Saturday, December 31, 2022
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Make one - make four
This year I've had three advent calendars (which A thinks is a bit unfair). One is for each Sunday in advent - with parcels from both my mom and my MIL. The remaining two are from StepbyStep - a quilty calendar - and from Værbitt, - a knitters calendar.
I'll write a post about the calendar from StepbyStep soon, but I'm over the moon excited about it - and I will (if they make one) buy one next year too.
So, from Værbitt comes one parcel every odd day in December - from the 1st to the 23rd - and a bonus parcel on Christmas Eve (which is THE BIG DAY in Norway). The contents are a nice mixture of handdyed yarn and stitchmarkers - and this year's ornament. Yup, they design a new ornament each year, and include both pattern and kit for making these in the calendar.
This year the ornament came on the 9th, and was a gorgeous little bird, decorated with glass beads and feathers, and two different coloured yarn, so you could decide for your self which colour you wanted to ues.
I made the first one in the greenish-blue yarn and thought it was a cute little guy, which came together surpricingly easy.
So I decided to see how many birds I'd be able to make with the yarn provided in the kit. The answer? Four. Two greenish-blue and two orangy-pink.
They've fund their places in our Christmas tree, surrounded by both handmade ornaments, old and new, and some more vintage ones (from when hubby was little).
I have a couple of ornaments from Værbitt that I havenæt come around to make yet. I bought these patterns some time after they were published - so no kits for these. They're on my to do-list, with quite a lot of other things. Perhaps they'll be finished for next year's tree?
Monday, December 19, 2022
Memorial quilt
I rarely make anything for others when asked to. I can make stuff for people and gift them, if I get the idea myself - but I've avoided custom work. Mainly because it feels like whenever something is something I have to do, it's a real dread and all my motivation and will to craft goes down the drain.
Until now.
A friend of ours sent me a message a couple of weeks ago, asking if I'd be willing to help her help a friends of hers, who's just been through a devastating experience in her life, by making a t-shirt quilt for her.
I told her I'd never done that before, and wasn't sure if what I would be able to do would be good enough - but also that if she really wantet, I'd give it a try.
She came by with a bag of t-shirts and a fleece blanket, and I started to think..
First I demolished the t-shirts to see how large pieces I could get from them - and ironed on stabilising fabric to make them more manageable.
This is the first layout. Trying to save as much of the designs on the t-shirts that had designs on them.
Checking to see how this layout would work with the fleece blanket. I moved some of the blocks around to get a bit more air around the designs.
And finally spray-glued to the fleece blanket!
I quilted it with straight lines following each seam, and cut the sides of the fleece down to 2". Folded the edges in twice before sewing it down.
I didn't get a ood picture of the finished quilt, but our friends was very happy. The imposter syndrome is great in this one, so I'm still aftraid I've messed up..
Friday, December 09, 2022
Saturday, December 03, 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
Friday, November 04, 2022
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
October - socktober?
I didn't plan to make October socktober, but it does seem to be what I've been busy making these past weeks..
Just before Fall break, I finished two pairs of socks.
These were knitted in some leftover handdyed (selfdyed) yarn that I once used to make a cowl. I started with 48 grams of yarn, and there's still a little bit left.
After knitting a pair of socks for herself, my mom gave me the leftover yarn (a Halloween sock yarn) which was enough to knit up a pair of socks for me.
And then Fall break started. The kids and I went to Trysil to spend the week with my mom, and yarn + needles came along..
And then Fall break started. The kids and I went to Trysil to spend the week with my mom, and yarn + needles came along..
A ball of yarn my mom had became a pair of socks for A. (She's grown - her feet have grown - so I can just use the same measurements as for my socks. Yikes!)
They became a bit more pink (and less white) after the first wash, but that is the risk you have to calculate with when using handdyed yarn.
I had a ball of yarn that I had dyed some years ago (I really need to get back to dying yarn again, it's so much fun!) but didn't have a plan for. So I knitted another pair of socks. I didn't wiegh the yarn before I started, but by a shake of a lamb's tail I had barely enough to finish both socks (there was about 40 centimeter yarn left after binding). *phew*
And then I tried to use up some of the leftover yarn that I had - you can see the orange yarn from a previous pair of socks on the toes of this pair), but I miscalculated how much of the purple yarn that was left... Luckily my mom had a bit more yarn without a plan, so that I could use some of her yarn to finish this pair (the grey with neon speckles). *yay*
Currently I have two pairs of socks in a Halloween sock yarn with glitter in the works, and if I get around to it, I'll be able to finish both pairs now in October.
Seven pairs of socks, that's not bad! And with Fall suddenly making it's appearence, it'll be nice to have some warm socks available. It's been grey, rainy and cool the past couple of weeks, so the thinner jackets and shoes have been put away for now.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
Friday, September 30, 2022
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Sew Together Fall 2022
In my quilt guild they arrange two sew together-weekends each year, one in spring and one in fall. Last weekend hubby and the kids went to the in-laws for the weekend, while I went to the sew together. I brought my e-spinner on Saturday, and managed to get some spinning done.
During the weekend the blue blocks made by the members were sewn together, and the top is now ready to be quilted and then donated. The criteria was blue (as a main colour) and 8,5 inch in size.
It looks pretty good with all the different shades of blue and the different designs each member went for. My two blocks are here too - a butterfly on a white background (row 4) and a simple striped block (top row).
