Happy Christmas!!!

The binding on the last table runner was stitched down while watching Criminal Minds last night:



My bag is packed, Anton is fed, and all that is left is to do some last tidying up before I head out to my parents for white holidays:

Warm wishes for a very happy Christmas to everyone!!!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Two down, one to go

My table runner production continues. I have finished two more over the last few days. One "romantic, old fashioned kitchen" runner with stars:



The white isn't as white as it appears in the pic, and there is a pale blue floral print on it. I have stippled the background, and done a four-hearts stencil in the centre of the stars. This is a pressie for someone - hope they will like it!

And another one of the "Runner in an Evening" I mentioned earlier my Mum had asked for; the grey/lilac one - and I'm still tempted to keep it *lol*:

The quilting on this one is the same as the first one I made. The third (and for now last) table runner is quilted and the binding is attached, but I have still to stitch it down in the back. I'll show a pic when it's all done.

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Kjære nissen (Dear Santa)

Sorry for writing this letter in English, but if I don't your friends and helpers at the Fat Quarter Shop won't understand, and if they don't understand they won't pass on my wishes to you. I do apologise for not getting in touch for some time! It is not that I don't believe in you, but as you might have understood I have a very (un)healthy fear of men wearing masks! ...ok, they terrify me! Even your helper in my childhood home - bringing goodies from you - had me diving for cover under the dining table (and this despite I knew he really was the very nice boy next door you had sent over for my benefits). And as your helpers on the street, in shopping centres, in hospitals and everywhere else also cover their faces in plastic and false beards, I shy away.

But since your friends at the FQS have offered to do mail service and no false beards this time, I will crawl out of my hiding place and ask you to please bring me a Mill House Inn Layer Cake by Fig Tree to be made into a quilt of softness and comfort:

Or a Simple Abundance Jelly Roll by Bonnie & Camille for colour and brightness when the darkness of winter takes its toll.

I do promise I have been a very good girl this year! And I will do my best to stay out of mischief for the year to come!
Yours truly, Anne Ida

Table runner(s)

My Mum has asked me to make a couple of table runners as birthday pressies, and of course I said yes (even knowing I have more than enough to sew at the moment). Two runner tops are on my ironing table at the moment - ready for pressing, layering and quilting. A third table runner for a friend who had a birthday yesterday was finished by this weekend:



The back (love that centre stencil!):

The pattern is "Løper på en kveld" (Runner in an evening) by AnnAKa, from Quiltemagasinet 5/09. The other two table runners I'm working on are the same pattern, one in brownish purples, and one in grey/lavender. Pondering keeping the grey/lavender one *lol* Show pics when they are done!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

New Year's resolution 2009: reflections

Remember this post? In the beginning of January, Rose and I made a promise to ourselves and each other that for 2009 we were going to make what we love! We figured the UFO's weren't going anywhere, but we solemnly promised we wouldn't add anymore UFO's to the list. 2009 has been all about finishing whatever we wanted to start! So how has this been going? During this year I have started seven quilts (wow, is it really that many?):

1. The Sugar Camp Quilt
For me, this was the reason for the resolution in the first place; a deliberation whether to focus on WISPs and UFOs, or start something new. I hate to admit it, but this one is still at the "flimsy without border" stage - however I do still have hopes to finish it before the year is over! A little discipline!?!

2. Red & White Swap sampler
Wohoo! It was a lot of fun working on this one! The girls had done a fabulous job on the blocks! And I had a ball testing out my collection of quilt stencils and trying out different shapes in free motion quilting. The sign-up for this swap was in Dec. 2008, so not really sure if it should count… but the blocks weren’t sewn and swapped till January 2009, so I’ll let it ;o) FINISHED May 8th!!

3. Nanny Sharon's Picnic Quilt
A Threadbare Creations pattern I totally fell in love with when Rose published it back in October last year. It was a quick, easy and fun quilt to make! FINISHED May 24th!! Just in time for picnic season (it now have some tomato sauce and strawberry stains - shows it has been used *lol* - need a wash!)

4. Mini Bear's Paw
A reaction from doing those large quilts, I decided to make a mini - in four days ;o) FINISHED May 27th!

5. Sol's birthday quilt
This was started at DJ class with Hanne in March. This sampler was an experiment with blocks of different sizes - the smallest 4.5" and the largest12". FINISHED ehh... in time for her birthday July 29th!

6. Sister’s Choice jelly roll quilt
My oldest jelly roll was cut up in September - it was slow progress on this project, I was a bit un-inspired and I was spending my stitching time doing DJ blocks and working on some old WISPs. But this week I made the decision to get it done! I brought the binding to quilt guild last night, and I hand stitched quite a bit. Coming home I figured I was on a roll, so I spent a couple more hours on the sofa with needle and thread. And behold, it's FINISHED December 9th!



It has fleece on the back:



Not sure how much I enjoyed quilting fleece... So it's not very heavily quilted :o)

7. Carolina Christmas
This mystery was started in late November, and we are up to clue 5... I still have a little ways to go on step 4... I'm going to give myself a bit of leeway on this one - it is a huge quilt, and it has lots and lots of piecing... if I can get it finished in January I'll be happy!

Looking at my list of finishes I see I have been quite productive over this year, sewing smaller things in between these quilts. And if I can get the Sugar Camp Quilt finished by the new year - I will give myself a pat on the back and say "good girl" ;o)

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sewing Sunday

I'm back after a short but sweet visit to London :o) It was lovely to spend a couple of days with a good friend! She got me a belated birthday pressie, tickets to the theatre - we went to see Terry Pratchett's Nation at the National Theatre in London:

I'd say it's kind of a crossing between the story of Noah, the Gilgamesh Epos, and Robinson Crusoe - encompassing themes of death and nationhood, and some very Terry Pratchett elements, like a talking parrot with some rather naughty comments ;o)
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I got back late last nigh/early this morning, and had a bit of a sleep in today. Getting up, rain and a dark grey sky greeted me. Not weather to be outdoors! So I have been spending my day with Bernie, finishing up the units for step 3 of Carolina Christmas mystery. All 192 of these strange looking units:
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What on earth will they be used for? I have also a pile of 384 HST units stitched, ready to be pressed and trimmed to 2". These are all cut-offs from the units above, no way I'm throwing out that much fabric - there's the beginning of a whole new quilt here!
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Woohoo! I'll go peek at step 4 now!!!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Carolina Christmas continues

I have been cutting and stitching like mad the last few evenings - and having heaps of fun ;o) Bonnie's mystery has so many little pieces - loving it, but it takes lots of time and my back feels all those hours with Bernie. But step 1 and 2 are all done:

And I have cut all 784 pieces of step 3 - puh! And just barely started piecing...

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That plaid in front is my Dad's shirt ;o) Six of the sets of 4 are done, but all these pieces are going to take time, especially since I double sew all the seams to get those 2" HSTs Bonnie talks about:

There will be a lot of these little guys - 48 of them so far. I can see a whole new quilt coming along here *lol*. I'm going to London for a couple of days, so I won't be able to get back to these till Sunday at the earliest. Have a great end of week!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida