July tally

 

This was my Chookshed Stitchers Challenge priority work for July. 
I am very happy with how these placemats turned out, and my oldest daughter is very pleased with them too. Since we both have been on different summer activities, she has not received them yet, but I have kept her updated with photos. She needed 5 placemats - I made 6 😊

The yarn stash shrinking will be an ongoing activity for a long time. 
I finished my striped socks, for myself, and I made a pair for a young man with far bigger feet than what I have 😀
No adding to my yarn drawer, and I am passing all sales with a smile.

My grandsons, age 3 and 5, think Paw Patrol is super cool.
When visiting in USA before Christmas, I bought 1 yard of fabric with Paw Patrol,
I have had a plan, but it has been procrastinated big time.

It did not take me to long to make 2 bags, suitable for carrying Lego when visiting. They both were very excited, and the little one filled his bag with Lego right away.

 

This table topper / tablecloth has been moved and moved and moved around my sewing room, the top nearly finished, for quite some time (as in years)
I found from some old photos that is was started in 2021.
Well - now it is done, and I am so happy with the result. 
I used my favorite blue fabrics.  
I have used English Paper Piecing. The borders are hand appliqued on, so I did not have to cut of anything.  I have machine quilted in every square + border by sewing machine. 
The last stitch in the binding was yesterday afternoon.

I did not expect to get so much done in July, but summer has been very wet and on the colder side this year. Tourist are coming to Norway for something they call Coldcation, since our climate is so much colder than the rest of the world. Good for those having it to hot - not so good for us who live here........ I wish we could get some warmer weather too, but what can we do, other than making the best of it 😊

Now to find what I will work on in August!

💖 Wishing you a wonderful day where you are 💖

Hanne

Monday focus

 

It is a good process, to go through my boxes and treasures, with small steps.

Since I have already finished my January challenge, and there are still 3 days left until the February challenge is drawn, I think I will focus on giving these 3 projects a push forward.

I found a red stitchery, with less than one thread done....... No stitchery stabilizer.... really? 

I've used a  very very dark red floss, not very Christmas-y...... It must have been laying around since before we moved, over 5 years ago.

What on earth have I been thinking?

The flower stitchery is a design by Rosalie Quinlan. I packed a kit for it during autumn, and have carried it around a few times without getting anything done. Now I do a few threads every day, and I have plans on what to make from it once it is done.

The Gratitude Hearts from Sue Daley have been neglected for a long time too. 

Wishing you a creative week 💖

Hanne

Making plans

 

Maybe it it the season, maybe it is my age - I need to organize my projects and my fabrics. 

I want all my fabrics to be at hand when I need them, not tied up in a gazillion projects. 

I have given this not to old English Paper Piecing project priority over the last week, and now the piecing is soon done. Only 4 more squares to go, before I will have to find a border fabric and applique the whole piece of EPP down. 

I have 69 of 72 blocks done for this project - Raspberry Tea Quilt by Sue Daley. 
I have recently worked out a plan for the 3 last blocks + joining of blocks + quilting. 
I want to be done with the whole quilt before to long. I have set a time limit in my head. I will reveal it at a later point, not now.

I hope your weekend has been nice - ours has been nice and busy 💕

Hanne

Back home - and stuck at home

Puerto de Mogan was great, coming home on Monday night was great too, and I had a lot of plans for a busy machine sewing time in Quilt Corner for the next weeks.
Quilts, dresses and more……

Unfortunately, I had a bad fall, at home, the day before yesterday…..
It was a fall with a bad twist of my foot and a very unfortunate landing - and voila, visit to hospital and pink cast for at least 5 weeks.
I am going in for a new x-ray next Friday, so I have my fingers crossed I will not need surgery on the broken bone in my foot. The surgeon said he has never seen a fracture like mine - good? or not so good?

I am happy my Quilt Corner can provide Plan B too - so from the original plan of a lot of sewing machine work, to hand piecing, English paper piecing, stitchery and some knitting.

A quirky one for my Norwegian friends:
En quilter/sydame er aldri (t)rådløs!  ;-)


Stay on your feet, wherever you are :-)

Hanne

Happy busy in Quilt Corner

I am so enjoying my time in the Quilt Corner these days!

I am sorry I  have forgot to blog as I go, but I often think tomorrow, tomorrow......... I guess that is familiar to more people than me?

My Ufo / finishing challenge to myself has been like a blessing, it really has kept me focused and happy for the last month and a half and the challenge keeps on giving :-)

I am working on a few projects at a time and moving them forward, putting all the others to the side.

My daily thread in appliqué is Natures Journey by Anni Downs - above.
The light colours are inspiring to work with.

I am so happy my local shop owner also likes Anni Downs' design - I can not get enough of them!

I know starting many of the same thing, like the doilies above keeps some people focused - me not so much, if at all!

I started these 3 doilies before Christmas thinking they would make good Christmas gifts, or 1 for me and 2 for gifts.

As I guess you have figured out that did not work ........

The original pattern is from Helen Stubbings and I think it is very cute, but making 3 of the same continuously - not so much, again, so I found some other stitcheries to put in the middle of 2 of them.

Merging designers was a good thing too, and I had fun finishing these doilies at last.
The bird with the Norwegian text + the deer and heart is from the Norwegian company Northern Quilts. Wenche at Northern Quilts is now also designing fabrics for Moda - that's so cool!

Will you believe I found more of the prepped hexies in a box here, so by adding only a few, I can make purple doily no. 4 ??
It will not happen right away though ;-)

A pair of purple socks for my youngest daughter is done too :-)
She loves purple too, and was very happy to receive them.

So far, 1 new start in February and it is done from my hands, as someone else will do the machine quilting on this care quilt for children with cancer or other long term diseases.

I got this jellyroll as a gift some years back and I think it is pretty, and I hope it will make someone else happy too.
I will count this quilt top as a finish on my list.

I like Pay It Forward and I hope my passion for fabrics and quilting can brighten someone else's troubled life a little bit.

The quilters I am making care quilts with will meet again for a 2 day sew together in April. I plan to make at least 1 more quilt top from my fabric collection then.
By looking at this quilt top, I wonder if I shall sort of copy the colours - it looks good :-)

- Wishing you a wonderful day wherever you are -

Hanne

I'm having fun with handwork Ufos

I feel a bit like a juggling artist, but I can assure you - never a dull moment here in Quilt Corner these days!
I am only working on my Ufos - which is great.

Some stitchery and English paper piecing - on the Cornelian quilt,

Some cross stitching and crewel work - I really had forgot how slow cross stitching really is - but I do enjoy the process.

 

And finally - I un-knitted half a sock that did not fit, found myself a better pattern and am soon having a pair of nice fitting socks instead of a knitting-Ufo :-)

   Hanne

A busy week, daily threads, and an Ufo finish

Really taking to heart how many hours of work that are hiding in my Ufo-boxes,
I dug out the Cornelian quilt blocks, and have done daily threads on the 2 remaining stitchery blocks as my daily thread(s) this week.
Daily threads do pay off, and now all the stitcheries are done.

Through the process I have decided I will alter the finished quilt a bit, and I therefore can now say I am done with all the stitcheries.

As much as I love blue, it will still be nice to put the blue DMC floss away for a while ;-)

I have been working on this quilt for 2 years, and I am now aware of what stopped it in its track:
The finished quilt is to massive for my taste - not to big - just to massive, and I am doing something about it!

I have dug out one more project to move forward by daily threads:

These Crewel work napkin rings looks so good.
They are very slow work, but I would like them finished in time for Christmas!
I think I can do it :-)

One has to have some starts too, right ?
The red table topper / candle mat is badly sun faded, and I would like a new one in time for advent.
In fact, I would like to make more than 1, but I am doing 1 at a time :-)

And finally - A Finish :-)
Dear Husband wanted another Sew Together Bag for his computer bits and bobs.
It was put to the side when it did not meet a travel deadline of his, but now it is done and he is happy!
It is in daily use - it does not get much better than that :-)

Hanne

Vacation time

The day after my last blog post, my dear husband and I left for our favourite place in Turkey, Alanya, to live 2 lazy weeks on the beach, charging the batteries.

For handwork I brought my hexagons + some stitchery.

Sitting in a restaurant at lunch time doing a few stitches while waiting for my Turkish coffee sparked a very interesting conversation with the waiter about Turkish mosaics, antiques, traditions, and places to visit in Istanbul (must be another time ).
Did you know that handwork of all kinds are very respected in Turkey?

Turkish Cai (tea) on the beach is my favourite morning drink. The tea is strong and good and not out of a bag.
Some prefer it sweet, I take mine without sugar.

Speaking of mosaics - this one looks doable with English paper piecing :-)

This arc is in front of a hotel - inspired by quilts, or the other way around ?

We were surprised by friends having booked their vacation at the same place as us, arriving a few days after us - they knew we were there, but had managed to keep their plans from us.
We had so much fun, the four of us, going to the beach together, going on daytrips together, sharing meals together, laughing a lot, and we decided we will repeat the success, next year.
I am counting the days!

The last day on vacation  - meet the beach cat under my sun bed.
We did not touch her, as we did not know if she has fleas,  but I do speak cat in every language, and so does she by the looks of it :-)

We'll be back!

Hanne

Daily threads

The hand quilting is coming along -  and it is nice to sit down for a little while every day, doing some threads.

Not that I was ever doubting the effect of the daily thread, but still I am amazed of how much I can get done with not to much daily effort.

 2 weeks, and the hand quilting has gone from approximately 1/5 done, to approximately 3/4 done! Go me!

(writing with the computer mouse did not do much good for my hand style)

The scrap flowers are coming along too - sort of by a daily thread as well. I need to find some more scraps - maybe from another colour section, to add more fun   :-)

From gravel to gems

I am very seldom throwing out scraps, as I love my fabrics very much, and always think I can use the smallest scraps for something.
I often feel I am moving these scraps around and around and around in the Quilt Corner, not really using them much - does it sound familiar to you too ?
Cutting the smaller scraps does take both time and patience......

As I am exercising patience these days, I thought I could make some hexie flowers, using English Paper Piecing, and since most of my scraps are on the smaller side, it is easier to cut by using a pencil and scissors than using a rotary cutter, to make the most use of the fabrics.

Once I got started I so enjoyed the process!

Hexagon flowers are nice as a grab-and-go project.
So far, not much of a dent in my scraps, but a lovely time is had, with coffee and an audio book on the side.
I love the look of how the colours and prints work together :-)

I think I have to sort through all my EPP templates one more time, to see if I can locate some more 3/4" paper templates.

Hanne

Happy progress

All those small stitches adds up!
Now all the hexagon flowers are done and joined into 4 long rows for one of the Cornelian quilt borders.

Colour wise, the photo below is more correct than the photo above. It was taken earlier today, when the natural light was good.

Those hexie flowers would have looked good as a vertical row quilt too, don't you think?
But - that is food for thought for another quilts, maybe in the future......
I love to work with my blue repros and repro-ish fabrics!

Hanne

Small steps and setting goals - focus projects

Time flies, and I  have found it is time to revive the focus project way of moving my projects forward.

Small steps, small goals, small blog posts - and they all add up to miles, finished quilts and getting in touch with blogland again :-)

30 hexagon flowers down, 6 to go, before I can move on to another stage of the Cornelian quilt.
I absolutely have some waltzing to do with this quilt (like steps to the left and steps to the right), as all the stitcheries in the middle section are not done yet either, but stitch by stitch, through 2015, my plan is to finish the quilt top this year.

Hanne