This, that and another one

This is a first of a series of quilts I am planning called "... and circles". I would like to explore the circle in combination with lots of other shapes. This one is approximately 25cm by 25cm.

This is one of the larger quilts I started while my Janome was gone for repair (she is back and is working better than ever). It´s made of lots of fat quarters I bought years ago and never found a project to use them for. I know the colours are a bit too wildly mixed, but I had to use them up and this is going to be a nice quilt for the winter when sitting in front of the tv. Back will be all black fabrics, so no way to take a decent photo.

And this is the starting point for another pincushion. This time it will be constructed of 15 of these small squares, all different in design. Wish me luck this won´t end as an UFO!

Trying Pojagi style stitching

A while ago Victoria posted a great tutorial on her blog about sewing Pojagi style with the machine and here is my first try on this technique. It´s a bit wiggly woggly, but I like the overall look and although the fabric is yellow in reality and it is difficult to take a good photo against a window I think you can get the idea.
Thanks Victoria for this tutorial!

2 new pieces

"Singled out"

This is a small quilt hand- and machine stitched, all cotton fabrics. It measures 23cm x 23cm.

My Janome sewingmachine is broken and is being repaired right now (at least I hope so) and I dug out my old Pfaff. Boy, do I love my Janome. Although I have to admit that the Pfaff is a bit better in straight piecing. The lines are better and the 2 pieces of fabric aren´t moving at all while sewing. But quilting really was a nightmare and I hope my Janome will be back soon.
I did some piecing over the last few days, so I can start quilting right away.


And here is a new small Canvaswork pincushion. The colours are brighter in reality, but I couldn't get the photo to show it correct. It' about 7cm x 7cm.

Small woven piece

A small woven piece with handstitching. It´s a bit too large for a pincushion, so I`m not sure yet what to do next. I saw small cushions called friendship cushions somewhere on the net a while ago and I think that is a good idea for this size. I´m slowly getting used to this sort of handstitching and the lines are becoming clearer and straighter. I like lines and although I also like the wavy look of kantha stitching this straight line is more "me".

Weaving and Baby Quilt

I joined an online class with Jude from Spirit Cloth and it is about various ways of weaving fabric strips into a piece of cloth. This is my first attempt put together from leftover strips from another project. Not sure how to go on from here, but it was fun using up the strips and creating such a vibrant piece of cloth.

Yesterday I have been to a local quilt shop and found a leaflet about a project from Save the children. It is all about creating blankets for babys to make sure they are safe and warm in their first months on this planet. The blankets can be knitted, crocheted or sewn and will then be sent to poor families all over the planet. Germany and Australia are taking part in this project and I just cut up 2 pieces of fabric for one quilt.

Canvaswork pincushion

I´ve been going through a non-creative time, starting various projects, not finishing a single one cause they all felt wrong one or another way. So I decided to start learning new stitches and following a pattern. And it was fun and it took me only 3 days to finish this little pincushion.
The threads are from my stash, so it has two different sides. I really didn´t expect it to turn out that nice, so I think I will start another one today. I have so many beautiful threads in my stash and it is a shame they aren´t used.
Finished size is approximately 7x7cm and I almost broke my fingers stitching both sides together...

I won !!!

Can´t believe that I am the lucky winner of those lovely handpainted pieces of fabric created by Fannie.
Thanks Fannie for offering this wonderful Giveaway!

Phantasia - finally a sunny day

Phantasia 34cm x 39cm / 13" by 15 1/2"

I finished "Phantasia" a few days ago but had to wait for a little bit of sunshine to take photos of it. I really like this piece and it is the first one I did with handstitching only. I started out with no plan and it evolved slowly but without hesitation. I love the colours as they symbolize spring and life to me right now. The title "Phantasia" just popped up one night while working on it. Don´t know why, maybe I´ll find out one day. I often understand the reason why a certain piece has it´s name much later when I look at it again.
I had a dreadful time finding a way to mount it cause there is no batting or anything else to hold the cloth in shape. All you see is all there is. I finally decided to sew it to a piece of gessoed canvas. The canvas is slightly smaller than the cloth, so you don´t see it but it holds the cloth nicely in shape. 2 Eyelets in the canvas make it easy to hang on a wall.

Healing Canvas

18cm x 24cm acrylic on canvas

The weekend has been filled with lots of anger and bad feelings and I had to get all this out of my system. So I took a canvas, covered it with red paint and then wrote down all the feelings I had. I let got and it felt so good. Then I started painting without a plan. Just adding colours and shapes and this is how it looks now. I really like it. It is the complete opposite to the feelings that are written down beneath it.

And some progress here:
Same colours as the canvas above. Waving "Hello" to the subconcious...

Another exercise in acrylics

Did this exercise last night. It is about variations in shape and it was very interesting to see it evolve. No matter where you look at the shapes lead your eyes back to the center. No way to focus an outer area longer, cause the eye always wanders back. I love that. The exercises from this book seem to be very simple, but I really learned a lot so far. And I learn how the paint reacts and how the brushes work. I knew I would love painting with acrylics, but I love it even more with every little exercise I make. I hope I can translate some of it into fabric work.

New direction and another WIP

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions on the stitched piece from last post. I did some stitching yesterday evening and introduced some new colours. It´s a greenish blue and a yellowish orange and I think that might help and get me further. I will add some beads and see how this looks later today. Need daylight to get the colours right.
Thanks again for your help!

And this is a sneak peek on another piece I am working on. All fused and machine stitched so far but still a lot of stitching to do. I bought this fabric by Sherill Kahn years ago and never dared to cut it up. But I so love the colours that I now started and think it might be a nice little quilt for spring.

Undecided

This is a piece I started years ago. It is a piece of loosely woven cotton painted with Lumiere paint. Then machine and handstitched all in purple and pinks.
I found it last week in a pile of UFO´s and started stitching again, but I really don´t feel like this is worth it. I like the colours, but it lacks contrast and I don´t know how to make it better. Maybe I´ll cut it up for some postcards? Should I add beads? Maybe in complementary colours?
What do you do with a piece that seems wrong? I don´t think I want to put it away for another few years, but am hesitant to throw it away.