Baby book for a boy

I have created a baby book for my husband's aunt, who took it to a baby shower of her neighbour's baby boy. She was a designer and when she closed her shop she gave me a lots of supernice fabrics. I tried to use then in the pictures, and I really like the results!

I also tried to document how I put the book together. The inner pages should be 1/2 inch smaller than the covering ones. The original size of the cover is 6 1/2 ", the final one after turning in the pages somewhere around 6"

original sewing order:

Textil usage is real small, less than 0.5m for all of the book.

Another I-spy for a colleague's baby shower - late posting from 2019

Last year I forgot to publish a last minute present: one of my colleagues was expecting a baby and I have made an I spy quilt for them. I used some 5"x5" squares, some of them from smaller scraps, and I was trying to put together something colorful. I added a flanel backing to keep it soft and warm, I hope they have a good use for this since! It used up cc1.5m fabric, mostly from old materials or scraps, so it does not count in my fabric usage.

Strolling along ready

A few weeks ago I have quilted and binded my Yoko Saito design, Strolling Along Path Of Green, but I did not posted it yet. Now I am showing it to you. It took quite a while, it was sitting on my couch almost for a year before I managed to convince myself to finish it. My main problem was how to quilt it. After a long contemplation I have opted for my usual organic design which gives a real nice texture.

Pillows as a gift

i did some finishing and used up some fabric. My sister in law asked me to make some pillows for our nephew's room, and here they are. It took a few monthes to start, but they were finished in 30 minutes...

Teachers gift - by my son

I was thinking what kind of present should we prepare for my son's teachers for the school year closing, when I pinterest showed me a bluegreen placemat. It was the perfect solution - not to difficult to make, useful, nice for the teachers and has boy colours that Andris will happily participate. He chosed the fabric, measured and cut it in one go. Then next time sewed  the stripes together. 

Third time was for the monogram of the teacher, where he draw the letter, ironed the adhesive and the letter to the back. Then he practiced a little how to applique rounded corners, but at the end he said I should do the roundings and he takes the straight sides. I was more than happy to help him out a little! When both sides were ready, he ironed the middle layer in, we used a thin adhesive batting. Then I outlined the letter to stabilize the mat, and then he took back to do the straight line stitch in the ditch. Finally came the binding, where he helped to cut and iron the binding, but asked me to bind it - and voila: placemat ready to use. He really did a great job, I hope the 2 teachers will appreciate the effort of a 9 years old:)

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

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

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...

3 for the triplets - Girl quilt

This was the 3rd bedcover I made for our nieces/nephew. They are triplets and they all got bedcovers for Christmas. The design is similar to the other girl's, but the colors are different.

2 for the triplets - Girl quilt

I decided to make a quilt for my niece. Her color is yellow (she is one of a triplet, so color distinction is important in her family :) ). It was my first big project, but I really liked. I decided on the design with the piecing and also on the free motion quilting.

Baby sleeping pad

My first work ever - this was the trial piece for the 3 day quilting course I took in July. I see some place for improvement, but overall I am quite satisfied. I gave it to our niece who was a few month old at that time - she still sleeps with this.

christmas birdies

I almost forget to show my Christmas birdies. It was ready by Christmas but the quilting is still missing. I will finish somewhen but it is on display anyway. The design is called House Warming Party by Vicky Bellino and Bloom Creek.

House Warming Party

Fernhill

MANY NEW ENTRIES BEFORE THIS (EVEN IN OLDER ONES)

 - CHECK OUT A YEAR OF PROJECTS!

Fernhill

2013 Summer

Fernhill by based on the design Fernhill by Lynette Anderson, with some real quilting added. I was lerning free motion quilting, applique basics and putting the block together. The animals are hand stitched, all other by machine.

I joined a quilting course in last July due to this design - I was thinking and rethinking almost for a year whether I really need a new hobby on top of stitching :) This was how it started and no stopping since.

Some progress  pics.

 The evil reindeer - I restitched the eyes and mouth after I realised how scary he is!

Boy quilt

Boy quilt 

2014 November (1 week)

210x160cm

Originally I started to make a quilt for my other niece (I have a lot) but I run out of white fabric and in the meantime I started to put together a simple boy quilt for her brother. I simply used all material I have found in the basket - an old shirt, an old trousers including some remaining end of a green and a white linen curtain. I really like the outcome, but since it is quite huge (210x160cm) I did not quilted apart from the stitch in the ditch. The grey is actually a striped white bluish greenish brownish material. There are some wrinkles in the fabric, but a washing and an ironing can make miracles.

First free motion project - Leah Day

Leah Day course for free motion quilting 2014 Summer-Autumn

To get over my aversion of my inability to free motion quilt my quilts, I went through the course offered by Leah on her blog. It was real good, I really enjoyed, and it took only that long due to the fact that we had a 2 month renovation in between. I will upload some details because it is really fascinating, and the outcome is much better than I thought during the production. Click on to see the details!

Free motion quilting in progress

I was practicing a lot, a lot and a lot, with different results...