Blue/Green Charity Quilt

 Another charity quilt is made. This time I used fabrics from only one fabric line, that's pretty unusual for me. I made an "old-fashioned" patchwork quilt from 18 different fabrics from Birchtree Lane by Connecting Threads, a line from 2015 according to the selvedge.

 A simple patchwork layout looks great with the many different prints of birds, leaves and feathers together with blenders.

 The uprooted tree is always a trustworthy quilt holder.

Dimension of the finished quilt is 48" x 60". Quilted with wobbly lines using the walking foot.

 We have been blessed with fairly warm weather this October, so the forest is still green even though the leaves have fallen off the trees.

This is my twelfth charity quilt for the year 2021, and number 76 all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

Keep on quilting!

 

Joyful Meadows

 My first finish of the year is this beautiful baby quilt. At the end of last year I learned that some friends of mine were expecting their third baby. I have made quilts for their first two kids, so naturally I had to make another one for their latest.

 I was lucky enough to win this Joyful Meadows pattern by Happy Cloud Creations at the right time I was searching for a pattern. The pattern comes in five different sizes, from Baby to King. I made the baby size of 48" x 48".

The finished quilt was taken out in the forest for a photo shoot. I we were lucky that sun gave us beautiful photo light after the snow showers.

 

I used my (almost never ending) stash of Birchtree Lane fabrics from Connecting Threads for this quilt, with solid white for background. These are the prints I chose, the feather print is my absolute favorite.

 

The pattern is very well written, and the quilt top came together quickly .

I quilted it on my domestic machine with loops and swirls in white thread. The quilt got a great texture. The pine was a good quilt holder.

My first finish for the year looks good in the winter snow.

Keep on quilting!

 

 

Mother of Pearl

Yesterday I witnessed an amazing weather phenomenon: It was a stormy afternoon and I looked out of my window and saw this amazing cloud in between the dark, lower clouds. Later I found out that it is called a Mother-of-Pearl cloud (or Nacreous cloud).

It had the most fantastic shifting iridescent colors and I ran to get my phone and camera to capture pictures of it.

The two photos above are taken with my Canon through the window.

For the two last pictures I went out on my porch in the strong wind. It was an amazing weather phenomenon where the cloud was blazing with the shifting colors. A few minutes later it was gone...

Remark: None of these photos are filtered, this is actual footage!

I am so happy I managed to catch it on camera, it was a live show I will never forget. I beats the fireworks on New Year's Eve!

 

Edit: This morning I caught another view of the same type of clouds, not obstructed by trees this time: Beatuful, vivid colors! And you have to be quick to catch it, it disappears in minutes.

With this post I wish you all a Happy New Year in 2017 !

 

Prairie Flowers Going South

A table runner was needed as a gift for friends, and I chose the classic block Prairie Flower. Here the runner is resting on an art-sofa looking like polished rocks. (I can assure you it is better to look at than to sit in!)

Taped to the brick wall. (Seconds later the office tape gave in and the runner ended up on the floor...)

Outside on an overcast day.

A park bench is a good place to stay, the corner had to be tucked in due to a windy day.
 

The backside of the runner is a print I found in my stash, an Ikea print from 2008 according to the selvage.

I needed an artistic rolled-up picture...

And why not one to show off the beautiful landscape around?!

The last picture shows the fabrics and the quilting. I used batiks for the flowers and the corner stones. Quilted with large stippling. The fall colored binding makes the table runner perfect.

Keep on quilting!

For a Newborn Baby Boy

I had great hopes of finishing this baby quilt before the little baby boy was due May 1st, but it was finished a little overdue. I don't think he would mind, though. I took the quilt with me for a photo shoot on an unusual location for me. It was a glorious day with sunshine making the sea glitter, but alas, a pretty heavy wind.

It was kind of difficult to get good pictures of the quilt on this playground since I didn't have any helpers with me.

The wind really "nailed" it to the net on the playground.

Indoor pictures with with lots of daylight from skylights.

This is the back of the quilt, I used the fabric Nattljus from Ikea, it gives a very nice optical illusion, and is kind of straining on the eyes if you look at it too long.

The quilt looks good both on rocks and grass.

A detail picture of the quilting. Straight line quilting with walking foot in the colored blocks, and I tried to make the grey blocks a little more interesting with changing directions of the lines. For the sashing I practiced my FMQ skills with strings of pearls.

The pattern didn't have sashing in-between the blocks, but I added a light print. When it came to the corner stones, I felt that the quilt didn't have enough color, so I added yellow fabric from an old shirt. It turned out to be a perfect "crayon box".

What better to end this long session with a picture from my neighborhood  playground?

(And yes, the quilt will be washed before it is gifted).

This is my first finish for the 2016 Finish-A-Long for the second quarter of the year.. My original goal list is here .

A Bird in a Blog Hop is Worth Two in the Bush! (+Giveaway!)

When Madame Samm came out with the announcement for this blog hop, I knew I had to join. I immediately started searching my stash for fabrics with bird print. It turned out I had quite a few, so I decided to use whatever I had.

The first fabric I found was an old piece from Ikea, home décor weight, with flowers and branches, and a few birds! This was perfect for a boxy pouch.

As you can see, the spring has not come very far where I live. The snow just melted off my lawn a couple of days ago. But now, the sun gives good warmth and the birds are singing!

It turned out that the pouch was big enough to contain all my un-opened thread “jewels”; aren’t they lovely?

I decided I had to make a tote with an owl fabric from my stash.  I used a tutorial from   Adrianne over at On the Windy Side, but modified the design a little bit to incorporate a recessed zipper closure. Simple quilting on this one, straight criss-crossing lines.

The last few years I have re-discovered my passion for cross stitching.  I thought that it would be perfect to incorporate cross stitched birds in my projects. I didn’t have time to stich big pieces for the hop, so I found a free pattern of a little robin that was perfect for my purpose.

The first project was a French Press Cozy. I had bought one on a Christmas market several years ago, and used that one to make my own pattern.  The cross stitched robin was put in the center, surrounded by a bird fabric from BasicGrey. 

My most time consuming project for this blog hop was the table runner. It is my original design.  

Two cross stitched robins are incorporated in Economy Blocks. The yellow/orange batik is a perfect match with the center of the Oxeye Daisies. Also in this project I used the BasicGrey fabric with “zillions” of little birds. The runner is quilted with the walking foot in a quite dense grid. 

My last project was started two days before my day in the hop. Close to where I live there is a colony of rooks, and when I am out walking I am fascinated by these birds. They are so “well dressed”, wearing a tuxedo every day; they are really beautiful!

This is my meager attempt of portraying a rook in a mini quilt, my original design. I used batiks for the background, where the yellow represent s the grain fields which the rooks often feed from.  The tuxedo is represented with a feather-like shiny black fabric from my stash. I quilted the piece with “organic wavy lines” in grey and brown.

The final picture shows all my projects together. I stumbled upon this sheer burnout fabric with birds all over, added a green solid on the back, and voila (!), I had a wonderful background for my display.  Adding a beautiful orchid and my antique gold rimmed mocca cups, the display couldn’t be any better.

Who wants to join me for a cup of coffee?

Please visit the other bloggers presenting their projects today:

Friday, March 13

It Seams To Be Sew

Life in the Scrapatch

Amy Stitches

Lakeshore Stitches

Needled Mom

Quilt in a not - Shell  <---YOU ARE HERE

Suebee's World

Here is the Full Schedule for the Blog Hop.

Thanks to Lana and Madame Samm for organizing this wonderful  blog hop.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!   The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations Brandy!

If you have come this far, you are probably wondering where the giveaway is?! Well, you have come to the right place, it is here!

What’s up for grabs today is a zippered pouch with a couple of owls on the front. I made the pouch  using Noodlehead’s  Open Wide tutorial.

For the giveaway, answer the following question in the comment section: What is your favorite bird, and why?  If you would like to become a follower of my blog, too, I wouldn’t mind. 

I will let Mr. Random.org pick a winner on the last day of the blog hop, March 23. The winner will be announced as an edit to this blog post on March 24, as well as contacted via e-mail. Make sure you have a valid e-mail address.

I will ship the prize anywhere in the world!

PS! Look who almost photo bombed me: A magpie on the neighbor's roof!

It soon got company of another one, so who knows; maybe we will get magpie babies in our neighborhood this year?

Until next time: Happy quilting, and make sure to enjoy the spring!