Small quilt works

 Whenever I need a bit of inspiration I sit down by the machine and stitch a few scraps together, cut and stitch again, until I have pieces big enough for some mug rugs. I always have a pile of batting scraps and some larger scraps for batting at the ready, and before you know it there is a finsihed pile of 6 x 8" mug rugs ready. Handy little presents to have at hand.

My sister has a thing for owls, and I made this little card  with a pocket for her birthday money on the back, inspired by this.

I made this little wall hanging some years ago, but it felt a bit dull. It is supposed to be a stylized rendition of an Art Nouveau town, but something was missing. After reading Art quilt collage by Deborah Boschert, I decided that embroidery was what it needed. So I added some doors and windows in the Art Nouveau style to give it some more interest.

I'm not entirely sure that it was enough, but we'll call it progress, why don't we...

Marching on

Finally, that's February over with. I think maybe I should have been a bear in winter, because I tend to go into a kind of hibernation.Once Christmas is over with I look around and find everything dark and dreary, I don't deal well with the cold, and although snow looks pretty on postcards, having to trudge through the wet and slushy stuff in town or trying to keep upright on icy pavements... nah, not my kind of thing.

I don't seem to get much sewing done, unless it's by hand and tend to end up snuggled under a blanket with a good book or some knitting.

Once March makes it's debut things start to lighten up again. There might still be snow and cold - "the beast from the east" is still causing trouble - but the days are getting longer, and with more daylight I also find my way into the sewing room. So I'm back in the saddle again and have spent a lot of this weekend by the sewing machine and made a lot of progress on this quilt. Just two borders left to quilt and I can add the binding.

With more daylight hours suddenly my head is full of ideas, but I have ambitions to finish three more quilts before I start a new one. And it's not just because I feel an obligation, I really want these to get finished soon.

And then I have plans to get to grips with all my scraps. I have them sorted by colour, and I have some ideas, but I bet they wont make more than a dent in my scrap pile... we'll see. at least the inspiration to sew seems to be coming back, and that feels good!

Scrappy mats

I tend to work on several projects simultaneously and of course my sewing table tends to end up in a riot of colour with half finished lengths and left over scraps everywhere. When I had finished a quilt top I have yet to share here I started sorting through the scraps and found that I had cut too many squares for the flying geese. I had 35 squares left and laid them out in rows, 5x7 and realized that this would be just the right size for a placemat. Before I had finished the thought I was sewing and in no time at all the placemat was there.

While I was at it I also stitched the remaining narrow strips from that project together, adding a few extras and ended up with four mug rugs. Now that's the kind of tidying up I like!

Grey and yellow tablecloth

As I was sorting and folding fabric one day I noticed that I had quite a few pretty yellow ones that went well together and I started pulling them out and looking for other colours that could go with them. I decided on that true and trusted combo of grey and yellow. I ended up with a pretty stack that lay on my table for weeks while I waited for inspiration.

I picked a length of Kona Snow to go with them and eventually cut squares from all the vellows and grays, adding a wedge of white to each square, stitched on at varying angles. I tend to find improv quite challenging, but this was not too bad and I quite liked the finished result.

I thought this would make a nice tablecloth, so I quilted it in big loose curls, using a thin batting to give it a nice drape. I had a piece of grey with a pattern of yellow dots that worked well for the back, and just needed a bit of the unexpected to finish it. After searching through my stash for ages and not finding anything, my gaze fell upon a strip of leftover pink Bali from another quilt I'm working on and that proved to be just right as a finishing touch.

Stars and satellites

I have had this bunch of fat quarters lying around for a while and decided it was time to use them all in a quilt. The line had a lot of prints on white, making for a pleasantly patterned background. I decided on a block with a small star nestled into a bigger star and stitched the star points randomly. I guess some of them are a lot smaller than I'd imagined, and you have to use a bit of imagination to see them all as stars. The fabric line is "Comma" from Zen chic and there are some quite large patterns in some of the background fabrics, which blend the stars into the background a bit as well.

For the background I used large pieces of some of the fabrics I used for the star points, allowing them to shine a bit more on their own. Increasingly I find that if I'm making a quilt using an entire fabric line, it's nice to use that fabric on the back as well, using up more of the fabric and giving it all a sense of coherency.

I did a light swirly quilting in orange rayon on the background fabrics, letting the star points stand out a bit more, and finished it all off with some black and white binding. The large molecular shapes in one of the prints reminds me of space stations or satellites - not that I know a lot about space tech... but I ended up calling it Stars and Satellites.

Spring runner

I bought some Jane Sassaman fabric a while before Easter. I have always loved her style - gorgeous quilts, and when she started designing fabric I was first in line and I have used them in several projects over the years. Some of them can be a challenge to use, though because the motifs are so large. I hadn't decided on a particular project when I got these home, but I went for a quick fix, using a large floral as the center of a table runner. I fussy cut the mid panel to show off those big flowers, added a narrow border in matching yellow/green Fossil Fern before adding a wider border in the blue triangle print. I used a thin batting and quilted it using some loosely meandering lines criss-crossing along the length of the runner. A quick and easy fix that got my quilting mojo back and ended with a bright and colourful Spring runner just in time for Easter.

Advent calendar

In 2016 I decided to indulge my inner child and treat myself to an advent calendar. But not just any calendar, I went for a quilter's calendar with lots of surprises in it.
I received 24 numbered golden paper bags with fabric, thread, batting and instructions . all I needed to finish four different projects. Those who have followed me on Instagram know all about the excitement every day of discovering what that day's surprise was.

The first week I got a set of fabrics, template, zipper and batting to make a pillow:

Next out was all I needed to make a shopping bag that can be folded and tucked behind the pocket, making it a useful bag to keep in your purse until it is needed:

The third project was a set of christmassy pot holders complete with heat resistant batting:

The final project was a narrow table runner for New Year's Eve - perfect because that gave me a week to finish the last project:

All in all this was a great calendar, reviving those childish expectations running up to Christmas, and just enough work to do each day to be able to keep up with it all (although I must confess I did most of the sewing during the weekends...) - I had such fun with this that I'm really glad I went for it, and the best thing of all is that it seems to have given me back my sewing mojo, so much that I actually started the new year with cutting fabric for a new quilt!

Summing up

Another year is here and it is time to take stock. 2016 didn't seem to be such a productive year for me. Somehow I have become very good at relaxing without a piece of needlework in my hands. After indulging myself with a quilty advent calendar this December, however, I find the urge to create is returning. More about the advent calandar later, but here's what I have made in 2016:

Three finished quilts, various pouches and purses, some place mats and wall hangings, that sums it all up. But wait, there is more:

There are thre finished quilt tops, a lot of embroidery and a bit of knitting as well. And a bit of decoupage on those Driving home for Christmas cars. Maybe not to bad, just less quilting and more of the other stuff, that's all. But I predict more quilting in 2017. Have fabric, will quilt!
Happy new year!

Typography

Tada! Here's my newest quilt, Lorem Ipsum. I couldn't resist Jessica Jones's new fabric line Typography and bought a stack of fat quarters as soon as it became available. I didn't know what to do with those gorgeous fabrics at first, however and the stack just sat there on my work table for quite a while. When I decided that I needed another Sewtogether bag for my pens and pencils, my gaze fell upon that tempting stack and I started cutting into the fabrics. Once that first cut was done, inspiration struck and I started making blocks for this quilt. I added some grey and white solids and cut stacks of rectangles into wedges, changed the orders of the pieces and started stitching them together, ending up with strips of different widths - no measuring and no planning - quite a challenge for someone like me who actually like the maths involved in quilt making, but I managed to have fun with it.

I used this staple - the IKEA handwriting fabric for the backing. I'm so pleased with the fact that I actually bought a whole bolt of this fabric before it disappeared from the shelves. It has proved very useful!

