Winter Is in the Air

As you can see from the styling of these photos Winter and Christmas have been on my mind lately. It felt great to get this project finished yesterday. To be honest it began to look like this would end into a closet of unfinished works. Evenings turned darker so rapidly that I hardly found time to make sewing and stitching work in proper lightning. Unfinished works are irritating and that is why I put all my effort to this project. I know that if this would have ended to the closet it would have stayed there to the unknown future. Now this one is better closure to the year's quilting. Next year will bring it's own projects that I am sure of. I have two ideas already and I can sketch those properly during the Winter months. Also it might be that I craft some very tiny projects for Christmas. Quilted Christmas ornaments would be nice and in a size scale one can handle without bigger mess in the house.

Empty table cleans the mind and gives space to create totally different projects and process new thoughts. Christmas decorations have been circling in my mind and I am excited to get to decorate my home soon. Just few weeks and most of the Christmas decorations can be brought in! Christmas being a limited period of time with it's own character it gives a needed break between old and new year. I like to divide projects to two categories at this time of the year. One, a pile of work that needs finishing touches and can be completed from to do list before Christmas. Number two, a pile of work that can be left to wait for next year and fresh start. (Three, a pile of work that can be forgotten :) With this technique Christmas time can be reserved to things that please the mind at the moment, small crafts, slow brunches, reading and just being and resting. 

Today's quilt art is called Net because it got it's color from a fishing net. I noticed during the process that it was difficult for me to create a pattern that is not based on repeating motif. I imagined nine boxes to the fabric and placed one motif in each box. This imaginary grid gives needed rhythm. Then I combined the motifs with stitching. In the stitching I used the same curl shape as in the fabric pieces. Stitching collects the net together. Another combining element is classic red in a hue that goes to orange in some light. First time in my life I made piping myself using the same fabric as in the curls. Red piping frames the work beautifully making it an entity. Otherwise it would be a bunch of curls that seem to run away from the work. I love these small details. Last October I made a cushion that has octagon shape, see more here. Tassels in the corners made a huge difference to the look. Not all works need pipings and tassels, some are best without. But I do love it when I can craft a little extra and test a new element. I was amazed how easy it was to make a piping and by making it by myself I got the exact color and size I wanted. Maybe I could make Christmas ornaments with piping? :)

Happy last week of October to You All!

Sannu

Abstract Quilt Art

It is already October. Last week we had the first snow as usual this time of year. Autumn is turning to Winter and I have decided that this quilt project shall be the last one I am making this year. Evenings are so dark that there is no sense trying to sew by hand and do the stitching as both require good light. In November I am going to a holiday abroad and I have plans to gather as much inspiration in few days as possible. Mid winter is great time to process all that inspiration into new works and maybe do some small Christmas DIYs.

There is something that makes me think of Christmas in this quilt project too. The colour palette reminds me of the colours of the fifties and nostalgic Christmas hues red and green. Christmas was not in my mind when I draw and planned this pattern. It took time to figure out where I had picked the colour combination. It was many months ago when I saw an old fishing net that had the most beautiful combination of reds and greens. I saved that picture to my mind and thought  I could use it sometime. A month ago I was in a fabric shop and began to combine colours that looked new to me. The red I chose turns into orange and it looked challenging with dark bluish violet. Then some green and the combo began to look nice. These colors together are not easy but they pleased my eye so I decided to take a risk. The pattern looks like a net too. It is about separate groups that attach to each other. The stitching will make it visible even though you might already see the links. There are nine groups and one is formed just with simple I. It is like the dot in a clause.

I am quite sure that rest of the October shall go with this project. I have had busy weeks and now I try to narrow what things I will take part to. There is everything interesting going on but I can't attend to all. I have to choose and find time for just being at home sewing and reading. Also I see that i need to lower my standards. I want to do all with 100% volume when at times it is not even necessary. Things would be more enjoyable if I didn't put too ambitious goals. With these quilt projects I think it is good to decide that now I make this one and then have a break until Spring and light arrives. Sure I can make just few stitches every now and then but in reality these projects occupy my whole home and I get pressure to finish these in some reasonable time. It is also appealing to get to crochet and watch movies in November and October evenings. I already bough yarns to one project in August.

What are your plans for creative work this Autumn/Winter season?

Modern Quilt Art

Quilt: Orange Is the Rule Breaker

In this work orange become the color that breaks the harmony. Without it this quilt would look boring. Now that the colour challenges the eye one has to look again to form an opinion.

It is always equally pleasing to introduce a new quilt work. These are all so different even though you might recognize that the style is the same and works are made by the same person. In every work I try to test new ideas, search inspiration from different sources and combine colours that inspire me the most at the time. These are all modern and timeless yet I am not afraid to put hints to the time these have been done. Quilt art should last time like art in general and it should not be bound to trends that make it look worn out after year or two. Still I think art also preserves the essence of the time and era that is lived. That is why it is natural that art represents the ideas and currents of the time or in it's most visionary predicts the future we all might not even see. Then we can both see the moment when work was created, let it discuss with what we have now and based on this discussion develop new ideas. One might see from the colours that I am using that this particular work is created around the late 2010s. The work might connect to what happened in this era and what we talked about in the society. When I go to an exhibition this is one way I look at the works. Next step is to understand the similarities to our time and if we ponder same kind of issues these days.

Quite often things just change form yet the core is the same. The pattern for this work is inspired by staircase I saw months ago on my walk. The end result brings to my mind art deco with it's shell like curves. What comes to the era after the first world war we might see many connections to our time. Fashion has always looked inspiration from past decades and centuries. What comes to societal climate of the 1920s - 1940s we hear same kind of voices today. People's desperation and those who are not afraid to use it for their own purposes. I really hope art can be one path to show us from where we have come to this moment. Art can make us see where appealing rhetoric and blind following will take us. In hard times artists made their dreams visible though art and those are the pictures that tell us our real possibilities and how high we can actually aim.

We can enjoy art and we are all allowed to create. What ever is the way for going through emotions -  quilting, painting, moving, cooking... - it is great there is something to make us think and process. We become emotionally blind if we don't create, play and question what is given. Person who creates solves problems and begins to see the opportunities and new ways of doing things. If we don't develop a capacity to question we begin to believe that the solutions given to us are all there is. I have always seen crafts as a form of empowerment. The moment when I draw, test ideas and make is a moment when I have a small arena of my own. I can make decisions, do errors and make corrections and after the process I have something that I can be proud of. An object I have made by myself with my own decisions and skills. Creative processes give self-confidence and knowledge about one's own capacity and through this one has courage to be critical and use their own voice. Quite many things can be taken away easily but creative mind is somewhere deeper.

I have already been sketching a new quilt project. I have fallen in love to the notion that fabric can be so fluent like liquid on canvas. It can be twisted and sculptured to curves. I will test the limits of fabric and draw more challenging patterns. I have noticed that even the most difficult forms are possible with the right technique. It is so much fun to use imagination and come up with an idea that craves time and determination to come into reality.

Quilt: Orange Is the Rule Breaker

This time the quilting process has been a bit different. Usually I have a bunch of colours that seem to make an interesting combination. Now my colour palette was minimalist and I began to add more colour after I had already cut some elements from the fabric. 

It was several months ago, in the Spring when I was on one of my walks in the neighborhood. I spotted stairs that I have passed many times before only this time I saw how the stairs made graphic shadow to the wall. The pattern that the stairs and the shadow made (1.) was ready to be used in some project. In June I finally had a moment to draw the first sketch (4.). It still looked too complicated and lacked the final touch that would communicate an eye pleasing movement. Then there was the long and hot summer I just tried to survive. I wanted to make quilts but it was just too warm and the energies were low. Then just two weeks ago in the beginning of August I took the dust out of my water colours and began to make new sketches. First ones continued the same idea as I had in June but with colour the overall look was messy. Then it came to my mind that I could take one detail from the drawing. I had made a nice colour combination of four fabrics that looked new to me. I decided to narrow too many elements from the drawing to make it work for four colours.

Then one sketch (2.) spoke to me and I new the pattern was ready to be tested with fabric. Quite soon I noticed that the turquoise I had planned to use didn't work at all. I changed it for deep purple. The quilt began to look beautiful (3.). I liked it as it was. It would have worked fine with four colours. For example it would make a wonderful block for a blanket of 18 similar blocks. But because this is a cushion to be I wanted to add more layer. Round shapes turn the look completely. Harmony would have worked too but I think the orange challenges the eye and makes the pattern last time. With stitches this will look a playful rule breaker that promises harmony yet jumps in front of the eyes loudly.

Because every quilt should have a challenge that makes you want to look it again and think what it is about.

New Quilt: Morning Puzzle

Hello! Happy Friyay my friend! April begins to be wrapped up and ready to be send to the next year. I feel time has been going on an enormous pace. Many wonderful projects going on at the same time guarantees that there has not been lack of activity. Quilt projects always take quite a lot of time and processing. It can't be fully scheduled that a quilt will be ready lets say in two weeks because there might occur something that needs more time like testing the technique or stitching pattern. This time the work was relatively straight forward. What took most of the time was sewing blocks that I did mainly by hand (I will show detail pictures so you can try the technique) and stitching. I haven't been doing appliqué for while but it went fine and I got an urge to work with round shapes and hand sewing more in the future.

Even though days are longer and there is more light I have felt that there is not enough time for all the things I would like to be doing. When I look back these two months I see too much rush. I have been productive and I have already planned new projects to start soon. What doesn't satisfy me is that I have had a lack of concentration in a way. When for example sewing I have been thinking five other things to do. So even though I have booked time for activities I truly love I haven't found proper mindset to fully enjoy that time. Quilting, DIY projects, reading for the challenge and writing + taking photos takes time. Balance would be a great thing to achieve. I am ambitious person and I have many projects that I would like to give equally as much time. It leads to the state where I execute tasks in a row and go to the overdrives. I am passionate about my projects so this is not how I would like it to be. I think bullet journaling more will be the way to go again. I have to go and look my days realistically. No over bookings that take the energy from the activity at hand. One week I had made a fine plan that worked well but then I grew my appetite and tried to stuff in more leaving the plan unfollowed.

Being ambitious means I can't just leave something to be. When I have been reading and quilting I have felt bad that I haven't been making DIY projects as much as I would like to. I know quilts take their time and can't be finished in a second but I feel pressure when I don't get craft related posts during these longer projects. This is something I need to work on. I can't be making more than is possible. More relaxed attitude with blogging could do great things. Instead of I should.. I will try to use I could.. I can post about progress with  bigger craft projects, what is going on in life, thoughts and book notes. And with this method I could get more time and concentration to the creative work that is not ready yet. I am not sure if it is the fast paced social media that makes me wait miracles from myself. Even though there is a pressure to publish great content daily there are still things in the world that take their time. Making crafts and processing thoughts are two of those activities that require time.

As I told you on my last quilt post this quilt has gotten inspiration from a breakfast serving and it's pale hues. In the stitching I tried new kind of embroidery yarn that has many tones. It gives an interesting and organic looking detail to the pattern that is otherwise made with one colored simple fabrics.

Tips and project pictures

For this project I cut 5 pink, 5 violet, 4 orange and 4 beige pieces in size 16 cm * 9 cm. Then with a model I cut 5 light pink and 5 blue half moons with 6,5 cm radius plus 1 cm down to the diameter for the sewing allowance. Then also with a model I cut 4 light blue and 4 orange triangles that are 6,5 cm high and have 13 cm basis plus same kind of 1 cm sewing allowance as in the half moon. 

Here are some tips how to easily appliqué round shapes. Make some stitches around the perimeter.

Make a cardboard model that is 1 cm smaller around the perimeter. Put the model on top of the fabric and pull from the yarn. now you have the sewing allowance evenly on the backside. Iron and take of the cardboard model.

Attach the shapes to the backfabric and sew by hand.

Sewn by hand. Backside and frontside. I used so called invisible stitches. I sew the the triangles and half moons of the blocks by hand and then sew the two sides together by sewing machine.

Then it is time to sew the blocks together, iron and stitch the layers together. You can check my previous quilt tutorials from DIY page, there you can find inspiration and tips for four different kinds of quilted pillows!

I hope you have the most inspiring and relaxing weekend! Let us enjoy the spring and all the ideas new season is bringing to us!

Sannu

Quilt Art: Everyday We Wake Up

Everyday we wake up and a new day is ahead. A day that will never come back after we have spent it. Time doesn't make difference between Sundays and Mondays. It is wonderful to wake up on a  Sunday morning when you have a free day to spend as you like. But time is spent on Monday too and Wednesday. Precious time of ours that is never coming back. They say a human being only wakes up to die. How I have thought that quote is that we can't actually understand how limited our time here is and we are kind of surprised when it actually ends. It is an abstract thought that we live and then we don't. 

To actually treat everyday with the importance it holds is a difficult task. Time goes so quickly and weeks just float away and that is how it is. It is part of life as time is not tangible. From the view point of time there are no class A and B days. Of course some days have more meaning to us than others. Most of the days hold so much routine it is difficult to tell days form each other as same activities take place in same order. But these are not class B days. When we go to sleep today we cross one day from the calendar. One day of our life that is not coming back. Do we think about it that way or are we waiting for something to happen so that we want time to pass quickly? Is it more important to focus on those days that are more special, more enjoyable? Tomorrow is one ordinary Monday, should we hope that it goes quickly? To get to the next day and finally reach the weekend, if weekend is the one holding more expectations than the five days most of our calendar is filled. 

Tomorrow is a lovely Monday, a start for a new week that waits to be experienced. It is motivating to think what we can do tomorrow, who we meet and what unexpected things may happen. We have had and will have moments we want to wipe out of our memory. But to wipe complete weeks in advance, just because we think those mundane days will have nothing to offer, is quite radical. So tomorrow when we do some everyday task we do it once in a lifetime at that time, at that age and in those exact circumstances. Special day, tomorrow is, as was today. 

This is what I have been pondering when sketching and sewing my latest quilt project. Time and everyday life and how great all days are when you come to think about it from the right perspective. This quilt project is going under the name Morning Puzzle. I have been practicing on focusing and enjoying every day equally as much. I try to book time for things I enjoy the most: crafts, reading, writing, walking and cultural events. I don't have time to make these all every day, it would be impossible. Yet I do some of these things on every week day. It is inspiring to think all the activities that the day at hand holds and make it meaningful. The geometric patterns you can see in the quilt symbolize porridge bowls and sandwiches. Round shapes and the color palette for this work came from my everyday breakfast. Porridge beige, lingonberry yoghurt pink, orange and pale blue, because a book that I was reading one morning had a cover of that color. 

Here are some project pictures. Every part of the process has it's own beauty and it is pleasing to see how the quilt begins to take an actual material form step by step. I will put more pictures when the work proceeds.

Have a truly inspiring new week my dear friends!

Quilt Tutorial: April Eclectic

Happy Weekend! This week my evening program has been clear and simple, stitching and some more stitching! To get beautiful texture and 3D effect to this pillow I covered bigger areas with stitches than I usually do in my quilts. Hand stitching makes the look organic and alive and it is always worth it to put some extra hours to finishing touches. I have been inspired by coming spring and its clean green and blue hues. It is still two months before the spring comes rushing to these hoods. When it arrives the pace is breath taking. The small idea of spring turns into first leaves and lush green forests. The scenery goes through rapid changes sometimes in a matter of days. I think the traditional quilt patterns I combined in this work resemble quite well the energy of spring and April, month that brings it to us living here in the North.

As you can see from the pictures this new pillow works well with the other pillows I have already published in my quilt tutorial series. You can check all the tutorials and make these pillows your own! I will put direct links to the tutorials to the end of this post. I would love it if you could share my posts on social media so everyone else interested in quilting can find these and maybe get inspiration to create.

You will need:

Cotton fabric in: Purple, Lime green, Blue and Lavender

Batting Fabric

Batting

Back fabric (Blue)

Sewing yarn

Embroidery yarn

You will also need:

Sewing machine

Quilter's rule

Cutting mat

Rotary cutter

Scissors

Iron

Needle

Embroidery hoop

Pins

Ruler

Pencil

This stunning pattern is actually relatively easy to make and we have already used different modifications from this basic technique before (in case you have followed my quilt projects). The pillow consist of two chains and three whirl and square rows. We actually make the pieces for the whirls and chains at the same time, as you will see.

Step 1. Cut following pieces:

Purple 10 pieces in 8*8 cm and 30 pieces in  7*7 cm

Blue 10 pieces in 8*8 cm and 30 pieces in 7*7 cm

Lime 20 pieces in 8*8 cm and 20 pieces in 7*7 cm

Step 2. Put together following combinations in 8*8 cm: 10 blues & 10 limes. 10 purples & 10 limes. Put right sides together, draw a line from corner to corner and sew from 0,75 cm from both sides of the line. Cut according to the line and iron open. 

Step 3. Now pair triangle squares with 7*7 cm purple and blue squares: Blue & lime squares with purples. Purple & lime ones with blues. Do the same thing as before, put right sides together and draw a line from corner to corner and sew and cut according to line. Then combine the rest of the 7*7 cm squares: Blue & lime together and purple & lime together as in step 2. 

Step 4. Now collect the chains according to the picture using the parts you have.

Step 5. Sew first the rows of four together and then combine the rows together. Remember always open the seams before you go to the next step.

Step 6. Then use the rest of the tri-colored squares to make whirls. Then cut 6 10*10 cm squares from lavender. Sew three whirl blocks and two lavender squares to a row as you can see from the picture. Make three rows. 

Step 7. Sew whirl rows and chains together. Iron properly.

Step 8. Now put together batting fabric, batting and quilt and sew loosely together. Using embroidery hoop stitch one part at the time following pattern's lines. I usually use the same color's lighter hue in the embroidery yarn as I have in the fabric.

Step 9. When you are finished with the stitching cut of the extra batting and sew quilted piece to a pillow. Tips for that I have got in this previous quilt tutorial.

Inspiring quilting days to you all!

In case you got interested in quilting and want further inspiration check these quilt tutorials <3

>Brisk Winds, Warm Stoves Part 1. 
>Brisk Winds, Warm Stoves Part 2.
>Bohemian October
>Memory of August