Two baskets

The second crocheted basket is also living at my daughter’s house.

Even though I love the solid-ish effect of using two strands of the same yarn, I had to try two shades of pink together.

I had my doubts about the result, my daughter did not.

After it was finished, I decided to add one more row of light pink to tie the mix together.

It looks huge from this angle, but it’s not.

I had a lovely weekend spending a lot of non-scheduled time with my daughter and grandsons; cuddling, feeding and burping (baby), puzzling, painting and eating pancakes (big brother), talking, laughing and playing DrawSomething (daughter) and going for a Sunday stroll (all of the above). Resting is not all bad:)

Sew In # 12

I have been a bit bored the last few days and my fingers have been itching to do something other than rest. Resting is boring. It’s safe to say I have been highly motivated to get back to my machine and just to make sure I would do so I signed up for Friday Night Sew In. It’s not like I cannot do anything with a hand and a half, you never know what you can do until you actually try, and after all, the Playing with yarn series were born during a left-hand-timeout.
 
I had a plan of stitching buttons onto a base with the machine, but that did not work out at all, so I just grabbed this and that and moved on. It’s been too long since I just played with bits and pieces, and I enjoyed myself very much indeed.

Starting with a finished base leftover from the book project, I layered strips of tulle, felt circles, strings of orange linen and buttons from a friend under a layer of pink tulle. Stitching between and around the buttons was quite exciting as they moved this way and that all the time, but in the end everything were secured within the stitching lines.

I was using a huge cone of thread which wouldn’t fit into my thread-stand-jug, so made another thread stand/guide thing by taping a curtain hook onto the top of a big soda bottle. Worked like a charm; the thread came smoothly off the cone without any hiccups.

The next step was adding yarn; green and blue strings meandering this way and that between the buttons.

At this time husband came home with dinner (I love when that happens), so I called it the day. Just before I went to bed I looked at it and thought it needed something more, so I added little blurbs of yellow and pink acrylic paint on top of the buttons.

It looks like a field of flowers, doesn’t it, which happens to be the theme for The Sketchbook Challenge this month. Maybe I hit two birds with one stone with this little exercise.

In the morning light I could see that it was still missing a little something so I added a few lines to the flowers with a black marker.

Finally, tiny white paint blobs in the middle of the flowers

and some white splashes here and there for extra dept.

I love the raw edges and all the haphazardly stitching on the back. I think it’s done now.

Have a wonderful weekend; I’ll be getting my share of baby & big brother cuddles:)

The quilt that wouldn't die

We spent last weekend at the cabin. The weather was horrible, windy and wet, but inside it was all lovely and warm and cuddly, that is after husband had burned up a few bags of wood. Grandson was racing around on his little motorcycle dressed in a hat, my scarf as he thought the one I had just knitted for him was itching, homemade knitted wool pants and warm shoes. Husband bought that bike for him when he was 2 and he was petrified of this thing that moved by itself and made lots of noise. Now he loves it, and doesn’t mind that it’s a size or two too small.

I was putting away the crib that has been in my bedroom since he was a baby, and found the quilt that has been serving as an extra mattress in the crib, “Crop circles – an UFO has landed” (2004) AKA The quilt that wouldn’t die.

It started out in my early quilting days with a bunch of light charm squares and a wish to push my colour preferences. This was way before digital cameras and blogging, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the process, but the images are still fresh in my mind. I paired the squares up with some light greens and made them into shoofly blocks. Too sweet, they made my teeth hurt. What if I add dark green sashing? Yuck.

How about a recycled curtain border? Hmmm, but I do love that curtain fabric!

What about appliquéing free form cut leaves? Well? Really? And flowers? Still too blah.

I finally put it away (again) and there I found it when I was finishing up quilting some old ufos to keep at the cabin.

What to do, what to do. What if I paint on it? Silk paint to the rescue; giant big bright circles, fleece backing, a little wonky quilting and done!

Looking at it now, I kind of wish I had put more effort into finishing it because it could have been a nice quilt. Except for the serving-as-mattress-creases I actually like it – and it’s all because of the bright and lovely paint.

Lesson learned – don’t quit on a quilt to soon.

Do you finish those quilts that just won’t die, or do you put them out of their misery?

Sleeps with wool

Just as I finished off another crocheted basket I felt a twang of pain and woops, I have tendinitis. I cannot say that I don’t understand why because I do; my left arm is a weak spot and I haven’t been taking good care of it lately. Now I’m on a strict no-use-of-left-hand-diet for a week or two; no big deal. One day I’ll create an ode to my left arm, I just need them both to do it.

Instead of thinking about all the things I can’t do and how hard it has been to get back into the studio in my post-crazy-book-work-schedule-exhaustion-mode anyway, I will rather share some things I have been working on this winter and maybe take a few trips down memory lane.

I spent big parts of 2011 fighting off throat infections, sinus infections, bronchitis, strep infections, colds; if it was passing by, my immune system would roll out the red carpet and invite it to stay for as long as it pleased. It was not a good thing for any year and especially not the year of writing a book. Well, it all changed mid December and the recipe was simple: lots of vitamin C whenever there was a tickle – and a 24/7 wool wearing regime. Thanks to my parents’ extensive travelling I have an around-the-world scarves collection which came in handy as one of them (a cashmere/silk blend) has kept me warm at night and these alpaca neck warmers/cowls have been the go to accessory during daytime.

Single ones

and double ones,

all knitted in different simple knit/purl patterns.

