Home Again - Klosjes & Flowers

We're back in Jersey having had a lovely break visiting Mum in France. She lives in rural Brittany which is very quiet & relaxing with beautiful countryside as in Bon Repos above. This is where the Daoulas river joins the canal which runs from Nantes to Brest & in the background you can see the ruins of the abbey gradually being restored having been destroyed by fire centuries ago.

I managed to finish the Klosjes quilt just in time, Mum was thrilled & surprised with her gift.

I had taken it to work at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust before we left & made the most of our beautiful grounds & granite buildings around the Manor house to have a little photo shoot.

The white door at the top of the above picture is the entrance to my office.

As I had been spending most of my time focusing on finishing the Klosjes quilt, my hexi flowers had been neglected ........

.........but I managed to make a few whilst on holiday

5 more were added to the pile

and a few clamshells were stitched too!

More to be revealed at the end of the month!

Clamshells, Hexagons & Klosjes

Remember these I was busy cutting & preparing a few weeks ago? Well they have gradually been stitched together to form this..........

I finally decided on the layout below........a clamshell trip around the world. I've nearly used up those previously prepared & will print out the next batch using the 3.5" Inklingo version which should really speed up the prep time. Thank you Linda, Cathi & Theresa for all your help & advice :)


Just one little flower produced for One Flower Wednesday nestling amongst the Lobelia. This variety is called Crystal Palace, my favourite as it's such a vibrant blue.

.......and finally all my Klosjes are now made, 192 in total (4.75" sq) & the last ones are being stitched together to add the final 3 rows to the bottom of the main piece, this top should be finished this week.

Hope you're all having a great week where ever you are in the world, the weather is glorious here in Jersey, it finally feels like summer!
Happy stitching :)

Klosjes progress

June already, where does time go? All of a sudden I realised that August & my trip to France is approaching rather quickly & I need to crack on & finish this top in order to quilt & bind it in time.

Looking at the main piece I decided it needs to be a little larger.... another row of 3 at the side & across the bottom should do it, so just 50 more to sew.

So far: 12 more klosjes made bringing the total to 142.
Happy stitching!

Finally.....

I've plucked up the courage to machine quilt this baby & it's coming along slowly but steadily. Just a little more to do around the edges then it's time to attack my first binding! Any tips on how to do this will be most welcome :)
The Klosjes quilt is steadily growing, 14 more added to the pile which brings my total to 130..... 90 of which have now been stitched into blocks of nine.

One Flower Wednesday & Can you resist a Bargain?

Well I certainly can't when it comes to fabric! So this is how I ended up with 3 metres of the above for just £10.00 last summer but when the package arrived I was a bit dissapointed to see they were metallic & shoved them in the cupboard thinking I'll make use of them some day.

Last week I came across this fabric again whilst looking for something else & saw it in a new light........wouldn't it be great for fussy cutting hexagons with all those different designs in the stripes?

I had been admiring all the beautiful hexi-flower gardens growing over the last few weeks & this was the perfect excuse to join in too! I believe the inspiration came from Karen who has encouraged stitchers to complete a flower each Wednesday & gradually watch their gardens grow, since then many more have joined in the fun.

I've been having great fun seeing how may different flower patterns I can create with this one striped fabric. I don't think I'll be setting these out in a Grandmother's Flower Garden layout though as it may be a bit too heavy on the eyes.......maybe applique them to a white background?


With all this hexi excitement, I haven't neglected my Klosjes as I'm still making up blocks of nine & managed a few more spools last week.
New total: 116 Klosjes (81 of which have been stitched into blocks of 9)

Klosjes update (week5)

Reporting a very poor progress this week I'm afraid as only 2 more spools were added to the pile!

It was such a glorious day here yesterday that I finally ventured outside & sat in the garden to sew a little. I've started making them up into 9 patch blocks now as I go along, which will help me decide exactly how many more spools I need to make to complete the top.

Unfortunately, sitting outside has made me notice that the garden really does need some attention, so today as it's another beautiful day, I need to crack on with a bit of tidying up before I can sew some more.

Tessellations

Hope you all had a lovely Easter, I've had a little computer break for the last 2 & a bit weeks as I'm looking at a screen all day at work & sometimes it just gets a bit much. The up side of this is I have had a little more stitching time in the evenings!

Fancying a little change from pastels last weekend, I allowed myself to play with some bright funky colours & have a go at a new technique - fussy cutting.

This is Block 1 (nearly appliqued to the background) of the Brigitte Giblin BOM run by Material Obsession. I wasn't going to sign up for this but once I saw it was EPP, that was it, my resistance crumbled.

My Klosjes haven't been completely abandoned though:

Week 3 - 28 more spools
Week 4 - 22 spools, this brings the total to 97!

Thank you for all your lovely comments & suggestions, they're all gratefully received & I will be replying to all in due course.

Well & truely hooked!

Is there a cure?

Forget that last question, I don't want one as I'm having way too much fun!

Another 25 more Klosjes made this week

and this is what all 47 of them look like laid out.

I've decided that this is going to be a quilt for my mother once complete as these colours will be perfect in her newly decorated bedroom. As she doesn't use computers, the surprise won't be spoilt by mentioning it here.

P.S. Why is it when you upload photos to blogger that on some posts, like last week's, you can't click on the photos for a closer look, yet this week all of them click open fine?

Saturday Klosjes

I really did try to resist the temptation to make little spools known as Klosjes, but they are popping up everywhere & I gradually succumbed.
I first spotted them on Janet's blog learning that they started in the Netherlands & have since spread across the world. Do visit Valentina in Cyprus, Ingrid in the Netherlands & Nadine in Belgium for more Klosjes inspiration & links.
So here are my first 22 little spools using the Aviary collection by 3 Sisters for Moda which I've had sitting there since last summer & just didn't have a clue how I was going to use it. I'm adding other light fabrics into the mix & making them 4.5" using my usual EPP method, they are so quick to sew up being just 5 pieces & very addictive!