Six Days After...

... the surgery... only tiny pain, but the sitting near the sewing machine is still quite impossible...

and because I know, when I'm sewing the patches together I have to sit down and up quite often... I have decided to concentrate on the stitching by hand... at least on this first week after...

... but day after day the sewing days are coming closer ;o)

I received many lovely greetings...

SO

I want to thank you ALL of them!!!

Diamond-Hearted Stars

I'm here again!

Before I show you my latest stars, I would like to give you a hint to visit at Grit's blog.

She gathered all the star maker's together and there is  the gorgeous star quilts / blocks parade on her blog.

Ever since I finished the Nested Ohio Star for Oh, my Star quilt, I have been thinking to replace it some other star.

Yesterday I decided to fix it and it became a 12" Diamond-Hearted Star. I 'm pretty sure now, I made a right decision, when I decided to change nested Ohio star...

If you are sewing Diamond-Hearted Stars with these instructions, you'll get 4 HST units as side-products. Very clever, I think!

I'm planning to use them as the center pieces for the 8" or 4" star blocks.

 Diamond-Hearted Star in three sizes: 12", 8" and 4". Yes, my quilt needs more of these;o)

  

I have now sewn 33 stars: 6 x 12", 9 x 8" and 18 x 4"...

... and I also made the other important decision...

My quilt will be lap size quilt...

for it I have to sew yet 6 x 12", 11 x 8" and 34 x 4" blocks.

I'm not sure, when I'll be back with the next stars, 

because on Thursday I'm going to go to the hospital for a 'small' surgery. If all goes fine, I'm back home on Friday or Saturday, but I don't know, how painful I feel myself then...

But until next time...

I wish you Plenty of Happy Stitching Moments!!!

PS. Did you notice a new quilt along logo at the upper part of the sidebar. It's a Friendship blog hop, where the Moda Designers will be sharing friendship block patterns. You'll find the schedule of the blog hop here.

Pumpkinville BOM Rehab

I spent almost the whole Sunday with block five of Pumpkinville...

not all the day, only three or four hours... 

 ... appliqueing the pumpkin houses...

... and preparing the pumpkin cars for the row block.

Now there is all the small things (lot of windows, doors..) ahead...

maybe I have to focus more on Pumpkinville this week;o)

Again happy stitching...

PS. If you are doing BOM, Sinta Renee at Pink Pincushion is collecting the news of your progress every Monday here...

Vielä kerran - Once Again

tarinaa True Friends -laukusta.

Koska eilen esittelin vain pikaisesti uusimman kassini, haluan tänään kertoa siitä vähän lisää.

Since yesterday, I presented only briefly my latest bag, today I want to talk about it some more.

Nimittäin, en kertonut edes sen strategisia mittoja, jotka ovat

44 wide x 30 cm height x 10 cm deep

= measurements

... takapuoleltakin kuva jäi näyttämättä.

Tadaa! Laukku edestä ja takaa sekä muutama yksityiskohta.

Tikkauksista tein yksinkertaiset: suoria tikkauksia vaaka- ja pystysuuntaan, pitkin ommelta tai sen vierestä.

Kirjontakuvioon tein enemmän applikaatioita kuin alkuperäisessä mallissa on: kuuset, ovi ja ovikoriste.

Taskun suihin ompelin koristeompeleet, jonkinlainen kolmoistikki.

Ja vihdoin äitini 60-luvulta peräisin olevan villakangastakin nappi löysi uuden paikan!

The quilting is a simple one: straight lines, the horizontal and vertical direction, along the seam or next to it. I did more appliqué on the embroidery design than it's on the original: trees, door and door decoration. And my mother's 60th century wool coat button found a new place!

MUTTA...

ongelmitta laukku ei valmistunut.

I had also some problems. While I turned the straps out, I broke the other strap and suddenly there was a hole on it... but now there is a patch! Why? Because I had not enough fabric to make a new strap and I didn't want to change the strap fabric. Maybe I should...

Valitsin tukikankaaksi kaapin perukoilta löytyneen vanutikkikankaan suoraan 80 -luvulta!

Vau! Kahisee mukavasti tuulipuvulta;o)

Runko-osan tukikankaana se toimii hyvin, kassi pysyy mukavasti seisomassa. Päätin laittaa sitä myös sankoihin ja kaksinkertaisena, jotta niistä tulisi tukevat. Kaikki sujui hyvin aina kääntämiseen asti! (Koesangan tein ilman kääntämistä, joten en tajunnut tulevaa ongelmaa...) Käännettäessä tikkikankaan vanu ei mitenkään tahtonut pysyä paikallaan, vaan tursasi itsensä aina jollain tavalla ryttyyn. SUURET hikikarpalot otsalla sain ne vihdoin käännettyä, mutta vaurioilta ei vältytty. Toiseen sankaan sain aikaiseksi cm:n reiän eikä kangasta enää ollut uuteen sankaan (eikä hermoja muuttaa sankakangasta). KRRR!... joten toisessa sangassa on nyt paikka!

