Who knew

that this would become The Centre of my Universe. This piece of paper, the schedule of my gym, duly marked with oranges (the classes I love), greens (basic classes I have done) and yellows (classes I want to try at some point) is the basis for everything I do. I plan my meals, shopping, family time, even my quilting time around this schedule. Who knew; well, not me for sure.

I participated in a Zumba party at the gym on Sunday; 100 ladies (and 2 guys) in a huge hall, dancing for 1 hour and 35 minutes. No breaks, just dancing for an hour and a half. That’s how long I had to rest after grocery shopping on a good day and after my morning shower on a bad day a little over a year ago.

Heading into the Big & Strong program I had two goals: Getting my diabetes under control and being able to run around with grandson. I’ll finally be taking a diabetes class next month, but my blood sugar level is already going down, down, down and down. I’m thinking my weight is as well, but I’m not sure as I haven’t been on a scale since January.

And for the second goal – we are running like the wind. I’m not sure which one of us is the happier one, but I think it is him. And me.

Huhhhh??

The latest issue of Norsk Quilteblad, the Norwegian Quilters Association magazine, came out last week including pictures of Norwegian quilts at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Suddenly I understood a comment from a judge regarding my "1 of 10" quilt that it would have benefitted from blocking at the bottom.

Look what had happened to the perfectly straight-ish bottom of my quilt during shipment.I have been thinking about how this could happen. Any ideas? Has this happened to you? Has my quilt really been displayed like this?? How embarrassing.

There were also pictures of our International representative accepting my award on my behalf.

Black & white bundles

After cutting lengths of a dozen different yarns, I’m making bundles with one strand of each yarn loosely tied together.
The kits will be for 4 hours of drop-in classes so I have no idea how many students who will show up. Maybe there will be 4, maybe 40, so I’m preparing around 50. That’s a lot of ironing, cutting and itching.

Ok, moving on to the next colour family.

Task of the week, Week 40

This week I’ll be making some of the content of my crate of fuzzy, lumpy, smooth, and soft yarn into kits for a “Playing with yarn” quilting class.
I see lots of sneezing, vacuuming and joy of colour and texture in my future.

Growing a new project

I am in dire need of some relaxing hand sewing while snuggling in the sofa in the evenings. As hand sewing bindings apparently won’t be necessary in the nearest future, I’ll start working on this Let It Go, Let It Grow piece which colours make my mouth water.
I prepared it for our guild's second annual QUIP (Quilting in Public day) in June. The circle is the cut-out from Urban Christmas and the background a piece of a hand woven linen table cloth. I love the different textures of the batiks and linen together.

The linen is quite loosely woven, so I fused a stabiliser to the back and stitched around the edges of the circle a few times. Better safe than sorry, right?

Seven Non-essentials

I have been nominated for a couple of awards; thank you so much to Andrea from Lush Stuff and my friend Lynda from Lynda’s Quilts, I’m honoured! Although I won’t be picking anyone to pass it on to; I will share 7 non-essentials you never felt the need to know.
(Old radio at my parents house)

1 I love finding beauty in unexpected places

2 Sharing my sock collection with the Queen of Lost Socks, I wear my mismatched socks with pride.

3 I believe principles are easy until you have to make really difficult choices.

4 While I enjoy sewing with others, I create by myself.

5 I enjoy surrounding myself with different kinds of people.

6 Old friends are wonderful, but I have had some of the most amazing conversations with strangers I have met on planes, trains and in hospital corridors.

7 My thumbs are anything but green; I’ll kill any plant that are unfortunate enough to enter my house.

Rules Of Embellishment; No 3

If you believe that leaving a heavily fusible appliquéd area unquilted and just add buttons for embellishment is a good idea you might be in for a bumpy ride.
Unless you’re going for the somewhat seasick look, doing a little free motion stitching BEFORE you add the buttons is recommended.

In an hour's work

Have you ever worked like crazy to finish a last minute gift and then for some reason the party got cancelled? If you haven’t, I can tell you that it does not really feel all that great.

Daughter and grandson were going on a birthday visit to his friend that was 3 years on Saturday, and as I was eating a rather late breakfast I was thinking I should make a little something for the birthday boy. What’s the point of having a quilting mom/grandma if she can’t whip up a few little somethings for friends and family, right?

I remembered that I planned making him a name quilt several months ago and the letters were ready to attach to a quilt. Surprisingly enough I actually knew where to find the letters and a strip of background fabric, but with only one hour to go until they were leaving, I did not have time to do the line quilting or bind the quilt.Instead I folded the strip of fabric in half, added a piece of batting, stitched along the sides, turned it inside out and pressed. I folded the edges on the top, slipped a couple of cotton yarn loops into the opening, pinned and stitched around all the edges. Then I only had to pin the letters to the background, put on the darning foot, do a little frantic free motion stitching and the present was done, just in time.
Then someone got sick and the visit was rescheduled. Right. Oh well; at least I finished a project.

