My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

UPDATE: FREE pattern available now! Download here. 
Pattern release blog post here 

So here it is: my very first quilt top as a finally finished quilt:

As I started the quilt top in September 2013 it got so big that I laid it aside. Earlier this year I wanted to finish it and decided to cut the top so that the white squares are off center. The quilt has now a lap size and I think that was a good decision! I used the remaining stripes for the back.

I went with a wavy quilting design which I think is very suitable.

Oh, you may wonder why the quilt is called Regatta. Besides sewing I am also rowing. The latter is a very time consuming hobby but I love it and I'm rowing since 25 years now, always competitive on different levels. Meanwhile I am rowing in the masters class which is great fun.
So of course I took photos of the quilt at my rowing club.

Our boat house has a very old beautiful timber facade which was the perfect back drop for the photos. 

I followed this tutorial by Holly DeGroot of Bijou Lovely, there is a great video she made and after just some wavy lines this quilting technique is actually very easy and super fun.
I again used multi coloured Aurifil thread in blue/ white.

I'm very proud of this quilt and I'm also happy that I only finished it recently. Back in 2013 I would have not been able to make the quilt as beautiful as it is now.

I'm linking this with Crazy Mom's finish up Friday.

And .................  I'm also linking this to the Blogger's Quilt Festival of Amy's Creative Side - how exciting!!!

7 1/2 quilts in 13 months - a review and change

Gosh! My first quilting anniversary has passed last month and I didn't even notice! I kind of could remember it was some time last September but I needed to check the dates on the first photos I took. I started with my Regatta quilt top on September 8th 2013!
And that's what I've done so far:

That's quite an impressive stack of quilts I think!
The only quilt missing is my Mom's Lotta quilt which I couldn't add for the photo.

So what do we have (bottom to top):
My furry friend
Goggle Box
Phoenix
Emerald Isle
Baby quilt Lara
Regatta (quilting in progress)
Sea Breeze (finished quilt top)

The Regatta quilt meanwhile is completely finished and I took photos of it last weekend, I need to edit them and I'll put up a blog post soon!

The Sea Breeze quilt top is finished as well, that needs to wait a bit though since I started another quilt (really!) and I'm also caught up in some autumn projects - more about it later!

A review
I have learned a lot during the last year!
Sewing an accurate 1/4 inch seam for example, economical cutting of fabric, learned several piecing techniques, practised different free motion quilting designs, got to understand how my sewing machine works, learned what colour goes with what and that I really have to follow a tutorial for a quilt block (more about this later in relation to the Sea Breeze quilt...).
And I have so much fun!

A change
From my next blog post on I will write also in German. I realised that when I want to reach German readers that I need to write in German. Even though most Germans speak English, a German blog soley written in English might be a bit offputting and I don't want that.
I have no clue how to do it (first English then German, one language in italic or in a different colour?) but I'll figure something out which will not make an entire blog post too long (otherwise no one is reading anything any more!) and which will look visually pleasing too.

And I also will link my posts to some great crafty sites out there (once I figured out how that works)!

So, thanks for reading and keep on sewing!