Change of plans

I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders. Jewish Proverb

Something has come up that means (worst case scenario) that my second grandbaby might be born way prematurely. He’s not due until the beginning of March, so we are praying that it won’t happen for many, many weeks. The mom will probably be on bed rest until he’s born, and grandson is staying with us. With an already crazy work schedule to finish up my assignment, I need to shuffle things around quite a bit to take care of both young and older ones. Right now I’m just stressed and worried and sad, but I’ll be back as soon as things settle down.


Please do include a tiny little boy in your prayers.

On a roll

I know I have been less than enthusiastic about unpicking seams, but this is my favourite gadget when I need to do a lot of it: an inexpensive sticky lint roll from one of the big chain clothing stores.

I cut every 4th stitch or so on one side, and roll this thing over the seam on the other. When it doesn’t stick any more, rip off a layer of paper and you’re ready to go. See how the uncut threads hang onto it?

Works like magic; no annoying little pieces of thread on my lunch or anything. You might want to try out if every 4th stitch works for you; it may vary depending on stitch length, type of bobbin thread and tension.

Something warm

I have been playing a little with the block from the Design a Block Challenge; wanting to finish it into something useful. The very cold colour palette needs something warm to make the fabrics sing; maybe this will be enough.

My first idea was this thrifted table cloth which matches the colours perfectly. It took approx 0,54 seconds to decide against it (the time it took to take this picture). Bad idea! Bad, bad idea!

What do you think; any ideas?

"Mandag på Skottevik"

Welcome to my blog, Mrs Moen! My name is Nina Lise Moen, and I am a quilter who designs patterns and teaches classes on the side. I enjoy a few other creative outlets as well, but today is all about quilting. This is my fifth time participating in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival at Amy’s Creative Side and I’m sure it will be just as much fun as the previous shows. I have stacked up on sugar peas and diet soda and am ready to go. Feel free to stay for a while and have a look around or pop by at any time.

I enjoy making a lot of different kinds of quilts, from piecing together simple fabric shapes to creating art pieces, and with quite a few small story quilts in between. Most of all I love playing with fabrics, and my scrap bins are often put to use although you could not tell by looking at them. For this show I have chosen one of my old favourites from the very beginning of my quilting life, “Mandag på Skottevik” (Monday at Skottevik) (finished in 2000 after a while hovering on top of my then budding UFO pile). Skottevik was The Place to spend our summer holidays for many wonderful years; blue skies, water and sunny days.

There are 4 or 5 quilting fabrics in this quilt, but mainly repurposed fabrics and curtains, table cloths and bed sheets from the thrift store with a few solids thrown in for good measure. Part of the story is that I cut all my fabrics into 6 ½” squares back then and used them to create all kinds of blocks and patterns (involving lots of math including Pythagoras and equations). It worked for me obviously as 13 years later I’m still quilting; revisiting my stack of thrifted squares every now and then. I am not (emphasis on not) cutting all my fabrics into squares any more. Maybe I should.

The design grew from snowball blocks (via the aforementioned UFO pile) to a top by adding a narrow green border, lots of colourful 4 patches

and a bottom border which was just a tad short to go all the way across the bottom. No problem; one strip of faded fabric to the rescue.

The quilt has a polyester batting which makes it the softest thing in our house and has been in grandson’s possession since he was born 4,5 years ago; first serving as a mattress in his day bed, and now on his duvet on cold nights. He loves this quilt.

It is quilted by hand

tied

and machine quilted.

The label (written with fabric marker on the backing) says that it celebrates our summers at Skottevik and especially one Monday in the summer of 1998. I don’t remember what happened that particular day, but it must have been a brilliant one!


You can see the rest of the online quilt show here

Have fun!

I-cord

Sounds like something made by Apple, doesn’t it, but I-cord is a method of finishing off knitted edges used by Elizabeth Zimmermann (apparently an abbreviation of idiot-cord). I had never heard about it before I bought the Tomten pattern, and had a look at YouTube to check it out. It looked doable, so I’m finishing off grandson’s Tomten jacket with my first I-cord ever.

It is way easier than I first expected after reading the instructions (probably why it’s called idiot-cord). After all I am a novice at reading English knitting patterns, but I’m getting better at it. Anyhow, I love this simple edging. The buttonholes will also be knitted i-cord style and their placements are marked with pink thread.

It has been quite chilly lately, so I’d better finish the jacket. Resting on the couch all day sure gives me enough time to do a little light knitting, which reminds me to thank you all for your well wishes after yesterday’s post! Strep infections sound nasty and feel even worse. Being sick makes me miss my mom. She’s a nurse by profession and heart, and an excellent caregiver for sick daughters of all ages. Long distance care is not the same, especially when I’m croaking like a teenage boy/frog mutation on the phone.


Have a wonderful Thursday; I’ll be spending my afternoon with grandson which most certainly will make me feel better.

October workshops

Tonight was supposed to be the fifth and last of the Make a Boob workshops for October, but instead I’m flat out with a new case of tonsillitis with accompanying antibiotics. Brilliant. Just what I needed. Not much to do though, just letting nature and meds do their work, and be grateful I have filled our house with warm and comforting quilts and soft pillows.

Anyway; some of the workshops were brilliant, a couple of others more party-of-one style. No point wasting time, so I made a few boobs and tidied up a few baskets before I went home.

I have booked one workshop in November and hope to reschedule the one I had to cancel tonight, but then I’ll take a break for finishing up my work assignment and Christmas. I have a few workshops set up in the new year, and will be working on booking more as soon as my schedule is clear.

Back to bed; see you later.

Out of the box with easy blocks

I ordered Mary Lou Weidman’s newest book (co-authored with Melanie Bautista McFarland) through Mary Lou’s blog so I could have it

signed by my favourite quilt book author.

It arrived with this cute feather fabric which suits my inner bird-quilt lover perfectly.

Thanks, Mary Lou!

Basic fabric

I’m trying really hard not to add to my stash. Really, really hard. Don’t ask me how I am doing because I don’t want to lie to you guys.

When I find perfect basic fabrics that I think will stand the test of time, I have to get it. These soft aqua, teal and raspberry pink fabrics were all on my most wanted list, so I was very happy when I found them on sale a while ago.

Mmmmm.

Stranger wearing gifts

Let me introduce you to a little stranger wearing gifts, my entry for our guild’s ugly fabric challenge. Ugly? This? Not even close!

My mind went something like this: toys - gifts - beware of stranger bearing gifts - beware of strangers wearing gifts. Yes, I know, my mind is probably a little twisted.

I restricted myself to add embellishments from a little box of this and that on my sewing table, and had a lot of fun doing so.

The leftover fabric has been cut into little pieces for a scrap quilt. There will be another ugly fabric challenge at our guild next month, so I’ll need to find another sad and lonely piece to swap. This was fun!

Sew In # 9

For last night’s Friday Night Sew In I did not do much sewing, but I did finish cutting the rest of the pieces for the Double Trouble quilts.

I have added a few lights and darks into the mix to spice it up a little. The overall colour scheme is still be a bit on the orange side, but it’s fall you know, how are we supposed not to be influenced by all the glory of nature’s colours.

I’m so happy to be done cutting these two quilts as cutting is not my favourite part of quilting. Not even a fifth runner up. Cutting a few pieces is fine, but I always find myself working in awkward angles which are not even kind of ergonomically right. I would love to have a raised cutting table, but there’s no room for one in my cramped little studio.

Ok, now I know what I’ll put on Santa’s list this year: A bigger studio; do you think he could get one down through our chimney? I wouldn’t want a huge one though; it would only mean more stash, more clutter and more space for me to misplace whatever I need.

Have a wonderful Saturday! I’m spending mine with grandson so no crashing on the couch for me.

Plaything

I’m trying to squeeze in a few minutes of creative time every day, and although it might seem like I’m all over the place, working one a dozen different projects at the same time, there’s a plan to it. Really. I break things up to fit into short periods of time, making little kits with whatever I need for each one, and grab the project that I want to work with that day. Anything that gives me my daily creative fix is good; it keeps me happy and my mind balanced.

This pad was my birthday present from husband this spring.

Doesn’t it look just gorgeous! A+ for design! What it doesn’t come with is a protective cover, not even a boring one, so I’m thinking of transforming this bunch of solid strips

into a padded cover. Oh good, a new project.-)

Triangle swap, Round 1

We’re doing a triangle swap at our guild and all those who wanted to participate was given one of these half square triangle papers at the September meeting.

After spending too much time sizing up swap blocks before, same sized blocks was a deal breaker to me. I have trouble sewing a proper ¼” seam myself, but that’s not a problem when all the HSTs are the same size.

Yesterday was my first try at this particular paper, but I have used Thangles before and it’s pretty much the same; two strips of fabric facing each other and the paper pinned on top.

The fabric width is cut according to the guidelines so I guess you’re supposed to trim it off afterwards.

Stitch on the dotted lines,

and cut apart. We’re swapping a set of 4 squares, so the strips are cut apart horizontally only.

This is how one of my HSTs will look.

The swap guidelines said that one fabric has to be red, so I chose a green fabric which I love but rarely use for the second one. I have no idea what I’ll use them for, but I’ll figure it out when we’re done swapping sometime next year.

All about batting

Tonight is the October meeting at my guild, and the theme is batting.

We had the same lecture at the April meeting, but I’m sure I’ll learn something new as it is almost impossible to remember everything about each and every batting type, despite teeny tiny notes.

We got these samples last time and are supposed to bring them tonight; I wish I did remember where I put mine after I took these pictures.

Zzzzzztitching

With life being kind of packed with this and that, I’m trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there doing some progress on a few small challenges and what hopefully will become future class samples, gifts and patterns.

Stitching these is just boring...

Plowing

Quilting a little top made from the rest of the old blocks used for my Rainbow runner.

Not sure what I’ll use it for, but it feels good to finish something quilty while my head and fingers are otherwise occupied.

Slow growth

My arms needing rest from the intensive knitting, I’m doing a little stitching on this pillow cover in the evenings.

I’m totally in love with the contrast between the rough linen and smooth batiks.


Maybe it will be finished before Christmas; I know a couch where it would fit perfectly.

Inherited art

This artwork has been in my family for as long as I can remember, and now it’s mine. It is hand printed on linen and the colours are glorious.

My parents were giving their stairway a makeover and I asked if I could have this print that had been hanging there for almost 35 years. They were only happy to give it to me and I will treasure it for its cool style and even more because of its history. I’m not sure where I’ll hang it, but it will have a prominent place in our future rebuilt house – whenever that will be.

Sunday at the aquarium

Spending weekends with our young fellah, crafty things will only take us that far and we’ll have to get out of the house whatever the weather is like. Last weekend was one of the wet and windy ones, so husband suggested we could visit Lundsvågen Naturskole, which among other things, have a small aquarium.

Needless to say grandma enjoyed the rather short visit very much indeed,

and after lunch in the cafeteria, so did grandson.

Make a Boob at Rogaland Quiltelag, Part 2

After doing a few workshops I’m getting better at setting up my Make a Boob stash;

knowing what goes where does help.

The content of the ribbon basket was a bit tangled

and the bead boxes a bit of a mess when I set up

and even worse when I packed everything up.

This was my second workshop at my guild, Rogaland Quiltelag. We were not that many at the meeting

but all these lovely boobs got decorated for the project.

Thanks for having me. Again!