Sweet dreams

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning - there was just too much to read and enjoy and dream about making in this lovely book! Those two Material Obsession-girls have done it again: created another book chock-full of inspiration!

I just loved the first one, and have so far made one quilt from it, my Sunflower quilt, but there are several more I want to make. And now there's another one with at least three more quilts that I itch to stitch ;-)

I'm going to set myself up for trouble here, though, with some real challenges, but nothing ventured...

I deliberately give you blurry images from this book, just to share that there is some nice stuff in here, but this is one you really need to go out and buy for yourself - seriously!

Now I only need to find some extra time - I think I need a craft clock!

Just because

Just because I spotted the braided newspaper basket at How about orange, I had to give it a go. I grabbed a cross stitch magazine from the recycling bin and started cutting and folding. It was a bit fiddly at first, but with the help of some pieces of masking tape, I managed to hold the strips together while I was working. So what is it for? Well, I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to give it a go, and Jessica's idea of using it for the remotes is as good as any I could come up with. And when I'm tired of it it can go back in the recycling bin, I suppose..

Carry on...

So I finished the handbag, with some extra touches of my own. The pattern is, as I mentioned in the earlier post, the Meadow bag from Melly & Me. The pattern was great and it all came together effortlessly, so I can certainly recommend it.
I had some misgivings about the fabrics I had chosen, but with the added yo-yos on the upper piece, I think I toned the lightness of that fabric down a bit. I first thought that it made the main fabric look too grubby and worn, but with the checkered piece inbetween it seems to work all right.

I wasn't too conscious about it when choosing the fabrics, but they all seem to have sentiments of love, happiness, joy, dreams coming true and celebration - even the lining fabric. So it's all really fitting to the occasion, I think. Because this bag is a gift for my best friend's mother, on her 70th birthday. She is a wonderful person, and has been a regular stand-in for my mom all through my life, so I feel really close to her, and wanted her to have something special that I had made. I also added an inside pocket with two compartments - one for a phone and a magnetic closure. It turned out that I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics for the handles, but I added some of the checkered fabric to the middle of the strips, and I think that gives just the right accent to bring it all together. The bag turned out to be a bit larger than I expected - the shopwhere I bought the pattern had a finished bag hanging on display, but I think they must have made it smaller, because I can't remember that it was this big. That just makes it all the more practical though, it's not just a dainty little thing for your lipstick and phone, but there is room to carry all the stuff you might need on a day out, and even some of your shopping...

Looking up

What a difference a day makes... At least with the sun out, and my trusty old weatherbeaten ladder back in place, the flowers look much better. Now, for a bit warmer weather so they really can get encouraged to grow and start resembling the hanging plants they are supposed to be, and summer will really be here.While I'm waiting I'm having fun with my sewing machine and my lovely Keiko Goke book that I rediscovered on my shelf this morning. I have made one quilt from it earlier, but there is so much great stuff in there that it really deserves a second workout!

June is a summer month, right?

- at least it should be in the northern hemisphere... Looking at my poor plants all huddled together in the rain and wind on the balcony you could wonder. It is just temporary, though. I know the sun will come out again soon. We..e..e..ll, not in the first week or so, if the Weather Man is to be believed, but he has been wrong before...
Oh well, it's perfect quilting weather, at least!

Blushing giraffe

I mentioned this fabric earlier. When I first came across it, it said 'giraffe' to me, and the pink areas suggested that he was blushing. I had a vision of a cute cartoon-like appliqué, but couldn't quite make it happen. When I found a giraffe stencil, a different idea was born.

I used a brown Paintstick to transfer the image to the fabric, added some squares of an African-look Kaffe Fasset fabric along one side and started quilting. And then I was stuck. It just seemed too boring.

Lily suggested that the poor giraffe was hiding in the greenery. And that was just the kind of prompt I needed. A bit of research (or googling) later, and I knew a lot more about giraffes and their life on the savannas of Africa among the acacia-trees. Did you know that giraffes go in for a lot of necking? Really! Maybe that's where the expression comes from ? If you want to know more about these fascinating creatures, this is a good place to begin. Anyway, having read about thos acacias and looked up pictures of their leaves, I was ready to move on. I added some Steam-a-Seam Lite to a piece of green bali and started cutting leaves. One movie later and I was ready to go back to the sewing machine and apply branches and stitch the leaves down. The silhouette of the giraffe didn't stand out as much as I wanted, so I added seed stitches around it, some longer stitches further out, and ended with crosstitch (or kisses) before the hand-stitching merged into the machine quilted hearts.

So there you have it. My Mini Quilt for Monday ended up as a close up of the neck of a love-sick giraffe, lurching among the bushes with a sweet giraffe girl on his mind. Or something like that...

Flower Power

So here we are at last. This Quiltalong seemed to take me forever compared to the rest of the gang, but I kind of knew that it would when I joined, because I have had a lot going on workwise. And knowing me, I can't just stick to one thing at a time, but always have several projects going at the same time. But then it doesn't really matter, does it? It wasn't a competition anyway and I'm really pleased with the result
I was thinking of giving this one away, but maybe not just yet... I have used some of my favourite fabrics from Sandy Henderson and Amy Butler among others, and I'd hate to see them go. But I can't be all stingy with it now, can I? Half the fun is in sharing. I have a lovely girl in mind for this one, and her big day is still a few months away, so I can get to enjoy looking at it for a while. And actually having a finished quilt all lined up for somebody's birthday must be a first - usually there is nighttime sewing in the week leading up to the event or worse, a half-finished quilt that I take back to finish... I decided to be a bit thrifty and only use what I had in my stash for the backing, so I had to be a bit more creative than planned. It seemed like a good idea at the time to use that red and pink Sandy Henderson fabric on the back, the only problem: that was my last piece and I don't feel that I'm ready with it yet, so I might have to buy some more... Well, any excuse to go shopping, right?
Now go have a look at all the other lovely quilts in the Mod Sampler Quilt-Along Pool!

Distractions

I was visiting Sew and So to buy some tapestry wool, needed to finish a cushion I started ages ago, when I came across this:It tickled my silly bone, so I wanted to share it. Now, I didn't order it - I told myself sternly that it would take me ages to stitch and then where would I hang it? I have oodles of floss and heaps of charts for great things to stitch lying in wait, so I really need to keep myself in check here. Here's the link though, in case you find you need it ;-) And Bothy Thread have so many other fun charts, like the Cut Thru' series and the other silly samplers of teapots and bras... Have a look if you dare!
I thought this is rather cute too, link here. Like a country style quilt, in fact. There's also one with cup cakes - so tempting...
I didn't buy any though. And in my eagerness to resist temptation I even forgot to buy the wool I needed. Now dare I make another attempt...?

Finding time to shop and sew...

Yesterday my sis and I had a little shopping spree at the garden centre. The car was filled with plants for my balcony pots (mind you, it's a small car...) and then we had a lovely lunch of boboli filled with curried chicken and celebrated the arrival of summer with Italian ice cream - mmm, lovely! The cherries came home with me for an evening treat.

And then it was back to sewing again. I decided to go with the Meadow pattern (from Melly & Me) and although those curved seams were a bit daunting, I'm happy to say that so far things have worked out quite well. I'm using a thin batting instead of interfacing, so the pieces have been quilted - I just like that soft look that quilting adds. I'm not entirely sure about the fabric I have used for the top though. It is a lovely fabric, but since the main fabric is slightly greyer, they don't seem to play together as nicely as expected, it makes the main fabric look dirty, I think. I added a strip of that black and cream check to the lightest fabric before cutting the pattern piece, and I think that helps. I think I'll also add some red yo-yo hearts as a finishing touch. The pattern doesn't include any inside pockets, something I think all handbags need, so I'm working on some ideas here. And then I'll have to decide which fabric to use for handles. Now I only have to find the time to finish it. And to get those plants sorted out, and to do a bit of dusting... And do you know, I think Jody has found a great solution there - go check out her craft clock!

Close enough

Yes, I did finish quilting yesterday, but while I was adding the binding, I realized that I was fighting time. I had a quilting bee to attend, and had planned to bring my quilt and do the hand stitching on the binding while there. But having attached the binding strip to one long side, I realized that I would have to leave within the next half hour, and I felt my shoulders inching ever closer to my ears and a knot forming in my back. So I took a deep breath and told myself that this was the perfect set-up for making mistakes and botching up the whole job, so I walked away. Got some hand sewing together and left early instead. A brisk walk and some more deep breaths and my shoulders were back where they were supposed to be and I was able to spend a stress-free evening with my quilting friends, stitching, chatting and laughing. So the quilt didn't get done yesterday. But that was just a self imposed deadline anyway, and there really was no reason to rush things.
So this morning - after staying in bed until ten, finishing The Lollipop Shoes - lovely book! I sat down and finished attaching the binding in no time at all. The hand stiching will be done this evening, and might even continue tomorrow, but I'm getting there!

