Love Nest Quilt Contest

 

I'm entering the love nest quilt contest at Gen X Quilters.

I'm so very excited about this and I knew instantly I had to enter my Crazy Rainforest quilt. It's my biggest pride since it's very much my own when it comes to everything from it's happy, silly theme to bright and colorful fabrics and the, to my mind at least, imaginative backside. And not to say the least that it's my first real bed size quilt and my first try at applique =)

I'm supposed to tell you all the details so here goes, it will be long, sorry!

When I was at "quilt camp" in the forests of Sweden the summer of 2009 (I go every year, it's the BEST week of the year), Mia - the woman who hosts - it had gotten some amazing batik fabric and I was in love. I was standing there in front of that shelf every day, patting them, bringing them out, unrolling a meter or two, rolling it back up and so on. I felt I couldn't really justify buying some of them, they where so bright and didn't really go with anything we had at home but it went so far I even dreamed of them at night, I knew that I had to call my fiance and ask him. I called, so nervous I was nearly shaking (I'd already spent hundreds of euros on the trip in fabric costs and the camp itself), passionately explaining my love for the fabrics in question and he, being the awesome guy he is gave me permission to buy enough for a quilt! I first was determined to get a nicely color scaled quilt in blues and maybe purples but when I stood there I knew I just had to buy all my favorites, despite the fact that they clashed and didn't go together at all. So I picked and choose for 3 days, bringing out new colors/fabrics and keeping the bolts by me as I sewed on the quilt I was working on (you can see it in the background, my waterlilies quilt being basted):

I came home with this little pile of fabrics, Mia knew how in love I was with them and she packed them up so neatly for me that I loved it so much I didn't open it for 9 months, I just looked at it:

Then I finally got up the courage to cut it up when my fiance was away on a trip for 5 days and I got some peace and quiet to work on it. I knew I wanted to make the blocks that  many others had been sewing on during the camp and I got to work:

The technique was all new for me but the top came together really quickly and easily despite the triangles. 

When it came to layout I wanted something that at a first glance was random but when you really looked you knew it wasn't so I want with very other piece diagonally:

 

When looking at this photo with a friend is when I knew that I'd made a rainforest quilt, and I knew I'd have to incorporate a little appliqued poison dart frog somewhere (as you can see in my blog header) =) 

The quilt was made together with my beloved Norwegian Forest Cat boy Edward, and of course Diana too, but it means especially much for me that Edward was there and helped me bat at strips and "iron" blocks by lying on them as we lost him much to young to liver failure this fall. I always think of him when I see this quilt now as he loved it in it's finished version too.

But here the work halted for a few months as I had run out of fabric and I couldn't quilt on my machine so I had to wait for quilt camp 2010 to finish it. I made a little border out of the tiny scraps from the strips in the meantime. 

Once back at camp in Sweden one year later the leftover blocks became a contemporary backside, which I really love, it's like two quilts in one, one more serious side, and one silly frog side =) 

It's my favorite quilt I've made, it always makes me smile when I look at it. The quilting is made with a wavy seam on my mothers Husquarna and it's quilted with a rainbow thread.

Front:

 Back:

In it's place in the spare bedroom, really cheers it up (I know it's a single bed quilt but I think it kind of works ^^)

I'm sorry for the massive post, but it said to tell everything and this quilt holds so much love for me I had to include it all =)

I did it! =D

 

 
My postage stamp quilt top is finished in time for the deadline of the quilt along! I'm so happy with it, the design is not something I would have tried on my own I think and it was so much fun (and just a teeny tiny bit frustrating ^^) to put it together. The Bliss line is so beautiful even if not my normal color scale. Now I just have to get the backing fabric and I'm ready to quilt it.

My sincerest thanks to the amazing Rachel of http://www.psiquilt.com/ for putting this together for us! It's been so much fun to participate. <3

I think I can do it!

