A quilt is not worn by Scottish Pipers

As already announced I wanted to do a show and tell of all my quilts in November. Because my mom in law had a special birthday on All Saints I wanted to give her an evenly special gift (a quilt, of course) and thus this post had to wait until she received her present. And now I proudly present all quilts in their order of appearance - tadaaaaa!

My very first quilt was for Marlene, my neighbours' little girl and therefore very pink. Quick sidenote: When Amish people finish their quilts they purposely add a little mistake to make the quilt somehow imperfect because in their opinion only God is perfect. Well, I guess, in my quilt you will surely find one imperfection or the other, but this has nothing to do with anything religious :-)

With my next project I almost bit more than I could chew. I wanted to make a quilt for our living room wich should be able to cover me completely (not only a lap quilt), and the giant monster made me and my sewing machine sweat, I can tell you! But the colors matched exactly our living room and the pattern was so intriguing in its simplicity. Looking back it would have been much easier with a walking foot and thinner batting, but now the quilt is especially warm and cosy.

The left over scraps I used for two dog quilts. Dog quilts? Am I crazy? Maybe. But on the other hand their sizes fit easily in my standard sewing machine and I could test and try a few things. In addition: As I used the same fabric, all three quilts go pretty well together.

Concerning family members: Of course I had to sew two quilts for the girls. First I made one for Marie who is totally into owls these days. And therefore, I hunted this pretty owl print fabric and combined it with matching polka dots in pink and green. 

For Sarah I had in mind something black and baroque but wasn't able to get fabric with a pattern I liked - at least no cotton. I didn't dare to use brocade or velvet because of my beginner sewing skills. Well, swirly-brocady I had planned but straightforward I produced. At least it's mostly black :-) 

Then Bini told me she was expecting and I instantly knew I had to sew something funny and vibrant. In retrospect I can't tell if I already new if it was a boy or a girl when making the quilt. But now I think it's a perfect fit for the happy little girl named Tilda. 

Only a few weeks later my dear, dear colleague Dani told me her personal good news and it was a no brainer that I would give her a nice little blanket as a gift. For Luise I made a light blue gingham quilt with denim stripes and signal red pinwheels. I exposed the frayed selvage of the red fabric to accentuate the pinwheels even more. 

Hubby liked the finished project so much that he promised another blankie to his co-worker who had become a father onyl few days earlier. And as Friedrich was already born I had to hurry. Thankfully it was Easter and pouring with rain. So I was able to work for a few days without interruption et voilà: A quilt with lots of denim and colorful accents. 

When I posted this picture on FB, a former colleague of mine saw it, liked it and asked if she could buy one for a friend's baby shower. This was my one and only quilt I actually sold, all others were gifts. I was very glad that she left the design to me and as I did not know the little recipient, I chose a gender-neutral color palette and a clean-classic pattern. It was some pain in the neck as the fabric scraps were 5 x 5 cm in size but she and I liked the result and what's even better is the fact that the quilt can still be used when the baby is grown up.

Although the pattern was time-consuming and in need for very accurate working I liked it so much and oops, I did it again! This one was a gift for my little sister. She and her husband have a very natural style of living with lots of untreated wood and light colors and thus I thought it might meet their taste. 

Whereas the baby quilt had identical and totally symmetrical squares I arranged them slightly different for my sister's quilt. I had alternating rows of three and four squares, and in the rows with three squares I added some dash of sunny yellow in contrast to the rows with four squares which I decorated with dark red. As far as I know the blanket is now the highlight of a cosy recliner. 

I am not completely sure about the order because I sometimes work on parallel projects, therefore I cannot tell exactly. Nevertheless I planned for ages a quilt with denim and red gingham united in wonky log cabin blocks. The log cabin is a very traditional pattern with an interesting meaning (as it is often the case with traditional blocks). In general, there is always a red square in the center representing the fireplace in the cabin with darker colors in one edge and lighter colors in the opposite edge which stands for the distribution of light around the fireplace. I took over the red center but then I gave it a more modern twist by placing uneven fabric strips around it without any attention to the color. I just wanted to place the fabric pieces as effective as possible.

 

I have to admit that I grew a bit tired of these large and heavy projects which could not be drawn easily through the sewing machine. The denim quilt for instance feels like as if it weighs tons! You have to know that such a thing consists of three layers which are cover, batting and backing with the many seams on the cover adding extra weight. Moreover, you have to consider the following: When you want to sew a seam right in the middle of a quilt of one and a half meters width, it doesn't matter on the left side of the sewing needle, but on the right sight you have to manage to fumble a lot of fabric through the gap between needle and arm of the sewing machine. Usually, I roll the fabric up and push this roll through the machine, but it is stressful and tiring especially for my hands. Therefore, I was looking for a solution less arduous for me and my standard sewing machine and I found the quilt as you go technique. Which means you only cut, piece and quilt (btw: quilting meaning connecting all layers of fabric with seams) single blocks, which are then connected to rows, and finally the rows get connected as well. Ideally you have the majority of your fabric on the left side of your sewing needle.

My first project with this method was a birthday quilt for my mom. As she likes everything tidy and clean I chose a simple pattern and matching gingham fabrics (again, I know). To make it special I made it as a rag quilt which means it has frayed edges around each block because you don't secure your seam allowances but snip them into small fringes which get plushy and puffy after a few washes. Kind of 3d, if you like.

That went pretty well and I made two narrower duplicate ones for our lounge. 

Around the same time my boss told me baby number two was on the way and surely I could not congratulate without a blanket on hand… the quilt for Nieke was made with the same technique, but with sashing around each block. That means you have to cut your backing larger than your batting and cover, and by sewing the blocks together, this excess fabric comes to the front. Press it apart, fold it over and topstitch - over and done. Although it is easier than a one piece quilt I had to unpick and redo some of the seams until they were as accurate as I wanted them to be. And in addition the cat faces were more complex than they seem. Cute detail: I connected the fabric layers with three seems acting as whiskers :-) 

Since then I finished a lot of different DIY projects, but for an important birthday of my mother in law I had to do something extraordinary and luckily I stumbled upon this charming pattern which I just had to do for her. A very modern quilt as you go with cats (again, I know) and what makes it fascinating are the floppy cat ears which are only connected at the lower seam so they can wiggle up and down. Let's see if the living cats are as fascinated with the their fabric counterparts :-)

These are my collected works and I guess for the time being there are no additions planned. At least until I see something I urgently have to try...