Knitting projects and new books

This weekend I got to clean up a lot of the mess in my sewing room. Most of the stuff is out of the boxes, and I am trying to sort things and declutter a little bit too. 

I was going to pick fabrics to join Bonnie Hunters new mystery GRAND ILLUSION, but didn't get time to do that. But I will try to figure out what fabrics to use during this week or so. I will try to join even if I am going to be behind on the clues that will come. I need to finish up a lot of Christmas presents, so I will be able to do some sewing after Christmas :o) 

Still need to set up my quilting machine, but since I'm not able to play with it now anyway, I guess it will take a while before it will be set up.

Are you joining the mystery by Bonnie too?

I just bought three of Bonnie Hunters books, and I can feel my sewing mojo is doing the happy dance :o) I found one favorite quilt, and I am so excited to start on it soon!

DS2's girlfriend had her birthday the other day, and I knitted a pair of "Blueberry waffle" socks to her in wool called STERK. It's a super soft sock yarn, and a dream to knit with.

I have also tried to knit mittens in a yarn called Fritidsgarn, it's pure wool perfect for felting. I knitted a couple in different sizes just to try this, since it's the first time I've ever made felted mittens.
They turned out soft and I just love these two colors :o)

I've been in my "knitting bubble" for a while, and I have plans for making some gorgeous mittens with these lovely skeins of yarn:

It's Alpaca yarn, and I am going to try to make a pair of mittens called "Selbu Mini" made by Lillcat design. This is the photo from her webshop, and I have permission to use it by her :o)

 She makes a lot of gorgeous patterns, and you can also find her on Ravelry. 

Wish you all a great and creative week,
Laila

Not much going on...

There is no sewing or quilting going on over here, but I have been doing some knitting. I have been knitting during the months I didn't get to use my sewing room because of the renovations, and I knitted my first sweater. It's a Marius sweater, and I love it! Soft and warm.

I have been working on some secret projects too, but can't tell about them before the Christmas is over :o) Guess a lot of you are working on gifts for Christmas too, so you know ;o)

I really looked forward to get my sewing room back, but I have to admit I have no urge to sew much. I have no energy left to do much sewing, and that's why I haven't been quilting either. The last months have been stressful for me, so I just need to get my shoulders back down and get back to normal again :o)
I really hope I will feel better soon, and get my sewing mojo back again. 

Hugs,
Laila

Stashbusting

I decided to ignore the clutter that still needs to be organized in my sewing room, and did some piecing instead. I also got to place my mini quilt up on the wall behind my sewing machine. 

And dear quilt inspector Nano was there to supervise my work :-) 

Pouch #1 was finished late last night, and pouch #2 was finished tonight. They are fun and fast to make, and I enjoy trying to make them in different sizes and fabrics. Pouch #2 is perfect for pens and pencils, and the larger one is perfect for make up and stuff.

I'm hoping to get my longarm machine set up soon. It's still in pieces down in the basement. I know I haven't the energy to do any longarm quilting yet, so I'm in no hurry. Perhaps me and hubby will set it up this weekend, but we'll see. We still have a lot of stuff to do in the house, so I don't mind to wait a little bit more. 
It's nice to work on smaller things I manage to finish at this point, then I can sort my larger projects and focus on finishing them in a while.

Hugs,
Laila

I'm sewing again!

I'm finally back in my sewing room, sewing again! Yesterday I couldn't resist cutting a few pieces of fabric and piece together a small purse. I felt like a newbie to be honest, since it's been almost five months since I did this! Been too long without playing with needles and thread!!!

The little red purse was finished yesterday, and the blue and cream one was finished today.

I haven't been able to sew at all the last five months because of some major rebuilding of  the second floor in our house. I never thought it would be such a long term thing, but I'm so glad it's finally coming to an end!  There is still lots of stuff that needs to come out of boxes and bins, and my sewing room isn't at all cleaned up and it's so messy around here. All the clutter, noise and stuff has been very tiring for me, so I have been sooo exhausted the last months. I'm feeling a bit better now that I can relax again, and I will take one day at a time and get my house back to normal again. Can't wait to have everything back in place!

