Easter Mini Quilt

I finished my Easter mini quilt.
I had so much fun making this: selecting the cutesy fabrics, picking patterns from Happy flower Quilts, and designing my own, and going all out on the machine quilting. Let me take you on a tour:

An overview of all its pastel cuteness!

Tulip. I designed the tulip block myself. I quilted it to accent the petals and leaves, pressing the background back with very dense parallel lines.

Baby Animals.

Spring Sunshine.

Flying Geese, leaving for the North after spending winter with us.

Tulip. This yellow one has more pointy petals (in the quilting, the piecing is the same as the pink one). Frolicking Lambs. This fabric is so cute, I didn't want to cut it into tiny pieces, and simply used a small panel of it instead.

Easter Baskets, filled with tulips, buttercups, bunnies and strawberries.

Basket, filled with tulips and surrounded by butterflies.

Spring Breeze. I quilted breezy swirls in the background.

Easter Bunnies. I designed this myself. There is very little contrast between the bunnies and the background (that's the way it is in nature, too), but flattening the background with quilted clam shells helps the bunnies jump out a bit more. Find the free pattern by clicking here.

Spring Blossom. I designed this one, too, for the center dresden, I used a pattern from Happy Flower Quilts.

And this is how it is displayed on the living room wall. It's not completely flat because I bound it by folding the backing over to the front. I would have done a proper (and flatter) binding, but I really wanted to use the same fabric as the backing and simply didn't have enough left to do that, and I can live with the wonkiness just fine.

Happy Easter!

Easter mini quilt, ready for basting!

I designed this little quilt myself, using some pieced blocks from "Happy Flower Quilts" by Atsuko Matsuyama.

Ready to baste!

Spring buds bursting!

Designed these rabbits myself. I gave up good contrast in favour of fun backgrounds!

Spring breeze.

Basket of tulips (notice the butterflies in the background).

Easter baskets: tulips, bunnies, strawberries, flowers!

Baby animals: ducklings and fawns.

Spring sunshine!

Geese returning after winter

Tulip (own design) and more baby animals (this fabric is too cute to cut up, so I just used a 3' by 6' panel)

Same tulip, different colour.

All in all I love this little quilt. It was a lot of fun to chose the fabrics and do the fiddly appliqué, on the petals of the spring burst and on the tiny baskets and bunnies. Halfway through I lost my cream background fabric (still have no idea where it is) so I gave up on contrast all together and just picked fabrics for fun! The only concession I made to "proper design" is limiting my colour pallet a bit. I stuck to teal, yellow, pink and purple (a little unintended green and blue may have snuck in :-) ). This little quilt is going to be hung in our living room, at eye height, so it's easy to get up close and have fun discovering all the little designs in the fabrics, and I don't mind that it's a bit of a pastel muddle when viewed from the other side of the room!

And I started yet another quilty project! I'm finally tackling my scraps. I sorted them into a rainbow of sorts, and started improv piecing. We'll see where that is headed later! I am also almost finished on my lone star quilt (pictures on Instagram, as sara_brankaer ).

Quilting is my therapy!

I've been home for almost a month now, and am starting to feel stronger again. And quilting has been (part of) my therapy. Being creative is always healing to me, whether it's quilting or gardening, baking or playing the clarinet. But when I'm stressed or tired I sometimes forget to devote time to these things. In the past few months that wasn't the case. I kept playing clarinet, jogging, and doing those things that usually recharge my batteries, but it didn't seem to work. In the weeks before my colleagues and my family doctor made me see that I desperately needed a rest, these things, which usually give me joy had become just another thing on my to do list. I just kept going, even trying to fit in more clarinet practice, more yoga, more sewing, in a desperate  attempt to recover, to feel better, to find peace. It didn't work. Turns out what I needed what just rest, a break. It's a lesson learned (the hard way). So, after a good rest (in the sofa, no sports, no sewing, no clarinet), I've started sewing again, with the same pleasure it used to give me, to my great relief. After some really simple things (potholders, anyone?), I'm now designing and making a sampler for Easter. I'm having fun picking colours, creating designs and sewing of course: cutting, piecing, doing some appliqué, and starching and ironing! I love the smell of spray starch!

This is what I've done so far:

I designed the 12 inch flower block myself, using the templates from "Happy Flower Quilts" for the central dresden. The three 6 inch pieced blocks are also from "Happy Flower Quilts", although, apart from the "spring sun" they are very traditional blocks. I'll  be getting on with a pieced tulip block I and an appliqué block with bunnies, both designed by me. I'm having so much fun!

Naughty Easter

My nine-year old daughter made this drawing for Easter. I don't know where she gets the cheekiness, but I can help but chuckle every time I lift the bell to discover what's underneath...

Do I see bunny ears from the top of that bell?

Ooooh, Marieke! That is so naughty! And look how guilty the bunny looks! Caught in the act!

PS I don't know if you have Easter bells in other countries, but here in Belgium, it is said that the church bells fly out of the church spires on Good Friday (and we here no chiming after that), fly all the way to Rome to get Easter eggs, and then fly back in time to sprinkle our gardens with Easter eggs on Sunday!

Knitted Bunny

After drooling over several patterns for knitted bunnies for ages, I finally made one!

Cute pincushion!

I used the pattern you can find here. The lady who made and generously shared the pattern also has a lovely blog: By Small Means. Go and have a look! I knit my bunny in cotton, on number 3 needles, so it's quite tiny. I then decided I wanted to give it as a birthday gift to my best friend, who is a wonderful seamstress and general crafty and artistic person. She makes and dresses the most beautiful dolls and is trying to start a small business selling some of her beautiful creations. Her sewing adventures inspired me to turn the rabbit into a pincushion-holder. I think she looks rather cute.

Cute bunny!

Because she was all cool colors and needed some warmth, I added a crochet flower, for which I learned how to start crochet with a magic loop.

Cute flower!

I love learning new things, and I love how the internet makes it so easy for all those wonderful, creative people to share their art and knowledge with me. I also added a tail to the bunny, and adapted the dress so it has an opening for said appendage.

Cute tail!

 A bunny without a tail is just not possible in my world. To add further interest to the back, I added some buttons on the straps of the dress. (They're just sewn on, I didn't really make teeny tiny buttonholes in those teeny tiny straps, I'm not that crazy!) I really hope my friend likes her little sewing companion. I already knitted a second dress, in lime and raspberry, for a white bunny. I think the eyes would have been better in black. I thought it would be too stark against the soft colors, but now they look a bit faded. I'm also considering using glass eyes for my next bunny, but I'll have to find the right size first.

PS For the pincushion I also used a tutorial which I found on the web, but I lost it. i thought I'd pinned it, but apparently not. If I don't find it, I might just make a tiny tutorial myself, to remind me of how to make it, although it's so simple, it's hard to forget once you've done it, really. You just start with a square, fold it in half, sew the short sides, leaving an opening for turning on one end. Then you fold the thing so the seams line up and sew again. You sew and cut of the corners to make the boxy shape (like for a tote bag). Stuff, close and add button.