Rag Quilt Finished… and what I have been busy doing as well

Every day I I have stared at my rag quilt’s seams and I litarally couldn’t wait for the parcel with the special tool. So I finally took my regular fabric scissors…

Meanwhile I finished the quilt (and can take the tool for upcoming rag quilts 🙂 ). I love how it turned out after washing it … and I was really thankful for the tip from alookatthelittlethings who said she put her last rag quilt into a pillow case before it went into the washer, because that really helped contain all the loose threads that came off of it. In fact I collected loose threads in tons from my washing machine and from the ground!!! It was unbelievable! Finishing size is 62×84″ (155×210 cm). But now have a look:

Fuzzy enjoying the rag quilt

All in all it took less than a week until it was done …

Meanwhile summer is definetely over and autumn has arrived. We had a cold, rainy and windy weekend. My daughter sorted out an old pillow and it was immediately occupied by the cat… so I sewed a fast pouf and used the old pillow for the filling. I used a tutorial by Gina @theshabbycreekcottage

: fast pouf

: At least the cat adopted the pouf!

I was Miss July in the F2F block swap and meanwhile I received nearly all blocks the other participants made for me. I am still waiting for three blocks from Australia – and I am really afraid they were lost… but who knows all the secrets of postal service. I will wait a bit longer and hope they will arrive soon.

Susan from desertskyquilts was Miss August – and these were the blocks I made (her chosen colour palette was blue/white/red):

I also managed to sew my first scrappytriparoundtheworld block for the Scrappytripalongbee – the colour choice was black and white with a hot pink center strip:

This weekend I played a bit with some scraps and a template I bought a while ago: the Mini Wacky Web template from the MSQC (here is a tutorial for it) … Originally it is thought to use paper triangles for it but I did it without. I inverted the colours and used white for the “stars” and colours for the points of the triangles – and changed fore- and background in this way. I love the way it looks. Today I sewed 20 blocks together … my first idea was a baby quilt (but for which baby?). I put it aside to add more scraps later.

So now I wish you all a nice week – I suppose I’ll have no time to sew the next week.

Rag Quilt – update

Sewing a rag quilt part II (for part I see here): I really managed to sew all pieces together yesterday afternoon. The biggest challenge is waiting for me now: clipping every single seam allowance – every seam allowance has to be clipped one snip beside another with 1/4″ spacing. After I had started with my normal scissors yesterday evening, I noticed that it doesn’t work without a special tool (Thank you Kate for your concern about my hands!) … so I ordered a special rag quilter snip to protect my fingers! Because my order have to travel from the US it will probably take until the end of september until I have it…

So here is what it is looking so far – 11 blocks/15 rows – the whole quilt measures now 62 x 84″ (155 x 210 cm).

rag quilt front

rag quilt back

Do you see my mistake-block… accidentally I have used it in the wrong direction but decided to leave it that way. So there is one denim block on the front and a multicoloured on the back side… happy accident!

Linked with Linky Tuesday and Building Blocks Tuesday.

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

Sewing a Rag Quilt

after cutting the background squares

Yesterday I have cleaned up my wardrobe and found some old Jeans… so I thought I must immediately start trying to sew a rag quilt… I already saved some denim fabrics from my daughters jeans too and some other clothing and upholstery/ decoration fabrics. Because I deceided to use heavy fabrics for the back side, I don’t use any lining/batting.

First step was cutting 6.5″ squares from all these fabrics. For the front side I mixed several fabric leftovers and single fat quarters I thought I wouldn’t use for other projects. I also used some fabrics I got from a friend who has given some fabrics to me because she moved and had too less space for it in the new flat. I ended up with two fabric piles – I thought making a quilt which has 11 blocks in each of 15 rows (appr. expected size is 60×80″ / 150×200 cm) – 165 pieces each:

fabrics for back & front

The first step of making a rag quilt is combining a front fabric with a back fabric and sewing two diagonal seams – fabrics – wrong sides together. To make it faster I started today with chainpiecing the first diagonal… on top here a lovely Tula Pink fabric.

first diagonal is sewn

After that I chainpieced again to add the second diagonal.

added a second diagonal

Even now it is time to decide which squares should be connected to rows… I laid all the squares following the colours to look which squares fit together:

ready to sort for the rows

I tried different layouts on the floor an made a pile at the end to connect the rows. I sewed the squares together wrong side on wrong side so that the 0.5″ seamallowance shows up on the front.

In this way I built 15 rows – each from 11 squares:

All that took a bit more time I expected – and so I wasn’t able connecting all the rows today. But the first five rows are sewn together:

first five rows connected

I didn’t care how the different background fabrics were combined – it is looking like that so far:

I hope I am able to join the rows tomorrow afternoon when I’m home from work… I’m looking forward to snip all the seam allowances!

Although the quilt isn’t finished after I all in all invested 10 hours work – the cat already loves it!

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

WIP

In spite of the wonderful sunset on the photo my daughter made Summer is almost gone now. My daughter made the photo in our neighbor city Bochum – it is a view from an old former coal mining/slag heap. We have lots of that here – nowadays mostly transformed into recreation places. I love that picture – do you see the girl who is making a selfie with her mobile or maybe putting the hair in order… In opposite to that scene the whole weekend was rainy and almost autumnal.

Since one week I am back to work after my summer holidays – but I was very busy. I began with a new quilt and did some other things. I didn’t manage to write my “connect quiltblocks with the QAYG-technique”… it was so very easy to take the step-by-step pictures – but writing the matching text is much more difficult … so I’ll do that later!

NEW QUILT

Two weeks ago I was inspired by the weekly MSQC tutorial – that week it was a Dresden Squared Quilt. So I prompt started a new quilt – I’ve chosen another block size (12″) and another sashing colour – but I am already excited to see how it will look.

960 pieces…

… connected to 480 pairs…
I used some fat quarters from Amy Butler and Tula Pink.

Okay… I suppose you know the next steps… pairs to double pairs, double pairs to…

24 big circles… appr. 20″ in diameter

Time for a first layout test…

First layout test on the floor (with electric light… sorry)

Now the very painful next step was waiting for me… squaring up all the circles…

squaring up the circles to 12,5″ squares

When I saw the leftovers I suddenly had the idea to connect to pieces a time to big orange peels or leaves … ok that is something for another quilt… isn’t that cool???

leftovers turned in orangepeels or big leaves … appr. 14″ each!

The next step was to add all the center pieces. I have machine sewn the center with a small blanket stich. Therefor I’ve used the same technique as with the orange peel pillow – sewn together the fabric with a thin sticky interfacing, right side to sticky side, cut a slit in the interfacing, turn inside out and iron in place before appliquéing with a small blanketstitch.

appliqué the center with a small blanket stitch

stitching down the center with a small blanket stitch

Meanwhile I basted all the squares and started quilting the squares to connect them afterwards with black sashing.

GIVE A PINK SHIRT

My blogging friend Wanda started a project with her local quilt guild: They are making Pink Shirt blocks for a raffle to benefits Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation. On her blog she asked for help – making a Pink Shirt using Carolyn Friedlander’s Shirts pattern… the pattern is only to buy, but I am in love with the pattern, since I saw it the first time month ago on Wanda’s blog… So it was a good opportunity to have a good reason for spending money…

I made two blocks to send it to the CVA MQG … and yes, I like to have taken part in the project and I love the pattern. All information about it you find at the website of the CVA MQG.

It is a bit time consuming – but I can imagine making a quilt for a little girl using the shirt block as center of an economy block.

SCRAPPY TRIP BEE

At Julie Hirt’s blog 627handworks I read about the Scrappy Trip Bee. What a

fascinating quiltpattern… and what an interesting way to sew the blocks … ok – at least I decided to participate (only five blocks until 15th October… that is achievable)….

After testing the pattern for a F2F-block I made another one today. I was to careful with the seam allowances that it turned out too big – it wasn’t possible to square it up with a 1/4″ final seam allowance. So I have to practise a bit and take this one as additional block for my F2F-quilt (in forsight I took fabrics which are in my F2F colour scheme).

Scrappy Trip Around the World quiltblock

I sketched a short tutorial in my sketchbook as a reminder how to construct the block… I have that personal designbook to collect all the patterns I love. The pattern is by Bonnie K. Hunter and for free available on her website: http://quiltville.blogspot.de/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html .

