Teamwork quilt

Beginning of december I did some quilting for a blanket where my cousin did the patchwork. It is for her daughter. As my cousin can't quilt, she sends it to me and I did the sandwich and quilting. It's already the second quilt we did like that! Very satisfying teamwork!

Technically my cousin isn't a very precise worker (good that nobody will ever again see the backside of the patchwork ;-) but I love this very alive and unique patchwork top!

My cousin left the choice of the pattern completely to me (Thanks for that confidence!). I had to think a while as both sides are quite different. Then I decided that on the very colorful side you will probably not see much of the quilting anyway, so I chose the blue side to be up during the quilting and took the stars into a simple overall meander quilting. I find it worked out as planned. 

I like the finished quilt, my cousin too and her daughter is happy as well! What can you ask more of a teamwork?

A bientôt,
Jane 

Quilt finished after 4 years

Precisely 4 years ago in august 2015 I made a quilt top that I patchworked with unicolored scraps and grey. Look!

I loved it a lot but didn't know how to finish it. It decoratively hung in my sewing/guest room for quite a while, then into a cupboard. 

I remembered I already cut the binding from the left over pieces of the grey background. But I didn't made a back for the quilt. So this I had to make first. Of course I didn't had any more of the grey from the front. I had two other little pieces of grey fabric and bought the anthracite one.

I made the sandwich with a medium weight filling of 100g/m².

For the quilting I chose an overall pattern. As elder son needs a new quilt, I wanted the quilt pattern to be more masculine than the "normal" meander. After some tries (details in another post) I decided on that one. Not very difficult you think (as me), but technically it isn't easy to make long lines from right to left or left to right without stopping for replacing the hands. That sees a bit but it's nothing really disturbing.

can you find the little mistake in the pattern on this photo? ;-)

I love it! 

The colors still making me happy!

A bientôt,

Jane

Fall tree

Why is it so d... hard to take a good photo? I took about 50 of my last little wall hanging, but they are all not showing the reality. There are shadows on the photo you are not seeing when looking at it or the colors are too light or suddenly waves in the border... My camera is not the best, but it can make good photos of my boys, why not of my crafting things?

Anyway, here it is: the photo that is showing best the real color of the background:

I had seen a patchworked leaf like that on pinterest and liked it so much I not only pinned it, but also tried it out. This wall-hanging is 70x90cm.

The quilting had been the most fun and had been quickly done in about no time. Actually I have been so happy quilting, that I quilted much nearer to the edge than necessary and now some of the quilted leaves are hidden partly by the binding.

This is what I told you about the colors being too bright. I couldn't get a picture with the dark grey background and the yellow thread of the quilting that shows the real combination. I need to take a photo-course!

A bientôt,
Jane

Baby-Star-Quilt finished

I didn't jet showed you the finished star quilt I made for my youngest niece that is now born. Welcome and have a happy and healthy life little one! 

I made these photos after washing the quilt so you can already see the uneven surface. I used a cotton filling, as I don't like polyester for babys, so there is always shrinkage. 

The backside is white molleton fabric - so soft! I quilted the stars with straight lines and all the rest with a meandering line and little free-hand stars.

The finished quilt size is 90 by 90 cm. Enough to nestle down the little girl in it.

A bientôt,
tata Jane

Last triangle quilt

As I have nothing new to show, here are pictures from the last triangle quilt I made in 2012/13. It has been a birthday present for my husband, but it took from his birthday in spring (where I had finished half of the top) until middle of next winter until I finished it.

I used old shirts (you are right I have plenty of those, as you can see in several projects along the year) from him and my dad and two blouses of me. 

The backside is light blue fleece and I did only a minimum of quilting. The photo is done while the quilt was lying on frozen snow, this is why it is looking a bit wobbly, the surface hasn't been even.

The size is 195cm by 132cm. Very comfortable to wrap in on cold evenings on the sofa. (And I have my blanket again for myself :-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Star top finished

I finished the next 6 stars quickly on Sunday and found out that cutting squares in all shades of blue is also taking a lot of time. But it has been fun assembling the little pieces to one quilt top. Do you like it?

I like it okay. Stars are not a motif I would chose for myself, I think I would get tired about the pattern soon. But stars are "in", I see them everywhere, so why not in my newest quilt?

It is 90x90cm - baby quilt size! I hope the futur parents of the baby I make it for will like it. They wanted to have yellow and orange in color and I had immediately sun or stars in mind. But now, the most of the quilt is blue, so I am not sure I maybe missed the requirements.

A bientôt,
Jane

Sailing away

Voila! The boat quilt is finished. I did the quilting yesterday morning and the binding in the evening and today my boys are already fighting about it ...

I like it much better now. The quilting is only horizontal wave lines, but it get the hole quilt in motion. You can see the water moving.

The sky is cloudy and because the binding is pulling the top a little in the wrong direction you get the feeling of wind. You never know if an error didn't turn out into something good.

The back is white molleton and I used a light batting. Even with the thicker fabric in the top it is now very soft and cuddly.

The final size is 1m by 1,40m. A good children size (it couldn't get any longer because of the length of the water fabric). I guess I will give it to my youngest. My boys like to sleep under their baby blankets (about 1x1m) and those are getting much too small now. For my elder son I have an other idea in mind...

A bientôt,
Jane

Baby Quilt - quick and easy

For encouraging beginners to do a quilt, I wanted to know how long a very easy quilt would take me, so I could estimate the time a beginner might need. Therefor I didn't agonized my head, but took a tutorial from Elizabeth Hartman (look here). I even took the inch measurements from the tutorial, normally I do everything in cm. The tutorial is for using up charm-squares, but I haven't had any and took fabric from my stack. 

This is what came out and really in an amazingly short time:

The longest it takes me to chose the fabric (like normal), but cutting and sewing has been a quickie. It would have been even faster, when I didn't decide to change one of the colors. What is now light green has been yellow before, but it didn't look right to me when I finished the rows, so I replaced those pieces. 

The back has been even faster, it is just a piece of white molleton and a stripe of apple fabric on top and bottom. As it is a baby size quilt, I like the back to be cozy.

For the sandwich I used a very thin cotton batting. The hole quilting took less than an hour. I meandered with a leave twine all over the quilt, interrupted by some wonky apples. 

Without the binding, I don't think the hole quilt took me more than 4 hours of work. I guess a beginner could do also in two evenings of 3 hours each, what do you think?

By the way, the size of the finished quilt is 32'' by 38'' (or 81cm by 97cm).

It has been nice to finish a project that quickly and I felt so productive too! I think I will try out some more easy projects without a lot of thinking. This is probably the right for a relaxing summer. Also I know some babys that might need a blanket :-)

A bientôt,
Jane