WIP coming together

I have added another photo to the WIP pool. I have been busy this week - I only have the top and bottom border to add and the top is finished! However, my back didn't agree with me about spending more time at the sewing machine, so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow. I had made very little progress on the quilt until last Friday, but joining the WIP group really spurred me on to do something about this project, so thank you Fiona at hop skip jump for creating the group :-) Now, if only I could find out how to make my photos visible for everybody - it seems you have to be logged on and a member of the group to be allowed to view my photos in the group pool, even though I've marked them as public. I must go and explore Flickr some more, I think... Here's a close-up of the floral fabric. As I was photographing it, it occured to me that although in my mind this has been my "Café de Paris-fabric" ever since I bought it, those words are nowhere to be found on the fabric. There are several French-sounding café-names, though, but my mind seems to have played a trick on me - oh well, I could just call it my café-quilt, I suppose...



The blue fabric I have used as a background for the hearts looks very bright in this picture. It is actually more like faded denim and goes well together with the soft florals, I think. I will add the final borders tomorrow and then it's time to get my backing fabrick out of hiding. I only hope it works as well with the rest of the fabrics as I think it will. Or maybe my mind has played another trick on me... ;-)

Little feet

I've come across the sweetest little felt shoes at Martha Stewart Living. Unfortunately there are no babies among my circle of friends at the moment (we might be getting too old...), so there's no one to make them for. Unless I make a new family member myself... No, don't get any ideas! That's not what I meant!


A few years back I made a couple of teddies, and of course, as it is with all new crazes, I started building a stash of fabric, patterns, joints, eyes etc. with every intention of making more of these sweet little things. There is a serious SABLE situation going on here (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectation) - how will I ever get round to making all the things I want to make?!!
In one of my books there are some photos of an adorable little teddy girl in baby shoes and that's the kind of thing I had in mind. Maybe this summer I'll dig out all that stash and make some sweet little stuffies, and then I'll have the perfect excuse to make some little shoes, as well. Hmmm could I have some more time please?

WIP friday

This is one of the projects I'm working on at the moment. I fell in love with (can one fall in love with fabric?) the Café de Paris print in the foreground with flowers and café signs - very romantic! - and bougt several yards of it. I'm making a lap quilt with six blocks with big appliqué hearts set on point, alternating with blocks of the café print and with sashing in between that will give the effect of a trellis lying on top of the blocks - sort of a 3D effect - I hope... I have only one heart left to appliqué and then I'll start stitching the whole thing together.
I have a great fabric lined up for the backing as well - one with French (?) windows and doors that will be great with these florals. I'm very particular about my backing fabrics these days - they should form a harmonious whole with the fabrics on the front, I think. This is especially important with lap quilts where the backing will be on display as often as the front. In my first years of quiltmaking I used whatever I had on hand for backing: old duvet covers and curtains in hideous patterns - anything big or cheap enough - and those quilts really make me cringe when I get a glimpse of the backs now. It just won't do - if I spend a lot of time (and fabric) making a quilt top and quilting it, I owe it to myself to use quality materials that are pleasing to the eye, throughout, I think. Sorry to make such a big song and dance about it, but that's my "humble" opinion, anyway ;-)


I have other projects lined up as well. Here are most of the fabrics for my house quilt. It also needs some brown and golden bits and pieces, but I trust my huge scrap bag - I will find what I need there, I'm sure! This is going to be my summer project starting tomorrow. There, I've said it - no excuses now, tomorrow it is!

These gems arrived last week. Isn't it funny that mere fabrics can give you a happy feeling and make you want to sing? I can hardly wait to do something with these beauties. Something autumnal (is that a word?) I think, with maybe a dash of turquoise for contrast. I'm thinking maple leaves here, but that seems rather obvious, so maybe not. Something more abstract, perhaps, something with big pieces so the beauty of the fabrics will play the main part. No doubt I'll spend some time playing with the colours and different patterns in EQ during the next few weeks to try to decide...

