Real Scrappy!

I just finished cutting 80 6"x 8" rectangles and 80 2.5"x 8" strips, and used 82 different fabrics! I didn't know I had that many fabrics in my stash; this will be a real scrappy quilt!

This will be a challenge for the July ALYoF goal.

Enough cutting for today, now I have to use the sewing machine to fix DS1's Dri-Fit Tee...

The South Park Bag

I am not making bags very often; as many other quilters I am most comfortable making things in two dimensions. But, with all those gorgeous bag/tote patterns out there, one of my ambitions is to overcome my "fears" and make a few with different techniques.

The first one out is The South Park Bag designed by Jennifer Mathis from Ellison Lane. The outer fabric is from IKEA, and the lining is a plum colored solid I bought from Connecting Threads.

The other side of the bag shows shows a feather-like design. The bag is closed with a magnetic snap.

Inside the bag there is a divided pocket. I also added a key fob chain to have a safe place for the keys.

I am very pleased with the result, and I may make this one again, but first I will try out another design!

This was originally my May goal for ALYoF, but it isn't that bad getting it finished one month late.

Linked up to link-finish-friday-124 ,  fabric-frenzy-friday-21 and linky-tuesday.

Making a friend smile!

A colleague of mine was in Istanbul, Turkey, earlier this year. When she came home she gave me three fabrics she had bought there, quilting cottons with tiny little flowers on. Of course I was surprised and grateful for this fantastic gift. The fabrics were laying around for a long time, but finally I got the time to make something from them. I chose to use my friend's favorite fabric of the three, and made a zippered pouch for her. The free pattern can be found here: pattydoo.de . I used the purple flower fabric she loved, and added some fabrics from my own stash.

View of the outside of the pouch.

The pouch is not big, but it is surprisingly roomy.

When I took the gift to work the next day, she was totally surprised! She had a rough day at work, and wasn't feeling all that great. Getting this pouch cheered her up and brought a big smile on her face; she was HAPPY!

I am so grateful for making her day!

Keep on quilting!

Another Charity Quilt finished

This weekend I put the last stitches in the binding of the charity quilt I have named 'Pink Dream'. It will be donated to the children's ward at my local hospital.

A real girly quilt with all that pink, and not to mention the panel in the center. Here the quilt has gone though the washer and dryer cycle, and is all ready to be donated.

Here it is before washing. I quilted it with daisies in the two white center stripes, and "leaves" in the outer white stripes.

The outer pink borders were quilted with wavy lines, and the other pink/blue stripes got FMQ'd hearts and loops all over.

After the dryer cycle the quilt is nicely wrinkled, and has a great cuddly feeling. This will give great comfort to a little girl!

This is the sixth quilt I have made for the children's ward, but the first girly one. Nice to work with with some pink for a change!

Happy quilting!

Quilting of charity quilt

I have started quilting the charity quilt from this blog post. My Janome is still in the shop for maintenance, so I had the choice of waiting until I got it back, or try to free-motion quilt on my old Pfaff 93.

This machine is approximately 50 years old, I think, and no one had ever done FMQ on this babe. When I got my Janome more than three years ago, I didn't even know it was possible to do it on my Pfaff ! But, what do you do when you have to quilt? READ THE MANUAL! The manual  has survived all these years, and amazingly, there is a little lever to lower the feed dogs! When found that out, it didn't take me long to test drive and adjust the tension to do great FMQ! Actually, it is easier to quilt on this old babe than on my Janome!

This is the first, ever,  FMQ done on this machine. I don't feel confident in free motion quilting, yet, but I do know that practice is the only thing that matters. I quilted daisies in the white borders, and hearts and loops in the middle field. I like the way it turns out!

The old babe does a good job, but the pedal gets a little hot when it's "run to the metal", so it needs a little rest. What's better than write a blog post when it cools down?

The instruction manual is "literature of another era", the sewing machine is German, but the manual is written in Danish.  The pictures are quite interesting, like this one:

Who would operate the foot pedal with those high heels?

I don't know when the machine is manufactured, but I would guess late 50's or early 60's. Anyway it is a solid and good working machine, and I guess it will be used more now after I discovered the good quilting abilities!

Happy quilting!

BOMs for June

I have joined two free BOMs this year, the one from Aurifil and Pat Sloan's Globetrotting.

This is the 2014 Aurifil June block, designed by Heidi Pridemore.

This month's block for the Clobetrotting BOM is called St. Louis.

It was good to do some sewing again after finishing the picnic quilt. My Janome is in the shop now for some much needed maintenance, so these two blocks were pieced on my old Pfaff 93.