Now I'm on to the next project. A handbag for a friend. I need to iron some fabrics and make a decision between two equally lovely patterns from Melly&Me, but the hoover needs to be reaquainted with my carpet first....

New house

While waiting for more quilting pictures, you might like to take a look at my new house. I really like the raw, untreated zink surface of this house and have been searching high and low for one ever since I first spotted one in a blog more than a year ago. I've come across them in webshops a couple of times, only to find they were sold out minutes before I placed my order. Imagine my joy when I walked past a florist's on my trip and found two of these nestled in among the geraniums outside! Luckily there was room in my suitcase, and I stuffed it with T-shirts so it held it's shape all the way home. Oh joy! I just love it!
And there will be quilting pictures tomorrow - I've done 3/4 of the quilting on my Mod Sampler today. When the thread started snapping, the bobbins started fighting the thread and a needle broke, I decided to call it a day and take a long walk instead. That did both me and the sewing machine a lot of good, I think ;-)
The machine is now clean, oiled re-threaded and ready to go, so there will be more quilting tomorrow, and then pictures... Just wait for it, it might happen ;-)

Perks

I've been away on a business trip this last week, and although that can be hard work some of the time, there are some perks too. Like coming across this sweet little milk bucket at the airport - perfect for storing bits and bobs in my sewing room! And the chocolate inside was good too (note the past tense)...And this pretty purse was inevitably having to come home with me - "someone was going to have to set a bad example" - too true! I always try to be the naughty auntie giving the kids ideas their parents wouldn't come up with and telling tales about what their mums used to get up too... Well, somebody has to, right?

But the best of all treats on a trip, as any quilter knows, is getting some new fabric! This was just irresistible! And having been such a good girl most of the week... I felt I deserved it. Now I just have to come up with that perfect little project for it. I'll be exploring a few ideas over the next couple of days. Today I've been concentrating on quilting my Mod Quilt Sampler, and it is coming along nicely. Then there is the trapunto heart one, and a handbag for a birthday next week - it's a good thing I have the rest of the week off!

A bow tie quilt for Mini Quilt Monday

Filled bow tie
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

I'm still doing the cheating thing here by showing an old quilt - there's absolutely no time to quilt these days - all work and no play while getting ready for a trip. This is a baby quilt from 2006, and believe it or not it is a bow tie quilt!
I used the 3D version of the bow tie block in three different sizes, but used four pieces of the background cream print and only the middle square in a contrasting colour. The middle squares are stuffed with polyfil and with stipple quilting all around, the squares lie like small stuffed pillows on top of the quilt. It was quite fun to do, so maybe I'll make another one. There could be a tutorial in this, I suppose.
PS. Can anyone tell me why it is that when I post from Flickr and then go in and edit the post in Blogger, the caption under the photo shrinks into fly specks???

Little girls for Mini Quilt Monday

Little girls
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

I had ambitions for today - I was actually going to make a little quilt to present. But this isn't my day. I started feeling queasy just after lunch, and by the time I came home from work I felt more like lying under a quilt than making one, so I'm cheating by showing an older quilt.
I think I made this one about twelve years ago as a gift to my cousin's daughters (they are 15 and 13 now!) The nine "blocks" are actually one piece, with a grid made with 1/4" satin ribbon, and the dresses of the girls are all from my scrapbag. The lace and ricrac came from their gran's sewing box and the border fabric is a remnant from a dress I made for myself way back in the '80s, before quilting took over completely. I remember that the girls loved it, and that we made up stories about all the little girls and about where the different fabric pieces and trims came from. Stories of the "Once upon time there was a little princess with a lacy dress..." variety. Now where did all that time go? It 'seams' like yesterday! :-)
I feel much better now, by the way!

Why is the giraffe blushing?

