Farmgirl vintage fun

I purchased two of Lori Holt's books last week, and I have been making some blocks from one of them, the "Farmgirl vintage".

I have been making the 6" blocks, and even if some of the pieces are tiny I had fun making them. The book have patterns for both 6" and 12" blocks.

Here are a few of the blocks I started making first:

I bought some new fabrics and added them to the ones I bought years ago. I haven't been making much out of the repro fabrics before, but I just love the colors in Lori's projects, and they are also perfect together with a lot of the fabrics from Bonnie & Camille. I have a soft spot for the aqua fabrics, and they look so great together with the rest. 

You can read more about Lori Holt and her lovely projects on her blog Bee In My Bonnet.

If you are on Instagram you will find lots of great stuff people around the world are making too. Look up #farmgirlvintage and #beeinmybonnet and you will be amazed about the gorgeous stuff people are making!

I love the cherry blokcs, so I figured I should make a small table runner. I haven't made anything smaller in such a long time. Feels really great to make a project that I am able to finish in a few days! And I don't have so many projects around in my home, so this was a perfect project for making something for myself. 

I just did some simple crosshatching on it, and even if it's not perfect I love my new table runner!

Yesterday I picked up my brand new sewing machine at the Post office. A Bernina 710.
I used it to do the quilting on my table runner, and it was so much fun! 

I ordered the sewing machine from a Norwegian web site called symaskiner.no. And it arrived the day after I ordered it! I had contact with the owner via mail a few times to decide which machine I would purchase, and I am so thrilled about the great service! Since I was offered a great prize for this machine, I chose to buy it even if I was supposed to buy a smaller one.

So far I am so satisfied with the new Bernina 710, but I know I have lots to learn using it and customize the settings to fit my sewing style. I hate to read to learn stuff, so I am learning by doing as  I go. And making a few notes to remember. Lots of great tutorials on YouTube too :oD

Wish you all a great weekend!
Hugs,
Laila

Saturday class with Brenda Riddle

I attended Brenda Riddle's class at Quiltegården last Saturday. She was teaching us about the lovely quilt of hers called "Star of Wonder". 

 I forgot to take a photo of the whole quilt, but you can see how the blocs looks. Love the scrappy look of the quilt!

This is my block from the class. A really fun and lovely block. So great for favorite scraps!

Brenda brought several of her lovely quilts, and they where on display for us to get a closer look, and they all where just so gorgeous!

This is the quilt shop owner, Siw. Just had to capture a photo of her in front of Brenda's beautiful quilts :o)

I have a soft spot for small quilts, miniature style... The one in the left upper corner was the one I fell in love with.... So of course the pattern came home with me :-)

Of course a photo of our teacher and myself :o) Brenda was a lovely lady, and I love her thoughts about how an acorn can grow to a huge oak tree.... Think we all need to remember that once in a while. 

This is a collage with the quilt made by Brenda, and my first three blocks. Love them!

I've finished all the blocks, and about to piece them all together. Hope to show you a finished quilt soon. I'm looking forward to play a little with the longarm when the top is together.

Happy sewing and quilting,
Laila

Having fun!

I've been having this gorgeous quilt on my frame for a while. Since I've been having a cold the last two weeks, it did slow me down. But now I'm having a lot of fun quilting!

This quilt is made by a lady in my local quilt guild, and every single block is made by hand!!! She usually hand quilt her quilts, but asked me if I could quilt it on my longarm. I'm happy she likes it so far, and have to admit I like it too. Since I'm a newbie still, it takes lots of time, but I hope to start quilting the borders soon. 

It's wool batting, and it gives the quilt a beautiful texture when it's quilted, and I think this pattern will make it soft and not too flat. 

You can do a few things using some homemade paper templates and use a ruler with different curves. I've been looking for some circles to use for patterns like the one in the large triangles, but I was happy to find out the one I have was ok. I use a purple air soluble marking pen, marking only the ends of each "petal".   

I've been having my Wednesday off work, and got some quilting done between housework and other "have to's". Hubby is working out of town again, so I'm able to enjoy some time in my sewing room. 
Yesterday I got to get border fabrics and backing for a quilt I'm hoping to finish up and load on the longarm frame soon. Can't wait to show you :-)

I'm trying to catch up on the blogs I usually read, and I do leave comments when I do have the time to. I guess there will be more blog posts, and time to read blogs now that the Summer is over and I spend more time indoors. 

I'm off to do a few more stitches before I head to bed, see ya!

Happy sewing,
Laila

Some progress on the double 4patch :o)

Had a day off work today (I usually do at Wednesdays), and I finally pulled myself together and I did dig out the double 4 patch quilt I've been working on. Got to finish the quilting on the main part of the quilt, and now only the outer borders are left to be quilted. I couldn't figure out how to do them... but I found some "Borders made easy" roll, and started to attach them. They are a perfect tool, to get perfect seems...IF YOU'VE GOT ENOUGH!!! wich I don't :o(
But I'm halfway, and since hubby is going downtown for some work on a shop nearby Quiltegården, he'll drop by Siw (the shop owner), and buy a roll for me :o) Since we are having a Holiday on Monday, I think I'll be able to get the quilting done during the loooong weekend :o) The smallest border will be quilted too, with some freemotion pattern I think. I'll make up my mind after doing the outer border.


This is how the back of the quilt looks like. I'm not so satisfied with the quilting, but to be my first project this big, I guess I'll have to live with the short-long-short stitched kind of curved quilting :o)
I really love this backing fabric. I bet it is a great fabric to practice some freemotion quilting on, just quilt following the pattern in the fabric. I will do that with the piece I have left of it, I think.


I used the "Quilters Dream" poly wadding, but I will not use it again for a quilt at this size. Too heavy to handle, and the fibers from the batting was all over the quilt. It almost looked like our cat had been using it for ages. Just white fibers everywhere, even in the seems... But now I can say been there, done that... leassoned learned. But there is one thing I want to say is very positive about it; it gives the quilt a soft and puffy look, and I like that. I guess it would be easier to use it when quilting with a long arm, because the quilt doesn't get to be squeesed around with that one.

It's getting late, and off to bed now.
Good night :o)
and Happy sewing,
Laila

Some projects finished:o)

Awesome MySpace Graphics & Myspace Layouts

Finally I got some projects finished! I finished the red and light baby quilt. It mesures about 221/2" x 291/2". I also finished the little toiletry bag. I did some changes on the toiletry bag,

because I didn't have a zipper that fitted the original size... I also used the scallops template, and changed the top. Since I had alredy cut the corners, it is a bit wide in the bottom, but lessoned learned:o)
I did finish knitting the socks for my boys too, but I have to tie up the threads before I can call it a finish:o) So I'll post them later.

A couple of days ago I got the first pattern from Giggle Button,
and it is a sweet little bag with a beautiful stitchery. I am going to trace the stitchery and start on it tonight. In my neighbourhood, we ladies meet once every other week, and I usually have some hand stitching or knitting with me. I actually I do that no matter where I go... :o)

I did get so inspired by Sharon Schamber's feathers, so I just had to try it! It is so fun, BUT OMG so hard to get the feathers look good. I have tried, and I guess I'll bee doing more of this:-) I do not have a machine with stitch regulator, so my stitches are NOT even... But oh so fun!

My very first try:


The last one I made :