Apples and leaves

I did 3 triangles of the remaining 8 and also added the apples and leaves for the border. Quite fiddly work to be done, but worth the effort!

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Pomarium corner

I finished a corner with 2 strawberries, and I am aiming to close the year with the first quarter of Pomarium ready. I need to fill in 8 triangles on the border and a little. There is a possibility but I must put a focus there to get it done...

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Spring branch

I just finished the spring branch of the corner which nicely compliments the little tree. The photo is somewhat dark, in real life the colours are much softer - I really like the outcome, it was fun to stitch even the one over one leaves!

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Pomarium

I made quite a nice progress last week durig the Autumn break on Pomarium. Even the trees went much better than I thought, I am starting to like them...

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Pomarium first garden

I made quite a nice progress on Pomarium. It was a little hard to move to the garden part, but after starting it I realised for the 1000th times how much pleasure it gives.

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Last (?) round of shopping

The shop I mentioned still in clearance, and I was walking by... You can see the result, another 10 yards wanted to come with me. They said they will close around 10th November, so maybe I will revisit them once more...

The Story of Not Buying Fabric This Year

I decided a month back, that I have enormous stash at least on my scale (something around 150-200yards), so I will buy anything only after using at least the same amount. And it seemed an easy thing: I have real nice things, I bought several taupe ones for my Yoko Saito which will take minimum a year to finish, so it is settled.

Then life was not only knocking on the door, but it used a warhammer: the fabric store at the corner closes (Szent Istvan krt for my readers in Budapest), and they have clearance - all fabric at half price. And they were not extremely expensive to begin with. The only 'good' thing that they already sold out their original quilt supply, so the temptation came in the form of solid and a very few other ones.

So I bought what you can see here, and I was trying to stay on the low amount side - are 30yards qualify? And I will return only on the last week to chech what else is available...

Falling leaves on the wall

I have finished Falling leaves and I am quite happy with this. This is my first own design 'art quilt' and I think it turned out just I imagined.

It is interesting how much does it change during the process. I was originally started with some tornado type thing taking the leaves, but this mismatch is much better. Originally I used several leaf types but having one is better. I was also planning to go without borders, but the materials were too small and I wanted to work from stash, and so on an so forth.

So this was my first but definitely not my last!

Fall(ing) leaves

Fall is coming, and I was thinking changing our wallhanging in the dining room for something in this mode. I went through pinterest, could not find anything useful, but all those beautiful photos triggered a new idea: beige/brown stripes like a foggy October morning, with colorful leaves whirling in the wind. In real life the colors a litther lighter and cheerier, this photo is a little depressed one.

I wanted something more on the modern side, so I came up with this top. It was a real quick process,  took only a day to design and sew, the longes time was the fabric audition. I used the photo add-on on my phone to get the values right: both the grayscale and tones version helped to choose the right ones. Unfortunately the middle stripe was too small, and when I saw the final result I added a border. It took away some of the modern feeling, but at least not too small. Maybe I will prepare another one with the right measures, but I promised myself not to by new fabric this year, so this is what I will have.

Falling Leaves - own design

Wip list

After the last months' finishing marathon there are only 4 projects in my wip basket. 2 Chatelaines (Winter Watergarden 78% and Pomarium10%), the holiday piece from Victoria Sampler (Heirloom Nativity Sampler 95%), and the Stitches around the World (5%).

Winter Watergarden just got to the present very good shape: 3/4 is ready, and since some floss was significantly longer I have finished them, therefore the 78%. I was thinking on finishing it entirely, but after some contemplation I opted for changing it and move with my rotation to Pomarium.

I am seriously thinking what to do with the Around the World piece. I really liked the progress photos and generally I enjoy speciality stitches and samplers. However, it took me quite a long time to start, and I have stitched only a tiny bit and gave up. I will give it another go and if I still do not like it then I will stop it entirely.

For my Nativity I am waiting for a travelling long weekend to have a proper finish: it was always my companionpiece for our holidays, I never stitched it at home.

Winter is coming (along nicely)

After my finishing frenzy I took Winter Watergarden out. I made some progress during the summer, and now I finished the 3rd gate and the little garden next to it, only one birdie is missing to have 3/4th finish. I am planning to do that during the weekend, and then I will move over to Pomarium if I do not find it too intimidating. I am also thinking on sewing a fall themed wall hanging, with colorful falling leaves flying in the wind on some neutral background - maybe this also will be part of the weekend crafting.

 

Chatelaine: Winter Watergarden

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

One more quilt from the past - a big one!

I just realised I have not posted this version of the Irish Chain. Maybe you remember I did not like the too busy original design, and I made 2 of the precut parts adding some white background and petals. One went to my sister-in-law, one to my parents, an this is the one what I have never showed to you.

