Mooing with bags

For this week’s show and tell I have the 4 remaining Moo Point (a cow’s opinion; doesn’t matter; it’s moo) quilts from this post. The fist one was finished last week for my 200th post giveaway (which is open until May 9th).
"Moo Point No2""Moo Point No3""Moo Point No 4""Moo Point No5"They are all made from a fabulous old (vintage??) green table cloth. Green is a colour I don’t use much, so I’m trying working it into my palette.


I also finished 3 more shopping bags and have thus finished my pledged dozen plus two more.

Most of them are gone by now, but I have a few left for myself. I will never, ever prepare that many (28; yep – it’s crazy and boooring) of anything again! It’s quite discouraging to know that you still have just as many left to finish when you have worked your way through the mother load of shopping bags.

I also finished the “Name quilt: Markus” for a baby boy and “Swan Lake” for the Monthly Design Challenge over at Finki’s this week.

Now I will link this up to show & tell at Amylou’s and Blue Cricket Design's, pop over and have a look at all the wonderful finishes of the week.

Why, Oh Why

Why, oh why did I use a tear-away stabilizer to do zigzag appliqué on my Family Life quilt????
Although the back would make a great piece of art with the white jagged lines, that’s not really what I was going for here. I love the look and texture though, and just might explore this unforeseen and yet interesting idea further at some point.

Would you pick all the paper pieces out or just leave them in? Will they dissolve if I wash the finished quilt before shipping it off to its destination? Will they still make my appliqué seams stiff as cardboard a century from now when the quilt is stored away at the attic or proudly displayed at some high ranked museum (it could go either way; one way more likely than the other though)??

Finish it! Pinned

Another step, however small it might be, on the way to finishing my Happy Houses is done. I have run out of steam on this one, but in the spirit of Finish It! I managed to squeeze it into the rather packed schedule of this week.
I have attached the loops for hanging, and pinned the backings on. That’s all. The next step will be sewing them together; I should manage to do that during the next week.

I’m trying to move forward with a couple of projects where I’m on a deadline, but for some reason I don’t feel inspired by them right now. I have seen how the ideas turned out, so I have lost the required interest to finish them. It doesn’t really help that I have dozens of new ideas waiting, just crying to be made. How do you stay focused when inspiration cannot be found anywhere even in bright daylight and with all the halogen lights on?


I took an advanced Zumba class today as I missed out on Monday’s beginner’s class. Wow, that was hard, but I made it through, smiling like a big old clown. I spent the morning paying bills, doing boring paperwork and my taxes, so it was good getting the blood pump going. The taxes are not much work anymore, pretty much everything is on the form already, but it feels good to finish them nevertheless.

Hopefully I’ll sleep like an exhausted 3-year-old tonight and be ready for a more productive day tomorrow.

Swan Lake

This month’s theme at The Monthly Design Challenge over at Finki’s is "music and dance". Music and dance – how could I not make a little Swan Lake quilt?

I have used a crisp white damask fabric for the background and the swan is free motion stitched by machine.

Swan Lake is so exquisite; perfect music combined with perfect dance. I love everything about it including the white tutus, and the Pas de Quatre gives me goose bumps every time. Growing up watching ballet on TV, I was very surprised by all the noise the first time I watched one in real life. On TV you never hear all the sounds, only the music. Of course it’s noisy; people are running and jumping and doing amazing moves, and yet they are so incredible graceful and have such an amazing control. I’m in awe!

Being a cranky old woman, I now prefer enjoying ballet by myself. It might have something to do with a couple of experiences – my brother in law slept through big parts of the Swan Lake, and husband still tell tales of the one time he accompanied me to Giselle. We had just met and he was still in a wooing mode. How was I to know it was a one time only deal…

Name quilt: Markus

I had a wonderful weekend with lots of time for working on a few projects. Among the finished ones is the first name quilt made with letters from my Make a letter tutorial. This is for the little guy who I learned would be named Markus the same day as I finished these letters.-)
I made the quilted background first using a solid light blue fabric and my favourite IKEA fleece as batting. I love how 3D and firm quilted projects get using the fleece, and it stitches wonderfully. The quilt is bound as regular, and the letters and crown are free motion stitched to the finished background; only one pin needed as the felt clings very nicely to fabric. I skipped the last part of the tutorial (appliquéing the letters onto light felt).
The quilt measures approx 6”*23 ¾”.

Now, I hope they won’t change their minds about that name…

Quilting the Cheese

This morning I went ahead and started quilting my freaky Lutradur portrait from this post.

I free motion stitched around all the details and added texture to my hair. It’s hard to quilt curly hair without looking like Medusa and to stitch a shadow on your double chin without looking like a beard, but all in all the stitching made the portrait come alive. I have to unstitch some stitches around the nose that does not look quite right, but I’m letting them rest until tomorrow. It was so much fun quilting this thing!
The grey stripes over and under the picture says SAYING CHEESE SAYING CHEESE SAYING CHEESE…, I guess the name of this piece is a given.

My sister is turning 50 soon, so I’m thinking of making her a smaller portrait for her birthday (of her obviously, not me). I would also love to make a new one of my daughter and of course my adorable-soon-to-be-3-year-old grandson. Well, I’ll see if my attention lasts that long or if I’m off to new adventures when I’m done with this.

This will probably be the last progress report as we have been asked to not post pictures of the finished projects until the end of the project in the end of June. If you haven’t already signed up for Bumble Beans’ Say Cheese Challenge, have a look at all the creativity going on at the challenge blog.

200th post giveaway

I cannot believe it - 200 posts! Who knew I would have so much to say and share and show when I started this blog.-)

To celebrate this tremendous achievement, I’m having a giveaway of these lovely items – one winner gets all:

A “Moo Point” quilt from this post, inspired by a line from the TV show Friends; "It’s a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo!", and especially made for this joyous occasion by yours truly

A traditional Norwegian fabric panel (we don’t dress or walk around like that you know)

A piece of traditional woven Norwegian fabric (looks like a quilt pattern, doesn’t it)
1m of each skein from my fluffy and bumpy yarn collection which I used for these quilts
Different fibres and papers and felt used for these and this

To enter the giveaway you’ll do the following:
One entry: leave a comment to this post

Second entry: become (or be) a follower to this blog and leave another comment telling me so.

Third entry: blog about the giveaway and leave another comment telling me so.

If you’re a No-reply blogger, make sure you leave your email address in your comment so I have a way of contacting you!

The giveaway will close on the evening (Norwegian time) of Sunday May 9th and the lucky winner drawn on the 10th.

Good luck to you all!

The Table Cloth Challenge is open for another week, so there’s still time to go digging through those drawers or hit the thrift shops and join in on the fun! You can see some of my projects here.

I will link this up to Amylou’s Sew & tell and The Shabby Nest.

Sorry, the drawing is now closed.

Finish It! Appliqué

Another step on the way to finish the Happy House project from my Treasure Box is checked off the list. I have chosen to finish each block separately with loops for hanging. I’ll do them pillow case style with no binding. Thanks for all your suggestions, they were really helpful!
I have free motion appliquéd the motives with batting on the back, and here they are ready for the next step – cutting backings and sewing them together.
For the loops I have chosen a semi transparent ribbon. With all the ribbons available I still had a difficult time finding one with the right colour, with a suitable width and that would not be chunky. I’ll use the same method and ribbons for the Moo Points too. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish off all those little quilts in no time.


For those of you who are new to Zumba: it is a dance based fitness program. There are steps from salsa, samba, flamenco and lots of other fun moves to great music. Although it’s fast (really fast) it’s very gentle on your joints and gets your heart pumping like there’s no tomorrow. You all know how much I love my water aerobics class. Well, this is even better!


Over to something totally unrelated: Carla from Feathered Fibres has done a profile on me; pop over and have a look.


