February OPAM report and AYOS

I finally finished my "Winter Blooms". The binding is added and hand pieced by hand. I'm so glad my friend Sølvi had the fabric I needed for the binding! I'm very pleased about how it looks :o) This is my second finish for February OPAM. The other one is the "Ruffles" quilt.

The last days haven't included much sewing because of some darn migraine, so I didn't get to finish my project for AYOS. I've got only two of the blocks finished still, but will try to finish the quilt during March. I guess life happens sometimes, that's the way it goes.
Looking forward to see how the finishes the other ladies that joined the AYOS made this month. I bet there will be a lot of gorgeous tops, and some finished quilts :o)

A nice weekend in my sewing room :o)

I've spent a lot of time in my sewing room this weekend. Been both sewing and quilting :o)
I've made progress on the AYOS quilt, and this is my two blocks for the "I.S.T.H." quilt plus the pieces for the remaining 7 blocks. 
Since "I.S.T.H." means "Insert Snappy Title Here" I thought I should call mine "Starstruck". Fancy name I think :-) 

This is a large wallhanging my mother pieced a while ago. I got to load it on to the longarm frame yesterday, and spent some hours yesterday night, and this morning to finish quilting it. I'm not so good at this custom quilting (yet...) but I try to figure out how I should do things. I really need to figure out how to make the corners with feathers, I'm not so happy about how they turned out. But it looks ok.
I also need to figure out how much I should quilt to "lock the blocks", I think I maybe overdo that...
I want to get a couple of rulers to make those bows more even, since I really want them to be "perfect". But I guess these things looks better as I get more skills, right?

Mom was pretty happy about it, and I know she look forward to add the binding and get it up on the wall.

I got rid of the word verification on my blog, but keep getting these anonymous comments which must be deleted manually in my blog settings, since they end up there in a "trash list". Do you get lots of those? 
I will try to keep the word verification off for a while and see what happens. I must admit I'm having some difficulties with these myself... 


Tomorrow it's our two youngest Hearties' birthday. Our twins are having their 15th birthday tomorrow, and I can't help thinking the time flies sooo fast! 
We'll have a birthday party for them next weekend, but I guess I'll have to make them some yummy chocolate cake or brownies tomorrow :o)


Wish  you all a creative new week!

Slow progress

I've been having a week off work (Winter Holidays), and I've got to spend some time in my sewing room these days. Been making progress on the hourglass blocks for my Mill Girls quilt, but I also started a new project. It's been on my mind for so long, so I figured I should use the Ruby fabrics since they where already out of the bins after making the "Ruffles" quilt.
I've used this pattern before, and I wanted to make the quilt in "happy" fabrics.
The pattern is called "Smokey Mountain Stars", and it's a design by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. I just love it!

These are the rows I've working on now, and there will be rows between every one, to make the stars "pop out". I'm almost finished cutting the last blocs for those to be in between, so I'm about half way to a finished top :-)
I haven't finished the top from the first time I used this pattern. But only the borders are left on that one... You can see how that one looks here. It's totally different than the one I'm doing now :o)


When I woke up this morning, I remembered that I need to get my I.S.T.H. finished  in a few days. I joined the "Another year of Schnibbles" sew-along, and I've already figured out the fabrics I wanted to use in this quilt. They are mostly reproduction fabrics, and I got to finish one block today.

I hope to finish a few more blocks later today. I have to slow down a bit, since the darn migraine decided to pay me a visit... 
I'm off for a little nap, and hope to get to show you some more blocks later :o)

My first finish this year :o)

Had a day off work today, and I've been stitching down the last two yards of binding on my "Ruffle" quilt. 
When I was finished piecing the top I thought the wide white border looked a bit too wide, but after I was finished with the quilting I ended up thinking it looks nice. The flowers really decorate the border.

A few details:

These fabrics really reminds me of Summer... :o)

Me and the kids are having a whole week off work and school (Winter Holidays) so I hope to get some sewing done during this weekend and next week :o)

Got some things I 'have to' do, and some I 'want to' do ;o)

I've planned to finish my "Winter Blooms", and I guess adding the binding will be done this weekend.

Wish you all a great weekend!

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

A cozy day :o)

A good friend of mine, Anne Lise, came over to my place today so we could enjoy some sewing together. 
She has been working on a gorgeous quilt, "Winter Wonderland", and needed a little help to get started with the star blocks that will be added to the large piece she finished a while ago. She made all the stitcheries by hand. Anne Lise has been sewing for many years, and she has made LOTS of beautiful patchwork projects, but this is her first large quilt.

She needed a little "kick in da' butt" to get started with the star blocks, and the first star block was carefully cut and pieced, and turned out so nice :o) 

It was so nice to enjoy a day with a good friend, and I hope we'll be able to have a day like this again pretty soon ;o)


Yesterday I got to finish quilting the "Ruffles" quilt. And while I was working on the last row, I discovered something really weird... A quilted flower did "hit" every white block perfectly. What are the odds for that, when I didn't at all try to make that happen???  

I added the binding on the quilt before I went to bed last night, and I've been stitching it down by hand today. Half way to a finish now :-) I think the Lime binding will look good, and I'm looking forward to finish it up. Then I can start with adding the binding on my "Winter Blooms". Guess that will be my weekend project ;o)

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day here in Norway today, and I wish all my Norwegian friends a 


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!


