A lot of Lotta - a finished quilt

This easy baby quilt that I started a few weeks back is stitched, quilted, delivered and was apparently very well received. Job done, I dare say!





























My quilt making this year has somewhat low in numbers owing to the re-emergence of my knitting obsession (which is still going very strong I'm afraid) but that does not mean I don't enjoy making a quilt. On the contrary indeed.



This is a happy quilt with lots of fresh colours that are almost all from Lotta Jansdottter's 2nd collection (more on this in my first post).



I quilted in a one inch grid including in the ditch to keep it all simple and allow the quilt to have a beautiful drape.



The back is also a print from stash but because I've had it for so long I can't recall where I got it from. But it is a happy addition as you see and works really well with the colours on the front too.




Binding was a fast and easy choice - I simply chose the widest stripe print in my stash and I love the bold frame it gives the quilt.

A lot of Lotta - part 1 -

A custom order for a baby quilt landed in my house  the other day which made me very happy. The shades of green quilt I started is going to be fairly large and with relative small squares on point a lot of work. So a quilt with 4 1/2 inch squares and overall on the small side with a sharpish deadline was just what I needed to get going.

The customer is my brother's girlfriend and we collaborated quite efficiently together. I send her via what's app 3 images of fabric collections and Annette settled very quickly on the Lotta Jansdotter fabrics. 

So I got on with cutting and designing just as quickly. I know its a somewhat lazy option to use an entire fabric collection but this one works just so well together. I did supplement a few of the bold pebbly stripes with other fabrics as I felt they were taking too much away from the rest.

This quilt has a lot of white in it which is fairly unusual for me but I am delighted with the outcome and ready to quilt - very ready indeed as this is always the most enjoyable part and I realise how long I haven't quilted.

Stash Note 67

Lotta Jansdotter had her debut collection 'Echo' last autumn. When it hit the shops and audible gasp could be heard amongst quilters because this was a different collection to the usual helping. It certainly had the edge and I  for one got my greedy fingers on it as soon as I could and made myself a this quilt that I still love and cherish.

Lotta has now brought out her second collection which is called 'Bella'.

It is not dissimilar to her first collection though a few new patterns have been added such as the trees and those adorable chickens.

And look at those fat stripes in mustard. Just gorgeous.

Bella is available here in the UK at:

Eternal Maker
M is for Make
The Village Haberdashery

Tuscan Hills - another finished quilt

And after 7 and a bit bobbin wheels of quilting, 'Tuscan Hills' was finished.....
And ob boy am I happy with this quilt. Here is a list of all the things I love about this quilt:

1. The individual fabrics.  I chose print fabrics for the strip that are all really special to me and work so well together supporting the overall soft earthy tones
2.  The background colour. It is Kona Khaki and is literally the colour of soft beach sand (and not at all green like the colour Khaki would suggest)

Front

   

3.      The quilting thread.  I used for the first time an Aurifil size 40 thread instead of my usual Gueterman 

        Sulky 30. The reason for using a slightly thinner thread was that I really wanted to quilt very densely and 

        thought a thinner thread would work better. The colour is almost the same as the background thus 

        avoiding unnecessary contrast (something I deliberately aimed for). Quilting wise I am as happy with the 

        Aurifil as with the Gueterman thread; the Aurifil may produce a little less lint.My machine works well 

        with both.

Back

4.    The fact that I could not resist putting a few fabric spots onto the back (though one could argue that it  

       would have looked possibly better without them - Jury is still out on that one).

5.    The quilting pattern. I chose a continuous circle in the end. I first thought of quilting in a continuous  

       square or  rectangle but then decided that it a circle would work better with the soft tones and the  

       overall  feel of the quilt.

 

6.    The binding: For once I did not want to frame the quilt with a popping binding but rather extend the 

       (illusion of )  negative space which is why I chose to bind the quilt in the same fabric as the background 

       colour.

7.    The size. The quilt is about 61 by 69 inches which makes it lap sized and perfect for the sofa which is 

       where most of my quilts get their proper workout !

 

I think that's it. Off to the next quilting adventure !

Tuscan Hills - progress II -

First of all thank you so much for your encouraging comments on my last post about the 'grown up quilt'. Well I finally chose a better name for it and called it Tuscan Hills because the soft earthy colours reminds me of Tuscany.

I followed my idea and pieced one long strip that I placed on the right quarter of the quilt leaving an expanse of negative space that will have to be jazzed up with quilting. I love that strip of print within the mass of Khaki and each of the prints is really special to me, in particular the newspaper prints I scattered in between.

I haven't made a decision in terms of quilting yet other than that it will be dense quilting either in continuous circles or some form of straight line pattern.

Can't wait to start.

Have a crafty week.

Lotta fly away - spreading its wings

... only its gonna stay put because I keep it !

So here it is; all done and actually already in use on my bed. Just to recap briefly,  this quilt is made of the new line 'Echo' by Lotta Jansdotter in combination with Kona Snow and various other Kona solids (see details in this post here). 'Echo'  was bought at Seamstar here in the UK and the Kona solids are from Riverfabrics here in the UK and from existing stash I had.

The quilt measures 70 x 76 inches (1.78 x 1.92 m) and the front is made of 136 flying gees units ( 7 x 3.5 inches) from Kona snow and patterned fabric plus a border of units in coordinating solids that are 5 x 2.5 inches).
I used two different methods to make the flying geese units and both work well. I made the larger units with my flying geese ruler. With this method there is no need to cut off dog ears at the corners but it can waste fabric. However one can minimize this by doing some calculations before measuring the fabrics strips. For the border units I used the "No Waste method for making flying geese units" by patchpieces. This is an excellent method that wastes absolutely no fabric (as title says....), the unit dimensions are easy to calculate for any size you wish but you end up with dog ears.
The reason why I used two methods was just because I wanted to try them and see how they compare. I think I am slightly in favour of the no waste method as I hate having to many fabric offcuts.

The back is pieced using the same solids that were used for the border on the front plus 'Echo' leftovers and a generous amount of Kona Coal for background.

 

I quilted in zickzack lines below and above the stitch lines to emphasis the flying gees pattern. I used two different Guetermann Sulky colours. On the front my 1071 and on the back my favourite steel grey colour 1328.

  

As always I am particularly excited about my choice of binding .It is a stripy number in rich pink and orange from the Taza collection of Dena Design bought at my local quilt shop Tiki.

 

And for good measure a few roll-ups...

 

 

Lotta fly away - an update

I have had a very productive weekend and made great progress on my 'Lotta fly away' and the 'Countdown-to-x-mas' quilt. But first an update on Lotta and a big, big thank to all you lovely readers for your encouraging comments here on my blog and on Flickr. From the comments I gather there is a lot of love for the 'Echo' collection but also a lot of headache or hesitation when it comes to finding the right pattern.

It's true, it isn't an easy collection to choose a pattern for and I'm afraid I can't tell you why I chose the flying geese pattern other then when I saw the collection the first time, my first thought was Love and my second flying geese. The collection has a good mixture of bold and finer prints and I think this actually does make it suitable for a variety of patterns but I would say the collection benefits from patterns that showcase (at least i part) larger pieces of fabric. Another pattern that comes to mind for this collection are Diamonds, just rows and rows of Diamonds.

I pieced the entire top and am now turning my thoughts to the back. I added a border of flying geese to the top which is made of solids that reflects most of the colours used in the collection.
The fabric in this image is largely from my stock. From top to bottom, the fabrics are Kona Curry, Kona Navy, Freespirit Gold (though I am not a 100 % sure) , Kona Everglade and Kona Candy Pink.

The fabric in next image was purchased from Riverfabrics and shows Kona Black (not used in this quilt though), Kona Snow and Kona Coal. Apart from the Freespirit and Kona Curry all of the above are also available from Janette at Riverfabrics in case you are looking for coordinating solids for this collection.

Lotta fly away - not quite fluttering

Midweek and I thought I post a little update on my sewing endeavours from the weekend and the last days.

It was a short weekend but I still managed to sew all the flying geese units (only one of you guessed right actually !) for my new quilt 'Lotta fly away', laid them out and started piecing the units together. And when I wasn't doing that I was hand quilting my 'Countdown to x-mas' quilt which proves a lot more work than I had anticipated but I am still enjoying the hand quilting and that can only be a good thing.

I am also eagerly awaiting the arrival of my pillow from the Pillow fight Swap which should arrive in the next days. My cushion was already very warmy received by the lovely Renee. The best thing about this swap was that I got to make the pillow for the same person that in the last swap round made a mini quilt for me !

Enjoy the rest of your week or if you aren't then start looking forward to the not so distant weekend.

P.S. Dont' forget the Riverfabrics giveaway is still ongoing until the end of the week.

Lotta fly away and other updates

I  wanted to thank everybody who so kindly helped with quilting suggestions of my  'Countdown to x-mas' quilt. I pondered each and every one for days on end until I had a revelation last Sunday while running (and I would not have had that without your help !). I finished the machine quilting part yesterday and moved on to some hand quilting which I really enjoy. Since I have my Janome Horzion I have done very little hand quilting but I guess this has more to do with the fact that before I had the Horizon I hand quilted each and every one of my very large quilts.  I think I was done with hand quilting for a while and I am rather delighted that I find pleasure in it again. But the big reveal of the finished quilt and the quilting pattern will have to wait a little while.

I hand quilt normally in front of the TV which means I need a project in parallel for the machine (as there is only so much TV watching one can do....). What better to do then to start a new quilt (what else really ..). I have been itching to cut into my stash of 'Echo' by Lotta Jansdotter.

Can you guess what it's gonna  be ?

Of now to another lap of Sunday morning running and then back to the sewing machine...bliss.

Stash Note 34

The last time I had a manic glee on my face was when the Eternal Maker had the entire new Ruby Star Spring collection before anybody had it in the US. That was at the Quilt Festival in Birmingham. I was literally bouncing up and down with joy and glee.

This week I was doing cartwheels (in my mind only though) when I saw the the regular newsletter from the fabulous Seamstar here in the UK. They sort of casually mentioned that they had new fabric. I wasn't really expecting anybody in the UK to stock 'Echo' by Lotta Jansdotter. But low and behold Seamstar has the entire collection weeks before the US is to receive them where the on-line stores give arrival dates of November and December. Lotta lives in New York and is of Swedish heritage. Her design have unsurprisingly Scandinavian influence.
She's got a great website, on- line shop and has also published a book. Go and check her out.

I love this collection. It is fresh, different and light and is suitable for all sort of sewing. Quilts of course but I see also dresses and skirts.