SewCalGal fmq challenge 2013 finished!

When I started sewing again in December 2012 I did not know anything about quilting. When I was  sewing a beautiful dress for one of my granddaughters I had a lot of troubles with my 45 year old old sewing machine. I bought a new machine a Husqvarna Emerald 183 for 300 euro. I loved all the new possibilities  and the sound of my new machine. I looked at a lot of blogs and websites about sewing and found websites with quilts and I was hooked. After a while I wanted to know more of machine quilting and I found Leah Day's blog and I was hooked again but now to free motion quilting. I bought cotton in a lot of colors and a lot of black cotton and started free motion quilting and blogging. I finished in May my first quilt with more than 465 quilt patterns. I quilted for four weeks to fi nish it. At least it is colorful and the quilting is not too bad!


Toen ik in december 2012 na jaren weer begon met naaien, wist ik niets van quilten. Na een hoop ergenis bij het naaien van een jurk voor een kleindochter, kocht ik een nieuwe naaimachine,. Het werd een Husqvarna Emerald 183 voor 300 euro en ik zette mijn 45 jaar oude Husqvarna 2000 in een hoek. Wat een nieuwe mogelijkheden! Wat een heerlijk geluid! Ik keek op blogs en websites over naaien en maakte kennis met quilts. Ik wilde meer weten van machine quilten en vond Leah Days website. Ik was direct verslaafd. Ik kocht katoen in allerlei kleuren en een vooral veel zwart. Zo ontstond mijn eerst quilt met meer dan 465 verschillende quiltpatronen. Ik heb er vier weken over gedaan.
Het is in ieder geval een kleurrijke quilt en het quilten uit de vrije hand is niet al te slecht!

My first quilt inspired by Leah Day!

I wanted to learn more free motion quilting. Not only new patterns. That is I think why Laeh's quilt alongs and exersizes  did not appeal to me anymore. I wanted to learn more about fmq and found the SewCalGal fmq challenge 2013. All those tutorials from expert free motion quilters. Free motion quilting in different techniques and in different styles. It was also fun to watch the work of these expert free motion quilters and to read their tutorials. After finishing the tutorials I had the confidence to fmq. All the friendly comments on this blog helps too! But I have still a lot to learn and to found my way!

Om me verder te bekwamen in het quilten uit de vrije hand moest ik op zoek naar nieuwe uitdagingen. Niet alleen nieuwe patroontjes leren. De quilt alongs en lessen van Leah boeiden me niet meer, Een cursus in Nieuwegein was een enorme teleurstelling. Maar ik vond de website van 'SewCalGal challenge 2013': een verzameling tutorials van expert machine quilters met allerlei verschillende technieken en stijlen. Het was alleen al een ervaring om kennis te maken met al het werk van deze geweldige quilters! Na het maken van de opdrachten had ik meer zelfvertrouwen om op mijn manier te quilten uit de vrije hand. Alle positieve opmerkingen van de lezers van mijn blog, hebben daar ook aan bij gedragen. Maar ik moet nog veel leren en mijn eigen stijl vinden.

This post is an overview of all the assignments I made for the fmq challenge the past month!

Dit bericht is een overzicht van al het werk dat ik voor de fmq challenge heb gemaakt.

Challenge # 1 2013: Libby Lehman's ribbon

#1 Came to piece: This piece get lost somewhere

#2 Unawareness AAQI 14,849

Piece to replace #1 Came to piece:  AAQI 14.527

2013 FMQ Challenge #2 - AAQI Pieces

A beautiful card I received in the swap!

I card I send far away in the swap!

Another card that is on his way far away!

Challenge #4 Postcards

Challenge #5 - It's All About Borders, with Patsy Thompson

Januari challenge: Francis Moore

 

February challenge: Diane Gaudynski

March challenge: Anne Vahl (fillers)

April challenge: Don Linn

 May challenge: Lea Day (fillers)

Julne challenge 2012 Cindy Needham

July challenge, Angela Waters tile design with nine other challenges!

August challenge: Wendy Sheppard, Jester Hat

September challenge: Paula Reid

I had no tulle, but this worked as well!

October challenge: Teri Lucas

November challenge: Sarah Vedeler: Swirls

December chalenge is challenge # 5 2013 All about borders




Bonus challenge #2

Fabric used this week  0.5 yards

Fabric used year to date  27 yards

Fabric added this week  4 yards

Fabric added year to date  47,5 yards

                                           Netto added this year 20 yards



It is so nice of you stopping by, I love to hear from everyone of you, so please feel free to leave a comment.
If you have a question I will try and respond via e-mail. Please make sure your blogger profile is linked to your e-mail, otherwise I wont be able to e-mail you back.

If you need to reach me feel free to e-mail me: maartjequilt@gmail.com

Thanks so much for reading

Keep quilting!

Maartje Quilt
Amsterdam

Pleasant surprise, quilt along and hyperquilting

Surprise, surprise! My daughter and her daughter came to visit us yesterday. I planned to sew, but was so glad they came! I met them at the station. We took the ferry over the river IJ and had a cup of coffee at a terrace with view over the river IJ with all the boats. The terrace is next to the ferry on the picture. So Salijn, my grand daughter, could watch all the boats on the river and I could talk with my daughter, Rose. 

Verrassing! Mijn dochter en kleindochter kwamen vandaag. I heb ze van het centraal gehaald en we hebben koffie gedronken op het terras van Café De Pont naast de pont in Amsterdam Noord.

 

We had a lot of plans but time flies and they had to go home. It was so good to have them with us. So I have little sewn yesterday. I finished in the evening a sampler with hyper quilted feathers and bananas filler.

Het was fijn dat ze er waren maar wat vliegt dan de tijd. Dus voor we het wisten moesten ze alweer naar huis. Ik heb dus weinig naaiwerk gedaan gisteren. Ik kon neg net ś avonds deze proeflap met een hyper geguilte veer afmaken. Ik heb een banaanpatroon als vuller gebruikt. Makkelijk te naaien. Je kan steeds alle kanten op en sluit jezelf dus niet snel op. Ook is het patroon goed gelijkmatig te houden!

I love the bananas filler. It is easy to sew this filler and it forgiving. Easy to change direction, so little chance to be locked up. I will post a tutorial next week. I have to sew another sampler to make it a gift! I am not sure to sew the second in blue too or another color.

Second finish today is the third block for the Aiming for accuracy quilt along.

Ook heb ik een derde blok genaaid voor de Quilt Along die bedoeld is om accuraat te leren blokken te naaien.

For me it will be a scrappy quilt. The blocks are getting better and better. One thing I learned is the importance of squaring a block after sewing. Every time I had to trim a little, before piecing a block or triangle to another piece. Not every corner is 100% all right. When something is wrong, I try each seam three times and then I leave it as it is. In The Netherlands we say: 'The fun should continue!"

My piecing is improving and the last blocks of this quilt along need to be perfect!

Het wordt voor mij een quilt van lapjes die ik bij elkaar graai uit mijn doos met restlapjes. En inderdaad leer je met de tutorials beter quilten. Het blok is zeker niet perfect. Na twee keer uithalen, haal ik niets meer uit. Het moet leuk blijven! De laatste blokken van de quilt along moeten wel perfect zijn. Inmiddels heb ik wel geleerd om de blokken steeds op maat te snijden voor ik ze aan een ander lapje naai.

I made another mistake today. I pieced the biggest block of the sew along. When I finished,it was not the block of the quilt along! I made my own creation! I pieced the wrong squares together because I thought I could do it without the tutorial. So wrong! So I made 3! doll quilts out of the block and tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow I will follow the tutorial step by step to finish the right block.

Vandaag heb ik het vierde en grootste blok geprobeerd te naaien, maar toen het blok zag het er anders uit dan moest. Morgen doe ik dat over en dan lees ik het voorschrift goed. Ik heb van de blokken  drie!poppenquilts voor mijn kleindochters gemaakt. Het is dus een enorm groot blok.

Stippling with loops. An easy filler. Fun to stitch.

Loops and flowers filler

My stippling improved a lot and it is going easy!

I love free motion quilting the little quilts, but it is a lot of work piecing and binding fore 15 minutes of free motion quilting fun! There is a lot to do before my quilt along top is finished, but I like the idea of fm quilting a big quilt!

Het was leuk om de poppenquiltjes te quilten, maar het is bij elkaar veel werk voor 15 minuutjes quilten uit de vrije hand. Ik verheug me nu al op het quilten van de veel grotere quilt van de quilt along!

