A hint of summer

Elisabeth asked for aqua, blue, turquoise and white blocks for her month (June) of Sew-Euro-bee-an. I made two summer-y applique blocks using fabrics from my stash.

I will not even try to conceal how much I love these flip-flops. I will surely remake this block (slightly bigger) and turn it into a bathmat.

As Elisabeth had asked for blocks in any sizes, I didn’t cut them back so she can fit them in whereever she might need them.

We’re off for a week at the sea with kids and our friends (and more kids) so you won’t see me around for the next days.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Christine

Optimism – A finished Quilt

If you have been following my blog for the last few weeks, you know that I had a hard time at my real-life-job recently. Fate had struck my dear colleague with a nasty blow. He was absent several weeks and will have to undergo medical treatment for some weeks.

To cheer him and his family up, I made him a quilt. A Plus Quilt has been on my to-sew-list for quite some time now and I think this was the right occasion to make one. I associate many positive meanings to plusses – and that’s what it was all about: to send positive vibes and thoughts to my colleague and his wife.

Amazingly, I pulled all these grey, green, white and black fabrics from my stash (mostly comma and curious nature with some architexture and backyard baby mixed in). As I was in a hurry to get the quilt finished, I used rectangles and squares to speed up the piecing.

I meant to use one solid piece of fabric for the backing but discovered too late, that the intended piece was too small. I ended up piecing the backing and I am glad I did. IMHO I think it looks splendid.

Here’s to my new sewing machine! I managed to quilt straight lines without any problems. Thanks to the adjustable foot pressure of my new machine. I quilted two vertical lines and one horizontal line…

… and bound the quilt with my favourite COMMA. I attached it with my sewing machine, using my usual zigzag stitch.

I really love this rather manly quilt and am happy to report that my colleague wrote me a super-nice-thank-you-note stating that he loves the quilt and that his wife wants to learn how to sew now (o:

Thanks for visiting!
Christine

Impressions of FQSR London 2013

 

Classes

My first one was John’s Embroidery class. Here he is, showing the (rope?) stitch.

Here is a Penguin & Fish Monkey that I started in John’s Class and finished during the weekend.

Next up was Trudi with her Free Motion Quilting Classes

My FMQ Practice Piece:

Sunday Morning went by with Ruth’s Trapunto Class.

Here’s my slightly overstuffed heart:

 

Swaps

Here’s our Secret Sample Swap Group: (from left to right: Kathy, me, Sue, Mandy)

And this is our lot: buntings, mug rugs, embroidered placemats/centrepieces and fabric baskets.

The Scrappy Strip Swap:

 

Miscellaneous

Besides, there was the Quilt Market in the Main Hall…

And last but not least, a generous goodiebag:

with fabrics, thread and a variety of notions. Thanks you very much, dear sponsors!

Lots and lots of chatting, laughing and stitching…

… a quick visit to the V&A Museum with Liz, who was ill last year and whom I finally met in person this year. It is so much fun to get to know online pals after all that blog reading, emailing and commenting. Thanks for taking me to the V&A, Liz!!!

And then there was some sightseeing on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Thank you very much, Carol, Lizzy, Sue and especially to you, Ann!

Thank you everyone (FQ Team, Teachers, Sponsors, Fellow Attendants, and BPH staff) for making this weekend memorable!

Christine

Samples for London

Good news. The nametag is done and ready to be send out tomorrow. I’ll post photos once it arrived at my partner.

And the samples are washed and dryed (I had to rinse out the marks that helped me keep the quilting even).

Here’s a detail of the Dogwood Quilting.

The fabrics are a pure linnen and my favourite fabric line ever: COMMA. In grey, black, white and green. I just hope my swap partners will like those baskets.

Tomorrow I’ll have a day off, the kids will stay at home (or go to the cinema) with my husband and I’ll head to our Modern Quilt Guild Sew-in. All day long. Yay!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Christine

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There’s no minute like last minute…

Just a bit more than two weeks left before I fly to London for Fat Quarterly Community Retreat 2013. I take part in the nametag swap, the sample swap and the scrappy strip swap. I’m finally done with the samples. They are still wet from washing but I should be able to take photos tomorrow.

But first I have to finish the nametag that must be send before saturday…

Any more procrastinators out there?!

Christine