#SpringMagicalMysterySAL

[bellagbear]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful creative month. This month I worked on so many quilts. I am tidying and clearing out my room and finishing quilts gives me the feeling I am accomplishing bigger, things than with cross stitch or embroidery. Also, I’ve discovered a love for hand quilting which is good because my Kenyan quilt top is almost finished and can’t wait to start quilting it.

Scrappy picknick quilt

This is a quilt I never expected to finish. I started this one because I love scrappy quilts and I had a lot of material from an experiment to finish. The experiment was to find good materials to use for foundation paper piecing quilting technique. In that technique, you sew fabric pieces on a background which makes it easier to make neat pieces. In this quilt, the background served to hold all the pieces together. This was especially important because I used a lot of stretchy and flimsy fabrics.  In the next two weeks, I’ll write a full post about how I made this quilt.

The reason I finished this quilt is because of the discovery of my hand quilting love. This quilt is finished by sewing through the separate layers with glow in the dark thread. It is such a soothing meditative process to quilt by hand.

Experimentation with paper piece materials

Scrap quilted picknick blanket

The Nearly Insane sampler quilt

Progress! I am doing the Nearly Insane sampler quilt 100% by machine and to make the quilting process easier I am using the ‘Quilt as you go‘ technique. In that technique, you first quilt through all the layers of the quilt before you assemble the pieces.  This sampler quilt is originally made by Salinda Rupp and the pattern is made by Liz Lois

The nearly insane quilt: a machine quilting sampler

Nearly Insane sampler quilt QAYG WIP

Kenyan quilt update

Nothing much to say about this one. Still assembling the blocks and stripes in a quilt top and it’s looking gorgeous so far.

The overall design of the Kenyan quilt

I am designing quilt patterns: Kenyan quilt update

The Kenyan quilt WIP

The Dear Jane sampler quilt

Same story as with the Kenyan quilt above: slowly making progress and looking gorgeous.

Dear Jane quilt block G-7: Indianapolis

Dear Jane quilt block H-6: pie sale

I’ve almost finished 100 of the middle blocks! 98/169 done.

The Dear Jane hand quilting sampler

Spring magical SAL cross stitch

This Easter me and my mom participated in a wonderful cross stitch stitch along (SAL).  The SAL was hosted by Galdra who hosts a multitude of awesome cross stitch SAL’s which make me wish I had time for them all. You can find more information on her website: Magical quilts and more. For this cross stitch, during the Easter weekend every four hours a part of the pattern dropped. Unfortunately, I did not keep up with the SAL at all but made Chappati instead which is an awesome Kenyan dish.

Making Chappati

Next month my cross stitch will be finished and turned into a beautiful biscornu, that’s a promise.

New backpack experimentation?

This is still such a youthful project. My wish is to learn how to weave one day and here are my first attempts. I’ll probably quilt the woven piece onto a background fabric for some additional strength. This piece is woven with recycled T-shirt strips, but I am still experimenting with which materials to use. I’ll write a blog post about this when I have more to share. If you know any good sources to consult about weaving I would love to here because I am guessing here which is a lot of fun, but some technical information is always helpful.

Weave experiments with T-shirt yarn

The end: how am I doing, how are you doing?

Months go by so quickly. I’ve already been back in the Netherlands for two months now. The weather is improving so quickly as well! When I arrived here it was cold, like ‘hot water bottle cold’, but now it is ‘wear a dress without stockings’ warm, which I love. But how are you doing? How is the weather and some questions for you to get to know you:

What is your proudest achievement this month? Not necessary sewing-related

Which sewing-related project did you always wanted to try?

What would you like me to write about

Did you miss a post this month?

‘Look behind the lines’ miniature quilt and a quilt exhibition

The Nearly insane quilt blocks showcase

The Dear Jane quilt: seeing red, am I mad?

I’m back! Or: Monthly Sewing Update March 2019

Next week’s post:

Scrappy picknick quilt & Dear Jane colours: seeing green

See my DeviantArt or Instagram (username: bella.g.bear.art) for more artwork and WIPs. You can also follow my blog by clicking on the button on the left or by filling in your email address. There will be a monthly update at the end of every month and a new blog post every Sunday or Monday.

Monthly Sewing Update April 2019 Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful creative month. This month I worked on so many quilts.