quick spring project

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a beautiful Easter! I had an annoying cold last week, but fortunately I was better in time for the holidays! We've been having beautiful weather here and I was itching to make something spring-related. But with my energy-levels still low from the cold, it had to be something quick and simple.



Enter the trusty table runner ...! I had painted this small piece of linen some time ago. I had wanted to experiment a bit with painting on fabric and creating a simple pattern and this is what I came up with. I've been reading some books by Lotta Jansdotter and I think it shows!



The drawing was really easy and I love the combination of the dove grey and the linen. Also, I wanted the brush-strokes to be quite thin and transparent to emphasize that it was painted on by hand.



I simply straightened the sides of the fabric and sewed a narrow hem. I fringed the short sides to play on the handmade and imperfect theme a bit more.



This little runner in combination with these beautiful tulips was just the right thing to celebrate the arrival of spring!

Alice in the Candy Store - finished!

So, I finally finished the Alice Candy Store quilt! Actually, this is the first real quilt I've ever finished!!! Yay!!! (I've got one I've started a LONG time ago, still got to finish the quilting ... I'd like to finish it this year, it's one of my resolutions ...) I've also still got to hone my quilt photographing skills ... It's hard to get a good pic of the whole quilt, even though this one is only a small size.



I quilted it with red and black embroidery floss to go with the colour scheme. I like the diagonal quilting lines and the fact that the thread is sometimes blending in with the fabric and sometimes forming contrasting lines.



For the binding I used the same fabric as for the "frame" for the inner panel. I really like how it turned out. I've never sewn a binding like this and was a little nervous, but it was really fun. I followed the very clear instructions in this book and they made figuring this out very simple.



J. said some of the motifs say more "Las Vegas" than "Alice in Wonderland" ... Well, I ran out of ideas and the playing card motifs were just such a simple solution ... :-D



Can't get enough of that cute swallow!



For the backing I used the red Woodcut print from Innocent Crush. I had to add to the sides of the backing to make it wide enough. That print is so pretty, I'm glad I've got some of it left over!



Here's one motif I haven't shown you in my last post about the quilt. The making of this wasn't exactly a piece of cake, but I really enjoyed it and am proud of the outcome. This is such a nice pattern and I think this is a great beginner quilt!

If you want to take a look at the process posts about this quilt, you can find them here, here, here and here.

Have a great week! :-)

fabric love

This week has been going by so quickly again! I'm working on the Alice quilt binding, but haven't been making a sufficient amount of progress to merit taking pics ... We've been having some dreary weather here, so I'm cheering myself up with fabric (I might even have ordered some new fabric ... I think I'll have to put an embargo on myself ... Did that ever work for any of you?!).



I love this Hideaway print paired with the classic Westfalenstoffe print. It's such a folksy and happy combination. I'm thinking about making a little tunic out of these.



Another combo that would make a cute item of clothing for a little girl. The top print is Alexander Henry June Blooms, the other is Mod Dot.



This springtime pile consists of Kumari Garden Sacha, Innocent Crush Bubble Burst and a Bliss print. Fabric companies: if you want me to buy your stuff, just keep producing fabrics combining turquoise and green ... ;-)



I think this Habitat pile will turn into the next project for myself. I'd like to make a Jane Market Bag out of these. Have you seen the finalists of the Modern Madness on the Fat Quarterly blog? What a though one! I love both collections, they're so versatile and pretty. How about you?

With these bright fabrics and a video about another (even worse, if possible) fabric horder than me, I'd like to wish you a happy weekend! I hope I'll get some real sewing vs. dream sewing done!

Time flies

These last couple of weeks have been going by so quickly! I've been working a lot and my energy levels haven't been on their all-time high. I've worked on the Candy Store Alice quilt, though, and it's almost finished. I need to do a tiny little bit of quilting and then only add the binding ... I hope I can show you the finished quilt, soon! (And give it to our goddaughter ... Better late than never ...!)

Here are some more process shots of the quilting:



I've tried to come up with some motifs in tune with the Alice theme, so roses were top of the list. I drew the motifs straight on the fabric with a 2B pencil. I also tried to keep the drawings simple, so it wouldn't be too hard to quilt the outlines later.



A little bottle. I was thinking whether I should write "Drink me!" on the little label, but I think I'll leave it blank.



Please tell me this looks like a mushroom?! This was surprisingly hard to get right!



The butterfly is my favourite. So cute.

Here are some random things that made me smile during this last couple of weeks:

I scored some cool fabric on sale here. They still have some great fabrics left. The fabrics arrived and I'm so happy with them! Among them are some I've been lusting after for some time like this and this. I also got a yard of Innocent Crush velveteen and it's amazing! I bought the Maybe print with making something for one of the little girls in our circle in mind, but the width would probably allow me to make a skirt for myself instead ... Mmmmm ... Now I want more! :-D

I had a DVD-fest yesterday and I can only recommend this and this movie!!! Nothing like some good comedies on a gray day!

Have you seen this?!!!! I was speechless when I first stumbled upon it on Amazon! I'm not sure what to think, but it's a great mixture of crazy and amazing - acrazing ...?! :-D

As is this, my favourite ever youtube video! It's a classic, so you might have seen it, but anyway, here it is (sorry for the bad quality, but it's genius anyway):



Have a great weekend!!!