These are some glimpses of what I'm planning at the moment, but only some of them. What a good idea to use Fridays to show off our plans! It will give a good incentive to get something done so one can show off one's progress a week later, I think :-)

The solution

I told you I would come up with something ;-) This is how I ended up finishing the cross-stitch piece. It is to go in an album, so a frame wouldn't do, and if I were to mount it in a card it would be too big. So I ended up making it into a postcard by ironing it on to a piece of Fast2Fuse, adding a muslin backing and satin stitch around the edge. Not perfect, but finished! To show off the stitching properly I put it in my scanner, which makes it look a bit paler than it really is. And if the background looks a bit blotchy it is actually because it is stitched on a piece of hand dyed evenweave from Jayne's Attic. Lovely fabric, you'll just have to take my word for it ;-) Enough excuses for now - I'm quite pleased with it, and there's no turning back, as it is already on it's way to London... This means I can get back to my quilting. I have been out and about so much lately that my sewing machine is gathering dust where it sits neglected and sulking in the corner. Poor thing, it needs some company! It's not for lack of fabric either - I got some lovely loot from my latest trip and I have gathered all the colours I need for my house quilt, so I' ll start making small kits for myself to bring along wherever I'm going this summer. There is quite a lot of applique on this one, but one block at a time, and I'll be there eventually... I also bought some beautiful fabric in autumn colours that I can't wait to start using, but I'll have to come up with a pattern first. Something simple to show off the fabrics I think, hmm... must go and browse through some magazines and books .......

On a lighter note

Not such a cross stitcher today - I think I have worked out a solution for my cross-stitch, but more about that later. I have made a new bag. These fabrics have been lying around for a while waiting for me to get around to it. I bought some rick-rack recently and realized that the colours were perfect to go with the fabrics, so they were included in the design. The result is a summery bag that will go well with my new jacket, if I decide to keep this one for myself. I really need to clean out my hallway closet to make space for all my handbags - or I might give this one away - that might be easier... ;-)

A cross stitcher

I mentioned earlier that I was working on a cross-stitched piece as a present for a friend. A whole group of us are making pieces to be put in a photoalbum where the pockets are 5 x 7 ". I measured and calculated ever so carefully before I started, created a layout based on some free patterns from about cross-stitch.com, and stitched happily away. Yesterday I finally finished this piece and started to mount it, only to find out that I have miscalculated! I had decided to make a card to mount it in but realized that the d*** thing is too big. If I am to end up with a 5 x 7 card I'll only get about 3/8 of an inch frame around the whole thing, making it look cramped and akward. So the question now is what to do?

1. Forge ahead and decide that it is what it is,
2. come up with another clever way of finishing it or
3. stitch something else before mid-June?

Sigh! I'll have to sleep on it, and might yet come up with a solution, but it just makes me so irritated with myself. Why didn't I check my measurements better? Arrgh!!!

There, that felt good - I've got it out of my system and no doubt, by tomorrow I'll know what to do - I think...

Cake in a tie

This is a first. I haven't blogged about any kind of food I've made before, but I'm quite pleased with the cake I made today, so I felt like showing off :-). The occasion is my nephew's confirmation party tomorrow and I wanted to make something suitable for a young man. After several hours of googling cake decoration sites and noticing some nice formal cakes made to look like suits, I decided to do something similar, but more informal.
The theme colours for the party are a soft green and turquoise (remember "the old days" when we just used whatever party decorations we had?) so that was my starting point. A formal suit didn't seem right for our happy-go-lucky young man, so I decided that a shirt and tie would be better. As I was working it occured to me that forced to wear a tie it wouldn't be long until he had loosened it and opened the top button on his shirt, so I decided to do it that way, and to pull the tie to one side. This gave me a chance to make litle marzipan buttons as well. The pocket has a line of "stitching" all around and there is a small label with his name on. I hope he'll like it!
The cake itself is actually just an ordinary sponge cake split in three layers and filled with thin layers of strawberries blended with a little sugar and a generous amount of whipped cream mixed with caramel mousse. The shirt, tie and details are all made from marzipan. Not all that professional looking, I know, but still, I'm quite pleased with it!

Things beginning with "p"

I have made a few new postcards. These are phototransferred images that were printed on the wrong setting so they came out a little faded, and I tried enhancing the images by adding some machine quilting. The scanned images of the finished postcards also became a bit faded. I tried adjusting the colours a bit on the computer, but they do look better in real life!

This is a pincushion I made for an exchange. The pattern is from Martha Stewart. I loved the look of them in different shades, colours and sizes, so I might have to make some more, even though the others in my quilt group teased me about it. Apparently you can buy tomato pincushions for next to nothing at the quilt shop, but they are of the mass produced variety and not half as nice as these homegrown ones, I think! I bet they are just jealous ;-) The picture at Martha's reminded me of long summer days in the country with my grandparents when I was a child. On Saturdays we kids used to walk to the nearest farm and use our allowance to buy left over tomatoes from the weeks pickings. Our fistful of brown coins would be exchanged for a big brown paper bag filled to the limit with these lovely juicy "sweets" in all sorts of odd shapes and shades. I can still remember the taste when biting into a tomato still warm from the sun: like liquid sunshine. We'd start eating them on our way home (in spite of gran's instructions to wait until after dinner) and by the time we got back we'd have little room left for dinner. We'd have tomatoes with our lunch for the rest of the week, but nothing could rival that first bite on the way home. Forbidden fruit, mmm ;-) But I digress - I was talking about pincushions. I also recieved one from the same exchange. A lovely star-shaped one with lots of machine embroidered details:The yellow and green fabrics are bali fabrics with a gold scroll print on top on one side, which really gives you two different fabrics to play with (I have the same one in pink and turqoise, that's why I know!) and here it is used to great effect with the gold side out on one side of the pincushion and the "plain" side (which really is the most beautiful one) on the other side. What a lucky girl I am - thank you Camilla!

House plans

It's official: I'm about to start a new project. As I mentioned earlier, I fell head over heels in love with the quilt from Barb Adams and Alma Allen's book "Home Sweet Home". I had some problems with the size, though. It is supposed to be 76 1/2" square (190x190 cm) and in my opinion that's just too big for a wall quilt - for my walls, anyway... It would also be too small for a bed, and I already have my plans ready for another bed quilt, so I didn't really "need" one. I have decided that I'm going to reduce the patterns to 60 % of the original size, as that will make a wall hanging of aprox. 46" square (115x115cm), which will be perfect above my sofa. I have found some great fabrics for the background - one cream coloured one with beige roses and handwriting and another cream one with soft pink flowers. The dark pink fabrics are from my stash and will look good for the houses, I think. I'm going for an old fashioned "faded" look and I'm going to find a dusty turquoise floral for some of the details. That's actually the colour I'm thinking of painting my living room walls in, when I get around to it... But I think this quilt will look good with the present dark blue wall colour anyway! So now I only need to find some greens to go with the rest and I'll have my next hand-stitching project ready to go! I make most of my quilts by machine, but it's nice to have a project to take along to guild meetings and get-togethers at the quilt shop.

The colours of this project are quite different from my usual style - I tend to go for brighter colours, but after falling for Amy Butler's "Ginger Bliss" collection, I have found myself becoming more attracted to softer hues, and I have a few projects lined up, among others this quilt top. I really need to finish this one soon... The plan is to make a pieced backing from the same fabrics to make this a totally reversible lap quilt. I just have to find a slightly calmer fabric for the border.
Talking of bright colours, look at my latest purchases, "Fields of Colour"-fabrics from Fun Factory for Moda. These will look great in my stash for the time being...

I also fell for these from the "So you, sew fun" line from RJR - a feel a new tote bag coming on!

Placemats ready

Well, I'm working my way out of this muddle, and at least the placemats are ready. I settled in front of the TV last night to hand stitch the binding, and one exciting movie later it was all done! Today I have finished the top for the birdhouse table runner and I'm about to find some backing fabric for it. I'm off to my mother's for dinner today, and I'm taking the heart runner along to do some stitching on the binding for that one. Although it is a sign that a project is almost done, I can't say I like the process. If only I could find a way to machine stitch the binding on and still have it look good on both front and back, I'd be thrilled. I know I could make a generous binding and machine stitch in the ditch along the edge from the front, but I'm just too fussy about the way it looks on the back to be entirely happy with it, so hand stitching it is...

This is the pattern by Vera Fjellaas that was my starting point. I left out the branches and did it all in "my colours". By the time I had finished the first one I wanted to do something different, so the other one got a proud mother hen adapted from a cross-stitch design by Margaret Sherry. It is from a pattern I have paid for and I'm giving her credit for it and it is only for my own personal use, so I hope I'm not violating any copyright rules here...

Not drowning, just waving!

I seem to have stepped on to a sidetrack recently... I keep fiddling with all sorts of little projects and don't seem to get any "serious" quilting done. I started making some place mats for Easter. I don't really like using patterns, so even though I started off with one, I ended up in a completely different place.

When searching for the right fabrics in my stash I came across this lovely birdhouse fabric that I bought ages ago and have been unable to cut into. Right next to it was some Bali batik that seemed to go well with it, but I decided I needed something brown as a contrast. In my box of brown fabrics I found one with feathers - perfect! And before I knew it I was cutting and stitching and a new project was well under way.

The placemats didn't get finished before the holidays, but I have made an effort today and now I'm ready to put the binding on. Incidentally, I intended to make two identical ones, but that got too boring, so I ended up using a motif from Cross Stitcher Magazine for the other one - I knew I'd never get round to cross stitching this one, but a quick sketch of the picture and voila, a great pattern for appliqué. Is that stealing? Sorry Margaret Sherry! Pictures tomorrow, I think...



I bought these sweet paper napkins for Easter and the more I look at that great hen with her handbag, the more I see it as another wall hanging in applique and freestyle embroidery. But I won't go there, not yet...

And then there are the cross-stitch projects. I am working on the teapot one as a present for a friend, and of course there is my Emily Dickinson sampler that might get a few stitches now and again.

And then there is knitting. I have stitched the two front panels of a black jacket, I have started a red and black scarf and then there is the horribly expensive yarn I bought for a new Clapotis. I haven't even started on that one, although I'm calling that self-restraint ;-) Finish the jacket first, and then we'll see...

Throw in a few pincushions and some snow people and I have enough unfinished projects to last for ages, but I really want to start a new quilt, she wailed! Something a bit more artistic - I have all sorts of ideas, but this backlog of half finished items are pulling me down. I have to finish some of them soon and then my carrot will be that wall quilt for myself using Solvy, yarn, beads and miles of rayon thread. Hmmm, I'd better get that binding on and I'll be one step closer to that exciting project...

Sorry about all the mixed metaphors - I'm in a muddle here :-D

Feel free to comment

I just realized that the settings of my blog has only let people with Blogger-accounts leave comments on my blog :-( Sorry about that! I have changed the settings now, and I'm crossing my fingers, hoping it works!
I finished another handbag from Amy Butler's Madison pattern. For this one I used thin polyester batting instead of fusible interfacing and the result was so much better. The first one sort of collapses when you put it down, but this one keeps its shape. I was worried it would be too stiff and akward, but it worked really well, so I'll do that for the next one as well. - Yes there will be a next one: I gave this one to my youngest sister for her birthday last week. She loved it, and the middle one announced in no uncertain terms that she would expect one for her birthday in June as well. I don't usually like the idea of making more than one of anything, but it is nice when someone apreciates the work you do, so I expect she will get one... I have some new ideas to try out as well, so it looks like this will be one of those things that I might enjoy doing over and over. I haven't made one for myself yet either...

Pink glow

Things have been hectic here lately, so it's been a while since I posted anything at all. With lots going on at work and in the evenings I really haven't spent that much "quality time" with my computer. Not that I'm complaining, mind you! Parties both last weekend and this one - so there are people who want my company. And then a few visits to the quilt shop became longer than expected because we had so much fun. It resulted in even more fabrics and a few new books, but a great time was had by all, and I can always use the fabric as insulation :-D Friends came to visit, and good food was enjoyed, so all in all I have been having lots of fun!

Even with all this going on I managed to finish my Project Spectrum challenge for March, just a day into April. I played around with all my pink and red half square triangles and ended up with this:

Some lime green was added for extra interest, and as a hint of things to come (the April challenge) I added a yellow and orange stripe for the binding. The picture doesn't quite do it justice - the green isn't quite as bright as it seems, but blame it on the photograper(me) or the camera (old digital one). Anyway, I'm happy with the result and this is one I'm going to keep. The strange proportions for a table runner makes it difficult for anyone else to find a use for it anyway - it is custom made for my thrift shop coffee table!

I seem to be very into pink lately. I don't know why . I have always been more into bright colours and a lot of green, blue and turqouise. I still am, but keep beeing tempted by soft hues lately. One of the new books I have bought is this one: Home Sweet Home and I'm seriously considering to start making this. Very soft and pink, and almost big enough to go on a bed, but not quite, and certainly far to big to hang on any walls here. So what's a girl to do...

Ready to play

It has been a great quilting day! I met up with a group of other quilters from my guild and we spent a happy day chatting, stitching and laughing. I decided that I couldn't be bothered bringing my sewing machine along, as I had to go by bus, so I sat up until late last night stitching through paper to make half square triangles for the Project Spectrum challenge. That done, meant I could spend the day trimming the squares and peeling off all the paper while chatting away, so I didn't realize that all the boring bits were gradually being done.
It is great getting together to see what everybody else is doing - such an inspiration! One of the girls is working on a Quilt University project that included a lovely finish - the binding was stitched on from the back and sewn down from the front with a tiny bead added for each stitch - such a lovely effect! I must try that sometime...
The day passed quickly and before I realized it all my squares were ready, so a few hours of sleep and I'm ready to play! I can't wait to see if it works out the way it does in my mind. I love the lime fabrics in the mix and think they really "lift" the reds and pinks to make them even better.
Now for some beauty sleep (as if that will work... :-D)

And here's the bag!

My Chelsea Tote is finally done! A few design opportunities along the way, but here it is. I have a serious flaw: I can't seem to leave a turquoise fabric alone in the quilt store - a piece of it has to come home with me. The result is a box full of them and I managed to find 18 different ones that went well together for this bag. But the thing is you can't see any inroads in my stash, so I have to think big if I'm ever to reduce that stash :-)
However, it was the bag I wanted to show off, it has a shoulder strap with a zipper in it so it can also be used as a backpack. With two ways of closing it is probably the most versatile bag I have made so far. And if I ever get bored when I'm out and about with my new bag, the lining provides interesting reading material!
I am well into my next project, the table runner with curvy hearts. A bit of hand basting now and it will be ready for quilting. My Project Spectrum runner is next in line. As I mentioned, my stash had a serious lack of red fabric, so today a little shopping expedition was called for. My new red fabrics are now washed and hung to dry, so tomorrow I will be ready to go! I don't know if it's just the weather - all the snow and slippery pavements we've had to struggle with lately has got me down a bit - all the signs of spring were there, and the next minute the world was white again- duh! Things haven't been too great at work lately either, so today I decided it's time for a little r&r and I have decided to take a day off on Friday. Lovely! A whole day to do what I like, I felt the stress slip of my shoulders and my spine straighten just thinking about it. Just one more day at work now and then a loooong weekend to look forward to - lovely!

Seeing red, but not enough...

I have started a new project today! No, the bag is not finished yet, but the last bits and pieces will be done by hand. Because of the mistakes I made I had to make some adjustments: I have added binding to the seams on the inside. I could have left the edges as they were and just zigzaged to stop them from fraying, but I have one bag where I did that and I'm forever turning it inside out to shake out all the fluff, fiber and gunky bits that seem to gather in the bottom. Hate that! So, binding it is. Only drawback is it has to be stitched down by hand. I also have to add binding to the upper edge, but it's coming together the way it should, so a bit of hand stitching in front of the box tonight and it should be done.
I have gathered my reds and pinks for Project Spectrum, but haven't started cutting them yet. I'm worried I might not have enough reds, but that's just an excuse for a serious Stash Enhancement eXpedition, isn't it? ;-) I've never thought of myself as a "pink person", but funnily I have plenty of lovely bright pinks. I don't know about those reds, but come to think of it I made two kids' quilts with lots of reds in the borders before Christmas, so that's where they went!
In the meantime I've started on a new table runner with curvy hearts. Some of the reds are going into that as well, so there you go - I do need more red fabric! So far it doesn't look like much, just some squares, some of which are folded into triangles, but some time in the company of my sewing maching might make this more interesting... And it is painfully obvious from the picture that my cutting table needs a good tidy - piles of fabric from recent projects must be put away to make room for more - now why didn't I do that along the way?

