This is another one of Penny’s projects, she made this quilt as a wedding gift for her son. She had seen a similar quilt on Pinterest and liked the quilting on it. The pattern wasn’t exactly the same, and I had to make some adjustments but it is still pretty close to the original. I even remembered to take a detail picture while the quilt was still on the frame.

Penny made this quilt from batik fabrics, and the colours reminded me of northern lights. I quilted it with a combination of swirls and feathers and a few leaves in the purple border.

I have been really slow in posting here lately, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. In the meantime I managed to finish another one of my personal projects. In 2016 the 365 Challenge Quilt was a big hit, and I started making the blocks in January, not knowing if I really wanted to make the whole quilt. But it sounded like fun, and I made a block a day for the first two months of the year. Then the blocks went into a box because we moved to a different house, and I unpacked them again a year later. I managed to make another month’s worth of blocks and then decided that I didn’t like the project. I was getting increasingly frustrated with the instructions, it was very obvious that the designer had just drawn up the quilt in EQ but never actually sewn it, and I ended up unpicking several blocks and redoing them my way. I gave up, and the blocks went back into a drawer.

Last November I signed up with this project for my guild’s UFO challenge. Giving myself this deadline was the only way I was ever going to finish this quilt, I was very close to just putting the blocks on the giveaway table at the next guild meeting. I put them together in a way that is close to the original design, and I still don’t like the quilt. Considering how long it took to assemble all those 3″ blocks and how small many of the pieces are, the layout just doesn’t do it justice in my opinion. The individual blocks just get lost in that dark border. Quilting the centre block was fun but I didn’t put too much effort into the pieced borders, the quilting wasn’t going to be very visible anyway. I picked a floral pantograph design and then just echoed around it. I actually prefer the back, I pieced leftover fabrics because I didn’t have enough of the floral batik and couldn’t get more. But it is finished, so I will stop complaining, and I will donate it to the guild’s We Care program next month.

May is a busy month with lots of square dancing. Square (and round) dancing is the one thing I always make time for, no matter how busy I am with quilting. Last weekend we headed to Wenatchee in Washington for the Apple Blossom Weekend, and our route took us right through Leavenworth, Washington’s “Bavarian Village”. Before you ask, no, it is not very authentic, it is more a North American vision of Bavaria and very touristy, but it is still pretty and a nice place to visit, and the weather was gorgeous. We had an early supper sitting outside on a balcony and enjoyed the view. The one authentic place in town we found was the Bavarian Bakery, and we took one of their German whole grain breads home with us. A very nice weekend getaway!

Welcome to May! And to shake things up a little, I will begin this month’s post by talking about next month’s block 🙂 The June block will be published on the 1st of the month, as always, but it might be at a different time. I will be in Germany in early June, and depending on my plans that day and how much time I have, it might be a little earlier or later. Yes, I know I can just schedule the post but sometimes that doesn’t work (some kind of WordPress bug), and I also need time to update the previous post and share the block on social media. In any case, please make sure you download the pattern right away and don’t wait until the very last minute. If you are an email subscriber, you will receive a notification when the new pattern is posted. But now back to the present and the May block which might be my favourite block of the whole quilt. I love how the sleeping kitty turned out, and I can almost see her paws twitching while she chases something in her dream. The pattern is available for free download until the end of the month and will move over to the store when I post the June block.

Click to download Tuxedo Cat #5 pattern (English/Imperial)

Tuxedo Cat #5 Download (Deutsch/Metrisch)

It’s quilt show weekend in the Fraser Valley! Today and tomorrow I will be at Quilts in the Valley in Abbotsford. Please come and say hi if you are in the area and see all the beautiful quilts. There will be lots of vendors in the merchants mall, and the raffle quilt is just a dream.

Wendy made this quilt using the fabric line “Coney Island” by Fig Tree & Co. The bright summer colours and fabrics seemed to ask for a floral quilting pattern, and we chose the pantograph “Ginger Flower” for this quilt.

This beautiful quilt was made by Norma, isn’t it just stunning? Norma usually quilts all her projects on her domestic machine but she thought this one was too big for her to handle, and after spending hours and hours piecing it, she figured it deserved proper quilting, and I was delighted that she chose to ask me. She had already drafted most of the feather design for the background, I just added the centre part as it was too much space to be left unquilted and chose the design for the circles. We are both very happy with the way it turned out, and I also love how the quilting looks on the back.

Sharon made this row quilt as a wedding gift, and I was delighted when she asked me for custom quilting. These are my favourite projects, I love the process of figuring out how to quilt and when it all comes together eventually. I wasn’t even planning on a star theme for this quilt but stars felt like an obvious choice to fill the centres of the Evening Stars in the top row, and I added arcs to the background, forming the Orange Peel/Cathedral Window design, and then it all fell into the place. I added a little free motion quilting and crosshatching, and I am very pleased with the result.

This colourful daisy quilt was made by Dianne, and I love the bright fabrics she used, especially the pink and turquoise. A bright busy quilt doesn’t really need a lot of quilting, and it won’t show much anyway but we picked a cute daisy design called “Wandering Daisies”. The back is cozy Fireside, and the quilting is very visible there.

Can you believe it is April already? I know, I know… that’s what I say every month. But I can barely believe that the first quarter of 2019 is already over. I started the year with an enormous to do list, and it feels like I am not getting anything done. I am getting to the point where I feel constantly stressed, desperately trying to catch up, and I have realized that I need to make some changes. This does not affect the Tuxedo Cats BOM project, no need to get worried. But I need to slow down and find some time to relax. People have begun to ask me if I am okay because I always look so tired, and I got the hint 🙂 It is supposed to be fun after all, so I will make sure to quilt less and get a little more rest. This month’s block has a cat looking back at us, and the pieces are not as small as the last couple of months. The pattern is available for free download until next month and will move to the store section when I post the May block.

Ich kann kaum glauben, dass es nun schon April ist. Ich weiß, ich weiß, das sage ich jeden Monat… aber ich kann es wirklich nicht fassen, dass das erste Vierteljahr 2019 vorbei ist. Ich hatte das Jahr mit einer langen Liste von Projekten begonnen, und irgendwie habe ich immer das Gefühl, das ich nichts schaffe. Mittlerweile fühle ich mich ständig gestresst und habe immer das Gefühl, aufholen zu müssen. In der letzten Woche bin ich dann zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass ich einige Dinge ändern muss, so geht das einfach nicht weiter. Ich brauche schon aus gesundheitlichen Gründen ein bisschen mehr Entspannung, und nachdem die Leute nun schon angefangen haben zu fragen, ob es mir gut geht, weil ich immer so müde aussehe, habe auch ich endlich begriffen, dass es so nicht geht. Daher habe ich beschlossen, die deutschen Versionen meiner Muster einzustellen. Keine Sorge, die Tuxedo Cats mache ich natürlich noch fertig, und alle Muster, die auf Deutsch verfügbar sind, bleiben es auch. Aber neue Muster wird es auf Deutsch und mit metrischen Maßen nicht mehr geben. Mit dem Gedanken trage ich mich schon seit einiger Zeit, der Markt dafür ist einfach zu klein und rechtfertigt den Aufwand nicht. Auch die Post schreibe ich in Zukunft nur noch auf Englisch, es kostet einfach zuviel Zeit, alles doppelt zu schreiben. Ich bitte um Verständnis für diese Entscheidung, aber gesundheitlich halte ich das nicht länger durch. Und hier kommt nun die April-Katze, die wieder etwas größere Teile hat als die beiden letzten Muster. Wie immer bleibt sie den ganzen Monat lang frei verfügbar und wandert im Mai dann in den Shop.

Edit: Block #4 is available for purchase now that the 5th block has been published. If you missed the free download, you can head over to the store section for the pattern.

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cat #4 pattern (English/Imperial)

(Kauf)Anleitung Tuxedo Cat #4 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Lisa was trying to use up her leftovers and scraps, and the result is this lovely star quilt. The quilting design is called “Starburst”.

Dieser schöne Sternenquilt ist ein Resteverwertungsprojekt und wurde von Lisa genäht. Das Quiltmuster, das wir verwendet haben, heißt “Starburst”.