Daydream come true!

Literally! The Daydream Layer Cake arrived in my mailbox today!

 

 

I won a giveaway at Leanne's blog a couple of weeks ago; a lovely layer cake, Daydream, by Kate Spain.

 

The picture below does not justify the different colors, the fabrics are absolutely gorgeous in real life! I have a certain project in mind that will show off all of these beauties.

 



 

I have not been very active in blogland, lately. The reason is that I am working hard on a secret project. That will be revealed on Thursday, so stay tuned!

 

 

2012 Aurifil BOM Quilt - Finally Finished

Last night I finished the last stiches on the binding of the wall hanging, and I took it outside for a picture taking today. We have had a very strange winter this year, normally it would be very cold with lots of snow. When I took my walk in the forest today, together with DH, it felt like spring. No snow, birds chirping, and 5 degrees C. That made it a lot easier to complete the photoshoot.

The wall hanging is approximately 40" x 50" and it consists of 12 stitcheries from as many designers, one for each month of the year.

The spring-like conditions were a perfect frame for displaying the quilt. The sashing in between the framed blocks is a white-on-white fabric. Then a 1" black inner border, and finally a wide wood-like outer border. It is almost like a wooden frame.

Here the quilt is on display in the kind of spooky light in among the dense trees.

Here is a detailed picture that shows one of the blocks and the quilting. Each of the 12 individual blocks are framed by dense straight line quilting in white thread. That does not show off very well in this picture. The outer border is quilted with rectangular lines, which gives a good contrast to the wavy design of the fabric.

Notice the December block which is almost 3D with the yellow braids of the skier.

The Snow Bird in the January block was singing in the forest today, but there was no snow to make a snow man and -woman for the February block, like there was last year.

The binding is a green, black and gold striped fabric I bought during summer. It may be a little difficult to see this on the picture, but in real life it almost looks like a golden frame on the outside of the quilt. The backing fabric also fits the golden binding.

With this quilt I have finished my third UFO this year, and I also completed my February Goal of 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Linked up to
2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes ,
Richard and Tanya Blogs ,
Crazy Mom Quilts .



Happy quilting!

A New Pillow

I am into a wave of pillow making, lately. There are so many blogs out there in the blogosphere with great tutorials of how to make good looking pillows. Crazy Mom Quilts is a great source of inspiration. I decided to make a version of her Contact Print Pillow .

I chose to arrange my 35 different color squares in a rainbow setting, and I think that this gives a very nice effect. The quilting is straight line using my walking foot.

I found a fun print for the back, and I made an envelope closure for the pillow.

This is the second pillow cover I have completed this year, and if I continue this rate of one new pillow every month, I will get 12 by the end of the year (!) There is not enough room for that in my sofa!

Well, I think I will stop long before I reach 12, but it is nice to get new colors and designs on the couch!

Linked up to:

Freemotion by the River: Linky Tuesday
Richard and Tanya's blog
Fabric Frenzy Friday



Happy quilting!

Batiks in the wind

This is just a short post about what's going on here: I have been busy with several projects.

The first one is a secret projects involving batiks. I cut 2 1/2" strips and put them up for audition. The best light for pictures was outside, but a strong wind did its best to destroy my photo shoot.

I love these batiks. They were bought during Christmas from Connecting Threads, where they had a sale. I bought several more colors, but I will show them off another time.

I did a lot of quilting on my 2012 Aurifil BOM, and this UFO is just a couple of days work away from completion. You can read more about it here.

I was inspired to start making another pillow cover today, and I chose a design from Crazy Mom Quilts with 35(!) different colored 2 1/2" squares. Here is the pillow front after quilting, but before trimming. Hope to finish it tomorrow.

As you can see, my sofa is grey, so I need a lot of color. This will take care of that!

Happy quilting!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have any new specific Valentine's quilt, but I have a finished quilt top with a heart block. This will have to do.

This is one of the blocks of the 2013 Aurifil BOM. I have assembled the blocks into a charity quilt that will go to my local hospital. I will show more pictures when it is quilted and I have put a binding on it.

This is one of several UFOs that I will complete before May 1st. I am definitely into my UFO busting mode! It really feels good to get the stack of quilt tops taken care of.

Today I also remembered that I did not take pictures of one of my finished projects this year, a set of scrappy potholders. I took care of that, too.

The potholders are made in crazy log cabin, and the fabrics are all leftovers from Celtic Solstice.

I found a cute fabric for backing, and the binding is white and green polka dots on red. This will lighten up my kitchen!

Have a quilty kind of day!

Globetrotting - Venice

Here is block #2 of Pat Sloan's Globetrotting BOM, the block is called Venice.

Happy quilting!

Mother's Day

What an appropriate day to finish the 2014 Aurifil February Block designed by Amy Gibson. Today is Mother's Day in Norway, as the block is named!

I chose red, white and blue as my color scheme. I think the fabrics look like old fashioned wall paper.

This year's quilt will be a colorful one!

Happy Mother's Day!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - February Goal Setting Party

I have come far into my UFO busting this year, and this month I will combine the two. My 2012 Aurifil BOM has been waiting way too long to qet quilted. I assembled the blocks into a wallhanging, and last week it was basted and is now ready for quilting. This is the way it looks right now with hundreds of pins:

 

My goal for February is to get this quilted and bound.

 

You can see more details of the quilt top in an earlier post here .

 

Linking up to A lovely Year of Finishes 2014  .



 

My Very Own Quilt

I have been quilting for over 2 years now, but I have never made a quilt just for ME, before now!

This quilt was started in 2012 as a Row Along with Lori Holt.  Every one/two weeks we got a new row to make. In the spring of 2013 I assembled the rows and attached the border. The back was pieced and the cute Bee Block attached, this can be seen in a later picture.

I started quilting it with decorative seams in between the rows, but then I stopped... I don't know why I just stopped, but the project was put aside. Last month I joined a UFO-busting project, and one of the projects I chose was this one.

There was not that much work left, but it is just the treshold to step over! Last weekend I finished the quilt, and here it is on a sunny, cold day in the forest:

The quilt is twin size, and it is basically made of scraps. If you click on the label "Quilt Along" on my side bar, you can see the different steps in the process.

In the nice late-winter lighting you can see the quilting. A decorative seam in between the rows, and then slanted parallel lines using the walking foot. The wind did its best to mess up the picture.

Here is the back with the Bee Block which I used as the label. But the block is so nice; maybe I will make a whole quilt with these ones?!

This stack of timber just begged to be used as a quilt display!

The last picture was not meant to be taken. I walked on my way home when I came upon this over-turned tree.  It went down in the storm during New Years.The quilt was thrown over what was left of the railing, and together with the tree it creates a dramatic display!

There is a steep drop next to this path, and the tree is just resting its top on the rocks to the right of the walkway. The poor tree had very little soil to grow in, and it couldn't take the tough winds. But, that's nature!

Keep on quilting!



Linked up to Link a Finish Friday and Crazy Mom Quilts .
 

A Fabulous Prize + New Label

A couple of weeks ago I found out that I had won a giveaway at Forth Worth Fabric Studio. Today the prize arrived in my mailbox; this fabulous bundle of reds and pinks.

The pattern is a freebie, and can be downloaded from their website. It will be a lap size quilt, and I just need to go out and buy the solid white/neutral fabric. I can hardly wait! But this quilt will not be made right away, because there are so many projects waiting in line... Anyway, I see plenty of good sewing time in my future!

I also ordered new labels to be sewn on the back of my quilts. I was running out of the old labels from the same supplier, and I also wanted a change in the design from the old ones. Here is my new label:



Jennifer's Jewels is my favourite place to go when in need of labels. The site is a DIY site where you design the layout in easy steps. I chose sew-on satin labels, and I am very pleased with the result. They add a nice finish to any quilt.

I hope you will check out her site if you are in need of labels; she does a great job, and ships all over the world.

Have a quilty kind of day!