Happy New Year 2020

Happy New Year to you all! 
Hope you've had a nice start on the new year, and I guess I'm not the only one excited to have a new year to look forward to enjoy. There will be upphills and downhills this year too, but I'm pretty sure it will be mostly nice moments and good days ahead.

We had a quiet celebration of the new year, since our two furballs are not happy at all about the fireworks and noise. We had a lovely dinner with our two youngest boys, DIL and a friend of them. Turkey as always, and some nice desserts. The young ones went off to a party, and me and Hubby stayed home keeping the furballs safe and calm. I enjoyed some hand sewing while we waited to pick up the youngsters late last night, and got a few stitches done on a new quilt I'm working on. I forgot to take a photo of it before writing this post, so I will share photos of it in my next post.

I've made some progress this morning on my Hexagon Flower quilt, and I'm happy it's almost a finished top, and I can't wait to hand quilt this one! I really love the wowen Japanese fabrics so much, and it's coming along so nicely

Earlier this winter I also finally got started on the Stonefields quilt designed by Susan Smith. I bought a few new reproduction fabrics for this quilt, and it's more than a year ago I got the pattern from a lovely quilting friend. I hope my version will be just as beautiful as hers, and this is the perfect long term project to work on . I have finished more than 50 hexie flowers for the border as well, but forgot to get a shot of them. This quilt is huge, and lots of blocks to make, but I know I will enjoy every minute of it :-) 

I must admit that 2019 had some really great moments when it comes to photography, and I attended two photo tours. I have to pinch myself to believe it, because it was almost surreal, since I'm not a traveller at all! One trip to Scotland, which I wrote about in my previous post, and one to Northern Ireland in September. I enjoyed the long drive from Dublin to the beautiful place we stayed at. The Ballylinny Holiday Cottages in Bushmills was cozy and nice, and this is the view from the cottage:

We visited a lot of amazing places, though I haven't edited all my shots yet.

Some of the ones I got to edit is these two from the Dark Hedges, which is famous because of the Game Of Thrones series. 

We arrived when it was pretty dark early in the morning, so we could get ready for the sunrise. It was so amazing to see this beautiful tree lane as the sun came up! Made the trees glow beautifully, and the autumn colors that popped as the light hit the leaves and branches. 

We met a few tourists when we were about to finish up at this location, and one of them was a lovely lady in a beautiful white dress. Our tour guide Bernard asked if she could walk down the lane for us for some shots. She looked so beatiful when she walked down the road, and her dress lit up when it got hit by the rays of sunlight between the trees. The most magical moment I've ever experienced for sure! She looked just like a forest spirit from ancient times...

After saying goodbye to half of the group Sunday morning, we stopped on the way back to Dublin at a place I really fell in love with. Murlough Bay is the name of this place, and it's also famous because of the GOT. We didn't stay there for long, but I for sure wish I could have stayed there for much longer! So beautiful!

I'm not sure I will focus as much on photography in 2020, since I plan to keep up the sewing and quilting most of all. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep up with them all, so I think I need to narrow it down to less projects. We'll see, what happens happens :-)

Have a lovely week,

Laila

It's been a while...

It's been so long since my last post! I've almost forgot how to make a blog post, but I hope to play catch up from now on :-) 

I've been knitting, sewing, photographing and hiking a lot so far this year. Lots of new projects, and some finishes too. 

A couple of my finished project this year:

Table runner inspired by Lori Holt. The fabrics are also from Lori Holt's lines, and I just love this happy table runner. I quilted it on my longarm machine, and just some easy cross hatching. The batting is polyester. 

Close up of the log cabin quilt. I finished this one during the summer, and I quilted it on my longarm machine using a panto I love.

This is the whole quilt, and I just love the scrappy log cabin! Almost all of the fabrics are from Lori Holt's fabric lines, also the light ones. 

My passion for photography did for sure get a boost when I attended a photo tour to Scotland back in April. I have never traveled much, and I was so scared of traveling alone but I did not have a choice if I really wanted to do this. The urge to get there and visit the lovely places was stronger than my fear of going alone. 

I've been looking at Istagram photos of the places I wanted to visit in Scotland for more than a year before I discovered Bernard Geraghty's profile and found his website for his tours. I booked the tour many months ahead, and I was super excited! 
I had the most amazing trip and the rest of the group was just awesome and the lovliest company. It was overwhelming and almost surreal to be there and so many fantastic memories. Scotland has for sure some amazing landscapes, and I really hope to go back there again one day. I'm so happy I got some lovely shots from the trip, with good help from our amazing tour guide, Bernard. Would highly recomend to sign up for a trip with him if you are interested in attending a photo tour.

Some of the shots from the trip to Scotland:

Kilchurn Castle 

The Jacobite Steam Train (Harry Potter train) at the Glenfinnan Viaduct 

Lagangarbh cottage at the base of Buachaille Etive Mor

Early morning by Loch Shiel

I am so happy I dared to go through with this trip, and I am proud of myself for being tough enough to do it. My urge to travel and do more photography is growing, and I signed up for another trip with Bernard Geraghty but this time to Ireland. I traveled to Northern Ireland with him and the rest of his awesome group back in September. But I'll tell you more about that adventure in a later post :-) 

Wish you all Happy Sewing and Happy Weekend!

