Geese in Ring Swap Quilt – part 1

As I have previously blogged about, I am the swap host of the Geese in a Ring Swap, which ended up with 6 Rounds (of 8 participants). I am so very happy and proud that so many liked my idea and this block!! I had only anticipated 1, perhaps 2 rounds. Several of these talented ladies joined 1 or 2 addtional rounds, would you believe it?

And I am very happy, that Krista decided to become my partner-in-swap-crime. She is an immense help, sorting and sending blocks to the US and Canada folks. Thanks chica, you are fantastic!!

Up till now Rounds 1 to 4 have passed the deadline, and I think it was right about time for me to finish my top for Round 1 (the good example and so...). All the blocks I received are just soooo beautiful, I wish you could see them in person! And some of the participants even sent me bonus blocks, so I did not have to add any further blocks!

I had a fairly clear idea that I wanted the top to enhance the geese blocks, but I also wanted the blocks to be separated a little to show off each and every one of them and to create some areas for the eyes to rest after taking a swirl around the geese blocks.

I had quite an amount of the right coloured fabrics from an abandoned project, so I put them to good use and lo and behold: they had the exact right size!! Yippee!!

Here is the finished top, spread out on our couch. Trying to photograph in the afternoon at this time of year is just not the best combination. Oh well!

I love seeing these pictures of quilt tops hung in front of a window, giving the impression of stained glass. Here is my version, and I quite like it!

 

Detail

 

For the back I chose some oh-so-soft voile from Anna Maria Horner’s line Little Folks and in order to get it the right size, I simply added another road of squares and made a mini block of Geese in a ring. Such a cutie block (size 6 inches).

But how on earth am I going to quilt it?!?
I follow the very talented long arm quilter Angela Walters’ blog, and she has started a Monday series on how to find inspiration for quilting and asked of her readers to send in examples. Too good to be true!!! So I hurried, took a very crappy dark evening picture of the top with my iPhone and immediately sent it to her. Perhaps she would choose it?! 

And Angela sure did! And would you believe it: she had Lynne from Lily’s Quilts add her 10 cents on the toptoo – I almost fainted when I found out!!! Squeeeeeel!! Here is the direct link to the article. 

Angela is going to start a series on how to quilt on an ordinary household machine too, so consider putting her blog in your reader. 

If you have any suggestions how to quilt this top, please inspire me – I think I am beginning to form an idea, but inputs are most welcome!

Finally: My birthday quilt to Krista

Way back mid 2011, I found a free pattern using petal shaped, raw-edge appliquéed scraps.

Now, I cannot for the life of me find the orginal pattern, nor the homepage where I saw it first (remember to keep track, guys!) . I though it was from Fat Quarterly, but I simply cannot locate anywhere.

So, if you recognize it, please let me know and I will give credit to whom credit is rightfully due!

I really wanted to try it out, but did not have the scraps, nor the time!'

Then one day, my far-far-away friend Krista posted an absolutely lovely quilt she had made for herself on her blog. And a little time later I had to admit to myself, that one of UFO was never meant to be, which resulted in loads of abandoned fabric, just in the right size for the above mentioned patten.

Then Krista and I started up the Geese in a Ring Swap together (yes, we live in different parts of the world, but who cares? That is what the internet and email is for, right?!) and not long thereafter, she gave birth to the sweetest tiny boy, Jacob.

Krista is the mother of 3 small boys, and I think she is a wonderful person: 

Juggling hospitalization, babies, surgeries, a home, a husband, quilting, running.... I could continue. And all along she is keeps on being as sweet, caring and funny as when I joined my first virtual quilting bee back in 2009 and clicked with her.

SO! When I found out her birthday was coming up, I decided to make her a birthday quilt!

This is the end result (click for a larger picture):

The fabrics used are (among others): Tufted Tweets (Laurie Wisbrun), Modern Meadow (Joel Dewberry), some of Pat Bravo's designs and Parisville (Tula Pink) and a few Kona solids

Sashing: Kona Cotton Berry

The main fabric with the dots have been in my stash for ages.

The backing was made by the last of the dotted fabric, a tiny bit of Kona and then the remaining leaves scattered in a vine-inspired way, on a whim. I am actually not sure which side I like the most!

For the back, I free-motion quilted the laves onto the back, using the quilting to enhance the leaves' shape and connecting them with thread-branches. 

Note to self: next time, use stabilizer, it will be so much more easy! ;o)

 

 I quilted the entire quilt sandwich (I again used bamboo batting for maximum softness) with diagonal lines through the blocks to get discreet stability, and also around each block. Wow, that straight line quilting is fast!!

Finally, I bound it with dotted fabric, packed it together with the first 2 rounds' worth of geese blocks from all over the world and sshipped it off to Krista on 23rd December 2011.

Krista received the pack yesterday, and since it was a surprice I have not been able to blog about it before now !! Hehehe! Got you, sweet chica!!

A quilt for sweet Line

For the last 5 month, our little son Johan has been looked after during the day by LINE, the sweetest woman you could wish for, while mom and dad has been at work. He has been together with only one other child at the same age during these months.

Now it is time to say thanks and a sad goodbye to Line, as we have finally obtained a place for him in a good nursery. It has been a gentle way to get him used to us not always being around. And he adores her!

So, I have decided to make Line a quilt as a thank-you-so-very-much-gift!
And I have found out, in the most sneaky way, that Line loves purple, so later that night I made a raid in my purple stash and this is how it started:

Underway:

Halfway there, the sandwich ready to be safety-pinned:

The finished, quilted but NOT washed and tumble-dried result, as I ran out of time at the end measures 140 x 210 cm/55 x 83'':

Front:

Back:
Detail of the quilting:

The quilting is a special stitch in my sewing machine. Normally it is for straight line quilting, which i have used at the edges, but I also bended it a bit and made it into a circle in the centres. I used variegated thred for the quilting.

I LOVE IT! As simple as that...
Line received it today, and she loved it just as much as me - it will have a nice home to go to and to be cuddled under.

Thank you Line, for giving us and our little guy a safe start during my first months back at work. I hope I convey my heartfelt gratitude for the stability and love you gave to our most precious little one!!

Sunday stash

I was tempted by this delicious selection of fabrics at Hawthorne Threads.

I really love their webshop: So many yummy fabrics (!) and some really brilliant features, such as suggestions to coordinating fabrics and the possibility of finding coordinating fabrics by colourway based on the current fabric (look at the bottom of the page). I think this is FANTASTIC.

My Sunday stash is a combination of Modern Meadow in the berry colourway (by Joel Dewberry), several fabrics from Pat Bravo in berry and plum and a few others.

I see a berry/plum quilt in my very near future, to soften up all of the blues and greens that currently surround me. It is self-inflicted, I admit, as I have made it with my bf and son in loving mind :)

I love berry and plum - both as colours as well as the fruits. Yum!

What are your favourite colours right now??

Still here..!

I am still around and now I have my Pfaff back. Yaaayy!

This means that I have started on 2 projects: Yeeeeeessss my friends, one was not enough for me, teheee (I refuse to count the numerous UFO's that float around).
This is one of them: I am trying out curves for the very first time, and I have news for (some of) you: It is not hard at all!! Super easy in fact, and NO pinning is needed. Yep!

I am making a Drunkard's Path circle quilt, and I just use the method so nicely described by Jaybird Quilts in her video to be found here.

She also uses the GO! cutter that I sell on my brand new web-shop Kvinta Quilts - wooooohoooo (beware it is in Danish only). I finally got my act together and finalized some stuff and received most of the Kona Cotton. Oh yes, Kona is a rare thing here in Denmark too!

However, I have not used the special curves sewing foot, but just a normal one with a fabric guide on the right (for more precise seam allowances), and it was just perfect too *grins*. I really cannot believe how easy this method is - try it out!!

The recipient (that does not know she will get a quilt) loves purple so I hit my stash and found all kinds of purple for it - soooooo good for using up stash!! Yes! I think I love it already, and I have not even begun assembling the quilt yet, just been petting the fabrics ever so gently, re-arranging and pressing all the purple yumminess.
Can you tell I am exited?

I have not taken any pics of the other project, sorry.. You will get that in another post ;)

Siggy rehersal

I am still here!
Just to tell you that I am still here and actively quilting *smile*

I am eagerly awaiting my fabrics for the 'modern siggy swap' to arrive, in order to get started on the 101 signature blocks.

These are the fabrics I have chosen: Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos
+ a solid white for the signature part of the block:



In my wish for the swap blocks to be nice, I decided to make some rehersal blocks:

I had some left-over IKEA bed linen fabric, that I had bought and cut for junior bed linen to my little boy.

The scraps became traning siggy blocks, that eventually ended up as new pillow cases. This is one of them.

Now my little boy requires my attention - blog you later!!

Delayed birthday gift to myself :)

Happy (delayed) birthday to me!

As a treat to myself I went to Pink Chalk Fabric's homepage and bought 4 Kona Cotton solids in the brown/purple range: 1.5' of the colours Berry, Raisin, Eggplant and 0.5' of Coffee.

I really, really love the richness and depth of these colours!

Besides those lovelies, I decided to spend a Kona Cotton Color Card on me - such great inspiration and... oh-oh, the temptations *giggle*. Not all stores carries this card, but Pink Chalk Fabric has just re-stocked. It is so worth the cost of 16$!


Edit: I have just checked this, and it appears that she is out of stock again - very popular item, I guess!!

At my local fabric store 'Stjerne Stoffer' here in Denmark, I recently purchased two pieces of fabric that will go well with the Konas, not sure which one to choose - guess that depends on the pattern I eventually decide upon :)


Fabrics are reallyexpensive here in Denmark, compared to the prices in the US, which is why I even am willing to pay the 13$ in shipping for the above items (yep, that is right!!).

However, I wonder if any of you out there in blog-land have any experience in internet shops that are willing to make special arrangements for shipping abroad a.k.a. Denmark?

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy and creative New Year!!