First day of class is over

Gail & Helen have taught the first day of their class, and tomorrow April 1st will be their last day, and that's no April fool's joke. The first day was great, and I think the second will be equally wonderful.
The models I chose to stitch was 'Stitch Me Happy' by Gail and 'Sewing Chatelaine' by Helen.
I will be back with more details.

While waiting for Gail & Helen...

I am working on 'Stitched by me' by another Australian designer, Lynette Anderson:

Now, I am doing block #2, the alphabet block. I am not rushing it at all, just stitching when I feel like it. I really enjoy it very much.

During the weekend I will be very busy with either Helen's or Gail's designs, so Lynette will have to take a break. Actually, the first big quilt I made was a wall hanging designed by Lynette, 'Scandinavian Snowball Fun'. The kit was bought at Quiltegården, and below is the result of my stitching and quilting:

Looking forward to stitching the coming weekend

The coming weekend I will attend a two-day class with the Australian designers Gail Pan and Helen Stubbings in Trondheim. I am looking very much forward to inspiring days learning a lot of new things!

You can follow Gail & Helen touring Europe on their blogs:

Gail Pan
Helen Stubbings

A great trailer/caravan project!

I found this recipe in modabakeshop.com and just had to try it out this weekend. It is just the cutest trailer/caravan I have ever seen! I like my version! I did not have a glue stick to put up front, so I had to use a permanent marker on the photo, instead.

No rain today!

It has been raining a lot lately, with resulting floods in the lower areas in the region, but today I woke up to a pretty clear day with no precipitation. For a quilter that means good photo opportunity, so out with the quilt to hang on the porch wall. Nothing beats daylight to show off the colors!

I found a treasure!

A my local thrift store, Fretex, I discovered 9 old issues of Quiltemagasinet that I didn't have from before. A previous (?) quilter must have had a spring clean-up and donated these to charity. The magazines were just as new, and nine of them cost me the same as two issues straight from the press. The issues range from 2008 to 2010, but you know, the quilt designs never go out of style, maybe the color scheme is not your chosen one but that is easy to change. I spent a long time on Saturday looking through these magazines and getting inspired.
This is really a treasure for me!

Another yellow tote

I made a smaller yellow tote for a little girl who really fell in love with the one her mother got. Maybe the mother will be envious now, because the lining of her daughter's bag is a lot more cute than her own?! Lots of small scotties are running around inside the bag. Isn't that cool?

A better picture

I hoped to get an outdoor picture, but it is raining cats and dogs out there. Still, there was enough daylight to get a better one than the one I took last night.
The quilt is a design from Bonnie Hunter in Quiltville , and it is called Bricks and Stepping Stones. The size is approx. 60"x75". I used my husband's old shirts and a little bit extra fabric. The back of the quilt is flannel, one old (pink!) sheet in addition to some plaid stash. In-between those fabrics i pieced a stripe of a multi-colored flannel shirt. I used woolen batting, so the quilt is definitely suited for the Norwegian climate.
Even though this is my first large quilt and it has its "beauty spots", I am very pleased with the result!

Finally - after a lot of hard work !

The quilt is finished! I finished the last stitches of the binding just before I took the picture. By the way, the picture does not show the correct colors due to being taken indoors late in the evening. A lot of muscels are aching, but I am very pleased and satisfied with the result. I feel I have made a great achievement, this is the biggest quilt I have made, ever! I will fix outdoor pictures as soon as the weather permits, now I am just going to bed because I am completely exhausted.

Quilting my first large quilt

Yesterday I started on my largest quilting project so far, free motion quilting my Bricks and Stepping Stones. I am not used to work with such large quilts, so I have to take regular breaks to rest my shoulders, arms and neck. Here is a little detail of the stippling/quilting. I think it will turn out great in the end!

Blocks complete with sashing

I decided to go with a blue/green theme for the sashing. I think it turned out really nice! Looking forward to the April block.

January stitchery completed, finally!

Here is the January stitchery, so now I am back on track and ready for next month. The task now is to choose the fabrics that is needed to "frame" the blocks.

Cute Thread Catcher

This is the cute little thread catcher I made today. It will be a housewarming gift for a friend who likes to stitch.

March stitchery completed

Maybe I am doing these in a strange sequence, starting with February, then March, and the next one will be January. But, soon I will be on track and be ready for the April one when the design is released. It will be an interesting wallhanging when it is completed.

Monthly stichery

I found this free BOM from Aurifil designer program Aurifil BOM. I loved the snowman/-woman. I made the February stitchery (attached picture), and have traced the January and March ones. Looking forward to stich in-between quilting.

Bright and sunny (?)

The weather today has been strange; bright and sunny, windy and mild, snow storm, raining cats and dogs. That's only during a couple of hours. Anyway, I managed to get an OK picture of the yellow bag in the relatively strong wind. The bag is to be a farewell present to a colleague who is leaving for Bergen. The yellow fabric is plastic coated, and that is perfect for the wet climate in the western part of Norway.

I am into sewing bags

Before I started quilting I have sewn a lot of other things, among them shoulder bags. I found this great tutorial on the net, and I have made quite a few of them for friends and relatives. Here are a few I gave away for Christmas last year.

Today I have been working on another bag, and I guess I will show it off here tomorrow.

 Below is a bag I sent to a friend in Sweden

A finished quilt-top

Last night I finished assembling the top of my version of Bricks and Stepping-Stones. Fortunately, the spring light lasted long enough for me to take good pictures of it when I returned from work this afternoon.

Now, I will take one day off sewing and start searching through my stash for backing-fabric.

Good progress

All the blocks for Bricks and Stepping-Stones are cut and pieced, now what remains is to arrange them into a good-looking quilt top.Here, a few of the blocks are on display.

I just have to do a little bit of cleaning-up before I can put all the blocks on the floor and arrange, and re-arrange until I am pleased with the design. Then I will have to decide on the borders, the inner border will be black, but what about the outer one? Hmmm... It is time for searching my shelves.