Playing with happy colors

I've spent a lot of time in my sewing room this weekend. Feeling a bit better every day now, except the lack of sleep isn't doing me any good. Since I try to be quiet so the rest of my family can sleep, I have been in my sewing room sewing with the Modern minis/30's fabrics a lot. 

Have you seen the gorgeous table runner Lori Holt made? It's called Great Granny Circled, and I just fell in love it! I had to make the blocks using the freezer paper technique, since I haven't got the pellon yet, and I also cut the 9patch blocks a little smaller to fit the backgrounds I have already cut. Using freezer paper requires a little bit of clean cutting when the blocks are sewn. 

I love how the blocks turned out, an hope to finish up a few more to make a table runner I will have on my dining room table :o) 

 I have figured out that ironing 4 layers of fabrics cutting them into most used strip sizes and cutting some squares in piles, makes the block building a lot faster. I also have leader & ender  pieces cut so I can build a few smaller blocks using these. I got this idea by both Bonnie Hunter and Lori Holt, and it's amazing how fast you can grow a pile of blocks ready to use for a project! Earlier I had the Haystack blocks as a leader & ender project, but these days I piece 1,5" squares together with 3 or 6 pieces for future projects. Pretty cute, right?

Iplan to be writing more blog posts from now on, since I like the blog better than Facebook and Instagram. I am also commenting and visiting the blogs I follow more often, and will continue to do so even if I can see what my quilty friends are up to on the other channels. I know several of my quilting friends feel the same, and I bet the new year might be a "better year for blogging" :o)

I wish you all a nice and creative Sunday, and a Happy New Week!

Hugs,
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