Slow progress

There has been a slow progress on my projects lately, but now and then I've spent some time in my sewing room working on a couple of them. I've made some blocks for my "Picnic" quilt, using only reproduction fabrics. I've made 40 blocks so far, so still 40 more to make.
The pattern for this quilt is from Kim Brackett's new book "Scrap-basket Sensations".
Pop over to Kim's blog to read more about the Fat Quarter Shop's Scrap-basket Sensations Quilt club. 

It's been a while since I finished all the blocks for this gorgeous quilt, the "Short story" from the book Schnibbles times two, and I've started to join the rows. They are all ready to be joined together, so not much work left before the borders ;o)

I got a nice little packet in the mail yesterday, Lynette Anderson's BOM "My Garden" arrived!!! Typical me, I didn't get it while my local quilt shop had this for sale... Looking at  all the lovely blocks around on my friend's blogs, I just had to ask around to see if anyone knew where to get it! May Britt (Abyquilt) helped me out, and gave me a hint where to get it, she did find out that Lynette Anderson had a few available over at her webshop! Woohoo!!! The thread used in this BOM was already in my stash, so yesterday I got to trace the nine stitchery patterns and got to start stitching :o) Block #1 is in the making! Me like!!

I will enjoy stitching this between making progress on the other projects during my Summer Holidays, and look forward to add the fabric strips to complete the blocks. The colors in this BOM is just the perfect colors, and I will get to  use lots of my japanese fabrics/scraps in this quilt :o)


The weather here in Trondheim is not too nice today. Forecast and a little rain. A perfect sewing weather, so it's fine by me for a while, but hoping that it will be some sunny days during this summer too. It's been chilly and too much rain until now... 

Wish you all a great and creative weekend ♥

Laila

Progress

I forgot to show the finished quilt top, made with the Bliss line. I thought I would make one big quilt, but made up my mind and made two smaller ones. I've only finished one of them, and the other is almost finished. Just need to add the sashing between the rows. I found the backing piece I need to get it quilted yesterday, so I will finish this in a few days I hope.

I've also made some progress on my stitchery project. The table runner is looking great so far :o)

Got to take a break from all the hand sewing, since it's not so good for my neck and shoulders.

A couple of weeks ago we went to take a walk in the forrest, to a little lake we use to go to, with my brother and his family. We also brought our fishing gear, but we didn't catch any fish this time. But we had a cozy time, eating hot dogs and baked potatoes. Mum and dad joined us later, and their dog Luna was happy to join us too :o)

I love these trips with my family, and I hope we'll have many cozy times like this during this summer.

Since we've been having so much rain and low temperatures till now, I hope the rest of the summer will be much better. We really deserve some more sun, I think :o)

Wish you all a great weekend,

Laila

Some new stuff

Went to Quiltegården yesterday, and some new stuff came home with me. I didn't find the backing fabric I was looking for, so I ended up with some other fabrics instead. The shirtings will be added to my repro's, and I'm planning to use them in a quilt from the "Scrap Basket Sensations" book. Need to figure out which quilt to play with first...

I've been wanting to make the gorgeous table runner from Hatched and Patched, "My angels garden" for a while now. It's just so cute! 

I also bought the paper piece pack kit with templates for one of Sue Dayley's quilts, and will work on this between all of my other projects. Not sure if I will make a quilt as big as hers, but we'll see how many blocks I will end up with. Thought I should give the needles and glue a try to. The needles are long and thin, so I guess they'll be perfect for some needleturn applique too ;o)

I'm so happy that my sewing mojo is "back in business", and it feels great to do some creative stuff again :o)

Happy sewing,

Laila

WOW!

I'm so excited, because my quilt is on Sew I Quilt @ Stash Manicure banner for June!

You can see the whole quilt here. 

I'm so happy! And honored! The banner is just so pretty!!! and it's in my favorite color :o)

You can check out the other beautiful quilts on the banner if you visit "Sew I Quilt", and you can also read the stories behind the quilts. 

Thank you so much, Madam Samm!  

I'm off to my local quilt shop in a minute, and hope to get some fabrics for backing. Guess I will be quilting this weekend :o) 

Happy sewing,
Laila 

Need some inspiration?

I just have to share a link to a blog I found yesterday. A perfect way to use white fabrics with lots of scraps: 

Hyacinth Quilt Design made a block called "Garden Fence", and it's so many variations of this quilt popping up in my head! Her quilt is just GORGEOUS!!! Pop over to her blog and check it out!

