Dots on Dots and a give away from Sweden

It is now my day on Dots on Dots. I am Britt-Inger from Malmo,  a city in the south of Sweden  
T his is my second blog hop and it is has been sew fun to follow all the creative ladies and their projects.

The Bowls with Borders , which was my first  blog hop was sew fun to follow and Dots on Dots has been sew exciting too.

My first intention was to make  a block with a theme connected to Sweden. And what could be more Swedish than the  Dalecarlian horses, horses carved of wood and painted according to a traditional pattern.The most common color is red with decorations in white, blue, yellow  and red.

I lived for  a short period forty years ago in Dalecarlia, which is a county in the middle of Sweden and there  I bought a little  herd of three  wooden horses in traditional red color.

My three Dalecarlian horses

I wonder how many red  Dalecarlian horses have  traveled abroad together as souvenirs. They must be several thousands, even if a horse is quite expensive. 
Some years ago I visited Dalecarlia again and I fell in love with this beauty. Isn´t he a wonderful black  horse?

I wanted of course to make a block with a Swedish Dalecarlian horse. Could I then make a dotted horse in purple  and use Kaffe Fasset´s dotted fabric? Purple is one of my favorite colors, the other one i lime green. Of course I could sew a purple Dalecarlian horse.

I started to cut a square of fabric 8,5 inch  from yellow dotted fabric. 

I then cut 20 squares 2.5 inch  with large dots to surround the middle square.

The  finished  block ended to the size 12.5 inch.

I then drew a horse with decorations to get a pattern for the applique. 

I have used fusible appliqué and then I have  sewn the appliqués to the background by machine.

The only handsewn detail on the block is the eye of the horse.

I couldn´t of course stop there, I wanted this horse to be  a pillow. And surrounded the block with strips in lime green ( my favorite color  too) that I cut 1,5 inch wide. As I love Kaffe Fasset´s design and all the fabric I have used was from his design I finished with a blooming fabric from his design too. I have cut this border 3 inch wide .
 I have  used thin batting for the front of the pillow and quilted the front. For the back I have used the same blooming fabric as in the wide border. 
I have an opening in the middle of the back  of the pillow case, I simply let two pieces of fabric go wrap about three inches , of course with hems where the wrap is.  I have  put the front and the back with the wrong sides together and closed the pillow case with a normal binding.  
This pillow case will suit a a  square pillow of 20 inches.

Cant you see how happy I am with that pillow? I have found all fabric in my stash.

And if you want to sew a horse like that you could my pattern to in the link Dalecarlian horse .

If you use fusible appliqué you have to reverse the pattern.

But playing with dots was sew fun that I had to make some more. This time I had to buy some fabric. The motif was clear. I love birds and why not make a block with a bird in it.

I drew a bird and some flowers as a applique pattern. Cut a background square 8,5 inches and surrounded the background square in the same way  as the horse block with 20 2,5 inch squares.

The block became then 12,5 inch. 

I ended up making two blocks as I wanted to  get a table runner. I then made some fourpatches , completerd with two borders and finally ended up with this table runner.

I then decided to stop with my dots, but  as I  found some  lovely dotted fabric in my stash, which  I had completely forgotten, I must make some more.
 When I did Bowls with Borders I have added some funny birds to one of the wall quilts , that the blog hop ladies were so excited about. Why not make something with a bird like them. I used a background square 12,5 inch with a beautiful dotted black fabric and then placed a funny bird talking to a flower. 

It was sew fun playing with the bird and the flower that I had to make two of them

The blocks ended up as mug rugs 

The back of the mug rug is of course with dots too on beautiful lime green.

If you want to make the funny bird talking the flower I have made a pattern for you

and if you use fusible appliqué you have to reverse it. You will find the pattern here

Now to my give away.

I am very fond of necklaces and bracelets and I have many of them. Some years ago I bought a necklace and a bracelet with a Dalecarlian horse pendant from  a Swedish designer with the brand named Baglady.

I haven´t used them very often and I had completely forgotten that I had them until I started to sew my Dalecarlian horse.

One blog hop lady will receive the necklace and a second  lady will receive the bracelet. You can´t chose which one to get it is only the chance. 

To get one of these jewelry you have to write a comment  for one chance  to win.
To get a second chance to win you have to be a new follower or you are already a follow,and leave a  seconde comment of this.
  
I will draw the lucky winners on Sunday 23rd and will post the name Monday 24th.

If you comment as a anonym you have to be sure that I could find your e-mail address.

Finally  I want to thank Corrie and Madame Samm who have made all this fun to happen and so far it has been sew wonderful and sew addictive.

And you have now  seen all my dotty projects.

Here are all the  ladies for today

Janes Fabrics

The Learning Curve Quilt and Such

Quilting by Dawn

Moose Stash Quilting

Quilty Doo Dads

Hill Valley Quilter (that´s me)

Quilt Monster in my Closet

The Raspberry Rabbits

Regina Grewe in English

Regina Grewe in German