A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

A lot of things inspire me. Like my orange cat on a blue mat on the floor...



...gave me the idea of my color scheme in the 2013 Aurifil Designer of the Month blocks. Here is one of them:



Today I am working on quilting my Row Along quilt . So many bloggers have been using the "wiggly line", and I figured out that it will be appropriate on the white sashing in-between my rows. I have just started on this project, and here is a picture taken earlier today in the bleak morning light (sorry about the poor picture quality).



I have already made my scrappy binding for this quilt, and I think it will look great against a fairly monochrome outer border. Here it is waiting, patiently, on my mini design board to be put on my quilt in the end.



The weather today is just fantastic, clear blue sky and blazing sun. I will take a couple of days off my piecing- and quilting-mania, and just enjoy the Easter Weekend.

A Happy Easter to everybody!

BIMB quilt top finished

Today I finished my Bee in my Bonnet Row Along quilt top. The outer border is successfully put on, and the top now measures 68" x 86". Here is an indoor picture with the assistance of my DH.

I had to take an outside picture of the top, too. The low rays of the spring afternoon sun give their best to lighten up my quilt.

I have loved this project from the very beginning, and it is almost sad that it is getting close to the the finish line.

The inner border is on

This is a picture I took last night to show off details of the inner border. Today when I came home from work the weather was just perfect for a photo shoot; a pale spring sun, no wind, and a snow-free porch. Here is the quilt top in all its glory, I just love it!



I have chosen the fabric for the pieced, scalloped border, and will start cutting today. My goal is to finish the whole quilt within the end of this month. Lori Holt's Row Along is getting closer to finish.

The bee has arrived!

We are getting closer and closer to the finish line of the Bee In My Bonnet Row Along. Today Lori Holt presented the label with the bumble bee that will go on the backing, eventually. I made the block already, except for the last finishing embroidery stitches. I just love the block! I will try to do the stitching in a couple of days to make the block perfect.

March block in 2013 Aurifil Designer of the Month

Here is the latest block in 2013 Aurifil Designer of the Month. Now I am just waiting for April's design!

BIMB - assembled rows

Yesterday I sewed all my thirteen rows in Bee In My Bonnet Row Along together, so now I have a bright and cheerful quilt top here. Only the pieced border is missing, and that will be revealed in a week or so.


The top, this far, is 50.5" wide, and approx. 66" long. I really look forward seeing the borders Lori Holt wants us to make, I guess they will be very colorful!

I have used fabric from my stash for this quilt, a lot of scraps, plus solid white of course. I will not even try to count all the different fabrics/colors in the quilt top, it is a lot!

The thirteenth and last row is sewn!

Lori Holt came with the last row, #13, of the Bee In My Bonnet Row Along last week. Yesterday she revealed the order of the rows. The link shows the progress of the participants in this row-along. Here are a few pictures of my last row:

The left half:

...and the right half:

These are bright and cheery tulips, and I really feel the spring mood coming, even though it is full winter outside. I have to go out this weekend and buy a nice bouquet with the real flowers to brighten up my living room.

One of my favorite tulips in this row is the black one; I would love to have one like this in my garden!

Now I will start sewing the rows together, and soon Lori will present the tutorial for the pieced border. When it is finished the quilt will be a twin-size, 70" x 88". I have loved this project from the beginning, and it was perfect to end with the tulips, my favorite row.

A finish!

Finally I can show you pictures of my finished Easy Street! I got it back from Merete who did a fantastic job on the quilting, but then I got the flu and did not have any energy to do the binding. When the bugs finally decided to leave, I did the binding in two days. For a 100" x 100" (~2.5 m x 2.5 m) that's a lot of binding; more than 10 m to be sewn by hand on the back. No wonder that my hands were hurting when I finished!


Here the quilt is in all its glory on my floor. As you can see I don't have quite a big enough floor for such an enormous quilt!


I used a "tropical" print for the backing which I found on sale at Hancocks Fabrics. The apple-green color of the leaves were just perfect to complete the quilt! But, and there is always a but, more than 8 yards of fabric was not enough for the backing of this huge quilt...


...so I added another piece in the center, this time brown flowers on yellow. At least the flowers have the same color as the background of the green leaves.


The last picture shows a close-up of the binding and the great quilting performed by Merete. I am very pleased with the result, and this is a quilt that will be cherished for many years to come!