Design a block progress

Victoria will be posting pictures of all our blocks for the Design a block Challenge at 15 minutes play today, and I’m looking forward to see them all. My block started out like this: I pieced together the rectangular scraps into 3 blocks and cut each on the diagonal. Then I did a little switch and pieced them back together into 3 new rectangles. Then I pieced the rectangles together and got this piece of new fabric which I cut down to the required 8” square; no straight grain in sight.

I would happily stop at this point because I loved the block just like this, but the challenge was to get moving and make it into something else so I did. Cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing with lots of pressing in between. I’ll post pictures of the finished block tomorrow.

I’m back from visiting my parents. My father has not been well at all so it was lovely to see them and heartbreaking to leave. He was home from the hospital for a few hours each day, but it’s never enough time is it. I also managed to squeeze in a lunch with my sister, a dinner with 3 of my nephews and coffee with my uncle at the airport so I got a big dose of family in two days. Today is my birthday so my other sister and nieces are coming over for cake. I have the day off and was planning to spend it by the sewing machine, but instead I’m spending it on the couch with an acute muscle inflammation in my back, catching up on my blog reading and looking forward to picking up grandson from kindergarten in a few hours.

Husband came home from a business trip to China the night before I left and this box was sitting on the table when I came downstairs the next morning. With my birthday coming up and all I was so excited to open the exquisite fabric covered magnetic close up box to find two smaller and just as exquisite boxes in a soft yellow fabric nest inside. I opened one of them and found a bag of tea; same in the other. Yeah, talk about disappointment. The tea was a gift from one of his business suppliers and not for me at all. Anyway, I did claim the beautiful boxes and will fill them with even more beautiful quilting supplies; smiling to myself every time I look at them. The tea is not so exquisitely stored away in our kitchen cabinet with all the others. Suits them well for getting me excited like that.-)

Have a lovely day!

Stitching of Spike

I have been stitching a few spikes lately; just pairing up some light odds and ends with leftover little squares from ancient table runners and letting the lines end up wherever they want. The Design a block-block is done, but we’re supposed to wait until tomorrow to post pictures. The new patterns are also finished so I can officially add another project or two to the WIP list, but first I’m off to visit my parents for a couple of days. See you later.-)

Design a block fabric

I’m participating in the Design a block Challenge at 15 minutes play. Basically we’ll be making an 8” square from scraps which we’ll then transform into a 12” block any way we want to.

Going through some of my scraps I found these fabrics.

They are quite moody which match my current state of mind perfectly. Sometimes all the drama that comes with being a human being existing on this planet with other human beings is very unsettling, especially when you have no part in the production and are just a part of the audience. You can stress about it or make your peace with it; that’s it; your choice. Yeah, I need colour, fresh air, a little no sugar added sweet stuff, a few hours with my favourite daughter/grandson team and husband to come home from the other side of the world. Feeling better already.-)

The string test

I had to put the string blocks up on the wall before I tucked them away again.

I like the soft pinks with the anything goes string blocks. My initial plan of making side borders from 30ies pink squares might have to go though. Right now I’m thinking brown, medium value brown, or maybe blue.

And a B it is

The B for Brenda is finished, yeeey. It took much longer than I expected though. I guess all that getting up from the chair added quite a few minutes to the sewing, cutting and pressing time. Yeah, I have to get up from my machine to cut as well, not just to press. It’s all part of my brilliant un-stiffening master plan which by the way, works very well.
The blue fabric should have been fuzzy cut to keep the words “world wide web”, but I only had a little scrap so I guess this WE is only ORLD WIDE (I hope I did not write something obscene just now...). Oh well; I’m proud of my first pieced letter anyway.

Now I’ll just have to take this to the post office and I can cross one thing off my list. No, this doesn’t mean I can add something new to the list yet. I checked.

Making a B

Brenda of Scraps and Strings has a big birthday coming up this spring and asked for pieced Bs. I have never pieced a letter before, but in the spirit of stretching my comfort zone I signed up and am now in the process of piecing my first B ever. I’m following the tutorial on her blog; no point in reinventing the wheel.

I keep my ironing board on the other side of the room so I have to get up every now and then, stretching my joints and loosening up. Usually I’m quite fond of this arrangement, but then again I don’t usually have to iron every 30 seconds. Great workout though.

