Scrappy quilt top - Restjes quilt top

 First there was this. And then there was that. But even after that there was still a huge amount of this, so it was time for another scrappy quilt, made from 2,5" strips, cut from all my fabrics.

Eerst was er dit. En dan was er dat. Maar zelfs na dat was er nog steeds een enorme voorraad van dit over. Het was duidelijk tijd voor een tweede restjes quilt, gemaakt van strips van 2,5 inch breed (ongeveer 6 cm), die ik vorig jaar van al mijn stofjes sneed.

I pieced all the strips together to blocks, made my colour choices, and then decided I wanted a little block in between the white sashing, on the corner of every block. It took me hours to decide on the fabric, but I finally picked a red Bliss fabric. I fussy cut all the flowers so every block is the same. Some order in the chaos.

Ik heb alle restjes samengestikt tot blokken, heb mijn kleurenkeuzes gemaakt, maar vond dan dat ik tussen elk blok nog een klein extraatje wou doen. Daarvoor moest ik natuurlijk weer op zoek gaan naar het juiste stofje, een opdracht die me even zoet hield. Uiteindelijk besliste ik een rode print van de Bliss lijn te nemen, omwille van het bloemenmotief. Die heb ik allemaal één per één netjes uitgeknipt, zodat ze allemaal identiek zijn. Wat orde in de chaos.

And this is the whole quilt, well, allmost. No-one was available to hold it to take the picture, so the roses had to step in. The bees weren't pleased, buzzing furiously under the quilt. I wisely decided to take only two pictures.

En dit is de quasi volledige quilt. Niemand was beschikbaar om als kapstok te fungeren zodat ik een foto kon maken, dus moesten de rozen een handje toesteken. De bijen waren er niet echt mee opgezet, dus heb ik de foto-reportage wijselijk kort gehouden.

Quilting will be very simple on this one, I think it's already busy enough. So simple straight lines will be the best option.I hope to get this done next weekend.

Deze quilt zal heel eenvoudig gequilt worden, want de top is al druk genoeg. Simpele rechte lijnen zijn ongetwijfeld de beste optie. Volgend weekend hoop ik hem af te hebben.

Fabric - Stofjes

As many shops have been offering summer discounts, I have been on a serious fabric hunt. And this week, the first packages have arrived. How fun it is to get home from work and find an enveloppe on the kitchen table!

De afgelopen weken zijn vele online stoffenwinkels begonnen met zomersolden. Het juiste moment dus om enkele uurtjes achter de computer door te brengen op zoek naar koopjes. De afgelopen week vielen de eerste pakjes in de bus. Niets leuker dan 's avonds van het werk thuiskomen en een pakje op de keukentafel te vinden!

These are the first fabrics to have made their way to their new home: A day in the life by Robert Kaufman in white and orange, and the red and orange barbells from the original Flea Market Fancy line by Denyse Schmidt. I found them in this shop in Germany. I just might have bought the last metre of the FMF...

Dit zijn de eerste stofjes die aangekomen zijn: A day in the life van Robert Kaufman in wit en oranje, en de rood met oranje "barbells" (geen idee wat dat in het Nederlands is) van de originele Flea Market Fancy lijn van Denyse Schmidt. Ik vond ze in deze winkel in Duitsland. Ik denk dat ik de laatste meter heb gekocht van de FMF...

 

  The second package had these beauties: several prints from Ruby star Shining by Melody Miller, and some coordinating Kona cottons (cerise, eggplant and charcoal). And some end of bolts velveteen from another favourite designer of mine, Anna Maria Horner. The colours really are as vivid as on the picture. I intend to use them to make shawls, with a fabric from her Little folks line on the back. I bought them online at the Village Haberdashery in the UK.

In het tweede pakje zaten deze schoonheden: verschillende prints van Ruby star Shining door Melody Miller, samen met een paar passende Kona katoentjes (cerise, eggplant en charcoal). En een paar overschotten katoenfluweel van één van mijn favoriete designers, Anna Maria Horner. De kleuren zijn in het echt even diep als op de foto. Ik ga ze gebruiken om een paar sjaals te maken, met een stofje van haar Little Folks lijn op de achterkant. Deze stofjes komen allemaal van The Village Haberdashery in het Verenigd Koninkrijk.
   

An old new project - Een oud nieuw project

Last year, I made this quilt top, and I had lots of scraps left over. I have been eyeing them for a whole year now, and the time has come to take action and do something about the overflowing scrap box.

Vorig jaar maakte ik deze quilttop, en ik had massa's restjes over. Al een gans jaar denk ik aan al die restjes en wat ik ermee kan doen, en nu is echt wel de tijd aangebroken om actie te ondernemen en de restjesdoos tot normale proporties terug te leiden.

I decided to keep the colours together this time, so I sewed all the greens, and the blues, and the other ones together in rows of three. After that, I cut them to the size of a square. First I wanted to mix the colours randomly, but it became a bit too messy. So I made a bigger block by joining 4 squares of the same colour together.

