Down the rabbit hole

I made another joining hands block, this time it was the Right hand of friendship block for Pam who asked for feminine colors and provided the background. It is a nice pattern and not to hard to do;

I promised the boys rabits in their new home. So now we have two new residents. Poepie and Snuffie. My boys are over the moon, they are so cute! (the rabbits and the boys of course)

See you soon with some plans for the new year!


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starry scrappy night

I'm the queen bee of the comfort circle again in January. I decided to make the blocks, so everyone could have a head start if they wanted. I've used this tutorial, but decided to use all colors instead of one. I love the idea of the wonky white stars popping up all over the quilt with a random touch to it. They are big blocks (17,5 inch finished) so I will probably make two smaller quilts of them.

And I finished the hand sewn (!) Dresden plate for Odette in the joining hands bee. It's a classic of course, made modern by the fabric choices. I like it, but I do not see a Dresden plate quilt in my foreseeable future!

Merry Christmas everyone!
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Bzzzz Bee block update

I'm still trying to find my way in my new home, make new routines, trying to remember where everything goes, trying to make time to organise a closet or hang some shelves. Not much sewing and blogging this period. That's why beeblock commitments are also good things. When you've made a commitment, you have to unpack your sewing machine to do at least a little sewing. Even if it is with only the unpacked resources!

I've made my last block for the creative quiltblock bee for my friend Corinne Louise. She asked for variations on a nine patch with a bird theme in cool colors. Well I looked up my birdie I bought at Veritas in Belgium. I'm so in love with them. And fussy cut a bird on the back of an elephant. I decided to do a straightforward nine patch to keep the pieces of fabric as big as possible.

I've also made a block called chain for Jo in the joining hands bee. You can find the tutorial here on quilterscache.  If you've never been you should go take a look. There are so many blocks here you couldn't make them in a lifetime! The tutorials are easy to follow. It does take some imaginations to imagine a modern quilt with them, but it's possible! Jo asked for purple, black, grey and white. A combo I have maybe even never used for a quilt. It's crisp, and I'm curious as to the secondary patterns that will emerge when putting all the blocks together.

See you soon!

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Babyquilt marathon - handsewn dresden plate

I've made my fourth babyquilt in a row! Well this one is just a top yet actually!

Last weeks pixie churn, off course Yannick's boaty baby, and Boasson's Dashy baby. Not really a babyquilt, but a toddler quilt for Lydia made with the do good stitches comfort circle; grannies comfort. I love that they are all modern and in someway attached to my style (I would gladly kept anyone of them), but so very different depending on the person it is made for!

So are you ready for my next reveal?

The working name is aqua diamonds. (I do hope you see the diamonds emerging) It is for my good friend who is having a baby on her own, which I think is a very brave and great thing to do. She is absolutely up to it, any baby will be blessed with such a sweet, confident, persevering mom. I wish them every happiness. I will sandwich it and quilt and bind it before the move, I hope... Because after I will be busy with other things for some time, like unpacking, making curtains etc.

For the joining hands bee someone asked for a hand stitched dresden plate. The dresden plate is a flower like very traditional block. I didn't really know how to start. But I found some template on the web, traced them on freezer paper, ironed fabric around them and just started. Like I've said before, to me quilting is 20% measuring and cutting, 30% ironing, 10% actually stitching but mostly daring. Daring to sink your scissors in to fabric, daring to start, etc. I'v finished the first step and now I have to applique them to a background, again by hand. Taking this step by step. We will see how it ends up, but do far so good. 

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Bzzzz Bee block update

I made a block for november in the joining hands bee. Called the depression block. You can find the tutorial here. It's not depressing to me at all. I like how it's scrappy and it will give a lovely secondary pattern if combined in a quilt.

Three weeks and counting down to the move!

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Joining hands - new challenges

I'm enjoying a lovely weekend with beautiful fall weather. It's sunny and the temperatures are fine. Our house, which is being renovated, is becoming a dream house in front of our very eyes. All these things made me smile when sewing up some bee blocks for the joining hands bee.

Alice asked for a (sort of) Swoon. I have admired these blocks often, but had never made one. We didn't become friends.. For some reason everything went wrong when sewing it up. I usually give up and take some time to get it back together, but with the to do list in my head I labored on and made mistake after mistake. I like the overall result, but no close ups please. I did send it to Alice, but maybe I'll make another one later on to do it better.

Wendy from the joining hands bee asked for any block using dark green and burgundy. I'don't "do" these colors, after emptying my scrap buckets I found some leftovers from things I sewed for my mom and form scrap bundles. I do love the book fabric and it's really fitting in the color scheme, but cutting it up seemed a waste, so I chose a block in which I could use a bigger piece. It's a variation on my current favorite the churn dash called a framed churn dash.

Even more churn dashes will be popping up here soon, stay tuned for the next episode of  "as the churn dashes".


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Joining Hands - economy blocks

I'm in a new bee called "joining hands", you can find us here on Flickr. And of course I had to figure out what to ask for. I was browsing my favorite blogs for inspiration and I found this on redpepperquilts.com and I just knew. I had to have a quilt like this. Maybe even exactly this one! She was generous and gave a tutorial how to make "economy" blocks as they are called. (I love saying economy with a smile on my face in this day and age) You can find the tutorial here. She has one for traditional piecing and one for foundation piecing. This is a picture form here blog:

So I asked the ladies of the bee to make these blocks for me. Since they are very small (5 inch finished) I asked to make more than 1 if possible, because I will need lots of blocks to make a quilt. And this quilt will be just for me, for my new home. Of course I tried both patterns (traditional  (left) and paperpieced (right)) and made a few blocks. I love how you can use small scraps of your most loved fabrics.

Can't wait to have this quilt on my couch! 

See you soon!

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