Two finished quilts in a week

I am so satisfied with two finished quilts in a week. I would never finish the quilting on these two quilts so fast if I had to quilt them on my domestic sewing machine. I just LOVE the longarm machine, and look forward to finish all my tops in a few months. 


The first photo is a quilt I made for the charity project. I finished the top a while ago, and I'm so glad to be able to deliver the quilt at my local quilt guild meeting next week. I used a pantograph pattern, and I'm pretty satisfied with the result.  

The next quilt is the one I worked on this summer. I used the Bliss line from Moda, and I just love these colors, even if I'm a big fan of the japanese fabrics. This one is also quilted using a pantograph pattern. The loops is not at all perfect, but at least I got a lot of practice. Finished is better than perfect, right?

I've been working on the longarm machine just a little bit this weekend, but I'm hoping to practice some more freemotion quilting as I move on. 


Wish you all a great and creative weekend ♥

Laila

Progress on "Mill Girls"

Hubby and the two youngest spent the weekend at my in-law's, and I've enjoyed being  able to spend a lot of time in my sewing room. It's nice to be "home alone" now and then, and be able to do a lot of stuff without thinking about meals at the right hour, housework and so on... Just charging the batteries and do whatever I like to. But it was sooo good to have them back tonight. I don't need more than a weekend "off".


I finished the block #8 for the "Mill Girls" quilt before I headed to bed late last night. I like the result, and hope to finish the 20 blocks soon.

I made one mistake though... can you see it? I guess I was staying up too late last night ;o) I'll correct the mistake when I continue working on the rest of the blocks, but I will have a little break a few days. Need to practice some longarm quilting, and I hope to do some progress on my oldest son's quilt next week and finish the quilting on more charity quilts.
We're not supposed to do a fast progress on the "Mill Girls" quilt, so I'll put the blocks away for a few days without feeling guilty.


Haven't been sewing at all today, but I've done some housework and laundry beside doing a little knitting. I'm making a shawl using a free pattern by DROPS. I haven't taken any photo of it, but you can find the free pattern here: 


Norwegian: Garnstudio.com
American: Garnstudio.com


Wish all of you a great new week, 
Laila

Two of the blocks for the Mill Girls quilt are finished

Like I told you in my previous post, I'm attending a quilt-along for the gorgeous "Mill Girls" quilt on a Yahoo group called SBS and other Elm Creek quilts. Today is the first day of the quilt-along. I'm so excited to work on this beautiful quilt, and I do look forward to get to see all the different quilts the ladies will be making. Yesterday I got to cut some more fabrics, and I also got to play with some of the hourglass blocks, and pieced some of them. Today I finished a nice little pile of them, and I think they look pretty good :o) A lot more to finish, but I'm looking forward to get a lot of sewing done this weekend. 

Finished two of the blocks, and I like the way the fabrics looks together. I just love these japanese fabrics! And they work so well with a lot of other fabrics too. I'm very pleased to do some stashbusting, a lot of these fabrics where bought long ago and some recently :o)

I'm looking forward to make them all, it's 20 blocks we need for this quilt, and get to quilt it on the longarm machine. 

Wish all the other ladies good luck on their "Mill Girls" quilt!
Happy Sewing,
Laila

Did my first attempt on a tutorial

I'm attending a quilt along for the gorgeous "Mill Girls" quilt on a Yahoo group called SBS and other Elm Creek quilts. It's a quilt from Jennifer Chiaverini's "More Elm Creek Quilts" pattern book.

I think the sign up is still open, but if you have questions about it you can check up on Anne Ida's blog or ask to join the group on Yahoo.

These are the fabrics I'll use in my quilt. I think I will add some brown fabrics too, but well see.  

Since the "Mill Girls" quilt include a lot of hourglass blocks, I thought I should make a tutorial about how to make these without any clean cutting after they are pieced. Hope you'll like it and find it helpful :o)

You'll find the tutorial by clicking on the "Tutorial" tab on top of my blog.

Today I got a package in my mailbox. The coffee jar and a bumper sticker I ordered, arrived :o) I just had to put the bumper sticker on my longarm machine, I think it belong there ;o)

I ordered the jar and sticker from Lena at "Bare maa ha det".

 It's getting late, so I'll jump to bed pretty soon. Tomorrow I'll cut some more fabrics for the "Mill Girls" quilt, and maybe make a block so I can see how it will turn out with the fabrics I chose.


Happy sewing,
Laila

A perfect Sunday

Mr. Winter came knocking on the door yesterday. It's really getting colder, and the temperatures did crawl just below 0 late last night. Today it's changing from rain to snow, and a chilly wind too. I'm so glad I can spend the day indoors. "Miss Monster" and I are dancing with thread today, and I'm having so much fun! A perfect Sunday :o)
I got to finish the quilting on a charity quilt last night, and today I finished charity quilt #2. I'm trying to quilt using a pantograph pattern called scallop grass. Not easy, but as I go I can see I'm making progress. That makes me really happy!

I've got more charity quilts to finish, and I think I'll use the same pattern since I'm slowly getting the hang of it. 


I'm having Merete's advice on my mind all the time, PPP (Practice, Practice, Practice). Hope it will result in some pretty quilting in a while :o)
Wish you all a great Sunday!

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Practice makes perfect...

I'm still trying to make friends with "Miss Monster". I'm trying to figure out things as I go. I'm not going to use the patterns I've been trying to make on real quilts yet, but I really hope to work out something that I manage well in a while. 


This is the last pattern I tried. It's not at all perfect, but I'm getting there one step at a time. This is like learning to ride a bicycle for the first time, and everyone knows how that goes the first lap :o)

I'm thinking that it will be fun to use this pattern i a quilt soon, I really like it, so with some adjustments and more practice it will look ok.

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

One more charity quilt

Wow! I'm posting two days in a row! Not weeks between, like I've been doing for a long time :o)


I got to quilt one more of the charity quilts today. It's similar to the one I finished yesterday, and I quilted loops on this one too. Not so advanced, but since I'm a newbie with this longarm quilting thing, I'm happy to get them looking ok :o)

Hope to get to practice more, and learn some new patterns I can use, and manage. It's fun, but also difficult to  get it like I want it. Practice makes perfect, right? Hope "Miss Monster" and me will be good friends :o)
Just hope my neck and shoulders like this quilting method better than the freemotion quilting on my Bernina.


Are you living in Norway, and interested to learn more about the Innova longarm quilting machine and frames, you can ask Merete Ellingsen about it.  She is the dealer of Innova here in Norway. She has been so helpful to me, and I'm so glad I can call her when I have questions about "Miss Monster".

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Dreams come true if you let them

Ever since I started quilting, I've been dreaming of a long arm quilting machine. I've tried to do free motion quilting on my Bernina, but it's no good for my neck and shoulders. Small project works well, but all the larger quilts are stored away in bins, just waiting to get quilted...


Three weeks ago I ordered an Innova long arm quilting machine with an 8' frame. 
Merete Ellingsen, who is a very talented proffesional long arm quilter and dealer for Innova, helped me out. She is the first person in Norway using this machine, and I can't wait to learn a trick or two from her :o) 
I'm so thankful for her help, and I didn't need to wait long before it arrived either. It came early Friday morning to Trondheim! Several weeks faster than I thought! Whoohoo!!!
Hubby picked it up after work, so I shouldn't have to wait util Monday to get it delivered on my door. 
A couple of hours after midnight, we had build the frame and attached all the pieces that came in bags and boxes, and placed the machine on top of the frame :o) 

It was quite easy to follow the manual to build this frame, all the bags where labeled, so it was easy to use the right parts at the right places :o)


Isn't she gorgeous? 

I call her "Miss Monster", and she is SEW HOT! 
I got to practice for the first time earlier today, and I LOVE  this machine already :o)
After a few hours of practice, I loaded a quilt top on to the frame, and I think I used a couple of hours quilting it, instead of using many, many hours basting the quilt on the floor using about hundred pins or so...


This is a charity quilt made by an other lady in my local quilt guild, and I have one more I hope to finish tomorrow :o) 

I hope to spend a lot of time with her, and I just cannot wait to finish up all the quilts I have almost finished! 


I finished the main part of the "secret quilt" last weekend, but I cannot show you yet, because I have to wait for fabrics for the borders. But I can assure you, IT IS GORGEOUS! I'm so excited to show you!


Earlier this week I finally got to finish some more blocks on the "Comfort quilt" I've been working on this Summer. I've finished four big blocks, and almost every small block are done too. Can't wait to get this one quilted with "Miss Monster" :o) 

I wish you all a great Sunday, and hope you're enjoying some time with needle and thread too :o)
Laila