Wielki błękit / Le Grand Bleu

I just hope that Luc Besson won't mind that I called my mini-quilt in progress 'Le Grand Bleu' ('The Big Blue')...;)
/ Mam tylko nadzieję, że Luc Besson nie będzie miał mi za złe, że nazwałam mój powstający mini-quilt 'Le Grand Bleu' ("Wielki Błękit")...;)

So far it's approx. 19'' x 28", but I'm planning make it bigger (squares are a little bit more than 2" finished). It will be wall hanging living in our main room. I gave up my original plan to place some fussy cut parts in the waves (but I'll use this idea sewing bigger version with 7" finished Drunkard's Path blocks).
The most time consuming part was cutting. I just can't imagine what would I do without my GO! Cutter...
Probably it's first quilt of mine which contains so many blocks which have the same pattern. I love quilts with similar blocks, but usually I gave up after sewing a few... This time I just couldn't stop! I finished just because I love those little shops in the left top corner and piecing more at the top won't look right.
Some parts are with mistakes (the layout of blocks is different), but I love it how it is right now. Maybe I'll correct only two blocks which I don't like. Will see...

/ W tej chwili top ma wymiary ok. 48 x 72 cm (kwadraty mają 6 cm bok), ale zamierzam go nieco powiększyć. Jak go skończę, zawiśnie w dużym pokoju. Zrezygnowałam z pomysłu by pomiędzy falami umieścić parę specjalnie wyciętych "obrazków" (użyję tego pomysłu przy szyciu narzuty na łóżko o takim wzorze z większych bloków Drunkard's Path).
Najbardziej czasochłonną częścią było cięcie bloków Drunkard's Path. Nie potrafię sobie wyobrazić co bym zrobiła gdyby nie mój GO! Cutter...
Najpewniej będzie to pierwszy mój quilt, który jest złożony z bloków o takim samym wzorze. Uwielbiam takie quilty, ale niestety zazwyczaj po paru blokach ich szycie nudzi mi się... Tym razem nie mogłam przestać! Skończyłam tylko dlatego, że znalazłam tkaninę z małymi sklepikami, które umieściłam w lewym górnym rogu. Powiększanie mini-quiltu w górę zepsułoby efekt.
Popełniłam parę błędów we wzorze, który obmyśliłam, ale i tak mi się podoba (dobra... uwielbiam ten quilt!). No może poprawię dwa bloki, które trochę mi działają na nerwy. Zobaczymy...

Zwycięzca cuksów! / Giveaway winner!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments and taking part in the giveaway in Spread the Love Blog Hop!

I know... such a short post... We're sitting at home, because we both (Mary and I) have flu. For sure we will be healthy soon, but meanwhile I have to get back to playing with daughter and to pretend that I am a... pirate! :)

/ Niestety tym razem szczęście nie uśmiechnęło się do quilterek z Polski:( Nie martwcie się, przyszykuję jakieś cuksy tylko dla Was:)
Siedzimy w domu, obie chore (na grypę). Taka pora roku niestety... Wracam do córki by udawać... pirata!

How to sew a zipper in pillow cover? / Jak wszyć zamek w poduszce?

Wersja polska wkrótce:)

Sewing zipper at the back means that you've got one side of a pillow to show and use. If you sew zipper like in zippered pouch you actually get two pillow fronts! This simple idea was already use by me HERE. Having 3 two-sided pillows on sofa means that you've got so many options of decoration your room! You can also use another option: front will be quilted of even embelish, but the back will be made of flannel or wholecloth. This way you can turn your pillow to the front, if you want to take a nap during the day:)

The zipper at the bottom allows your pillow standing really nice, so that's why I named this tutorial:

The main part of sewing zipper in pillow is based on the way of sewing zipper in pouch. If you haven't sew such zipper so far, just see THIS fabulous tutorial made by Kelby Sews.

I made in this method slight changes to make it more effective.

I also used one trick which I've seen on Polish blog (unfortunately the author didn't remember the source of this idea, if you know such tutorial, please let me know - I would love to give credits to it). The rest are just my thoughts, which give you some options of final look inside of pillow.

I skip details of some basic steps (you can find them in Kelby Sews tutorial).

Trim both ends of the zipper (zipper should have almost the same lenght as pillow bottom).

Cut from lining fabric two squares measuring exactly the same as your pillow front and back. Cut two stripes (long exactly the same as length of pillow bottom, wide about 2 1/2"). Sew stripes to the lining parts. Press the seems joining stripes and lining towards the lining. Put lining parts left side together, matching seems:

Draw using chalk line parallel to the seam between lining and stripe. The distance between the seam and line should be as wide as your zipper:

Stitch two lining parts on the line indicated by chalk. Open the seam:

Press the seam and put the trimmed zipper on it. The 'right side' of zipper opening should be matched exactly to the seam:

Pin the zipper and stitched it to the lining at the both sides of the zipper (really close to the edge of zipper ribbon). The special foot for sewing zippers won't be needed. Then fold the rest of the stripes to cover the edge of zipper edge, pin and stitch:

After stitching folded stripes, the zipper back should look like this (ok... yours will look better - I was in a hurry:):

Now the best part: turn on the lining on the other side and rip the seam in the middle. After ripping off the seam you'll see the zipper - perfectly hidden:)

After this, turn the lining on the left side and fold the lining to show the seam joing lining and solid part:

Put pillow front right side to the left side of lining as indicated at the above photo. Sew pillow front and lining together. Then do the same with the pillow back using the second seam joing lining and solid part. After you sew pillow front and back to the lining, you should get this:

The pillow cover is ready to last step (unfortunatelly, I didn't took good photo of last step... But Kelby did this perfect - just see HERE how the last step looks like). Firstly, remember to open the zipper. Then fold pillow front and back right sides together. Fold lining parts right sides together. And sew all around leaving a gap at the bottom (to turn pillow cover).

I promise that when I sew next pillow cover, I'll took photos to show this step:)

If something needs to be better shown or explained, please let me know! 

Niciana tęcza / Thread rainbow

Recently I've swapped some fabrics for colorful threads and zippers. I had only one row of threads and usually I couldn't match the right color for quilting. Now I've got rainbow heaven in my closet:

/ Ostatnio wymieniłam trochę tkanin na kolorowe nici i zamki (na forum Szyjemy po godzinach). Do tej pory miałam nieco ponad jeden rząd nici i często nie mogłam dopasować właściwego koloru. Teraz mam do dyspozycji tęczowe niebo w szafie:

A few additions in my sewing corner will be done soon and I'll have quite cozy and lovely place to sew. The only problem is that recently I have some back pain and I cannot seat a lot (at work I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, so when I get back I have to avoid this...:( I hope that some special treatment and changes in my sitting habits will work...

/ Jeszcze tylko parę małych zmian i mój kącik będzie cudny i przytulny. Jedyny problem to ból kręgosłupa, który mnie ostatnio dopadł (w pracy spędzam sporo czasu przed komputerem i gdy wracam do domu muszę sporo odpoczywać, gdyż ból jest nie do wytrzymania...:( Mam nadzieję, że rehabilitacja i zmiana nawyków wpłynie na mnie pozytywnie...