a bird in the hand.

Or my adventures in fabric print and design.

But first, you may remember the embroidery pattern I made inspired by a Korean wedding kimono, well after many hours I finally finished it:

It's the first big embroidery I've made and I really learned alot from doing it. The fabric has pulled in some places, and some of the stitches are a bit too long, but all in all I like it.
Laura and I have decided to use it for a dress she can wear to my sisters weeding in May.

I used the same inspiration in a silk dye and screen printing course at school. But here I only used the bird motif.

First I did alot of testing both with ground colours, pattern layout and howmany times the dye were to be brushed through the frame, it's a really time consuming procedure because you have to dry, damp, wash and iron the fabric between each routine.

I ended up dying and printing two pieces of fabric measuring about 1 square meter. They are far from being perfect, but if used as scarfs where all the flaws are less visible I think they look ok.

I also uploaded the pattern to spoonflower to try it out. The colors turned out pretty much as I had hoped, but I was quite surprised at how small the bird was (the original drawing is on the left)
It nedds some correcting; there are some streaks I hadn't noticed at first (I don't have photoshop or illustrator and made this using paint and picnik)

But it's quite fun to have some fabric I myself have designed, and I allready have ideas for other designs...

Finally I really have been lucky in both the doll quilt swap, and the pillow talk swap.

I received a wonderful quilt from Emma Louise

And a gorgeous pillow from Kerri

Don't they look good together?

That's all folks... Thank you for tuning in, take care, and drive safe :-)

More hope valley

I had some time of last week, and instead of working on projects already in the works (and collecting dust in the closet), I started a new long overdue one...

Shortly before Christmas my in-laws bought a holiday appartment, and being in the Christmas spirit (or because the punch were spiked) I offered to make a quilt for their new home away from home, an idea they were really thrilled about.

But I must admit my palms got a bit sweatty when my mother in law asked for a king size quilt...

Thankfully she fell in love with a daisy chain quilt pattern, which would come together quite easy.

I suggested the blue and grey colortone of hope valley, and the plan was a succes, except for the part of me sewing it... I simply have not had the time before now.

It's made with 9" ninepatches and 9" squares of white kona cotton.

After this picture were taken I added both a checkered border and an extra white border. It ended up being 108", and is by far the biggest quilt I've ever made (and will continue being just that in quite along time...)

I decided to have it longarm quilted, since I couldn't imagine this giant fit in my sewing machine.

I chose this chantilly lace pattern, and really look forward to see the final result.

In the meantime I'll play with the leftover blocks, I'm thinking maybe a matching baby blanket, Marie has said she really wants to spend the night at her grandparrents. (well actually she said: dabadesu...muu, but I'm certain she meant the other...)

I hope you had a great weekend :-)

Isa

...and they are off...

...Some will go furhter than others..

The first will only go 400 yards down the road, it's a lst minute birthday gift for my sweet sister.

Using Anna-Marie Horner's little folks voile, I made a 40" x 40" inch square and folded it in half and stitched down the edge.

The next two will cross the North Sea

Euro bee blocks for Aneela

Bee Europa blocks for Maria

This one will fly across at least one ocean... As part of the pillow talk swap

It's made of 1" x 4" inch Hope Valley strips, and white Kona cotton. One side made in cool colorway and the other in warm colorway... It may be symbolic, but you never know :-)

The final one is my rainbow doll quilt for the DQS8, this is a sneak peak at the back...

it will also have to travel through a higher altitude :-)

xo

Isa

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.

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

giveaway winner

Wauw 207 comments… Thank you all so much for playing along.

I wish I had a prize for each and everyone!!

I asked random.org to generate a number….

And the winner is Carol with number 103, Congratulations Carol!!

I'll contact you for further information.

Because there where so many comments,

I asked the random number generator to pick another number…

And number 29 came out… Congratulations Donna you are the winner of 5 strips (2,5 X 22 inch) of the FMF seedling prints, one of each color.

Again thank you all so very much!

Isa

I got the blues...

…And the greys, and the greens, and pink, and yellow. And you can have some too.
I’m off course talking about Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy prints.

Here’s what you can win:

1 fat eight (app. 9 X 22 inch) of each floralprint shown above.

And here’s what you have to do to enter the giveaway:

Become a follower of my blog, or add my blog to your blogreader and leave me a comment that you did. (if you already are a follower leave me a comment about that)Remember to leave your email or blog info, so I can contact you. You need to do this before december 6. I will draw a winner on the 7th.

Commenters from all over the world a welcome

Thank you too sew mama sew for organizing this fantastic event.

I’m off to enter all the other great giveaways outthere.

Isa