Oh deer - a finished quilt

And another finished quilt. May I share with you my latest strip quilt that I finished in a whirl wind last Saturday before taking of for a couple of days to Santorini. Thanks to the wonders of scheduling I should still be in what looks like a very rainy Greece when you read this (umpf...). Well I haven't been away since February this year and I am determined to enjoy myself for a few days no matter what the weather is going to be.

'Oh deer' is the new line from Momo for Moda and I love its colours, so saturated and warm. They are just the right shades and depth for Autumn.

I quilted in double diagonal lines in the same way as 'When Lucy met Daisy'.
This gives the quilt another dimension in addition to the horizontal strips.

What I love so much with the collection is that we have small and large prints in addition to stripes that really come into their own as a jelly role strip. But my favourite print has got to be the little deer print. The figures are tiny and even on the small 2 1/2 width strip you get a lot of repetitions. 

I stayed with the woodland theme for the quilt back and dug out a rather precious print of which I bought several yards 2 years ago. This is spotted owl in smoke by Alexander Henry. I know the quilt cotton designers have meanwhile moved on from owls and foxes to crabs but I still think this is one of the best animal prints that has ever been made.

For the binding I chose a stripy number in white and red to offset both, the quilt front and back.

Guilty pleasure

Guilty Pleasures. I think we all have them. I have many; food related mine are ice cream or pizza and entertainment related it is Fringe or Haven in TV. Love it, and I feel most happy on my sofa under a thick quilt when I can watch an episode of Fringe and if I allow myself an ice cream while watching .....then... well.. it is heaven.....

But the other day I also realised I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to quilting. And that are jelly roles ! Yes you heard right, jelly roles. I used to hate them and still do when I unroll the thing and it makes a blooming mess everywhere. But they do satisfy a need for simple quilting in me and in particular when I just finished a big and complex project.

I love strip quilts as you probably know by now and a jelly role fulfills just that love in a quick and sort of dirty way. You just unroll, place the strips in a pleasing manner and start sewing... 2 hours later you have a quilt top !

Tell me do you have quilting related guilty pleasures ?

This here is a strip quilt from the new Momo for Moda collection 'Oh Deer' that I purchased some weeks ago. This quilt top has been finished a few weeks ago but because I was working on this super secret project for the past 10 days I didn't have time to share it with you. That is also the reason why I did not blog much either. I thought I'd rather not bore you with randomness and come back if I have to show something.

The secret project will be revealed towards the end of next week but I can 't help put hint that it involves a rather prestigious well known British Fabric House.

I can't wait to spend some quality time with this quilt top tomorrow and am still quivering with excitement about the secret project!

Have a lovely weekend everybody.

Lucky Summer

I hope everybody had a lovely Easter. I went to see my sister in Germany and spend a few wonderful days with her, my brother-in-law and of course my lovely nephew Hauke.

Now I am back home and lucky enough to have the erst of the week of. I will of course spend it sewing (though a little 10 k run will have to be squeezed in too to get rid of the Easter chocolates I indulged in). 
I super lucky last week when the ueber talented Lucie Summers hosted a generous giveaway on her block that featured her first fabric line 'Summersville' for Moda that will hit the shops any moment now.

I was the lucky winner of a layer of this amazing line. This is one of those collections that I have been waiting for patiently since it was revealed at Quilt Market. It is just up my street, utterly contemporary, playful with lots of colour yet it retains a wonderful lightness due to the liberal amounts of white in it.

Now I am the first to admit that I am no good with pre-cuts. I have used them all but I don't go looking for charm packs, jelly rolls and layer cakes. So whilst I was insanely happy to have gotten my greedy hands on some of the fabric before it hit the shops, I also was a bit at a loss of what to do with it. But I really, really wanted to do something with the fabric straight away because I think it would be a crime not to.

I contemplated giant squares, then 5 " squares, then pinwheels but finally settled on a postage stamp quilt because the collection actually has lots and lots of small and smallish patterns that lend themselves to it.

And so this morning I started cutting and sewing......

Oh what bliss.....

P.S. Lucie has a list of retailers that will sell 'Summersville' on the sidebar of her blog, just in cases you feel the urge to add this great line to your stash. ( And I don't know why you wouldn't feel the urge.... just saying...)

P.S.S I will post an update on 'Siblings Together' tomorrow

Stash Note 42

There are a lot of fabric lines that catch my eye, some delight me but there are few that utterly thrill me. Malka Dubrawsky's new line 'A stich in colour' for Moda is just one of those. Of course the line isn't really new as Malka has been screen printing her fabric for quite a while now and in fact I bought a selection of her pints last year that you can see here. I am so pleased that Malka used her prodigious design skills to produce a fabric collection that mirrors her own screen printed fabrics. I love hand printed fabrics but they are expensive and by having Moda produce a collection all of us fabric addicts have a more affordable way to buy these wonderfully colourful designs.

I procured a fat eights set from a shop called countrystitches  via e-bay of all places and can't wait to get stuck into it.

Look at those colours, isn't it amazing.

The collection isn't as wildly available as other Moda collection but Marmelade fabric and Moona fabric also sell the collection. None so far in the UK though (as far as I know).

