Suomi 100, Finland 100 years!

On 6.12. in Finland we celebrate independence day. This year it is extra special and we had many 100 years celebrations, exhibitions, and activities. There is also a Suomi 100 quilt exhibition on facebook.
I absolutely love the idea to make a special blue-white quilt to celebrate our independency and the thought has been in my mind... well... since january. Quite to my shock the months of september and october flew by on my calender. And no Finland-quilt was yet under my maschine.
And with all my other obligations and other half-finished quilts it became also clear, that I am not up to a full sized quilt, because I wanted it to be ready for 6.12. Therefore I decided a pillow case will do, we don't have many of those anyway, and I can surely do a pillow case in one month!

Blue and white fabrics

After browsing possible patterns online and in my stack of magazine. I decided, I wanted something not only blue and quilt, but something modern and which actually comemorates this year and all that it was. Then I remembered having seen online QR-code-quilt with a wedding day and the brides' and grooms' name. A quick google search revealed an easy to use QR generator. I tested several phrases, taking into account the small size of a pillow case.

From there I calculated the size I need for each square, and decided for 1 inch squares including seam allowances, that means 1/2 inch finished size.

Cutting one inch strips

I also decided to sew each square, even though there might be several same coloured ones in a row, to keep the feel and the pattern of the pillowcase even. That means, at first I took a very close look at the pattern to analyse the repeating units. Then I sew several strip units in white-blue, white-white, blue-blue, white-blue-white-blue, blue-blue-blue, etc.

Sewing strip sets

Several strips sewn and pressed

I imagined the pattern into nine units guided by the three big framed blue squares in the corners. From there, I assembled the top line by line.

The top is ready

At last, I framed with a white and a blue thin stripe and a bigger white strip to make up to the 50 cm pillow. Because there are so many seams, I added batting and quilted front and back side of the pillow case, it also gives nice stability.

I am quite happe how it turned out and it the pillow is currently decorating our sofa in the living room.

If you haven'f figured it out yet, the code says "Suomi 100", so this really IS my Suomi 100 quilt.

Have you done any crafts for this special year?

  

The final pillow case

Recycling fabric for a baby quilt - a first

I wrote in my column in "Tilkkulehti" my experiences concerning recycling fabric. I love flea markets and secondhand stores. Many of my clothes and day to day items were purchased in one of them. But then there is my hobby...
I am almost ashamed to admit, that my quilting fabric is 99% new fabric, in quilting cotton. Quilting is my guilty pleasure. So I challenged myself to try to find cotton fabric suitable for quilting at several fleamarkets and make a baby quilt out of it. The main criteria for me were bright colour, cotton in about quilting weight quality, not too light and not too thick, and also not too washed out.

I received "free hands" in design, when I asked the mom-to-be about the baby quilt. She only asked for bright colours. The gender was unknown, when I started the work, but I knew it would be a boy by the time I added the binding.

The final babyquilt

I ended up buying a couple of shirts and blouses, a cotton skirt, and a dress.

Because of the small pieces for my design and the change in cotton quality, I opted for paper piecing. The template was quickly drawn in "Paint". I didn't feel the need to starch the fabric, but I could see that it might be useful for thin fabrics. The baby quilt ended up being over 50 % made of recycled fabric.

Pulling out the paper pieces after assembling the quilt.

The occasional curse escaped my lips, concerning the small, small pieces I chose to use. But the end result was worth it, in my opinion.


The batting was leftover cotton batting, and the backside is made from an "ikea" fleece blanket to make it nice and soft and cuddly.

The backside, finished quilting.

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I opted for a small meander pattern, with the occasional flower free handed into the quilting. I think flowers are fine for baby boys, too. The thread was Aurifil white to blend and sit into the fabric.

The quilting

Closeup on the front.

I quite liked the experienced and I am sure to look out for good recycle fabric in the future. This is not my last recycle project!

What is YOUR experience with reused and repurposed fabric?

Allietare and texas waltz finishes

I am on the backlog of some finished quilts, actually finished quilts!

We are already living september now, and  have to confess, that I havent been quilting quite as much as I would have wanted. The Allietare quilt has been finished in April, you can see it from the lack of green vegetation in the picture.

Now my next finish, my texas waltz quilt got its last stitches when the vegetation is yet again turning to autumn.

The texas waltz quilt has been in my mind for several years, after seeing a picture on the interweb. It took me about two years to get all the brown fabrics together (including some last minute panic purchases, because while sewing I ran out! math ... not my strength). I started Texas Waltz last year November, and while it was not always my first in line quilt, with some smaller projects in between, it took my until September, i.e. 10 months from start to finish. 10 months of brown bits and pieces laying around in my studio.
After the quilttop was done I contemplated and procrastinated on actually quilting it. One reason was, because it is an enourmously big quilt. I think we all know the chore of pushing a big quilt through a small sewing machine. And the other reason was, because I had set my mind to free motion quilt the center blogs.

