Spring is in the Air

My Spring Chicken decided to stay on the outside of a drawstring bag. The bag had to be 10" x 15" for her to fit in.

Of course the chicken had to bring some eggs with her, and they are safely put on the back of the bag.

Will the eggs stay warm in the bag? If it gets a little cold, then the Pyramid Egg Warmer by easypatchwork will do the trick.

Thanks to my patient stone-egg model for showing off the design.

Oops, where did she go?


Well, enough of this nonsense (?), I have waited to publish pictures of a project of mine for a long time. The problem was just that the recipients read my blog, so I had to keep it a secret until the mail reached its destination.

Three cute fabric boxes survived the long trip, and they are all in good condition. Hope they will come to good use!

Linked up to LAFF #111 at Richard and Tanya's blog, and Fabic Frenzy Friday #9 .

Spring Chicken

...ready for Easter, almost.

Now I just need to figure out where she should stay!

2013 Aurifil DOM Quilt Finished

The last stitches, attatching the label, was done this morning, and it is now official; my 2013 Aurifil Quilt is finished!

My goal post is here:  ALYoF March Goal .

Vibrant, strong colors of this quilt. The 12 designer blocks were surronded by 8 blocks that balances the quilt.

By adding the extra 12" blocks in two different greys, the quilt is approximately 55" x  68". This is a good size for a charity quilt. The children's ward at my local hospital is in need of charity quilts for teenagers, and especially for boys. This one will be donated next month.

Black sashing and border frames the blocks perfectly. The quilting is done in a simple fashion, wavy lines of slate grey thread using my walking foot. As with my previous quilt, I had to audition several fabrics for binding, but ended up with a chocolate brown fabric which complements the brown fabric used in most of the blocks, and gives it a masculine finish.

A good view of the quilt on my porch. As you can see, we still have a good deal of snow in our yard. I hope it will disappear soon!

The back is a duvet cover from IKEA. The grey, wavy lines complements the front.

This quilt is also my 5th UFO completed for 2014.

Linked up to  2014 ALYoF and Linky Tuesday by Freemotion by the River .

Celtic Solstice completed

The weather did not let me take CS on an outdoor photoshoot all week, winter set a stop to that with lots of wet snow coming down. To get the daylight work with me, I took the quilt with me to the office to snap some photos. The building has large windows and even a skylight which lets a lot of light in.

Draped over the railing this picture gives a good impression of my queen size quilt. The colors look gorgeous here, just as they are in real life.

Here the CS is draped over the couch and coffee table. It looks good against the red carpet, grey couch and white wall.

Spread out on the grey carpet on the floor...

...and on the table top.

This is a closeup picture of the quilt taken last weekend, where the low sunrays showed off the quilting real good! Thanks to the fabulous quilter, Merete .

The back of the quilt was pieced with mainly two flower fabrics with some of the green border fabric in between, plus a stripe of extra checkerboard and of course elephants!

Linked up to Fabric Frenzy Friday #8 ,  Link A Finish Friday #110  and TGIFF.

Happy Quilting Day!

I have celebrated the day by sewing down the last meter of the binding on my Celtic Solstice. All together there was almost 9 meters, and  I spent about 3 evenings/days of hand stitching it to the back.

I got the beauty back from the quilter, Merete Ellingsen, a week ago, but I was busy with a hand-sewing class the whole weekend, and  didn't have the energy to start the binding before a few days ago. Merete, as always, did a fantastic job with the quilting.

I had to take indoor pictures, because we had a blizzard today, March 15! We have not had any snow fall since January 10, and that is very uncommon. We have had a lot warmer temperatures this spring than normal, and everybody was sort of getting ready for spring. But, last night, Winter decided to return.

The sun appeared for five minutes in the afternoon, and the low sunbeams show off the gorgeous quilting.

Concerning the binding, I had to spend some time choosing the right one. I didn't want to buy new fabric for it, and the one I had in mind did not work out. The quilt has lots of colors, in a scrappy, busy design. I chose a quite wide green border to get the quilt in queen size. I auditioned many different fabrics for binding, and none of the were right, until I found this black one with daisies.

I have used several black-on-white fabrics in the quilt, but I never thought I would use a mainly black binding for the Celtic Soltice quilt! But the white lines of the daisies soften up the fabric, and it really works out, don't you think?!

I will take more pictures when the weather improves; the quilt deserves to be portrayed in the correct colors.

Beside finishing up CS, I also basted my 2013 Aurifil Quilt, and started quilting it. My ALYoF goal for March is to quilt and bind this one . More work is ready for the next few days!

Happy Quilting Day!

Globetrotting - Chigaco

My new block in Pat Sloan's free BOM, Globetrotting, is called Chicago. This was a fast block to make.

Here are the blocks I have made so far in this BOM.

Happy quilting!

Think Ruffles! – All Ruffled Up

I have to confess, I have not been mad about ruffles, but hey, should I always work in my comfort zone? Why not challenge myself?

This is the first time I have joined one of  Mdm Samm's  blog hops. Thanks to  Amy for being our cheerleader!

