Funky Fowl Pattern winners

Random.org has done its magic and

frantastic is the winner of the English pattern and
susi is the winner of the Norwegian pattern.

Congratulations to both!

To the rest of you – thanks for playing along!

Seeing Circles

I signed up for the Monthly Design Challenge over at Finki’s a few weeks ago, and this month’s theme is Seeing circles.

As my soft and thrifty Seeing circles project made from grandma squares still needs more work, I have made another piece: “Ode to a turkey neck”
Loosing weight is all good, but my former taut and wrinkle free spare chin is slowly growing into something soft and with a touch of flabby. The chances of me running into one of the characters from Ally McBeal are rather small, so I decided to pay tribute to my chin myself. Hey – if you cannot beat it, join it, right?

I even cut a big chunk out of my favourite circle fabric which I had saved for something special. I guess this was special enough. Are you seeing circles yet?


I also finished the two Big & Strong quilts from last week’s Friday Night Sew In: Big & Strong, Swimsuit Edition I and II.

Now I’ll add this to Amylouwho’s Sew & tell, pop over and get inspired.

Funky Fowl pattern Giveaway

I will celebrate each pattern that I finish writing or translating with a pattern giveaway. These giveaways will be for my regular readers only. You don’t have to be a follower, if I’m on your blog roll that’s ok.

The patterns are pdf-patterns and will be sent by email, so leave your email address in your comment.

The first one up is the Funky Fowl patterns which are up on my pattern pages as of today, ready to order. You’ll find the buttons in my sidebar, “Mrs Moen Patterns” and “Mrs Moen Mønstre”.

I’ll give two copies away – one pattern in English and one in Norwegian.

To enter, leave a comment on

this link for the English version or

this link for the Norwegian version.

I’ll draw the winners on Saturday.

Good luck to you all!

Sorry, the drawing is now closed!

Off the Couch

I’m getting a bit bored here, coughing on my couch. Except for Friday Night Sew In I have not spent much time by my machine. Still, some things are moving along nicely:

My Big Bag of Binding has got a new place to live, and is now the Big Box of Binding. Daughter wished for the Marimekko dishware for grandson for Christmas promising me the box if I got it for him. She sure knows how to work me:-)

My new sewing machine does not have an upright spool holder, so Deelybob has been resting. Instead I found my favourite jug in the cupboard. The spout is not good for pouring, so it does not get much use. It’s glass, so it’s sturdy. Hey – it’s the perfect cone holder; I put it behind the machine, and it works like a charm.

I have been putting together unlikely fabric combinations; loving the result and dreading to start quilting it. Does that ever happen to you – you like the top so much that you are afraid to ruin it by quilting?

Adding hand stitching to my Seeing Circles project; it was missing something.

I have started testing the free motion capabilities of the new machine on my little Japanese birdies. No ear piercing sounds; no problems; no worries; all good.

Finally, spending so much time on the couch I have (almost) finished the Funky Fowl and Kule Fugler patterns, and am making progress on the English version of Flower Bouquet. My plan was to sew another sample so I could get better pictures, but that’s not going to happen soon, so I’ll go with what I already have.

Now, I need to get out of the house already…

Same World, Same Heart

Of all the comments on my OWOH giveaway post, one stood out. I decided that if she did not win the penguin quilt, I would make another one for her.

“Penguins in Snowstorm II”
This quilt goes to Elsie who wrote this amazing poem in her comment:

"We are standing in the cold and blowing snow,

And we three are the Penguins in Snowstorm, now I know!

We're frozen in place,

How fun and quite cute,

What a cool day,

In snowdrifts we play!

Hope I win, this treasured moment in time!"


Now I’ll send her the link to this post:-)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Seven Secrets

I have been so lucky to be nominated for awards by some of my readers. Thank you guys, I’m honoured! Now, picking who to pass them on to seems impossible, but I can still share some information about myself. I understand that’s an important part of the award system too. (a "Dance in the rain" creature gone bad and refusing to get off the paper)

1 Being kind to others is a part of my everyday life, not a week’s project.

2 Dumb and Dumber is the funniest movie I have seen. I laughed so much that I embarrassed husband.

3 I might not have iron fists in silk gloves, but stainless steel fists (what can I say; I have always liked stainless steel) in quilting gloves works too.

4 I believe I can move mountains.

5 I used to be a finance whizz and a brilliant business woman. I wish I had really appreciated my good health when I still had it.

6 The most thought provoking book I have read is Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. You’ll never look at an ad or a sales clerk the same way again.

7 I love my family more than anything; even more when I get some much needed alone time.

Sew In No 1

I did get a bit of work done on my first Friday Night Sew In ever. I plugged the new sewing machine and rechargeable Ottlite daylight lamp in at our dining room table and took both for a test drive. No problems to report so far. The machine is missing some features like the possibility to adjust the pressure on the foot, but nothing I cannot live with in a spare machine.

