A stithchery is finished :o)

Back in Blogland again :o)
Haven't got my lap top back yet, so I still have to borrow my DS's lap top. Anyway, I'm happy to be back for a moment again :o)

I have been sewing some today, FINALLY!!! My shoulder is almost healed, so now I'm able to enjoy my favorite thing again, SEWING. Feels soooo good to finally do a few stitches, when I haven't been able to touch a needle for so long!
I finished my little stitchery from Gail Pan's new book, and I got to paint the frame and put it all together in no time. I hang it on the kitchen wall right away :o) I love to have add some new stuff now and then, in my own house. Not often, but I want to make it more often from now. It's so cozy when you add some homemade stuff, don't you agree?
My kithchen wall is purple, so this is just perfect :o)

Since I haven't got time to finish anything else for OPAM this month, this will be my last reported finish too. I also finished the outside of the little pouch I started earlier. Have to finish the inside too, and I am making this as a Christmas gift for my sweet niece, Mildrid. She was spending some time with me some time ago, and she wanted me to teach her how to make a stitchery. She did so well, and she's almost done with the stitchery now. I'll help her make a little wallhanging or a needlecase of it when she is coming next time :o)




Today, Hubby bought me a suitcase for my trip to Oslo next week. And he knows I just love purple, so purple it is! Ain't this just darned cute? I love it! He's just the sweetest <3

I've never been to Oslo before, and I've never taken a flight before, so it's soooo my first time! My mom is going with me, and I'm also going to meet a friend I've really missed seeing! I'll tell you about it when I get back ;o) We're leaving Trondheim on Wednesday, and we return late Friday. I'm looking forward to this trip, and since I'm such a homesick person, I look forward to get back home too :o) But who knows, if I get the taste of travveling, maybe I'll get hooked on it? We'll see about that :o)
Wish you all a great weekend,

What I've been doing this weekend

I couldn't stay away from my sewing room today either, so I started this little pouch. A friend gave me the pattern a long time ago, and I have been looking at it several times, and now was the right time to try making this :o) Learned some tricks from Gail and Leanne while they where here in Trondheim, so needleturn appliquè is now one of my favorites :o)

I'm not using any frame for the hand quilting, but I made a couple of long stitches with the sewing maschine across the piece, and locked the edges with seams too. It's such a small piece to quilt, and I don't have any frame small enough. But still I think it's so fun to do practise some hand quilting again. It's been a while since I did that ;o)


I've also been knitting a little bit lately, and I finished a pair of socks. They are small (size 4-5 yrs), and really fast to finish:o) I like that, to finsih something quick between the other projects, that is so time consuming. I bought the yarn a couple of weeks ago, and I love it. It's beautiful colors, but also great to knit with. It's wool blended with some Nylon, and that will make the socks last bit longer. I did also buy some other color variations, and you'll get to see them in a while :o)

I forgot to show a picture of the table runner I finished a while ago. I'ts from a pattern in Quiltemagasinet, and annAKa is the designer of the pattern. It took some time to finish the binding, but another finish:o)





Happy sewing,
Laila

A toiletry purse

I just couldn't keep my hands off sewing longer, so I made this toiletry purse today. It's made totally out my head, so I don't have any pattern for this.


I'm not quite satisfied with the way I do the zipper, but I'll just have to figure out another way how to sew this prettier. It's the "bump" at each side I don't like. I have an idea how to do it a bit different, so we'll see when I make the next one, how that goes :o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

A finish!

I finished this wallhanging more than a week ago, but since I've had my lap top in for repair, I haven't been able to make any blog posts... Thanks to my DS1, I can join blogland for some time again :o) I'm borrowing his lap top, so now I can finally leave some comments again too :o)

We are having an Autumn vacation here in Norway these days, and it's just great to enjoy some time with the kids, and let them sleep longer in the morning (mee to...), and stay up a bit longer in the evening :o) It's been such bad weather here for the longest time, but yesterday and today was such beautiful days with low temperatures, but SUNNY!!!
Had some cups of coffee today outside :o) There is so many beautiful colors outside now, since the leafs haven't fallen from the trees yet. Lots of inspiration in that!
My bad shoulder is keeping me from sewing anything at all, and that's just soooo sad! But instead I'm organizing my stash a bit, and reading magazines and books. Searching for ideas and inspiration :o) Hope to get started on some Christmas projects soon, have tons of ideas!!!!

Happy stitching,
Laila

My "Laila's Garden" is finished :o)

Yay! Just finished my "Laila's Garden", and I am so satisfied with the result. I look forward to get to the quilting now :o) Just have to make up my mind, hand quilting or machine quilting?
I'll have to think a little bit more before I choose which way... Anyway, I'm using the same fabric as the inner border for the binding, and it's already cut and ready to go :o)


I used many of the same fabrics as in my "Purple love", so they will fit together in my living room when they are quilted and binded :o)
Before I quilt and bind these ones, I'm digging into my bin of care quilts, and I have plans for at least one of these ones to get finished. Hopefully today :o)

Have a great Sunday everybody!

Happy sewing,
Laila

Progress on my "Laila's Garden"

I didn't get to ship my lap top to the technicians today, so I'm able to show you my progress on "Laila's garden" :o)
I finished all the twelve blocks during this week, and it's my first try with this sewing method. Like it a lot, so I will definitely use the needle turn appliqué method more from now on :o)
I really look forward to continue piecing this together, and hope to get to do it during this weekend if my left shoulder will cooperate with me. Silly me... When I was leaving the class at Sunday, I did carry my huge sewing machine bag with one hand, instead of pulling it (I've got one with wheels...) That resulted in some days with no sewing on the machine, and just some stitches by hand. Well, it's getting better, so I keep my fingers crossed for some seriously sewing tomorrow :o)

We had a TV crew around us all Saturday at the class last weekend, and this is the link to the result: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/distrikt/trondelag/verdi/111537

Happy sewing,
Laila

Project report for OPAM

I haven't any projects to show September OPAM. I had a couple of project to finish, but I got so eager to continue working on Gail Pan's "Laila's garden", so I hope to have them finished by the end of October.
I'm planning to finish "Laila's garden" during this weekend, and hope to get the ones I reported last month as well :o)

Guess I will not be able to blog so much for a while, since my lap top is going to the technician again... They didn't repair all the stuff that is wrong with it last time, so I have to return it, again...
In the meantime I hope to get some sewing done, and have some sneak peaks now and then from my DS's pc ;o)


Wish you all a great weekend, and happy stitching!

Laila

An exciting weekend at Quiltegården with Gail Pan and Leanne Beasley

I was going to make a blog post yesterday, but blogger didn't work:o(
I've had the most amazing weekend, with so many lovely ladies, a lot of sewing and laughing.
The weekend at Quiltegården started with a great trunkshow with Gail Pan and Leanne Beasley at Friday. They came all the way from Australia to tell us about their designs, how they work and the patterns for the weekend class, and it was so exciting to get to meet them.
This is Siw, the owner of Quiltegården, introducing our teachers for the weekend :o)


This is some of the projects they've brought for us, a lot of yummy stuff if you ask me :o):



When Saturday came, we all where really excited and eager to get started.

Sølvi, Gro and me waiting for the class to start. Already laughing :o) What a great way to start the day! This is some of the other ladies before the class started on Saturday:



Leanne and Gail did show us and told us about the projects for this day before we started:


Our teachers didn't mind us taking photos all the time, and we sure did take a lot of photos!!! But I think they had some great fun too, they was always smiling and laughing with us. Gail and Leanne in front of some of their projects:


They really have a great sense of humor, and an enthusiasm that was so contagious:o)
We laughed and had fun the whole weekend through, and I was really sad when it was over...
But I have a lot of memories from this weekend, and a lot of photos too :o)

Gail, me and Leanne:



Gro, Gail, Leanne and me:


Some of the blocks that was finished this weekend:

So many different colors, but oh! so beautiful!


Many of us where bloggers, and it was so nice to meet the persons I know from the blogging, and I got to meet new ones too :o)
I don't remember everyones' name, but Sølvi has a list with links on her blog :o)


This is at the end of the day on Sunday. What a great bunch of talented ladies!


I am so happy Siw did make this happening real for us, and I am so glad I got the chance to meet Gail and Leanne. This event was really something special for me. I'm going to miss them and their laughter so much!
Hope they've had a great time in Norway too and I hope they are enjoying teaching their class at Hurtigruta these days, and I wish them a safe trip back home :o)
Thanks also to Heidi and Inger Marie that helped us find all the stuff and notions we asked for, and 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)

Still high on vitamin Q, I am trying to finish my "Laila's garden", and I'll post photos of that later ;o)

Happy sewing,
Laila

A couple of things done today :o)

Got to do a lot of sewing yesterday, and I almost finished the top on my "Purple love". But since I figured out I wanted it a big longer, I had to sew some more seams and cut some more fabric... This evening I finished the top, and I look forward to get it quilted soon. Got to buy some backing fabric first. It's about 56" x 70" (142cm x 177cm). A perfect size to wrap around me on the couch when I'm having my powernap now and then :o)


I also finished the top of one of the charity quilts tonight. Only the outer border was left to do, so it didn't take much time. I have to find some backing for this one too, and then I will be able to quilt it. Got a couple of ideas :o) but we'll see. Hope to finish this one before my quilt guilds next meeting next month:o)


It's late, and I'm heading for bed, and hope for some time for sewing tomorrow too :o)

Progress on my "Purple love"

Yep! "Purple love" is the name for my quilt. Since I really love purple, I'm going to give the quilt that name:o) I've never named a quilt before, always made quilts from other's patterns. But this time I made one from my own head, pretty much alike the scrap quilt I made this summer. This is sort of a "controlled scrap quilt", I think :o)
So easy to make, but I just love the way it looks :o) And this I'm keeping, and I look forward to get to use it!It's not easy to see the true colors in this picture, since it's late at night, and the light in my sewing room mess the colors a bit. When I'm finished piecing it, I will take a photo outside, and then the colors will show better. Many of you already know these fabrics, I guess, so you have an idea :o)
I started collecting those fabrics when I made "Festfin frøken" back in November last year, and got the last piece I needed on Saturday :o) Lucky me, found the fabrics I needed at Quiltegården, Solfrids quiltestove and the last one at Polar Quilt. Yay!

It's been a rainy day (again....) today, and I've pretty much spend the whole day sewing. It's been a while since I've spend a whole day sewing, but it feels great, even if my back and my neck is almost killing me... But it's worth it!
Cannot wait to continue with it, and hope to find some time for a little sewing tomorrow too.

Good night, sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite ;o)

Laila

Some sewing again

There haven't been much progress in my sewing room lately, but I have been working on the blocks for the "A Christmas wish" BOM by Gail Pan. I've finished three of the blocks, and started on the fourth one. The last part of the BOM is now released, and I love the wallhanging. I'm a fan of meaningful words and sayings, and I'm going to keep this one to my self:o)Tonight I surfed the internet, and a lot of blogs, looking for some inspiration. I found Bonnie's pattern "Star Struck", and I just love this one. I've looked at it before, but never got to try it before now. So yes, I guess I have started another project again ;o) But I think I'll be sewing on this one only now and then, between the other projects I'm working on. It's nice to cut some extra pieces while your working on other projects, and suddenly you've got enough pieces for a whole qult. I have several boxes for different sizes, ment for this, and there is some quilts to come from them, some day ;o) I don't throw away pieces I know I can use, and when I organize it like this, I'm able to find them and use them. If I crash the little pieces in a big bin, I don't find what I'm looking for, and I'll never use them, and that's too bad.


Hope you are enjoying your weekend, and doing what you like and what makes you happy.

A new project for Christmas :o)

I've got one wallhanging for Christmas, it only needs the binding... so I figured...I need one more:o) Just couldn't help it, when I saw the last block on Gail Pan's BOM today. I downloaded the patterns, and started prepping all the blocks today after work. Cut all the nine blocks and traced the pattern for the stitchery. It didn't take long! I'm almost done with one now, before I head to bed :o)
It's just so cute!!! Don't you agree? I hope the rest of the pattern will be released soon :o)
Check it out : Gail Pan designs
Would be so fun to take to the show and tell when Gail and Leanne are visiting Trondheim. I'm so looking forward to the class their teaching at Quiltegården soon :o) I'm soooo happy I'm participating one of their classes :o) I know there are a lot of you quilting gals out there, who is making this BOM, and I look forward to see how they all turn out. It's fun to see how different we do things, even with the same pattern to go :o)
I'm heading to bed, and I hope to work more on the blocks tomorrow. Wish you all a Happy night :o)
Laila

Goals for OPAM September

Haven't been so busy in my sewing room lately, but I got to start on a new project :o)
I went to my quilt guild's meeting earlier this week, and I bought Gail Pan's new book " Baskets in bloom". It's a great book, with a lot of beautiful work with stitcheries and appliques. I did fall in love with a little wallhanging called " Little Basket Blue". The original is stitched with light blue variengated dmc thread, but I decided to use my favourite colors, purple... :o)
Finished size is 9" by 11", and it's going to be hung on the wall with a frame in wood.
It's lovely, isn't it?

I forgot to report my goals for the OPAM this month, and I have two goals. The one is the stitchery above, and the second is the wallhanging I started some time ago, a stitchery project by Cinderberry stitches:

Today I finished cutting all the pieces for the next charity quilt. I got to pick up some more fabrics from Sølvi at the quilt guilt meeting, and my mom is going to piece it togheter. This is the pile of pieces:
Lots of different fabrics, but I think it will be a great quilt :o) I forgot to take a picture of the baby quilt she made, but I know it's on it's way to a little baby girl soon :o)
Guess Sølvi will have photos of the care quilts as they are delivered to her at the care quilt blog "Tepper til St. Olav".

I am going to work some more on my purple quilt today, and hopefully I get to finish it this month, but I don't wanna rush it. I am not a speed piecer all the time, but as long there is progress - it will be finished ;o)


Enjoy your Sunday,
Laila

OPAM August and Giveaway

Just finished this little make up purse, and wanted to get it with my other finishes for the August OPAM :-) This is my fifth finish this month :-)
It's made from scrappy strips, and I pieced them together and quilted the purse tonight. I just love this little scrappy purses, and I'm going to make another in blue/brown, since I have a lot of scraps from the blue/brown double 4patch quilt.
I'm still waiting for my lap top to return from service, and I'm still using my DS1's pc now and then for blogging and facebooking. That means less time with the pc, more time to sew. But I am not sewing... No energy to do much, so I'm happy I manage to do some sewing tonight. I hear a lot of people like me, no energy and sleepy all day. I guess it's the weather or something. It's raining and it's dark, the Autumn has come... But with a lot of candle lights, and some cozy evenings, I guess it's not so bad after all :-)

Pop over at LeKa's place, she's having a great giveaway :-) This is one the things she is giving away:
Sooo cute!!!

Wish you all a great week,
Laila

WANTED!!!

I'm still without my pc, but sweetie DS1 lets me borrow his for some blogging :o) It's the second time my laptop gets a black out, and I got it in December! Must be my bad luck...

I have been lurking around the blogs I usually follow, using my phone, but I'm not able to leave a comment, sorry!

It's been a busy week, and I am so glad it's finally weekend! Hope to do some sewing this weekend, haven't been doing much of that at all since last weekend.
Last weekend I started cutting my lovely purple fabrics, have been saving them for a project I am making for my own. I want a quilt on my sofa! I don't keep so much of the things I make, and I decided it's about time, don't you think?
But I have a problem, I don't have enough of the fabrics I want to use, so I need some help!
Do any of you keep any of these fabrics in your stash, and would like to let me buy it or trade in other fabrics?I would like to continue with these, but if I don't get any more of them, I have to reorganize the whole quilt. It's just a easy quilt with these and a few others. But I love them so much!
The darkest one is a Lecien fabric, and the other three are from Quiltgate. None of the shops here in Norway offers these anymore, sold out :-(
I would really, really love to get some more of it, and would be so happy if anyone can help me.

Wish you all a great weekend, and thanks so much for all the nice comments on my blogposts :o)
Laila

Another finish :o)

I digged into my UFO box today, and figured out I should finish these potholders. Only thing missing on them, was the heart... so it was no hard work :o) But anyway it's fun to have another finish! This is also a pattern by AnnAKa, and was published in Quiltemagasinet, a Scandinavian quilt magazine.The white and light brown fabrics I bought several years ago, and the fabric the heart is made of is not that old, but it's fun to be using some of the old ones too :o) I like these fabrics, and think they are great for kitchen stuff :o)
Back to the sewing room :o)

Another purse finished :o)

Today I finally got to do some sewing, and I finished another purse from the pattern called "Gla'veska" by AnnAKa. So that means another finish for the OPAM :o)I really hope the recipient is going to be happy about it. She liked the fabrics I got for it, so I think she will :o)

Have been struggling with my migraine again for some days, and I was so happy when it finally went away this afternoon. Yay! Finally some sewing again :o)
Tomorrow I hope to do some more work in my sewing room, and got a few other projects waiting for me to get finished ;o) I will get a couple of UFO's out of their boxes, I think...
I'm also working on a purple/white quilt (yes, a new one...), and I hope to show you some pics of the progress when I get some further progress.

