Tilkunviilaaja®

I was going to analyse Lexical, the quilt that launched me as a pattern designer, but I ended up writing a post that isn’t really about the quilt itself. Instead, I found myself reflecting on my own journey. After all, only I can tell that story – anyone can analyse a quilt if they want to. Here’s my journey which led to publishing Lexical, my first commercial quilt pattern – and the journey did NOT begin with a thought “I’m going to become a quilt pattern designer”. Before Lexical, I already loved writing instructions I’d already published numerous quilt block tutorials on my blog and written tutorials and how-to articles for the Finnish quilting magazine. I had dreamed of putting together a book that would combine my quilt patterns with the stories behind the quilts. (Some ten years ago, I even had a professional designer create a couple of sample page layouts for me so that I could see how my book might look.) Back then, though, publishing something commercially was d...

When you've been blogging about quilts for as long as I have, some photographs stay with you long after the quilts themselves have moved on. Since November 2009, I've shared nearly two thousand blog posts and taken at least ten times as many photos of my quilts, scraps, quilted items, and my scrappy quilting process. This collection of most memorable quilt portraits is not a list of my best quilts. Instead, these are the five quilt photos that earn a special place in my memory. And then there's one photograph that doesn't feature a quilt, but a series of luggage tags that I make of scraps. I can’t tell why I like this photo so much! Consider it a bonus photo on my list. Here are the 5 quilt portraits and one surprise favourite photo of quilted items, and the stories behind them. 1 – “Heading North” on a pier For more than 20 years, my family has had a favourite holiday place – a rented cottage on a Finnish lake. Many summers, we’ve stayed there for a week or two, ...

Choosing only five quilts out of the nearly 100 that I’ve made was easier than one might think. In this post, I share the chosen top five and one bonus quilt. If you enjoy scrappy quilts and bold colour combinations, you may find ideas and encouragement for your own projects. All of these quilts are examples of how value contrast matters more than colour choices. What makes a quilt become a favourite? My favourite quilts have all evoked a specific feeling in me. Surprise, delight in discovery, satisfaction of applying a gained insight, accomplishment, joy, and pleasure. 1. Empress Ramandu – strange blocks turned into a surprisingly lovely quilt Empress Ramandu quilt is one of my favourites because it surprised me so pleasantly. When I was sewing the blocks for my quilt Empress Ramandu, I honestly began to worry about the result. The fabrics looked strange together, and I thought that I would have to use the eventual quilt as nothing more than a picnic quilt. At the same ti...

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you’ll know that I like to share my own quilted makes in Tilkunviilaaja’s Instagram. It’s a pleasure to share more details of their stories here as well. The most recent finish is a zipper bag which I named Quiddity (or Olemus in Finnish). It is also the first zipper pouch that I’ve sewn this year. A milestone! I put together the surfaces quickly, to have a project for an upcoming quilting day with friends whom I first got to know in social media – through their blogs or Instagram accounts. And because I wanted a quick make, I just took whatever fabrics that I found on or at arm’s length from my sewing table and made “scrap-in-a-box” squares. The squares end up being of different sizes, but I trim them so that several of them are of the same width or length. Then they can be sewn together as columns (or as rows), to make a surface that is of suitable size for a zipper bag. I’ll have to share an image of another project to show you...