Deze keer wou ik kleur per kleur houden, dus al de groene, en de blauwen, en alle andere kleurtjes werden per drie aan mekaar gestikt . Daarna sneed ik er vierkanten van. Eerst was ik van plan alle vierkantjes zomaar door mekaar en naast mekaar te zetten, maar dat werd wat druk. Dus maakte ik een groter blok, van vier vierkanten van dezelfde kleur samen.

I will add white sashing between the blocks, to give the blocks some breathing space. I hope the top will be finished this weekend and I have already decided on the backing fabric too.

Ik ben van plan witte stof tussen de blokken te plaatsen, zodat ze wat ruimte krijgen om te ademen. Het blijft nogal een drukke bedoening. Hopelijk raakt de top af dit weekend en ik heb ook al beslist welke stof ik zal gebruiken voor de achterkant. Dat verhoogt in elk geval de kans dat ik deze quilt helemaal afwerk!

Liesel's Hexagon Technique

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the book "Liesel's Hexagon technique" in my LQS, by Hilde Knatt and Liesel Niesner. I looked it up on the internet and found a Dutch shop, Lohuis-Tijhuis, that sold it online. It arrived today.

The book dates from 2001 and this is a reprint from 2011. It gives a very detailed explanation about paper piecing, paper templates, how to draw templates (from triangle to octagon) and so on.Best of all, it also has examples of patterns and pattern sheets.You just have to take a copy of the pages and start colouring. It really gives you the possibility to play around with different designs.

I'm glad I found this book, it's very practical and gives a lot of tips and step-by-step instructions.

Frambozenconfituur

Twee dagen zonneschijn, dat is alles wat nodig was om onze frambozenstruiken in gang te laten schieten. Deze namiddag geplukt en samen met wat aardbeien was er net genoeg voor ons eerste potje frambozen-en-aarbeienconfituur van 2012.

De kleur paste bovendien wonderwel bij de onlangs gemaakte nieuwe pannelapjes, dus daar moest een foto van gemaakt worden.

Two days of sunshine were all that was needed to get enough ripe raspberries in our garden to make our first jam of the year. Some strawberries were added to have enough for that first jar. 

The colour of the jam fitted wonderfully with the colours of the new potholders I made a couple of weeks ago, so a picture was a necessity!

A new quilttop

Very busy days here, with kids taking exams and lots of work at the office too. No better way to forget about all that than some straightforward sewing. And once I saw this quilt on Flickr, I knew I had found just the right project.

I figured out the measurements and decided to keep the colours über simple, just like in the original. The dots were chosen to add some playfullness. I'll quilt it quite densely with orange thread. I think it will make a fun boy's quilt.

Now I have to look for some flannel to make the back, I'm searching for a Folksy Flannel print that is just the right colour, but they are increasingly hard to find.

I found out that Amy from Diary of a quilter sells a pattern for this quilt. It's called Chain linked modern quilt pattern and her version is charm pack friendly!

Playing with Oakshott cottons

I'm thinking of making a winding ways quilt with my bundle of Ruby Red Oakshott cottons, but it looks a bit dull like this. If I continue this way, this will become a very classical quilt.

So I used the first 3 blocks I made to make a mosaic. And this is what I got:

Doesn't it look great? Of course, in the real quilt, there will be more colours as there are 12 different colours in the red fat quarter bundle from Oakshott, but it still gives a pretty good idea of how it will look once finished (in a year or so). And I like it.

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012, London

Last weekend, London was host to a multitude of events: concerts, royal visits, more than 1000 boats on the Thames, but most of all the very first Fat Quarterly retreat.

I bought a weekend ticket, so I had time to follow 4 workshops. I signed in for workshops that would allow me to learn new techniques, so I started from scratch in every class. As it was obvious that the Fat Quarterly organizers went to great lengths to make everything possible and put a lot of time and effort in this weekend (I can’t even start to imagine how much time went into organizing this event), I think it’s only fair to them to put at least some time and effort into this post and give an honest account. So prepare for lots of text.

Saturday morning: registration and goodie bag

Registration went smoothly, and to my surprise and delight, everyone received a goodie bag. There was fabric (Moda, Robert Kaufman and Oakshott), and plenty of fun stuff that always comes in handy. And Aurifil, which I have never used, so I will get a chance to see how different it is from my usual Gütermann.

 The contents of the goodie bag

We also received a "lottery ticket", and to my surprise I actually won something later that day: a "Sassy" by Sandy Gervais layer cake!

 

Saturday AM: Freezer paper piecing with Kerry

Kerry makes the most beautiful blocks using this technique, so it’s not an exaggeration to call her an expert. We could choose between several examples, some with Y-seams and one without. I chose the simplest block (without the Y-seams) because I had never done freezer paper piecing before. Everything was explained clearly by Kerry, who brought several examples of finished pincushions and mini-quilts.

  The start

Kerry is a teacher in real life, and it showed: this clearly was a professional at work. She was prepared for everything (or at least looked as if she was), brought enough material so that even the forgetful students could participate (I plead guilty here: I had no freezer paper, kind of annoying in a freezer paper class), explained everything clearly and had several blocks in a half-finished stage so that we could see where to go from then. On top of that, she had a kind word for everyone and managed to encourage us all individually. 

