Saturday, February 26, 2011

6 degrees of separation


I hope you all know the theory because it's just awsome. As in awwwwsome.

Now let me aply this to quilting for you.

I'm a little nobody. New to quilting, new to flickr, newer to quilting blogging, english so not my first language. Buuut, guess what. I 'know' some people. And I'm very few steps away from having the world at my feets. Mu-ha-ha! :))))


So here's how the quilting's 6 degrees of separation works.

I was featured on romanian's Glamour edition this month. Not related with quilting and, don't hold you breath, not my looks either :)))). Still, it's a start. Oh, wait, was I talking about quilting? Oh, sorry, just wanted to brag :))))



Ok, seriously now. See the new banner on the right? --> The one with I was featured on Modern Day Quilts? Oh, forget it, I'll just put it here too. That's step one.

Modern Day Quilts


If you just left visiting the Modern Day Quilts blog (I kind of waited a little here, you know... ), you saw that it was just featured in Elle Decor’s Design Insiders’ Weekly Finds. Excuse me? The post after my quilt? I might and might not fainted a little. Just a little. Or maybe more. You'll never know. Mu-ha-ha again :))

Ok, this was step two.

I do have a step 3 in mind. He's just cruising right now but, hey, he's there. And then I'll be half way. Don't aks half way to what 'cause I have no ideea. Plus, I had no time at all to sew these days. But the future is so bright, isn't it ? :)))


P.S. I found a very easy way to resist the laminated Echino. Checked my account. A classic :)))

Friday, February 25, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

How I made lots of tiny tiny squares

My inch side of Olfa might have passed away this week. Just when I was actually enjoying all the inch stuff. So, back to cm.

I think this might be my first striped piecing. And I love it!

Timbre_wip

I cut 5cm strips from my newly arrived white Kona. Man, I how I waited for it :) So, I cut these strips from Kona and also from some prints I looove. The prints I love have all different dimensions, so I had stips as big as 44", but also FQ strips and other tiny strips. I ended up with different leght strips, and I cut them all 5 cm multiple.

IMG_8393

Ironed eveything very very well. Steamed too. I don't have a 1/4" foot, so I really needed the steam. Not badly, I just wanted to be sure everything is ok in the end.

IMG_8395

Having different lenght strips gave me inequal no of the same type of strip. And this made me very happy :D. I wanted the squares to be as random as possible, and the fact that there wasn't the same number of blues, reds, purples... helped a lot.

I than made random blocks. 4 rows, 5 rows,10 rows.

IMG_8396


At some point I realised that although I wasn't looking for a big quilt, I still didn't have enough squares. The good thing about those random blocks was that I could now mix them better. Not have half a quilt more bluish than the other.

And I mixed. And than I stared at the window for half an hour:D
Timbre_wip

Basting went fast, one pin at every 10 squares, adjusting as I quilted were necessary.

timbre_wip2

The flannel back looks great with the squares, although it is a strange optical illusion because of the circles and many lines seem to be bended.

timbre_dos

The binding made with Rita's tutorial but no pins went smooth too, I just hand sewn the corners before machine stiching the whole thing.

Thee you have it! 1 3/8 " 480 squares. I love each one of them and all together :D

Timbre_03

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Why was I so afraid of linen?

Ok, I was afraid of cutting my Echino, and I think that's obvious. 17$/yard? Brrr.... I doubt there's anybody who can't understand this :))) And I was afraid the linen will strech a lot and I won't be able to quilt it with straight lines.

After a discussion on the Flickr modern quilts group, I was ready to start.

echino quilt 06

The quilting went extremly smooth. Really, I couldn't belive it. I pinned very lightly, about 30 pins on the entire quilt. I figured it will strech a lot and I'll just leave it strech and see how it goes, adjust on the way. It was perfect!

The only tiny little poblem was that my last puple strip was smaller. About 1 cm on one side and almost 2 on the other one. And I noticed this after I quilted and cut the edges. Well, just a perfect place to put a tag.


echino quilt 03

Really, can you tell this was not on purpse? I love it! (ok, learn romanian lesson 2 - poarta-ma means wear me)

Another thing I love about this quilt is that I really wanted to use all the scraps. And even if I didn't have enough to make a rectangle (they all have the same dimensions) I still did it, with a little solid linen. And I think it looks great, completes the echino prints very well.


echino quilt 04


The blocks I made here are, for now, my favorites. I think I was really inspired by Melody Miller's Ruby Star Rising. I just didn't have the funds for her fabrics now (one Kokka per half year is enough for me :( ) but when I look at this quilt I think about her.


echino block 02


I had a lot of troubles choosing the back and the binding, but I think they complete they 60's look pretty good. And I'm always a sucker for the straight line quilting on the back.



echino quilt 07

It has about 100 x 160 cm, and I loooooove it. If only it wasn't a comisioned quilt and I wouldn't have payed the Echino :))))...