Design opportunity

"There are no mistakes, only design opportunities" to quote British quilter Dorothy Stapleton. I finished stitching my turquoise strips together, got my wonderful lining fabric out of hiding, spray glued my quilt sandwich and quilted the whole piece with some great variegated thread only to realise that I was supposed to quilt only the top fabric and batting, and leave the lining to stitch the inner pockets on, before I sew the quilted piece and the lining together. Sigh! This is why I usually don't use patterns. No way am I taking the quilting stitches out, and a new separate lining is no option. I wont hide the great "Drama Queen" fabric from Michael Miller designs, so new solutions are called for. I will try to stitch the outer pockets on through all the layers and the inner pocket will be stitched on by hand through lining and batting so the seam doesn't show on the outside. I will have to add binding strips along the edges, but I think I might make it work. And it will be my very own version of something that started out as a standard pattern. Who cares! I think I might prefer the bag this way actually - no loose floppy lining and a much firmer bag will be the result. I think. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I've signed up

It's official - I have signed up! Lolly's idea is sooo inspiring, and after seeing some images of red and pink fabrics here and there on the web I decided that I want to play too! I have decided on my first project - a table runner made from triangles (I'm keeping it simple), and I start pulling fabrics from my stash tomorrow in between quilting and stitching sessions on my new bag. I can't wait!

New project

I have cut all 18 strips for the new turquoise bag. I have had this project in mind for quite some time now, but somehow I haven't been able to get around to it. But now at least the strips are cut and I'm ready to start stitching. It has been a busy week - no crafting and no blogging :-( But I have set aside the weekend for all things stitchy. No Saturday trip downtown, a minimum of housework and some quality time with my sewing machine is what I have in mind. The bag I've started is the Chelsea Tote, but I'm going to stitch all my strips of turqouise together to use for the main body of the bag instead of using a single piece. I'm auditioning several fabrics for the pocket - maybe orange or fuchsia... More about that later. I have so many new ideas at the moment - a great meeting at my quilt quild on Wednesday brought lots of inspiration! One of the members showed a bed quilt in blues, yellows and a dash of lime green that I have been lusting after ever since. After reading about Project Spectrum and seeing this lovely pile of red and pink fabrics at Be*mused I'm thinking of signing up for the project myself, maybe using the block pattern from that blue and yellow quilt and make a table runner or something in reds and pinks, with just a little dash of lime... mmmmm :-)

Lazy day

I've had a lazy day in town today :-) I'm usually so full of plans for my weekends with all the things I want to do. My head is full of lists of housework, quilt projects and everything that I feel I need to do to use my time well, but today I didn't do anything and the sky didn't fall down... I thought I' just pop into town to pick up a few odds and ends I needed and ended up spending the whole day in my favorite quilt shop, my favorite restaurant and then the quilt shop again! It was great! They were having a miniature workshop that I hadn't signed up for - not quite my kind of thing... But several of my friends were there so I popped into the class room to say hi before I sat down in the shop with one of the owners who has become a great friend. We had coffee, discussed different patterns and projects we want to do, I bought a few things, and then some more... In between I helped out with several of the customers, more friends came by and we went out for lunch. Then back to the shop - I found fabric to make two new handbags from the Amy Butler patterns - as if I didn't have enough projects on the go... and a good time was had by all. We are just so lucky to have this shop, it's become my second home, probably like the corner shops you hear about from the olden days where the whole community meet to gossip and chat. Eventually I made my way home, head full of ideas and belly full of taco, not to mention the substantial Espreschoc I had for dessert - lovely, but a bit too much really - I won't need to worry about fixing any meals for a while...
I won't bother about doing anything "sensible" now either, just settle in front of the TV with my knitting, I think. I think a lazy day was just what I needed after a busy week :-)

And this is the result!

I finished my little house quilt today. I had trouble deciding on the colour of the triangles surrounding the house and ended up with blue sky with stars. I had an idea of making it look as if it was floating in space, but it didn't quite work out that way. With a darker sky and maybe continuing with the same fabric in the border I might have made it work, but then again, maybe not... Anyway, I'm quite pleased with it. As a sample for the class I might teach at the quilt shop next month it will work just fine. So tomorrow off it goes to the shop. If enough people find it interesting enough to sign up for the class, I'll have a bit of extra work. I'm in two minds about this. The only teaching I have ever done is a small embroidery group one Saturday last year. Is this really something I'll be able to do??? I have taken enough classes to know what doesn't work, and my reasoning is that if I make the class into something I might have enjoyed as a student, it will work - I think...If I'm able to get my ideas across to them? Come to think of it I have run several workshops at the guild as well and they have turned out OK. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. The handbag class in April is definitely going to happen though, there's a waiting list already!

The builder

My house is almost done. I only have to decide on some fabric for the background and frames. I've been auditioning several different fabrics, and I'm leaning towards a blue one with stars - the house-block is a bit weird, so I thought why not let the whole thing be floating in space? Another idea was to use a green foliage fabric to give the idea of a house in the woods. Or maybe some neutral fabrics... Hm, I'll have to think about that until tomorrow, or Friday more likely... -I'm going to a work convention thing tomorrow - a long trip, so I'll probably not be up to doing much when I get home. I hope to get it done by Saturday though, so I can take it to the quilt shop for display - there might be enough interest to run a class...
When this is done I'll finally get started on my turquoise Chelsea bag. I know I promised myself I'd finish the tree skirt before I started anything new, but Christmas is miles away and I have to do something else right now. I don't want quilting to become a chore, so a break is necessarry I tell myself ;-)

Cuties

I just had to share: Came back from a meeting at work on Friday and there was a parcel waiting for me. Apparently my "little" sister had been downtown and popped in to say hello. Sorry I missed her, but I loved the present she left for me. She's started making these little felted creatures, and I told here I loved them, so she made some for me :-) aren't they cute?

Bags of fun

I finished both the handbags. I'm still not sure about the Velma one, it's a bit too soft and floppy, so if i make another one I'll use something sturdier for the interlining. I love the Madison one, though (the yellow one), and I think I'll make one for myself in a different fabric. These are for the quilt shop and they are both on display now. Apparently ten people have signed up for the class already, so it's definitely one that will take place! I have until April to plan the actual teaching and maybe make another bag. It's not like me to be so organized, something is bound to go wrong...
I think my sisters might like the different styles, so I might make one more of each (half done for the class so I can use them to demonstrate the process). And, as I mentioned, another Madison for myself. Maybe with longer handles so it can be used as a shoulder bag, we'll see...



I couldn't help myself - I had to start a new project to celebrate ;-) It's a one-block quilt of a 3D house from a book by Sarah Nephew. I bought the book and ruler to explore easier ways to cut and piece building blocks and other shapes with 60 and 120 degree angles. It's not to difficult to use, although there's a lot of leafing back and forth, since the pattern I've chosen uses parts from different patterns and I also have to keep going back to the instructions to make sure I'm doing it right! Being left-handed doesn't help, so I have to adapt the techniques a bit, but I'm getting the hang of it now. Here's half a house and some trees ready to be stitched:

A little bit of sunshine

I have been a bit lazy lately - it's about time to post something, the whole point about this blog thing was that I would use it to talk about my things in progress and remind myself what I was thinking at the time... We had a quilting get-together a while ago with no set topic, just that we were to make something yellow and cheerful to remind us of summer and sunshine. So that's what I did! I made some sunshine - it's like two pieces of a sun stitched together with a zipper in it, and what is it for, you might ask? - Well, to keep my sunglasses in of course! What better reminder of summer than this. I was in a hurry when I took the picture, so I only found my "ugly glasses", so I might have to take a new picture later on. I stitched the strips together by machine before I left and did the rest by hand - couldn't face lugging my sewing machine all the way - told you I'm lazy :-D. The pattern is by Norwegian designer Hanne Asplin Firman, by the way.

I've been doing something different lately: The owners of my local quilt shop have asked me to hold a class in making handbags. It isn't until April, but we agreed that it would be great to have the bags on display in the shop asap, to tempt people into signing up for the class, so I'm busy stitching along. The bags are Madison and Velma by Amy Butler, to be stitched in fabrics from her Charm collection. The fabrics are so lovely that it is a joy to work with them. I'm a bit worried about my abilities to teach, though, but I'll think more about that later.... I'm taking notes about dos and don'ts as I'm working. I have already discovered that using heavy linen instead of canvas as an interlining in the Velma bag is a definite don't! The first bag came out way to soft to hold it's shape properly, so it's back to the sewing machine. And before anyone gets too worried about copyright issues - yes, all "students" in the class will have to buy their own copies of the patterns! I'm mentioning this because I think copyright is such an important issue - there are way too many copycats out there...