never ending time

Hello everyone! Thanks for dropping by again! Just like I said, I am writing another blog post supersonically after the one from last week. Boy, am I fast. <<wink>>

Today, I would like to share with you the latest block I designed for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. It is called "Never Ending Time" and is published in Volume 15."

 

http://www.quiltmaker.com/100blocks.html

As you may know, I do not like to sew HST's (Half-Square-Triangles). I find it tedious to match up all those points. Instead, I have a little infatuation with Quarter-Square-Triangles (if you didn't already know). I love to sew hourglass blocks and get tickled when I match up the centers. I love how they nest together and make the easiest sharp point in the middle!

Here is a little mini tutorial of how I made this block.

Most of us have a color scheme or preference when we make/design quilts. My first choice is usually the color scheme of my website - turquoise/orange/yellow/gray. Another favorite of mine is black/gray/white and a touch of yellow. I have been stockpiling a lot of these fabrics and decided to break them out just to make this block.

After deciding on just three fabrics, I cut them out with a reference on measurements from my handy-dandy EQ7 program. Here are all of the pieces laid out for quick reference. Please refer to the magazine for exact dimensions and templates. This is my test block, and the directions in the magazine may differ.

After I sewed the two hourglass sides together in strips, I squared them up with a 90° angle. Yes, there was a little bit of waste on my original block, but the squaring was more important.

Those curves are so gentle to sew together too. Take a look at the reference picture. I don't think you even need to pin them. I did mark the center and pin though. Working on test blocks, you just want everything to fall into place.

After it was sewn together, I was quite happy with the block. As with all the blocks designed for QM, they are sent in for review. If they don't make the cut, they get returned. If they do make it, they get published in the magazine and raffled off during the blog hop when the magazine comes out. So, whenever a new magazine comes out, be sure to join in on the fun.

Quilt Designs

Here are a few quilts designed with the block. This one is a simple 2 x 2 grid of 12" blocks. I personally like how the design creates a second design when placed against another block. You could also break this block down and make a simple strip block and a half orange peel and set them on-point.

Here is a more traditional color scheme. Red, white and blue, being a little patriotic for July 4th, or just think maritime. In this design, each alternate row is rotated once 90°. I like this one very much. Once again, a second design appears. I love to rediscover shapes and movement in quilts. Do you too?

So, please grab your copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 15 to check out this cool block as well as many, many one-of-a-kind and "original quilt blocks designed by today's hottest designers."

And one more thing, because I am just totally happy that I have been published not once, twice or three times, but five times, I have a lovely little giveaway. I am giving away one copy of the the last FIVE ISSUEs of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY TOO. My motto here is to make blogging interesting again. Please share in the comments section below, what brings you to read and comment on blogs (other than giveaways). The giveaway will be open until Friday evening German time. Void where prohibited. One entry per person.

 Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

my last pillow

As the year comes to a close so does the Pillow Swap Four Seasons. This swap started two years ago as an idea shared by Sandra at Hohenbrunnquilterin (Munich, Germany) and myself to bring a little bit of seasonal cheer into our homes and the quilting/swapping community. We envisioned the group as a forum to share creativity and help with the sewing/pillow-making process.

We met a lot of really great ladies who participated in the group, shared their design-making process, and delivered amazing, excellent quality decorative pillows. It was a wonderful experience! I know I am repeating myself from my previous post, but I am going to miss this group!

I wanted to share the last pillow that I made in the group for my partner, Andrea.

Sneak Peek of Last Pillow

A lot of time and thought usually goes into my pillows, quilts and designs. I generally design specifically for my partners or recipients, because I want them to be happy and enjoy what I have made for them. Sometimes, I get it right, and sometimes I totally miss it. That can happen. : ) For my last Pillow Swap Partner, I decided to go with her inspiration mosaic completely and picked one pillow in particular which she had also posted on a previous mosaic for another swap. Can you guess which one it is?

Since my partner loved traditional red and green for Christmas, I knew my direction and wanted to complete the design with a scrappy look.

Starting Fabric Palette

I still had some lovely Kate Spain Charms as well as "Evergreen" leftover from last year's pillow that I made for Rosemarie in our swap.

Double Cathedral Window Pillow for Rosemarie - PS4S 2015

I analyzed the design from Andrea's mosaic and recreated it with EQ7 - my great program to design quilts and print paper piecing patterns. I have the full-blown designer version, but there is a new, mini program on the market which costs half as much and is great for beginners and newbies wanting to design quilts - EQ Mini. The Electric Quilt Company is always having sales, so you can usually find great deals too. If you live in Europe/Germany, I am thinking about providing training classes to those of you who have the program and want to learn how to use it. : )

Here is the design recreated by me. I do not know who to credit for this design; there was no credit information on Andrea's collage. If you know who originally designed it, please tell me, so I can give credit where credit is due.It reminds me very much of the first pillow I made in our pillow swap in 2015.

Framed Kaleidoscope - Recreated in EQ7

I didn't want to use white fabric in this pillow, but decided on a shimmering, metallic Essex Yarn Dyed Linen that I bought from the Fat Quarter in the summer instead. Please be careful when ironing any RK linen fabrics; they have a tenancy to shrink if your iron is too hot. Some of you know I don't like to iron my fabric too much....I like a warm iron without steam when pressing my patchwork. For straightening my fabrics and getting rid of creases, I use steam but I still use a warm iron. I actually have a non-steam iron that I use when creating patchwork.

I don't normally pre-cut fabric templates when foundation piecing, but when you try to make those scraps work one more time, you get a little creative.

My Chaotic Mess when Creating

The sixteen 4 1/2" FPP (foundation paper-pieced) blocks were made in a couple of days. I was extremely early making the pillow, but I knew I had a lot of appointments in November. I felt really good about the way it was coming together.

16 - Four and One-Half Inch FPP Blocks

Although the design is scrappy, I decided to keep a unity in the middle with two green triangles and two white/silver triangles. It created a slight challenge in the end to balance the entire pillow top and still maintaining the unity of the center squares.

Keeping in mind, I only had one FQ of Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed Linen, I had to precut my strips to make sure I had enough in the end. This is probably one of the first times, it actually worked too.

As for most pillows, I love the look of piping especially in a contrasting color. I thought this pillow would look lovely with piping as well. I always have a bit of trouble when making piping. I know I should make 1 3/4 inch piping from bias strips, but I am too frugal. I make straight 1 1/4 inch piping and always get myself in a pickle when trying to apply it to the pillow top. I know there is a tool out there too for cutting your piping to exact size after it is made, but again, I am too frugal.

On to the quilting...I used a clear mono filament top thread and polyester white bottom thread and stitched in the ditch. Usually before quilting, I sandwich my top, batting (fusible Pellon 987F thin) and a white inexpensive (IKEA) cotton fabric. I increase my stitch length to 3.0 from 2.5 standard on my Pfaff 2046 Quilt Expressions.I opted to quilt in the ditch to really let the design come out.. That lovely "hand-stitching" is a special quilting stitch on my machine. I have tried numerous times to get it to work for me, but it never would.

**Stitch #27 is a traditional hand quilting stitch.**
To achieve this look correctly, you will need to use clear mono filament on the top and a thicker thread on the bottom. Decrease the tension on your spool about 1/16 to 1/8 of a rotation or five degrees counterclockwise if you can do so on your bobbin spooler of your machine. The red thread you see is actually the bottom bobbin thread....not the top thread. The top thread is clear and becomes invisible on the linen.

Machine Stitching all the Way

For the back of the pillow, I decided to go with a cute pin-striped fabric with traditional red/green. I love striped fabrics and usually save them for binding or piping, but this looks terrific too.

Back of Pillow with Covered Zipper

The stripes got a little wonky in the end when putting in the zipper, but still matches (for the most part).

Covered Zipper and Matching Pin-Stripes

So there she is ladies and gentlemen. You can start to see just a bit of the shimmering fabric from the front in the previous photograph, but it sparkles so much more in natural lighting. Sorry I couldn't capture it better.

The Full Monty - Christmas Framed Kaleidoscope Pillow for Andrea

It was really a pleasure sewing for Andrea. I didn't put myself under pressure when sewing this pillow and allowed ample time to finish. It takes time to make beautiful, quality items. It makes me happy to sew for others and to warm their hearts. I think Andrea enjoyed the pillow as well.

Happy and Safe Holidays everyone! May your days with family, friends, or quality time for yourself bring you peace and joy. We'll see each other next year!

Hugs,
Karen

summer's over!!

HELLO Everyone!!! No, I am still alive and kicking! I just got a little distracted over summer! ;-)

I did not expect to get distracted from blogging for so long, though! At the end of the school year, things were getting hectic, no more time for sewing, party here, party there, taking on new official sewing projects, finishing up the old ones, and had simply no more time to post! Well, I am back again. The kids are in school now, and I have a little bit of me time for myself. So, I wanted to get back to posting on a regular basis. Yes, I really do! Please forgive me! The summer was fantastic, and now I am ready to "get back to work!"

