Four Seasons Trees – Finished!

I’ve finished this huge wall hanging, Four Seasons Trees! I am so happy now!
There is a picture of it in our terrace:


And there is another photo taken after the Four Seasons Trees was hung on the wall made by the owner who is also very happy. ☺


Older posts about the process of creation:

http://patchworkmill.blogspot.com/search/label/wall hanging

Now I’m working on quite small projects which I’m able to quilt without the need of my lovely husband holding them next to the sewing machine (the book expansion was not enough when I had to do the final large quilting). ☺

Four Seasons Trees – Work in Progress 3.

The following picture shows a great comeback to all who told me that I collected too many home decorating and gardening books in the past years. It really shows now that they can be quite useful in numerous situation! I expanded the sewing surface with them (and the ironing board), making it easier to move the larger sized “trees” during quilting.

This wall hanging was pinned with straight quilting pins, as even though my curved safety pins are less dangerous they leave too big holes afterwards. I was afraid that they would leave their marks on the light area around the trees. As a result I stung myself quite a few times during work. Nothing is perfect.

I was planning flowers and fruits under the trees but as I’ve done very little free motion quilting so far, I was afraid to just “draw” with my hands all loose. Instead I used a very thin paper to draw the pattern for myself that I could use later for the free motion quilting. Of course it was not easy to rip off all the small pieces of paper afterwards (I had to use a brow clip also ☺), but looking at the result I believe it was worth the trouble.

Four Seasons Trees

Oh my! Winter almost got left out!


The whole wall hanging will be done in the following days, and I’ll show it to you guys!

But I’m doing some other things in the meantime as well: a very kind Etsy costumer liked my Vintage Rose camera case, but she has a camera that is a bit larger, so I’m sewing one for her with the right measures.


I had this fabric with the roses and stripes for a very long time. I bought them together with the fabric of my “Florence” camera case, in the textile factory of Kispest. In those times the Hungarian textile industry was still up and running. Pure nostalgia.

Work In Progress 2.

Well… I’ve taken a bit longer break then I originally thought so, but since then our son graduated (with excellent grades), we had Christmas of course, I sewed some presents and – as probably every other family in the world – we had guests or went to someone else’s place to be guests – during the whole holiday.

But now I’m back again and I’d like to start with the answer to the question I asked before (so none of you will start to worry that I forget it). Snowflake wrote me the solution (four seasons) in email during the holidays, as she couldn’t log in to leave a comment. I’d like to congratulate her hereby! And thank you.

Well, lets start:

I’ve been thinking about how beautiful a large wall hanging (with four trees representing the four seasons) would look in our finished bedroom for a long time. The four seasons theme has been always close to me: I already have (an unembroided) pattern with the four seasons and an almost finished wall hanging collection as well (it’s a shame but Spring is still not ready as I’m still looking for the right frame). I already wrote about them twice (My “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” Quilt, and Winter Officially Started).

Even though the house-building project has been going really well, our bedroom is still not ready. But. My relative – I wrote about before – has dreamed that they have a huge wall hanging above their bed: four trees and four seasons. Strange things happen in life, right?

So right now I am sewing trees, cutting and ironing leaves and berries. I am sewing them on a paper template in English paper piecework style (folding their edges), then I attach them on the base with the help of some glue. (The folded edged application is no mistake: I work a bit more now for the far future, but I’ll be writing a separate post about that later.)

I sew the fixed pieces on the base with my sewing machine. I was really nervous as this is a brand new technique for me: I programmed a series of stitches into my machine, resulting in the feel and look of sewing all that trees, leaves and berries with my hand.

The berries have to be rotated all the while, which is quite hard, but I am really good with the leaves now. There was a moment when I even felt like someone was leading the fabric in the machine, the leaves were almost sliding under the sewing needle on their own.

I’m already finished with Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, so I’m currently working on the four pictures into one large one, while framing it as well.

When I told my husband how strange it was that I was asked to make a huge wall hanging that I’ve been wanting to make above our own bed, I found out two things: 1. I’ve been fantasizing about this plan so deep inside, that I didn’t even tell him about it. 2. He is not sure that he wants to see the four seasons flow through our home. He liked the four seasons wall hanging collection (almost done) that I designed to the living room before, but he thinks that I should work another one of my many future plans for the other parts of our house. Well… this is where I am right now.

Work In Progress 1.

I am working on a really big wall hanging, it is for one of my distant relative. To be exact: I make it for the cousin of the husband of the sister of my dad.
Here are the fabrics that I’m using. They are sorted into four groups for a reason. ☺




I wonder if you guys can figure out what the wall hanging is about, just by looking at these... ☺

Blue Roses Quilted Wall Hanging - Show and Tell Friday 2.

Since last week cloudy Show and Tell Friday entry so many of you wished some sunshine for me, that on that weekend the air actually got clearer and the sun came out of hiding. Thanks!

But by now the old and sad weather returned, and the best you can do is get wrapped into a warm blanket by a warm lamplight with a cup of hot chocolate. Or: back to the Naples’ memories!

I started making this wall hanging quilt in Naples, following the instructions in Dina Pappas’ wonderful book. It’s not always easy to find fabrics with large roses that have contrast as well, but I succeeded. In Monterusciello (small neighbour town) there was a market on every Wednesday, where – in the large bustle of goods and people – everything that we could imagine was there for sale.

On the above picture it is only a small part of the market, as it went on long into the streets to infinity. New clothes, bed clothes, pictures, candles, curtains, tablewares, so many things I can’t even write it all down! I found lots of treasures (there were a few thrift store alike tents as well). On the other huge area they were selling delicious fruits, vegetables, cheeses (amazing fresh buffalo mozzarella and parmesan etc.) different kinds of olives (that we had to taste all the time) and sea fruits.

Well on this market around the new bed clothes once I discovered two lonely pillowcases, that somehow lost their duvet covers, so I got them at a very low price. They had wonderful small and large blue roses. I knew it instantly, that I would learn Dina Pappas’ methods on this fabric.

I finally did it, and the making was a lot of fun too. It was put aside for some time though, because I knew that I wanted a blue and green frame on this wall hanging quilt. I already had the blue fabric for that, but couldn’t find a matching green. You wouldn’t guess where I found it in the end. At our move I had to go through all of my fabrics to empty our wardrobe and in the bottom of my owns I found this green one, which fits the picture very well in my opinion.

I learned the free motion machine quilting on this picture, so it became a very personal and valued piece: it has the hot Italian summer’s feeling, a walk on the market, the many things that I have learned in the making, and – on behalf of the green fabric – our move as well.

Looking Back II. – Home Blessing

My cousin and his family have a little farmhouse in a small village in the northern part of Hungary close to the border.

When they bought this house it was ruinous condition, however since then they’ve been working a lot to rebuild and build on an extension to it. The work hasn’t been finished yet, but it is coming on well. When they first set their eyes on the old building in a romantic and prolific garden.

And here it is today.

And this is a bonus picture for you guys: a printed–painted pattern calendered with a rubber roller on a white basic that came out during the dismolition–excavation. Unfortunately the condition of the plaster was so bad that it was impossible to save the original pattern, so only a picture of it will remain for the posterity.

Even though we cannot visit my cousin and his family in their farmhouse so often that we would like to, we always spend good time there together. At the end of the garden there is a babbling creek on which their ducks with noisy gaggling swim about in all the summertime (they are always really cute). Over the creek there is a small forest just beginning.

Because they are running a second household there, for Christmas and other family occasions we often give them presents that suit for their little farmhouse and they can also use them there (for example self-made tablecloth or bedclothes). For this Christmas we figured that it would be nice if I made a Home Blessing for them.

In the usual old Hungarian farmhouse there was always a Home Blessings on the wall. As far as I know it is also used by other nations, however when I googled on the Internet I found the Irish people have a bunch of Home Blessings with different texts. In Hungary the text is always the same with only some difference in the design at most. Of course the Home Blessing is almost always embroidered with all the regions having their own style and pattern. This is the text in English:

Home Blessing

Where belief is, there is love
Where love is, there is peace
Where peace is, there is blessing
Where blessing is, there is God
Where God is, there is no dearth.

This Home Blessing embroided in Kalocsa style (pronunciation: Kalocha). It is a traditional Hungarian embroidery named after the town of Kalocsa, where it originated. "Writing women" in this town on the Danube in Southern Hungary draw their designs on white or pastel colored fabrics. Daisies, marigolds, cornflowers, poppies, lilies, tulips and roses furnish the colorful motifs.

This is another example made with “written embroidery” from Kalotaszeg. Kalotaszeg is located in Transylvania between the River Körös and the River Kalota. The “written embroidery” is made on homespun canvas with thick cotton thread which is red, blue, black or white monochrome colored. Its motifs come from the nature: tulip, marjoram, poppy, apple and pear. 

I’ve found a nice Webpage which is about a Transylvanian village in Hungarian language, you could find further embroideries there: 
http://magyarvalko.mindenkilapja.hu/gallery/19739303/renderimages/17142475/kalotaszegi-irottas

So back on the subject of my Home Blessing. In my cousin’s farmhouse there are old and traditional furniture, stuff supplemented with some modern ones. So I did not choose a fancy and complicated embroidery, but based on a „blue-dyeing” (Hungarian „kékfestő”) cotton I made a relatively simple structured Home Blessing.

I embroidered the text with my sewing machine. It was the first time that I used it for that so I suffered a lot with it. But I didn’t give up and finally I finished with it, and it turned out to be just as I’ve imagined.

The „blue-dyeing” (Hungarian „kékfestő”) with blue and white color patterns are typically Hungarian cotton fabrics. Here are a few sites (the first one is English-written) about them.

http://www.blaudruckerei.hu/angol.htm

http://www.kekfestokovacs.hu

http://www.kekfestomuzeum.hu/a-muzeum

Have fun looking around!

Winter Officially Started

Today is the first day of December and from now in the northern parts of the world winter has officially started according to the meteorologists. Here in Hungary (at least at Budapest and the area) we celebrated the start of wintertime with a huge amount of warm rain, that made the only remaining snow disappear as well.

Till snow and ice return and we can build the first snowmen, here is my Seasons Wall Hanging Set’s “Winter” piece for you.

I still haven’t found the right frame for “Spring”. So I better hurry up if I want to show it to you guys on the first day of Spring (it is officially on first of March isn’t), since I have got only three months left.

I was thinking about making the blog get some winter style look as well, but I have realized it’s enough that it’s cold outside, better keep the inside warm. Remain the glowing leaves like the flames inside the fireplace.

My “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” Quilt

My first quilting work has not been finished yet. I always liked challenges, so what else could I have started after reading my first quilt book, than a huge “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” king-size quilt?

We were on a vacation at the beautiful Lake Tisza in 1998 with some friends and a bunch of kids. We all had a great time. I started to make and sew together the first hexagons in those delightful summer evenings. The kids liked them so much, that they joined me in the work (the boys too, including my son). I have kept these patches, and – even though I am quite the perfectionist, and kids’ stitches were far from uniform, rather the opposite – but I am sure that those patches will be part of the final quilt. I hope it will be finished some day so I can show it to everyone.

My “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” king-size quilt’s design was constantly changing, as time went by. The biggest disaster for my family was in the first week of our one year spent in Naples (Italy), when our house got robbed. Which had quite the effect on my quilt, since a huge (HUGE) suitcase full of beautiful American quilt fabrics, which I collected in the USA (and made a great effort to bring them home with us, casting out everything else to fit in our suitcases) taken by bad guys.

To tell you the truth for some time I thought I would never be able to look at fabrics again, since they stole not only my fabrics, but the joy of working with them as well. And then my sweet husband told me that I shouldn’t grieve about it, he would buy me new fabrics, even better looking ones, than before.

And soon after in Naples I have started a new project as a therapy: I created 4 wall hangings (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) from the small pieces of sample fabrics remained after the robbery (I have kept the samples in a different box) and from some blocks of the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” quilt.

I am still looking for the matching fabric to create the border for Spring, but the rest of them are complete.