This fabric has always suggested giraffe to me - a blushing giraffe at that. So I have been looking at photos of giraffes and wondered how I could appliqué a convincing image of a giraffe. Then I found a giraffe stencil, and I started thinking: What if the viewer is really close to the giraffe, only seing a part of his body or neck - then this fabric could play the main part in a small quilt. And why would the giraffe be blushing anyway? Because he's thinking of his lady love? That's where the stencil and a paintstick comes in. I have joined Malka's Mini Quilt Monday, so by Monday you should know if I have been able to make this work.
So that's part of my plan for tomorrow. That and the two layered quilts waiting next to my sewing machine. Some more mundane activities as well - don't you just love how people seem to think: "oh she's got a sewing machine, she will love hemming my trousers/shortening my dress" Oh well, one favour is worth another, I suppose, and I'd best just get on with it and then I can get back to having fun.
Last night I had friends over for cheese and wine, and we chatted well into the night. Today my day started with a bit of gardening - I live in a block of flats, and a couple of times a year we all get together to do some work in the flower beds and backyard - that's the idea anyway, although this time only four people showed up, so plenty of work for those of us who did... And it started raining while we were at it, so I'm done in for today: all achy muscles and creaky joints - I really need to get more exercise! Well, tomorrow's another day...

Waiting for spring

Yesterday I gave in to temptation and let myself believe that spring had finally arrived. So what does one do? Go shopping for flowers of course! There are som wilted daffs from Easter in the background here, but the rest were put outside yesterday in nice balmy weather. So what happend today? We got snow! It melted before it hit the ground, and the little storm settled as quickly as it started, but still! I didn't order snow for May! When I came home from work I had to take pity on this little group all huddled together, so they get to spend a few more days indoors. But really, this won't do! All the weather is good for now is crafting.

So that's what I've been doing. I finally finished piecing the backing for my Mod Sampler yesterday, and the trapunto hearts on the other one are done. So today I suddenly found myself with two quilt tops and backings ready for layering. My least favourite task. But the thing is, I finished one of them, and it wasn't so bad! I used a new method (for me) from the quiltalong, where you place the top on the batting, cut the batting to size, roll it all up with the batting on the outside. You then place the backing down and unroll the top and batting on to it, smooth it out and pin. And you know what? It worked!
I didn't have enough floor space, so I did it all on my kitchen table with the extra leaves in, and it was just fine. Earlier I have been struggling with batting and backing folded in four, smoothed out half at a time, unfolded, refolded and added the folded top, smoothed, and unfolded.... I don't know if this makes any sense, but it was an elaborate and tedious process where I always felt that I could do with an extra pair of hands. And that wouldn't have been very attractive, not to mention the problems I would have had in finding tops with four sleeves...
So, what I'm trying to say here is that you live and learn. This makes the thought of layering the other quilt less daunting, so I might get to that on Thursday. Tomorrow is a night out, though - dinner with my quilting friends followed by a guild meeting, what fun!

Trapunto try-out

I have had this quilt top waiting in the wings forever, it seems. I decided early on that the big appliqué hearts were perfect candidates for trapunto. After watching the Ricky Tims' DVD Grand Finale, I had a go at drawing my own feathered hearts, and decided to try his technique of marking the motifs with watersoluble thread. Exciting, but a bit daunting too, so somehow I just haven't got round to it before, but here goes! I'm adapting techniques as I go along, based on the materials I have, so here I've just used some brittle paper made for foundation piecing to print my pattern on. The roughly cut out heart and a piece of batting underneath is placed on the back of the appliqué heart on the quilt top and frehand stitched by machine with watersoluble thread.

So far so good, but then comes the job of removing the paper...

The larger pieces came off easily, because the stitching had perforated it quite well, but I find that I need to sit down with tweezers to get all the little pieces off. Then I have cut around the heart, removing the excess batting, being careful so I don't cut into the fabric along the way. This takes quite some time, and is probably best done while having one's mind occupied with something else, like watching TV or listening to a podcast.

Here is my first heart from the front. If you click on the picture you'll see the outline of the feather there. The idea is to layer the top with batting and backing, and then use the water soluble stitches as a guide to quilting the actual heart that will remain in the quilt after washing (because all my work so far will vanish in the washing machine!). With the extra layer of batting under the feathered hearts, they should appear thicker and fluffier than the rest of the quilt. We'll see how that goes, once I have stitched the rest of the hearts and removed all the paper and excess batting. Right now it looks rather flat, so I'm thinking I should have used high loft batting, but I just used what I had on hand, and we'll see how that goes. Luckily there are only six of these large hearts in the quilt top, which makes it the perfect project for testing this out: enough to get some practise, and not so many that I'll be inclined to give up along the way. And since the hearts are made from a rather busy small-print floral, it will probably disguise any first time feather flaws.... That's my theory anyway - we'll see how it goes!

