STRAWBERRIES FOREVER

My Strawberries forever is finished.
I am very happy with it. It was a good opportunity to use repro fabrics that I had in my stash. Even the batting is pieced!
Thanks a lot to Lori for this quilt-along.

I will leave you with more pictures!






See you next time!

BONNE FÊTE MAMAN!

Today is mother´s day in France. I thought the picture was very fitting as my mother is just back from Ireland where she got me (under adventurous circumstances) some raw wool for me to spin!

When Lori started her quilt along, I liked her pattern so much, I had to start a strawberry field straight away. The design is wonderful and her directions fun. I am quilting it now and as it is small, it should not take that much time to finish.


I wish you a nice sunday and a nice mother´s day whether you are in France or not!

COLD AND WET

I was not gone on holidays! But still I have not posted for a while just because I was very busy. I gave 2 quilt courses where the students were great but it was a lot to organize. Before that I had a nasty cold and so on and on...

Anyway, as you can imagine I did not sew much but I can show small things that got finished.

First a picture my parents gave me from my grand father (the young man on the left).
As the picture is very small I added some bits and pieces to make it a bit bigger.
I am very pleased with the result and as I have some more pictures you know what will happen next!


Then I sewed a small picture inspired by Janet Bolton. I have had her wonderful book for some years now but I never had the idea to create something alike. This miniquilt won´t be the last either.

And as I hve found a great shop for frames, a 48hour day is the only thing missing!

And at last a picture of the cat frightening the birds! Don´t worry it did not catch any. The birds were too clever. Mice are not that clever though!
That´s it for today. Could you send some sun if you have any where you live. I think it has gone missing here and it is just cold and wet.
Till next time!

GREEN SPRING

I can smell it. Spring is here! Although cold in the morning, the weather is getting sunnier and the garden is back to life after the dreadful long winter.
To make the garden look even more green, I hung the last shawl I knit!

I had dyed the wool some time ago, but a pattern still wanted to be found.
That´s done now. Apart from looking cheerful in my sewing room I don´t have any use for this piece at all. Maybe my mother would like it? Green looks great on her.
Although I have to prepare 2 quilt courses for may, I could not help starting another top. My excuse is that it is a very simple and fast pattern and fat quarter friendly.
I am using some of the dyed fabric I showed last time too. I don´t plan to buy any fabric for this quilt. Let see how big it will get!

I will spend the week-end in my garden looking the daisies, clover and moss taking over the lawn!
Have a nice week-end too!

FINISHED BEFORE EASTER

It seems that the blog wants to cooperate today. I tried to post yesterday and it just would not work!
Anyway, one quilt finished!

I quilted it with a variegated cotton thread with tulip motives. I used a fusible batting for that one and it was a nice experience. I did not have to baste anything. I just ironed the top to the batting, turned it over and ironed the back to the batting. They all stuck all together long enough for me to machine quilt in the ditch.
The quilt has been washed and it feels like normal cotton batting now.


A friend of mine has her birthday soon. As I infected her with the knitting virus I sewed her a bag for putting her knitting needles in. I bought some needles too to put in the bag so she can have more projects on the go!


And this is what I made with the 80´s fabrics I STILL have around. I dyed them.
Here are the original colours:


That was the first batch with a mixture of several dyes I had at hand.
And the second batch with a brown dye.
It is very interesting to see how the different fabrics absorb the dye. They were all put together in the washing machine and still there are so many shades. I am very happy with the result and I am sure I can use those colours more easily than the original ones.


I wish you all an happy Easter!

BACK TO QUILTING

Remember that top?! Well, I decided to finish the quilt which it was supposed to become sooner or later. As the top was an attempt to reduce my 80´s /90´s fabrics, I chose to piece the back too:


Then I added some prairie points (that uses up some fabric too!)

And now I am quilting it. I hope to finish it soon.


The problem is that I still have yards of that kind of fabrics. But I tried some experiment with some of it. More of that next time!

On my commuter train I can´t quilt so I knitted some more socks. These are made of my own spun yarn with that pattern.
They fit really well which is just perfect as it is freezing cold over here.

I wish you a nice time in early spring.

STILL SNOWING

A long week-end was put to good use. Because of the snow, we can´t do much apart from sewing and knitting!

I finished the confetti top. The frame looks a bit boring right now, but I intend to do some machine quilting with variegated thread to bring more colour into it.


Then with the yarn I had spun and showed last time, I knitted a jacket and a hat for a friend of mine who is expecting. Actually the clothes are for her baby! They are the baby surprise jacket and the ganomy hat from Elisabeth Zimmermann. Fun patterns.





I even found the perfect vintage buttons in my stash:
I did some dyeing as well so that I can have something to spin for the next days.
More of that next time.

I wish you a warmer and nicer weather than we are having here!