BOM #3

Finally I had some me-time and could do the BOM blocks for November. And joy... The design was right down my alley with a modern and bold layout. Stephanie did a great job designing this block.

As always I’m full of criticism when I’ve made the block but rather than beat myself up about that I’m taking some valuable learning with me to the next block. First month was pinning, second month was light/dark color choices. This month was trimming the HST’s.  Around block no. 12 it should be perfect  ;)

This is my BOM blocks so far. With a slight misplacement of one block. Just pretend you didn't see it ;)

Be sure to stop by Canton Village or the Flickr group to see more fantastic colors chioces for this block:

A quick glance... Wednesday WIP

A lot of of work - both real work-work and a volunteer job - left preciously little time to quilt this week. I've really only worked on one quilt this week. What looked like this last Wednesday…

now looks like this:

It's 'Sparkle Plenty' from Stephanie at Lofts Creations. Instant sparkle if you ask me....

I managed to piece the remaining pieces yesterday evening and the top is done. If I only had enough batting to continue tonight...

I cut the squares 7" and 6,5" and ended up with a large quilt at approximately 70"x70". I've used a lot of different green scraps and despite not being sure about the colors in the beginning this quilt has really grown on me. I feel a tingle of excitement every time I look at it. It's a simple and stunning layout.

Wednesday means Wednesday WIP - stop by Lee's blog to see great lots of great WIP's

 

Unfortunately that’s pretty much it from me this week. I bring you the sad facts: 

New projects: 0

Finished Projects : 0

WIP's:

Cool color diamonds - top was done last week and making the back is next on my agenda.

Warm color diamonds - half of the diamonds are pieced. No progress this week.

Nautical quilt with leftovers - no progress

Circle quilt - still hand quilting it and it's almost done....

Sparkle Plenty - finished the top

BOM - looking forward to the 25th where the next block will be out

Weekend is over and out….

Friday night I went to the first Christmas Lunch this year. The Christmas Lunch is a nasty Danish tradition that involves lot's of alcohol and weird behaviour and it always ends too late at night. Even if I didn't drink more than a glass of wine (was driving home)I still ended up spending most of my Saturday in a horizontal position:

By Saturday night I finally re-gained some dignity and started laying out Sparkle Plenty while watching (or rather listening) to an English detective series (Barnaby) film on the TV. This is how my floor looked late Saturday night:

Sunday morning I started piecing. My oldest son was playing a basket game so I had to stop piecing before I really wanted to. After basket it was straight home and prepare dinner for SIL and family who came by for a Sunday dinner. I should have gone to bed after they left and we had cleaned up the kitchen but I just wanted to piece a little bit more. Know that feeling? And this is what the quilt looked like when I finally dragged myself to bed at 1 am. Not completely done but enough to feel happy about the design. Like in totally fluttering happy. But...It's going to take lots of coffee for me to get through today!

I love, love, love this pattern and so does everybody who sees it. My SIL got dreamy eyes when she saw it and even the boys compliment the star pattern. I definitely want to make more quilts like this in different color schemes.

The design is really easy to scale up and down and as I wanted a bigger quilt than the pattern suggested I cut my squares 7x7” and 6,5x6,5” . I havn't measured it yet but I think it will come out app.180cmx180 cm.

Wednesday W.I.P

In Denmark we always say ’Tak for sidst’ which (not very elegant) translates into ’Thank you for last[ time we met]'. Last week I got to ‘meet’ so many people though their blogs and I had a blast. There are so many interesting projects brewing in blog-land and my inspiration barometer is at 100% right now.  So from me a giant ‘Tak for sidst’ to all those who participated in last week W.I.P.

The quilt used to be named 'Kaffe Fasset Sashed Boxes' - now a different quilt
This week I dug out an old W.I.P  – the Kaffe Fasset Sashed Box quilt. I was struggling with the planned layout as quilt was very busy.  I ended up separating the colors and this week I finally pieced the cool palette quilt inserted as diamonds on a dark grey background rather than the boxes. That also means I have the warm palette I need to finish up at some point. My guess is that it will be a while though... I was planning to do borders but it's bigger than I though it would be, so I might not add borders after all and just do a scrappy border.

Without batting and back it almost looks like cathedral windows doesn't it?

Sparkle Plenty
I was determined to finish up some more WIPs before starting new quilts and then this happens… ups :) One of my favorite designers, Stephanie from Loft Creations released a new pattern this week, and last night was spent cutting and pinning. Now I have a pile of fabric ready for some chain sewing after work tonight.

I decided to make the quilt a bit larger so I cut the fabrics slightly bigger.  This way I'll keep the fantastic star design. I’m doing this quilt with the fabric I have at hand – and I’m low on polka dots unfortunately – so this one will have a white background. I will definitely have to do one more with a dotted background later. Isn’t it just a happy, bright design Stephanie has made?

