Inspiration from The Knitting and Stitching Show

 

 

Lest you think it's all trouble and strife here, I had better show evidence of fun times as well ;-) I had a lovely visit to London two weekends ago, and among a flurry of restaurant visits and shopping in Regent Street (Liberty's and Anthropology - need I say more?) we found time to visit the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia as well. Well, actually that was one of the main purposes to the visit to be honest - we have our priorities in order after all...

I'm sorry I wasn't a very good photographer and failed to note the names of the artists, and the pics from my phone don't do them all enough justice, I suppose, but at least I can share a few glimpses of the inspiration I found. If anybody knows who has made any of these, or if you see yours and don't want it shared here, please let me know and I'll edit the post accordingly.

 This black and white quilt was quite a dizzying experience (the figure seemed to be stenciled on) but really intriguing to look at, I think.

 This cheerful quilt made my friend and me both exclaim "I want to make an orange quilt"! I really should use more orange and yellow in my works, they are such lovely sunshiney colours, don't you think?

 This one with lovely curved seams was really densely quilted. That kind of thing seems to draw me in more and more - there will be more quilting in some of my future quilts, I think.

This one gives me inspiration on putting together different experimental blocks into a quilt - yes, I'll definitely file this away for future reference.

 Maybe my pile of printed fabric pieces from a workshop years ago could be made into a quilt as well, and of course, the edges don't have to be even either! (The sides on this one are straight - it's the photo that is crooked!)

 A lot of the quilts were long and narrow. I didn't see any information - maybe they are from a challenge or competition? A lot of them seemed to be in sea/sand/sky colourways and lots of different techniques were used.

This was my favorite, and the only one where I got a picture of the details, so I can tell you that it is made by Ann Louise Williams and is called "New Horizons". She writes: "My quilt is a first for me. To work on such a large piece and for an exhibition, expanded my own horizons. Using photos of Whitby as my design source I began to sketch.
I lamnated torn coloured tissue onto scrim with pva and wallpaper paste, dyed and printed over the whole before stitching onto felt, adding a cotton backing, and quilting through all layers."
I loved all the detail in it, the group of houses you had to step up close to see, the boat and of course the colours.

This one had some amazing detail on the statue and the building - very nice work! And I love the perspective giving the feeling of a tall magnificent building towering over you.

The exhibition wasn't very big, but as you can see, there were some really interesting quilts there. I did manage to get a bit of shopping done as well. More about that tomorrow!

Dreaming of Italy

My Dreaming of Italy quilt is finally finished! Well, it has been for a while, but heavy rain clouds have made it difficult to get a good picture. These aren't ideal, but they will have to do for now.
The idea for this quilt started with some prints that have been in my stash for ever, it seems. The warm terracotta, mosaic, and vines all speak to me of holidays in Italy and that warm golden light of a Tuscan afternoon. I have been adding different fabric with an Italian vibe to my stash for ages and finally the time was right to get going. A simple layout of four-patches and rectangles seemed just right to show off the fabrics, while the black and white fourpatche tiles setting the colours off nicely, while adding some structure.

 

I used the remaining bits and pieces for the back, along with some Mediterranean azure and quilted with a peach rayon thread in loose flowery swirls. The result may not actually shout Italy to you, but to me, all the elements come together to remind me of happy times holidaying in Italy, and that should serve to fuel my dreams of warmer places for many a winter night.

I found a black fabric with teal, brown and olive stripes in my stash that was perfect for the binding, tying the whole concept together. And finally here it is: my Dreaming of Italy quilt!

 

On the wall today

I have been so good at working on my UFOs lately that I thought I might end up with too few of them.

I bet that's an excuse you've never heard before for starting a new quilt! Well, actually, it's more about not being able to stop myself. I have two quilts layered and ready for quilting, one finished top and backing prepared and two quilts I'm piecing, with a third waiting in the wings for the design wall to become available - that's April for you!
After cold winter months with very little going on, my creative spirit seems to unfurl itself like the buds of the crocus on the lawn outside. Suddenly the day has too few hours and my mind can't find rest - there are just so many quilts I need to make!

This one is based on a charm pack of Valorie Wells' Novella. I'm joining them with pieces of robin's egg blue and that wonderful text fabric from Madrona Road. I have used almost all of it now, and will be sad to see it go. Maybe I should get another yard, just in case...? The sashing will be a light grey. I'm still working on the details, but my mind has gone on to the quilting. I find quilting designs whirling through my mind while trying to sleep and my pen doodling furiously in the margins of my notebook during meetings at work - I think I'll have it all worked out by the time I finish the top, so I'll be ready to quilt right away - if I don't start piecing a new top first...

Such fun!

Placemat inspiration

Somehow I'm always stumped for ideas when I need to make placemats. I have gathered ideas on Pinterest and I have made some sketches in EQ, but somehow I'm never happy with the things I come up with. I think the problem is that I tend to overthink things. You can't make them like miniature quilts or they become too fussy, and with too few pieces they become dull. But sometimes inspiration strikes!
And that's what happened last night when I came across Debbies post about her new emerald placemats. The idea of making the same block in three different sizes and combining them  like she has done, is just brilliant. If you get the math right and make your blocks in equations of the finished size you can't go wrong.

Now Debbie used wonky cross blocks for her placemats, and they are wonderful. But it got me thinking that you could really do the same thing with any kind of block, wonky or straight. If you use just one kind of block, you get enough unity while the different sizes and ways you can puzzle them together makes it interesting. I couldn't let the idea alone, and went to my trusted EQ software and played around a bit. This is what I came up with:

 In the first excample I used my old friend the Monkey Wrench block and fabric from Sweetwater's Hometown collection. Now I would probably use some solids in there to calm things down a bit, but yes - I like the idea - this is definitely something to play more with. And if I make the blocks wonky - yes! Now we're talking!

In the second excample I used the same layout but with Flying Geese blocks instead. By rotating the blocks you can make them even more interesting. In this excample I used the lovely Comma line by Zen Chic for Moda - I can't wait to play with these lovely fabrics, maybe placemats are next on the agenda! Thank you Debbie!

My latest book

There has not been a lot of sewing going on here lately. Instead I have been making a book... No, not writing one, but actually making it. I came across this blog and joined an online class to make my own journal and I have been having lots of fun with it. The class is all about using all sorts of scrap paper and ephemera, but I went with what I had on hand for this one, so it is mainly made of scrap book papers and paper tape. I used the covers from an old book, added paper tape, stickers and gaffer tape to strengthen the spine.

The eight signatures (folded sets of paper) are stitched together with waxed linen thread and the first and last pages are glued inside the book covers. Now I realise I could have added more signatures, as the book isn't all that full, but the idea is that it will expand as I work on it, adding notes, pictures and magazine cuttings until it is bursting with inspiration.

It is already full of colour and pattern, and some of it will be painted over before I can add my scribblings, but I think it makes the pages less intimidating than starting with just blank pages.
Now the class focused on making travel journals, but as I'm not planning on travelling a lot the next few  months, I'll be using mine to gather inspiration for decorating a new home while I'm house hunting. Maybe I'll have come up with a usable plan by the time I find that elusive new flat I'm searching for. At least I'll make it a point to have fun while searching...

Try and try again

I fell in love with this tiny bag on Pinterest and just had to try making one. The link led to a photo tutorial in Russian (I think) and was easy enough to follow, except for one thing - a lack of measurements! Ok, it did say that the box corner seams are 4 cms, but that was it. I measured and calculated and came up with zilch. There was nothing for it, I just had to have a go and actually make one. My first sample was not all that great, and the box corners didn't match up, so there was nothing for it: I had to rip out the seams and try again. After lining up the cut out corners and trimming them to make my bag less lopsided, I ended up with a 6 1/2 by 9 1/2 piece of quilted fabric and finished my little bag.

It is a sweet little thing, standing 4" tall on its 2 1/2" square bottom, but I'm not entirely happy with it. It looks too tall and skinny compared to the original, so I need to work on the proportions a bit and make a new attempt, I think. Maybe I should have a go at making some bigger, more useful ones as christmas presents while I'm at it? I think these little ones are quite sweet, but maybe not so practical.. Oh well, I'll just have to keep playing and see what I come up with!

Expandable

 

I remember coveting my cousin's disco purse when I was a young teenager. It looked a bit like the one in the picture above, except this one is an antique. Hers was a bit more glitzy and shiny and I was so intrigued by the closing mechanism and thought this was the coolest thing ever. That's why I just had to get this expandable frame while I was shopping for purse frames online a while ago and came across it.

I looked for patterns and tutorials online, but couldn't find one, so there was nothing for it but to work it out on my own. I somehow got the idea that I should make it from a circle of fabric (this was before I had googled the one in the first picture). So I cut the largest circle I could on my circle-ruler, 10", in two different fabrics and stitched them together right sides facing, leaving an opening to turn them inside out.

After turning and closing the opening and pressing the circle, I pinned folds along the edge, gathering the opening to fit the opening of the frame fully extended. It took a bit of trial and error - 14 wasn't the easiest number to work with, trying to make even folds.

I got there eventually, though, and stitched the fabric to the frame all the way around, before adding a piece of ribbon  to the two loops on the outside, to make a handle.

This didn't make the best result, I think. I mean, the purse looks quite pretty in all it's polka dot goodness, but the fabric is rather stiff, there is a bit too much fabric gathered at the top and the purse sits quite flat when I close it, making it look like those ice packs you see creatures having on their heads after they have hit themselves in old cartoons. There isn't all that much room inside either, so it's not the most useful item I have made.

I really should have made a more square bag, instead of starting with a circle, to make it roomier, or at least made it from a softer fabric. But that's just something to chalk down to experience, I suppose. It is what it is, for now at least. I might rip it apart and change it later, though - we'll see...

Top Lotta

I've been waiting for better weather so I could take a good picture of my latest finish, but it seems that the wait might be a long one, so here goes! I had been pondering for quite a while how to use that stack of Lotta Jansdotter Echo. I spent ages poring over the Kona solids colour chart before deciding on Raisin as my background colour. At the same time I came across this great quilt by Kirsty at You had me at bonjour and used that as my inspiration. I realized that it was constructed in the same way as my Baroque quilt, only with wider strips of the background colour. I spent some time working with the proportions in EQ and ended up with 6x8" blocks, making a 42x40" top before adding the 1" border. Looking back at the initial inspiration it's amazing how different the result is with a dark solid instead of a light one, but I'm quite pleased with it. I think it really shows off those great fabrics.
I have also pieced the backing using more Echo, so now it is just a question of preparing the quilt sandwich and deciding on how to quilt it. Knowing me, that could take some time....

Thread play

I've been adding pieces of folded, torn and woven fabric and stitching to this piece of felt for a while, and I think it is time to call it quits for now. I think it might need something to pull it all together, and tried adding lines of light grey embroidery across the whole thing, but I'm not sure it is enough.

The top photo doesn't really do it justice though - you need to come in close to get a close look at the texture all that folding and stitching creates.

I'll let it marinate for a while before I decide if it is finished or not. Sometimes it's just a matter of agreeing with myself that it is done...