Sew snow

Yesterday I woke to a white world. And with snow outside I want a wintry decor inside, i.e. I need to finish my Snowmen and Snowball quilt. I have used soooo much time thinking about how to do the borders, but none of my ideas sounded too good. In the end I decided to make it simple as well as use up even more scraps



Quite happy with the result ;o) Now I just need to figure out how to quilt it!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Butter Churn - finished

Actually I had planned a part 2 before the finished post, but once the blocks were pieced this little project came together a lot quicker and easier than I had thought. The top was all done by bedtime last night



Finished it measures 16" - and in that square there are 284 little pieces - yikes! As I mentioned I wanted to make another cushion for the sofa, and this is how it turned out

For this one I quilted a quick and simple loop d'loop meandering. It is backed it with a neutral fabric and turned and stuffed through one of the sides rather than making a pocket at the back. I then tied the centre and added a button covered with a scrap of one of the fabrics I had used in the patchwork.

Happy girl :o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Butter Churn - part 1

It has been quiet on this blog lately, and the explanation is that I really haven't been sewing much. But I have made a start on this month's Le Petite project: "Butter Churn" by Sherri Falls of This & That



As with last month's project I have made a dive into the scrap bag, and make a mini with some of the smaller pieces I have hoarded. Each of these 16 blocks finish at 3". Cute and fun - and I have a feeling there's another cushion on the go here :o)

Now I need to scavenge up some pieces for the scrappy border and get everything together, and hopefully finished by the end of the weekend...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Hand made pressies

My brithday was on Sunday, and happy girl me got some lovely hand made pressies ;o) I was lucky to receive one of Butterfly's lovely drawstring bags along with some yummy chocolate and a book I have heard nothing but praise about - look forward to reading it.


Not sure I have the heart to break into the chocolate - the wrappers are just so charming!

*

Would you know what this was?



Suzie posted this pic as a teaser on her blog - and I couldn't make out head or tales of it, until I opened the parcel she had sent and found a wonderful felted owl standing on a cushion (and a little note saying "owl always be your friend" - so sweet!).

There were lots of other goodies included with the owl - I feel truly spoilt!

*

For a long time I have wished for some proper sized soup bowls. My baby sister (yes, she is almost 9 years younger than me, so she'll always be the baby *lol*) works for a ceramcis production unit, and these lovelies have now found their way to my kitchen - have a feeling lots of soup will be served this winter :o)

Thank you so much, all of you!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Paganimini - finished

Pretty happy with it ;o) It finished 18" square before I chucked into the washing machine - then it shrunk about an inch. Since it is so small I used a thinner thread than I usually do for quilting - not sure that was a good idea - it didn't wash too well... but done is done, and I have learned something!

And no matter what I had lots of fun playing with the quilting! I have gotten a bit bored with my usual stippling so I wanted to try something different, and this was a great practice sandwich! A close-up of a corner



As I mentioned in a previous post I didn't really know what to do with this project, but I found I had a pillow form in my cupboard, so another sofa cushion wouldn't be out of the way. When I added the binding I stitched an "envelope" to the back of the quilt, and tucked the pillow form inside - after it had been properly shrunk in the wash - and this is now how it looks



Happy me! ... and I know I really need to re-cover that blue bolster cushion one of these days...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Paganimini - quilting and having loads of fun :o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Paganimini

Yes, I do know the name of this month's "Le Petite..." project is "Paganini", but...

On the one hand:

1. I really want to try to make all the little projects Sherri and Sinta has picked for this year
2. I really loved "Paganini" from the moment I saw a picture on Carrie's blog.
3. I had fabric more or less all picked from my stash.

On the other hand:

1. I really don't have much time for another project at the moment,
2. The fabrics I had picked didn't really inspire me once I sat down to cut them up,
3. I don't know what to do with the quilt once it's finished (bad argument since I have made so many quilts without having a purpose for them, but sometimes it is a block in the creative process)
4. I'm running low on batting and I can't prioritize batting shopping at the moment...

Get the picture? Everything negative started piling up in my head! Then I gave it one more thought... what if I dug into my scrap box for some little pieces, and used them as leaders/enders while working on other projects? If it didn't work out, I could always save the pieces for some other scrap project. At the moment we have:

Cute, aren't they? *lol* My blocks are made from 2.5" scrap squares, and 1.25" light squares so my quilt will be about the quarter size of the original - hence the name "Paganimini" *lol* I have high hopes of having the at least the top together by deadline - perhaps even quilted and bound?
Happy quilting!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Snowmen and snowballs - the continuing story

Thank you to everyone for your sweet comments on my previous snowmen and snowballs post, sorry I haven't been able to get back to all of you yet. Here's the continuing story; I have sewn some quick corners this weekend...





...and the snowmen blocks are now snowball blocks :o) Next is to get these together into a top, and figure out what to do for borders...
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Pressie

My dear friend gave me a challenge this summer; to come up with some type of container for C5 envelopes. Her birthday was on Thursday, so I figured I'd try to meet her challenge as a present. I did a lot of thinking, and what I ended up with was a simple box, kind of like the type you use for paper napkins, and then I added a lid:

I think we were both pretty pleased with the result :o) Oh, and I added a ribbon to the edge of the lid to finish it off, but forgot to take an after-picture...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida