This and that - a long post

Internet has been out/unstable over the last week, and I haven't been able to upload anything to this blog (grrrr!!!), or to reply to any of your comment - please bare with me. Anyway, here you have everything I had planned to share since my last post in a loooong one (I'll try keeping it short).

I promised to share what Lise and I were working on last week and this is it:

If you are a follower of May Britt's blog, you might have seen a picture of it already :o) We had lots of fun playing with blocks from all over blogland (and from some no-bloggers):

We pieced the top, then Merete did some wonderful long-arm quilting, and Lise finished the binding on Friday night.

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When Butterfly visited a couple of weeks ago we had a little peek into my WISP cupboard:

And inspired by our talk I started piecing some blocks I cut well over a year ago in a frenzy of clearing out some flannels:
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Back then I got to the cutting stage, but no further. I still have 10 more blocks cut ready to piece. I have a lot of flannel to finish it, but it's only smaller cuts, though, so it will come out scrappy. Hopefully I'll get back to them soon!

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Remember I had a bit of a cutting session of Dear Jane blocks? I have done some piecing in the evenings, and my tally is now 37 blocks!!!



I have also done a bit more cutting, so I now have something to pick up when I have some time to relax in front of the tv, or take along when poping out to quilt guild meeting, visiting the parents or so on :o)
'
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Visiting Lise

At the moment I'm visiting Lise - and we have spent most of the day sewing in her large new sewing room (jealous!!! ). What we have been working on is not yet ready to be shown to the publig, but here is a small sneak peek:




I promise to share more soon ;o)


And she has gotten the long arm up and (almost) running. We had a bit of experimenting on a test piece - here she is in action.




Having a wonderful time!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Late night sewing

For well over a year there have been road work outside my flat - these days they are doing the finishing touches, which means night work. They have not been too much of a bother for me, except for the last couple of nights. Coming home from the cinema last night there was a lot of noice, and not much chance of sleep, and I figured why not get some work done on my Sister's Choice quilt - border sewing galore till way into the night:

It still needs a good press, but aside from that it's ready to be layered and quilted - yey!!!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

DJ prep'ing

Not much time and energy for quilting these days, but I do have one new DJ block to share:



And I took a bit of time this morning to prep eight more DJ blocks, so I have something ready when I do have a few minutes to sit with a needle:



As you might remember I have a goal of doing the whole DJ by hand - it is a SLOW process! My initial deadline was 2020, not so sure I will be able to meet it ;o) My tally at the moment is 27 blocks, 301 pieces, so there is a long way to go.

Wishing everyone a good and creative weekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

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PS! Pat over at Silver Thimble Talk is celebrating her 150th post with a fab giveaway!

Slow progress

It has been a few busy weeks, and I haven't had time to sew as much as I would have liked. But at least I can show a little progress on my Sister's Choice quilt:



The JR gave me 16 blocks that finish at 10" (I could probably have gotten a few more, but the contrast wouldn't be as good, better to use those strips in the border) - that does not add up to a very large quilt, so I have used some of the extra yardage I had for lattice, and some of the leftover squares from the block centers for cornerstones. I do have some ideas for borders, just need to find the time to execute them :o)

Take care and be creative!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sacrilege?

I have (finally?) put my rotary cutter to my oldest jelly roll - Canoe Country by Holly Taylor.



Honestly, it kind of felt like sacrilege! This JR has been part of my stash for such a long time, and I have thought long and hard about what I want to do with it, and not come up with a good answer... So an evening last week I figured why not make some Sister's Choice blocks - I have been looking at this quilt on Quiltville for a long time, loving it! This is how far I have gotten:



They are coming together smoothly, and it looks kind of cute so far :o)

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

Long time, no see....

...and so on. Hope everyone has had a great summer! Summer has gone by so quickly, with a trip to England and France, and a little time at the summer house. Hardly any quilting, though. Aside from the place mats in my previous post, I have only one finish and no other stitching to show. So what's this finish? Remember this post? What was jumbled up in that second picture was these blocks:



It's a 18" Dresden Plate, four 12" blocks (Batchelor's Puzzle, Bear's Paw, Castle Wall and Mill Girls), four 6" blocks which were my picks for the SBS block of the week program for June (Lemoyne Star, Fool's Puzzle, Weathervane and Sarah's Choice), and sixteen blocks from the DJ.

I set the blocks very simply with some white spacers, and some large HST units in a pale blue and white creating a diagonal effect:



I ended up with a piano key border, both because I think they are pretty, and also because I didn't have any large pieces left to use for a solid border, and I didn't have the time to go shopping for the perfect one :o)



This quilt was made as a present for my best friend on her 30th birthday, and I wanted it to be warm and snuggly for those chilly London winters, so for a backing I chose a very soft flannel. The flannel was slightly stretchy and a bit hard to quilt, and I wanted to preserve the soft feel - so I did a rather sparce all over meandring.

I gave her the quilt when I went over at the end of July - and she was thrilled :o)

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

A little bit of sewing

The sewing draught is still very much here... I haven't felt inspired to pick up a needle lately, and I guess you have noticed from the lack of blogging. The only thing I have done over the last weeks are these place mats:



I went to a friend's wedding this weekend, and I needed a pressie :o) I tried to go for a bit of a very light and neutral look. Rolled up and tied off with a bow :o)



I'm quite pleased with them, and I hope they will be enjoyed!

Enjoy your stitching!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

A bit of a draught...

Not much sewing/quilting going on here. I really haven't been in the mood, even though there's no reason for that. Guess it's just one of those times :o) For the last few weeks all I have to show for is one block - not perfect and it took me three days:



Now what is this? you might wonder. Well... My least favorits block (when it comes to looks) in the DJ quilt is the K7-Rose of Sharing, I just think it looks like a "blob". So I have not been looking forward to making it. Then a while back I saw Hanne had made a version of this block in two colours, and she had cut it wrong - giving it a totally different appearance, and I LOVED it! So I decided, why not make a "wrong" K7 for my DJ?

Hope you all have had an enjoyable weekend!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida