Tiramisu Christmas quilt - step 3

Working on this project is addictive - don't think I have made so much progress in so little time before. Although I was "warned" when I watched the video made by Jen at Shabby Fabrics on how to make this quilt.

It does help that all blocks are the same and having cut all fabrics as a first step was a good move as well.

It does help that each unit is easy and that there are four same units per block. It does make the sewing very straight forward.

It does help that the fabric is so nice to work with.

It does help that I want to finish this quilt before Christmas.

Tiramisu Christmas quilt step 2

My aim for October was to make 160 flying geese. I thought it was going to take me forever ...... and in the end the process went faster than i could have imagined. But then, this is the first time that I really tried serial quilting. In a few evenings I cut 320 little squares and 160 rectangles.

I love working with the fabric, it is sparkly, it is beautiful .....

From previous quilts where I had to cut of triangles, I ended up with lots of little triangles, so wanted to sew two lines across.

It did make sense and now have lots of little squares that will be easier to handle than the little triangles.

In a few evenings I sewed in series 320 little squares on 160 rectangles.

And as I was on a roll decided to get ahead of myself and sew the 160 flying geese two by two - part of step 4 of assembling the block.

Linking up with Patty of Elm Street Quilts as my October OMG. Feeling good!!

On to step 3 - making corner blocks

OMG October - Tiramisu step 2

My latest challenge is to make the Tiramisu quilt by Christmas. I chopped the process up in different steps and omitted step 2 in my planning. So adjusting my timing to making step 2 in October. Ideally I make a head start with step 3 ....

Step 2 is making 160 flying geese, i.e. drawing diagonal lines on 360 little squares, sewing 80 little squares per setting - not mixing up the fabric and cutting, cutting 80 triangles per setting and sewing on the next batch .... ironing in between ......

The fabric is lovely, a mix of shiny prints with more sober prints. The combination that made me just want to make this. As I will be cutting a lot triangles was wondering if it would be worth the effort to make two lines of stitching, thus when cutting the waste fabric would already be sewn together and making it in to a pillow much faster and actually getting done.

For now sticking to making the 160 flying geese as part of my OMG for October organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts

Tiramisu quilt part 1

In three months it will be Christmas, or to be precise, it will be boxing day and the hecticness of preparing a Christmas diner will all be over. I love Christmas and enjoy the period of getting ready. Last year I made placemats for our Christmas diner and this year will make a quilt. If I plan well I should be able to get this done in time, so breaking down all the steps is needed:

step 1 - cut the fabric (done in September)

step 2 - sew 160 flying geese
step 3 - many corner squares
step 4 - assembly of the blocks
step 5 - basting (one day)
step 6 - quilting (two days)
step 7 - binding (one evening)

By calculating backwards .... step 5 - 7 could be my December OMG goal, leaving October and November for step 3 and 4.

So 160 flying geese over 20 days - 8 geese a day, that should be feasible.

I better get started drawing diagonal lines on 320 little squares!!!!

The good news is that so far I am on track and step one of my September OMG organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts is done. It turned out that I did not have enough fabric. So either I use another fabric that is close or assemble scraps and have a few flying geese with lots of seams. Food for thought ......

Tiramisu quilt - OMG September

Last year I bought the kit for the Tiramisu Christmas quilt, just loved it when I first saw it. It is designed and assembled by Shabby fabrics. So time to start the quilt - with some determination she should be ready for Christmas and shine on my sofa.

The package contains a colour print pattern and yummy fabrics. Making this quilt will be pure pleasure.

All three of my kids are now in middle school and need a desk of their own. My sewing table is just the perfect size for a desk. I bought it (or rather my mum paid for it) when I was a student. It was brown. After a few years when doing my internship I moved to a different town and my room was pretty dark, so the table changed to pink. Only to change to white many years later, not sure why. At that point the table was with at my mother's house as I was busy traveling and working abroad. Some 17 years ago the table came back to me, I sanded it and in stead of painting I varnished it with a cherry tree colour varnish. For a number of years I was bored with the colour and had bought blue paint ..... that pot of paint was still waiting to be used ..... time and priorities had clearly decided otherwise. Only that now, after some hesitating, I promised my youngest my table as it is the perfect desk. After coming back from holidays, as my sewing room is inaccessible due to storing my daughter's stuff while we have her room completely renovated , I figured now would be the best moment to tackle painting the table.

I found the blue paint, between yesterday and today painted two coats on the legs and side. The top is in off white (three coatings), the same colours as the wood work in Slava's bedroom. Tomorrow he will have a desk.

My sewing machine is temporarily on a book case. So no sewing until Alesya's room is finished.

My OMG for September organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts is to cut all the fabric for my Tiramisu Christmas quilt.

Summer knitted cardigan

My sewing machine is (more or less)out of reach; because we are redoing my daughters bedroom and had to move her stuff to other places in our house. Also as part of redoing the floor in her room ... we thought that we might as well change the parquet in the hallway and Slava's room. We have been staring at the ugly parquet ever since we bought our house 15 years and this is one of the "still not changed things that we absolutely need to change as is it sooo ugly". Also the parquet is not real, it is some cheap synthetic something. So no sewing for a few weeks. I managed to finish the quilt for my niece just before moving (a lot) of furniture, books, games, ... temporarily in to "la chambre peche" or the peach coloured room. When we bought our house I painted each room in a different colour, giving a name to each room at the same time. The curtains have disappeared and the room is waiting to change colour ... one day .....

