Flurry on the way!

I've finished all the blocks for my Flurry with Flurry quilt and here's what I've got.

I've such a major crush on this quilt before it's even done and an even bigger one on this fabric line!

I also had to share with you my silly Diana who had "taken down" my Summer Squares quilt from the edge of the couch cuddled up so cutely for a grooming and napping session which I interrupted with my picture taking, hence the accusatory stare =)

On my "design wall" - Test block for Flurry

Last night I made a test block with my cut up Flurry pieces and decided that this was a quilt I had to do and  have done before December, seriously - look how cute the block is! 

So I ordered some backing (and some bleach white Bella solid as I was nearly completely out of white, something that always make me feel a little stressed out) from a place I haven't tried before: 

JB Quilting Fabrics

They where super quick and got back to me at 23 at night on a Sunday as they had a little less of the fabric then I'd ordered so they wanted to know what I wanted to do. Seems like an excellent store and the service so far is amazing, I keep my fingers crossed everything will go as smoothly and that I'll have a new place in the EU to shop for Moda fabrics, yay! =)

Anyhow, I decided to go with Snowfall in Snowdrift for the backing: 

It's a Fancy Folded Star! =)

Got an email today fromElaine over at Dashasel Sews who's made her own, absolutely gorgeous version of the Fancy Folded Star! I think it's made with Joel Dewberry's beautiful Aviary 2. Thank you so very much for sharing this beauty with me Elaine! =)

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I've also finally decided on the fabrics for my Thinking Of You pillow, and this is the final layout, it's all ironed down. Now all I need to do is brush up my FMQ skills a little and get down to business when I have some spare time =) I can't wait, feels like I haven't quilted anything ages.

Thinking of you...

I really do dearest readers and I feel bad when nothing has been happening on the blog for so long. However, it's hopefully only going to get better from here as our beta testing of OviPets is going great. =)

I'm really happy to have shared the Fancy Folded Star tutorial with you all to show you I'm not completely out of the loop and I'm absolutely blown away by the fantastic response it's received on Moda Bakeshop! Thank you all for your heartwarming comments, I couldn't be happier and I just hope that you all dare to try making this super fun project!

While on the topic of "Thinking Of You", I've also started working on one of the beautiful patterns I won from Kellie a while back named the very same thing, it's moving slowly but at least it's moving =)

A little fabric therapy

Today I felt I just had to touch some fabrics - for no other reason then for my own sanity.

So I dumped my scrap bin on the freshly steamed carpet and dug out every, single, little scrap I had left from my Sunkissed jelly roll. Which was surprisingly much! If you've read my blog before, you already know how many projects I've made with the leftovers from my Sunkissed Summer Squares quilt. But I figured I could always squeeze out some more from the little roll and I've decided to do one (or two if I can push it that far) of the pillows from my new "From the heart" pattern for our couch.

Other then that, all I do is work, eat when I remember and sleep when there's time. Yep, I'm super boring right now, to you dear readers, to my friends and to my poor neglected kitty. I'm very sorry.

I won!! (but Don't Look Now ^^)

One of my biggest sources of inspiration has been away from blogging for  months to my great sadness, however, she just came back with a bang! Kellie over at Don't Look Now is finally back and blogging, and can you believe my chock and happy surprise when it turns out I had won a giveaway over there! Three patterns called "From The Heart" in which the pillow below is included! How lucky is it that I just bought 4 pillow inserts and is planning to make new pillows for the couch!

She's the reason me and Tova made sock the monkey and kitty, she's my inspiration in so many ways from everything from my love of appliques to color love.

This is one of my favorite quilts/patterns of hers (but to be honest, pretty much everything she makes is a new favorite  so yes, this is her most recent quilt ^^), it's called Animal Alphabet and one day I have vowed to make one.

And while she makes so many cute, adorable, dainty patterns, she also makes the coolest "boy" quilts, just look at this "Little Monsters" quilt, isn't it the coolest?

You have to hop over to her blog and take a look, I promise you won't regret it! =) All the photos above belong to her and are graciously borrowed from there with Kellies permission, thank you! <3

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On another note, I've also been making bows! I found a lovely website called The Ribbon Retreat dedicated entirely to ribbons and bows and I was so inspired I just had to try my hand at this craft! The result was one big bow for me using up one of my pretty heart shaped buttons from the last post. I'm also working on a lot of stuff I can't reveal yet so for now, we'll have to settle for bows ^^

And the tiny baby bow is one with velcro closure for baby Alessandra. I think I'll have to make a black one too to match the adorable little shoes/socks I bought for her in Sweden...

Chameleon top finished

My chameleon quilt top is finished! I'm quite happy with the borders, made the whole thing a bit more fun I think. I'm about to order backing for it from the UK, I'm thinking about trying shopping from Doughtys Online this time. While I've been sewing, Diana and Andreas have been playing Witcher 2, a really awesome game.

A few days ago this little package arrived from my mother, it contained some lovely buttons, zippers and other notions I'd ordered when I was in Sweden last time. And she (being the best mum in the world) also included a pack of these amazing microfibre cloths I tried when I visited her last time. Each color is good for a special job but the best one is great for cleaning screens with, amazing!
Those zippers are each 24" long, good quality and each cost €1, how cool is that BTW? You've got to love Stoff & Stil!

*realizes she's just blogged about cleaning supplies* I'm seriously sorry for that disruption from our regular programming, we'll be back to sewing and similar more creative talk in the next post I promise  ^^

Chameleon walking by....

Chameleons are some of my favourite animals! I just love them - and let's face it - what's not to love? Their adorable little feet? Their long tongues? Their cool eyes? The ability to change color?  Nope, all pure love =D

So when I saw Annas beautiful lizard quilt I immediately thought CHAMELEONS! And that's what I've been up to lately with my Bali Pop - Grasshopper, but since I couldn't find any suitable artwork of chameleons that looks like the ones we have here in Malta - I had to draw my own which presented some difficulty but I think that the final result is absolutely satisfying. =)

Here's me and a chameleon we found outside Maltas old capital city Mdina a couple of years ago so you'll see what I mean, most artwork are of the more fancy looking, rainforest type chameleons. I don't have any recent chameleon pictures, they're sadly getting rarer and rarer here :(

So proud of my mother and our friends!

My mum (to the left in the photo) and 3 of our friends, Annika (on the right), Anki and Maggan are currently hosting a quilt show in Borlänge, the city I'm originally from in Sweden. And I couldn't be happier or more proud for them, it's so cool! <3

The local papers have both been there and here are some of the pictures from the papers and a link to the stories, (though it's in Swedish). Borlänge Tidning and Dala Demokraten.

A new baggie =)

I made me another storage baggie at the quilt retreat, because you can't have to many right?

Partly to try out a somewhat different technique at making them but mostly to have a reason to buy the fabric I made it from. It has the most adorable collection of cat books and cats on a bookshelf! I just love it, I think I'm actually going to make a framed picture of a piece of it it's so cute!

Mum also made an super cute tiny little baggie, and Anki (who never can make just one of anything ^^) made a whole army of adorable ones.

Quilt retreat picture time!

I just had to share some photos with you from the quilt retreat. Because, we'll a picture says more then a thousand words so then a bunch of pictures much be as good as your average novel right? ^^

Anki and mum hard at work, Anki is the fantastic person who let me borrow one of her sewing machines for the retreat, can't thank you enough Anki! <3 I sit just opposite mum on the same table.

I tried my hand at Meshwork, it was quite fun =)

This is what can happen when you don't pay attention... We had lot's of laughs over mistakes like this one, most of them could be blamed on "drinking and quilting", but not this one though if I remember correctly ^^

Fabrics, lot's of fabrics!

Half of the big room where we sit and sew. Me and mum always sit on the side you don't see here though.

Our time to cook dinner and we where enjoying a well deserved glass of wine and good food in the kitchen after having cooked for a few hours. It's more difficult then one would think to make a recipe work for 30 people...

My maternal grandparents came to visit one evening which made me so happy as I miss them a lot and I very rarely get to see them. <3 It's quite late in the photo though and we're all very tired.

Some of me and mums early work, one bag each (in my case not so much a bag as a "prototype" of a bag ;) ), I love mums bag with the wood fabric, so cool! And do you see the adorable Miranda bear hugging a heart? The lovely Anki had made that for me and it was waiting for me on the sewing machine I got to borrow when I arrived! I nearly cried it was so sweet of her! <3

Annika, our lovely entertainer/singer extraordinaire! The reason for our toned stomach muscles after each quilt retreat - thanks to so many hearty laughs. She'd made such an adorable owl backpack for her beautiful granddaughter Myran -amongst other things =)

Ankis beautiful Tonga Treats quilt top. This pattern was really all the rage this retreat, sooo many other, equally beautiful versions where made that I sadly didn't photograph.

Yes, I was somewhat, let's use the word "frustrated" with the bag at this point...

Being here is complete relaxation <3

Thank you all fantastic ladies for yet another fantastic week of "symester"! 

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, they where all taken with my compact camera.  =)

I have such excellent company and help with my night time sewing

I just felt I had to show you what excellent company I have just this second as I've started playing with my Hoffman Bali Pop Grasshopper. It's a lovely combination of colors (the dark green don't stand out like that IRL, it's the night time photo that's to blame) and Diana obviously thought so too as she immediately settled on my finished strips as I'd laid them out =)

Earlier she's been "holding" the lower end of my measuring tape for me as I've measured my strips ^^ Such a helpful little lady my Diana.

This quilt is going to become my own version of a quilt I've seen both online (where I can't remember for the life of me right now) and then later on the quilting retreat. This one is made by the talented Anna at the retreat:

However, as the technique makes me think of chameleons rather then regular lizards, I think I'm going to make a play on that for my version ^^

Ruby Dreams

Right now I'm all snowed in on Ruby, my dreams about this fabric collection is border lining erotic to be honest, I have something very close to a schoolyard crush on it. You know the kind, every waken hour of your day it pops into your mind, and suddenly at the squash court your realize you just barely evaded being hit by the ball - because you where dreaming up quilts of it!

Why oh why can't it be available now?!

Ruby is the new fabric line from the ever so talented Bonnie and Camille. This line is just so pretty, all soft colors but still so cheery. I just can't stop looking at it. The pretty red would make it perfect for my bedroom and the other colors combined with that soft, perfect gray.... It's love, can you tell? ^^
Everyone should take a look at Camille's blog for some serious inspiration, she's a fantastic designer, takes beautiful photos and seems like a fantastic person, I always get a smile on my face reading her blog. 

I bought the Swoon pattern as a PDF today (first time doing that, messed up and bought it from the company paypal, fiance - not happy with me) and it was the BEST thing! I can really recommend it! SO much fun to be able to get my hands on the pattern pretty much right away and not have to pay customs on arrival and wait for weeks for it to arrive from the US. I don't think I've ever before have wanted to purchase a pattern and fabric to make an exact replica of a quilt before, but in the case of the fantastic Swoon pattern combined with the beautiful Ruby fabric I'm seriously, seriously considering it, I mean, just LOOK at it! It's just to stunning for words!

Here you can see it in almost full glory at quilt market (one day I will go to the US and attend this event) with it's equally pretty designer Camille, with who's kind permission I'm borrowing these fantastic photos from her blog, thank you!=)

Tutorial - Sunkissed Summer Squares Table Topper

I've been playing with the scraps from my Sunkissed project and I've been having so much fun! The result amongst other things is this adorable little table topper which I thought I'd create a quick tutorial for as it's a great way to use up a few jelly roll scraps.

Sunkissed Summer Squares - Table Topper

Materials
18 jelly roll scraps (or 2,5" strips)
2 2,5"x white width of fabric strips for borders
2 2,5"x width of fabric strips for binding (or leftover jellyroll pieces)

Step 1 - Cutting
Sort your jelly roll scraps, you'll preferably use 18 different ones - the longer pieces will be the borders, the shorter ones will be centers. Cut nine 2,5" squares for center pieces. From your longer scraps cut one 2,5" squares and one  4" strip from each.

Split the border pieces down the middle so you get two 1,25" wide pieces from each.

Step 2 - Assembling your blocks
Attach the short border pieces to the sides of the square and then add the longer 4" borders.

Make 9 blocks.

Step 3 - Assemble your top
Choose a pleasing layout for your blocks and sew them together.

Step 4 - Add borders
Add 10,5" of the white borders to the sides and then add 14,5" inches to the other sides.

Step 5 - Add applique and quilt
Add your applique using your preferred method, I used raw edge applique and Steam a Seam fusible web which I think is a great product, really easy to use. The flower applique I used will be available for download in a few days should you wish to use it. =)

 

I attached the applique with the batting and backing in place hence quilting it at the same time.
Quilt as desired. I quilted it with a loop the loop pattern with some flowers mixed in.

Attach binding and you're done. One super summery, really quick to make 14½" x14½" table topper!

If you decide to make your own table topper based on this tutorial, or any pattern of mine - I'd love if you add it to my flickr group and thereby share it with me and the world so we all can enjoy it and be inspired by it: Not Only Quilts - Share Your Creations