A little May report

I must admit I welcome Spring with open arms. The winter has been too long! It's so great to spend time outside in the garden, and to go hiking in our lovely woods. Love to see the green is covering more and more of the beautiful landscape :o)

This photo is from a hike on 16.th of May. So nice to see the flowers are blooming at this season! 

I have been sewing a little bit, but mostly I have been knitting. I just finished a new Marius sweater in greygreen, white and charcoal. Love how it ended up :) The photos are taken with my phone, so they are not super clear.

I have been working on an old UFO too, and most of the blocks are coming together nicely. Just a few more hours work on this, and I can load it up on my longarm machine and finish the quilt. I will find a pantograph for this, and use a light variengated thread that will blend in. The fabrics are some of my very favorite scrap pieces, and looks great together.

I have also been finishing up some more blocks for the "Blooming Springtime" quilt. I have to admit I just love it already! And it's so fun to be doing some needleturn appliqè again. I will be prepping several of the blocks to make it easier to take with me when I am on the go.

Hope you all will have a great June, with lots of stitching and knitting :o)
Hugs,
Laila

Trunk show with Irene Blanck

Yesterday I went downtown to my local quilt shop Quiltegården to be at the trunk show with Irene Blanck from Australia. She is teaching classes there this weekend, and since I wasn't able to attend the classes I wanted to go there to meet Irene and to see her gorgeous quilts. I bought a pattern she designed a couple of years ago, and knew about her quilts. She does a lot of needleturn appliqè on her quilts, which is my favorite technique.

It was so great to hear a little about her story, and how she works. A lovely lady with a great sense of humor and so talented! I went home with one more of her patterns, and I started late last night on some of the blocks for the quilt. It was so inspiring to meet her and get to see her work!

This is a few photos I captured while she talked about the quilts she brought:

You can read more about her on her blog and website Focus on quilts.

Early yesterday morning I finished quilting and added the binding on the "Leavez" quilt I have been quilting on my longarm. It's been on my longarm frame since early in April, so I was thrilled to finally finishing the quilting. 

I am using a binding similar to the spines of the leaves, and I think it looks great. Sort of framing the whole quilt too. I'm still working on sewing down the binding by hand to the back, and need to attach a hanging sleeve. Then it will travel with my aunt to Turkey, and she will be using it as a wall hanging at her place down there. 

Wish you all a great weekend!

Hugs,
Laila

Spool quilt progress

I had my Wednesday off work today, and I have spent a few hours in my sewing room. I almost finished all the blocks for my scrappy spool quilt, and I look forward to start the layout and piece the blocks together. I have used the pattern in a book called "Simple strategies for Scrap Quilts", and I plan to make more scrap quilts from this book. I have bought a lot of books with patterns for scrap quilts, but this book is one of my favorites.

I plan to do some progress on the needle turn tonight, and hope to finish the last block for my "Winter Blooms" quilt soon. I have some scraps already cut to use in this quilt, but will have to add some more to get to finish it. 

I have also started to knit on the second arm for a sweater for one of my DIL's and I hope to finish the sweater in a couple of weeks. This is a traditional pattern called "Islender/Islandsgenser" and is a free pattern from Vikinggarn. 

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

Long time, no see!

Been such a long time since my previous blog post! Been super busy with moving and redecorating our new home. 

A couple of days before we got the keys to our new home, I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Stubbings. It was so nice to meet her again! She had her lovely daughter Molly to keep her company during her stay in Norway. I was so happy to have them both over, but there was no time for sewing this time since she was only able to spend one day in Trondheim. She was here to do a trunk show for my local quilt guild about her designs and quilts. So many gorgeous projects!!!

I have several of Helen's project in the making, and I can't wait to finish one special quilt. It's the quilt in the previous photo, with white background and japanese scrap fabrics. It's made with a special paper Helen made, and it makes the needleturn applique so easy and fun! It was supposed to be finished and quilted before she came over, but since my youngest have had their turns in hospital this spring and summer and I on top of that bought a house, I just couldn't... A border with more applique is to be made, then I will quilt it and send it back to Helen in Australia. This pattern is a design by Helen, and you can soon order the pattern and the paper templates from her :-)

The morning Helen and Molly where leaving Trondheim we had a nice visit at Quiltegården (my local quilt shop). Time flies when you're having a good time, and I really wish they both could stay longer! Maybe next time ;o)

