still sewing

The not-so-secret quilt has been revealed, but I'm afraid I don't have any good photos of it yet, so for now just a sneak peek:

Anyway, my Dad liked it so I'm very happy. Although I think it was the first time he got his birthday present almost a month earlier, but I just couldn't keep the quilt hidden once it was finished.

(and no, this is not the wavy quilt you've seen before, although the likeness is striking ;))

And my trial version Tova is coming along nicely. The placket was a bit tricky but with Jenny's instructions in the pattern and Kerry's detailed explanations and photos it went quite well.

a bit of everything (with lots of brackets, too)

I've just finished the not-so-secret quilt (although it still needs to be washed) but I'm afraid I can't show it to you yet.
In the meantime please take a look at my SBS blocks 25 (oops, it still needs some pressing):

and 26:

The star came out rather squat, but it's my first one and I like it anyway.

I also wanted to show you what I bought with the gift certificate to Contemporary Cloth I was lucky to win in Megan's giveaway some time ago:

I have to admit I didn't buy them with a specific project in mind but rather to have some more colours and use them as need arises. Can you imagine that it's the first time I've actually seen Kona Ash not in a photo? (Well, that's the case with the other colours too but you know, Kona Ash...)

And finally, I managed to choose the fabric for Tova sew-a-long.
I have just the right amount of this Echo print:

 and I was thinking about using it for the final version, but I also wanted something for a trial version.
I went to my local fabric shop with an idea of buying something cheap (and probably quite ugly, as unfortunately they rarely have something I like) but I found this:

Not my usual style (and I'm not into pink really), but surprisingly both the pattern and the colour combination appealed to me and the cotton was very nice, light and thin, and the price was just inside the limit I set for this, so I bought it. It also reminded me of something, so as I returned home I quickly checked and... look at this. Not identical obviously, but quite similar, don't you think?

quilting and rambling

I've just started quilting the not-so-secret quilt (I do hope it's still a secret to the person who's going to get it).
I couldn't decide whether to machine or hand quilt it so in the end I'm going to mix the two, doing most of the quilting by machine and adding some random hand stitched waves.
I'm more and more tempted to make a quilt which would be 100% hand quilted, but I'm afraid it will have to wait for a long term/no deadline project (or till I retire, which unfortunately won't happen for some 30 years yet).
I won't be able to show you the quilt for some time yet, but today I also finally managed to make a little something I've been meaning to make for quite some time:

- an almost Zakka style narrow pincushion.
I already have a lovely, scrappy plump pincushion I got from my cousin when I was just beginning to sew, and I constantly use it. However, I've noticed that when I piece big quilts I usually put my machine almost on the edge of the table and then I need something a bit narrower. Enter Zakka Style book with just the kind of narrow pincushion I wanted.
I have to admit Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge have also helped greatly in motivating me to finally make it. 
Of course I had to modify it a bit, so instead of rubber stamping it I just drew on it with my favourite Indian ink pen. And I just had to use a bit of French General selvage - they are so pretty. 
I quite like the result but I'm curious what you think.

And I'm linking it up to Amy's Challenge of course.

does it happen to you?

Sometimes you see something and have this sudden urge to create a quilt (an illustration, a photo...) based on what you see. And you can't stop thinking - maybe not continuously, maybe it just pops up from time to time, but you keep returning to the idea until you finally make it.

One autumn morning, when I was passing our local pub, I looked at the wooden deck, where they put tables in summer. The tables were already removed and as the morning was quite cold, the boards where covered in frost. I also noticed a few withered leaves on the deck, white with frost too.
That image kept coming back to me until I finally put it into a mini quilt. I think I'm calling it First Frost, even if it doesn't look that frosty.

And a bit of detail:

The shape and colour of the leaf was to be different, but in the end I just couldn't resist the temptation of trying to act on another inspiration - Shaun Tan's The Red Tree picture book.

On a more technical note - the mini is 11,5" x 16" and as you can probably guess apart from cotton I used bits of linen, too.

P.S. Two-colour binding as suggested by my sister :) 

I'm linking this to:

Hope to see your entries there, too.