May OPAM report and some new fabrics :o)

I've managed to finish only one project this month. But one is better than none, right?
"Lappeløper" design by Annaka in greens and turquoise :o)

I think it's sad that it's been so little time to sew for a long time, but I'm going to make some progress from now on. I hope to get some more time for blogging too, since it's too long between my posts. I've been both busy and tired, and I hope to get my "batteries charged" soon. I just need to get my shoulders down to where they belong ;o)

I've been sewing some this weekend, and here is a sneak peek from the project I've been working on. It's a "secret project", so I cannot show you the whole picture yet, but I will in a few days ;o)


I went down to Quiltegården at Friday, and I couldn't resist some of the temptations Siw is having in her shop. The only thing I really needed, was some blades for my fabric cutter, but I ended up bying some fabrics and a pattern, too ;o)


Yummy stuff :o) I've already started working on the stitchery for the largest sewing bag, and I will use these two fabrics for the bag. It will be so nice :o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

A beautiful day :o)

It's been such a beautiful day today! Hubby, our two youngest and I had a great time with my brother and his kids today. We took a walk through the forrest to a place we've been going to since me and my brother where kids. The little lake was still covered with ice, but since we brought our fishing gear, we tried to catch some fish. We didn't get any fish, but we enjoyed the day by the fire, drinking coffeè and grilling hot dogs on the fire. It was so cozy! I love days like this! This is what I call quality time!

Piece and quiet... that is so nice. And to sit by the fire chatting and laughing... Love it!

I've bought myself a new toy, a Nikon camera, and of course I had to take some photos :o) I'm not used to this type of camera, so I've been playing some with it these days, and also went to a little "photo safari" with my oldest son yesterday. He has been teaching me a lot, and he is still patient when I come to get advice about "good photos".

When we got home today, I was so tired and just wanted to take a nap, but I figured out I should do some progress on the table runner I've been working on instead. I'm so glad I did!
I got to finish the applique part, so now the only thing missing, is the binding :o)


Think I'll leave that till tomorrow. Now I really have to jump to bed! With that overdose of fresh air, I cannot stay awake any longer :o) Tired, but oh! so happy :o)

Wish you all a great Sunday, and happy sewing :o)
Laila

Finally some sewing!

I haven't got the time, or energy... to make any progress in my sewing room for the longest time. I just cannot figure out how the last three weeks could pass by so fast!
So much "have to"-stuff, and no "want to"-stuff... and some migraine in between :o(
I've really been missing to do something creative!

Today I got some hours I could spend in my sewing room, and I got to piece together a table runner. I did cut the pieces a long time ago, and they have been lying on the floor in my sewing room just waiting for mee to get the time.
It's another "Lappeløper", and I'm going to applique a blue flower on it, but first I have to finish the quilting. I did trace the lines, so it's ready for quilting now :o)


It feels good to finally get back to my sewing machine again, and I hope to finish this table runner in a few days.


A couple of weeks ago, I had a visit from Sølvi. We had a great time making kits we brought to our quilt guild meeting last week. Even if the sun was shining, we spend some hours indoors, spreading all the fabrics we've got for the care quilts around, and made a lot of beautiful kits. I think we made 28!



Some of them left the quilt guild meeting with some of the ladies who wanted to help us make some care quilts, and some ended up with me and Sølvi. I hope to have time to work on a few of them soon. I've already got some ready for quilting, so I think I'll start with them.
You can see the care quilts already donated at the care quilts blog "Tepper til St.Olav".
This is all of the kits we brought:

Sølvi is busy spreading them out on the table :o)

We had a great speach by Hanne Schneider at our quilt guild meeting, and I'll share some photos in a later post about that :o) Now it's time for me to jump to bed. I'm off to work tomorrow, and have to get up early.
To all of you that left a comment on my latest post, thank you! I'm sorry I haven't got the time to reply! But I will in a few days ;o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

Work in slow progress

Things are going a bit slow with me these days, but progress is progress, right?
I've finished a few more blocks for the "Kitchen Sink" quilt. I really like the way they turn out!

I have a day off work tomorrow, and hope to do some more blocks between some house work. I've decided to arrange the blocks a bit different than in the pattern, and that's why I've been sewing four blocks together to make the finished block. It's a lot of piecing and ironing, but it's so worth it! Look forward to figure out the two fabrics I'll need for the two borders :o)

The Spring is finally here now, and so much of the snow has melted during the last two weeks. Nice!
I am looking forward to be able to sit out on the porch a lot more, and just to feel the sun warming :O)

Happy sewing,
Laila

A new scrap quilt

I had a day off work Friday, and most of the time I spend in my sewing room, I did a lot of cutting. I actually cut pieces for the whole quilt I'm going to make. I bought this book a while ago:

Just searching randomly on the internet after scrap quilt patterns, I spotted the book at Soft expressions' web page. The nice thing about this page, is that they show the content of the books, so you know what patterns you will find inside :O) I think that's great!

The funny thing is, I dicovered the quilt I wanted to make from this book, the day before my book arrived, at Wendy's blog, "Snippets of a Quilter". The pattern is called "Kitchen Sink", and I just love these blocks! So many possibilities with this pattern!
I am still sewing the pieces for the blocks, guess I'm half way or something.


This is how it looks so far:

I've several more colors that is not yet finished, but I think it looks great already :o)
The blocks are set on point in the pattern, but you can also just sew them together in rows like in my layout. I havent made up my mind about that yet, I have to finish the blocks first. I've cut more pieces of fabric than required, since I want the quilt a bit larger.
This is one of my favorite patterns till now, and this pattern must be a perfect one for the care quilts I am planning to make :o)

Quilt guild meeting and some care quilts

My local quilt guild is having their monthly meeting tonight, and Im really looking forward to it!
We are going to have a second hand sale tonight, and everyone that has books, patterns, fabrics or other quilty stuff they no longer need, can bring it and sell it to other members of the guild :o)

I am also going to hand over three care quilts to Sølvi. I quilted two of the quilts an other lady in the quilt guild made, a while ago, and got to finish the bindings today :o)My mom made one more care quilt, too, and I think she did a great job!


Hope to finish some of the other care quilts I have in my sewing room soon, too. If you want to see more of these quilts, you can visit the care quilt blog, Tepper til St.Olav.
If you live in Trondheim, and want to donate a quilt or help us sew some quilt tops we can quilt, just let me or Sølvi know! We really need more quilts, and would be happy to have help from you!!!

Wish you all a great day,
Laila

One more finish :o)

I'm attending a little contest on Lappedilla's facebook page. It's a UFO contest that everyone that is a fan of the page, can attend. Just for fun :o)
I got to finish a table runner today, that's been in my UFO bin for some months. Only half of the binding needed to be hand sewn, and it was finished... Don't know why I let this one just lie around that long... It took me a couple of hours only... Well, now it's finished :o)

I love the fabrics with the coffeè theme. I've got curtains on my kitchen with coffeè theme too, so I've finally got a table runner that goes along with them :o)
Guess I've got an other finish for the OPAM this month :o)

Happy sewing,

LAILA ♥

My first finish for OPAM, April

I've started so many projects during the few years I've been sewing, and I've got so many UFO's... It's a shame, I know!
I started working on this toiletry purse some months ago, so it's not the oldest UFO, but I finished it late last night :o) Whoowhoo!
To finish a project, big one or small one = satisfaction!!!


It's my own design, but I wasn't too happy about piecing so much by hand on this purse. Unnessesary to do so much hand sewing on a project that is going to be used, instead of hanging on a wall or something. The zipper, binding, and closing of the sides are done by hand, because of the curves. Thought it would be too hard to get nice by using the maschine.

I didn't get to make any progress on my 30's quilt yesterday, but I hope to get to work on it later today. Or maybe I'll dig out an other UFO? Who knows, I work best doing the things I wanna do, there and then, sometimes. I change my mind so quick, I just don't plan too much, I end up doing everything else, anyway. LOL!!! But that's me :o)

Wish you all a great weekend,
Laila

Some new fabrics to play with

I have been adding some new fabrics to my stash. Just couldn't resist to play with some of them today :o)
I've been wanting to make a quilt in 1930's reproduction fabrics for a long time, and now I added enough different ones to start. I am going to add some yellow and orange ones too, but this is the blocks so far:

I haven't decided how to arrange the blocks yet, but I will make some more blocks before I make up my mind. These fabrics makes me think of SPRING :O)

Guess I'll be making some more progress on the quilt tomorrow, so well see how far I will get during the Easter Holidays :o)

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE :O)

LAILA ♥

A cozy Sunday

Today my sister-in-law, Mona, came to my house for some sewing together with me. We had a cozy time, chatting, laughing and a lot of sewing. She did a great job on her table runner. She finished the top, and now she's looking forward to continue with the quilting. She was pretty satisfied with the result herself, too :o)

I was downtown to Quiltegården the other day, had to show Siw the result so far on the purse we started making last weekend when I attended Yoko Saito's class;o) I'm a really slow hand quilter, so it takes time for me to finish this project, I guess... But I'm enjoying these pieceful moments of hand quilting.
But after a couple of days working without a timble on my left hand, my fingers got so sore! I just cannot get used to the timble!
Siw showed me some new stuff she's got in her shop. Instead of a timble you can use a small metallic gadget with a tiny pad of doblesided tape, and you put it on top of the finger you work with from under the quilt, and it worked! I'm quilting faster now :oD
On the right hand you use a little leather gadget instead of a timble, and with these two, it is much easier to hand quilt! Yay! I really found my way to do the hand quilting :o)


I've managed to attach the binding on two care quilts today, so the rest of the evening I will continue working on my hand quilting skills :o)

Wish you all a great Sunday,
Laila

A great weekend in Oslo!

Last weekend Roy (my DS1) and I went to Oslo. We travelled by air plane and train to get there, and we had a great time :o)

We got to Oslo early Saturday, and after checking in at the hotel, we had a little sight seeing.

We was staying at hotel not far from the Norwegian King's castel, so we went for a walk. It' an amazing building with a lot of artful details. The guards that is always guarding the castle is an impressiv sight too, and while we where taking some photos, a little troop came up front. They are not allowed to answer back to people that confronting them, so it's no point asking for the direction ;o)

We went out to have a nice dinner later, and it was so nice to spend some quality time with my son. I think he had a great time too, and since he loves taking photos, he took a lot of them with his own camera:o)

The "mission" this weekend, was the class teached by Yoko Saito on Sunday. I was attending this class, representing my local quilt shop, Quiltegården, and I was so honored when Siw, the owner, asked me to go!

I was so excited, I almost couldn't get any sleep the night before!

We learned some of the techniques she uses when she makes her quilts, and they are so full of details! She makes some stunning projects, and a lot of it is made only by hand!

I've never thought I could do so much piecing by hand, with no marking! And it was so much fun!

I only got to piece two blocks for the beautiful purse, which was the project we worked on. But during the last week, I finished one of the two main pieces for the purse, and I've also started some of the hand quilting ;o)

Yoko Saito teached two classes at the Norwgian quilt quild's annual meeting the same weekend, too. And I know several of the ladies that where so lucky to meet her during this weekend. You can see a lot of phots from the meeting on Hanne and May Britt's blogs.

Ann (the Norwegian designer AnnAKa) and Merete was happily cutting fabric with their 'BIG' fabric scissors. We had a bit of fun because of these scissors :o) But when you're travelling by an air plane, you're not allowed to bring large scissors, so you'll have to get the smallest there is :o)

Ann, Merete and Evy (owner of Artic Quilter quilt shop). Not hard to see that these ladies had fun ;o) We all had our share of "oooh's" and "aaah's".

Even if Yoko didn't speak much English, she was fantastic to tell with her body language and drawings on a board, to make us understand. She had a lady that translated from Japaneese to Norwegian, but we understood most of what Yoko showed without a translation.

Hanne (owner of Lappedilla) with another purse made by Yoko Saito. I got to meet Hanne before the class did begin, and it was so nice to meet her :o)

It was such a great and special weekend for me, and I am left with a lot of new knowlegde and inspiration.

I'll be back with some pics of my project soon ;o)

Happy sewing,

Laila

A new table runner in the making :o)

Remember these ones? My Easter chickens?


I decided to release the pattern ("Påskekos") again, and thought I should make an other one in lighter fabrics. It's not finished, but this is how half of the table runner looks like:

The picture is a bit dark,but... I'm workin on the binding, and will show a new picture when it's finished completely :o)
The pattern is available at Quiltegården, Lappedilla and Lappestua.

Table runner #2

I really fell in love with the new table runner pattern from AnnAKa, so I made one more this weekend!
This time I used fabrics that reminds me of SUMMER...


The table runner is already delivered to it's new owner, my mom :o) She liked it a lot! It's so nice to make someone happy, that makes me happy, too :o)



I've already digged out fabrics for another one from my fabric bins, or to be honest, two more. One will be with pink suares, and one will be with blue ones, a bit lighter than in the first one I made.