Enjoy :o)

I'm off to work some more on my scrap quilt, see ya!

Happy sewing,

Laila

A nice weekend

I've enjoyed some hours in my sewing room this weekend. Yesterday I digged out a care quilt (charity quilt) and got it basted, quilted and also put the binding on. Now it's only sewing the binding on to the back by hand left on this one. The top was donated by a lady in my quilt guild, and I've been having it stored away for quite some time now. 

Was about time I got to finish it! Got a couple of more donated tops to finish up, but I have to do some work on my own quilts in between. I like to work this way. Do what I like, when I feel like... You can see the other care quilts donated at the blog called Tepper til St. Olav, and a picture of the whole quilt above will be added there when it's finished. All the quilts you see in this blog are donated to our local hospital, for children with long term diseases.

Today I worked on a scrap quilt I started back in April this year. I got to finish the sashing between two of the rows, an I hope to add the third row before I turn off the lights in my sewing room tonight. 

It looks small on this photo, but it's huge! It's about 70" wide so far (left to right on the photo). I could add one more row, and it would be big enough as a quilt for a kid, but I think I will add the three more rows I've already pieced, and it will be aprox 70" x 102" (180cm x 260cm) finished. Big enough as a bed quilt :o)

We'll see, haven't made up my mind yet ;o)

Happy sewing,

Laila

"Butterfly dilly bag"

Yay! The "Butterfly dilly bag" is finished! 

I used a purple fabric I got from the same friend that sent me the beautiful thread. A perfect match :o) 

Since the pattern includes two different stitcheries, I placed one on each side of the bag.

I did one thing wrong tough... I didn't think twice before sewing and cutting to make the bottom corners, so the stitcheries ended up a bit further down on the sides than planned... But not too far down, phew...

This is a bit typical me when I'm not paying attention, but I've learned my lesson today!

So... this means I've got one more finish for OPAM this month, so now I've got two finished projects for May. I'm happy about that :o)

Happy sewing, 

Laila

A little stitchery today

Started on a little stitchery today when the migraines that have been around, left today.

It's going to be on the front of a little bag called "Butterfly dilly bag". It's a pattern made by Gail Pan. So cute! I used the hand dyed thread from Cottage garden threads. I got this thread from a good friend, and so happy to finally find a project to use it in! 

And you know me, I LOVE purple :o)

I hope to finish the bag during the weekend, and if the weather is going to be like the weather station says, it's going to be sewing-weather. Rain, rain and rain.

Me and Hubby went to my parents place today while the boys was meeting some of their friends. I took my parents dog Luna with me for a little walk, and since noone else uses the track we went I didn't need a leash for Luna. 

No need to worry about meeting any moose with this "lady" walking along with me :o)

Happy sewing,

Laila

An old UFO came out of the bin today

I've been working on a quilt today, one I started in April 2009. I ripped up the seams I made back then, and rearranged the blocks. I made a quilt in blue and brown using the same pattern. You can see it here if you want to. This time I followed the pattern to make the blocks. I found the pattern over at Mary's blog. It's a double 4patch, a pattern that is easy, fun and quick.

This quilt is for my DS3, and I hope to finish the quilts for all of my three boys this year. One of them are almost finished, the blue and brown double 4patch. Just need a little more quilting on the border... Can't figure out why I haven't finished them yet.... Well, I'm at least on my way to :o)

Now I'm off to bed, so Happy night :o)

Wish you all a great and creative week,

Laila

A finished project!

It's been three weeks since my last post. I haven't been sewing during these three weeks at all, and it was so great to finally spend some time in my sewing room last nigt!

I got to finish the binding on the table runner I  wrote about in my previous blog post.

I simply love purple, the lavender/dusty kind of purple. I've always loved this color, and I'm thrilled there are so many lovely fabrics to get in these colors! And here in Norway, the purple have been popular for about a year, and you can buy a lot of interiour stuff and clothes in this color now. Me like :o)

I hope to be able to work on my sewing projects for a while now, I've really missed my sewing room a lot! 

You know, when "life just happends" and my neck doesn't work with me, I'll get slowed down. I guess we've all had, and will have, sort of "issues" to deal with now and then. Stuff that takes both time and a lot of energy to deal with. That's life, right?

Wish all a great weekend,

Laila

Another table runner

I haven't been sewing at all during the Easter Holidays, but I got to enjoy some time with my family, and I've been knitting a little bit.

We've had some lovely days during the Holidays, and it was so nice to spend some time outside in the sun again! Spring is really showing off, and almost all of the snow are gone now. FINALLY! 

Got time to cut some fabrics for a table runner I've had on my mind for a long time. I think it's about a year since I bought the fabrics for it! 

You know I love purple, so purple it is :o) The top is finished, so now I will start basting and quilting.

This is table runner #4 from the same AnnAKa pattern. The first one I finished in March last year, and I love this pattern.

I'm having a day off work today, and between the usual "house-stuff" I'm enjoying some time in my sewing room. I digged out a couple of UFO's the other day, and I hope to make some progress on at least one of them before this week is coming to an end.

Have a great Wednesday,

Laila

Been sewing this weekend

I got to spend a lot of time in my sewing room this weekend. The quilt I'm working on is almost finished, and I love these happy colors. I'm a big fan of "dusty" prints, but I love to make some quilts with brighter fabrics now and then. Reminds me of the Summer we are soon about to welcome :o) The "Bliss" line from Moda is just gorgous, and since I had so much fabric left after making the block for my Schnibble quilt some months ago, I figured I should make a Summer quilt. I got to see a beautiful quilt made by Merete a while ago, and started cutting fabrics after I got home from Quiltegården on Tuesday. I got to buy the white fabric for background that day, and I love how it's turning out! 

Since I had to pick it up from the floor so I could clean up some of the threads and dust from the floor, I only got to take a photo while the rows are folded together tonight. I'm half way to a finished top, so I'll take a photo of the whole thing in a few days. This quilt are really a stashbuster :o)

I also started a couple of  Easter projects like the hearts in my previous post. Just love these cuties :o)

I'm pretty tired and ready to jump to bed, so they have to wait till tomorrow, so I can finish them up.

Wish you all a great and creative new week, 

Laila

Easter project

Having a day off work today, so I got to spend a few hours in my sewing room. The plan was to continue on the quilt I've been working on the last days, but figured I should make a little Easter project instead. The pattern is from a book I bought in 2004 (I usually mark my books with my name and year they are purchased).
I've been wanting to make this project for so long, and it was so fun to make! 

A cute little Easter decoration :o) Can't figure out why I waited so long to make this!
I hope to make a couple of the other projects from the same book during the Easter holidays. It brings out the Spring feeling, working on projects like this :o)


It's nice to have the sewing mojo back again, and hope it will stay for a while again. 
Will show some photos of the quilt I'm working on in the next blog post ;o)


Happy sewing,
Laila





 
 

Some new projects

Not much sewing going on, but I started a couple of new knitting projects. I've been knitting since I was a little girl, and I've always been very fascinated by the traditonal knitted Selbuvotter/Selbu mittens and gloves.

I bought a couple of books a while ago with patterns for some gorgeous mittens:

 The one called "Selbuvotten" is translated from a book called "Biography of a Knitting tradition" by Terri Shea, so the book is also written in English for those of you who are interested in knitting, and read only English.

When I'm not able to, or just don't feel like, doing any sewing projects, I ususally have a knitting project (or five) I work on. It's just as easy as stitcheries to keep in my purse :o)

Inspired by the gorgeous mittens I did see over at Mormors verden made with multicolored yarn, I just had to buy some new yarn and try this.  These two pairs are both made from the same pattern, but the one with multicolored yarn are smaller, because the yarn is a bit thinner than the ones in black and white. 

I have been knitting a lot of socks with similar patterns like these, and I'm not so good at knitting thumbs yet... You can see there is no thumbs on the two pairs, but I hope to get on with them this weekend. Been so long since I knitted mittens, so I forgot how to make the thumbs look neat ;o)  I'll just have to give it a try :o)

The day before yesterday, Hubby bought me roses. He knows my favorite color is dusty purple, and he spoted these gorgeous roses and just had to buy them. It's a bit hard to get the real color right, even if I brought them outside and didn't use the flash on my camera, but I think it's pretty close:

The roses are in the same colors as my favorite table runner I have on my dinner table.

I have no clue what the name of the roses is, but if you do I really want to know :o)

It's looking more like Spring these days, as the snow is melting fast, and the temperatures are staying around 5 to 10 degrees depending on if the sun is shining or not. I'm looking forward to the beautiful season we have ahed, and hope to get to spend more time outside again. It's been a long winter, and it's so nice to have a lot more daylight again.

I have no special plans for this weekend, and I'm just going to catch up on a few things between doing some "have to's". 

Wish you all a great weekend,

Laila

A small progress

Some weeks ago I bought the book "Miss Rosie's spice of life" by Carrie Nelson. I just fell in love with this beautiful scrap quilt called "Raise the roof" when I read the book. I started cutting fabrics for the quilt a while ago, and started making some of the blocks during the last week or so. 
I had a day off work today, and thought I would finish a lot of blocs, but just got to make four...
But a small progress is still progress :o)

I wish I did cut many more different fabrics, feel like the blocks are too much alike, but I just plan to continue and  see how it looks in the end. Maybe I'll make some new blocks if it doesn't look good enough. 

Hope to continue making blocks during the rest of the week, but I have to go shopping first. I'm almost out of sewing thread, so I have to get more before I'm able to sew more. I have a lot of different thread, but not the light one. I like to use light sewing thread when I do the piecing, especially when I'm dealing with the light fabrics. Don't want it to show through.

Happy sewing,
Laila

I'm still here!

I've been taking a little blog break. Not because I wanted, but when "life just happends", and my health is not very cooperative, there is not much sewing going on. 

The migraines and most of the neck pain are gone now, and it's feels so much better!

I know it's something I will have to deal with every now and then, but it's making me a bit sad when it "steals" so many hours and days of my time. 

For those of you who doesn't know me, I'm having a neck injury because of a whiplash accident years ago. This makes me unable to work as much as I should, and of course it means I'm not able to sew as much I would like to. But to be honest, sewing is my own sort of therapy to keep my motivation up, and it feels so good to be able to do something creative. I have several friends who are in the same situation like me, and find joy and therapy in sewing or other crafts. Sometimes people doesn't understand how I am able to sew, but I can't just sit down with my hands in my lap, can I? I would go crazy if that should happen! 

The other day I got to finish up a little project I've had in the making for sooo long. Just the zipper that needed to be attached, so it didn't take that long to finish it either. That means I've got a little finish for OPAM too this month :o)

It's a little toiletry purse from AnnAKa's pattern called "Stor og liten" (Big and small).

I haven't spent much time in my sewing room this month, but hopefully it will be some hours in there this weekend. I've got a few plans, so we'll see. I really hope my sewing mojo is coming back to me again soon. I hate to not have the energy or urge to sew. But that's life. I have to many projects in the making, so it's not easy to pick which one to work on, but I just have to make up my mind and just go ahead :o) 

Wish you all a great and creative weekend,

Laila

I WON!

I have been followong the blog tour and give aways that was about Kim Brackett's new book "Scrap-basket Sensations". Yesterday Brown Quilts announced the winner of the 10.th day of the blog tour. And I was the winner of the book! I had to read it three times to belive it! I'm sooo excited! This book was on top of my wish list, but since I'm working on two of the quilts from her earlier book, "Scap-basket Surprises", I decided to wait to order it till these two quilts where finished. But now I'll get my own autographed copy! Ain't that cool?

I digged out my "Kitchen Sink" from my WISP bin the other day, and I have to admit I got inspired to do so when reading about the new book. 

Yesterday I finished piecing the last two rows on my "Kitchen Sink"!

I'm not sure what fabrics to use for borders yet, but hopefully I'll figure it out soon. Really wanna finish this top and get it ready for quilting. 

I love how it turned out so far!

I made the quilt a bit larger than the original. I will use wool batting, and been thinking about hand quilting it. But then again, it might not be finished for such a long time if I do hand quilt it...

We'll see. Got some time to figure that out :o)

I'm going to clean up my sewing room today, it looks like a mess after spending time in there the last days. I love to clean up after every project. I get more motivated when I do so, and it gets pretty dusty when I've been cutting and sewing for some days. 

Wish you all a great and creative day ♥

Laila

Kitchen Sink update

I've been playing with the blocks for the "Kitchen Sink" quilt I started working on a while ago. I haven't been sewing so much for a long time, and it was so nice to work with this one again. I think this is one of my favorite scrap quilts ever, and I'm pretty satisfied with the result so far. Sort of what I imagined in the beginning :o) I've been looking for a brown fabric for the triangles for so long, and didn't find any I really liked. But I figured out I should give the blue one a try, and I don't regret that. I think it fits pretty well with the rest of the fabrics, and all of them are reproductions fabrics I've been collecting over the last year or so.

The photo is a bit dark, but I'll take a better one in daylight during the weekend ;o)

When I made the post on my blog about starting to make this quilt, I got an e-mail from Kari Veslum (no blog). She recognized the quilt I worked on when she read my blog post. She told me she had made this one also, and thought it was fun to find it on my blog too. She sent me a photo of her quilt, and it is gorgeous!

Don't you think Kari's quilt looks great? 

I think it is fun to hear about others who did make, or are making the same quilts as I am. We can inspire eachother, and see the different variations in colorways others did choose. I know she gave this away as a Birthday present, and that she is making one for her self too. I really hope to see that one too :o)

I've had a day off work today, and just enjoyed some time in my sewing room and a few other things I haven't got the time to do for so long. I decided to have a day off the "have-to's" too. I think I really needed that. It feels so good to be doing something for me, without feeling guilty and selfish. I usually do feel selfish when I neglect housework and doing other stuff a mom have to do every day. It just "charge my batteries" sometimes :o) We all need to do that now and then.

The kids are having a week off school next week, the Winter Holidays, and I have a week off work too. I hope to do some sewing, and doing some cozy stuff with the kids. Maybe bake some cinnamonbuns or something, and do stuff we don't have time to do when  the days are filled with school and work.

I'm looking forward to just enjoy some quality time with them :o)

Last weekend my Hubby bought me some lovely white roses (my favorite) for the Mother's day. Tried to shoot a close up, but I'm not a good photographer... But I liked this photo anyway :

Wish you all a great and creative weekend ♥

Laila

Had a great weekend :o)

Last weekend, I attented Anne-Pia Godske Rasmussen's class at Quiltegården.

Anne-Pia is a well known designer, and her last book "Flowerpower Patchwork" is a really great book, with lots of gorgeous patterns and projects. She told us how to do every project from the book, and she showed the projects step-by-step, so it was so easy to see what she talked about. Thank you, Anne-Pia, for a lovely and inspiring weekend!

I wanted to make the knitting bag from the book, and I bought some gorgeous fabrics to play with :o)

Anne-Pia's bag is on the left side of the photo, and mine on the right side. I didn't finish mine at the class, but finished it the day after.

My knitting bag is already stuffed with knitting pins and patterns that I've got stored in plastic bags till now. Think I'll make another one too, so I can have one to take with me too. I like to work on some easy projects when I'm taking knitting or sewing with me when I am on a visit or meeting, and the ones with more complicated patterns stay's home :o)

I took some photos on the first day of the class, but forgot to take some of the Anne-Pia's projects, and photos from the second day :o(

This is some of the ones I did take :

You can visit these blogs to see more photos from the class:

Merete's blog

Quiltegården's blog

 Thanks so much to Anne Mari and Liv Guri, who took care of our lunch, coffee and tea this weekend. They made us some yummy waffles, and Anne Mari made homemade bread for us too :o) We're pretty spoiled when we attend the weekend classes at Quiltegården ;o)

Earlier this month, I got the "Winter Blooms" back from Merete, who did the most gorgeous quilting on it. Finished the binding on it, and it's now on display at Quiltegården :o) Some close up's:

Happy sewing ♥Laila

A new top is finished

In November last year, we where a group of ladies from our local quilt guild who met for a sew-along to work on charity quilts. I had cut a lot of pieces to make a quilt from a pattern I did see over at Mary's blog. One of the other ladies brought the same pattern, too! Her quilt was turning out so great too :o)

I managed to piece all the blocks that evening, but they've been in a box since then....

Some days ago I started to piece them together in rows, and yesterday I started working on the border. I wantet to make the border a little easier than in Mary's pattern, but I still wanted the bricks to be surrounded by the white fabrics... Some thinking later, I came up with this:

I'm pretty satisfied with the result, and I hope to get to quilt it soon, and binding it. Here is a close up on the fabrics:

These fabrics have been in my stash for so long, and I'm glad I found a project to use them in. They are all from the same fabric line except the white one,  but I cannot remember the name of it... 

I hope to sew some more later this weekend, but since a cold is heading my way, I will find some stitchery to work on, and make myself a big mug of Tea and stay under a blanket for the rest of this day :o)

Hope you are having a great weekend, 

Hugs ♥
Laila