Bag No.64 - Birds

Some time ago, my dear quilting friend Alena asked me to make a bag for her. She herself is a very creative person, a very experienced quilter with a great sense of colour. She sews beautiful big quilts and quilts them on her Bernina quilting machine. On the other hand, she doesn´t feel much for small projects like zipper pockets or bags, therefore she never has sewn a bag for herself. As well as being delighted and almost proud of being asked to sew a bag for her, I was also a bit anxious. Would I find the right colours, the right pattern for her? After long thinking, finding ideas, and rejecting them again, I finally found an idea that I liked. Like many times before I was inspired by the bird pictures of Christine Robinson. Three of them were finally chosen to be transformed into appliqué. I´m still suffering from the pain of joints on my hands, therefore I decided to combine machine quilting (background), machine-sewn raw edge appliqué (plants), and hand-sewn needle turn appliqué and embroidery (birds and embellishment of plants).

Today, the handles were attached and tomorrow the birds are going to fly to their new owner. I hope Alena will like them and the bag too. 

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Golden Fish

I bought some Tula Pink fabrics a few weeks ago. Tula Pink fabric is something, that you admire and play with first, then you add it to your stash and admire it again and again, and only when you really must, you cut into it at last. And so it was with those fabrics too.  I was thinking about a special gift for my great English teacher and looked through my fabric treasures to find something exceptional. Holding Tula Pink fabric with golden fish in my hand I realized, that I had found the right one. A golden fish that can fulfill three wishes!

The fish was a great motif for the centre of the star block I learned at the end of the year, and there were exactly the right shades of Grunge fabrics in my stash, so I was able to start sewing immediately.

The way I sew the star blocks produces two blocks in one go, which I like very much.

For Věrka, I chose the brighter one:  

On the back, I used the selvages of Grunge fabrics, I love them!

I finally decided to try a new way to make a zipper pouch. It turned out very nice. 

I had to cut off a piece of the bright back panel at a certain moment. The piece was so beautiful and cheerfully colorful that I didn't have the heart to just throw it away. After some thinking, I made a tag using an inscription from the selvage of a Cori Dantini fabric. 

 

The other panel was changed into a cute zipper pouch in a classical way. 

Woow, a nice first project of the New Year, isn’t it?

Happy sewing

Michaela 

Last Project of 2023

 

 

Like every quilter I have many plans, unfortunately, not all of them fit into the time I can spend sewing. At a certain moment, I have to decide what I can possibly manage in the old year and what the first project of the following year becomes. The last (finished) project of the year 2023 became a Christmas gift for my brother´s family.

Terry Runyan is one of my favourite authors and her book “Painting Happiness” belongs to jewels on my bookshelf. This autumn I was able to buy even three panels with animal motifs by her: cats, dogs, and also elephants.  The most of them I used to make New Year’s cards, but some cats of the Cosmo Cats panel I saved for placemats I wanted to sew for my brother. As they are cat lovers, the cat motifs were a clear decision.  

 

Only a short time ago I ordered a stockpile of Grunge by Moda Fabrics (a huge thank to patchworkcz.cz)  and some shades of yellow, blue, and grey went very well with the cat motifs.

I wanted to use the cats as center of uneven stars I have never sewn before… My experience with improve quilting is actually zero, but I decided, it was time to find out. I must admit, it was a fight. The first two pieces I saw in a very clumsy manner, there were many pieces of the precious Moda Fabrics left. 

Then finally I started to think. There must be another cleverer way to do it and finally, I found out! The outcome was perfect, there were two stars sewn in one go in inverse colours, which was even more interesting than my original plan. 

On the other hand, I found out that I ran out of fabric. In the very end, I had to patch even very small pieces together to finish the last mat. As I said before, it was a fight:)  

 

I quilted on my Japanese mate Baby Lock Sashiko in a classical way and made a contrasting black and white binding.

 

Happy sewing in 2024  to all of you!

Michaela

 

 

Bag No.62 - In the Garden

In the early spring 2022, I worked on a small series of quilts for the PPM Quilt Show Brno called „Fields, Meadows and Gardens“. I started only in January and the time was really short as the PPM Quilt Show takes place traditionally in April. I counted days, even hours which I could spend on one quilt. Fortunately, I was able to stick to the time schedule and I worked even faster so I had plenty of time for the last quilt. It was the quilt I called „In the Garden“. I had no thorough plan, I just let my fingers work. The plants grew under my hands and got buds and flowers. I enjoyed the work enormously, I liked the outcome then and I still do.

After being shown at some exhibitions, the quilt came back home. Therefore I could fulfill my colleague's wish to make her daughter a bag from this quilt. I liked working with the quilt again and I especially love the fact that the quilt will be „exhibited“ every day when carrying the books to school.

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Christmas Preparations 2023

 

I love Advent time. I love lighting up candles, meeting friends, filling advent calendars with sweets, preparing small gifts for friends and colleagues, and making greeting cards. (Yes, we are old-fashioned and still send handmade cards by post…). I love the house smelling like gingerbread. 

I happened to get some beautiful Christmas and winter panels by Anni Downs, Cori Dantini, and Anita Jeram. All of them are absolutely cute and inviting for adding patchwork, embroidery, quilting an embellishing. There is not surprising that I planned sewing wall hanging advent calendars with them. Nevertheless my planes were revealed far too optimistic and clashing with my work duties, therefore I decided to lay them aside for next year (I should definitely start much earlier than in October) and sew some advent bags only. I used motifs by Anni Downs and Dear Stella, appliquéd on linen. They turned out quite nicely. 

In November I took part in a nice project of Bohemia Patchwork Club. All members were asked to sew five Christmas ornaments in classical Christmas colours. Almost 300 ornaments were then sent to the exhibition ground Brno, where they decorated a Christmas tree with them. It is a kind of invitation to the international quilt exhibition PPM Quilt Show Brno. 

Here is my contribution:

I used the EPP Pattern "Kamener Geflecht" by Regina Grewe.

For our colleagues and friends, I made small cushions filled with wool fleece and spice – cinnamon and cloves. They are great to use as key fobs but they look nice on Christmas trees. They are great to use them as key fobs but they look nicely also on Christmas tree.

Happy advent time!

Michaela 

Rainbow Star Pillow

When leaving for holiday, I like to take hand-sewing projects with me, like every quilter. This time I chose for a nice rainbow star pattern I bought some time ago, the  „Staggered Star“ by Kirsty Lea  (Quiet Play), which originally is a foundation paper pattern. 

In no time it was turned into EPP pattern and the templates were cut. Choosing the right fabric scraps took actually longer than I expected, it´s not that easy! I followed the colour scheme by Kirsty and it turned out very nice. The rainbow pieces went everywhere with me, I stitched even in the car (well, yes, only on highways). At the end of the holiday, the star was finished and ready for appliqué on a background. I planned a beige or black background but it somehow didn´t look well. Then my eye fell on a fabric with a newspaper pattern and I knew, it was the right one. I appliquéd the star by hand and quilted it on BabyLock Sashiko machine. The outcome is amazing, I love the star and the pillow. Next week, it will be handed over to my friends who are freshly married!

The pattern is really amazing, I´m planning to re-sew it again, maybe even more times. 

Happy stitching!

Michaela 

Pockets everywhere you look

 

Looking back to the past two months, I was actually a busy bee. I started (and finished) an EPP rainbow project (more in my next blog), I started two Halloween bags and I made a number of zipper pockets. Let´s start with the overview of the pockets!

Pink is actually not my favorite color. Nevertheless, when I saw the pink, winged piglets, I couldn’t resist buying them. And what other colour to decorate them with if not pink?

In the meantime, I fell in love with fabrics by Heather Ross. I couldn’t wait for her new fabrics with those cute bunnies to arrive! It was the clear first choice when sewing a pouch for my daughter´s birthday (she chose the blue one).

 

I finally found time to play with the beautiful fabrics from the series Here Kitty Kitty by Cori Dantini. What a great joy! I love the motifs and the fine colors very much. I enjoyed the embellishing and embroidering immensely. 

I was a busy bee, wasn´t I?

Happy stitching

Michaela