I got these beautiful flowers, and cake of course ;o)

Not much sewing going on over here this weekend, but I've made a nice pile of Granny Squares. I've been crocheting and watched some TV. Usually I sew and only listen to the TV... :o)

I'm heading to my sewing room to make some progress on the "Ruffles" quilt now, and I hope you all are having a nice Sunday too :o)

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Granny Squares

Do you crochet? I did... years ago... Made a lot of table runners and laces. When I stared sewing, the yarn and crochet pins ended up in a bin. I've seen a lot of gorgeous afghans/blankets around here in Blogland, but never got to make any...until now :o) 
On Wednesday me and a good friend of mine, Anne Lise, went downtown to our local quilt shop, Quiltegården, to do some shopping there. Sølvi E. (one of the ladies who works there) worked on her latest project, and I fell in love with her gorgeous blanket made of Granny squares. Siw (the shop owner) showed us the blocks that she had been working on too, and I fell in love with hers too :o) 
I ended up ordering enough yarn to start on a blanket, and I went to Quiltegården Heimdal today to pick it up.
Since I forgot to take some photos on Wednesday, I asked Sølvi E. if I could take a photo of her blanket today. Isn't it gorgeous?

(click on the photos to enlarge)

A close up photo:

Since we have a little furball leaving LOTS of white hairs all over our house, I did choose the white one to be my background color. The other colors are pretty much the same ones Siw is working with in her squares. 
I will add some more colors later, but this is what I started with:

Yummy colors, and I love the dusty ones. Reminds me a little of the colors in the japanese fabrics. It is a cotton/wool yarn from Rowan, and I'm using a crochet pin size 4. 


I have already made some blocks and trying to figure out which colors to use together. These blocks are pretty addictive, but sooo much fun to make. And superfast!!!

I got to deliver two quilts when I went to visit Sølvi A. today, and I was super happy when I found out that she had the fabric I've been looking for, to use in the binding on my "Winter Blooms" quilt. She is really an angel! I will clean cut the quilt, and add the binding later this weekend :o)
Tonight I will be stuck in front of the TV in my favorite chair, with a glass of red wine and making some more Granny squares :o)


Wish you all a great and creative weekend ♥

Laila

Charity quilt

It's been a while since I quilted any charity quilts, but since I'm going to pay my friend Sølvi a visit tomorrow to deliver the one I quilted early in January, I thought I should finish the quilting on one more:-)
This is a string quilt made by a lady in my local quilt guild. I used a pantograph pattern, and I like the result. It's a busy quilt, so the quilting is a bit hard to see on the photos.

The charity quilts that are donated to our local Hospital, can be seen  at the blog Tepper til St.Olav. LOTS of gorgeous quilts, so pop over to have a look :-)


I'm looking forward to the weekend, and hope I will be able to make some more progress on my sewing projects. I also hope to take my camera and take a trip outside for a long walk. Been spending too much time indoors, and I can feel I could really need a walk... Maybe it will charge some batteries too :-)


Wish you all a great weekend!

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Sewing and quilting

I figured I could use my "Full House" pillow as a practice piece, so I loaded it up on the longarm frame and tried to practice on some quilting with rulers, and also on the background filler called McTavishing. Haven't finished the pillow yet, but hope to be able to figure out how to finish this piece soon. 

When I started cutting into the fatquartes of Ruby, the fabric line I used for the "Full House" quilt, I also cut several strips 2,5" wide.  I have a pattern of a quilt I really like called "Ruffles", and making this quilt has been on my mind a while. Since the strips where already precut, it was easy peasy to cut alle the pieces I needed to make the blocks for this quilt. 
I've been piecing the blocks together in rows now, and I like it a lot!
It's not colors that I usually use, but they are so fresh, and they give me Summer feelings :o)
Hard to get clear and bright photos inside when it's dark, but you can see how the blocks looks like:

I will be using a pantograph pattern for this quilt, so it will not take so much time to finish it...I hope...

I just want to practice more on my longarm machine, and the custom quilting is really time consuming. This is a quilt that doesn't need all the details of custom quilting since the fabrics are pretty "busy", I think.

I'm feeling a lot better, it seems like the stomach bugs went to bother someone else... Finally!!!

Wish you all a great and creative new week,

Happy sewing ♥

Laila

Winter Blooms

Finished quilting my "Winter Blooms" quilt yesterday. Only a few stitches that needed to be done, so can't tell you why I waited so long... 

Need to find the fabric for the binding now. Hope I'll be able to find the same one like in the smallest border. 
Here are some detail photos:

So happy I was able to take some photos in daylight today. When I don't use the flash on the camera, the quilting shows off better. I made a few mistakes here and there, but it's after all my second custom quilted quilt. Finished is better than perfect, right? 


Wondering what will be next project... Think I'll try to quilt the "Full House" pillow I finished the other day, then work on some of my UFO's. 
Need to chase the stomach bugs away first, so I'll get some energy to make some progress in my sewing room. 


Wish you all a great weekend, and happy sewing :-)
Laila