Weekend sewing

How long is it since you cleaned your sewingmachine for dust????? I opened my machine today and removed all the dust in it. And the sound was sooooo much better when I started to sew again. So I challenge you all..............go and blow the dust out of your sewingmachine.
Do you remember the flowers I made of japaneese fabrics. I started to machinapplique them today. Still have to be careful with my arm, so this time I decided to do all the applique with machine. So I started on the flowers. Did some applique with the machine. Using grey thread on all the pieces..................

and this is how it turned out. I'm satisfied. Of course I'm still most fond of handapplique, but this will do for this time. I have to be more friend with my sewingmachine. And my Janome do have nice applique stitches.

My cat Frida used to sleep in my sewingroom all the time before. Now when I've not been there so much she found another place to sleep. But today when I was sewing she came back and had a good sleep in her basket on my sewingtable. I guess she had missed me being there together with her. So look.............

here is Frida in her basket behind my sewingmachine.

Did you read my previous post about Crazy mom quilts. She is having a 200th post contest and a giveaway extravaganza until the end of this week. Please visit her blog and pleeeeeaaase mention in your comment that I "May Britt - Abyquilt" sent you to her blog. May be both you and I win. The one that send most bloggers over to her blog win that beutiful quilt she have made. Please help me :)

Saying for today:

Every moment you are angry,
you lose a minute of happiness.

I discovered a blog and birthday presents

I just discovered a new blog to me, maybe you already know about it. Crazy mom quilts. She is having a 200th post contest and a giveaway extravaganza. Please visit her blog and pleeeeeaaase mention in your comment that I "May Britt - Abyquilt" sent you to her blog. May be both you and I win.

It's almost two weeks since my birthday. Do not remember how old I got ROFL. But I just remembered I have not shared a photo of my quilty presents (I got flowers, wine and other presents too). Look all these goodies I got from my DD, my DS and good friends. I'm a lucky girl :) The japaneese book, a Tilda stitchery with embroiderythreads and a beautiful pincushion I have long wanted. A norwegian quiltbook, japaneese fabrics and buttons. And I'm now the owner of a designer rotary cutter. I'm in quiltheaven.

Saying for today:

SNOW

This is what I woke up to this morning. A white blanket covered the ground. And it is still snowing. It is beautiful, but I'm not ready for winter yet. Luckily it is predicted SUN tomorrow. So I have to postpone my visit to my mother until tomorrow. Will not drive on the snowy roads with summer tires.

Jeanne at Luv2stitch reacently posted about a stitchery classics magazine, think it is Homespun. Me being such a stitchery lover have now looked at the net where to get this magazine. But no luck. Is there anyone out there that lives near a place that sells it???? and could buy it for me???? I could swap fabric or patterns against the magazine, or I could transfer money to you.

Saying for today:

Life is like a blanket of snow

be careful how you step on it
every step will show.

SEWING!!

Some weeks ago I started this table runner (pattern from Northern Quilts). It was just a try to see if my arm could do some cutting. I realized then that rotary cutting was not good for my arm. But this was soooooo little cutting so after using long time on it I sewed this together. And this week and weekend I have appliqued the apple blossom flower on it. You see........ I have been clever.............just a few threads each day :)

A close up of the flower.

So now I have to baste the table runner and quilt it. This time NOT handquilting. I will definitively use my sewingmachine now.

Do you remember the christmas quilt I started in may. I had put all the applique on and it was ready to sewn. So yesterday when I had finished applique on the table runner I started on it. I did three gingerbread men, one heart and almost one angel. If I do sloooooooooooooow stitches I manage to do a little bit sewing each day.
Do you remember the japaneese fabrics in my previous post. This is what I intended to make with them. So this weekend I traced ten flowers on vlisofix, ironed them onto fabric and cut five of them .

Using the scissor was NOT good for my shoulder. It's strange that some things works ok with my arm, and some things not. And I have to try to find out what to do or not. As the doc and physio tells me; I can do thing that's not giving me pain. But it's so hard to be patient.

Saying for today:

Tagged - Four things MeMe + a little more

Sewing Southpaw has tagged me for a Four Things MeMe.

4 Jobs I've had:
when I was young I worked in a shop
Secretary at a law firm
Now working as executive offiser in the military (been there 27 years.........gosh)
Teaching different classes in quilting

4 Films I could watch over and over:
Forest Gump
The green mile
Fried green tomatoes
Rainman

4 TV shows I watch:
Lost (waiting for next season)
Prison Break (waiting for next season)
CSI
House

4 Places I've lived:
Flisa (my home town)
Bardufoss (where I lived 18 year)
Kjellmyra (back home from north norway in 97)
and now Elverum

4 Favorite foods:
Taco
Beef with rice, chips and bernaise sause
Pizza
chicken salad

4 Favorite colors:
Red
Yellow
Brown
Orange

4 Places I would love to be right now:
A warm sunny beach because we are now heading towards the winter
At a big quilt show to get inspiration
At the cabin with my friends (I guess you have read about our quilt trips to the cabin earlier)
At work. I'm so bored of going home. But have to wait until the doc says my shoulder is ok.

4 Names I love but would/could not use for my child(ren)
Lilly (my mom's name)
Kristine (my grandmothers name)
Reidar (my fathers name)
Marie (my grandmothers name)

4 people I love to tag with this MeMe:

Nadine at Friendship Threads
Donna at Chookyblue
Anne Ida at Quiltoholic
Darlene at Quilting Daze

My DD is home on her fall vacation. A whole week home from school. And we have a great time together. That's why I haven't blogged so much this week. She and I have been on several walks where she has taken some lovely photos for her school projects. I will show you later when she have uploaded them to my machine. She also took a photo of me so I will update my profile with a more winterly photo.



At the sewing front: I got so inspired from last the show and tell at our last quiltmeeting so I have found my box with japaneese fabrics and started to look at them. I have traced five flowers for applique so far and I hope this weekend I can prep the blocks. And I've decided I'll applique them on machine. Look what this armproblem is doing :) Me..........applique on machine. Well I'll give it a try. Perhaps this is one thing I have to get used to in the future. Not so much handsewing and become more friendly with my sewingmachine.



I was at the hospital again on tuesday and the doc is very happy about the progress in my arm. So I did not get another cortison injection.........JIIIIPPPIIIIIII.............and I'm allowed to start a little bit physio...............YEAK (know it will be painful). And the good news is that I'm feeling so much better. But the doc told me to stay home from work another two months. He told me the arm needed another three or four months relaxing and exercise with the physio if I was lucky. If not perhaps a year. So I listen to the doc and physio and do what they tells me.


Still there is a lot of no replyers who ask me questions and I would love to comment back, but I'm not able to do that. Look at Piperfic's blog where she's got a tutorial how to change your no reply. PLEASE check if you are a no-replyer and change it.

The answer to some of you no-replyers about the mini RR. Yes you are welcome to use this in your quiltgroup. I would love to hear about it and see the progress on it.

Have a nice weekend all of you. I'll try some sewing.


Saying for today:
You know you are drinking too much coffee

when you can thread a sewing machine

while it's running!

Mini Round Robin

A long time ago we started a mini Round Robin in our quilt group. 15 ladies joined it and have worked a little bit on each one. And yesterday was the day we got our own back. Haven't seen it for 15 months so this was fun.

This is how we did this RR (if anyone wants to copy it):
The owner of the RR mad the left top block/piece sized 4x4 inch (seamallowance is not includen in any of the measurements)
Round 2: Add a piece 5x4 inch besides the first piece
Round 3: Add a piece 9x3 inch below the two first
Round 4: Add on the right side a piece 4x7 inch
Round 5: Add two pieces below the others, 6x4 inch and 7x4 inch
Round 6: Add two pieces below the others, 10x4 inch and 3 x 4 inch
Round 7: Add at the bottom two pieces, 4x3 inch and 9x3 inch
Round 8: Applique something
Round 9: Embroider something
Round 10: Baste the little RR
Round 11: Write something on it by hand or by machine
Round 12: Quilt the whole RR by hand or by machine
Round 13: Add another applique
Round 14: Add embellishment (buttns, beads, laces aso)
Round 15: Sew binding on the RR

And this is how our mini RR look like:

The first one is mine. And I am very pleased with it. I had on my wishlist for this that they would use only bali fabrics. And the girls know I love red, yellow and cats.

I am amazed how different every mini RR turned out. This is a great idea for a quiltgroup.

Saying for today:

There are no substitutes for fresh air,
sunshine and exercise.

(I'm going out now for my daily walk and the sun is shining bright.

But woke up this morning to minus 6. Hope the snow stays away for a long time )

Quiltmeeting and a BIG surprise

Today was the september quiltmeeting at our local quiltgroup. The topic was japaneese inspiration. But first I got a BIG surprise.

When I arrived the quiltmeeting Laila (Jacobs Quilt) and Irene told be to follow them into a classroom and I was told to sit down. And then they gave me a package. I wondered if it was from them...............but no...........I had to guess.................and I had no idea who it was from. So I had to open it and read the card.

A beautiful card from my dear friend Nadine. She had remembered my birthday on sunday and had made a conspiracy with Laila. I guess they have mailed eachother having a lot of fun planning this LOL So Nadine had asked Laila to buy this book from her. Now I understand why Nadine have been so quiet these last days and why Laila have been so strange. I can't understand how Laila have been able to keep this a secret for several weeks. Thank you Nadine for this wonderful surprise

Looks like I'm crying on this photo, and that's almost true LOL

This book was perfect because the topic of this quiltmeeting was "How to use japaneese fabrics". A well known Norwegian quilter and designer Kristin Pollen had brought a lot of beautiful quilts to show us. I took a lot of photos and she permitted me to show them on my blog.

So lean back, enjoy and get inspired............

The angels above are from a pattern from Anni Downs, and it is fun to see it done in japaneese fabrics. I've started making my angels in romantic colours, but now I want to make it in japaneese fabrics..............LOL

She have used only japaneese fabrics in all these quilts. Not a singel "wannabe japaneese". So now I want desperately to cut into my japaneese. But rotarycutting is still not my "to do" right now. I have to find another way to use them ...................hmmmm............thinking...........

I have a lot more to show you, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Saying for today;

With joy on every birthday,

count your age by friends not years

Being a mother..... are we like this????

Take a look at this link. I found it at another blog today. And it made me laugh. I posted it to my DD and asked her if I were like this.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY

Going to quiltmeeting this evening and I hope to show you a lot from it later.

Have a nice day!

A quilt vitamin weekend

This weekend I have been at meeting with the Norwegian Quilters Association. Meeting on friday and a class withAndre Wallenborg on saturday and sunday. We were going to make small bags/purses. I was very afraid I could not sew anything because of my arm, but the other girls helped me a lot. The rotarycut all the pieces and did the most "tough things for my arm" for me. And I managed to sew :) So I'm so happy now. I MANAGED TO SEW!!!!!!!!!!!! But I have been very very very careful. Relaxed when I felt pain in my arm and sewed in slooooooow montion. The other girls joked about buying me handcuffs if I did not take it easy ROFL Pink fluffy handcuffs LOL

Andre Wallenborg is a norwegian designer who makes bags and dresses. He has made both for the royal Mette Marit. I learned so much from this class. A lot of very useful trics making bags. On these photos you can se how interested we are in what he is telling us.

And I have been sewing.............YES I HAVE BEEN SEWING. And my arm is feeling better each day. Of course I have been very careful. And I said yes thank you please when the other girls asked if they could help me. That's perhaps one thing I have to work with; to say yes thank you, when people offers to help me. I do not need to do everything myself, especially when my arm have to relax.

Here is me sitting on the yellow pillow to reach up to the sewingmachine LOL I have to do something about my haircut ROFL

This is the purses we made on saturday. Using plastic on the front.

Mine is the third from the left back row.

And these are the bags we made on sunday. Mine is the third from the right.

A close up of the bag. I have still some small details to do before it's finished. But this is one I'm going to use. And probably make another one perhaps in a differet size. Now I know the tecnique.

And a close up of my little makeup purse covered with plastic. Wonder if I get to keep them when my DD is coming home next week ??? Perhaps I already start to make another one. But first rest my arm a little bit. Not overdo anything. I promise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a great weekend. Friends, sewing, laughter and fun.

Saying for today:

Speak kind words and you will hear kind echoes.

Goodies :)

Early this morning I noticed the mailman running up my stairs, threw a package in front of my door and ran away LOL Look.............

this was inside.

Darlene had posted me two magazines, rotary mat and a take along sewing kit box. Cute. Thank you Darlene. But now I have another two lovely projects to plan LOL I will bring those two magazines today to the hotel

I almost forgot the rest of the post and when I went to the mailbox I found another envelope. From Elaine Adair. Look at these beautiful luggage tags and the beautiful little quilt she has mad for me. I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was how my suitcase looked like before. A dull piece of red fabric as a tag.

And now everyone can see I'm a quilter on the road :)

I'm so happy.

Thank you Darlene and Elaine.

(I'll write to you when I come back, have to rush now)

Now I'm off to the hotel with my two new magazines and my luggage tag:)

Saying for today;
Purranoia: the fear that cats are up to something!