Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

Today I finished my Mini Quilt for this swap. The swap is hosted by Quilting Gallery

I am really pleased with the result! This is my first time in a swap. The guidelines were to use the stitchery which is in the center here, and then create a quilt around it. The size of the mini quilt had to be between 12" and 24". Mine measures approx. 13" x 14". If you look at my banner on the blog, you may recognize the fabrics from the quilt in the middle, the mini is made completely of leftovers from my charity quilt 'Walk in the Woods'.

Today I also received my partner info, so now I know where to send my mini quilt. It will be shipped in September, sometime.

I would not mind doing a swap again, because this was a fun project!

Anita's Arrowhead

The name has nothing to do with me, unfortunately, but it is an elegant and super-easy block to make using a very clever technique. The test block turned out very nice, and I can see a quilt made out of these!

Block #12 in Blogger's BOM 2012

The 12th block is finished!

Block #3 in Christmas Mystery is done

The third stitchery for the Christmas Mystery project is completed, now only two more remains. Looking forward to the finished result.

Finally finished!

It didn't really take that long to make this quilt, just about 3 and a half week from start to finish. But it was a lot more work than I had expected, I am a little tired of Halloween fabrics right now. The resulting quilt is good-looking, though!

This will be a charity quilt for children at my local hospital. The size of the quilt is approx. 42" x 52". The design is 'Simply Spooky 2' by Red Rooster Fabrics. The quilt has a pieced backing, with leftover Halloween fabrics.

I added some of my own fabric from stash for the front, and I had bought the border fabric with a zillion black cats in the US. 

This is a bright and colorful quilt that will be popular among children, it has got all the appropriate ingredients for a Spooky Celebration! I even completed it in good time before Halloween! 

The back is ready

The quilting is done, so now I have to cut the binding and sew it on. I only show the back of the quilt now, because the poor cats won't show their faces before they get eyes sewed on. (One of the kittens is not ashamed, though).
I hope the quilt will be completely finished in a day or two, and then it will be properly displayed!

Zippered pouch

Today I figured out that I needed a new zippered pouch for all my pens and quilting accessories. I had this good-looking fabric with lots of coffee mugs in blue, green and yellow, and inside I chose a solid blue lining. It is a both cute and practical item. Now I am better organized!

Endless joy!

Last night I prepared 'Simply Spooky 2' for quilting, and was going to start on it today. But, today I received my copy or String Fling by Bonnie K. Hunter in my mailbox. The quilting has already been postponed a bit, because I just have to study and admire all the gorgeous quilts in the book! This book is definitely going to give me endless joy!

I will have to try to tear my self away from the book and start quilting, but I think that may be difficult today. It is a lot more tempting to sit in the shade (we have the hottest day of summer here, today) and study this fabulous book!

Aurifil BOM for August

This is the Lily that was this month's design in the Aurifil BOM. I changed the colors from the original layout, and I think I got a good-looking result of the block. I love how the white colonial knots in the frame look like a row of tiny pearls!

Blueberry blues, or not...

I have been working pretty hard on my charity quilt(s) lately, today I have achieved quite a good progress on the second Halloween quilt. I felt I had to take a break and do something quite different this morning, so I went out in the forest, which is only 5 minutes walk from my house, searching for blueberries. Usually these berries get ripe in the end of July where I live, and for the last few years I have been on vacation that time. This year the summer was exceptionally bad with low temperatures and lots of rain, so the berries just recently became ready to pick.

The resulting crop after today's walk in the forest was carefully cleaned and processed when I returned home. Now I have blueberries in the freezer ready for pies or muffins, and the best, as far as I am concerned, blueberries just stirred with a little sugar, and that is PERFECT for pancakes. Yummy!

I also got to pick some of my garden berries, today it was white currants.

These are not very common anymore, but I have two bushes in my yard. I might make jelly of these berries, it will be an interesting color!

As for the blues, my fingers definitely got blue, but I had a great day, both in the forest and back home!

Quilt top finished

I finished the quilt top for the charity quilt late last night. Well, finished and finished, I still have to add some eyes and bow ties for the cats, but that will have to wait until the quilting is done.

The weather today was much more co-operating, grey clouds, but no rain. My old, dead plum tree acts as quilt display.

I would say that this is a colorful quilt! Siw at Quiltegården helped me choosing thread for quilting. The quilting will have to wait a while, though, because first I have to assemble another Halloween top since the bag of fabrics I got was huge!

I guess both quilts will get a pieced backing in order to get rid of most of the leftover fabric. It is fun to make charity quilts like this, but after two Halloween ones, I think I will I enjoy returning to quilts more my "own" style.

A quick update

Today I finished assembling the blocks of the Halloween quilt 'Simply Spooky 2' by Red Rooster Fabrics, and now I have to cut the inner and outer borders and finish stitching the whiskers on the cats in the corner blocks.

The weather today was not perfect for picture taking, there were quite a few raindrops during the photo session, but the session was very quick, so not much harm was done to the quilt top.
I have to try to complete the top today, because I have to buy batting and decide on how to quilt it tomorrow. More updates will come...

Halloween quilt in the making

I got a big bag with Halloween fabric from my quilt guild to make a couple of quilts for charity. We give quilts to long-term ill kids at the local hospital. They are in great need for quilts for boys, and Halloween fabrics are definitely correct for boys. I found a great pattern on internet, and have started with piecing and appliqueing. I am adding some fabric from my own stash.

The black cat, he is not completely black, though, so it wouldn't be a problem if he crosses the road in front of you...

This owl is not not very spooky. I like the corn-on-the-cob fabric! But watch out, the owl sees every move you make!

Pumpkins belong to Halloween.

In addition I have made some pinwheel blocks, and they will of course be joined by spiders and bats!

I have quite a few more blocks to make, and I will keep you updated on the progress of the quilt. I really enjoy working with it! The plan for the next Halloween quilt is ready, and I look forward to starting it.

Fresh sewing day

Due to vacation time I and being far away from my sewing machine, there have been few finishes in July. I managed to finish a mug rug at the end of the month, though, a mini Great Granny along block.

During summer vacation I completed a couple of stitchery blocks, one for a summer table runner, and another for a Christmas mystery project.

For inspiration

When visiting some friends this summer, I spied a couple of antique quilts at their house. They were made by a grandmother that was almost 100 years old when she died a couple of years ago. I don't know when she made them, but I would guess they were made round the middle of the previous century.

Both are made completely by hand, and they are worn at the edges after good use during many years. This is the way old quilts should look; well loved!

I hope some of my quilts will have such a long life as these. Anyway, these vintage beauties are a great inspiration!