Quilt Festival 2018 - BOM quilt

This is my second entry into the Quilt festival:

I'm one of those, who grew up never thinking I would ever sew or be crafty. It wasn't until I was in my late 20'ties that I saw a New England style quilt in a magazine, that I dared to venture into the quilt world. As a newbie... what do you do? I turned to Youtube and blogs and started picking up techniques and instructions from our community. It was awesome and soon I was complelety hooked.

Back in 2012 there was a Bloggers BOM and I joined in because I knew I would be forced to learn some new techniques. The QAL was hugely popular and there was lot's of talented designers, which each made their block. I ended up making two of each and finally had a decent amount of blocks at hand. I just had no idea of what to do with them. There wasn't enough for a large quilt.

It wasn't until end of 2017, where I pulled the block out of hiding and finally got an idea of what to do with them. I added strips as a background to really make the center stand out. The BOM blocks  are mostly modern, but the placing makes this quilt feel more traditional. The strips frame them in a more modern way. It's simple, but effective.

This quilt was finished in spring 2018 and ended up at 80x80. I didn't want to ruin this quilt with my lousy own quilting, so I sent it to Diane for a professional quilting. She made an awesome all over quilting, that I think emphasises the modern light feel.

Finnaly added a simple striped border, that makes the colors pop before handing it over to my sister as a gift, where it's being treasured, used and loved just like all quilts should.

This is my second entry into the Bloggers Quilt festival. Though I only had a brief glance at the other quilt entries so far, I can't wait to dive in and see what everybody has made. I' know I'm in for a treat.

Blogger's quilt festival 2018

It's been a long time since I last joined the quilt festival. But I recently finished a new quilt and I really want to share it with you. But first, a big thank you to Amy for hosting the quilt festival again. Seriously, I don't know how you get the energy to do this over and over, but it's much appreciated. I can't wait to see the other contributions and are gearing up for total aweness over the next couple of days

This quilt has been a long time coming - the blocks are from no less than 3 different projects, that I never finished:

• The center is my very first quilt crush - it's the bird from Sara's Fielkes ' Quilting from Little things'. I always admired her quilt and started the first bird in high spirit, but just never got round to make bird #2,3, or 4.
• Same story with the blocks that makes the first frame. It's a pattern the UK quilting magazine 'Love Patchwork and quilting' issue 28. I made lot's of blocks, but never enough for a whole quilt, before caving in.
• The second frame is just simple big blocks. It's a John Adams pattern in the 'Color workshop' book by Fat Quarterly. I even threw my very best Joel Drewberry fabrics at this project, but the magic just never happended, and all the cutted blocks went straight into the cuppoard for a long time.

A Saturday night in the spring, I was feeling  restless and not at all like a quilt-ninja. I had a glass of wine and went into my sewing room, where the bird was still hanging on the design wall. Ottis Redding was playing on Spotify and I starred at the bird feeling slightly annoyed.  Then suddenly I saw the other blocks on the table - realising it was made in similar color schemes. Finally an idea started to take shape. I played around adding blocks next to the bird and finally remembered the blocks from the closet too... and many songs later, the last frames were added on the design wall.

Even though the process was a bit of a nightmare and full of lost promises to myself, I love this quilt. It's fun, vibrant, not what you'd expect and the colors are my all-time favorites. I've mixed lots and lots different fabrics. The center is hand quilted and the borders are machine quilted.  It measures 70x70 inches. I Finished it in August 2018 and was really happy to give it to my best friends birthday the same day.

(sorry - only close up was just after I finished the handquilting, and before ironing - it looks a bit crincled here).

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Fall Quilt Festival - the Kaleidoscope quilt

This is my second entry into the Fall Quilt Festival - the large quilt category. My other quilt is in the modern category. I finished this quilt in August. It is fun, vibrant, and exciting both from a distance and up close. I loved the quilt from when I first saw it in the book, but it looked so difficult I put it off a bit. In reality it was much easier to make than I thought it would be and since not two blocks are the same it was never boring either. Seeing the pieces come together was awesome.  

