If this quilt looks familiar to you and you are wondering if I posted these pictures before, you are not entirely mistaken. Last year I posted pictures of Cynthia’s version, and a few months later, her friend Lisa had her version of the top ready to quilt. Both ladies love stitching by hand, and they often choose the same patterns and work on them together. For quilting, I went with the basic plan I used for the first version but changed a few things for Lisa’s quilt. A huge amount of work went into this quilt, and I feel honoured that both ladies asked me to quilt their masterpieces.
I am sure you all sometimes wonder where all those scraps are coming from that keep piling up in our drawers, bins and boxes. In an attempt to conquer hers, Patricia took her bright batik leftovers and created this stunning quilt. The black background fabric was the perfect choice, don’t you love how it makes the colours pop? Inspired by the leaf and vine designs of many of the batik fabrics I quilted it with a “Tropical Leaves” panto.
Donna used a panel to make this elephant quilt as a gift. The colours and the elephants made me think of Africa and the setting sun, and we chose a pantograph called “Sun Scallops” for her quilt. Isn’t it just perfect? I love how the curved echo around the spikes creates the illusion of clouds, a very clever design.
This gorgeous quilt called “Blooms” is a design by Jason Yenter of In The Beginning and was made by Debra. These are the original fabrics for the quilt, and I thought at first they were batiks but they turned out to be digital prints. Debra asked for custom quilting. While the white background seemed to ask for swirls and pebbles, any ambitious quilting would have been lost in the colourful strippy parts, and we went with a Tropical Leaves panto for these areas instead. This is such a beautiful quilt, and I am quite happy with the way it turned out.
Welcome to February! Isn’t it nice how much more light there is in a day already? After the winter solstice it takes a little while before it is noticeable but by now I have been commenting on it at least every other day. I have stocked up on vegetable seeds, and I am eager to go. I will try to grow everything from seeds this year. If my attempts fail, I can always buy seedlings later. A very long time ago, maybe 25 years or so, I grew hot peppers on my balcony back in Germany. I started the seeds in a little windowsill greenhouse and then transplanted the seedlings later on. I had a huge success rate and a great harvest during the two years I did it, I produced many jars of hot sauce back then. It was a lot of fun, and since the pandemic will be around for quite a while longer, this will give me something productive to do (other than quilting, of course).
On to this month’s block: The dancing monkey was a lucky accident. I was manipulating the basic monkey body shape, trying to do something entirely different, and suddenly I thought, hey, that looks like the monkey is dancing! And with one arm overlapping the rest of the body piece, meaning I had to cut it as two separate pieces, I needed something to cover up the part where the two pieces meet. So I added a lei and declared the monkey a hula dancer. And yes, I know that hula dancers can be both male and female, and while I have never really thought about my penguins as male or female, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have an explicitly female monkey and added the little bow that picks up the lei colours. Some of the later blocks could actually be monkey children, so this year’s BOM will have the whole family pictured on their summer vacation. As always, the pattern will be available for free until the end of the month and move to the store section when the March block is published.
EDIT: February is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. If you just need the finishing instructions, they are still available for free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
Wer nur die Anleitung zur Fertigstellung sucht, kann diese nun auch auf Deutsch kostenlos herunterladen.
And here we have another Rail Fence quilt, made by a different Mary. Sometimes it is funny how these end up in my queue next to each other. This one was made from cozy flannels and is a gift for Mary’s grandson. The pantograph is called “Overlapping Crop Circles”, and I love how it creates movement across the quilt.
This modern Rail Fence quilt in black, white and grey was pieced by Mary. The blocks are quite small, and it must have taken her a long time to put it all together, but isn’t the result just stunning? Well worth the time and effort. Mary knew that she wanted to have it quilted with the modern design “Bauhaus” when she dropped it off, and it all went together nicely.
This weekend, I managed to do some spontaneous personal sewing. I bought a drawing tablet last year, and I have been meaning to make a case for it ever since but somehow never found the time. Or didn’t feel like doing it when I actually had some time. Turns out that once I started, it didn’t even take long. I have made a lot of these cases for all kinds of things over the years, it is easily adaptable to any size. I can never remember how to actually put it together, there is no real pattern, and it can be quite confusing to figure out which piece goes where and how to turn it all inside out, so that none of the seams are visible in the end. I think I was also a bit confused about metric and Imperial measurements and added too much extra fabric on the sides, so the case isn’t as snug as I would like it to be, but hey, that’s better than the other way around, and I am definitely not going to start over. I used Kamsnaps as buttons, and I didn’t have regular round ones in a suitable colour, so I went with the little flower heads and added a few more tiny buttons along the edge, just for fun. I like it although I am surprised that I managed to produce something for my personal use that is not pink 😉
During the 2019/2020 guild season, the Chilliwack Quilters Guild organized a Block of the Month project, and quite a few members participated. I quilted some of them, and this is the first one, made by Ellen. I love those little four-patch cornerstones, aren’t they cute? Ellen also took the opportunity to find a home for an orphan block she had in one of her drawers, the butterfly block wasn’t part of the guild’s BOM but works very well with the others. She chose the design “Feathered Curls” to finish her project.
This quilt was also made by the very talented Brenda. These are not Brenda’s usual colours, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about the quilt but I think it turned out great. It is a gift for a little girl who loves pink and purple, so it should be perfect for her. Brenda asked for custom quilting, and I had a lot of fun with it.
