2018 - a round up

The first thing I do before I write my round up of the year is to go to my 'quilty goals' post and see if I have accomplished what I have set out for myself.

Well, I didn't have much of a productive year I have to admit. One reason was our move in March this year, which took a long time and parts of my sewing space are still not completely finished. I still need a proper design wall, and I'm also trying to find a solution of how to hang my large quilts to a wall.

But I did finish two quilts that are very dear to my heart.
One of them is 'Purple Haze' (proper photos and blog post to follow). With the quilt top I've won my first ever prize: 1st in the international entries of 'quilt top only' of the 2018 Pantone Quilt Challenge. Everything about this quilt is so outside my comfort zone: the colour scheme, the curvy piecing and having to block the quilt due to heavy distortion after quilting. You can read more about it here.
Purple Haze is on its way to QuiltCon in Nashville already, I'm so happy that it got accepted to be in the show.

The second quilt is 'Four' with which I was part of the 'What shade are you' blog hop hosted by RJR Fabrics.
Four was a very challenging project with the use of 13 solids and an improvisationally pieced method. I love the soft colours and the play with different values. It looks so much better in real life and I think this might be the reason why it got rejected from being accepted into QuiltCon because the photos just don't do it justice. Anyhow, I'll try again next year, it still is a beautiful quilt whether it's at QuiltCon or not.

Talking about QuiltCon - obviously my second visit to QuiltCon in Pasadena was even more excitign than the first one, because I had my quilt 'Splinter' in the show!

I love this photo so much because that expression is like: OMG, is this really happening??? Pasadena was special because my husband was with me and experienced what this community is all about along hundreds of beautiful quilts and many quilty friends.

I also made two mini quilts this year:
One was 'Three', a mini quilt that I gave to Anne Sullivan at QuiltCon in Pasadena, and that eventually led to the design of 'Four'.

And 'Connected' which was a 15" small mini quilt made in line with the prompt by the Curated Quilts Magazine.

This year was all about exploring lines and finding an improv style I suppose.

I also made super fun table runner as part of a spring blog hop, I really love these fresh colours!

There was this zipper pouch as well as a gift for my colleague:

And there were two projects I made from the left overs and scraps from 'Purple Haze': One was this boxy pouch, which is so big and so handy:

And another project is this pillow:

I've just realised that I didn't write a blog post about it yet...

Another reason that I wasn't that productive was the extremely hot summer we had here and that I rather went on walks with my husband and our dog Biene than sewing.
But I started an adventure quilt that documents the adventure we have with Biene. These blocks are so much fun, it's a slow process but it continues to grow.

Here she is with a selection of the different blocks. I have no idea how to put that quilt together but I'm sure it will be a fun quilt once it's finished!

And of course my bee blocks I made for my 'Quilty Circle of Bees'. We are very reduced in numbers and I've realised I don't have photos of the blocks I made for Magda but here's a small overview of the other ones:

And I have finally started my Christmas quilt:

I made most of the blocks at my first ever Quilt retreat in November, which was so much fun and a great experience being with quilty friends not doing anything else than sewing for an entire extended weekend!

I'm very pleased with my projects and also excited what 2019 brings!

Linking to Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and the Best of 2018 Link - Up!

Looking back to QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena CA

We moved house just one week after QuiltCon 2018 and it took us a long time to get everything organised. There is still some chaos and things to be done but we're getting there.

I've only downloaded the photos I took during QuiltCon 2 moths after the event. I just couldn't find the time.

Pasadena Convention Center

But maybe that was a good thing because now I think I have processed the whole experience of having a quilt in the show.

That photo says it all! One happy girl an her quilt!

Splinter in good company

I have to admit I was super excited and also very proud every time I walked by my quilt which was in line with so many great quilts.

Interesting for me was also the judges comments on Splinter. I wasn't sure whether that would be included but as I unpacked the quilt the judges' comments and the presentation sheet were included.

But enough of my own quilt. I want to show you some of my favourite quilts which are not award winners, for the award winners please see here.

I especially liked this quilt by Carolina Oneto, such a great use of colour and shape.

I'm a big fan of Kari Anderson's work and her 'Mama Bear loves to dance' quilt is no exception.

Once again I was drawn to simple, graphic and colourful quilts like this one by Debra Jalbert, that play with colour is so good.

Very cleverly arranged triangles by Nicole Kroesen in her quilt 'To the point'.

And Jacquie Gering... what can I say. She has a big impact on my own designs and I'm always in awe of her work. With her quilt 'Champ' Jacquie explores minimalistic design combined with strong light and dark contrast creating maximum visual impact.

I love subtle colours like the ones Paige Alexander used in her 'Positively Transparent' Quilt of the Month August 2017. Beautiful thread colours too.

I loved that neon pop thread Carson Converse used in her 'Passage' quilt.

I was absolutely stunned by this quilt by Tara Glastonbury. Her quilt 'What's your time worth?' represents the back of an Australian 50$ note and is a critical statement regarding female textile artists trying to make a living while others undervalue their hobby making it especially hard for artists to earn above the national average wage. This quilt had such a great texture, I wish I could have touched it.

These two quilts from this years Charity Challenge were my favourites. LEFT: Original pattern design by Alane Davis, made by the Lake Superior MQG; RIGHT: Designed by Holly Anne Knight, made be the Greater Atlanta MQG (Funny that they both have the light/ dark colour gradient from top to bottom).

This year Carolyn Friedlander was the featured artist at QuiltCon and she had a special exhibition of her work which I loved. I'm a great fan of her architectural fabrics and quilt designs with great colour choices.

Her work was beautifully presented. How cool is that couch?

Also these quilted maps are so good. A different kind of whole cloth quilt.

And there were so many more. I have noticed an increased quality of the mini quilts presented in the show, but that would be too much to show them here.

One highlight for me was the exchange of the mini quilt the Modern Quilt Guild had organised.

My swapping partner was Anne Sullivan of PlayCrafts and her work is amazing. I absolutely love the mini she made me! And how coordinated are our quilts? We even made the MQG News letter with our minis!
You can read more about 'Three', the mini quilt I made here.

I once again opted for the all day lecture pass. Sometimes the less obvious lectures are the best and are surprisingly good.
I only took one class and it was the advanced photography class with Kitty Wilkin and Michelle Bartholomew. Thoroughly enjoyed the class, learned a lot and could have actually done a whole day!

Exploring depth of filed

Once again I truly enjoyed the whole QuiltCon experience and being among like minded people. It was so great to meet quilters in person I have been in touch with via social media.


Today the registration for QuiltCon 2019 opened and unfortunately I will not go next year. I will make QuiltCon an every other year event. 2020 in Austin it is.

Three

I have finally found the time to share the mini quilt I made for the 2018 MQG Mini Swap. I was very excited about the swap and signed up to exchange the mini quilts at QuiltCon in Pasadena.
As I received the email with my swap partner I thought: Wow, Anne Sullivan of PlayCrafts is making me a mini quilt!!! And then immediately after that I thought: Oh F#@$%& I have to make her one too!
Anne is such an amazing quilter that the pressure to make her something awesome was big.

After three attempts I made this mini quilt which I called 'Three' giving the circumstances...

I improv pieced strips together and grouped them from light to dark. I like the little craziness in it, so much to look at. The binding is multi coloured as well and plays with the colour arrangement of the actual quilt.

I picked two different shades of violet and paired it with a Friedlander cross hatch fabric in the same colour family. I started with white and light turquoise in one corner and worked my way up to the darker top of the quilt. 'Three' is 24x24" small.

The top also has some orange colour splashes to add a little interest. I used 5 different coloured threads, all Aurifil 50wt, and quilted diagonal straight lines similar to the way I quilted Splinter.

For the back I used remaining fabrics and just pieced a crazy log cabin block. I'm very happy how this mini quilt turned out and I'm so glad that Anne liked it too!

And that's us exchanging our quilts at QuiltCon. I absolutely love the mini Anne made me and isn't it amazing how well our quilts look together? We even made the MQG February news letter!

I'll definitely take part in next years mini swap. Not sure if I will go to QuiltCon though but the minis can still be send via post (although it's so great to see the recipient's face while you exchange quilts and it's always so good to meet other quilters in person).

And I also think I'm going to revisit this design, I'd like to play with it a bit more at a larger scale!

Linking this to SewFreshQuilts and Let's bee social
and Finish Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts 

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.