HAPPY NEW YEAR

to all!! Do you know that Swedes will be setting of fireworks for  a joint sum of half billion Svedish Krona tonight? Such an idiotic from all lot of perspectives.

The DH is getting a late McD lunch for us all, so we can save our de luxe seafood dinner and champagne for later :-) But I doubt very much I'm going to able to stay awake until the stroke of midnight, don't think I have for the last couple of years. Must be old age LOL.

DWR saga part II

I managed to put three rings together and it all looked nice until I added one more ring in the second row - then the four connecting pieces didn't match up and the whole thing looked more puckered than a lemon sucking witch :-( The instruction for the pattern say that you should only sew the melons to the centers just where the purple meets the end parts of the melons (the purple multi patterned pieces).... so I did but still don't get it. The whole thing is now ripped apart and I going to start all over again, but heck if I can get them bits and pieces to add up. Grrrrrrrr.

Feel free to post instructions and great ideas ;-)

One ring to find them....one ring to bind them....

Well I admit, I'm not totally sure if that is the correct paraphrase from the Lord of the Rings, but I hope so ;-)
After reading the instructions for the DWR quilt I bought along with heavy duty acrylic templates ( I swear - these templates going to last me a lifetime and be my legacy to a daughter in law (if I ever get one), they are like at least 5mm thick!) over and over again, I decided to try it out. So after auditioning a nice collection of blues, I got going with the smallest rotary cutter and it was no big deal at all. I even managed to follow the instructions and could sew the melon shapes and - attach it to the middle part without much trouble. Until I read that you ought to leave the end pieces un sewn until you piece the next rings to the first, so I have to use my nice ripetty--ripper at these parts -  hence the wobbly shape. But since I sewed the corner pieces together at first, I know that the whole thing lays flat when sewed together:-)

So without much ado - here is the first ring block:

 In lack of natural light, I used the flash so it don't look 100% ok. My MIL like the color blue, so all the rings are going to be in blue varieties, cause I don't think I have enough fabrics for all the rings to look the same. But I strongly suspect that I need to keep all the corner pieces (the most colorful ones at the end of the melon wedges) the same and - maybe the purple ones next, to bind it all together  - right??

Now I have to place it on Sam's bed (it's the same width as my MIL's) and calculate how may circles I need to make. To finish it of I plan to make a café au lait colored border and a blue binding.

So what do you think? I'm kind of proud of my very first try out with curved shapes :-D

One ring to find them....one ring to bind them....

Well I admit, I'm not totally sure if that is the correct paraphrase from the Lord of the Rings, but I hope so.
After reading the instructions for the DWR quilt I bought along with heavy duty acrylic templates ( I swear - these templates going to last me a lifetime and be my legacy to a daughter in law (if I ever get one), they are like at least 5mm thick!) over and over again, I decider to try it out. So after auditioning a nice collection of blues, I got going with the smallest rotary cutter and it was no big deal at all. I even managed to follow the instructions and could sew the melon shapes and - attach it to the middle part without much trouble. Until I read that you ought to leave the end pieces un sewn until you piece the next rings to the first, hence the wobbly shape. But since I sewed the corner pieces together at first, I know that the whole thing lays flat when sewed together:-)

So without much ado - here is the first ring block:

 In lack of natural light, I used the flash so it don't look 100% ok. My MIL likes blue, so all the rings are going to be in blue varieties, cause I don't think I have enough fabrics for all the rings to look the same. But I strongly suspect that I need to keep all the corner pieces (the most colorful ones at the end of the melon wedges) the same and - maybe the purple ones next, to bind it all together  - right??

Now I have to place it on Sam's bed (it's the same width and my MIL's) and calculate how may circles I have to make. I plan to make a café au alit colored border and a blue binding.

So what do you think? I'm kind of proud of my very first try out with curved shapes :-D

Backing

I confess, I find that finding backing that suits a project is not that easy. Well of course we can get xtra wide quilting backing over here too, but you can guess the price huh? And of course I can get it from the USA from stores like A Thousands of Bolts, but that mean getting one piece at the time cause there is only so much fabric you can squeeze into a USPS flatrate envelope...

So often I "cheat" that is getting normal wide fabric and sew it together, but that means that you have to have round 5-6 yards to fit a Swedish double bed and honestly, I very seldom have that kind of yardish in my stash. Soooo, I cheat even more and do something many quilter considers a no-no, I use bed sheets:-O Depending on the project, I can't see why not. I know I know, bed sheets don't have the same thread count as quilting fabric has, but for stuff like the headboard cover, the backing don't show at all. And the upcoming DWR quilt for my MIL - how often do anyone think she is going to wash it? Not once I believe.  Therefore I ordered two extra wide sheets from a catalogue company, affordable and it matching colors and is quite pleased with myself:-) And while waiting for them to arrive, I'm going to start audition blue quilting fabrics for the DWR. I must check my stash to see if I have enough of cream muslin for the background though, otherwise I simply have to make that ToB order nevertheless;-9