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Michele from Quilting Bloggers Directory recently has gone through the blogs, updating the directory and deleting over 1000 inactive blogs and is now looking for new blogs to join up. So, head on over and have a look if you are unfamiliar with this great resource.

Karin

WIP#3- Slow But Steady Progress

Making slow but steady progress ...

Bought some backing for my FMQ practice quilt as I did not have a large enough piece (dark enough) for this quilt. I could have pieced something together but just did not feel like it (did some gardening instead).

Quilt top

One of these days I shall write a post about prewashing of fabric. After some disasters with colour runs I now prewash all my fabric all the time. The colour of this backing fabric ran and ran and ran...it took quite some time to get a clear rinse. Obviously not the best of quality.
So next step is to do the basting which I will tackle on the weekend.

Made some progress on my table runner though.

Enjoyed this immensely...mind you, I am a bit out of practice with the 'Claws' block and had a hard time getting the points right which will be very important when I sew the first border around (as I have done the block a number of times I only know too well that the points can easily disappear in the border).  Also paid some attention to the blue fabric for once, i.e. cut the seams of the blue fabric (where it is pressed towards the white fabric) slightly shorter than a quarter of an inch so it is covered by the white seams and will not shine through. Very pleased with myself as I usually forget this step only noticing it when it is much too late to do anything about it. I really like this block and the colour arrangement. The fabric has a Japanese theme and a more elaborate but matching floral arrangement will be repeated in the second border.

Well that's it from me today. Can't wait to start the FMQ Wednesdays with Leah Day again.

If you have not done so already, make sure sure you have a look at Amy's Creative Side. She is hosting and organising the Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012. The participation in this event is truly amazing and there are some wonderful quilts on show. If the truth be known this is where I have spent most of my time in the last few evenings...blog-hopping around looking at all the entries and trying to decide what quilts to nominate in the different categories. This is not going to be easy.

Until next time

Karin

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Hi everyone

I decided to share my absolute favourite quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012 hosted and organised by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.

This quilt was inspired by a momentary thought of what I would do if I was to create a quilt that depicted my quilting journey.




Thinking about what I liked most was easy...I am a fairly traditional quilter and love country quilts. With that in mind I designed this quilt, starting out with making the six top and bottom blocks which showcased some of the more common blocks that every quilter starts off with. I then went on to include the house and the trees which were foundation pieced, added the applique and filled up the remaining spaces with favourite blocks or simple strip sets.  I even managed to squeeze in my favourite star.

I think I worked about a week on getting the colour combinations right and there was some disagreement in the household about the second border...for me, it always had to have a fire engine red border. While making this quilt I went from...oh, this is not going to work...the quilt appeared too busy, too colourful and not connected. About half way through, it all started coming together and when I finally finished, I really liked its appearance. Maybe not for everyone, but this one quilt expresses really well how I have progressed in my quilting journey from those basic blocks to some applique to foundation-piecing in that scrappy traditional style that I so enjoy about quilting. I finished the quilt with some basic FMQ in the major blocks, some loops in the inner border and a medium scale stipple in the outer border. The quilt measures 48" x 60" and is made from a variety of country fabrics.

I occasionally contribute to quilting magazines over here and this was one quilt that appeared in 2011 over two issues in Creating Country Threads starting in Vol 12 No 2 and to my big surprise it made it onto the front cover. As you can imagine I got a real buzz out of that ...the photography was brilliant. If you like to have a look you can find the link to the web site of Craftlovers.com/magazines Here.

Head over to Amy's Creative Side and have a look at the wonderful entries to this year's  Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Karin

WIP#2

Finished my practice quilt top that I will use for Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. Actually quite like the simplicity of this. Not sure about the inner pieced border though, a bit on the busy side...mind you, used up most of those Fat Quarters so I am quite pleased with myself.  Now I only have to find some backing (out of my stash, of course) and then do some stitching-in-the ditch along the sashing and I am done...

Bought some Polyester batting as I quite liked the way that quilted when I tried this on the little wholecloth quilt. Have not decided on thread yet...

Looking forward to filling this up with all sorts of FMQ designs. Once the squares are filled up, I still can play around in the sashing and borders. The outer border is 4 inches, this should be enough for a simple continuous border design...this should be fun.


Apart from this I have been working on my 'Arrangement of Small Pieces' project, however I am already looking around for other things to do (I get easily bored) and will probably continue on a table runner that I started a while back. This will be the second time that I am doing this table runner (gave it away as a present to a friend)...really liked the intensity of the colours, enjoyed doing it and love working with templates. Also lends itself for some microstippling and motifs in the background.

This is (close to) what it will look like...

Until next time

Karin

WIP

Looking at all the other blogs I almost feel a bit slack...not much to show for this week even though I have been consistently working on things. I have spend a considerable amount of time on cutting fabric for my ' Arrangement of Small Pieces Project'...as the name suggests the pieces are rather smallish and I decided to cut them en mass, so that I then can chain-piece units together. I spend about 4 hours cutting last Friday and managed to prepare about 6 blocks ready for sewing. This is not going very fast at all, but accuracy is a must for this block and I just have to keep at it.

My other project for this month is putting together a practice quilt for Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays  . While this may sound a bit crazy I figured that a bit of pain now will make life so much easier later on. By the time we start up again in June I will have 20 square blocks to practice on which theoretically should see me through to the end of the year (give and take a few weeks). This way I can just pull this out for the practice each week and not loose momentum on my other projects,  and it will also give me a visual display of this year's learning.

This is my progress so far. I am very pleased with this as it gives me an excuse to work with almost solid fabric which I love, and it simultaneously tackles the alarming accumulation of fabric in my stash...not that it really made a huge dent but it is a start. The outside border will be dark blue which will be perfect to stitch a fancy border design on once it is all done. So, overall, I am looking forward to this.

Auditioning inner border -had to improvise as I ran out of sashing

Once  this quilt is basted, I will be able to concentrate on finishing my current project and also continue on the list of projects that I have set for myself for this year. This includes the little wholecloth quilt we made in Quilt Along #11 -13...I really would like to make this again.

No doubt I will get side tracked throughout the year... I enrolled in a one off workshop on FMQ with  Australian long arm quilter and artist Kim Bradley in August at my local sewing shop. I am super excited about this as the practice piece that we are going to do looks just gorgeous with a huge feather design with different backgrounds (and stitched with metallic thread)...all very intricate. There might be another quilt in the making.

Anyway, back to work

Karin

Quilt Along #16

I was quite happy when Leah Day announced we are having a break during the month of May. Things have been hectic for me at work and most of last week I was sick, so I generally lost a bit of direction.

On the weekend I finally sat down and went through my stash...that was a bit of an overwhelming experience. There are a lot of potential projects in there, one more enticing than the other. While going through I came across a packet of some 20 fat quarters (blenders in all sorts of colours). I got this some years ago when I renewed my subscription to one of the quilting magazines. No idea what I was saving them for. I now decided to use them for the continuation of our Quilt Alongs with Leah Day...initially I thought I would prepare some squares, practice new designs on them and then sew them together using the QAYG method, however I have now decided to actually make a quilt top similar to Leah Day's Batik quilt...mine will just be a smaller version of  blender squares with some sashing and a border, so all I have to do for the Quilt Alongs is to get that out and practice the design on it. While the QAYG method is a good option, knowing myself it will sit there for another couple of years. This way I should have a quilt top finished by the end of the Quilt Alongs.

I have now started my 'An Arrangement of Small Pieces' project. Here are the first three blocks...decided after all to stick to one colour per block.

An Arrangement of Small Pieces

The blocks come together quickly and I will be able to chain-piece 3 - 4 at a time, so this now looks all very manageable and should be reasonably quick (already have another design in mind which I am quite excited about).

Then tried some Zippling...I did not think that I would like the design that much as I have tried something similar before and my brain just could not handle the straight lines. Well, this time it went very smoothly. While I did not have particular shapes in mind, I just zig-zagged along and it turned out quite well and I actually found it easier to interlock than the Sharp Stippling. Fun design to play with.

Zippling

Until next time

Karin