Park Bench - Block 8: Stoll

The final block is Stroll and I just love this one! Notice the similarities to block 7? The only difference is the strip pieced diamond for the star.

And I just love how it makes the star look kind if swirly like a whirly-gig and at the same time has retained it's "star quality". Almost a shame there's only one of this block is required for the quilt ;-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 3: Hopscotch...again.. and again!

Seeing the blocks for my Park Bench quilt coming together I have become less and less happy with how my Hopscotch blocks turned out. Remember my previous ones? The contrast isn't all that good, and the stripe fabric makes the blocks look messy. For my second attempt I included a pale pink polkadot and scrappy reds. While these blocks have a cleaner look, the star points are lost and it kind of look like some sort of hexie flower. AND that pink really clashes with all the other fabrics I have used. It didn't look too bad when I auditioned the fabric, but once I put these next to the other blocks it looks flat and out of place

Soooo... I decided to do a third version... And this one I'm quite happy with. However Hopscotch will probably never be my favorite block :-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 7: First Date

Starting to see the finish line with the blocks for Park Bench, only one block to go. These First Date blocks were lots of fun to do! There's quite a lot of piecing - 42 pieces pr block - and they came together so smoothly!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Blocks 5: Festival and 6: Card Game

I have made a little bit more progress on my Park Bench quilt. These are probably my favorite blocks in the quilt. A lot of piecing and also some frogstitching to get the placement right on the Festival block, love how the triangles intertwine on it.

The Card Game block came together really smoothly, and I just love the look of it! Feeling my fingers itch to make more of these blocks. This is the same block that's in Jaybird Quilts Night Sky quilt... hmmmm... thinking here ;-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 4: Sing-along

Sing-along i the fourth block in Jaybird Quilts' Park Bench. Each of them have 48 pieces in it - 30 triangles, 12 diamonds and 6 jewels - a fun block to make, but all those pieces took quite a lot of time to cut. Happy I have the ruler set for this quilt, using the templates in the book would probably have been even more time consuming.

While I was cutting the pieces for Sing-along, I took the time to cut some more pieces. The setting diamonds between the hexagon blocks are all pieced from triangles and half hexagons which would be perfect to use for leaders and enders while piecing the blocks and at the same time make faster progress on the quilt top.

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 3: Hopscotch

Remember playing hopscotch as a child? Block 3 of Jaybird Quilts' Park Bench is named Hopscotch and it kind of reminds me of one of the patterns which we used to play as kids

I remember we played lots on different layouts; there were permanent ones painted on the asfalt in the school yard, and whenever we were out of school and had a piece of chalk available we would draw one.

The six blocks so far layed out together - sorry the lighting is bad

 - having fun with these :-)
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 2: Ball Game

Tonight block two of Park Bench was cut and pieced together. The pieces come together really smoothly and I'm really enjoying piecing these rather huge blocks!

This block is called Ball Game. I'm not really sure I see where the name for these blocks come from, but they are fun anyways :-)

Thinking maybe I need to include some lighter fabrics...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench - Block 1: Picnic

I had some fun today piecing together the first two blocks of my Park Bench quilt and they came together really smoothly. Both are made from the first blockpattern - Picnic

The quilt has 15 blocks in it, seven of the blocks are repeated to make two, and then there's one extra. The blocks finish 16", which is huge to me who has a comfort zone piecing blocks in the sizes 6" to 9".

I'm very happy with my choice of dark oldfashioned pinks and greens I showed in my previous post, but I do see that I will have to include a bit more value to the to colourways so the blocks will really "pop" - hence the brighter pink in these blocks, and there will be some light lime green in the next block.

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Christmas Greetings substitute

In an earlier post I mentioned I was probably going to substitute a block or two for my Christmas quilt. However, I  wanted it to thematically still would work in a Christmas quilt, and not be too different from the block i changed. So the choice of a Snow Chrystal block wasn't so far fetched:

In my part of Norway there's a bit of a jeopardy if there's snow on Christmas or not, but still there's always the hope of waking up to a white Christmas.

What block did I replace? There's no secret I have a teeny-tiny scare of applique, and of course one of the final two blocks in the original sampler has some applique in it - this is Flower of Christmas:

Picture copy: block from the original 

Christmas Greetings from Elm Creek Manor by Jennifer Chiaverini

Not too different are they?  Just the center that separates these blocks, and I wanted to do a block that had more or less the same overall appearance as the Flower of Christmas.

The Snow Chrystal block is patterned in the Elm Creek pattern books, but the pattern is for a block with lots of Y-seam construction  made from diamonds, triangles and squares. I don't really mind doing Y-seams, but strip-piecing is rather quicker, and since I do own the Rapid Fire Lemoyne star ruler, and have become quite smitten with it (it's not a love-match, though), I decided it would be a good way to go. However, using this method there will be some more seams to cross when quilting...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Chimneys and Cornerstones

Quilting is therapy - our small safe place where we can loose ourselves in beauty, instead of chaos. But time spent at the sewing machine stitching together soft and colorful pieces of cloth is also for reflection and thought. While listening to the disturbing reports of the tragedy that has taken place, I have worked on the border blocks for my Chimneys and Cornerstones quilt. 

As you know I started this quilt way before the occurrences on Friday, but over the last couple of days I have become more aware the symbolism of the block. The red squares stand for the warmth of the fireplace and the love of home, as well as the cornerstones of our lives and society. The light side of the block represent the joys and happiness of our lives while the dark side is for sorrow and tragedy. But as long as the fires keep burning and the cornerstones stand there will always be more joy than sadness. 

