Our friendship quilt is finally finished. Its story is here. I told you how terrified I was when I washed the quilt; well, lots of worries for nothing. The quilt is perfectly flat and the sphere is almost perfect. The sphere measures 80'' and the difference between the horizontal and vertical diameter is 1/8'' (but a little more on other diameters). Mihaela named this quilt "Together in a … [Read more...]
About Friendship
I have just a few quilting friends here in Romania but they are good friends. I met them years ago and since then we share the passion for quilting. I still have the first message Sanda sent me back in 2005. Silvia and Ortansa live in the same town and they visited me a few years later. Mihaela was my first Romanian customer. Ela is an old friend, we shared a lot while we were part of a larger … [Read more...]
WIP- Hexy Cubes
In the last weeks I kept this project hidden in a box - I thought I don't have time for it. But you don't know when a sister comes, demanding :"I want to stitch hexagons, I have only 30 minutes, let's stitch!". So yesterday I cut some hexagon templates and fabric and now I have made some progress- I added the dark grey hexies; 100 more hexies and I will finish it. I keep thinking how to quilt … [Read more...]
Whip stitch by machine
Because most of the time you can find me using the sewing machine, I tried to make English Paper Piecing faster. I basted the fabric to paper templates with glue and instead of stitching the pieces by hand, I whip stitched them by machine. I placed the pieces right sides together and stitched the edges with a very narrow and dense zig-zag stitch. Yes, it was faster than stitching by hand. … [Read more...]
Thread for English Paper Piecing
Last year, when I stitched the hexagon quilt, I wasn't concerned about the thread used for hand piecing the hexagons together; I had many colors of a cotton thread and I tried to piece the hexagons with matching thread. But for our group quilt, we want the stitching be invisible. This is not easy to achieve if you don't have the proper thread. One of my friends told me about the silk … [Read more...]
Basting fabric to paper
I am disappointed by the bad pictures I took last night, but I like to have some "work in progress" pictures of our group quilt. These are the pieces basted by me and my 3 sisters. As always- it is great to have sisters (and many!); I don't know what they love more: to help me or to baste hexagons! You wouldn't say, but here there are almost 700 pieces. Some of them needed a lot of … [Read more...]
I gained more sisters…
... or the challenging project of 2013. After the meeting with my Romanian quilting friends, we decided that it is the time to work together on a group project. And after my wonderful experience of working with my sisters for this quilt, I thought that would be great to repeat it. The only difference will be that there will be more sisters involved! And the pattern will be different! So I … [Read more...]
Another Kind of Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt
Never say "NEVER"! Fabrics, patterns and colors I did not like at all a few years ago are now my favorites. Techniques I thought I would never be able to do or enjoy, are now my favorites. The quilt below is the proof. Our tastes change and I love this. I finished this quilt and I enjoyed so much working on it. Size: 38''x38'' ( the flower sphere measures 30'' ); at this size, it … [Read more...]
Another kind of Grandmother’s Flower Garden
I can't believe what I am about to write: "A 200 piece English paper pieced quilt is a quick project!" Here is my latest quilt top. It's a cloudy day here and I am disappointed that I can't take better pictures. The colors are brighter than in these pictures. I enjoyed so much to make it... and I am thinking about new designs and fabric combinations. Here is … [Read more...]