My day off...

I took a much needed day off work today. Kids were in school and all I did was to meet my fantastic DH for lunch and then this.  I'm ready to start sewing:

A close up of the 3 different blocks in this quilt... 

What a great day...

A quick Wednesday WIP

After finishing this one (yeah! arms in the air) I'm troddeling along with my other WIPs and is still determined to wrap up projects before starting new ones:

My scrappy trip quilt is made from Hometown fabric. I like the colors a lot but for some reason found it was a difficult line to match with my other fabrics. At 60"x60" it is a little on the small side so this one is going to be a junior quilt. I made a promise (have not forgotten it, Betty) and are thinking about donating it to Sieblings Together. But only if I like it when it's done. Even for a charity I will only give things away I would use myself.

Picture is (even for my standards) really bad, but of course you all know the fantastic color scale of Hometown. The picture is from last night and taken with my iPad because I'm being lazy (so sorry ladies - I count on you using your imagination).

Tilføj billedtekst

I am still playing with options for the last border of the EPP Ferris wheel quilt and are kind of getting set on this block - Pogo stick. Like the garden lattice its also from the book ´'Modern Blocks. 

A layout would look something like this - obviously with lots of different colors.

Pew, I'm glad I already decided to send til to a one-arm quilter. It's going be be gigantic...

Linking up with Lee's Wednesday WIP

A finish... Dresden flowers

Low and behold. I finished something bigger than a baby quilt. Im happy to show off my Dresden flower meet rainbow quilt. This was one of those projects where I wanted to do everything at once. It really started of with my sweet son, who gave me 10 fat quarters of... well.. very interesting fabrics that he had picked out himself. We're talking cows, zebras, cats, knives 'n forks -all in black and white. I had no idea what to use it for, but thought that if I blended it in with others they could be part of a background. I also wanted to make a quilt in rainbows colors. And also to try my new Dresden ruler. So this is the result - a whopping 80"x 60" quilt mess :)

 

There's a lot of firsts for me here... Dresdens obviously. And making the flower stems too.  I had to consult the (in my opinion) Queen of Dresdens Stephanie @ loftcreations, who kindly nudged me in the right direction with a great tutorial. 

The back is just lots and lots of white dots on dark grey and a rainbow. 

When I look at this I don't know if I'm a 100% happy about my own abilities. Did I make the appliqué good enough. Are my circles round enough. It was definately learning in progress. But I know that I really, really like the end result. It's a happy, energetic and funny quilt.

And yes, it has all the cows, zebras, cats, knives 'n forks and other quirky fabrics... and I think of my son every time I see them 

Down to quilting the last flower....

I know you must all be tired of seeing this quilt,but I'm down to quilting the last flower and this time in great company. A bit of background history... We have 4 cats - all shelter cats. I much prefer dogs to be honest but these cats where in need of a home so now they live with us.

Remus is by far the fanciest of our cats - a pedigree Norgewian Forrest Cat - also the youngest and leader of the pack. He's seven years old and though very shy when we first had him he has warmed up to people and now loves sitting close to us. The quilt and my feet up in the chair was to big a temptation for him so he sat there for a while eying an opportunity to move closer (no way - I was quilting) and finally settled on curling up for a brief nap at my feet.

A little while later I'm joined by Thomas, our oldest cat. He's thirteen years old but really acts like a kitten at times still. He recently had to let go of the throne - not by choice obviously but Remus is just younger and stronger than him. Thomas will never say no to an napping opportunity close to us and like always he loves curling up in a quilt for a nap. Today was no exception. Long after I moved inside he was still sleeping in the chair.

Well, I'm at my last flower and so this little box of Pearl 8 threads will soon be back on the shelf

My forever favourite color

Over time I've learned to embrace all colors and recognise that they all are beautiful in different ways. But blue... It's my forever favourite color. I just love when I sew something blue :)

Lots of work in progress... And some finishes too.

After a very quiet spring and summer I'm back with a vengeance... Lots of exciting projects and luckily some of them are clsed to being finished too. I was beginning to fear that I didn't have it in me to finish anything.  I did cut into some lovely Amy Butler fabrics for a new quilt though... But not a stitch made so far - Ive promised myself that I have to finish some the UFO projects first. I'm being a good girl, I am.

My Dresden quilt is SO close to being done. I'm hand quilting the Dresden's with perle cotton. 6 down, 5 to go. Need ironing too of course :)

 

I finally made some headway on my scrappy-and-yet-not-so-scrappy-quilt. Still lots more to to, but this goes together in no time at all.

Finally my wonderful, addicting, tempting pile of Amy Butler fabrics all ready to be made into a wonderful quilt. I am itching to get started on the new pattern Roundhouse by Tracejay. 

