Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013

The quilt I'm entering in the throw category was finished only a week ago, just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I call it the new vintage quilt.

I have previously written about this quilt here.

I loved making the top because I had to make my own template, based on the picture of the original vintage quilt. Working out the pattern took my mathematically challenged brain some time, but it was very rewarding to finally figure it out.

The pattern is not simple or straightforward, as it involves not only many curves but also many Y-seams. Every block was machine-pieced. If I remember correctly (it has been almost 2 years since I made the top), making the blocks and piecing the top took me a whole week.

When piecing the top together, it turned out to be nearly impossible to make all the seams match. I simply gave up after a while and concentrated on making only the white strips match, thinking these were the most important ones.

The top was handquilted with perle cotton. I love doing that because it adds a wonderful softness to a quilt. It finished at about 150 cm x 180 cm (59" x 71").

 

Thank you Amy for hosting this festival once again and thank you all for stopping by!

New vintage quilt

After more than 2 months, the quilting on the new vintage quilt is done. With the help of my daughter, I chose the fabric for the binding and started sewing it on.

Na meer dan twee maanden is het quilten van de new vintage quilt helemaal af. En met wat hulp van mijn dochter koos ik de stof voor de bied en zette me aan het naaien.

Another Denyse Schmidt fabric for the binding.

Nog een Denyse Schmidt stofje voor de bies.

And some more handsewing.

En nog wat naaien met de hand.

Looking good!

Dat ziet er al goed uit!

Unfortunately, by the time the binding was finished, it was too dark to take pictures, so I'll have to wait till next weekend to do that.

Jammer genoeg was het al donker buiten wanneer de quilt af was, dus voor goede foto's buiten zal ik tot volgend weekend moeten wachten.

Quilting with perle cotton - Quilten met coton perlé

Oh, the joys of quilting with perle cotton. I can't help it, I like it. It adds softness and texture to a quilt. Sure progress is slow as I can only handle one stitch at a time, but that's exactly what's relaxing about it.

Oh, het plezier om te quilten met coton perlé. Ik kan er niks aan doen, ik doe dat graag. Het voegt zachtheid en textuur toe aan de quilt. Natuurlijk gaat het draag omdat ik maar één steek per keer door de quilt krijg, maar dat werkt eigenlijk ook ontspannend.

Working on the new vintage quilt at the moment, and for the first time using a non-contrasting coloured thread.

Momenteel wordt hier gewerkt aan de nieuwe vintage quilt, en voor de eerste keer met een niet-contrasterende kleur.

About a quarter of the quilt has been quilted now, it will take some more weeks to finish it.

Ongeveer één vierde van de quilt is nu gequilt, nog enkele weken werk voor de boeg dus.

Perle cotton - Coton perlé

Spring has finally arrived here, and for the first time in months we're enjoying fine weather. So I changed my original plans for the weekend and instead of spending time on my attic behind my sewing machine making my bee block for this month, I worked in my garden. Sometimes you have to adapt your priorities to the circumstances.

De lente is eindelijk in het land en voor de eerste keer in maanden voldoet het weer aan de verwachtingen. Oorspronkelijk was ik van plan dit weekend enkele uren op mijn zolderkamer achter de stikmachine door te brengen om mijn bee-verplichtingen van deze maand na te komen, maar in plaats daarvan werkte ik in de tuin. Soms moet je je prioriteiten aanpassen aan de omstandigheden.

I did do some sewing this week though, as I'm quilting the trip around the world scrappy quilt. As so often before, I'm using perle cotton again. I love to quilt with perle cotton, it's a lot of work, but it adds a nice softness and a modern look to the quilt. 

Toch naaide ik wat deze week, want ik quilt momenteel de trip around the world scrappy quilt. Zoals zo vaak gebruik ik ook nu coton perlé. Ik ben dol op coton perlé, het is behoorlijk wat werk om ermee te quilten, maar je quilt wordt er heerlijk zacht van en het oogt ook modern. 

I always use DMC perle cotton n° 8, readily available in many colours in shops all over Belgium. I buy mine mostly at my local crafting shop 't Wolwinkeltje, but I'm sure you can find them online too, at DMC's website for instance.

Ik gebruik altijd DMC coton perlé nr. 8, bolletjes die je overal in België in vele kleuren vindt. De mijne komen vooral van een lokale winkel, 't Wolwinkeltje, maar ik ben er zeker van dat je ze ook makkelijk online vindt, op de website van DMC bijvoorbeeld.

And now back to my garden, for some more weeding and pruning. And enjoying the sun of course, in the company of an icecream!

En nu terug naar de tuin, om wat meer te wieden en snoeien. En genieten van de zon natuurlijk, in gezelschap van een ijsje!

Een afgewerkte quilt - A finished quilt

Just in time! I managed to finish this quilt just before the end of January and by doing so can link up to the "A Lovely Year of Finishes" Finishes-Party. I joined the Flickr-group in the beginning of this month and finishing this quilt was my first goal.

