Regatta Quilt - revisited

I have never intended to make a quilt twice.
But in order to write the Regatta Quilt pattern I knew I needed to make another one.

I actually had a lot of fun making this quilt again, since the first Regatta Quilt happened kind of accidentally.
This time I made it properly from start to finish following my own pattern.

I opted for Oakshott jelly rolls again, this time in an autumn colour palette, which I absolutely love!

Despite the non- water colours I opted for the same wavy line quilting as the original Regatta Quilt.
I'm very happy how it turned out, 2.5 years practice make big difference in the quilting!

Again I used the left over strips for the back, but this time I turned them vertical and added white and two colours oakshott for an interesting design.

I was actually surprised how well the horizontal wavy quilting lines go with the vertical strips of the back!

I also opted for the white binding since it makes the colours really stand out.

 

That applies for the back as well. 

We took the photos at the recently finished 'Anneliese Brost Musik Forum Ruhr' in my home town, which has a beautiful brick facade and is a very well designed building next to an old church, which is now the entrance into the Forum.
We walked around the whole building complex and took some more photos in the winter sun.

The original Regatta Quilt I quilted with a blue-white variegated Aurifil thread. This time I opted for just plain white and it worked so well with all the different colours. Usually I quilt with 40wt Aurifil thread, but this time I used the 50wt Aurifil thread and achieved a very subtle texture.

I will give this quilt to my Dad, he loves autumn and he recently said to me that he would love to have a quilt. There is nothing better than giving a quilt to a beloved person who really appreciates all the effort that goes into making a quilt. In return I love to give comfort and warmth provided by a beautifully hand made quilt.

The free Regatta Quilt pattern is available on my blog here.

Linking this to Finish Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Let's Bee Social
Modern Patch Monday at the Modern Cologne Quilters

Transforming Inspiration into Original Designs

I have always taken photos of structures, patterns or anything interesting that catches my eye without knowing what to do with these images, I just found them interesting. Since I'm quilting these photos got a whole new meaning: inspiration for quilt designs!

So far I have not put these images into quilt designs though, there were other ideas that need to be turned into quilts.

Insofar I found the January Mighty Lucky Quilting Club Challenge especially helpful since I was now turning these images into an actual quilt design!

There were several topics we were ask to photographs of first. This is what I've found:
Topic: Graphic Design

I've been to Munich in January to attend a huge building and construction trade fair. I really liked their logo on the facade panels!

This is a painted sign for the delivery entry of a shop on my way to work. Nice flying geese!

Topic: plants, leaves and such

It's a bit challenging to find plants in winter but this ivy is on my way to work, and I've never really noticed it. There is so much interesting detail in these little buds!

Topic: Architectural Detail

As an architect I could fill a whole blog post about that topic but I won't bore you. I picked two images:
Top: This is the 'Excenter House', a landmark in my home town. It's build on an old bunker from WW2, has 3 x 5 stories turned at different angles. The facade is most interesting where tinted windows create a very interesting facade.
Bottom: Stairs at a sub way station between escalators. I liked the ceiling design!
(Don't ask me what that lift is doing there half way down the stairs...)

Topic: Fence 

Well, this is not really a fence, rather a facade but I still liked all the different angles it created. It's a cage for a little skater park on top of a clothing shop. Pretty cool.

Topic: Bridge/ Supports of bridges

There are probably prettier bridges than this one but the photo still created an interesting play with colours and angles.

Topic: Skyline
Bohooo! Couldn't find anything appealing.

But I found other interesting patterns like this old tiled floor. (My shoe is in there for scale.)

You could just 'copy and paste' this into a quilt!

Or these illuminated 'train tracks' at the HQ of our public transport service.

 Topic: shadows from angular structure

This is our back garden, the photo is taken out of our kitchen window.

And that's the image I was stuck with.
I sketched a few designs and and came up with this block:

It was nice to sketch again and get my Copics marker out. They still work!

I played around with layouts and since I don't have any fancy quilt design computer programs hand sketches have to do.

And this is my 'Mini Quilt Design':

I stuck to the colour scheme of the original photo and threw in a little bit of pink and I like it!

I loved this exercise and will definitely consider making this quilt!
And, hmmmmm, a quilt design computer program is now on my wish list.

Thanks, Amy of DuringQuietTimes, for this great challenge!

I am Queen Bee for January/ February!

It's January again and that means I'm Queen Bee for the next two months!

I picked a beautiful improv log cabin block design by Debbie of A Quilter's Table, the tutorial can be found here on her blog.

 
I was planning on making two blocks to show my bees what my plan is, but I kept on going and made four blocks because I had so much fun!! I had to stop myself otherwise I would have made a lot more with no more work left for my bees!

I am in love with this colour combination at the moment.
Light blue:

Dark navy blue:

and yummy mustard:

I am planning to make a baby quilt for a friend who recently had a baby boy.

Can't wait to see what blocks my bees come back to me!

Linking this to Let's Bee Social and Farbenspiel

2017 - an outlook

I like making goals. And lists. I like Do-Do -Lists.
That keeps me focused and it also makes me feel good to strike things off my list that I have finished.

So here is my 2017 To-Do- List in no particular order.

1. Bee Quilt - Tulips 

These were my very first bee blocks and are yet to become a quilt.
 
2. Bee Quilt 2 -'Time Tunnel' Baby Quilt

I just love these improv quarter log cabin blocks designed by Debbie of A Quilter's Table!

3. I am making a cozy quilt for one of my best friends. She would like to have a quilt with a fleece backing, so I hope I can finish the quilt quicker than when I have to do a pieced backing.Other than that I am free to do whatever I want - she is a good friend!

4. Ever since I've seen this quilt by Karen Lewis I wanted to do a Kaleidoscope Quilt. I so do love that design. I have an idea for a colour scheme, but it's not finalised. 

5. And again the 5th maybe quilt from last year.

A year on I still love these fabrics!! And I so do want to make a quilt from these!!

But who knows what will happen after I go to QuiltCon! I'm going to QuiltCon!!!! I don't know with what crazy ideas I come home! It's not long now and I will do just one work shop but it's the one I am so looking forward to!

One of my main goals though is to challenge myself.
That's why I signed up for the 2017 Mighty Lucky Quilting Club! Every month a new challenge, great!

 I also want to re-visit some orphan blocks and see what I can do with them. And go with the flow.
Just go with the flow.

2016 - a round up

The year end is always a good time to review the past 12 months. Sometimes I have a feeling I have not accomplished that many things but if I'm looking back I just realised how much I actually got done!

So here is my quilting year 2016 in review:

I had a look at my 'Outlook for 2016' blog post and I had four quilts planned.

1. Quilt for husband - halo27q

I'm very proud of this quilt, but it was also a very long process where I was king of stuck in the middle of the year. You can read all about it here.

2. Triangle Quilt - Porcupine Playground

Oh I love this quilt so much! I'm all about quilt backs and this one is especially nice, I think. Read more here.

3. Sea Breeze Quilt - Check!

After quilting this quilt twice (well, almost) including ripping out the first quilting attempt I had my very first session on a longarm quilting machine! Now I really like this summer quilt and I'm happy it's finally finished!
Here's the blog post along with the pattern I followed.

4. Bee Quilt - Ah no...

I have a lot of super lovely and colourful tulip blocks made by my Quilty Circle of Bees but I guess this has to wait until next spring.

And the 5th 'maybe- quilt' did also not happen.

But hey, I made a good few pillows this year! I posted about three of them here, here and here. The Chevron pillow was made from left over HSTs from the pillow I made for my Mum. I added a few blocks and went with a Chevron layout. It's a nice little addition to my pillow family!

I also made the planned zipper pouch, two divided baskets (here and here) by Noodlehead.
 

But I didn't do the Super Tote. That goes on the list for 2017.

Some other small projects are these key rings I made as Christmas presents:

I also took part in my very first Quilt Along (QAL)! It was a small, quick project and also my first mini quilt.

The QAL was hosted by Debbie of A Quilter's Table and was so much fun. Read more about making this mini quilt here.

We also completed our first year (and a bit) of our Quilty Circle of Bees! I got to make so many cool blocks with so many different techniques. 

Let's see: We had my tulip block, we made 'scrappy mountain majesties', we had paper piecing here, here and here, we secretly made a baby quilt for one of our bees, we had improv blocks, and an own block design, and we also secretly made a pillow for one of our bees. Busy bees!

And lastly I made a lot of new friends. Online and in real life.
I went to my very first 'show and tell' with the Modern Cologne Quilters, met for a Sunday sewing meeting, got invited to be the blind date on their blog and made new friends.

But the greatest achievement was the release of my very first pattern of my Regatta Quilt. It feels so good to have a 'pattern' tab on my blog now :0) I feel like a  very grown- up quilter now.

I'm very thankful to be part of this wonderful (online) community and I'm looking forward to another eventful year!

Linking this up to Best of 2016 Linky Party hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.