'Foep' quilt with crazy borders finished!

Lots  of pictures of my finished 'Foep quilt'.  Enjoy!

Most birds have embroidered eyes, not this one. The fabric was just in the right place for this little bird. It made me happy when this happens.

This 'Foep' quilt has crazy borders. The original borders are beautiful, all made out of lace but I found my borders needed more colour for an overall balance. Crazy borders with a chicken found at a thrift shop.

Lots of ric-rac and other ribbons, fun for the children who will be sitting under this quilt. Probably my sister's grandchildren if they want too. 

My initials in light blue, embroidered with a chain stitch and perlé yarn number 8.

The title of the quilt and also the title of the children's story book by Ingid van der Harst embroidered in chain stitch too.

Some fabrics are a bit old like the brown one with flowers from the 90's, some new quilt fabrics, some from thrift shops like the dark blue shirt fabric...

 And others are from table napkins or Dutch folklore fabrics. There is different eyelet in there too like the light brow bird.

Fabric pocket on the back of the quilt, for the book about 'Foep' the cat.

Bird fabric scraps on the back of the quilt. I bought this at Ikea long time ago.

With Oscar of course. Always helpful.

The sun was a bit bright for taking pictures but I wanted to post about the 'Foep' quilt today and not wait another day;)

If you want to make the quilt too (and order the little book to read to little children) you can find the pattern here (available in English too)

GroetjesAnnemieke

My Red and white Irish chain is finished!!!

My first big red and white quilt is finished!!!!!! It is entirely made out of scraps, all saved during lots of years. Some of them are even from the 80ties like that little bear.

The striped fabric from the back of the quilt is folded to the front to form a binding.

 The pattern  I used is from Bonny Hunter, from her book : Adventures with leaders and enders. I changed the 'white' part. In the pattern it is only made out of one big piece, while I chose to use small  squares ( 2"by 2") throughout the whole quilt.

The back of the quilt, contains 2 different fabrics in red and white. The fabric in the middle is framed by the striped fabric. The quilt is machine quilted on my home sewing machine, just simple stripes.

The ducks are also from the 80ties, like the bears.

The quilt is made to use on our big bed so no hanging sleeve needed, it is just going to be a utility quilt.

Facts:
Size: 2.35m by 2.35m (approx. 92" by 92")
3600 squares
patched and quilted by my home sewing machine
batting: a heavy 100% cotton batting layer, normally used for covering a mattress ( in Dutch called: molton)
the weight of the quilt: 4 kg, yes it is heavy!

Have a nice day,

Groetjes

Annemieke

A great day out: Applique workshop and antique quilts

Last Saturday I was finally able to visit  Dorry from the quilt shop that moved to Overloon: Quilt it & Dotty : BEAUTIFUL!!! Lots of atmosphere, light, large and many fabric.

The first reason to go all the way over there was to join a workshop given by Dawn . She is a very talented lady who does a lot of things for example: collecting antique quilts and other antique quilting items. She, together with her daughter, makes, and sells patterns (See her patterns here)  made from those antique quilts and also teaches.
We were taught an applique technique called: back basting applique. This was very clear and could come in very handy for me in the near future...

I already finished mine today!!!  There was no more daylight for the photo, but I couldn't wait showing it here;) The fabrics are a bit light, not so much contrast but I'm okay with that.

Dawn showed some of her antique quilts in the afternoon....Every one was in Aaahhhh every time she unfolded one.....so beautiful and fragile too. She told lots of history too.

I was enjoying it so much....Do you see here every shape is a bit different? They had to improvise a lot back than. They didn't have the patterns we are able to buy today....well choosing one to make nowadays is almost giving me sleepless nights but that is a different problem.

This one was very nice too, I almost bought this pattern...but I already bought the Shenandoah botanical quilt pattern.
(also see the button on the right on my weblog too) and hope to start working on that one soon.

This is a detail of an antique quilt with embroidery, quite unusual for the 19th century, Dawn told us.

This is a 'Noah and Matilda' quilt top replica, Dawn made. Also very beautiful.....

Dawn said, it is still possible to find old quilt tops in thrift stores in the USA. We, quilters here, are all dreaming of finding such tops!

  And I was (and still am) in love with Dorry's kittens, six in total, so sweet.

I was able to purchase fabric for my Lizzy BOM project (see the Lizzy quilt in Dorry's shop in the photo above) for the sashings and cornerstones. And of course some fat quarters because they were so nice, I couldn't resist them...
It was a great day thanks to Dawn our teacher, Dorry, owner of the shop and giving us the hospitality and such nice drinks and food during the day. Also Dorry's Mum who helped her where she could.
Thank you all!!!

Groetjes

Annemieke

 

The one with the chicken finished!!

And yet another finish....I already made a Spring quilt in turquoise in April, so that is why this is called the one with the chicken!!!
The chicken is a block I draw myself (wanted to make an Easter quilt one day...)

This one really cleared out my closet because a lot of left over blocks were used in this quilt. Also a few unfinished projects are finished because of this project!!

There is embroidery in it, old ( the old round one made by my Mother in law years ago)and new, gifts( the one with the garden gate my friend Marieke gave to me)  and self made pieces.

I made up the long twine of  leaves to use a lot of red scraps. The applique, showing a girl with a flower in her hands is from a book Le petit Monde by Jaqueline Morel 

 In each corner there is a compass. I first saw them  in one of Ingrid's quilts.  My husband draw the pattern for me and I made it into a paper piecing pattern.

The paper pieced blocks were made in a class taught by Gré Koopman. She is sadly enough no longer with us, but I learned a lot from her and admired her as a person, shop owner and teacher.

This Geranium is from a pattern by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet . May be one day I will make the whole quilt. I appliqued this one with a herringbone stitch I showed here. The mini blocks I made during a class somewhere in the 90's....and they survived!

The big character 'A' is made with the broderie persé technique. And the bright coloured block in pink and yellow was bought at an antique stand (and is about 150 years old). The little handkerchief with the character 'A' was a gift when I was about 8 years old.
In this quilt I also included  left over blocks from previous quilts like 'klosjes' from the klosjesquilt, a basket from my basket quilt.

 In the evening sun...

I like paper pieced patterns like this with the flying geese going round, I made that one years ago.

 A lot of big pieced blocks are from a calendar with lots of nice block designs.

A glimpse of the back made from random pieces of pink and beige fabrics. And a binding in dark red.

And I just made a quick picture on my balcony so you can see most of the back of the quilt. Not so exciting but nice and  'quiet' to see if the quilt is turned.

Facts:

Size: 1.70 cm by 1.73 cm,  (67 inches by 68 inches)
Quilting: Hand quilting in big stitches, without a hoop, with yarn from Weeks dye works 
Batting: 100 % cotton.
Embroidered over the finished blocks with perlé yarn numbers 8 and 5, in pink, reds and beige.
Washed in the washing machine (with 6 colourcatchers!) and partly dried in the drier.

Have a good and creative weekend,

 Groetjes

Annemieke