Tilkunviilaaja®

It’s amazing what having a goal can make one achieve. A little more than three weeks ago, I set myself the silly goal of meeting my average number of zipper bag finishes per year (22 in total). This meant that I would have to finish at least one zipper bag per week for the rest of this year. This is the fifth one, Capricious / Ailahteleva: My earlier blog post described 7 ways to come up with names for one’s quilty makes, and to name this zipper bag, I checked the Word of the Day in the Merriam-Webster lexicon pages. I didn’t pick the current Word or any of the earlier ones. Instead, I saw the word “nonchalant” in the “most looked-up words,” clicked myself to that page and continued my journey through several pages of synonyms and antonyms, until I found the word “capricious”. This seemed apt! And this is the flip side of the Capricious quilted zipper bag: You may be interested to see a picture which shows this zipper bag when it was still only a vague idea: Eventually...

Today, it’s exactly seven weeks until Christmas Eve, which is the important date for us Finns who celebrate the holiday. This gives us quilters enough time, perhaps, to prepare some holiday-themed quilty makes. Here are 11 examples of things that I’ve made over the years and that an eager quilter/sewist could make for Christmas – if not this year, then some other year. 1 - Quilts and quilted wall textiles I’ve made one holiday-themed quilt and it is called Kuurankukka / Frost Flower: Except for the snowflake, I only used Christmas themed fabrics in this quilt top, and almost the whole back piece too. I had A LOT of them when I started and the stash looked just as substantial when I’d finished. Quilt details for Frost Flower Pattern: Snowflake by Modern Handcraft https://www.modernhandcraft.com/pdf-patterns/snowflake-quilt-pdf-pattern Block: Squares and half-square triangles according to the pattern Size: 175 cm x 210 cm (69” x 82,5”) Quilting: Longarm quilted by So...

Oh my, writing today’s splendid tips felt like a real challenge because I use solid-coloured fabrics the least in the world. However, after some deep research into my quilting history, I uncovered quite a few examples, which I hope will be helpful for you! Read on and you will learn what to watch out for when using solid-coloured fabrics in quilts, and get tips for using solids with success. I will also share my thoughts on fabrics whose colour is “nearly solid”! Why I don’t often use solids I never get an urge to buy solid fabrics because colourful, patterned fabrics attract me so much more. When I look at my stash, at least 90% of it are patterned fabrics. The only (nearly) solids I consciously buy are whites, blacks and greys. Ever since I was a child, I’ve liked patterns. For example, when I was around seven years old, I had a snake-skin patterned coat, plaid pants, striped socks and a differently striped shirt – and I would wear all of them together. And I loved flower patt...

To date, I have made more than 650 quilted items, and nearly every one of my them has a unique name. Surprisingly often, I get asked how I can have come up with all of those names. How do I do it? In this post, I’ll discuss the naming in general – for example, why it may be difficult mentally, and why it is so important to name one’s creations. I’ll also share 7 tips for generating names without resorting to an automatic name generator or to an AI assistant. Meaning, how you can come up with names using your own creativity. Why it may be difficult to name one’s quilted items If you think like I thought when I was just starting this hobby, you may want to be modest, not call attention to yourself, and feel that your quilty items are not such works of art that would deserve to be named. Back in my early days, I did not consider myself an artist, not really, and giving a name to a practical item felt like too much. I still don’t quite understand myself – I’m far from a modest, re...