Oma's Blues, Kekfesto cotton and other blues = new large project

I love blue and white quilts, but I had never found a design I really wanted to make. Until now.

Oma's Blues is a new free BOM, which Ester Aliu released on her blog this month. 

If you click on the link above, you will see what I mean.

It is incredibly generous of her to share her design with us free, and typically of Esther, it is so beautiful.
The minute I saw it on her blog, I knew I want to make this quilt, although mine will be somewhat smaller, because I want to display it on our dining room wall and the original size would be too large. 

I must admit that I am rather excited about it.

It is based on Delftware, but of course there is so much other blue and white china around.

Most of my pieces are decorated in "Onion" pattern and come from Central Europe.
Esther releases her BOM patterns via her free Yahoo BOM group .

I started pulling blue fabrics from my stash, but that is never quite enough, is it?

Last week I happened to be down in Dorset, so trip to Hansons Fabrics in Sturminster Newton was a must, specially with the January sale on. You  just never walk out of there empty handed.

A visit to "The Hive" on the high street, here in Shepton Mallet, produced another addition to my blue collection.
The shop has recently moved from much smaller premises up the road; they now have so much more room to display not only their fabrics, knitting and crochet yarns, but also anything else you might need in the haberdashery department.
Do pop in if you are this way.
The new shop now has it's own cafe, with cakes and snacks, so there is no need to rush away.
Take a tour of their new website (link above), which also includes a list of their new workshops.










And being a rather grey Sunday, what better place to visit then Midsomer Quilting, where I could park DH in a comfy chair, with a cup of coffee, while I indulge.








But there is another kind of fabric I want to share with you.
Central Europe has a long tradition of production of printed fabrics on indigo background, following the arrival of indigo from the East.
The production was widespread throughout small towns and villages, and the fabric was used mainly for clothing. In my country of origin, "modrotisk" (blueprint) was produced mainly in the area of Southern Moravia (part of what is now Czech republic), but just across the border, in Hungary, is also a rich tradition of printing on blue fabric.
After the second world war, during the communist era, these cottage industries declined, and the only place you could buy modrotisk was in shops aimed at tourists. I myself have bought several large pieces and I hope to make a quilt from them one day. I would not dare to use them in this project as my fabrics are not colourfast.
Czech modrotisk is hard to get in UK, BUT there is a lady who brings into UK "Kekfesto cotton fabric" from Hungary.


Gilly,  up in Scotland, is promoting this wonderful craft and a click on her name will take you to her
website, which has a large selection of designs to buy.
You can also read more about the history and watch a video from Huston, showing quilts made from Kekfesto fabric by Hungarian quilters.
Do pop over, I dare you to resist!

Well done, Gilly!

My order arrived by return. It wasn't easy to choose, so many pretty designs. And Gilly tells me that they are colourfast.

I think I have enough blue fabric to choose from!

The last thing I want share with you today, is this book about Indigo.
I have found the story of indigo fascinating, and if you are interested in the history of textiles, you will too.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

then there was another

I am referring to a new quilt just completed by Kaaren from The Painted Quilt blog, a beautiful Christmas redwork quilt. Please go and have a look, just click on the name of her blog above.

By a coincidence the latest issue of Quiltmania  magazine arrived today, which I have been eagerly waiting for, to find out how to assemble all the Yoko Saito's Mystery Quilt blocks. I'll get to that in a minute, but there is also an article about Sharon Duffy's home, under the heading Quilts & Enchanting Homes.

And there is another wonderful Christmas redwork quilt hanging up.

And here is my dilemma. This happens every time. Just when I begin to think that I should have a break from quilts and go back to "serious" embroidery, of knitting, of crochet or...., I see a beautiful quilt and the fever starts again. And of course there is another reason - I have not made a redwork quilt, yet.

I can feel a project for next year's Christmas coming on....

But back to my current one. As I have said, I now have the instructions for the assembly of the Mystery quilt, but not only that, also the instructions for block number 6! I didn't know about block 6 (or I did not read something properly?). I my mind I was going to finish the quilt by this Christmas, which now I know will not happen. Block 5 is still very much "work in progress".

So, it is going to take a little longer. Never mind, it will be worth it. I really like the way Yoko finished her quilt, it is original and different, and it doesn't matter that no 2 blocks are the same size. Those of you, who read Quiltmania, know what I am talking about.

I can see myself spending a lot of time stitching after Christmas (you know, that quiet few days between the  Christmas rush ending and the new year starting), when at last you can relax and get some time to yourself. And I also know now what fabric to look for for the background.

