the same colourways opposite each other, but after a while I got bored and mixed the rest up so that nothing matched in order to get a bit more variety in the quilt. I ended up with 16 blocks in a 4 by 4 layout.

The leftover bits and pieces were stitched together and combined with some purple and lime green bali fabric for the backing. I quiltedit in a swirly pattern and added orange binding to add a bit of interest. So, the bali pop roll is no longer gathering dust on my shelf, and instead I have a colourful throw and not a single scrap left over!

Villages

When I found this pattern in Love Patchwork and Quilting I thought about my stack of fabric from the Road 15 line from Sweetwater - motifs like houses and trees and road names, what could be better for a quilt with house blocks? And quite boyish as well - perfect for the young man I had in mind.
Once I started making blocks I felt that the grey, blue, green, black palette was a bit flat, so I added some yellow and red from another Sweetwater line, Noteworthy. I was quite happy with my choices as I was working on the quilt, but once I saw the finished quilt at a distance, I thought the red and white looks too pink to be right for a boy's quilt. I added black binding, to toughen it up a bit, but I still fear it's too girlie for a 14 year old boy.
Nah,  I think I'll  keep this one and make a different one for the boy in mind. Luckily I have another eight months to make a new quilt, since I was planning forward for once - it obviously doesn't pay to have too much time!

Mind you, I love this quilt and I'm happy to keep it. It has what has become a recurring theme in my work: houses. The blocks consist of houses made of house patterned fabric, and would you believe it, it's also got an Ikea house fabric as backing - what's not to like? Since the blocks are made of groups of houses, the name gave itself: "Villages". It's quilted with my go to loose loopy, spirally design which makes for a quite soft and drapey quilt - just right for snuggling up with on the sofa during the winter.

My obsession with houses might make me see things a little differently, though: A friend of mine, upon seeing the quilt exclaimed: "Love those big flowers!"

And a bit of stitching

I stitched this sampler a while back from a pattern in Stitchery Magazine. By the time I'd found a frame the right size, I'd mislaid it, but as these things work out, I found it again while I was looking for something else. Of course I'd put a finished cross-stitch sampler in my box of ribbons! I have no idea how it ended up there, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time... Anyway, once I'd found it, and while I still knew where the frame was, I got the job done and here's the result. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but the poem is by Emily Dickinson.

On a trip to Denmark a few years back I came across this pillow in a shop window and just had to get the kit. I have been stitching a little every now and again since I finished the Emily Peacock pillow, and eventually I crossed the finish line on this one as well. The pattern is from Fru Zippe.

I couldn't resist going for the matchy matchy look on the back and included a zip and flap to match the contrast colours on the front. I might be the only person who notices, but somehow these things give me immense pleasure. I'm funny like that.

A bit of knitting

This winter was not all about sewing. Thanks to Knitty and Ravelry my interest in knitting has been revived these last few years. During my teens I was hardly ever seen without a knitting project in my hands, where I went the knitting went and numerous sweaters were made during lectures at college, waiting for buses, chatting with friends... Somewhere along the way it all stopped, but the skill is still there and my hands luckily remember how to go about it. I fell in love with these Deep in the Forest mittens and especially this version. I used a Schoppelwolle Zauberball in shades of blue for the background and I love the effect of twilight seen through the trees. I tried a different Zauberball first, but the shades of blue were too dark to get the effect I wanted. That one came in handy for my next project, though:

My next project was inspired by various fair isle designs seen online, and somehow the idea of making a Harry Potter-inspired sweater occurred to me. I started charting various ideas: spells and potions, brooms, owls, the sorting hat, a snitch Harry's patronus, wands, glasses and the scar on Harry's forehead. I needed to test all the different borders and knitted them in the round, ending up with a rather long tube, realizing that I had too many borders for a sweater. I stitched the ends of the tube together and ended up with an infinity scarf. It proved to be very difficult to photograph, so here's a small collage of various borders instead. And now that I have tested the borders (and modified some) it can also serve as a pattern to choose borders from, should I ever get round to making that sweater.

I'm easily distracted, though, so there are always new projects tempting me. This book was a great discovery that will provide endless inspiration. The genius of these patterns are that you begin with a few stitches and increase along one side until the scarf is as long and wide as you want it, or until you run out of yarn. No need to worry about gauge and the patterns can be used for any kind of yarn you have. I haven't come all that far on this one yet, but I can tell that it will become a favorite. Eventually.

My Ravelry page is here, by the way.

Looking back

 -or what I did last Christmas...
I thought I'd do a bit of summing up from these months of no blogging. My Christmas sewing was all about panels, it seems. I unearthed this old Santa panel from the depths of my stash and finally got around to doing something about it. I cut it apart and ended up with three items: a quilted cushion:

 A small wallhanging:

 And a larger wallhanging with a bit of a complcated log cabin/star thing going on. I didn't plan this one very well, so I had to wing it and ended up cutting the tips of the star off.

 -But you can always cheat a bit, right? A few strands of embroidery floss later and you wouldn't know if you were galloping past on a big horse...

 The best thing about this was that I got to use that panel that I had been procrastinating about making into something for ever. Yet another example of how you should just get in there and do something - it doesn't take as long as you think!

Proof in point: these fun panels from Laurie Wisbrun got made into cushions as soon as they arrived and it took no more than a Saturday afternoon.

Summer report

Somehow the months have raced on and there has been no blogging. I seem to have drifted along, doing this and that, posted the occasional picture on IG and that may be just what I needed, but I miss having a record of all I've done and what ever I was thinking while I did it. So I think it's about time I got back to a set of routines including a bit of blogging.

Let's begin with what I did during my holidays. I stayed at home this year, and imagined that I didn't do all that much, but looking back I have proof that I wasn't completely idle! A wall quilt, a top for a lap quilt, a shoulder bag, three pouches and a giraffe - not too bad, is it?

If you follow me on IG you will have seen it all before, of course, but there's something to be said for showing it all together - it feels like a result! And if anybody asks me what I did over the holidays, I have my answer ready: "Oh, I made a giraffe"...

Tote with magic magnet closure

I promised to talk more about those 241 totes and here they are! I made my own 241 earlier in 2014, and when my cousin and his family visited during the summer both his wife and the two almost grown up daughters showed so much interest in it that it was clear to me what I'd be making as Christmas presents for them. I had bought some home dec weight fabric at Fabrics Galore at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia last spring that was perfect for these, giving them a bit more weight and strength than quilting fabric would have done. I used a cotton/linen mix for the pockets and quilting weight cotton backed with woven interfacing for the side panels.

The first tote got a transport theme, with buses, tires, license plates on the outside, and a great VW Beetle fabric for the lining.

The next one has a collage-like fabric on the outside. I almost kept this one for myself as I loved the fabric so much, especially paired with that lovely Laura Gunn fabric for the lining, but I managed to part with it after all!

The third one is a travelers tote with maps both inside and out. There's no knowing where it would lead you though, seeing as going north from Canada you would end up in Indonesia...

I added pockets on the inside with a strap and a snap hook to fasten your key or mobile phone pocket to. I also added hidden magnets as closure and for future reference - this is what I did:

The magnets are of the flat kind embedded in a square of plastic. I cut a couple of fabric tags a bit wider than the magnets and decided the length by how far down from the opening I wanted the magnets to be. Each magnet piece was stitched to a fabric tag like this.

I then machine basted the tags to the two lining pieces, making sure I put them the right side so they would actually snap together once the bag was turned the right side out.

A piece of interfacing ironed to the tag on the inside of the lining ensured that the tags lie flat inside the lining, and then it was just a matter of stitching the outer bags and the lining together around the edge. I really like this solution - no visible closure, no prongs to stab through the fabric and the bag opening snaps together like magic! For more photos, check out my Flickr album.

White Christmas

Well, technically the White Christmas thing didn't happen until Boxing Day, but we woke up to a world wrapped in cotton wool today - all sound muffled by the heavy layer of snow that appeared magically during the night. It's not all that magical once you step outside, though - cold and heavy to wade around in. Due to the holiday the snow ploughs didn't get out all that early either, so I used that as an excuse to stay in and do a bit of catching up on Doctor Who and my knitting...

It was lovely to get a few quiet days after all the hustle and bustle of preparation: baking gingerbread and brownies and preparing the Christmas meal...

 .. decorating the tree...

... and finishing the home made presents. More details about the 241totes in the next post. The family gathered here at my place for the Christmas meal and opening of presents on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely evening and I got several nice presents, among theme some books to enjoy during the winter months. Well, enough relaxation now, I think - tomorrow I need to get out and about - too much leisure and I get restless... (and the sales begin tomorrow...)

Postcard quilt

I was inspired by the Postcard quilt Debbie at A Quilter's Table posted and decided to join the quilt along and make my own version. I used some Tula Pink fabric combined with pink and yellow for brightness. The "backs" of the postcards are made with text fabric and a tiny polka dot for the vertical line.

Keeping to the text theme, the back is from that IKEA duvet cover I have used earlier - amazing how much backing you can get from one duvet cover!

I used a fabric from Sweetwater's "Road 15" for the binding. It has text and little rows of houses and trees. It wasn't until I was hand stitching the binding to the back that I realized that the text was actually addresses - how fitting for a postcard quilt!

I quilted it in loopy horizontal lines, kind of like handwriting (if you use mainly "e"s...). After having the top hanging on my design wall for months, all it took was a few hours at the sewing machine and my little wall quilt was done. Why do I never learn that lesson? - because there's always a new project beckoning, I guess...

Looking through the fence

 

Working steadily along stitch by stitch does get you there in the end it seems. My 2wentythr3e quilt is done at last! I have enjoyed making this quilt immensely and I think one of the reasons I delayed starting in the quilting was that I was afraid I'd ruin it somehow. But better finished than perfect, right? I chose to quilt straight lines with dark grey thread through the gray grid and a swirly clam shell pattern in pink and yellow through the rows of big squares between the lines.

I posted this picture on IG the other day, but find that the colours aren't quite right, so today I brought it outside for another attempt at catching it in true light.

See? Much brighter! That's really what I see when I look at it. And you get the almost 3D effect of the grid on top of the pink/yellow background, don't you? Like looking through a net fence and getting glimpses of a colourful garden.

A bit of wind, and you get to see a glimpse of the back as well. I used a grey Denyse Schmidt print for the main part of the back and added a row of the  remaining pieces of the 2wentythr3e fabric along one side.

I helped the wind out a bit to give you a better idea, but he didn't quite agree, so this is probably the best I can do on a blustery November day. I went with stripes again for the binding - a slightly wider stripe than before, but I think it works so well I might just have to go shopping for more stripy fabric...
So there you have it: "Looking Through the Fence", all done and making me happy just to look at it. It doesn't get much better than that, now, does it?

Scatterbrained

 I seem to be all over the place these days, dabbling a little bit here, a little bit there, not accomplishing an awful lot. There is this little postcard quilt on my design wall, for instance. It wouldn't take long to quilt and bind and I might have just the perfect spot for it as well.

Then there is this beautiful panel by Laura Kemshall that I bought at the Festival of Quilts. Perfect for practicing my free motion quilting skills.

A pile of new fabric (this is only half of it...) awaits inspiration. I have plans for the turquoise one and some vague ideas for some of the others...

I did manage to finish something though; a Wide Open Pouch (the BIG one!) for my mother's birthday. She loved it and is now the envy of all her friends. Amazing what a pretty fabric can do!

I have made some mug rugs - I have even stitched the bindings since this picture was taken. I have knitted and done a bit of cross-stitch, but haven't got much to show you yet...

I have pondered a new EPP-project - this was only a mock-op of layout and colour placement, I wouldn't even consider making something with such tiny pieces, I'm not barking mad! Inspired by a quilt I saw at the Festival (and didn't get a full picture of, alas) I have been on my way to ordering 36- and 72-degree diamond templates and stopped myself in the nick of time several times recently, telling myself sternly that I hate EPP, but there's still something beckoning me...

But, wait - I have accomplished something! I have been busy quilting, frogging and requilting this baby and it's almost done! I can't wait to finish it and start using it - I just love the colours!  Next I get to start something new and fun before I quilt another one that's lying in wait. Come to think of it, that one will be rather fun too... It's just as well that the autumn storms have set in, I'll happily spend my evenings indoors, busy in my studio!