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

Blogger’s Quilt Festival again

It is show time again!

Amy over at Amy’s Creative Side is organizing the 8th Blogger’s Quilt Festival. It gets better each year.

This time I am going to show you my latest finished work.

It is a baby quilt that I made on commission. The customer wanted a colourful quilt, and to have photos of family members in it. (The photo prints are better in the real quilt than they look in the picture above, where I have blurred the faces).

The quilt has 155 log cabin blocks with one round of “logs” in them, plus 14 photo blocks. I used 75-80 different fabrics total in this quilt.

The quilt is approximately 1 x 1 meter. Since it is quite small, I have quilted it myself. Doing a little at a time, my shoulders braved it quite well.

The customer had taken a fancy to one of my previous quilts, so the design is inspired by the quilt called “Light”.  It is the third quilt down on this page.

I enjoyed making that quilt, and I also enjoyed making this one.

This is my 8th time participating in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and my entry is #70 on the linky list.

My quilts entered into the previous festivals can be seen here:

Spring 2009

Autumn 2009

Spring 2010

Autumn 2010

Spring 2011

Autumn 2011

Spring 2012

It is great that Amy is still organizing this event.

Please head over to her site, you will find links to lots of lovely stuff, you can nominate entries in several different categories, and then vote later on.

Enjoy!

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

Rosemadonna 2

It is festival time again over at Amy’s Creative Side.It is always an exciting event, with lots of lovely quilts to be seen.

This time I will show you the follow-up of my last entry, which I have simply called Rosemadonna 2, since it is the second in the series, – and the last one, so far.

While I was making the first one, I kept visualizing the design made up in different colourways, so I wanted to try out one of them.

Also, I was not quite satisfied with the proportions of the first one. That one was a kind of experiment, just to see if the idea in my head was possible to make at all, and how to go about it, – a sort of “make-it-up-as-you-go”-project.

This time around I had a rough sketch of the project before I started so I had a few measurements ready before I cut into the fabrics.

I wanted gold and glittering stuff, along with the (almost) white, black and grey, and just a few pinkish parts here and there. I had visualized some quilting on the sides, but that did not work out as the parts became too stiff to drape the way I wanted them to. So the two layers of loose flaps on the sides are not quilted separately.

I also had the roses completely opened by sewing the tips of the petals down.

The top part came out a bit “light” compared to the bottom part, so I added the pearls to have more balance.

This is the 7th  Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and this will also be my 7th entry.

My previous entries can be seen here:

Spring 2009

Autumn 2009

Spring 2010

Autumn 2010

Spring 2011

Autumn 2011

Big thanks to Amy for organizing this yet again.

Please head over there, you will have links to lots of lovely stuff, and this year you even get to nominate the entries in several different categories, and then vote later on.

Eldrid

Virka

One of the almost mandatory things to do for a quilter in Reykjavik, is a visit to the quilt shop Virka, which is one of the largest quilt shops in Europe.

I could not possibly miss out on that, and as it was raining on our first day, we grabbed the opportunity of some indoors sightseeing.

When you enter the shop, you are first greeted by a large area of fabric for clothing.

Lots of fabrics in every colour.

Those who are using non-quilting fabrics in their projects can find lots of stuff here.

If you are after the “real” quilting fabric, head for the staircase to the basement.

It is easy to find as there are lots of quilts hanging on the bannister and on the walls all around.

It is almost like a mini quilt show….

… or perhaps not so mini.

A couple of brighter hangings catch the eye just before you get to see the goodies you are after….

… and even more quilts displayed on the shop floor.

Lovely!

As you can see, this lady is having a good time in here.

A few fat eights made it back to Norway…

… and some yardage….

.. and even a bunch of fat quarters. When I don’t really need anything, the blue greens always make their way into my bag anyway.

I fell for these cute scissors. Nice as presents, or to bring along with a hand sewing project.

I think my purchases were quite restrained, especially considering what I left behind:

 

 

Ok… I won’t bore you with more fabrics.

I was even tempted to buy this quilt, – but I didn’t. After all, there is a limit on the pieces of luggage you can carry onto the airline. Pity, but there you are.

We had a great time in the shop, though.

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