Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Monkey's Christmas Present

Finally, I can show you what I made for the Monkey. I wanted to make a quilt using fabrics with pin-ups on them but as I couldn't find any I liked I had to design my own and had them printed on spoonflower.com.

I used images of Bettie Page, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and more and had swatches printed to use as centre pieces in the quilt blocks. I also used fabrics that show doodles I did by hand and then played with on spoonflower. This is the result with a black white and red colourstory which has a certain significance to us.

The back is made in a similar design but using Kaffe Fassett fabrics in jewel colours instead.

(Very sorry for the bad quality pictures, I took them on the iPhone and they didn't turn out very well. The colours on the back are more purple, turquoise and black rather than red as in the photos. My digital camera isn't much better than the iPhone actually, especially in bad lighting conditions. Shame you can't see what we see.)


I hope you like it.

Love. Nadine














Thursday, 23 December 2010

What I'm working on

I have been really slow lately and haven't been able to do much quilting. But now my flight home have been cancelled and I am staying in England with Monkey's family over the holidays I might as well do something productive.

This is another reversible quilt-as-you-go project with Amy Butler on one side and Far Far Away 1 on the other. I am experimenting a bit again anc will try to see if I can do it without having to use sashing. Let's see if it works.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and a relaxing holiday, oh and not to forget: may you have lots of beautiful fabric in your stockings :)

Merry Christmas!

Love, Nadine


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Thursday, 2 December 2010

Leonie's Pencil Roll






Hurrah. Another Christmas pressie finished. This one if for Monkey's niece Leonie and I think she will really love it. She paints and draws all the time and to my shame I have to admit she's shown me off a few times. Her artwork is very creative and a lot less confined compared to mine. Maybe I am showing my age there.

I saw a similar pencil case on Oh Fransson! and thought I should try it. It is very straight forward and one doesn't need a pattern for it. I am very happy with the result and think it turned out quite nicely for a first try.

I am thinking of making more of these and maybe selling them in my etsy shop once I have one. I could also personalize them if customers wish it. Hopefully in the new year, well, that's the plan anyway.

I hope you like it.

Love, Nadine


Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Thursday, 11 November 2010

No such thing as too many stockings

Another pair of Christmas stockings. This time I used red velvet for the lining. Feels great.

I have no idea who will get these but I am sure I can find a lucky recipient. Most people will receice handmade gifts this year and one can never have too many stockings.

More to come.

Love, Nadine










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Monday, 8 November 2010

Blush in the Fields

The latest quilt took me less than a month to make and I am really happy with it. It's another quilt-as-you-go-quilt and I am really getting into the flat neat quilted effect it creates.










The back








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Friday, 29 October 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010


Amy's Bridges

And the back: Fassett Bridges


I can't believe it's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival already, time flies.

This Quilt is one of my favorites at the moment, because it happened by accident rather than good planning, just like the best of my quilts usually happen by accident actually.

It is a handmade reversible quilt and the top is called Amy's Bridges and the back is called Fassett Bridges. I still don't own a machine and am still trying to decide whether I should buy one or not.

Making this quilt was an accident because I had some strips of fabric I had no room for and needed to use them up in a quick and simple quilt. I had bought a number of storage drawers for my fabric stash, reorganizing the sewing room completely but realized my fabric was too big for the drawers. It was so neatly folded I didn't want to refold it so I decided to cut strips off and use them instead.

YES, I do feel guilty for cutting into my beautiful fabric just because it didn't FIT. Maybe that shows my obsessive nature. But the result makes up for the little transgression.



same design on the back:


I cut into my whole stash of Amy Butler fabrics and had a really hard time deciding what to do with them. I even asked my blog followers for advice and ended up with a very simple design I call the 'Bridges' pattern. It looks a bit like a stacked coin design and may well have some other name for all I know.

I used strips of Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I also had to cut off in order to fit the fabrics into the storage drawers and used them on the back. (I think I have several quilt snow made with fabrics I had to cut when I reorganized the sewing room.) I used the same pattern on the front and back of the quilts in order to make sure the quilting doesn't look too out of place on the back. Didn't work as well as I hoped, oh well.

I decided to use straight line quilting, my favorite.

The problem with having two sided quilts and hand quilting them, hand sewing everything in fact, is that the quilting on the back never looks absolutely right.

Maybe I am too much of a perfectionist and the appeal of handmade items are those quirky imperfections (???)

Would love to hear your thoughts on that, quilters and friends.

I just don't know how to deal with that once I decide to sell some quilts. Will have to give it a proper think.

close ups:










close ups, quilting on the back








Hope you like it.

Love, Nadine

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Wordless Wednesday








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What the postman brings

Hurrah! My lovely gifts have arrived. Check out these amazing colors. Thanks Marjorie!




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Saturday, 23 October 2010

Not long now!

The first few Christmas items are finished. No idea who will get them yet but I am glad I started early this year.

My first 2 Christmas Stockings













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Thursday, 21 October 2010

Charlotte's Quilt



I made this quilt for the cutest little angel who was born exactly one month ago.

I haven't actually met Charlotte yet but I am sure it can only be a matter of time.

I tried to make this quilt a bit softer and fluffier than my usual quilts. I hope Lottie will like it.



The back



Sitting on top of mom Rebecca's quilt



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