February 28, 2012

Stack of yummy

Hybris: Finally home at a time of day with decent light, kiddo sound asleep, and a stack of pure yumminess to play around with, look at, strike.

*click, click* (sound of iPhone camera happily at work)

Nemesis: the stack tips over, hits my cup of freshly made latte, latte hits floor and splashes into areas of my livingroom I have not visited on hands and knees recently.... *sigh* (me)

Well, nobody was hurt and the latte did not stain the fabrics, at least :)

Enjoy your day! I know I do.

Geese in Ring Swap Quilt – part 1

As I have previously blogged about, I am the swap host of the Geese in a Ring Swap, which ended up with 6 Rounds (of 8 participants). I am so very happy and proud that so many liked my idea and this block!! I had only anticipated 1, perhaps 2 rounds. Several of these talented ladies joined 1 or 2 addtional rounds, would you believe it?
And I am very happy, that Krista decided to become my partner-in-swap-crime. She is an immense help, sorting and sending blocks to the US and Canada folks. Thanks chica, you are fantastic!!

Up till now Rounds 1 to 4 have passed the deadline, and I think it was right about time for me to finish my top for Round 1 (the good example and so...). All the blocks I received are just soooo beautiful, I wish you could see them in person! And some of the participants even sent me bonus blocks, so I did not have to add any further blocks!

I had a fairly clear idea that I wanted the top to enhance the geese blocks, but I also wanted the blocks to be separated a little to show off each and every one of them and to create some areas for the eyes to rest after taking a swirl around the geese blocks.
I had quite an amount of the right coloured fabrics from an abandoned project, so I put them to good use and lo and behold: they had the exact right size!! Yippee!!

Here is the finished top, spread out on our couch. Trying to photograph in the afternoon at this time of year is just not the best combination. Oh well!
I love seeing these pictures of quilt tops hung in front of a window, giving the impression of stained glass. Here is my version, and I quite like it!
 
Detail
 
For the back I chose some oh-so-soft voile from Anna Maria Horner’s line Little Folks and in order to get it the right size, I simply added another road of squares and made a mini block of Geese in a ring. Such a cutie block (size 6 inches).

But how on earth am I going to quilt it?!?
I follow the very talented long arm quilter Angela Walters’ blog, and she has started a Monday series on how to find inspiration for quilting and asked of her readers to send in examples. Too good to be true!!! So I hurried, took a very crappy dark evening picture of the top with my iPhone and immediately sent it to her. Perhaps she would choose it?! 

And Angela sure did! And would you believe it: she had Lynne from Lily’s Quilts add her 10 cents on the toptoo – I almost fainted when I found out!!! Squeeeeeel!! Here is the direct link to the article

Angela is going to start a series on how to quilt on an ordinary household machine too, so consider putting her blog in your reader. 

If you have any suggestions how to quilt this top, please inspire me – I think I am beginning to form an idea, but inputs are most welcome!

February 15, 2012

New York Beauty Quilt-Along!

I must have been bitten by some strange paper piecing bug!
There was nothing else to do for me but to join the New York Beauty Quilt-Along

And I clearly remember myself sweating and swearing that I would NEVER learn to love that troublesome, slow paper piecing, when I did my first 'Geese in a Ring' block way back in. errr... 2009 I think! Fast forward to 2012 and now I feel very confident with that block and I am ready to move on!!

So I have jumped in with both feet and joined

Sew Sweetness


Come join me and currently 55 others (I am sure more will follow!).
I am not sure whether I will be able to make all blocks, as I sincerely hope I can make most block by paper piecing it all directly onto the paper (or almost) like the Geese in a Ring block.

It starts in March, and I am happy about that, as I cannot seem to find much time for quilting at the moment...

February 10, 2012

I have been awarded!

See this ?!?
Sweet Bea, who is a Dane like me but living with her husband and 2 soon to be 3 kiddos in the US, totally surprised me with this lovely award!

Please go check out her block too:  Beaquilter
Bea is also a professional, ribbon winning quilter, I do so wish I could quilt like that!!

If you want to read more about this award, go to the VBA blog.

The rules for nomination and nominated blogs are:
  • Thank the person who gave you this award
  •  Include a link to their blog.
  •  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
  •  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
    - you might include a link to the VBA site.
  •  Finally, tell 7 things about yourself.
You should think that it is easy-peasy, but I have discovered that I really consider the vast majority of the ~60 blogs in my reader to be excellent, the rest are just brilliant :)
Most of them are quilting related, no surprise! But also because I truly enjoy reading about they day-to-day life with ups and downs, to get a glimpse of their real life and the interesting persons behind this and that blog. 

So if you do not find YOUR blog on the beneath list, please rest assured that I had a hard time selecting!
Here are my award winning nominees (in no particular order), please go and pay them a visit, I think they are well worth it:
  1. Don't Call  Me Betsy
  2. In Color Order
  3. Sew Sweetness
  4. Pie Birds, Buttons and Muddy Puddles
  5. Quiltingismytherapy's Blog
  6. artsy-crafty babe
  7. Hyacinth Quilt Designs
  8. from the blue chair
  9. a quilt is nice
  10. Trillium
  11. Pleasant Home
  12. Piece and Press
  13. Stitched in Color
  14. Lily's Quilts
  15. Red Pepper Quilts
 7 thing about myself... Oh, what to write that could be of any interest??
OK, here goes:
  1. I was an au pair in France for 1 year when I was 18
    It was the year after highschool. That year was sometimes difficult but I learned a lot about myself, how to navigate in and adapt to a very different culture and what to put up with. This shaped me quite a bit and made me choose an education I would not have chosen otherwise: I have a Bachelor's degree in Business Languages of French and English.
    Besides my mother language Danish, I also speak German and understand the other 2 Nordic languages Swedish and Norwegian.
  2. The above 2 all melts together beautifully, as I work in a German medical company, in the Nordic Offices together with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and German colleagues. The company language is English. I am a Clinical Trial Assistant and I adminstrate pharmaceutical clinical trials conducted in humans. So I can really see a meaning in what I do: some day this or that medicine will help someone to a better life!
  3. I have taught myself all about quilting through books, wonderfully inspiring blogs, tutorials, virtual quilting bees/swaps (THANK YOU) and trial-and-error. I have only ever attended one quilting class and that was 1 year ago, learning about Y-seams.
  4. I hate dishonesty more that anything else!
  5. I would love to have a cat (I have had 3 Maine Coon Cats before), but my sweetheart is heavily allergic, so that is now a no-go... I enjoy the peeks of other bloggers' cats even more and love that you include them!
  6. It took us 4 years get our beatiful boy, Johan.
    During the last year we got all the help modern fertility has to offer (ICSI for those of you who know), so he truely is our little treasure!! I hope for a future sister or brother, but we can only hope!
  7. I am the avatar (=identity) Kvinta Lingiuan in the virtual world Second Life.
    I have been 'inworld" since 2006 and have had many joyous moments, getting som very good virtual friends, and have had a virtual garden centre in there, for real selling virtual plants I had created.
    Second Life can be a very creative place, but sadly some greedy and selfish people have spoiled the visual experience for many many persons. Nowadays (after the birth of Johan 2 years ago) I rarely get to visit. Send me an IM, if you know what I am babbling about ;0).
I hope you have enjoyed reading a little about me and have gotten to visit som new-to-you blogs!
thank again to Bea for the VBA!