It is so nice of you for stopping by, I love to hear from everyone of you, so please feel free to leave a comment.

If you have a question I will try and respond via e-mail. Please make sure your blogger profile is linked to your e-mail, otherwise I wont be able to e-mail you back.

If you need to reach me feel free to e-mail me at maartjequilt@gmail.com

Thanks so much for reading

Keep quilting!

Maartje Quilt
Amsterdam

More practice and sampler for a new quilt!

Nice weather every day this week!  I hope it is the beginning of the summer in The Netherlands finally! It has been cold!


I finished a few things this week.

1.My first inchies.
I want to make inchies in every color of the rainbow and than make something funny for my granddaughter.
I started with no idea what to do. What can you do with a inch? A lot when I look at inchies on the Internet. I was busy all afternoon with practice quilting on my purple samplers and thought why not micro quilting on a micro quilt? So did: McTavish, stipling, paisley and a wavy raster. It was fun to do!But it is more fun when my Husqvarna finally learns how to do a decent satin stitch!

 

 2. I have two big pieces (90 inch x 95 inch) of purple and violet Egyptian cotton. I bought it on sale together with four smaller pieces (35 inch x 45 inch) to make practice samplers. The smaller pieces I already used for are already samplers and a my 'Look' wall hanging. 
I always find it difficult to cut a big piece in smaller pieces, but I cut four sampler place mats for my stock of presents.

The color of the place mats is purple not blue. I do not get the color right with my IPhone camera.

Another try for SewCalGal free motion quilting challenge 2012 (bonus 2). I did this on a smaller scale  before. For this challenge you need a picture with a strong, obvious pattern and a sandwich. I just draw the pattern on the sampler. I will quilt another one and trace the pattern. Just see the difference and to make a pair.

When I want to relax I quilt feathers, just free motion:

I just gave these two placemats to my sister in law, she was very happy with them.
The pattern of next piece is a  feather of the sketchbook of Luann Kessi  on Pinterest. She has many beautiful feathers and other patterns. I want to try one of her here lovely feathers. I  think the scale of the petals is wrong and the yellow thread I used for the hyper quilting is a bad choice as well. So I do not give this away and put it on my  my pile of rejected place mats. I use this pile to iron seams!
I like the feather in the spine. I will try this feather and other feathers of Luann on a smaller scale.

3. A new idea for a quilt with micro-quilting: Look #2: At the beach

I want to sew another 'Look' quilt with micro quilting. For me a 'Look' whole cloth is a wall hanging with a lot to discover when you look close to the quilt. Like my first  This time I want to sew the beach with the sea and sky. Shells on the beach, fish in the sea and birds in the sky. Of course with a few funny things: a jumping dolphin, a shark fin, c a crab crawling .....
I started with a sampler this week. Trying to learn quilting shells and fillers with very tiny shells. In the Netherlands we do not have stones on the beach, so no pebbling on my beach quilt.
I gathered a lot of shells on Pinterest and draw a lot of them in my sketchbook. My husband will see me drawing a lot next weeks. I want to do some fantasy shells as well.
I tried the first shells and micro fillers on a first sampler. I had to make some other samplers to find the strong shells and patterns for the quilt I want to make.:

A lot to improve! The strongest patterns I will use for Look II: At the beach
A will change my method of binding. This is not OK!

And there is still my list with wips and ufo's. I have add the Look II: At the beach quilt Next week I must  finish another thing on the list. I think one of the play quilts, because in a few weeks it is the birthday of our two granddaughters.

My quiult WIP's for next week:

1. Posting the Giraffe pattern.
2. Look #2: At the beach
3. A doll quilt for my granddaughter Salijn.
4. I already pieced the top of two ladders and snakes play quilts for my granddaughters. I want to applique the snakes, ladders and numbers. Also two big dices. The play quilts must be ready before their birthdays in Augustus and September.
5. Two more red place mats for my daughter in law. So I can give it to her the next time we go to see them.
6. The fabrics for two more Balloon baby quilts are cut weeks ago. This week one finish. The one I will give to my youngest daughter when she finally can tell me she is pregnant. 

Enough to do

Keep quilting!

Maartje Quilting in Amsterdam