Flower picture

Grow, a photo by crafty mathea on Flickr.

I was inspired by a technique in Quilting Arts Magazine and had to give it a go. I used some Sweetwater fabric with appropriate words like 'sunshine', 'plant' and 'grow' for the background and quilted it with parallel lines before adding the flowers. They are just stacks of free cut fabric circles in different sizes with flower sketches stitched by machine on top in black thread. This was just a small experiment (8 x 12") so I finished it off quickly with a zigzag stitch round the edge.
I quite like the effect of the black stitching doing it's own thing with splotches of colour in the background, so this is definitely a technique to add to my toolbox for future use. Fun!

Laptop bag

I've been so busy visiting other bloggers lately, due to the Festival, that I have neglected to show you my new bag. Ever since I got my laptop last autumn I have been meaning to make a bag to carry it around in, but it took a while to find the right pattern. I found the right fabrics soon enough - bikes and buses seemed the right images for something that will be on the move a lot, so my Echino fabrics were my first choice, making this a very colourful bag. I had half yards of both bike and bus prints and of two polka dot prints in brown/aqua and aqua/brown. It turned out that it wasn't quite enough though, so I had to dip into my Ruby Star Rising stash as well, using the retro radio print for the inside of the flap and inner pockets. The fabric weight is the same, making it a good match.
I used the Cambridge Cargo Bag pattern by Lila Tueller for this bag, but  made it even sturdier by using two layers of thin batting and quilting all the outside pieces before assembling, making a protective outer layer.

The bag has two inner pocket panels, each divided into three, making six pockets inside in addition to the two cargo pockets on the outside, so I will get room for a lot of bits and pieces. While cutting the panels for the pockets I decided not to trim off the selvedges, but rather to keep them as a decorative element inside the bag. They might collect a bit of lint in the long run, but I'll learn to live with that, as I quite like the effect :-)

I took advantage of the differently patterned areas of the fabrics to cut separate pieces for the bag - for instance, I used one aqua/turquoise stripe to make the closure-strap,matching the stripe along the back of the flap. I also used a green polka dotted area of the bus fabric for the side panels, matching the greens squares on the bike fabric. All in all, cutting the different pieces and deciding what was to go where, and how best to utilize the fabric, took some thinking and planning, but that was half the fun of planning this bag. Now, the bag has magnetic closures, something I didn't give a second thought until it was nearly finished, but according to some intensive googling, bag magnets are considered too weak to do any harm to computers. Let's hope they are right!

Quilt Festival time

Some of us can only dream about going to Market, and live vicariously through those who do, catching tantalizing glimpses of new fabric lines and patterns as they appear in various blogs and albums online. What a joy it is to be able to take part in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for those of us who stay at home. Thank you Amy for taking the time to organize this again!

My entry this time is a quilt I named 'Authentic 2 by 4'. I managed to snag a Jelly Roll of Authentic by Sweetwater before it was too late, knowing the letters and numbers would be great in collages and as accents in quilts here and there. When I saw all the fabrics together, I felt that it would be a shame to separate them, and I kept wanting to sort them by pattern and colour. Rearranging precuts with their zigzaggy edges is very messy though, leaving you with lots of lint everywhere.

My idea for a sampler, using the entire line came from Jane Brocket's book "The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making". You wouldn't know it by looking at it, because her quilt is entirely different - all triangles, I seem to remember (too lazy to get up and check it...). It wasn't so much the quilt itself though, as her description of her inspiration for the quilt - samples from a haberdashery - which triggered the idea. When I was a kid we had a large department store in town with what I remember as a huge fabric and haberdashery department on the ground floor. You could browse through their selection of buttons mounted in squares on large boards. I used to love going there with my mum and my auntie, who was a seamstress, and browse furtively through the boards while the grown-ups were busy with their purchases. Funny how such memories can pop up from a hidden drawer in your mind when you get a little trigger such as Jane's description of her inspiration. Once I thought about that, I knew that I too wanted to make a sampler board. Knowing that my fabric strips were 2 1/2", I knew that triangles would be too small to show off the fabrics properly. I decided on rectangles, 2 x 4" finished size (hence the title) and used a natural cotton linen blend for the sashing.

I found a piece of rather loosely woven curtain fabric with a handwriting print for the backing and used parallell lines for the quilting. It is a fairly small and simple quilt, quite easy to make, but it has become one of my favourites. The neutral tones makes it fit in anywhere, and knowing that I have a sample of each and every one of the prints in the collection makes it much easier to cut into those strips in the remainder of the jelly roll and use them elsewhere.

That's my entry for the Festival, now make sure to visit Bloggers' Quilt Festival and see all the lovely quilts there! 

It's that time again

Project Spectrum is starting up again after a long break. I love that we are back to focusing on single colours this time,so we can scoot off in any direction we like.
I have no idea of what I want to make yet, but I guess it will be something quilt-related. I'm going to use some time to focus on the first colour - red - and gather inspiration first, and no doubt, an idea will pop into my head after a while. I love how such prompts as sticking to a certain colour or theme can take you off on paths you otherwise wouldn't have followed. What a perfect way to discover new things and learn something about your own likes and dislikes!

In order to keep track of the colours, I have made a simple little colour calendar - feel free to use it if you like. And the Project Spectrum logo in the sidebar will take you straight to the Flickr pool to see what everybody else is doing.

Little boxes



I needed to make some small sewing related party favours for my guild. Because I haven't got a quilt shop nearby and time was at a premium, the only thing I could get my hands on in time was spools of thread. That's fine, something every quilter needs, but maybe slightly boring, so I decided to spend some extra effort on presentation. I made origami boxes from 6 x 6" squares of scrapbook paper and came up with these little flowers to decorate them: circles in three different sizes with slits cut in them. I rolled the edges slightly over a pencil to shape the petals and used flower shaped brads and sequins in the center to attach them to the boxes. The boxes look sweet because they are so tiny, I think - they are only just large enough to fit a spool of thread from corner to corner.

Pastel mug rugs

Pastel mugrugs front, a photo by crafty mathea on Flickr.

Taking part in the Mug Rug Madness I got so many ideas I wanted to try out. The starburst was one of them, and I had a go, using some of my scraps. I used strips and stitched them together at an angle, trimming as I went. When I had finished making the top, I had a lot of leftover wedges of fabric and started stitching them together randomly. A few strips here and there, and before you knew it I had both front and back ready for another mug rug. So there you go, two for the price of one. Of course, when I look back at the mug rug that was the inspiration for mine, it looks nothing like this - I should have made the narrow ends more pointed to get the starburst effect. Maybe next time...
Never mind, they are bright and cheerful, and quickly found a new home. Friends who appreciate the work we do should be rewarded after all ;-)

Disappearing nine-patch

 Ta da! I finally finished this quilt. I was given a pile of blocks from my friends in the guild when I stepped down from office some years ago, and eventually got round to piecing them together some time last year. After the top was finished, it needed to marinate for a while (as these things do), but eventually I got round to finishing it.
I backed it with fleece, and despite careful measuring, I realized while I was basting it that the fleece was a tad too narrow. I didn't really want to cut off any part of the blocks, so I decided to turn the edges over to the back and stitch them in place instead of adding binding. Once that was done, I machine stitched two parallell seams along the edge to finish it off.

The blocks were made using the disappearing nine-patch method. An easy method to make a lot of interest and variety in a quilt. My friends had agreed among themselves on using bright colours combined with black, making all the blocks play well together. A nice and scrappy quilt with fuzzy backing and blocks stitched full of warm wishes - what could be better to snuggle under?

Something new

I have spent so much time finishing old projects lately, that the fun was going all out of it, so it was time to start something new. I got my lovely Echino fabrics out of hiding - they should be out and about being showed off to the rest of the world, so a why not use them for a new bag. Now anyone who has visited this blog before might argue that I have more than enough bags! But the thing is, I haven't got a bag for my computer, so there's my perfect excuse for a new project...
Now, constructing a new bag is hard work, and there has to be some play as well:

Signs of life

 Finally there are little shoots peeping up...

 Honeysuckle leaves are unfurling...

 A few tentative violets are showing up...

But still, it's quite chilly outside, so I'm enjoying a bunch of shop bought tulips indoors while stitching some miles of binding...

More mug rug madness

Inspired by the last weeks of Mug Rug Madness, I couldn't resist whipping up a few more. I picked some of my favourite fabrics from the scrap bag: polka dots, text, numbers and houses. I used a paper piecing pattern of an umbrella for the first one - can you 'spot' it? ;-)

For the other one I used some lovely house scraps from the pillow I made recently. I just stitched pieces together randomly and added a bit of machine quilting and hand stitching.

All that randomness was quite fun, but now I'm ready to try some of those great tutorials from the Mug Rug Madness. Have you seen all the lovely inspiration in the Flickr group?

Not too crazy

It turned out that I wasn't too crazy after all - I actually finished the hand quilting with time to spare, even though the birthday celebration was moved from Sunday too Saturday!

It was fun to work on a quilt with such big pieces and blocks for a change. Each block is 20" square with 1 1/2" sashing, making the quilt 55 x 76 1/2". The pattern is from Fat Quarterly way back in May 2010. I was intrigued by the simple Windowpane blocks and have been playing around with them in EQ ever since. I used fleece on the back to make it a fast and snuggly quilt, which meant that I couldn't quilt it as heavily as I normally would have. An allover quilting pattern would have made the blocks blend in more, but the raspberry machine stitched lines between the blocks go well with the fabrics and so does the grey cotton floss I have used for the big quilting stitches inside the squares, so I quite like the effect anyway.

I used a sage floral print for the binding. I would really have liked to use the Flora and Fauna pink with the bees, but sadly I didn't have enough. Still, a more subtle finish works as well, I think.
The main thing is that my sister was thrilled with it. I had some concerns, because her home is on the "minimalist" end of the scale while mine is more "maximalist"... but this combination of modern florals and neutral gray proved to be just right for her, and she really loved it. She almost pushed us out the door at the end of the evening, because she couldn't wait to snuggle under it ;-) You gotta love that reaction!

My starting point when pulling fabric for this quilt was that lovely "Spotted Owl" print from Alexander Henry. My sister loves owls, so this was just right for her. I must admit I have a soft spot for it myself, and luckily I ordered several yards of it, so I still have something left to make something for myself. Now, what will I make...

Please tell me I'm not crazy!

 I finally got round to start quilting the owl quilt today. This was supposed to be a quick one, with big pieces and big blocks (20") and I'm backing it with fleece, so the quilting would have to be simple. I decided to do a grid around the six blocks first. After discarding all the spools of grey thread in my stash for being not grey enough, too blue, too brown or, well, just too grey, I decided to use a raspberry cotton and was quite happy with the result. Then I found myself sitting there staring at it for ages later, trying to decide what to do next. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't shake my initial idea of handquilting around each of the squares and rectangles in the blocks. So having wasted quite a bit of time lost in space, I eventually settled down with a stack of Gilmore Girls DVDs and some grey cotton floss. Several hours later, having stitched around six of ten pieces in one block, I really like the effect, but I'm not all that fast when it comes to hand stitching. The thing is, that this quilt is for my sister's birthday next Sunday. Seven days is an ocean of time...
- So I can make it, right?

EQ sketch of the quilt.

Leftovers

I used the scraps from my Figgy Pudding Honey Buns to make two placemats and these two mug rugs. Well, I should say that I made the tops for two placemats, because they are not quilted yet, but at least the mug rugs are finished. Very simple, with some wavy quilting, they were really quick to make. And ready just in time for the Mug Rug Madness too!

Go check it out - there are oodles of ideas, tutorials and giveaways too!

Baroque

After what seemed like miles of hand stitched binding I finally finished this quilt last night while watching endless news bulletins about Japan and Libya. When it all became too much, I escaped into the fairytale world  of Indiana Jones. I got a gift certificate for Christmas from a record shop I don't normally visit, because it is so far away from where I live. But when I read in the paper that they were closing down, it was time to get shopping. The closing down sale had been going on for a while, so most of the good stuff was gone, but I came away with a boxed set of Indiana Jones dvds and the new Rumer CD. Quite a catch, really. The only downside is that now we're down to one single record shop in my town. Well, with everybody downloading music it is to be espected, I suppose.

Oh well, back to the quilt. I have mentioned it earlier, of course, but seeing it all quilted makes a difference I think. It is made from a designer roll from Westminster Fabrics. The fabrics are designed by Philip Jacobs who is part of the Kaffe Fassett Collective. I cut all the strips in half and mixed them up and just stitched two and two together randomly before cutting them in 3 1/2" pieces and stitched them together two and two before adding strips of black on two sides, ending with 6" square blocks. Alternating the direction of the blocks makes a nice woven effect, I think. I pieced the backing from a variety of green fabrics from my stash.

When in doubt about quilting patterns I tend to end up with this swirly floral pattern. It just seems to flow so easily and fills large areas quickly. All the luscious flowers and the black background reminded me of baroque flower paintings, so I thought Baroque would be a fitting name for this quilt.

March mood

1. 026, 2. 031, 3. Purity, 4. march flowers, 5. Snowdrops, 6. Schneeglöckerln in der Sonne, 7. Snowdrops (Galanthus sp), 8. Snowdrops, 9. White and Green, 10. Carpet of Snowdrops, 11. Don't pick the Snowdrops. Where are your parents?, 12. Don't Walk on the Snowdrops, 13. Oh, they're behind you..., 14. Snowdrops, 15. Blue Tit Flight With Peanut. 2, 16. Day 294 8th March 2011 Twin Snowdrops
I am so ready for this, but instead, there is more of this:

1. Snow Drift, 2. Icestorm (15), 3. Icestorm (29), 4. Icestorm (6), 5. Icestorm (19), 6. Icestorm (24), 7. Icestorm (39), 8. Icestorm (31), 9. Taiga, 10. Weekend Snow, 11. Snow Abstract, 12. Drift Breakers, 13. Headlights, 14. Snowdrift, 15. Icestorm (10), 16. Winter Tree 5x7_horizontal

Rising temperature, the sound of melting icicles, green sprouts, flowers, sunshine - I'm ready, where are you?

