A cozy Sunday

Today my sister-in-law, Mona, came to my house for some sewing together with me. We had a cozy time, chatting, laughing and a lot of sewing. She did a great job on her table runner. She finished the top, and now she's looking forward to continue with the quilting. She was pretty satisfied with the result herself, too :o)

I was downtown to Quiltegården the other day, had to show Siw the result so far on the purse we started making last weekend when I attended Yoko Saito's class;o) I'm a really slow hand quilter, so it takes time for me to finish this project, I guess... But I'm enjoying these pieceful moments of hand quilting.
But after a couple of days working without a timble on my left hand, my fingers got so sore! I just cannot get used to the timble!
Siw showed me some new stuff she's got in her shop. Instead of a timble you can use a small metallic gadget with a tiny pad of doblesided tape, and you put it on top of the finger you work with from under the quilt, and it worked! I'm quilting faster now :oD
On the right hand you use a little leather gadget instead of a timble, and with these two, it is much easier to hand quilt! Yay! I really found my way to do the hand quilting :o)


I've managed to attach the binding on two care quilts today, so the rest of the evening I will continue working on my hand quilting skills :o)

Wish you all a great Sunday,
Laila

A great weekend in Oslo!

Last weekend Roy (my DS1) and I went to Oslo. We travelled by air plane and train to get there, and we had a great time :o)

We got to Oslo early Saturday, and after checking in at the hotel, we had a little sight seeing.

We was staying at hotel not far from the Norwegian King's castel, so we went for a walk. It' an amazing building with a lot of artful details. The guards that is always guarding the castle is an impressiv sight too, and while we where taking some photos, a little troop came up front. They are not allowed to answer back to people that confronting them, so it's no point asking for the direction ;o)

We went out to have a nice dinner later, and it was so nice to spend some quality time with my son. I think he had a great time too, and since he loves taking photos, he took a lot of them with his own camera:o)

The "mission" this weekend, was the class teached by Yoko Saito on Sunday. I was attending this class, representing my local quilt shop, Quiltegården, and I was so honored when Siw, the owner, asked me to go!

I was so excited, I almost couldn't get any sleep the night before!

We learned some of the techniques she uses when she makes her quilts, and they are so full of details! She makes some stunning projects, and a lot of it is made only by hand!

I've never thought I could do so much piecing by hand, with no marking! And it was so much fun!

I only got to piece two blocks for the beautiful purse, which was the project we worked on. But during the last week, I finished one of the two main pieces for the purse, and I've also started some of the hand quilting ;o)

Yoko Saito teached two classes at the Norwgian quilt quild's annual meeting the same weekend, too. And I know several of the ladies that where so lucky to meet her during this weekend. You can see a lot of phots from the meeting on Hanne and May Britt's blogs.

Ann (the Norwegian designer AnnAKa) and Merete was happily cutting fabric with their 'BIG' fabric scissors. We had a bit of fun because of these scissors :o) But when you're travelling by an air plane, you're not allowed to bring large scissors, so you'll have to get the smallest there is :o)

Ann, Merete and Evy (owner of Artic Quilter quilt shop). Not hard to see that these ladies had fun ;o) We all had our share of "oooh's" and "aaah's".

Even if Yoko didn't speak much English, she was fantastic to tell with her body language and drawings on a board, to make us understand. She had a lady that translated from Japaneese to Norwegian, but we understood most of what Yoko showed without a translation.

Hanne (owner of Lappedilla) with another purse made by Yoko Saito. I got to meet Hanne before the class did begin, and it was so nice to meet her :o)

It was such a great and special weekend for me, and I am left with a lot of new knowlegde and inspiration.

I'll be back with some pics of my project soon ;o)

Happy sewing,

Laila

A new table runner in the making :o)

Remember these ones? My Easter chickens?


I decided to release the pattern ("Påskekos") again, and thought I should make an other one in lighter fabrics. It's not finished, but this is how half of the table runner looks like:

The picture is a bit dark,but... I'm workin on the binding, and will show a new picture when it's finished completely :o)
The pattern is available at Quiltegården, Lappedilla and Lappestua.

Table runner #2

I really fell in love with the new table runner pattern from AnnAKa, so I made one more this weekend!
This time I used fabrics that reminds me of SUMMER...


The table runner is already delivered to it's new owner, my mom :o) She liked it a lot! It's so nice to make someone happy, that makes me happy, too :o)



I've already digged out fabrics for another one from my fabric bins, or to be honest, two more. One will be with pink suares, and one will be with blue ones, a bit lighter than in the first one I made.

It has been lots of snow coming the last days, and it just won't stop snowing. I guess more than half a yard of snow since Friday! It's enough if you ask me... But it's nice to sit inside, in my sewing room, enjoying some nedlework :o)

There are some hidden blocks here and there :o)

I decided to empty my two big scrap bins tonight, and the plan was to sort them into two piles. One with Japaneese fabrics, and one with the rest of my scraps. I haven't looked much through these since long before we moved into our new home two years ago, and I did find some hidden blocks in there... These are some of them:


I don't even remember I had these block, and there are blocks enough for a baby quilt...
Is that because I'm getting old, or is it a sign of too many fabrics and scraps to keep track of... Anyway, it's kind of stashbusting, isn't it?