Circle quilt
Other than that I did more hand quilting this week. I really love quilting with the pearl thread. It's easy and very, very noticable. I am more than half done by now so I am aiming on finishing this sooner than later, which is a good thing as it will be a Christmas present for my niece.  The picture is re-use from last week--- I moved on to new circles but it basically looks the same.

So here are the stats for this week:

New projects: 1

Finished Projects : 0

WIP:

Cool color diamonds - top is done

Warm color diamonds - half of the diamonds are pieced

Nautical quilt with leftovers - still collecting scraps

Circle quilt - quilting

Sparkle Plenty - finished cutting

BOM - looking forward to the 25th - Stephanie has designed the next blog so I'm sure we're in for a treat.

Stash builder...

While others are busy using their stash, I am trying to build one. Look what the nice Mr. Postman brought for me today.

Freshsqueezedfabrics had an Heirloom sale last week and I couldn't resist. This is the second time shopping at Randy's Etsy shop and I have to say its brilliant service. Not only does she provide a customer service extraordinaire. She also wraps the fabric so well that you can't see it has travelled half way around the world. And thank goodness for that. One of the boxes it came in was wet (from rain?) and almost falling apart. Someone had taped it well but I was still anxious if the fabric would have been discolored and wet. I am happy to say that it was perfect - each set carefully wrapped in plastic bags.

Well,  in the shop there was some other must have's besides the Citrine Heirloom:

Heirloom Sapphire - FQ's and some yards

Blue and red scraps (most are larger than a FQ):

Some yardage - love the blue one:

 

Green fabrics - again most of these are larger than a FQ so there's a lot of fabric in this pile

And of course the fabric that I blame caused the whole thing - 2 Citrine Heirloom FQ bundle's and some yardage. Half of it will be wrapped for someone special as a Christmas present and half will be saved for a future project.

Need it, want it....

A little progress on the cool palette diamonds finally. What I really need now is a design board... must make one soon :)

 

Wednesday W.I.P

Wednesday again and time for an update - be sure to stop by Lee's blog to see what others are working on.

For me the big finish this week was the Heirloom Pendant quilt

After finishing up the Heirloom quilt I had some scraps - the ears from the pendants and a few larger pieces from when I cut the FQ’s. I decided to make some pillow covers. It will be Christmas before we know it and I think they will do well as a gift for my sister.

A HST pillow made from the leftover triangles:

Still working on the Dresden pillow (my first Dresden project):

This week I also made another leap on the circle quilt…I finally got some more background fabric and made the last quarter of the top.  It looks a bit wrinkly here but that because I started hand quilting it so I turn and twist it all the time. Once in the frame it stretches nicely.

I decided to quilt with Pearl 8 in funky colors. I’ve got a bit to go yet but it’s good to have as an ‘in-front-of-the-TV-project’ and then all the other projects for when I crave some quality time all by myself.

 

I went into creative, crazy mood when I made the back. I’m not so sure it’s all that good but it might still grow on me. 

  

So here are the hard facts for this week:

New starts: 2 pillows

Finishes: 1 quilt and 1 pillow

Quilts in progress:

• BOM
• The warm palette Kaffe Fasset diamonds
  
  
  
• The cool palette Kaffe Fasset diamonds
• Circles appliqué
• Leftover Prince Charming striped triangles

A finish…

Yes, I am not kidding. After a long period where I seemed only able to start new quilts I actually managed to finish a quilt.  And I may just have started a very unhealthy relationship with Heirloom as well. At least from a financial perspective.  It's on sale this week from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics btw. Been shopping already... A lot!

The design is super simple which is intentional to show off the beautiful fabric. It’s Joel Drewberry’s Pendant Quilt but with a simplification. I found a much easier way to add the triangles than the way it’s described in the pattern. Something like a double Y-seam and then a lot of twisting and turning.  After 8 tries trying to decode the instructions and where it just didn’t work, 8 times undoing with the seam ripper and an unsuccessful visit to youtube for instructions I was ready to quit. The cuts were in front of me when I suddenly saw the light *LOL* . Just add one triangle to the top piece e.g. the right one and then add the opposite triangle to the bottom piece and then pin and sew.

I made a simple zig-zag quilting pattern and the filling is cotton.  The white is Moda Snow (so not really white) and the background is dark grey and some leftovers. I went with a small dotted grey for the border.

 I think my Goddaughter, who is 14 (unbelievable… It seems like only yesterday her Mum and I were out dancing most weekends *sigh*), will be very happy to finally have her own quilt.

I am linking up to Amylouwho's Sew & Tell. I missed it last time... big buhhh on me for that.

Heirloom

It may be grey outside but there's lots of sun in my sewing room.
Just started on the binding and I like it a lot...