It's not easy to see here perhaps, but I quilted it using a 3-step zig zag on the widest and longest setting and quilted parallel lines from top to bottom. I was a bit unsure about it to begin with as the fabric seemed to bunch up a bit, but by holding firmly onto the fabric as I was sewing I managed to avoid puckering and when I let go of the fabric I got quite a nice texture to it.
After asking for a bit of advice on Instagram, I ended up with a teal and green striped fabric from my stash for the binding, adding a few pieces of Typography fabric along the way.
I worried that the quilt might be to busy-looking, but once I took it outdoors for a photo session and saw it in the clear cold light of an autumn morning I decided that I loved it. This is a keeper!

Boo!

I hope I didn't scare you, but I have actually finished a quilt! In time for Halloween, actually, but I only just found time for a photo session. I realized that I had amassed quite a selection of Halloweeny fabric and decided to put them all together in a quilt. I put together blocks of squares in different sizes, from four-patches with big squares to 36-patch blocks with tiny squares. I feared that it would all become a great mess, and I suppose some would say that it is, but looking at it from a distance I quite like it. I let the tiny squares gather in the middle and used ever increasing sizes going out from the diagonal. A few lime green patches along the diagonal gives a bit of extra zest to the design.

 For the back I used the leftover fabric and just pieced everything together randomly until I had a big enough piece. I used a thing backing so it could be used as a tablecloth with a soft drape, or I could hang it on the wall if I like. It might become a bit predictable, but I went for black and white stripes for the binding this time as well, as that was the only thing that seemed to work.

I'm still getting to know my new sewing machine, so I have been a bit careful about quilting motifs, so I went for the standard swirly meander I tend to fall back on, using a shiny orange thread. I'll challenge myself to be more adventurous the next time...

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.

Medieval courthouse steps

 

It seems like ages since a made a new quilt and finally I have made a bed quilt for myself! The starting point for this one was a Mulberry home dec fabric featuring embellished letters like the ones you see in medieval manuscripts. I cut the letters apart and added strips around in Court House Step fashion in jewel-like colours with a bit of bling to go with the theme of those beautiful old books, often featuring covers embellished with gold and gems.

 

The pattern is from an old Quilt Sampler Magazine, but with larger central squares and narrower strips to allow for the size of those letters. A double width bali print with swirls of colour on a black background serves as both backing fabric and binding.

This was the first quilt I quilted on my new Bernina, so I chose the old easy standby, meandering in large loose loops to get the feel of quilting on a new machine. I think I'm ready for more intricate patterns now, but I'll choose a smaller quilt next time...

Improv forest

I had a small piece of fabric from Auntie Cookie for ever and couldn't bear to cut into it, but it was such a shame to just leave it unused, you know? So one day I sliced it on two horizontally, added some vertical strips to each piece and stitched them together again. A strip of fabric at the top and bottom, I quilted it in vertical lines in off white and just for fun added two lines of stitching in red thread and just like that I had a little wall quilt. Much better than a lonely little fabric piece in a drawer, right?

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!

New year, new... calendars

Let's skip the cliches, shall we? I have been a bad blogger lately, but I'm not alone in that respect. Instagram has taken over, but sometimes a longer, reflectiv blog post is in order. And summing up the year we just stepped out of before embarking on a new one, might just be such an occasion.

2015 has not been my most productive year since I started blogging, but looking back, I did make a few things, after all. Three large quilts, two quilt tops, some bags, boxes and pouches a bit of knitting and embroidery and a giraffe. That's about it, I think. But still, this collage represents a lot of hours of work, doesn't it?
The truth is, I have felt a bit uninspired for a while, but the new year has started with an urge to create, so I might do better in 2016. Or maybe not. This isn't a competition anyway, but I'm going to roll with this new urge. First of all I have started a set of new tablemats for a friend of mine. She mentioned just before Christmas that they use the ones I made for her a few years back every day, and they have been washed so often that they are becoming frayed and faded. Such appreciation for my work must be rewarded with a new set, right?
Some recent fabric purchases have inspired me to start something new as well, so I have two new projects lined up in addition to the triangles quilt I'm working on, and which I just realized that I have forgotten to include in the collage above:

It feels good to have that urge to create again!

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.