Echino quilt 01

P.S. Obviously, my batting is here. Finally!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Zen

After almost 2 weeks of not touching my sewing machine it was kind of hard to keep my zen :D. With a 3 weeks delay for the first package (3 weeks delay, plus shipping time, plus customs) and still no batting I was having real diffculties in seeing any pink around me.

I had to stop this :D. So I cut into my almost favoite Kona ( the white is my all time favorite but, guess what, it's not here yet :(( ), some It's a Hoot and some Amy Butler and decided to give it a try.

Of course I hated it at first, I was nervous and upset but, hey, tommorow the packages will be here :) and now it looks pretty good to me :))).



Momo-Amy-01

So how did I do it with no batting? Fleece. I love love love it!. It's so thin and so soft! I used fleece before but didn't realise how easy it is to work with until I got used to the batting. Except from beeing poliester (just in case you only use cotton batting), it's as good as any other poli batting and much much softer than anything else. And so light... why did I wait so much for the batting?


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Learn romanian - lesson 1

The F word is also a F word. Small world, huh?

And just in case you didn't know, in italian is also a F word.


F1: I have a feeling the batting will stay in the customs more than it traveled from US to Europe

F2: I don't have any Olfa blades. Come again? Order, wait...I can only hope they'll arrive the same day as the batting. Otherwise I will be F-ing again, for the batting or the blades, depending who arives first.

F3: I started a quilt I just don't like. Started as in cut everything, pieced half, hate it, have no ideea what to do with it.


Now, do you really wanna see a big F day? Probably not, but hey, I'm gonna show you anyway :D
What do you see when you look at this pic?

IMG_82602

Anybody? Come ooon... Something that looks like the top of an iron? Placed directly on the hand while ironing a binding? After a month of healing? Yeap. That's me.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Still no batting

Nor Kona. But they are all in the custooooms!

Everything is waiting for them.

Atelier_003

Yes, I really cleaned everything :))

Atelier_001

Ok, I might have and I might have not arranged the pins.

Atelier_009

or the threads

Atelier_006

Still, it's clean, and waiting for the lady from the customs.

Wanna wait with me? :D

Sunday, February 6, 2011

My first linen - WIP

My batting is still not here, nor the white kona, and we all caught a nasty virus and sew nothing this week. So I was thinking to tell you a little story about how I make a quilt. And that's how 90% of my quilts are done. I have no ideea what dimension it's going to have when I start and I rarely have an ideea about how the quilt is going to look in the end. Most of the times I just play :)



No, I don't have a design wall. And truth be told, I don't even have a stash :D That's all my designer fabric stash :D



Anyway, last week I decided to cut my Echino scraps. I use Echino for MeiTais (if you're new to babywearing or know nothing about, you must check thebabywearer. Or go visit my romanian site and understand nothing :)) ) and I had very few scraps that I kept safely for a quilt :).


I started with this quilt in my mind. It was another immage but I seem to foget to bookmark a lot these days :D.

First of all I must say that in a very mysterious way I decided I need 13" blocks. Really, I have no.ideea.at.all how did I get to that 13.

Anyway, I than decided I don't want to chop my scraps too much, like I needed for that kind of pattern, so I decided to make 6,5" squares. Ha! 6,5" suck. Really :) They looked horrible. And 4 squares block?
Not really.

Ok, maybe 2 squares in solid and 2 in print?
Neah

Maybe 4 squares block on the middle and than 2 squares block on the sides?
Maybe
Neah, not now



Later on I realised I must use that linen so I decided to cut the squares in two rectangles (3,25" yes?) and make a quilt in the same pattern and style as Rita's chaos quilt.

Layed everything down and ... hmmm ... let's just say ...
no.

Finnaly, the block. The good one. Did you folow? I said 3 1/4" x 6 1/2" rectangles. What dimension is this? Anybody?



Ok, so the block. I then remebered I cried a little last week when my natural Kona arrived. And I so hated it. Not white, not gray, but a natural that doesn't fit any fabric in my stash. Until now. Mu-ha-ha :)))

The blocks sashed in natural looked unexpectedly (:P) good.


Than some border with the rest of 3 1/4" x 6 1/2" rectangles. (I like to write it down, it looks so complicated :D).

See that last strip? It was supposed to be the last...Not after this...

Anyway, I am thinking about adding more horizontal stripes. I think I will have a lot of time to think about this until my batting arives :))) And than I'll show you the quilt. Of course, after I take a deep breath and do some straight line quilting on linen...

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Flawless, I say


I'm out of batting :D so I'm kind of slow on quilting. I do have a linen top ready but no decent pictures, so it will have to wait a little.

However, I must show you this. Ok, not the best pic, but can I brag just a little? Of course I can :D


This is the back of my charm pack bliss quilt. And it's not even ironed. I am sooo proud of it :).