Spools & Thimbles

Please join me

2008-02-04T14:25:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Please join me here:

Pink and Barbara

Barbara

New Blog

2007-06-03T21:39:00.000+02:00

Hi!

My blog has moved too:

http://pinkandbarbara.wordpress.com/

I hope you will come and visit me there!

Barbara

The scrappy stripquilt tutorial

2007-04-12T20:18:00.001+02:00

Hi,

Here is are some instructions on how to make this super-easy strip quilt. I make this type of quilt often when I have leftover strips.

I make one for my friend Karin: and the baby quilt

You can make this quilt out left-over scraps or just normal scraps, but this is how you can do it if you have the more left-over type of scraps,

step 1
Determine what size your scraps are and make the strips as big as your smallest scrap allows you to cut. I mostly cut mine 2,5 inch. As you can see on Karin's quilt I didn't have enough, so I put smaller pieces together and then trimmed them to become the 2,5 inch width I needed.

Step 2
Leave the smaller strips just the way they are and the really big ones you can cut into 2 pieces. Don't care about the size! This will make it even easier to put together!

Step 3
Sort all the scrap strips into 2 pills, dark and light.

Step 4
start sewing light to dark until you get one enormous long strip. (the short sides together ;-))

Step 5
Measure this strip and start calculating. You need to divide the length of the enormous strip width the length you want the quilt to have. You then know how many strips you will get out of the total length. Then multiply with the width of the strips and you know the size of you quilt. Here is an example to explain it:

for instants: For Karins quilt I had a strip that was 44 yards long.

If wanted to make the quilt 86 inches long I would have gotten 18 strips. 18 strips that are 2,5 inch wide sewn together would have been 45 inch which is not wide enough for a quilt. So I had to make my quilt shorter to get it to be wider. So at the end it became a plaid that was 62 inch long and 60 inches wide.
So you have to keep calculating so you get a size that is right for you.

-for people who want it in cm:
I had a long strip that was about 40 meters long. If I wanted the quilt to be 2.20m long it would have only gotten 1.10 m wide, which was to small. But when I made it 160 long it became 150 wide, plaid size.

Step 6
When you know the size of your strips you measure and cut to get your number of strips.

Step 7
Just sew all the strips together. There are no seams here that have to go together, you just sew.

Step 8
You can quilt it with a nice embroidery stitch on your machine if you have that.
like this:

Step 9
Make your quilt square by trimming the top and bottom and but the binding on!

Done!

Gifts, ripplebag and cookie factory

2007-04-06T14:09:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I know, I know it has been a long time again since I last posted something. I have been working hard on some things, and I thought I would finish them quite soon, but every time something happend and I thought tomorrow I will blog about it when it is finished and something happend again...anyway..this weeks produce...

My best friend Sasha is having her first baby soon, and of course something had to made for the little one. So I made this nursingbag. It is a bag with pockets on the sides and a little mattress area in between for the baby to lay on when he or she gets changed, complete with bear pillow. This bag is out of the book Patchwork Bears from Dorthe Jollman a Danish patchworker. Cathi and I have made a bearquilt from the same book.

The bag closed:

The bag open, with the small pockets for diapers and clothes. It will get a small sheet or towel on the inside where the baby lays. So you can wash just that sheet and don't have to wash the whole bag every time you change the baby and have an accident.

I had some leftover fabrics, so I made this quilt. It is made out of the same stripmethod I have made other quilts before. It is very simple, but if anybody wants me to write how I do it let me know!

So this has become a lovely travel set with the bag and the quilt. And what is quite funny and really not planned since I just used every inch of my babyscraps is that, if you fold the babyquilt in 4 parts it is exactly the same size as the bag, so you can just put it in there...I was so surprised..

Well these 2 projects were thought to go together fast and not give me much trouble but I have had everything from: having my sewing machine hop over stitches and not seeing until I was almost done (thread was to thick for the needle) to running out of thread, needles breaking and having to go to the store and buy new ones......not being able to find my batting, going to the store to buy a new one and finding the old one as soon as I got home....I think I have had almost every problem I can think of on this quilt..But it is finished and it looks so cute!

I showed you the ripple blanket I am working on and going to be doing as a project together with my friend Karin. She is coming later tonight by plane. She is probably going to make something small to give to a friend of hers who is having a baby soon too, and since I liked her to have a more permanent memory of our project together I made this ripplebag (pattern made by DH) I will post the pattern soon here on the blog.

While I am writing this I am making some chocolate chip cookies. One batch makes so many cookies that it feels like I am in a cookie factory:

Happy Easter!

Barbara

A new addiction

2007-03-26T09:21:00.000+02:00

I saw the ripple project on the
possie-gets-cozy blog and really liked it. I hadn't crochet since I was 13, but it is all coming back to me now! This is what it looked like after my first day yesterday and I am totally addicted.

I bought new yarns for this project and chose Silk Alpaca. It was a bit more expensive then I had planned to spend, but I fell in love with the colors and softness of the yarn.

I showed the ripple to a very good friend of mine in Holland, so she is going to start one there, and I am going to start one in Sweden, so that makes the project even more special...

Today I need to really work on this nursingbag I told you about a couple of days ago. My friend Karin is coming in a couple of weeks and she told me she can take the bag and small quilt with her back to Holland. I never really feel comfortable with sending my projects by mail...plus it is expensive...

Bye!

Spring chaos...anyone??

2007-03-20T08:19:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody!

First I would like to thank everybody for the comments on the ocean waves quilt!

But...does anybody, like me, has these spring mood swings where you just want to to change everything in your house, colors, furniture, but mostly just turning all the furniture around.

I have had this feelings all week and I have started the turning of all the furniture... and,yes my husband is very happy with all this since he has to do the moving *lol* I just mostly stand there and point where it has to go.

Anyway, we are going to go to IKEA Wednesday and get a new desk and some other things, so I am looking forward to that. My husband has this old desk, which is gigantic, very good because there is lots of room in the all the drawers but it might be a bit to big in this apartment...

Well, I have started changing and cleaning things in the bedroom and in the sewing room, so today will be spent putting everything back into place, because it is chaos now. I am hoping that we will be able to fit our old bed into my sewing room because we are getting a lot of guests the next 4 months.

At the moment I am sewing a nursing bag for my best friend who will have a baby soon, and I think I will have enough scraps to make a small baby quilt of it as well. I also found a pattern of an apron that I really like and would love to make.

well I'll keep you posted on the moving of all the furniture, and am hoping it will be soon be over, so I can sew again...

bye!

Finished my Ocean waves top!

2007-03-17T15:06:00.000+01:00

hi!

I just finished my Ocean Waves quiltop. It was a lot of work but so worth it! I couldn't wait to put a picture online and share it with you... I didn't think it would become this large, but it did: 70x 80 inches

I made it using Triangles on a Roll, which worked great for me. I used my stash and scraps to get a nice mix of colours together with muslin.

I was planning on doing a pinwheel border but when I started with it, I thought it would look a bit to messy, but I still had a lott of triangles left. So my Dear Husband started playing with the triangles last night and came up with this design. The outer border is 6 inch right now, but will be cut down to about 4 inches, but I liked to have a bit of a margin for attaching the hoop on when I am hand quilting.

So, please let me know what you think!

Barbara

The green monster sewingcaddy

2007-03-16T08:11:00.000+01:00

Some time ago I posted about a green uggly sewingcaddy I had bought from a garagesale.

It looked like this:
As you can see it was just in need of a new fabric and some paint. When I was working on my japanese bag I fell in love with the fabric. So I orderd more fabric and put it on the sewingcaddy. So one day I got my brushes and fabric out and this is what it looks like now.

It now has it's own place with all my handsewing and quilting stuff besides my chair with my day-light lamp. I love it!

Today I am going to take a nice walk outside, it is really such great weather outside. Also am I going to put my blocks together from my Oceans Waves. Looking forward to see how the blocks will go together. It is always a very exciting stage of the quilt....

Computers are great.........................

2007-03-14T09:02:00.000+01:00

when they work. And when they don't work there isn't much you can do without them. So now the problems are solved and I am back again.

I have done some cool things and even been on a cool quilting retreat, so check back soon and I will be updating this with some older events that I never got to post about...

One thing I did is this japanese bag. Isn't it cute? It was quite simple to put together and I hand appliqued, pieced and quilted it.

At the moment I am feeling really happy, since the snow has melted away and spring is in the air. It is really sunny, so I will go and sit outside for a while in the sun I think and enjoy my morning cup of tea! In the afternoon I will take my bike out for the first time in 4 months and take a trip to the local quiltshop...

Some snow and finished handquilting

2007-01-22T23:08:00.000+01:00

This is a picture I took today when I went for a walk here in Sweden, it is about -9 C here during the day with a hard wind. The sky is so clear, wonderful walking weather!

Saturday night it started snowing and it didn't stop until Sunday afternoon. The cat loved it. He made tunnels in the yard and he was jumping high over it like a hare. In the afternoon DH hung some new seed balls in the trees for the birds.

Today I finished hand quilting the quilt I have been writing about for so long..but now it is done. Here is a close-up of the front and back of the quilting.

Unto the next quilting project!

Crazy Quilt nr 2

2007-01-18T12:20:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finished the second CrazyQuilt RoundRobin. This one was made of Ann-Christine. It was made in whites and other pale colors. She wished for a decoration in pastel colors.

I am really happy with it. I didn't decorated all the seams since I thought it would be to much. I really like the tree as well.

Today I will try to change my handles on the bag I made last week. And maybe I can even squeeze some quilting in :-))

14 boxes with what??

2007-01-17T09:20:00.000+01:00

Hi!

As I wrote yesterday, I was thinking of reorganising my closet and some other things in my sewing room, which resulted in me having 14 boxes empty, and still using the same space in the closet and so on. I didn't move anything into another room or something like that. Even stranger..I could move in some of the batting I had in the storage... strange huh?

I think the biggest change was moving my fabrics onto my shelves instead of having it under the cuttingtable. Because I could move a lott of odd stuff in the drawers that were in boxes before and didn't really fill the boxes. Anyway...this is the way it looked:

And this is now!

Looks a lot better...right? I love the way I can see all my fabric. Yes this is all my fabric, not much huh? (not including Christmas and baby fabric)

I found some UFO's some days ago, so I put them unto my DesignWall to have a look at them and see what to do with them. This is how the wall looks now together with my 5 Ocean Waves blocks:

Big storm and Garage Sale

2007-01-16T10:24:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Here in Sweden we had a big storm on Thursday and an even bigger one on Sunday night. 3 people died and more then 300.000 households are without electricity.

I was visiting IKEA when the storm came to our city. I took a picture of the dark skies that were approaching. (this was at 15:15, during the daytime, it was so dark.) It was a bit scary. Today the wind is still blowing like crazy and a new storm will hit us on Wednesday night. So our week has been a bit strange. The cat is not acting like himself either. I hope it will blow over soon...

A 10 minute walk from were I live, there is a hall were you can rent tables each weekend to sell all you old junk. So almost every weekend I just swing by to have a look. Sometimes you can find these great things like handmade lace, old tablecloths that are handembroiderd and other sewing things. This weekend I found this green monster.But I think I will be able to get it back to a more subtle state with some paints and fabrics!

I just love these old sewing caddies and seem to buy one every time I see one....*lol* I will not know where to put them soon!

Anyway I don't have much planned for today. I am not really happy with the way all my fabrics are stored, so I might take on the big project of reorganising it all... I'll let you know! I am still scrapbooking at the moment, I will show you my work when I am done..there is not much to see just now...

Scrapbook Mania

2007-01-10T21:57:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Well ...I have been scrapbooking a little bit on and off, but now I am really hooked. I really like it. This was how my kitchentable looked yesterday after some scrapbooking with Weronica

Today I was looking at a scrapbookings shop website and saw they had a sale! 20 % of everything. I couldn't let a opertunity like that pass, so I called Weronica and we went to Stockholm. This is what I bought. I just love the pappers.

My best buy was this stamp. On the otherside of the metalic pieces, there is a screwhole were you but the handle of the stamp in. So you can stamp one letter, one line or 2 lines. The shiny metallic side which faces up on the photo is a magnet. So on the otherside of the letters there is a small magnet too. So you can create your own stamp and change it as often as you want. There are several fonts and other things to buy to this basic stamp maker. I love it! (it is made by a scrapbooking company called MM, Making Memories and comes in these tins)

For the patchworkguild I am a member of we had to comlplete 2 blocks with letters and something that starts with that letter. We are going to make an alphabetwallhanging with it and donate it to a childrends hospital when finished. I found these fabrics with prints that I just cut out and applicaded on.

Back to my scrapbooking...

(sorry if there are many spelling errors.....but bloggers spellingcheck is not working... BTW: did you know that the blogger spellingschecker doesn't recognise the words blog and blogger??..*lol*

A Bag day and gametime

2007-01-08T21:09:00.000+01:00

Hi!

I made a new bag today. It is my own Design and made in a corderoykinda fabric. I liked the way it turned out. The corderoyfabric was a bit thick to make the biascord that goes all around the bag and made it pucker a bit. But if I don't find a good other normal cottonfabric to make the bias from to go around, I'll leave it like this..otherwise I'll will do some alltering.

