Slow Sunday Stitching & TG #7

It's Sunday, and the perfect day for some light entertainment on the telly, a big mug of tea, and some hand stitching. While clearing out one of my cupboards yesterday I came across a bag of fabrics I had set aside for my Dear Jane, which I gave up on ages ago, and stitched the blocks I had made into another quilt.

In the cupboard were also some bags of templates for some English paper piecing. This is what I have gotten my fingers busy doing - mixing and matching with some pieces that were on my cutting mat: 

Also, Lisa Bongean posted block #7 of Triangle Gatherings yesterday. Having some HSTs ready it was quick and easy to piece together. Having heaps of fun with these little blocks.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to see what the other stitcher's are up to :-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

It is finally finished!

It's kind of hard to believe, but I have FINISHED this quilt that originally was two quilts. It has been a long journey getting it to where it is today.

I started piecing the Dear Jane on Sept. 23rd 2007. My goal was to make the full DJ quilt, and have it all pieced and appliqued by hand. For a while I was very eager stitching the blocks, but soon I found other projects more interesting. I did sew some blocks from time to time, but there really wasn't much progress. Most of the time it was stuck in a project bag. By the time I realized this was going to end up as a UFO I had stitched 63 blocks using 868 pieces.

When the LQS presented "Svennebrevet" as their BOM a couple of years ago I was absolutely certain I was never going to make it. The two main reasons was on the one hand that I wasn't very inspired by the first shop sample, and on the second hand that most of quilting Norway does their BOMs and I like to do my own things. But I had a hard time resisting, and when the patchwork school started in "Familien" and my Mum dumped the patterns for the first blocks in my lap it was a sign to start. I'm not going to go into all the hassle with cutting measurements and block size here (click the label below if interested), but with a few modifications I stitched 21 blocks that more or less resembles the blocks in the original quilt.

I did a lot of playing around with both sets of blocks, but I really loved the layout of the original Svennebrevet, and with a little advice from Rose after sending her pictures of layout suggestions, I ended up sewing alternating wide and narrow rows. During a fun sewing day with Yvonne I got the scrappy border sewn on, utilizing a lot of my leftover fabrics and the few spare blocks. The quilting would probably have been finished sooner if Bernie hadn't gotten ill, but I'm thrilled to have it done now :-D

So my long list of work-in-very-slow-progress has with this been reduced with two projects. And I have a goal of reducing the list even more in the weeks to come - a couple of the smaller projects will be top priority, Lucinda's Gift quilt-along will start on July 1st and end with a finished quilt, and then hopefully I can make some progress on the quilts I have ready basted and/or has started to quilt....

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Binding the "Svennebrevet/DJ" sampler

Woohoo! I finished quilting it on Sunday! And last night the binding was added. The plan for tonight is pulling out an audio book and get the binding hand stitched down to the back. Then hopefully the quilt will be ready for the washing machine tomorrow for that fresh and crinkly goodness. And another thing: I glue basted this quilt, and even though the glue is supposed to be odorless, I still feel there is a smell - hope it will wash out!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Results from sewing day

On Thursday I visited Yvonne for a day of sewing, chatting and lots of yummy food. We set up at either end of the dining table, cutting on the kitchen counter and ironing board at the end of the kitchen

Girls being creative might look a tad chaotic, but we achieved quite a lot during the day. Yvonne stitched and cut and planned more blocks for her version of Svennebrevet - I'll let her post those, so pop over to her blog for a look in a few days time :-) I too worked on my version of that quilt, you can just spot the top folded over the back of the chair in the foreground. Around mid-day we stopped for a yummy lunch - just look at this spread:

It was sooo incredibly tasty, and I kept on stuffing my mouth, and the energy got the creativity flowing.

The binding went onto my Sunkissed table topper, so that yesterday morning it could find it's way onto my kitchen table

Wondering what I did to my Svennebrevet? Scrappy borders - it took a bit of time, but far less than the piano keys I had originally planned, and I really like the look of how it turned out

Doesn't look much like the original quilt, does it? I did some thinking when I started planning the sashings.... I hadn't sewn a stitch on my Dear Jane since last summer, and honestly I have lost the inspiration to work on it. Looking at the 9" blocks got me thinking those blocks really would mix well with my DJ blocks. Just to make sure I wasn't completely off my rocker, I took a snap photo of the blocks laid out on the floor and e-mailed the pic to Rose to see what she had to say. The response I got was:

"U know its a shame to use your DJ blocks but I looooooooooove it!!!! They work perfectly with the 9" blocks and its very very clever (but do u wanna do those DJ blocks again??? lol) Then again, far better to be in a quilt than in a bag in the drawer."

Thanks sweetie for not thinking I'm nuts! *lol* I really wanted to keep the stripy feel of "Svennebrevet" so I decided to do the DJ blocks in rows alternating with the larger blocks. I thought perhaps to make the quilt a square, but that would mean 3" sashing strips, and I felt that was a bit too wide, so it is a few inches narrower than it is long. Now I "just" need to get it basted, quilted and bound!

Happy Easter!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Last three blocks and a chat with Trine Bakke

It got pretty late last night, I felt I was on a roll after the two previous blocks, and with only three blocks to go I put my foot on the pedal of my sewing machine:

Sorry the pic is so yellow - bad lamp light late at night. The rose block is lacking the smallest circle in the center, but I'm thinking of putting a cute little button there. As you can see I swapped the basket block block for a different one - this one having an appliqué handle rather than the little HSTs. The abstract geometrical appliqué ended up a bit larger than on the original quilt - that's what you get from drawing free hand ;o)

I also had an e-mail chat with the designer of the"Svennebrevet" quilt, Trine Bakke from Lappemakeriet, regarding the patterns. She had heard some of us had some frustrations, so she thought she'd clear up a few things (that's what I call customer service! Wow!). Knowing there are others out in blogland suffering from some of the same frustrations as me, this is a summary of what we talked about:

Why centimeters and not inch?

Judging by comments from beginners coming to the shop, inch is scary. Especially if the newbie is going to learn on their own, i.e. not living somewhere they can easily sign up for a class where they immediately are presented to inch measurements. The magazine class is first and foremost directed to the quilters who can’t attend an actual class, and Trine hopes those who don’t have personal support can be inspired and learn from the magazine pattern (I'm still not convinced it is good to teach centimeters to beginners knowing the bulk of patterns out there are in inch, but that is the reason for their decision).

Trine had drafted the blocks full size so those wishing to could measure for themselves and chose whether to use cm or inch, unfortunately the magazine opted against printing the blocks full figure. She says it is sometimes frustrating the editors making changes and cutting back on illustrations and explanations, but she is still confident beginner quilters will learn what they need to make the quilt from what the magazine has printed.

Block size and weird fractions

The original BOM from the shop had 9” blocks, the blocks in the magazine finish at 20 centimeters (just shy of 8"), so the patterns are not interchangeable. The blocks are constructed over grids of 2,4,5 and 7 units so no matter what there would be some weird fractions in some blocks, the change in size was to make the fractions less weird. So those who started out doing the first blocks in 9” size has to bare in mind that changing to centimeters for the more complex blocks will end up with two different sizes.

Why a whole centimeter seam allowance?

1 cm is marked on the needle plate on most sewing machines and easy to line up fabric to. I took another look at my Bernina – it has markings every 0.5 cm, but it also has 1/4” inch markings, so… And let me tell you, I'm not giving up my quarter inch presser foot for anything! I looove that little gadget!

At the end of our chat she suggested I could post my inch measurements on my blog so those who have trouble could check back here. Now, my notes are for the 9" finished size and they are a shambles! It would take a lot of time to type them up to make any kind of sense. However if someone reading this are having trouble, I'm happy to lend support and help with the math - chances are you are running into the same problems I did ;o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

A couple of more blocks

Still cheating and skipping ahead of the class. Both blocks are done by machine, none of them are perfect, but still I think they turned out ok.

