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

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

Ready for binding

Wooho! The red and white sampler is ready for binding!! I have been quilting on it for most of the weekend - my shoulders and neck letting me know I went a bit overboard. And looking at it, I think I went a little nuts *lol*



I had originally thought only to stipple the white and do something simple in the border, but some of the red areas in the blocks were so big, I felt they needed some quilting as well. And since this is a sampler, I figured: why not do some sample quilting? Ehhh... so this is where I went a bit overboard - doing a small feather circle, two loopy leaves, three small linked hearts, some feathered hearts, a border stencil and some X's in the blocks + two different stencils in the borders - one linked hearts for the long sides and one cable stencil for the short sides:

And since I was on a roll of trying new "quilty" things, I also tested a Quilting Made Easy block:



It really was easy to do the motif, but I'm not sure how much fun I think it is to pick out the paper after it's done.

The overall look of the quilt is a little "messy", but I enjoyed myself immensely on this, and it will be a fun quilt to look at in the future.

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I had a break from the quilting last night. Along with some friends and about 7000 locals I enjoyed the outdoors big screen live broadcast of the premiere of Carmen at the Opera. We sat on the Opera house roof, enjoying the perfomance going on inside; the gorgeous music, fresh air, and the sun setting over the harbour. A night to remember!





Hope you have enjoyed your weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

What I did

Thank you to everyone who gave me an input on what to do on the borders of the red and white swap quilt! Your suggestions got me thinking, but in the end I did something a bit different from my own and your suggestions:

I brought the cornerstones I used between the blocks with me into the corners of the white border, I did a solid red on the edges, and made four extra 6" blocks for the corners. It was fun to do, and so far I like the result. My friend Yvonne has been over, and she helped me layer it, and now it's pin basted and ready for quilting. Not completely decided on what to do, but it looks like it will be an over-all stippling in the white, and then maybe something fun in the borders :o)

Hope you're having a happy Easter!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sashing....

Remember these red and white swap blocks? Ever since I received them I have been pondering how to set them, and haven't really come up with a good plan - so today I decided to go simple! Just add some white sashing and some dark red cornerstones:

Sorry it looks so wrinkled, I know it still needs to be pressed, but my shoulders need a break after all those long seams. And I still haven't the faintest clue to what to do for borders - maybe just a narrow white inner border and a solid red outer border? What would you do?

Hope you have had a creative weekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Even more red and white blocks

The weather at the moment is kind of crazy - it snowed most of the day yesterday, and there is trafic chaos in these parts of the country. The trains didn't run last night (so I ended up staying the night at my friend Leisha's place - after freezing on the platform for 3/4 hour - thank you so much for putting me up!), and going home this morning there were heaps of cancelations and delayes, what normally takes me 35 minutes took 75! This is how a corner of our back yard looks at the moment, we have not gotten the most of it, and they have cleared away lots since last night:

Last week the last two blocks in the swap arrived from Karin - thank you so much for these two beauties!

Chisholm Trail and Friendship Star Variation

With these I have 16 blocks - two I made for myself of the sets I sent away, and 14 I had received from the other participants. I want a quilt with a straight setting, and I want a rectangle rather than a square, so today I have made four more blocks.

Contrary Wife, Mill Gils, Bear's Paw, Ohio Star

The setting will be 4x5, I'm not completely decided on sashing, cornerstones, or what to do, but I'm thinking to keep it simple :o) Just for fun I layed all the blocks out on the floor to see how they looked together:

Looks great, doesn't it? I have to shuffle them around a bit before I put them together, though :o) Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this swap!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

More red and white blocks

I promised to keep you updated on the red and white swap blocks; since my last post another four beautiful blocks have popped into my mailbox:

Mona made the Corn and Beans and the Baby Bud; Gudveig made the See Saw, and Rita made the Pieced Star.

Tove has made the Churn Dash and the Annie's Choice block. Thank you so much, ladies! You do wonderful work!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Red & white, Black & Bright, and some more progress

Two more red and white blocks popped into my mailbox today, these lovelies are from Åse:

Brasstown Star and Broken Dishes

Thank you so much! They will look wonderful with the rest of the blocks! I have a feeling this sampler will be great!

This weekend there will be a quilt-together for "Warming Quilts" in Elverum, and along with some of our other blogging friends I'll be going to May Britt's to join in. I have been having a bit of a guilty concience about these blocks...

...that I swapped with some of the girls at the fabric-swap club in 2007 - so I have decided to bring them along and see if maybe I can't put them in a quilt this weekend.

I also thought I'd share some of the progress on my Sugar Camp Quilt:

14 mountain blocks to go, and the appliqué of the worm fence, indian trail, creek and mill wheel. Hope I can get some of the appliqué done in the next few days.

Have a wonderful quilty weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

More red & white blocks

Look what I found in the post today:

Two gorgeous blocks for my red and white sampler - this time from Gunn Torild. Thank you so much!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Swap blocks

As mentioned in this post, I'm doing a block swap with some of the members of the Scandinavian Fabric Swap list. I didn't stitch much through the holidays, but I managed to finish my 16 blocks, and got them sent off. This is how they all looked:

They look like a pretty collection, don't they. I hope the ladies like them!

Today the first blocks from one of the other ladies arrived to me - Heidi has sewn Balkan Puzzle and Mississippi - look at these pretty reds:

I have asked for blocks in red and white, and I think this will be a fun quilt :o) I have started playing with ideas of how to set them, but haven't really decided yet - I'll wait till I see how all the blocks plays together.

Hope you have had a creative week so far!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Test stitching blocks

The Scandinavian Fabric Swap Club is having a block swap of 12" blocks from the Quilter's Cache. I have signed up for "On the Oregon Trail" and "Prairie Queen"; today I did a bit of a test by making a block from each:

They turned out about 1/8" too small, so I have to adjust to a scant quarter inch seam allowance for the swap blocks - lesson learned :o)

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Thank you so much everyone for your comments on my Christmas quilt! I'm so happy you like it!

Hope you are having a great quilty weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida