Napkin Challenge Giveaway winner

Greetings from the couch! It’s Friday evening here and the rain is doing its best to melt all the pretty snow away. I sure hope it finishes what it started or it will be icy icy icy here tomorrow. We always seem to get a few of those days in the winter when the hospital runs out of plaster and the children’s ward is packed with little concussion patients (touch wood!).

Anyway, it’s time to draw the winner of my Napkin Challenge project “Nisse’s got a girlfriend”, so Random.org has done its magic and congratulations to Carol who is the lucky winner of the little gnomes. I have truly enjoyed seeing the finished projects; everyone has been inspired by their napkins in different ways. Be sure to check out Carol’s and the other wonderful projects here.

Have a lovely weekend; I’ll spend mine not worrying about being way behind on my Christmas preparations. Somehow I’m confident it will be Christmas anyway, even without Christmas lights on our now non-existent front yard tree that had to go the other day to make room for one of the parking spaces we’ve lost to the road work. It used to be right outside our living room window so I have watched the seasons change from pretty flowers (2 different kinds actually; pruned, not a freakish accident by nature) in the spring and to the naked branches (and aforementioned Christmas lights) in the winter. Oh well, who needs lights when they’ve got such a pretty hanger outside...

I will, December 8th

shovel snow off my little free pieced roofs.I’ll be building a new village from houses started a year ago. This is the 4th and last UFO pledged for Finn’s challenge and I’m enjoying revisiting the old neighborhood.

I finished sewing the roofs on last Wednesday at my friendly little sewing group. It was our 2nd anniversary and here are the ladies minus 2 that wasn’t there and me, the photographer. It’s such a great group!
Carol has added her project to the Napkin Challenge, so be sure to check it out.

I’ll be giving you an update on the Make a Boob project soon. I’ve got Boob Mail, Boob Stash and a couple of sponsors; great week in Boob-land! If you haven’t read about the project you can visit the Make a Boob blog.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

I will, December 7th

defrost my quilting mojo and get back to my quilts in progress. My body does not take that much cold without getting bothersome, but enough already, I have things to finish before the holidays.

I did however finish my two little “Holy berries” pieces,

also inspired by a napkin, a while ago.

They are made using “Make a button” and “Make a leaf” shapes and have my favorite Keith Haring paper clips for hanging. These are fun little presents, so feel free to borrow my idea and send me links so I can have a look.

I should have been finishing this set of table runner and pillows, but it looks like another cold day today.

I guess I’ll just keep on knitting until it gets warmer.

Napkin Challenge, The projects

Today it’s show & tell-time for the participants of the Napkin Challenge. You’re welcome to add a link to any project you have made inspired by a napkin, even if you didn’t sign up earlier. It’s simple:

1: Post a picture of your finished project and the napkin you used for inspiration on your blog (or email them to me and I’ll add them).

2: Add the link to your specific post (not just your blog address) to Mister Linky.

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vbvbvb

You might have seen my nisse projects in progress. Well, now “Nisse’s got a girlfriend I and II” are finished; one for me and one for one of you who have finished your project. I’ll draw the winner on December 10th so you’ve got a few days to add your link.
As I was using alien fabrics for the tops, finding a suitable binding was a challenge. Determined not to buy any extra fabric I had a look at the wrong side of some of the bindings in my Big Box of Binding and whatdoyouknow, one of them, brimming with gold on the front, was perfect on the back. It even adds a little umph to the somewhat dreary fabrics. I was just a little short of strips and had to add another fabric for one corner. I have decided that it adds interest and personality so there you go.

And I’m also happy to present you with pictures of Jean Burke’s cute project, a lovely little quilt inspired by a beautiful embroidered napkin.

I hope you have enjoyed the process and now I’m looking forward to see your projects. I bet you’ll look at napkins differently now.

Napkin Challenge update

My out-of-comfort-zone Napkin Challenge place mats are only missing the binding and some little details. As interesting as it has been working with alien (you know, not from my world) fabrics, I’ll try again with something more colourful.

So, not wanting to make more nisses (gnome is called nisse here), I’m taking inspiration from this napkin for a new project. I’ll be using those cute little buttons from this post as berries.

Oh yes, much better! You’ll find a little tutorial for making these free form leaves here.

Real challenge

I decided to take the Napkin Challenge to the next level and use colours I don’t usually (read never ever) work with. Going through my Treasure Box I found a stack of blocks made a couple of Christmases ago and then tucked away. I won a few charm packs in earthy Christmas tones at a raffle and thought they would make ok Christmas table runners. I cut them into 4 ½”*2 ½ rectangles and paired them up with strips of the only fabric I had that would kind of sort of work.

Obviously I did not love the result enough to finish the projects and now they are little treasures kick-starting my challenge projects. To complete the crooked picture I also dug out 2 fat quarters which match the colour scheme perfectly.

This is going to be fun and far, far, far away from my usual bright colours.-)

I have also signed up for Finn's New Year Eve's Challenge again, and this will be one of the 4 projects I hope to finish in 2010. Two birds and one stone...

Challenge anyone?

I think it’s about time for a little challenge and am therefore inviting you all to participate in Mrs Moen Napkin Challenge.
Now this is not my idea, we did one in our guild a while back and it was so much fun that I thought you might enjoy it as well. The idea is very simple: to find inspiration from a napkin. With the holidays creeping up on us you might make it seasonal or you may choose any other colour scheme and design you like. You can see my napkin-inspired quilt here.

The keyword here is inspiration: use the colour combo, the design, whatever you like from your napkin and translate it into your medium of choice. Appliqué it, piece it, paint it, glue it, embroider it, knit it - fabric, fibre, plastic, canvas or paper - it’s up to you.

I raided the napkin isles at the grocery stores before our guild’s challenge and have a few great candidates for a little Christmas quilt. I will make 2 quilts from whichever napkin I choose; one for myself and one for one of the participants in the challenge. I’ll draw the lucky winner on December 1st, the deadline for this challenge.

- Everyone is welcome to join in.
- Sign up by leaving a comment to this post.
- Go napkin hunting, and yes, this is an excuse to stash up on glorious napkins for future inspiration.
- Make something inspired by the napkin; it does not need to involve fabric or stitching of any kind.
- Post a picture of your napkin AND finished project on your blog at December 1st and link up to the Challenge post of the day.

If you don’t have a blog and would like to participate you can email me pictures of your project and napkin by December 1st and I’ll add them to the post.

Copy the button to your blog to spread the word if you like; the more the merrier.
Have fun!