pezzy spiderweb

The pezzy spiderweb is my 2013 spring string fling. It finished at 62" by 76" on Quiters Dream Request (thinnest) cotton batting, hand quilted in perle cotton no 16. It is nice and heavy with a lovely drape,  very colorful and happy! The finished blocks measures 14.5" after quilting. 

Not the first and probably not my last quilt using this great old pattern. I started making these blocks last  year, but really dove into the string bin this spring. Rachels fun festival of strings gave me an extra push to finishing it up   ; ) Thank you Rachel!

If you take a look, you will find LOTS of inspiration there...

wednesday wip

So happy to have a quilt sandwich prepared for lots of hand quilting! My pezzy spiderweb top is put together and I couldn't help myself - had to do a little bit of quilting right away...

The blocks are quite large, about 15" square and with a more narrow and pointed star than in my tutorial (on the sidebar). Lately the concept of SCALE keeps coming to mind. So I find myself fascinated  with larger blocks. So far the 15" square ruler is my biggest ruler, and that stops me from going any bigger...

Sandy Klop's pezzy print and some of her dots makes the stars of the spiderweb. They are all different. This choice is very inspired by Katy Jones lovely spiderweb quilt...

Quite colorful, I dare say... And hopefully it will take me A LONG TIME to finish hand quilting this one. Trying to tell myself to pace the hand quilting. I love that part too much, it makes it hard to stop in time and keep my shoulder pain free. This one has the thin cotton batting (quilters dream request). Aiming for a lovely wrinkly texture after washing it up.

Wish you a colorful wednesday!

playtime

It's friday and I have a finish to share. A bit of a long story...

Sandy Klop of American Jane was one of the first designers I fell in love with when I started quilting. The colors and retro feel of her fabric lines was so playful and plain irresistible ; )

So I started collecting charm packs: Peas and Carrots, Wee play, Recess and Punctuation. The first one ended up in my first charm quilt on a rainy day with some other favorites including Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt. 

Anyway, I wanted to make a hourglass quilt using these next three charm packs from Sandy Klop. So I paired them with some white solid and got to work:  

first layout: quite busy to the eye?

At this stage I sewed 9 hourglasses together into a block and started reviewing different options:

second layout: grouping the blocks with sashing?

third layout: checkerboard?

At this point I decided to divide the blocks in two quilts, one frame (layout 4)and one on bay(layout 5):

I think this is when the two tops were put away for some time. Until one day I had another idea:

sixth layout: an offset, asymmetrical frame

My first plan was to add a girl (see tutorial in the side bar). In the end I decided to make a big hourglass:

And here it is, my playtime finishes at 48" by 60", long arm quilted on quilters dream select cotton batting. 

The back is from her latest collection, School Days. I think it's good to pair the lively front with a more quiet back. And I was lucky to have just enough left of the red stripe binding to frame it. Just love this print, it's the perfect binding option.  

Long story, happy ending...

Sometimes it takes a while. Including a bit of shelf time. Now I am falling in love again. And I think I might have an idea on what to make from those precious Sandy Klop jelly rolls that have been maturing in my stash...

Wish you all a good weekend! 

; )

december finish

Up here north we are having shorter and shorter days. I am trying to catch the fading daylight outside to present my finished Recess Pinwheels. This lap quilt finished at 48" by 60" with Hobbs cotton batting.

I ended up doing quite a bit of quilting by hand.

This quilt is made from a layer cake (Recess 10" squares from American Jane) In my own bake shop I cooked up this easy recipe:

combine the 10" squares in pairs with a good contrast in color (I had 2o pairs)

sew around the 4 edges with the usual 1/4" seam allowance

slice each pair diagonally in both directions, press the seams and make into pinwheels

arrange them in a pleasing order and sew them into rows, then sew the rows together

I arranged them on my design wall before sewing them together. And then I couldn't help but make a twist...

... can you spot it?

Time to concentrate on christmas preparations!

Wish you all a good weekend.

; )

quilting it

We all need a splash of color on a grey december day. I am quilting some simple pinwheels made from a layer cake - Recess from American Jane.

Looks inviting on the white deck...

I started out machine quilting it both horizontally/vertically and diagonally along the seams. These blocks are 12" big, so I am adding a bit of hand-quilting as well. (Can be spotted in the top picture...)

The wind is piping in, time to wrap it up!

; )