Quilt inspector Suzu is just as happy as I am for finally enjoying som sewing room time :o)

During the months without my sewing room I have been knitting. I've knitted a few things I'll show in a post later when I finish them up. 
This is a photo of a hat I'm working on:

I look forward to hours of cozy stuff during the winter time ahead. And since Christmas is coming soon, I will try to finish up some projects I have in mind for presents. I guess a lot of my sewing friends are in Christmas mode too :o)

Wish you all a nice Sunday!

Hugs,

Laila

BLOOMING FANTASY

I was supposed to make this blog post a while ago, but been too busy! 

Remember my blog post from March this year? Well I got to ship the finished quilt to Helen Stubbings, who designed this gorgeous quilt. I was thrilled she liked the result! I did enjoy making this quilt, even if it was a "bumpy road" with lots of things happening in my life during the making of it. 

You can read all about it over at Helen's blog Hugs 'n Kisses :o)

This quilt is a ten part BOM project. You can order it from Helen's shop, or you can ask your local quilt shop to find out if it is available there.

The back looks just like a whole cloth quilt. I guess you know by now I love the McTavishing pattern :o)

This is a collage with all the blocks in the quilt, and I can assure you these blocks were so easy to make using Helen's special paper. It also makes the appliqued pieces "pop", and I love the effect!

 I will make another one, using Helen's fabrics soon. Anyone wants to join me? Let me know! Maybe we'll arrange a sewalong? That would be so fun!

Wish you all a great day :o)
Hugs,
Laila

Stashbusting!

 I think I am totally addicted to stashbusting these days! I made one more pouch tonight, and made it out of some of my favorite fabrics. Those who knows me, knows this is my favorite color :o) 
I've loved purple since I can remember, and I buy with my eyes when I see fabrics like this in my favorite quilt shops!

I'm not keeping this, I've already gifted it to one of my boys' girlfriend :o) Nothing's like making someone happy :o) 

The nice thing about these small projects, is that you can finish up something in one day (a couple of hours), and when you love making larger quilts like me it's great to feel the satisfaction of a finish.

I can't remember if I've already posted about this next project. It's a quilt I started a long time ago, before we moved to our new home. This quilt is from Elizabeth Hartman's book called "Modern patchwork".

I first spotted this quilt at Instagram, and I totally fell in love with it! You can see which quilt over at Elizabeth's blog. Eyecandy for sure!!!

I am far from a finish, but this is a project I work on now and then between other projects. 

The quilt is called "Honey in space".

I'm using my Tula Pink fabrics for this quilt together with black solid fabric. I love the effect the black gives, and it makes the other fabrics sparkle.

This will for sure be a fun quilt to load up on my longarm frame when I finish it! Have a couple of ideas for the quilting already :o)

The sun came back here in Trondheim, so I'm going to enjoy some gardening and just be out in the sun. I'm already looking forward to the Summer Holidays, and I really hope this Summer will be a nice one! Last year we spent the whole three weeks keeping one of the twins company at the hospital, so we didn't get to barbecue or go on fishing trips at all. Fingers crossed we'll all stay healthy and that the weather will be nice :o) 

Happy quilting,

Laila

Scrappy pouches

My back is not my friend these days, so I haven't been able to do any longarm quilting.

I have spent some time doing some "ordinary" sewing, and I have enjoyed making some scrappy pouches. 

The larger one, I made last night. That one was already pieced, so I just needed to attach the wadding and make the lining and piece it together. One more UFO is out of the UFO bin :o)

The three other pouches I made today. I also made a fourth one using the same scraps, but I sent it home with my SIL before I took a photo of it, and she loved it :o) 

The pattern is the one I found on the Moda Bake Shop blog. It's called Strippy Charm Pouch. I made some pouches back in August 2012, and I just love this pattern since it is perfect for using up those strips that is left from other projects. 

Hope you all will have a great and creative new week, with lots of needles and thread :-)

Happy quilting :o)

Laila

Mastering the art of McTavishing

Back in March, I saw a photo of Karen McTavish new McTavishing desing on Instagram. I totally fell in love with it, and I had so much fun trying out the quilting design on the quilt I made for Helen Stubbings. 