It is a machine probably over 50 years old, and it weighs a ton (almost)! No plastic in this babe, only solid metal. I haven't used it for more than three years, but after a few drops of oil it is purring like a cat and sewing perfect seams. I think I'll even try to do some FMQ with it, too, even though that has never been done with this machine before.

Happy quilting!

A Perfect Picnic + Giveaway!

I just had to join another blog hop, and what better than having a Perfect Picnic in early summer?! Thanks to Madame Samm for organizing the blog hops, and Mary for being our cheerleader!

The temperature could have been better the day of the picnic, but in my part of the world the weather is a bit of a gamble this time of year. A few days earlier we had a blazing 20 degrees C (68 F), but on the weekend of my Perfect Picnic it had cooled down to 10 deg C (50 F). At least there was no rain!

I chose to have the picnic in a recreational area, a forest, close to my home. It is a popular area used by joggers, hikers, families with children, dog walkers, and also cross country skiers in the winter time. There are lots of nice trails to walk or run on.

The picnic basket was packed with all the goodies for a Perfect Picnic. My oldest son, fresh home from University for the summer, accompanied me. Up in the forest there are not many flowers, so this beauty behind the basket will have to show you which season we are in.

My picnic quilt is all wrapped up, ready to go. It folds up into a nice tote with long handles, very easy to carry over the shoulder. My square cow is decorating the bag, but with no ruffles this time (Think Ruffles).  As you can see on the previous picture, I even appliqued baby cows on the napkins to match the square cow on the bag!

This is how the quilt looks on the back. The bag is attached at the top of the quilt. The fabric on the back is a thick cotton quality, and should be durable and not show off stains easily. Perfect for outdoor use.

I took a few pictures of my quilt on the porch before we left, so you can see it without any obstructions. I found the design in a Norwegian book, and the quilt is just perfect for a picnic for two. It is made completely of fabrics from my stash, including some scraps. Scrappy friendship stars  and applique are the main items, but some of the fabrics didn’t need anything extra to make up a complete block. I have quite a few different animals with me when I go on a picnic!

The water melon looks yummy, I could almost eat it straight from the quilt!

The label on the wine bottle is taken from the neck of a recycled shirt. The size and wording of it makes it perfect for a wine label, in my mind! Strawberries in different states of ripeness makes the picture complete.

As you can see the forest floor is covered in spruce and pine needles, and the dark color gives a nice contrast to my quilt.

The menu for my Perfect Picnic was simple finger food: I had baked some rolls with ham and cheese inside, served different types of cheese on crackers, and of course grapes and strawberries were in for added color and taste.

Hot coffee and chocolate chip cookies were the perfect dessert.

We didn’t bring a game, but my son entertained me with all kinds of stories from University. When he got tired of talking and took a walk, I took out the book I had brought with me. It is written by the French author Muriel Barbery, and it is also available in English translation where it is called The Elegance of the Hedgehog. 

This is my absolute favorite book, a complete goodie bag of lively language and phrasing (at least in Norwegian translation).

This was Perfect Picnic, in spite of the cold temperature. The perfect company of a young man in his early twenties with all his stories and the muscle power to carry a heavy picnic basket, was vital for the success.

We even got a visitor during our picnic; a little squirrel ran past us just a few meters away from the quilt, and then it came back the same way after a few minutes and climbed up a tree! A perfect ending for a perfect picnic!

Make sure to visit the other picnic parties today:

Tuesday June 3

Ridge Top Quilts

A Stitch in Time

Quilt in a not-Shell <--That's me

Just Let Me Quilt
Creativity Amongst Chaos

Full schedule for the blog hop is HERE.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for reading this much text and looking at all these pictures.

Since I had few domestic animals in the fabrics of my quilt (except for the scotties) I decided to make a pouch using fabrics from Lynette Anderson fabric line Mending Fences, portraying roosters and hens.

For a chance to win the zippered pouch, leave a comment here telling where YOU would have your Perfect Picnic.

The giveaway will be open until the end of the Blog Hop, Monday June 9. Random number generator will pick the lucky person, and the winner will be announced as an edit to this blog post on June 10, as well as well as contacted via e-mail. Make sure you have a valid e-mail address.

The giveaway is open to everybody. Good luck!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT June 10: The winner of the giveaway is Marsha
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linked up to Link-a-Finish-Friday#121 and Fabric Frenzy Friday.

Cat and Sunflower mini quilt

We got a challenge in my quilt guild to make/show off a quilt with sunflower(s) for the next guild meeting. I found this free pattern on internet from The Quilt Company, and made the mini in an evening.

I don't have sunflowers in my garden, but my apple tree is blooming. Soft pink and white petals are lovely, too! And the apple blossom perfume is stunning, I wish you could smell it!

Make sure to visit my blog on Tuesday 3rd for the Perfect Picnic!

Happy quilting!