Folks and friends and banana curves

Voile. I. Love. you.

Really there isn't much more to say to this. I made my deep blue sea quilt last year from my ever growing stash of voile and and loved it to bits. And every time I open my voile/tana lawn box and feel the fabric I simply don't want to sew with anything else anymore. The softness of the voile is out of this world and tops most silks in my humble opinion. But of course that isn't realistic so I just allow myself every now and then a trip into voile land which is a bit like a guilty pleasure.

So I dived head first into the joyous land of voile and stitched together another strip quilt (sorry if you are getting bored of them). This time I wanted to mix it up by including some Liberty tana tawn print and solid but that went disastrously wrong.

When sewing a strip quilt top you need to hold on to the strips while sewing quite tightly, meaning when you are sewing together two strips you should hold the strips between your fingers to ensure they are fed evenly thought the machine while at the same time pulling slightly to the left so you are not creating a banana shaped curve. I am normally fairly aware of this having done two strip quilt before but with this one nothing worked. I had the worst banana shaped top you can imagine and my seam ripper had a whale of a time......

I wasn't quite sure what happened so started all over again but this time checked every couple of strips and found I only had the problem when I paired voile with tana lawn and no matter how well I held on to the strips while sewing the end result was still a curve rather than a straight line.

So in the end I binned all the tana lawn strips and stuck to just voile which worked a treat.

The prints used in this quilt top are a mixture of 'Little Folks', 'Innocent Crush', 'Loulouthi' and 'Prince Charming' which is why I am calling it 'Folks and Friends'

With all the Olympic watching going on there is little time to sew over the weekend but hopefully a few hours quilting will fit in somewhere. I fear my eyes are taking on a TV sized square shape soon.

What a great day team GB had yesterday and finally my home country Germany is picking up some medals too.

One buttery soft quilt is finished

My latest quilt is finished.

I started it right after I finished the 'Very Berry' quilt as I was longing for something light to glide through my fingers after the mountains of fabric I had handled for some time. 'Deep Blue Sea' (I think this name is a bit more suitable than notions of butter) is entirely made of cotton voile which has the most incredibly soft feel to it.
The design was led by the colours I had in my stash. I wanted to stay in the turquoise/ blue range of the wonderful lines of Anna Maria Horner's 'Lou Lou Thi' and Tula Pink's 'Prince Charming'. I also added a bit of  the 'Little Folks' line from Anna Maria Horner.

I cut strips of about 38 inches in different width for this quilt and simply build up until I reached a pleasant layout. In the end the length came to about 46 inches. 

The back of the quilt is kept somewhat indulgently in Anna Maria Horner's 'Clipping Forest' also from the 'Lou Lou Thi' range.

The binding is from Tula Pink's 'Prince Charming' quilt.

I machine quilted straight lines in Guerterman Sulky 30 in colour 1328 which is silvery grey, almost ice grey actually and very shiny. This colours has fast become one of my favourite quilting colours as it works well with almost anything. I also added a few hand quilted lines in various colours with Perle thread no 8 which adds a lovely contrast.

The softness of cotton voile makes it a little bit tricky to sew and baste as it tends to slip and slide easily. The  strips were nonetheless easy to sew together but it would be a bit more tricky if I had chosen smaller pieces are a more complex design. Basting this quilt was also a little bit challenging as the voile did not stick to any tape I had in the house. Again the small size was advantageous and I managed to get the back smooth in the end but I can see that one would be better of basting with two people if the quilt was bigger.

I literally can't stop myself stroking this quilt and I am sure there will be many more coming in this range.

The quilt can be found in my Etsy Shop for purchase. Sold

 

Buttery Soft I

I have finished the Very Berry Quilt. Photos and a detailed report will be posted later in the week.
But I can already say now that it has turned out beautifully but I must admit it was a struggle.

So after having wrestled 18 square meter of fabric for what seems for ever I have an unbelievable urge for lightness and simplicity and I don't see that lessening any time soon. I am putting some of the other WIP (here and here)  on hold for a bit and will produce a series of small, light quilts.

After I finished 'Very Berry' last Saturday I moved straight onto my stash of cotton voile. Oh I love fingering this fabric. It is so buttery soft and flows through your hands like silk or water. I am not sure why I have put off to make a quilt from this fabric for so long but on Sunday it seemed the perfect time for it. So I quickly whipped up this quilt top here.

 

The voile fabric I used is mainly from new lines of Anna Maria Horner's 'Lou Lou Thi', Tula Pink's 'Prince Charming' and I added a bit of the wonderful 'Little Folks' line also from Anna Maria Horner.

I am keeping this quilt in the colour range of dark blues and turquoise with a dash of orange/red and lemony yellow for contrast.

Stash Note 17

An overdue stash note is to come but first a little bit of housekeeping. First of all I would like to thank all of you for your inspiring suggestions for my new commission. They were really helpful and I have already set in motion to add a bit of texture to the selection of red with some shott cottons from Oakshott. I am also grateful for your comments regarding my 'Laugh and Happiness' quilt that is intended for my mother. In a couple of weeks time I will travel home and will find out if she likes it (if I have quilted it by then.......). So I keep you all posted.


But now to the all important stash note. What I would like to share with you is the arrival of some rather sumptuous voile. I ordered the entire Prince Charming collection by Tula Pink (8 prints) and all the Loulouthi prints by Anna-Maria Horner I could get my hands on from Fabricworm (4 out of 6). Two prints are out of stock and will be back mid months, unfortunately the most spectacular prints of the collection. You may wonder why I ordered voile instead of the quilt weight collections. To be honest I am not so sure but when I order the last Anna-Maria Horner Collection 'Innocent Crush' I was a little disappointed because I think it isn't a very coherent collection in terms of colour. I used it in my 'Cranberry Crush quilt' and am very happy with the result but if I had to order it again I would not. So I was a bit apprehensive when the new collection came out last week. Though I have to say it is growing on me steadily the more often I see it and I probably will order it anyway. But I thought rather than jumping on the bandwagon without thinking (yes I am guilt of that all to often) I check out the voiles  instead. And when I went onto the Fabricworm voile section I was struck by how well the Prince Charming voile compliments the Loulouthi set so I ordered these too. I might wait for the two missing prints before making a quilt but I might add some of the other voile I have .... I am rather impatient to cut into this goodness but on the other hand need to finish a few other bits and bobs first.
Happy sewing weekend everybody.