This is my 199th post; I have been holding back so that I have a chance of getting the giveaway items together for the 200th post on Friday. I’ll see you all back here then.-)

Big & Zumbaing

Yohoo, I made it to my first Zumba class today after I missed the last one by 12 hours. I did a bit of research and found that the only place that has Zumba classes that fits my schedule is the sports centre at the University. After a quick phone call I found the perfect class for me, a ½ hour technique class. I’ll admit it; I did a lot of debating with myself whether I should go or not up until the minute I left the house. The idea of showing up in a class with a bunch of hot, young students half my age and half my size, when the only thing hot about me is upcoming hot flashes, well you get the picture.

I really wanted to try Zumba though, so I decided that it would either be a horrible experience with a fun story, or I would find a new way of exercising. I’m so glad I went; I loved it! I even stayed for the next class and made it through the whole thing! I have signed up for a 1 year membership at the gym and cannot wait until next week. I’ll probably not be able to walk tomorrow, but it’s still a great day in my book.


My soft and recycled circle project from this post is finally finished.
I spent some happy hours on the couch Saturday night adding a little bling. I haven’t done much beading, but it was fun, just adding one bead after the other. They made a lot of difference to the finished project, but I’m not sure they photograph very well. Grandson thought it was a perfect parking space for his cars, but I think I’d rather put it somewhere else…

Say Cheese, Freaky First attempt and a Winner

For my first go at the self portrait challenge over at Bumble Beans, I have printed out this picture (the only half decent picture I have of myself) onto Lutradur using soft greys.
The picture was a bit too light to see the lines properly, so while I do recognize my face, it’s not exactly accurate. I used fabric crayons to colour a few parts of the picture; the mouth being one of them in case you didn’t notice. With a whitish background, I look quite scary.-)
Changing the background to a greenish patterned linen fabric and adding white and some colourful scraps behind the picture makes all the difference.
Still a bit scary, but it’s for fun, right? Now I’ll have to figure out how to quilt this thing; I do have to add some dept into my face for sure or I’ll look like a colourful pancake. Or I just might have another go with a darker picture on which I actually can see my facial features…

And now to the winner of the Heavenly Angel pattern Giveaway.
Random.org has done its magic and

Mary on Lake Pulaski is the winner of the English pattern and
Tone is the winner of the Norwegian pattern.

Congratulations to you both; and to the rest of you – thanks for playing along!

Sew In No 3

Although I did not do much sewing during Friday Night Sew In yesterday, the creative juices got flowing around here, and I got started on a few projects that have been nagging me.

Moo point
Some lines from TV shows and movies and songs get stuck in my mind and I want to make them into quilts. This one is inspired by a line from the TV show Friends and goes something like this: It’s a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo!I have prepared 5 small quilts with this cow and a green table cloth background. I have printed text onto Lutradur, and will attach it when the quilting is done. One of the moo points will be part of my upcoming 200th post giveaway and need to be finished, and soon as this is the 196th post...

I’m falling even more in love with the old table cloths; they do, amongst other things, make great backgrounds for appliqué. You can see more of my experiments with cloths here. If you haven’t already signed up for the Table Cloth Challenge, you can read more about it here. MrLinky will be open until the end of the month, so there is still plenty of time to join in on the fun.


Letters
I also prepared letters for 3 little gifts. I’ve got 2 little boy’s names (one being Markus from this post) and a Prince (just missing an E) for a little boy yet to be born and named. I’ll attach them to small quilted backgrounds and add a crown or a car on top. You’ll find my tutorial for making these letters here.

So, did you have a creative week?

Friends, far and away

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: one of the best things about blogging is meeting new and wonderful friends from all over the world. Reading their blogs and communicating through comments and emails can brighten up any day, and some times you even get a tactile token of kindness in your mailbox, like I did this week.

My lovely friend Corrine from dosfishes sent me my very first mail art for my birthday. She is an amazing mixed media artist who creates stunning art every day. Yep, every day!

Look at this envelope (that would be the mail art)!
It was filled with artwork (which is now on my wall)
and vintage kimono silk and silk fabrics and ribbon
and linen cloth
and linen calendar

and any hoarder’s dream card.-)

Thank you so much, Corrine; I'm still grinning like a mad woman!!!

I haven’t done any quilting this week; in fact I haven’t even unpacked my sewing machine since my sewing group last Wednesday. Instead I have been enjoying the company of these two

Have a lovely Friday.-)