“Sew-euro-bee-an” – A bee quilt

May was my month in our Flickr Bee “Sew-euro-bee-an”.
Except that it was May 2013.
Well. You know how things sometimes take longer than planned, don’t you?!

I had chosen an easy “squares and triangles” block,

inspired by a winter coat I had bought for my eldest son.

The colours were entirely chosen to match our living room.
Here’s the finished quilt.

I will admit, that it was very difficult to sew those blocks together as the block sizes varied more than I had thought they would. I ironed the quilt several times but it is still crinkly.

But as I will keep it for myself, I do not mind and it only shows that the blocks were made by lovely ladies from many european countries.

They all made signature blocks that I pieced together in one long strip for the backing. It will be nice to snuggle up under my quilt and look at all those familiar names and remember how and when I met them in person and how much fun we had together.

I kept the quilting simple. I quilted diagonal “straight” lines, using different Aurifil threads – yellow, variagating orange, grey and variegated grey.

 

Those diagonal lines made it hard to wrestle the quilt while quiling though…

I like the texture and how it looks on the back

Another post-wash photo:

And here is a shot of the quilt on one of our yellow chairs. I think I’ll just keep it there and enjoy the sight (o:

Thank you to all contributors! Dianne (Czech Republic), Pippa (France), Elisabeth and Helen (Switzerland), Floh and Tacha (Germany), Nicole and Linda (Netherlands), Celine and Lush (UK), Annabella (Morocco). I had so much fun with you!!!

This is one of my entries for Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2015. If you came over from Blogger’s Quilt Festival, please consider leaving a comment so I can return the favour and visit you too!

If you have never heard of Blogger’s Quilt Festival, grab a cuppa and hop over – there are many lovely quilts to discover and much talent to be seen.

Happy Quilting!
Christine

Bits and pieces

Somehow my sewing creativity is still in vacation mode. I may have left it here:

I don’t feel like starting a new quilt. I made some totes instead.
Six of those gift bags and two of those robot totes for kindergarten.

The bags are fully lined and I used some ric rac to add an extra little something.

I did some secret sewing for Brigitte (following her pattern, no creativity needed).

Then the fabrics for Annabella’s month (August) of Sew-Euro-Bee-an arrived (after they were returned once because the postman was unable to find us. Stupid fellow…). She chose a Churn Dash Block and sent out two colourful prints and some low volume bits for the background. My first Churn Dash Blocks ever and certainly not the last!

Thanks for sending out the fabrics again, Annabella! I loved making your blocks!!!

And about a week ago, Brigitte let us have a go at her longarm machine. You can read more about that MQGB adventure here.

Look at their faces… can you guess what my first stitches looked like ?! FMQ on a longarm is soooooooo difficult IMHO. Moving the machine instead of the fabric feels weird and the handles are soooooo far away from the needle.

So, not much creativity over here. I hope that I get back into the mood soon. I have not been reading blogs much and perhaps I get tempted by some eye candy when I resume my daily blog-reading routine?!

Hoping I am not the only one who feels uninspired somt times… Are you?

Have a great new week!
Christine

Sewing Room Update

During the last weeks we made more improvements downstairs (in my sewing room).

I made a Design Wall out of one left-over woodden panel and some flannel. Yay!
Here you can see it covered with blocks from our “Sew-Euro-bee-an” online bee.

I still owe you a picture of my FMQ Setup. It is sooooooo much easier to quilt on a built-in sewing machine than on the small extension-table that I used before. Thank you again, Dad, for building this table!!!

Oh, and did I mention that my husband gave me a giant cutting mat for my cutting table as a birthday present? It is custom made so it covers the top completely.

The centimetre grid ends at 145 cm!!!

But the most important thing and the best decision ever-ever-ever is this addition:

We moved in an old table and two IKEA chairs and most of our boys’ creative stuff. This decision was made after they “accidentially” coloured our sofa with their felt-tip markers. I made room on the shelves for their crayons, felt-tip pens, pencils, stencils, stamps, small scissors, colouring books, blank and coloured sheets of paper, decorative-hole-punchers and of course for their perler beads.

Somehow my boys love perler beads. Our youngest (who BTW turns 4 next week) is so proud when he covered a “mould” entirely with beads. And above you can see our eldest (almost 6 yrs) who loves to invent new forms and shapes.

Together we regularly (almost daily!) spend an hour or two crafting downstairs. I really enjoy watching their progress and sharing my passion for crafts with them.

The downside is that the craft room is so much messier now (at least I can now pretend that it’s the boys who make it messy… ehem)…

When I our eldest turns 6 in October I plan to give him his first sewing book. I showed him how to hand sew a little felt bunny this easter and he was quite keen to try it again. With the long winter months ahead I thought it might be a good idea to revisit hand stitching. I thought I’d give him “Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make”. Any objections or better ideas? I’d love to hear what you think about sewing books for kids.

Happy crafting everyone (o:
Christine

P.S. If you came over from Ellison Lane Quilts and her “Studio Spotlight”, here are two more photos of my sewing room to give you a better idea.
And you can find even more photos here…

Thanks for visiting!

A hint of summer

Elisabeth asked for aqua, blue, turquoise and white blocks for her month (June) of Sew-Euro-bee-an. I made two summer-y applique blocks using fabrics from my stash.

I will not even try to conceal how much I love these flip-flops. I will surely remake this block (slightly bigger) and turn it into a bathmat.

As Elisabeth had asked for blocks in any sizes, I didn’t cut them back so she can fit them in whereever she might need them.

We’re off for a week at the sea with kids and our friends (and more kids) so you won’t see me around for the next days.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Christine

A Jersey Obsession

It all began with this magazine:

I fell in love with the included pattern for a pair of one-sized baby pants (size 1-4 yrs). I made these baby pants for a baby shower:

Aren’t these the cutest little pants ever?! They were so much fun to make!

And then I went a little overboard. I digged through my stash of knits/ jerseys and found some pieces that were big enough to make some more… seven more…

I love those little cuties!

Now I just have to find some babies for them. Dear friends, go make some babies, I am looking forward to give these pants away!

Yesterday I received this beautiful stack of Architextures Fat Quarters that I had won in a giveaway. Thank you so much, Jess of The Elven Garden and Peg of Sew Fresh Fabrics!

I can’t decide which one is my favourite… I guess the green fabric on top. With the black texty one as a close second…

I forgot to show you the Sew-Euro-bee-an blocks I made in April for Celine: I love these blocks and even made some more for myself. I want to get that DNA Quilt done (see my blog header…)! Unfortunately I ran out of Kona white and had to order some more.

I made a giant beanbag for my youngest but seem to be unable to take a decent photo of it. Will have to bribe the kids to assist me…

We’re heading out for a little vacation that we are all in need of (did I mention the kids brought home streps last week? They are on antibiotics for ten days…).

My first blogiversary is fast approaching, we are going to have a little giveaway once we are back, shall we?!

Thanks for stopping by,
have a great week!
Christine

Squares and Half Square Triangles - A Quilt Block Tutorial

Do you remember this jacket that I bought for my eldest last autumn?! I wanted to copy that design into a quilt ever since. May is my month in our bee and here is the oppertunity to finally use the design.

I made up this block using only Half Square Triangles (HST) and squares. The plain squares are a 3” size. For the HST I cut 3,5” squares.

I am sure my fellow Sew-Euro-bee-ans know perfectly well how to sew HSTs but I thought I could as well shoot some step-by-step photos.

For those HSTs take two 3,5” squares, place them right sides together and draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite one.

Sew next to the marked line, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Turn and sew along the other side.

Your square should now look like this:

Cut along the marked line:

Press the seams to one side (you could also press the seams open if you like it better that way. It certainly decreases the amount of bulk in the following steps – but I’m a lazy girl so I pressed the seams to one side (o:). Afterwards square up to 3” size, lining up your 45° mark of your ruler with the centre seam.

Repeat.

Then lay out the HST blocks and the plain squares in a nice mix of values. Afterwards assemble the rows using a 1/4 inch seam allowance

When assembling the rows I never cut the thread so the rows are kept in place by the connecting threads.

Afterwards press the seams to one side – alternating the direction every other row.

Sew the rows together and you are done:

In case you might be wondering about my choice of colours: I always wanted to make a solids-only quilt and I always wanted a quilt that matches our orange couch and the light yellow walls (BTW, I’d never buy an orange couch again…). But I never found something pleasing that matches the exact colours of our room – so being princess bee in May is a wonderful occasion to ask for blocks I can unite in a lovely memory quilt that will be used every day.

Dear Sew-Euro-bee-ans, thank you very much for sewing these blocks for me. They finish at 13” so they are 0,5” bigger than what we stated in our guidelines. But making my master block I realized that it was so much easier to cut 3” squares than 2 7/8”" inch squares… I hope that’s o.k. for you, Ladies!

Have fun and happy sewing!
Christine

Felt bunnies

March 20th is the first day of spring.
Looking at our front yard it is obvious, isn’t it? Sigh.
It started at 1 pm and it is still snowing now.

We decided to make some easter decorations nevertheless. Our eldest son (5) is very fond of cutting out figures. Even even masters difficult shapes.

I was looking for some easter deco that we could make together. I decided on felt bunnies that double up as egg warmers. I drew the bunnies onto the felt (white was his choice, not mine…) and he started cutting.

He had some difficulties cutting with my large fabric scissors and with the felt that shifted in his hands. But he managed to cut out the shapes well enough. Not as exactly as he had cut out the paper-pattern-bunny minutes before but fair enough for a very first try with big scissors and felt/ fabric.

My original plan was to sew the halves together with my sewing machine but when I proposed to show him how to sew them together by hand, he was eager to give it a try.

So I pinned together the two bunnies with some basting pins and showed him how to stitch. I was worried it might be to difficult and that he would end up being disappointed and frustrated but he was neither!

He concentrated hard on his stitches…

… and the first ones were incredibly even!

He almost finished his bunny but got distracted when his little bro (3) started colouring some eggs that I had cut out of the felt leftovers.

He decided to finish his bunny tomorrow and to “help” his brother instead.

I guess we will sew together the next bunnies with my sewing machine – but I’m very proud of my little sewing pal.

On other news, I finished my March Blocks for Sew-Euro-bee-an. Floh asked for wonky stars – another first for me. They were easy to make – and if I had not prompted Mr. Seamripper to make an appearance it would have even been a quick finish.

On the third and fourth block I somehow attached the triangles the wrong way (see lower right block). After some muttering and swearing and seam ripping I finally got it right and finished two 12,5” blocks.

I tried to use different colours from those that my fellow bee members had chosen. I hope you’ll like them, Floh! I already added a wonky star quilt to my to-sew list…

Happy sewing everyone!
Christine