My only regret is that I did not choose a block with Y-seams, as I think it would have challenged me more. But the most important thing is that I learned the technique. I’m really happy to have followed this workshop and am sure I’ll use the technique again in the future. I actually have already been searching the internet to buy some freezer paper.

 This was my finished block. It has yet to be transformed into a pincushion.

Saturday PM: English paper piecing with Tacha (and Brioni)

Another technique, and again an expert to teach us. Tacha makes stunning cushions, clocks and even whole quilts using this technique. She has a book out now, explaining how to do it, but I was lucky enough to be in her class.

We could choose between 3 projects: Hexed in,  Snowball and Square dance. I always have admired (not to say envied) the Square dance cushion that Tacha made, so I naively thought to give that a try and enthusiastically cut hundreds of tiny pieces of fabric in preparation of this class. I was a fool. 

The first 15 minutes or so of the class were spent cutting paper pieces (it is called paper piecing after all), something I also should have done at home. After that there was a short explanation, and everyone started sewing.

It took me about another 15 minutes or so to go completely nuts. Fiddling and tinkering with those small pieces of paper and fabric drove me insane. I didn't have the patience to do it, and probably never will.  I might consider making a big quilt using this design and machine stitch it, that might be a possibility. But at least I gave it a try and know that it's not my cup of tea. And it was nice to sit all together at a big round table. Now that I know how much time goes into making her quilts, I admire Tacha even more! The amount of patience of that lady is beyond my imagination and reach. And I must not forget to add that Brioni was absolutely charming and wonderful.

 This is what I had managed after 2,5 hours in the workshop

 And this is what I had after exploring my masochistic side
and spending a couple more hours working on it.

Sunday AM: Fatquarterly design challenge with Katy en John

I was a bit surprised to find this workshop on my list of classes, as I did not remember signing in for this class, but I thought, why not? Tips about making your own block design and how to mix and match fabrics are needed and welcome as far as I'm concerned.

Everyone sat at one of the big round tables again, paper and pencil ready, and John gave a very short introduction about how useful it can be to sit behind a piece of paper and think about an original block design. First we had to make a block with squares and rectangles, then with triangles and finally with stars. Everyone had to show his design after each round and explain the how and why of it. It was a unusually calm and silent class, firstly because the group was really small, and secondly because everyone was concentrated on their own design.Glancing at your neighbour's design felt a bit like cheating in school. And John and Katy were really sweet, but were also concentrated on their design, like everyone else around the table.

To be honest, I could have used a bit more tips about designing a quilt block. The idea is not without merit, but I wouldn't exactly call it a class, as I don't really have the impression I learned something. Maybe it should have been more concrete, or a theoretical part followed by a class? Analyzing different quilt blocks and quilts? A bit more interaction at the table? And some mixing and matching fabrics tips would have been welcomed too.

Sunday PM: Portholes technique with Lucie Summers

This was without a doubt the class I was most looking forward to. The portholes quilt from Lucie Summers is stunning and I was very curious to see how to make these blocks.

Lucie was a fun teacher, although it was sometimes difficult to hear her because of the noise from the other groups in the main hall. But she made sure to go to everyone and explained everything to me again so I could get started again in a slightly less chaotic way than my first try.

It turned out to be quite simple, actually, and I managed to finish one porthole without a problem. If I had brought my own sewing machine, no doubt I would have managed to make a second block. I'm really looking forward to make more blocks with the flower template we also received. And maybe make letters, that would be fun. Everyone was really exited about this class and I'm sure there will be plenty of portholes quilts showing up on Flickr over the next couple of weeks and months.

 The result: a finished but very wrinkly porthole!

Oakshott cottons

A couple of weeks ago, I was in The Netherlands for the Open European Quilt Championship (OEQC). Also there were the people from Oakshott, who sell the most amazing shot cottons. One of their bundles was the "Ruby red" one. Onfortunately, it was already sold out, but I ordered it and received it today.

Enkele weken geleden ging ik naar Nederland voor de Open European Quilt Championship (OEQC). De mensen van Oakshott waren er ook. Ze verkopen fantastisch geweven katoen. Eén van hun nieuwe pakjes is "Ruby red". Ter plaatse waren ze al uitverkocht, maar ik bestelde ze en kreeg ze vandaag.

As you can see, the colours are amazing, and they are even more amazing in real life! Because it's so difficult to get an idea of the luster of the colours, I also ordered a samples charmpack. 83 colours, individually labelled, that will make it easier to order in the future!

Zoals je kan zien zijn de kleuren echt wel geweldig, en zelfs nog mooier in het echt. Omdat het zo moeilijk is om een idee te hebben van de kleuren, heb ik ook een pakje staaltjes gekocht. 83 kleuren, allemaal individueel voorzien van een etiket. Dat zal bestellen in de toekomst behoorlijk vergemakkelijken.

In a couple of hours I'm leaving for London, to go to the Fat Quarterly Retreat.

Binnen enkele uren vetrek ik naar London, om naar de Fat Quarterly Retreat te gaan. Ongetwijfeld volgen er vele foto's!