vintage pastel stars - a finished co-production

Together with my friends from all over Europe we co-produced a charity quilt. I was the queen bee for this quilt and asked for vintage and pastel looking stars on a pastel solid background. I love all kinds of star quilts, but I never made a whole star quilt before. Making quilts in a group helps me tick some things of my own quilting bucket list too!

As a reminder: I make these quilts with do good stitches a virtual worldwide charity bee. I am in the european branche now called the "comfort circle". If you would like to know more, or even join, click the links to get more info. It is  lovely way to give to the community while doing what you love. I also love meeting new people who love what I love and be inspired by their work.

Now for the finished quilt:

I made some extra blocks myself. Now it's big  enough to comfortably cover a single bed. It is backed with a blue and white striped cotton. It is quilted by home machine with a free motion foot making continuous eights. A pattern that is very do-able, I had the quilting finished in about 2 sessions of an hour, but the pattern also complements the sharp corners of the stars with some roundness. It is hand bound with pink pearl bracelets (one of the few fabric names I remember)

And who doesn't fall in love with a rolled up quilt. I think it will make some little girl very happy. It will be gifted to a girl who is temporarily placed in a children's home of the Salvation Army. 

If you love the quilt as much as I do and you would like to make one yourself. the pattern of the blocks is very straightforward. On the bottom of this post I added the explanation to make the blocks. I f you have any questions, let me know. 

See you soon!

Explanation Pastel Vintage Stars
The "pattern" is pretty straightforward. It's especially easy if you make two semi-identical stars with the same fabrics, that is what I did.

From your stash or scraps pick 8 different prints that are "pastel-ish" and fit a romantic and/or vintage feel (I leave all that to your imagination). Cut two 4 inch squares of each. 


Pick a pastel solid. Cut eight 3 1/2 inch squares and eight 4 inch squares. 

Now make the HST's by paring all the printed fabric squares with the solid squares (the 4 inch ones) and pairing the leftover printed squares with each other for the center. They wil be a little too big and after ironing you can cut them down to 3 1/2 inch. 

After that lay-out the blocks, and sew them together.

The block is 12 1/2 inch unfinished. (meaning: after you sew them into the quilt they will be 12 inch)

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bzzzz - bee block update

There's not a lot of updates. I'm not in a lot of bees these days. But I do love sewing with my friends of the comfort circle of do good stitches. This months assignment is a block called Shoo Fly. As you know I love block names and make some blocks just because I love the name of them. I'm curious what this means it should look like though. When I looked it up it seemed to mean rocking chair, or police officer. I don't see either in them. Do you know?

This assignment was by silly banana sewing. She made a tutorial for this block in three sizes on her blog. You can find it here. She asked for solid whites and blue prints. I am of course the queen of blue stash fabrics (I have two stacks of blue as opposed to 1/3 stack of yellow..., I am on a blue fabric buying diet ever since) so I pulled out some lovelies (I think).

I am making some pillows next. See you soon!Pin It

The sun is out and the top is done - broken dishes

After adding 2 more blocks to the color scheme I finished the top for the comfort circle march/april quilt. The blocks were easy peasy and the top went together in a flash too. I went straight ahead and basted it since this is my least favorite part of the process and I stall doing it until I can't stall no more. It is now awaiting a quilting decision. So if you have any bright ideas on that?

This quilt gives off bright happiness and my son is in love with it. He wants one for himself just like it. He is even ignoring the pinks in it which he unusually has a big problem with, since this is of course a girl color... And since I love it so much too I might start collecting some rainbow solids to make him one for an upcoming occasion!

See you soon!
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Can't wait for spring - broken dishes

March is my turn in the comfort circle.  I've contemplated many ideas and blocks. Scrappy ones, another themed quilt (like the boat beach quilt, maybe birds and bees), and lots of other blocks I hoard on pinterest. You can find my overflowing board here. But after the hard work for Lotjes blocks in February (which were definitely worth it) I've decided on something simple and done in a flash.

I'm always very inspired by Rita from Red Pepper quilts and I have had this quilt in my mind for a long time. www.redpepperquilts.com/2011/06/broken-dishes.html. I have never made an all solids quilt and I don't own enough solids to make it and keep it interesting. I love the freshness and colorfulness of the design, it reminds me instantly of happiness and spring. And that's what we need right now!

And broken dishes are really an easy block to make. You make 4 HST's'(Half square triangles, it took me ages to find this out, you can find many tutorials if you google it) from 2 colored and 2 white squares and sew the HST's together as a block. The HST's need to be 6 inch square to make an 11 1/2 inch unfinished block. I've used 7 inch squares and trimmed the HST's down to 6 inch for accuracy. But you can use the method you like of course. And you can make them any size too!

I've made a green and a pink version. And I can't wait for all the colorful crisp blocks to come in my mailbox!

See you soon!

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bzzzz bee block update!

I made the February blocks for the comfort circle. My quilty friend Lotje had thought up a mix of an Irish chain and a Lemoyne star block. You can find her tutorial here. She is always so creative and really has an eye for the overall patterns that emerge and for the graphic effects a block can have. I always look forward to her block choice. This one is a lot of work, I won't deny, but I do so love the effect, it is worth it.

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This is ground control to Major Tom

Please sing with me!

You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do

If you read this blog more often you know songs come into my head when I am making something, mostly theme related. A lot of these songs are from either the 60's (when my dad was young and he played it a lot when I was young) or the 90's (when I was a teenager). This song was definitely theme related:

This is my contribution to "destination moon" Nicolette asked for in the comfort circle. You can find here explanation of the block here.

I loved making them Nicolette, hope you like them,

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Christmass swap!

The comfort circle girls did a little Christmas swap. You can find us here.

I received this lovely package from Sigrun. She made me a hand stitched pincushion. And the chocolate bar and I have a date with some tea and a good book on the couch!

I've made a little cross stitched christmas ornament. I love doing cross stitch, but in my screwed up mind I have to make things that are useful, I don't hang things I make on the wall (permanently). So this swap was a good cross-stitching excuse!

 

 

 

 

This was my total package. I added real dutch stroopwafels and some other goodies. And some birds of course!



I hope my swap partner likes it!



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beating december rush hour - when feeling sheepy

Do you feel like your calender is getting fuller and fuller everytime you look at it these days? Lots of birthdays, Dutch "sinterklaas"stuff, pre-christmass parties. And with it being so dark when you come home from work every day, just about everything seems to be a bigger task. But to keep from getting overwhelmed I did my november block just as soon as I could, to get them out of my head before the busy times ahead.

For the comfort circle we made sheep this month. With an easy to follow tutorial you can find here if you feel sheepy.

I hope you see a sheep!

I gave him som eyes later on

 See you soon!

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Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

Of all the things you do, they were all yellow. (coldplay)

We put this song on Fedde's birth anouncement. It makes me feel al warm and fuzzy all over again when I hear it. And it came to mind, as a song almost alway does when I am thinking something up, when I read Muriel's assignment for october in the comfort circle. Houses floating in a yellow background.

So I made up a little village and improvised a church on a scrappy yellow background.

 

It will make a sunny quilt for someone who is in need of it!

See you soon!Pin It

some lovely boaty beachy randomness!

I have been working on the quilttop of the boat beach quilt for the comfort circle. I received lots of lovely creative and beautifully made blocks in all colors and sizes. And with them strips of fabric or small blocks to fill up the gaps. But how to start. First I put up some batting on the wall and just randomly placed the blocks on it. After some rearranging I was happy with how the blocks would be spread over the quilt.

After I just started with a block, deciding the height of a row and made a row. This is the half way point.

There are some lovely nooks and corners in this quilt. Let's close up

And the grand total, though still a little to skinny. I wil think on how to enlarge it.

I love it so far!Pin It

Bzzzz Bee blocks update

Not so many of these updates these days. I'm not in a lot of bees. That is a good thing for now, because I couldn't keep up if I tried. But the good old do good stitches is still there. These are my september blocks

You can find the tutorial for this block here. You cam make great lay-outs with these!

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drunkards path - a first in curvey sewing

Sewing curves is a scary thing. Not only to me, but to lots of people it seems. But Lotje has set a challenge for us in the comfort circle to make a variation on the drunkards path block. Using low volumes and solid black. I made templates using a bowl and made the four parts of the block to big so I could cut them back to be more accurate. But there are lots of templates for sale I think, if you would make a whole quilt of it. Red pepper quilts has recently made a beauty with it. She also explains sewing the block without pins, which of course caught my eye immediately. It worked fine, so I could really recommend it. You can find the tutorial here.

Lotje told us we could very the size of the black dots. I am really curious how this will work out in a whole quilt! Good luck with it Lotje!

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everything changes but you - a comfort circle finish

For some reason this song has been in my head all day. And I don't even think it is true! Maybe it is because One Direction is in the country and I am reliving my own boy band crushes in the nineties...What a great time we had! Who was your favorite one? I was definitely all for Take That!

On another note I can show you the second finished quilt of my January round in the comfort circle. The Starry Scrappy night sequel! This time I quilted it with a diagonal crossing lines in a funky lime green. Backed it with a fabric once meant for a duvet cover and bound it with left over texty fabric from Ikea (my new go to backing). I'm in love with this quilt all over again and I would recommend using your scraps on a quilt like this one. Are you ready?

I will donate this one soon! And I can start looking forward to putting my boaty beachy quilt together, since this one is now officially of the list!

See you soon!


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Boat beach quilt

For my next turn in the comfort circle (july) I already pitched my idea, so everyone can make my blocks in their own time. I've decided, in the random samplerish mood I am, to not choose a block for everyone to make, but decided to let things emerge from our own creativeness. My instruction to my bee mates was this:

Maybe you know I donate my quilts to the salvation army who run a temporary foster home in my neighbourhood. Kids are placed there for observation away form their homes and families. Sometimes they can go back home after some time, sometimes they go to foster homes after that. Most of the quilts we make seem to be more suitable for girls than for boys. So I would like to make a boys version this time. 

And I thought about a boat/beach/sailing kind of theme, leaving everyone free to make 1 block in this theme and some "fillers" to go with them. 

Fillers could be a row of flying geese, some economy blocks, friendship stars, hourglasses, half square triangles, or maybe just some fabric strips for a border.

The block could be a traditional or paperpieced boat (there can be many boats for the boys), lighthouse, seastar, seahorse, seagull/bird. Many patterns can be found when googeling. And mind you, the blocks can be any size. I would love to improvise this quilt together in a random sampler kind of way. Lotje has a great example of what I mean by a random sampler on her blog. Let's use our imagination and feel free of restrictions.

The colors would be boyish and sailing related, so mainly blues (all kinds) beige ore sandy colors, yellows (sun), whites, maybe a touch of bright red (a flag?) to give it some sparkle, or a little green (a tree). 

What do you all think, could this work? Or would you rather I choose a nice block tutorial, because I can do that too? But I thought maybe for a little break? Please let me know what you think. 

Eva-Marie

I've started to pin about for some inspiration www.pinterest.com/zusjeb/boat-beach-quilt/ 

And without having made a block myself (which is traditionally what you do to give an example and an idea of the colors and pattern you've chosen), all these wonderfull blocks started to pop up on Flickr and Instagram! Within hours, okay maybe days, of me posting this!

And today, (still weeks from the start of july, let alone the end of it) I have this to show from my mailbox:

This is not how I will lay out the quilt, I have no iead how to do that yet, but to get an idea how everything will fit together.The anchor and the geese are from Muriel, the little folded paper boats and the fabric strips from Marianna in Spain. The bright blocks are signaling flags you use when sailing and signify letters (I am told), such a great idea from Francis Paul (Alphenquilts). She also made the lovely sailboats! 
The lighthouse in the night is my addition. I decided to wait with making something else, so I can see what is missing in terms of space, themes and colors when I have received all the blocks. Is do have in mind to add some of my beachhouses fabric later on.

This will make a great quilt!

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Bzzzz- Bee block update: Ladies, all the ladies....

The weather was nice, work and family were busy, so I guess not so much sewing and blogging the last weeks. But Nicolette has already chosen her block for the june round of the comfort circle and that was something to give me some fast and instant sewing satisfaction. The block is called ladies aid and you can find a tutorial on her blog here. She asked for muted colors...I seem to have lots of vibrant colors and not so many muted ones, but I found some lovely combo's.This will give some lovely secondary patterns when put together I think! Nice choice Noicolette!

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Bzzzz - bee block update

I made the april blocks for the comfort circle. They are simple to make and will make a lovely girl's quilt with big bold flowers! Sending them out next week

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starry scrappy night - one down, one to go

I was the queen bee in the comfort circle in January. I had finished two tops with the blocks I received, because the blocks were so big! you can find a tutorial for the blocks here. And a picture of both the tops here.

I've made a quilt out of one of the tops. I backed it with half of a duvet cover from Ikea (green and white checker) and quilted around the squares "in the ditch" to let the lovely assortment of fabrics speak for them selves. I quilted the outline of the white stars in different colors by hand to set them of even more, give them sparkle.

 It's bound with a buttery yellow striped fabric, by hand.

I love it! Giving it away isn't easy this time. But it will go to a local good cause of the salvation army. They offer kids who can't stay at home for some reason a temporary home either with a family or in a children's home. After some time it will become clear if the kids can go back to their homes, or to new ones.
I love that the quilt I will give them, they can take to whatever road lies ahead to give some comfort with their happy scrappy feel.

See you soon!

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