The initial straight ling stitch in the ditch quilting finally went quite easily by. Step by step and line by line. This was followed by a period of drawing the free motion design onto the quilt with fabric marker. I practiced the design a few times on a practice sandwich and then jumped into it. After ten designrepeats, I started to get into a nice rhythm. I also realized that I could slow down the speed of the sewing machine a bit, and it resulted into better stitch pattern. This improved my quilting a lot.

There is still lots to be practiced in free motion quilting, but it is a start, and I am happy about it.

Have you had any finishes lately?

handsewing, a course

Hello all

last weekend, there was a break from routine and I got to participate at a wonderful hand-sewing, english paper piecing course at Peekaa. Which means, now I officially know how to paper-piece :D

Jokes aside, as always, there were so many "Aha!"-moments, which makes me wondering why I keep on struggling alone. Also... what made me handbaste, when there are these wonderful glue-basting-sticks available.

Cutting out thick paper templates. Pencil for scale. Gluebasting the fabric around the templates.

The center piece: yellow star and turquoise borders.

Whipstiching along. More then once did we establish that I am SLOW.... Slowly but surely the ring of pentagons gets assembles. Slowly.

 

We ended the course with the first of ten tiny starts. Pen for scale!

So fun.

All in all, I loved the challenge and I loved the newly learned techniques. Will it become a while quilt? Questionable. But I will continue for a while. Not that I would need more started projects...

Handsewing again

Do you ever wonder where all your batting goes?
I buy it in six to nine meter batches, and then it sits there in my closet, taking up a vast amount of space. I open my closet and there is this nothing in it but batting.
And yet... I finished my table topper (see last post) and my baby blanket, ready to get the quilting started... and... not a single crump of batting in the whole house. Just a few scraps, sewn together not even enough for the table topper....

This has me confused.

I don't get to the LQS before friday, so what does a woman do? Handsewing.
I took my long-term-travel-and-in-between hegaxon project out. There are times I wonder will it ever get finished. And there I times I want to through it out all together. What made me start it?

But today... it actually felt good. Some relaxing handsewing, while watching the latest QI-episode. That is a nice way to spend the evening.

Today's yield. Maybe it will be finished eventually. In a few years time....

table runner in top stage

Hi all!

Last weekend, I managed to fit in some quite sewing time. What a bliss in my current hectic lifestyle!

The first priority was set on finishing the table runner top from lasts post, and I am proud to announce that after lots and lots of ironing seam allowances in the right direction (and sometimes re-ironing in the other direction, because...). The second part of my bargello table runner got ready:

I am so pleased with it, and I love how the the bargello shades give the appearance of a blurry shadow. I am sure, this was not my last bargello-type project. However, this work will have to wait now for a bit until I have time for quilting.

I have a baby quilt in my head and the deadline is approaching. The first step is ready:

With all the sewing going on, I also made a big dent in my leaders-and-enders project. This almost gives me anxiety, because I will have to think about a new l-a-e project soon. Any idea? Do you use leaders and enders?

My boxes of 5x5 cm2 pieces.

The fabric squares were already sewn into two pieces, and this weekend I got to sew two two-pieces together this weekend.

These fabric pieces will eventually turn into 4x4 them, as seen above. I have a bit over 80 squares and I am aiming for about the same amount still. When all squares are sewn, I will either sash them or sew them together with out sashing. What do you think? What would you do?

Sneak preview

Hello all, time for an update on my current work in process. This is a gold-black-beige bargello style table runner. I love bargello quilts, and yet I have never done anything larger than a small block in my sampler quilt. I worked the pattern out with the help of the owner of our local quilt shop. She had a wonderful christmas tablerunner in this pattern. Choosing the right fabric... that was so far the hardest part, followed by deciding on the sequence.

 

Taking picture of the arrangements to look at it every now and then... does this work?

 The tube all sewn and ironed.

 Cutting the strip sets and opening the tubes.

 Nesting the seams works quite nicely. Sewing and sewing and sewing.

 Aaaaand first half done, time for a sneak preview :-)

I quite like how this is coming along. Maybe I need to add a further unit to the end to make it longer, but I'll decide on it, when I am further. Hopefully I can continue soon.

Happy New Year 2017

Hi all,

We have crossed the line and welcomed the New Year yesternight. I wish you all success and joy with your quilting endeavours as well as the other important parts of your life.

Is there some special quilting goal you have set for myself? Drop me a comment, I would love to read what you are planning!

My goal for 2017 is to finish a couple of UFOs and be more consistent with my quilting. A little bit sewing here and there goes a long way, even though I may not have time for a full weekend retreat-style quilting. I would like to master some new technique, but have not set my eye on anything specific, let's see what the year will bring. Maybe even working on free-motion quilting?

And remember:

Merry christmas 2016 everyone!

This is it. Christmas Eve 2016. What a year!

Advent wreath

We are visiting the grandparents, so I had the chance to take a picture of a table runner I gave them a couple of years ago. I love the pattern! Simple squares of assorted christmas and red fabrics, together with simple eight-pointed stars in yellow. I quilted simple wavy lines across the length.

Christmas table runner

I used cut and sewed and cut and sewed. In the end I had material for four runners and matching oven mittens. :-)

Detail of table runner

This project was before someone told me how to do the binding properly. At some time I will need to fix this :-)

Are there things you constantly did "wrong" or more complicated before someone told you? What are some things you could measure your quilting-progress?

End of the year thoughts?

We are living now in the middle of the run towards christmas, the mid-end of december rush of the year. And yet it is also time to reflect on the year that has passed, to think what we have achieved, and to ponder where we could do better.

Of course that includes a quick review of the quilts finished this year. My overall yield of quilts was depressingly low this year, mainly due to work and schedule problems. This is not a complaint, I feel truly priviliged to have work and my life is richer than ever. Nevertheless, next year, I surely want to give my hobby a bigger priority than I did in 2016.

Below a scrap quilt, that was lying in top-staged for the longest time. I found a deal for a suitable back fabric in august and quilted simple crossing serpentines with the walking food of my maschine. I gave it to our neighbour yesterday, because I used many of the scraps she had given me.

Some colours in the white-grey snowy landscape.

For this project I had cut up all my leftovers strips and patches into suitable length and width. They were foundation pieced on very 25 x 25 cm squares of very old and very thin bedlinen. Sewing took place either as "leaders and enders" during other projects or every now and then a square or two by itself. After all squares were covered in strips, all of them were squared up and sewn together in a diamond manner.

I loved going through my scraps and remember the rpojects they were used in :-) THere was definitely a green and a turquoise time. Oh and all the pinks!

 spread on the snow.....

How are your thoughts concerning 2016? Any plans for 2016?

Have a great holiday season!

Quilting on-the-go

It is April already! Snow has almost melted and spring is coming in big steps.

Lately, my work requires me to travel to another city. A lot.
That was enough incentive for me to pull out my travel quilting -kit. I am in the progress of slowly assempling a hexagon quilt. Mainly while travelling. The quilt has been all over Europe and twice to London.

Have you been quilting while traveling? Do you have  a travel project? Do you have any special memories involed quilting on the road?

My favourite memory is sitting in London Hyde Park, enjoying the sun and stitching some hexagons. It was great!

 I have a huge stack of these black and white fabrics already basted around cardboard hexagons. You can see in the picture, that I use bright green and red basting thread, these are easy to see and then to remove later.


At first I sew two of these hexagons together.
And then I sew two double hexagons together to form a diamond.

 The diamonds are sewn into strips and these are later attached to the "mother ship", which is too large to take on travels (about 1.2 m x 0.8 m).












Here is my kit. The turquoise box is from a famous plastic box seller and everything I need fits neatly inside. I have some needles, scissors black thread and red basting thread, extra cardboard hexagons, pre cut fabrics (I use square cut about 10 cm x 10 cm, I like the extra fabric on the back for extra warmth). And of course a stash of about 40 basted hexagons at the moment.

I think this quilt will end up looking very modern and masculine. 

Have a good spring everybody and let me know what you are sewing on!

Snow white dress

Hello everyone.
How is spring time for you?

There was a first sign of spring in the morning air, an almost warm feeling and the snow is melting. Definitely time for spring. Do you have any Easter-sewing going on?

My Allietare quilt was paused last weekend, because I was focused on a special sewing task commissioned by my darling daughter and her upcoming birthday.

I quite like the way it turned out, and I had learned from previous dresses, that to make the arms "puff" really nicely, one has to use absolutely enormous amounts of fabric!

No pattern, just measured and eyeballed. (The dress actually IS symmetrical, it just lays down a bit crooked)

Allietare Clue 5

Yes, yes, yes!

This weekend, was wonderful, no work to do and time to relax and sew. And the mood was elevated even further by my good friend coming by and we spend the whole saturday afternoon sewing, drinking tea, and chatting while the kids where playing together. I don't know how it could get any better. And with the help of this extra sewing time, I just flew through clue 5.

(I even assembled 4 gold blogs, to see how they will fit and look.)

How does a perfect sewing afternoon for you look like?

A quilt top for my parents

This is a christmas present for my parents a couple of years ago (2012).
I started the quilt as a railway fence lapquilt, in 2009. It laid unfinished in the closet, something was missing. And it was too small.
I searched for a nice border, but I had also run out of fabric. And the borders should fit to my parent's style. During that summer's holidays at home, a detail in the tiling of the floor caught my eyes:

 Here is a detail of the corner tile:

And here a close-up on the side borders:

I measured the size of the railway fence top, and calculated a reasonable size for each unit. Then I drew a cardbard template and reproduced the pattern on two-sided adhesive interface and ironed on the fabric. And then cutting. A lot of cutting.And then a LOT of appliqué.

This picture shows the finished top, and I quite like how it came out. It was quilted with stitch in the ditch on the center part and echo quilting in the border. It was bound witht he same dark green fabric as was used in the inner border.

The quilt found a permanent place on my parent's sofa and it fits exquisitely into the style of the house.

Now I feel I want to do some appliqué. What's udner your needle?