Some facts:

Size: 74x74 inches

Fabric: Anna Marie Horner and Amy Butler mixed

Background: Dark, grey fleece

Pattern: Saltwater Taffy from Stephanie Dunphys book 'Uncommonly Corduroy'. I enlarged the templates slightly to make the quilt a tad bigger than the pattern suggested.

Background and batting: dark grey thick fleece and polyester batting

When making it I compared it to making a puzzle. Every bit of fabric had to be placed right to ensure the balance. I didn't plan it when cutting so I just had a big pile of prints that had to create a certain balance. It was fun... In fact fun, exciting and playful pretty much sums up making the Kaleidescope quilt.

This was my first attempt on the kaleidescope block. I had long admired the more classical quilts but totally fell for this take on it. The fabric is big, bright and modern and I think it really enhances the vulcano feeling. 

I used a dark grey, thick, top of the class fleece as the backing, making this a very warm and comfy quilt. Almost as a duvet. It's destined to go under the Christmas tree... shhh.... don't tell anyone ;)

I have a feeling this won't be the last kaleidescope quilt, but for now I'm of off to surf the Bloggers Quilt Festival entries :)

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Fall 2014

First a huge thank you to Amy for - again - making the festival a reality. 

This is my quilt for the fantastic Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2014 in the modern category. 
My second entry is in the large quilt section.

This quilt is a bright and happy modern quilt made up of four different types of blocks. Overall it has a very crisp and modern feeling to it - improv piecing, paper pieced stars and geese with straight line quilting in the negative spaces. 5 of the 6 stars came from the 3x6 Quilt Bee back in 2012-13.

Some facts: 

Size: 75x75 inches

Fabric: lots of different lines Kate Spain's 'Seranade', Riley Blakes 'For the boys', Noteworthy by Sweetwater, 'Salt Air' by Cosmo Cricket, 'Smallville' by Lucy Sommers, 'Marrakesh' by Hoffman, Robert Kaufmann's 'Architecture', and many more.

Techniques: Improv piecing, QAYG, paper piecing

Paper pieced stars: by (1) Deb's Doodlings, (2) Jyllybean (3) Suerand49, (4) Ange, Heart of Charnwoods, (6) Alixkottke

Binding: Andover by Modern Quilt Studio

Pattern: made as I went along but with some fab paper pieced stars as center.

I started this quilt about a month ago and finished it only last week. There was no big start-to finish plan. It just grew bit by bit. One night I couldn't sleep and I was thinking colors at patterns. I eventually gave up on sleeping and went downstairs to start some improvised books. I was pulling fabric of the shelf like a madman and cutting random strips between 2 and 4 inches, sewing them into the improvised blocks.

Next day, looking at the improv blocks, I thought of some old orphan 3x6 bee blocks from 2012-13. I dug deep in my cupboard and pulled them out. They  were so amazingly perfect I keep thinking that maybe there was purpose for all the late night mess anyway. I decided to let them be the centre of the quilt. 

I then decided on some geese strips and once I was finished with them I thought the quilt had only one problem. It was too small. 

I showed it to my friend Linda, who cleverly suggested using a bit more white and square shapes so after a few tries I ended up with the square blocks.

The blocks was QAYG allowing for some different lines in the white spaces. I used some the softest, thick, luxurious fleece background, so it is very thick, warm and soft - almost duvet feeling. 

This quilt will definately be a family crowd pleaser. Several family members has already suggested it would fit them. However, soon my nephew Anders is moving into a new apartment. I have a strong feeling he will find this quilt under the Christmas tree :) A quilt is still the best way to send a kind thought and give a big warm hug from a distance.

As much as I do like this quilt, it's gotta be enough information for y'all. Can't have you go into information overload mode as there are still lots of great must-see quilts in the festival  :) 

Thanks for stopping by. 

I don't know about you, but I'm off to enjoy, look and find lots of inspiration at the Quilt Festival.

Quilt bug

I had an idea about a quilt and couldn't sleep Friday night. Ended up in my sewing room instead and skipped sleeping all together.

It started out as some improv blocks with lots of fabrics lines

My old orphan bee blocks from fitted perfectly

Then I added some geese

And one by Sunday night it looks like this

Now I'm trying to figure out the next step. think I may have caught the quiltbug again...