Thinking about summer, I would like to share with you the pillow I made for my summer swap partner from our group, Pillow Swap Four Seasons. I kind of stepped out of my comfort zone and started using a lot of low volume (LW) fabrics. I tried to create something in the same style as her inspiration mosaic with lots of different rainbow colors, low volume prints and symmetrical design. You can see her design here:

I have to admit, my style is a bit more "low key" using more solids than LV so it was a little challenging to sew how I could design and sew something for her that I could really poor my heart out into. I took the idea from her six-pointed star and made a circle of them which is typically called "Seven Sisters." You will usually see this pattern and design made using English Paper Piecing (EPP). But, I love to piece on the machine, so I wanted a "simpler" way to make the stars and decided to make them using 60° triangles instead.

Design: I started playing around with the below design in EQ7. I usually design all of my quilts using this program. My first design hat a border, because I like a "clean" area to attach the backing fabric when sewing pillows. In the end, I changed my mind and added another row of LV triangles.

My first challenge was finding low volume fabrics! My friend, Mara, in Greece helped me out with those fabulous LV you see in the picture below. I didn't have any, and she was kind enough to offer me those beauties from her personal fabric collection. The solids are from a Kona rainbow charm pack.This was my initial pull and starting point.

After I had the design, I broke out my Mini Hex N More ruler I bought from Quilt et Textilkunst at last year's Nadelwelt in Karlsruhe. I cut 2 1/4" strips and broke my ruler in! These are so cool!! You really have to get one! (I also have the large Hex N More ruler, but haven't put it to great use yet.)

I pulled a few other coordinating fabrics for the stars. Once again, this was my first choice that I really liked. I didn't use all of the fabrics and changed my mind throughout. ;-) If I made the pillow over today, I think I would have used this yellow print in the middle instead of the one I used. I think smaller prints work better with the 2 1/4 inch triangles.

I laid out my stars to see if they had the right contrast and "pow" appeal. I was content with these fabrics. I let them stay on my design board for a day or two.

 

Next phase, cut out over 200 pieces from over 30 different fabrics (!).

Sewing: I carefully layed them out on my flannel design boards. I didn't have room for all pieces on one board in the beginning. ;-) Then I started sewing the rows carefully together one after another. Triangle quilts are really rather simple. I have sewn four or five already. The true key is to sewing successfully is to sew every odd row to the right starting from the left. Start your even rows by taking the last triangle in the row and sew them to the left or upside down. Then they will always nest!

After the rows were finished, it was easy street from there. ;-) Do you see the turquoise star? What is your opinion about it? Does it work?

I wasn't so sure about it. I looked at the setup after dark and noticed it was rather light in value.

The next day I found a better coordinated for the blue. Now all outer stars are brighter than the middle star and equal in value.

Of course I didn't throw out that lovely star!I used it to make a mug rug! Every pillow needs a matching mug rug, doesn't it?

Quilting: I first wanted to do an inner outline quilting on the whole pillow, but thought I wanted to bringing another design element and made 60° angles through the middle of the pillow. I am happy with the end result, but I am not happy that I chose to use Vliesoline H640 on this pillow! It gives it way too much depth. I learned my lesson here. ;-) Today I might even be brave enough to use black thread for the quilting too.

Seven Sisters Read the Newsprint for Rita

For the backside, I wanted to make something more in my style and went with Rita's idea of the hexagon, pulled through my scrap bins for yellow fabrics, improvised pieced until I got those great triangles, and sewed together in strips until I got even bigger triangles. I sewed the different solids in from the front as a border, the added the black until it was big enough for the backing. I offset the star on purpose if you were thinking it went wacky by mistake. ;-)

Back Side of Pillow of Seven Sisters Read the Newsprint

Bottom Zipper for a Two-Sided Pillow

And I love the label I made for Rita! I transferred the design onto t-shirt transfer and ironed to a white piece of fabric and sewed it into the inside of the pillow.

All in all, I am extremely happy with the way Rita's pillow turned out. It wasn't exactly my style (meaning low volume prints), but it challenged me to be creative. I truly hope she loved the pillow, because if she doesn't she can always send it back! ;-)

If you are inerested in swapping pillows with a fabulous group of ladies, we still have a few vacancies open for an energenic and creative patchworker. More information under the tab "Pillow Swap Four Seasons" above. We have an online form in the pillow swap Flickr group.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope to be around more in the future as well!

Big hugs,
Karen

how colors change your mood

My husband and I have been looking through a lot of flooring catalogs lately, because we will be redoing the floors in the house (from top to bottom). In the process, I came along a really good company that separated their flooring into these five basic categories. I kept going back to this diagram to explain to my hubby how the different floor colors and textures change my mood.

For instance, in my living room, I like rich dark, walnut colors and dark reds - something that makes me feel warm and comforted. At the end of the day, I just want to snuggle on the sofa with my family, light a few candles and drink a glass of burgundy. MAN CAVE

As a total contrast, in my sewing room and in the kitchen, I like a fresh color scheme that keeps me on track - keeps me focused. Here I would like maple, birch, beech, or an old barn type of flooring - "Eichesägerau!" I am really trying to push this idea through. NATURE 

I will have my own sewing room soon, {yahoo} and I did a little research to get ideas for setting it up. I found quite a few rooms with white painted furniture and lots of color or no color. That's just out of my comfort zone. I need a little bit of warmth with light yellows.

In the children's rooms, it should be friendly and inviting. My kids will be playing in their rooms (hopefully), and it should make them happy and coordinate with lots of bright and friendly colors. NATURE or BEACH

Now, generally, we have lots of white in the bathroom. I guess it just goes hand-in-hand with water and "cleanliness." You always see lots of white in the hospital as well. BEACH

In the bedroom, I think we will be going for that spicy feeling with rich reds and yellows. AUTUMN 

We went with a beach type of feeling with light blues in our last apartment and another time with light purple and beech wood, but is really hard to pull off a romantic feeling in these colors. It still remained cool.

And lastly getting to the urban color of gray/grey. I know this is very modern, especially for quilts. I find this color really hard to get comfortable with. It gives me the heebie jeebies. I had one appointment with a female gynecologist who had her office decorated totally in this urban feeling - cement, cinder block walls, black leather sofas with metal detailing. I felt so uncomfortable there. I wanted a female doctor, but the textures and colors made me feel very uneasy. Needless to say, I never went back to her simply because of her office. URBAN

When I design quilts, some say that I like "gedeckte Farben." I don't really know what that means but translates to muted colors. I know I am drawn to dark fall colors. I have a nice collection of very traditional bicentennial fabrics in my fabric bins, but that's not really me. I think I bought them all, because that's what the market was telling me that I wanted. Or that was the only thing that was available when I bought them six years ago. Anyone want to swap fabrics?? I have some great old prints. I really like a collection of colors. I am an eclectic contiseur. I also recently realized my own style. I can work with the urban (20-ten) color palette, but I have to mix in one other rich color to "make it mine."

So, we will continue to look for the perfect flooring. Now that we have this little helper, it is easier for us to make a decision, at least a step in the right direction.

Keep sewing and look forward to hearing what you have to say.

5 Ways to Spark your Creativity

Hello to you all, probably for the very first time, since I don't normally use this blog to post my thoughts, but hey, why not. Thanks for stopping by.

How do I spark my creativity? I am in the patchwork pattern design, and sometimes, I have to do the unusual to get my juices flowing.

1. I GO SHOPPING - Now, this might sound stupid, but I do it. Yeah, some of us use this as an excuse to get out and not do our real job. Not me. I find it very inspirational. I like to see how different colors are paired together in the clothing stores. What colors would I wear? What colors make me feel good? Are they trend colors, seasonal or classic? Do I see any eye candy? Would I buy it? Candy is candy right!? What is also really cool, is seeing how patchwork has an influence on the fashion industry. Look at children's clothing and see what motifs are used. What appeals to kids? You will see abstract, bargellos and floral prints that you wish you could use in a new blanket or purse. Get your inspiration from your favorite clothing store. Just like you find your own style with clothing, you also have your own style with designing!
2. I LOOK THROUGH MAGAZINES. Although this sounds just like the previous entry, it can be any magazine, not just fashion. Look at a decorating, food, political, auto, childrens', etc. Look at everything, the ads,the editorials, fine print, the credits, the back page!
3. I GO ON A NATURE WALK. That's right. Go to a park or walk through a public forest to get your inspiration flowing. Look at how mother nature has created natural patterns in everything around you - leaves, bark, water ripples, cloud formations moss clumps, insects, footprints, etc. Take a look at the colors. How do they change throughout the different seasons? Do you see any eye candy or color blocking here?? 
4. I TAKE MY CAMERA OUT AND LET IT WORK FOR ME. Take pictures off your hip. Let the camera focus and see what comes on the screen. I really enjoy this when we go family outings. It saves a big hassle of stopping, framing and focusing. Look at the photos later and see what you find. I bet you will be surprised!
5. I COLOR WITH THE KIDS ?? Think outside of the box or get back to basics. How do you color? Do you outline and then color in? Do you mix colors? Do you shade? Do you make patterns in the clothing? What did you decide to color in and why? Did you see any items that could make a cool pattern? Modern, traditional, childish?

Try just one of these to spark your creativity. Tell me if it worked. Challenge yourself to think outside the box. Do the unusual.