liberated wednesday

 Having fun with lots of beautiful scraps making liberated log cabins

Making a lovely mess, chatting, laughing and working.

We did finish some blocks, but I'm not going to show them to you yet because it's a surprise...

on a rainy sunday

I'm very quickly typing in this post, awaiting my friend whom I'm giving a cooking lesson.
I hope you all had a good weekend, Mine here started out beautifully with lots of sun and gentle winds, but now it's grumpy outside, dark rainy and windy.

At least Friday was a good day!  I met up with my quilting friends at 't Quiltgebeuren to help owners Wil and Janine celebrate the shops' 5th anniversary.  They beautifully decorated the store and Wil's home ( who lives upstairs ) with quilts of their own and customers.

The moment I walked into the door, I was sent up the stairs by Diana, with no chance to greet anyone.
Upstairs, I was greeted by quilting friends, and congratulated.  Congratulated?  For what?

My quilt was there too, it was hung upstairs in the living room. And it won second prize!  Wow!

I had no idea that prizes were being given, and never won anything, so this was really very special!
Normally it's friends and family that see my work and tell you it's nice, but it's another bag of beans to have it judged by people in the business, and other quilters you don't know compliment your work.

The first and third place quilts were truly wonderful and deserving of their prize.

..and the third prize...

Super, aren't they?

There were so many wonderful quilts hanging, it was hard to capture them all, but here's a sample:

What a great day to catch up with friends and talk quilt!  Seeing and meeting up with quilters is always good fun and inspiring.  It certainly gets my fingers itchy and eager to get back to sewing, my head full of new ideas and things to try out in the future.

I'm really proud of Wil and Janine, they worked so hard to get to this point, and they are going farther still!  They've made this shop not only a great quilt store, but a place where you are warmly welcomed.  I wish you many, many more years!

So now, it's time for me to get back to my projects - I've finally got some more foundation to finish my log cabins for the baby quilt, and the pieces for a simple modern wall quilt ( an experiment really) are cut and ready to go under the needle.  So stay tuned!


have a great week,
heidi

finally a picture...

of the log cabin quilt I made!  Completed in early January of this year, it was hanging in the living room all this time where the lighting just wasn't right to photograph it.  I managed to remember to take a quick shot of it ( still not pleased with how it came out) before it went off to Brielle to be be part of a show they are having to celebrate their 5 year anniversary.
I haven't seen yet how it will displayed, so I'll be just as curious as the rest of the quilters who've brought in quilts when I go to celebrate with the "meiden" (girls)  tomorrow.

This quilt was inspired by the woods we walked in with friends during an Easter weekend getaway last year.  It's made up of mostly Japanese fabrics I've collected over the years, batiks, reproductions fabrics, and who-knows-what bits and pieces.

Here it is:

the color is better on the detail I think....

I must admit, I'm pretty pleased and proud of how this one came out!

Log cabins always continue to fascinate me, and perhaps one day, when I've collected enough bits and pieces, I'd like to make a traditional scrap log cabin.  

For now, there's enough to work on....

green logs

I haven't only been cutting and stitching little klosjes, I've also been busy building log cabin blocks for little baby due in around two months. The mom was very specific about what she wanted ( you know how pregnant moms can get - I know, I was one many moons ago...) and so I am only happy to oblige.
I was also under strict orders to stick to making do and using what I have.  It's becoming more and more doing this and a joy to see the results in not only this project, but in other projects as well.

I would have zipped through these blocks, but I'm a bit stuck in the water waiting for the tearaway foundation that I ordered to come in. I'm hoping it will be here soon so I can pick it up again!

My hands won't be still waiting however, there's lots to do, so I think I'll do some more quilting on my red and white log cabin that is still waiting to be finished.  There's also a granny square throw that needs the rest of it's fringes knotted on, cross stitch samplers...pffft!

Enjoy your weekend,

not far to go...

It's been a hectic few weeks with birthdays, what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation get-togethers, and the continual purging and deep-cleansing of the house to free up some of that positive energy. In between these events however, I did manage to keep on my minimum of a 2 block per day schedule to keep work on my log cabin going. Long chats with friends on the phone, did help a lot; what better way to use that time than to sew up some extra blocks! It never ceases to amaze me how much I get done while on the phone..lol!! Plus, I think my friends are getting used to hearing the background humming of the machine....

Yesterday I laid out the blocks to check to see if all was in balance, and if any bits of light or dark needed to be added here and there. Last night I got stuck in and finished the last five of the 60 block that are green and brown. Now just 30 more to go in the brown background color.



This is to become a wall quilt for our living room that has soft greens and neutral beiges and white as the main color. The dark brown will add some contrast and warmth to the room, at least, that's the idea....

There's all sorts of fabrics in this quilt, Civil War reproduction fabrics, batiks, lots of Japanese woven and textured fabrics. They may not have worked together in another quilt pattern, but with these small 1 cm strips, it's all about the colors and one of the reasons I keep returning to log cabins because they never stop fascinating me.

If all goes well, I hope to have this puppy sewn together today ( I just can't wait to see it in one piece ) and pick up sewing on the background blocks next week.

So, off I go to roll back the carpet and play with blocks!

have a wonderful weekend all!

textile noodle soup

It feels good after working hard to finish the Quaker samplers to get back into quilting. I hadn't split my time between the two as I had intended, but somehow I feel a little less pressure now that some major projects are done. Now it's time to relax at my machine and sew away, catching up on some quilting podcasts I'm waaay behind on!



40 blocks done, 50 to go!