Empress Woo question

Hi!

Was wondering if there is someone out there that can help me..

I like the new Robyn Pandolph fabricline called Empress Woo. I have orderd a charmpack from the fatquatershop to see the colors but also to see how big the focuspicture of the empress is. But I have gotten 5" pieces with nothing of the the empress on it just a cut off head.

Can somebody tell me how big the empress is? And also the repeat of the fabric? I would like to cut her out (around her) as a square and then put a borders around these squares, to make a quilt for my niece. But I have no idea how much fabric I need to order to be able to cut out several empresses..

Help please?!

Thank you
Barbara

Different ways to knit

Hi,

Some of you wanted to know the differences in knitting, since my last post.
If you go to this great site: knittinghelp.com you can see different videos showing different
techniques adjusted to the way you knit. I knit what they call the English way and I think people in the US do too. In Sweden they knit the continental way. It means that you have the yarn in either you left or you right hand. In some patterns/techniques this "turns" your stitches from the other way to do it.

It is a bit confusing but watch a movie and you can see the difference.

So when I leaned the lace knitting, I had to put my yarn in the opposite direction around the needle of what the teatcher did.

I have a lot to do at the moment before Christmas, but tonight I am going to a Lucia concert in church. Lucia is a saint, and we celebrate the turning of the year (midwinter) so that lighter days are coming.

I am working on my triangles for the Ocean waves, and I apologize to everybody who knew that triangles on a roll was a good way to do it, and I was to stubborn to listen.. :-)))) I was against it first..was not looking forward to taking of all that paper, but it is a super way to do it!

I will post something better again soon...promise...

Knitting

Last week I had to spend 5 days in Stockholm. Before I left home I checked out some shops nearby to visit during the evening, so I would have something to do and came across: Marias knittingshop

I saw on her website that she gave private knittingclasses as well, so I called her and booked one together with Weronica who came over to spend an evening with me in Stockholm. I only knew how to knit very basic stuff so she learned us how to do lace knitting. She was very nice and did a great job on making some samples for us and giving us additional information for next projects!. I knit the american way. People here in Sweden knit differently so I had to adjust a bit to see how I had to do it, but Maria was a great help. This is the test piece we made there:

This is what I took home with me:

At home I started working with the pink yarn, but it was so thin I couldn't really get a pattern in it:

So I started again with the red yarn I got from Cathi, this is what it looks like now, it is going to be a scarf...so I have some knitting left to do!...:-)))

So if you are ever in Stockholm, visit Maria!

Vintage/ old budget finds

Hi!

Saturday I gave a CrazyQuilt lesson at the LQS, and it was a success, 2 of the girls are now hooked, and the the others liked it too. I was planning to take some pics, but when I got the camera out I had no batteries left :-((

W are re-doing our living room. We now have a sofa there that I have had for a long time. I had it when I was living in a small apartment and it was used as a pullout bed as well. My DH and I had been looking for a nice sofa for a while, but couldn't really agree on one, but now we found one. It is a beige one, with big pillows in a tweed kind of woven fabric.

I am now planning to redo the whole living room at once, and to do this on a budget, at bit like how I did my sewing room make-over. I found some great things for a bargain. I found this fabric. The light blue is going to be our curtains. I liked it a while ago when I saw it, and thought I would buy it someday. So I went back to the store to buy it and found out that the fabric was not 1.40 m wide for 19 euros but 2.80 m wide. It was folded in half on these big roles. So that meant I could buy half of the yardage I thought I would need...*s*. And the other fabric had a little error somewhere. We saw it when we were measuring it, so I got that 50% off, and I didn't have to use that part..

Last Friday I found this old footstool that I redid in a very modern fabric in blue and yellow. (the pic looks more gold but that is because I used a flash.

The Old footstool:

The footstool is hollow and has a tray inside as well:

This is how it looks now:

We also found this old cabinet. It will fit our TV on the top...our DVD and video player and our stereo inside, plus all our videos and DVD movies. So we will be getting rid of a lot of clutter...*s* I will sandpaper it down so you will see the wood color below the white paint. If that doesn't work I will repaint it in some color.

I also started working on Lucy's star quilt. It looks great, but is a bit difficult with the Y-seams.

So now you know what is going on in my house..total chaos, in hopes to getting a new living room done soon!

Barbara

Sharing magazine tip...

Hi!

There are not that much crafty things going on in my house at the moment. I did however get all the cards, drawings and other things like concert tickets, movie stubs glued into my fast scrapbooking album. Yes, I know, I save a lot of those things, but I like to. I think about all the things you will have later when people are not here anymore, it is strange but I like it. I have 2 albums, one for just the cards and things, they get clued in fast..nothing more. Then I have more of a scrapbooking fotoalbum where I put more work into the scrapbooking itself.

I had a magazine reorganisation yesterday as well, after reading a tip I read in Country Living Magazine some time ago, that I found really good, and decided that I would reorganize when I needed it, and that was now, so I am going to share it with you:

I had all my decorating and living magazines sorted by kind, so all the Country Living ones together, Good Homes together..