BTW... I discovered Bronwyn Hayes' blog today. A great blog, and yummy pics ;o)

Happy sewing :o)
Laila

My first finish for March

Had to stay home from work today, since DS2 where sick and had to stay home from school. While he was sleeping a bit longer today, I continued working on the table runner I started this weekend. Just some inches with binding that neede to be done, so I finished that in no time :o)
I love these colors, so I am pretty satisfied with the result. The design is from the Norwegian designer AnnAKa, and got released just a couple of weeks ago. I just love the pattern, and I am planning to make a couple of more variations of this one!

I had to make it a bit shorter than the pattern says, or else it would only fit my dinner table.
I've seen several variations of this table runner, and some of them you can see here:
Sigrun's blog, Anne-Grethe's blog, Marita's blog and Lappestua's blog.
I know many of the Norwegian quilters like the patterns from AnnAKa, and I guess many more of these will turn up around here in Blogland. I think it's great to see the choises of fabrics others make, lots of inspiration :o)

I was going to do som baking after work today, since I'm expecting some ladies over tomorrow evening, but since I had to stay home I did the baking earlier today.
I've never been doing much baking other than for the birthdays and for Christmas.
I do like to bake, but I guess it's because I'm not a "cake-monster" myself, I don't have the urge to make cakes and other stuff. I'm more fan of desserts than cakes.
But the kids LOVES cinnamon buns, and that's what's made today. Not bad for lunch, a couple of cinnamon buns? The kids where digging in, and of corse, I had to have one with my coffeè too, and it was yummy:o)

I'll get the cinnamon buns in the freezer as soon as they are chilled, and then I can warm them up in the oven tomorrow for the ladies. They taste like newly baked then :o)

I'm off to cut some fabrics for a new table runner, and I'll get some more blocks for the quilt I am working on.

A test block

Ordered a book by Judy Martin some time ago, I'm a big fan of her work. Her patterns are just stunning, and I like the way they are explained in her books. Easy to follow, even though some of the patterns are really full of details. I've got almost all of her books, and they are just great! So full of inspiration!
I made a test block from one of the patterns, since I'm looking for a quilt that looks scrappy, and it's ment to be a quilt for a boy.
What do you think? The block mesures 12", so it doesn't take that long to build a top big enough.



I forgot to show you my little table runner made of triangles, just so I can practice my skills on hand quilting.
I got so inspired by Kviltstina's quilt, the one she uses as her blog background. It is a really beautiful quilt. So I had to give it a try :o)
I find it hard to start and stop, attaching the threads. But I guess I'll get there.
I really love to hand quilt, but it takes so much time, so I am only doing that for special quilts. I am thinking of making a miniature quilt one day, with scrappy spools, maybe in some reproduction fabrics. I have bought some few now and then, but I need to build up that stash some more, to get the variations I want.

Im looking forward to the weekend, hopeing to spend some time in the sewing room again. I want to start work on some Easter projects, and I guess that will be my focus project this month.
Happy sewing,
Laila

A touch of spring :o) and OPAM report

I haven't been making any blog post for the longest time. Just been too busy.
This weekend we celebrated our two youngest's 13th birthday. It's funny, I've got only teenagers now! Time flies, too fast!!!

The kids had a week off school, since here in Norway every school have a week vacation every year, the last week of February. Me and Hubby took a week vacation from work, too.
We went to my in-laws place a couple of hours drive from here last Sunday, and spend some days there. It was freezing cold, since we had a period of low temperatures again. So we did spend most of the time in-doors!
I captured this pic when we where on our way home. It's Hurtigruta, wrapped in cold steam! It looked like a ghost ship!


I brought my knitting and some stitchery I could work on while we where there. Got to finish one wool sock, and I got to try one of the multicolored threads I bought earlier at Quiltegården. It's such a beautiful thread!


On Saturday, while waiting for the family to arrive for the kid's birthdayparty, I started cutting some of the fabrics from a jellyroll I bought at Lappedilla. I did see a beautiful quilt at Lappedilla's facebookpage, and just thought it would be perfect for these fabrics! I had no pattern, so I started twisting my brain, and draw one of my own. Fun and easy, and fast to make! I worked some more on it yesterday while waiting for more family to come, and I am almost done with the blocks I managed to cut from the jellyroll. I think I'll have to order one more to make it bigger than a small baby quilt.... But we'll see. I have to finish the ones I am working on first, to see how big it can be with the fabrics I have. Have a lot of the ligth ones left, and I'm thinking about making a border... We'll see :o)

Today it's snowing a little bit, but yesterday was such a beautiful day! A really spring day! The snow melted fast in the sun, and it was warm enough to sit outside on the veranda and drink coffee :o) Springtime:o) I hope the weather stays this way a long time now :o)
It feels so good with some sun now, after a long cold winter.

I have no more finishes for OPAM this month, but I made one, and I am happy about that :o)
I hope to finish some more for March, and I have some focus projects in mind already! But more about that in a later post.
Now it's time for dinner, and maybe some sewing later :o)