Another alphabet quilt update

I apologize for sort of dropping of the map this past week! I just started a new job (I'll be working at my favorite NGO, Amnesty International! Yay!) so my mind has been on things other than crafting this week. But I did want to show you what's on my living room floor at this moment:

Progress! That's all the background pieces for my hexagon alphabet quilt, cut out and prepped. Finally! I was getting so sick of cutting and gluing a thousand shades of white and off-white...

I laid all my pieces out in order to get a feel for what the background will look like when it's all sewn together, and to check that I had a balance of solids and patterned pieces that I was happy with. I'm hoping to keep the background interesting, without detracting focus from the letters themselves. Do you think I've found a decent balance between the two?

I will be taking a bit of a break from this quilt for the coming month, as I have another patchwork project (do you remember the secret project I mentioned a while ago?) that is demanding my attention. But my hexie quilt is never far from my thoughts! I'm really excited about how it's looking so far - I'm hoping I will still be this excited about it once it's completed. I can't wait to begin stitching it together!

Photo Fabric Cushion finally complete!

Another old project has been crossed off my to do-list! I stared this photo fabric cushion back in October, but really I have had the idea in the back of my mind since 2008 when I made a photo memory quilt for my mother. Yes, I'm that slow! But this weekend I visited my mom and we spent a day out in her sewing studio. Working on old WIPs is always more fun when you have company! I'm really pleased with the final product.

If I was going to do anything different next time, I might add a border to the front in order to make the photos "pop" more - you can see in the photo above how the curve of the cushion sort of hides the edges of some of the photos. Ah well, live and learn!

This is the back with a single button closure. Since the cushion cover is not very large (finished size is about 33 cm / 13 inches squared) I figured I'd only need one button to close it. The cushion is a tiny bit over-stuffed though, the reason being that the cushion insert is about an inch larger than the cover. If I can find the motivation, I might pull the insert out again and remove some of the stuffing, but I figured we'd use it for a while first because pillow and cushion inserts tend to flatten over time. Either that, or I'm just lazy! :-)

In other news, a cold and dark January is finally over this weekend and we are moving towards lighter times! I apologize again for the bad lighting in my photos lately - there's only so much you can do in Sweden this time a year without buying a bunch of professional lighting equipment... But as I say, we're moving in the right direction. I can't wait for spring!

My 2015 Crafty To Do-List

I told you last week I was working on a crafty to do-list for 2015. I started the year by doing a quick inventory of my ongoing projects, and soon realized that before I start too many new projects, I really need to focus on finishing old works in progress. I have a ton! So instead of listing the 200+ new projects I want to try out, I focused on the projects that I want to finish. Without further ado, I present my 2015 crafty to do-list!

KARIN'S 20 CRAFTS TO DO IN 2015 

1. Finish 1st sashiko pillow 
2. Finish 2nd sashiko pillow
3. Cut out and prep all hexies for my hexagon alphabet quilt 
4. Finish secret EPP project
5. Finish a PocketPhoto cozy for Ella
6. Make 2 china cake stands
7. Make 4 vintage tea cup candles
8. Finish sewing basket make-over
9. Finish photo patchwork cushion cover 
10. Sew wool embroidery pin cushion
11. Sew a hanging sleeve and mount mom’s wall quilt
12. Frame (and hopefully, sell) all machine embroidery pieces
13. Practice face and figure drawing
14. Make watercolor resist paintings
15. Cut and mat old linocut postcards
16. Finish little house lavender satchets
17. Start on vintage embroidery patchwork quilt
18. Sew doll quilt for mom’s garden play house
19. Finish yo-yo Christmas garland
20. Make 3 potholders from old quilt test blocks

What do you think? I will post updates to my list as I (hopefully) start to check things off. Here's to a crafty new year!

Cushion cover in the works

Wait, how is it the weekend already? This week went by in a flash, but unfortunately I don't have much to show for it, craft-wise. I'm still working on the photo cushion cover I wrote about a while ago - this week I finally pieced the front together, but I still need to buy a pillow insert and finish the back. I am completely in love with the photo fabric by the way, I keep thinking of new projects to make with it!


Speaking of photos, one of the worst things about living far north is the lack of daylight this time of year. At the moment, the sun rises about 8:30 am and sets at 3 pm here in Stockholm. That's not a lot of daylight as it is; and add to that the cloudy, rainy weather we've been having all week. It really gets on your nerves! It's also near impossible to take good photos this time of year, so my apologies in advance if you see a lot of photos on this blog in the coming weeks that don't quite measure up. I promise I'll do my best!

Patchwork memories

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with projects right now - I have way too many WIPs in the works but I keep thinking of new ideas which I just HAVE to put into action right away... It's exhausting! I might have to put a moratorium on any more new projects for now, so I have time to catch up. Curse my short crafting attention span!

This patchwork project was an example of that short attention span. I have several big hand sewing projects going right now, but suddenly I felt an urge to start a machine sewing one. I have had the idea for a cushion cover using photo fabric in my head ever since I made a memory quilt using the stuff waaaay back in 2008 (see it here). And now was the time!

The photos are all from my Instagram feed over the last 1,5 years. The photo fabric sheets are Blumenthal Craft PhotoFabric from Swedish craft store Panduro, but I've used other brands before and they are all pretty similar - I know Michael's and JoAnne's carry them for example. Just feed the sheets through your (inkjet) printer, rinse and iron. For memory quilts and patchwork, the important thing is to make sure you buy photo fabric and not iron-on transfer paper. The iron-ons leave a sort of plastic coating on the fabric, which makes for difficult quilting and just doesn't look as nice. I think these prints came out really well, especially considering that they are Instagram shots (which have a pretty low resolution to start with). What do you think?

I had a blast choosing the color scheme to go with the photos, too. I went with blue to fit with the rest of the cushions on our couch. Another chance to use the awesome text fabric I bought a few weeks ago! Now I just need to actually sew this project together - no starting new projects until it's done! We'll see how that goes...