A little finish

When I had finished the picnic quilt on Saturday, I really felt like doing something small. I had seen this post over at The Quilt Room, and was inspired to give mini Bear's Paw blocks a chance. I started off with a test block that finished at 3 1/4":
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And found that to be a managable size and made five more. I did a very simple on-point setting, a plain border, and then some flying geese units that finish at 1"x1/2". Last night I did the finishing touches. The quilting is not too fancy - a very simple motif and some stippling. This is how it turned out:



The finished quilt measures 12 3/4"x16 1/2". I think it's pretty cute; and it was so much fun to do! I have a feeling there will be more minis made :o)

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

How come I can't quilt straight lines???

I do have a finish to show, but please be patient with me and let me pout a bit? Because this is a serious question! I have tried so many times, but keep on stretching either the top or the backing out of place. I have tried with my walking foot, and without my walking foot... what do I do wrong?? Rose has quilted straight lines in the sashing on Nanny Sharon's Picnic quilt, and I really love the effect, and wanted to give it a try. It started out ok:

...but once I started to put in more than the two lines, it stretched and it puckerd, and didn't look good at all! (...and in my frustration I forgot to take another pic!) I spent hours late Friday night picking out stitches! I ended up doing some swirly meandering:

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I really love the effect of it! ...but it's not what I planned...

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Here's a close-up of the quilting in the appliqué blocks:

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...and in the "plain" four patch blocks I used a roll of "Blocks Made Easy" pattern #202:

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The back while quilting was in progress:

I got up a quarter passed five yesterday, and quilted most of the day, the stippling in the borders took a lot of time. I finished stitching down the binding a couple of minutes passed midnight, and, ta-da:

So happy to have it finished for summer and picnic season!! I wanted to take a pic outside in the back yard this morning, so hopefully the colours would show up more correctly, but we had more rain again last night and everything is soaking wet (typical!). If it dries up during the day, I might replace this pic :o)

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

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PS! I promised to give my verdict on the Lickety Grip; I used it the whole time I quilted this quilt. My feeling is that it's wonderful as long as you don't have to take too much of the weight of the quilt. But it's not really strong enough to give a good grip in the centre of a large quilt - I wouldn't use it on anything larger than this one.

Some progress

You might remember I attended a Dear Jane class with our DJ guru Hanne back in March, and that I made some blocks using pastels. Since then my pile of the little blocks have grown a tiny bit - there are now 16 of them for my secret project #1:

I have been making some more elements for this project as well - just a small sneak peek:

The picnic quilt has been layered and basted, and is at the moment keeping Bernie company on my desk.

So far I have quilted a motif in the ten "plain" blocks, the other ten will be stippled around the appliqué flowers. I haven't decided yet what to do in the sashings and the borders, so there's still some ways to go. Hope to make lots of progress on it over the weekend, especially if the weather keep on being the way it has (rain... we had a huge thunderstorm last night...).

I'm curious about all new quilting gadgets, and at the annual meeting of NQA there were a lot of talk about "Lickety Grip" - quilting gloves in a box.

Of course I had to give it a try. I still haven't made up my mind on what I think about it yet... I'll let you know :o)

Have a wonderful and creative weeekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

B-day pressie

One of the very few things I bought at this years meeting of the Norwegian Quilter's Association was a kit for an oh so cute key holder with a Sunbonnet Sue appliqué. And behold, I have finished it:

I was on a bit of a deadline on this one, since it was bought as a birthday pressie for my Mum (at one point I contemplated just giving her the kit *lol*). Her birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated tonight, a joint celebration with my sis who has a birthday tomorrow - happy birthday both of you!!!



Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Gratulerer med dagen, Norge! Hurra for 17. mai!!!

Happy Birthday, Norway! Today is Norway's Constitution day - the constitution officially signed 17. May 1814.

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Finally...

After years of thinking about it, my Dad has gotten a national costume (Askerbunaden). My Mum has been busy embroidering the suspenders he's to wear with it. I got the honor of doing the finishing touches - and today they were finally finished:



The fabric is really hard to stitch through, and the thread is corse and leaves sore finger tips, so I have had to do this in small portions. But now they are done, and they look great, and he can wear them on Constitution Day on May 17th!!!

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There is an incredebly generous giveaway at the Inklingoprojects blog:

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A big thank you to everyone who commented on my red and white swap sampler! I have not been able to reply to everyone, since some of you come up with 'noreply-comment@blogger.com' - please check your settings and allow your e-mail addy to show?

Hope you've had a creative weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

It's finished!

I'm a bit behind on my blogging... And I have some quilty things to share :o)

Those of you who attended our quilt guild meeting a little over a week ago know I have finished my red and white swap sampler. This is how it turned out:



I have even gotten a label on it!



Big thank you to Gudveig, Gunn Torild, Heidi, Karin, Rita, Mona, Tove, and Åse who participated in the swap!

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If you have been following Guðrún's blog you know she has been to Norway. Along with May Kristin I was lucky to be able to spend a day with her and her SIL. We had a bit of a quilt shop marathon visiting Kathrine's Quilte Stue, Lappemakeriet and Lille Stasjon all in one day. And of course we had to go for pancakes when we were at Bærum's Verk:



Thank you for a lovely day, ladies!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Nanny Sharon's Picnic Quilt

My dear friend and very talented designer Rose published the pattern for Nanny Sharon’s Picnic Quilt back in October. And for a long time I have wanted to make it – I fell in love with the simple beauty of it. Last week I spent a lot of evenings frog stitching on a project I can’t blog (at least not for about a year), and after the frustration I felt I needed to do something I could master well yesterday, so I pulled some fabrics and this is the result:

The centre was done before bedtime last night, and the borders attached tonight. I just love how it turned out! I have used the same fabrics as Rose on the borders and half of the squares in the blocks – Cotton Blossom by Moda – but I only had one charm pack, so I added a pack of Dandelion Girl. The over-all impression of my version is a bit lighter and slightly more yellow and softer than Rose’s, but I’m very happy with it!

The quilting will have to wait a bit – I’m all out of batting at the moment, but more is on the way. I do have a plan for how I want to quilt it, though :o)

The pattern is written so clearly so you really can’t go wrong, and would be wonderful for a beginner quilter, but it is great even for those more experienced – a quick quilt that will be perfect for a present, no matter what fabrics you pick. Have a look at Pauline’s funky version – cool, hum? :o)


Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Dresden Plate by machine

A while back I made Rose a quick picture guide for the way I make Dresden Plate by machine. Today she tested it out, and in about an hour she had two plates ready :o) I figure that someone else might also have interest of this little list of pictures, so I thought I'd share it here:


1. Make a template the size you want your finished section of the plate, and add seam allowance to all four sides.


2. Cut the pieces for the plate.


3a. Fold the piece in half, and stitch accross the top, ¼” from the top.


3b. This is how they look chain pieced.


4. Turn the pieces innside- out, they will look like this.

5. Press them all, and you’ll have something looking like this.

6a. Piece the sections together in pairs, and the pairs into quarter plate sections...

6b. …then into halves

7a. Join the two halves together, and you are ready to press. Press the seams open.

7b. This is what itlooks like from the back.

8. Appliqué to background fabric, and appliqué a small circle to cover the hole in the centre.

FINISHED!!! Have fun!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

PS! Yes, the block is for my version of Rose's Tender Moments - I have a long way to go yet on that one....