My husband and I are totally hooked on a game called Carcassonne. We bought the game in Holland in Oktober, and now got and expansionkit for christmas, called the dragon, fairy and princess. Well, to make a long story short..I haven't seen much on tv the last 3 weeks..2 more expansions were bought and one is in order. In other words, great game, fun to play with 6 players...but even 2 players are a lot of fun, and games that are fun with just 2 players are hard to find. Here you can find more information about it.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-07T13:58:00.000+01:00

Hi Everybody!

Yes, it has been a while since the last post. Been doing a lot of things, but not a lot of it had to do with any form of crafting.

But now the new year has started, new craft plans are made for the new year. One of them is trying to do more quilting. I have one top that is ready to be quilted, resting in the hoop. I really like the quilting part of making the quilts, but somehow there is always a new project that needs to be started, so the quilting is not going so fast. At the moment I am quilting this quilt:

3 days before Christmas me and the girls ( Helena, Sussie, Weronica and Lena) got together to make some Christmas flower arrangements. We had a lot of fun.

I have been working on my Ocean Wavesquilt. I started one in blue, but later changed to make one for myself in the colors I like. I now have a big box with 800 HST that will make the 64 blocks. I used the triangles on a role method, which was fast and accurate!

I am also working on the CrazyQuilt from Ann-Christine. She want hers to be only decorated in pastel colors. I am now making a tree/bush that I will decorate with silk roses.

I started this project as well. I just loved the layout of the stars, with room to do some nice quilting between them. I don't know anything about this quilt yet,...who is going to get it..how big it is going to get...so we will see when I get there..*lol* I am piecing it by hand.

Well I am off to my room and see what other things I can think of to do today.. I have been thinking of a special kind of bag and scrap booking...

Barbara

Empress Woo question

2006-12-13T10:05:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Was wondering if there is someone out there that can help me..

I like the new Robyn Pandolph fabricline called Empress Woo. I have orderd a charmpack from the fatquatershop to see the colors but also to see how big the focuspicture of the empress is. But I have gotten 5" pieces with nothing of the the empress on it just a cut off head.

Can somebody tell me how big the empress is? And also the repeat of the fabric? I would like to cut her out (around her) as a square and then put a borders around these squares, to make a quilt for my niece. But I have no idea how much fabric I need to order to be able to cut out several empresses..

Help please?!

Thank you
Barbara

Different ways to knit

2006-12-13T09:14:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Some of you wanted to know the differences in knitting, since my last post.
If you go to this great site: knittinghelp.com you can see different videos showing different
techniques adjusted to the way you knit. I knit what they call the English way and I think people in the US do too. In Sweden they knit the continental way. It means that you have the yarn in either you left or you right hand. In some patterns/techniques this "turns" your stitches from the other way to do it.

It is a bit confusing but watch a movie and you can see the difference.

So when I leaned the lace knitting, I had to put my yarn in the opposite direction around the needle of what the teatcher did.

I have a lot to do at the moment before Christmas, but tonight I am going to a Lucia concert in church. Lucia is a saint, and we celebrate the turning of the year (midwinter) so that lighter days are coming.

I am working on my triangles for the Ocean waves, and I apologize to everybody who knew that triangles on a roll was a good way to do it, and I was to stubborn to listen.. :-)))) I was against it first..was not looking forward to taking of all that paper, but it is a super way to do it!

I will post something better again soon...promise...

Knitting

2006-12-06T09:16:00.000+01:00

Last week I had to spend 5 days in Stockholm. Before I left home I checked out some shops nearby to visit during the evening, so I would have something to do and came across: Marias knittingshop

I saw on her website that she gave private knittingclasses as well, so I called her and booked one together with Weronica who came over to spend an evening with me in Stockholm. I only knew how to knit very basic stuff so she learned us how to do lace knitting. She was very nice and did a great job on making some samples for us and giving us additional information for next projects!. I knit the american way. People here in Sweden knit differently so I had to adjust a bit to see how I had to do it, but Maria was a great help. This is the test piece we made there:

This is what I took home with me:

At home I started working with the pink yarn, but it was so thin I couldn't really get a pattern in it:

So I started again with the red yarn I got from Cathi, this is what it looks like now, it is going to be a scarf...so I have some knitting left to do!...:-)))

So if you are ever in Stockholm, visit Maria!

Vintage/ old budget finds

2006-11-21T09:09:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Saturday I gave a CrazyQuilt lesson at the LQS, and it was a success, 2 of the girls are now hooked, and the the others liked it too. I was planning to take some pics, but when I got the camera out I had no batteries left :-((

W are re-doing our living room. We now have a sofa there that I have had for a long time. I had it when I was living in a small apartment and it was used as a pullout bed as well. My DH and I had been looking for a nice sofa for a while, but couldn't really agree on one, but now we found one. It is a beige one, with big pillows in a tweed kind of woven fabric.

I am now planning to redo the whole living room at once, and to do this on a budget, at bit like how I did my sewing room make-over. I found some great things for a bargain. I found this fabric. The light blue is going to be our curtains. I liked it a while ago when I saw it, and thought I would buy it someday. So I went back to the store to buy it and found out that the fabric was not 1.40 m wide for 19 euros but 2.80 m wide. It was folded in half on these big roles. So that meant I could buy half of the yardage I thought I would need...*s*. And the other fabric had a little error somewhere. We saw it when we were measuring it, so I got that 50% off, and I didn't have to use that part..

Last Friday I found this old footstool that I redid in a very modern fabric in blue and yellow. (the pic looks more gold but that is because I used a flash.

The Old footstool:

The footstool is hollow and has a tray inside as well:

This is how it looks now:

We also found this old cabinet. It will fit our TV on the top...our DVD and video player and our stereo inside, plus all our videos and DVD movies. So we will be getting rid of a lot of clutter...*s* I will sandpaper it down so you will see the wood color below the white paint. If that doesn't work I will repaint it in some color.

I also started working on Lucy's star quilt. It looks great, but is a bit difficult with the Y-seams.

So now you know what is going on in my house..total chaos, in hopes to getting a new living room done soon!

Barbara

Sharing magazine tip...

2006-11-15T07:47:00.000+01:00

Hi!

There are not that much crafty things going on in my house at the moment. I did however get all the cards, drawings and other things like concert tickets, movie stubs glued into my fast scrapbooking album. Yes, I know, I save a lot of those things, but I like to. I think about all the things you will have later when people are not here anymore, it is strange but I like it. I have 2 albums, one for just the cards and things, they get clued in fast..nothing more. Then I have more of a scrapbooking fotoalbum where I put more work into the scrapbooking itself.

I had a magazine reorganisation yesterday as well, after reading a tip I read in Country Living Magazine some time ago, that I found really good, and decided that I would reorganize when I needed it, and that was now, so I am going to share it with you:

I had all my decorating and living magazines sorted by kind, so all the Country Living ones together, Good Homes together..

The tip is: sort your magazines by month. So mix all the different kinds of magazines together so you can get them out by month. I thought it sounded a bit strange in the beginning, but it makes sense, because: when I get my magazines out to look for something, I am looking for : Christmas decorations, spring planting tips and summer menu suggestions.

So now all my magazines are sorted by month, and I have just taken December out for some Christmas inspiration. I think I will flip through my saved magazines a lot more now, since I don't have to go through all of them when I am looking for something. Hope this helps you too..or you might even be doing it already!

On a craftynote: I finished DH hat:

Well that is all for today!....

An Angel

2006-11-12T16:32:00.000+01:00

Hi!

This weekend I had a visit of my friend Lisen that I taught how to do patchwork some months ago. She came to me with all the blocks sewn together and with some quilting done. She finished the quilting and I showed her how to do the binding. Doesn't the quilt look great? She is off now to do the final stitching of the binding by hand and then she is finished!

While she was sewing I made this cute angel. It is also a Tilda design again. This was a kit with all the fabrics and everything in it for 2 angels. Mine is pink with white pants and I will send the rest of to Cathi so she can make a white angel with pink pants. The angel was so much fun to make! The jackets etc. are made out of a very thick wool, so you didn't have to worry about fraying or making hems,..perfect!

It took one afternoon and evening to make, so today I started on my HST for my Ocean Waves quilt. Even my Sweet DH helped me by drawing diagonal lines... he is a keeper!

I must say that these slippers and making angels have gotten me in a Christmas mood. Tonight I am taking a night off from quilting and going to read some of the magazines, that have been dropping in the mailbox full with Christmas inspiration.

See you later!

Slippers!

2006-11-10T15:35:00.000+01:00

Today I made some slippers out of the book from Tone Finnanger called Tilda's Hus. I like them and they were so fast and fun to make. Might just be this years perfect Christmas present! I did this together with Cathi (cyberspace together *lol*) I am looking forward to seeing hers, she has very different fabrics..Swedish ones!

I am waiting for my friend Lisen to come. I taught her how to quilt/patch a couple of months ago, so she is now coming for the quilting and bindingpart..*lol*

See you soon again...!

Barbara

Spool Top Finished

2006-11-09T22:15:00.000+01:00

I finished my Spoolquilt top. I am so happy with it! I love the reproduction fabrics together with the Japanese fabric for the sashing. It took me a while to find the right fabric, but I did find the perfect one at my last visit to Petra Prins.

The original quilt was featured in a Quiltmania magazine.

One of the things I liked about this pattern is that the background is made out of one piece. In most patterns the background is made out of 2 HST and a square. This was some extra work, but worth it. Here is a close-up so you can see it:

I did have some bad luck with this quilt. First, I did not have enough spools so I had to make some more, but also take some older blocks apart to get a good mix with the new spools. Then,...well...sashing happened. It is so hard to get that straight. So next time you see me telling you about a quilt I want to make and it has sashing in it...remind me of this quilt...*lol* So the quilt is not square but I don't care!
Third, I made a wrong cut and didn't have enough fabric for the border, I patched 2 smaller pieces together, so it did work..but it took some extra time.

I think I am going to quilt it using an overall baptistfan motif, so you will not see the wobbly sashings so much. I have some woolbatting waiting for a special project. So I think I will use it for this quilt.

Well you might have noticed that I changed my blog a bit again, and the name as well. This is a bit shorter and has a more "clean" look. Cathi made the banner for me..and did most of the blog changes..she is my computersuperwoman..*lol*..so Thanks Cathi!

Barbara

Still all over the place but getting somewhere

2006-11-07T08:11:00.000+01:00

Still all over the place but getting somewhere, at least it feels like I am getting somewhere, and that is the main thing. Eventhough you might ask yourself the same question sometimes as I do: " Do I need to get somewhere??" But you probably also know the feeling of needing to finish something before you can start something new...so that is where I am going..to a NEW project..*s*

I am working today on my Spoolquilt. I even got up a bit earlier today. Later today I am going to go my friend Weronica and do some sewing there. We sometimes meet when we have things we want to finish. It is sometimes so much easier when you are somewhere else, especially when you need to do things like ripping out seams and other more boring stuff..

Going to try to match together all the spools before I go, and sew them together so that the blocks will be done. ( It will look like a 4 patch made of 4 spools)Then I will start on the sashing at Weronica's house and will get some help from her with cutting the sashing into 2,5 meter long strips.

About the new project:
I have been thinking for a long time about making an Ocean waves quilt. I have written about it before. I had even bought 10 yards of blue fabric for it and made some swaps with other quilters to get more variation in the fabrics that will make the small triangles.
But when the blue fabric arrived it was the wrong color. So I was a bit bummed out, so it was just sitting there. But yesterday...at 05:00 I had an epiphany. You can dye fabric.*S* It took me a couple of months to think of it..*s*
So I went to the shop yesterday to buy dye and dyed the fabric. This is the result:

I thought it was a bit to bright. I thought looking online and in the catalogue that it would be a bit more navy blue, but it was not. I saved a piece of the fabric in the old color that I put on top you can see the difference. So I am happy with the result!

Now a question.
I would like to make my ocean waves quilt like a classic quilt like this one and the white will be the navy blue. So my question is what good methods are there for making all these small triangles. Any tips? I have used a Square in a Square ruler and normally do it the old fashioned way by drawing a line on the diagonal of a square...sewing on each side of the line and then cutting apart.
I would like to avoid any paperpiecing methods...HELP??

thanks!

Barbara

All over the place

2006-11-06T11:40:00.000+01:00

Okay...don't really know what I am doing at the moment. I feel like I am all
over the place. I am working on all kinds of projects.

After Cathi's visit I am totally into Dear Jane again. I made my block 50! this weekend and number 51..number 52 is almost done. I have also made up my mind and I am going to start attaching the sashing to the right side and under the blocks so I can start assembling the quilt as I go along.

In Sweden we have this new knitting ring called The Knifty Knitter. You might remember it from when you were small. I used to have it in a miniformat. It was made out of wood and only had 6 pins and you made a cord...it was always exciting to see it come out of the bottom. Now they have made one for adults and it is great for making hats. You can also make scarfs and so on...instead of going in round you just go back and forth. I am making my DH a hat as a christmaspresent with a scarf (yes it is that time of year!..*lol*)

Also when Cathi was here she bought a package with 2 angels in it and we are going to share them. So I am going to sew one and sent what is left to Cathi so she can make her angel.

I was feeling a bit brave today and got my box out for my SpoolQuilt. So I might get some more done before I am going to go into town..

I did some work on the CrazyQuilt so this is up to lesson nr 2. It might look a bit strange in some places...but that is because we are going to do the beads and stuff later. Just the seamtreatments this week

Well...going to do some more quilting on my spoolquilt..

CrazyQuilting lesson 3

2006-11-02T08:55:00.000+01:00

Yes, lesson 3 already..and that is where my trouble starts. In lesson 2 we were surpossed to start with the seam embellishment..but I didn't like the block I made. I kept picking it up and putting it down. It didn't talk to me at all...didn't know what it wanted me to do with it. When I read the classforum on Friday, I saw a few pictures of people who had done it in a other way. Instead of the "paperpiecing" method they basted there pieces into place. When Cathi's plane arrived late last Friday I made a new block. So now I am way behind on the class..still on lesson 2. But I think I can catch up..someday..*lol*

Here is a pic of the old and new one together. The new one is the one on the right. As you can see it is a bit less "pointy". If you just want to see the old one better please scroll down to a older blogentry.

So now I am going to do a bit more reading on the forum and then back to the Crazy Quilting!

A Crazy Weekend

2006-11-01T09:32:00.000+01:00

Hi!

I had such a great weekend. Cathi came here to Sweden to spend a weekend at my house. I have met Cathi through the internet, so we had never seen eachother before, so that was quite exiting.

We went to pick her up from the airport late Fridaynight and the next morning hit the town. We went to some craftshops and woolshops. We also went to a chocolatestore that also serves tea and chocolate things. This is what Cathi brought home:

We also bought a Norwegian book home that is sold here and they also have all the fabrics and everything else you need. On this blog you can read more about the book. It is in German, but there are pictures.

When we came home after dragging all of the loot home we started quilting. Cathi hadn't quilted before so I taught her. I have learned how to quilt from a Amish lady that lives in Germany now. Please visit her website.

On Sunday we went to a bootcar-sale and we found some nice stuff. When we came home we did some more quilting. In the afternoon we basted the Dear Jane that Cathi had finished. We basted it with woolbatting that felt absolutely wonderful. Here is a pic of Cathi pressing it before basting it and later a picture when we were finished:

I am also working on a Dear Jane, so to see her beautifull quilt and help her baste it was really special. It really got me thinking about my Dear Jane again...

On Sunday evening I had my friends Weronica and Helena come over and we had dinner together and later a scrap exchange..this is the scraps Cathi brought home with here:

On the last day, Monday we had quite a lot to do. We went to the LQS and bought some things. I didn't take a picture but I am sure Cathi did. I also made her this bag this weekend so that she could take her Dear Jane home as carry-on on the plane..you don't want that to get lost!

I had a great time, and hope she comes to visit soon again...!

Round Robin, Helena

2006-10-23T18:00:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Just wanted to post my update on Helena's Round Robin. I think it is finished now, but might add something if I feel that it needs something more. On Friday Cathi is coming and since she is the one I sent my RoundRobin's too next, she will be taking it with her...

This is a detail of some of the lace I put on and added beads over it:

I also finished a rose that I am going to put on my crazyquilt:

Back to sewing now!

Barbara

Meeting and bought a witch

2006-10-21T17:44:00.000+02:00

Hi!

This morning I went to a get-together from our local quilt-guilds here in the area. We were about 40 people.

You could choose out of 3 projects to make for Christmas, and later that day they were going to have a big meeting, to talk about quilting in our region and so on.

Weronica made a star and got it almost finished when we left at lunch-time.

We saw this really nice bag that Karin made:

We left early to go to the opening of our friend Lena's exhibition. She does a lot of different things, but now mostly dolls, paintings and things with wool. Here are some of her things:

I can fly:

A Christmas girl doll, very Swedish

A witch,

This serie of 3 "paintings" made of wool:

My favorite was this witch, she looks very nice and old on her broom...and hangs from a string...

and when she turns around:

and now she is mine! I bought her, I will be able to really hang her somewhere when the exhibition is over. I think I am going to hang her in the window...so she can look sweet and nice to us...and moon the neighbor's who are nosy and always try to look in.....*lol*

bye for now!

The first block

2006-10-20T15:54:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Just want to share a picture of the first block:

It is a bit of a rainy day here and very dark, so the colors aren't quite right..

Barbara

Okay...normal blogs again

2006-10-20T10:22:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Now that I wrote what there was to write about the trip I thought I would be time for a normal blogmessage again.

I was working on my red and white-quilt and have made 2 blocks so far:

I have started a on-line class on Joggles about CrazyQuilting and I am doing a lot for that at the moment. It is a six week class and is given by SharonB

Last weekend I made a foldercover for all the readingmaterial that we get:

And after reading all the material for the first class I found out that my fabrics were a bit to busy, so I went into town yesterday and bought some more fabric that didn't have a motif on it. Needless to say that I found some other goodies too??

I am working on our RoundRobin CrazyQuilt for Helena, and this is what I have done so far:

And bought some goodies for that too:

On a sad note: our LQS is closing down. It is really sad and we will miss the shop. On the positive side...a big sale is going on. This is my best purchase yet. It is from Clover. It is a folder, on the outside you can pin and iron, inside there is a sandbord for tracing on fabric, an applique mat (used for working with a Hera Marker) and a cuttingbord. It is wonderful and I got such a great deal on it. I almost bought it in Holland for 50 euro and paid 20 euros here! It is great for classes and bee's.

Today I am going to work on some more CrazyQuilting for the class, might up-load the blog soon again!

Bye!
Barbara

What a great trip part 4

2006-10-20T10:02:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Here again..trying to upload some more pictures is Blogger will let me...

At Irma's Sampler..Lucy's LQS:

Some pictures of Lucy's stacks of quilts:

Here are some pictures of other places but typical Dutch:

On a Sunday I taught one of my best-friends Sasha how to quilt together with her MIL, it was a lot of fun. We had ordered the fabric together from the FQshop on-line and the fabrics had arrived on time!

She called me a couple of days ago and told me she had finished tracing all the templates and cutting them out with the 1/4 inch seam allowance. I am so proud of her..doesn't it look great? So now the piecing starts for her...

Okay...I think that might have seen enough of my trip to see it was busy and very productive, so I think this will be the last hollidaypost and get back to posting about normal things for a while;-)))

Barbara

What a great trip part 3.

2006-10-20T09:37:00.000+02:00

Hi!

As I said last time I was going to write something about our great day at Lucy's house, as it turns out...we had so much fun that we forgot to take a picture of her house or Lucy and her kids..or the 4 of us. We do have some pictures but not a lott...

Well the day started with meeting her at her LQS were she works and we had a tour of all the quilts and teachingsamples:

They also have a large selection of Dutch fabrics that are still used in the traditional costumes. In some villages in Holland there are still women who wear them everyday. In the village called spakenburg there are still 650 women who do and the youngest is 50 years old. So in time this will probably disappear, but here are some pictures of the quiltshop were they had the fabrics, plus some pictures of the quilts that were in a museum in Spakenburg.

In these quilts the mourning fabrics are used. The used different fabrics to show how close you were to the person who died. If it was parents or husband or children you would wear the darkest purple..this is called mourning in years (4 years) The middle color for sisters and brothers, mourning in months and that would be 4 months. The palest color were uncles, ants, niece and nephews, mourning in weeks (4 weeks)

After we spent some time and some money in her LQS we went to her house and got a miniature class of the beautifully StarQuilt.
She even showed us all her quilts and she has made a lot, so that was so much fun to see...

The rest of the week we kept on shopping and they went home on Saturday, the week after that my DH came with his MIL and we did more touristy things like Amsterdam, Spakenburg and so on.
I wanted to upload some more pictures of that but Blogger doesn't want to upload more now...I have that sometimes...strange huh?

Barbara

What a great trip part 2

2006-10-13T07:53:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Okay so here is part 2 of our trip. After showing you all I bought and the projects I will be working on, I thought it would be time to show you some of the things we did.

On Sunday:
We spent half the day sightseeing. In the morning we went to the "hei" Don't know what that is called in English. They still have a large number of sheep here going around everyday with a dog and a herder. When we came the "hei" it was no longer in bloom. Normally the whole fields are pink and purple.

After that we went to a small village called Hardewijk which is quite old. Here are some old houses.

In the evening I had some friends who came over and we celebrated my birthday.

On Monday:

On Monday we went to Kampen. It is a small city were I was born. It used to be Hanzestad, which were an allicance of towns in Holland, but also in other countries in Holland were the harbors where. In the town I lived they used to arrive with the big ships from India and other countries in 1700 and 1800. So this town has the classical Dutch structure of an old city with canals and a large wall around the city with gates against invaders.
Here is one of the gates:

When we were here, we visited my cousin, who started quilting 2 years ago. When my mom died, we cleaned out her house together and on our short breaks I would quilt a bit to get my mind on other things...so she saw it...we went to the quiltingshop which was my moms neighbour and a new quilter was born. Here is a picture of her and some of her quilts:

I really like her quilts and the colors she picks out. She does everything by hand and doesn't even own a rotarycutter to my surprise.
We also went to see my uncle. He is a carpenter and he builds old boats. He sometimes makes boats that are still drawn in old historical documents, but since they were all made of wood, have rotten away a long time ago. So most of them you can find in museums now. We saw him on the boat and we able to have a look around. It was much fun...but I forgot to take a picture. So here are a picture of the boats he makes, but the picture was made in the town Spakenburg (I will tell you all about that one later!)

On wednesday:
We visited Petra Prins Patchwork, and had a class in Japanese Applique and used this tool and a finger presser that I can't find a picture of on the clover website, but it is from clover. We spent the whole day there and they spent a lott of hours cutting all of our fabrics...*s* since we bought so much...we really had a great day

So as some of you may have seen I skipped the Thursday, but that is because I have some special thing to write about it tomorrow!

I started on a block for my red and white quilt. It is looking great and the 6" blocks are quite fast to do. I am going to prepare some more pieces today, and work on Helena's CrazyQuilt!

Bye for now!

Barbara

What a great trip!!

2006-10-10T10:26:00.000+02:00

Hi Everybody!

Well, I am back from my 2 week vacation. I had so much fun! I have seen so much and done so much in these 2 weeks! The first week in Holland I was with my friends Weronica and Helena from Sweden. My father moved in with his girlfriend for 2 weeks so I could use his house..it was perfect! To thank him we made him 2 pillows for on his red sofa:

Since we are all quilters it was mostly a quilting trip. I bought a lott of fabric for new projects..and this is what a bought..plus some books and magazines:

I think I wrote about a spoolquilt I am making and I was looking for the perfect sashing and found it at Petra Prins. There are a little more then 260 spools and they are made out of my reproduction scraps, I think the grey,blue will look good:

I also saw a small picture once in a magazine of a quilt that I loved. It was made in red and white and I redrew the pattern and bought the fabric at Petra Prins. I will be making the quilt by hand:

I had seen this pattern in the Quiltmania and loved it. I saw these fabrics at Petra Prins made by Yoko Sato and knew that his was going to be another project:

The internet shop joggles has some great online classes and I registered for a crazy quilting class and I started to collect some fabrics. I made a colourcard before I left and took it with me to get the same look as I have imagined instead of just buying fabric. I want the quilt to be blue/ turquoise and brown and are bought mostly at Petra Prins again!. Here are the fabrics, beads and lace I bought:

On Tuesday we went to see Lucy and had a great day. We went to the shop were she works and met there. It was a great shop and had great quilts hanging everywhere. I fell in love with this quilt:

I bought the book, but don't know when I will start this one...looks a bit tricky huh?..well I am sure that as soon as I start it will work out great...*s*
When we came to her house she learned us how to make her starquilt:

So I have bought some fabrics to make my own. It is going to be a blue and brown one..a bit reproduction inspired and again bought at Petra Prins. On the top you can see my testability..And the big piece of fabric on the bottom of the pile will be my background:

We had a great time at Lucas and meeting her lovely family and her not only handsome husband but great cook too!

Enough retail therapy for now! I will write soon again and show you some more pictures of what we did and saw...Because we did just a bit more then just shopping...Even if it doesn't look like it now...*s*

bye for now...Going to start my red quilt!

Dream Bag update

2006-09-12T17:55:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Thank you for all your compliments!

I am getting a lott of emails about the hexagon-snap. I assumed everybody knew what it was since I am usually the last person to do something new..so here is an explanation:

The hexagon-snap are 2 stealrods that you sew into your purse by sewing a small tunnel. You then insert the self piloting rivets. The rods are made from a material that can bend. So when you have constructed the snap, and you open the bag, it will stand open on its own looking like a hexagon. When you push them together they will resume the old form of 2 stealrods and the bag is closed. The same technique is used in eyewear cases and so on, but because they are so small, the just bend and do not turn into a hexagon.

I feel a " where did you buy them??" question dropping into my mailbox soon so...
You can buy the snaps and all other supplies for bags at Joggles . I really like Joggles very much and the have a first class service. If you have a question or anything like that you get a good and fast answer from Barbara who works there the same day. Great shop! ( no affiliation...bla bla bla..)

If you are going to make a simular bag...please send me a picture..I would love to see it.

Barbara

Dream Bag

2006-09-12T10:27:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I just finished my bag...and I am so happy with it! It really is my dream bag. I didn't have a pattern or anything, I just knew what I wanted and started making it. I put in loads of pockets inside, that is something I really needed.

I have been dreaming of one bag that would fit every outfit and was big enough to carry all my junk, but not so big that I couldn't use it everyday. I made it of small pieces of favorite fabric. The are cut in a thimble shape. I used ones that were a bit pail "dirty" in their color. I made the bag to look a bit old and oversized...the pleads and puckers are meant to be there..

On the inside it has on one side, 2 pockets with zippers...one big one and a smaller one. One the other side there is one more big pocket with a zipper and a some smaller pockets without zippers for my mobile, wallet ....

It has a 14" hexagon-snap. I really liked the snap, because that means that the bag really is closed, and you don't have to worry about pickpockets and so on...

I am now looking for a good pattern for a little pouch (like a small make-up bag) for putting my handsewing in. Have a good link to a free pattern??..please let me know..

We also had a raffle last week at my Local quilt guild. This was first price. One of my husbands college's won a smaller quilt...

Well, I am on my way soon to the big sale at the LQS...!

Barbara

Great Weekend

2006-09-06T09:24:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I am back from a really nice weekend teaching the sampler. We had a lott of fun. It was a bit cramped but it worked out well. They did great work. Both liking different things and have trouble with different things. It was very educational to see.

Here is a picture of them working:

This is the result from my friend Liselott, My MIL is very shy and didn't want me to take a picture of there things...Which was a shame!

Doesn't it look great??!!

I have been knitting the last week. Trying different things and starting over again. But now I have found the one I like best and have almost come half way. It is not a scarf but more a shawl. It is made of wool and a new kind of yarn, that is more like a silk ribbon in the different colors:

The first try and close-up:

The second try:

And we have a winner:

So I am knitting hard to get the shawl ready before I leave in 2 weeks on vacation.

I am also quilting my scrapquilt that I am going to give to a friend in Holland. I am using one of my fancy stitches since the quilt is quite plain.

Also you asked me about the sewingmachine with extra room between the arm and the quilt:
It is a Janome machine I borrowed it from a friend. This is the machine I have

At the moment I am having a bit of a hard time finding things to blog about, because I am going on a vacation home in 2 weeks, and I am making presents right now. But since my family and friends also check my blog it is a bit hard to take pictures and still keep the surprise ...*lol*
So I hope you can be a bit patient with me the next 2 weeks and I will have a MEGAUPLOAD before I leave!

Hugs Barbara!

A scrapquilt in a day

2006-08-27T20:22:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Yesterday I made this scrapquilt of my scraps and think it looks really nice! I am so happy that I finally found something to do with the scraps and now have more room for new scraps again..!

On Thursday I made this sampler for a class that I will be having next weekend. It is a small class for a friend and my MIL. But it is going to be a lott of fun! I have taken time on how long it takes to finish it, so I hope they will be able to do it in a weekend. I have tried to get all elements in. First Irish Chain for the strip piecing technique. Second logcabin blocks to learn the paperpiecing technique. Third Applique by machine. Forth a block called beginners delight to learn HStriangles. I made it from my reproduction scraps.

As I wrote last week I finished my kaleidoscope quilt...or stack and wack-quilt. I quilted it by hand...here are some pics:

Today I have been quilting the surprise quilt, nr one on my to-do-list, so only the binding left. I am so looking forward to showing you it, but you'll have to wait a bit longer! But I was aloud to borrow my friends Helena's machine. Her machine has an extra large space for the "arm of the machine" so it gives you more space to turn the quilt.
But she also had a really nice present for me...a nice sewingbox..

So you can see I had a great weekend!

Bye!

Back from Holliday!

2006-08-24T09:43:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I am back from my holliday, and boy did I miss my sewingroom. We came home a couple of days earlier then planned because of the bad weather. Since we have no electricity in the cottage, there are no lamps just candle light, therefore it is hard to do something in the evening. DH is a bit sad...he wanted to play golf on his holliday and was only able to get out once, due to all the rain. We were also planning to do some painting, but didn't get any further that sanding and the first basic coate of paint, but it already looks much better...

Then:

Now:

This is me sitting outside, quilting my kaleidoscoop quilt, on the only day without rain!

I finished quilting the whole quilt and have stitched on the binding last night. I am going to do the label embroidery today and then it is done!
Also going to sew on a sampler quilt I am making for a miniclass I am giving to some family and friends here in Sweden next week. They live in another city and there are no classes there, but the wanted to learn so...

Bye for now!

Pictures, Pictures and more Pictures

2006-08-11T09:28:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Here are some pictures of my CQ quiltbox;

Here are some pictures of my Dear Jane some people asked me about that some time ago,
I have all my blocks in a folder and organized like this. I am making block 50 at the moment. You can also see a picture of my blockholder, the pages are made of wool. Like a needlecase...so I pin the blocks on there and I am ready to go...

And here are some other pics...
My cat always lies in front of the computer everyday...

Well that is all for today...going on vacation for 2 weeks...

Bye!

Can I really do this??

2006-08-07T10:59:00.000+02:00

I just need to vent for a bit and share some quilty thoughts with you:

I have been thinking for a while now..remember my post way back in the beginning " what is your thing?" I have been thinking a lot the last few days about my quilting. Mostly about my UFO's in that sidebar with my top10 on my blog that keeps mocking me.

I really like the Blackbird Design things and have started a few: Home Sweet Home, Friend shipgarden, Quilting the Garden and the last book Sweet Summer. I have exactly 1 block of every book finished. So they are now all UFO's...

My thoughts started running around while doing the Crazy Quilting. When I do things like that (being very creative) I feel so excited. And so proud of the end result. Also the Diamond Quilt give me great satisfaction. It was then I realized that the applique strictly by the book doesn't do that for me. That is probably why I got stuck on just the one block.

So ...Get ready for this... I have cleaned out the 4 projectboxes I had with the fabric in it for all the quilts, patterns and most of the time already some more blocks prepared. The fabric is going back into my stash, the blocks and the prepaired blocks are going into 1 small box, in case I change my mind in the next year, or I find myself without something to do (lol that will never happen..*s*) Now I am going to update the sidebar and just forget about these UFO's.

It feels a bit scary and wrong. I think about all the time and the money I have invested, but is forcing myself to go through making 4 of these enormous quilts better??

Don't get my wrong..I love the designs and the applique, but maybe some quilts are not for me to make but just to look at...

I must say...this feels realy good...I feel so liberated!

*sorry still no new pictures...blame Kodak!...and blogger doesn't want to upload any old pictures either today*

It has been a while

2006-08-05T07:00:00.000+02:00

I am not blogging as much as I would want to, because I bought this great, expensive camera to make photo's with and it is not working!! I have been talking to a "support department" for more then a week now, they make me download stuff and nothing seems to anything more then screw up my normal features and computer files. Once the whole computer stopped working. Is that support or not??

So since I have made loads of new pictures on the new camera and can't get them out, there is not much to show.

I finished the box and it turned out great. I even liked it...and I am my own worst critic.

I am working on finishing some things before we go to the cabin next week, so I can do the handsewing there (since we have no electricity I don't have my normal machine)
So this is on the list:
I am making some bags made upp of small pieces, so cutting out all the pieces and but them together so I can quilt it, and finish the bags when I come home.
Preparing Dear Jane blocks, of the nice fabrics I showed you last week.
Making a Crazy Quilt quiltblock
Machinequilt the surprise quilt so I can handsew the binding on.

Some of you asked me about my Dear Jane, well I have some photo's, so when the camera is working I will post those pictures too...

AND THE WINNER IS:

The winner of the contest is Su Bee with this story:
We have a HUGE ladies room at the clinic where I work - designed for wheelchair access and plenty big enough to layer a queen sized quilt. LOL -- it was clean, and I didn't have any other room large enough!

Su if you are reading this, of you know Su Bee, let me know your details so I can send you something!

Well, gotta sew...

Progress

2006-07-30T22:21:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Here is my progress for the weekend.

This is a new CQ box I am making for the LQS to promote my lessons. Here are the panels:

Here is a picture of the fist finished panel were I used a Feather Stitch Circle that CrazySeoulsister explained : Please check out her blog, she does some great work.

I finished my Round Robin quilt that I am going to sent off soon to the first person in line. It doesn't have to be ready until the 30st of September...I think I have never been so early with anything in my life...*s*
Here are a few pictures of the Round Robin package:

A close-up:

Well that is all for today!

happy stitching!

The strangest place you have ever....CONTEST

2006-07-29T22:43:00.000+02:00

Uhmmmm you probably know that you sometimes get inspiration at the strangest times or just have an itch to stitch, but there are not enough hours in a day..
I find myself sometimes trying to find time to do some stitching while doing something else...still haven't found a way of stitching in the bathtub.

yes I know...I am a strange girl, but I would like to convince myself and those around me that I am not the only one...(know the feeling??)

So I was hoping to get you to tell us the strangest place you have stitched on or maybe the most inappropriate place you stitched. But since it might be hard to persuade some people to tell me I thought of this: A Contest...So the person who will post the strangest story on her blogg or sends me her story will get a small quiltinggoodiebag in the mail!

So...tell me your story...

Barbara

Fabric in the mail

2006-07-28T20:20:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I got some great fabric in the mail from my favorite store: Petra Prins Patchwork for my Dear Jane.

I also bought a new digitalcamera today. I am still trying to get it to work probably.

Haven't done much stitching today..so I am going to try and do something tonight!

Barbara

Baby quilts

2006-07-27T09:40:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I been away this weekend to our cottage, and had some great weather. The cottage is located in the area were I grew up in Sweden. My dad was there with his girlfriend for a 3 week vacation, so it was nice to see him and her since they live in Holland. I had the ribbonwork book with me so I tested making some flowers and I had a lot of fun!

My friend Erika came with us from were I used to live to were we live now and we spend 2,5 days together. She is going to be a godmother in August and asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her for a present. Buy a present?? Doesn't every baby deserve its own quilt?? So on Monday afternoon we started making a baby quilt. I used 2 charmpacks that I order from Fatquatershop a long time ago. I quilted it with stars. It was finished, washed and dry, just before she was going to leave..;-)) I had no batteries in my camera to take a picture, so I thought I would post some old baby quilt/children's quilt pictures. I have made a picture of the quilt "the old" way. *s*

Yesterday I was at the LQS and we decided what classes I am going to give this autumn. So I am going to give some new classes which is fun! Now I am going to make some class-samples. So I will teach: The Crazy Quilt Box, How to make your own pattern for handpiecingquilts: like my diamondsquilt. In this last class they will learn how to draw a pattern, mark and prepare the pieces, and handpiecing over several days.
I am going to take a class in Holland in September of Japanese Applique, which I will teach here later if it is a good technique. Ofcourse I will teach my normal classes like: Handquilting Amish style, hand and machine applique if people want me too. I had these classes the last 3 seasons so most people know this now.

Well, I am off to make a new CQbox for the shop..

Hope you have a great sewingday too!

Crazy Quilt Box

2006-07-19T08:03:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Here are 2 photo's of my Crazy Quilt Box front and back. I am almost done with it but thought I would allready share it with you. I ran out of the red strip of cord that is on the sides, which should also go on the lid of the box. I had a piece left but it was missing 2 inches to complete it....Isn't that ironic...somehow that is what seems to happen a lott of the times! So going to the store today to buy some more!

Yesterday I bought a great book that I thought I would share with you. It is called Ribbonwork The complete Guide by Helen Gib. I haven't read all of it yet but ..wow.. It has great pictures of antique ribbonwork...techniques in detail and some great projects. I am totally in love with it. So when I bought the book I bought some more ribbon too, so I am all ready to go! This book has really inspired me.
Here is a link to her website:
http://www.helengibb.com/welcome.html
And this is a link to the book I bought http://www.helengibb.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=hg&Product_Code=107&Category_Code=100

This weekend we are going to our Cottage, so I am going to try to prepaire a little piece of patchwork to do some ribbonwork on.

We are all ready to go for our Crazy Quilt RR so that is what I will be sending out today...! Then we can get started...:-))

Batting Problem solved

2006-07-16T10:24:00.000+02:00

Thank you all for replying to me with tips on the batting problem! I since put it in the dryer after spraying it a bit with water. I then placed it flat for the night. It worked out quite well, with the exception of one small area. Well, you can see how I solved that problem. I had to cut a piece out...the acces bulk to be exact. So the quilt is now ready to get quilted...

But I am not really that enthusiastic about the quilting anymore, so I will let the quilt rest once more...

So today will be Crazy Quilting Day...

BATTING???

2006-07-15T11:37:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I am really really frustrated at the moment. After I wrote this morning I started to think again, and thought I might better finish something then start something new again. So my choice was to do the quilt that has to be done by September..I am sure you all know how frustrating it is to have to finish a project at the last moment with a deadline fast approching.

So I prepared the backing...then took the batting out...so I could start the sandwiching process...

Can somebody please tell me how these manufacuters after stretching this batting so much to fit in their tinny plastic bags expect us to UNSTRETCH IT??.
As you look at the picture you can see that there is like a midlane that is puckering but not the sides...If I pull to take the puckers out I will pull to hard on the places were the batting is flat and it will rip...very frustrating...
(I am using a expensive Hobbs Batting so no cheap batting on a roll)

Some help please?

A Stitch Sampler

2006-07-15T09:16:00.000+02:00

I wrote last week that I was organizing a Crazy Quilt Round Robin and I am happy to say we are now 7 members and we will start soon.
But I started to do a lott of research about CrazyQuilts and found some great projects. I also found a lott of different stitches, so I got the idea to make an old fashioned stitch sampler, to collect them all.
I will keep adding stitches for a while, but this is the result so far. I will probably frame it.

As you can see I changed the way my blogg looks yesterday with the help of my friend Cathi. It turned out great, it was a bit to pink.

I also subscribed to Bloglines. I really enjoy it. It feels like I am 1) Enjoying reading the bloggs so much more 2) Leave comments more since I just read one or 2 at the time instead of going through the entire ring. After a while it feels like the only thing you write is: Nice quilt...or Good work! 3) Saving time!..so I read more blogs and still save time :-))

Today I will make some test blocks for the CrazyQuilt RR, I'll post some pictures later!

Have a great weekend...

Sewingroom Make-over

2006-07-11T14:08:00.000+02:00

Well...I was quite happy with my sewingroom. I had the right furniture, A comfortable chair and all the right tools, but still it felt like something was "off". I had planned to re-upholster my old chair that I took with me from our cottage and spend a long time looking for the right fabric. When I had found it there wasn't enough left to do the whole chair, but since I couldn't life without it I had to buy it anyway. But being the lucky girl that I am I found more of it. So I started to think about how to tackle this "re-upholstering" since I had never done it before.

On Friday morning at 03:00 I woke up and knew what was wrong with my room! To much color! I had an old table in a bright wood color, a chair in a dark wood color with black...there were simply to many colors which made my room look messy all the time. I had a hard time picking out fabrics for project and getting really inspired. I had this nice corner were I could sit and stitch but couldn't really relax. Also you didn't see all the nice things I made and had in my room.

Well this is the way my old stuff looked:

And This is the way my room looks now:

You might think that I spend a lott of money on this, but actually I was on a very tight budget. The most expensive thing was the fabric since, the deskchair, the big chair, the curtains for my cuttingtable, the normal curtains and the bulletinboard were done in this. Second came the 2 shelves I bought and third: the ribbons for the curtain and the bulletinboard.
All the other things like the boxes and stuff were already in my room..you just didn't see them...

Well, I hope this might give you some inspiration to get your paintbrush out and see what you can do with some old stuff....

Going Crazy!

2006-07-06T07:13:00.000+02:00

Hi,

Well after our retreat last week I was a bit done with quilting for the weekend. I did some things in the garden and went on a trip to a very old town called Sigtuna. Here I bought some great fabric for my old chair which I want to re-upholster. But they didn't have enough for the whole chair, but of couse I wanted the fabric anyway!

Well..After looking at some other members blogs I came to Hanne's blogg and saw the wonderful Crazy Quilt Round Robin she was a part of.
I have been thinking about organizing a Round Robin/blockswap for some time and was looking for the perfect block. Because we all know what it is like to receive blocks from a swap were people didn't know how to messure a block and you had to trim of all the points of the stars etc to make it go together...

So anyway now I am waiting for people to reply to the invitation, and started to explore the world of Crazy Quilting and there is so much to see! I will be making some testblocks and audition them...and ofcourse into town for a good fabrichunt!

Well...I am going to keep on surfing now...

Barbara

Mini Quilt Retreat

2006-06-29T09:42:00.000+02:00

Hi!

We are having a mini Quilt Retreat this week, me and Weronica here in Sweden and Cathi in Ireland..

Weronica was working on a Storm at Sea with the Square in a Square ruler, and is now working on a quilt from the CoffeeTable Quilts book, called decaffinated. In blues, greens and whites.

I did a test with the Square in the Square ruler to make Half Square Triangles. It did work, but it creates a lott of waste, a bit to much for my taste, plus that the sides of the HST are on the Bias. So it was nice to try, but I won't do it again. This was the result. The pieces are 1,5 inches.

I am now working on the Home Sweet Home Quilt from Blackbird Design. So I am tracing the flisofix pieces, so I have nothing to show so far...but will update the blog when I have something to show...

So we will be having this retreat today and friday too!

Thanks for all the tips on my redfabrics, I will start testing this weekend!

Barbara

A Garden with things to show you

2006-06-26T21:47:00.000+02:00

Hi,

It has been Midsummer here and we went to our cabin, we had some great weather! Also my niece 12 years old has been here for a week, so I have been very busy. But now I have made some pictures and have a garden of things to show you..

I started making a wallhanging called Making Tea by Ani Downs featured in the Australien Homespun Magazine. The wallhanging is 42 x42". The magazine's wallhanging was just 20 x 20", but I found the applique pieces just to small. I made it for the Afternoon Tea party and by a miracle I finished it just on time. Here are some pictures.

I won a quilt on ebay an antique on for just 21 dollars with help of Cathi. Here are some pictures:

I have been working on my Kaleidoscoop and have 5 more blocks to quilt and then I am done!. I started some time ago with quilting a block a day...that worked quite good for a while anyway :-))

I also finished piecing my Diamonds quilt by hand..here are some more photo's

Somebody asked for a close-up of the pincussion we made..here it is:

I made a test-caddy for my quiltingprojects and am now testing it to see how it works. Here are some pictures:

I was working on a Seven Sisters Quilt in red and white, but I had some bad luck with washing my red fabrics (this was allready their second wash) and one of them bled and now all my reds are ruined, so I am quite sad about that. I am now doing my 7th wash of the same reds and they are still bleading and I am now soaking them for a night a special mixture of something...hope this will work
Now I am stitching my Polka Dot Girls and trying a technique that is called square in a square with a special ruler...I will let you know how that works..

bye for now!

AfternoonTea

2006-06-11T21:23:00.000+02:00

Hi!

Yesterday we had our AfternoonTea Party. We had so much fun. We were also very lucky because it was 27degrees and no rain! We were 7 girls. My friends Helena and Weronica as always ;-)), My friend Lisselot from Highschool, she lives quite far away but came to me for the party, Lena the very talented artist and Ann-Christine the LQSowner and her daughter Jessica.

The party started at 15.30, with tea, coffee and ofcourse cake. Here you can see a picture of the table with the food.

I used to have a net over my bed against musquito bites and I used that to have over the table so we wouldn't have to worry about insects on the food. I found these great butterflies in a craftstore that I attached to the net.

I used the same butterflies as napkin rings:

This is how the table looked:

As you might remember of my last post, we had a mystery project. We made a pincushion. The pattern comes from an other blogg that had a lott of links of different pincushion. I don't know were the pattern comes from since it was a PDF file, without an address..and I printed it out a long time ago.
I did all the preparing on the sewingmachine so the only thing left to do was to stuff the dolls and decorate them. The nice thing was that everybody got to take a finished project home!

This is what they looked like:

Here are some pictures of us at work:

Well, as I hope you can see from the pictures we had a lott of fun! I will be uploading some of the quilts I did for the show-and-tell soon too...

Bye!

In case you are wondering

2006-06-07T06:47:00.000+02:00

Hi!

In case you are wondering what I am up too.. I am working on some projects for the Afternoon tea on Saturday. I am also preparing the mystery project we are making together and some of my own things for show-and-tell..

But since some of the people who are coming are reading my blogg, I don't have much to write about.. So,..

I promise you on saturdaynight or early Sunday morning I will be uploading a lott of pictures of the mystery project...the party...the show-and-tell and my projects...

So please come back Sunday...and keep your fingers crossed hoping for good weather since we are going to be/have to be in the garden!

Hugs Barbara

Building fences, bearquilt and sewingroom

2006-05-21T21:08:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I haven't blogged in a while so here is a update!

My cat has gotten the habit of making housecalls to everybody in the neighborhood and not everybody likes that. So last weekend we made a fence around the garden..So he can go outside but not into the neighbors houses. It is working great...he finds a way to get out every other day and we fix that...and he finds a new way. I am curious how long this will be going on but...we will see. He acts like he is a real cool dude..but say the word tummyrub and he looks like this:

I have made some bearblocks that are on there way to Ireland at the moment. It is made out of a Danish bearbook that is now in English too by Dorthe Jolle: http://www.lapp-elisa.com/cgi-images/image_display.cgi?account=lappelisa&image=sdjbp.jpg

I was also talking about stash and sewingrooms and here is mine:

Well that is all for today!

Barbara

Bree Anna

2006-05-11T18:19:00.000+02:00

Hi!,

Yesterday I made Bree Anna...isn't she cute? I found her in an Australian Patchwork magazine. She was very country style there, so I made some small changes and here she is. She even has her own purse and pearl necklace. It is the first doll I ever made and I must say am very happy with her. She is about 20 inches, and her lower body is filled with sand so that she can stand on her own.

The quilting of a block a day is working quite well. I have some blocks done. I do it when I have time. I don't force myself to do it...it is still a hobby right?

I also have started knitting again. My friend Weronica made a scarf on size 20 pens and looked lovely. So I made that last weekend. I was so hooked that I started another one. This one is being knitted on a round knittingpen. That is a first for me too.

At the moment I am hand applique'ing a small wall hanging with a little lady making tea...as it grows on trees as we all know. I added a small black and white scan..since I don't have a camera ...but I will soon. I am making mine in Ruhbarb and Gingers fabrics from Blackbrid Design. The design is made by Anni Downs from Hatched and patched in australia. One of my favorite designers.

Well Summer has hit Sweden and I am most of the time in the garden..hope you are having a wonderfull summer too!

Barbara

A block a day?

2006-05-02T13:59:00.000+02:00

Today I made some cards for a Afternoon Tea Party I am having in June. We are going to be some sewingfriends who meet. I had this 2 years ago and it was so much fun. Last year I was moving house..so I skipped a year. I found this great project to make during the party. It is kinda Victorian, with loads of beads, silkembrodery and charms. I can tell you more since some read my blog, and it is going to be a surprise..

Well I have been thinking a lott about my quilttops that need quilting. So I am thinking about doing a block a day for while. Don't know if I can keep it up, but a bad plan is better than no plan...:-))

These thoughts came now because I am on my way to finishing my diamonds quilttop. I want to handquilt this one, but I already have some other quilts in my frame. I keep having this problem. I mostly take out the project in the frame because I can't wait to be able to start my new quilting project...hence...nothing gets finished. I am going to give this a try. So ...I am on my way to quilt after posting this.

Barbara

I got tagged...and trade?

2006-04-30T05:53:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I got tagged some time ago, but I didn't know what it really was about, but now I know...So here I go.

20 years ago...
This is really funny...you girls make me feel really young. Well I was seven and still att school, looking at my mom sew, since she was a seamstress. I had my own little sewingmachine, you know the toy ones that do not have a bobbin and you have to turn the wheel to get it to sew. It was red and I loved it! I even have a skirt left of those days that is absolutly sweet to look at. It even has a lace hem. We were still living in Holland.

10 years ago
I was getting out of highschool. And had big plans. We had been living in Sweden for 4 years by then and I was moving back to Holland on my own. I was leaving my mom, dad and little brother in Sweden.

5 years ago
I was having the year of my life. I had been stuck in a very bad abusive relationship and I left and got out. That year I was feeling so proud of myself, free to do whatever I wanted and I did. The summer seemed endless and full of parties, new friends and loads of fun.

1 year ago (and 2 weeks)
I got married to my Swedish husband Håkan. I met him 4 years ago, one year after the other breakupp on a vaction to Sweden with my friend Karin. The funny thing was that I was never planning to move back to Sweden, and since my brother had turned 19 and moved back to Holland, so did my parents that year, just a few months before I met my husband. So we kinda crossed eachother. They were now living in Holland and I was back in Sweden.

1 month ago
I was thinking hard about this one.. I think it is safe to say I was quilting something...*lol*

Yesterday
I been working a bit on some blocks for a raffle quilt for our quiltguild. It rained all day. The forecast said it would be sunny, so I waited for that all day and at the end of the day it came. So I moved out into the sun in my new hammock that I got a few days ago, and finnally got to try out. It is called a hammock, but it is a bench were you can sit, that swings, like a rocking chair, perfect for sewing. There I put some rows of diamonds together.

Today
It is a holliday in Sweden today. So I am going to quilt my guildblocks now at 06.12 (couldn't sleep). Then I am going move into the garden again and work on the diamonds. Later this evening I am going to Weronica and we are going to have some celebration dinner...

So now it is time for me to tage someone. I tag cathi

Wanna trade?

I made a misstake in my Dear Jane. I made D10 and D11 in the same colour. Not the same fabric, but same colour red.

So I am putting D11 upp for adoption or trade. I am making my blocks in rose/flower fabrics. Is there anybody who would want to trade me my D11 for another D11 in any colours than red, sent me an email...

Bye!

Pictures, pictures, pictures

2006-04-29T16:02:00.000+02:00

Hi,

My friend Weronica was here a couple of days ago and was nice enough to make some pictures of my stuff, so I could post them and show them to you, since mine is broken:-(

Here is another picture of my Diamonds quilt. The last pictures I posted were old ones. When I started to put the blocks onto my "design wall" a couple of days ago I was amazed by the fact that I already had so many blocks done. I always thought I would just make a lappquilt out of the fabric. But there is so much fabric left.
After this picture was taken I made more blocks. So the quilt is now as big as the green wall.

I also placed them in rows instead of the hexagon formation before. I think it looks better now.

Today I am going to make the half diamonds that I will need to make the quilt square. I already have the borderfabric done.
It will be 64 x 76 inches finished

Here are the pillows I told you about for the applique class. I made very classic ones. One is made using machine applique and the other handapplique so they could see the difference.The girls made some in purple and others the same colors as I did.

