Off-centre: A modern baby girl quilt

Maybe even too modern?

What do you think? It is off-centre, has lots of negative space, wonky squares and linear and free-motion quilting.

I regret using a contrasting white Aurifil for the quilting. It works well within the white frames but I think I should have chosen a blending thread for quilting the negative space.

The back is more little-girl-ish: Anne Kelle’s Kites on flannel surprisingly matched well with most of the scraps I used within the wonky squares.

Of course it showcases the baby’s name.

I chose raw-edge appliqué again but changed the width often to match the width of the letters/strokes (does that make sense? You can see the width difference in the photo above).

So, all in all, what do you think? Too modern for a new born? Too much grey?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy quilting everyone!
Christine

The Yellow Lessons Learned Quilt

I recently finished another quilt. A quilt that is definitely not one of my favourites. But I learned a lesson or two making it.

I started out with some improv blocks I made about 1,5 years ago. Then we had an improv class during our MQG Bielefeld meeting last year. I neither liked the improv cutting nor the colors.

I decided to combine them with a rich and saturated yellow – now was better – but still not exactly my cuppa.

I had that quilt top sitting around for a year or so before I started basting it. And it would have stayed in that state had I not needed my basting needles for another quilt. I started quilting “Atomic Squares” on the yellow background. This design is one of my favourites from the book “Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters”.

When I returned from London, I had learned so many new FMQ designs in Trudi’s Class that I decided to use this un-loved quilt as a Free Motion Practice Quilt and to try different FMQ designs in different areas:

Big-Ls…

Wavy lines and shells and clam shells…

A giant flower…

A feather, some swirls

…and some petals and leaves…

I used a white binding and my favourite zig zag finish.

I liked the “Atomic Squares” best and will definitely use that design again. I did not mark the fabric, I used some seams as guidelines and had a small ruler at hand to doublecheck the size of the squares from time to time.

I forgot to take a photo of the backing, it is pieced using leftovers from the top.

All in all, it is a fun little quilt, I am glad I finished it at all.

Besides the technical lessons I learned (improv cutting and piecing, colour combination, FMQ designs, etc.), I learned something more: perseverance (I finished it after all) and acceptance of imperfection (I forced myself to NOT rip out those ugly stitches).

Oh and by the way, I learned to NOT quilt so close to the edge of the quilt that half the stitches are buried underneath the binding ):

Many lessons learned – even if the result will never be a favourite. Because most of all, I learned that improv is not my cup of tea at all. Give me squares and rectangles and circles and triangles. But no more improvisional cutting and peicing, please…

Thanks for visiting!
Christine

A Baby Boy Quilt that I nearly named “Stalactites and Stalagmites”

It’s that time of the quilting year again. Quilt Market is here again and for all of us who are staying at home, Amy is hosting Blogger’s Quilt Festival again.

My entry is one of those UFOs from my FAL Q4 List that I could not show you then. I kind of prepared the quilt top when I found out our business partner was going to have a baby boy. Then it turned into an UFO and sat waiting. The baby boy was born 2 weeks ago and his name is Henning.

Our Local Fabric Store now carries Fat Quarters from India. They are called “Flat Fats”. As quilting is not very well known in Germany, these FQ are the first they ever carried. I simply had to support them and bought some. I didn’t want the quilt to be too baby-ish and chose a small stack of FQ in blue, a yellow print and two matching blue solids by the metre. It was my very first experience with improvisational cutting and piecing and I have to admit, I really liked it – despite the fact that some passages turned out awefully crooked. I simply sliced the bulky and misshaped blocks into strips and added them to the better shaped blocks.



I backed it with a dotty blue print from our LQS and added a pieced binding with a white and yellow striped print as a little extra something. I used a triple zig-zag stitch to stitch the binding in place and I think this is goint to be my future go-to binding method. Quick and neat.  And secure.



I had already used the same method to raw-edge-appliqué the letters but I wouldn’t probably do that again. Much too difficult when it comes to stitching the corners.



I quilted some wide-and-uneven-spaced, more or less straight lines with my walking foot and used different threads: white, yellow, blue and some red. Just for good measure. I wanted this quilt to be soft and cozy, so no intense quilting this time.

Taking photos of this quilt was a nightmare. There were two days between the time that I finished the quilt and the moment it was gifted. Two days of rain. Non-stop. So no outtakes. Indoors the light was very bad and the selected photos above were the only close-to-acceptable-ones I was able to take.

Writing this blogpost, I discovered http://www.befunky.com/ and “cartoonized” one of the photos: This is the quilt hanging on one of our armchairs. Makes me feel funky indeed (o:



All in all I LOVE this quilt. I like the combination of colours and values and the little quilting. Regarding the composition I might as well have called this quilt “stalactites and stalagmites”. LOL.

I didn’t measure it, but is has to be nearly crib size. A bit shorter infact. It was hard to let it go but so nice to get a phone call from Henning’s Mom who assured me of her pleasure receiving it. Hope he will like it himself when he grows up!

edited to add: Best category: Favorite Baby Quilt, Favorite Two Color Quilt

I’m linking up to Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival Fall 2012 and I guess I’ll see you there?!

Have a nice weekend!
Christine

P.S. What do you think, is this quilt too modern for a baby or do you think it is appropiate? I’m still pondering if I like more baby-ish quilts better for babies…