Monday 25 March 2013

Kaffe Fasset Happy Houses

The Happy Village quilt is finished!  It was so much fun to make.  One of our local quilt shops posted a picture on her face book page of this quilt which appeared many years ago in a book by Flavin Glover.  I had seen that quilt in that book years ago and it didn't call to me then.  But, with the colours that were posted on face book, I fell in love with it and thought it would be perfect to do with some of my leftover Kaffe Fasset fabrics.  I did not make a dent in them!!  I'll have to think of more projects to make with my leftovers LOL.  Here is the finished Happy Houses wallhanging: 

 I quilted wavy lines from left to right as suggested in Jacquie Gering's book, Quilting Modern


I used a purple and blue batik for the sky:


A bit of a closeup of the wavy lines.  I think they look like the wind blowing through my village :-)

The houses on the bottom row have doors:


I found the perfect fabric for the back at the Marsh Store.


A few people asked about the size of the strips and the pattern.  Here is the book that has the original pattern...mine is a couple rows narrower than the original.  The quilt is about 37" square in the book and uses 1" strips.  The windows are pieced into the block and are the centers of the blocks.  Here is the webpage of the author, Flavin Glover.  There are pictures of some of the other quilts in the book here as well and you can order the book via the webpage.


This is a picture of the original quilt in the book:


Monday 11 March 2013

Some tablerunners

January and February have been busy months with trying to catch up on some UFO's (unfinished objects :-).  Table runners have been a great way to try out some fun new quilting techniques.  I purchased Jacquie Gering's book, Modern Quilts, and have been having fun experimenting with some of the ideas in the book and from her blog.  Here is the snowman table runner I made probably two years ago and finally got it on my table 10 days before Spring LOL.  At least it will be ready for next year for the whole winter season.  It goes well with the knitted snowmen my daughter in law made me for Christmas:

 

Aren't these snowmen cute?




 the quilting



 These tablerunners are very quick with a border print and a 60 degree ruler:


I made a narrow table runner with the matching snowman fabric for the china cabinet in our kitchen.  The snowmen look great there as well :-)


I did some straight line quilting along the sides of this runner:


The cabinet was made by my friend's father and we stained it and applied the varathane and handles to match the kitchen cabinets.


My collection of Dutch and English coffee/tea and related tins are displayed on the top


I inherited my Mom's dishes after she passed away last year and they look very nice in this cabinet


The teapot and cream and sugar are my favourite:


Don't the snowmen look happy?  The left snowman lost her hat on the way to the photo session :-)


I also finished a table runner for fall, so I'm ahead.  This was done with Cheryl Phillips ruler and a Kaffe Fasset fabric.  


 It's a little hard to see on the photo, but I quilted lines about 1/4" apart in the floral areas echoing the curved insets.  On the brown part, I quilted lines back and forth which was a lot of quilting, but gave it a really neat texture (if you click on the photo, it will enlarge to see the quilting better):


I took a class awhile ago on the folded log cabin.  this was a fun project as well and will be the fall runner for the cabinet above.  I feel so organized :-) to be ready for fall LOL
Closeups of the blocks:



 
I guess I'd better get moving and make some Spring table runners!