Friday Finishes

I’m kind of getting tired of my UFOs and am ready to start some new projects very soon, but here are my last finishes:

Toilet bag set
Remember the Panty bag? I had another top made from the same fabric scraps, and made my first zippered baggy things ever.
Ok, so I broke 3 needles sewing the first metallic zipper on, I have no idea how to make the two upper corners look the same, and I had no idea that I had to open the zipper before I pieced the side seams and spent 10 minutes trying to open the darn thing with a pair of scissors. I’m so happy with the result, and now mother in law will have a 3-piece set for travelling.


The other finish (or should that be finishes…) is a matching set with a table runner and four place mats.
I started them early this spring for an Easter project, but never got around to finish them. The plan was adding some appliqué, but there was too much going on already with all the different fabric in pastel spring colours (great for stash busting!). I don’t really use these soft colours so often, so they were fun to work with. The pink with the little sheep (gift from daughter) is one of my favourite fabrics.


If you look closer at the pictures, you will see that the quilting is the same on all these projects. You can see it most clearly on the solid backing.
This wavy curves pattern is one of my favourite quilting styles, and very forgiving. It will disguise less-than-perfect seams

and you can do them anywhere, any way, and in any direction you like.They are great for beginner machine quilters; just pop on the walking foot, set your stitch length at 3mm (or so) and go from one edge to the other while you turn the project gently this way and that. When you get to the end, turn the project and go back again so that the lines cross here and there.

Now I’m going to pop over and add this to amylou’s Sew'n tell and Rosebud’s Fabric Friday.

UFO numero cinque

Hip Hip Hurrah, the last UFO for Finn’s at Pieces from my scrap bag UFO Challenge, The Oh Crap Quilt, is done – D-O-N-E! What started out as 7 190cm strips of squares, is now a lap quilt, hand tied and backed with fleece. 5 UFOs pledged, 5 done + 11 off the list, that’s a total of 16 finished UFOs since September 21!

Everything went wrong while finishing this last one (if you did not understand that already from the name of the quilt), but it turned out OK and daughter loves it, so she will get it for Christmas.
It has been pin basted – twice
It has been hand tied – oneandahalftime
It has been bound – twice (with 4 nights in front of the TV using the seam ripper in between)

The sort of wobbly edges will straighten out the first time it gets washed; they often get like this when I finish the edges by folding the backing fleece to the front and stitch them down by machine. I love the fleece “binding” though; it’s so soft, and (usually) easy to do.

No more UFOs on my short list! I still have some more; 2 that will be worked on next year, The Grief Quilt (which I have decided to do by hand) and The House Quilt, which I just remembered I had (and surprisingly enough also where it was) the other day. I might pick one of them for a Finish It! project in January.

A little tip – if you’ll be working at your UFOs – don’t drag them out all at once, it will get overwhelming if you have lots and lots of them. Pick a few, work on them, finish some, and pick some more.

UFO numero quattro

Another UFO, Warhol Angels, from the challenge list is finished. This one did not finish easily though! I tried to get a proper picture of it outside today, but the patio was way too icy.
I had the inked blocks (inked the same way as my little playing with colours tutorial), and the holly leaf batik fabric for the border. Wanting a little challenge using other’s choice of colours, I brought some fabrics to my nameless quilting group and they helped me choosing the green and purple fabrics for sashing and setting squares. I thought it needed some more bright colours, so I replaced the green with pink squares around the edges. So far, so good.

I know I have read a warning somewhere to never use mystery batting, but I had this incredible soft and lovely polyester batting that I really wanted to use. Now, I know from experience that it does not work well with basting spray, so I basted the living daylight out of the thing using every safety pin in the house.

There is no straight quilting line in this quilt. It kept shifting and sliding even though I used my otherwise trustworthy walking foot. At some point I had to decide whether it should go back into the UFO pile, or get finished - ever. I chose to finish it, wobbly seams and all. It will only be out at Christmas and most of the time it will be folded up on the arm rest of the sofa.

Still; it's a finished UFO:-)

Big & Tall

One more little finish this week; another UFO from my ever growing pile of UFOs which I didn’t even know was that big until I started looking for and collecting them from around the house.

A year ago I drew this little design and transferred it to a piece of fabric thinking I wanted some handwork. I might have been wrong, because after a year, it was still laying here basted to a batting recommended for stitchery. So; off came the batting, the little top was spray basted with a new firmer batting and backing, and off to the sewing machine.

