Japanese Lanterns

Only a couple more finished blocks and I have pieced my "triangles" of one dark and two lights into two half rows. One more seam and the row will be whole:

I have been thinking about a name for this quilt. The original by Sue Daley is called Floral Lanterns - she has a lot of floral prints in it.Chookyblue is calling hers Blue Lanterns - her focus colours being blue. Most of my focus fabrics are japanese - stripes and florals. So for now my working name is Japanese Lanterns.

...still keeping within a floral theme :-)
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

More Lanterns

After making yesterday's post I did manage to do some stitching. I managed to put together enough pieces needed to complete my first row as well as a few more:

As anyone can see I still have some sewing to do before the whole row is put together. The total block tally actually grew quite a bit last night:

Especially inspirational to me is that Chookyblue now has pulled out her pieces for her lovely "Blue Lanterns" and have spent quite some time in the Chookshed playing with fabric, paper templates and basting glue - FUN! :-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

More Floral Lantern

This week has been busy at work, long days and not much sewing time - my total block tally has only gone up by three. But this weekend I have been able to do a little cutting and prepping:

Not quite as much as I would have liked, but still any progress is progress ;-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

The Beginning of a Row

Still having itchy fingers, andt while waiting for my paper templates arriving, I have been having a bit of fun stitching some of the blocks together - it has been growing during the day:

Sewing rows means I'm freeing up the paper where all edges are sewn so I can make more blocks *lol*. Only two more so far, making the tally of dark blocks 17.

I'm so thrilled with how this is turning out! There's still such a long ways to go, but I love these fabrics and they have been sitting in my stash for six or seven years, so it's about time they get out, find their way into a quilt and receive some love.

A ladybug landed on my foot while sitting outside at lunch time - the pic is a bit blurry, I had no way to focus because of the glare from the sun.

Back to work tomorrow...
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Floral Lanterns progress

I have been stitchin and having heaps of fun with the floral lantern blocks, I have been so diligent I have run out of paper templates, and is now eagerly awaiting a parcel from Lappemakeriet containing more; hopefully they will be here on Tuesday ;-)

A pile of the 22 blocks I have sewn since Wednesday night (quite a few of them during the rain we had yesterday!):

Not sure how to keep count of these blocks, but I have started a countdown list in my sidebar, hopefully it will keep me on track:

It has been slightly overcast today, but the temperatures are nice and warm and we have had periods of lovely sunshine, so Anton and I have been for a walk in the park

Happy hugs and stitches from Anne Ida & Anton

Summer Hand Sewing

Summer temperatures have found their way to Oslo, and spending time with Bernie doesn't feel too tempting. The corner where my desk and sewing machine is set up is fairly dark, and it gets a bit hot and stuffy when the sun warms up the bricks of the building. I still have ambitions of finishing my Park Bench quilt within the forseeable future, but at the moment hand sewing sitting outside enjoying the nice weather is more tempting.

I bought Sue Daleys Playing with paper pack 34 at some point after the inspiration night Kathrine's Quiltestue arranged back in April 2011, and it has been sitting on the shelf since. I have opened and closed it a few times thinking to do something with it, but feeling I should finish other stuff first. Now I have decided to give it a go:

The main part of the quilt is made up of only two shapes: the diamond and the jewel, while the edge has triangles, half diamonds and half jewels as well. The blocks are coming together very smoothly, and I'm having heaps of fun with this! Once it is done my quilt will be very different than the original Sue showed at the trunk show:

Enjoy summer!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Potholder

One of the reasons my Park Bench has been put on hold is I have been doing some smaller stuff in between the long seams. I have been thinking of making one of those long potholder-thingys for quite a while, and when I had trouble coming up with a birthday pressie for my Mom I figured I'd give it a go and see if I could come up with something she would be happy with. Don't think this turned out too bad:

To protect the top of the user's hands I made two star blocks using the Hex n' More ruler - the half hexagon and the triangle was used for the blocks and then they were trimmed down.

I cut some extra triangles and used them on the back to break it up a little. The "hand pockets" are lined with a thin batting while the main part has got a double layer of medium thick cotton batting. Hopefully no fingers will be burned! However when I gifted it to her today, I was told it would not be put anywhere where it might get grease, stains or burns... have a feeling it might end up as a "table runner"...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

HIPP HIPP HURRA! GRATULERER MED DAGEN!

200 years ago the Norwegian Constitution was signed at Eidsvoll, and today there's a huge anniversary celebration all over the country.

GRATULERER MED DAGEN!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Park Bench: Rows 1 and 2

Making oh soooo slow progress putting my Park Bench top together. Two down,
three to go :-)
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida