31 May 2020

some hourglasses and some circles

Hello, it´s my first post here so I want to intruduce me: I´m Doris living in Germany. As a retired teacher I have now the time to do the thing I always loved most: making quilts. Some years ago I found Kaja, Audrey and Ann and that was like a big firework of new ideas that opened my eyes. I stopped sewing with patterns long ago but the idea of improve quilts pushed me in a new direction. But I must say I´m struggling a lot with this freedom. At the moment improve for me means that I start with an idea not knowing where it will end. But I´m not yet succesful with wonkyness. That´s not in my dna I think. So at the end I´m struggling with seam allowance and sizes and that isn´t my strength either :-). But I have fun - a lot of fun. If you want you can look at my blog www.doppelstich.de
Here the last quilt I made. Can you see the hourglasses? I started with trying out how to make circles. It wasn´t as complicated as I thought. Then I made a mistake by calculating the seam allowance for the squares so I had to add stripes. But no problem that was a new design element. At the end I was very happy with my result.

It´s a quilt for my granddaughter. I collected old blouses of grandmas, aunts and her mom, added some new fabric to round up the colors.
I´m not a machine quilter. That makes me nervous and cursing all the time. So I stopped that and now I´m quilting by hand and that makes me happy.


9 comments:

ebwhite said...

New design elements are sometimes the most wonderful parts of our quilts. Love the circular quilting.

Robin said...

What a lovely and creative quilt. You seem to have good dna for the whole improv process. I'm still stuggling. . . Your granddaughter is one lucky little lady to get this quilt.

O'Quilts said...

great post and great job...innovative...I love how the circle quilting enhances the piece

Quiltdivajulie said...

Your quilt is absolutely wonderful - good for you for honoring yourself and what YOU feel comfortable doing. Lucky granddaughter - a very special quilt.

audrey said...

Having to add the strips around the circles helped to emphasize them! I love everything about this quilt. So charming and sweet. The sentiment behind the upcycled clothing is a wonderful touch!:)

audrey said...

P.s. Thanks for the shout out! It's always so encouraging to hear that our quilty sharing might possibly be inspirational to others. Likewise, your post today is a spark for me. Still thinking about those little hourglasses in your quilt.:)

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

I would be very happy with that result too - I think it is an amazing piece!

Mystic Quilter said...

Love what you say improv means to you, great! The movement in your quilt coming from the circles is perfect with your squares. What is the size Doris?

Ann said...

Doris, you made an exciting quilt. Great color selection. Your quilting makes a wonderful secondary design. I like the way you added hourglasses and even more, how you worked your way out of your problems.
We have lots of different quilters here. Improv can mean whatever you want. My definition is similar to yours: Just start with an idea and see where it takes you. You'll notice that many of us don't make wonky quilts although some quilts my unexpectedly end up that way. Make yourself happy with your work. We're glad you joined us.