Pattern: Jelly Bean succulent (Sedum rubratinctum)
Source: dmc.com (free download)
Designer: unknown
Original colours: no
Alterations: yes
Notes: Thread colours converted from DMC to Anchor and various threads from my stash. I’d go for different colours if I had to stitch this pattern again. Very time consuming (lots of backstitching), but not too hard to make. This plant was ‘growing’ in a pot which I omitted and I added a few outlines.
Pattern: Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor)
Source: Herb Cottage, The Craft Collection#74973
Designer: unknown
Original colours: yes (from kit)
Alterations: yes
Notes: Not one of my favorite patterns. I shortened the stem of the main flower by two stitches to make it fit into the space available.
Pattern: Yellow Cherries (Prunus cerasus)
Source: Borter – Bær – Navneklude i Korssting, Handaarbejdets Fremme (The Danish Handicraft Guild)
Designer: Gerda Bengtsson & Ida Winckler
Original colours: no
Alterations: yes
Notes: I added backstitching around the cherries. As always with the patterns designed for Danish Blomstergarn, I converted the thread colours, adapted them and used what was in my stash.
Helix
Were heading for a very warm weekend with temperatures well over 30°C, which is quite exceptional for the far north of Germany, while other parts of Germany will have to deal with even more, forecast is 40+°C this weekend. I’m definitely not made for this. (I only hope I don’t write too much of a nonsense here, my brain is already about to dry out.)
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Well, I promised you more of my ‘cut and sew’ patchwork pieces. So -before my fingers are getting stuck to the keyboard – here they are.
All of them are un-quilts, made using the EPP (English paper piecing) method. The squares are mostly 3 cms, except on The Blind Spot (1.7 cms), the sides of the diamonds on Farbenrausch are 2.5 cms/1″.
You may wonder why the middle one in the gallery below is called Cross II and not ‘bars’ – it wasn’t planned this way in the first place and the pieces got rearranged.
Cross I, Cross II, Crossed Colour Bars
Orange-Blue, The Blind Spot (aka Seams Crooked), From Sunrise To Sunset
And two more –
Farbenrausch (Rush of Colours), Lumos!
Pattern: Borage (Borago officinalis)
Source: Herb Cottage, The Craft Collection, #74973
Designer: unknown
Original colours: yes (from kit) plus one addition
Alterations: yes
Notes: It seemed to me the designer had never really taken a closer look at a borage flower. I made quite a few alterations, starting with the shape of the big flower. I also changed some of the colours in the flowers – the sepals from light purple to mid olive green, then I redesigned the stamens (dark purple in the original pattern) and replaced them with an ultra very light blue (Anchor 1037). I moved the small flower one stitch to the left because the stem of the leaf (some additional stitches here) interfered with the sepals. The pattern also said to use dark blue for the petal demarcations. I had improvise because they do not appear in the pattern. And then another small leaf (mirrored) came in on the right side to fill the gap between motifs.
This is the image on the packaging –
Blue Magenta Yellow (2026)
A new one! I suddenly felt the urge to start a new project using one of my ‘project bags’. These bags contain fabrics I have put aside to use them in individual projects.
I cut up two identical pieces of fabric (a total of 100 cms) and sewed them back together again. The batting/wadding was sewn together from two leftover pieces. Using the English paper piecing method, this piece has a final size of 63 x 63 cms. Although the binding strips look a bit brown-ish in the picture, they’re actually reddish-purple and match the colours pretty well. The back is also made from this fabric. I used a variegated yellow and orange thread to stitch the layers together.
I did not buy this medley (Colorscapes Medley™ by Keepsake Quilting, from way back when) but two half-meter pieces each of fabrics A and E at one of my local fabric stores.
I have made a couple of pieces using this ‘cut and sew’ method in the past. My next post will be about them.
Pattern: Oak (Quercus robur)
Source: Woodland Cottage, The Craft Collection, #75892
Designer: unknown
Original colours: yes
Alterations: no
Notes: This one appeared before on my Woodland sampler – a quick one.
Pattern: Opuntia (Opuntia sp.)
Source: Anna handicraft magazine, pattern #0903/07
Designer: unknown
Original colours: no
Alterations: no
Notes: Something different for a change. Stitched before for my Southwest Beauties sampler.
Pattern: Violet (Viola odorata)
Source: Schattenspiele, Zweigart #170
Designer: Barbara Kreibich/Irmtraut Fritsche
Original colours: no
Alterations: yes
Notes: From the booklet ‘Schattenspiele’ (Shadowplay) – I omitted the shadows. I’m not totally happy with the greens I chose.
Recently, I made a few decisions about my unfinished projects and also on sorting different things. It wasn’t easy and there is still some stuff left to think about.
One of the decisions I made was to close this site around the end of 2026 – when I hopefully will have finished my Botanica sampler. My focus on making things has shifted towards more art-sy stuff. I’m not going to bore you with my health issues, but it becomes more and more clear that I can only care for one blog site in the future.
But until then I will post about my finished patchwork projects from the UFO list as well as other things I have already made and will be making during the next months. But you won’t be getting rid of me – I will continue blogging on my other blog, The Art Lab, about whatever stuff I’m making.
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← Great Wall
So, what have we got here? It’s a project I left in this state about three and a half years ago, always wanting to add something to it. When I pulled it out again recently, I decided it was finished and to be left as is.
I used a block by Janine Burke from her quilt Great Wall, published in the French magazine Simply Moderne #7. Started in July 2021 and declared finished as of November 2022. I made this for a certain wall in my home, hence the unusual size of 161 x 59 cms. It is machine pieced and not quilted. For the back, I used the same blue palm frond batik fabric as I did for Brushstrokes. My sister – who knows nothing about sewing or making patchwork – suggested the pieced binding. I always ask her when I get stuck, she looks at things from a fresh angle.
Beyond The Boudoir 