A Quilt but Different

There is this guy I am seeing for a while now ( whoo whoo me dating someone..;-)), he is an american living here in berlin. Well as christmas is appearing I wanted to make him a quilt. He likes my work but of course I needed a more maleish design. And as I know he loves pendleton blankets I thought something inspired by these would be nice.
This is what I came up with. So extremely different from my other stuff, but I fell in love with the possibilities, that I am definitively going to make something in that native american style again.

 It might be a little wrinkled because it was in the washing machine for too long, maybe I should give it a little press.

And I also love the back.

  In my work as a fashion designer I often make woolen trousers and skirts. I always kept the leftovers because I wanted to use them in a quilt eventually. Here I did. I just put them together randomly and I don´t know which side I prefer. The whole quilt feels so rustic...

Even the batting is "recycled". I once ordered a fabric online for the shop without seeing it in reality, which was mostly wool and alpaca wool. But when it arrived I was shocked because it felt terribly itchy and hard. I thought after I washed it it would be better, but no, it just wasn´t that hard anymore. So I decided to use ist in the quilt. And what shall I say, I also love the feeling of that. It is quite heavy but flowy.

Now I really hope that he likes it (and that he doesn´t read my blog).
Have a wonderful week everyone. Berlin is covered in snow and I love it.

laKattun Fabrics

 A few months ago I met the uncredibly talented fabric designer Eva Reisinger and her label laKattun. When I visited here Studio I was amazed by all the wonderful handprinted fabric and the cute things she had made out of them. Eva gave me a set of her fabric to play with. I knew immediately that I didn´t want to cut the fabric into to small pieces, so that you could still see the wonderful prints. 
Here you can see the quilt I made. I love it, it reminds me of the fun and freshness of summer.
On the laKattun website you can find more information about Eva, or you visit the Etsy or Dawanda Shop an find more incredibly awesome products.

Vor ein paar Monaten traf ich im Zuge einer Recherche die Stoffdesignerin Eva Reisinger.

 Bei einem Besuch in Ihrem Atelier durfte ich Ihre Arbeiten bewundern und mir den Entstehungsprozess Ihrer tollen Stoffe und Werke erklären lassen.

  Ihr Arbeitsplatz verströmte eine so wunderbare, feine und kreative Atmosphäre, daß es mich überhaupt nicht wundert, daß dort solche hübschen Stoffe enstehen.

 Ich war sehr beeindruckt und noch mehr natürlich, als ich glücklich mit einem Päckchen voller handbedruckter Kostbarkeiten nachhause ging um ein bißchen damit zu spielen.
Mir war sofort klar, daß ich die verschiedenen Stoffe nicht zu klein zerschneiden wollte, damit man die unterschiedlichen Designs noch gut erkennen kann und sie voll zur Geltung kommen.

Dies ist der Quilt, der dabei herausgekommen ist.

  Ich finde er verströmt eine Frische und Fröhlichkeit und man wünscht sich augenblicklich den Sommer zurück. 

 Auf Eva´s Webseite könnt Ihr mehr über  laKattun erfahren, weitere wunderbare Stoffe bewundern und natürlich auch in ihrem Dawanda Shop stöbern.

Ausserdem hat sie auch einen Etsy Shop den Ihr hier findet.

Coloured Pavement Quilt

I think it is pretty amazing what can be done with a pattern. I mean you change the fabrics and the idea of it and it is a totally different thing. So to see here:

Do you remember the last quilt I showed you? It was inspired by  something I once fotographed...
A friend of mine (who is actually a guy from the US) said he liked the quilt a lot, but the pattern itself reminded him a little of the crooked cross. That scared me so much, that I started a survey. Fortunately most of the people I asked told me that they rather see a pinweel or a plus sign.

Anyway I really wanted to make a more colourful version, so I deceided on a neutral backround and some fun fabrics for the pinweels.
Here you can see how it looks like in this version.
I would really be interested in what you think about it. I like it, I just see a fun quilt and I really try to get that other strange idea out of my head...
The quilt is backed with a fun fabric from stoff und Stil and the binding is one of my favorite from the Botany line..

By the way I tried a new quilting pattern. It is like a drop on a string pattern inspired by the prince charming fabric with the drops.
 
Now I gotta go, try to finish some project for christmas... I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about.
Take care guys and have fun!

Finally....

Finally- I finished a quilt which I was working on for a while. It is quite different from other ones I have done. And I can say I love lot. First of all I made the pattern myself.

 When I took a picture of this piece of pavement about a year ago, I knew this eventually has to be quilt pattern. And then I transformed it.
And this is the quilt I made with this inspiration.

 I used a grey a bit shiny cotton fabric with a very light pinstripe in it. Because I changed the front and back side accidentially there is also a slightly difference between in value. The patterned fabric are all some cute prints I bought in Birmingham last year at the festival of quilts.

 I think this matches perfectly.
So the all over look is quite nice I think. I will soon try it in another fabric composition.

Finally- I got back my sewing machine. I can´t wait to try and find out how perfect it sews now...

Finally- I dived into my fabrics and started to sort them. For that I still have to buy some more shelfes. For my very limited space I think the Ikea Benno CD Shelfes are perfect. Fat Quarters and half yards fit in there perfectly. This is just a start.

Finally- I got rid of the nasty cold and sinusitis I seem to have every fall, just in time to practice for our big fall Gospel Concerts in two weeks. I can´t wait. It is always such a good fun!!

Yippieee- it is Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting her wonderful and inspiring Quilt Festival again. In the very last minute I decided to participate again, as it was so inspiring last time I did.
This year I would like to enter a quilt which has been quite special to me this year.
It is my Gees Bend and Andalusian inspired Quilt.

 It was a total experiment. When I visited my parents in Andalucia, Spain this summer, I knew I couldn´t go without some project in mind. I knew that there would be a sewing machine waiting for me, because my mother is the one who told me all about sewing. Not quilting, but garment sewing. In fact I started teaching my mom English Paper Piecing this summer, she loved it.

 Anyway- I brought some scraps and had a very impro style quilt in mind. Sweating and burning in the spanish summer sun I worked on some blocks.

 There was also another plan with the quilt I had in mind, when I would come home. I had recently bought Angela Walter´s book and was itching to try some free motion quilting with this  improvisional quilt.

 

 After I came home, I finished the top, basted  and prepaired everything for the quilting. I tried nearly every pattern in the book, and WOW how I enjoyed the quilting. Here you can see some closeups of the beauty.

 I really love this one and am proud to share it with you readers. I hope you like it like I do. And I just can encourage everybody to dive right in and do the free motion quilting. IT IS POSSIBLE!

 

Now I am off to look for all the wonderful quilts which are shown in the festival.

Some Stats of my entry (No. 568)
Quilt measurement: 45"x65"
Technique: Improv Piecing
Quilting: Freemotion quilting by me on my "Elna Quilting Queen"

Best Category: Throw Quilt; Homemachine quilted 

Where there is a will there is a way

I am a bit desperate at the moment. I would like to finish a few project, but as I told you there is no machine in my home at the moment. Well I could patch at work, but when do I work then? So I had no other possibility to start something new. Well and as there is christmas just around the corner (WHAT???) and my best friend (who doesn´t read my blog I think), still needs a nice quilt for her couch, this will be it. I have a design in my head, but I am not totally sure yet. But in every case, it is a handsewing project. No machine-no machine project. Clear isn´t it?
 
 So I picked up some Anna Maria Horner fabrics and started a Diamond Hexie thing which is going to look awesome when it is done. I can´t wait until I have all six diamonds finished. Just two more. I can´t wait. I am itching. Tomorrow I will be on a arts and crafts fair here in Berlin and when in a ( unpossible) moment there are no people who want to buy cute scarfs and supercute underwear (have a look here!) I will have a few minutes to go on stitching. I love that about EEP. Always possible to take on the go.
So wish me luck for the fair tomorrow ( need money for more fabric...;-)), and have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Miriam

What do you see?

What you can see here is where used to be my wonderful oh so stylish and wellworking singer sewing machine from the 60s or 70s. It is gone. Luckily not forewer. While straightlinequilting intensively it just desided that it needs a break.
The attempt to repair it myself (do you see the "tools" on the left side of the picture?) didn´t work out. And now it is at the mechanics. It will be about fifty Euro. About twice as much as I paid for it at the thriftstore (including the table). Lucky me.
Unfortunately it will take at least two weeks. Poor me.
So up to more English Paper Piecing.

Tova No.3

 I made two new Tovas recently one as a tunic and the other one as a dress. I like both allthough I ask myself, why do I tend to look like the 60ies houswife in it.

  Do you remember this post? Again I have the feeling that I want to go, get the vaccum cleaner and wipe the house (this would be really neccessary by the way...).
Is it the fabric I choose? A wonderful Cool Wool in teal and the Drops fabric by Tula Pink. I don´t know. Or is it me, who let every garment look like a duster? Well let me not be unfair to myself. There are definetely things I look awesome in and even the 60ies housewife look starts to please me.
When the other Tova dress comes out of the washing machine I will show it to you, I like that one much better.

Further on there are a lot of things on my table. For example I am working on a Anna Maria Horner Feather Bed Quilt.

  I loved that pattern from the very beginning that I saw it.  But I must say, making the pattern takes me ages.

 I did some chain piecing but I just  have about 20 feathers finished now, I want to make a Bed Quilt, which means I need about twenty more.
 
 This is it for now,
What are you working on at the moment?
Do you like everything you make?

PinPinPin

Hi folks,
you might have heard of this very generous Giveaway from Freshsqueezed Fabric. You can win a fabric bundle by pinning it on pinterest and getting it repinned as often as the worth of the fabric.
I chose the wonderful madrona road bundle which you can repin here.

 
Please let me know that you repinned, as I can repin yours, too. What a fun Giveaway. Thank you Freshsqueezed Fabrics!!!
The complete rules you can find here!

About me putting fabric together

Sometimes there are things I really feel unconfident about, even if there might not be a reason for that. I guess most of you out there know these feelings. If it is about how to approach people, how to cook a five course dinner or in this case how to put fabrics together.

One day at the shop with my business partner I was complaining about my lack of knowlege and confidence to put fabrics together for a quilt. And she (not at all knowing anything about this quilting stuff) looked at me quite surprised and said: "You are  putting together different fabrics for your clothes designs every day, so why shouldn´t  you be able to do so with the quilting fabrics?"

I thought about that and noticed that she was right. With just one difference, I am not thinking when I put together the fabrics for the clothes. I just hold them together and look (feel) how I like the combination.
So, why couldn´t I do so quiltwise? I think my problem might be, that I see so many gorgeous outstanding projects out there, fabrics chosen so wisely. I tend to compare myself a lot to much and always think I could never ever put something so beautiful and appealing together.As soon as my head gets the control to much, its over. And this is why I often tend to use whole collections for a project.

Why am I telling you this? Because for this quilt I didn´t. I started with this lovely fabric in the middle it is from Birch and  is called Happy camping,I love the Mid mod design of it.

 Going from there I chose the other fabrics (some Anna Maria, some Denyse, some Tula, some Joel and others)  that I thought could fit colourwise. I have to say I am really pleased how that turned out. I used the one seem flying geese technique again, I really love this technique because of the 3D effect it gives. I quilted it really undramatically with straight lines. The back is a lovely fabric from Ikea and the binding is a Joel Dewberry fabric from the heirloom collection.
I think this is a lovely quilt in fall colours. I might put it in the shop, still not sure about it.

 

How are you dealing with colour and fabric choices for a quilt?