Friday, July 10, 2020

The library scene.. ❤️ #beautyandthebeast


Finished, finished, finished!

Well, like I said in my previous post, I went through my UFO-drawer this week, seeing if I could find something that needed completion. Well, let's just say that I found a few..

Some were basically skeletons (loose blocks with a plan) while others, like these three, were imbarrassingly enough only lacking the binding. Which they've been waiting for for about 2-3 years..

The snowball-blocks were enough to make three tablerunners, the last one is still not quilted. But, these two are now finished!



This is quite small, like a large mugrug, but I had two blocks leftover and wanted to "use everything" back when I made these.



A square one, not quite sure if I have a table where it will fit - but I like the colours (and the technique)!



I made two or three tablerunners with this butterfly design. I'm not quite sure where the other one's are at the moment. They might be in the cupboard with the other tablerunners - and the might be in my sewing nook with other projects that have been completed - but who's fate has not yet been decided (keep and use - or give away).

Fabric and pattern for these are all from Fat Quarter Shop and their SewSampler subscription boxes. I've subscribed to these since September 2017. I really like receiving these - in many cases the projects and the fabric are totally my kind of thing, but I'm also challenged with new-to-me techniques and colours I might not have selected had I been shopping for fabric. Which is kinda cool!

My apologies for the horrible pictures.. At least you'll get to see my quilting! I'm still working on improving my machine quilting, and I've come to realize that my general sewing needs some work too. Zippers tend to look quite wonky when I use them in my projects.. which annoys me - but I know that I need to practice! Atleast I won't run out of fabric in a while, even during the COVID-19.



The Story of My Day - Block 6

Already week six!

This week I've been "home alone". Nothing dramatically, but the kids have begun their vacation, and went to their grandparents with Hubby. While I stayed home, working another week. Still working from home.. but I went to the office on Tuesday, and met a colleague. Still very strange to go back - taking the bus and all - and it seems that quite a few people are starting to ignore the restrictions that's been in place since March 12th. Which is not good..

Anyways, block 6 was completed quite early in the week. I'm home alone, so I've had quite some time to spend sewing, stitching and knitting.



I love the bird and the colours in this block. :)

I've gone through my drawer of UFO's this week, to see if there were any candidates for completion - and, yes, I found a couple of smaller ones. I have some which are quite large, but I don't really "feel" like working on them right now - if you can relate to my feelings.. I dunno, perhaps it's just me. Sometimes I feel like I have to finish something right this instance! While other times I'm just not motivated to complete them, after working on a project over a large amount of time. I will finish them, but perhaps not this summer. We'll see.


Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Home Sewn Sampler Bag - a finished object

In the fall of 2014, Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched came to Norway to teach a class. My mom and I participated, and brought with us our copies of Anni's book The Home Patch - which she so kindly signed for us. This is the reason why I know how long this object has been in production. First thinking of it, then planning for it - and then, finally, starting to sew it.

The Home Sewn Sampler Bag.

It is a bag made of 6 panels - two with stitcheries, two with wool applique and two with epp hexagons (and a few hexies with stitcheries).

I started working on the stitchery panels, I think, maybe the summer of 2018 - or was it 2019? Anyway, they were stitched up pretty fast - and then.. the whole project idled..

Next came the hexie panels. I started out cutting from a small charm pack that I had with fabric designed by Anni Downs, which my mom gave me after one of her quilty trips (was it Birmingham or the Netherlands? I can't remember). This gave me about.. 1/3 of the hexies I needed. The ones with stitcheries were also made around this time. And then the project went back to rest.

This winter I realised that I might have a mini charm pack that might match kinda sort of with the fabric Anni designed - and which I had already made into hexies. Well, I found one from Basic Grey (Persimmon) and thought the colours matched pretty well. Thus the hexie panels were completed.

Thinking it'd be stupid to just let the project idle once more, I braced myself for the wool applique, took out two charm packs of handdyed wool (I don't remember when I bought these.. I should start writing it up or write it on the labels) and went to work..

The applique went by like a breeze, and after a week of Teams meetings and working from home - they were done!

With all the six panels ready, it'd be silly to put it back in the drawer, right? Well, yes.

Pulling out fabric for the lining, ironing on some batting, sewing a few (haha..) seams - following the instructions provided in the book - and suddenly, it's done!





It's larger than I thought, colourful - yet not in a loud way, and I absolutely love it!

I may not be the quickest one to finish projects, but I get there - in the end. :)

Monday, July 06, 2020

The Story of My Day sal - Week 5



Block 5 is complete!

This is originally the first stitchery in the pattern, but seeing as mom and I started with the first stitchery presented in the book - it is the fifth one. Oh well, all the blocks will be completed eventually - it doesn't really matter which order they're completed in - does it?

In other crafty news, I'm still knitting.. getting close to finishing a tshirt, and I've knitted my first ever pair of proper socks in adult size!

M and the kids are off for a week with his parents this week, they've all started their holidays - while I've got one more week of working until I'm off. I'm home alone, in other words, working during the day - crafting and watching movies and podcasts during the evening. I have a couple of projects I'm trying to finish this week, we'll see how much I'll get done. Yesterday I watched two movies while knitting and stitching - first To the Bone, which was absolutely fantastic and sad and hopeful, and afterwards I finally got to see A Star is Born. It was available on Netflix, and I'd been curious, wanting to see it for quite some time. I really liked it! Good music, catchy story - and a little sad..

The Story of my Day sal - Week 4



Block 4 of the Story of my Day mini-sewalong is complete!

It took me two weeks to finish this one, due to work being completely crazy. I got involved in a task at work taking almost all of my waking hours, even a full weekend.. (M took the kids to see his parents, so that I was able to work "in peace".)