Happy New Year to all!!

I just HAD to share this one with you all:

So not me :))

Herewith my best wishes to you all for 2012!! 

Thank you for following along.

I am going - are you?

I am very exited to go to here next year!!

I have bought the 2-day ticket, the flight tickets are in my inbox and the hotel reservation is right next to it.

There is a 1-day ticket as well:

What an amount of self spoiling. Yeah! And it comes along with the blessing of my boyfriend. Double Yeah!!

Am I exited? Oh yes - this is the first time I have joined a quilting retreat, but I admit I was envious of those going to the Sewing Summit earlier this year in Salt Lake City. But that was wayyyy out of my wallet ...errrrr... league :)

Are you coming too?

Shared: Is this why we sew?

Hi all.

I found this blog post through another blogpost, and I just wanted to share it with you.

This is indeed why I sew!

But also because the process of finding the 'right' fabric and to be (hopefully) even more positively surprised when all blocks are sewn together and sum up to even more.
I also create just for my sake: To find a place to be quiet, medidative even, to see that I can do and be more than my day job (which I really like btw!).

Why do you sew?

Please let me know if you share that blogpost too.

Finished Freedom Swap quilt

It is finished!

I sent out turquoise and brown fabrics and got a heap of finished blocks back - all I had to do was to sew one single block myself to complete the layout. Thank you to all the ladies at the Freedom Block Swap, round 1.

I first laid out the blocks with a white/cream sashing - that did absolutely nothing good for the blocks, much to my surprise!
Then I tried to find a maching solid turquoise - no good either.... So I wandered around somewhat frustrated for a minute or two... perhaps even half an hour.... perhaps more ;-)

An then my sweetheart suggested that I try a chocolate brown Kona. What?? I am not too fond of brown and had no intention of it to becoming too overwhelming in this quilt, but I decided to try out his advise, and lookie what a lovely quilt this gave me:

Gotta love a man that saves you like this, huh?!?

More pics, just for show-off:

I machine quilted it in doodles (love doodles, it is almost meditative to quilt them) and bound it in the stripe/dot fabric also used in the blocks. The batting is again 100% bamboo - it is expensive but soooo soft!

The backing was the fabric that made me choose the other fabrics in the first place: Brown turquoise coffe theme, with a tiny Eiffel Tower, and then a broad strip of the fabrics used at the front. My favorite is the one with the butterflies - love it!

This quilt is finished just in time for the autumn season - the temperature has dropped 10 degrees Celsius from one day to the next here, and now it will most certainly be used by my bf, who has until now had to do with Johan's baby-mini-quilt. And he deserves it - being all designer-ish with the brown sashing and all!


And just to finish it off: A photo of Johan who will turn 2 in 15 days!

How to grab my button...

I have been requested how to grab my swap-button and put it on your own blog.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/geeseswap" title="Geese in a Ring Swap" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6151/6173381182_c30d222a9e_m.jpg" alt="Geese in a Ring Swap" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Easy: to grab the button, copy the code in the textbox below the button, go to your blog, go into "Design" , click on "Add a Gadget", select the gadget entitled "HTML/Javascript", paste the text you've copied into the content box of the gadget, click "save" and hey presto, the button will appear on your sidebar.

If you just want to put it in a blog post, you then paste that entire code either into your blog post (with the edit HTML tab selected.

Hope this helps you out?

My first bag ever!

I have finished my first bag ever!

Yeah, yeah.. I know - I must be the last person in the universe to jump on that wagon, it just took me some (ok, a considereable amount of) time before I dared dive into it. And yes, I have made one tote before.

What made me take the jump was a pattern from Jenna Lou Designs, that I by chance came by when reading sewsweetness' blog. One of her patterns - the Ella Handbag - reminds me so much about a tote that I actually dared trying it out.
THANK YOU, JENNA LOU!

 So....
Taaaaaddaaaaaahh!
Here is the finished bag - sorry about the quality of these photos, but it was evening by the time I had finished it ;)

I know - you can see it is home made, but I really do not care! Because I (me, me, little me!) made a handbag!
This is to be considered a test bag, but it is going with me to work tomorrow to be shown off :))

I could not help myself, I had to alter the pattern from the very first try:
The added linen to the bottom is my idea, an extra interior pocket (fits an iPhone perfectly) and an added key strap, as well as much longer handles were added as Il ike to carry my handbag fairly low.

All in all a very easy pattern to follow, and so many options for variations!
Go check her stuff out! (and no, I have not been  asked to tell the world about her, I am just all giddy).


By the way: the 'Geese in a Ring Swap' is moving along brilliantly: the first two Rounds have had kick-off and in 2 days I have to decide whether to stat the third round or postpone it to 1st January 2012.
Take a look at the flickt group page and if you are interested, consider filling in the application form!