Here are the things I worked on:

I put the binding on the “Nothing to wear” quilt from my Treasure Box and Should have-s list.

The binding is basted to the back (like I always do) and still needs hand stitching. I’ll also add the freehand quilted text.

Two more Big & Strong quilts ready for cutting threads and finishing the binding. I have heard the phrase Swimsuit Edition so many times, so I made a couple of “Big & Strong Swimsuit Edition” quilts for friends of mine.

I also made another “Penguins in Snowstorm” quilt as a surprise.

The three pink & blue quilts were on my Would have-s list.

All bindings are from the Big Bag of Binding.

The orange flowers from my Treasure Box were appliquéd with various decorative (and some not so decorative) stitches on the new machine.

I finished the top, but cannot show it just yet.


I’m quite content with the progress; bug and all things considered.

"Crazy Roosters"

Without further ado I give you “Crazy Roosters”, the project from Mrs Moen Spring Mystery 2010.
Being of an adventurous nature, I was just one step ahead of the rest of the group. Imagine my shock when I proudly showed the blocks to husband and he could not see any creatures at all. What if no one else saw them either? Well, I think he might be renamed from “incredible patient husband” to “husband of no imagination” because the Mystery ladies did recognize the feathered little guys although none of them had figured it out before the big reveal.

I hope to have a little show & tell of finished Mystery projects here later, I have seen a few and they are looking gorgeous!

If you did not participate in the Mystery and would like to make the roosters, you still can. I was going to write a pattern, but due to a little coughing bug that has been knocking out our family members one by one the last week, time is a problem. What I can do is that I’ll let you into the Mystery Blog for a few bucks and you can follow the instructions there. Just leave a comment including your email address, and we’ll take it form there.

I want to thank all of you for crossing your fingers for me on Wednesday. I made it to the guild meeting lugging amongst other stuff the heart quilt. There were 3 prizes to be drawn and when it was time for the last prize I told the lady to pick me. And she did. That was fun!

I had no idea that they would be so happy getting rid of me, but I got a standing ovation when I said my goodbyes. The badges looked great though, decorating their quilter’s bosoms as they were clapping…

Now I’ll add this to Amylouwho’s Sew and tell; pop over and get inspired.

"Square One"

In my search for new challenges, experiments and growth as a quilter, I am back to where I started –“Square One”.
I was very attached to my maternal grandmother. She passed away when I was pregnant and daughter is named after her. Among the things I brought home from her house were some flannel sheets which were so typical her and that I loved. Some of them were a bit worn in the middle, so I cut them apart and pieced them back together leaving the worn parts on the sides. They were dyed in the washing machine and used on daughter’s bed for many years.

These sheets were some of the recycled material used in my first quilts. I found some of the squares (there is nothing square-like about them other than that they have four sides) the other day, and have been working with some of them. They are so incredible soft and have a lovely texture.

I added tulle from one of daughter’s favourite dresses, batting, a piece of an old duvet cover as backing, and stitched with pearl cotton leftovers from previous projects. I did not want to clean up the imperfect edges, so I added a bias binding which I attached a few mms outside the edges, folded and stitched to the back.
Being a somewhat restless soul, I have felt very grounded working on this piece. It has been a lovely trip down memory lane, and I’d like to stay there for a while.

Have a Heart

My Finish It! project, the heart block swap quilt, “Have a Heart” is finished and ready for Show & Tell at the guild meeting today. If I’m lucky, I’ll win one of 3 prizes in the drawing, so keep your fingers crossed.This will be my last guild meeting as the leader and member of the board, and I though it might be a nice touch to make a few badges for myself and some of the new and so far badge-less members.

I had seen some amazing brooches over at hen’s teeth and a brooch tutorial over at CraftyPod, but I decided to make my badges super simple, machine quilted and hand lettered.
As I often do, I got a bit carried away. I might have to start another guild just to get rid of all the badges...

You’ll find a tutorial here.

February Friday Night Sew In

I’ll be participating in February’s Friday Night Sew In over at Handmade by Heidi this Friday. So far there are 150 participants signed up and room for more.

I have not decided what I’ll be working on yet, but for now I’m leaning towards the Would have-s list rather than the Should have-s list. Maybe it’s time to unpack the new (and hopefully better) sewing machine and take it for a test drive.

Edvarda & Hildur, The Bold and The Bashful

The last sample for my Funky Fowl class and pattern is finally done. It is a wall hanging, ca 19” * 23”.
I’m not done with these birds though, as I have lots of fun colourful fabrics that would make any funky fowl proud.

Now I can get cracking at the pattern. I’ll post about it when it’s ready. This will not be a free pattern though.