First and foremost, surgery went well, very little trouble in and out in much less time then I'd expected and I also got away much cheaper then planned, excellent! =)

So I've been piecing and piecing like a madman last night and today, I really want to finish the quilt along quilt top before the time is up. After I took a short leg stretcher I realizes that my little workspace was adorably square today with the little pieces of Bliss everywhere so I had to snap a picture. And as I haven't shown off  my sewing area in the new apartment either I figured now would be an as good time as any: It's a corner of the living room with windows all around basically so I get tons of natural light during the day (now if I could only start quilting during the day and make good use of that ^^).

I don't know if you can see it in the picture but the seam ripper is there and has really been my friend today, I'm not 100% on top of things with the pains from the surgery and everything but I'm having to much fun to stop! As you can tell from me posting this as 00:35 at night when I got up at 5:00 this morning to go to the hospital for the surgery =D

The Postage Stamp Quilt Along is hosted by the amazing Rachel of p.s i quilt, and the flickr group with all the amazing participants can be found here: The Postage Stamp Quilt Along - Flickr.

I had no idea how much fun it would be to participate in a quilt along, the encouragement from other quilters, getting inspiration form the others work and ideas, it's fantastic! If you ever get a chance to participate on one, I highly recommend it =)

Sew, sew like the wind!

So since I've had some bad timing and we not only have a houseguest but I've racked up 2 separate surgeries (first one was only under local but the one tomorrow I'll be in hospital all day and being put under, not exactly good for productive quilting!) this week I'm more then a little behind... I'm only last night cutting my stripsets and today I'm going to sew, sew like the wind and try to catch up with the rest of the fantastic quilters in the quilt along! =)

Designer Mystery Block of the Month

   

So Fat Quarter Shop has announced this years Designer Mystery Block Of The Month  and I so badly want to participate, previous years quilts have been amazing and I would love to take part! I have to work on Andreas a bit and see if I can convince him of how excellent this idea is despite it's quite hefty price tag =) 

I have a couple of months to do so before they start so please keep your fingers crossed for me. =D

Also my order from Quilt Direct had taken a detour and ended up in Germany, really sad, they got it back yesterday and say they will re-ship it on Monday. This however means I'll not get it in time to use my new rulers for the Quilt Along, I'll have to make do some other way... :(

Crazy Rainforest goes both ways ^^

So a dear friend is visiting us (hence not much happening in the sewing department right now) and I had to set up the spare bedroom. As I did so I really felt sorry that I couldn't use my Crazy Rainforest quilt on the spare bed anymore since it was a single bed quilt and this new bed was queen size. However, as it turned out, it goes both ways I think ^^

Ok so it looks a little off with the appliqued frog but the room became so warm and cozy with it on top of the bed that I didn't let it bother me too much =) I love this quilt so much, makes me feel so happy whenever I look at it.

Why do you keep erasers in your quilt supplies?

Is a question I got while we where unpacking our new place and a number of erasers fell out. Well apart from being handy when removing marks from fabric it has another great use:

When working with and cutting fuzzy fabrics like flannels and brushed cottons, my cutting mat quickly gets deep ridges in it with little threads of fabric. These are very annoying and quickly makes it hard to cut and they're very annoying to get rid of by hand. Then one of my handy erasers gets brought out and a quick rub over my cutting mat it does wonders, and even if it's if not as good as new, it's very much usable again =)

All strips finished!

All strips are now finished! Can barely wait for the next steps to be posted so I get to continue, luckily I have a secret project I'm working on so that keeps me busy for now =)

On another note, the little monster, now named "Darth Pjutin" living in our bathroom is so very cuddly, but still very scared and isn't really comfortable with use humans yet. He hisses every time I get close and whenever I'm about to pat him but as soon as I start cuddling he's like melting butter, he relaxes and falls a sleep purring or can barely contain himself and presses against my hand for more scratching and pats. I washed his face yesterday and got to snap a few close up pictures without him getting too upset with me, isn't he adorable! But you can see he doesn't really trust the camera that close to him ^^

The vet was here a few days ago and gave us worm pills, frontline and some prescriptions which I have yet to fill as I have no idea how to find the vet pharmacy in the Maltese village I'd never heard of... So I'm waiting for my friend to get healthy so she can take me XD
However, Pjutin wouldn't let the vet anywhere near him and went all crazy, hissing, spitting and fencing so the vet couldn't exactly do a proper examination, luckily my description from my own checks and the fact that he was hissing so big you could see what he had for breakfast, the vet could conclude that he was just malnourished, infested with fleas, ticks and everything else that crawls but no other kind of infections most likely. The wormpills where no trick to get into him by hiding it in his food and the frontline was applied under a snuggling session so now we wait and see =)

Unwrapping Bliss - is pure bliss!

