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

An old friend revisited

Remember this sweet baby quilt? I made it years ago and was never able to let it go (aka give it away). But I finally found a home for it – my sister’s third baby received it for his christening.

I had to go back to fix it before wrapping and gifting, though. Back then I chose a zigzag stitch that was too narrow for the raw-edge appliqué. So the fabric began to fray after the first wash. Duh.

So I added another MUCH wider zigzag stitch to stop the fraying…

… and I added the little boys name, too. Thankfully my sister and my BIL chose another short name – very sewist-friendly (o;

Here’s a full view of the fixed version. One hardly recognizes the added stitches from a distance, does one?

I am happy I was finally able to let it go. Because that’s what quilts are meant for, aren’t they? To bring joy and comfort to someone we love.

Happy quilting!
Christine

Dare to be different – A finished Quilt

Yay! I finally finshed the scrapbuster swap quilt. It was my first swap ever and the first round was postage stamp blocks. I made a bunch of blocks, send them off across the big ocean…

… and received colourful scrappy blocks from around the world. I wanted the quilt to be big enough to serve as a throw quilt and added more blocks…

But I alwasy felt that the quilt was too busy and lacked a bit of interest and a little special something. And then, two years ago, inspiration came disguised as a book:

I knew how I wanted to use all those scrappy swap blocks. I made several grey elephants out of grey linnen. I made Elmer from more scraps and then I got stuck halfway down the way. I needed a background fabric and I was not sure how to arrange the blocks. Elmer in between colourful rows?

So what did I do? I put the entire project in a box and let it rest for almost two years. Am I the only one?!

Three weeks ago, I finally took it out again and suddenly everything went on smoothly. I made some more blocks, decided on a block layout (KISS: keep it simple and stupid) and made a reversible quilt:

And I won’t even try to diguise how happy I am with the final result. I loooooove this quilt. Both sides of the quilt. And as it is going to be used on our sofa, there is no chance that only one side will be visible.

I love how some scraps bring back memories of quilts I made and there are also squares of Mini Charm Packs that my friend Brigitte brought home from Quilt Market. I also used scraps from her four fabric lines for moda. And I love the thought, that this quilt also represents memories that my fellow swappers have of quilts that THEY made.

Here’s a close up of Elmer. Elmer is not grey like all the other elephants and at first is uncomfortable with his appearance. But by and by he realizes that his personality is not defined by his appearance and that he is happiest when he is himself – without disguise or pretentions.

A lesson I try to teach my two little sons as well: dare to be different!

So I kept the other elephants without details. I didn’t even bother to make them eyes. Only Elmer stands out. I wanted to stress his differentness by enhancing the sameness of the others.

I free motion quilted Orange Peels all over the quilt. I quilted with the patchwork side facing up, using the squares as a natural grid and using a blending grey thread for the “back”. Then I turned the quilt and stitched in the ditch of Elmer’s patchwork. Afterwards I turned the quilt again and quilted only horizontal Orange Peels (or Petals) through the other elephants.

This is a look at the back and top. I love how the Orange Peels turned out - if I do say so myself (: I thought about Dogwood at first but somehow thinking of elephants I rather thought of Orange Peel…

I used those Ann Kelle remix stripes as a binding and my favourite method of attaching the binding: the triple zig zag stitch of my sewing machine.

et voilà:

One last shoot with the patchwork side peeking over…

It is that time of the year again: It’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival again! There’s so much to be seen and so many lovely stories to be read.

This quilt is my entry for this fall. I’d say it is a Group Quilt or Scrappy Quilt.

 

Thank you very much for vising.

Please consider leaving a comment, that way I can hop over to your entry, too!

Happy Quilting everyone and remember: dare to be different!
Christine

First Finishes 2013

Happy New Year and best wishes for a healthy and happy year 2013!

I didn’t get much me-time (aka sewing time) during the holidays (and to be honest neither during most of december) so I am keen to get to my machine more often. I made a good start on New Year’s Eve and finished an easy Pillowcover for my youngest son:

Dinosaurs are quite “en vogue” over here and my boys can’t get enought of them. They memorize names and facts – the bigger the Dino’s mouth the better (o:

Guess what happens when you sew a pillowcover for one of your kids?!
Yep. I made another one on New Year’s Day.

 

And then there was another first for me this year: I never played with Denyse Schmidt’s fabrics before. Linda sent us some beautiful DS fabrics for her Sew-Euro-bee-an month:

She asked for two 12,5” patchwork blocks with a special square – a pieced or appliqued part.

Here are the two specials I made for her: a pieced block that I made up (but I’m sure there is an official name to it) and a little appliqued fish.

 

Linda, I’m sure your quilt is going to be gorgeous! And thank you very much for your giant paper clip!

