2017 a round up

I can't believe this year has come to an end already. So much has happened, so much has changed.
I give you a little insight first: I made 4 large quilts, 3 mini quilts, 3 bee quilts, 2 pillows, lots of bee blocks and finally a Super Tote and a Sew Together Bag.

But quantity was not what I was aiming for.

My year started with the second Regatta Quilt I made in January 2017 following the pattern release at the end of 2016.

I still can't believe the success this quilt pattern has and how many people love both quilts I made. I was surprised and really happy to learn that Roseanne of Home Sewn By Us is hosting a Sew along starting on January 1st 2018. Roseanne did such a nice write up on the quilt and the pattern that I still feel flattered. So if you would like joinimg the quilt along get in touch with Roseanne!

A highlight this year was definitely my visit to QuiltCon in Savannah, GA that took place in February 2017. It was my first time attending QuiltCon and it will not be my last. In fact I'm going again in February 2018 to Pasadena!

Amanda Jean@crazymomquilts gave away two of her gorgeous pin cushions to Christiane @misssewing  and me!

To me QuiltCon was about the quilts of course but also about people and their generosity, kindness and willingness to share knowledge. QuiltCon gave me the feeling that I have found my tribe.

Over excitement meeting Jacquie Gering!

Also seeing so many beautiful quilts up close and personal gave me confidence to enter my own quilts for QuiltCon 2018. I entered three quilts, one has been selected to be in the show. I am so excited to be there when my quilt 'Splinter' will be exhibited.

I think Splinter is the quilt I am most proud of. I finished it just before the QuiltCon submission dead line at the end of November 2017. It's on its way to the States already, hope it arrives save and sound.

After QuiltCon 2017 I set up my own little sewing corner in our living room, having sewn at our kitchen table for almost 4 years.

I see my fabrics every day now, have a different mini quilt on display ever so often and have my sewing stuff readily available. So much better!

My first mini quilt of 2017 was 'Broken X', which I made in line with the February Challenge of the Might Lucky Quilting Club.

  I also got a new sewing machine in June 2017! It's a Juki QVP mini and I love it. 

Here I am free motion quilting my second ever bee quilt. An improv quarter log cabin quilt which I made with the help of my Quilty Circle of Bees.

I am having so much fun with my bee, we actually made another secret baby quilt in July 2017 for one our members Yara and her baby Ella.

Therefore that we all sew with our own fabrics the quilts always have a very cohesive design.

Like my very first bee quilt I started in 2016 but only finished it in 2017:

My 'Cosy Comfort' quilt following the 'Amsterdam Quilt' pattern by Cloud 9 Fabrics is still one of my favourites.

Another highlight was my workshop in May 2017 with Katie Pedersen in Seattle, WA.

I signed up for the psychedelic baby block/ improv strip piecing workshop at Katie's beautiful design studio.

And that's 'Emerald City', one of my favourite quilts to date and the result from Katie's workshop. I finished it in November 2017.

The fourth large quilt I made was this Giant Plus Quilt:

It has a snuggly fleece back and was a gift to a dear friend.

2017 was the first time I joined the Pantone Quilt Challenge. The colour of the year 2017 was 'Greenery' and I entered 'Nature's Neutral' into the mini quilt category.

I'm all excited about the Pantone colour of the year 2018: Ultra Violet. I will definitely take part in the Pantone quilt challenge again!

I also took part in a mini quilt swap. The topic was HST (half square triangles) and I had fun making 'Play Cube'.

The quilting was done with my old sewing machine... While I really liked the quilt it also taught me not to take photos in the blazing sun.

I learned a lot this year. The lectures at QuiltCon for example opened my mind in regards to design and how other quilters approach their quilt making process. I learned to hand stitch binding to a quilt and bags and pouches don't scare me anymore.

Most importantly I learned to embrace my own design process, to play with fabric and shapes and to bring the ideas I have in my head to life.

Linking to Cheryl at Meadow Mist Design Best 2017 Linky Party. 

Bee Blocks for Vicky

I love my Quilty Circle of Bees! We are such a diverse little group of quilters who always manage to get me out of my comfort zone.

Either by the sewing technique used (in two years we had everything from paper piecing, curved blocks, improv and precise piecing.. hm, just noticed there wasn't any applique yet, I'm counting on Allison on that one!) or by the fabric selection.

Vicky was our queen bee for October/ November and she picked a paper pieced version of a courthouse step block.

The colour scheme was caramel, tangerine, light blue and purple. I didn't think that would go together but the colours look so good!

The great thing about my Bee is that we sew with our own fabrics. In the blocks I receive for my quilts there is just such a great variety on colours and fabrics because so far my fellow bee mates always nailed it!

Vicky's request was to have a white solid square as the center square and then play around and don't stick with the traditional layout.

We were also only to use four different fabrics in one block and repeat the fabric choice in the next block with only little alteration.

By doing that all the blocks get a very cohesive look. This quilt will be so good, I really can't wait to see this finished!

Splinter

I feel very proud today. Proud of my self.
I think people, including me, are so overly critical with themselves and their work in particular. So today I feel very proud of myself because I have reached a goal I set for myself and accomplished it beyond my expectations.

This is Splinter. My best work yet.

With Splinter I wanted to create great tension between very precise vertical and horizontal piecing as opposed to improvisational diagonal piecing.

The improv pieced vertical off-centered 'splinter' is to divide the black and white fabric with what seems like great force. The name was quickly found.

I revisited this design after I made a back of a triangle quilt with left over half-triangles in a similar arrangement. 

With 'Splinter' there was a lot of editing and careful arrangement of colour and shape placement to achieve a high visual impact of negative space with indistinct edges. 

I quilted straight lines with white Aurifil 50wt thread first, creating diagonal lines from top right to bottom left. 

I then added dark grey thread in the opposite direction. Seams of the same colour never overlap. With having the seams in random angles they create this beautiful secondary pattern of the 'improv spikes'.

For the back I used a lot of orange solid fabric and arranged other left overs from the front in an interesting off-centered design. 

Even on the back the quilting looks so good!

I recently bought a Juki QVP 2200 Mini. Before that I was never able to quilt like this. I could never adjust my presser foot pressure, I had severe fabric shiftings. I could only dream of overlapping quilting seams like that. 

I did have some difficulties with the Juki though, it took me ages to get the thread tension right. But now I think the Juki and me are ok. 

I played with different coloured binding as well. The design of the quilt is extending into the binding which I like a lot. 

There are exactly three seams of orange thread in Splinter, one going through every orange fabric of the quilt. 

I hand sewed the binding again and really love how this turned out. 

The reason I feel that this is my best work yet is that Splinter is definitely the quilt with the highest visual impact in terms of simplicity, overall design and quilting.  The workman ship from start to finish is also the best to date. There is absolutely nothing I don't like or that could have been better.

So I cherish that feeling and be a bit proud of myself. Something we all should do more and be more gentle with ourselves.

I am entering Splinter into the 'Negative Space' category for QuiltCon 2018.

Here is a link of how I actually made Splinter. 

QuiP #8 - Splinter

Remember this quilt?

Porcupine Playground Front + Back

The back of my 'Porcupine Playground' quilt just never ceased to amaze me. I knew that someday I would have to revisit this design and make an actual front out of the back I initially designed. So the upcoming QuiltCon submission was a good opportunity to do so.

My plan was to achieve high visual impact with contrasting colours. So I opted for black and white solids, mixed with the ever so amazing cross hatched fabrics by Carolyn Friedlander and the same orange solid I used in 'Porcupine Playground'.

For the back of 'Porcupine Playground' I used left over half-triangles for the off-centered vertical strip. I now improvised the piecing for that dividing strip. I used this tutorial by Debbie of 'A Quilter's Table' to make 'improv spikes'. First back ones.

Then white ones.  My aim was to use a lot of negative space beside that vertical strip of spikes and have indistinct edges, so basically you don't see where the black fabric ends and where the white fabric starts.

I repeated the idea of having little orange areas in the quilt as focal points to add a little interest.

Whereas the back of my 'Porcupine Playground' quilt was to use up scraps and left over fabrics there was a lot of editing and careful arrangement of colour and fabric placement this time round.

I quilted straight lines with white Aurifil 40wt thread first and wanted to quilt with black thread as well, but that didn't go according to plan. I don't know of you have ever tried to sew with black thread on white fabric, but it just doesn't look good.

I spent an entire weekend trying to figure this out. I thought it's my thread tension (which was a bit off) but it seems as though a lot of people had similar difficulties. Apparently the loop from the bobbin thread is so visible on the white fabric that it just looks odd.

So I used dark grey thread instead, and I was so happy that I did. Black thread on black fabric is invisible. Not so the dark grey, it created a such nice texture. Exactly what I wanted.

I used a lot of orange solids for the back. The different coloured thread looks so good on it!
And I applied the binding again by hand. Three evenings. That seems to be the standard time frame for my size of quilts. This one is rather big though with 60 x 84" (1.52 x 2.33m).

I just finished it in time for the QuiltCon submissions. Fingers crossed that it gets accepted!
Stay tuned for the full reveal of  'Splinter'.

Emerald City Quilt PART 2

I started this quilt in a workshop with Katie Pedersen in her beautiful design studio in Seattle. You can read all about it here.

I couldn't be happier with this quilt. I love the colours and the interesting contrast they create.

