On a roll...?

After a long time of no sewing it looks like I'm on a bit of a roll ;-) A little while back I had a request for a tote bag, and since a planned game night yesterday was canceled I found myself in the company of Bernie. I got all the pieces cut, the front pieced and quilted last night, and starting sewing just after breakfast today the bag itself has just been put together:

Pretty pleased with it :-) Hope the person who will receive it will be pleased, too!

More quilty news is that I have finally gotten my Carolina Christmas quilt basted! A bit of a nightmare job:

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This is one heavy quilt due to all those seams, and will probably take me a long time to quilt - need to be diciplined and do it in small dosages ;-)

Happy quilty weekend!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Is it a quilt top? A frustration post...

I have been thinking and re-thinking... The subject being my Carolina Christmas... After laying out my blocks over Christmas, I figured I'd leave this quilt borderless. This works well - just take a look at Christine's lovely version. I have finished sewing the rows together and I planned on basting it tonight. Just for fun I placed the top on my bed - sorry about the bad light:



And here's where the re-thinking comes in... There is a good 10" drop on each side, BUT there are no margins at the top/bottom. Now I'm wondering if this will annoy me... should I sew borders on it after all????? If so, what kind of borders should I do? I'm not too fond of the pyramids Bonnie has chosen... and if I choose borders, will the overhang on the sides be a bit too much? On the other hand, will I be using this quilt on my bed at all? I have several quilts large enough for my bed, but the one I'm using is this:

It is only lap size, jut I just loooooove this quilt! I have many times regretted not making it larger, but... Ok, it looks like I might need a little more thinking time, and if you have any ideas/suggestions, they will be very much appreciated!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Resolution and priorities

I have been thinking a little on how to prioritize my quilting for 2010... Last year Rose and I made a pact to make what we love and finish what we started, and it actually worked!!! With one exception I finished what I started in 2009. So I have made a small adjustment to the text in my side bar, and will keep on making what I love and finish what I start!

-and work on a few of those pesky UFOs in between ;o) However I do have three projects that will rank high on my list of priorities for this year:

1. The Sugar Camp Quilt
The reason for the resolution last year... I just ran out of time for finishing it between all my Christmas sewing, but it is ready for layering and quilting. The backing fabric arrived in the end of December, I have batting on the shelf, and the stencils for marking my quilting lines ready. Just have to get around to basting it!



2. Carolina Christmas
This mystery quilt was started in the end of November and I really had no hopes or plans of finishing it in 2009. I did spend some time during the holidays putting the blocks together, and now have to assemble the top. Not yet sure if I'll do the pieced border Bonnie suggests, or if I'll do a plain border for this one; or perhaps no border at all? Backing fabric is bought and in the drawer, and I think I'll either do some "quilting made easy" (I still have a few rolls laying around somewhere) or some stippling on it.



3. The Winter Quilt
Ehhhh... this is in the category UFO... Rose and I started working parallel on this quilt back in September 2007 with plans on having it ready for the Aussie winterseason 2008, but none of us are even half way on the blocks. I have all the pieces for the whole quilt cut out and ready to sew, and they are kept in the recliner in my bedroom:



Wouldn't it be better to have a finished quilt in the recliner ready to snuggle under with a good book?

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

New Year's resolution 2009: reflections

Remember this post? In the beginning of January, Rose and I made a promise to ourselves and each other that for 2009 we were going to make what we love! We figured the UFO's weren't going anywhere, but we solemnly promised we wouldn't add anymore UFO's to the list. 2009 has been all about finishing whatever we wanted to start! So how has this been going? During this year I have started seven quilts (wow, is it really that many?):

1. The Sugar Camp Quilt
For me, this was the reason for the resolution in the first place; a deliberation whether to focus on WISPs and UFOs, or start something new. I hate to admit it, but this one is still at the "flimsy without border" stage - however I do still have hopes to finish it before the year is over! A little discipline!?!

2. Red & White Swap sampler
Wohoo! It was a lot of fun working on this one! The girls had done a fabulous job on the blocks! And I had a ball testing out my collection of quilt stencils and trying out different shapes in free motion quilting. The sign-up for this swap was in Dec. 2008, so not really sure if it should count… but the blocks weren’t sewn and swapped till January 2009, so I’ll let it ;o) FINISHED May 8th!!

3. Nanny Sharon's Picnic Quilt
A Threadbare Creations pattern I totally fell in love with when Rose published it back in October last year. It was a quick, easy and fun quilt to make! FINISHED May 24th!! Just in time for picnic season (it now have some tomato sauce and strawberry stains - shows it has been used *lol* - need a wash!)

4. Mini Bear's Paw
A reaction from doing those large quilts, I decided to make a mini - in four days ;o) FINISHED May 27th!

5. Sol's birthday quilt
This was started at DJ class with Hanne in March. This sampler was an experiment with blocks of different sizes - the smallest 4.5" and the largest12". FINISHED ehh... in time for her birthday July 29th!

6. Sister’s Choice jelly roll quilt
My oldest jelly roll was cut up in September - it was slow progress on this project, I was a bit un-inspired and I was spending my stitching time doing DJ blocks and working on some old WISPs. But this week I made the decision to get it done! I brought the binding to quilt guild last night, and I hand stitched quite a bit. Coming home I figured I was on a roll, so I spent a couple more hours on the sofa with needle and thread. And behold, it's FINISHED December 9th!



It has fleece on the back:



Not sure how much I enjoyed quilting fleece... So it's not very heavily quilted :o)

7. Carolina Christmas
This mystery was started in late November, and we are up to clue 5... I still have a little ways to go on step 4... I'm going to give myself a bit of leeway on this one - it is a huge quilt, and it has lots and lots of piecing... if I can get it finished in January I'll be happy!

Looking at my list of finishes I see I have been quite productive over this year, sewing smaller things in between these quilts. And if I can get the Sugar Camp Quilt finished by the new year - I will give myself a pat on the back and say "good girl" ;o)

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Sewing Sunday

I'm back after a short but sweet visit to London :o) It was lovely to spend a couple of days with a good friend! She got me a belated birthday pressie, tickets to the theatre - we went to see Terry Pratchett's Nation at the National Theatre in London:

I'd say it's kind of a crossing between the story of Noah, the Gilgamesh Epos, and Robinson Crusoe - encompassing themes of death and nationhood, and some very Terry Pratchett elements, like a talking parrot with some rather naughty comments ;o)
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I got back late last nigh/early this morning, and had a bit of a sleep in today. Getting up, rain and a dark grey sky greeted me. Not weather to be outdoors! So I have been spending my day with Bernie, finishing up the units for step 3 of Carolina Christmas mystery. All 192 of these strange looking units:
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What on earth will they be used for? I have also a pile of 384 HST units stitched, ready to be pressed and trimmed to 2". These are all cut-offs from the units above, no way I'm throwing out that much fabric - there's the beginning of a whole new quilt here!
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Woohoo! I'll go peek at step 4 now!!!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Carolina Christmas continues

I have been cutting and stitching like mad the last few evenings - and having heaps of fun ;o) Bonnie's mystery has so many little pieces - loving it, but it takes lots of time and my back feels all those hours with Bernie. But step 1 and 2 are all done:

And I have cut all 784 pieces of step 3 - puh! And just barely started piecing...

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That plaid in front is my Dad's shirt ;o) Six of the sets of 4 are done, but all these pieces are going to take time, especially since I double sew all the seams to get those 2" HSTs Bonnie talks about:

There will be a lot of these little guys - 48 of them so far. I can see a whole new quilt coming along here *lol*. I'm going to London for a couple of days, so I won't be able to get back to these till Sunday at the earliest. Have a great end of week!

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

Weekend quilting

Have you seen that Bonnie have posted part 1 and 2 of the Carolina Christmas mystery? When I saw she had posted the first part on Friday, I just had to start cutting and sewing, and around midnight I was done with the first step:
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Fun, fun, fun!! But I had promised myself (and Rose) that I would quilt my Sister's Choice before doing part 2, and seeing Bonnie had said Sunday... well, Bernie and I have quilted like crazy for a couple of days:
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And now the quilting is done:
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The edges still have to be trimmed, and i have to do the binding, but I figure I will cut the binding and piece that in between all of Bonnie's triangles :o)

My friend Leisha Camden had some visitors from Japan over for a couple of days, and I invited them here for dinner last night - whale stew (yummy!), and home made caramel pudding for dessert (even more yummy!!) - and there is a little left over for me tonight - so today is quilting, not cooking!



Enjoy your first Sunday of Advent!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

It's a mystery

It is a bit of mystery... I have been quilting for over 10 years and never done a mystery quilt! I have watched as mysteries have been solved in blogland, and I have loved a lot of the finished products - whether potholders, table toppers/runners, or quilts. More than once have I thought "Now why didn't I join in and do that?".

Rose and I chatted a bit when Bonnie at Quiltville started the "Double Delight" mystery back in January - Rose went ahead and ended up with a gorgeous quilt, I decided not to do it... How many times have I regretted that decision? So I made a promise to myself and to Rose that the next time Bonnie brought out a mystery, I would join in. Have you seen the announcement? The Carolina Christmas mystery quilt is starting on Friday, November 27th :o)

On a late night of no sleep because of road work (they should have been done by now!!!) I went through my stash and picked out these:



There are lots of smaller pieces here, and I'm not sure how far this is going to get me, but there's more where this came from. The 2.5" strips are from my scrap box! As you can see, except for the red, which I have replaced with blue, I'm going with the same colours as Bonnie. Blue is not a Christmas colour in my book so I'll have to come up with a fitting name for my quilt once I see what becomes of it :o)

Now I know Rose is planning to do this one very scrappy with lots of bits and pieces from old stash, and I know Beth already have her bright and funky fabrics picked out. Anyone else?

Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida

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Btw. LeKa is having a fabulous giveaway in honor of having more than 30 000 hits on her blog, and passed 200 posts - way to go, girl :o)