Make a Smile

Inspired by brand new humans' (babies) instinct to smile at anything resembling a human face, I decided to do a little experiment using myself as a guinea pig. My very non-scientific hypothesis was that making a smile would make me smile, and sharing them with others would make them smile too. With all the hardship going on this summer it felt good doing something fun and positive.
I am happy to report that the first step worked fine; I’m most certainly smiling while making smiles, and cannot help myself smiling again looking at them. Now, others will have to be the judge of the second part; are you inclined to smile looking at these?

Make a Smile Rocks
Make a Smile Fabrics
Make a Smile Boobs
Inspired by Queen of Arts' Rock My World rocks I am planning to leave a few of those little rocks around for someone to find and I already know how I will use the fabrics. The boobs from Sundays' workshop will go into Make a Boob quilts and I have been playing with Play Doh, making smiles that last only a few seconds. I’ll post tutorials on how I have made mine in case you would like to give it a go.

I am sure I’ll find other ways to Make a Smile.

How about you?

Finish It! Week 5

The Finish It! project is pinned and ready to stitch around the edges.
Yeeey; looks like I’m going to finish it on time (touch wood) (touch wood again) (ouch, our coffee table is hard).

Make a Boob at Craftretreat

Yesterday’s all day Make a Boob workshop was fun with lots of lovely ladies of all ages. Doll house, embroidery and teddy bear people from all over the country gather here once a year and take classes, watch exhibitions and shop. Sounds familiar?

We set up our tables in the morning; Tone from Bitteliten broderi og dåpskjoler (mastermind behind this event) put me next to my guild buddies from Kaktus Quilts which was nice. The owner, Liz, kindly offered to sponsor the project with long arm quilting of all the backgrounds which was even better! I’ll write a separate post when we have discussed the details, but thank you so much Liz, a weight is lifted from my quilting shoulders in more than one way!!

Almost ready to go
with my impromptu sign perfectly imperfect taped to the wall
and a rainbow of colours on the table.

My stand had lots of visitors all day, and people took the time to sit down, talk and sew.
Half an hour goes by quickly when you’re doing handwork (I believe you already knew that, didn’t you) so I was very pleased with the turnout on a day like this. I had a lot of young girls joining in and was impressed by their skills and joy of sewing (and pink and bling). In more than one case moms wanted to leave but the girls wanted to stay longer to sew, and some obviously not-too-big-fan-of-sewing moms joined in while waiting.
I had a look around at the exhibit and shops before the opening, and although it didn’t look all that much at the first glance, there were so much gorgeous teeny tiny miniature (doll house size) stuff; they just don’t take up much space. Look at these little knitted garments
and tea pots
and sewing stuff
and bra (how could I not notice this when I was going to make boobs all day long).All items from Solfrids’s småting (no web page)

Daughter and grandson popped by and he and I had a look at the exhibited doll houses. I was so afraid he would touch something (think 4 year old curious boy) so I kept saying he should keep his hands in his pockets while we were looking. I was happy to see a miniature quilting shop made by former (dormant?) quilter Pat (no blog)
with a sign in the window “Help wanted”.
Maybe I should apply...

Task of the day, August 27

I’m multitasking this weekend in lovely company.
A little beading. I’ve got quite a colourful jewellery collection by now which I use every day.
Making a Make a Boob “sign” from an inexpensive polyester table runner for future workshops. I’m keeping it simple; black marker letters and I’ll baste or pin on a couple of boobs. I’m thinking I’ll always have a table for setting up the stash and this sign can lay on the table with the text hanging over the edge. And it’s practically indestructible and very lightweight.
And a little rock painting.
This evening I’ll prepare the rest of my goodies for tomorrow’s all day workshop. If you should happen to be in the area tomorrow, pop by at Craftretreat at Sola Airport Hotel (open to the public between 12:00 and 17:00) and decorate some boobs with me.

Looking forward to see you there.-)

Finish It! Week 4

The Finish It! project aka nephew's confirmation quilt is quilted. With the walking foot firmly attached, the stitch length cranked up to 4,5mm and my favourite green variegated Sulky Gütermann thread in the needle, the curved lines were done in just a couple of hours. Sure, there are some non confirming stitching lines in there to unpick, but all in all it’s ready for the finishing touches.

Some of you asked how I do the fleece no binding finishing and I’ll take a few shots and do a little tutorial as I’m working my way through this one to show you.

The last few days have been somewhat slow as I have been sporting something not too pleasant in the old windpipe. Husband has been away on a business trip so I didn’t even realize my voice was pretty much gone until I tried talking on the phone the other night. I’m sure he’ll regret going away; it’s not every day I’m this quiet...

Hearts

The latest issue of Quiltemagasinet is out and so are my "Hearts" pillows and table runner. They even made it to the cover.
Usually I’ll wash anything that goes into my quilts (except of the batting; and thread obviously), but there are a few unwashed reds here which accompanied me home from Vestlandstreffet last October and they did not even hit the laundry room floor before they were chopped up for this design. Maybe it’s time to buy some of those colour catchers; these babies will have to get washed sooner or later because I plan to use them.
I loved working on these and had to exercise some serious self control not to blog about it; just showing sneak peeks here and there. I enjoy those little peeks on other people’s blogs; I like to see what they are working on. Presents or patterns or exhibition pieces; little snippets of information and pictures of details are all good in my book. I actually managed to find one quilt on the Festival of Quilts from the little sneak peeks I had seen on the artist’s blog, but that’s a story for another post.

A sea of organza

is what you get when you wash and tumble dry a piece of embroidered organza.
Don’t you just want to dive in...

Finish It! Week 3

No one here , nothing here;
it’s the perfect basting day (I know; sounds kind of Thanksgiving-ish)
leaving a generous edge of fleece around the top for a non binding finish.
Just a few threads to snip
and ready for quilting. Tomorrow.

Exhaling

These last few post-Festival-days have been spent with family, catching up, and sleeeeping. I haven’t even gotten around to uploading the pictures from the trip although there are surprisingly few of them. My friends and I will share all our pictures so I’m counting on having quite a few more after we meet up the first Wednesday in September. Anyway, Festival posts will be coming up soon.

I have also done a little light knitting, and with little I mean teeny tiny baby sizes because I’m going to be a grandmother again in the spring. Yeeey, another grandchild to love and spoil and for who to create soft and warm and cuddly stuff (insert happy grandma-grin here).

For the next few days I’ll hopefully get around to do some work on the Finish It! project before the week’s over (which would be on Sunday according to my books so plenty of time; pressing the top properly would do just fine), I’ll be planning a Make a Boob workshop at Craft Retreat 2011 at Sola Airport Hotel on the 28th, and I’ll be spending the weekend with grandson.

I have also been notified that my Dream Rocket panel “Comfort” will be exhibited with other dream panels at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky from today and until October 27th so if you’re anywhere around there you should see the exhibit.

Have a great day!

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