July Focus

 

It is a rainy and blustery day, and it is perfect to spend some time in the sewing room. 

This month's focus project in the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge is #1 - and I was already done with #1 in January. 
I've just went through my challenge project list, and I found that I do not have anything there that I am drawn to finishing in July. 
Therefore I picked an Ufo from about 1 year ago. 

I promised my dear daughter #1 a set of placemats..... 
She needs at least 5. 2 are partly done, 3 are not yet started - perfect focus project for this month. They will finish circular and will have bindings. 
Perfect for mindless binding sewing later this month 😁

We are just back from a week on the south coast. Dear husband is going back to work tomorrow, so with a bit of focus I should be able to move both the placemats and these socks forward.
I am shrinking my yarn stash too 😁

💖Wishing you a good day where you are💖

Hanne

June tally

 

The Kingfisher quilt is done and I am so happy with it. 

It has the perfect size for a lap quilt and I use it all the time. 

I did not expect to finish this in June, binding and all. 

                     

I am looking forward to see what project out of 10 Deana draw for us to do in July! 

Without the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge this quilt would not have been done in June. 

It is summer here in Norway. We do have a few days of vacation right now. I have brought knitting and some Sashiko, which both are easy to carry, needing minimal space and very few tools.

Since summer in this part of the world is not very long, we have to take advantage of every day the sun is shining. Doing easy hand work in the sun is so nice!

It has been like forever since I made myself a dress. I saw one that one of my friends have sewn. I was inspired to do one myself and it was great fun.

The fabric is cotton chambray and both the fabric and the pattern come from the Scandinavian store Selfmade.

I will make more garments in the future. I need more dresses and I also have a very nice big shirt pattern  that needs to be used. 

So, even in a life-got-in-the-way-of-creativity month, 2 finishes are great!

I  have not been good at answering comments recently - I do apologize - and hope to catch up soon! 

For the first time every I have brought my computer on vacation. There is a will, there will be a way. 

Take care - wishing you a wonderful day where you are 💗

Hanne

Chookshed Stitchers Challenge - June

 Deana has picked project #10 as June's project. 

This quilt is my #10
It is partly quilted - and it is like a quilt as you go project, with the top and bottom border fabric not yet sewn to the rest. 
I can not promise to finish this quilt this month, but I can promise progress by daily thread(s)

I tried to put some daily threads in in the beginning of the year - it did not work at all. 
I think it will work better this time!

1-2 threads a day, starting today. Go me! 

Did I mention I have several other projects on the sidekick list? 
Well - no idle hands in June - just saying😁

Hanne

May tally

 

I made it! The hexagon top is done 💖
This has been so fun to piece - filled with joy and happy memories!

Together with the small lipstick pouch, I have met my goals, and more,  for May. 

I will machine quilt this top sometime after summer, on my domestic sewing machine. 
I have a plan!

💖Wishing you a lovely day where you are  💖

Hanne

Sunny May days

 

We have had some beautiful sunny days, and I have been sitting out on the veranda knitting. 
My knitting fits nicely in the yellow pouch from April. 

I do have a one knitting at a time rule, and I had to finish a pair of socks for my two grandsons first.

I have been dragging my feet on these socks. I do not enjoy doing embroidery like knitting stitches, which I had to do for these faces. 
I do like the finished socks though, and they were very well received 💖

 

I have started the last 2 rows on the hexagon lap quilt. I have very much enjoyed the process!
Daily thread(s) has really moved this project forward 😍
This top will definitively be finished quite soon - sooner than what I expected. That's something to be happy about.

💗 Have a lovely day where you are 💗

Hanne

First finish in May + Thoughts on Ufos

 

Some time ago I found the pieces for this little pouch in my stuff. It was already traced and I had already done about 10 stitches with dark blue on the waves on the front piece. 

I am not sure why it was put to the side, but I do know it must have been around 2012-2013. 

Was the blue to dark? 

Anyway - I picked the dark blue thread out and started again, and now the little pouch is finished and in daily use, holding my lipstick in my purse.

I think it is cute and it was fun to finish it.

The design is by Natalie Bird / The Birdhouse

The hexagon quilt top is coming along nicely. It is nice to see it grow, and I am working on row 13 - 15 of 17 as we speak. After row 17 there are some gaps in the first and last row that will be filled in with half hexies.
I think I will be able to finish this top through May. That would be lovely.

Something has happened to how I look at my unfinished projects.....
My unfinished projects are unfinished dreams. Some (very few) do not spark joy or creativity anymore, but most of them will be taken care of and finished in one way or the other. 

I have more (many more) stitcheries that will be finished into quilts or other things. Every stitch has brought me joy and comfort, and deserves to be finished. I am very looking forward to work on them.

I like minimalism.
For some minimalism and quilting do not go together, for me they do. I need space to dream, think and create, if you know what I mean. 

I need less unfinished projects, I need less stored fabrics. 
When we lived in a bungalow, we had a lot of storage space. Now we do not have much storage space at all, and I need to keep on adjusting my belongings (read fabrics) accordingly, so my sewing room will be big enough for everything that I own. It is not a big room and it is a guest bed in here too.
I will make more care quilts, that's for sure.

