Nautical marzipan quilt

I was amazed with myself this time, and yet maybe should be more amazed with my new sewing machine. The top of the nautical marzipan quilt came rather quickly together. For several reasons: the blocks are large, they are all the same layout so I did a lot of continuous sewing and I plan more time for myself when working on a project. What also helps is deciding what to make and finish in a given time, this really allows me to stay focused and get going on a project.

This quilt is for my youngest, he choose the design and the colour blue. He loves water and scubadiving, so when I saw this fabric on Higgs and Higgs website, I knew this would be perfect.

For the back I ordered matching fabric on-line, cute tiny dots on a marine blue background.

For the actual quilting I decided to make a spiral as it is easy and not complicated as the top is pretty large. I installed myself a few evenings at the kitchen table (empty and large) and concentrated on the spiraling.

Last weekend all that was left was the binding.

The nautical quilt looks great, my youngest loves it. The next step is re-doing the walls in his room, changing the fabric of the lamp to a nautical theme and choose the fabric for the curtains. This is the dangerous part, I should have ordered when buying the background ........ A good thing I have a few days this week at home to focus on painting the walls and choosing fabric.

Linking up with FAL 2019 Q1. This is project 5 from my list, 4 out of 5 done. Hurray.

Thank you lovely ladies for organizing this challenge.

OMG April Marzipan and cactus

The month of April has a food theme I realized as I had to type a title for the blog post. It is OMG setting time again and decided for this month to go for two projects. Simply because I have time this month and because I have a reason to celebrate.

My main aim for the OMG April is to finish the marzipan quilt for my youngest. Next week I will have a few days off and will use the time to repaint his bedroom. Up to a year ago he was sharing the bedroom with his older brother. The theme of the room was sunny walls with African fabric used for the curtains and lamp, and the quilt I had made for my eldest. The room is now for him alone and time to give it a new theme: Marine/sea life. In May I can then redo the lamp and make new curtains. The advantage of living in an old farm house is that the windows are small, the curtains will be done fairly quickly.

My second project will be a bonus project. I had bought this cute book "Hygge" last year with Hygge projects including cactus projects (and yes one can eat cactus - hence the food theme).

My daughter had made one of the cactus cushions as she is learning to sew. Earlier in March, Patty of Elm Street Quilts had written a blog entry
about the blog hop for the book "Text It! - Quilts and Pillows with Something to Say" by Sheri Noel - playing and quilting with words. We were invited to comment with the word we would quilt and I chose "Cactus" to quilt on a cactus cushion. Happy dance when I learned that I had won 2 large spools of Aurifil thread. So now no escape, I will quilt myself a cactus cushion if time permits.

Cross Roads Quilt - a creative journey

Finally, the road to make the Cross Road quilt in the original fabric is done. I started the journey in January 2018 as an OMG project, a total of one year and three months. That is not too bad. I learned a lot, purchased some better tools and have progressed a lot.

The quilt is showing off in the living room, perfectly matching my red sofa and bringing spring colours in side our house. Am really proud of this beauty. For the quilting I made diagonal lines following the Irish chain blocks, i wasn't sure how dense I wanted the quilting to be so decided to make diagonal lines across around the little red blocks. The balance is perfect. And I thought that if in a few months I feel there is not enough sewing I can always add.

For now am just very pleased.

Linking up with Patty's Elm Street Quilting One Monthly Goal for March.

Linking up with FAL 2019 Q1, project 1 of my list, 3 out of 5 done.

OMG March CRQ to finish

It is that time of the month again, time to decide what I am going to make this month that will qualify as a One Monthly Goal project hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts. This month there is no doubt to what I am going to do: finish my Cross Roads Quilt. The top is done, the backing is done and I have sandwiched the two layers with a batting.

Lavender socks

My lavender socks are finished. Started knitting last year October .... or maybe even earlier. The first sock was finished rather quickly, the second sock took its time. So many other projects to finish were competing. Also wasn't sure if I could take all needles through airport security.

The future pair of socks ended up on my FAL Q4 2018 list, and as I had not finished them, they were included on my FAL 2019 Q1 list. I used West Yorkshire Spinners yarn, colour scheme "forget me not" from the Signature 4 Ply floral collection together with violet.

I have enough left to make a second pair of socks ....

Linking up with FAL 2019 Q1, project 3 of my list, 2 out of 5 done.

Nautical quilt top

Slava wanted a quilt in blue. I had ordered the cutest blue fabric from Higgs & Higgs and we choose the design from the The Cake Mix Quilt book from Fat Quarter Shop.

I started by cutting the 10 inch blocks as I did not have the recipe cards and figured I would wing it. If my blocks would be an inch smaller or larger it would not matter as they would all be the same design. In the end my half square triangles were exactly the size they had to be and my blocks were 16.5 inches as required. Once all the squares were cut, the hst sewn, assembling all blocks went pretty fast. I laid out the hst's in layers, ensuring the order was the same for all little blocks and sew 6 blocks in an afternoon. A few days later sew 6 more blocks. They were pretty big so I decide to make four blocks less and only 12 in total.

Once all 12 blocks were done the puzzling started. I had three designs and each design was in two colours, either the background was white and the sea animals were in blue, or the background was in blue and the sea animals in white. I alternated the blue and white background blocks and loved the way it was coming together.

For the sashing I deviated from the original pattern as the idea was that the half square triangles would float. If I would make the sashing in white, the quilt would be toooooo white. I used dark blue, almost the same as the blue in the blocks for the sashing and the border and loved the result.

I managed to sew all together just before I left for Ethiopia for work. Next step, buy blue fabric for the backing and binding, order the batting on-line and next month finish the quilt. Most likely he will not use the quilt this winter, unless we have a few cold nights in April.

Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal for February over at Elm Street Quilts. I enjoy participating and being inspired.

OMG February A quilt for my youngest

My youngest needs his own quilt. I had made one for my eldest, one for my daughter and so far my youngest did not want one. He just wanted to use my Mexican blanket. I did buy some fabric of course, in blue colours with sea animals. Shall I make you one? No. OK. And then this fall, I put my batik BSB quilt one evening on his bed as he was cold. Couldn't find the Mexican blanket. And he loved the light weight of the quilt. Shall I make you one? With the blue fabric? Yes, please.

He choose the Marzipan quilt from the book The Cake Mix Quilt book designed by Sew Emma at the @fatquartershop.

As the book does not come with the pattern measurements, the idea is that one buys the recipe cards separately, at first I was not sure how to move forward. I read again, and thought, oh well, lets just start. So I cut a bunch of 10" squares.

My One Monthly Goal for February is to make the top of the quilt, i.e. cutting the fabric, sewing the blocks and and assembly all of it. This is organized by Patty over at Elm Street Quilts and thanks to this, I actually end up quilting something every month and making progress.

Not sure how far I will get as I will travel the second half of February. And this quilt will be machine quilted so cannot bring it along. Am thinking I should start the hand pieced QAL, as it would be a perfect airplane project.

Black & White tablerunner

My friend, who bought a new apartment last year, gave me one of my first quilt books. So, ever since I wanted to make her something. First, of course, I had to learn how to quilt .... well at least quilt properly. After a lot of practicing it was time to make her something. In Black & White as these are her favourite colours for her interior.

Her kitchen in the new place was already in Black & White colours, simplifying the colour choice. As it is her birthday this month, thought it would be nice to make her a table runner, that she could also use in the kitchen. In B&W of course.

I used black fabric that I combined with my African B&W batik and some white fabric. For the pattern I used the "Lazy angle" block. This block I made as part of my BSB quilt. Making it in B&W should give some nice contrasts.

The end result: a table runner with 5 Lazy angle blocks, the sharp contrast makes the pattern really stand out. And a happy friend.

Linking up with Patty from Elm Street Quilts for the January One Monthly Goal.

Linking up with FAL 2019 Q1, project 2 of my list, 1 out of 5 done.

Finish A Long 2019 quarter 1

Last year I participated for the first time in the Finish-A-long 2018, in the last quarter. I work very well with deadlines, and ever since I started participating in the One Monthly Goal, I make at least one quilt related object, be it a block for a larger quilt, assemble the top or make a baby quilt. Making a list on my blog of pending projects will be the next step.

In 2018, I finished two large quilt tops and they were waiting to be quilted. My internal blockage to actually finish them did not help in finalizing these two beauties. Doing the actual quilting was not my strongest point. In December, I managed to overcome my blockage in moving forward and finalized the huge BSB quilt..

For FAl 2018, Q4, my list was pretty long as I had a few smaller projects to finish. One was this jacket that I was working on for three years. Oh the pressure of publicly admitting to a non-finished project (that is coming out of my ears, so much I despise it). Followed by the joy of finishing the loathed project. This first quarter of 2019 my list will be shorter. For several reasons: I want to finish the quilt top that I did not finish last year and secondly, I need to go through my bag with unfinished projects and see what to work on.

My Q1 optimistic projects list therefore is:

1. Cross Road Quilts
This project is one of my 2018 Q4 list. I have meanwhile ordered the batting so there is no reason not to finish. And I have decided how to quilt the beauty, straight and diagonal lines, mirroring the diagonal lines of the quilt.

2. Table runner for my friend
It is my friend's birthday this month and I want to make her a table runner in black and white. The pattern is the lazy angle block, the contrast between black and white fabric combined with matching African batik in B&W as well should really bring out the pattern. Or that is what I hope for.

3. Lavender colour socks
The socks are from my Q4 list as well. I have started the second sock and will take it with me traveling next week. Unless I get around digging out a forgotten knitting.

4. Ross blanket
Another project from my Q4 list. I did manage to crochet a few rows over the Christmas holidays. And I think this blanket is one of those projects that will never get finished if I will not "force" myself to work on it. So once my projects 1 - 3 of my list are finalized I will work on this at least twice a week, even if only for half an hour. Let's see in three months how far I will be.

5. Quilt for my youngest.
He has chosen the design, I have bought the fabric and cut the blue 10 inch squares needed for the blocks. White fabric is purchased waiting for cutting. Now that I am no longer afraid of tackling large quilts, I will "waste" less time in circling around the quilt. After all the quilt will not bite me if I make a mistake.

Linking up with the lovely group of bloggers hosting the FAL 2019. Thank you for your generosity and linking us creatively.

OMG January - Black & White tablerunner

A friend of mine bought a new apartment last year. One of the plusses of the new place was that the kitchen was already in Black&White colours. As it is her birthday this month, thought it would be nice to make her a table runner, that she could also use in the kitchen. In B&W of course.

I bought black fabric that I aim to combine with my African B&W batik and some white fabric. For the pattern I am going to use the "Lazy angle" block. This block I made as part of my BSB quilt. Making it in B&W should give some nice contrasts.

Am linking up with One Monthly Goal organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.