And the OWOH Winners are

Wow, this has been quite a ride; more than 350 comments on my post, lots of new followers (welcome to all of you!) and lots of new blogs to read and enjoy. Thank you, Lisa, for setting this up!


I have used the Random Number Generator at Random.org to pick 3 winners:

The “One World One Heart” quilt goes to AlwaysInspired of Inspiring adventures of AlwaysInspired

The “Pink Princess” quilt goes to Fanatasy Whispers – Vania Cruz-Perez of Fanatasy Whispers – The Art of Vania Cruz-Perez

The “Penguins in Snowstorm” quilt goes to Twinkietinydog of Twinkietinydog


Congratulations!

Hmmm, wonder what I’ll make for next year’s crazy ride…

Ready, set, solve

The instructions for solving Mrs Moen Spring Mystery 2010 are posted here, so get your blocks from last week and put them together!

You need to have signed up for the Mystery and gone through the acquired steps in Blogger to log in.

The Mystery Blog will be open for two more weeks; then it will be closed. If you should have any questions after this, just send me an email or leave a comment here, and you’ll get access for a couple of more days.

Please let me know if you run into any problems or have any questions.

Have fun!

Sunny Side Up

The last inch of my inherited piece of bright orange linen is used up and daughter has got a new pillow. If she get sick of it (she probably will as she does not really like orange, just this pillow), I want it back!

It too was a Let it go – let it grow project that I posted about here. It’s made the same way as Sunshiny Pillow, but the quilted lines form a rectangle. I’m putting some of the pearl cotton embroidery floss from this post to good use.

I have been looking for more gorgeous linen like this, but have not had any luck yet.
Happy Valentines Day, Shrovetide (AKA Bun Sunday), and Mother's Day to all!

Mending a Broken Heart

3 of my most shocking life experiences happened within a 3 months period of time last year, and while life goes on and we with it, I’m slowly mending my broken heart.
The third sample from my Make A Heart tutorial, "Mending a Broken Heart", has been my Let it go, let it grow project for 8 days. It has been stitched, and stitched and stitched some more. I have absolutely loved working on it! I still have more mending to do though, so there will be more stitching in my future.

I have taken pictures of the progress, but the white tulle always seemed to take front stage with the colours as a backdrop. I finally figured out why; it’s the way the light hits it when it lays in the window sill. When I hung it on the wall, the colours look perfect.
Now I’ll add this to Amylou’s Sew & Tell, pop over and get inspired.

Anna & Birte, Gals with an Attitude

is the 4th sample for the Funky Fowl class and pattern.
It is a table runner done in my variation of pastel. I’m trying to push my boundaries regarding fabric, styles and values all the time, so pastel was on my list. It’s really interesting to see how these experiments turn out. It’s very spring like, isn’t it?


I’m falling a bit behind on my free motion quilting. The new sewing machine was not a good match. It has a special mechanism for sewing silk and other thin fabric, but this thingie snags the stitches on the back while free motion quilting. The project gets stuck in the plate, and the stitches breaks. Not so great for a quilter, and quite annoying! I’ll have to return the machine and choose another one so I finally can get the old one to its much needed service.

Heart Quilt quilted

Still on schedule, the Heart Quilt is quilted. It’s only vertical in-the-ditch-ish lines, but still it’s quilted. I used the in-the-ditch presser foot, but I had a little problem adjusting the needle position properly, so the lines are quite visible some places.


The fleece backing is folded to the front and pinned down, with mitred corners and all.

I am very pleased with the dark grey frame around the top. The fleece edge will stretch and move a bit under the walking foot, but that can be corrected with scissors. Did I tell how flexible and forgiving fleece is??

I do not like that the base of the fleece is much lighter than the nap though. It’s showing around the edges. Oh, well, we won’t notice after a week or two. The goal was to finish it by the February guild meeting, and so I will. Everyone that brings a finished heart block swap quilt will be in the drawing of 3 wonderful prizes. How I know? I attended my last board meeting Monday night. I have been looking forward to this 4th year on the board coming to an end, but I’ll miss it too. I have had a lot of fun, made some wonderful friends, learned a lot and got to know many guild members. Now it’s time to pass the torch to someone else…

Finished Hearts

I have finished two of the hearts I started for the Make A Heart tutorial a couple of weeks ago.

“Fragile Heart”This is the sample with the silver grey tulle which makes the colours a little toned down. The heart is made with 3 rounds of yarn, which I decided was enough.


“Heart as White as Snow”This is the sample with the red tulle. The colour was so vibrant that I used 5 rounds of yarn. If you have read the tutorial, you will remember that I had to remove lots stretched yarn from the not-so-flat-anymore background. Well, I ripped it off, and added new yarn.

I have added simple regular bindings to both these little quilts.

Dawn at Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles will be doing a heart post for Valentines, and has posted a link to my heart tutorial. Pop over and meet some of her amazing Subversive Stitchers.