A toch of denim - part two-

I made progress amids a series of problems and mistakes! My aim for this quilt was to use all of the double gauze. The fabric has a narrow width and the pieces I received looked a bit like like skinny half meters and I calculated that three 18" x 18" squares would give me the larges HSTs and which just left a few smaller strips as leftover. The finished size after sqauring was about 11".

I would have normally thrown these away but with 62" I felt the quilt was a little on the small side and I also felt I wanted to break the rigidity of the HSTs (that I normally so treasure). So I contracted a border by using yarn dyed Essex linen in denim that I had in my stash and that by chance works perfectly with the double gauze colours.

I added the first border and right away realised that it was very wavy and perhaps too much to correct through basting and quilting. This surprised me because both fabric almost have an equal amount of stretch, the Essex linen a little more maybe. My assumption was that this would ensure no waves or banana curves.

So I unpicked the row and reattached but this time from the middle and by frequently flipping the work over so that I was basically sewing from top and bottom. This reduced the wave a little bit. The professional in me knew at this point that it was fruitless and told me to unpick and let it go. But what did I do ? I stupidly went on and attached the rest of the border, based the thing and right before I was about to put the pins in I came to my senses because the waves were big enough the surf on, really that bad! What was I thinking..... So I sat on the floor on my basted quilt and carefully unpicked all borders before I finished basting in some frustration because I very much loved the modern feel the borders gave this quilt (yes a border on a quilt can actually be modern in my opinion). I should have taken a photo of the surfable waves but in my frustration I totally forgot.

While basting away I had a brain waive that I would try to attach the border via the quilt-as-you-go technique. I am fairly certain that will sort the surfing problem and it also gives me the chance to quilt the border in a different pattern to the actual quilt.

I think this is the best idea I have had in a long time and can't wait to try this out. I have never done QAYG but always wanted to check it out and am glad I now have the chance to learn something new.

 The quilt itself is quilted in a diagonal crosshatch of 1" width along the diagonal lines that are created by the HSTs

Kona Cotton giveaway

So here it is as as announced earlier in the week. Robert Kaufman and I are giving away one fat quarter set of the 33 new Kona Cotton colours to one lucky winner.

To participate in the giveaway you simply need to tell me if you have ever made a solids only quilt and/or will consider it in the future.

Further rules are the usual ones:

• no restriction on participants
• need to include the answer to above question in the comment
• I will absolutely not chase potential winners, so you must have an e-mail address attached to your profile (no response bloggers comments will be disregarded)
• giveaway ends on bankholiday Monday the 25th
• winner announced the day after

Enjoy and thank you very much for participating !

Stash Note 92 - Double Cloth Cotton -

A few weeks back I saw on the 'Purlbee' blog a feature about Men's shoe bags. These were simple drawstring bags from the most wonderful looking denim cloth.

I thought I could do with a few new shoe bags and really liked the wholesome look of the colour and fabric and above all I loved the two-sided nature of the fabric.

So I ordered it immediately from the Purlbee but what I failed to notice, although it was clearly written on the blog was that this was in fact double cloth or (also called double gauze).

The fabric arrived and I was slightly taken aback by it and straight away decided that this was much to precious and soft and lovely for shoe bags. I mean I really love my way too big collection of shoes but even I would not warp them in double gauze (Perl Bee what were you thinking ? :-)

So I am going to make a gorgeous quilt from this that will be incredibly soft and snug and because it is double sided I effectively have 12 different combination at hand. I envisage something really simply and manly with large squares and maybe not to much quilting.....

 Sometimes an oversight can be a very happy one indeed.....

A finished quilt for Enne

You might remember before I plunged into the Liberty 'Quiltathon' that I had started a commission from my sister for her mother-in-law. (details and first post can be found here). Over the past two weeks I picked up the work again and sewed slaved every morning a few more paper-pieced blocks ending in a staggering 90 !

Then I contemplated the design and quite unlike my original thoughts on this I decided on a zick-zack pattern and mightily pleased with my choice.

