Friday bliss

Oh, James Taylor, how you brighten the day...

Home with a bad cold. But nothing seems drab and dreary listening to that voice of his. Now if only the 'plugs' in my ears would go away soon so I could hear it better ;)

Reversible Zakka Pouch Tutorial

Here is something I have been wanting to do for almost two years...

To save some space here, the tutorial with photographs is
over here.

The recipe is as follows:

You will need:
For outside and lining:
4 strips of fabrics for the front, each: 3'' x 12,5''
4 strips of fabrics for the lining, each:  3'' x 12,5''

The draw string closing fabrics:
2 strips , each cut to 4,5'' x app. 19''

For the 'yo yos':
2 strips of fabric, each cut 2'' x 10''
Medium thick plastic
Surgeon's tape

For the stopper:
1 piece of fabric: 2'' x 3''

Batting, thin yet sturdy polyester batting:
For the bottom:
1 square 4'' x 4''
For the 'body' of the pouch:
1 piece 6'' x 16''.

You will also need a piece of string measured to 22''.

*********

I will be making an*other or more from the tut myself, and add corrections as I go along.

Have a beautiful week end.
U

No words Wednesday - almost

Memory of a colourful Monday spent with good friends.

Pockets and a huswif

A few years ago I did some sewing for a Danish designer and shop owner Helene Juul. She has an affinity for the treasures of the past, and does wonderful work. She wanted to display ways to use reproduction fabrics, to entice her customers to make practical and beautiful items. I was honored to be able to help a little. She sent me lovely fabrics, and a booklet by Edyth O'Neill. Inspired by Mamifleur's recent lovelinesses, I show the samples I made then, a pocket and a huswif from Ms. O'Neill's booklet.

And the one I'm currently working on, for a friend, which is supposed to be a surprise... well well ...

Merci - amitié.

Winter sewing

This is wonderful. Real winter. The kids love it. Everything is quiet and embracing. So much better than the cold cold days before this blanket came. We had some days of minus 18 degrees celsius.

And it inspires to colorful activities indoors. I am slowly working to complete the flying geese sashing rows. There are still a lot of geese and skies to be cut. These are mere a beginning.

Barbara Brackman is graciously hosting a block of the week quilt along. These are my first blocks. Being a lazy daisy and discovering the measurements for the saw tooth part of the star were the same as the geese above, I decided to use some that were already sewn. I was pretty happy with the result. When I had deciced on which cornerstones to use, I discovered there were some of Ms. Brackman's fabrics in there - the cornerstones and the red 'goose'. I look forward to the next block! Which will it be?

Dreaming of ocean waves. Only two half square triangles of a myriad. I will try to piece these without marking sewing lines - according to Jinny Beyer's method - eyeballing the seam allowance. But in what color scheme?

Also longing for the first bicycle ride this year...

See ya!

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!