Irish Chain with a Twist (simplified version 2)

Simplified Love entwined finished

I have finished and quilted my Love Entwined based quilt. I went for hearths, what I do not think was the best choice, but this is how it is now - I will not change it for sure!  I have started it in 2013, and I have never thought how big the project is, and I changed my mind after the first few parts. But at least it is ready, and it will be a present for my parents 44th wedding anniversary. It goes well with a bedcover I gave them a few years back, the materials mostly similar. I hope they will like it.

Love Entwined based quilt design by me

Herbs

I have finished 2 more herbs from the Sampling of Herbs: Thyme (kakukkfű) and Oregano (szurokfű). Now all 3 are in its frame. There is a little problem with oregano, because I used a small piece of rectangular fabric, and I took the wrong dimension, so it is smaller than the frame. In the picture it is quite obvious, but fortunately in real life it much less noticable. Since all the other herbs are similarly framed I left it like that. This is going to be a long avaited present (first ones in 2011, after one in 2012 and nothing since...) for my cousin, who is quite skillful in all the crafts, so she can redesign the frame in case she does not like it.

Sampling of Herbs (Cross My Heart) - Bay

Fonal/Floss: Anchor&DMC

Anyag / Fabric: Zweigart 28 ct Antique white

Holidays are close to finish

My little holiday friend is coming to a finish soon. In the last couple of years this was my companion piece when I went for holidays, and I finished one block each year. Now I managed only the angels and the hardanger partially - I will finish it at home for Christmas. Maybe as some long weekend companion...

Heirloom Nativity Sampler - The Victoria Sampler

Anyag / Fabric : 32 ct Smokey Pearl Zweigart

Fonal / Floss : selyem, a mintaív szerint / silk as in the kit

An old finish - almost forgotten

I made an inventory of my quilts, and I realised there is one, what I finished a long time ago (in 2014) for our niece. I did not have photo, so I asked it quickly. It is well loved and used, best thing for a quilt, bit not for someone who wants to take photo :) I got the materials from my sister-in-law and tried to put together a girly one. It is a little pale for my taste, but my niece likes it a lot! The freemotion is only a stitch in the ditch, and even that one is a little off - it is very difficult not to slip the sides.

Quilt for Iza - own ideas

Grandpa's 93th birthday present

I really went into scrappy mode, and took all the denim/corduroy whatever pieces I cut from our trousers. Both my husband and myself are small in stature, so I always cut the too long trousers. I am kind of a collector, so I kept all the pieces to have them in case of need ( can you imagine any kind of urgent need for a 2 inches leg piece of a tweed suit? You never know...) but now I took all of my 10 years worth of treasure, added some strange material bits and pieces and I came up with a perfect present for my Grandpa.

He is turning 93 next month, and usually spends his days sitting in a comfy chair - best thing for the winter a nice warm quilt, with a very soft minky like backing. It is called baby-soft in Hungary and comes in different colors, I have chosen a masculine checkered gray for him. Since the quilt is made up of various materials, it has quite a good texture already, so I kept the quilting minimal, only one spiral to keep the layers together. I hope he will like it!

I decided to keep track of my buying and using, so September was good so far: I bought 1.3m of baby-soft for the backing, and used  1.5 worth of scraps for the top. My batting also came from 3 remainig pieces of very thin batting what I stitched together. If I will be extremely bored during the winter, I will make a full inventory of existing fabric - I will see... The thing is, that I made 3 scrappy quilts in the last couple of weeks and I can hardly see any change among my scraps, regardless the fact, that I thought I do not have too many of them...

Love Entwined back

When I started quilting, I have found Ester Aliu's blog where she was writing about a quilt, what she saw in a black and white book and was enchanted with. She was looking for the original, what she has found finally, but unfortunately the owners did not wanted to share it with the public, not even a single photo in color. It is quite a strange and sad decision, because I understand that they did not want to put it to an exhibition, or open their home for the quilt lovers, but to refuse to give a single photo to someone who spent several years of her life with the reproduction of such a beauty, it is definitely not my way of thinking.

Anyway, regardless of Esther's warning that it is a huge undertaking I joined several others to create the quilt based on Ester's instructions. I have chosen linen for the background and I started stitching it by hand. After a few months (in part 3) I put it aside because I realised hand stitching is not my strength and it was patiently waiting in my WIP basket.

After finishing my skill builder and the 2 scrappy quilts I was thinking what to choose next. I thought let's continue with the finishes and give some air to my Love Entwined. In the meantime my skills are improved, I learned a lot about applique, and also about my taste, and I realised that I will never finish the original quilt - it is way too busy for me. So I decided to use machine applique and a much simpler arrangement. I kept the turn edge method, because one hearth block was already stitched, but I exchanged it to be stitched with invisible thread. I have to find some solution for the thread, because it broke one plastic spool an heavily distorted the other - I remembered why was I using the metal one last time. So the game is on, hearths are ready, only the blue leaves should be turned and stitched, and I have to find out something to close the corners.

