Blogger quilt festival - autumn 2009

Hello ...
Come on ...
Step a bit closer ...

Have a seat, will you? It's time for a bit of show and tell:

I want to show you my cats in the garden quilt. It is made of thrifted cotton shirts and linen trousers, vintage kimono silk, homespuns, a bit of velvet, and some japanese fabric from my stash.

The quilt measures about 70" * 82" , is hand stitched over 6" batting squares (a bit like english paper-piecing, my technique), and hand-quilted using a sheet for backing and binding (folded to the front). I started working on this in april 2008, and finished the quilt the summer of 2009.

If you want to read more about this quilt, I have posted about it earlier.

It is now up on the wall in our living room, hanging on little clips in an old fashion curtain slider fashion. This way it is easy to replace and switch the quilts by season. Not all quilts are made for beds. Not in my house, that is...

Thank you Spirith Cloth for inspiration on using different kinds of fabric, and also for your wonderful cats in cloth!

Also, thank you Amy, for hosting this wonderful quilt show, no traveling cost, no entrance fee, just take your time and travel the list as much as you like!

show and tell

Early layout and some help rearranging the patches for Kattelatte aka Cats in my garden.

This quilt was started back in 2008 and blogged about here. It has been a slow process, on and off, and was finished this spring / summer.

Cats in my garden uses a mix of thrifted clothes: linen trousers, cotton shirts and silk kimonos, with some homespun from my stash as well. It uses 6" squares from my batting scraps, and is handpieced together like english paper piecing. The batting is not removed, but stays. I used a double cotton sheet for backing, and folded it to the front as a binding / finish. The quilt is handquilted. Some of the blocks are sewn by machine.

The colors of the quilt is inspired by the colors of our two cats: Mars and Venus, as is the title.

Butterflies made of vintage kimono silk and silk brocade as in a norwegian national costume...

Bumble bees from shirttails...

Cats faces made of thrifted linen trousers and gifted mother of pearl buttons...

The quilt measures about 70" * 82". It is used as a wall quilt for our dining room or living room, and hung by curtain gliders. I am quite happy with the final result, warm and cosy colors adds a nice atmosphere to the room.

I had fun finding fabric for this quilt. And I want to play some more. If you want to be inspired too, take a look at this great reclaimed clothing quilt-a-long for inspiration. I think I will be on the hunt for cotton shirts now!

wip

We have had some sunny days, :) and there has been a little sewing....

The circus pinwheels tablecloth has been quilted, in the ditch. It is a pattern from one of Kaffe Fassett's books. Just needs a good binding...

And the cat quilt is starting to come together.... I might want to add one more row on the bottom. Right now it is 66" by 72".

Hope you all are enjoying summer ...

design floor ...

Have been working on the next step of my blue bargello quilt this week. As you can see the lack of an appropriate design wall is solved by using the floor of the living room. The quilt measures 48" by 60" before adding a border. The weather has changed, overcast and rain, poor light for taking pictures.

My idea is to make a darker but not monocrome frame. Not sure about the corners. All ideas are welcome...

I will put it away for a little longer and see. Using the floor I have to work quickly. The cats love to play around with all the small pieces of cloth on this wooden floor.

Also in slow progress on my cat quilt, undoing and redoing the arrangement of patches again and again... Not happy with the lower green "garden" section. Think I will leave that out and settle for brown and blue colors, more harmonious and less demanding. Another project on my "design floor". Oh, I would love a bigger house...

My third ongoing project is my strawberry fields. I put on the binding, but am still quilting the strawberries and flowers by hand. Nice to see the change that happens when the binding is in place.

Then there is the little swap quilt for the 4SQS....

And a little spin off from the cat quilt, 6" by 12"

My first try at needleturn applique. Fun!!! Encouraging to work on a smaller size quilt. Those yo-yo's were also fun. The vase is a beatiful scrap from my aunt. I just love that fabric.

This week I got my copy of the beautiful book by Material Obsession. Lots of great quilt and fresh ideas. Big smile! And I also recieved some new and colorful fabrics by Kaffe Fassett:

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing .... I need to try to focus on one wip at a time.

On the other hand, some of these quilts are made in steps. One step at a time and then I put it away for some time before making desitions about the next design step. Working this way, I guess it's quite normal to find yourself involved in to many quilts at the same time...

latest stuff

I have joined in on the Four Season Quilt Swap - Summer. Margaret was kind enought to send out a reminder to those who had participated in the previous swap. It has been a busy week, so I had missed out on the invitation. It seems quilte popular and I think there will be more than 100 participants!

I saw these cute little stitcheries over here, and wanted to try. It's a free block of the month. They are so small!!! The dove is 2"square. They were fun to stitch, too.

This week was my birthday. One of the nice presents I recieved was some scraps of silk brocade, leftowers from national costumes my aunt made. Very pretty. Maybe I will use them in the wallhanging I am working on, my Cat quilt, where I use different qualities of fabric together. A little progress made here as well...

I have used a mix of linen and cotton. The bee's wings are part of two shirt collars. I am planning to add stitches and embellishment after I have quilted the top. The plan is to fill the wall in the dining room. I keep rearranging the patches as I progress. I'm planning to add some flowers at the bottom and then frame the quilt with a border.

wip split 9 patch

Some progress made on my Split 9 patch. I have added the border of pinwheels. This one is going to be machine quilted on a longarm. All I have to do is finish the label and deliver it with Kaktus Quilt.

More patches for my Cat quilt. The softer colours will go well with our dining room.

We have had a few beautiful and sunny days, and there is hope of more next week. Have started working a bit in the garden. May is perhaps the most beautiful month in south west Norway with the new greenery and the first sunny and warm days. We are enjoying them as much as we can...

Cat quilt

Inspired by Spirith Cloth I have started a new quilt - Cat Quilt. I want to experiment a bit with different fabrics: linen, cotton, wool, and more. The colors and theme is desided by my two cats. So I have started washing and cutting up thrifted linen trousers, mens shirts and som fabric from my stash. I am planning to sew a lot by hand. For now I am using a metod of english paperpiecing without paper, cutting up batting to 6" squares. This is the first layout - and guess what, my cats kindly let me evaluate my color choises...

I am planning on piecing some blocks and test out different applique technics. Handpiecing can be very comforting and relaxing. At least thats what I am hoping for.