Happy New Year!

Wishing everybody all the best in 2016!

My Last Finish for 2015

My last finish for this year is this set of potholders that I gifted to friends yesterday. I needed to bring a gift to them, and as quilter it just had to be a handmade one. I used leftover blocks from a previous project and made these disappearing nine patch blocks.

I used Insul-Bright for extra protection against the heat. As you can see from these pictures we don't really need protection against heat, we really needed some warmth! When these pictures were taken it was a freezing -10 degrees C, and three days before there was no snow at all and +9 deg C!

Keep on quilting in 2016 too!

First Love - Quilt Top Completed

My first English Paper Pieced quilt top is completed, it is the baby quilt "First Love" designed by Lynette Anderson. It is a free pattern on her web site.

The close-up shows more details of the stitchery. I used only fabrics from Connecting Threads for this quilt.

This was my ALYoF goal for December; I managed to piece the EPP, finish the stitchery and join the two parts together. In addition I pin basted the quilt sandwich, and it is now ready for hand quilting.

I will enjoy staying inside working on hand quilting in this cold winter time.

Linked up to December's finishes party .

Folded Hexagon Coasters

The folded hexagon coasters have been popping up in blogs and on Instagram lately. With Christmas approaching I figured out I had to use my semi-Christmas fabrics to make these.

I started with strips of the different fabrics, and cut 4 1/2" hexagons using the Hex N More ruler.

First I made a test coaster to see if I was satisfied with the color combination and size. Six hexagons for the top were folded and "puzzled" together, with one hexagon for the back. The tiny gingerbread men are especially cute!

Wonder Clips were perfect to hold the fabrics together, and then there were only one seam to be sewn; super simple!

Turning them inside out and pushing out the corners and then giving them a good press, resulted in eight new perfect sized folded hexagon coasters! The fact that there is no batting in these coasters makes them usable for both an ordinary drinking glass and to put wine glasses on.

That gave me eight new Christmas coasters , now the holidays can begin!

Temecula Mini Christmas

My Mini Christmas Wall Hanging is lying flat on the cutting mat for the time being. See this post for the individual 2 3/4" tiny blocks. I love the block setting on point.

Thanks to Temecula Quilt Company for this fun quilting project during Advent. It ended up to be approx. 7" x 19 1/2".

It is quilted first in the ditch between the blocks, and then FMQ'ed slightly curved lines around the pieced blocks. I stitched small triangles on the back, where a dowel rod will be inserted for easy hanging on a nail.

Happy quilting!

Sew Mama Sew giveaway winner

Random number generator picked comment #206 as the winner of my Sew Mama Sew giveaway, congratulations Karen!

I will be in touch for mailing information.

First Love and Temecula

All the English paper piecing of the baby quilt First Love by Lynette Anderson is done.  The colors look better than I can reproduce in this picture, I have to blame that on the minimal daylight at this time of year. Now I will start the stitchery part of this little quilt.

The other project I partly finished this weekend was the adorable Mini Christmas QAL blocks by Temecula Quilt Company . The blocks are 2 3/4", and the setting choices for these little blocks were published on their blog today. I used only tiny scraps from my stash for this project. Now I have to decide on the block setting for the mini.

Both these projects have been really enjoyable and relaxing in these busy days.

Keep on quilting!

Giveaway Day!

The giveaway is now closed!

It is time for the most wonderful time of the year - Giveaway Day is here! 

Thanks to Sew Mama Sew for hosting this bi-annual event.

Today I am giving away a stack of four fat quarters from my personal stash. The stack contains 5 pieces of 18" x 22" each, with the same print in five different colors, all quilting cotton.

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To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post telling me what your Christmas dinner will be this year.

The giveaway is open to everyone worldwide. I will keep the giveaway open through Sunday December 13, and pick a winner on Monday December 14. The winner will be contacted by email, so make sure you have a valid email account.

The giveaway is over, and the winner is #206 Karen.

Don't forget to enter all the other giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.

Three more Tiny Blocks are made

...and then there were 7...

Thanks to Temecula Quilt Company for making this fun Advent Calendar.
Keep on quilting!

The Tiny Blocks are multiplying!

The fourth block of the Temecula Quilt Company Advent Calendar is completed, and here they are all together. Such a scrappy goodness!

Keep on quilting!

A Mini Christmas it is!

A fun, little Advent Calendar from Temecula Quilt Company, We Wish You a Mini Christmas. Thanks to Turid who gave me the inspiration to join.

The tiny blocks are 2-3/4" unfinished, and I get to use a lot of small scrap pieces.

Keep on quilting!

ALYoF Goal for December

This is english paper piecing project I am currently working on. In the end it will become a small baby quilt. The design is by Lynette Anderson.

My ALYoF goal for December is to make the embroidery part for the quilt, and finish the quilt top.

Later I plan to hand quilt the piece, but that will have to wait until 2016.

Happy quilting!

Nail Polish Colors My Yard

Being the mother of two boys, a nail polish quilt was the last thing I thought I would make!

I spotted this mini made by Lori Holt last year when she made her own version of a mini that Fat Quarter Shop designed. The original only has one nail polish bottle, but Lori's has six (!), that's a win-win situation in my book.

I think this is the best picture of the bunch, it is kind of difficult to catch the daylight in late November.

For this one I went on a treasure hunt in my scraps for the best colors for the polish.

The mini will be gifted to a teenage girl, and I am sure she will appreciate this wall hanging.

It is always fun to find unexpected places for the photo shoot.

I did a dense cross hatch quilting on the mini, using a parchment colored thread.

The size of the mini is approximately 20" x 19". The binding is a grey/black print that gives a nice frame to the quilt.

In the last picture you can clearly see all the tiny apples that are left on the apple tree. Most of the leaves are gone due to the freeze we had a few days ago, but we never picked the apples this fall. Spring came very late this year, and the summer was cold, and even though the fall was warm the apples never ripened properly.

The apples will become food for the deer that arrive later in the winter when the snow is deep in the forest nearby.

Keep on quilting!

November ALYoF goal achieved!

The little November house is completed, now there's only one month left of this BOM! The completed quilt is going to look lovely!

Outdoor Pictures are Always the Best

Just a few pictures in natural light during the weekend of my Scrappy Summer 2015 quilt. This photo is taken around noon after the first snowfall of the season.

Here you can see the backing clearly . Big HUGE raspberries gives a cheerful backside, and it is almost as colorful as the front!

The pictures were taken yesterday, and it has been snowing all day today. I wonder how much snow there will be tomorrow morning when I have to go to work again?!

This quilt will be donated, and is my 10th charity quilt to the children's ward at my local hospital.

Scrappy Summer 2015

The Scrappy Summer 2015 quilt got its green print binding hand stitched on last night, so now I can cross another project off the list. The quilt consists of 96 squares of a large variety of fabrics and the same number of four patches consisting of white and another solid.

The block setting is rather random, but I think it looks good the way it turned out in the end.The design is from Cluck Cluck Sew. The quilt is 48" x 64", which is a good size for a charity quilt. I bought he backing fabric at Ikea where they had a sale on it late summer/early fall for about 1 dollar a yard (!). The big raspberry print is perfect for backing for charity quilts for the children's ward at the hospital, it is cute and cheery to look at, and it was wide enough for not having to piece the back. The fabric was obviously a limited edition for the summer of 2015, and now I have enough of it for a few more quilts.

The quilting was a rather simple one: straight lines cross hatching the quilt. This simple quilting design looks good here, since the amount of different scraps made the quilt top look quite busy. I chose to quilt it with green thread both at top and in the bobbin, and I think that gives a great dimension to the back as well, with those giant raspberries. The green print binding completes the quilt in a nice way.

Most of the prints for the blocks were not pre-washed, but I don't fear for washing the quilt before I donate it. I have had good results using a couple of color catchers when washing quilts. Last time it was actually the green binding that had a bleeding issue, but the color catcher sheets caught everything.

I am sorry that I don't have any outdoor pictures of this quilt, yet, but it is dark outside both when I leave for work in the morning and when I arrive home late afternoon. The weekend will be good for pictures in natural light.

This was my ALYoF goal for November, and is also my third accomplished goal for 2015 Finish Along List over at Adrianne at On the Windy Side.

Linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday .