Upcoming classes and a Movement class at Randaberg Husflidslag

I’ll be teaching two classes this upcoming weekend, and am getting my stuff ready to go. The class samples have been located and set aside and, with any luck, the printouts will come out of the printer first thing tomorrow morning. I was planning to teach locally only this spring, but when I was invited to visit a small guild up north, I couldn’t resist.

The classes I will be teaching are Christmas on Earth and Funky Fowl; two very different but equally fun classes with lots of room for creativity.


I have also set up a few classes to be taught in my studio over the next few months. The classes are Skyggesiden (The dark side, 3D effect),

Fargerike (colour theory with a twist) 

and Movement (painting with fiber). 

You will find all the dates on the “Kurs” page.


The last class I taught last year was a Movement class at Randaberg Husflidslag back in November.

I have said it before, but I'll say it again - the process from bits and pieces to finished projects is magic,

and the results are gorgeous.

I am very much enjoying visiting different Husflidslag which are local chapters of Norges Husflidslag, the national arts and crafts association. Their classrooms are often decorated with a variety of fabulously colourful pieces. Here are some pictures from a previous class at Sola Husflidslag posted back here.

If you would like to sign up for one of the upcoming studio classes, let me know and I will send you more information.

Thanks for stopping by:)

Movement at Gausel

Saturday was a good day, as most days spent in company with quilters are. We created movement of all sorts – both visually and physically as I had them jumping off their chairs ever so often. Sitting still at a table for hours on end is not good for anyone, although I do get my exercise of the day teaching any class.

Here are some pictures from our Layer upon layer Movement day. Look at those colours coming to life.  I provide three different colour ways; the rest is each student's work. Aren’t they absolutely fabulously gorgeous even half way through the process!

 

The room was totally quiet for big parts of the day. Quite an accomplishment I’d say, keeping this lot of fun ladies silent.

Looking at their works of art in progress, would you believe that none of them had worked with these materials and technique before?

Teaching Layer upon layer classes is pure bliss indeed!

Thank you, ladies, for your awesome attitude and company, and for letting me share my joy of this technique with you!

Make an Invisible binding

There are some quilts that look better without borders and bindings, and invisible binding is a perfect way of finishing them. I recently had to finish one of the samples for the Layer upon layer Movement class for an upcoming exhibition, and it was always meant to not have a visible finishing.

Looks quite nice and clean, doesn’t it.

One of my friends asked me how to do just so the other day, so I took progress pictures as I was working. Now, I am sure there are many ways of making this type of finishing, like there is for all other things quilty, but this is how I make mine – click HERE to go to the post at my Tutorial blog.

There are so many of my classes where the students would benefit from learning this finishing technique, so I’m planning to make step-by-step samples, but for now this will have to do.

Enjoy!

"Red Movement"

This is the second of the new samples which I made for the Layer upon layer Movement class.

This quilt has less contrast between the background and the “paint”. The warmth draws me in and makes me want to surround myself with lots of warm colours.

One of the things that I particularly like about the Movement quilts is that the overall look can easily be adjusted to the students’ colour preferences. The warm colour kit can for instance easily be made more hot pink or warm orange.

I don’t usually finish off the edges of the Layer upon layer samples so that the students can see all the different layers, but the quilts can be made into pillows or bags or wall art with or without a frame. They would also look fab in a bigger quilt-as-you-go wall piece like this mock up.

The purple quilt is the first draft ever and will be remade before the next Movement class, but it still looks quite good I’d say.

Have a wonderful Friday!

"Green Movement"

I was writing this blog post on Monday afternoon, but then life came in the way. One of my family members broke an arm, and I have been spending lots of time with her at the hospital. We have had so much fun despite pain and nausea and deadly weapon hardware sticking out of her arm, but now she’s back home and I am quite happy to be out of those hospital corridors. Anyways, here’s Monday’s post - a little late.

Our house is quite silent today after a whirlwind weekend with the grandboys. There was a soccer tournament and grocery shopping and naptime and furniture painting and cooking and early mornings and everything else that goes with a weekend with two boys. I had cleared away my sewing machine to make room for some holiday crafting time with the oldest, and haven’t set it back up yet. It will still be there tomorrow.

The last month was rather productive though, and particularly the last week, so plenty to share.

I made a couple of new samples for the Layer upon layer Movement class before the class in Kongsberg, and here is the blue/green kit used with a green upholstery fabric. I quite like the rough texture of the background with all the delicate sheer fabrics.

The name of the quilt was a given with lots of repurposed and recycled fabrics.

Mother fell in love with this quilt, so I might have to make another quilt for her to frame as this one will be used as a class sample.

Thanks for stopping by!

Layer upon layer Movement class in Kongsberg

The second day teaching at Sølvtråden lappelag in Kongsberg was a new Layer upon layer class called Movement. I was so excited to get to teach this class as I love the amazing effect that can be created with very simple supplies. That being said, I do put a lot of time and effort into the kits provided for the class so that everyone has what they need to make beautiful art, but still - simple supplies when you know what to use.

The students bring background fabric and a few scraps, and I provide the “paint”. I’ll talk them through every piece of material in their kits, what they are used for, and where I bought them. Then we go through a quick paper trial and move very quickly on to the good stuff - cutting into the fabric.

The Layer upon layer classes are all about playing. There are no rulers or measuring involved, just scissors, and these students enjoyed the process very much indeed.

There was totally silence for a long time as they added layer upon layer, everybody totally in the zone. I’ll confess – for a while there my fingers were itching to dig onto one of those colourful bags with transparent treasures.

We added whispers of light, hints of shadow, sparkles of bling, and washes of colour, watching how each new layer enhanced the overall picture.

One of the things I teach my students is to use their cameras to decide between different options, or to see what they need to add next - if anything. I will ask them “what do you see?”, and then we will figure out what their next step will be. It’s so much easier to see the full picture on a screen than on the worktop.

There’s a lot of stitching involved to finish these projects and achieve the painted effect, but everyone finished the first rounds of quilting lines to keep everything in place on their way home.

Aren’t they absolutely fabulously gorgeous!!

You can see some of their own pictures from the weekend here, here and here.

Thank you, ladies, for inviting me to Kongsberg and for making my weekend so enjoyable!

"Eye of the storm"

Welcome to my blog, Mrs Moen! My name is Nina Lise Moen, and I am a quilter and quilt book author who designs patterns and teaches classes on the side. I enjoy a few other creative outlets as well, but today is all about quilting. I didn’t think I would manage to finish this quilt in time for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, but yesterday I was given the gift of a few hours and decided to better use it wisely.

I enjoy making many 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. Over the last year I have worked quite a lot with a technique I call Painting with fiber and right now I’m quite fascinated with the possibilities and I have enjoyed developing a new class concept called Layer upon layer.

“Eye of the storm” was made yesterday as part of a challenge. The theme was movement and it was supposed to be cut into a triangle, but it was to pretty and too large to waste, so I’m adding it to my Layer upon layer class curriculum instead.

The quilt is made with lots of different transparent and semi transparent fibres.

Half the fun of working with untraditional materials is searching for them, seeing the potential in other’s castoffs and mundane and outdated everyday objects. It’s safe to say I have been a bit obsessed, paying frequently visits to the local thrift shops. Right now my studio is all stacked up and ready for new classes and projects. Seriously, I could not fit another piece of organza in there.

 

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats:

Finished quilt measures : 17 1/2"*18"

Special techniques used : Painting with fiber

Quilted by : Myself

Best Category : Art quilt

 

I’d better start putting my glorious collection into good use; there are quilts to sew (like a new movement challenge quilt), classes to prepare, and kits to make. Thanks for stopping by and thank you Amy for setting the Festival up; you can see the rest of the online quilt show here.

Have fun!