Love Entwined based quilt design by me

Bay leaves

It was a long term due finish, I do not even remember when did I stitched it- maybe in 2014 ? What I know that I have started the series in 2011... Only the name of the spice was missing - bay means babér in Hungarian. It will be a Christmas present for my cousin , she is the happy owner of the series: rosemary, mint, sage as bigger ones, and cumin for the small.

Sampling of Herbs (Cross My Heart) - Bay

Fonal/Floss: Anchor&DMC

Anyag / Fabric: Zweigart 28 ct Antique white

Skill builder finished

My 3rd finish during this summer is the Skill Builder BOM by pile o'fabric. I decided it will go to the wall of my son, it is a little bit heavy for a cuddling quilt. I used german solids and double heavy batting to have a puffy effect, but I was not counting on the weight... Lesson learnt, this fabric is good to sew with, very good for a wall hanging, but I will avoid this combo for entering cuddly quilt territory.

Skill Builder BOM by pile o'fabric

Scrappy blue finished

I have finished my scrappy blue quilt and went for a modern feeling- I used a half inch parallel quilting. I really liked the final effect. The strange thing that it hardly made a dent in my scraps...

Scrappy red finished

My scrappy red is ready. I was looking for a design to use my white strips from my quilt borders and the red ones from the holiday quilts. I have found a similar scrappy red on Pinterest, what I updated, and I put many scraps to a good use.

Scrappy Red

Universe

Another little newcome in our family, and since the choice was for a solar system by the happy parents, I tried to come up with a girly spacequilt. It was several round of redesign of the color palette in my head. For quilting I used perle cotton, with long stitches and I really like the final result. 

There was a little discussion among the youngsters how many planets are in the solar system ("is Pluto a planet at the moment?") and which one is the Earth: the green, the blue, the 3rd or the one with the butterfly ("there is life on Earth buddies!"). It is amazing when 7 years old kiddies are discussing serious things among themselves :)

The Universe for Elza

2017

Scrappy blue

This is my very first quilt to use my scraps. I was collecting them by color, and the blue and white started to overflow, so I decided to organise them. 

I had some little half squares from my Building Blocks BOM which were miscalculated, so I made little pinwheels and added a border. I aligned all small scraps to have 5"x5" sized squares. After cutting 5"x5" squares and different strips I took all 2.5 pieces to give a bigger border in dark blue for the light ones and used some whites for the dark ones. When I was putting it together I realised I do not even need my newly created little charm packs, I can save them for another project.

I only cut fresh white for the main border, the binding also came from scraps. The backing is some leftover from a fabric I bought to create a lego carpet for Andris. However, when I was checking my batting supply I realised it seems to be quite much but in practicd it is only little long pieces, so I had to buy some new one. The only good thing that there is a shop literally in front of our house, where I can buy them, so I got it quickly.

For this one I did some very basic stitch in the ditch for the main blocks, the quilting is yet to come. I am thinking some straight line, maybe doing it on different scale for each block to give some interest.

It was quite quick, took a week including organising the scraps not only for blues but reds and whites as well. Originally I wanted a rainbow scrap quilt but it turned out differently. Now I am thinking create a quilt in all colors:) 

Scrappy blue - own ideas

Skill building BOM

I have worked a lot on the skill building BOM of Pile o' Fabric what I started last year, and finished the remaining blocks. These were the tricky ones: either some special technique, or some special material was needed for completion. The 2 big ones were supposed to be finished by hand - definitely not my strength, so I did the diamond with my Bernina. The hexagon was mostly stitched by hand, but the final finish was also done with my machine. I am always wondering when people say that they "do it by hand to have a nicer finish"...

This is the almost finished quilt, only final stitching of th 2nd and 3rd row and the binding is missing. I really like how it turned out, and only looking for a place to put it in the flat. It is a little too heavy to be a cuddly quilt, and a little too small for our king size bed. I was thinking to add the last framing part, but opted against it to keep it smaller (and finished :) ) Most probably it will be a wallhanging in our son's room, fits nicely with the colours and the size is right.

Pomarium

I did not blogged for a long time, and in the meantime I did some stitching. As you can see there is some progress on Pomarium, and now I put her away to go back Winter Watergarden. It will take ages to finish these gardens, but I love them so! The actual colours are much nicer, it is a little dark, next time I will try to shoot a better one.

Chatelaine: Pomarium

Fonal/Floss: DMC + many silks as suggested in the kit

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

Berci

I have a new nephew called Berci (Bertalan), and I made this littlequilt for him. It is 70x120 cm, fits into his bed perfectly. He likes it a lot, at least he is smiling when I am checking him under or over the quilt!

I took me a little bit longer than a week to finish, and I used all my fabric from stash. I found the picture on etsy with DiamondGardenQuilts, and I made a customised version for the little guy.

Owl quilt for Berci