The tip is: sort your magazines by month. So mix all the different kinds of magazines together so you can get them out by month. I thought it sounded a bit strange in the beginning, but it makes sense, because: when I get my magazines out to look for something, I am looking for : Christmas decorations, spring planting tips and summer menu suggestions.

So now all my magazines are sorted by month, and I have just taken December out for some Christmas inspiration. I think I will flip through my saved magazines a lot more now, since I don't have to go through all of them when I am looking for something. Hope this helps you too..or you might even be doing it already!

On a craftynote: I finished DH hat:

Well that is all for today!....

An Angel

Hi!

This weekend I had a visit of my friend Lisen that I taught how to do patchwork some months ago. She came to me with all the blocks sewn together and with some quilting done. She finished the quilting and I showed her how to do the binding. Doesn't the quilt look great? She is off now to do the final stitching of the binding by hand and then she is finished!

While she was sewing I made this cute angel. It is also a Tilda design again. This was a kit with all the fabrics and everything in it for 2 angels. Mine is pink with white pants and I will send the rest of to Cathi so she can make a white angel with pink pants. The angel was so much fun to make! The jackets etc. are made out of a very thick wool, so you didn't have to worry about fraying or making hems,..perfect!

It took one afternoon and evening to make, so today I started on my HST for my Ocean Waves quilt. Even my Sweet DH helped me by drawing diagonal lines... he is a keeper!

I must say that these slippers and making angels have gotten me in a Christmas mood. Tonight I am taking a night off from quilting and going to read some of the magazines, that have been dropping in the mailbox full with Christmas inspiration.

See you later!

Slippers!

Today I made some slippers out of the book from Tone Finnanger called Tilda's Hus. I like them and they were so fast and fun to make. Might just be this years perfect Christmas present! I did this together with Cathi (cyberspace together *lol*) I am looking forward to seeing hers, she has very different fabrics..Swedish ones!

I am waiting for my friend Lisen to come. I taught her how to quilt/patch a couple of months ago, so she is now coming for the quilting and bindingpart..*lol*

See you soon again...!

Barbara

Spool Top Finished

I finished my Spoolquilt top. I am so happy with it! I love the reproduction fabrics together with the Japanese fabric for the sashing. It took me a while to find the right fabric, but I did find the perfect one at my last visit to Petra Prins.

The original quilt was featured in a Quiltmania magazine.



One of the things I liked about this pattern is that the background is made out of one piece. In most patterns the background is made out of 2 HST and a square. This was some extra work, but worth it. Here is a close-up so you can see it:




I did have some bad luck with this quilt. First, I did not have enough spools so I had to make some more, but also take some older blocks apart to get a good mix with the new spools. Then,...well...sashing happened. It is so hard to get that straight. So next time you see me telling you about a quilt I want to make and it has sashing in it...remind me of this quilt...*lol* So the quilt is not square but I don't care!
Third, I made a wrong cut and didn't have enough fabric for the border, I patched 2 smaller pieces together, so it did work..but it took some extra time.

I think I am going to quilt it using an overall baptistfan motif, so you will not see the wobbly sashings so much. I have some woolbatting waiting for a special project. So I think I will use it for this quilt.

Well you might have noticed that I changed my blog a bit again, and the name as well. This is a bit shorter and has a more "clean" look. Cathi made the banner for me..and did most of the blog changes..she is my computersuperwoman..*lol*..so Thanks Cathi!

Barbara

Still all over the place but getting somewhere

Still all over the place but getting somewhere, at least it feels like I am getting somewhere, and that is the main thing. Eventhough you might ask yourself the same question sometimes as I do: " Do I need to get somewhere??" But you probably also know the feeling of needing to finish something before you can start something new...so that is where I am going..to a NEW project..*s*

I am working today on my Spoolquilt. I even got up a bit earlier today. Later today I am going to go my friend Weronica and do some sewing there. We sometimes meet when we have things we want to finish. It is sometimes so much easier when you are somewhere else, especially when you need to do things like ripping out seams and other more boring stuff..


Going to try to match together all the spools before I go, and sew them together so that the blocks will be done. ( It will look like a 4 patch made of 4 spools)Then I will start on the sashing at Weronica's house and will get some help from her with cutting the sashing into 2,5 meter long strips.

About the new project:
I have been thinking for a long time about making an Ocean waves quilt. I have written about it before. I had even bought 10 yards of blue fabric for it and made some swaps with other quilters to get more variation in the fabrics that will make the small triangles.
But when the blue fabric arrived it was the wrong color. So I was a bit bummed out, so it was just sitting there. But yesterday...at 05:00 I had an epiphany. You can dye fabric.*S* It took me a couple of months to think of it..*s*
So I went to the shop yesterday to buy dye and dyed the fabric. This is the result:


I thought it was a bit to bright. I thought looking online and in the catalogue that it would be a bit more navy blue, but it was not. I saved a piece of the fabric in the old color that I put on top you can see the difference. So I am happy with the result!


Now a question.
I would like to make my ocean waves quilt like a classic quilt like this one and the white will be the navy blue. So my question is what good methods are there for making all these small triangles. Any tips? I have used a Square in a Square ruler and normally do it the old fashioned way by drawing a line on the diagonal of a square...sewing on each side of the line and then cutting apart.
I would like to avoid any paperpiecing methods...HELP??

thanks!