I brought my sewing machine on Sunday (after spending ALL of Saturday night looking for the bag for my Bernina - unsuccessfully). By chance, the bag from the Festival of Quilts was big enough to carry the machine to and from the sew together. *phew*
I brought with me a kit from Kim Diehl (a subscription from long ago from Fat Quarter Shop) this weekend, and managed to get all the pieces cut on Saturday - and sewn together on Sunday.
It's looking good! I've put batting and backing on it, and it is now ready for handquilting. It's really quite small, 13 1/2 by 16 1/2 inches, but so. many. pieces. The smallest one are 1 1/2 inch and 1 3/8 inch cut into triangles.
There's plenty of fabric left *..yay..?* almost enough to make another top.
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Evening versus morning
Yesterday afternoon the heavens opened up and the rain came crashing down. A while later the sun came back, and for a while the sky seemed to be split in two - one side rained and the other shone, making a gorgeous double-rainbow.
And this morning, the moon shone through the top of the trees across the road from my bus stop. (It's not the easiest thing to do, to get a good photo in the dusky morning light, nor of the moon, but I think it got a pretty cool effect anyway.)
Tomorrow I'm working from home. It means an hour more sleep before the day starts, no commuting by bus or havong to deal with "other people" (family not counting) both going to and coming home from the office.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
The Story of My Day, by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched, has been stitched and waited for some time. My first idea of sewing the blocks together, was to use mini charm packs of different colours. Well, that basically made the stitcheries disappear. So I frogged it and found pieces of grey and blue to give some space between the stiticheries and the surrounding facbric.But.. I still was not happy about it. It felt too busy, distracting, and just wrong.
So the seam ripper resurfaced and the blocks went into the basket again.
I decided to exchange the squares with a calmer yellow fabric, and that really seems to be working. I'm happy again.
And now to select the fabric to frame the whole thing. I'm thinking something blue would be suitable, and have pulled a selection of candidates from my stash to see which would be most fitting.
***
In other news we've been changing activities at home this fall. P wanted to return to playing football and is currently busy practicing three afternoons per week. And A wanted to try playing handball, with girls from her class. They're both really happy about this change - and so our adventures scouting has been put on hold for a while. With practice and games there's hardly an evening per week that there are no plans made.
Post-COVID I can say that I'm more or less back to my normal self again. Just a dry cough once in a while (mostly when I'm feeling tired). My urge to craft is back - woohoo! - if only this work thing didn't interfere all the time.. I wonder how many of my projects I'd be able to finish, if I didn't have to go in to the office every day.. I guess I'll have to play the lottery and see if the grand prize comes my way (and try to use the time I have in the best manner possible).
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Monday, September 12, 2022
Star struck - Nebula is a flimsy!
Yep, I think we can say that it is big enough. It is HUGE! And even hubby commented on it, saying it was pretty.
My bobbin ran out of thread 10 centimeters before the seam ended. I was waiting for it, so it wasn't a surprice.
The colours are so much more vibrant than the pictures show - the light is afternonn-shady side of the house-sunlight.
"Just" the quilting left. (Oh, and binding, but that's really a piece of cake. If I clear my desk so that the quilt will fit..)
It's heavy, even for a flimsy. I wonder how it will be when it's quilted..
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Saturday, September 10, 2022
One Seam More..
Oooh we’re halfway there! 🎶
Had to unpick one of the corners as I had sewn one prt upside-down. Oh well. 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
There’s one seam left - which I’m not sewing tonight. Perhaps I’ll be able to work on a different project now - or perhaps I’ll be sucked down into the void of the Nebula.. 🤔
Wednesday, September 07, 2022
Nebula - from many pieces to 6
It's been about 2 1/2 years since I signed up for and started working on my Nebula. In July I decided to get all the border blocks cut (which took almost an entire day - and a blade) and then I started to sew these together to make the blocks.
I tried to lay it out on the floor of our living room, but there wasn't enough space. I'm wondering if maybe.. maybe it's getting a bit too big...?
The pattern instructions show that you'll sew the quilt first in six pieces, then sew these together as 2x3, and then joining these two.
Rolling up my sleves and taking a deep breath, I started working.
1/6 came together pretty fast and easy. This is the top middle part.
2/6 (upper left corner) required a bit of consulting with the pattern to make sure the blocks ended up the right way, etc.
3/6 (upper right corner) and the pattern is consulted frequently. Halfway there.
And then we're starting the bottom half. 4/6 is bottom middle part.
5/6 (bottom right side).
And finally 6/6 (bottom left side). *phew*
These 6 parts are now hanging, ready to be sewn into 2x3 pieces. It is getting pretty HUGE! And I'm thinking of finding someone to quilt it for me.
***
There hasn't been much else sewing going on for me these past weeks. Just the weekly blocks for the #focuscuttingsewalong on Instagram, and some UFO's that I picked up from my mom this summer. (Strangely, it is more fun to work on someone else's projects rather than my own.)
***
A small COVID-update: I spent the first week after the positive test basically sleeping. 3-4 naps per day, and full nights sleet as well. Alternating between sleeping in my bed and sleeping on the couch.
The next week I tried to work from home, to see if that was manageable. It worked pretty good, but trips outside or meeting others was exausting!
Week 3 I still worked from home, but startet to take longer walks and meeting people, to test my energy levels. The first few days were tough, but it got better and better.
And now, almost four weeks later, I'm back in the office. I still feel a little more tired than I used to, before COVID, but it's manageable. Still taking things a bit easy, and will continue to do so for a while longer.
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