Finishes:

I made some scrap QAYG pot holders

And a soft and simple baby quilt for a coworker

I also  made (another) great little essential purse for my handbag. I's called Clam She'll and the pattern is from Clover. It's made from template plastic and some fabrics from the scrap bin. It's great for holding anything small like earplugs or earrings.

No progress:

This beauty is awaiting a decision. I want to add another border but can't decide what it should be.  Please, please, please let me know if you have an idea. 

I am being uber-productive... and enjoy all the projects being wrapped up. It's like the giant weight of all the UFO's are lifted of my shoulders. I blame a lot of it on my new foot chair. i really enjoy my little corner and have spend lots of time sewing there already.

L.O.V.E

I fall in and out of love with this quilt but there is one thing I will never get tired of... making the binding :) I still have quite a lot of hand quilting to do too so plenty of reason to feel happy.

1 hour bag...

So right after having posted about the first bag based on Stephanie @ loftcreations pattern 'Little Purse' I decided to make the other right away. This time more true to the original pattern with a decorative trim. My sewing table was still overflowing with Amy Butler scraps, so that's what I went for again. I'm thinking that between this and the first bag I'm pretty much covered no matter what color dress I want to wear. It took one hour? What's not to like :)
only problem is that I'm now out of both magnets and buttons ;)

 

 

A very quick little bag...

Yesterday we were invited to a party... I decided to wear a dress in a lovely teal color that I found in the US. Only problem was that my normal clutch really clashed with the teal, so I decided to whip up a quick little bag based on a pattern that Stephanie @ Loft Creations was so kind to send me a little while back. It's called ' Little Purse'.

I used some of the Amy Butler scraps that seems to overflow my sewing space these days.

What a lot of fun it was. I came home from work at 5.15 pm and started sewing. The instructions are so easy and clear that i didn't have to unpick anything at all ( and let me tell you that is a rare thing for me...) So at 7 o'clock I was at the party with a finished bag and had even managed to squeeze in a quick shower and makeup time.

I made the bag a little smaller than the pattern suggested since this will be strictly a pouch. I also used a magnetic clips instead of a button... partly because I didn't have a nice button (!) and partly because the small size. Looking at it know I wish I had made the corners a little more rounded, but hey, it pretty good looking bag despite of it, isn't it?

I'm already planning to make another bag based on the same pattern and with a decorative trim like in the pattern just making the trim in a bright color. And the base in one fabric only rather than the very scrappy look I got going here. The options are endless....

I’m still here

Hello. My name is Cille. I’m a quilter and it been +3 months *gasp* since my last update. Though it’s been mighty quiet in my corner of blog world I did a little quilting here and there (but not enough to feel really productive).

Summer holiday was spent in Florida and it was a blast for the whole family. We spent the first 9 days near Boca Raton at my friend’s apartment overlooking the ocean. It was absolutely stunning! After then we drove north to Orlando. There are so many places I want to go to in the US but considering the boys age I think Florida was the perfect choice. I did buy some fabric but not near as much as I had envisioned. Guess my brain quilting centre was really in low gear. Now of course I’m a bit annoyed with myself for not going crazy while I had the chance, but it’s kind of late to change that now.

So, do you want to see some projects?

I decided our livingroom needed some colors so I dived into a huge pile of Amy Butler fabrics I’ve been collecting over the past year or so. I made some pillows (just need to get a zipper for the last one) and a footstool for my reading chair.

 

I also *cough* couldn’t hold back starting a quilt with these fabrics but just started cutting the fabrics and haven’t taken any pictures yet. I think I was in bad need of some color action.

The inner cushion for the footchair is made from and old duvet and a couple of pillows. The boys for once had great pleasure of helping with a quilt project.

There’s also a sweet girl in my office that is expecting her first child – a boy. She’s due in a less than 2 months but here in Denmark you are off work 1 month before, so I need to finish this baby quilt for her. I just got some really cute striped binding so all I need is to attach that. She’s into very calm colors (at my eccentric current state I would say almost boring) but I want her to really like the quilt so I used some Tula Pink ‘Salt’ fabrics. Since it will be an autumn baby I made it with heavy fleece on the back. The pattern is Lattice from Kati @ thebluechair.  On the picture it looks more puffy and stiff that it really is. I's so soft and cuddely.... I'll get a better picture once I finish the border.

I decided to add another border to this giant beauty – it will be a bed quilt. I had to get some more blue and it arrived yesterday so now I just need to decide which block to make. I’m considering a couple of options… I already decided that this quilt will go out to a long arm quilter - first time for me. It’s rare to find long arm here in Denmark but there’s one close to where my Mom lives in Sweden and I’m thinking I might take it to her.

 

Doesn't the Ferris wheels look fantastic from the back?



 



I started quilting the Dresden flower quilt but kind of stalled in the middle of it. I’m doing stripes across on the black white background and are planning to hand quilt the flowers. The stripes are just sooo boring to make. Oh well, I guess it will be finished in due time.