The alpaca yarn came on a 1,4kg giant spool, and will last forever. That’s fine as it’s fabulous to work with and even more fabulous to wear. I had to stop at 4 because how many of these in the same colour do a woman need.

And in case you wonder about the heading – think Dances with wolves (yup, I used to be a bit of a Kevin Costner fan).

Preview

My book, “Gledesspredere – frittgående applikasjoner” (with the danger of getting lost in translation: "Rays of sunshine – free ranged appliqué") was presented at the publisher Cappelen Damm’s craft club website yesterday.

The book will physically be at the publisher’s at March 28th and shipped to me soon after that. It has 50 little quilts and a gallery of projects made in different materials. I had a blast stitching, painting, gluing and playing with the shapes, and could probably fill another book with just these.

You can expect a giveaway – and pictures. I’m waiting for the high resolution photos; the first time my work is professionally photographed I’ll most certainly use them rather than my own ill lit snapshots taken in a hurry before I dropped the quilts off back in December:)

If you can’t wait, why don’t you pop over and have a look here and here; even my best quilting buddies haven’t seen the quilts yet...

One basket

I was so happy with this first crocheted basket that the needle won’t be retired any time soon. It is a slow sport, I’d say, taking many evenings to finish one basket using 2 strands of (Mandarin Petit) cotton yarn and a 4mm needle.

It can be used at full height

or folded down to more of a bowl shape

It has bulls’ eye bottom

and a wonky little finishing bump.

It’s useful because it will hold a small collection of cars – and can be tossed into the washer or dryer if dirty.

I wasn’t quite sure it would fit daughter’s taste with all the different colours, but she loves it and wants many more. I have to say I love this appreciating-everything-handmade-trend we have going and hope it will last for many, many years. Do you have the same trend where you live? Anyway, as a handmade-obsessive I love it and I’m a big time supplier of handmade goodies to my family.

More baskets to follow.

Random act

I love little random acts of goodness and have been so lucky to be in both the giving and receiving end of a few. This time one arrived in a surprise package from Brenda of Scraps and Strings; lovely fabric pieces in delicious colours – all the way from a recycled 70ies tablecloth to Brenda’s own hand dyed fabrics,

the luscious Nanna,

a beautiful printed linen pocket

and my very first selvage item, a handy needle book.

Thank you so much, Brenda, I can’t wait to get back to sewing! Brenda is a master of strings and has set up the String Thing Along blog which I did sign up for a while ago. Pop over and have a look at her blog and the string blog; you’ll want to grab your scrap bin and make something colourful and fun for sure!

I’m still trying to catch my breath, catch up on sleep, catch up on laundry, well, catch up on everything really. Last week I folded, glued and packed what seemed like a gazillion patterns for retail. I promised a couple of the local quilt shops they could sell some of my patterns more than a year ago and finally got around to doing the printing, photos and zipper bags. What I could have done was to only pack up the number of patterns required and leave the rest for whenever (if ever) I needed them. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I need to finish things Right Now. My brain won’t let me rest until it’s done. I assume that’s why I’m out of breath, clean underwear and sleep deprived…

Christening quilt in progress

I haven’t been hanging around much in my sewing room lately for obvious reasons, but one quilt is in progress, and almost right on schedule.
I have been planning a family quilt for the new baby for a while, and asked our family to draw themselves. Collecting the portraits has not been such an easy task as you would think. Unless you ask children, drawing ourselves it not something we usually do, is it, and I’m not talking about anything fancy, a simple line drawing, or a pair of glasses on the simple face shape I sent out with the letters would be perfect.

Anyhow, the background is almost finished. 2 ½” wide fabric strips (leftover from mother’s quilt) pieced together and with a 6” wide space with room for name and birth date;

straight line quilting in progress with Sulky thread. I love how the colour variations in the thread make the top sing.

I was working with the portraits yesterday, trying to get them sort of even sized and printed onto fabric. I was smiling all the time because the drawings are so wonderful. A few have been drawn by others, but most of my loved ones' faces are right here on my computer. Everything looked good; the fabric printouts mostly successful, so I packed them up to take to my sewing group last night.

Sewing with my friends is always enjoyable. Fusible on - check; faces cut out - check; fused onto red felt - check; appliquéd with a borrowed appliqué foot and thread that broke all the time even though I rethreaded the machine and changed the needle twice thank you very much - check; threads secured and cut off – check; finished - check; most of them looking good - check.

When I came home I spread them out on the background; waiting for that oh, how cool-moment. Hang on a minute. They are too big. Do not look good. 2 ok, 18 need to be redone. Oh c…!

So this morning I am back on my computer, resizing 18 pictures, adding a few lines to those that came out almost invisible. I am almost ready to start printing again, crossing my fingers that I won’t run out of printer fabric. Or fusible. Or red felt. Or patience. It looks like the christening will be moved 4 weeks so I will have plenty of time to do it all over again. Small mercies and all that.

Have a wonderful Thursday! I have some drawing to do – like my own portrait for the quilt…

Brag Day

Sure, I can do zippers.

Don’t ask how many times I had to sew this one on, but daughter’s new makeup bag is already put to good use.

The gorgeous pink flowery fabric is from a tiny thrifted tablecloth.

And while on the subject of bragging, we’ve got this little fellow. Daughter has a photographer friend who took this portrait last week (posted with her and his permission).

I love how those little baby faces change every minute.

Being grandma of one fantastic boy is amazing; two is no less than a miracle.