Oh well, I'd better think of something else. Making Mug Rugs, for instance - I have just joined the Mug Rug Madness over at Two More Seconds and I'm looking forward to sharing some inspiration.

Lunch bag turned craft bag

I've been in a flurry of finishing old UFOs lately, but the arrival of a new book prompted a new project. The book, Lunch Bags!, is of course first and foremost a book of bags to carry your lunch in. Now I carry my lunch to work in a plastic box inside my regular bag, so I didn't see an immediate use for a stitched lunch bag. But lately I have been going through all my bags to find one to carry my sewing and my water bottle when I go to guild meetings and quilting bees, and in this book I found just the thing. This one, designed by Debbie Hogan, was fun to sew and everything went together just the way it should. I made myself cut into my stash of Tufted Tweets for this, and I'm glad I did. The colour combination is an unusual one for me, but I really like the result and it gives me a great chance to show off some of my favourite fabrics.

On the back is a pouch for a drink bottle. I made mine in a contrasting fabric -. a Jan Mullen print, I think.

The lining is made from a great AuntyCookie print littered with quotes that are just perfect for a craft bag - "Craft is the new black", "Make quilts, not war", "Knitters ain't quitters" are some of the gems.

So now I just need to scramble my sewing things together and prepare a new hand stitching project, and I'll be ready for my next guild meeting...

Back to the book. There are lots of nice little bags in there, and although they are introduced as lunch bags, there is no reason why you can't use them for other things, like I have done. There are several I might try my hand at later, so all in all this was a good buy.

Pillow talk

I've coveted those bus destination blinds forever, it seems, but never managed to find one online to buy at a price I could afford. So eventually I decided to create my own. I showed the fabric I ordered from Spoonflower earlier, using an edited list of destinations from the #72 bus in London that I used to take on my way to college way back when. The full list would have been too long for my purposes, but this was just right for a pillow - who says pillows can't have a vertical orientation? ;-)
The fabric wasn't as black as I initially would have wanted (I knew it wouldn't be from the information on the Spoonflower website), and when washed it got a bit of a crinkly worn look, but I have decided that I really like it, an old destination blind would have been a bit weathered and worn too, after all. I used the first of eight panels for this pillow.

I used another Spoonflower purchase for the back - rows and rows of red brick houses went very well with that London theme. And thanks to February being pillow month on Sew Mama, Sew, I came across this great tutorial on how to add a zipper hidden under a flap and it worked like a treat.
So there it is, a brand new pillow for my sofa. It makes me smile every time I look at it, and that can't be a bad thing, now, can it?
Now what to do about those remaining 7 panels? Hmm, I think I might have some ideas...

Sometimes...

.... when you are close to the finish line it pays to stop and take a deep breath and make sure you know where you are going...

Heart rug

Now I'm not crouching in a corner wallowing in self pity, if the last post made that impression - I'm just yearning for spring or a warmer climate, LOL!
A few cheerful projects might come in handy along the way, though, and this idea from Jodi at Pleasant Home was just the ticket for Valentine's. I had an overly optimistic idea of making two of these by hand in time for the 14th, and decided to forego the patchwork and make mine "wholecloth quilts", but even though they are small, I didn't make it in time. While watching "Must love dogs" on DVD yesterday (OK, but NOT the best romcom since "When Harry met Sally" as the cover claimed, IMHO) I put the final stitches in. I'm off to my mum's for dinner today and these will be a little hostess gift for her.

February is the shortest month, or is it?

I don't know what it is about February that hits me like a ton of bricks almost every year. I think it has something to do with the euphoria from Christmas having faded, everyday life picking up speed again and then suddenly realizing that we still have months of winter left. And I'm sooo not a winter person!
Well, I'm fighting my way through it and trying to beat the winter blues by surrounding myself with bright and cheerful fabrics and a bit of hand stitching, while watching so many Gilmore Girls-DVDs that I feel high on caffeine and sugar just from watching. Also reading my way through stacks of books and magazines and only getting some machine quilting in during weekends when my bedroom is warm enough to work in during the daylight hours.
Now, this sounds a lot like I'm moaning and feeling sorry for myself, but it isn't all bad. I quite enjoy this hibernation period, really, and maybe this is something I need at this time of year, gathering my strength for spring when it is "all systems go" again. I know that come March I will begin feeling energized again and start planning, working and playing. I have never understood the concept of New Year's resolutions - to me that's absolutely the wrong time of year to start being strict with yourself. In March, however, I know I will get the urge to spend more time outdoors, becoming more energized by the increasing daylight and craving lighter food. So why fight those natural urges, I'll just lean back and enjoy the quiet life for a couple of weeks more. And maybe I'll do a bit of stitching...