First step, done!

This the first step towards completion of a little project I have given myself, related to an exibition/fair I have been invited to participate in from May to August next year! This is vey exiting as I get to make stuff without a recepient in mind, and to be honest, I find it a bit difficult.

This piece is done with a pattern and partly a tutorial from thebluechair and the "porthole" technique taught by Lu Summers at the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012.

Each fabric only appears once, thanks to a couple of charm swaps I have participated in this and last year :)

More to come!!

Action shot

My little design helper in action!

Part of the blocks from my fellow FQR kinky bee'ers, laid out on living room floor.

Quilt for Johan's kindergarten

Some time ago we went to a parents' meeting in Johan's kindergarten.

Kindergartens in Denmark are fairly inexpensive, compared to what I hear from other countries, as approximately half of the costs are paid by the state, over our tax-system.

However, this does NOT mean that there are plenty of ressources to purchase stuff for (neither for the employees, nor for the children). On the contrary. So, unoffically, they have to ask the parents for help and I volounteered to help them with a little hemming of a set of curtains and when I saw the state of a little, very worn out couch, I secretly decided to make a quilt to cover it and for the kiddos to snuggle with.

So this quilt came to be:

A very easy and fast quilt to make, as it made from a layer cake (10 x 10 inches) of  Riley Blake's Line "Alphabet Soup, Boy" and additional 10 x 10  blocks cut from Erin McMorris' line "Lake Summersault", paired with Kona solids.  I love the bright and happy patterns and colours!
The quilt had to be quite big to cover the couch adequately, so it ended up measuring whopping 92.5'' x 55''!

 

The back is made from leftovers from the front (only tiny bits!), leftovers from an IKEA cars bedding sheet I had shortened to make bedding for Johan and more Kona solids.

Yes! It was quite windy when I tried to get some decent photos! :)
Gotta love those cars and trucks and busses!

 

I quilted a dense all-over doodle and the ends with straight line quilting, to ensure that the quilt would be able to withstand the wear and tear and lot of washing such a quilt have to undergo.

 

And who does not love a striped binding in happy, happy colours!?
I surely cannot :)

The quilt was delivered by Santa's little helper (aka Johan) on December 1st. It was very well received, patted, admired and was immediately used to hide all 12 kiddos under, that is Johan's group!

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!!

Finished Freedom Swap quilt

It is finished!

I sent out turquoise and brown fabrics and got a heap of finished blocks back - all I had to do was to sew one single block myself to complete the layout. Thank you to all the ladies at the Freedom Block Swap, round 1.

I first laid out the blocks with a white/cream sashing - that did absolutely nothing good for the blocks, much to my surprise!
Then I tried to find a maching solid turquoise - no good either.... So I wandered around somewhat frustrated for a minute or two... perhaps even half an hour.... perhaps more ;-)

An then my sweetheart suggested that I try a chocolate brown Kona. What?? I am not too fond of brown and had no intention of it to becoming too overwhelming in this quilt, but I decided to try out his advise, and lookie what a lovely quilt this gave me:

Gotta love a man that saves you like this, huh?!?

More pics, just for show-off:

I machine quilted it in doodles (love doodles, it is almost meditative to quilt them) and bound it in the stripe/dot fabric also used in the blocks. The batting is again 100% bamboo - it is expensive but soooo soft!

The backing was the fabric that made me choose the other fabrics in the first place: Brown turquoise coffe theme, with a tiny Eiffel Tower, and then a broad strip of the fabrics used at the front. My favorite is the one with the butterflies - love it!

This quilt is finished just in time for the autumn season - the temperature has dropped 10 degrees Celsius from one day to the next here, and now it will most certainly be used by my bf, who has until now had to do with Johan's baby-mini-quilt. And he deserves it - being all designer-ish with the brown sashing and all!


And just to finish it off: A photo of Johan who will turn 2 in 15 days!