I still had access to my bond knitting machine. Have not used my bond a lot the lately, yarn in abundance of course. Before going on holidays I knitted a cardigan for Alesya. The yarn (Markoma 4 points mysterieux) I had bought last year in a little shop on sale, the owner was retiring and having a huge sale. So I ended up buying yarn and fabric, thinking that whatever she would sell to me, she would make more money than selling all to a someone who would buy the whole lot for one price. So now the challenge is to use all that I bought. I have no idea where this yarn is produced, a search on google did not produce any results, other than shops selling this same yarn or Nordic sock wool.

The yarn is not intended to be used on a knitting machine, however with some coaching and sweet talking I managed to knit the 5 parts (back two fronts and two sleeves) prior to going on holidays. The assembly I could do while away. The edges were finished with a matching spring green cotton yarn crochet border from my stash, as were the the buttons. My daughter loves the cardigan and will wear it happily this autumn all through spring.

A finish - Pip Marzipan quilt

Happy dance, I finished the marzipan quilt in Pip colours for my niece. It feels good to actually finish such a big quilt. Without talking about the progress I make. The more I quilt, the more I get addicted and the better the end result is.

Last month was a crazy month with travel to Rwanda for work, picking up the kids in the Netherlands on my way back and work. So it was the first time since I OMG-ed that I missed the deadline.

Kigali, Rwanda's capital was a surprise to me, a pretty big city with quite some high-rise buildings. When I landed, the surroundings were as I expected, Savannah with huts and houses. However as we approached the city ... lots of traffic and houses and small shops.

The first day of our meeting we finished in time to visit a market close by the hotel. I bought some nice souvenirs including two hand woven baskets and two necklaces made of coconut shell.

I almost bought another Djembe, almost, as it would not fit in my suitcase. The sound was really good .... however I already have two and my eldest also has two ..... next time I bring a bigger suitcase .....

And of course I managed to bring some fabric home .... I could almost start a fabric shop with all my African and Asian batiks.

Back to my marzipan quilt: My niece wanted a quilt with blue, not too much pink as she was done with the pink princess phase. I had a 5" stacker Hello designed by Amanda Herring for Riley Blake Designs. For the back ground I used fabric bought on-line . I did not have enough 5" squares in the pack to make 12 squares, so I used some fabric from Slava's marzipan quilt. Plus fabric from his lamp that I had covered.

I quilted in the round and the end result is this beautiful quilt in soft blue and pink with patches of brighter colours. Am really pleased with the result. I had shown pictures to my niece of the top and she was happy with the colours. Am looking forward seeing the quilt on her bed.

Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal for August over at Elm Street Quilts.

Now on to some knitting for the rest of the month before I start my next quilting project.

To challenge or not to challenge

My craft room is taken over by my daughters stuff as we are redoing her room. I managed to keep a path from the door to my sewing machine as have not yet finished by Marzipan quilt in Pip colours. It was the first time since I started participating in OMG that I did not make it. Dramatic??? No, not really. Was my aim realistic last month ..... yes in a way as "all" I had to do was the quilting and the binding. True, the last few week were too hectic, so should I stop challenging myself in my creative space? No, I would miss it too much. The challenge keeps me going. For a few quarters I had signed up with Finish-a-Long (FAL), for the second quarter of 2019 completely missed the deadline. Over the last 6 months I did quite some smaller and bigger projects out of the way. That felt good. So come September will prepare my list, still soooo many projects to finish.

My goal for August's One Monthly Goal organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilting is to finish the sweet blue quilt for my niece. Am off to the Netherlands in September so it would make a perfect gift.

OMG July Basted Pip Marzipan

The Pip marzipan quilt is slowly slowly slowly progressing. And time moves faster. In two weeks my brother is coming for a two day visit. Well, he is actually coming to pick my kids and bring them to the Netherlands. He offered and I gladly accepted. Lately, I travel quite a bit for work, and I completely enjoy it. The down side is that I have less time for crafting as am less at home. I do get some knitting done as I can knit on the plane. I finished the secret garden shawl and currently am knitting a summer dress. Most likely the dress will be ready when autumn is here, or maybe when winter arrives. Especially as I keep frogging cause I had made a few mistakes.

Back to my marzipan quilt, this one in Pip colours is for my niece. Two weeks before the quilt is to travel to the Netherlands ... making completely finishing this my July One Monthly Goal for Patty's Elm Street Quilts challenge.

This weekend I managed to iron the top and back, as well as basting the beauty. She is now pinned and waiting to be quilted.

Secret Garden Shawl in Scheepjes yarn

In January my project on the go became this lovely shawl in Scheepjes yarn. I took this with me to India and Ethiopia. I knitted on the plane and in my hotel room. Sometimes just sitting and knitting in the evening after a long day of meetings is soo soothing. And something I don't always manage to do at home.

In April I was almost done and managed a few evenings of knitting to finish it as it was too large to take in my handbag and carry around in a plane. Then the knitting was done and the shawl just waited to be finished.

This morning, we had nothing planned, as last night both my eldest and husband had their "ending of the season" concert. After breakfast the laundry was put on hold and I took some time out to sew in all the ends.

The end result is this lovely soft shawl that will be perfect for the winter.

Linking up with 2019 Finish-a-long quarter 2 and the
This is my second project (3 out of 7) done from my list