When I do “stitchery” by machine, I sew every line 3 times, and so I did on this one too. Some pieces of binding from my Big Bag of Binding, some triangles on the back for hanging, and done!

If you have someone sweet and small in you life, feel free to make you own little “Big & Tall” piece, you can download the image from my Free pattern page.

Now I’m going to add this to amylou’s Thanksgiving sew & tell, and to Rosebud’s Fabric Friday.

Panty bag

I have not done much this week quilting wise, as I have pretty much been a full time grandma due to some unexpexted and unwelcomed bumps in the road of life. So, as I get to spend some extra days with my favourite little guy, I have less time to spend in my sewing room working on Christmas presents or making my usual mess. Anyway – what I have finished is another UFO from last year’s Christmas season.


This is known as a “panty bag” – a bag for underwear or other stuff when travelling (or anytime else for that matter). I made lots of them last year, and this one for mother in law was left unfinished for some reason.

The top, made from scraps, was done, and all I had to do was baste (spray, very quick) and quilt it (walking foot and wavy lines in the speed of light), clean up the edges and sew it together. I make the panty bags very simple using ready made bias tape on the top, a button and button hole for closing, and a velvet ribbon for hanging. You’ll find a short description on how to make the bag in Norwegian and English here.

Pink Purse

The Wollen WIP is not a WIP anymore, but a finished Pink Purse for mom (mom, if you’re reading this, it’s too late, now you know what you’ll get for Christmas).

The woolly appliquéd layer was all done, and the lining finished, then put away. Mom did not love the lining fabric that much, so I got a plaid, Japanese one. Of course I cut it too narrow first, and had to cut another one, and the thing was too thick to get under the presser foot and had to be done by hand, but at last it was only missing the handles. I had bought a couple of bamboo handles, but had no idea how I would attach them without the seam showing on the outside. Finally I made 4 straps from the lining fabric, folded them around the handles, and attached them to the inside by hand.

Voila, another finished UFO, and I want a Pink Purse too:-) Now I’m going to add this to amylou’s sew a tell.

UFO progress

I’m slowly making some progress in my pile of UFOs, but somehow it seems like another one surfaces as soon as I get one finished. How many of them are actually lurking around out there??

This is a very simple, little table topper, "Purple squares", made from leftover squares from a bunch of table runners which I made a couple of years ago. It just needed a border and finishing. I ran out of the purple thread I was using for quilting half way through, and threw out the empty spool without looking at the colour number. I used another purple thread to finish figuring that if I could not see the difference, nobody else would either.

I decided that it needed something blue to cool it down a bit, and added a solid blue binding from my Big Bag of Binding. Not quite sure I’m too happy with the result, but the blue binding is here to stay anyway.

I have heard Norway is the only country where purple is the colour for advent. How strange!

The Warhol angel quilt is moving along (not a great picture...). It has borders and as of yesterday it’s pin basted. I forgot how tedious pin basting is, and how sore your fingers get, but I‘m using a very soft polyester batting which is impossible to baste using glue as the layers shift.

My squares quilt rests peacefully waiting for a second date with the seam ripper. I finished it by folding the fleece backing to the front and sew it down - 3 times - without noticing that the ¼” seam allowance was quite a bit less than ¼”. Daughter loves it, so I will finish it, but I ‘m not sure whether I will do the fleece folded binding again, or just add a regular one. I do love the fleece edge though.

UFO numero tre

My third UFO for Finn’s UFO challenge, "My innermost space", is finally done. I made it into a pillow; something that will be used and not stashed away.

I can not take credit for the design though, as I saw a picture/poster/something like this somewhere sometime that caught my eye. I was really fascinated by the sense of depht and dimension that was created with simple lines.

When our national quilt association (NQF) issued a contest with the theme “My innermost space”, I decided to try creating a similar effect. I dug out fabrics in different shades of blue and grey (like the original – I think…) and added black for contrast. Then I drew the design on gridded paper varying the strip width between 1, 2 and 3 squares, cut a lot of strips, and started stitching.

I did not fall in love with paper piecing, hence the UFO, but I wanted to see how it turned out, so there was only one thing to do – finish it. It's quilted in the ditch. I had not done that for a while, and forgot how slow you have to sew to get it right. Oh, well...

