Another UFO bites the dust!

I'm on a mission to finish some UFOs this year. One of those is the Blogger's BOM, which were offered for free through the Canton Village Quilt Works blog from September 2011 to August 2012! I made all the blocks but then lost interest in this project until now! Most of the fabrics are Westfalen as are the small printed panels which I bought years ago at the Quilt festival in Tokyo.

 I decided to finish it with the quilt as you go method and first quilted all the blocks individually. There are different ways to QAYG and if you google it you'll find lots and lots of tutorials but I used a method I learned in a Crafty class called Quilting big projects on a small machine with Ann Petersen.

The next step involved cutting the connecting strips for the front and the back. 

A detail picture of how it looks from the front, once the blocks are sewn together. 

and from the back. As you can see I sewed the strips down by machine (similar to sewing down a binding) but of course it could also be done by hand, probably resulting in a neater finish. 

The borders are added in a similar fashion but I used the same fabrics for the connecting strips so they won't be quite as obvious. 

The quilt turned out to be 41 inches (105 cm) square, perfect for a baby or kid's quilt. 

 I really enjoyed the quilt as you go process and will definitely try it again.  Now one more UFO can be crossed off my list, but there are lots more where this one came from...ha!

I'm linking up with 17ufosin2017 again. Wow, we are already halfway through the year!

Cheers

Vreni xx

It's been a busy week!

On Tuesday we had our annual Singapore Quilter's Lunch. Instead of the traditional Quilt Challenge, this year we had a quilt show of our favorite quilts. And when I say quilt show, it is probably stretching it a bit as it was a very low key affair.

Here are some of my favorites:

The lady who made this lantern quilt said she based it on my Chinese Lantern quilt I made for last year's challenge. It made my day!

 My friend Jeanette's stunning Christmas Tree Skirt. Look at those details. 

This quilt  is made by my friend Anne. She designed it and it is the same as the friendship quilt my Thursday group made for me when I left Singapore the first time. 

And this is mine. I wasn't able to take a complete photo as it was hanging in a narrow gangway.

Lovely Autumn colours.

 I also love this Japanese quilt. It was once featured as a BOM in a Japanese magazine and I've collected all the patterns as well as the fabrics to go with. One of these days I'll get to it!

And here is the same quilt but in a different setting. 

This was probably my favorite of all the quilts. Unfortunately the picture doesn't do it credit. 

So not much time for sewing, but I managed to make the last block for the Blogger's BOM designed by Sarah Fielke. Although it was a bit fiddly, it's definitely my favorite block. 

I've now made 12 blocks and together with the four small panels I've got 16 blocks, perfect for a baby quilt. I don't know yet how I'm going to put it together. 

I'm off on Sunday to first Nepal and then on to India. It will be my first visit to both these countries and I hope I will have some  interesting pictures to share when I get back.

In the meantime, happy quilting.

Vreni x

Now this top is definitely finished!

I think it was well worth the effort of putting borders around it, don't you agree?

I usually make the binding right after finishing the top and put it aside. As you can see, there are  quite a few of them waiting to be put on quilts.

 I'm determined that this summer is going to be the summer of finished quilts! Wish me luck!

But wait, I have a few more things to share today:

My June block for Blogger's BOM, designed by Pam of PamKittyMorning

And just for the thrill to see all the blocks together:

Here's also my Bee block for June. It was already in an envelope, ready to be posted, when I remembered that I didn't take a photo. That explains the wrinkles! 

There are a couple of new "Swaps" and "Quilt-Alongs" going. This first one my blogging friend Jess is organizing together with another blogger. It looks like a lot of fun as well as "educational" by way of learning a few "new tricks" while playing along. What I particular like is that one can choose from three different block sizes. And what I like even more are the terrific prizes which are on offer once the quilts are finished. Click on the logo below to see all the details.

I have also decided to take part in this swap again. This time we're making mini quilts (12 inches square). Interested? Click on this logo to get all the info needed.

As this is my 99th post, next time I will have a little surprise in store for you . Make sure to come back to check it out.

Try to stay cool or warm, depending on where you are in the world.

Cheers

Vreni x

June already....

but I'm still sewing my May blocks. Here's my May block for Blogger's BOM. The designer is the lovely Cathy from Cabbage Quilts. If you haven't seen her blog yet, you are missing something. 

My block looks a bit different as I'm not using as many colours as Cathy has. Here it looks a bit too red, however in reality it's more muted.

I also made my Bee block for Jenny who's turn it was in May. Technically I'm two days late, but I hope she will forgive me ;). 

I have been working on the borders for my hexagon quilt. The two long sides are finished and already sewn on so only the top and bottom borders left to do. I'm hoping that my calculations were right so that it will all fit together. I still have to figure out what to do for the corners. I don't have much fabric left, so I have to put my thinking cap on.  

I'm having some trouble with Blogger. Since they have changed the blog address from .com to whatever county you live in (.sg for Singapore in my case) my "Follower Gadget" is no longer working. I get the message: We're sorry... This gadget is configured incorrectly. Webmaster hint: Please ensure that "Friend Connect Settings - Home URL" matches the URL of this site.) I have absolutely no idea how to correct this, or if it's even possible to do it myself. I've written to Blogger but so far haven't heard anything back. Does anyone else have this problem? Anyway, I guess if someone wants to become a follower they can always manually add me to their reading list. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Vreni x 

Blogger's BOM April

This month the designer is Mrs. Schmenkman 

All the fabrics I've used so far are from my own stash and the red and white fabrics are Westfalen fabrics from Germany. Funny enough I bought them years ago in Japan at the Tokyo at the International Quilt Festival and have been saving them for something special.  

At the same time, I also bought these ribbons. I would like to somehow use them in the quilt, but I have no idea how. Any suggestions?

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Vreni x

Home again and in need of a holiday!

Our home leave has not quite turned out as planned. We noticed that my mum, who is 83 years old, has become quite forgetful during the last few month since we last saw her. The house wasn't quite as "organised" anymore and she hardly cooked, which was unheard of just a little while ago. Then she became sick and from there it went downhill pretty fast. A visit to her GP revealed that she had an infection, but also that she is suffering from dementia, something we had suspected for a while. Not an easy thing to hear about your mum, especially since we live on the other side of the world and I have no siblings who could take care of her.  I was cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing like nobody's business. We organised home help and home care as well as a meal service and we hope that she can stay in her own home as long as possible. Luckily she has wonderful neighbours as well as family who are keeping an eye on her. It has become clear that we have to go back more often from now on, no matter how much I hate those long haul flights with the ensuing jet lag.

Anyway, with with all that was going on, I hardly had time to sew and I only managed these few "pies" which are for a quilt I'm working on. I hope to show you more soon.

I've missed my sewing room and as soon as I got over my jet lag and after our latest visitors left (they arrived the day after we came back) I just had to do a bit of sewing. Here's the March block from Blogger's BOM.

I haven't been very active in Blogland lately and I apologise for not visiting you all regularly. Of course now that I'm back that will change and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have been up to in my absence.

Happy Weekend everyone.
Vreni x

Trying to keep up to date

Sorry for the longish silence here. I've been inundated with visitors again (all good) which didn't leave me much time for sewing. This week I've tried to catch up though and I have a few things to show you. 

The latest installment from Blogger's BOM.

It's growing nicely.

March is Karen's month for the "Around the World Quilting Bee". 

I was glad the fabrics arrived in time, so I was able to put the block together before we leave. We're going to be in Switzerland for about a month and I'm looking forward to some cool air and seeing friends and family. Talking about friends and family; I made a couple of gifts to take back. Since I'm still on a bag making roll I've made this reversible bag as well as a tissue cover for a wonderful neighbour of my mum's, who is so helpful, I don't know what we would do without her. 

I also made this cosmetic bag with the matching tissue cover

                         and yet another bag with a some more tissue covers. It's always good to have a few extra gifts handy as we are bound to be invited for meals here and there.



OK, I better go and pack as we are leaving tonight. I will "see" you in April, if not before.
Cheers
Vreni x

Another BOM and another block of the week

This month it was Quilt Dad's turn to design the block for the Blogger's BOM Quilt Along

On its own, maybe not my favorite block

 but I really like it together with all the other blocks.

As this is the fifth week of the year, it was also time for another house block. 

It looks huge in comparison with my four first blocks.

Contrary to my earlier plans, I think I will make more of the smaller blocks instead of a whole lot of the bigger ones.
Wishing you a good start into the new week.
Vreni x