Inventory Day #1

I’ll be working (work work, non-blog-able-work) on a project this year starting like right now (instead of sitting here writing a blog post), which means a few changes in my day-to-day life. For one, I’ll have less time and energy for quilting (yeah, I know, poor me) which means I’ll have to stay focused instead of scatter-brainish quilting wise. It also means that I’ll be posting less frequently in the foreseeable future; I’m sure I’ll find a new rhythm as things starts falling in place.

The string blocks will be put away for a while and the scraps lovingly put together for another Intuition quilt will go back in the scrap box (all that fondling and drooling over scraps in vain);

I cannot have them tempting me while I’m working on the projects I already have signed up for and/or need to finish:
Intuition Quilt
Make a Boob
Quilt for nephew’s confirmation
Design a block Challenge
B for Brenda
Little school house
A new class sample
A new pattern

An 8 project pipeline should be fine; not too overwhelming but enough variation to keep me from getting bored. Some of them are small, and others would make great Finish It! projects. As soon as I cross these off the list, I can add new ones. I’m counting on the accountability factor now that the list is out there in cyberspace. Please stop me if you see me trailing off the straight and narrow and start wandering in the wrong direction (like digging through my boxes looking for the scraps for another exciting Intuition Quilt).

Tiny little scrappy projects for fun do not count though; a middle aged woman needs her fabric fixes you know.-)

Missing fall

Well, almost.

Searching through some old pictures I rediscovered one of my favourites. It was taken in October 2008 outside our cabin and in the most amazing light. The sun does not quite hit our little neck of the woods during the dark months of the year, but yeah, fall is beautiful up there.

Oh, how I wish I was a painter...

Little school house

I participated in a house block lottery hosted by Beth of LoveLaughQuilt a while ago, and as a thank you for participating she sent us all a little school house block, challenging us to use it in a project.

Yesterday I went through my inherited 80ies stash for suitable fabrics and found these three. I have no idea what to make, but at least I know what to make it with.

The 80ies fabrics are growing on me, but I still have a hard time mixing the muted brownish tones with my usual bright palette. It might be a good exercise in streeeeetching my comfort zone.

Public art, Oslo 2011

I was in Oslo last week. Oslo is the capital of Norway and has been hosting the Nordic World Ski Championship the last week and a half. It was pretty cold and deserted when I got there, but on the way back the main street, Karl Johans gate, was sunlit and crowded with people watching one of the races on a big screen in front of the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament).
Not far from the Storting several of Edvard Munch’s famous paintings have been recreated in snow and ice by different artists. Really cool (no pun intended)!

The Royal Palace is right at the end of the street.

You’ve got to love creativity and hot cocoa on a cold winter day...

Task of the day, March 8

Cleaning up some edges.

A couple of weeks in Boob-land

brought boobs; a rainbow of brilliant colourful boobs from around the world (clicking the pictures takes you to the different posts on the Make a Boob blog).

The first batch:
Marit
Odveig
Synnøve
Nicolette
Carol H
Tone
and, a whole batch by themselves
Solfrid
Thank you so much, ladies!

I’ve got to say I love looking at all the boobs; they are everything I envisioned and more with the beautiful colours, the fragile edges, the softness, and all the creativity and generosity that is stitched into them. Just keep them coming.-)

Borneo fabric

I was tidying up my workspace the other day and discovered my Christmas present fabrics on the bottom of a pile. All this time I thought the fabric was in the laundry room (now you understand why I had to tidy).
These fabrics are bought on Borneo (Malaysia) where my sister spent a couple of weeks before Christmas. She had one day off work there and went to a local market to buy fabric for me. Apparently lots of people got involved discussing patterns and colours. The fabrics are meant for sarong-type clothing, and are of a wonderful quality.
Aren’t they just gorgeous!

"The Nameless"

I have made a little quilt for a challenge, and as the deadline was a couple of days ago, I can finally show you the quilt I was showing pieces of here and here.

You may also recognize the background which was the background I made Victoria style (all that cutting and angles and head scratching hardly show at all!) and the heads from “Small talking heads” (which happens to be a test run for this project).

The quilt is made in honor of my friendly little quilting group; 8 ladies with different personalities and with the love of quilting and appreciation of each other in common. It has a diameter of 12” and got its semi-perfect circular shape by the use of a glass plate with an added ¼” all the way around.

The heart is made of yarn, stitched together between two layers of water soluble stabilizer. Super simple with lots of visual impact and texture.

I love how quilting and embellishments can transform this to this.