I haven't been able to do any sewing or quilting for weeks, but lots of painting is done! The living room, kitchen and the kid's rooms are finished. Thanks to lots of help from my dear family! Yesterday I finished my sewing room!!! So excited to get my stuff in, and to put up my longarm machine!!! I've really missed sewing, and I'm ready to have some quality time with needle and thread very soon! Maybe this weekend? Who knows ;o)

I love my new home, and I think I will like it here :o) 

It's Autumn over here, and that means lots of sewing time when the weather is nasty ;o)

Hope to share some sewing stuff with you soon, and I look forward to get time to comment on your blog posts as well!
Happy sewing,
Laila

My two blocks for the Curve it up QAL and some quilting

I finally got to finish my two blocks for the Curve it up QAL, and I have to admit I love these Tula Pink fabrics! 

The first block is the Curn Dash block. 

The second block is the Sawtooth Star block.

Now I really look forward to see the next block Jenny and Helen will come up with! I really love the curved ruler, and think it's so much fun to make these blocks.

I am finally able to show you a quilt I've had in the making for a looong time! The main part of the quilt was finished almost a year ago, but finally got to add the borders and load it up on the longarm frame last weekend. 
This is a BOM designed by Gail Pan and it's called "Berries and Bluebirds". I've made this quilt for my local quilt shop, and when I'm done quilting it will be staying at Quiltegården for a while :o) You can order the pattern over there too :o)

This is a close up of one of the blocks I've been playing with.

I hope I will be able to finish up the quilt very soon, and will post some more photos when I'm done. 
Only the white backgrounds left to finish :o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

Been making some progress

I've been neglecting my blog lately, but I've been sewing between being busy :o)

I finished the quilting on this quilt yesterday, and got to attach the binding. Finished sewing it down by hand early this morning, so another finish for me this month :-)

I used the scraps from this and this quilt, so now there is not much left of the two fatquarter bundles of Bliss and Ruby. I've got two more quilts using the Bliss line from Moda in my UFO bins, so I hope I get to finish them soon. Love these fabrics. Makes me think about Spring and Summer :-) The pattern is "Smokey Mountain Star" by Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville. I've used this pattern before, and I just love it! I know I will use it again, it's fast, easy and I love the scrappy stars:-)

Close up's of the quilting and the gorgeous fabrics:

I've been quilting a few quilts for others during the last two months. The first one is the one I finished last weekend. It's a gorgeous quilt made by Kjersti Johanne and Kirsti. You can read more about the quilt on Kirsti's blog :-)

This quilt is a lovely 36 patch quilt made by Elin T. Grov/Lappetausa, and if you pop over to her blog you can see the whole quilt there. I love it!

Last weekend I decided to cut the fabrics for this month's AYOS quilt "Summer Day". I enlarged the blocks, so I can make a lap quilt using the pattern. I love how it looks so far, and hope to finish it before the month is over. Wish I had more time to sew!

I've been making progress on my "Hana's basket", a design by Gail Pan. It is one of the project from the weekend class with Gail and Helen. I hope to hand quilt this lovely quilt, and I'm looking forward to finish the needleturn applique so I can get to the part where the hand quilting begins :-)

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

Laila

AYOS and OPAM for March

March went by so fast, and I didn't finish either one of my AYOS or any projects for OPAM this month. I've been to busy with other things than sewing except from the last weekend of March, when I attended a class with Gail Pan and Helen Stubbings. I'm just happy my sewing mojo is back, and I look forward to keep up with both AYOS and OPAM this month. Already got one project for April's OPAM, so I'm in :o)


Today I finished stitching the pieces for the "Sewing Chatelaine" by Helen Stubbings, and I will try to finish them up during this Easter Holidays. 
Tonight I started prepping the "Hana's basket" by Gail Pan, and will enjoy doing some needleturn applique tonight :o) I did start on one, but not satisfied with my choice of fabrics for the applique pieces. 


This is the progress me and some of the other ladies made on "Hana's basket" during the weekend. Mine is the one in the middle on top. I guess I'll be changing the pale pink heart, and finish it up, but now I'm making a new one and will finish up that one first :o)

See you soon,
Laila

Out of practice...

Yesterday I finished the little secret I've been working on this month. I'm pretty satisfied with the result. 
It's my second "Winter Blooms", designed by Gail Pan. This is my favorite pattern made by her.


I made this quilt for Quiltegården a while back, and that one is still hanging in the shop so people who wants to buy the pattern can see what it looks like.


This is how "Winter Blooms" #2 turned out:

This one will be hanging on my wall, in our living room, and I can't wait to finish quilting it and do the binding!
I used some of the same fabrics like in the first one, and added some others with them.


Now...I do have a little problem... I've used all the dark brown fabric I had, in the quilt, and I also wanted to make the binding with the same one ( the one in the small border), so if anyone knows where to get it PLEASE let me know!!!
I bought the last piece Quiltegården had of it... so they're out too...


Late last night I loaded the quilt on to the longarm machine, and tried a few seams...but gave up. Too tired, so I thought I should give it a try tonight. But nah... didn't work, and I ended up unripping the seams over and over... I REALLY need to practice a lot more to get it like I want it to be. I'm a very impatient person, and hate to practice too much, and it's a downside about that, I KNOW!


These seams are not ripped out yet, but I will do that tomorrow, but it will give you an idea of how I am planning to do this.  It will look good when I just get some more practice :o) Not giving up yet!

I signed up for the "Another year of Schnibble", and I hope to finish the "Full House" quilt before the end of the month. Lots of cutting and sewing left, but hopefully I'll make it before the end of the month!!! It's a cute quilt that will look great as a wallhanging. That one will also get to decorate my living room, since there are no quilts to be seen in that area of my house :o)


I'm attending OPAM this year, too. I like the little "kick in da' butt" it gives me, to at least try to finish one project a month. 
Thanks so much to Peg and Kris for hosting it this year too!!!
And BTW!!! I won OPAM 2011's December drawing! Yay!
Got some lovely fabrics and a cute embroidery in a parcel from Kris. Thank you Kris!


Happy sewing,
Laila

A visit and some quilting

On Monday this week, I had a great visit of Merete and Matt. Merete is the dealer of Innova longarm quilting machines here in Norway, and Matt is working as a technician at ABM International, the company that is the supplier of Innova longarm quilting machines.
Matt was checking that the machine was working well, and set up right. Thanks to Hubby who helped me set it up, it was not much Matt had to adjust :o)


I'm so happy about the great service from Merete too, and I'm so thankful for having the opportunity to ask her about how to do things on the machine. 

Last week I decided to be tough enough to load up the "Laila's garden" on "Miss Monster", and since Merete gave me some advice the last time she was here about what to quilt on a quilt like this, I just figured I should give it a try. I've been playing around on test-pieces of fabric and thought it was about time I tried to quilt on a 'real quilt'.
I had to rip out many seams in the beginning, but I learned how to use the machine for this custom quilting, every step on the way down the quilt. This is how it looked like when I was finished:

I think I will do some more quilting on the purple inner border, but have to figure out what I want in there first.  It's the very first quilt I've quilted like this, so it's not perfect! But  it's a start, and I think it was so fun to do! I know what I have to do different next time, and will definitely make another top with applique for custom quilting. It's so fun!

I've been practicing the pantograph patterns on several quilts now, and feel a bit comfortable with these. That means I don't use that much time to finish a quilt like I did in the beginning. I'm hoping to finish some more care quilts with these patterns,too, when I'm done with the things I need to do before Christmas. 


I'm trying not to be stressed about all the things that needs to be done or should have been done, I already know I'm not able to bake a lot, clean every spot in my house and so on either way. I plan to do what I can, and I plan to enjoy the days before AND during the Holidays. I think my kids and my Hubby is more happy about having me around smiling than sad and exhausted because I stress about every thing I should have done. It's not worth it, at all...


I was supposed to go on our local quilt guild's meeting tonight, but had to stay home and rest instead. Hope the rest of the ladies have a nice time with gingerbread and gløgg (mulled wine), and I also hope to see some photos from the projects in "show and tell" later :o)


Wish you all a great week, and hope you take time to enjoy some moments during the days before Christmas

Finally a finish!

I finally finished my drawstring bag today! I'm doing the Happydance now :o) Been sooo long since my last finish, so it was about time! Now the ladies attending my class can see how it looks like :o)

It's not a small drawstring bag, the height is 36cm and width 31cm. Perfect to bring some stitchery or knitting to go :o)


I'm off to keep working on the "Secret project". I'm looking forward to show you that one :o)


Happy sewing,
Laila

My new project

In October, my local quilt guild is having a weekend with several different classes. I was asked to teach one of them, and if I could make a project about needleturn appliquè. I've been thinking about this project for a long time, and after throwing away my first try, I ended up with this:

It's the needleturn appliquè block I'm going to use in a little bag. A pompadour, like we call it over here. I will have to finish the leaves and the middle of the flowers before I finish the rest of the bag, and quilt it. It's small and pretty simple. Just big enough to get finished in a weekend. 
What do you think? 


Just a couple of ladies have signed up for my class util today, but I hope there will be some more now when they can see the project we're making. I will work on it and get it finished this weekend, so the ladies in my local quilt guild will be able to see the finished project. 


Wish me luck ;o)


Happy sewing,
Laila

Woowhoo! The top is finished!

I'm soooo happy and pretty satisfied, I finished the top of the quilt I've been working on for Quiltegården lately! The "Winter blooms" by Gail Pan. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the colors and the design, and have really enjoyed working on this quilt! I'll deliver it to Siw at Quiltegården tomorrow, and off to quilting it goes :o) I look forward to see it quilted!
All of the fabrics I've used is from Quiltegården, so if you want to make this quilt in the same fabrics just go to their blog and find their e-mail or phone number to order it. The pattern is sold separately, too :o)

I am going to finish a few projects the next days, and also start on a new project. But more about that later ;o)

Some progress :o)

I've been making some progress on the "Winter Blooms" quilt. I was going to finish it this weekend, but that didn't happen... But the night is still young, so I will get some progress before I jump to bed. I think it looks great!


I went downtown to Quiltegården last Friday, and this is the treasures that just had to come home with me:Some gorgeous fabrics, more thread, and a Jelly roll I've already made plans for ;o)
I also get to meet one of the girls I met at Gail and Leanne's class in September 2009.
Berit has a blog too, so pop over to say "Hi" :o) It was so nice to meet her again! You should have seen the lovely Christmas stockings she had made!!! I hope she'll share them on her blog when she gets back home ;o)
We had a great time shopping at Quiltegården, and a cozy lunch afterwards. Sølvi joined us too, and I was so sad when I didn't get to spend more time with the girls. Hope it's not too long till next time :-)

The last time I was teaching my class at Quiltegården, I forgot a bag of my stuff. Among the stuff I left there (I'm a messy head, if you haven't figured that out already...), was the front piece of my version of Gail Pan's bag "Heart of the home backpack". I guess the ones of you who knows me, can see it's a bit typically me, purple and all ;-)
Actually, I started working on the stitchery long ago. I finished it in November 2009, so it's been a WISP for more than a year!
But you can get the idea how it's going to turn out now?


I am going to focus on the "Winter Blooms" quilt now, so I hope to get it finished in a couple of days. Then I will make a few Christmas presents I've got on my mind. Christmas is right around the corner, and not much time left to finish up some stuff...

There is a great Giveaway happening over at Anne Lise's blog, so go pay her a visit :o)

Wish you all a great new week,

I've been busy ;o)

I've been busy lately, but I've had so much fun!
Last week (Thursday) I finished my class at Quiltegården about how to use the 60 degree ruler to make the quilt with cubes. To teach classes is totaly new to me, but with such patient and nice students I had a great time :o) Thank you ladies, and thank you Siw for asking me to do this!
I brought my camera this time, and here is some photos from the last evening :

I missed Hanne-Kristine's quilt, but I'm sure you'll soon see her progress if you check up on her blog :O)

Siw, the owner of Quiltegården, busy - but always helpful and smiling :o)

This is the goodies that came home with me from the shop:


What also came home with me, was a huge pile of gorgeous fabrics and Gail Pan's new pattern called "Winter blooms". I asked Siw if I could help her to make it for her shop. So when it's finished, you'll be able to see it there :o)
I've been having so much fun making the blocks for the quilt, and I'm almost finished with the needleturn appliquè! I'm really looking forward to put the blocks together!
This is the blocks I've finished:


This is the block I prepped this mornig, and I'm almost finished!


Siw at Quiltegården have the bundles of these fabrics ready with the pattern if you would like to make this quilt with these fabrics (most of them are the same ones that Gail used in the original quilt). Anyone wanna join me? Please let me know if you are making this quilt, I would love to see it :o)

I'm having a week off work, and I am spending most of the days just doing things I want to. That's what Holidays are for, right?
I will try to get some Christmas presents done, but also work on other things I've planned to finish. Anyway, I'm just enjoying these pieceful mornings that starts with coffeè and sewing.