So I finally managed to unwrap my pretty Bliss jelly roll and the feeling was fantastic, out spilled all these amazing fabrics!

I sorted them into color groups and paired them up into the strip sets described on Rachels blog. I have so far managed to finish 10 strip sets, only 6 to go! Sorry about the poor quality image below, it was really dark when I was finished. While the bliss colors are not my normal colors I think it will make a lovely "snuggle under me" quilt for the couch in our living room, which is brown and off white, see there is some brown in there ^^

My first quilt along!

So how lucky am I? I turns out that Rachel over at Ps. I Quilt (one of my favourite bloggers!) is hosting a quilt along and as it turns out, the fabric I bought a while back from Fat Quartershop for another project will be perfect for this quilt along. Hence I will be joining my very first quilt along, I'm so excited! =D

My fabric choice:

 

You can read more about the quiltalong here and here is the Flickr Group.

Look what an adorable little thing kept us up all night!

Two days ago our friends found a little kitten we'd been planning on rescuing since before Christmas but didn't manage, it was so weak and skinny and dirty then that we thought it had passed away but luckily that wasn't the case! Two days ago our friends called and said they'd found and caught it in the engine of their car! Could have ended very badly this story if they hadn't seen him run in there.

The kitten is going to another friend who moved to Malta recently and really needs some company as he works from home all day and is all alone in his flat

Anyhow, this is Pjutin (not 100% that will be the final name though), will call him a "he" even though I don't know the sex for sure yet though as I haven't wanted to scare the daylights out of him by handling him yet. He's roughly 14-15 weeks based on the look of his healthier litter mates, haven't checked his teeth yet either for the same reason. For a street cat who's lived outside all his life and was just brought in  he's very calm and does let me pat and stroke him a little and when we leave the room he cries for us poor baby. Though if we move to quickly or make too much noise he will hiss a little. He lives in the bathroom for now, until we've taken care of all his infestations from fleas and mange to worms. He'll move to his new permanent home once all his treatments are done and he's a bit more relaxed with people as his new owner hasn't had cats for a few years.

 

I've worked  at a cat sanctuary for many years in Sweden (and a dog sanctuary here in Malta) so I'm very used to taking care of these little unfortunates luckily. We'll see if we can get the vet to come home to us on Monday to give him a checkup and let us know what we should treat first and give us prescriptions and meds. Didn't want to start out with that and risk the little thing having a heart attack.

Order placed at QuiltDirect

We've started to settle in our new apartment, still have some stuff left in the old place but we and Diana have slept in the new place for 3 nights now and I'm starting to really like this apartment.

So since I'm starting to settle and soon have set up my sewing "room" again I've started to think about quilting and I found what appears to be a great UK online quilt accessories store with really low prizes (half Swedish prizes on rulers and stuff),  so I made an order there for mainly some inch rulers, two omnigrip ones, one 6x24" and one 12 1/2 square, some basting spray, starch and something I'm really excited about testing, a Micro Stitch Kit:

 

The reason I'm so excited is because on Malta everything rusts, so all my basting safety pins get rusty in between quilts so I always have to buy new ones, it gets very annoying. These plastic little tacks hopefully will do an excellent job with the basting for me. I'll let you know how it works out. =)

Moving - I hate it

So we're moving to a new apartment since our current one was sold. We knew it was up for sale when we rented it but we where still hoping this day wouldn't come quite so soon as we love this place. The new one is very nice but completely without views, something I will sorely miss...

Anyhow, so it might take a little while before I can set up my sewing area again sadly but it's got highest priority after the cat tree and the computers =)