Hexagon Season Again

In spite of having had very nice weather for a long time, – and nice means sunshine on this usually very wet coast, – spring is still some way off, it seems. As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, temperatures drop and the frost bites again.

But there are moments, – like this afternoon, – when it is possible, even enjoyable, to sit outdoors and sew.

I am working on my “let’s-find-out-if-it-is-possible-to-join-hexagon-flowers-without-folding-the-paper-templates” project. I have cracked the code on how to, but have not written up the instructions yet.

Since this is my out-of-doors project, it is slow going.

If the nice weather continues for some days, I should be able to get some more sewing done, as it is too early to do any gardening.

A bunch of snowdrops are blooming, plus three crocuses, – the rest is still under the snow at the moment.

The sunshine is nice, though, and if it could just stop snowing and freezing in between, we could have real spring in quite a short time.

Eldrid

Bargello Flames

I finally got around to taking some half decent photos of the blue green bargello quilt.

 

The quilt is approximately 82 x 92 inches, and is made from a pattern I wrote earlier.

 

It was beautifully quilted by Anne Rønningen at Quiltekammeret.

Here is a closer look at the quilting.

Eldrid

Blue Night again

Michele Foster over at the Quilting Gallery organizes weekly show and tell contests.

This week my quilt “Blue Night” was voted first in the theme Winter Landscapes. I was thrilled, of course. A big thank you to all those who voted.

I was even more thrilled when I was informed that there was a prize.

Vicki Welsh,  who makes glorious hand dyed fabrics, was a sponsor of the event, and offered one of her fabric packages as a prize. I was even allowed to make my own choice between all the colour combinations available in her Etsy shop.

I had a hard time choosing, but landed on the pink packet in the end.

The quilt “Blue Night” was made of half inch fabric squares using a collage technique. Lots of colour variations are needed when making these collage quilts, so this packet will be a great start for a new project. Thank you, Vicki, and thank you, Michele, for arranging the shows.

Just after the quilt was made, I posted some work-in-progress-pictures on my website so that you can get an impression of how it was made.

One of the inspirations for the quilt was a class I took from Mr Edmund Cluett, a very talented fiber artist.  He used to have a website showing some of his work, but it is no longer online. However, on this page I have posted a suggestion on how you might still be able to see some of his work.

Eldrid

Bargello Dancing Flames

Bargello quilts are fun. As with all kinds of quilts there are a multitude of possible variations, and they also come together quickly, – at least the tops do.

This one has just been finished.

It was started last summer, so you may well ask what happened to the “quickly” part.   The answer is that the last step, the binding, was put off and put off again, until quite recently. The delay was partly on purpose, so that I might also finish the pattern I have been writing for this quilt, so that they could be presented together.

Many years ago, in 1997, I made the quilt above, and have been meaning to make another one which could fit on a bed.

Now I have, although not all by myself.

Anne Rønningen at Quiltekammeret has done a wonderful job with the quilting.

I think the flame like all over quilting pattern fit very well with the bargello pattern of this quilt.

The pattern is available on my website as a downloadable pdf-file.

Have fun!

Eldrid

More sewing

Another project sent off to the longarm quilter.

This is the large version of my Bargello Flame pattern.

Seems like I get a lot done when I do not have to spend time thinking and deciding about the next step.

 

Fabrics for the next project.

Eldrid

 

Sewing

Not the most catchy title for a blog post, perhaps, but that is what I have been doing the last few weeks while my blog has been very quiet.

I am into one of those periods when I am not very creative, but just enjoy making simple projects with lots of mindless sewing.

Bargello quilts fit my mood perfectly, as they come together almost by themselves while I am thinking about something else, or listening to music.

This time around, I decided to also try out one of the thousands of tips that you can pick up from forums or blogs on the internet these days: joining squares for another project as leaders and enders.

Using leaders and enders when sewing is nothing new, – far from it, – and I have also been doing that before, but only using fabric scraps that were thrown away afterwards.

Many years ago, when making the quilt above, I cut lots and lots of 2 inch squares, and I had a box of leftover squares from this quilt tucked away below my ironing table. My plan was to join two and two of these squares as leaders and enders while also sewing the bargello quilt.

I first sorted the squares into groups of obvious darks, obvious lights, and mediums. The medium group became quite big, so I sorted those into medium lights and medium darks. Then I put the piles onto two trays. On the tray to the left are the lights and the medium darks, and to the right are the medium lights and the darks.

I started with the tray to the right, selecting a square from each pile to sew together in between the bargello strips.

Here are two squares going in as enders.

Cut off the bargello strips….

… and the squares lead on to the next set of bargello strips.

There are lots of seams in a bargello quilt…..

…… and the heap of joined squares is growing fast. At the moment I am thinking four-patches, and then we’ll see what it will turn into.

The first bargello top is finished and has been sent off to be longarm quilted.

The next project is on its way…..

… and the heap of joined squares is ever growing. I have already started on the second tray.

This is fun!

Eldrid

Patchwork Ball made of Pentagons

I recently visited another school class showing them some patchwork quilts, and here they also wanted an easy project to try out for themselves, which did not involve the use of sewing machines. So they got to sew balls made of pentagons, using the English Paper Piecing method.

Here is how:

First, make 12 pentagon paper templates of the size you want, but all 12 the same size, of course.

Cut 12 fabric pieces with a comfortable seam allowance, baste around all 12 templates. I find that the basting method I use for hexagons also works well for pentagons, as long as they are not too large.

Sew one pentagon patch to each of the sides of the centre pentagon. Now you can remove the paper template from the patch in the centre.

Sew the sides of the 5 pentagons together. They will form a bowl shape.

Make two such bowls, only leave one seam open on the second bowl.

The open seam will make it easier to turn this bowl inside out while the papers are still in.

If you want to make a bowl instead of a ball, you can do that of course. Just put one bowl inside the other, wrong sides together, line up top edges and sew. Leave the papers in for stability, – you may also consider putting in the bottom paper that was removed earlier.

Better still, if you plan on bowls from the beginning, you can cut your templates from stiff interfacing instead of paper, – then the bowl will be washable.

For a ball, the two bowls must have the right sides together, and you line up the top edges a little differently. The “mountain top” must be right above the “valley”.

Then you sew the sides together so that the “mountain” ends up in the “valley”. It can be a bit fussy to hold the patches in the correct position while sewing,  so you may have to pin them to avoid the “struggle”.

The “mountain” patch has all sides sewn now, so the paper can be removed.

Continue sewing like this along the edges of the two ball halves. As soon as a patch has all its sides sewn, the paper can be removed, making it easier to handle the project.

Sew till there are only two seams left ….

… or if your fingers are small and nimble, – make it so just one seam is open.

The opening will be easier to handle once the papers are gone.

Turn the ball inside out….

….fill the ball with leftover batting pieces, or whatever you want to have inside….

… and then sew the last opening shut.

A pdf file with pentagon templates can be found here.

Eldrid

Quilt Inspiration

Marina and Daryl Lynn at Quilt Inspiration have written an article on Bargello quilts, where some of my quilts are featured.

Go here to read the article:

http://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/2012/04/fabulous-bargello-quilts-introduction.html

Eldrid

A Weekend of Inspiration

Last weekend was the Annual General Meeting of the Norwegian Quilt Association (Norsk Quilteforbund). It is a few years since the last time I had the opportunity to attend, so I was happy to learn that this years meeting was to be held in Bergen, which is not so very far, and also the communications to our island are very convenient.

In addition to the AGM itself, there were a lot of classes, talks, forums for discussion, quilt competitions and exhibitions, and of course the ever tempting shops:

Since I had not signed up for any classes, I had plenty of time to let the tempations get to me, – and a few fabrics made their way into my suitcase.

I was also able to spend time to study the quilts at the exhibitions.

Saturday was a bit crowded, but on Sunday there was more space and better opportunities for photographing…..

…. although it was not as empty as it may seem from the two photos above.

The prize winners of the competition themed “Ocean” are presented on NQF’s webpages here. I will not show the same quilts in this post, except a detail from the winning quilt in the traditional class:

I really liked the quilting on Marit Lauve’s storm-at-sea blocks.

Magnhild Tautra had made this interesting piece for the competition.

The log cabin blocks were really small, and I loved the small fish and the fish net.

Kari Østengen had made this one called “Rain and Bad Weather”.

You can almost get soaked looking at this.

Another interesting piece was this one by Greta Husebø called “Arctic Ocean”. I spent a long time here studying the various ways she created texture on the quilt.

She has also made the one below:

Lots of interesting details in this one as well:

I guess that since we were in Bergen, a reminder of the local Oleana design would be in order:

This lovely quilt was made by Edna Marie Nylén.

Last time I was in Bergen, in December, I wrote a blog post showing you this:

I was delighted to find it turned into a quilt, made by Margun Vatshelle:

The manhole covers in the streets of Bergen are called “Bekkalokk”, and that is also the title of the quilt.

I loved it.