Freebird - flown the nest at last

This Freebird flew the nest so to say last night to a friend of mine who had her first baby a couple of months ago.



I finished it over the weekend and am rather pleased with it now. I agonised over how to quilt it and in the end decided to echo quilt once around the appliquéd flowers and then quilt-in-the-ditch along the white sashing. It would have been best to echo quilt the entire quilt but that would have meant to hand quilt it and I don't have the time for that at the moment. Incidentally has any of you done echo quilting on a normal (i.e non longarm) machine before ? I suppose one can do it using a free motion food but it would involve an awful lot of quilt turning and wiggling. I think this is best done on a longarm, is that right ?

The Binding is kept scrappy using some left overs of past quilts which made it quick and easy and most importantly effective for both sides.



Doesn't it look lovely all folded up...yumm.

And here the usual stats:

• The quilt is about 50 x 55 inches but I can't be sure as I forgot to measure the finished piece.
• Entirely made from one charm pack plus Kona cotton in caramel and one of the lighter greens (can't remember that either) plus Kona Snow for the white sashing
• Gueterman Sulky No 1071 was used for the in-the-ditch machine quilting and a variety of Perle cottons No. 16 for the echo hand-quilting around the flowers. 

Previous posts about the quilt can be found here and here

And now at last I am free for new adventures. On the to-do list for July are:
- Starting and at least getting to the basting stage of the commissioned 'Very Berry' quilt for Michael   
  and Claire
- Sew two bags from Ruby Star Rising that were commissioned
- Join in the Summer Sampler quilt along
- make 2 blocks for a secret project
- make 3-4 stockings for the Adventcalender to make up for no stockings made in June
- give into an HST urge that has been lingering for a while again..........
of yes and my sister called last night and requested I make for my nephew some food items from fabric for his toy pots and pans...............anybody know anything about that ?  She wants roast potatoes, eggs and Schnitzel...now there's a challenge

Happy sewing friends !!

Quilt Along News

No,  I am not starting my own but am thinking to do this at some point as they are so much fun but at the moment there is a positive avalanche of QALs out there and a handy list can be found here.

So far I have joined into the Single Girl QAL and Lynn's Dresden Plate QAL and both were enourmous fun. The best thing about them really is the support and inspiration one gives and receives from each other.

At the moment I am without QAL so to say and feel a little cold turkey coming on. So I have been carefully looking around blockland for the right one to do. Now of course everybody knows by now about the Farmers Wife QAL and I won't go into detail about it. The only thing I will say is that it has close to 600 (in words six hundred members). Unbelievable ! I have long, long harbored the wish to make a monster sampler quilt either using the Dear Jane pattern, The Farmers Wife or the Elm Creek Quilt pattern (is that an American TV series ??).

I have already bought the books with the exception of the Dear Jane one and am wondering if one of them or indeed a combination of the best blocks from each would make the ideal pattern for my precious Hope Valley Fabric ! I really would love to hear your opinion on this. What do you think is the best/ideal/perfect pattern for the Hope Valley fabric collection by Denyse Schmidt.I have had the fabric for a while now and really would love to cut into it but am positively afraid of it in case the quilt I will produce doesn't do it justice.

 

There is one particular QAL though that is right up my street and I am going to join this one. It is run by Faith of Fresh Lemon Quilts, Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt and Lee of Freshly Pieced and is called the Summer Sampler Series.

   

                                        

 

And I think my Stash of Moda Cross Weave my just be the right fabric for this wonderful QAL. 

Freebird - Part II

Before the progress report on the Freebird quilt some much needed housekeeping.

Caroline from "Contented Caroline" asked me where I got my labels from. They are from this shop. I contacted Anna directly as she didn't have them in her shop at the time and she was so kind to make me some on cotton tape. I got this tip from some other blog but can't really remember from where to be honest.

I was last weekend in Germany and gave my mother the 'Laugh and Happiness' quilt with a lot of trepidation in my stomach. But she absolutely loved it. Exactly as all of you knew who so kindly commented with encouragement. So, thank you very much ! Also a lot of people said the quilt reminded them of "Kaffee and Kuchen" (cake and coffee) or cappuccino which my sister echoed too. I never thought about this but now I obviously see cappuccino and cake everywhere when I look at the quilt. I really should have thought about it right away as my Dad is a baker and we have a cafe and bakery.

Lastly some of you got very close regarding the Brit Bee blocks I am planning for July. All will be revealed tomorrow.

And here is an update on the Freebird progress. Reading your comments to my first post I was rather surprised at how popular the range is. I obviously bought it because I was drawn to the colours but mainly because I wanted to see what I could do with a charm pack. A jelly role of Freebird is still available at Puddleducks and it is on sale if anybody is keen.

As you can see I moved forward rather quickly and created a reversible quilt. The front is on the right side for which I alternated a full square with one with a piece of Kona white in the middle. Then I added white sashing around them to make the squares stand out against the Caramel background.

For the back I used the remainder of the squares for the centre piece and again added white sashing for effect before I added a lovely fresh light green border. I sort of think of the quilt as a two-season quilt. One side represents Spring and the other Autumn.

