sunday stash

This week I don’t have any fabric to show, but I do however have something I have been working with all week:
Copic sketch markers.


In the week before Christmas I went on a fieldtrip with my school to the National museum of Denmark, to get inspiration for an embroidery pattern.
Besides a lot of historical Danish artefact, it also contains a lot of effects from cultures all over the world.
From this trip we were to pick an item to be inspired from and do a study about

I fell completely in love with a traditional Korean bridal kimono, I’m sorry for the bad picture, but it was really hard to take one without lights being reflected.
The embroidery depicts bird Phoenix with chicks and symbolizes life, resurrection and fertility.

I did some research on the subject and came up with the idea of a dragon and a phoenix, symbolizing ying-yang, male-female, water-fire and so forth.



I coloured it in different ways, trying to decide the final layout.
I got a bit sloppy in the last one (and a bit dizzy from the marker fumes…)
Not yet sure which one to pick.

I’m going to sew it up on dupioni silk with silk floss.
The final project isn’t due until March 18’th, but I think I know how my evenings until then will be spent.

Happy Sunday :-)

Isa

swapping shopping bees

January were Monika’s month of the Euro bee, in she asked for squares and stripes made in the wonderful shirt fabric she had sent.
At first sight an easy task, but she had asked for it to be measured in cm, and even though I use the metric system for everything else, it was somehow difficult to use it for quilt making… Go figure :-)
I also signed up for the DQS8 over at flickr and have been assigned with a secret partner with a love for wonky houses…

I spend hours trying out different fabric for the houses, it was really hard to find a combination that clicked, the rainbow fabric came together quite easy.

I used lecien honeycomb dots for the binding, which I think frames it quite well.

I’m keeping the back as a (hopefully) pleasant surprise…

On a different more serious note, I hope you’ll consider shopping in the crafthope etsy shop to support Haiti; I bought two wonderful softie patterns from bird and little bird

And Sara (from kindred crafters) and her generous daughter Emily are selling the cutest onesies from Sara’s webshop frugal Adeline, raising money to help Haiti. Please go and have a look!

xo

Isa

A start and a finish

But not of the same project

First the finish:
A dress for Marie using Anna Marie Horners new flannels, it’s so soft and easy to work with, and Tula Pinks aqua ladybugs.
In Danish a ladybug is called a “Mariehøne” which means Marie-chicken, so I figured it was a perfect choice.

Second the start of a new quilt.

When Amy Butlers new fabric line LOVE first was released I honestly wasn’t sure whether to like or not, the patterns and colors were very different from what I’m usually drawn too. But when I saw blueblossomgirl's circle quilt on flickr I knew I wanted some.

As you probably remember I used a large portion of it for my sisters Christmas present, knowing that this fabric would be right up her ally. But there were a lot of fabric left that I didn’t know whether to put in my scrap bin or back in my stash.

So I started cutting it up instead, using Marti Michells drunkards path templates. The big circles were easy to cut and piece, but the small templates were quite slippery and harder to piece, therefore some of theme came out a bit wonky and more oval shaped.

I ended up with 14 big circles and 23 small, and very little fabric to spare, I hope to squeeze another small circle out of the scraps.

I’ve been trying different layout styles and am not sure which way to go from here. The circles don’t stand out as much I had hoped, but I guess that was to be expected when it was cut and sewed without any sort of plan.

Maybe some sort of solid sashing would help, I just made an order for some kona solids, and I think I’m going to wait and see what happens with that.

And even though it has no reference for to this post I want to show you my new rug, we just got it yesterday, and I love it so much, it’s so colourful and cherry. It’s from the Danish Design Brand Hay in case you are wondering.

Thank you for tuning in

Take care and have fun

Happy New Year

I want to use this first post in 2010 to thank you for your thoughts, comments and support.

This past year has been such a great and creative one for me, I haven’t finished as many quilts as I had hoped but I’m bursting with ideas for quilts to finish in the New Year.

And I’m starting the New Year with some great new fabrics, that I already have lots of plans with.

Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley

LOVE and Little folks flannel

Monaluna Mingle

And this wonderful machine found its way to a very happy recipient on Christmas Eve. I already have lots of plans for that too…

And with that I wish you all a happy new year, and hope that 2010 will bring you lots of fabric, floss and fantastic quilts.