Respect Testing

This is the latest pattern I have been testing for Berene of Happy Sew Lucky. The release date for the pattern is October 13.

RESPECT may be my absolute favorite from the tattoo quilt patterns by Berene. The Doe is such a beauty!

Look at those eyes! Adorable!

This is the tenth block of my tattoo quilt pattern testing project, only the big center block left. I am waiting patiently to complete my quilt top!

Autumn Geishas

Another charity quilt is made for the children's ward at the hospital. This time I took a panel with Japanese geishas, cut the panel apart and added sashing in between.

The red, shiny cotton looks like silk wallpaper, and makes the geishas stand out like paintings on a wall. 

I quilted the geishas with echo quilting in a neutral color. The "wallpaper" is echo quilted around the leaves with red thread color.


The finished size of the quilt is 41"x 62". The backing is a warm flannel and binding is a black solid.

This is my seventh charity quilt for the year, and number 27 all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

Lots of Stars for Maja

The years 2017 and 2018 have been a wonderful experience for me after I joined the Rakish Needle Round Robin. Six European ladies have contributed to each others quilts, and quilt projects have been going back and forth in the postal services between Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Norway.

This is the sixth and last quilt I received to work on. It belongs to Maja in Poland, and she wants a quilt full of stars. The picture above shows the starting point I received in May.

I have to admit it took quite some time before I started working on extending the quilt top.There were so many stars, how should I add more?

I finally decided to add a row on top and one at the bottom. The quilt top is really scrappy from before, and I can assure you that I added to the scrappyness.

 

I gathered lots of star fabrics I had in my stash, used extra stars that was left from the other participants, and made only two traditional stars and a wonky one that can be seen in the top row. 

The quilt top was packed and sent to Poland in August and Maja has already received it. Feedback from her is that she loves it in all its scrappyness.

It is exciting to wait for my own quilt which is currently in Germany. Don't stress Katrin, I have all the time in the world!

Starstruck with Island Batik

September in the Island Batik Ambassador Program is all about stars. You can see stars all over in the quilting world, both in traditional and modern versions. I have used them many times before, but this time I wanted to make something different.

The Ambassadors were free to make any kind of star project, any size. I searched the web and found this free paper pieced pattern of the Interwoven Star, finished size 6".

I used leftover fabrics from the April Challenge , Paisley Dot Brights including a neutral.

These stars seem to be spinning fast, and I decided to make four equal blocks and turn them 90 degrees off from each other to make a table runner or wall hanging. All the piecing was done with Aurifil 50wt in white, color 2024.

I cut 2" background strips for sashing and border. The quilt sandwich was made with Hobbs Thermore batting, and I decided to hand quilt this little project. I happened to have two spools of Aurifil 12wt, white 2024 and pink 2479. These are perfect for big stitch hand quilting. I also used a variegated Aurifil 50wt color 3852 for machine quilting the outline of the stars.

With the low rays of sun in September the hand quilting is clearly visible. I used white in the background and pink in the stars.

I also made two things I have never done before: A flanged binding, and a few prairie points in a matching color for extra interest.

The Starstruck project of September is completed, and time will show whether this one ends up on a table or on the wall.

Until then, keep on quilting!