Long time, no see...

It's been so long between my blog posts, and one of the reasons is that my two youngest boys are using my laptop. There has been so many rainy days between a few sunny ones, so they've spend a lot of time playing with friends online...

I don't mind some rainy days, that means sewing time for me :o) With no bad feelings about it either ;o)
I am trying to finish stuff I've already started, but I also started a new project. I just had to play with some of the fabrics Sølvi gave me to take home, when I was at her place earlier this summer. It's fabrics for the charity quilts. I started cutting some pieces late Sunday, and yesterday and today I finished piecing some of it. It's not a big quilt, but it's a pretty happy one :o) Look forward to quilting it. I need a fabric for the border(s) too, and I think I have something in my stash that will fit.


Tomorrow I am heading down to Quiltegården to buy a new cutting mat. I really destroyed mine, when I was having my laptop on top of it the other day, and the laptop gets quite hot, so the cutting mat looks like it's got waves....:o( Take my tip: Do NOT keep your laptop on your cutting mat!
Whish you all a creative day :o)

Two finishes for the OPAM :o)

I have been working on the scrap quilt I started last month, and today I finished it :o) Whohoo!
It's the second quilt I finish completely, so I'm pretty satisfied whit that:o) I've made several tops waiting for wadding and binding, and now I really want to finish some more of them.
The quilt measures 48" x 60" (122cm x 152cm). A perfect quilt for a little girl?


I also finished a project I started a long time ago, so I guess it's right to call it an UFO? The only thing that was left to finish on this table runner was the binding... and that was already cut and pieced to fit around the edges of it... I guess I just forgot about it, till a friend of my mom came to visit me, and wondered if I had a table runner in purple for her :o)
So now I just have to deliver it at her place this weekend:o)


Hmmm... wonder what next to do... ;o)
Wish you all a wonderful and creative weekend,

Some quilting, my goal for OPAM and an award

The day after I visited Sølvi, I got to finish quilting one of the projects I brought home from her. Just the binding is left to finish now:o) I'm not showing any photos here, I think I'll leave that to Sølvi, she updates the blog for these charity quilts when they are finished ;o) So now I have two of these quilts ready for binding. Hope to start with that job soon.

We have been away from Wednesday to Saturday, at my Hubby's parents place, and I didn't spend so much time sewing. We had fun fishing, and we caught some too:o) We did fish two days on a row, and caught ten small ones we had for late supper the second day. MMMM...Jummy!(Forgot to take a photo...) We also visited some friends of us at their Summer place while we where there. So I got to hand over the table runner to the reciepient:o)
She liked so much! So now I only have to finish her pillows with the same design too :o)

I spend a lot of time during the first week of our vacation sewing, and I started a scrap quilt I got to start the quilting on, yesterday. I finished the quilting tonight, and tomorrow I will find some fabric for the binding. It's a lap quilt size, so it will will be perfect for a little girl I think.

This is the layout before I pieced it together.

And this is how it looks after quilting.
This project is my goal for the OPAM for August.

Today I had a lovely lady for a visit at my place. May Britt is such a nice lady, and it was so great to have a chat with her about our common passion Quilting & Patchwork :o) And it was so nice to meet her in person!
We agreed on some ideas for storing our beautiful fabrics ;o) As you may know, she is also reorganizing and making a new sewing room at her place :o)
Thanks for the visit May Britt :o) Have fun in your new sewing room :o)


While I was away on our trip, I received a lovely award from Lekaquilt :

Thank you so much! So nice of you :o)
I want to give this award to some of the blogs I visit the most, and find very cozy and special, and that is:
Lekaquilt :o), Hanne, May Britt, Darcie, Sølvi, Julie, Kviltstina og Elin.
Thanks for the inspiration :o)

I think I'll check up on those bedbugs, it's way behind bedtime...