There is just another small project in the making right now. The first frost reminded me how my hands feel when it gets really cold. Of course I have a selection of gloves in my draw, but usually I end up not wearing them, because I can't hold things well wearing gloves. Finger-less is the answer, and at last this year I will have a pair! I am using beautifuly soft and warm mix of alpaca and silk from Devon, from Ruth and Belinda, bough last year at one of the shows.

life's a journey

It was probably the wording on the pattern's stitchery which got my attention first of all,

"Life's a journey - take time to smell the flowers along the way!"

I think this so true. May be you need to be of a "certain age" to appreciate the importance and the meaning of those words. Anyway, I thought I would like to make this wall hanging for my DD's 40th birthday, which was yesterday. So this is my "secret project". I got the pattern in May, and with the holiday coming up, I had to get my skates on and get the stitchery ready to take with me to stitch on holiday. I chose brighter colours for my wall hanging.

And here it is, a present finished just in time.

For anyone interested in the pattern, it is by "House On The Hill" design company, for the link click here.

Summer quilt

It all started with a giveaway on Cyndi's blog about a year ago. I was lucky to win 4 packs of fabric, 2.5 x 2.5in from the "Lovely" range by Moda, 42 squares in each pack. What to do with them? Can I get any more of this lovely fabric?
Eventually I found on line Pelenna Patchworks, who at the time stocked the full range, and later in a shop I came across "Rose Parade" by Moda, which compliments "Lovely" very well.

 After some searching I found a picture of a quilt in a magazine and based my quilt on this, with some changes. I used the small squares for the centres of the stars. The quilt has taken a long time to make, partly due to a fact that I decided to hand quilt it. I am glad I did, I am pleased with the result. I enjoy hand quilting. It is not perfect, but it is not a quilt for a show, it will live with me and it is unlikely it will ever be inspected by a "stitch police".

I wanted to display my new quilt in our garden, but the weather is not on my side.

But I think it looks just as good inside.

Thank you, Cyndi, for the inspiration to make this quilt!

Summer Quilt

Fabric: Lovely and Rose Parade by Moda

Hand quilted: using Aurifil - shade 2420, pretty light peach, on the white fabric

                                Presencia Finca Perle 16 - shade 1247 on the rest

Scandinavian Christmas

At last I have finished my Christmas wall hanging, just in time for Christmas.

This lovely design is by Lynette Anderson.

All embroidery, applique and quilting is hand stitched.

red quilt finished

At the previous T for T last May I bought very cheaply this red vintage fabric, which had some marks and damage. When I saw it I knew that it would make a good start for quilt.

I managed to salvage enough fabric.

Although strictly speaking it is red and blue, I call this quilt "red" for short.

I matched some fabrics from my stash and bought some new, to compliment the red.

I kept the design of the quilt simple as not to detract from the beauty of the old fabric.

This is the result:

The main fabric is unusual shade of red, difficult to match with quilting thread, so I decided to use a pretty shade of pink for hand quilting, which I think worked very well.

Fabric: vintage, from stash and new

Hand quilting thread: Aurifil 28, shade 2440

spring quilt - finished

A year ago we spent 2 weeks in a pretty town of Rattvik on the shore of lake Siljan, in Dalarna region of Sweden. (You can read more about our time in Sweden in "Sweden 2010" under "labels" on the left.)
I love shopping in Sweden, mainly for fabrics and items for home.
My favourite shop in Rattvik was this shop, on the main street:
full of things you never know you needed, until you visit.

I visited the shop several times during our stay and among my purchases was a selection of matching fabrics, which I thought would make a nice quilt.

I think this is the reason I love making quilts, seeing the transformation from a few pieces of fabrics

 to something hopefully beautiful and very useful at the same time

The green fabrics to compliment and for the backing, and also the pink for the binding I bought later in Midsomer Quilting .

It took me a while to decide on a design, I wanted to show the flower pattern at its best.

Eventually I found a design in the Magic Patch magazine.

All the quilting was done by hand, which wasn't always easy, due to a more open weave of some of the fabric.

I decided to call this quilt the "Spring Quilt", because the colours of the fabrics remind me of spring.

It will now live on our sofa to keep me warm during chilly summer evenings. It will always remind me of our holiday in Rattvik.

Threads used:

hand quilting : Aurifil 40, shade 2902 light sage

embroidery: Presencia Finca No8, shade 142

                                                    

HAPPY EASTER !

I finished my spring table runner just in time!

More colours of spring:

 

                                                      Spring table runner.

Fabric: from my stash
Stitcheries: embroidered using Aurifil Mako12, shade 4140
Hand quilting: using Aurifil Mako 28, shade 1135