Sneak peek and Giveaways

A little sneak peek at the baby/kid quilt I'm working on these days. I have to add a border on all four sides to make it a bit bigger. I want to add a wider border at the top and bottom to make it longer and then add the final border on all four sides. I have an idea how to do it, so I'll see what I do today.

Lis at Online Quilting has a giveaway celebrating 100 posts.

Another giveaway is from Dzintra at Queen of the Armchair who has 10 000 hits! Check it out here!

What to do a rainy day...

First of all I want you to take a look here. Sarah at Prim Treasures has some gorgeous giveaways - DON'T MISS OUT your chance to win!

It was such a nasty weather this morning; heavy, local showers. I intended to do more garden work, but no chance going out without being soaked. Corps de Garde - our mountain view - was covered in fog this morning. I don't mind the rain at all, as long as I know I can get home fast and get on dry clothes. Actually I love the rain here, because rain in the tropics are hot - not cold as in Norway. The locals make me smile when saying; "Dont't get wet in the rain! You'll catch a cold!!!" I don't believe in that! But I must confess there is a chance of catching a cold if you get soaked, don't have dry clothes to put on, and then start freezing. :)

What I have done today is to draw the long-leg star pattern on paper for paper piecing and I've sewn some blocks too. I have a faint idea how to make the quilt, but nothing is decided yet. According to the meteo prediction there will be rain tomorrow too, so it seems like another day of sewing. :))

Garden work in the tropics / UFO

We have been gardening today! After the rain last week and before, as well as the heat and humidity, all plants, flowers and weeds grow with record speed. We couldn't do anything outside last week due to rain. Usually I get up before sunrise each morning and today was no exception. I started cutting the grass - one hour or so after sunrise :)) - with a huge garden scissor, because the grass was too long for the manual mower. I don't mind such work, but I don't last long in this climate. Today I was surprised by myself, because I managed to do more than I intended too. :) DH did part of the road, which was needed too and removed the grass I cut. After three hours work I was too tired to continue, had something to eat, and a snooze. I hope to do more work in the garden tomorrow, but meteo has predicted thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow, so I don't know how it will be tomorrow morning - if it is possible to continue.

Our three "Brunfelsia's Pauciflora" are covered with white and purple flowers! The flowers have a very sweet smell that comes out especially in the night. The plant has many names; "yesterday-today-tomorrow", "Francisea", "Lady of the Night", Jasmin d"Afrique" etc.

This is an orchid - I believe - growing on the "bottle palm" trunk, just outside our entrance.

Another UFO.... I had a look in the archive and didn't believe my eyes when I saw I started these blocks almost one year ago; February 2009! If I'm not mistaken, this is my oldest UFO. At that time I did a mistake on the size of the long leg star compared to the other blocks; the star block is 0.5 inch larger, so I had to shrink that long leg star pattern...... Which I did today, after gardening and the snooze! OMG!!! Look at the photo! The blocks look so dirty!!! They are white - not brownish!!! Perhaps the white pulls up the color of the background, or from the green and yellow..... I have yet to decide on how to do the quilt.... I guess it will be another "Quilt as I go", since I don't have any pattern.

Christmas gifts 2009

I know! I know! Christmas 2009 is history, so you may wonder why I'm talking about Christmas again - don't you?! :) Well, I was going through some photos on my computer today and remembered I have not showed you some of the Christmas gifts I made...

Here's a pair of potholders and a seed bag for my dear penfriend Anne-Melissa in Canada.

A storage bag for another dear friend; Grit in Germany. She received a pair of potholders too - take a look here.

Storage bag for another dear penfriend; Waltraud in Germany.

And finally; a pair of potholders to my dear childhood friend Johnny in Norway.

Attacking UFO's!

I've been working hard on the UFO's this month, and here are a few more that are finished.

I made a few of these log cabin blocks last year, but didn't know what to turn them into. Perhaps my brain works better in the beginning of the year?! No, I know what it is! "5 before 5" - the UFO-contest as well as the OPAM! Competition BUG has got me!!!

I made the log cabin blocks into a table runner! Two years ago - even more - I made the "Christmas in your Heart" wall quilt (sorry no photo). I had quite some fabrics left I wanted to use. You may notice the runner is quite long - yes, it is! I wanted it to fit our dining table, which is approx 2.10 meters (approx 7 feet) long. The table runner is 67" - 1.70 meters.

Details of the runner.

I made two pair of place mats too - using leftover fabrics. Cut the fabrics into stripes and sewed some together - and - empty for ideas! I didn't think of the stripes fabrics at that time (the angels are actually border fabrics). I fussy cut some of the angels - and voila! Here's what came out of it! :)

and another pair - using the same fabrics.

I was supposed to make these place mats before Christmas.... Well, I did, but ran out of fabric for the binding. I had to purchase more - fortunate the web shop had more in stock - even on sale! I received it in the beginning of January - another UFO done! :) I've used "disappearing 9-patch blocks" - gingerbread folks fabrics.

As you may have noticed; I haven't change the curtains in the kitchen - still the Christmas curtains! Well, Christmas lasts until Easter - as the saying goes..... :))

A little peek of the "little-girl-quilt" I'm making from these blocks, which I talked about in this post. It was supposed to be a baby quilt, but it has turned out bigger than that. I've been quite obsessed by making it and last night I finished the top! Woooo-Hoooo! :) I'm not sure I have suitable backing for it.... Perhaps I'll buy flannel at the textile market in town.... Since January I'm on SSD (Strict Stash Diet), so I don't want to buy any stash - unless I really need it! :) So far I've done well!!! I've bought some needed buttons and batting - that's all! :)
ZERO TEMPTATIONS! (What a joke!!!!)

More UFO's Finished

I'm relieved the zigzag quilt is finished! When I began quilting it (see previous post) I thought I might spend 2-3 days working on it, but to my excitement it took one evening and a couple of hours the next morning. The diamonds are made up by strips in different sizes, from 1" to 2". I quilted in the ditch in all the seams and I'm glad I did it that way. It's the first time I have made a quilt like this - an interesting way of using diamonds. I'd love to make another one, but perhaps use not more than a few colors and cut the strips the same size.... I think it had looked great in blue... Needless to say blue is my favorite color! :)

I had all those 14 blocks from "Rustic Retreat", which went in the UFO-basket last year, because I didn't know what to make out of them.... In my previous post is a small wall quilt, and here's a table runner. I like table runners a bit wider than usual and this one is no exception! :)

And here is the last 4 of the blocks - made into another wall quilt.

I still have some UFO's that are almost finished; have left to do the binding - no photos yet! :)

While I was working on the zigzag quilt, my brain was spinning on what to do with these pinwheel blocks... Do you remember this quilt? I made a mistake on the blocks! I can't remember now what the problem was, but I think they became too big for the other squares I had already made... Now I have yet to decide what to make out of these blocks.....

I need to take a break from sewing - at least don't get stuck to the sewing table / sewing machine 12 hours a day, as I've been each day the last couple of weeks! Yesterday I cleaned the floors, with some help from DH, and this morning I worked 3 hours in the garden. In this hot & humid climate - as it is nowadays - everything grows like ....!!!! Last week we got some rain, which was wonderful and needed. Sadly in some places there has been floods, but fortunate not in our area. I like working in the garden after some days of rain; the soil is soft and easier to get off the weeds... I think I'll have to continue in the garden tomorrow morning..... :)

UFO #1 / OPAM #1

I'm still here, even if I haven't posted anything the last couple of weeks. I have been extremely busy, working on some UFO's that I have decided to finish before I start any new projects! Wow - you may say!!! Yes, I say the same, because I am not sure I'm able to live up to that. But at least it is my intentions!

My first UFO 2010 is finished! :) Julie at Quilt Scandinavia is the one who arranges "5 before 5", which means the members (those who want to) have to finish at least 5 UFO's (projects started before January 1st 2010) before May 1st 2010. More than 5 projects done and you may be the lucky winner! I'm not sure how many I will be able to finish, but I should do at least 5. Take a look at the side bar and you'll see my listed UFO's. This is also my first OPAM, arranged by Kris and Peg. (Sorry, the OPAM is now closed!)

Do you remember I made this and this quilt last year? When I worked on them, I also made 14 small blocks with the little houses in the middle. At that time I didn't know what to make out of the blocks and they were put aside... When I got to know there's a "5 before 5" this year too, I pulled out all my UFO's and my brain started spinning! :) I spent a few days figuring out what to make of the blocks, and here's the first result; a small wall quilt. I've used 2 of the 14 blocks for this quilt, but I'm not going to tell you now what the other 12 have turned out to be! :)

Another quilt I started working on last year, is the zigzag quilt. I can't believe I started on it back in June last year... Time to get it finished! It has taken me some time to figure out how to quilt it, and in the end I decided to stitch in the ditch in all seams. I worked on it almost the whole yesterday's evening and continued this morning. It went fairly fast. Now I have left to do the binding, which I hopefully will do as first priority!

Birre-Liten isn't quite sure what to do; go out or stay inside. On the ironing board you can see some place mats where I have left to hand stitch the binding.

More UFO's and OPAM's to come! :)