birthday quilt

 

Big J is getting 4 soon and has quite outgrown our baby quilts. Therefore, I've collected some precious fabric over time for a colorful new quilt. The design is pretty simple to show them off. It is backed with red flannel (how the grinch stole christmas) and entirely hand quilted, which was a quite enjoyable process. And the best part is that now last minute night shift will be required ;)

just can't keep it simple

 

sometimes. When it was time to decide what to do with all my lovely Umbrella Print trimmings, I got a bit obsessed the last weeks by piecing an elephant and experimenting with different techniques on a small scale. That is something I have meant to do for a long time and never get around to it. So the bittersweet journey to this pillow cover began. Playing around with ideas, auditioning, reconsidering, sewing, appliquing, ripping apart and starting all over. Sometimes it felt like being in elemntary school when trying to remember embroidery stitches like the daisy stitch.

 

The elephant and the mouse were paper pieced whereas the coati was appliqued (needleturn) using some softer trimmings. This little guy is just 2" high. Now, Let's talk about tiny. Somebody should stop me next time. The ruffled grass gives the needed perspective.

The words floating from the upper right corner tell the wondrous tale of the elephant meeting a coati. Therefore the wordstrips were quilted in lines that yould easily be seen as Chinese calligraphy. At the end I added some trees and a little feather to complete the scenery and a few handstitches. It was time to practise free motion quilting again.

 

The panel finished at about 10" and got framed with the rest of my trimming package (the darker blue belonged to it as well). All that is left is dust and some tiny pieces. Not sure if they will get anything in the near future. Taking pictures was a bit different with the rainy days here and my little helpers. But nevertheless, it is finished and sits now in the reading nook of the munchkins where it belongs.

Here is a closer look on my trimming package I have used and let me tell you get quite a lot out of it.

miniquilt

Last year in the midst of the grey November weeks (still sounds a bit strange, kind of like being a very old lady) I was playing around with some yellow scraps to cheer me up. Nothing better than the feel of sunshine there and than. The block hung on my inspiration board before I finally decided to turn it into a miniquilt. I wanted to test the look of it surrounded by a black and white fabric. Only that I hadn't any black and white. Thus, black and white and red it was.

The binding is a black with charcoal dots and a little yellow scrap for fancy. It was quilted with straight lines at random space and only needs a hanging sleeve to be finished. 

I am curious how it will look after a gentle wash. Maybe than I can decide better whether I'll keep it or whether it should find a better home, where it will be loved. Right now, I am not sure about this little one.

proof that I might be a nerd (or just another pillow)

Over the last weeks I pieced together some scraps that were laying around while the kids were playing in my sewing corner. Slow and steady a cuddly pillow was growing.  The front is made of cordury, jersey, nicky and some terry cloth. To make it even more comfy it has some medium loft batting. The back is just plain without quilting and has a covered zipper as closure.

 

The quilting started with some machine stippling on the cordury and some pebbles on the terry cloth. Still need to practice my free motion quilting. I went a bit crazy and added some houses with flags and a kind of giraffe-dino. The jersey was to stretchy for machine quilting on this lofty batting. Thus, some hand quilting was in order. So more houses, and of course a car ... and hopefully something like a simplified traffic light.

   

 Oh ... and the proof ... there is no better place than home ;)

 

back and working my way through

Hello?! Hellooo?! Anybody still here? Gee, it has been getting dusty here. Were to start? We had some trouble with getting back online after moving and some computer problems. My new work has been proven to be rather time consuming at the moment so less spare time, which I spent mainly with my family, organizational stuff and all the after moving fixing. Plus, I was mostly too exhausted to care about blogging. Or to be more precise: about sitting in front of a PC for more than mail checking. Nevermind, I am slowly coming back :)

 I finished some blocks for the Bee Modern Too and Bee Europe meanwhile.




The Giraffes were the most tricky part.

• I seriously tried paper piecing to challenge myself and created the pattern based on the inspiration painting.
• I do know by now why everybody stresses that you should mark every piece and how to put them together
• Never forget to use only the side of the linen which has no prints on it as instructed
• Take the block back and try to rip seams of a loosely woven linen and matching thread with your tiny lamp just before midnight
• Better fix the block during daylight
• Done

Angela provided some wonderful fabric and linen stripes for asteriks.



And finally, one block based on the storytellingblock that will travel back to Spain.


Still have to finish some geese where I couldn't decide on the pattern and running late and the blocks for June.