I used a lot of Oakshott Lyon (again check out the original post for info) and a variety of Kona solids (putty, oyster, cream, stone)  and some left over Oakshott solid.

I love the effect of the zickzack as it gives the quilt purpose and structure while retaining an element of randomness through the arbitrary placement of the blocks in terms of colour.

Another reason for this layout was that I really did NOT want to quilt over the Oakshott Lyon as it would take away some of its beauty. Lyon is shot like other shott cottons but it has more of a woven quality and is shot with thicker threads.

The best way to avoid quilting over the Lyon shott cotton was with this layout where I quilted in zick zack lines along the seams in the negative space.

The quilt back of this 63" x 70" (1.60 x 1.80 m)  sofa sized quilt is kept very simple with Kona stone and cream and I must say although I probably would have gone for a patterned back I love the calmness this conveys.

Let's hope my sister and more importantly Aenne loves it.
I certainly do.

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 !

Mod Aqua II

Last week I finished the Mod Aqua II quilt that I did as a commission for the lovely Annette in Germany. Now,  if you are Annette than you are not allowed to read any further until the quilt has made it through the snow to you.

This quilt is the biggest so far with about 2.10 square (that is about 84 inches) and was made from the same fabric as the the first Mod Aqua but this time I used the entire aqua collection.  The brief from Annette was that she wanted to be able to cuddle up under the quilt with two kids and husband. I designed the quilt in two large blocks of strips of varying sizes.  The fabric is from Robert Kaufman and is  called 'Mod Green Pod Free to Grow'. Wadding as usual is Quilters Dream Select weight.

Front

I divided the back into two parts and added a strip of the aqua flowers and petals from some leftover fabric to lift the brown panel somewhat. Annette mentioned that she really likes the colour aqua and I hope she is happy with this detail.

Back

I quilted along the sewing lines and added detail to each of the bigger blocks.

The petal blocks were quilted in free motion hoops and I simply quilted around the large flowers. Circles were quilted on the multicolour panels. All quilting was done by hand and I used three different colours; aqua, yellow and brown. All the 'quilt in the ditch' sewing was done in brown and the detail in varying colours. Overall this quilt is not as heavily quilted than the first version thereby keeping it more flexible.

 

I pondered about how to label the quilt as this is the first I have sold. I did order  labels that say "handmade by Judith for needlesandlemons.com but didn't really like them on this large quilt. Somehow it managed to both stick out light a thumb and disappear all together. In the end I decided to embroider a label using a piece of the fabric. This turned out really nice and I think  adds more of a personal note.

 

The binding was done in the same fabric as the label and gives the entire quilt a very fresh appearance. I am always amazed how much influence binding has on the entire quilt. In fact I think binding can change the mood of a quilt entirely.

Folded and waiting to be used.

 And last but not least the mandatory stack image:

I am absolutely in love with this quilt and feel it sort of emits warmth and summer. What I like in particular are the thinner yellow strips. I can't really say why I just do.

Well Annette thank very much for this commission and I hope you, kids and hubby enjoy being cuddled by the quilt.

Hurray and another win.....

Well I must be on a roll and Nova from 'A cuppa and a catch-up' suggested I should buy a lottery ticket.
Perhaps not as it might be a bad omen. I just stick to giveaways and charity raffles.
So what did I win ?

Well I won Nova's most gorgeous Celebrate Seuss wall hanging that can be seen here.
And this is just perfect as I have the most adorable 2 1/2 year old nephew in Germany to whom I will sent this straight away. Not sure now what to do with all the 'Celebrate Seuss' fabric I ordered last week..................a quilt perhaps, tables sets, cushions ? I am sure I find something to do with it.

The 'Mod Aqua II' quilt is finished and I will post some images tomorrow as I have to wait for daylight or at least for daylight hours when I am at home......Winter is not my favourite time of the year. But on the plus side is that we have next week the shortest day already so it can only get better.

I also will have pictures of yet more goodies that arrived last week via my posti on my doorstep. The good man find all sorts of ways and means to leave the packages if they don't fit through the letterbox anymore .
Bless him.


Laters...