Wintery gate and a great progress

In the weekend I was working on the gate and a one-over-one birdie for Winter Watergarden. Originally the bird was cardinal which is not native in Europe, so I put a blue tit to the middle. This is identical to the one which is sitting in the corner, and for each side I will stitch the one which is shown there: one robin and 2 others whose name I do not know. The inside of the gate is really beautiful, but was a real hard work to stitch: I was frogging almost everything once because I misplaced the motives.

I also realised the Gloriana thread for the frame won't be enough - the floss is only 3yds instead 6. I suppose the long one was too pricey, but still... I have seen in the pattern it was originally 8yds, then I bought as 6 a few years ago, this year it was 4yds, and now on the website it is only 3yds. I buy it from casacenina, because I have quite a lot floss and I do not need the whole package, moreover, with the occassional 25-30% discount and without tax added it is much better priced, but I have never thought I should look the length of floss as well!

Quilt galore

My son is going to school next September, and I made some lapquilts as parting presents for the ladies in the nursery. I wanted to keep simple, so they are only squared ones in different colours. Each lady got her favourite combination - or at least I hope so. The blue was a little too simple, so I added some quilting to make it nicer. Oh, I just realised the center still missing, I need to finish it up! The red and brown are already popping, so I just made a very subtle quilting not to distract from the setup. There is a real good tutorial from quiltkisses how to make such quilts with the tube method - real easy and quick!

The last one is a practice piece, I thought in the beginning the brown will be ugly, so I quickly set up a new one, but when I added a border and binded the original, I realised it is not bad at all, so the additional piece stood as a free-motion sample. Each corner is done differently, I was experiencing with the motifs. And now we have a nice one to cuddle under when we are watching tv, so it is a real win-win situation! For the backing I used some old fabrics and I really like how they turned out. 

These pieces were really a confirmation for me, that we should not be discouraged if something seems to be not perfect during a project, and even the less attractive fabrics will look real good if they are finished. If there is not enough from a fabric, there is only some creativity needed and the result will be even better. If you check the third quilt, the dark green patches in the side are added because I did not have enough of the yellow - and it really adds an extra touch. The same applies for the backing on the last: I used the fabric I had on hand but it was not enough, so the missing part was taken from some neutral remaining from some previous project.

Click on to see the details! (And try not to notice how harsh was winter on our door's painting...)

A new start - Winter Watergarden

Chatelaine: Winter Watergarden

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

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

I disappeared for a long time, but my hands were not idle. Paying tribute to the seasons I started Winter Watergarden. Having the Knotgarden series - almost - finished I moved to the Watergardens. Winter and Autumn definitely are on my list, but I am still hesitating on Spring. I do not like it that much, and there are so beautiful designs from Martina Weber (owner and designer of Chatelaine) that most probably I will skip that one. This design is so good to stitch, I can hardly stop. If you click on you can see how much difference some longstitch makes: the tree on the right is without, on the left is with branches - otherwise identical.

Summery butterflyies

Chatelaine: Summer Knotgarden

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

Anyag/Fabric: Zweigart antique white 32 ct Belfast

I redid the clouds as Ineke advised, and she was right - much better this way. I really liked the little butterflies flying around. I thought Summer Knotgarden will be a bit boring, but far from it, it is really beautiful!

2016 - skill building BOM

I have found a very nice Skill Builder BOM (actually this is the name as well) at Pile o'Fabric, which was offered in 2013 for free. I downloaded the instructions minimum a year ago, but did not have the time to start - now I did. I really like my color scheme (in reality they are more fresh, especially the limegreen). The quilt is 20 blocks, both the piecing and the freemotion quilting is explained very well. 

I mostly follow the instructions, but I changed the background filler to a more organic one - I think it was a mistake, but since it is a skill builder I do not mind. And the batting is a superpuffy one (200), I bought it 2-3 years ago when I did not know which one is good, and I thought the bigger the better. Well, at least I am using all of it up, and it is going to be a warm winter quilt to watch tv in the lazy weekend mornings. I already pieced 6 and quilted 3.

Skill Builder BOM 2013

Christmas reloaded

House Warming Party II

I disapperared for a while, because I changed my position in my workplace and decided to pass an exam which helps me in my new one. So I studied quite a lot from end of September till 19th December, when I attended the last of the 4 rounds of the exam. I received the results on New Year's Eve and it was a perfect closing for 2015, because I received the pass for all the 4 rounds, so I am quite happy (the exam only goes like failed/passed, so pass means happiness).

And then my holidays began: Christmas preparations, family visits and such, but I managed to put together a new Christmas present for my mum: the copy of my Xmas quilt. Mine is still not quilted, but hers yes -  a very simple stitch in the ditch for the side ones and a starry wiggle for the middle. Not the most sophisticated, but the quilt quite busy, so I opted for simplicity. The colours are quite strange, in reality it is deep Xmas red and green. The design is called House Warming Party by Vicky Bellino by Bloom Creek. 

Quilt finish - Irish Chain reloaded

In the spring I was working on the Irish Chain from Melissa's quilt along, and I opted to simplify the quilt she generously offered to do along. But I prepared all the blocks ready, so I wanted to use them for something. In the meantime my sister-in-law and her family moved to a new home and the opportunity arised - a gift for the new bedroom! So I put the quilt together and quilted it. Since the basic blocks were already done it went superquick - only the quilting took some time. But I learnt my lesson from last time - I did less quilting to have a better overall impression  as you can see on the background. I really like how it turned out, even the background looks impressive. 

Irish Chain with a Twist (simplified version 1 )