change of address

Hi and thanks for stopping by.

I am over at my new blog now.

Drop me a line if you'd like the new address. I'd love to see you over there.

experiment

I finally got around to finishing this. It was an experiment in all possible ways, from the piecing to the quilting and binding.

My first attempt at free motion quilting. The stitching in the back is not very tight and no matter how much I fooled around with the tension on my machine I could not get it right.

As for the binding, I just left some extra backing all around and used that, folding it over and stitching everything up nice and tight.

better late than never

The Naked Bed Challenge quilt top is done! It was supposed to be finished by June 2nd, but a series of unexpected events, plus a trip to the beach with my boys on my one big free day, meant I had to keep putting it off.

Oh well. Here it is and it is exactly what I had in mind: sweet and soothing. Only it is really, really big.

I guess that's what a queen size quilt is, but WOW. It is tempting to tie it because I don't know how I am going to quilt the thing on my dinky Singer. But I would like to do straight lines all the way across in white and gray and blue, so I guess I'll give it a try. Maybe.

Now I'm off to prepare the backing for it...

serendipity baby quilt

This quilt has been almost finished for months, and I finally finished up the binding and labeled it this past weekend.

Little Agata has not been born yet but we are leaving for the US soon and I was afraid I wouldn't have time to get her name on the quilt before we left. If my friend ends up giving her a different name, the label can be removed and replaced easily enough.

It measures 83 x 108 cm (33 x 43 in), just the right size for the baby carriage, and I made it so that when she is using the quilt and the top is folded down, you can see her name. I thought that would look so sweet in a baby carriage, and one thing I love about Italy is that everyone here uses baby carriages!

Glad this is done, but it means I am behind on the quilt top for the massive queen size quilt I have been working on. It needs to be finished by June 2nd for the Naked Bed Challenge and I might not make it.

But not for lack of trying! I am just very, very slow...

birthday quilt

After mulling it over at Legoland Deutschland for the long Easter weekend and changing my mind at least half a dozen times, for the Naked Bed Challenge, I am sticking with the Bless You pattern, but in a Scandinavian color scheme, my inspiration being a beautifully delicate duvet cover made using vintage fabric featured in this book.

I don't have any vintage fabric to use for this, but I think some Essex linen/cotton with some Kona blues and one itty bitty half-yard of the City Weekend grid will do nicely.

Ideally, I would love for it to be reversible, and on the back I would love to do mostly white with one large square of blue scraps off center. If I have time, that's what I'll do.

For the challenge, the top must be done by June 2nd, and my birthday is a few days after, so I would love love love to have the whole thing done by then, and make it my birthday present to myself.

call me crazy

I signed up to do the Naked Bed Challenge.

I barely have enough time to get my work done for my actual job and now I have committed to making a full size quilt. Oh well. I am excited!

I am using Sarah Fielke's easy peasy Bless You pattern (but mostly solids) and will probably tie it rather than try to quilt something that big on my dinky little Singer.... although now that I've begun free motion quilting that wall hanging I can see how it can get to be addicting...

creative quilt top

I lost my sewing room this weekend to our new au pair. Although I am so glad to have reinforcement on the way, it was a little sad to put my fabric and notions away in boxes. Not having space to leave my machine and the iron out will mean a lot less sewing. I was able to get a lot done in twenty-minute increments of stolen time, here and there.

Luckily, I managed to finish this one last thing before packing it all up.

It is the top to what will hopefully soon be a quilted wall hanging. I followed this tutorial and it was the most fun I've had piecing since I made the improvisational blocks for my sons' quilt.

I didn't follow the guidance exactly. She recommends using four fabrics; I used three. She doesn't break up the strips as much as I did either. But I started out the way she suggested and relied heavily on her tips and the examples she provided for inspiration.

This concept of a non-pattern is incredibly appealing to me. It was the first time I felt like I was making art.