Jossain vaiheessa kassin kanssa äheltäessäni mieleeni muistui vanha Elsa -nukkeni. Ja päätin nimetä tämän kassin sen mukaan ELSAksi. Muuten Elsa oli todellakin kohtalon lapsi, koska (kuulemma) napostelin sen kauniit oljenkeltaiset kutrit ja sinisilmätkin saivat jonkinlaista väkivaltaista kohtelua vuosien varrella. 
Voi, Elsa -rukka, mikä kohtalo!

 ELSA -nukke vuonna 1969 ja ELSA -kassi vuonna 2013.

Elsa... koskaan, koskaan en sua unhoittaa voi.

HAPPY STITCHING WEEK!!!!

Patchwork Stars

This week I sewed 'only' patchwork stars and only in two size: 

1 x 12" and 3 x 4".

 UPS, sorry! There is one lost star among the Oh, my Stars.

For the first time I used Open Gate's Fit to Be Geese -ruler.

So the new ruler was the reason, why there is one lost star...

I have mini size ruler. With this special ruler flying geese units are accurate, but there is some waste of fabric...

By the way while we are now speaking about accurate...

I made mistake while I pieced the first inner 9-patch for the 4 " star block. 

Actually the mistake is on the instruction page.

If you cut 9 x 1 1/4" squares (2. star on the photo), you'll sew too big inner 9-patch for the 4" star block...

... but if you cut 9 x 1 1/8" (= 3 cm) squares, 

you'll get about the right size (= 2 1/2") inner 9-patch unit. 

Oh, does this sound tricky?

The SAL project True Friends tote bag is now ready for the use...

... you'll find the short tale about my bag here.
And there you'll find also many other finished tote bags!

I'm glad you found a time to visit here...
have a lovely sewing week!

All You Need Is...

... Love!

Hyvää Ystävänpäivää!

t. Satu & Fenix

Stars Today

Before I am able to concentrate on the bag, I had to sew the pre-cut star pieces, which were on the cutting board.

There were pieces for five stars... it took all of my sewing time today.

The sewing those stars is sloooow process, because each of them is made of different fabrics in three sizes and several patterns... But STILL I'm enjoying to make them!

Here's the whole week's catch!

Five Pinwheel Stars, one Sawtooth Star on the green background, two Nested Stars and three Frosted tips Stars in all sizes, 4", 8" and 12".

 Maybe tomorrow is the bag's turn...

if I could avoid the pile of the greens tonight...

I wish you colorful sewing moments!

Heavy Cross Block

Aurifil's designer of February is Marie-Claude Picon-Iberti

and she designed a block called 'Heavy Cross'.

There is many patches in a 12" block...

... so for the tiny pieces I needed an extra guardian to keep them in the right position.

But even he (or rulers) wasn't enough!

I wasn't able to avoid mistakes...

...although this may be due to the fact that I have sewn quite a lot of Sawtooth Stars lately.

Because in the block is five different fabrics and the pieces are quite small, I had also difficulties to pick up fabrics. I was afraid that it would be too restless...

therefore I choosed two 'strong' colors - ruby red and very dark  brown. The other colors can be as neutral as possible...

Yet while I was sewing,

I thought of colors and the places of the pieces.

Is the red/gray or white/gray better at this spot?

... so heavy to make a decision...

When I saw my 'Heavy Cross' finished, I got the idea...

... it was like rubies on snow.

Then Jumping Jack Flash...

 would be like a pile of emeralds on snow.

Wov, the diamond quilt is born!?

Ok, I know... I have only two blocks... it isn't the quilt... yet;o)

By the way I AM in the Stitch-along group hosted by Chookyblue.

I'm not sure, if I actually mentioned this, but she allowed me to join despite of... never mind... forget that!

February's challenge is to make a tote bag - True Friends. It's a pattern from Natalie Bird's Red Home book.

This pile of fabrics employ me this weekend...

HAPPY STITCHING Time To YOU!!!

BOM Rehab

Perhaps I must close the internet connection to the quilting pages....

You can't never guess, 

but I sewed a block for the NEW BOM... new bom... yes, you read it right!... NEW BOM!

a new BOM is the Aurifil Designer of the Month.

Designer of January was Erin Russek and I'm an avid fan of her appliques! So how could I resist to make her block, Jumping Jack Flash?

There is a star... 

and it's size is 12" x !2"... 

so it may fit in well with the other star blocks...

Do I explain now too much my addiction for the BOMs?