Now I’m going to add this to amylou’s sew a tell.

Finish it! Finished!

The third and last update on my Finish it! project “If I lay here”, of which I have done a progress report on a weekly basis. You can read about Nicole’s Finish it! challenge here.

The quilt is painted with fabric paints, quilted with pearl cotton floss, and it’s finished!



I had quilted a part of the painted black area using green thread, and liked the bodyish shape so much, that I used black thread for the rest. For the eyes I chose a lavender thread. The binding is from my Big Bag of Binding; the piece needed just a little touch of soft colours around the edges.

Now I need to choose a new Finish it! project; having to blog about the progress every week gave me the motivation I needed.

Piece o' cake

I fell in love with these flowers years ago. They are from a Piece o’ cake quilt that was published in American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine. While I usually make my own appliqué designs, this was so perfect that I saved it for later use.

Earlier this year I made 13 blocks with hot pink flowers and teal leaves on green and brown batik backgrounds. The flowers are machine appliquéd using blanket stitches.
The last finished project from these blocks is this table runner, “The flower quartet”, which was finished yesterday; yey, another UFO done!

This table topper,”The flower octet plus one” was finished this spring. The batik fabric in the sashings and binding looked like the perfect match. The strange thing is that the hot pink in the fabric looks more reddish from a distance, but I decided to use it anyway after showing it to my little and very supportive quilting group.

I also used the flowers when I needed a quick thank you gift for the ICU unit where dad was a patient. The staff was so incredible caring and patient with us as well as dad. The layout (2 pieces of fabric and a hole) was so successful, that I decided to use it in my workshop. As far as I know (and I hope I’ll never have to go there again to see it for myself), the quilt, “ICU flowers”, hangs in the ICU in my home town.

"Breathe"

The third quilt in the grief series, “Breathe”, was finished last week; so another UFO done! The binding was attached and just missing the hand stitching to the back. When I was done, I thought it needed some more quilting, and added the pebbles.

How it was done?

I painted a white face on a grey background, thinking the paint did not cover very well. When it dried, there was no white left at all. Huh? Checking the bottle, I discovered I had used textile decoupage glue instead of white paint. Oh …! Well; I had not tried decoupaging napkins to fabric yet, so here was a golden opportunity for some new experience, right?

Having a look through my assorted napkins, I found a white with big colourful dots. Using only the top layer, I added some more glue, and padded the paper down using a soft brush. In the heat of the moment, I also painted letters with the glue, and added scraps of paper.

The layers of glue and paper dried up kind of stiff, but, as I do with (almost) all my experiments, I quilted it and added binding. I kind of like the end result.

I also did paint another face quilt (with white fabric paint his time!) that is unfinished still…

UFO numero des

Another UFO on the list finished; making progress…

The last “Lots of little yellow ones” is finally done. Poor little birds; being stashed away like that, but now 2 of them will have new homes by spring (oh yes; I will keep one for myself, just not sure which one I want the most).

Approaching fall, it has been wonderful working with some light, spring like fabrics for a few days again. Here are the other little birdies from this spring (pattern here):

I brought this and some of my other UFOs to a little sew-together on Sunday, hoping to finish them. Our guild had been asked by our landlord to be a part of an anniversary celebration. Sure; always nice to get together for a few hours; lots of laughs with quilting buddies and getting some work done at the same time; what’s not to like?

What’s not to like? 7 of us dragged our sewing machines, WIPs, quilts for a little exhibition (you all know how much stuff you drag to these things); set up tables and machines, and hung our quilts. Then a band arrived. Oh, right, double booking.

The name of the band sounded like 5 guys and a guitar, so, OK. No such luck though! It took almost a hour to get all their stuff in, keyboards, all kinds of drums, amplifiers, huuuge speakers, and the doors were wide open all the time. Some of the quilts had to be taken down, because they were in their way; and we had to move our work area to keep our ability to hear.

I’ll put it this way: While it was impossible to get any work done for 2 of the 4 hours we spent together, we have the memories of our most surreal sewing experience ever. I’m glad I did not know how the whole thing was going to turn out, because then I would have chosen not to be there, and would have missed out on the fun!

35 years & a food mixer

35 years ago I got my left hand into a food mixer at school; don’t ask me how; the mixer started before it should, and it took the teacher 45 minutes to get the hand out. Anyway, this spring a bone fragment that was undiscovered all those years ago, started acting up and pinching a nerve or something. The x-rays showed that it’s jammed into a joint somewhere between my index- and middle finger. I can’t say getting the hand into the mixer was a pleasure, but it surely hurt this summer as well. I got to use these very cool finger straps for weeks, but the hand was still pretty much unusable. Well, I could use the thumb, but it still was kind of depressing.

What I usually do when I’m down? I quilt.

Now, I could not use a ruler and cutter, and precision piecing was out of the question anyway, so I got some yarns to play with instead. You’ve got to do something, right? I set some rules for myself: I would not unpick anything, just add to the pieces (I find that keeping some experiments that do not turn out so great, reminds me what not to do). I prepared some foundations - small sandwiches with scraps of batting basted together with scraps of fabric. After the yarn was in place, I added some fine tulle, and used free motion quilting to keep everything in place.


These yarns are incredible. Each skein is made from lots of different strands of yarns in different shades and textures, just knotted together. The first two test pieces were made from these yarns.

The very first; I tried making a binding from one of the yarns; not very successful though, but hey, no unpicking

This one actually turned out great


I got some more yarn, and added some scraps of fabric

These pieces are missing something; maybe some beads?

(Seriously, what's wrong with my camera??)

Now that I finally have two working hands, the quilts have been finished, bindings and all. That’s 4 UFOs done, although they were not on my list.

UFO numero uno

The first UFO on the list, “Snowstorm”, is done! The satin binding was a bit slippery to sew to the back, but it turned out OK. Now I’ll have to check what the numbers 2-5 are in Italian, and why my new camera insists on making my perfectly square quilts look bulgy…

UFO challenge

I joined my very first cyber space UFO challenge over at Finn’s at Pieces from my scrap bag yesterday. I have signed up for 5 finished UFOs by New Year's Eve. I’m not quite sure how it all works yet, but I guess I’ll figure it out.

The projects I’m going to finish are not the ones I had in my mind yesterday. Rummaging through my sewing space, and doing some tidying at the same time, I discovered some long forgotten UFOs. The one I really did want to finish for a charity my guild is supporting, was nowhere to be found.


These UFOs made my list:

Lots of little yellow ones
Except for Christmas cards, I hardly ever make 2 quilts from the same deign. I was teaching a mystery workshop last March, and designed these little chicken (or duckling if you like, I don’t mind) table runners.
I had so much fun playing with the triangles, that I made 3 different versions. I finished 2 of them for the workshop, and had the 3rd partly made for demonstration. The last top got finished; it just needs a little quilting, maybe some appliqué, and a binding.
It was our guild’s first mystery workshop, and so much fun, even though many found choosing fabrics from just my guidelines and examples was challenging.

You can get a pattern here, and have a look at Rita at Ritas lille verden’s fabric choices, workshop report, and fabulous finished quilt.

Warhol Angels
I inked a stack of 24 angel blocks last fall. I was going to use them for Christmas cards, but loved them so much, that I kept them. I apparently did not love them so much that I finished a quilt, but there will be Christmas this year too. Somewhere there is a sketch with a brilliant idea how to put them together with sashings and stuff…

Snowstorm
This was a quilting test piece which I intended for an appliqué background. I have changed my mind though. Inspired by Marit at Quilt it's Snow white quilt, which she uses as a back drop when photographing small quilts, I’ll just put a white satin binding on it, and use it as a background for photographs.

The grief quilt
This was supposed to my grief quilt when I started it the summer of 2008. While I was working, the quilt turned out much happier that I expected, and so did I. I love quilting therapy; the outcome never stop surprising me.
I used the appliquéd shape for some lovely little quilts with my favourite saying. I’ll post a picture and pattern later; I have to go to one of the recipients to get a proper picture.

My innermost space
My first and last paper piecing experiment which I found incredible boring after a while. I really like the design though, so I do want to finish it. Maybe if I break the rest of the piecing down to one round per day, it won’t be so tedious.

Squares

These squares are from charm packs I got years back. I cut them to size, and made 7 columns with 19 squares in each. I think I’ll cut the columns in half, and just sew them together. There are lots of wonderful fabrics, so it would make a nice charity quilt.

Oh, was that 6? Well, I want them all done…