My evolution in quilting

A few months ago I saw on Mary's blog an interesting article on this theme.

Since I am working on a few projects but I can't post about them yet...here are a few pictures that illustrated my way in quilting, started eight years ago.

At that time, I did not know anything about quilting, did not have quilting friends, did not have Internet on my computer !
After a few months I bought my first quilting book but I didn't understand too much at first !

So, here it is my adventure in quilting,
from this quilt ....................... to this !

The quilt below is the first quilt I ever made. It is 20" x 20" and is made of 400 squares of 1". I used scissors to cut all the patches. I didn't know that I could stack multiple layers of fabric so I drew every single square on fabric.
It has no batting (at that time adding batting between the two layers of fabric was a strange thing for me) !
It was made using polyester fabrics. Every patch was becoming smaller after every touch of the iron so it was a nightmare matching them.

But I was very pround of my design drawn on paper with colored pencils !

The second experience was a little better - I used a heavy cotton canvas ! But I pieced diamonds ! No batting again !

How about these "Y" seams ? I tried them, too ! And I sewn every seam at least three times (using my sewing machine, I am a machine quilter ) until I was content with the result!

I was in heaven when I made my first order at a quilting store in USA. What a challenge to choose from hundreds of fabrics !
Special fabrics need a special pattern so I made a Mariner's Compass ! I used templates (from a Fons and Porter book). And I added batting, but I ironed the final quilt ! What a mistake ! But the quilt was OK !

It was a pleasure to make this Christmas quilt, with different stars ! Here it is a picture before quilting ! At that time I was thinking I have to bind the quilt before quilting !

This one below is the only quilt I quilted by hand. It' s only 40" square but I quilted on it for one long week. Then I understood that hand quilting is not for me !

In the first months of my quilting adventure, I spent a lot of time working together with all my three sisters. They all helped me with piecing. What a wonderful time ! We would have worked day and night ! Here are a few of those quilts:

And this is the first bed quilt I made. I used scissors to cut all the 1300 pieces. Pieces were sewn and unsewn because the center of the stars didn't lay flat (due to over-ironing). I did all the ironing on a glass table. The glass was so thick so I though there will be no problem :) But finally I broke it !

5 people worked for 5 hours to make the sandwich for quilting ! I think this was the hardest work my family did for my quilting !

Now, after eight years of quilting, I didn't have enough patience to make another Mariner's Compass or to sew "Y" seams ! I like to make simple things and quick and easy quilts !
But I still have patience to make my shadow trapunto quilts. I will never be bored of making them.

This is the most challenging quilt I have ever made.

This is the quilt I love the most

One of the thing I love at shadow trapunto technique is the contrast between
the white of the batting and the background color.
This is one of my first shadow trapunto quilts.

I don't know where I will be after other eight years, but I hope I will still make quilts !

Love and Peace, Always and Everywhere

Christian The Lion

Perhaps half of the world already saw this video because it was on Oprah Show.
I saw it just a few days ago and I was so touched !

Giveaway Day

This giveaway is closed now. Thanks to everyone who entered. I will choose the winner in a few hours, using a number random generator !
Have a great week,
Geta

Today is the Giveaway Day on blogland. Visit Sew Mama Sew blog to see the big list of participants.


And here it is my gift for you. A shadow trapunto miniature quilt.

15.5" x 15.5 " (38 X 38 cm).

Unlike an usual quilt, this one has two additional layers: the top layer is organza and under it there are white motifs made of batting.

If you want to win this little quilt, please leave a comment at the end of this post. You will be entered in a drawing. I will randomly peak a winner on 1st of June.
Please assure there is a way I can contact you. And I would like to know where you are from !

The giveaway is open until May 31 for readers from all over the world.
Good luck !

PS. Come back in a week for a big giveaway ! I am so excited about it !

The last bag (at least for a while)

I made three flowers until I was happy with one of them.

Come back on Wednesday for another surprise for you ! I work again shadow trapunto quilts.

Mary's shadow trapunto quilt

My friend Mary stitched this quilt a few days ago. She was so kind and tested my shadow trapunto pattern. She did a wonderful job ! Thank you, Mary !

I made for her a simple design so she can finish the quilt quickly.
It is 18" square and she worked on it for about 6 hours (including hand finish of the binding). I love it !

Today was supposed to be one of the happiest day of my life ! But I am sad !
My dream for three years of seeing Depeche Mode again in a concert is still a dream. They cancelled their show in Romania (and in other countries) due to Dave Gahan's illness.
I hope the prayers of millions of fans will help Dave to get well soon.

A Depeche Mode concert is an incredible experience ! If you will ever have the chance to go and see them, don't miss it ! It's heaven on earth for music lovers !

Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence - Paris 2001

Twenty Years of Happiness

20 years ago, I went at my first date with my husband. It's unbelievable how time flies.

I lived twenty years of happiness with the best husband in the world. Maybe I did something really good in a previous life that I was blessed with such a sweet, good and loving man.

Without his support today I couldn't have made quilts. I try very hard to make a living working what I love the most. He always trusts in me and encourages me.

We share the same passion for music, so we both agree that tickets for a concert are the best investment of our money !

As you can see, I have my quilts, my good husband, my music, can I wish more ? Well, maybe just a short trip to Houston ! Definitely !

Have fun with your photos.

Thank you

Thank you all who read my blog regularly. Your interest for my work makes me very happy !

Your kind comments are so important to me and I thank you for each and every one of them! The friendship I get here is just wonderful !

Thank you all who mentioned my blog on yours or shared some of my projects with your readers.

I always try to visit my visitors. Unfortunately I don’t have always time to leave you a comment, but I want you to know that I appreciate and enjoy your work, too.

Thank you !

Multumesc tuturor celor care cititi regulat blogul meu. Interesul vostru pentru munca mea ma face tare fericita !

Comentariile voastre dragute sunt foarte importante pentru mine si va multumesc pentru fiecare. Prietenia pe care am intalnit-o aici e minunata !

Multumesc tuturor celor au adaugat un link pe blogul lor spre al meu sau celor care au impartasit unele din proiectele mele cu cititorii lor.

Intotdeauna incerc sa-mi vizitez vizitatorii ! Din pacate n-am timp sa las totdeauna un comentariu, dar vreau sa stiti ca si eu apreciez si ma bucur sa vad creatiile voastre.

Here are a few of our new tulips. Wonderful flowers for a new quilt like these, I think !
More pictures here.

Boring post.... other purses !

My sewing machine didn't want to sew even after I cleaned it.
I think the needle I used to sew was too thin for the thickness of the sandwich I wanted to quilt so I ended up with a lot of skip stitches. After many headaches, much patience and a strong desire to throw the machine through the window, I replace the 90/14 needle with a 100/16 needle and the machine finally sewn well... It seems that some lessons I don't want to learn...

Some of the pictures I took are really bad, but the purses turned out very nicely.

The same purse- different quilting on the front and the back

NOTE after DIDI's comment: "Well, I know its always the machine's fault .... not mine!! lol"

When my husband saw how much I struggled to make the machine to sew again, he was so worried and said :

“You need a new machine, you worked on this for over 6 years, day after day…it is a domestic machine, how many years do you want to sew with it ?”

“Twenty" , I said.

Seriously speaking, yes, in those six years always was my fault when something didn’t work properly. But my husband is so sweet and use to say that it’s the machine’s fault !

How to print tutorials from Internet (pages)

We all learn so much from the free tutorials posted on Internet. Their authors are often very generous people and fill them with a lot of information and really big pictures to see and understand every detail.
But if you want to print a few of those tutorials , you might meet some difficulties.
Here it is a short lesson on how to print them without wasting too many resource. The essence is to print only the absolute necessary information and reduce the size of the pictures.

But, first at all:
Don’t print all the useful tutorials you find on Internet.
Save interesting pages in your "Favorites" list instead of doing this. Create there separate folders so you can find easily what you are looking for.

For printing you will need a word processor (a software like Microsoft Word or WordPerfect or OpenOffice - the last one is free !).

Select what you want to print from that tutorial ( the selection will be highlighted in blue). Then click the right button of the mouse and select "Copy"- or press "CTRL+C".


Open a new document in your word processor and press "CTRL+V" or right click on the mouse and select "Paste".
After that, remove the unnecessary text and pictures. Keep only the essential information.

Resize the original pictures.

Select one picture and make it smaller. Repet with the other pictures.

Special case: pictures with hyperlink.
When you click on those pictures, that click will activate the hyperlink (and usually open an window with a larger picture).
The picture below has a hyperlink attached to it.

You have to remove the hyperlink then resize the picture.

How to remove it: right click on the mouse then select "Hyperlink" then select "Remove Hyperlink". (this applies to Microsoft Word, in the other programs there must be something similar ).

After that you can select the picture and resize it.

After the work on pictures are done, look at the text. If you want to make it smaller or bigger, do it.

And look below at the difference between an original tutorial (or a part of it) and the edited one.
We will save money, but more important... green forests.

If you think this tutorial would be interested for your readers, please post a link on your blog.

Thank you !