Hugs

Laila

I'm still here :-)

Can't believe I haven't written a post on my blog since January! Time flies! I've been following my creative friends on Instagram and facebook, but I miss having the time to follow everyone in Blogland. Guess now the Autumn is here, and some of us will spend more time indoors than during the Summer, it will be easier to take the time to sit down in front of the computer/tablet and join the Blogland more often.

I have not been sewing as much as I did, but I have tried to not starting too many projects... Easier said than done... I couldn't resist buying the new book by Lori Holt, the Spelling Bee book. I just loved the blocks in this book, and perfect to customize your own quilts using the different ones. 

The quilt I fell in love with from her new book, is the Camera quilt. Since I've been very passionate about photography for a while, this is the perfect quilt for me :-) I've made a couple of blocks for it so far, but no photos this time. Will share photos later :-) This is Lori Holt's quilt (did borrow the photo from her blog) and I love it! 

I've got the fabrics from her new line Bee Basics, and I just adore them <3 font="" nbsp="">
Go check out her blog to see what she is up to, lots of yummy and fun stuff :-)


I started on the Picture Day quilt from the Spelling Bee book, since it's been so long since I made large blocks. These are 12" blocks, so the quilt grows pretty fast, and the blocks are so cute! I've made about 9 blocks so far, and these are some of them:

I've been working on my photography skills the past months too, and still learning a lot! Been learning more about landscape photography, and the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn... But I'm trying to have fun, and the most important thing for me is to be a better photographer to learn how to capture moments and saving memories. 
I have seen a lot of my quilting friends doing more photography too, and that's so cool! 
These are a couple of my recent photos. One macro and one landscape. Better quality on these two than the shots of my quilty stuff in crappy lighting though ;-)

It's Friday morning over here, and I hope my weekend will include both sewing and photography. The weather is pretty nasty with lots of rain today, but the weather report says it's going to be nice sunny weather the rest og the weekend.

Wish you all a great and creative weekend!

Hugs

Laila

New table runner and progress on the "Sweetie Pie" sew along

I decided to use some of the 2,5" scraps from the fabrics I used for the "Sweetie Pie" blocks and turned them into a table runner. I used a fatquarter of the white with cherries on between the ones with happy colours. I love to do simple cross hatching on table runners using white Auriful cottong thread.

 I love how the cross hatching looks, and this also makes the quilts/table runners easy to wash and make them stay in shape so I don't need to blocking afterwards.

 I used a light gingham fabric for the binding, and love how it turned out:)

This is my scrappy table runner finished:)

My sewing room floor looks like a garden of flowers these days. Layout time for my pie blocks, trying to make them all look a little bit different than each other, so I can spread the colours/different fabrics even. 

 I've prepped two blocks and started sewing the pies to the background fabrics by hand. I love doing needleturn appliquè. Look forward to start making the center blocks in the next days, but I haven't made up my mind about using the solid fabrics or if I want to use the Sew Cherry2 fabrics. Guess I'll just make one block to see how it looks with the Sew Cherry2 fabrics before I make up my mind :)

Happy sewing,

Laila

Sweetie Pie quilt in the making

 I've been working on the blocks I need for my "Farm Girl Vintage" quilt for a while, but I've also been cutting, sewing and ironing a lot of "pie slices" for a new quilt designed by Lori Holt. The Sew Along for this quilt started today, but the pattern and details for the cutting was released a few days ago, so I had my slices finished and ready to make some "pies" tonight.

210 "pie slices" looks just so delicate, don't you agree? I just love these fabrics, the colors just makes me happy :)

Sorted in pairs so chain piecing is piece of cake :)

 Managed to finish three "pies" tonight, and hope to finish all of them during the week so I can work on step 2. Trying to make each of them different than the other is a challenge, but so far so good!

If you want to join the Sew Along you can visit Lori Holt's blog and read all about it :) I look forward to work on this quilt, and the bonus projects Lori is going to share. 

It's been a lot of snow over here the last days, and I have been out with my camera hiking again. Some lovely scenes in the forest when the trees are covered with snow! Still learning how to shoot motifs in the bright snow, but at least it gets me out of the house and charging my batteries :)

Happy Sewing,

Laila

Sweetie Pie quilt

I am going to join Lori Holt's sew along and make the "Sweetie Pie" quilt. The sew along is going to start January 16th. I've downloaded the pattern, and Lori shared the rest of the cutting instructions in her blogpost yesterday, so today I got to start cutting into the fabrics that arrived the other day :o)

 This is how pies from 30 fatquarters looks like stacked side by side in color order. Love this line!

 Since I have never made a dresden plate (only made one half a long time ago...) I had to try to sew some of the pieces together, and just love how the happy colors pop next to each other! 

I hope to sew some of the plates/pies together in the next days, and really hope I can follow this sew along without falling out...again... My "Bloom quilt" still needs to be done, only one more block to do the needleturn appliquè on and it's ready to be pieced in rows and sewn together.

Happy sewing,

Laila

New Year ~ New Possibilities!

Happy New Year!

We went to see the public firework at midnight downtown at New Years Eve. It was amazing!

Such a long time since I made my previous blog post! I have been sewing a little bit again, so finally have something to share. I've been making a few things for Christmas, and I can finally share them over here. I made two pairs of pot holders for a couple of future-in-laws for two of the boys. Used my favorite Art To Heart book with these cute snowmen "Easy does it for Christmas". I've also used some of the fabrics from the lines by Nancy Halvorsen. 

Since I've been working on my "Have yourself a quilty little Christmas" quilt (a sew along on Instagram), I also made a scrappy table runner using up some scraps. Love these happy colors! 

Haven't got a nice photo of the Christmas quilt yet, since it's on the floor with the borders floating around the main part of the top. Layout time... but will share a photo of it when I get it pieced together. That must happen soon, before the quilt inspectors start using it as a place to sleep :o)

I've been playing catch up on some of the blocks I started long ago. These Churn Dash blocks are so fun and happy! The pattern is from Lori Holt's "Farm Girl Vintage" book, and my plan is to make a happy table runner when the pile of blocks is large enough.

Wish you all a great new and creative week!
Happy sewing,
Laila

Stashbusting!

I've been sewing a lot this weekend, and I'm so happy to be back in my sewing room after a long break! Got so many UFO's to finish, but when I got my copy of the Scrappy Project Planner by Lori Holt last week I just decided to start a new quilt called "Fatquarter Flirt Quilt". The pattern is in the Scrappy Project planner, and I cut all the pieces for the quilt on Friday so I could just focus on sewing this weekend ;-)

 I have almost three rows finished for the quilt, and I love how it turns out! I'm making two blocks at a time, and the quilt grows pretty fast :o) This is great for some serious stashbusting, and I think I've cut about 30 fatquarters for this quilt and throwing in some scraps it will look so great!

 Can't wait to join the rows and quilt this one! I will use a panto pattern for it, but haven't decided which one yet.

 I have been focusing on hiking as often as possible and always have my camera with me. The Autumn is my favorite season, just lover the colors and frosty mornings. I also love how the sunrises looks at this time of the year, so lovely colors!
This is my view from a few days ago. Just before the sun comes up behind the hill. Just awesome!

I'm hoping to be spending more time sewing from now on, and since the energy slowly comes back after feeling like a train wreck for a year I hope to be back to a normal and do more creative stuff during the long winter ahead. Have a lot of plans, and making a few Christmas gifts are one of them. I hope to at least be able to make a few, so keeping my fingers crossed this will be a productive winter :-)

Happy sewing!
Laila

Quilty Sunday

Today was a perfect day for some sewing. It's been a rainy day over here, and that means perfect sewing weather :-)

I have been cutting pieces from the new fabrics I got some days ago. It's the new Christmas line designed by Lori Holt. I have planned to make a Christmas quilt called "Have yourself a quilty little Christmas" since I did see the quilt at Lori Holt's Instagram back in November. I totally fell in love with this quilt, and so happy I got my fatquarter bundle of Cozy Christmas, just in time for the Summer Holidays!  

 Early today I had these blocks already pieced:

Then I made a cute Haystack block and the Candle block, and pieced them together with the Spools block. Just love how it looks so far!

This will be such a happy Christmas quilt when it's finished, and I cross my fingers I will be able to do some quilting on my longarm machine by the time it's finished. 

If you would like to see more blocks and the whole quilt you can go to Instagram and use the hashtag #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas 

I've been making some blocks for the Great Granny Quilt during the last two weeks also, but will share photos of them in my next post:-)

Wish you all a great and creative new week,

Laila

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Scrappy Days

Getting back to sewing  turned out to take a longer period of time than I ever could imagine. Yet another set back with my illness issues makes me tired and no energy at all. 

Starting on new medicines will hopefully make everything better and hopefully back to normal again in a couple of months. 

Yesterday and today I have been doing a little bit of scrap busting, and I have pieced some new Haystack blocks and a few 9 patch blocks using the lovely scraps I've been saving for more than a year now.  

Lots of these where already precut, so it was nice to just sit down and piece them together. I love to do some mindless sewing with happy colours these days, it makes me happy :o) 

I have no plan for these 9 patch blocks yet, but I just love how they turned out, and will make something cute with them in the end. 

I've been out photographing a little bit, and I love all the flowers popping up everywhere! I feel so fortunate to live out on the country to see the lovely Summer landscape with lots of colours from beautiful flowers. 

I really look forward to go hiking a lot again as soon as my energy level is back and my body is working better. My doctor says I have to take it slow for a while, but one step at a time I will get back to where I used to be :o)

I love my new Panasonic Lumix GX8 so much, and it's so much fun shooting photos with it!  A little bit of editing in Lightroom is fun too, and I think I will contine trying to learn more about editing now that I figured out this much. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but not hopeless! LOL!

Wish you all a great new and creative week :o)
Laila