Kitchen sink is finished!

The WISP/UFO I decided to finish first this year was the "Pie in the sky" quilt, but I decided to finish my "Kitchen Sink" quilt instead. The only thing that was missing on this one, was the two borders. I've been working on them the last days, and tonight the quilt was finished. I was so unsure if the border fabric would turn out ok, but I like it. I made my version a bit larger than the one in the pattern. The pattern is from the book "Scrap-basket Surprises" by Kim Brackett. 

I used different background fabrics and tried to make each block with different fabrics. I love how this quilt turned out. This is one of my favorite quilts so far.

I have one problem, I can't decide if I should quilt it using a pantograph/overall pattern, or if I should do some custom quilting on it. I know I would use the great border Kathy did teach me, which I used on the "Berries and bluebirds" quilt. But not sure how to quilt the rest of the quilt. Would appreciate suggestions! 

The border is 5,5 inches wide when the binding is added, so the pattern I've got on my mind it's perfect for the border. Kathy made a great tutorial for this on her blog, so go visit her blog to see how :-)

I'm looking forward to enjoy some more sewing and maybe some quilting this weekend, but I also hope to get my butt outdoors to have a nice walk and take some photos. It's been so cold over here for a while, but hope the temperatures tomorrow will be a bit closer to zero than it has been lately :-) The nice thing about the cold weather is that the sun is shining, and some awesome sunrises and sunsets appear. I could not resist trying to capture the sunset this evening. So beautiful!

Wish you all a great weekend!
Happy sewing,
Laila

Astrid's quilt and new fabrics

I had the pleasure of quilting a beautiful quilt during the last week, and finished it last night. 

Astrid made her quilt in lovely fabrics, and asked me to quilt swirls with hearts on the quilt, and some stippling around the stitcheries. She made the stitcheries beautifully by hand, and she will add some decorating on the outer borders on each side. Looking forward to see it when she is finished with it, I will ask her for a photo when she's done :-)

Yesterday I went downtown to Quiltegården to get some batting and backing fabrics. I forgot to take a photo of the backing, but here is the other treasures that came home with me:

I've got plans for them, so I was not only shopping with my eyes this time :-)

I'm planning to make a table runner of the pinks, grey and white fabrics, and will decorate it with the laces. The ones with the cute owls will be used for some easy small projects. 

When I was sewing tonight, I dug out some chocolate from my drawer. I have a soft spot for mini Smarties. Shhh!!! Don't tell my kids I have a drawer with chocolate, I might have to share.... :-)

Funny how they match perfect with the fabric I was piecing! No wonder I fell in love with this fabric:-)

I hope you all had a great weekend, and wish you all a great new week!

Happy sewing,
Laila

"Pie in the sky" progress and a new BOM

I'm still working on my "Pie in the sky" quilt, and only six blocks left to make! There will be a lot of work piecing all the 2,5" squares into sashing, but I'm close to a finish now!

This is some of the latest blocks:

Thought I would finish the last blocks by the end of the day, but got a bit sidetracked when some yummy stuff came in the mail today...
I signed up for a new BOM by Sue Daley a while ago, and the first parcel came today :-)
The BOM is the beautiful "Baskets for you" quilt. 

I've been thinking of making a red and "white" quilt for a while, and when I saw this quilt over at May Britt's blog, I jumped in with both feet and ordered the BOM.
You should visit May Britt and check out her progress. She is almost finished with her basket blocks, and they are so gorgeous!

With the first parcel came the things I need to get started. Pattern, glue, template, needles, sewline trio pencil, red Superior thread, sandpaper board and fabric. I did wash the fabrics and they are hung up to dry, so to be able to get started right away I just picked some red fabrics and shirting fabric to play with. 

The sandpaper board is pretty cool, it's personalized with my name! Cool!!!

I've finished one basket, and prepped one more. Perfect to sit in front of the TV and do some needleturn appliquè :o)

Lena Karen at LeKaQuilt challenged her readers, and especially me and Helga, to finish one UFO before the end of February. 
I'm in! I will finish the "Pie in the sky" quilt, and even if I'm very tempted to start a new quilt, I will finish that one first! I look forward to load it on the longarm frame and quilt it. I know I will use an allover pattern (pantograph), since I think custom quilting a quilt with lots of reproduction fabrics will be a bit too much. The fabrics sort of camouflages any fancy detailed quilting, and I know it will look great with the allover pattern. 

Happy sewing,
Laila