A new quiet book is finished and delivered. These books are so fun to make. And they are popular too, as presents to children. I have already started another one. If you like to watch a "walk-through" of this book, you can find it here. Here you can see the front and a couple of pages.
I love hand sewing projects. And these small sailboat quilts have got a bit of hand sewing around the edges. And I can use up some of my small denim scraps as well. I think they will be great souvenirs for sailors.
I've made two quilt tops like this. My grandmother made one when I was a little girl. Unfortunately it's gone. So I made one like hers with old, recycled fabrics. She didn't quilt it, and I wanted to keep mine also unquilted. But I liked it so much that I had to do another one to quilt. At least I've started.
This week has been fun and busy. I gave a lecture for a group on Thursday, and we had a market on Saturday. It's always nice to meet people in different settings. And some new people got to know me and my hobby better.
I took a workshop with Ann Smith some weeks ago. The result was this sweet owl. Everything is hand stitched.
I've never tried sashiko before. But after a workshop with Kate Ward this was the result. I found it easier than I had waited. And now I have to try some other sashiko patterns when I get the right thread.
I hoped to make four blocks every week for this project I started in January. After some weeks with so many activities and no time to sew, I'm back on track again. I have found that I will need fifty blocks, and this week I made number 33-36. You can read more about this project here.
We've got spring here as you can see. I love this time of the year.
This year for the annual quilt meeting for The Norwegian Quilt Association a group of friends made spool quilts. All of us had the same 18 themes, and made our own 18 small 4" quilts for the spool. It was interesting to see how different the quilts were from person to person. Here you can see the spools, and close-ups on some of my little quilts. You certainly can guess the themes. In the background you can see quilts from the EQA challenge Contrasts.
A Happy Handful - the last theme for this year from Persimon Dreams. This was just perfect for me, as I will have few hours to sew this week. And I needed a mini pincushion to bring with me. Perfect in a little box with embroidery floss.
I have combined two challenges this last week. I'm taking part in Ann Wood's 100 day stitch book challenge. Then I saw the challenge for Art Journal Journey, and made a spring themed page. It's spring here, and the small lambs are soon out on the grass. And the first spring flowers are already here.
My Complements is this week's challenge from Persimon Dreams. I chose two complementary colours and made a little one block quilt. Then I turned it into a sweet pincushion, as I often do. I really love how this one turned out.
This year I have started a stitch book, a challenge from @annwood. I've seen those books for years, now I jumped in for 15 minutes of stitching every day. It's supposed to last for 100 days, and end up as a stitch book with 20 pages. I'm already at page 8. Here are all my pages until now.
Of another era, the theme from Persimon Dreams this week. I took some duvet covers from the 70s, made some 16-patches, and wondered what I could do with them. As I needed some project bags, I went for a new drawstring bag. And as I found it so fun to do, there were suddenly two new bags on my table. All fabrics here are old fabrics from the 70s.
A new challenge from Taryn @reprequiltlover is started. I hope to sew four blocks every week for this project. At least I've started out really good, and the first twelve blocks are done. They are so small, only 5", and will be 4 1/2 finished. Those even smaller HTS blocks are a bit tricky. But as I'm taking them as they come out, without thinking much about the points, it's going quite well.
I'm trying to use up my blue and white scraps for this quilt. Aren't the mini butterflies sweet?
Year of the Horse is this week's theme from Persimon Dreams. I sorted through all my fabrics, hundreds of different animals, but no horse. Suddenly I got a glimpse of a horse. It might be a donkey, but anyway, I had to use it. Then I made a little quilt out of it, and transformed it into a pincushion.
The theme this week from Persimon Dreams is Scads of Plaid. As I never throw away old fabrics, I had lots of old shirts to cut from. This was a great opportunity to use some of it.
First I cut squares to make two ninepatch blocks. Then put on borders around and quilted the piece. I've made many drawstring bags before, so this went fast. I will be without a sewing machine the next days, so I'm happy to finish this in time.