Scrappy trip around the world block

POSTCROSSING QUILT

It is time to start with my second Postcrossing quilt… or better “Postcrossing meets Blog”-quilt.

35 people from 13 countries sent fabric so far. Apart from South America I got fabrics from every continent. Sue from sewingmagpie sent Guatemalian fabric from US – in this way also South America is represented. Meanwhile I decided to make a very scrappy quilt. The topic of my first Postcrossing Quilt were postcards – the central theme of the second one is “STAMPS”… all the postcards I received, all the envelopes with fabrics had often beautiful stamps on it. So I plan to make a lot of “stamps” in different techniques… different kinds of appliqué, piecing, crazy quilting, some blocks with stiched embelleshing… I sketched some layout considerations in my sketchbook… different motifs, different sizes… connected with white sashing, quilted with a black zigzag line should look like stamps. But one thing is certain: it will be a long-term project. Doesn’t matter – winter evenings are long!

That was all for today. I wish you all a nice week!

Patio Quilt for my Daughter finished

fabrics we selected

Together we selected some fabrics for the Patio quiltpattern from happyzombie my daughter likes.

I was so happy with the red/white/black fabrics… especially that some Tim Holtz fabrics were among it. For the backside I baught a fabric from the Bye Bye Birdy collection by Windham fabrics.

I was a bit afraid quilting that big quilt on my sewing machine and decided very soon to connect the blocks with a sashing strip after quilting every single block (quilt as you go technique)… and so I did!

I basted every single block.

I chose the batting and the back a bit larger because of my sashing strip width – I decided to connect the blocks with a 1″ sashingstrip in between which is narrower as the 2″ strip between the blocks in the original pattern.

So I basted every block and quilted it with wavy lines using my walking foot – a pattern I meanwhile love… it is so easy to do but is so nice.

wavy lines quilting

wavy lines on the back side

seamripper needed

I enjoyed the really relaxed quilting of the twelve 18″ blocks very much… no battle with basting a big quilt, no wrangling and pulling a big basted quilt under the sewing machine. But of course there were other traps waiting for me… by mistake I sewed in a small leather piece I always put under my sewing foot if the machine is switched off to protect the needle plate… here was help of the seamripper needed!

After quilting and trimming all the blocks I connected them with sashing strips – I have to say it was much easier than I had thought. In any case I will repeat that – I previously thought that it would be very fiddly, but it wasn’t.

I connected blocks to rows…

connected three blocks to a row

assemble the rows one after another

After all rows were finished, I have assembled them row for row…

Under the sashing strip the individual lining layers encounter each other edge to edge. They were fixed with the seams of the sashing – I suppose it is really sturdy enough but to be sure I added one wavy line on every sashing strip wich is at last connecting both batting parts with each other.

quilted sashing strip to connect both batting parts

The last step then was adding the binding – I love handbinding because it is a slow journey around the whole quilt before giving it in other hands.

handbinding

I took a lot of step by step pictures to explain the quilt as you go sashing method and will post it later… for now I end up with some photos of the finished quilt. Finishing size is 57″x76″ (140 x 190 cm) – a bit smaller than the original because of the narrower sashing strips.

front… outside

finished quilt back

DEUTSCH –>

(more…)

F2F blockswap progress

As I told in earlier posts I am “Miss July” in the F2F blockswap – that means I’ll receive 33 12-inch-blocks this month and make three of my own. Therefor I choosed a colour scheme: turquoise / green / orange – white background … something like that (and all other variations of the chosen colours):

My colour scheme for F2F – orange/green/turquoise on a white background

Every of the other participants choose the patterns for the three blocks. Although July isn’t over now I received already some wonderful blocks… as alway it was diffficult to catch the real colours:

The first was Avis – she made four blocks instead three (she told me she couldn’t stop making them). Avis made wonderful New York Beauties for me:

Lynn sent three lovely blocks from France:

From Sue I got these three beauties:

This week I got mail from the Netherlands – Esther, who was “Miss June”, sent her blocks (and some quilting goodies 🙂 ) too:

As you can see it will be a lovely quilt when all these blocks are joined. Today I finished the last block I made for myself:

: It was an improvised design… just an idea, but I like the result

: a pattern by http://sewkindofwonderful.com/ – used the Quick Curve Ruler

: a pattern by Camille Roskelly @ http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/

Isn’t that gorgeous??? And I will receive 21 more blocks in the next few weeks!!! And I am already so excited what wonderful blocks will reach me and will at last come together in one appr. 72×72″ quilt.

Linked with Building Blocks Tuesday @ quilterinthecloset and with Let’s Bee Social @ sewfreshquilts

DEUTSCH –>

Wie schon in vorherigen Beiträgen berichtet, bin ich “Miss Juli” im F2F Blockswap – das heißt, alle anderen Teilnehmer nähen im Juli jeweils 3 Blöcke für mich – jeweils 12″ / 30 cm groß. Die Farben habe ich selbst ausgesucht und bin, auch nachdem die ersten Blöcke ankamen und ich meine eigenen drei schon genäht habe immer noch glücklich über meine Farbwahl: orange/grün/türkis auf weißem Hintergrund … so wie hier auf dem Bild mit den Ostereiern zum Beispiel (aber auch alle anderen Spielarten dieser Farben):

Inzwischen sind schon einige Blöcke angekommen und ich habe meine 3 eigenen genäht… natürlich bin ich, wenn ich mir all diese schönen Blöcke anschaue schon neugierig auf die 21 Blöcke, die in den nächsten Wochen noch aus aller Welt hier ankommen werden…

Trip to Utrecht

Last weekend me and my daughter visited Utrecht in the Netherlands, just 170 km from us … We stayed at a local’s home – we were travelling via airbnb … it was a great experience. Marianne, the woman we lived at was so kind and helpful… she took time for some chats, gave hints and lent us bikes so we were able to go to the city centre in only a few minutes… with the “Thank you doodle” (title picture) I thanked her for the nice stay.

In Utrecht you can visit the oldest fabric market of the Netherlands. On May 9, 1597 the Utrecht municipality gave permission to the linen weavers’ guild to keep a linen market twice a year. Now it is open every Saturday.

The Inktpot-building is the biggest brick building of the Netherlands – built between 1918/21. The UFO on the top is a sculpture with 12 metres diameter by Mark Ruygrok.

Carol Cox – a local fabricshop in Utrecht

St. Willibrordskerk Utrecht – St Willibrord’s is one of the finest remaining examples of the Gothic Revival built between 1875 and 1879. The church is almost completely hidden from view by its surrounding buildings so the rich interior is completely surprising. http://www.sintwillibrorduskerk.nl/english/

Oudegracht (“old canal”… in Utrecht

lovely bird’s house from an old teapot – even with water reservoir

View from Winkel van Sinkel to Utrecht cathedral tower.

The Winkel van Sinkel was the first department store opened in the Netherlands 1839. Nowaday it is a grand cafe by day and a club by night. The four iron statues at the front where produced in England – the only country which had the technology to produce such giants in the early 19th century.

Cathedral tower

… sitting in a bar in the evening having a “Leffe blonde” and listening and watching to public tango (with a real orchestra)

And because I travelled with a teenager we had a one day side-trip for shopping to Amsterdam too…

Amsterdam

My daughter Kira.

Amsterdam flower market

I must admit that I wanted to go to a special store too… since I read about it at Nikki’s blog post a while ago I wanted to go there. And I did 🙂

entrance

THE quiltshop in Amsterdam

Quilt in Amsterdam

Quiltshop Amsterdam

1st floor in the shop

Historic quilt

1st floor

And of course I didn’t leave the shop without buying anything…

: … bought some fat quaters

: Voilà… couldn’t resist…

: couldn’t resist… a Dutch heritage fabric selection

Weekend finish… disappearing fourpatch

After some days of heavy heat came the rain… it was hot (about 40°C) but time to sew & quilt.

Last week I used up some fabrics to try a disappearing fourpatch pattern I saw somewhere. I used a Moda-charmpack (avantgarden) and a low volume fabric to make the squares.

chain piecing two squares

connecting the pairs….

… connecting the pairs to squares…

cutting the squares and changing / turning the pieces before they were sewed together again

It was thought for a colleague who is getting her second grand child… I showed her pictures of the top but she didn’t like it… so I don’t know any other baby to give a receiving blanket away. I finished the blanket – as backside I took a cotton tablecloth from a bargain I bought last year and quilted it with gently curves. I just improvised the binding with the folded backside fabric.

That is what it looks like:

the front

And the back side. It is appr. 30 x 38″

the back side out of a cotton table cloth

It took just a few minutes the cat claimed it… so the blanket has an owner now 🙂

Pinter testing the quilt

She loves it!

It is her’s now!

Looking back on June…

Almost July!!! I was very lazy (with blogging)… so I not only have to look back on June but also on the end of May! In May I celebrated my birthday and as you can see I was blessed with fabrics and a special gift for the beginning of the F2F blockswap… a 12,5″ruler and a ruler grapper:

My birthday table…

… got this for the F2F block swap!

I used the ruler for my first blocks I made for the F2F block swap. The F2F – that means “Foot in a square Freestyle” – was an idea of Kate @talltalesfromchiconia and Sue @sewingmagpie. There are 12 participants – in every of the coming 12 months one of us is the “Queen of the month”. Everyone sew three blocks every month for the “Month-Queen”. The blocks have to be 12.5″, the design will be chosen by the one who sew it – the colour scheme is the choice of every participant. So during the coming year every participant will receive 33 blocks from the other participants and make 3 of her own. The first blocks I sewed for Esther from ipatchandquilt who was “Miss June”. I loved Esther’s colour choice: coral, mustard, jadeite/minty bluish green on a white/cream or light grey background… It was really hard to decide… the last few month I was looking for block

designs, sketched lots of designs in my sketchbook, made a designbord…

At the end I made these 3 blocks:

evening star – pattern by Katie Blakesley @http://swimbikequilt.com/

$fractal quiltblock by Patty Sloniger @http://www.beckandlundy.com/$

fractal quiltblock by Patty Sloniger @http://www.beckandlundy.com/

a design of my own… a mini bargello in Esther’s colour scheme

If you want to see all the wonderful blocks Esther received visit Kate’s F2F block swap gallery.

Now we have almost July… and Miss July is ME!!! So I am very excited and curious waiting what the others will sew & send to me. My colour scheme is orange/green/turquoise on a white background – like these Easter eggs … and the first block I sewed for myself. I always wanted to sew curves – now I tried and designed a kind of curved herringbone:

My colour scheme for F2F – orange/green/turquoise on a white background

First block for myself – a kind of curved herringbone

Beside the F2F blocks I entered the Amanda Jean’s SCRAPVORTEXQAL @crazymomquilts. I have a lot of scraps so I am glad to work them up.

lots of scraps

sewing scraps to scrap pairs

join the pairs to pairs of pairs

join the connected pairs again until you have big blocks

I am a little bit behind now but it is real fun to see the blocks grow.

Last weekend I attended a longarm-quilting-workshop at my favourit local quiltshop… it was really fantastic! And the best thing is: now I am allowed to quilt my own quilts on the machine! Some participants wouldn’t repeat that experience – but for sure, I will!

the Avante longarm in my local quilt shop

My “longarm driving licence” 🙂

So I see… I suppose I should write my blog posts more often… because there is more about May and June…

Small QAYG-pouch for my aunt

inside

backside

Something new on my knitting needles

small fuzzy cut pincushion inspired by Jeanneke @http://jeanneke.com/#home

played with disappearing four patches

And I tried the tasty variation of the Cinnamon butter flower – you find the recipe here. The tasty variation is filled with red and green pesto and really delicious!

I tried the tasty variation of the cinnamon butter flower with red and green pesto https://knettycraft.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/cinnamon-butter-flower-delicious-something-between-bread-cake/

I tried the tasty variation of the cinnamon butter flower with red and green pesto. If you would like to make it – here is the recipe:
https://knettycraft.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/cinnamon-butter-flower-delicious-something-between-bread-cake/

A Friday Finish!

Today I finished a cushion cover I made as a gift for a friend’s 40th birthday we will going to celebrate tomorrow. For the orange peel shapes I used the template I made for my last quilt which had an orange peel quilt pattern… I cut it just a bit taller for the cushion cover. The technique I used for it I tried first with tiny pieces for my Dear Jane quilt – and in such a small size it didn’t work well. But here – the cushion cover is appr. 20″x20″ – it worked very well. A detailed description for that technique is shown in a MSQC-tutorial you can find here.

But here you can see progress & finish of my cushion cover.