It has been lots of snow coming the last days, and it just won't stop snowing. I guess more than half a yard of snow since Friday! It's enough if you ask me... But it's nice to sit inside, in my sewing room, enjoying some nedlework :o)

There are some hidden blocks here and there :o)

I decided to empty my two big scrap bins tonight, and the plan was to sort them into two piles. One with Japaneese fabrics, and one with the rest of my scraps. I haven't looked much through these since long before we moved into our new home two years ago, and I did find some hidden blocks in there... These are some of them:


I don't even remember I had these block, and there are blocks enough for a baby quilt...
Is that because I'm getting old, or is it a sign of too many fabrics and scraps to keep track of... Anyway, it's kind of stashbusting, isn't it?

BTW... I discovered Bronwyn Hayes' blog today. A great blog, and yummy pics ;o)

Happy sewing :o)
Laila

My first finish for March

Had to stay home from work today, since DS2 where sick and had to stay home from school. While he was sleeping a bit longer today, I continued working on the table runner I started this weekend. Just some inches with binding that neede to be done, so I finished that in no time :o)
I love these colors, so I am pretty satisfied with the result. The design is from the Norwegian designer AnnAKa, and got released just a couple of weeks ago. I just love the pattern, and I am planning to make a couple of more variations of this one!

I had to make it a bit shorter than the pattern says, or else it would only fit my dinner table.
I've seen several variations of this table runner, and some of them you can see here:
Sigrun's blog, Anne-Grethe's blog, Marita's blog and Lappestua's blog.
I know many of the Norwegian quilters like the patterns from AnnAKa, and I guess many more of these will turn up around here in Blogland. I think it's great to see the choises of fabrics others make, lots of inspiration :o)

I was going to do som baking after work today, since I'm expecting some ladies over tomorrow evening, but since I had to stay home I did the baking earlier today.
I've never been doing much baking other than for the birthdays and for Christmas.
I do like to bake, but I guess it's because I'm not a "cake-monster" myself, I don't have the urge to make cakes and other stuff. I'm more fan of desserts than cakes.
But the kids LOVES cinnamon buns, and that's what's made today. Not bad for lunch, a couple of cinnamon buns? The kids where digging in, and of corse, I had to have one with my coffeè too, and it was yummy:o)

I'll get the cinnamon buns in the freezer as soon as they are chilled, and then I can warm them up in the oven tomorrow for the ladies. They taste like newly baked then :o)

I'm off to cut some fabrics for a new table runner, and I'll get some more blocks for the quilt I am working on.

A test block

Ordered a book by Judy Martin some time ago, I'm a big fan of her work. Her patterns are just stunning, and I like the way they are explained in her books. Easy to follow, even though some of the patterns are really full of details. I've got almost all of her books, and they are just great! So full of inspiration!
I made a test block from one of the patterns, since I'm looking for a quilt that looks scrappy, and it's ment to be a quilt for a boy.
What do you think? The block mesures 12", so it doesn't take that long to build a top big enough.



I forgot to show you my little table runner made of triangles, just so I can practice my skills on hand quilting.
I got so inspired by Kviltstina's quilt, the one she uses as her blog background. It is a really beautiful quilt. So I had to give it a try :o)
I find it hard to start and stop, attaching the threads. But I guess I'll get there.
I really love to hand quilt, but it takes so much time, so I am only doing that for special quilts. I am thinking of making a miniature quilt one day, with scrappy spools, maybe in some reproduction fabrics. I have bought some few now and then, but I need to build up that stash some more, to get the variations I want.

Im looking forward to the weekend, hopeing to spend some time in the sewing room again. I want to start work on some Easter projects, and I guess that will be my focus project this month.
Happy sewing,
Laila

A touch of spring :o) and OPAM report

I haven't been making any blog post for the longest time. Just been too busy.
This weekend we celebrated our two youngest's 13th birthday. It's funny, I've got only teenagers now! Time flies, too fast!!!

The kids had a week off school, since here in Norway every school have a week vacation every year, the last week of February. Me and Hubby took a week vacation from work, too.
We went to my in-laws place a couple of hours drive from here last Sunday, and spend some days there. It was freezing cold, since we had a period of low temperatures again. So we did spend most of the time in-doors!
I captured this pic when we where on our way home. It's Hurtigruta, wrapped in cold steam! It looked like a ghost ship!