... and IF I post my block to the flickr.com group, I might win some marvellous Aurifil threads!!!

No way, I'm not gonna be outside of when this fun happens!

Besides Jumping Jack Flash block was very quick and easy to make...

... because I found those half square triangles, which I used, from this scrap bag. These HSTs are all side products from the Designer Mystery 2012 blocks. I'm glad that I have spared them. The smallest HSTs are about 1 1/2".

Past week I focused also to finish block four for Pumpkinville.

 TADAA!

I'm still well in my own schedule! The Pumpkins will be on my wall in the next autumn;o)

And specially for you I'm taking picture of all the blocks...

Fenix, you can't sit there! No one else sees nothing!

Ok, I give up, another day then...

Well, I show you some details of the blocks.

 Isn't the Pumpkin Car cute?

In Pumpkinville is a lot of windows and making them the same size... is VERY hard job!

I haven't yet succeeded... but I improve all the time ;o)

Happy BOMming Time!!!!

PS. If you are doing BOM, Sinta Renee at Pink Pincushion is collecting the news of your progress every Monday here...

Abundance

Lori from Humble Quilts organized Abundance -quiltalong. She got the idea for the pattern from the little vintage doll quilt, she reproduced it and kindly share the pattern to all us. 

Abundance is a small doll quilt (12" x 12"). 

Felted teddy NOKI was given the honor to present it to you.

Although there is plenty of small patches and fabrics, it was very quick to sew.

I don't know, if I did 'a crime', because I didn't exactly make Abundance just like Lori told. Instead of cutting all triangles individually I used some quick pieced methods, which I have learnt during my quilting years. And that was the main reason why I liked so much to sew Abundance.

If you look the patches closely, you'll notice there is 1. hourglass, 2. flying geese and 3. half square triangle (HST) blocks. Actually, when Lori advised to cut squares to the triangles, I just sew those pieces together and cut afterwards.

I have hand quilted only few tiny quilts in my life... and therefore I'm always bit of horrified, when I'm going to do it...

but I think this quilt was something that I even couldn't think to quilt by machine.

And I don't regret my decision ;o)

Hand quilting was very relaxing... and it may become a new addiction...

Fenix slept while I took a photo of Noki & Abundance, but right away when he woke up, he climbed on top of the quilt

and waited that I would take a picture.

Funny, Fenix! 

He also looked bit upset or hurt...

The end of this tale is Finnish. I'm going to show how I usually sew the binding. There is a lot of photos... so I think the words won't tell nothing more...

Ennen kuin siirryn kanttausasioihin haluan

KIITTÄÄ 

sinua, Tiinatei (Tilkkutie ) saamastani tunnustuksesta.

Tunnustuksia pitäisi laittaa viidelle eteenpäin, mutta maailma ja Suomi on täynnä mielenkiintoisia blogeja, joten viiden valitseminen on vaikeaa... katsotaan ja kuulostellaan, ken sen minulta saa...

Olen jo pitempään miettinyt, pitäisikö minun enemmän kirjoittaa tilkkutöitteni työvaiheista. Olisiko minulla annettavana (uusia) hyödyllisiä vinkkejä tilkkuilijoille?Olisiko niistä kukaan kiinnostunut? Koska yritän epätoivoisesti kirjoittaa blogia englanniksi, työvaiheiden selittäminen vieraalla kielellä (vaikka ne englanninkielisistä kirjoista yms. olenkin itse oppinut) on hidasta ja kankeaa.

Tänään kuitenkin haluaisin kertoa millä tavalla (yleensä) teen reunakaitaleen tilkkutyöhön. 

Abundancen reunaksi leikkasin 5,5 cm:n levyisen suorakaitaleen, jonka silitin 2-kertaiseksi. Aloitin kaitaleen ompelun yhden sivun keskeltä..

... kaitaleen alkupäähän jätin noin 4 cm:n pituisen pätkän ompelematta.

Kaitaleen kulmat teen seuraavasti;

Kulman taittamisen jälkeen aloitan ompelun aivan kaitaleen reunasta.

Kaitaleen viimeisen reunan ompelu ja yhdistäminen aloituskohtaan:

Kaitaleiden päät voi yhdistää myös täysvinolla ompeleella, tällöin saumanvarat ovat ohuemmat.

Saumanvarat silitän auki ja ohennan niitä tarvittaessa. Viimeiseksi ompelen  ne puuttuvat 4 cm.

Ja sitten edessä on se rentouttava vaihe;o)

Huom! Jos ompelen kaitaleen koneella myös toiselta puolelta, niin ompelen sen ensimmäisen raakareunan työn nurjalle puolelle. Sen jälkeen käännän sen oikealle puolelle ja ompelen koneella.

VOILá! Valmis!

Lämpöistä Kynttilänpäivää!!!