irish chain {in progress}

I started, and even finished, a new quilt top over the weekend (pattern can be found in this book) . As you can imagine, there was some serious marathon sewing involved :)

At first I was quite intimidated by how very precise all the seams needed to be. Those green squares finish at 3/4" so even the slightest discrepancy in seam allowances would show right away.

At the end though I found the repetitive nature of piecing these blocks together quilt therapeutic and enjoyable.

Hope you all had a great weekend too. Svetlana

scrap eater {a finished quilt}

I finished my Scrap Eater quilt. Fun, isn't it? And just like the name suggests I only used scraps to make this quilt top.

I used this wonderful tutorial to make my blocks (they each finished at 12" x 12") and I absolutely love that even though I used scraps of every size and color, the finished quilt still looks cohesive - well, sort of crazily cohesive but I think it works :)

Here it is during basting stage. Oh, I do love a perfectly flat, zero wrinkles, freshly basted quilt top very much indeed.

My plan at first was to do an all over spiral quilting like I did on this quilt a while back. After just a few minutes of pretty poor quilting and wrestling this beast I decided to scrap that plan and rip out all the stitches ... plan b, continuous eights to the rescue :)

My eights are about 4" tall and I was happy to see that even after washing and drying this quilt stayed pretty flat. Last time I tried this quilting pattern I made my eights smaller and a lot denser which probably caused the quilt to crinkle up more than I'd prefer.

I used this beautiful lime (and blue) giant dots Marimekko fabric for the backing. And since I live close to Crate and Barrel outlet store I bought it at an incredible sale price of $3.98 a yard !!!!

I couldn't choose just one fabric for the binding so I copied my quilting hero Amanda Jean and went scrappy. I think it adds just the right finishing touch.

The quilt finished at 72" x 72". And yes, I still have tons of scraps left over, but on that next time :)

Wishing you all a very lovely weekend. Svetlana

around the world blog hop

Hello, happy Monday to you all.

Welcome to my stop on Around the World Blog Hop (thanks Beth for inviting me :)) where different bloggers share a little glimpse into their creative process by answering a few questions.

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What am I working on?

The biggest project I'm working on right now is my large improv patchwork quilt. I loved piecing this top using limited color palette and decided hand quilting will make a lovely addition to this otherwise quite minimalist design.

I also finished piecing my Scrap Eater quilt top and I'm planning on doing a circular machine quilting on this beast :) Hope it will work out well.

And then there's my Double Wedding Ring quilt. I have all the arches done but of course I underestimated how long all the other piecing will take. I decided it's okay to take it easy and enjoy the process instead of rushing it which means it will be quite a while before I have some significant progress to show.

How does my work differ from the others?

Now, this is a hard question to answer. All I can come up with is that I try to make what I like and what makes me happy. So, that means a piece of me and my style is definitely put into my projects and hopefully that makes them "mine" and slightly different from all the others.

Why do I write/ create what I do?

I create because I enjoy it, sewing gives me something that's completely totally my own - dishes have to be done, laundry and dinner made, but no one will go hungry if I don't make yet another quilt :). It calms me down (seriously) and relaxes me. I love getting lost in all the planning and plotting, and looking through my stash to find just the right fabric.

...yes, sewing does make me happy :)

How does my writing/ creative process work?

I usually just have an idea and I have to start working on it as soon as it pops in my head. And then I change my mind a thousand times before I finally settle on what I'm actually making.

Also, I never cut all the fabric for the quilt at once. I cut as I go, adding and subtracting fabric depending on what feels right.

Now it's your turn. If you'd like to take part in this blog hop simply write a post answering these four questions:

   1. What am I working on?
     2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
     3. Why do I write/create what I do?
     4. How does my writing/creating process work?


Thank you all so much for reading. Talk to you soon. Svetlana