Canadian Connection

My wonderful friend Krista of Poppyprint has a wall hanging pattern published in the latest issue of the Canadian quilting magazine Quilter’s Connection Magazine. She hosted a giveaway with a copy of the magazine, and as we don’t get any Canadian magazines here and I would love to see her wall hanging in print, I entered her giveaway. And I won! I received the package on Saturday, and with the magazine was also Lutradur sheets (love those) and sugar free chocolates (love those even more).
Thank you so much, Krista, you sure know what makes this quilter happy.-)

Rules Of Embellishment; No 2

After spending lots of time arranging and rearranging your embellishments, take a picture BEFORE you move anything
so you won’t have to start all over again.

Rules Of Embellishment; No 1

When attaching embellishments to the front of your work
make sure your little practice sandwich isn’t stuck to the back.

Lots of ripping and back to square one

Knit, unravel and repeat

Slowly making progress reinventing the woolen jacket for grandson and having fun on Family Day in kindergarten.

Signs of fall

Mom and I went for a walk on Sunday enjoying the beauty of their garden and signs of fall along the way.

In a day's work

I have been away for a few days visiting my parents. Among other things during a rather eventful weekend that included watching an embarrassingly “romantic” movie (and having a blast with it) with my sister, I have helped my mother with her new living room curtains. I’m not the queen of anything that hangs around windows having only 4 sets of curtains in my house, but I have acquired a few skills involving pins, needles and the seam ripper during my years as a quilter.

Quilting is easy compared to working with slippery fully lined curtains that weighs a ton. Each. Having hemmed, ripped, pinned, re-hemmed and hung 7 of them by the end of Saturday evening, I did not feel quite so guilty for missing my Zumba class on Thursday. Who knew curtains would require so much muscle action, but there you go. Anyway; working with my mother is always fun; she’s very happy with the result and I’m happy I could help her.

Today I’ll be quilting my class samples, happy to work on something more manageable size- and slippery-wise. It’s always sad to leave and good to be home.

Transformation

Some of the scraps from this post have been transformed into colourful finished blocks.

I cut the strips into 14” lengths and added 2” white strips to each side. When I’m done I’ll have lots of 14” blocks in varying widths to arrange and rearrange and rearrange again.
I believe my sewing mojo is back; welcome back dear old friend, I have missed you!

Mindless sewing

will sooner or later give you mindless results. Hmmm, wonder what I’m going to do with this. Oh well, with boxes filled with scraps and 15 minutes of playing time I’m sure I’ll come up with something eventually.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Working

A little drafting
A little playing
A little knot to untie
The samples for the November class are finally moving forward. The first attempt was not all that successful, but I’m getting there. I only need a couple of samples to show the idea for the class at the guild meeting on the 15th, and I’ll finish them all after I’m done with the samples for another class in Haugesund in October. I also need to assemble 30-40 kits for the classes. What was I thinking.

Can anyone tell me if beading (those little glass beads) takes regular washing in the washing machine, or is it only suitable for wall hangings???

The pacifier tree from yesterday’s post is, as a few of you guessed, a tree where kids have been hanging their pacifiers when they would stop using them. How it started in the first place I don’t know; maybe someone found a pacifier on the path and hung it in a tree nearby, but it’s been there for a very long time - to someone’s joy and others irritation. The pacifiers have been taken down and thrown in the garbage and the tree has even been chopped down. I smile every time I pass by, and am glad to see that there’s a new tree where the pacifiers are proudly displayed with a sign that says “let the pacifiers hang”.

Another Sunday stroll

I have finally uploaded pictures from last Sunday’s stroll around Mosvannet with daughter and grandson. Mosvannet is a beautiful little lake, around 2 miles to walk around, and always packed with people on sunny weekends. It lies in the middle of Stavanger surrounded by buildings and roads and even a cemetery. You would never know walking on the path though, listening to the ducks quacking and flies buzzing.

However beautiful nature is, there are also added a few man made pieces along the path.

The dome of Rogaland Art Museum

The famous/infamous pacifier tree which has been the centre of much debate

15 minutes

I’m a part of Bumble Bean’s 15 Minutes Play, and although I’m a late starter and not getting around to it every day, here’s what a couple of days of 15 minutes have produced so far

Sorted scraps

A bouquet of pieced strips
A friend of mine is going to be a grandmother this fall, so I’m thinking a baby quilt. Babies love all those little scraps almost as much as I do...