Quilty News

Dear Readers,

Greetings from Switzerland on this gorgeously sunny, spring day! I hope you all are enjoying as nice weather as we are. It was so difficult to get me to come in off the balcony, so I could get back to my blogging and house work, but I am dying to share with you all my quilting news.

For the last two and a half weeks, I have been busy with a couple of new quilts: one for a quilt along, which I will mention in my next post; and the other which has turned out to be an experimental project.

After having spent ages trying to decide what my next quilt would be, and needing a bit of practice before I started on the Quilt Along, I decided I would just take that Tilda “Christmas Play” charm pack I got before Christmas and just start doing something easy with them, something I already knew how to make and was comfortable with: half-square triangles.

I love Tilda’s traditional but fresh designs, I’m not sure if this is well known in the US but in Europe it is pretty easy to find. If you are in the US or UK click this link to go directly to the charm pack :http://www.stitchcraftcreate.co.uk/sewing-and-quilting/tilda/tilda-fabrics/tilda-charmpack-christmas-play#.UyBptfldUy8

If you are in Switzerland you can purchase the fabric from The Quilt Place’s online shop http://www.the-quiltplace-shop.ch/produktleser/product/charm-pack-christmas-play.html.

 

The other fabric I am using for this quilt is “Prinzessin” (which is translated as Princess) from a German fabric company Westfallen Stoffe.

I love their fabric, but this print  is one of those I can imagine as one of my basics that I always reach for.  You can buy this fabric in Switzerland at The Quilt Place. Go directly to their online shop here http://www.the-quiltplace-shop.ch/produktleser/product/id-010507134.html there is also a UK retailer that sells this

If you remember,  I had sworn off the sewing machine just before Christmas, so after about two months of not touching my sewing machine, I decided it was high time that I ‘face my fears’ and get back to it.

Needing a bit of a refresher course on the sewing machine, I signed up for the Craftsy class “Pre-cut Piecing Made Simple” with Camille Roskelley. http://www.craftsy.com/quilting?_ct=wberqbdql-sqjuweho&_ctp=quilting. I already have one of her books and so I thought her clear and simple instructions would be perfect to get me back on track with my sewing. Aside from her amazing Swoon block quilt, I was attracted to this course because of the half-square triangle quilt, which encourages a bit of creativity by giving you different suggestions of ways you can arrange half-square triangles.

So after doing that lesson I got down to the business of making my half-square triangles. I first started with larger ones and then got bored and started making really tiny ones.

 

Once they were all together I finally got started with the fun part, arranging my half-square triangles. This I did on a sheet on the floor in front of the television as I don’t have a design board yet.

The problem was figuring out what to do with the big blocks which seemed to be huge in comparison to my tiny little ones.

I eventually decided that the blocks should probably be used on two separate different quilts, unless, I make a pillow out of the big ones or something. In any case I still haven’t firmly decided what I am going to do for the quilt but I certainly enjoyed playing around with a few ideas. Of course it was a bit painful doing this on the floor, but it really gives you the perspective that you can’t get, with it on the table.

Of course these were just ideas, I would in any case need a lot more half-square triangles to make a decent sized throw.

Aside from actually sewing, I have finally reclaimed my old office /sewing space on the 2^nd floor as my official sewing retreat. The room I set up in the basement after Christmas I have now deemed as our office, as it is just too dark to sew in at the moment.

Now, in my new sewing retreat, I have all the space I could dream of and lots of light. It’s so great!

 

I love spending time in there, especially in the mornings when it gets the best light. I now have a desk for cutting, one for my machine and one for piecing and there is still plenty of room for the ironing board to stay up all the time, if I choose.

So I guess that is all my quilty news for you. The only other thing would be a funny thing that happened one day when I was working at my machine.

I looked out the window and suddenly saw this bird, I thought it was a stork as we have those in the area, but upon closer observation I would say it is probably a type of heron. It looks like he had a nice brunch on one of my neighbor’s fancy goldfish or koi. Mind you I never actually saw him succeed at swallowing his catch!

 

Well I hope you enjoyed a bit of my quilting news and let me know what kinds of things you’ve been up to! I would love to hear from you.

Happy Quilting and Creating,

Jodie