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