Onto my resolutions for this year: More me-time. For sports, sewing and my newest discovery: audiobooks. Quite selfish, isn’t it?! Oh, and BTW I want to sew more for myself and my family. I saw someone call that selfish-sewing. I guess with those two pillows I made a good start (o: And then there is one other thing: I want to keep our house tidier. But that isn’t likely to happen as this resolution is contradictory to my first / selfish resolution… /o:

Wishing you all the best for 2013
Christine

My Quilt for Craft Book Month

Oh yes, I do love craft books. And there’s one that I bought just because I liked the cover and wanted to know what’s more inside ;o) And I wasn’t disappointed.

Imagesource: amazon.com

Jessica Levitt’s Modern Mix is all about combining your favourite prints with solids. So much inspiration! And in May I really made the cover quilt ;o)



Although I must confess that I changed the pattern a bit. It called for turn-under edges for the circles and I used raw edge appliqué instead. And I changed the dimensions according to my needs (baby quilt). I used Ann Kelle’s Urban Zoologie (again) and used my GO! Baby Circle Cutting Die. I had quite a hard time deciding on the background colour as Kelle’s colours are so bright and vibrant and I didn’t want to steal their show. But I am sooooooo pleased with how it turned out in the end!

I free motion quilted circles in different sizes all over the quilt – but behold! I cheated again – I was afraid of messing up the bigger ones so I traced around some large round objects (mostly lids) and quilted the shapes afterwards.



The only frustration is that I chose a zigzag stitch that is too narrow. Some circles start fraying and might be torn off entirely so I will have to secure them with additional stitches. Oh well.

You can find my initial post with more photos here. I’m going to link up to Craftbuds, you might want to hop over and have a look at what smarter people have come up with ;o)

Happy Sunday everyone!!!
Christine

Emma’s Baby Quilt

I finished my newborn cousin Emma’s Baby Quilt!


I used Ann Kelle’s fabrics again (Remix and Urban Zoologie). Aren’t these dogs just the cutest?!

I simply cut 6” squares and sashed them with 1” white strips. I added a 6” piece of white fabric and appliqued the letters with a zig zag stitch.

I added my nametag in the lower right corner:

And added a pieced backing (using almost all of the scraps from the top):

And then I messed it up.
I stitched in the ditch and as I can’t change the position of the presser or walking foot, the fabric was shifted so much the quilt is completely wonky now. Urgh. I hope Emma and her parents won’t mind. It doesn’t show that much after washing and drying – it was far worse before.
Here’s a closeup.

I’ll add a visit to my local Pfaff Dealer to my to do list. Chances are I’m just too slow to get how to change the height of the foot. There’s no hint in the manual though.
Overall I’m quite happy with Emma’s Quilt, I just hope that her parents will like it. It’s not the usual pink-rose-pastels-version…
That’s it for today.
Happy Sewing!
Christine
P.S. Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

First Finish from FQSR London: Portholes Pillow

I finished one of the projects started on FQSR London Weekend! I made a sample block in Lucie Summers' class and turned it into a small pillow. It measures around 30 cm x 30 cm. In class I managed to sew on an envelope back and just had to make the binding at home. I used a 2,5'' solid strip and attached it to the top. I folded it over to the back and stitched in the ditch. I have to confess that I do love it very much and I'm sure I'll do more portholes in the near future. Thanks Lucie for the entertaining class :o)

Happy Sewing!

Christine

Quilt Cars 'n Dots

I finished this Babyquilt today...

When I started out with these fabrics (Ann Kelle and some dots from my local fabric store with no credits on the selvages), I  just wanted to make a patchwork quilt. No sashing, no borders. But IMO it looked too busy.

I sliced some of the dotty squares and framed them wonkily in white.

Huh. Still not happy.

Next I decided to give it a little more structure. I opted for regular layout instead of random. Better now.

I added a pieced backing... with leftover squares from the top. (I will one day do this one again - and use it as a top... like it veeeeeeeeeeery much...)

And free motion quilted some squares and rectangles...

Today, I added a srappy binding (with leftovers from the top). I attached the 2,5" binding to the front, folded it over to the back and used a decorative (circle) stitch of my sewing machine to finish the binding (stitching from the front side). 

What I liked best about making this quilt is that I made parts of it "open air": The first warm days at the beginning of May were turned into an "Ironing Outdoors Event"...

 ...and a really hot Whitsun made me take outdoors my sewing machine for the first time ever to FMQ on the porch. I actually finished FMQ on two quilts that day :o) 

Usually I don't even dare to sew when the kids are home. But give them some water to play with in the garden and they are happy and let me have my way all day long :o))) Yayyy!

And as this one didn't turn out the way I had planned it (all Patchwork), I guess I will have to re-add a "real Patchwork Quilt" to my to do list.

Happy Sewing everyone!

Christine