Karen was so nice and gave me some tips how to do it, and she told me that she was about to make a new book with this design. I've used my version of it in a few client quilts, and it is for sure my very favorite background filler!

It's perfect for quilting areas around appliquèd pieces. Either in just some areas, or on the whole quilt.

This is a quilt made by a lady in my local quilt guild. It's a gorgeous wallhanging made by using the paper piece method. 

 Yesterday I finished the beautiful quilt made by another lady in my quilt guild, and I have to admit I just love it! I had so much fun quilting this too!
It's a pattern by Sue Daley and it's called "Sunshine lollipops and rainbows". 

Some photos from the quilting progress:

I spent almost 30 hours quilting this, and about 14 bobbins of Superior's So Fine thread. I used the same thread on top too.  

I took some better photos in daylight today, so the design shows up better in these:

I just love the colors of these fabrics. So happy and bright! I think this blue one is my favorite :oD

I just love the look of the back! 

If you like this quilting design and want to try it out, you can preorder Karen McTavish new book over at On-Word bound books. And if you do so before June 4th, you'll receive a signed copy! I can assure you I've already made my order :oD

Karen McTavish new book includes TWO detailed DVDs of Karen teaching the process, step-by-step, of adding and using McTavishing in your quilts. Contributing quilters are longarmers (stand up quilters), domestic machine quilters (sit down quilters) and hand quilters.

So this is also a book for those of you who quilts on your domestic sewing machines :oD

Wish you all a great and creative weekend,

Laila

A little update

 I have been neglecting my blog... again... But here are some updates about what has been going on the last weeks.

During Easter Holidays I planned to do so much sewing and quilting, but we ended up spending the days outdoors cleaning up in our garden after cutting down three super large trees. We made a nice pile of wood, which is perfect for next winter :-)

The week after Easter I did finish a client quilt using a panto with daisies and loops. The quilt was in "my colors", so this one was hard to give back to the owner ;o) Anne, who made this quilt, made this as a gift for a very lucky girl!

A while back I got a question from Wenche Wolff Hatling, the owner of Northern quilts, about a helping hand to get a few quilts quilted. She just made her second fabric collection, a gorgeous fabric line called "Artic Kiss". The fabrics are just gorgeous, and I love the colors she used in it!

Wenche seemed to enjoy the quilting prosess, and I enjoyed so much to have her over!

She is finishing up the quilts to show her new line at the Quilt market. I can't remember where, but if you pop over to her blog, I bet you'll find more photos of her fabrics soon, and info about where she's headed with her quilts :o)

While Wenche finished some of her new quilts, I digged out a wallhanging from my UFO bin. I finished it a couple of years back.... It only needed a few hand stitches to attach the hanging sleeve, so it finally ended up on the wall in my kitchen corner :o)

These days a gorgeous wallhanging, made by a lady in my local quilt guild, loaded on my longarm frame. I'll share photos of it when it's finished. Some of you have already seen progress photos I've been posting on Instagram and Facebook, but I will share the finished one on my blog. 

I wish you all a great weekend, and hope it will be a creative one! Over here it's snowing again, and it's cold! Perfect weather to stay indoors and be creative :oD

Hugs,
Laila

Mini quilt

Not much sewing or quilting going on here these days, but I did finish a mini quilt last weekend. It's a pattern by Camille Roskelley and it's called "Puddlejumping". There is a big quilt with this pattern too, and that one is on my to-do list for sure!

I used some of the Tula Pink fabrics I bought long ago, and I like the way they pop using black as background fabric. Think I might make the big quilt using the same colors/fabrics :o)

It's soon Easter, and I really hope I will enjoy some time in my sewing room during the Holidays. I have to finish quilting some quilts, and I also want to finish my Easter table runner. Will post photos of it when I get to do some progress :o)

Have a great and creative new week :o)

Laila

Quilting progress

I have been doing progress on the quilt I'm working on since I got to load it up on the frame last weekend. I never thought it would take this long to quilt it, but I have some trouble seeing the white thread on the white fabric... Since I don't have a fancy black light on my Innova longarm, I have to turn off the head lights and just use the regular lamp on the machine. It works pretty well to "dance in the dark", but hard for the eyes. But it works with taking a few breaks ;o)

The quilting is my 'version' of McTavishing. It's a pattern that I find very difficult to do, but I love the look of it. I guess I've learned a lot about how to make it smooth when I'm finished quilting this quilt. I have to admit it looks better as I go. 

I think I managed to add my personal touch on this, and look forward to get it finished and see it from a different angle than on the frame. I know it will look so much different than when you're standing with your nose just a couple of feet from it :o)
I just hope Helen will like it! 

Over here the Winter came back for a visit, and everything is covered with snow again. We haven't had snow for several months and it looked like Spring for a while. Perfect sewing weather if you ask me :o)

Happy quilting,
Laila

Almost there!

I haven't been sewing or quilting much for a while, since I've had a cold bug over for a visit that have taken all the energy and urge I need to do some quilty stuff. But have been doing some more needle turn appliquè on Helen's quilt. I'm loving how this gorgeous quilt is looking, and I look so forward to load it on the frame and get it quilted! Only the corner flowers left to finish :o)

I don't know what it is with cats and quilts, but as soon as I start sewing my lap gets occupied with a black furball... Nano loves to help out :o) Couldn't resist taking a few photos before I had to take her off the quilt. Not much progress is made when she wants to cuddle all the time ;o)

I have quilted a few client quilts, and will share photos in my next post. Tomorrow I'll be at our local quilt guild meeting, and will take a lot of photos to share on the quilt guild's blog. Will add a link when the photos are shared over there :o) I bet a lot of inspiration will go home with me :o)

 See you soon!
Laila

Comfort quilt #4

I can finally show you a quilt I've been working on. This is the fourth "Comfort quilt" I've made. I had to keep it a secret, because I made it for my brother for his birthday. I had some pieces for this already cut, from the other three with similar fabrics, so I saved some time making this ;o)

 I used wool batting, and quilted it using a panto called "Spiral square" and King tut variengated thread. 

Trying to take photos of a quilt is not so easy when you have two kitties who tries to cuddle up on the quilt while it's on the floor. I guess my brother will have to fight over this quilt with his furball, and I bet the furball wins ;o) Here are some close up's: 

I haven't been enjoying time in my sewing room for days, but tomorrow I have my Friday off work, so there will be some sewing or quilting then :o)

The two furballs are really getting comfy in their new home. The quilt I use for a power nap on the couch is no longer mine... Looks like Suzu is having a good laugh over that :oD

Wish you all a great and creative weekend!
Laila

Been quilting again :o)

I have finished a beautiful quilt made by a lady in my local quilt guild. She delivered this quilt to me before Christmas. I got to load it up on the longarm frame this weekend, and finished the quilting on it. I used a panto she wanted called "Marbled feathers" from Lorien Quilting. I used wool batting and Aurifil thread. This is a large quilt, so I didn't get to take a photo of the whole thing. I think it looks very nice, and I hope the owner will like it too :o)

 Close up of some of the blocks:

I have also quilted a beautiful quilt made by another lady in my local quilt guild. We went to a class together to make this quilt. The quilt is called "Leavez" by Jane Mullen. I just love the red/cream colors.
It's quilted using "Angel wings" panto from Lorien Quilting and Aurifil thread. She wanted cotton batting, and it looks so soft.

 Close up of some of the blocks:

 I quilted and binded one of my own quilts a while ago. Just haven't got to take a photo of it before now. I finished the top months ago, but haven't got to quilt it before because of the moving.
It's quilted using a panto called "Fantasia" from Lorien Quilting. I love the texture of this pattern, and it really looks nice with the wool batting. Used Aufifil thread on this too.

Close up:

Our two cute furballs are really fun creatures. And they have a kind "big brother" that offer them his jacket to cuddle in :o) Pretty cute!!

Wish you all a great and creative new week, with lots of sewing and quilting!
Laila