The improvisational/ wonky piecing and what looks like random colour placement makes it very vibrant. Katie referred to this as 'controlled chaos' and that works so well. I think there is just so much to look at in this quilt.

I opted for straight line grid quilting to create interest and almost a bit of visual tension between the piecing and the quilting. I also used three different colours of beautiful 50wt and 40wt Aurifil thread, I love to play with colours!

I had originally planned to make the quilt one row longer but that looked somehow out of proportion so I scrapped that idea. I instead cut up the excess blocks and created a zig zag with these smaller blocks which also works well for the back I think. The quilt finishes at 55x70"(1,50 x 1,95m) which makes it a nice lap quilt to snuggle up.

I love to mix solids with some graphic print fabrics, I used the 'Squared Elements' print also for the binding.

Oh, that binding! This was the second time I ever hand sewed a binding to a quilt and the first time to a large quilt like this one. I never thought I would do that! It took me three evenings to sew the binding on while sitting on the couch enjoying the process. 

Katie and Marla were so kind to show me how hand stitched binding is done after the workshop. I have honestly been converted to be a hand binding sewist, seriously, it looks so much better!

That quilt will be forever cherished. It holds those happy memories of our trip to Seattle, but it's not only that that. I also associate quilty friends with this quilt and this awesome community I can proudly say I am part of.

Seattle is also called 'The Emerald City'. I didn't need to think long how to name that quilt. In the photo above the quilt is in a beautiful bag I got in Seattle (fabric shopping) with kind of a similar colour scheme. Go figure!

Emerald City Quilt PART 1/ Workshop with Katie Pedersen

In the beginning of this year my husband asked me if I would like to accompany him on a business trip to Seattle. I didn't need to think twice. Well, firstly Seattle has always been on my list of 'Places To Go' and secondly I knew that Katie Pedersen lives in Seattle and that she holds workshops in her design studio. (Quilts! Of course the first thing that comes to mind... what are we quilters like, he?)

Sew Katie Did - Seattle design studio

I contacted Katie and inquired about a workshop at the end of April/ beginning of May and she was kind enough to let me choose a date and a workshop to suit my overseas travel. How nice is that! I booked the workshop before we even booked our flights!

Sew Katie Did - Quilty Goodness

As I met Katie in her beautiful studio I think I just stared at her for the first couple of minutes. She has been one of my favourite quilters ever since I started my quilting endeavours and seeing my quilty hero in person was just so exciting. I couldn't help myself but staring in awe, I guess.

Me and Katie Pedersen of Sew Katie Did

Luckily that stage didn't last long because Katie is such a nice and lovely person and so down to earth.

Sew Katie Did - On-Target Quilt

I signed up for the 'Psychedelic Baby Block/ Improv strip piecing' workshop and Katie showed us some examples of her beautiful work. This 'On-Target Quilt' was especially nice.

Sew Katie Did - Skewed Symmetry Quilt

The technique of this block is so diverse. I was lucky enough to see Katie's Skewed Symmetry Quilt already at QuiltCon in Savannah in February.

So this is my fabric choice. I bought these beautiful Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids at QuiltCon in Savannah and mixed them with these lovely 'Squared Elements' prints by Art Gallery Fabrics. Both fabric lines have a beautiful soft feel.

And that's the first block I made during the workshop. I love to mix solids with graphic prints, it just adds so much interest.

Being in an artist design studio surrounded by beautiful quilts and fabrics is such a great experience!

I cannot highly enough recommend to do a workshop with Katie or any other artist/ quilter who is willing to give workshops in their own studio. Doing classes somewhere with an artist is great but being in their design studio is beyond inspiring. There are so many little things to discover like this quote from a magazine Katie put up on her design wall.

These were the three blocks I made in Seattle and I really liked where this was heading. The improv strips and randomly arranged colours work so well,  Katie called that 'controlled chaos'.

I really enjoyed my day in Seattle not only because of Katie's workshop but also because I also got to spend the day with Marla of Penny Lane Quilts. We met at QuiltCon in February in Savannah where I told Marla that I would be in Seattle later that year doing that workshop. Marla had booked the same workshop at a different date originally but changed it so we could  spend the day together. How awesome is that!

Marla @PennyLaneQuilts and me in Katie's design studio

Marla also made me this super nice pin cushion. Quilty friends are the best!
Could this day be any better?

Back home I continued to sew blocks and kept adding to reach a twin size quilt top.

Oh, I really love those colours!

I decided to quilt straight lines in a regular cross pattern. I used three different colours of the beautiful Aurifil thread, I love the depth that is given to a quilt by using more than one colour of thread.

And that's a sneak peak of the yet unwashed finished quilt.
Stay tuned for PART 2!