Another pair and a small bag

Again the same block and two sizes. This is another block from the 'George coverlet' at the V&A in London.

I found it so exhilerating that the maker decided to make a block looking oval. It was challenging but fun to draft it. Here they are in all their unironed charm;) 

Finished size about 11 inches.

And about 5 inches.

I'm experimenting a bit in making small bags. I wanted to make a rounded bottom. It did not turn out as I had wanted, but I like it all the same. The experimenting goes on...

Made just about only from scraps:) Enjoy your Sunday

Curtains

My DH built a storing system for our clothes in our previous flat. I made curtains to protect our textiles from dust. When we moved the curtains were stored away. Last month I finally found them again. They had been 'gone and lost' for a long time. I found them when we were going through our stuff after our water leakage 'disaster'. 

 They were found at the bottom of a carton, wet and stained from a hand carved door sign we bought in Kenya in '99. There were some clear stains, but it did not smell badly. I held my breath and threw them in the washer. I had lined the curtains, telling myself then that I could make them into quilts when or if I ever got the urge sometime... Maybe I will some day.

Detail of the stains the wooden sign had made. I do not mind the patina it has gotten through the rough treatment it has undergone. It just adds to the story of the curtains, as I also cut my pinky finger badly - resulting in six surgeon's stitches - while making it. The stains kind of remind me of water marks on old letters. I like that thought!

I was inspired to make this pattern when I saw an advert for fabrics in APQ magazine. They showed a quilt made by Shar Jorgenson, and I found the pattern, I think, through The Quilter's Cache. It was challenging and fun to make.

September

The last butterfly of the season

A new friend came home with us from a trip to Riga, Latvia. Everything enchanting.

The first homework done.

Loving the process.

Rose Star Trellis

... a pattern found in American Patchwork and Quilting autumn 1995. I was starting out quilting, and needed to find a project I could sew by hand.

I figured out I could manage to follow this pattern and sew it by hand. This was before I found out that what 'one did' was to use a running stitch, so the blocks are done using back stitches. When the blocks were to be sewn together, I lost momentum, and the top was assembled by machine. 

It is lap sized, with wool batting, but in very rare use, as I know the fabrics in the blocks will bleed terribly when washed ... The last borders to be quilted were done the summer of 2000. This was my first quilt this size. They only got bigger from here, lol.

We are hanging on to the idea of summer, but the days are getting more and more chilly. Take care.

Bill Volckening - collector of quilts

Beauty Secrets from NW Documentary on Vimeo.


I keep asking myself why it is that seeing someone take a piece of cloth out of a box makes me gasp for air...
Found at Pepper Corys blog. The quilt she displays in her latest post just makes me smile!

See ya!

I love August

The apples in the garden are just ripe enough for tasting good in cakes.

Exploring the surroundings and the wonders of bees.

Log cabin blocks slowly evolving. Now there is one more batch like this to make, and I will start constructing the bag we were taught to make by Yoko Saito in March. To make the fabrics we received in class last a little longer, I have added some taupes from my stash.

Many thanks for stopping by. Last month was pretty busy with kids at home, a house needing repair and general holiday making. And then August comes around, and things settle for a more calm and regular pace. I have not been able to thank everyone properly for your kind comments about the small diamond quilt... Thank you!

Found this today!

Yoko Saito has been to Florence again. It looks like the ladies had a great time!
I also found the blog of the Agomago quilt shop that arranges the workshops.
Rainy and sunny here today - and some slow sewing:)

Summer idleness

We are having a wonderful and slow summer. I find my creative juices tend to take a rest during the refreshing yet busy time that July is all about. June was a little different - here's one result of that:

A small quilt that first was intended as a pillowcover. It was quilted when I was pregnant with our first child - seven years ago (yikes).

I free hand quilted the borders and setting diamonds. It was a lot of fun. I decided on circles in the borders, and suddenly one circle turned out as two smaller ones. And then it sort of evolved into a Volkswagen... Or maybe it's only my eyes that can see it...

We just came home from a lovely week in the Swedish countryside. This was our kitchen window view.

Making a block

Inspiration: The center Mariner's compass block from the V&A book, also featured in Kaffe's museum bookThis time I tried to copy the colours, something I rarely do. The block is so lovely as it is.

Drafting. These are the shapes I need. Then I copy them onto see through plastic, making holes at the 'intersections' with a sharp point that I have warmed the tip of, by a candle light.

I then draw a point through the holes onto the reverse of the fabric and draw a line from point to point. When the pieces are cut with a quarter inch seam allowance, I lay them out on a cloth, pin them, and they are ready to go, everywhere I go.

Done. Now it needs backing pieces. I haven't made those yet... This was not really intended as a tutorial, but it gives an idea of the process. Take care.

Such friendly flowers

... don't you agree?

Another Calico Garden block. Only two left to go, and there is no more procrastination about setting and layout...

Geese

I have been cutting some fabrics and sewing on my trusted Janome. I love this quiltalong that Anita is hosting. I have for a long time avoided the flying birds, because I have had the idea that sewing triangles together would be heartbreakingly difficult. Well, I find that meanwhile I have gathered some experience, and that I am able to do a fair job with the birds. The geese fabrics in the bottom block and top right are from V&A exhibition fabrics by Liberty. I took a deep breath before finally cutting them. Five done - eleven to go. Tudelu.

Rainbow

A few days ago I received this delicious set of rainbow colors. The lovely Debs had a wonderful give away, and I was one of the lucky recipients of this rainbow in cloth. My head is spinning with ideas. Debs has made a beautiful quilt inspired by the rainbow quilt made by Purl of Soho. She has a company that is encouraging people to start sewing. I love the idea and concept.

These fabrics will have to be made into a winter's project - one to keep my mind focused on colors while dreaming of another spring. Thank you ever so much Debs.

Perspective

When you see this block, how big in diameter does it seem to you to be?

And when you see these two together? 

Being at the V&A in April was truly wonderful, and seeing the blocks in the George coverlet was mind blowing. As I have mentioned before, the blocks were so small, about four inches. Also all the different patterns this seamstress had come up with was so nice to discover. It was like encountering the aunt or grandmother of Mrs. Jane Stickle. Oh, that is a presumptious assumption, but who knows? One thing they would have had in common, though, would be their love of creating patterns.

The blocks above I made after returning from England. It was one of the rosettes of the coverlet I had not seen before. I drafted the bigger the same size as the other circles, and then gave the smaller size a go as well. Can you guess the size? I decided not to break my fingers making it, knowing there are other more intricate patterns to draft and sew up, so I landed on a five inch finish. That would make the one about five and a half. The bigger one? It is about eleven inches in diameter - finished. Using my compass and quilting rulers I draft them. It is a joy to make my own patterns - from scratch so to speak, from "circle one". I don't know how many I'll make or how to put them together - just plain loving the process. 

We are having some chilly but beautiful days, for the apple blossoms to come out from hiding. Just because. Now the compass is beckoning... Oh, and a link to an Austen aficionado reviewing the exhibition. 

Happiness today

Finding these videos.

Inspiration to get all the projects done:) Bach and his contemporaries and patchwork in true harmony.

When the world seems smaller

This week I happily could pick up a parcel at the post office. I grew up in a time – I sound a hundred years old, but it was only twenty years ago – when receiving something from America was a great event. To imagine getting something from The Far East was not something … we did – really. Times change. This book was in my parcel. It is so beautiful. One can only ponder on what Yoko Saito might find in her imagination to thrill us with next. … or not, for seeing these projects and dreaming of making some is bliss …

The latest circle. I will soon have to “square up” these blocks. The search for background fabric has begun:) Little pumpkin had her tonsils out yesterday, and we are stuck at home for a couple of weeks. I hope to get some sewing done. See ya.

Spring

Quilts 1700-2010, V&A April 2010

What can one say? I’d say: Go if you can. Buy the book if you can’t. And this: I for one want to go back.

The quilts were beautifully and thoughtfully displayed. The show provoked smiles, thoughts of empathy for the makers and deep respect for the craftsmanship performed yesterday and today.
Representing the latter category: Natasha Kerr, whose installation is on the cover of the book/catalogue.