This is a quilt I made using the Marti Michell ruler for logcabins. It is really great to work with. I just had a limited amount of fabric. The cat is behaving just as a cat does, they always want to be in the middle of what you are working on or taking pictures of in this case. They have a Swedish saying (haven't heard it anywhere else) Dogs have owners, cats have servants...:-)

Something I haven't shared with you before: My husband is a mathwiz! He helps me a lott since I can hardly ad 1+1 and then with inches you got my head spinning.
So he makes the calculations about how much fabric I need and stuff. He sometimes gets really into it.
He makes great calculations. I wanted to make the logcabin and I just wanted to start cutting. I would have ended up with 16 blocks, but dh did something don't ask me what. But a way to cut from one strip the smallest piece and largest piece, so I could make 32 blocks. (if you cut the pieces starting with piece 1 and go round and round in order, you won't be able to cut out the largest parts last..since you just have scraps left..)

Well yesterday night he had a lightbolb moment again. He was looking at my diamonds I made and just placed out at random and saw that I wasn't distributing all the different kinds of diamonds over the whole quilt equally. (as you can see on the picture above) So he counted all the different kinds of diamonds, made some calculation from it. And then knew that, for instance, I needed 2 plain diamonds in each row, but only one with a hexagon in each row. It got my head spinning..But we took everything of my wall...divided all the blocks into categories...and now it looks great...I haven't got a picture of it...sorry

I am trying to get him interested in cutting..but no luck jet :-)))) But EQ5 has gotten his attention ..*s*

Well enough for today! have a great weekend!

Barbara

More about the Diamonds quilt

2006-04-26T09:02:00.000+02:00

Hi!

I have been getting some questions about my Diamonds quilt. So here are all the details.

I first saw a quilt made by Kristel Salgarollo. In the magazine Quiltmania they have a section there they visit quilters homes and you can see there quilts and things. I saw this picture off a quilt on her sofa

I fell in love with the quilt, but in this segment of the magazine there are no patterns. The homes are just for inspiration.

So what to do.... I made a template on cardboard of one big diamond. Traced it on several pieces of freezerpaper. Then I started drawing different kinds of diamonds, triangles and hexagons inside it. So that I would have the same shape of the big diamond, but divided into smaller shapes. I cut the diamonds apart and started tracing it on fabric, adding seamallowance on each part. Then cutting it out and piecing it. When I piece it, it becomes the same diamond again as I made out of cardboard. So that is my refference shape.

The fabric I used is from Moda and is called Wuthering Heights and is from 3 sisters.
I bought a package of FQ and shared half with my friend Weronica. So I have 50 fat eights. The thought is to continue until I am out of fabric or I am too bored with it. Since I am making it totally by hand I am going to keep it myself..

Any more questions please let me know...

Please visit : www.quiltmania.com and kristel on: www.salgarollo.be

bye for now!

it was great!

2006-04-25T09:21:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I have been back for a while now from the cottage and had a really great time. We had wonderful weather! We did some yardwork during the day, but the most of the day was spend sewing. I was even trying to stitch until the last sunlight until there was not enough light anymore! We had a great bench that we could put in the sun out of the wind..and just sit there in a t-shirt! I even got a bit of a tan in my face!

I have been trying to keep this vacation feeling alive here at home. But I have been quite busy. On Friday I had a stitchingday with the girls. We started to prepare freezerpaper templates for a applique wallhanging called Drying in the breeze you can see picture here
http://www.quiltmania.com/patchwork/magazine/quilt/article/Drying-in-the-Breeze/87/976/976.htm
I am sorry, you'll have to copie the link and paste it into your browser, I can't get the links to work...

Saturday I had my applique class. I had so much fun. I had a small group, 3 people. Normally the limit is 5, so they thought I was going to cancel and were so happy that I didn't that we had lot of fun! The all did good. They even started buying things for there next projects, like books and stuff.

Yesterday evening I had a Dear Jane meeting. It was a bit short but I STARTED MAKING BLOCK 50! I am so happy, I am finally feeling that I am getting somewhere. I am having a lot of fun with the blocks again.

Today I am going to a bee at the LQS. I think I am going to work on my Diamonds Quilt like you see on the picture at the top of the page.

I have also been reading blogs and there has been a lot of activity. I have been keeping my eye on Lucy's page. She has been waiting for her friend Bonnie to arrive. And Cathi has been piecing her Dear Jane together. That has really been a inspiration to start piecing my Dear Jane again.

Well that is all for today!

Barbara

Can't wait to get in front of the fireplace

2006-04-13T12:01:00.000+02:00

Well, I am really bussy here getting everything in order for our vacation. We are going to our cottage for 5 whole days. I can hardley wait. Here is a picture of one of the fireplaces in one of the smaller rooms. I totally love the way it is painted. The house was build in 1800, but the farm seems to have been there for a long time. It is even listed on one of the earliest maps. Beside the whole house runs a fast runing stream that in the spring runs really fast because of the melting snow. So you can wake upp and hear the birds in the appletrees right outside the window and hear the stream running as it has for centuries. It is a magical place for me.

It has been empty since last autumm, so I hope everything is fine. One winter we had a lot of mice in the cottage and they ate all the mattrasses and carpets and stuff, so there was a lot of cleaning to do. I am hoping that that is not the case this year!

I have prepared a lot of Dear Jane blocks now. Since the cottage has no electricity, there is no tv, radio, and internet to distract me from sewing..*s*

There are also some great old sitting chairs in the cottage that have been left there ages ago, and were even there before the last owner sold the cottage to us. So I was thinking of test sitting them and then pick the best one to follow home with us and I will paint it and put some new fabric on.
One of the most nice things I found in the barns besides all the old funiture was a sewingmachine...a really old iron one...still working with needles and everything, just the leather straps were to be replaced

I also finished the preparations for my applique class. I used a pattern from Blackbird design as inspiration. I am sorry, my digicam is broken so I don't have pictures only of the original. I made 2 pillows one handapplique and one machine applique. I made them with a beige background and red and greens. A bit of a baltimore album look.

here are some pictures of my quilting classes:

Oh, some answers to some questions I got:
The link I gave you to becca didn't work. The right adress is: www.willowhillquilts.net
The weather here is starting get springlike!¨The snow melted last week so I can see the green grass now. We still may get some snow..but it feels like spring.

happy Easter!

Hmmmm

2006-04-11T08:23:00.000+02:00

Well, As you might have guessed I am having some blogger problems..*s*

I wrote this note about my cat, together with some other things last weekend and tried to upload it. Blogger didn't really want too and I got a : "can't find server" message all the time. So I was a bit surprised when I started getting email from people telling me that they hopped the cat would get home soon. .-) I thought there might be some paranormal activity going on. But now I saw that blogger did upload, but no photo's. I also read on some other bloggs that people were having problems to uppload...pictures mostly...but let see how it works today..

So since it has been a while it is going to be a long post today:

Good news! I found the cat Sunday evening when I was walking back from a birthdayparty and was calling for him on my way home. I snatched him and ran home, because he didn't really want too. He was out with his friends having fun..*s* So I had him inside all day yesterday. He was making so much noise I used some headphones and my mp3 player to keep from going insane! Last night we took him to the vet and she castrated him, so I hope he will be more inclined to stay home. My husband was with me to the vet, but couldn't really look, he had what he called sympathy pains..

I have been working on my Dear Jane again. I have been looking at Cathi's quilt and also saw a finished one from Hanne from Norway. It got me inspired again. So I made 3 blocks last weekend. I also uploaded a lot of blocks on my webshots again..

At the moment I am preparing for my applique classes next week. It is going to be a more traditional block. They will be making the block twice. Once on the machine and once by hand. They will make it into 2 pillows. It is a bit baltimore Album style.
So I am now making the blocks and writing instructions and so on...

I am also thinking about what I am going to take with me next weekend as we are going to go to our cottage for 5 days. I hope to get some sewing done there...but what project to take.. I might prepare some DJ blocks at home if I have time!

Well a hasty update...hope that blogger allows me to update soon again..

Barbara

btw.. I sometimes use the spellingcheck on blogger... Did you know that the blogger spellingcheck doesn't recognise the word: Blog or Blogger...strange huh?

Were is my cat?

2006-04-08T13:25:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I am a bit scared today, because my little cat has been out since last evening and we have no idea were he is. Normally is comes in before it gets dark, and when we call him it takes him only 5 seconds to come. But not last night. And even if we let him out first thing in the morning he would never miss breakfast. So my mind is going in all directions wondering were he can be. We have been looking outside, even took a look at the roadside a bit away from here to be sure he hadn't been run over... This really sucks!

UFO's UFO's

2006-03-29T09:56:00.000+02:00

This is a picture of a project I made a couple of months ago. it is a etui to hold needles, pins and sissors. It is made by Becky:http://www.willowhillquilts.com

Well I did get my mail last monday. The local union of postmen here in this area had refused to let there mailmen carry the propaganda and since they didn't have to they delived the mail and I got my magazine! In other parts of Sweden they didn't get mail but we did. There is now a big disscusion going on in Sweden about were they line goes between freedom of speach and insulting people.
There was even a cartoon in the propganda were black people were tossed into a old fashioned meatgrinder by a white hand and grinded meat was coming out. Well this story isn't over jet. The irritating thing is all the free pubicity this group is getting.

Some more upplifting news. I finished the top of my nr one ufo! I now have to save some money for the backside and batting and I can start quilting and get it ready.
I also sandwiched my halloweenquilt and am going to do some machine quilting on it today.
I have also been working on this DWR that I am making and boy am I regreting even trying this metod. It is both boring and not looking very good. ..

Well the prize in the end is that I can make some new quilts later...*s* I have been watching a lot of Quilters News Network the last couple of days and that is giving me a lot of inspiration. I also bought a new book of bronwyn hayes yesterday, but I first have to do some other embroderie.. This is a link to that I bought yesterday: http://www.honeysucklecottage.com.au/shop/product_info.php?cPath=60_282_177&products_id=2557

This is another book form her were you can see her style a bit more. I am working on this one too.
http://www.honeysucklecottage.com.au/shop/product_info.php?cPath=60_282_177&products_id=3433

Bye Barbara

Maybe no mail today?

2006-03-27T09:15:00.000+02:00

Just wanted to write about this strange thing that is happening today in Sweden.

A political party, that want less foreigners in Sweden and thinks things like: if there were less foreigners there wouldn't be unimploiment for the Swedish people ...etc.
Well, next september there will be elections and this party has made a campain folder that says these things that has to be distibuted in Sweden bij the mailman.

Since this political view is a big minority and there are many foreigners in Sweden, the mailmen don't want to pass these out. Especially in certain parts of Stockholm were most people are imegrants. But because there is freedom of speach the political party says that they have to pass it out to each household just as they would they other campain folders and stuff

So most mailmen allready called in sick on Saturday and told there office they are not coming on monday. The other mailmen who are working are getting police escorts and from other security companies...

It is a very difficult question: one on hand you have freedom of speech and on the other the wellbeeing of the mailmen, who feel exposed to violence etc.

A other peculiar fact is that Sweden has almost 8 miljon inhabitants and more then 1 miljon are fugutives or workimigrants form the 1960's. Children of imigrants that are born here are not in this number, they are seen as real Sweeds.

Well since I am waiting for some fabric and my quiltmagazine I am longing for the mail today..

I'll let you know..

Barbara

Working on those UFO's and a question

2006-03-26T17:06:00.000+02:00

Since I made that UFO list, UFO's are on my mind and I can't seem to get them out of my mind. So I have started on finishing some.

I started yesterday with my halloween quilt. Here is a picture were I just fused the applique parts on the quilt. I now have appliqued it using my new machine...(jippie)

Here is a pciture of my Double Wedding Ring quilt I started a long time ago. I used the quiltsmart way. http://www.quiltsmart.com You make the arces and fuse them onto square 12" blocks and later applique the arces and putting the blocks together into a quilt. As you can see in the conors of the blocks you make small triangles, that when you put 4 blocks together turn into a square. The posistion of the triangles are very precise to make the block square when you put 4 together which is extra hard because of the arcs give a lot of bulk..

Now I have the following idea:
I want to draw all the blocks onto one big piece of background fabric, so I know were the arcs are supossed to go and applique them. And then applique a 4-patch over the place were now the big green triangel is.
What do you think, is this a good idea or does somebody have a better one?

Since I didn't like the big green squares in the middle that were just inpossible to get square I stopped so I hope this works. When I went back to this project today I found out after counting that I allready have enough arcs for a 60 by 60 inch quilt without the borders!

bye!

A baby gift

2006-03-24T19:15:00.000+01:00

Some weeks ago I wrote on my blogg that was making a present for a friend, but couldn't post a picture since she reads my blog. But she had her baby, Maxime, last week and got the present in the mail, so I can post a picture now.

I made it togheter with Weronica, Helena and Ann-christine..

This is the card I made to go with it

Today I have been working a bit on my Dear Jane software. I have a Dear Jane Design wall in my quiltingroom but since I now have a cat, I will have to take it down. He likes playing with it to much. I also have to uppload some pictures on my webshots since I am so far behind in updating that site..

Well have a great weekend!

Barbara

A top 25 challenge

2006-03-23T07:54:00.000+01:00

Some time ago Evelyn asked us what our top 25 of quilts we wanted to make was. So I started thinking. I even looked at some WIP and stuff. The strange thing is that some quilts on my top 25 list I really want to make but they are very difficult and scare me a bit so I will wait untill I have a bit more experience.

My top 25..

1 A double Wedding Ring Quilt
2 Lone star quilt
3 My Dear Jane
4 The Rozequilt by Petra Prins ( I have that ready to start sewing that one)
5 Blessed this Union by Robyn Pandolph
6 The heart of the home by Robyn Pandolph
7 A seven sisters quilt with repro fabrics
8 A redwork quilt
9 A double wedding ring quilt by Judy Niemeyer
10 Drying in the breeze

My WIP's
1 A gift that has to be ready before september ( the person who gets it reads my blog so I can't tell you more :-))
2 My own quilt /own design
3 A Gardners Journal, I am at the embrodery stage (www.hatchedandpatched.com)
4 Home Sweet Home by BlackbirdDesign (applique)
5 Friendshipgarden by BlackbirdDesign (applique)
6 A small sewingbox
7 Spool quilt. (still looking for the right sashing)
8 Diamonds quilt
9 My Dear Jane ofcourse
10 Halloween quilt (applique)

To Quilt:
1 Lady of the lake
2 Teacup quilt
3 Double Irish chain
4 Kaleidoscoop quilt
5 Quilt with baskets
6 Log cabin quilt
7 Blended quilt
8 Baby quilt

Well I think that is about it. I wanted to post some pictures but blogger doens't want to upload any the last few days...sorry!

I have had some problems with my sewingmachine.. Today I will get a new sewing machine. I had trouble with the applique stitch, but only the applique stitch, so it was very strange. So I hope I will get some applique done one my WIPS.

Just a small question. What do you do with projects you have started some time ago and know now that you will never finish because you didn't like the technique or colour or...
I have a lot of stuff lying around, but it doens't feel right to trow away. What do you do?

Barbara

Okay

2006-03-22T11:02:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I had the operation on monday and I am doing good! The doctor and nurse were just great, I wasn't even nervous. I got this great drink, that made you calm, but also made you loose your sense of time. I still remember everything but it feels like I was just there for 3 minutes, but the operation took 50 minutes. Very strange!
I have 4 stitches which come out next week on friday. I look a bit like a hamster, but otherwise I am fine!

Well I even got some stitching done. I made 3 blocks to put into a quilt that is going to be a bit like a sampler. A log cabin-block, Old Maid's Puzzle and an Annies choice. I think I am going to make some more blocks today.

Well, I am going to get back to the sewing machine!

Barbara

Tomorrow

2006-03-19T18:32:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I am going to have a operation to get a wisdomtooth out that is growing under my other teeth. I am so hating this. So think of me tomorrow..*sob*

So I don't think I will get much sewing done...so that's why I thought I would post a small message today.

I am reading a new book of Jennifer Chiaverini the Christmas Quilt, so that is what I will be doing tomorrow after surgery..

bye

Barbara

The Sugar Camp quilt

2006-03-18T11:43:00.000+01:00

Hi,

You might wonder what I have been up to the last days but I haven't been
sewing much since I have been reading a book.

I have been reading the Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Ciaverinni. It is a part of the Elm Creek Novel series.

Well I started reading on Wednesday and now I am finished. All the books are just great but when you get started, there is no time for anything else because you just have to finish. So now I am going to read the Christmas Quilt. In April there will be a new book, so I want to be finished by then.

Yesterday my DH and went into town to a pub to celebrate St Patricks Day. There was a band with good live music. I had a great time!

Barbara

Instructions on how to make a box

2006-03-15T09:05:00.000+01:00

Hi!

How I love reading the comments on my blog and also the emails I get brighten my day!

I got a lot of questions about how to make a box, so I thought I would write the whole instruction down so you can try it yourself! It is easy.
I wrote an instruction for a box that will be Length 6 inch, Wide 6inch and height 6 inch, without a lid . You can enlarge it on make it smaller as you desire, I wrote the calculations, so you know how I get my sizes, but the technique is the same.

You will need:
- your favorite fabric
- cardboard, but not to thick. I use cardboard that is 1000gr.
- a glue stick
- an old rotary cutter blade
- batting. I use batting used in tablerunners, it is has almost no loft and is quite hard and thick.
- normal stuff like sewingmachine etc....

Instruction for a complete square box with equal sides and all sides of the same fabric:

1 When you have calculated the size of the box you start cutting the cardboard pieces so in this case all the pieces will be the same since it is square. But you will need to cut the pieces twice the height of the box. So cut these pieces: Length 6 inch and "height" 12 ich. In the middle of the height of this piece you cut a small line, BUT NOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE CARDBOARD. This will be a folding line. A totall of 5 pieces, 4 sides and 1 bottom piece.
2 Glue the batting on the pieces on the side were there is no cut.
3 Bend and fold the pieces so you will get you 6 x 6 inch square pieces with a neat fold on one end.
4 Cut a piece of fabric that is Length: the 4 sides plus 2x 1/4 and 3/4. and Wide 2x the finished size plus 2 inch extra.
So the piece for this box will be 4 x 6 plus 1 1/4 = 25 1/4 and 2x6+2=14
So cut a piece 25 1/4 x 14.
5 Sew the 2 ends of the fabric that is 14" together. (right sides on top of eachother) So you now have a loop of fabric.
6 Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and sew a seam each 6 1/4 inch apart, start sewing over the seam that you made to make the fabric into a loop on the right side of the fabric.
7 You should have a piece of fabric with 4 "pockets", put 4 of the pieces in here and you will have the sides of the box. The folded side of the cardboard up so that comes on the top.
8 Cut a piece of fabric that is 6 1/2 x 14. Sew the sides together, so you make an other pocket.

Now you have all the parts and you turn under the seams of the side pieces, sewing by hand or with roxanne glue. When the pieces are all ready attach the bottom by hand. Finished!

Some Important tips:
- I calculated about 1/4 inch for the seems on the sides, for the "pockets". You should look at your cardboard for the right size. If you have thinner or thicker cardboard you might have to adjust this.
- 2 inch extra seam allowance on the bottom of the "pockets" might sound much but is is only 1 inch at each side plus that the fold of the cardboard at the top of the pockets take a lot of extra fabric. If you do have to much fabric you can cut some away but attaching the bottom to the sides takes some effort and not having enough seam allowance makes it even more difficult.
- you can leave out putting batting on the bottom panel if you want. It will stand more flat on a surface without it, or just put batting on the half that will be the inside of the box.
- Because you fold the cardboard you will have 2 layers of cardboard which make the box quite firm. If you use cardboard that is to thick you will not be able to fold it neatly. If you want to use thicker cardboard and cut this the finished sizes and not bend it, you will loose the neat fold on the top that makes the box look very nice, but this is a choice..

An other way to do it:

If you would like to make boxes by hand, have different fabrics on each sides, or different sizes of the sides there is a second good way to do it:

You cut the cardboard as above, make a small folding cut and glue the batting on.
Then you cut a piece of fabric that is the size of the cardboard piece adding 1 inch of fabric all around. You place the cardboard with the batting on the wrong side of the fabric. Then fold the fabric over the cardboard and glue it on the cardboard. When you have folded all the 4 sides of the fabric tightly over the cardboard you fold the cardboard, with the fabric on in half as above. Now you have one single piece of a side. Make 4 of these and piece them together by hand adding the bottom last which you make in the same manor with or without batting.

Well, that is about it I think. If I have made a error somewhere please let me know and I will correct it at once. It should be correct, but I am only human. If you have a better way to do it, please let me know too !
Ofcourse if you make a box I would love to see a picture or receive a small note!

Barbara

A box in a weekend

2006-03-14T11:06:00.000+01:00

You might wonder what I have been upp to this weekend... Well I made a box.
I have all kinds of handpiecing projects in the livingroom and I thought I would make a box for all of it so that it looks a bit more tidy. Also it is always a plus to know were things are...

I started on friday afternoon, together with my friend Helena and Weronica, who also wanted to make a box, but made very different ones.

The fabric dilemma:
You know when you have a fabric which is just beautifull. You know that you want to use it for something special, but don't know what. I had bought a fabric for making this box. I didn't think about using my special one because I was saving it for something special. But I dicided that the box was going to be special and there was no reasson to keep saving this fabric so I used my special fabric from Robert Kaufmann. I read the same kind of thoughts in an other blogg by Linda. So here it is in my special fabric! The size is approx: 16 inch by 10 inch by 10 inch.

This is the outside of the box:

When the box is open:

And the tray I made for holding my sissors and so on:

Well this took all weekend!

Hope you hade a great weekend as well!

Barbara

2006-03-09T08:50:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I got an email from Britt and some others about the bag, what this project is called and comes from, so here it goes.

It comes from the book called Fölg Tråden from Anne-Pia Godske Rasmussen.

You can see a picture of the book here: http://www.lapp-elisa.com/cgi-images/image_display.cgi?account=lappelisa&image=sbkft.jpg

And of another project here: http://www.lapp-elisa.com/cgi-images/image_display.cgi?account=lappelisa&image=sbkftin.jpg

And you can buy it here if you are interested: http://www.lapp-elisa.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=7851498.11452.s1&lastmenu=submenu-1100-w.html&product=skbok&sales=1

This project is called the bali bag if I remember correct.

The book is in Danish and has a lot of different bags, angels and all other sorts of things. The book has a lot of step by step pictures so it is easy to follow, which is a good thing since I don't understand Danish..*lol*

I'll try to get better at mentioning my source and stuff..

Today Helena is coming to visit me and we are going to some sewing on our gardners journal quilt:
http://www.hatchedandpatched.com.au/pages/Books3.htm

bye barbara

My day at the exhibition

2006-03-08T09:26:00.000+01:00

I had a great day Sunday at the exhibition and this is the fabric I bought.

I also bought a pattern for something called the rosegarden. It is a block made from old fashion paper pieces. Normally it are just hexagons or triangles but this block is made of triangles, hexagons, jewelshapes and diamonds.
I am a bit late with posting this blog, but I thought I might make a block to show you, but ofcourse I was a bit too optimistic about how much time a block would take.

I spent my Saturday with my friend Helena and we did some chatting and I read some of her quiltingbooks. In one of this books I saw a pattern of a bag that I just loved. So when I got home I got started at 20:00 and was finished at 0.30. So that was the bag that was aloud to come with me to the fair.

I have made quite a lot of bags these past few weeks, which is a bit strange because bags are not really my thing..but ..who cares...*s*

Oh BTW I have a question about blogg etiquette. Are you suposed to answer all the comments or not. Sometimes the entries aren't really a question. I sometimes answer when people leave a tip or something, but I don't reply to things as..great bag! Is that rude? what do you do?

Mountains of tops

2006-03-03T08:54:00.000+01:00

Some days ago I wrote about wondering what my thing was. I got loads of email. I haven't really replied to everybody, because of the volume! But by reading all the comments I have one conclusion why I don't really know what my thing is: I spend a lot of time doing things for other people and then you adjust the quilt to those people, right?

So the plan is now to start sewing a bit more for myself so I can find out. The thing is that I made this plan already once before. It was my newyearsresolution to be exact..*s*. But it isn't working so well, if you have been reading my blog. I made something for a friend, and 3 mini quilts for the LQS. Plus I have a special project I already started last year to be finished this year.
Well I guess I have to do some thinking if I really want to give up sewing for others to find my thing. I'll will post my findings later when I have made up my mind.

Okay now about the mountains of tops. I love quilting but starting a new top always wins from the quilting. So Now I have 8 tops ready for quilting. Ofcourse I would like to do the quilting by hand but maybe I can start doing some on the machine.
Tips anyone?

On Sunday there will be a fair in Stockholm , which is held in autumn and spring. It is a fair with evertything for quilting, sewing, knitting, croche, embroidery and so on. So I am going to dive in some projects later today were there are some things missing so I can look for it at the fair. I started a quilt called Les Bobbins de Martine with spools. I made all the spools but can't find a sashing that suits. Here is a picture of the original: http://www.quiltmania.com/patchwork/magazine/quilt/article/Les-Bobines-de-Martine/83/913/913.htm

Well, have a great day. I will get into diving into projects!

Barbara

A new bag

2006-02-27T10:41:00.001+01:00

Hi,

Yesterday I made a new bag. A smaller version then the last bag. It was a bit to big for me. I made a picture of the front and the backside so you can see how the bag works. On the backside there are 4 hoops so you can turn it into a backpack. Which is just great!

The backstraps have Velcro so you can remove them.

well, don't really know what I am going to do today, maybe work on my diamonds quilt and listen to a book on CD Bilbo from Tolkien...

bye

Have you found your thing??

2006-02-25T09:14:00.000+01:00

Okay time for some thoughts I have been having this week after my Quilt marathon.

What is my thing?

When I was at the Marathon all the people there seemed to have that special thing within quilting. Vivi has her wonderful hexagonquilts. Lena has her artwork. My friend Weronica is a fan of dark colors, batiks and has her wonderfully blues. Lucy has her wonderful quilts that look antique and Bonnie Hunter has her amazing scrapquilts ..And I can name many more. This had me thinking about what my thing was.

I love pink, applique, handquilting, quilts with embroidery and much more but I don't have the feeling that I found my thing.

Ofcourse you can debate the fact if you need one thing. Is it better with lot's of things that you like.
Having one thing sure is better for you stashbuilding..*s* Because now I am all over the place, but almost never have enough of one type of fabric for a whole quilt.