But I still wasn't quite happy with the front and I had a few squares left (I had no idea how long one charm pack lasts) so I added some appliqued flowers to the front to liven it up a bit.

Now I'm happy !!! But have no idea how to quilt it with the flowers sticking out ????

Laugh and happiness quilt - all done

So here it is the finished 'Laugh and Happiness quilt'. I finally finished it yesterday evening. And guess what ? Finally I am also really happy with it. I quilted it in one continuous circle starting in the centre. I was a bit apprensive about it at first as I have never done this before but really it was a breeze and it gives another dimension to the quilt.
All I need now is my mother to love it (but if that doesn't happen I think I'd be quite happy to keep it after all :-) ).

 

For the back I chose a print from Fabric Freedom in London called 'Chocolat'.  It is a beautiful dark, rich chocolaty colour with a floral print. It wouldn't have been my first choice but again I chose with my mother in mind.

  

The binding is from the 'Punctuation Collection' from American Jane for Moda. Both, back and binding fabric are from my local quilt store. The binding is a lovely blue pinstripe cotton that contrast well with the top and back. I wanted something that wasn't earthy or brown but would fit well in the overall colour scheme.

Quilt size: 60 x 70 inches (152 x 178 cm)
Fabric for the top: Pure Sweetwater from Moda (bought online as a layer cake in the US but can't remember the shop).
Pattern: Dresden plates with superb instructions via QAL from Lynn

Wadding: Hobbs 100 % cotton
Quilting Thread: Guetermann Sulky 30 variegated col 4036

Other entries regarding this quilt can be found here and  here and here.

Freebird

Last year when I went to the Quilt Festival in Birmingham I bought a charms pack from the 'Freebird' collection from Moda not knowing really what to do with it. Those little squares were laying in my house forever giving me a hard time. I felt they were staring at me accusatory that I wasn't doing anything productive with them. So I thought I lay them out and have a look and then .........I packed them away again and so on.

The other day I gave myself a kick and lay them out again. Just before I thought of binning the whole lot I added some Kona white and then it started to look a bit more promising. Phew..... I hate when I am lacking any kind of inspiration. Hopefully this will take me somewhere creative after all. It's Friday morning and this has been an awful week, really. I can't wait for tonight and the beginning of a creative weekend. I have to finish the Brit Swap quilt and the 'Laugh and Happiness' quilt for my mother. As they say no rest for the wicked.

Happy sewing everybody.

Laugh and happiness quilt (formerly known as Monochromatic Dresden)

I have rename this quilt to 'Laugh and Happiness quilt' inspired by the writing on the fabric and because Monochromatic Dresdens really sounds a bit Ueberposh. Last weekend I managed to finally get to terms with the Dresdens from Lynn's QAL. I had sewn the ring together some two weeks ago but that was to soon after finishing the Single Girl quilt and I sort of couldn't face this one. I needed to have something easy and fresh to do in between which is why I started the Springtime Quilt. Sometimes I think quilting is a bit like eating. When I eat something really spicy or savoury then I grave something sweet afterwards and visa versa. This I think is to balance out the flavours  or some other process that is going on in ones (maybe only my) body. And quilting it is a bit like that (for me anyway). If I make something really colourful with strong bold colours (i.e. very strong flavoursome food) then I grave to make a quilt with lighter brighter colours afterwards (i.e. eat something light like fruit).  Now, that is not to say that the Pure fabric from Sweetwater is heavy because it isn't but it isn't light either. I wonder if this is just me being very weird or does anybody else feel that way too about foot and quilts ?

So last weekend was the weekend to get back to the Dresdens and I did that with gusto. It was much easier than anticipated. At first when I finished the circle it didn't lay flat so I was a bit concerned that I did something wrong with the templates but then I stitched some of the pieces with a more generous seam allowance and this did the trick. The inner circle and outer proofed little problem then and the whole thing lays pretty flat now. I think what makes it standing out is the half inch sashing as it really frames the block fantastically. I absolutely love this block and it took me by surprise how beautiful it is. I am going to make 4 in total for a sofa sized quilt but the remaining three have to wait until I return form the US.
Please no detention Lynn !

Happy sewing
Judith

Stash Note No 10

Sunday morning and by the looks of it another gorgeous days here in London. I freshend up my tan yesterday and may just have to do a bit more of that later on again. So here a quick stash report.

From Pink Chalk Fabric I acquired a while ago the entire set of Moda Cross weave collection.

And I am planning to use these gorgeous colours together with my oakshott purchases I already reported on in Stash Note 5 and 6 to make a quilt bursting with colour and texture. Only question is when ?

I must be mad

.....to join in another quilt along. Lynne from Lily's Quilts is doing this one and it is all about Dresden plates. So basically more curves.........don't ask why. Should be fun though.


                                               

I haven't decided on my fabric yet but I am contemplating "Pure" Sweetwhater by Moda as this would give it a monochromatic look.

Other than that not a lot of sewing happening this weekend as I am in Germany for a visit at my sister's spending time with her and my adorable nephew and godchild. And of course we did some shopping yesterday....mmhhh got myself a new handbag (oh dear anotherone).