New Thread Catcher

I needed a little traveling thread catcher and found a cute one at thestitchingroom.blogspot.com .
After the machine sewing was finished it looked like this.

Then it needed some relaxing hand stitching to get to the finish line.

This will be a great little one to bring with me when traveling.

Soft and Cuddly Quilt

My latest charity quilt turned out to be an exercise in free motion quilting. The top was pieced in one day, using as big blocks of the cat fabric as possible, and adding four-patches in matching colors.

The earth tone colors look good together with the patches with cats on white background.

The chocolate brown flannel used for borders and backing was donated by Siw from Quiltegården.

I added some leftover fabrics to make the backing big enough. The end result is a quilt of 45" x 55", perfect for a child.

I am really pleased with the free motion quilting of an all-over swirl design. I struggled a bit with some tension problems, but finally got them sorted out in some mysterious way, don't ask me how. The binding was made from the last pieces of the green fabric from the four-patches.

This is my third charity quilt for the year, and number 23 all time for the children's ward at my local hospital.


Happy quilting!

Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations

April is here, and the Island Batik challenge for the month is: Looking back, Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations.

Star quilts have always been one of my biggest inspirations, here's a picture I found of a gorgeous antique one made sometime in the 1800's. Look at that amazing collection of scrappy fabrics!

The starting point for my quilt was in the more brighter color range, I used the stack of 10" precuts of Paisley Dot that was given to me by Island Batik, together with coordinating yardage in Blueberry color.

I went looking for a design that could be used for 10" squares. I found a design on Moda Bake Shop by SpazzyCat that is striking and economical, no waste here!

Four blocks cut in a jiffy, this is definitely made for chain piecing!

There are unlimited design possibilities with these blocks.

I laid out blocks on the floor as I made them, seeing if the very modern looked good with  the amount of fabrics available to me.

In the end I decided on this layout, here is the completed quilt top. There are stars all over!

I decided to use a modern quilting design, I used the walking foot and quilted it in a spiral using Aurifil 50wt 1128 on top and 2024 in the bobbin. I used Hobbs Tuscany 100% Unbleached Cotton batting for the quilt.

I used a fun black and white print for the backing, and it looks like stained glass with the sun shining through.

A modern version of a classic quilt, spread over my vintage sofa. Could it be better?!

The quilt spread out on my sun deck to show off the colors in natural light.

Quilt stats
Size: 48" square
Fabric: Island Batik Paisley Dot
Thread: Aurifil 50wt, 2024 for piecing, 1128 for quilting and 2024 in the bobbin
Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Collection, 100% Unbleached Cotton

The spiral quilting shows off very well in the above picture.

The backing complements the dizzy feel from the spiral quilting. I used Paisley Dot Sky for the binding.

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 Keep on quilting!