The six years of hard work Sue Prichard and her colleagues have put down have paid off. – In the highest number of preordered tickets in the history of the museum, but not least in the interest in and pride in the cultural heritage of quiltmaking that the exhibition has promoted.
It was a thrill to see the quilts from Kaffe’s museum book in person. The one above was a coverlet probably made in 1829, by Elisabeth Chapman. The top had been attached to a board with cut out squares, that were like windows to the back. It was displayed in a glass monter so one could see both the front and the paper pieces still there in the coverlet’s back. Some of the pieces had beautiful hand writing on them – fragments of letters.

And the main reason I went to London this time: The coverlet “King George III reviewing the volunteers” I was amazed to see the size of the small rosettes – I measured them with my 6 inch ruler (yes, I brought it with me) to be about 4 inches in diameter. It is a most intriguing piece of work.
Taking pictures was not allowed. Here are some links to British bloggers who were invited to a special preview before the official opening of the show:
http://cottoncocktails.blogspot.com/2010/03/v-quilts-1700-2010-preview.html#comments
http://aquiltersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/03/quilts-2010-at-victoria-albert-museum.html
http://aquiltersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/03/quilts-1700-2010-victoria-and-albert.html
http://makedoandmendquilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/quilts-1700-2010-at-victoria-and-albert.html
http://susanbriscoe.blogspot.com/2010/03/v-exhibition-thoughts-on-king-george.html
There are many more impressions whizzing through my brain. Maybe some will come forth in future postings.
For now – good night.

London

Nice weather. Lovely buildings.
Window shopping at Harrods.

Wonderful food from all over the world. Here: Lebanese hummus with lamb.

Kensington.

I long to go back.

Restless

I want to write about our trip to London, but my thoughts are not yet quite sorted. Yesterday my head was spinning, and I could not figure out which project to work on, if at all… And then these prepared patches fell out of my DJ book. OK. Better. A project I could manage in a day.

Done.

This morning

After a few days of playing the who-finds-the-bucket-first game, life has calmed down. So much that a little quilting could be done. The internal rush to get the borders finished has begun. It feels good to be almost there.
This time two years ago these snow drops gave us joy. The snow disappeared this week – very late – and yesterday I spotted the first snow drop’s head.  I will have to venture into the rainy garden today to see the progress of our little white headed friend. Maybe some friends have joined her:)

Yoko Saito

A week ago I attended Yoko Saito’s class at the Norwegian Quilter’s Associaton’s annual meeting. It was a class with a master.

Despite a rather bad interpreter, we all felt she came across as a warm, generous and humorous woman. When it comes to her enormous skills and artistry: Had quilting been generally accepted as the artform it truly is, she would have been given the title professor a long time ago.
Here are some impressions of the two quilts in the exhibition area.   The workmanship is astonishing, and the use of motifs shows the mind of a truly creative soul.
  
Baskets – she told us of her love of baskets, and that she is now studying the making of Nantucket baskets.

The “Talking houses” quilt below hung in the class room. Ms. Saito I believe has set a goal – to gently encourage a younger audience to pick up their needle and thread. The houses in this quilt were made during a period when she went to – if I remember correctly – shopping malls across Japan. She had a stand and sewed up a house on each occasion. Her view was that Japanese quilters had come to a level of artistry, that younger people might be “scared off” and think it too difficult an art form and never give it a try.
Full pictures of the three quilts are shown in May Britt’s post here.

And some are maybe a bit sceptical to hand piecing. So we were given a kit of wonderful taupe fabrics, told to cut with scissors strips and piece them together to small log cabin blocks. It was such a pleasure to sit with fellow enthusiasts and piece quietly. No buzzing sewing machines, no running back and forth to the ironing boards. Just stimulating conversation all around. And respectful and assertive tutoring from Ms. Saito and her wonderful co teacher Satomi Funamoto.
A picture of our class is shown at the end of Hanne’s lovely post.
Here are my log cabin blocks so far. I love that these humble blocks once assembled and appliqued to each other will make up a beautiful bag.

Slowly I am adapting to Ms. Saito’s sewing technique. She is sewing with such incredible speed. 
The technique is demonstraded here by one of her students.

Another detail of one of the quilts.
Now I’m back in real life, and I have to run, because my kids are sick. Take care. More later.
Oh, one more thing: Emily was there too! She has written a wonderful report here.