First Finish in 2016

Winter has finally come full blast with lots of snow. The blue light in the short days of winter is a good backdrop for my Color Me Happy quilt, all in a cold palette.

The quilt is made from a stack of 40 so-called Turnovers, or triangles. I can understand why this pre-cut has not gained any widespread popularity, since I had this stack in my shelves for a couple of years before I got inspired to use it.

I added solid stripes of 1 1/2" width in a contrasting color in between the triangles, sewed it together and squared it up to 10". Then I cut 10" squares in grey, light blue and white. I love the colors, they fit so well together!

The arrangement of the blocks are kind of random, and I like the way the contrasting stripes makes a kind of zig-zag path across the quilt.

I have not photo-shopped the pictures, because I like the natural light an overcast day has in the middle of a snow filled winter. An indoor shot of the quilt and more quilting details can be found in this post.

I used a leftover piece of Britten Nummer (from Ikea) for the back. This quilt will be donated to the children's ward of my local hospital, and I like that the children can learn to count in English when they use the quilt.

This is my 11th charity quilt for the hospital. I hope it will bring some comfort to a sick child.

Here the quilt is spread out on a huge pile of snow outside my house. I can hardly imagine that there was no snow here two weeks ago!

The snow was nice and dry, so after the photo shoot I just just gave the quilt a nice shake, and all the snow came off.

The quilt will be washed and dried before it is donated.

This is my first finish for the 2016 Finish-A-Long. My original goal list is here.

This is also my first finish of a UFO in 2016. I had the stack of triangles for approximately two years until I got the courage to make something out of it. It is never too late!

Keep on quilting!

Linked up to Let's Bee Social, Linky Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

My 2015 FAL - Q2 List

It is the second quarter of 2015, and a new list of projects I want to finish is due. Thanks to Adrienne over at On The Windy Side for keeping us in line.

For the first quarter my goal was to finish three projects, and I managed to complete two of them. Three is a good number, and that will be my goal for this quarter, too.

The above picture shows bits and pieces that will be assembled into a mini quilt. Batiks and a neutral fabric with tiny white leaves will be put together in a nice little wall hanging.

My Quatrefoil blocks are being sewn together and will become a great table runner for beekeeper friends.

Last, but not least, I put in the goal I didn't accomplish for the first quarter of the year, Love Squared by Lindsey Weight. Now the background fabric is ready and waiting to be cut into.

This list should be possible to accomplish; I am looking forward to a nice few months!

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 .

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!

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!

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!

2014 - First quilting UFO completed

In January 2013 I made this block as a test for my 2013 Aurifil Designer of the Month blocks, with leftover fabrics from Easy Street. Later I changed my color scheme for this BOM/DOM, and the block became an orphan. As a challenge in the Quilt Skandinavia group, I have joined the "Fem før fem"-challenge, i.e. finishing 5 UFOs before May 1st.

The orphan block was perfect for a pillow.

The pillow front was quilted with straight lines using my walking foot.

Here the pillow is in all its glory. It has an envelope closure on the back.

Now I can cross off my first quilting UFO for the year!

 

The secret project is revealed!

I could not reveal pictures of the quilt I finished in July before now. The reason is that it was given as a wedding present last Saturday.

Here it is on my floor. The light was a little bit bleak, so the colors do not show off as bright as they really are.

This was a Blogger's BOM from 2012, with contribution from 13 different designers. The quilt is a lap size, perfect for the newly weds to cuddle under. If you click on the picture, you will be able to see the quilting. It consists of a combination of FMQ and straight lines using the walking foot.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I used the Dogwood design from Oh Fransson! , by Elizabeth Hartman inside the individual blocks, swirls in the sashing, and pebbles in the corner stones. After that I got so tired that I could only do straight line quilting outside the blocks and on the border.

The backing is a duvet cover, and the binding is a red fabric with darker red, green and white dots. I also made a label with the name of the happy couple and the wedding date, in case they forget it...

The couple also got the two Swoon pillows I recently made, so now they really can cuddle!

The two love-birds were very pleased with the gift, and that makes me happy!

And, in addition, I finished another UFO , so that one is crossed off the list.

Linked to Richard and Tanya's blog.

UFO busting!

Last October I attended a class with Mrs. Moen , it was a so called mixed media quilting class. It was a speedy weekend with no rotary cutter or rulers, just a lot of fun and inspiration. I produced quite a lot of UFOs, and they have been stashed away until I was forced to do something about them.

Here are the two small wall hangings I finished a couple of days ago: Paper Flowers and Traffic Light.

The one to the left consists of a thin curtain-like fabric, a layer of different colored thin paper torn in pieces, thin batting and backing fabric. It was quilted with multi-colored parallel lines, and finished with a scrappy green binding.

The traffic light is made of thin paper cut with a dull scissor, organza and tulle on a white background. Different types of yarn are attached as decorations. Also this one is quilted with parallel multi-colored lines, and it got a scrappy purple binding.

Detailed picture of Paper Flowers:

Traffic Light:

This was a very fun class to attend. All of the participants were speed-sewing, and we challenged our way of thinking and sewing. It was very relieving to just "throw away" the concept of straight lines and thorough measurement, and just use the inspiration and live in the moment.

I have a few more of these projects to complete, and they will also be displayed on my blog.

Until then: Stay inspired!

Slow working...

Finally, one week into April 2013, I finished the December block of the 2012 Aurifil Designer of the Month . It took me an enormously long time to complete this stitchery, and I can't really blame it on anything particular. Maybe it was just me running out of steam... Anyway, here is the last stitchery of this BOM.

I liked the 3D-effect of the braids on the skier. I have a fairly good idea on how to put all the 12 blocks together, and I will do it as soon as possible.

Right now, I have started on my second barn of the Barn Along; to be continued...

Last finish in March

At the last meeting in my guild in 2012, we were given an assignment to make a thimble case. I started working on it that night, but I have to admit that it was put away for some time and became a UFO. Last Saturday, when my sewing machine was cleared away, I took out the little project and decided to have a go at it. It didn't take a long time to finish it, and now I am the proud owner of a tiny new case for my thimble!
A Must-Have for a quilter! :)