I have done a little bit of ruffles approx. one hundred years ago (!), but after my two sons were born we have had a completely ruffle-free house. Now they are off to University, so maybe this is the time to play with some ruffles!?

The first question is: What to make for this blog hop? I could always put ruffles on pillow covers or pouches, but I felt like my main part of work had to be something different and a little more spectacular. The first thing that came into my mind was the class I took with Mrs Moen . She taught improvisation and work with ‘layer upon layer’ techniques. Ruffles could be incorporated in a wall hanging using some of the techniques I learned in her class.

My first entry in this blog hop is called ‘HST Cow All Squared Up’. It is a miniature wall hanging, only 7” x 8”. The half square triangles are made from bonus triangles after making chevrons for Celtic Solstice. (I knew those small triangles would come in handy some time!) The finished HSTs measure ¾”; that’s small! The cow is happily grazing in a pasture of ruffles.

The inspiration came from the following piece of art hanging on the wall at work:

After the ruffled cow was made I wanted to make something more spectacular. This is my main piece; an artistic impression of a peacock:

The gorgeous tail feathers are displayed with multicolored ruffles. The background is made using Mrs Moen’s technique where a green semi see-through curtain fabric is laid on top of a neutral fabric with lots of tiny leaves. With backing and batting all the layers were quilted with vertical straight lines using different colored threads. I did FMQ on the tree to make the wooden structure.

The body of my 'Peacock in Borrowed Feathers'  is fabric from an old dark red glitter top, and the neck and head is leftover from a dress I made when I was a student (!). (You can always find use for old fabric!).

The main eye-catcher in this quilt is the multitude of the batik feathers. I made ruffles of 2.5”x WOF strips for 8 different colors of batiks.

The close-up shows more details of the body and the head. Ric Rac with attached glass beads is like a belt covering up the seams on top of the feathers. Fabric of different textures tones down part of the main body. Large beads acts as the “crown” of the bird, and the eye is a small glass bead.

Of course my peacock had to take a trip out in the woods for a photo shoot. The branch was barely strong enough to hold the quilt.

I found the perfect binding for the wall hanging, it is a multicolored fabric with roses and butterflies, and it really brightens up the edge. The ending dimensions of the wall hanging is approx. 20” x 25”, and it is equipped with a hanging sleeve on the back.

Visit the other blog hop participants today:

March 6^th

Lily Patch Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Missy's Homemaking Adventure

Quilt in a not-Shell  <--That's me!

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

 QuiltnQueen

The full blog hop schedule is posted HERE .

Sew what about the giveaway?

I have made two more “traditional” ruffled items for the giveaway; a zippered pouch and a pincushion.

 

Two lucky winners will receive one each. Leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway, deadline is March 16, 2014. The winner will be announced on March 17, 2014. Make sure I can contact you via e-mail.

Thanks for stopping by and entering the giveaway! Good luck!

Have a ruffled kind of day!

EDIT March 17: Winners of the Giveaway!

The winners of my giveaway are Elizabeth  and Malini, who both have been contacted by e-mail.

Think Ruffles Blog Hop - Tomorrow is my day!

March 5^th

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Malini's quilts

Missouri Mel

Just Quilt It

In the Boon Docks

On the Banks of Frog Creek

Sparrow In Flight


 

March 6^th

Lily Patch Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Missy's Homemaking Adventure

Quilt in a not-Shell  <--- That's ME !

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

 QuiltnQueen


 

March 7^th

Ridge Top Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Let Me Quilt

MooseStashQuilting

Childlike Fascination

It Seams To Be Sew

Meadowbrook


 

March 10th

 

The Tilted Quilt

A Geeky Crafty Life

Constantly Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts

How arT you?

GrammieQs


 

March 11^th

Needle and Hook

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Blessings From Our Nest

Little House on the Dairy

Just One More Stitch

Creatin' in the Sticks

Just Sew Quilter


 

March 12th 

Quilted Delights

Patchwork Breeze

Sheila's quilt world

vicky myers creations

Words & Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Sew and Sow Farm


 

March 13th

Seams To Be Sew

Tea Time Creations

Sew Peace to Peace

mila+cuatro

All Thingz Sewn

More Stars in Comanche

Stitchin' By The Lake


 

March 14^th

 

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Jane's Quilting

Bear Creek Quilting Company

Ipiece to Mary

The Quilting Queen Online

Miss Priss Quilts

Sew We Quilt

 

March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes

This is my quilt top made out of the 2013 Aurifil Designer of the Month blocks. I added 8 more solid blocks to get the quilt big enough to be a Charity Quilt for my local hospital. I know they are in need of bigger quilts for teenage boys, because they get so many cute pink ones with horses and flowers.

Being a mother of two boys I know that this quilt will be accepted by guys; it has got bold colors and even a heart block, but is by all means a tough masculine looking quilt top.

My goal for March is to get this one quilted and bound. Possibly it will be donated to the Children's Ward by the end of the month.

Linked up to March goal Party of ALYOF,
and to Fabric Frenzy Friday #5 .

2014 Aurifil March block

This month I was early; here is my finished block. It is called Borders, and is designed by Emily Herrick.

Happy quilting!