Bee Quilt - Trip Todd

I wasn't in the mood for any sewing during the first weeks of lock down of the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this year. . 

One day I just took the bee blocks from last year out and put them on the design wall. I liked it so much that I started to arrange them and fill in the gaps. 

I specifically picked these blocks for a toddler quilt. I used blues in different shades, greys and oranges. The main focus was on solids with just a few prints to add interest.  This is the selection:

The blocks are pieced using a method by Debbie of A Quilter's Table called 'wedge slabs' and you can find it here. 

Since a very long time I used my old sewing machine to quilt wavy lines from the selection of stitches. I wanted something that is very stable and can resist the play of not one toddler, not two, no, three toddlers! Born all at ones - yes, triplets! All boys! I called the quilt 'Trip Todd' - short cut for Triplet Toddler. 

I'm so happy to give them this quilt knowing it gets used and loved makes me very happy! 

For the back I used one of my favourite cross hatch fabrics in blue and the binding is a bright orange to give the quilt a nice frame. I applied this binding by machine for extra durability - three boys, you know. 

Thank you to my lovely bee mates from the 'Quilty Circle of Bees' who made those lovely bee blocks: 

Christiane, Friederike, Magda, Melanie. 

Frühlingserwachen Blog Hop (Spring Awakening blog hop)

For English scroll down

Ich freue mich dass ich heute beim Frühlingserwachen Blog Hop an der Reihe bin. Organisiert hat das Ganze Judith von Septembers Quilt Delight.

Und ich bin dir so dankbar, liebe Judith, denn ohne dich und deinen Blog Hop hätte ich jetzt nicht so einen schönen Tischläufer!

Wir sind erst vor 4 Wochen umgezogen und haben immer noch ein bisschen Chaos und jede Menge unausgepackte Kisten. Aber meine zwei neuen großen, weißen Schreibtische für meine Nähecke sind schon einsatzbereit und nach dem ersten Probenähen bin ich schon sehr begeistert.

Für unseren ebenfalls weißen Esstisch wollte ich einen neuen, frühlingshaften Tischläufer nähen. Schnell hatte ich das Rot und Orange rausgesucht und mit dem Mint- Grün und Weiß gepaart. Da fiel mir ein dass ich noch diesen Riley Blake Stoff hatte, der all diese Farben hat. Perfekte Kombination!

Ich habe mich für 'Half Square Rectangles' (halbe Rechtecke) entschieden und viele verschiedene Farb- Kombinationen genäht. Damit der lange Läufer nicht so langweilig wird habe ich an einigen Stellen Streifen in das Muster eingesetzt, so wirkt die ganze Komposition etwas aufgelockerter und interessant.

Wie so oft habe ich die Anleitung, wie man 'Half Square Rectangles' näht, nur halbherzig befolgt und prompt passen die Blöcke nicht richtig zusammen, bzw. gehen die Rechtecke nicht bis an das Ende des Blocks (na ja, wenigstens ist das durchgängig und passt auch mit den anderen Blöcken zusammen, ist aber eigentlich so nicht richtig...). Das tut dem Tischläufer aber, wie ich finde, keinen Abbruch. Ist halt die persönliche Note.

Gequilted habe ich in Wellenlinien mit rot melliertem Aurifil 50wt Garn, das lockert die strenge Geometrie der Blöcke etwas auf.

Zum ersten Mal habe ich 'faced binding' ausprobiert. Ich weiß gar nicht wie das auf Deutsch heißt, jedenfalls ist es kein herkömmliches Binding um den Läufer herum sondern es wird ein Stoffstreifen auf die rechte Seite des Läufers genäht, dann umgebügelt und von hinten von Hand angenäht. Hier ist das Tutorial (was ich dieses Mal genau befolgt habe).

Diese Art von Binding mache ich bestimmt noch öfters, gefällt mir sehr gut. Der Läufer hat die folgenden Maße: 132 x 55cm.

Fotografiert habe ich jedenfalls auf meinem Nähtisch, im Esszimmer herrscht noch Chaos. Jetzt kann ich aber gar nicht abwarten bis wir alles fertig haben und dann zeige ich euch auch meine neue Nähecke.

Schaut auch bei den anderen Teilnehmern vorbei, bei Judith gibt es auch immer Zusammenfassungen so wie hier, hier und hier mit den entsprechenden Links.

Morgen ist Alex dran.

English summary: 

Today it's my turn in the German blog hop 'Frühlingserwachen' (spring awakening) organised by Judith of Septembers Quiltdelight.

We only moved house 4 weeks ago and we still have many unpacked boxes and chaos but I could sew on my new sewing tables and made a table runner in lovely spring colours for our white dining room table. 

I picked a spring like colour palette and mixed it with a Riley Blake print and went with half square rectangles. I (again) didn't really follow the tutorial of how to sew the rectangles and the result is non- matching seams... ah well, at least that is consistent and it still is a lovely table runner!
In addition to the rectangles I added some strips to make it look more interesting and I think that enhanced the overall design. 
I quilted in wavy lines using Aurifil 50wt in variegated red and used faced binding for the first time. I just love that look and will definitely try this again! 
The table runner finishes at 52 x 21".
Here, here and here are little summaries of all the things many super talented ladies put together for the blog hop, go an have a look! 

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

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!!!