Quiltalong

There is actually quite a bit of sewing going on here at the moment! Carried along by the momentum of finishing the Sunflower quilt I also finished adding the sashing to my Quiltalong sampler. I need to be extra creative when it comes to piecing the backing, though, as I haven't got any large enough pieces of any of the fabrics to follow the directions. I think I have worked out how to do it though, and while my mind is mulling over this, I have unearthed another UFO to try my hand at some machine trapunto, now where did I put that water soluble thread?
And there is another project I'm just dying to start...
It must be Spring Fever or something! There seem to be so many ideas buzzing around in my head these days that I don't know where to go next. So maybe I should just take a deep breath, and try to focus. This might be a good time to get started on a craft journal, just to get all those ideas down on paper before they drift off again. Or is starting a journal just another project that should wait in line until I have finished some of these quilts?
There won't be any more sewing until Friday anyway, as tomorrow there's a stitch'n'bitch night at the quiltshop. I'd better get some handsewing together to bring along for that!

Sunflower quilt

Here it is: My Sunflower quilt. I don't know why I had such trouble getting photos of this one, although it is a bit larger than the ones I normally make. But this morning I took it outside and put it on the clothesline. As luck would have it, it is a windy day, so there would inevitably be some movement in the pictures, but I set my camera to the "Sports"-setting and snapped away. I have tweaked it a bit in Photoshop to make it look straighter - that old saggy clothesline needs replacing... - and to get rid of some of the grayness in the photo. (I haven't mastered Photoshop yet - there's another project. I might have to get one of those "...for Dummies" books or something, but that's for another day. Back to the quilt.) Those who have been passing by during the last year, might remember that it came from this book. The size is 90 x 64" and the Sunflower fabric is from Valori Wells' Sole collection. I started it with the hope of finishing it during my summer holidays last year, but I was stumped when it came to choosing fabric for the border, and I lost some of my momentum. Then some other projects got in the way, as they tend to do here, and the top languished for ever. When I eventually got around to quilting it I was enamoured by quilts with lots of texture to them, i.e. heavily quilted ones, so I started out with lots of stippling on the sunflower-blocks. Then of course, I needed a lot of quilting on the courthouse step blocks too, and chose to do those in wavy lines.

I must admit that I have regretted this more than once, because that was a lot of quilting! But I took it one block at a time (the block size is 18"!) and eventually it was done. I've been struggling with a cold this past week, and spending hours on the sofa watching movies and stitching what felt like miles of binding while keeping warm underneath the quilt was just the thing. It is surprisingly soft, by the way, in spite of all the quilting, so this will be my favourite nap quilt for a while. I have so many of them that I really ought to start taking more naps ;-)

Present(ation)

Look at what the mailman brought yesterday! It's not my birthday, and it is not a gift. But it certainly looks like one. It is actually my first order from SewMamaSew. I had been looking for some Alexander Henry Fabric, and after reading Kristin's review of Anna Maria Horner's Multi Tasker Tote pattern, I knew this was a pattern I couldn't live without. So I did a bit of "research" (or shopping, as some call it) and ended up finding everything in one place. And look how beautifully it was presented: fabric and pattern neatly folded, bound with twill tape and wrapped in cellophane. I could hardly bear to open it at first!Looks quite tempting, doesn't it? And of course I couldn't contain my excitement for long, and before I knew it I had torn the whole thing apart!

There's lots of fun to be had here. Those funny cars will go well with my London Map-fabric and will become a handbag soon (one of the 4,5,6 I think I "need" to make...). And that multi-coloured polka dot - swoon! Too bad they only had half a yard left - I shall have to use it well!

I felt I deserved a little shopping spree now, having done so much sewing lately. I even finished my Sunflower Quilt!
Sorry for leaving you with this little teaser for now. I'll see if I can take it outside to take pictures tomorrow - it's really too big to get an undistorted photo by spreading it on the floor, so I shall have to find a place to hang it up.