I was also happy to see the quilt below at the exhibition:

It is one of a series quilts by Kirsti Hovland where she explores how written signs have evolved from the earliest petroglyphs to the modern day computers. The series is an amazing body of work ,and very well executed.

The quilt below hung in a corner somewhat by itself. If I had been in a hurry, I would probably have overlooked it, as it did not “shout” to me with “loud” colours like some of its neighbours did.

And if I had not stopped, I would have missed seeing the exquisite detailed work that Karin Kristiansen put into this wall hanging.

I cannot imagine how many hours this would have taken.

Grete Lund had a couple of entries in the exhibition, and I fell for this one.

It has a pleasing repetitive pattern, and interesting details for when you go nearer.

I also liked Brit Standnes’ quilt below:

The title is “Ocean in the North”

I liked the tonal fabrics she used at the top…

…. and there were lots of details to explore.

The last two quilts I will be showing you here, were made by Bente Klingsheim.

This one is called “Angel”

“Polar Night” was too big to get a straight shot of because of the narrow aisle.

I’ll compensate by showing a few details instead. The colours are a bit off as my camera did not handle the light conditions in this dark corner very well, and the flash made the quilt look too flat.

I loved the mixture of different fabric qualities, – some matte and some very shiny ones.

The above is just a few examples of all the beautiful quilts that were on show. I really enjoyed walking through several times.

When travelling to an event like this, it is fun to be going in a group, or at least with a friend.

However, I am often surprised at how much fun I have when travelling alone. At almost every corner I tend to meet up with someone I know, or who knows me, and we get talking, often remembering the last time we met.

But the most exciting part is to get to know new people, which is bound to happen during the dinner, if not before. Since I am on my own, and each table seats ten, there is a big chance I will be seated with one or more persons I do not know beforehand. And then we get talking, and discovers we have mutual friends or relations, or have common aquaintances in faraway parts of the world, – that’s when the theory of the six degrees of separation is confirmed once more. And of course we all have one big common interest, which is discussed at length, – and usually I, or someone else, will have some new insight before the evening is out.

So it is not only new fabric that come with me when I pack my suitcase to go home….

… but also a lot of inspiration and good memories.

Eldrid

A School Visit

Last week I got a phone call from the local school asking if I would like to visit the 10 and 11 year olds, showing some of my quilts. They had been working on geometrics, and each pupil had been given a paper with a square divided into 9 equal parts to decorate as they liked. We quilters would know this as a nine patch block, – and although such terms were unknown to the children, the term “patchwork” did come to mind when they had glued all their blocks together onto a piece of cardboard. So when searching on the internet for “patchwork”, my website came up, – and after looking around there, they decided they wanted to learn a bit more about patchwork and quilting, and they especially wanted to see the Kameleon Quilts.  Lucky I live so close

So off I went with a suitcase packed full of some of the quilts that still reside in our home. In the hall just outside the classroom, the result of their geometry project hung on the wall.

A very colourful nine patch sampler.

I told them about nine patch blocks and how they were used in quilts, – very often as the first pattern a small girl would learn to make in former times.

Previously, they had also been doing some rangoli patterns:

We agreed that most of these are four patch blocks.

We also had a look at another traditional block; the log cabin block, and then I went on to show how I had used many of these blocks in my quilts, even the Kameleon Quilts.

On the school website there are some photos from this “show and tell”, which also included other quilts than block quilts. The children were very interested and asked lots of questions, and we were having a great time.

After I got home, I studied the photos I took of their projects, especially the nine patch one. There were some unusual and interesting designs in there, so I have taken the liberty of redrawing a few of the blocks in QuiltPro and playing around a bit to see how they would look if worked into a quilt.

This block is not an unusual pattern in itself, but I have not seen it done in a nine patch grid before, – nor have I found a similar nine patch block in the books and block libraries I have looked through. It may exist somewhere, though.

In a quilt with 3 x 3 blocks it would look like this:

Or like this, if every other block is turned  90 degrees:

Now here is another interesting block:

I have tried to use colours that are similar to the original drawing.

Here it is in a 4 x 4 block quilt:

A very pleasing design, I think.

When every other block is mirrored sideways, it looks like this:

Both of the blocks above have some kind of symmetry to them.

The one below, however, has a refreshing lack of symmetry, both in the design and especially in the colouring; – almost every patch has a new colour:

When set into a repeating pattern, like the 4 x 4 block setting below, it makes a beautiful and interesting quilt:

With every other block turned 90 degrees, it will look like this:

If we “zoom out” a bit, we might also get a better overall view of the design:

I would not mind owning a quilt like that

In conclusion, this turned out to be a most interesting and inspiring visit, – not least for me.

Eldrid