Sarah Fielke BOM - the top is done!!

It's done and it's huge. 

The borders didn't really take as long to do as I had thought they would. I put them together in an afternoon! 

The outer border that is. There was some fiddling with the size of the inner border...

But here it is

 

 The top is done and I love it. 

I am seriously considering hand quilting it. 

What do you think?

Organic heating pads

I spent my sewing time today making organic heating pads to sell at a fundraiser at Miss V's school 

These are all different sizes, and are all filled with rice. 

We are keeping one for ourselves 😊❤️

Getting Ready for Easter

I try to hang seasonal wreaths on our door, but since we don't have anything other than a Christmas wreath, we always have to make the wreaths for the specific season. And....well...let's just say, that doesn't always happen.

Today I bought 65m/71yards of ribbon, and Ask and I cut it into pieces and tied it to a metal ring.

Then I glued the little chickens onto it with some very strong and smelling glue. My fingers got stuck to the container, the ribbon, the chickens, the table....evrything I touched. Now I am wondering, when I will ever get the rest of the dry glue off my fingers again.. 

Anyway, we are quite pleased with our new Easter wreath. I doubt we'll be able to save it - after it has been out in all kinds of weather! But it's cute for now :)

Blue and Green Stars for my Bed

I am going to share some of the quilts I have finished while I didn't blog.

One of them is this huge quilt, it was finished in 2014.

I had wanted a star quilt for a long time, and also a new quilt for my bed - so a combination of the two seemed like a good idea.

I pieced all the stars and stitched them into two panels of 8 stars

Working on the 2 panels, instead of the entire quilt, made everything a lot easier. I could quilt it on my domestic machine without too much hazzle.

I attached the 2 panels by using a quilt-as-you-go method. I just googled it, and read a few how-to's and did what made the most sense to me.

It fits my bed, and I am really happy with how it turned out.

You can see on the backing, that I have stitched the 2 panels together right across the middle of the quilt.

The quilt-as-you-go method wasn't bad. I'd do it again. if I were to make another big quilt like this.

Tissueholders

I have seen these around Flickr and blogland, and I have always thought they are really cute.
But as with so many other projects, I have never actually made any.....until Miss V saw these cuties.

She went straight for the scrap baskets and choose 5 sets of 2 prints!

 

So there you go...5 tissue holders, ready to be wrapped up and given away as Christmas presents. 

Miss V is really proud of these, she chose the fabrics very carefully ;)

Christmas decorations in the making

Miss V has asked for at least a month if we could please put up the Christmas decorations?! I have been able to stall until now, pretty good I think :)

I love garlands, and I remembered seing this felt garland tute. So since I am spending a lot of time on the couch watching reruns of old tv-shows anyway, I figured I might as well do some stitching...

 

Miss V was happy to help me put all these on a thread and hang it in the window

 

I am pretty sure we will put it on out tree, though, I don't like it in the window. It seems too small somehow...

So I have rolled it up, and put it away so it is ready for our tree.

 

It looks really pretty this way. Like a felt flower :)

Pillowcase

We have a number of pillows and cushions at our house - as I imagine we all do :)
Only, at my house these pillows are a very poor-looking bunch. When I finished the hexagon pillowcase for our floor cushion, I vowed to prettify all our pillows. And I still haven't done it.

But now I have made a start. I have made a new pillowcase for one of the pillows in our couch.

 

The fabrics are all Kona Cotton - 7 different colors :) The kaleidoscope blocks are 11'' square and I am so happy with it!
The orange and purple stand out a lot in the photo, not so much in real life. Funny how that happens!

I am not all done sharing pictures from Vienna, but that will have to wait for my next post.

Another Nintendo cozy

I bought a Nintendo DSi for Little A this past week. He is so happy with it, and he loves that he got a blue one :) So naturally I needed to make a cozy for his Nintendo as well - also we had to ride the train to my parents' house, and I really wanted him to be able to bring it :)

Miss V helped pick the fabrics

Again I can only encourage you all to set your strippy scraps aside, it makes it so much easier to make projects like this!

Christmas preparations

I have wanted to try this tutorial since I first saw it last year. 

Like so many other things, I have been thinking about it, but haven't actually tried it until now! I found an old magazine that was going to be thrown out, and I started...

I was sure it was going to be impossible, but it wasn't that bad! I cut my strips a little too wide, and so I didn't have room for the 3rd layer - but hey! Who said I can't just leave that 3rd layer out and leave it as it is?!
That's what I did...I made a mistake by cutting the strips of paper too wide, but I made it work ;)
Now I just need to find some fancier paper - I am thinking the Christmas adds will be nice - and then I have to make some more, so we can have beautifully wrapped presents without having to spend money on the wrapping. Cool, huh?!

Hey! I finished something!!

This is the finished floor cushion! Yipee! It's app. 28" square, just big enough for both kids to sit on -although Ask is certain it is his! I may have to make one more, to keep the peace :)

Also, I started quilting my 8two8 quilt. I am really happy to be doing some FMQ again. It's so relaxing :) I would like to be able to quilt grids, though....one day!

I won't be able to finish it this week, because this weekend my sister invited the whole family to Legoland!
Needless to say, we are all very excited about going :)
Viola wanted to make a present for my sister to say thank you, so today we made this handbag for her. Viola chose the pattern (I gave her 3 options) and the button, and I chose the fabrics. The outer fabric is from Marimekko sent to me by my friend Anne, and the lining is a Michael Miller print.

The pattern is Half-Moon Handbag from Keyka Lou Patterns, and it is really easy to follow. I made this bag in 2 hours :) Viola is filling it with drawings, necklaces "diamonds" and other treasures.
It should be loved :)

Quilted pillows

A very good friend of mine was celebrating her 30th birthday last night. I made her pillows, based on her favourite colors.

The pillows are 20" square, I bought the actual pillow at Ikea, and made the pillowcases to fit.
This is the first one I finished, and look...I quilted a grid!! First time ever! I am pretty excited about that, I love grid quilting, but I could never do it. I did find out, what a difference a walking foot makes. Lol.

The next top is kaleidoscope blocks. I think these are so fun to sew :) And not at all as difficult as they look...
I had some trouble deciding how to quilt this one, but finally figured I might as well just try out the design I really liked -nomatter how intimidating.

So this is what I quilted, the quilting shows up best on the back. The front of each pillow is made like a mini-quilt before I assembled the pillowcase.
This is how the kaleidoscopes look after quilting
The last pillow-front is a snowball-pattern.
These are 20" sq....each snowball is 5"sq....at some late hour I then figured out that meant I would need 25 snowballs....yep! I messed up the math again ;) I really need to decide on layouts at a decent hour!

Here is a picture of all 3 pillows
My friend loves them, and that makes me so happy!

I am incredibly behind on blog-reading. I have over a hundred unread posts in my reader, and I can't wait to come by and see what you have all been up to!

Possibly the cutest owls ever......and another two presents finished :)

Eileen from Eileens Attic sent me these adorable owls!! I think they are just adorable!!
Eileen also sent me a kit to make one myself, she knows how busy I am right now, and sent the kit so I would have a chance of sewing one of these beauties before Christmas :) If you want to make one too, there's a tutorial on Eileens blog!
Thank you so so much Eileen! I love them, and they are going on our Christmas-tree....all 3, I am determined to sew up the kit!

And I may just be able to find the time, because I just finished my last Christmas-project!! The flying dutchman quilt for my sister.
I tried my hand at free motion quilting again, and eventhough I definately still have a lot to learn, I can see improvement with every quilt. That is very comforting :)
I pieced the label into the backing...the stamped labels are growing on me, I think I am even starting to like them :D
Here is a picture of the back of the quilt. I wanted to use up all the dots...the pink floral is a Kaffe Fassett print that was just too perfect to leave out...
The binding came from my stash....completely forgot why I bought this fabric, but it works well here, I think.
And all folded up and ready to be wrapped and given away....
....this will be hard to give away.....

The other night I made a Black Apple doll for Viola. It was fun and easy to sew, and I hope she will like it :)
Now...I know I said I was done with all my presents...but can I really give this doll away without a doll quilt??

I found the PERFECT fabric!!

Look at this!!!
It a Debbie Mumm print, and it is absolutely perfect for the back of my Plain Spoken...
See how well it matches! I'm so happy. Now I need to go get some batting....
I'm always confused when it comes to batting..... What do you use? And why? I need some help here....

I ordered this book, and have been waiting very impatiently for it. It is awesome!! There are 23 quilts in here, and they are all gorgeous! I can't wait to get started :-)
You should visit the blog, or go see some of the patterns.... They are so so beautiful. Now if only there were 48 hours to each day, I would be all set! LOL!
I am trying to find ways to help Viola get over her dislike of buttons. And since we still have the owl- and the purple-craze going on, you can imagine my happiness when I found these little sweeties...
Maybe she won't mind if I use one of these? We'll have to see!

I also got to work a little more on my doll quilt for the Flickr swap. I'm al little happier with it now, and I'm sure that once I'm done, I'll be sad to see it go.
But that's how it's supposed to be :-)

AND......Jen at Crafty Giveaways is having another wonderful giveaway! Go enter! It's a partially finished quilt, and it is gorgeous!!!

Jacket for Ask

Hmm....2 posts in one day is not a good idea, but I just have to show you this quilted jacket I have made -well, it's almost finished- for Ask. It's denim, thinsulate batting and flannel... Should be nice and warm for fall :-)

I quilted the little car on the front, and a row of houses on the back. Forgot to take a picture of the houses, but it's hard to see the quilting in these pictures anyway!

It was fun to make, I made one for Viola last year, but this was so much easier! And his is a better fit.

I need to buy some buttons, sew some buttonholes (hate that), sew the buttons on, and yipee! It's done!
The pattern is from an old 70s childrens clothing pattern book. This is a size meant for a 3 year old. I had to shorten the sleeves a bit, but other than that, it fits. Clothes must have been VERY tight in the 70s.... Either that, or my Ask is big -he is, but not that big. LOL!

Don't forget to sign up for the Pay It Forward challenge! I can't wait to get started :-)

Have a great weekend..

Fantastic mail!

I entered I'm a ginger monkey's contest to help name her new Bernina -and I won!! Yay! And look what the wonderfully talented Katy sent me!!! I love it. Look at the embroidered tail onthe bird....it's so sweet!
And I got my 6-12" miniquilt from tessophia. This is a Flickrswap I really enjoy. She made this little beauty especially for Ask. How cute is that?! The handquilting on this is so so pretty. He loves it, and I'll hang it over his bed.
As if that was not plenty of mail-love, I also got this absolutely amazing package from Anne in Finland. It has lots of large pieces of Marimekko fabrics
I LOVE these, they are so so beautiful! Thank you so much!

Anne also sent all these Moomin-goodies -look at the pink and baby-blue Moomin-fabric with matching stripes!
She sent mugs for the children, Viola wanted Ask to have this one
And she wanted this for herself
This is the green Moomin-fabric I laid everything out on in the first photo
Thank you Anne! I cannot tell you how many oooohhs and aaawwwws and smiles we have had opening your generous gift. Ask and Viola want to use their new mugs with every meal, and Viola wants me to save the napkins for her birthday-party :-)