💖 Wishing you a lovey day where you are 💖

Hanne

Feeling a bit crazy - May challenge quilt and more

 

Deana pulled # 5 as this month's Chookshed  Stitchers Challenge. My project # 5 is this big hexagon quilt. It still lacks 8 rows + half hexies on the top and bottom row.

I can promise this will not be finished this month, but I can promise to move it forward, every morning with my morning coffee 💖

I am not to sure spring has come to stay, and in this country we are used to the changing weather in the spring. I had a lovely couple of hours out on the veranda, resting in the sun today, with an audio book on the ear. I had SPF 30 on. It is easy to forget how strong the sun is, after a long and dark winter. 😀

I have been picking some side projects to the hexagons, but found it really hard to chose.

Toy bags for the boys, with Paw Patrol fabric?
Christmas cushion? Absolutely!
Project pouch with stitchery and clear vinyl window?
Kaffe Fassett wool embroidery?
Something else?

It must be the sun and the spring that affect me - I want to do so much!

💖 To much of a good thing can be great, sometimes 💖

Hanne

April finishes

April was a good month in the Quilt Corner 💕

First I finished this shopping bag with sashiko.
It was originally my March focus project ( #3 ), but life interfered with sewing, as I said before. 
Anyway - it is done, and it was shipped to another part of the country as a gift for someone special - and it got there in time for April 7th. It was very well received.

Next I finished these 4 Advent / Christmas coasters. 

They have been started years ago. The design is by Natalie Bird, as a wall hanging. We do not have much space for wall hangings anymore where we live now, but coasters are in daily use.

I try to finish something Christmas-y every month this year, just for the fun of it.

This is the April (#9) Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge 😊

The stitchery is from many years back, design Bronwyn Hayes / Red Brolly.
I never get to many of these pouches. They are good for so many things, like projects, toiletry, and what not. They pack well, both in a purse and in a suitcase. 
Sometimes I make them with a bottom so they can stand up, sometime I don't.

I looked through my Chookshed Stitcher 2024 Challenge list this morning. 
I have finished 5 of 10 - and some of the unfinished ones are big projects.
I need to give them some attention so I have a chance to finish all in time 😊

Last, I finished these 2 pairs of socks for my grandsons last night. 
My dear daughter 2 showed me a photo of Paw Patrol mittens early in autumn last year, and I agreed to make some for my grandsons.
Well - I did not like the process and the first mitten was put to the side, about half done. (That is how knitting Ufos are made)
I un-knitted the mitten in winter and started a pair of socks instead. I had to change the pattern some to fit, but that went well. 2 boys = 2 pairs of sock - that is how it is.
I must admit that the embroidered faces was so slow to make, but since yesterday was the last day in a month I thought it would make a nice finish. I have been procrastinating like forever......

Since I already have the rule of just 1 knitting project at a time, now I can start something new - and I will, shortly. 💖

New month, new chances! 

💖 Wishing you a good day where you are  💖

Hanne

Hexies galore

It has been a hexie week in my sewing room 💖

I started this project when in USA before Christmas and it has given me a lot of joy to handpiece the traditional way. My friends has been retreating in Shipshewana, IN, this week, so doing hexies along with them from a distance has made me feel connected.

The inspiration comes from Tales Of Cloth on Instagram and the hexies finishes 2,5" big.
The quilt will be 17 hexies down and 17 hexies wide. 

On the Chookshed Stitchers challenge list this one is #5, so it is not due this month.

It is time to give some attention to the projects on my April challenge list too. Times goes so fast these days.
The snow is finally gone. It has been a long winter in my part of the world. 

Have a lovely day where you are 💖

Hanne

April focus projects

 

# 9 is the magic number in the Chookshed Stitchers challenge this month 😍

My # 9 is the red stitchery with the yellow fabrics.

The stitchery is designed by Bronwyn Hayes / Red Brolly.
It is from back then when stitchery was so new in my part of the world that shops here did not carry any yet. These have no year printed on them. It would have been fun to know how old the are.

I found these on Ebay, from Australia,  and I can still remember the joy and the anticipation waiting for the mailman. I did not find all of the 4 different designs all at once, so I was often waiting for something nice to arrive. 

Postage was not so high back then, and fees and VAT on international private small scale shopping was not a thing yet. 

I love pouches and will turn this stitchery into a special bright one 💗💛

The square stitcheries I will turn into Christmas coasters.
Designer is Natalie Bird.

I have a little quirky plan to finish something Christmas-y every month this year, if I can. 
March did not deliver, but I can always do 2 this month or another month.

I will start April with these 2 projects and see where it brings me.

                                                                            💗

On another note....

I tried to delete many unused blogs and add some new blogs to my sidebar reading list yesterday. 
I used a lot of time on that, deleting, saving, deleting, saving, without any luck.  Whatever I did, the end result did not match the effort, and nothing could be deleted.
The widget I had was most likely outdated.
I deleted the old widget this morning and started a new list today, but it will take some time to put everything in there again. I did visit many blogs yesterday, and I met many that were not updated for years, some were deleted, at least one was red flagged by my security system.
The new list will be blogs that I want to read, updated through the last 12 months.

Have a good day where you are 💗 

Hanne