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)

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

No UFO's done yet...

...but I have been sewing these days... on a new secret quilt... for ME :o) 
I've enjoyed A LOT of needleturn applique (my favorite method), so now it's machine piecing all the way 'till it's finished! I can't wait to show you!!
Cannot show you yet (it wouldn't be a secret then, would it?)... but between the cutting the rest of the pieces for the secret quilt, I've got two house blocks done and a few more pieces for a few others. 
These blocks will be joined into rows for the "Full House" quilt, which is the first quilt in the "Another year of Schnibbles" sew-along. I'm using my japanese fabrics, and I hope this will be a nice quilt. I will make it a wallhanging and decorate my living room with it.

Are you joining the "Another year of Schnibbles" sew-along?


I hope to show some more progress soon :o)


Wish everyone a great new and creative week!


Hugs,
Laila

A new table runner for me :o)

Yesterday I had my day off work, and I started making a table runner I've had in my mind for a while. My inspiration was a quilt one of my fellow members in my quilt guild made some time ago. I liked the simplicity of it, but yet it was so cute! Hers was hand quilted, but I quilted mine in the ditch using my sewing machine.
Fast and easy one. Just had to do something for myself for a change :o)

It's made from 3,5" squares (you'll need 21). Strips in white are 1,5" x 3,5" (you'll need 18), 1,5" x 27,5" (you'll nedd 4) and 1,5" x 13,5 " (you'll need 2). I pieced it in rows and pieced the rows together with two of the 1,5" x 27,5" strips, and then added the two left along each side. Then I added the two strips at the shortest ends.

Nice to have a table runner with some Spring feeling even if it's lots of snow outside, and it's still snowing a bit.
My two youngest boys have been sick with the flu bug for a week now, and today I'm not feeling too good. Just hope it's not the flu bug that got me, and that the coughing and headache will pass by quick! Don't have the time to be sick now. Too much to do!
I'm off to have a cup of hot tea and some rest, and hopefully I can get back to work tomorrow, and that I'll will get some sewing done this weekend.


Happy sewing,
Laila

A small Schnibble

Haven't been much sewing lately, but I finished the small X-rated some days ago :o)
I used Moda's "Pure" fabrics.


My plan was to get it quilted this weekend, but since I've got a pretty troubled neck, I'm not able to do any sewing for some days. Boring....:o(
But I'm looking through books and magazines to get some inspiration. I'm not made for sitting with my hands in my lap for too long. Better than watching all the soape operas on TV ;o)

Wish you all a great weekend,
Laila

Some new blocks

I haven't been able to sew much the last two weeks, been knocked out by some ugly cold that's going around. But I'm finally getting much better, and happy that I'm slowly finding my sewing mojo again :o) Hope it will last for a looong time now!
During these two weeks, I've been spending some time with my laptop, 'googleing', 'facebooking' and visiting blogs. Haven't left so many comments, but really enjoyed some eye candy :o) I finally got to trace some of the stitcheries from Bronwyn Hayes' BOM. It's just so cute! The Catalicious BOM quilt. Go check it out :o)
I had to order some DMC threads to get this started, so I made a call to Quiltegården, and they sent me the ones I needed in the mail :o)


Not much of a progress, but I'll get there :o)



I've been playing with my new fabrics this weekend, and today I finished some more blocks on the Schnibble quilt I am making. I'm working on "Short story", the large one. I just had to order the fabrics from the new Moda line, BLISS. It is gorgeous!!!


I didn't follow the pattern from the book well enough, and the blocks are not the same size as in the original quilt, my blocks turned out a little bit smaller (Because I didn't read the pattern good enough... guess my mind tricked me a bit. Well... that's what I want to think anyway...).

We've had some lovely Autumn weather the last days, and last night the temperatures got below 0!!! Winter will come soon, and then it will be Christmas. I'm not at all prepared for that! But I guess I don't have a choise... Better get to figure out some Christmas presents soon :o)

Wish you all a great and creative week,
Laila

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I was supposed to write a blog post last weekend, but time just flies...
Last weekend I managed to do a little progress on my Schnibble quilt. My sewing room floor is still occupied with this quilt layout, so I guess I'll have finish it soon...
It's really not so much work left, since all the pieces are already cut out. It's just me, struggling with some "low charged batteries".



I also got to piece together a row of flying geese last weekend. I used it in a class I teached at Quiltegården earlier this week. I made the block for this evening class a while ago, so I didn't need to prepare so much.
It was my very first class, and I was sooo excited!
I've met most of the ladies earlier, and it was so fun with such patient students!

A lovely lady from Seattle, Denice, came by to see what we where up to, and it was fun to have a 'drop-in student' :o)

This is the two half sircles that makes the flying geese sircle:

At the bottom picture, you can see what came home with me from Quiltegården that night :o) Some lovely fabrics, and a Japaneese book with lots of gorgeous patterns!

A couple of weeks back, our furball Fabian got so sick that I had to go to the Vet with him. Poor thing was loaded with fever, and didn't want to eat or drink anything. The Vet thought it was an infection caused by some cat fight he've been through, so we went home with some medicine that should make him well. The medicine didn't show its work until the fourth day, and then he finally got rid of the fever and started drinking some water on his own. Before that I had to feed him water against his will, but I had to so he wouldn't get dehydrated.
He is now gaining some weight and looking shiny and 'himself' again :o)


Like I told you in the previous post, we've got Autumn here now. I took some photos early one morning, and the mist had just left the ground with lots of spider webs loaded with water pearls. You should have seen the sight! It was so special! It almost looked like the webs where frozen!


I also took some photos while me and Hubby went for a walk later that day. The colors haven't changed too much yet, but I will definitely take my camera with me when I go for a walk again soon. It changes so fast!


I wish you all a great weekend, wehter you're sewing or enjoying your weekend outside :o)
Laila

Some sewing :o)

I've been hooked on the Schnibble-mania going around. These quilts are sooo fun to make, and they are fast to make too!
I bought the new fabric line called "Pure" at Fatquartershop to make one of these. The only thing is... they don't come in yards yet... But the main part of the quilt is done, and I've cut all the bits for the outer border, so now I just have to wait a while so I can get the light border fabric, backing and fabric for the binding. Really look forward to finish this!
No finishes for July Opam for me, but hopefully I will have some this month. Fingers crossed!


Earlier I told you about working on a secret project. Well here it is. This is a photo during the hand basting, that took more than 8 hours to do... But I got to start on the hand quilting late last night, and I made some progress today too :o)
It's a wallhanging from one of the Japaneese books I've got. I've been planning to make this for some years, and I finally made it!
Guess I'll be using some hours on the hand quilting, but this one is really going to have "the look" I want :o)

A photo before the basting:


I really like the Japaneese fabrics with their special, kind of dusty, color tones. After I learned a few tricks by Yoko Saito when I attended her class, I liked these projects even more.
When I was at Quiltegården a while ago, I bought one of Yoko Saito's books that has some really great projects. One of the projects are a little purse I want to make. Haven't got to finish it yet, but wanted to show you how it looks while I'm working on one of the two sides. I'm not following the pattern, and I made mine with blocks like the ones we learned at Yoko Saito's class. The blocks (I call them Happy blocks) are hand sewn, and I am working on the hand quilting. Almost there ;o) This will be such a cute purse :o) Will try to finish it during the week that comes.

Wish you a great new and creative week, with lots of sewing ;o)
Laila