27 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted in Sew journal
I’ve been taking the klosjes with me to sit and sew for handwork and now I think I’m done with them. I’ve attached a Kona coal border and I really like the way it sets off the colours. I’m not sure if this will be the finished size; if I’ll make it into a quilt, or a tablecloth, or what but I thought you might like to take a squiz at the way it looks so far.
24 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in Sew journal
I’ve sewn 90 of the blocks together so far. That’s 450 pieces of fabric and countless seams but I like the look of it.
I’ve got a cold at the moment and feeling somewhat under the weather but all these bright colours cheer me up. So in between sneezing and wheezing I’m back sewing klosjes again.
21 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in Sew journal
I’ve had quite a few enquiries about to make and how to draft a pattern for klosjes. Here goes…
For those of you that have Electric Quilt you can search the block library for a block called Spools. This is a klosje block. You can then pick what size you want and print out your template or cutting instructions.
For those of you without EQ there are two ways to make klosjes that I’m aware of. The first uses 13 pieces and is made up of a nine patch where the corner blocks are made from two half square triangles like this.
13 piece klosje
You can draw this up in the finished size you want then cut out a square and triangle as templates and add 1/4″ for seam allowance when you draw round them on your fabric.
The second way, and the way I actually used, is made up of 5 pieces as shown below. Cut out the centre square and one of the other four pieces to use as templates and add 1/4″ seam allowance when you draw on your fabric.
5 piece klosje
To sew the 13 piece klosje first sew the half square triangles together so that you have four square blocks. Then sew the nine patch together by sewing in rows and then sewing the rows together.
To sew the 5 piece klosje first sew piece No:1 to the centre piece No:3. Then sew piece No:2 to the opposite side of the centre piece No:3. Then sew pieces 4 and 5 using Y seams at the junctions. I hope this helps you all. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them on this post.
21 Friday Jan 2011
Posted in Sew journal
A while back I tried hand-piecing using freezer paper templates without a great deal of success. I figured I must be doing something wrong. My lovely friend Sylvia sent me instructions and two special rulers to assist. However I need to see before I can really get it. I’ve found a wonderful site called Hand Piecing with Crispy (a very welcome visitor of this blog). It really is an excellent resource and it inspired me to give the freezer paper method another go.
I followed most of her instructions. The one I neglected let me down of course!
I decided that I wanted to do my klosjes using this method but the pdf I have only has one template so I copied and pasted it into Word and reproduced several on the page. I printed them onto freezer paper. (A little messy. My printer doesn’t like it too much). Then totally forgetting about “make sure the block measures to the “finished” size” I forged ahead. Consequently I now have one 5″ klosje and pieces to make several more!
[Crispy if you’re reading this you can see I also need help with my pressing. I tried to to do it your way i.e. not using the side of the iron but I ended up with pleats] I also need assistance with finding the best way to press the seams on this block. If any of you has any suggestions I’d love to hear them. The small ones I pressed so there was a flat square in the middle. This one I pressed so there was a rectangle in the middle. What do all you other klosje makers do?
11 Tuesday Jan 2011
Posted in Sew journal
I’ve got somewhere between 140 and 150 klosjes completed and so I thought I’d start assembling them in squares of 16. Here’s the first:
I haven’t decided on the final pattern yet. I may just do all over small klosjes or I may do some squares of the same size but with four larger klosjes and some others with just one large one to intersperse with them. I’m also contemplating Quilt-As-You-Go as there are so many seams.
I’ve chosen the backing for my baby quilt. What do you think?
01 Saturday Jan 2011
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
1.1.2011, hand-piecing, Happy New Year, klosjes, patchwork, quilting blog, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog
My prayer for us all this year is that we grow – in health, in wisdom, in love, in peace and harmony with the environment and people everywhere and that we are able to share that growth to enable others to grow too. Happy New Year everyone and thank you for the wonderful support you gave me in 2010. I hope you’ll stick with me and help me to grow this blog in 2011.
Are these the first blogland klosje’s of 2011? lol I haven’t pressed them yet but I thought I’d show you anyway. I’m running out of different scraps. I’ve only been quilting for a few years and so my tally of projects, and hence my quantity of different fabric scraps, is low. I still have a couple of my swap partner’s scraps that I haven’t used yet (you might recognise the black and white one) and then I think I’m going to have to cut into virgin fabric {gasp} to make the next lot. 🙂 Keep watching.
06 Monday Dec 2010
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
give-away, klosjes, Quilt-lite batting, quilting blog, Quiltlite batting, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, winner
Thank you all for entering the give-away. It was fun to see your guesses.
I have to say some of you must think that while I appear to be mild-mannered Sewjournal, at times I race into a phone booth (do they have those any more?) and metamorphose into this woman! 220 klosjes! Wow Annette! While you weren’t correct I’m going to send you a little something to thank you for your high opinion of my abilities. 🙂
Here they are. All arranged in tens and units. Eight piles of tens and three units = 83! And the winner is: Deb! Congratulations Deb. I’ll email you shortly for your snail mail address so I can send your prize. 
The Quilt Pattern Magazine give-away is still running and you can find all the details here.
Sylvia asked in yesterday’s comments if this batting is good for hand-quilting? It definitely is. It’s very thin and light and it washes up beautifully. I took another couple of photos so you can see how fine it is.
05 Sunday Dec 2010
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
fabric, fabrics, give-away, klosjes, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, The Quilt Pattern Magazine
I’ve been on a self-imposed fabric fast. Not that I have rooms full of the stuff. After all I’ve only been quilting for 2 years so how much can a girl accumulate in two years? I just felt I needed to use some of what I had before I started buying more. I have been sorely tempted recently but have held out.
However, yesterday we went to visit a family member in ICU in Ryde in Sydney. It just so happens that this is not far from a Quilt Shop I have never visited called Material Obsession. DH suggested he would drive me there after the visit. So while he sat in the car reading the Saturday newspaper I went inside. What a lovely shop! I have to say it is one of the cutest, most vibrant quilt shops I have ever visited.
I found a few goodies there. First off they stocked the batting that is now my official favourite – Freudenberg’s Quilt-Lite. It is 100% cotton and is woven and is very, very light. I used it in my Andalusian Tile quilt. It seems to be quite hard to find so when I heard they had stock I bought 2 metres. (not cheap $21 per metre)
This was offset however by some fabrics that were on sale and that were just too lovely and too good a bargain to pass up. (You know that feeling. :)) I bought three fat quarters for only $2.50 each and some other larger pieces of fabric for between $10 and $15 per metre. Take a look.
My favourites are the second one with the three designs on the one piece of fabric and the lovely aqua oval spots. Closely followed by that Japanese one on the bottom.
The klosje guessing give-away is still running and you can find it here if you’d like to enter.
The Quilt Pattern Magazine give-away is still running and you can find all the details here.
02 Thursday Dec 2010
Posted in Sew journal
Klosjes, klosjes everywhere… As far as the eye can see. AKA spool blocks or bow-tie blocks
I’ve been making klosjes for a whole week now. We went to a wedding on the weekend and got there on time but the other guests didn’t arrive until two hours later so I sat and made klosjes while I waited. They’re extremely portable. I did some at the hairdresser’s on Tuesday too.
They’re very satisfying to make. I’m not sure why. I usually get bored making the same thing over and over again. It’s not because of all the different fabrics because if that were the case then I’d be happy sewing hexies, which I’m not. I think maybe it’s because it’s an interesting shape to sew with all those “Y” seams. So far I’ve made 53! What do you think?
Now for the fun bit. If you can correctly guess the number of klosjes I’ve made by the end of Sunday (my time) then you can win these two fat quarters (actually the geometric one is 1/4 metre WOF). You already know I have 53 and that it took me a week to make that many. I hope to be sewing today and tomorrow and perhaps a little on the weekend. So what do you reckon? Leave me a comment with your guess and I’ll check them on Monday morning (my time) and post the winner.
28 Sunday Nov 2010
Posted in Sew journal
Have you seen the klosjes around the blogosphere? Do you know what they are? They’re small spool blocks (that’s what the Dutch word klosje means). I’ve seen them on many, many blogs including Janet’s of Quiltsalott. I downloaded a pdf pattern from the web but now I can’t find the blog I got it from so I can’t share it with you. I suspect it was Blissfully Stitching but Google Chrome has a had a hissy fit and says it will harm my computer so I can’t go and check it out.
Anyway here they are. Most of the one’s I’ve seen on the web are in vintage fabrics and muted colours. I’m using my Kaffe scraps for mine.
Just a quick update re the pattern. My printer (I suspect) didn’t print it out correctly so it’s not the 3.5″ square it’s supposed to be. It seems to be 3.25″. Anyway I’m not changing it now. I’ll go with what I’ve got.