Barbara

All over the place

Okay...don't really know what I am doing at the moment. I feel like I am all
over the place. I am working on all kinds of projects.

After Cathi's visit I am totally into Dear Jane again. I made my block 50! this weekend and number 51..number 52 is almost done. I have also made up my mind and I am going to start attaching the sashing to the right side and under the blocks so I can start assembling the quilt as I go along.




In Sweden we have this new knitting ring called The Knifty Knitter. You might remember it from when you were small. I used to have it in a miniformat. It was made out of wood and only had 6 pins and you made a cord...it was always exciting to see it come out of the bottom. Now they have made one for adults and it is great for making hats. You can also make scarfs and so on...instead of going in round you just go back and forth. I am making my DH a hat as a christmaspresent with a scarf (yes it is that time of year!..*lol*)





Also when Cathi was here she bought a package with 2 angels in it and we are going to share them. So I am going to sew one and sent what is left to Cathi so she can make her angel.



I was feeling a bit brave today and got my box out for my SpoolQuilt. So I might get some more done before I am going to go into town..



I did some work on the CrazyQuilt so this is up to lesson nr 2. It might look a bit strange in some places...but that is because we are going to do the beads and stuff later. Just the seamtreatments this week







Well...going to do some more quilting on my spoolquilt..

CrazyQuilting lesson 3

Yes, lesson 3 already..and that is where my trouble starts. In lesson 2 we were surpossed to start with the seam embellishment..but I didn't like the block I made. I kept picking it up and putting it down. It didn't talk to me at all...didn't know what it wanted me to do with it. When I read the classforum on Friday, I saw a few pictures of people who had done it in a other way. Instead of the "paperpiecing" method they basted there pieces into place. When Cathi's plane arrived late last Friday I made a new block. So now I am way behind on the class..still on lesson 2. But I think I can catch up..someday..*lol*

Here is a pic of the old and new one together. The new one is the one on the right. As you can see it is a bit less "pointy". If you just want to see the old one better please scroll down to a older blogentry.




So now I am going to do a bit more reading on the forum and then back to the Crazy Quilting!

A Crazy Weekend

Hi!

I had such a great weekend. Cathi came here to Sweden to spend a weekend at my house. I have met Cathi through the internet, so we had never seen eachother before, so that was quite exiting.

We went to pick her up from the airport late Fridaynight and the next morning hit the town. We went to some craftshops and woolshops. We also went to a chocolatestore that also serves tea and chocolate things. This is what Cathi brought home:



We also bought a Norwegian book home that is sold here and they also have all the fabrics and everything else you need. On this blog you can read more about the book. It is in German, but there are pictures.

When we came home after dragging all of the loot home we started quilting. Cathi hadn't quilted before so I taught her. I have learned how to quilt from a Amish lady that lives in Germany now. Please visit her website.


On Sunday we went to a bootcar-sale and we found some nice stuff. When we came home we did some more quilting. In the afternoon we basted the Dear Jane that Cathi had finished. We basted it with woolbatting that felt absolutely wonderful. Here is a pic of Cathi pressing it before basting it and later a picture when we were finished:



I am also working on a Dear Jane, so to see her beautifull quilt and help her baste it was really special. It really got me thinking about my Dear Jane again...

On Sunday evening I had my friends Weronica and Helena come over and we had dinner together and later a scrap exchange..this is the scraps Cathi brought home with here:



On the last day, Monday we had quite a lot to do. We went to the LQS and bought some things. I didn't take a picture but I am sure Cathi did. I also made her this bag this weekend so that she could take her Dear Jane home as carry-on on the plane..you don't want that to get lost!




I had a great time, and hope she comes to visit soon again...!

Round Robin, Helena

Hi,

Just wanted to post my update on Helena's Round Robin. I think it is finished now, but might add something if I feel that it needs something more. On Friday Cathi is coming and since she is the one I sent my RoundRobin's too next, she will be taking it with her...



This is a detail of some of the lace I put on and added beads over it:




I also finished a rose that I am going to put on my crazyquilt:


Back to sewing now!

Barbara

Meeting and bought a witch

Hi!

This morning I went to a get-together from our local quilt-guilds here in the area. We were about 40 people.















You could choose out of 3 projects to make for Christmas, and later that day they were going to have a big meeting, to talk about quilting in our region and so on.











Weronica made a star and got it almost finished when we left at lunch-time.









We saw this really nice bag that Karin made:



We left early to go to the opening of our friend Lena's exhibition. She does a lot of different things, but now mostly dolls, paintings and things with wool. Here are some of her things:

I can fly:


A Christmas girl doll, very Swedish


A witch,



This serie of 3 "paintings" made of wool:



My favorite was this witch, she looks very nice and old on her broom...and hangs from a string...


and when she turns around:



and now she is mine! I bought her, I will be able to really hang her somewhere when the exhibition is over. I think I am going to hang her in the window...so she can look sweet and nice to us...and moon the neighbor's who are nosy and always try to look in.....*lol*

bye for now!