I figure I do so much set in seams by machine, I split the center on-point square of the bow tie block and did quick corners. It means a little more bulk to quilt through, but I'm fine with that :o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Cheating in class

There has been some disclosure in the media lately about the percentage of students cheating - so at this point in time I'd thought I'd own up to my cheating in class at "lappeskolen". Yes, I'm cheating; skipping ahead and making changes! Why am I cheating? Because the patterns are completely useless!

As I mentioned in my first post on this project, the patterns give cutting measurements in centimeters. What on earth the editors were thinking, I don't know! The seam allowance is 1 cm - which is way wider than your usual 1/4" . i.e. you can't use your quarter inch foot on your sewing machine. And what quilter these days cut 9.1 or 10.3 cm squares? - not to mention they actually show them cut with scissors!

All quilting rulers I've seen at the quilt and craft shops have measurements in inches (I don't even know if you can buy rulers for rotary cutting that has cm); almost all patterns out in the big quilting world give measurements in inches; most of us (probably all of us) learn to quilt using inches. I feel bad for those unfortunate beginner quilters learning using this school program, they are going to have loads of trouble if they try any other pattern or sign up for a class that is not strictly for beginners.

So I have been using my calculator, pencil and paper. I have tweaked some of the blocks a bit to avoid some of the weirdest fractions, so my not all my blocks have the same proportions as those in the original quilt, but I think that just makes this quilt a bit more MINE ;-)

Laying out my blocks I see I should have payed a bit more attention to colour placement while making the blocks, so I think I'm going to scramble the setting a bit when I get to sewing the rows together. But before then I still have five blocks left to do:

• the Tie block that I just have to draw up one of these days - should be fairly quick.
• the leMoyne star - Rose has promised she will try to dig it up in EQ for me;
• the basket block - thinking maybe I'll do a different basket, not sure I like the one in the original quilt,
• the two appliqué blocks... still trying to decide whether I'll wait for the templates or if I'm going to either draft something from the pictures or if I'll swap them for something else.

Wishing everyone an enjoyable weekend!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Lappeskole - lesson 2

As mentioned in my previous post, the second lesson of the patchwork school is all about triangles. I cut the pieces for most of them on Saturday, and piecing them was quick - none of the blocks very complex - here are the first mixed with the blocks from lesson 1:

Looking at them I felt they looked a bit cold and a bit bland, so I decided to introduce a touch of gold to some blocks to hopefully give the quilt a bit more warmth and sparkle:

I think it adds a bit more interest, right?

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Small finish and "Lappeskole"

Yvonne (Butterfly) had a birthday a little while back, and I wanted to make her something sweet and at the same time useful. A notebook always come in handy, and I had loads of fun stitching up some HSTs, some lace and some cute pink fabric

(pic lifted from Butterfly's blog - mine didn't come out well)

***

Sooooooo..... we call this a project finished, right? And now I can start something new? A couple of years ago Lappemakeriet had a BOM called "Svennebrevet" and for several reasons I was dead set on not doing it:

• I enjoy to pick and chose my own fabrics to make the quilt "mine",
• their BOMs tend to be popular so half the quilters in the country does them, and I have a problem with "doing what everyone else is doing",
• I couldn't afford the BOM packages - even knowing they give you good value for your money the quilt ends up quite expencive.
• I really wasn't inspired by the first shop model - when I first saw it I thought "oh, well.... nah!"

BUT... seeing more versions of the quilt stitched up, both at the shop and in blogland, it has definitely warmed on me... and now my fingers are itching to do my version. They are doing it as a patchwork/quilting school in a magazine these days, and my Mum subscribes, so I have the patterns easily at hand - she saved me the first two parts already.

Lesson 1 is all about squares and are simple beginners blocks.

Two challenges faced me doing the blocks - they are 9" finished which is a size I don't stitch very often - so my eyes don't spot mistakes unless I check with the ruler. And the patterns are done in centimeters, so I do have to put my math skills to work and convert them into inches. Next lesson is about triangles - stay tuned for more blocks :o)

Enjoy the weekend!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida