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

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

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

The slowest socks in history

Usually I do not take on knitting jobs for others, but this time I did, not knowing what I got myself into.
I should have asked to see the photo of the pattern first....

The socks are for a man with big feet, European size 46, and they have pattern and writing all around, with a lot of black stitch stitches.

The socks are long, 20 inches from cast on to toe tip, and I bet they will warm the recipient once they are done.

It is with great joy I can now put the red and yellow yarn away. I have put many hours into the knitting.

For those not knowing European football, Manchester United is a very popular English team.

It is a cold, rainy and blustery day, perfect for working with wool.

Have a lovely day, wherever you are!

Hanne

Morning stitches

It is looking like it will be a beautiful day,
and there is no better way to start the day than with morning coffee and some stitches.
I try to get some stitches in on the Red Home quilt blocks every day.





We still have quite a lot of snow for mid April.

The Peace sign on my ongoing socks looks good - and is quite appropriate in this time and day…… I dread opening the papers and listening to the news these days……

May you all be safe,
wherever you are!

Hanne

Toasty toes

I could have named this post Knitting Backwards, To Knit Or Not To Knit or Easter Sock Mystery Knitting……
All these choices ;-)

I followed the Facebook group Hjertebank Nina Granlund Sæther through 6 Easter days, where she gave us a clue every day.
By day 6 the socks were done, and it was great fun!

Knitting is very meditative and is a great thing to do when I sit with my feet up watching TV with dear husband in the evenings.

If you scroll to the bottom of the post and up, you will see all the 6 different stages of this sock knitting mystery project.
It was great fun!

Enjoy the day, wherever you are,

Hanne

It has been a long winter - January tally

It has been the longest and most snow rich winter in over 30 years.
I am not a fan of snow and I am so much looking forward to spring.

One of my January finishes was this lovely Kathy Schmitz stitchery. Snow looks best in crafts and photos!

Maybe I should make a more monster socks to keep me and my friends and family warm?
These socks were made for a little monster princess, in January, and she loves them.

I have taken a stand against plastic bags and as a consequence I want to use good looking fabric totes.
They are fun to make and fun to use!
Since I make my totes foldable, they are easy to carry along.
Have you taken a stand?

This little angel has lived half done in my Ufo box for a while.
Now she is done and has moved to a new house.

Do you think I am playing catch up with blogging?
Yes I am! Starting with my January finishes and winging it from there!
I miss my blog and it is time to take action!

Wishing you a lovely day,
wherever you are!

Hanne

There has been some knitting going on

I have knitted quite a lot through the winter, come to think of it :-)
I find that I love best to knit wool socks and dish cloths - they are not to big and heavy, and is easy to finish.
I have a stash of yarn too, but not to big, so far :-)

Here is a selection:

The socks above and below are from Tantulltuss - I love her designs!
The pair above I have myself, the pair below I gave away as a gift for someone special.

These socks I gave to May Britt for Christmas:
The pattern is free on Ravelry - Blueberry Waffle Socks, and the yarn is from Arne & Carlos, variegated wool.
There is a Norwegian translation available here.

These fingerless mittens I used a lot - the pattern is  Belyse on Ravelry.
I will make more of these, with thinner yarn - like baby yarn or thin sock yarn.
I was so cold this winter due to some health challenges, so I wore these fingerless indoors too.

I knitted countless dish cloths, for my own use and for gifts.
The pattern Bird Cherry is available for free, along with a lot of other nice patterns at Bittamis Design For Strikkelystne on Facebook. You have to be a member of the group to get the free patterns. I knit my dishcloths in 100 % cotton yarn.

The biggest finish was this off-white jacket - I used it a lot. It is knitted from the top down.
I will knit myself another one in a while. It was fast and fun to make.
I have shrunk and need a size smaller.
Pattern from Ravelry again, Falling Leaves Cardigan

 

Wishing you a lovely day,
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

A wonderful long weekend!

Last weekend my sewing group went on our annual 4 day retreat.

We book in to a hotel not to far from Oslo, buying an all inclusive conference pack - 3 meals a day + 2 conference rooms - one for sewing, the other one for setting up design walls.

I brought 3 projects:
An old Ufo-BOM for sewing machine + hand piecing - Alle Fugler by Northern Quilts
A pair of socks on my knitting needles
My red cross stitch project

I did make some progress - the stitchery on these blocks were already made.

I did make a few threads every day on my red embroidery - it was perfect for winding down at night before bed, in my room, or as here, as my morning thread(s) before going to breakfast, seeing the day waking up and checking Instagram.

This year's project that we all do together was a nice mini bag.

I like the mini bag, and I made mine without handles. We all worked from kits, and I can see some improvement that I want to do next time I made one.

And what happened to my knitting, you might think?
To be honest, nothing much, not a stitch!

My friend Gretha has uploaded more photos from the retreat, if you want to see what we were up to through the weekend.

I am already looking forward to next year - same time, same friends, same place :-)

Hanne