View from the park

My City quilt, “View from the park” is done, only missing the label. It should have been blocked after binding, but I’ll have to figure another way to smoothen out the edges properly without stretching it. Any suggestions??

This super simple little tree is one of my new favorite shapes, and the colour green has grown on me so I have been using different greens in several projects lately.

I believe I'm done

I keep on editing any ideas I might have for embellishing and jazzing up my Say Cheese Challenge quilt, “Saying Cheese”, so I might as well pat myself on the back and declare it done, finished and finito. My taste is quite simple, so my self portrait just might be as well. The quilt measures the required size of 16”*20” and has those little folded triangles on the back for hanging.
You can see the process here:
The Lutradur base and touches of colour
Quilting the picture
Quilting the background

I have enjoyed this challenge (although it’s a bit weird working on your own face), and have (as so many others of the participants) omitted details like wrinkles and other signs of age (they are too difficult to do, you know…). Thanks, V, for a great challenge!

Bump bump bump

This week has really, really not been kind to us and while it’s only Wednesday, my otherwise oh so creative mind has already a vacuum like quality and function. If I am away from the blogosphere for a few days, I’m probably out smoothing those bumps.

Tonight I'll be meeting up with my friendly little sewing group, making totes for daughter and grandson. Yup, more of them. They have picked out the fabrics and what happy fabrics they are; much more fun than the they grey ones I have been making for the last century or so. I’m looking forward to work with cheerful colours and seeing my friends, and will hopefully get rid of a little stress and cobwebs.

I missed the final update on Spring to Finish Challenge yesterday, but I have finished my 21 (1 medium and 20 small) pledged projects plus an additional 4 (1 big and 3 small). You’ll find most of them here. I will reward myself by spending a few hours with my feet up and listening to my favorite podcasts tomorrow (no shopping and no sugar involved, did you notice that??).

How I feel

While I should be hand stitching bindings, I had to make this little guy. This week marked the anniversary of one moment which had tremendous consequences, and as the year has come to a full circle and I’m doing all the things I usually do, this is how I feel - a little sad.

I’m linking this up to Amylou’s Sew & Tell.

Finish it! Moving in

The 9 little Happy House quilts are finished with those little orange ribbon hanging loops. Now I just need to find a way to display them all together to get a proper photo – and only using stuff I already have at home. I wish I had some chain and s-hooks, but I’m afraid I don’t. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure out something before the Table Cloth Challenge reveal on June 1st.

Gridded Circle

Tomorrow is my (older, much older.-)) sister’s 50th birthday, and her present is done, buttons and all. The original plan was to make her a quilted portrait (like Saying Cheese), but I did not get a suitable photo in time and made this gridded wall hanging instead.
The grid is stitched to a blackish semi transparent paper, and attached to a quilted damask background. I have two more grids ready to play with some embellishments as soon as I get more urgent matters out of the way.

I also made her another little wall hanging instead of a card. I made the photo into pop art at FotoFlexer and printed it onto Lutradur. The text is inspired by a quilt I read about and I’m not sure where. I do believe it’s by either Sandi Bonsib or Mary Lou Weidman; I’ll try to look it up. Anyhow; it’s such a cool idea, and I’ll give this to my sister today, her last day in her forties.

My younger sister (also my best friend) and husband were supposed to come here for the party, but she got sick so they cannot come. That was a real bummer; I haven’t seen her since August and was really looking forward to spending some time with her.

I guess that I’ll be quilting another Sunday away; what will you be doing?

I’m linking this up to Amylou’s Sew & Tell.

Mooing with bags

For this week’s show and tell I have the 4 remaining Moo Point (a cow’s opinion; doesn’t matter; it’s moo) quilts from this post. The fist one was finished last week for my 200th post giveaway (which is open until May 9th).
"Moo Point No2""Moo Point No3""Moo Point No 4""Moo Point No5"They are all made from a fabulous old (vintage??) green table cloth. Green is a colour I don’t use much, so I’m trying working it into my palette.


I also finished 3 more shopping bags and have thus finished my pledged dozen plus two more.

Most of them are gone by now, but I have a few left for myself. I will never, ever prepare that many (28; yep – it’s crazy and boooring) of anything again! It’s quite discouraging to know that you still have just as many left to finish when you have worked your way through the mother load of shopping bags.

I also finished the “Name quilt: Markus” for a baby boy and “Swan Lake” for the Monthly Design Challenge over at Finki’s this week.

Now I will link this up to show & tell at Amylou’s and Blue Cricket Design's, pop over and have a look at all the wonderful finishes of the week.

Swan Lake

This month’s theme at The Monthly Design Challenge over at Finki’s is "music and dance". Music and dance – how could I not make a little Swan Lake quilt?

I have used a crisp white damask fabric for the background and the swan is free motion stitched by machine.

Swan Lake is so exquisite; perfect music combined with perfect dance. I love everything about it including the white tutus, and the Pas de Quatre gives me goose bumps every time. Growing up watching ballet on TV, I was very surprised by all the noise the first time I watched one in real life. On TV you never hear all the sounds, only the music. Of course it’s noisy; people are running and jumping and doing amazing moves, and yet they are so incredible graceful and have such an amazing control. I’m in awe!

Being a cranky old woman, I now prefer enjoying ballet by myself. It might have something to do with a couple of experiences – my brother in law slept through big parts of the Swan Lake, and husband still tell tales of the one time he accompanied me to Giselle. We had just met and he was still in a wooing mode. How was I to know it was a one time only deal…

Name quilt: Markus

I had a wonderful weekend with lots of time for working on a few projects. Among the finished ones is the first name quilt made with letters from my Make a letter tutorial. This is for the little guy who I learned would be named Markus the same day as I finished these letters.-)
I made the quilted background first using a solid light blue fabric and my favourite IKEA fleece as batting. I love how 3D and firm quilted projects get using the fleece, and it stitches wonderfully. The quilt is bound as regular, and the letters and crown are free motion stitched to the finished background; only one pin needed as the felt clings very nicely to fabric. I skipped the last part of the tutorial (appliquéing the letters onto light felt).
The quilt measures approx 6”*23 ¾”.

Now, I hope they won’t change their minds about that name…

200th post giveaway

I cannot believe it - 200 posts! Who knew I would have so much to say and share and show when I started this blog.-)

To celebrate this tremendous achievement, I’m having a giveaway of these lovely items – one winner gets all:

A “Moo Point” quilt from this post, inspired by a line from the TV show Friends; "It’s a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo!", and especially made for this joyous occasion by yours truly

A traditional Norwegian fabric panel (we don’t dress or walk around like that you know)

A piece of traditional woven Norwegian fabric (looks like a quilt pattern, doesn’t it)
1m of each skein from my fluffy and bumpy yarn collection which I used for these quilts
Different fibres and papers and felt used for these and this

To enter the giveaway you’ll do the following:
One entry: leave a comment to this post

Second entry: become (or be) a follower to this blog and leave another comment telling me so.

Third entry: blog about the giveaway and leave another comment telling me so.

If you’re a No-reply blogger, make sure you leave your email address in your comment so I have a way of contacting you!

The giveaway will close on the evening (Norwegian time) of Sunday May 9th and the lucky winner drawn on the 10th.

Good luck to you all!

The Table Cloth Challenge is open for another week, so there’s still time to go digging through those drawers or hit the thrift shops and join in on the fun! You can see some of my projects here.

I will link this up to Amylou’s Sew & tell and The Shabby Nest.

Sorry, the drawing is now closed.