Take care!
Ann

My swap is now open for applicants!

Geese in a Ring Swap

Please consider joining me!

Edit 26 August: Round 1 is closed for applicationsThat was really fast!
Edit 10 February 2012: We have achieved to fill 7 rounds! WOOOOT! 
No more rounds will be started.
Thank you so much for participating in my first try to host a bee/swap - it will not be the last!

Peek at the Freedom Swap quilt

I have assembled the quilt sandwich of my Freedom Block Swap quilt.

But alas! I did not manage to go to my local quilt shop and buy the intended variegated quilting thread, so I can only show you some sneak peeks of the quilt :)
Hopefully, I can show you the finished quilt soon, as I have made the binding already.

Bee inspired quilt finished

My 'bee inspired' quilt is finally finished!

The 'bee inspired' bee was started by Rachel of p.s. i quilt in 2009.
We were 18 participants from all over the world. This was my first virtual quilting bee ever and I was happily challenged on both methods and colours as the year passed by. I found out that making blocks to other people with their choice of fabric and block pattern could really make me break a sweat, as I was quite nevous to make their blocks as good as I should/could/would. A very healthy exercise!

For my month, I sent out all of my red and white/cream scraps and requested minimum one wonky star from my fellow 17 participants, size max 12 ½''. They could add scraps of their own if they followed my colourway.

So from out of these piles
came THIS:
I am totally in love! I love the scrappy, yet controlled look, the random placement of the stars, the different sizes of all these stars - have you noticed the teeny tiny ones??

A close-up of one of the stars and the quilting in it:
For the quilting, this was an (almost) first dance with my brand new Bernina 820 (Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaww). I will not gloat any more about it in this post, promise! I am just very happy with it, let me put it so.

I have freehand quilted around each star and a spiral in the middle of almoset every one of them. the rest has been filled with doodling, which I found to be fast and quite funny to quilt. Here is a close-up of the back for you to see what I meen:
It was just plain fun to freehand quilt this quilt, as I found that the wonly theme allowed for wonkiness in the quilting itself, which freed me from much of my self-imposed pressure to do thing nice and neat.
I have used 100% bamboo batting, and it is oh so soft and it creates a very nice texture. Not my last time to use this, that is for certain!

Around the borders I chose to freehand quilt information about the bee in handwriting:
(intended for much use and cuddling).
It also contains my name and year of finish, block name, made from scraps and so on. this way I avoided making a label, which I must admit I never get to make :)

Thank you to all you folks out there who made this quilt possible! And I know you had to wait 2 years to see it, but hey - I finally made it. I cannot wait for December when it is envisioned on the couch with me of my bf or our son cuddling underneath it!!!

Be one of my three!

Back in the cold, dreary end of February I was one of three lucky winners of Maria's (allmomasquilt) giveaway-with-a-twist:

"Receive a handmade gift and pass on 3 of your own within a year of receipt"

What a lovely idea. I posted a comment and was lucky enough to WIN. Yeah! I never ever win anything... And lookie what was in my mailbox today already!!!

A very lovely pouch with a plastic window!! I have admired several of them on Maria's blog over time, and now I have one of my own. How Maria knew I love red and the Make Life fabric is a mystery to me. Seriously! I encourage you to check out her blog - she creates so much beauty (and yes, most of it is in Danish, but Google translate is a wonderful invention ;D)

I feel very lucky indeed. Thank you Maria!!

So... Now it is my turn to be creative and come up with a little handmade gift for three of you.
All you have to do is leave a comment saying you would like (dare) to be one of my three and within a year a little something will pop into your mailbox too, if mr. Random picks your comment.

I cannot promise to be as fast as Maria. But if you leave a little note about your favourite colour in your comment, I may try to take that into consideration.

And for my Danish readers: I have updated my webshop "Kvinta Quilts" with 6 more Accuquilt dies today. Or perhaps my Kona Cottons may tempt you?? *wink*

Enjoy what is left of the weekend.
Ann

Updated on 31 July 2011:
Oh well... I hereby close the giveaway and comments and declare that Kritta22 is the happy winner of all three things, and that I will think of something horrible to send her ;) lol!

I think it is OK to send her all three things, s she is already paying it forward, and just because I know she is a fantastic person :)
*hugs*

Revelation in colour!

Did you know..?

...what a HUGE difference it can make, if you get your screen calibrated to show the true colours in webpages/pictures etc.?!?

I have often been somewhat annoyed, when a long awaited fabric-yummy-pack arrived at my doorstep and I may or may not tear it open like a little kid at Christmas only to find out, that what I thougt was a specific coulour fabric, bought to match other fabrics in a project, does not match the colour I saw on my laptop when ordering it.... DANG!

Do you know that feeling?? huh?!? I know you do - just admit it!