I do not have a fireplace in my flat, but will keep a candle burning for the lives cut short, those hurt and still missing, and all who experience loss and sorrow in the tragedy of this weekend. 

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Lucinda's Gift q.a. week 2

Yesterday started the second sewing week of the Lucinda's Gift quilt-along on the SBS & Other Elm Creek Quilts yahoo group. Since I won't be able to play with Bernie this week, but had some time on my hands yesterday, I put the pedal to the metal and stitched a load of (i.e. 16) chimneys and cornerstones blocks - see, all my blocks laid out together



This will be such a fun quilt! And I have enjoyed re-visiting some scraps I had forgotten about completely, and some scraps from quilts that are dear to my heart. Next is a week of stitching border blocks - they are a variation of the chimneys and cornerstones, but the sewing is a touch different - looking forward to that :-)

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Fresh blocks and Golden Syrup pudding...

...best way to spend a gray and rainy Sunday? Yup! Friday started our block sewing on the Lucinda's Gift quilt-along, and I'm not sure how much I'll manage to sew in the evenings in the week to come, so I have tried to get most of my blocks done this weekend. 21 of this week's 24 blocks are laid out on the floor



Love the scrappiness of them! I have tossed everything and anything from my scrap box in there - regular quilter's cottons, muslins, homespuns and batiks in a bright mix. I think this will be a great quilt ;-) At least I'm having heaps of fun stitching the blocks!

While cutting and stitching I have been catching up on some MasterChef Australia, and on one of the episodes  the contestants were making Golden Syrup Pudding, I tasted this yummy dessert when I visited Rose, and I have had the recipe hanging on the fridge door. So I decided today was the day to try making it. However I did have to do some changes to the recipe due to my low-stocked fridge: I didn't have butter so I used margarine and I had to use yogurt instead of milk.



It came out looking pretty good, even if the top was a bit cracked. However it was quite soggy in the bottom, so I ended up cutting that part away. But with a big dollop of yogurt on the side the taste of what was salvageable was really yummy!

The sourness of the yogurt really played well with the golden syrup. Gonna try this again, and get it cooked a bit better. I usually share the recipe when I show some of my cooking, but since this isn't my recipe I'll let anyone interested e-mail Rose in stead :-)

EDIT: Rose has generously allowed me to share the recipe, so here it is:

Cake
1 egg
1.5 cups self raising flour (we don't have that in Norway, so I used regular flour and a tsp baking powder)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
40 g melted butter

Syrup
30 g butter
2 tbs Golden Syrup
2 cups boiling water

Mix together the cake mix. Combine syrup ingredients in a separate jug and pour over the cake mix. Bake in a 180 C oven for 40 mins. And e-mail Rose a bowl full!!!

Have a lovely Sunday!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

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

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

Snowmen and snowballs

I had intended to begin this post saying it's a bit early for snow, but reading Stina's blog just a couple of hours ago I have to eat my words - brrrrr! Anyway, this post is supposed to be about embroidered snowmen and snowball blocks :o)

When I made a post in beginning of June about playing with small scraps resulting in a pile of blue and cream star blocks, I received this lovely e-mail from a dear friend of mine accross the pond:

Hello friend, over there, around the world....
I was looking around today, and was just inspired by your blog. You have been playing with some blue HSTs and wondering what you will set them with. What came to mind for me were snowball blocks with your blues. I would like to create some embroidered blocks for you with my machine! I have some cute snowmen that would look nice, or perhaps you could give me some direction. I have many designs and I need something to get my creativity going again [...]

Who am I to say no to such a sweet offer? Coming home last night I found a parcel in my mail box - opening it I found these:



Aren't they cute? So many charming faces, snowmen, snow-women, snow-cats, reindeer with heaps of charm :o) The two cats are in honor of their two family cats, Isabelle and Maestro



And look, one of the snowladies is carrying a bag with a Friendship "F"!



Thank you so much, Shelley!!! I had a bit of a play today, and layed out your embroidered blocks along side my pieced stars

Looks great, doesn't it :o) Now I'm going to have heaps of fun stitching quick corners on those blocks, making snowballs!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Playing with small scraps

I needed a quick gift for someone, so earlier this week I had a browse through my scrap boxes to see what I had I could use. What I ended up with was this cute table topper:



The only pieces cut from stash is the binding and the backing, everything else is from my box of 2.5" strips and squares.

Since the grown-ups received a table topper, the little one in the family had to have something too, so I made another one of these fabric cubes:



This one is a fair bit smaller than the previous I made - each square finishes at 3"; and perhaps more suited for small hands :o)

While I was diving throug the scraps I also found a box stuffed with HSTs. When Bonnie posted the Carolina Christmas mystery she recomended we "double sew" the points on the poinsetta blocks and saved the cut-off triangles for some later project. So I did! And just stuffed them in the box and more or less forgot about them. Now they turned up, and since the iron was hot and I was in the mood for some more smallish sewing I started pressing and sorting.



This is how it looks at the moment:

There are enough HSTs for six more of these blocks (the squares in some of the blocks come from my 2" squares box). I don't really know what to do with them; maybe just set them with some light squares and a simple border? I need to do some thinking....

Hope all have a great and creative weekend!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida