Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I have been enjoying the Bloggers' Quilt Festival in the past, loving to look at all the beautiful quilts. It is so inspirational - thank you so much Amy! So this year I thought I'd share my favorite quilt - an Ocean Waves quilt I finished in June 2008! This is a quilt I have dragged along to picknics, lazy days in the park, on the sofa, on my bed etc.

I have loved the look of the Ocean Waves pattern since the first time I saw a quilt made in the pattern. And I guess there's no big secret I'm a big fan of the Elm Creek Quilts novels and pattern books. So when I found the pattern for "Eleanor's Ocean Waves" in "Return to Elm Creek" I decided to go for it.

It was the perfect opportunity to use lots of accumulated blue and white scraps and leftover bits and pieces, I had lots of fun piecing it and it came together smoothly. The quilting is one of my first attempts at doing something other than just meandering, and I really like how it turned out.

...oh, and if anyone has clicked on the photos and seen the name "sick quilt" - you can read about that here.

Happy weekend!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Is it a quilt top? A frustration post...

I have been thinking and re-thinking... The subject being my Carolina Christmas... After laying out my blocks over Christmas, I figured I'd leave this quilt borderless. This works well - just take a look at Christine's lovely version. I have finished sewing the rows together and I planned on basting it tonight. Just for fun I placed the top on my bed - sorry about the bad light:



And here's where the re-thinking comes in... There is a good 10" drop on each side, BUT there are no margins at the top/bottom. Now I'm wondering if this will annoy me... should I sew borders on it after all????? If so, what kind of borders should I do? I'm not too fond of the pyramids Bonnie has chosen... and if I choose borders, will the overhang on the sides be a bit too much? On the other hand, will I be using this quilt on my bed at all? I have several quilts large enough for my bed, but the one I'm using is this:

It is only lap size, jut I just loooooove this quilt! I have many times regretted not making it larger, but... Ok, it looks like I might need a little more thinking time, and if you have any ideas/suggestions, they will be very much appreciated!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

"Sick Quilt"

"At the top of a fresh page, Sylvia started to write 'Sick Quilt' before she caught herself and wrote 'Ocean Waves.' Better to call it by its traditional title, since no one else would be able to identify her mother's blue-and-white quilt with the nickname Sylvia and Claudia had given it. Sylvia was not sure how the family custom had developed, but whenever children in the family fell ill, Mother would take out the Ocean Waves quilt from the cedar chest and allow them to use it on their beds until they felt better. In hindsight, Sylvia assumed the privilege of using the special quilt was supposed to boost the sick child’s spirits and thereby hasten recovery, but she recalled that when she was particularly queasy, the arrangement of blue and white triangles resembled and ocean’s undulating surface enough to make her feel worse rather than better."

(Jennifer Chiaverini, 2003: The Quilter's Legacy)

How appropriate!!! On Sunday I quilted my Ocean Waves quilt – made from Jennifer’s pattern “Eleanor’s Ocean Waves” (UPDATE: The quilting is done by machine). I felt a bit queasy and shakey all day, but thought it was a caffeine over-dose (I had a bit more coffee than usual for breakfast) so I kept on pushing myself to finish the quilting. But as I was quilting the border I noticed I had a fever, and a head-ache that had been steadily progressing… Not saying the quilt was what made me feel worse *lol*

Over the last couple of days I have managed to move myself between the bed and the sofa – drinking heaps of tea and the odd dose of Lemsip - dragging the Ocean Waves with me – snuggling under it when I needed to rest, stitching a tiny bit of the binding down when I felt well enough to keep my hands occupied. And a little goes a long way – the quilt is now finished!!! This is how it turned out:

Exept for the backing (see first pic) everything is from my scrap box and stash – including the batting, which is pieced from larger leftover pieces. And I’m so happy with it! I think it will be a favourite, not only to be used when sick ;o) Now I just need to shake of this flu (or whatever it is...)!!!

I have some more news to share, but that will have to wait for now…
Happy quilting!

Sincerely, Anne Ida

Ocean Waves

I have completed the top for my Ocean Waves quilt! This is how it turned out:

This has been a wonderful way of using some of the blue/blue-green/blue-purple scraps that has accumulated over the years, and some fat quarters that for some reason never has been used. They play nicely together, I think, and so does all the different whites and light creams. And best of all they are all from my stash! I have an idea of how I want to quilt this, but I couldn't find any fabric in my stash I want as backing, so I ordered some yesterday, but not feeling too bad about that, fabric diet and everything, and am awaiting it's arrival :o)

The pattern I used for this quilt is from Jennifer Chiaverini's second pattern book Return to Elm Creek:

The quilt in the book is named "Eleanor's Ocean Waves" and is featured in her fifth novel The Quilter's Legacy. Jennifer's patterns are easy to follow, and even though this quilt has 604 HST units, it was fun to piece :o)

Happy reading and happy quilting everyone!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

An ocean of blue

Valerie said some time ago that blue is my signature colour - and she was sooo right! I love blue!!! A very large percentage of my clothes are blue, my couch, rugs, curtains, and you find blue in almost all my quilts :o) And lately I have been doing some more work on those blue and white half square triangle units from my last post. If you read the comments on that post, you see that Suzie guessed they were for an Ocean Waves quilt - and she was correct! (If you haven't already, go have a look at her beautiful Ocean Waves quilt and the other gorgeous quilts in her Flickr album!)

After staying up half the night stitching *lol*, this is how far I have gotten:

Hope to find time this weekend to work some more on this!

Wishing everyone a great weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Award and more mail

The very talented Suzie over at Littlebusybee have awarded me with this award for creative bloggers. I feel so honored and so special that she thought of me for this! Thank you so much, Suzie! There are so many wonderful bloggers out there I would love to pass the honor forward to, but this time it will go to a handful of some of the ladies whom I am fortunate to know/have met also outside of Blogland:

• My dear friend Rose at Threadbare. She is such a talented and creative designer and I have been so fortunate to follow her adventure of Threadbare Creations.
• The always enthusiastic, smiling and encouraging Hanne over at Hanne's Quilt Corner - she is so great at keeping us up to date on her projects, and she is so willing to share her projects; and not to forget she is still trying to tempt me to get in on her "block mania" -*lol*.
• May Britt at Abyquilt - she always a new project on the go, how she manage I don't know! - and she is so sharing in her creativity always willing to offer advice and she is so quick to respond.
• Nadine from Friendship Threads - this lady makes beautiful quilts, and she is so generous to leave encouraging comments.
• May Kristin at Krisp-Quilt is another very talented lady. Her colour choices are sometimes a little bit out of my comfort zone, but her results are always beautiful! And seeing what she creates urges me to be a bit more daring.

Thank you all for being a creative influence in my life!

***

Carey over at Blueberry Lane Designs and I have had a bit of a swap. I sent her a copy of the frog block Leanne Beasley designed for my Butterfly Garden, and yesterday I found this in the mail from Carey:

The fabric is absolutely wonderful, and the little rusty bells will be fun to use for (perhaps) something Christmasy! And the beautiful card is one of Chookyblue's. Thank you so much Carey!!!

***

Elin asked me what I have been working on lately... Well, it's not much unfortunately! I have had visitors over from London for a long weekend, and things have been a bit busy as it usually is in May. So all I can share on the quilty front for now, is this:

Hope you all have a great and creative week!
Sincerely, Anne Ida