I brought my knitting and some stitchery I could work on while we where there. Got to finish one wool sock, and I got to try one of the multicolored threads I bought earlier at Quiltegården. It's such a beautiful thread!


On Saturday, while waiting for the family to arrive for the kid's birthdayparty, I started cutting some of the fabrics from a jellyroll I bought at Lappedilla. I did see a beautiful quilt at Lappedilla's facebookpage, and just thought it would be perfect for these fabrics! I had no pattern, so I started twisting my brain, and draw one of my own. Fun and easy, and fast to make! I worked some more on it yesterday while waiting for more family to come, and I am almost done with the blocks I managed to cut from the jellyroll. I think I'll have to order one more to make it bigger than a small baby quilt.... But we'll see. I have to finish the ones I am working on first, to see how big it can be with the fabrics I have. Have a lot of the ligth ones left, and I'm thinking about making a border... We'll see :o)

Today it's snowing a little bit, but yesterday was such a beautiful day! A really spring day! The snow melted fast in the sun, and it was warm enough to sit outside on the veranda and drink coffee :o) Springtime:o) I hope the weather stays this way a long time now :o)
It feels so good with some sun now, after a long cold winter.

I have no more finishes for OPAM this month, but I made one, and I am happy about that :o)
I hope to finish some more for March, and I have some focus projects in mind already! But more about that in a later post.
Now it's time for dinner, and maybe some sewing later :o)

A little finish for February :o)

Not much sewing going on here these days, but I got to finish the little toiletry purse I started earlier :o) I finished it last night, and I'm going to give it to my niece today. She's celebrating her 11th birthday today :o) Happy birthday to Mildrid :o)


This one is hand quilted, and I attached the zipper by hand, it was easiest that way since it's so tiny. I liked making this, so nice to do something by hand instead of using the sewing maschine all the time :o)
I will make one for myself too ;o)

I have been working on a "secret project" for some time now, and I hope to work some more of it later this week. It's a lot of work by hand, and it's going to be hand quilted. Cannot wait to show you!
Thanks to all of you leaving comments on my posts, I'm behind replying to e-mails and comments, but I'll get there ;o)
I'm off to a birthday party now, so see ya!

Wish you all a creative weekend,
Laila

I'm hooked!

I got to deliver two of the charity quilts I've been quilting and binding at the meeting for our local quilt guild at Wednesday. Yay! Two more :o)
When I got home, I started prepping one more (I have several more laying in a bin), and I started the quilting last night. I like the pattern I used for the other two, so I ended up using it again :o)

It's not the most difficult pattern to quilt, and it looks nice on the scrappy ones.

The owners of our local quilt shops are members to our local quilt guild too, and they bring some fabrics and other stuff to the meetings, for us to buy :o)
I could not resist to buy some fabrics and thread, and these went home with me:

Beautiful fabrics, and so beautiful threads! Gail Pan told us about this hand dyed thread when she and Leanne where teaching at Quiltegården in Septhember, and finally it's here!
There are several color combinations, and they are just lovely!!! Gail Pan is using them, so pop over at her place, and you can see some of her projects with these threads.
I'm heading down at Quiltegården soon again, to buy some more of them!
I used one in this stitchery Gail gave us, it will be a needle case pretty soon :o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

The Irish Chain is soon ready for quilting!

Today is my day off work, and I headed into my sewing room after the kids went to school this morning. I pieced the last blocs yesterday, and finished the last two rows and pieced them together today! I was afraid the quilt would be too small to be a lap quilt, but with a border it will be a nice sized quilt.


I haven't figured out how to quilt it yet, but I have to buy some batting and backing for it, so I'll have time to think about it. I am wondering if I should buy wool batting for this quilt. I have never used that kind before, and I wonder if it is "hard" to work with. Do any of you used wool batting? What would be your first choice for a lap quilt, and a quilt you want to be warm and soft? The cotton batting I used in my "Purple love" quilt is kind of stiff... Will it get more soft after a trip in the washing maschine? Or will it get softer when it's used some times?

My focus project this week will be to finish the two charity quilts I've been working on. I need to get the two binded, and I have been making binding for one of them today. I hoped to deliver them tonight, at the quilt guild meeting, but I will not be able to finish the binding till then. I'm looking forwar to the meeting tonight, and to meet the other ladies again. We are having one meeting a month, and it's so nice to see what the other ladies have made since last time :o) Lots of inspiration :o)

Happy sewing,
Laila