Oma's Blues, Kekfesto cotton and other blues = new large project

I love blue and white quilts, but I had never found a design I really wanted to make. Until now.

Oma's Blues is a new free BOM, which Ester Aliu released on her blog this month. 

If you click on the link above, you will see what I mean.

It is incredibly generous of her to share her design with us free, and typically of Esther, it is so beautiful.
The minute I saw it on her blog, I knew I want to make this quilt, although mine will be somewhat smaller, because I want to display it on our dining room wall and the original size would be too large. 

I must admit that I am rather excited about it.

It is based on Delftware, but of course there is so much other blue and white china around.

Most of my pieces are decorated in "Onion" pattern and come from Central Europe.
Esther releases her BOM patterns via her free Yahoo BOM group .

I started pulling blue fabrics from my stash, but that is never quite enough, is it?

Last week I happened to be down in Dorset, so trip to Hansons Fabrics in Sturminster Newton was a must, specially with the January sale on. You  just never walk out of there empty handed.

A visit to "The Hive" on the high street, here in Shepton Mallet, produced another addition to my blue collection.
The shop has recently moved from much smaller premises up the road; they now have so much more room to display not only their fabrics, knitting and crochet yarns, but also anything else you might need in the haberdashery department.
Do pop in if you are this way.
The new shop now has it's own cafe, with cakes and snacks, so there is no need to rush away.
Take a tour of their new website (link above), which also includes a list of their new workshops.










And being a rather grey Sunday, what better place to visit then Midsomer Quilting, where I could park DH in a comfy chair, with a cup of coffee, while I indulge.








But there is another kind of fabric I want to share with you.
Central Europe has a long tradition of production of printed fabrics on indigo background, following the arrival of indigo from the East.
The production was widespread throughout small towns and villages, and the fabric was used mainly for clothing. In my country of origin, "modrotisk" (blueprint) was produced mainly in the area of Southern Moravia (part of what is now Czech republic), but just across the border, in Hungary, is also a rich tradition of printing on blue fabric.
After the second world war, during the communist era, these cottage industries declined, and the only place you could buy modrotisk was in shops aimed at tourists. I myself have bought several large pieces and I hope to make a quilt from them one day. I would not dare to use them in this project as my fabrics are not colourfast.
Czech modrotisk is hard to get in UK, BUT there is a lady who brings into UK "Kekfesto cotton fabric" from Hungary.


Gilly,  up in Scotland, is promoting this wonderful craft and a click on her name will take you to her
website, which has a large selection of designs to buy.
You can also read more about the history and watch a video from Huston, showing quilts made from Kekfesto fabric by Hungarian quilters.
Do pop over, I dare you to resist!

Well done, Gilly!

My order arrived by return. It wasn't easy to choose, so many pretty designs. And Gilly tells me that they are colourfast.

I think I have enough blue fabric to choose from!

The last thing I want share with you today, is this book about Indigo.
I have found the story of indigo fascinating, and if you are interested in the history of textiles, you will too.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

St. Germain quilt progress

We woke up this morning to iced up windows, -6°C? Something like that. But it did warm up later when the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

It was little breezy when  I was taking a picture outside and the quilt top did not want stay still, but you get the idea.

You might remember, when  I wrote about this project last time, I just realised that I trimmed the central block too much and was short 1/4 in on all sides.
As it is not possible to adjust the inner borders, I decided to make up the difference by adding a thin border of red fabric around the central block. So here it is. I think it actually looks like it is supposed to be there, I am quite pleased with it. The picture is not straight, the fabric kept moving, and it is not pressed either; I need to remove grid marks on the borders first.

The placement of orange peel shapes on the borders is not ideal, some of the patterns ended up too close to each other. It is little difficult to do it well, when you work on four separate pieces, and I probably don't have enough patience. But overall, I don't think it looks too bad.

So now for the outside borders; this again will be filled with applique of stems and flowers.

I am getting ready for new large project for this year.

I will tell you about it next time.

Have  a wonderful weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

the first finished project of the year

                                             

                                                         My Four Seasons Chicken Quilt

is replacing the "Winter House" quilt on my display wall in the dining room and brings a long awaited sunshine to our house.

The "Winter House" is going back to my work room to be finished.
This past week the nature managed to throw at us all sorts; rain, wind, sleet, snow, frost....

But today, although very cold, the sun is out and so I managed to take a picture outside, and actually had to wait for a small cloud to be able to do it.
I could not decide on the binding, but eventually I found this lovely Faffe Fassett fabric in my stash.

I think most of you will understand when I say that it is one of those fabrics you don't want to cut into, but it has been in my stash for a long time and I think the colours really compliment the quilt. And there is lots of this lovely fabric still left.
I love when I am at this point, stitching the binding on a new quilt; so satisfying - I have done it again!

Do you feel the same way?

I really enjoyed making this quilt, I specially had a great fun with the tail feathers.
This quilt again was a good practise in needleturn applique and is also hand quilted.

The pattern comes from The Running Chicken Quilt Company .

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

silk bag revival

 

For last night's Friday Night with Friends I decided to take a short break from playing with fabrics and instead I picked up one of my old embroidery project boxes; this particular one has not been touched since we moved house. It has my silk bag embroidery in it. 

The design comes from one of the old issues of Classic Inspirations magazine. Actually, most of the embroidery is done, there was only one motif still to be stitched and that's what I was working on last night.

I did not manage to finish it last night completely, but only some lavender bullions are still to be done.
Thank you, Cheryll , for hosting last night.
I'll see you next month!

This has been a very good exercise in bullion stitches.

Now I need to find something nice to line the bag with, preferably another piece of silk.

This kind of embroidery makes a nice change from quilts and I do enjoy bullion stitches.

Some of you might remember my silk cushion, also a project from one of the old issues of Classic Inspirations. A picture of my finished cushions was published in one the later issues of the magazine.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

Friday night with friends

I nearly forgot! Still, rather late then never :-)

Yes, it is the first sewing Friday night of this year, organised by Cheryll. Pop over to her blog to join, quickly!


Come back on Sunday and I will show you what I am stitching tonight.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL,

I WISH YOU A VERY CREATIVE 2015!