The tale of two quilts.

Phew the last month just flew right by; I can’t believe it’s almost May.
Even though I haven’t been around my blog for quite a while it doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking…
In fact I’ve finished two quilts… two!!

The first one is my giant hope valley quilt for my in-laws.
It came back from long arm quilting a couple of weeks ago, and I finally did the binding last weekend. So here it is:

I love the way the quilting turned out.

here’s a close up:

The other quilt I finished is one that I have been procrastinating for a long time. I had a hard time deciding on a back for this one, but then we had another screen printing class at school, where we were to design an ornament and put it in a repeat pattern.

And the perfect backing fabric was born.

I must say that I really love this quilt, both front and back.

Finally I’ve joined the urban home goods swap over on flickr, and here is what I’m thinking of sending my partner:

Aqua, red, linen placemats. I think it should be right up his/her alley.

Oh and by the way, I'm featured over on Amy's blog today... how cool is that :-)

Take care

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.

Made with LOVE

Both fabric and feeling

First, two large floor pillow covers (28 x 28 inch) for my sister.

Made with Amy Butlers new fabric line LOVE

Second, two dolls for my nieces using a pattern from wee wonderful.

I’ve named them Marie and Laura after my own two girls,

I think my nieces will find it amusing that the dolls are named after their cousins.

And finally third, yet another weekend traveller bag for my mother in law, again using Denyse Schmidts County Fair fabric. She wished for one when she had seen the one I made for myself.

I hope your christmas will also be filled with LOVE

(both fabric and feeling)

Merry Christmas

Isa

books, books and a pillow

This weeks Sunday stash is 3 new books and a calendar. The calendar is such a great idea filled with sewing tutorials from numerous talented bloggers,

I cheated a little and have already looked through it and found some have to do things.

And the Quilts’ baby book is very inspiring and very well written! I can only recommend this two. I have only glanced at the other books but they sure look promising too.

Speaking off books, I made a book case wall hanging using a pattern from Fun quilts modern quilt workshop book. I’ve promised Kristoffer he could hang it in his office.

On a different note, I finished my pillow cover and have sent it off to my secret partner;

I hope he/she will like it.

I have to admit that I think it turned out pretty ok :-)


I hope you had a great weekend.

Isa

The last of the summer reruns

Wow, the summer sure did fly by, I didn’t finish as many quilts as I had hoped,

but I did managed to finish some.

I had almost forgotten about this quilt, and found it while I was cleaning up my fabric cabinet.

I don’t know why it took so long to finish because it came together quite quickly in the end.

It fits the ending of summer just perfect, since the colours and prints has a felling of fall to it.

I’m experimenting with different batting trying to find a favourite,

and figured that a cotton/wool blending would be just perfect for this

. I didn’t like working with it, since it was very slippery
and made it hard to avoid wrinkles on the back.

But I think the end result is quite cute, very retro and perfect as a baby blanket.

Otherwise there really is allot going on around here. Marie turned 1 last Tuesday, and started day-care, we are having a party for her tomorrow. My maternal leave is over and I have returned to school, which is extremely exciting, but also steals away my quilting time. (Not that I’m complaining, I’m going to sew a lot in school, how lucky can one be!!)

So I’ve decided that September is going to be a small project month, I’ve been wanting to do various little projects for a long time and now seems like a perfect time to do it.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Isa

one a day rainbow

I finished the one-a-day quilt, and it turned out great. I did a really simple grid pattern, and for the binding I used some of my favorite fabric ever. A. Henry raindrop stripe, in both the light and the dark color way. I think it’s the best quilt I’ve made yet.

About a year ago I made my first quilt which was also a nine-patch. A lot has happened since then, I’ve learned to make a decent binding, to make mitered corners (well.. sort of, they are still a bit tricky), the importance of accurate seam allowance, I’ve “met” so many other great bloggers from whom I’ve gotten so much inspiration and encouragement.

I’ve discovered and developed a love (read addiction) for fabric,

but most important I’ve had so much fun!

I’m so thankful for having stumbled upon the worldwide quilting community. And I look forward to explore, improve and learn more about patchwork, quilting and sewing.

Have a great day.
Isa

Summer reruns

It’s done. The ORBC-quilt is done. It took about nine hours to quilt. I’ve never quilted anything that big or quilted anything that heavily, but I love the result. The texture in this quilt is so great, and it’s hard to stop stroking across it with my fingers. It’s also the first time I tried not to prewash the fabric before piecing it, I think it crinkles better when washing afterwards, but I don’t like the feel and smell of the fabric when sewing and quilting it unwashed, so I think I’m going back to prewashing

After finishing the ORBC quilt, the “on the spot” quilt seemed so easy, and it ran through my sewing machine like a knife trough hot butter.

It’s been such a kick to get some UFO’s out of the way, and I think I’m going to try and get some more WIP’s done. So hopefully there will be more reruns throughout the summer.

Have a nice day
Isa

Copycat

Have you ever seen a quilt and known that you had to copy it?

Well I have, many times. But this time it came out of the blue…

I’ve had a bunch of blue Kaffe Fasset prints in my stash for a long time, it was some of the first fabric I bought online (Boy, a lot of water have been running under the bridge since then!) and I had planned to use them for a lady in the lake quilt. But then I saw this quilt, Rita from redpepperquilt made a while ago, and I just loved how the cotton/linen blend made the printed fabric light up. So I decided to make a very similar one.

I never tried to make a quilt with linen, so I was a bit anxious to use it.

It’s not a favourite, but it sure isn’t the last time I use linen.

I made this quilt for my sister and her husband a couple of weeks ago,

but I haven’t gotten around to posting about it before now.

Otherwise sewing and bloggin has been a little slow, I think maybe because of the heat.
And because Marie is teething again (who needs more than two teeth anyway?)
I’m not finished quilting my snippets quilt from the ORBC quilt along,
but I’m getting closer.

Have a nice day
Isa

Quilting along

I’ve started quilting the ORBC quiltalong quilt,

and it’s slowly coming along, I’m ¼ of the way.

There’s still at least 6 hours quilting left,

and I decided not to work on anything else before this is done.

But with a million or so degrees outside,

leaving us all hot and sweaty,

I don’t think it will be finished before sometimes next week.

I’m quilting in “wonky” straight lines, with random spacing

and in alternating directions.

I think it enhances the pattern in a good way,

and give the quilt a great texture.

I hope you have a great day.

Isa

Catching up and falling behind

I’ve finished the top for the ORBC quilt along.

I’m sorry for the bad pictures, but it’s pouring down and there has been absolutely no sun light.
I’m not ready to baste it yet, I need to get some more batting.

But I should be up to speed with this quilt along.

I made 6 more nine-patches making a grand total of 43,

I’m falling a bit behind in this quilt along I’m afraid.

I’ve been thinking about making it a lap size instead, but I’m not sure yet

Oh and I won library gal quilts SMS give away, yay for me!I haven’t heard from my second winner Patsy from the SMS give away. I’m thinking I’ll draw another winner Monday if I haven’t heard from her by then, does that seem fair to you?

Have a good day

Isa

making progress on Old red barn quilt along

I’m making progress with the quilt along.

I made 64 blocks.Because I used fat quarters instead of ½ yards,

I made each block of 5 strips making them 10.5 inch. square.

In this way there were less wastage.

On a different note,

you should stop by Tamara’s blog and read about why she named her blog ¼ of an inch.

You can also read how other bloggers came upon there blog name.

Have a good day

Isa