Quilt for Anke

Anke is a very caring and thoughtful woman, who is one of the moms in my Mother Group - do you have that where you live? A group of women, with the only thing in common that they have become mothers around the same time as you, brought together by the specialist trained nurse who come and check upon us during the first months after the birth of the little precious one, giving advise and answers all sorts of questions :)

Anyway, Anke has been very good at inviting us into her home, at initiating all kinds of stuff, so I wanted to thank her in my own special way: with a quilt!

I decided to use a very simple pattern, that would also help me reduce my stash.
I chose blues, greens and grey (Kona Cotton Ash) for sashing, and then added a border in Kona Asparagus, which really helps brightening up the whole thing.

Here you have it, all whashed up and tumble dried. The light was plain awfull, so I have to ask you to mentally add a splosh of bright green to the border and some of the other greens in this quilt!
Hmmm... strange how it looks all warped and crooked... it is not, I promise!!

For the binding I found a striped fabric with all the exact right colours at the local quilt shop

Ever since I discovered Red Pepper Quilts' tutorial on entirely machine stitching on binding, I have been hooked! I know some of you enjoy sewing the binding down by hand and the mediative process... Well... I don't! So this method actually makes me finish my quilts, aha :))

For the quilting I decided to try yet another fancy stitch on my machine. I like how this stitch softens up the very squared and somewhat rigid pattern.
...and here it is after the tumbler drying, all puffed up. Yumminess!!
Anke has by now received her quilt and she loves it. Thank God!

If you have made it to here, thank YOU. I am currently in a finishing mood, so I hope to be able to share more quilts with you soon again!

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!!

Finally I can show you this baby quilt!

Finally, I can show you this baby quilt for my first nephew, who was baptized today, Sunday.
His name is Emil. It has been ready for months, but as it is a gift I could not reveal it before now :)

And finally a baby quilt for a BOY, so obviously I chose to make it in blues, green and a tad of purple. (it is also from this quilt that I have made my header of this blog)

The applications are the creation of my (normally not very crafty) boyfriend. But he insisted on making all sorts of vehicles for the quilt and the motorbike is a symbol for Emil's parents and their common passion :)
So indeed this has become a present from both of us! I might even ask him to make me more patterns for appliqués in the future :)


The quilting is my very first attempt to stipple, and I am very happy with it too - I know that I have shown you later examples of my stippling, but this was my first try *giggle*

The binding is finished by hand on the back. I am not good with hand stitching, so you will NOT get a closeup...


(back)

Next, I must try to use some of my after-Easter holiday days off to focus on the blocks I have not yet finished for my two quilting bees!! Shame on me...

This is it: I finally have a blog!!

Hello all you wonderful, sparkling, creative people out there!

I have been immensely inspired by all the creative minds and blogs or homepages I have read the last month or so. Mostly by quilters and other related crafts, as this is my main interest.

I must find out how to link to other blogs.... hmmm...

So now it is my turn to share my quilts and other stuff with you.

They are not many... but I have made them. All by myself!
And I am happy with the results so far :)

Take a look and let me know what you think, please.
(click on a pic to get directed to the larger version on Flickr).

This is my second baby quilt for my first niece.

This was also a present for her baptism in 2008. She is named Birgitte.

I used a pattern called "Big Bear Log Cabin", a free quilt of the month pattern from Judy Martin's website. I made a completely different choice of colour and the way I changed the colour flow over the quilt. I think it worked out nicely :)

This is my first baby quilt.

It was a baptizing present in 2007 for our good friends' first little daughter named Astrid.

I was inspired by a pattern from the wonderful Danish texture artist and quilter Charlotte Yde, called something like "Hovering Triangels", I think...
I love the shadow effect, just a bit too elusive in pale yellow!

A single bed spread to my former mother-in-law. She is a lovely lady!

Finished in 2005.
Hand quilted with little heart pattern matching one of the fabrics.

This is my first quilt, EVER!

It is a bedspread, kingsize, to my parents back in 1997.
Classic Log Cabin pattern and diagonally hand quilted. That was when I realized that I will never be the happy hand quilter. I shall leave that to others *giggle*.

About me?
I am a Danish 35-year-old girl, who just enjoys life, creating things and of course loves my boyfriend T, with whom I live at the edge of Copenhagen.

Thanks for looking at my blog!!!