2019 quilty goals

A year end recap is always good to define new goals, so without further ado here comes:

1. Christmas quilt 'December'

I know Christmas is just over but I'm in a flow to finishing the quilt top and I hope to have this done within this week. And then to quilt it, I'm debating whether to use a fleece back or not. I'll decide once the top is finished!

2. 'Playground'

This quilt was on my to-do-list already last year, I'm eager though to finish it now! I still love those colours!!

3. Pantone Quilt Challenge

Hm, I have no idea what to do with this colour yet or even with what other colour to combine it, but hey, it wouldn't be a challenge if it would be easy. So bring on the Pantone Quilt Challenge, I'm game!

4. Volta

Originally designed for the Two-Colour- Quilt Challenge for 2019 QuiltCon this quilt did not happen. I have the top finished... and I don't like it. I like the design but not the colours I picked, so I'll give that another try.

5. Biene's adventure quilt

Here are the blocks I already have and I'm planning to add a lot more this year. I am documenting adventures we do with our dog Biene and it's so much fun.
I'm trying to achieve a cohesive design with similar colours e.g. blue, green, turquoise and orange combined with low volume fabrics. I have no idea how the final layout will look but I'll decide that once I have all blocks together.

6. Bee quilt

Here's all the blocks I received and made last year and I'm planning on doing a baby quilt from it. It just is unfortunate that loads of boys were born in my circle of friends in 2018 where this would be more suitable for a girl, but anyhow, who knows what 2019 brings!

7. Clothing

Yes, you read right. I will make my own clothing this year! I have been frustrated by fashion and what's on offer in the shops since a long time and that these clothes either don't fit me or I don't like them, mostly it's a combination of both. I'm not sure if I will show clothing here since this is a quilt blog but I thought I include it anyway. New adventures are good! I have actually tried clothing with my normal sewing machine before and it was very disappointing, so this beauty has moved in and it's a dream to sew with! I have already sewn a few things and I'm super happy! A serger is really what makes sewing clothes fun and fast!

And for anything else I just see what happens.
I will not go to QuiltCon this year, but I'm planning on going to Nadelwelt in Karlsruhe here in Germany in May.
I'm looking forward to the new year, I'm planning on taking it slow though. I'll just do whatever feels right. Happy New Year everyone!

A Quilt is not a Pillow

After I made this pillow for my friend I knew I wanted to make a quilt out of the fabrics I selected. The selection was challenging, but I managed to make the pillow look good and somehow the fabrics all worked together.

I was aiming for a strip/ coin quilt because I loved the look of the pillow but as I cut my fabrics and arranged them at the design wall I quickly became aware: A Quilt is not a Pillow!

What worked so well on a small scale just wouldn't look good in bigger pieces. I just didn't like the way it looked.

I wanted to even arrange the fabrics more randomly and in different widths but that didn't work at all. So I stuck with an even width of 12.5" for each strip.

I had the layout up on my design wall for quite some and stared at it. I remembered what I heard in the QuiltCon lectures and so I was identifying what I liked and what I didn't like and why.

I first identified the different types of fabrics I was using.

These are the high volume fabrics. All very saturated in different colours. The prints are sometimes very busy with stark contrasts.

These are mid volume fabrics but they are also very calming. There is hardly any colour difference in the print itself. I used these for some kind of neutrals in between busy prints.

These are the low volume prints (well, maybe apart from the second from the left). These fabrics are light in colour and low in volume despite the prints on them.

I have seen pictures like this in books before but I think for the very first time in my quilt making process I truly understood the use of so many different prints and the visual impact they have on a quilt. I guess you can read colour and volume theories as often as you like; if you haven't experienced it yourself you haven't truly understood it.

I also identified which fabrics didn't work in the mix:

I love those fabrics, but they are just too busy in the mix. The colour difference in the print is very stark and all in all too busy for what I was aiming for. I'm sure I will use these beauties in a different project in the future though!

So, here is a detailed before and after shot:

Before: Busy, too busy for my taste.

After removing the two too busy fabrics: Better! Amazing what a little change can do to an overall appearance!

After the photos I also removed the lovely turquoise/ white stripy fabric under the BlockM logo. Too busy.

I carefully selected fabrics for each row and there was also a lot of editing towards the end where I would take out strips and replace them with others to achieve a visually pleasing design.
 

The quilt top is finished an I'm very happy how it turned out. This quilt truly was a challenge but I have learned so much! I also had fun, so I came up with the name 'Playground' for the quilt not only because I used some of the beautiful fabrics designed by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery Fabrics called 'Playground'.

I also love that now I look at the same fabrics than my friend when she looks at her pillow!

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!!!