STUDENTS´ACHIEVEMENTS

After an wonderful week with
beautiful weather, I gave yesterday a workshop on hand-sewing. The students could choose among different technics what they wanted to have a try at. There were yo-yos, curves, set-in seams, japanese method, english paper method. Here are the results:







Christa W.










Mechthild W.




Annette Ma.












Heidi T.










Iris A.






Sarah W.

Sigrid M.

Annette Me.

Gertrud T.






Some of the students were beginners, some advanced. We had fun and I hope that all of them learned something and went back home with a lot of projects on the mind.

MINI QUILTS

At the beginning of the week I received Cynthia´s siggy blocks.
I am so happy I could take part in the swap, all the blocks are nice and no two fabrics are alike. I have some of my own over so if anyone is interested in swapping, please let me know!

Today I will show you two miniatures I made last year for our new TV room. The room, under the roof is cream with red accents like cushions, curtains, quilt (I will show this one soon!), candles, etc... but the walls were quite bare and I thought minis would do the trick. They are machine sewed and not quilted as they don´t have any batting. Some of the fabrics are fussy cut.
The pictures are a bit blurred, sorry about that! I still have to learn to use my camera for near shots!

The weather is wonderful today, it doesn´t rain enough though and so I will go outside now and enjoy the sunset.

GWEN MARSTON INSPIRATION

Although I quilt mostly traditional, those two quilts were two attempts to try something else. Gwen Marston´s "Liberated Quiltmaking" was quite an eye-opener and her book changed a lot of in my way of quilting. Forget all about measuring, drafting, ... just start sewing and use your scissors a lot! Both quilts were a lot of fun to make. The red one was the first and I tried there to use a lot of ugly fabrics! I thought, well if it doesn´t work, it won´t be much waste. Still, I am happy with the way it turned out. It is machine sewed and hand quilted.
The second was made for my DS, then 2 year old and it is called "Le village bleu". I used some more methods from the book like stars, houses, trees and some home dyed fabrics. There are some I spy fabrics in there as well to make it more interesting for a child. It is machine sewed and machine quilted.

I noticed as I was sewing the houses that I tended to make them more planned after 2 or 3 tries but that I liked the bent, crooked look more. I had to reason myself there, stop planning and just cut! The way to organize the blocks was a challenge as well but it made me step out of my comfort zone which was a good thing as well. All in all an experience to be repeated!

THINKING BLOGGER AWARD

I have been tagged! Anne tagged me in her inspirational blogger award. What a honour!
Now I have to tag 5 bloggers whose work I find inspirational. It will be difficult because there are so many great quilters out there who write interesting blogs. The 5 I have selected are not the only ones I like but the number is limited!

Lucy from the Netherlands: She makes wonderful quilts and her style is so unique and yet appeals to a lot of us.
Bea started me on my blog journey. She encouraged me and told me of the swap organized by Cynthia. She makes so many things, I wonder if she sleeps at all!
Tazzie from Australia: she has already been tagged a few times but I love the way she shares her quilt stories and her sock knitting!
Pamina makes sweet quilts with an old-fashion touch to them that I find simply awesome.
Judy seems to like brown like me and I love seeing how her different quilts develop as the days go by.

I would have liked to name a few more like Dawn, Atet, Carole, Hanne, Mrs Goodneedle... from you as well I gather inspiration from your blogs and I thank you for your encouraging comments.


Right, a post without a picture is not so interesting so here is the second star I made for my hand-sewing workshop. I understand now why one sees so few of these stars with all the points meeting in the middle! I tried a few times and it was never as perfect as I would have liked. I think it has to do with the bulk of fabric in the middle so I decided to put a small button. I can live with that and I hope my students can do as well!

STRING STAR

It is Easter and beautiful weather outside, ground enough to show a cheerful quilt. This quilt was made some time ago (8 years) and it is from the same book as the last one (the scrappy blocks) I showed. The book is called Quick quilts from the heart by Liz Porter and Marianne Fons.
This quilt has been hanging in our living room for a long time and although it doesn´t get direct light from the sun, some of the fabrics are getting quite pale. The quilt is machine sewed, hand appliqué with a buttonhole stitch and hand quilted. I was childless then and had a lot of time!

I wish you all a happy Easter and for the ones who are allowed to, a lot of chocolate goodies!