Net op tijd ben ik er in geslaagd deze quilt af te werken. In heb begin van deze maand had ik me lid gemaakt van "A Lovely Year of Finishes", een Flickr groep waar iedereen zich een bepaald doel voor ogen stelt en tracht dat tegen het eind van de maand af te krijgen. En deze quilt was mijn eerste zelf opgelegde opdracht.

It didn't really help that I decided to hand quilt everything at the last moment, but after spending almost a whole day quilting and binding yesterday, I had a finished quilt.

Het hielp natuurlijk niet dat ik op het laatste moment nog besloot hem met de hand te quilten, maar gisteren bracht ik een dagje door op de zetel om alles af te werken en zo geraakte hij nog klaar.

And a very thick one too, thanks to the flanel Loulouthi fabric, the wadding and the fleece back. But also very warm, a real winterquilt.

Heel dik is hij geworden, door de Loulouthi flanel van Anna Maria Horner, de vulling en de dikke fleece achterkant. Maar daardoor ook lekker warm, een echte winterquilt.

After making this quilt for my son last winter, this one will be a gift for my daughter. Se had hoped to be able to use it during the January exams, but she just finished those a couple of days ago. But there'll be other occassion, I'm sure.

Nadat ik vorig jaar deze winterquilt maakte voor de zoon, is dit een kado voor de dochter. Ze had hem liever klaar gezien voor de januari-examens gedaan waren, maar ook nu zal hij zeker van pas komen.

Some quilt stats: 

size: 135 cm x 155 cm (about 53" x  61")

fabric: Loulouthi flanel by Anna Maria Horner.

Backing is a biological coton fleece fabric. Binding is a Good Folks flanel fabric.

quilting thread: DMC perle cotton nr. 8. Colour is nr. 321.

Een beetje quilt info:

afmetingen: 135 cm x 155 cm

stof: voorkant is flanel van de serie Loulouthi van Anna Maria Horner.

De achterkant is een biologische katoenen fleece. De bies is een Good Folks flanel.

Quiltdraad: DMC coton perlé n° 8. De kleur is nr. 321.

I'm linking up to the linky Finishes Party by Fiber of all Sorts, and Sew Bittersweet Design, who organise "A Lovely year of Finishes". And now I'll have to think about what to make in February...

Ik plaats een link naar de linky party van Fiber of all Sorts en Sew BitterSweet Design, de organisatoren van "A Lovely Year of Finishes". En nu nadenken over wat ik in februari zal afwerken...

Quilt, quilt, quilt

I decided to hand quilt the winter quilt. Maybe not the wisest decision I could make, since I just joined "A lovely year of finishes", a Flickr-group where you're supposed to finish a project every month. And this is my project for January. So from now on, every evening: quilt, quilt, quilt!

Ik heb beslist de winter quilt met de hand te quilten. Misschien niet de verstandigste beslissing, gelet op het feit dat ik net lid geworden ben "A lovely year of finishes" , een groep op Flickr waar je je engageert om elke maand een project af te krijgen. En dit is mijn project voor januari. Vanaf nu dus elke avond: quilten, quilten, quilten!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012

It's the time of the year again when Amy hosts the Bloggers Quilt festival! If you came here through her site, welcome! I'm Anne, I've been quilting for a couple of years now, I buy way too much fabric, have way too many unfinished quilts but luckily, once in a while I actually manage to finish one!

I hesitated between two quilts, but finally decided to enter my Winnie-the Pooh quilt because of the story behind it and the hand quilting.

It all started with a colleague of mine who brought me an old pj of her daughter. A Winnie-the-Pooh pj that had been her daughters favorite for years and years. That same daughter had now graduated, had started working and had just bought a house. We decided to use the pj's as the starting point for a quilt that my colleague would give to her daughter when she would move into her new house, which gave me about six months to finish it. And so I started.

First I fussy cut all the different Winnie-the-Pooh drawings. They were in a soft greyish-green colour that coordinated really well, in my opinion, with blues, greens and purples from my stash. I used lots of solids because I didn't want to drown poor Winnie in busy prints.

There were 8 different scenes in all: Winnie up in a tree, Winnie trying to get in a tree, Winnie looking at something, all of them really cute. So I made 8 blocks, all roughly the same size and bound them in Kona snow. This was the finished quilt top:

But I wanted to do something more, somethin extra. After all, this was a special quilt. So I decided to hand quilt it with perle cotton. I love hand quilting with perle cotton. If you haven't tried it yet, you should! I adds a modern and at the same time a very soft touch to the quilt. I used several hues of green, blue and purple to make it interesting and decided on big circles as the quilting pattern.

 
For the back, I chose the same colours, while the binding is one of the solid blues I used in the log cabin blocks.

Now for the stats:

Finished quilt measures : 140cm x 170 cm (55″x 67″)

Special techniques used : fussy cutting

Quilted by : me

Best Category : Hand-quilted quilt, Throw quilt , Scrap quilt (too bad there isn't a pyjama quilt category...)

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely day!