As a recent example, I want to share with you what I saw on my screen and what I really received:
It is the Anna Maria Horner line called Little Folks, the Pastry line in marine.

So... what I thought I ordered was blue with just a hint of green, and what I in fact received was what I would call 'sea green'. I love the colour in itself, no doubt! Just not for the project waiting to be finished....


Well, I realized, that either
1. the e-shop made a crappy job in displaying the fabrics and their true colours
or
2. the fabrics did not show up right on my screen.

ad 1: why would the e-shop do that, based on the fact that it depends on its sales of fabric, and most often the pictures can/are provided by the manufacturer. It is imperative that the colours show up right on their webshop!

ad 2: I have heard about it before: screens need to be calibrated if you work with photos and graphics. But hey! I am just a happy-go-lucky quilter... Why should it apply to me too??

This is why!












But what to do, you may ask?
Luckily for me, my bf plays around with photos and had just purchased this calibration thingy.
A cheaper version can be found here.

Yiakes, that is expensive, you mumble. That is several months of my fabric budget...

Well yes and no... because if you are a "specific projects" buyer, that you can actually save yourself a lot of time and trouble by calibrating your screen.
Or if you, as I, live in Europe and have to have the new fabrics shipped from the US, then the shipping costs easily adds 30 to 50% onto the fabric prices!

It is just an advise, as I am by no means an expert, I just had an AHA-moment when seing the huge difference it made on my screen! Consider it, folks :)

This and that.

Where does time fly??

I suspect being a mother of a 16-months kiddo, having a full-time job, and the obligatory seasonal illnesses pesting our life answer my own question. I just feel that everybody else manage to fit in social events, culture, sewing, sport, you name it!

I don't and I hate to admit it, but now I have said it. There. That felt nice...
On to another happier subject: I have a new job starting on April 1st, which brings me an aweful lot closer to this beauty! Oh yeah :D You will know when I manage to get my little sweaty hands on it. For sure!

I have also participated in a regular fabric swap, the 'Color Wheel Charm Pack Swap', and now I have received back the 200 charms, all in different fabrics. Wanna see them? OK, I can manage that!


Yummy! This pile will fit nicely into my existing pile of 4x4'' charms, cut from most of the quilting fabric I have ever bought. I foresee several monochrome quilts in my future :))

New projects. Yes, yeeeeees, I know - perhaps I should finish those in the waiting line first.
But... These oh-so-soft voiles from Anna Maria Horner, one of her previous lines called 'Little Folks', will eventually become something nice and useable. But for now you will only get this sneak peak ;)
Thank you for still reading my blog, despite the long intervals of posting!

/Ann

Quilt for Anke

Anke is a very caring and thoughtful woman, who is one of the moms in my Mother Group - do you have that where you live? A group of women, with the only thing in common that they have become mothers around the same time as you, brought together by the specialist trained nurse who come and check upon us during the first months after the birth of the little precious one, giving advise and answers all sorts of questions :)

Anyway, Anke has been very good at inviting us into her home, at initiating all kinds of stuff, so I wanted to thank her in my own special way: with a quilt!

I decided to use a very simple pattern, that would also help me reduce my stash.
I chose blues, greens and grey (Kona Cotton Ash) for sashing, and then added a border in Kona Asparagus, which really helps brightening up the whole thing.

Here you have it, all whashed up and tumble dried. The light was plain awfull, so I have to ask you to mentally add a splosh of bright green to the border and some of the other greens in this quilt!
Hmmm... strange how it looks all warped and crooked... it is not, I promise!!

For the binding I found a striped fabric with all the exact right colours at the local quilt shop

Ever since I discovered Red Pepper Quilts' tutorial on entirely machine stitching on binding, I have been hooked! I know some of you enjoy sewing the binding down by hand and the mediative process... Well... I don't! So this method actually makes me finish my quilts, aha :))

For the quilting I decided to try yet another fancy stitch on my machine. I like how this stitch softens up the very squared and somewhat rigid pattern.
...and here it is after the tumbler drying, all puffed up. Yumminess!!
Anke has by now received her quilt and she loves it. Thank God!

If you have made it to here, thank YOU. I am currently in a finishing mood, so I hope to be able to share more quilts with you soon again!

New swap - join me!

I have chosen 'plum' as my preferred colour.
I wonder if I can find 10 different fabrics that can be put in that colour category?!
We'll see!

Drooooool!!

Oh dear..!
I have touched THIS beauty today:
Yep! The Bernina 820.

She is a beauty to look at and so smooth to touch *sigh*.

I think I may just have fallen in love!

But... dang! It is so expensive...

Then again... If I really, really like this machine, which I suspect I might, then it is probably a keeper for many, many years.

Can you hear the inner voices here, huh??

Does any of you have any experience regarding the Bernina 820 - or any other Bernina for that matter - then I would love to hear from you!!

Thanks :)