What's going on?

I think it's time to take stock. It's not that I don't spend time sewing, but I seem to have very little to show for it. Well, lots of little things, but what about all the big quilts?
I have spent a lot of time reorganizing my sewing space this summer, so at least all the finished quilt tops are stored in one place, but it is about time to settle down and do some serious quilting now I think...

First of all there is this, my Wuthering Heights quilt:

I think I finished this top in August 2015 and had intended to have it finished by Christmas, but I don't know what happened...
Then I started this in January:

The top is actually finished, but I couldn't decide how to quilt it, and while I was working on it I fell in love with a new fabric line, and started another quilt right away:

And then it happened again, I got distracted by another project - I found a fabric bundle I couldn't resist and started planning yet another quilt:

And as if having four finished quilt tops wasn't enough... As I mentioned I have been reorganizing a bit lately - my ten little Moppe drawer units from Ikea, that I have had for years, became one large unit on wheels and in one of the drawers I came across yet another quilt top:

I remember making this  very early on in my quilting career - it must be at least 15 years old, maybe 20 - and I was so disappointed with it because I just didn't have the right rainbow of colours I wanted. I actually thought I had thrown it in the bin, but no, like the pack rat that I am, I had just hidden it away in a drawer and now, here it is again and it doesn't look all that bad. Maybe I can rescue it? Make it into placemats maybe? Well, it isn't my number one priority, because I also have a Halloween quilt in the works! Yes, I started another one!

This is the first block with the smallest pieces and it looks a mess - there are blocks with larger pieces that let the fabrics stand out more, though, and I hope it works as a whole. I will try to get started on the quilting this weekend and then we shall see...
And once I have started quilting I can just go on and do another, and another... Unless I get distracted by a new project along the way...
Short attention span, anyone? What? Where?

And in case you were wondering about those drawer units, here's a before-and-after shot of them:

They are given a wash of paint, glued together and mounted on a small wall cupboard that I have attached wheels to, so now I have one piece of furniture instead of a wobbly stack of drawer units that would shift about every time I opened a drawer. Yes, happy with this one.

Waaaaay after the holidays

 

Better late than never, I suppose. I have some catching up to do, and it occurs to me that I never shared any of my Christmas makes. First of all this little tree of words. I found the pattern just before Christmas and stitched the whole thing in a matter of days. I also got a witchy pattern and one of a sewing machine, all from Imaginating. that I have yet to stitch up. Despite the colour variations the tree is in fact just stitched with two different skeins of hand dyed floss. The wonderful threads from Stef Francis are really lovely and I can never resist them when I come across them at The Festival of Quilts or The Knitting and Stitching Show. My biggest problem is actually using them, because then they will all be gone. But that's just an excuse to take another trip, isn't it?

Just before Christmas I fell in love with some Christmas ornaments in the shape of cars with trees on the roof, but by the time I got around to shopping they were all gone, so I made my own.

I bought some toy cars, covered the windows with masking tape and painted and decoupaged the hell out of them before I glued some miniature trees wrapped in baker's twine on the roofs. And there you are: my very own "Driving home for Christmas"-cars.

They turned out to be too heavy for the tree, but looked rather good on a shelf in my kitchen, if I may say so myself.

Placemats

 My best friend needed some new placemats. She is one of those people I love making things for because she really appreciates it and the set I made her a few years back are frayed at the edges from having been used so much - I love that!
Coming up with ideas for placemats is always a bit difficult for me, for some reason. Making a bed sized quilt: no problem. Making a table setting sized one: a challenge! And then you have to make at least three more...
Pinterest to the rescue, and I found some quarter log cabin ones I had pinned earlier for inspiration. The dark blue fabric with houses would do nicely as a backing fabric and I used that as a starting point for my fabric selection.

I chose some houses and trees and supporting fabrics from Sweetwater's line Road 15, added some map and landscape motifs from other series and used some blue/grey to tie it all together. Straight(ish) quilting lines and blue binding and some late night sewing and I was finished just in time. The only thing I didn't get to do was to take some daylight photos. But it is January, the days are short and I was pressed for time, so this will have to do. She loved them, though and that's the most important thing!

A bit of this and that

I've almost finished summing up all the stuff I've made during the first part of the year by going through my photos. Here are a few bits and pieces. The first is a whatchamacallit to rest the sewing machine pedal on to stop it from sliding out of reach. I was in danger of disappearing under the table when sewing as the pedal kept slipping away, but I came across an idea on Pinterest that was easily copied. It's just a piece of that material you put under rugs to stop them from slipping with binding all around. At one end I added a "sausage" of fabric filled with batting to stop the pedal from skipping off the mat. A very simple idea, but I'm happy to report that it works! So there will be no more of that laid-back sewing here in future...

My teddies needed something cushy for their slidey bums, and I had just the right teddy fabric for a little throw to drape over their bench. A cushion with ruler marks and stenciled numbers (an idea from Marie Claire Idées) finishes the ensemble.

So here they are, ready to welcome visitors.

I've had some wooden letters lying around for a while, with a coat of white paint they make a positive demand on my sewing room wall.

And since there can't be enough open wide pouches in the world, I made another one for a young friend. These are fun to make, and quite addictive, it seems!

Quilt garden

This quilt has a long history. It started out at least 12 years ago. I had seen a quilt called “Leanne’s House” on an Australian site and thought it was lovely, with a combination of embroidery, appliqué and pieced blocks, but the colours weren’t quite “me”. Then I came across a booklet of garden themed embroidery patterns and decided to make my own. 

For years my take-along sewing to quilt meetings and such were these little patches backed with a thin layer of batting and embroidery floss in bright pastels. I was teased relentlessly about my never-ending work, but was determined to enjoy the process and not rush anything.

At the same time I was plotting and planning the layout of the quilt itself. I had originally planned on making 12 20” blocks, but after lots of revising and redrafting I ended up with a 9-block layout, making it a 60x60” square quilt. Once the embroidery blocks were finished I started on the appliqué and the same teasing ensued – what never ending quilt was I working on now? – nobody realized it was the same one! I plodded on and went along with the jokes on my behalf, but eventually I got to the point where all the appliqué was done and the piecing could begin. 

That part didn’t take that long, and using a drawing app on my iPad as a tool to keep track of what I had finished and what needed to be sewn next, I finished my nine blocks and put them together. I used fabric to match the floss I had used in the stitched blocks. 

The leftovers were pieced for the backing. I did a lot of freehand quilting in green rayon thread, making up patterns as I went along. After finishing it with a dark green binding I should have been done, but no, I wasn’t quite there yet.

 

Now on most of the quilts I have seen with stitchery on them, the stitchery-blocks have been left unquilted, but with my dense quilting on the rest of the quilt, this didn’t seem right, so I ended up adding some more stitches by hand. A scattering of seed stitches in cream floss on the cream coloured background gave just the effect I wanted, and I got there in the end. 

When I started this quilt I had my middle sister in mind. She’s a keen gardener and the theme seemed just right for her. However, her decorating style changed along the way, going into the gray and neutral spectrum and I began thinking that her tastes had changed so much that she wouldn’t like it. I needn’t have worried though: when she happened to see it while I was working on it this spring she jokingly said: “I hope that one’s for me!” Bingo! The surprise and joy when she opened her birthday present from me was really worth all the effort. It was hard to give away such a labour of love, but I know it has gone to the right home!

Progress report

 Shelves have arrived,

 Lamps ditto

New curtains and the studio is being sorted out - yes, the sewing machine is in place and there is evidence of sewing going on...

I am getting ever closer to making this new flat into a home and might get my act together and get some sewing done soon. Look for more reports in the coming days - I WILL get back into the quilting and blogging groove, I really will!

Getting there

I unpacked the last box yesterday! Yay! Moving has been a lot of hard work, and a lot of stress with decisions to make, furniture to buy and assemble and an old flat to get ready for sale. I finally sold it on Wednesday, so that's another load off my mind. Now I feel I can concentrate on decorating my new home (once I get rid of the pile of flattened boxes...) The picture above is a bit blurred - snapped with my phone in afternoon light - but you get an impression of what I have to deal with in what will be my sewing room/ studio. I have ordered some metal shelving units from Ikea and once they arrive (sometime next week, they've promised...) I will get around to sorting things out and get my sewing machine out of hiding. I spent some happy hours there yesterday sorting through things and rediscovering all my treasures. Inspiration is building up and I can't wait to get back to sewing!

Back on track

This, or variations of this, has been my view for quite some weeks now. I bought a new flat in the end of October, got packing, moved at the end of November and started unpacking, trying to have everything ready by Christmas. Phew, what a job! I had invited my family for Christmas dinner, so I just had to keep at it. Friends and family were only too happy to help, so that made the job much easier, but I kid you not: this was hard work. I have been quite irritated (putting it mildly) by my internet provider not being able to get the new connection sorted until now, and I'm terribly behind in keeping up with blogland, but at least it hasn't distracted me from the job at hand!

Despite good weather forecast, the actual moving day was the most gray and drizzly day you could think of, and the last look at my famous view was anything but cheerful. Boy, was I glad I didn't have to do the actual moving myself.

Luckily the first snow didn't arrive until a few days later and I had a chance to enjoy my new view on a peaceful Sunday afternoon. Lovely, isn't it? What the photo doesn't tell you is that the road you can see there is the main road into town, so there is the constant sound of traffic, but you get used to it.

And this more than weighs up for it - yes, I finally get a sewing room, or shal we be so bold that we call it a studio? I daresay I'll be pursuing other crafts in there as well, so why not. The room has been painted aqua and is for now full of boxes, but I'm getting there - this has been my "carrot on a stick" while working on the rest of the place - as soon as the rest is in order, I'll get this room sorted. I can't wait!

Now I didn't get all my boxes unpacked before Christmas, but the living room and kitchen were tidy enough and there was plenty of room for my Christmas tree. We had a lovely family Christmas and my shoulders and arms got a well deserved rest for a week or so.

I didn't let the remaining boxes bug me either - as you can see from the picture below, I piled them all in a corner and covered them with Christmas quilts! Interesting decorating feature, wouldn't you say?

I even managed  to get a bit of baking done, some holiday brownies with ginger and cinnamon. With ice cream and fruit that was quite enough really. I can get back to "proper" holiday baking next time around.

Before I started packing I sorted out a pattern and a quilt kit for myself to have something to get me started. I know it's in one of those boxes and I have finally come to the stage where I can start sorting out the studio and get back to sewing again. Back to work!

Pretty polaroid pillow present

Strictly speaking this is more of a cushion than a pillow, meant as decoration more than for sleeping on, but who can resist using a bit of alliteration... I am as ever late to the party - never got round to making polaroid blocks when everyone else seemed to be doing so, and a quilt using these tiny blocks seemed a bit overwhelming. A cushion though, that I could do. And as I needed a present for my sister's birthday I had just the right excuse.

There are some fun references to things we have talked about this summer among the fussy cut motifs - I can't count the number of shops I have visited with her to find the perfect parasol for her balcony. We never had any luck - they all seem to be dark blue or white this year - but at least she has this to remind her of our quest. The scooter is a reference to our niece who got her two-wheeled dream last spring and had us doting aunties all worried about how she'd fare in traffic. The moon refers to all our late-night phone calls, and so on. I had fun choosing fabrics that had some special meaning. I followed the instructions for cutting and piecing I found in one of the swap groups on Flickr, and didn't really stop to think. Had I done so, I might have stopped after the white borders of the blocks and used grey lattice strips between them, thus avoiding the seams down the middle in the gray areas. But with only six blocks to join, that doesn't really matter, it wasn't as if that extra work was too taxing...

I used a strip of one of the fabrics from the front to hide the zipper on the back, and added a little surprise underneath it.

There be monsters

My littlest nephew is not so little anymore - 13 today! How is that possible? Being a big boy also means that he will transfer to a new school and new school supplies are called for. His modest wish was for a compass and set of rulers, but if you ask a quilty aunty for that sort of thing, she's bound to make something to keep it in as well, right?

So of course I had to make something, and of course I left it until the last minute, as one does. Ahem.
I had seen a picture of a "monster pouch", but there were no details about how it was made, so I had to wing it. The front with the zipper was easy enough - I just stitched front and lining pieces to either side of the zipper, and top-stitched close to the zipper. The challenge was working out how to attach the back pieces.  After a few attempts where the seam ripper also got plenty of use, I ended up stitching the outer backing piece to the outer front pieces from the zipper, down the side, along the bottom and up to the zipper. I did the same on the top piece and then on the lining pieces, leaving an opening for turning the pouch inside out. This meant a bit of handstitching along the sides where the zipper is, both inside and out. There might be an easier way of constructing it, but this was what my tired mind came up with last night, and at least it worked.

There was plenty of room for compass and rulers and a bit of birthday money and although the birthday boy  became a teenager today, he is still young enough to pronounce it "cool", and that's the best reaction a doting auntie can hope for, isn't it?

I need a bigger design wall

I had a god day sewing yesterday. Today not so much. Back to yesterday - in between the never ending story of organizing fabric and all the rest I managed to finish all 14 strips of my italian quilt. I started out hanging them neatly side by side, but soon realized that there was not enough room, so I had to overlap them. Still, you get a good impression of what it will look like and I must admit I like what I see. The colours are warm and mellow with just a bit of azure and green thrown in to set the warm colours off. Yes, this is my idea of Italy all right. And now I have the strips hanging there in the right order until I get time to sew them together.
Today I got the bright idea that I should layer my xplus-quilt and do a bit of quilting on my numbers quilt instead, but I was just not into it. I got the xplus layered with batting and backing all right, so I can start quilting whenever. I also sorted the fabrics for backing on the italian and found a perfect backing fabric for the Valori charms quilt. By the time I got around to the quilting part I suppose I was too tired. I had thought that I might finish the quilting today (I have already done some of it), but it was just not happening. I didn't get into the flow and wasn't all that happy with my results, so I called it a day and went and made some oven baked spring rolls instead. Delicious, if I may say so myself. The ones I didn't eat are in the freezer, so no photos, sorry. I enjoyed making them and will make another batch with a different filling soon, I think. These were with ground pork, carrots, cabbage and spinach. Next time I will try a recipe I vaguely remember with crab meat if only I can find it (or make something up). Baking them in the oven worked really well too - I just brushed them with oil and baked them at high heat for 15 min. They came out nice and crispy. Mmmm.

Baking street

Holiday preparations have officially started ;-) I  baked a batch of orange-chocolate biscotti today after sorting out my kitchen cupboards. Three half used packets of brown sugar have joined forces in one jar, ten year old spice has left the building and I have a feeling of control over my cupboards for a while... The kitchen is clean and I have plans for more baking tomorrow.

This evening, however, is dedicated to sewing. I'm working on a blanket for a girl I work with. She has just had her first baby, a lovely little boy. She had crocheted a blanket for him and wanted to have it backed with fabric. I offered to do it for her, and could have kicked myself several times for doing so, because it has been more complicated than I thought it would be. The yarn is quite bulky and one side is about six inches shorter than the other and to get this to work with a fabric backing was not as easy as I thought it would be. I thought that I could join the two with binding and just tie some knots here and there to keep the layers together. But the result was just too baggy on the fabric side, so I had to come up with a new solution which involves folding and running stitches. It looks much better now, so I hope it will be done before the evening is over. Pictures tomorrow!

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?