Helene's work

One of the fun parts of being a designer and teacher is to see how my work inspires others whether the inspiration come from patterns, tutorials, magazine articles, book or classes. Since I don’t use any particular fabrics, their projects will always be different from mine even when they follow my pattern to the t as they use their own fabrics.

One of my students, Helene, has graciously let me share some of her projects with you. She lately was in my Movement class, and has embellished a bag with a rose made from leftovers.

She has made the spring wreath from my book

and used the leftovers to embellish another bag.

And here is her quilt from the colour theory class Fargerike. The dark blue border frames all the colours very nicely indeed.

You can also see her Playing with yarn bag posted here.

Aren’t they great!

Thank you, Helene, for sharing your work with me and for allowing me to post them here. If you have made anything from my patterns or tutorials, I sure would like to see them too. I will not post them here unless I have your permission.

Thanks for stopping by!

To waste or not to waste

Usually I would classify myself as a frugal quilter. I will cut my fabrics and fusibles and batting with as little waste as possible. Working my way through 40 different fabrics for an upcoming test run of the colour theory class has changed that a little, at least for these Rainbow kits.

I’m using an Accuquilt Go which requires strips 1“ wider than the shape and for my test drive last fall I cut my strips using a rotary cutter. To speed things up a little, I am doing the following:
- tearing strips just adding another 1” to the width to compensate for any distortions of the fabric (1” not necessary, ½” would do)
- cutting the strips into lengths like I did the last time. I’m cutting 4 rectangles at the time, it speeds up the next step
- ironing each length; folding it in half, then in quarters accordion style and pressing the folds
- feeding them through the cutter factory style. I should probably do this on the kitchen counter; our old dining room table is making scary squeaky noises when I crank up the machine.

There’s more waste this way, but it looks so pretty and it will find a home - eventually.

Am I a fan of the cutter yet? Not really, but I’m sure it will grow on me, especially when I start cutting circles tomorrow. Anyway, I am very happy working with a rainbow of colours in the midst of winter. I don’t know how it is at your part of the world, but this is what the wardrobe at my physical therapist's looked today – dark and dreary.

I was quite happy to have to stop by our newly opened fabric store Stoff og Stil afterwards to buy more fusible; much more pleasing, right!

They opened on Thursday and I have been there three times already picking up things I needed for class. I know, it’s a hard life.

Tonight was the monthly meeting in our regional guild, Rogaland Quiltelag, and my friend Mona-Lisa brought two projects she has made from my book. Aren’t they so much fun, they put a big smile on my face!

Guild meetings are always fun – meeting friends and seeing what others are working on. Today was our annual meeting with all the formal issues like going through the annual report and electing new board members. We have experienced some difficulties getting enough board members for the last couple of years. Does your guild have the same problem, or have you had this problem in the past? If so, what did you do to solve the problem?

Thanks for stopping by!

Gas money and a book review

The latest issue of Quiltemagasinet is out and so is my "Gas money" pattern and the first ever review of my book Gledesspredere.

I’m not even going to try to be blasé – I could not turn the pages fast enough to get to the review and was grinning the rest of the day and then some.)

Book report

Book reports can be fun, especially when you get to talk about your own book. I did a presentation of Gledesspredere at our guild meeting two weeks ago - talking about the competition I won, the process, the quilts, just talking and answering questions and enjoying myself despite the hot weather.

There are more pictures from the day posted at the guild (Rogaland Quiltelag) blog.

Today is the monthly meeting with my quilting friends which means lots of laughs and hopefully making some progress on the string quilt. First I’m off to do (have? take? have one taken? have one done? oh, never mind) a mammogram though…

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

It's a top!

Tonight is the May guild meeting for which I almost showed up a week too early, which means I’ll be talking about my book tonight. I am looking forward to the show & tell part as no one, except for my closest family and the publisher/ stylist/ photographer, have seen the quilts. As you know, everything looks different up close and personal, and so do these little projects. There are quite a few details that do not show in the pictures but make a lot of impact in real life.

We have all been invited to sew together for a few hours before the meeting, so I just might do that. The string top is finished and ready to baste onto the already washed fleece backing.

I had to add, oh I don’t know, about ¾” to the side borders to make them fit, and I do cheat – make little marks to line up with the seams between the rows. It’s the only way I can make them flat instead of wavy or wrinkly.

I always wonder how people make perfectly fitted borders. Really, how do you do that??

Maybe I need to do this as a Finish It! project to make it in time for the recipient’s birthday - make progress and blog about it once a week. It does work for me; things actually get finished that way.

First I’ll be cuddling the little one for a couple of hours though:)

Inking about it

What if you take some twist

and ink

adding a few drops of ink to the twist

and working it in with your fingers.

You get gorgeous aqua/teal/turquoise/blue,

orange

and (lacking a better word) silvery beige fibers to use in your work.

Costs close to nothing and you can mix whatever colour you want. Both twist and the ink are inexpensive and the colours can be heat set for colourfastness.

My samples looked great while wet, but unfortunately lost some of the brilliant colours while drying. Next time I’ll add more ink.

Tonight I’ll talk about the process of working with my book and do a show and tell of the projects.

I’d better get ready; I haven’t even opened the box since I got it back from the publisher’s but at least I know where it is. Uuuhm, did we move the box when we had company…

Buy a Brilliant Book!

The copies of my book, Gledesspredere, are ready to order (details at the bottom of this post). Please notice that the price has been adjusted to the current online price.

The book is filled with 50 fun quilted projects made in lots of different materials and techniques and covering all kinds of seasons, situations and sentiments.
The book is made so that you can mix and match illustrations and techniques – or you can use the illustrations for stitching, needlepoint, painting, mixed media, cards, scrapbooking or whatever materials you prefer. You will find a gallery with such projects for inspiration in the book.

I had a hard time to stop making samples as I wanted to try out all kinds of things and the ideas kept on coming, so I will most certainly make more Gledesspredere for myself, my friends and family, and probably some strangers too. Like today, husband could use one of these

a family friend who just had a baby one of these

daughter one of these (credit card included)

and I one of these (feel better)

(all pictures by Ragnar Hartvig).
You’ll find more pictures here and here.


All books are to be paid in advance through PayPal (international orders) or bank (domestic orders). The price is NOK 320,- (corrected price) hich is the same price as in the Norwegian online shops. In addition to this price comes shipping and handling.

To order:
Please send me an email (link in the sidebar) with your address, and I will calculate the shipping fees and send you the information on how to proceed.

I will also sign the book if you want:)

The book is in Norwegian, and I am sorry, but I don’t know whether or when it will be available in other languages. I will however keep you posted when that happens.

Book giveaway winner

Easter is over, and we’re back home after spending a couple of days at the cabin. Husband was delayed flying back from a business trip so we did not get up there until Saturday afternoon. We were expecting to see more signs of spring, but not much had happened in two weeks. We had everything from sunshine to snow and a day of all rain all day and then some. Had we been paying more attention to the weather forecast we would have brought our winter gear like wool hats and warm buffs for grandson (he looks fab in my scarf though) and grandpa so they could play boat-release-and-catch in the water

and plastic-golf-club-tennis-ball-hockey on the patio all day.

Oh well, we had a lovely time anyway; enough wood to keep us warm, enough food to keep us fed, and enough indoor activities

to keep us occupied.

 
Seriously, I would love to make this quilt with circles and all. I have ordered an AccuQuilt circle die to use with daughter’s cutting machine, so I’m not kidding about the circles. I love them and this way I can cut lots of them without adding strain to that darned hand.

The most exercise I got was spring cleaning, cooking

and quite a lot of this.

Tonight I am catching up with everyday life, like starting to plan the material for next weekend’s Quilta Figurer free motion quilting class. It will be fun; I love new classes and I love the class samples. The more fun I have making the samples, the more fun the class will be. Never fails. I have yet to sew a stitch myself though as I need to spare the hand for the class.


Moving on – as Monday night is here, I am happy to announce the winner of the giveaway of my book, Gledesspredere which is (insert drum roll here; think Chevy Chase trying to light the Christmas lights)

lucky No 8, the lovely Lone aka Flowermouse Design, a knitter and polymer artist with the very colourful and inspiring blog Flowermouse Design.

Congratulations to Lone, and to the rest of you, thank you for playing along. I’ll put the details about ordering the book from me in a separate post for those of you that are interested.

Celebrating spring Giveaway

Sorry, the giveaway is now closed!

We have been blessed with a fantastic weather this week. It’s still a bit on the chilly side, but the skies are blue and the sun is out. I have been on baby-duty for a couple of nights, totally voluntarily and lovely grandma/baby-bonding-time, but being a 50-something and all, I honestly preferred to take a nap today rather than anything else including creative playtime.

In the spirit of this fabulous week and having received the first batch of my book, Gledesspredere, it is time to host a celebratory giveaway, and the prize is a signed copy of this fabulous book. It is still in Norwegian, but I’ll ship anywhere.

To enter the giveaway you’ll just need to leave a comment on this post before closing time on Monday April 9th in the evening, Norwegian time when I’ll draw the lucky winner.

I have picked a few appropriate spring like projects from the book to share; all photos by Ragnar Hartvig – enjoy!

“Vår” (Spring)

“Morgenfugl i blomsterenga” (Early bird in the flower meadow)

“Herregårdshage” (Formal garden)

“Sol, bare sol” (Sun, just sun)

“Alle fugler” (All the birds)

“Flere fugler” (More birds)

“Georg”

“Blomsterbud” (Flower delivery)

A few copies of the book are available here as of today, so let me know if you’d like to order one. I will sign it if you want. The going rate is NOK 279 + shipping and handling (I know, books are quite expensive here), prepaid through PayPal (international orders). I won’t be shipping anything out until after Easter anyway, so you can still take part in the giveaway.

Happy spring and good luck to you all!