30 October 2010

Finished! and before baby's due date too


I can hardly believe it! I finished this baby quilt before Baby K puts in an appearance. Obviously I have a few favourite blocks:


My favourite blocks II


On the whole, this quilt was so much fun to make. I started off with inspiration from Pink Chalk Studio and just rolled with it.

Always being one for short cuts, I'm especially proud of the quilting along the binding which simultaneously attached the other side of the binding:

Simultaneously stitching on binding and quilting

13 October 2010

Quilt Exhibition in Holzgerlingen, Germany

Vom 16. - 24. Oktober findet auf Burg Kalteneck die große Quilt-Ausstellung statt.



Den Flyer und weitere Infos gibt's hier und den abgebildeten Quilt sogar zu gewinnen. Ich habe ihn gesehen, er ist sensationell!

For all you international quilters in Southwest Germany: there is an exciting quilt exhibit on from this weekend. More details here - two fabulous quilts to be won in a charity raffle!

12 October 2010

Retreat Report

It's already been more than a week since I've been back from Herrenalb but I can report that it's been a great looong weekend. The Lady who Organises it did a very good job again at keeping everybody happy and everything ticking over nicely.

I've been lucky enough to share a table with experienced quilters who really know what they are doing and so it's been a good learning experience as well as a productive four days.

First on my agenda was a baby quilt called "Kai's Fruity Zoo" for my friend's son due next month:

Kai's Fruity Zoo - pinned and ready for hand quilting

This was really good fun to make because I planned very little other than taking black'n'white print outs of blocks posted a few weeks ago. Basically, I just went with the flow, had no plan and no process. And I really like the resulting top which has actually progressed much further than above picture implies. It's now quilted and just needs its binding putting on with one last line of quilting.

I also spend a lot of time on other projects like this one which will be a Zig Zag baby quilt when it's done:

early bird

and on this Disappearing Nine Patch:

P1010650

It's quite Christmassy in colours, I just don't know what to make of it yet. But the individual blocks came together so quickly - I currently have 49 - that I may well make more with the "left-over" fabric I acquired.

And while we're on that seasonal topic, I can also show you this:

Red Star Christmas

These will be candle mats, one to be donated to a charity auction, the other as a pressie for my mum.

Then I worked on a wall or door hanging for another baby boy:

RGL - in nautical flags

He recently arrived and supposedly those flags above are nautical alphabet flags spelling his initials R - G - L. This one needs a back, two hooks or something similar for hanging and some minor quilting.

And I swear I was good and spend some time with this monster:

4 down, ten to go ...

I think I finished another five or six of them large white sections. But it's a long way to go still.

Then obviously, much time was spend chatting, perusing the offerings of our favourite local quilt shop as well as the cross stitching shop.

7 October 2010

Fat Quarterly: Holiday Edition Coming Soon...

Fat Quarterly: Coming Soon...: "We have been working really hard over the last couple of months to bring you a special 'Holiday' Issue of Fat Quarterly. Packed to the bring..."

and I will be buying it. Although I have my Christmas crafty plans all lined up, it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas 2011 ;-)

5 October 2010

Fat Quarterly Quilt Along - Dandelion Girl quilt


For years, I have been looking for a suitable pattern for all my Dandelion Girl fabric and I think I may have found it ... Regardless of that, I like this idea of keeping the core of this block all in the same colour.

Originally uploaded by Jewel's Arm Candy.

1 October 2010

Chunky Quilting

Wadded, pinned and ready to go: I spend me evenings at the retreat with hand quilting - very Zen!

Imperfect but I like it!

This is the first top I didn't plan to within an inch of its life and I like it very much.