Pets on Quilts Show!

This is such a fun show hosted by Sew Cal Gal and I just had to take part seeing as I constantly have a "cat on my quilt" situation which prevents me from continuing my work until her highness has moved her pretty tushie. =)

There's still a day left to enter, hurry over there now if you have the same situation at home that I do! =)

For some reason, when you get a new catnip toy, you have to drag it up on a quilt so that all the drool ends up a quilt and not some easy to clean surface - like the floor =) So this little series of pictures clearly shows that quilts aren't just for sleeping, they're for playing too!

Just so you understand my drool comment ^^

And on the playing with quilts theme, here we're playing "hide the mouse" in my Summer Squares quilt, hence her silly facial expression: "Where is it!? Can't find it mom!"

Here's Diana on my Companion Cube Quilt, the fact that I was trying to quilt it was nothing she considered very important when she had feet's to wash and naps to take ^^

My blog header has to be mentioned here of course being a cat on quilt picture that I just love, it pictures Edward, the love of my life who passed away much to soon in November last year on my Crazy Rainforest Quilt.  I still dream of him almost every night and I will never forget him. I know this isn't exactly the happy spirit post one would expect from a contest post but I just can't have a cats on quilts post without mentioning Edward, so one more picture of him and then I'll wrap up ok?

This photo is of Edward and his very own convergence quilt, I made it for him when he was sick the first time and he loved it. This was his "hospital bed" with his pet dragon and very own much to small for him tent he got in a show. This time he recovered miraculously after months of illness and around the clock care.

Diana has since then inherited it and loves it as much as Edward did =)

I have a ton of more pictures of cats on quilts but I feel I have to wrap it up somewhere and I thought this would be good time because otherwise I'll continue forever =)

So to sum up: I love cats and I love quilts, the combination of the two being the most awesome combination in the world!

If you like my submission, I'd be really happy if you'd vote for me when the voting starts <3

Time to vote and WISP- Work In Slow Progress =)

It's time to vote in Gen X Quilters Valentines Contest and there are so many AMAZING entries! I entered my Crazy Rainforest Quilt, contest blog entry can be found here. I'm number 7 in case anyone would want to vote for me, you vote in the poll in the right hand margin ^^

However, there are so many beautiful quilts in this contest so make sure you check them all before casting your vote, I can tell you it's no easy task the judges are in for in this case.


So while I was on my tutorial seeking spree  the other day I finally found the tutorial for the adorable hexagon sewing caddies I've been seeing here and there around blogland for a while, it's a creation by Penny's hands. That is my WISP, despite my hate for sewing by hand I knew I had to try and make one because I wanted it so badly! First, it took me about 30 minutes to empty any and all cardboard boxes I had in my home, since I don't eat pasta/cereal etc. it was a difficult task and I thought I wouldn't be able to make it but having to go to a friend to borrow some I realized that the box coffee filters came in could be used to make the final hexagons. And it's been so slow sewing every seam by hand! I have nothing but pure admiration for the somewhat insane incredibly patient people who make entire quilts this way. =)

I also have to show you just how lucky we are to live where we do, this is some pictures we took of beautiful Spinola Bay on our walk home from some dear friends yesterday.

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 =)