I have been reading the comments on my blog and loved all the nice messages and am very curious what you think about this.. let me know!

Oh right what have I been up to this week. I have been at the LQS and finished my Crazy Quilt for the shop. I made a bag with Weronica. It turned out to big, so I am going to make the pattern a bit smaller and make a new one.
I am working hard on a surprise for a friend, but since she reads my blog I can't tell you jet..but as soon as she gets it I will post some pictures.

Bye!

Back home from Quilt Marathon

2006-02-21T08:23:00.000+01:00

I'm back after a whole weekend with nothing else but quilting, laughter, great food and companionship! We had a great time! We were living in an old typical Swedish house. We had 2 ladies who took care of the food and everything else. They did a great job.

Let me tell you what we did and show you some pictures.

Friday we arrived at 18:00 found a spot to sit and started sewing. I sat with my friend Weronica. I started on my baskets quilt and Weronica started on her Stack and Wack quilt. At 19:00 dinner was ready. We had salmon which was delicious!
After dinner we went back to sewing. Some people used this weekend to finish things others started on new things.

Vivi who sat behind me did the handsewing of binding on all kind of quilts. Carin worked on her Jeansquilts. Ann-Christine worked on a quilt made of Wuthering Heights fabric, her daughter Jessica made a babyquilt for a friend, Ann-Christine's mother did some handquilting on a fabulous Jenny Beyer quilt. Torun and Marie did a lott of bags if I remember correctly and they are very artistic with freemotion quilting, Angelina embroidery and so on. Elisabeth had a package of different fabrics for some time and wanted to make something from that and made a quilt. Lena K finished her Thimbleberries club quilt...(I still have to finished that one..)Lena T did a double sided quilt. I can't for the life of me remember what Annette made. I think it was a stack and slash quilt. Eivor arrived on Saturday and prepared a Jeansquilt.

We all spent quite some time going around and seeing what the others were doing.
I went to bed at 23:00. Some people went on until 1:30 but that was a bit to late for me.

Saturday breakfast was served at 08:00, with freshly baked bread ..*hmmm* We started sewing again,...and sewing. We had a coffeebreak and at 13:00 we had lunch, quiche with salad.

Dinner was chicken, pasta en salad..
In the evening we had show and tell which was a lott of fun. It also was interesting to see as we have so many different people in the group.

We have Lena who is a artist. She does a lott with painting on fabrics and so on. She also had exhibitions. This is a picture of a quilt she made. It is a picture of her and her husband, her children and grandchild. The picture doesn't do the quilt justice.
Maria does a lott with things as Angelina, painting fabric and something called Artist Trading Cards but I don't have any pictures of her work..*sorry*.

There were a lott of other quilts like this Stack and wack. It is so fun to see that it looks so different then mine. We had quite a chock with show and tell. We had some larger quilts to show, so two girls climbed unto the soffa to hold it...and fell trough it!..*lol*
Some people were up until 2:30 so I have been told and had a lott of fun..*s*

On Sunday the time pressure set in. Everybody wanted to finish there projects and there wasn't much time for lunch ...at least I was eager to get my basket quilt ready and I was getting so close....and I did it! I haven't decided on borders yet ..but that will come

I had a great time and we had a great gang of girls. The next date is set for 16,17,18 September. I can hardly wait!

When I came home on Sunday evening I was so tiered and my arms hurt from the intense sewing. I could hardly lift my cat into my arms....*lol*. Yesterday I slept most of the time. Later today Weronica is coming and we are going to sew our Amy Butler bags...

bye!

Am I moving??

2006-02-17T13:35:00.000+01:00

Well, I know it is just one weekend but it looks like I am moving out. It is always amazing all the stuff you need for a weekend like this. Since I already cut everything I don't even have fabrics with me...*lol*
I am almost packed and ready to go..I just have to go to the pharmacy and to the store buy something to drink (soda) and maybe some candy. I have been waiting all day, but it is snowing and I thought I would wait until it was a bit less, but it doesn't seem to stop...*s*

So I am bringing:
1)My own basket quilt in pink and brown made from fabric I already had. Didn't buy a thing..*s*
2) My Amy Butler bag..a totebag that you can turn into a backpack
3) My embroidery for A gardeners Journal (www.hatchedandpatched.com.au)

4) My Petra Prins rose quilt that I still have to make. This is a picture of the quilt finished.

Also I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful nice emails and comments I got on my blog. I haven't managed to write everybody back, but I will try when I get back home! Thanks!

Well, take care...

Barbara

Prepare..Prepare...Prepare...

2006-02-16T13:36:00.000+01:00

The last couple of days I have preparing for my Quilt Marathon this weekend! I am so looking forward to it. We are 15 quilters who are going to meet up for a whole weekend of quilting. We sleep at a place there they have conferences normally. Everything will be fully taking care off. The food, beds and so on. So nothing to think about except sewing.
I keep thinking of all the stuff I will get done. I have big hopes of this, but I wonder if I am being to optimistic....*lol* I have prepared the whole basket quilt from scraps and now I am going to go into town to buy supplies for a Amy Butler bag I have received a pattern of. It is a tote bag that can be transformed into a backpack.

Last Tuesday I did a crazyquilt for the LQS out of some of my scraps of Wuthering Heights. I am going to do the stitching on a new Janome sewing/embroidery machine at the LQS. I will let you know how that works out.

On valentines Day I got a bunch of roses of my DH, in my favorite color pink...*s* He is so sweet. Also my father from Holland dropped by for one of his short visits. It was a really nice..

Well I am off to the LQS to do some shopping...*s*

Lovely Poem

2006-02-13T07:28:00.000+01:00

Today I have no serious plans .. I have the LQS owner Ann-Christine coming by. We are going to have a look at my sewingmachine...
I have finished cutting all my scrap fabrics for my basketquilt yesterday. I just have the settingfabric left to cut. I will try to applique the handles on the top triangle of the basket before piecing the blocks together..
I have started on the big heap of scraps for my Ocean Waves, but it doesn't look like it when I look at the pile left on the floor....*s*

At my friends house I read this lovely poem written by a daughter of a quilter after recieving a quilt from her mother:

Quilters Daughter

I am a quilter's daughters,
A treasured title to own,
For hours my Mum has thought of me,
And sewn and sewn and sewn

In each piece of fabric,
In every border, every square,
My Mum, the quilter, stitches her love,
And boldly lays it bare

There is not mistaking the motive,
Of one who gives quilts,
Just to see the pure joy on my face,
Is what my mother's hands have built

When I was a little Mum would use,
Her hands to tuck me into bed,
Now the quilt, with her fingertips,
Tucks me in instead

I can only pray my daughter,
Feels half as loved by me,
To feel warm and backed and stitched in,
To their Grandma's legacy

Source: Australian Quilters Companion no 18
written by: Margaret Taylors daughter from Chatswood NSW

I hope you liked this poem too. I wish my mother had been a quilter...*s*

See you later..

Baskets of stash

2006-02-12T10:53:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finished piecing this basket quilt. I just have to put some handles on it. I tried to do it with needleturn applique but it was quite lumpy so I am going to try to make a template in the round shape and then trace it and applique it on the fabric. This is made for my LQS.

I saw these baskets in a book and I thought I would use my scraps. So now that I finished this one for the LQS I can start my own. I am going to make it in pink and brown scraps. Next weekend I am going to go to a quiltmarathon! It is going to be so cool! It is from fridaynight untill sundayevening. So I am now cutting all the pieces from my stash. I hope to have everything ready before next weekend so I can just sew and sew and sew.

I also think I am going to start cutting for a Ocean Waves. I saw a scrappy one made by Bonnie Hunter which was lovely! http://www.quiltville.com/oceanwaves.shtml
She also haves this great stash/scraps systems that is worth reading about!http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml

Well I have a pile of scraps waiting for me so...wish me luck.

Outside for the first time

2006-02-10T09:40:00.000+01:00

yesterday was the day I had to let my baby go outside for the fist time alone. I was looking outside the whole time and really worried about him and the snow. In some places the snow was higher then he is..
But he did great. A bit nervous..*s* but fine. He went a bit futher and futher every ten minutes. And came back when I called for him.

But after some hours and me leaving him for longer periods he managed to explore the whole yard and started to explore the neighbours yard. But when I came outside he wasn't there and I got a bit scared. But the snow saved me, because of the wonderfull things called...footprints! I could just follow him to the neighbours yard and look over the small fence and see he was doing fine! So while I am writing this he is outside again exploring, but I am not so nervous anymore..

I also finished a redwork quilt for my LQS. I looked nice and I even managed to handquilt it in 2 days. I didn't do the binding that is the owner going to do.. I hate binding..
Today my friend Weronica is coming and I am going to work on a basketquilt for the LQS it is finished but I ran out of fabric . I will get more tonight.

See you later!

Thankfull for:
1 Snow
2 Jam made of roses
3 my digital camera

Bussy day yesterday

2006-02-08T09:42:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day at my LQS perpairing for my new class. Making a housebag as you see on the picture. I am also going to help her sew some quilts for a big quilt-fair she is going to be a vendor at.

I am going to sew a redwork miniature quilt. I started sewing it last night and finished it. I am handquilting it now. I am also going to do a crazyquilt and something in reproductions with baskets but I am not quite sure yet.

We also had our thimbleberries-club. Most of us had finished our block. We made a cute small keyhanger in the shape of a house ...

Well I am off into town to buy a birthday present for my friend Sacha..

Btw My cat is looking for modelling work...what do you think?? This is for the lastest series of bags for the LQS..

Bow done just in time

2006-02-06T11:56:00.001+01:00

Today I finished my BOW K5 from Dear Jane. I finished it 5 minutes before the dead-line...*s*

This was a nice block to do I did it in Reverse Applique.

The rest of the day I will try to do some Applique on my Home Sweet Home and a block of my Thimbleberries club.

At the moment I am listning to a CD-book: The girl with the pearl earrings by Tracy Chevalier which is quite nice!

A new start

2006-02-05T13:08:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I am giving this a new try. I have been writing last year but I made some changes to my site and a lot of things dissapeard so I was a bit !!#¤$. But now I changed the template an giving it a new try!

Today I have been working a bit on my crazy quilt. I had the binding left to do and then I am finished. I also want to get a Dear Jane BOW (block of the week) done today but we will see how that goes...

It is -10 here today and there is quite a lot of snow, but the sun is just radiant like it is the middle of July. So the house is very brite and great for getting some quilting done...!

Talk to you later!

Barbara

Kaleidoscope and a present in the mail...

2005-12-01T17:12:00.000+01:00

I haven't been working on my kaleideoscoop today, but I may have some time later. It is my husbands turn at work to supply the fridayafternoon cookies and cake. Funny isn't it...it is for him and his collegs and somehow I end upp baking the whole evening...*lol*

Today I got a present in the mail from a friend in Holland. She sent me these beautifull fabric which are 30% Linnen and 70% cotton. Just lovely..

I had a look again at one of my favorite sites www.quiltville.com and fell in love with a Ocean Waves pattern. I just love this pattern but all the triangles scare me. So now I have started a search for the best ways of making half-square-triangels. So if you have some tips for me...please mail me. I am allready thing about colours and fabrics. I am thinking about doing it all in scraps as Bonny from Quiltville did.

Lost A Quilt?

2005-11-30T23:08:00.000+01:00

As I wrote some days ago I was going to do some decorating for the 1st advent. But I lost a quilt!
I had a big box with christmas stuff...some quilts and some dolls..but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

We moved last summer and threw a lott of stuff away but I hope I will still find my box soon, but it seems that I have looked everywhere now....

wish me luck!

Barbara

cats and gingercookies

2005-11-29T21:40:00.000+01:00

The day is finnally coming to an end, and I have found some time to sitt down with a cup of tea and freshly baked gingercookies and write something about my day.

I have been working on my kalleidoscoop quilt I am making with Wuthering Heights fabrics from Moda. I will post a picture as soon as it is finished. I was at my LQS this afternoon and worked on my A Gardners Journal from Anni Downes here is a link: www.hatchedandpatched.com.au
After that I went into town and bought a new wallet with a orginazer in it. I always seem to forget to take my orginazer with me which results in double booked dates and stuff. Mostely because I am at home at the moment I get the days mixed upp.

I just finnished baking the traditonal Swedish gingercookies. Normaly the are shaped in the form of hearts and stars. I maked mine in the shape of a cat. .....Talking about cats. I am getting a cat in about 12 days. His name is going to be Zingo ( my husbands idea). He is only 8 weeks old now, so I have to be a bit more patient.

Barbara

Starting my own Blog

2005-11-27T17:18:00.000+01:00

Today I signed upp for my very own blogg. What an interesting forum to write to everybody who wants to reads about what I am doing.

I am Dutch but living in Sweden so this will be a nice way for people to read about what I am doing here.

My big passion is quilting. I am member of several sewinggroups and on-line lists, so I will be also writing about that and what I am doing at home.

Today I will be trying to sort out my sewingroom. I went to Holland to my favorite quiltingstore Petra Prins Patchwork www.petraprinspatchwork.nl and bought a lot of fabric. I have just finished washing it all, so now the ironing and making room in my stash is the only thing left to do.

Today is something we call in Sweden the first advent. So only 3 more to go before christmas. So today everybody starts decorating everything. I mean garden, house even there offices and so on. So I will start decorating this evening and put upp some quilts and stuff.

Barbara