First finish in May + Thoughts on Ufos

 

Some time ago I found the pieces for this little pouch in my stuff. It was already traced and I had already done about 10 stitches with dark blue on the waves on the front piece. 

I am not sure why it was put to the side, but I do know it must have been around 2012-2013. 

Was the blue to dark? 

Anyway - I picked the dark blue thread out and started again, and now the little pouch is finished and in daily use, holding my lipstick in my purse.

I think it is cute and it was fun to finish it.

The design is by Natalie Bird / The Birdhouse

The hexagon quilt top is coming along nicely. It is nice to see it grow, and I am working on row 13 - 15 of 17 as we speak. After row 17 there are some gaps in the first and last row that will be filled in with half hexies.
I think I will be able to finish this top through May. That would be lovely.

Something has happened to how I look at my unfinished projects.....
My unfinished projects are unfinished dreams. Some (very few) do not spark joy or creativity anymore, but most of them will be taken care of and finished in one way or the other. 

I have more (many more) stitcheries that will be finished into quilts or other things. Every stitch has brought me joy and comfort, and deserves to be finished. I am very looking forward to work on them.

I like minimalism.
For some minimalism and quilting do not go together, for me they do. I need space to dream, think and create, if you know what I mean. 

I need less unfinished projects, I need less stored fabrics. 
When we lived in a bungalow, we had a lot of storage space. Now we do not have much storage space at all, and I need to keep on adjusting my belongings (read fabrics) accordingly, so my sewing room will be big enough for everything that I own. It is not a big room and it is a guest bed in here too.
I will make more care quilts, that's for sure.

💖 Wishing you a lovey day where you are 💖

Hanne

Feeling a bit crazy - May challenge quilt and more

 

Deana pulled # 5 as this month's Chookshed  Stitchers Challenge. My project # 5 is this big hexagon quilt. It still lacks 8 rows + half hexies on the top and bottom row.

I can promise this will not be finished this month, but I can promise to move it forward, every morning with my morning coffee 💖

I am not to sure spring has come to stay, and in this country we are used to the changing weather in the spring. I had a lovely couple of hours out on the veranda, resting in the sun today, with an audio book on the ear. I had SPF 30 on. It is easy to forget how strong the sun is, after a long and dark winter. 😀

I have been picking some side projects to the hexagons, but found it really hard to chose.

Toy bags for the boys, with Paw Patrol fabric?
Christmas cushion? Absolutely!
Project pouch with stitchery and clear vinyl window?
Kaffe Fassett wool embroidery?
Something else?

It must be the sun and the spring that affect me - I want to do so much!

💖 To much of a good thing can be great, sometimes 💖

Hanne

April finishes

April was a good month in the Quilt Corner 💕

First I finished this shopping bag with sashiko.
It was originally my March focus project ( #3 ), but life interfered with sewing, as I said before. 
Anyway - it is done, and it was shipped to another part of the country as a gift for someone special - and it got there in time for April 7th. It was very well received.

Next I finished these 4 Advent / Christmas coasters. 

They have been started years ago. The design is by Natalie Bird, as a wall hanging. We do not have much space for wall hangings anymore where we live now, but coasters are in daily use.

I try to finish something Christmas-y every month this year, just for the fun of it.

This is the April (#9) Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge 😊

The stitchery is from many years back, design Bronwyn Hayes / Red Brolly.
I never get to many of these pouches. They are good for so many things, like projects, toiletry, and what not. They pack well, both in a purse and in a suitcase. 
Sometimes I make them with a bottom so they can stand up, sometime I don't.

I looked through my Chookshed Stitcher 2024 Challenge list this morning. 
I have finished 5 of 10 - and some of the unfinished ones are big projects.
I need to give them some attention so I have a chance to finish all in time 😊

Last, I finished these 2 pairs of socks for my grandsons last night. 
My dear daughter 2 showed me a photo of Paw Patrol mittens early in autumn last year, and I agreed to make some for my grandsons.
Well - I did not like the process and the first mitten was put to the side, about half done. (That is how knitting Ufos are made)
I un-knitted the mitten in winter and started a pair of socks instead. I had to change the pattern some to fit, but that went well. 2 boys = 2 pairs of sock - that is how it is.
I must admit that the embroidered faces was so slow to make, but since yesterday was the last day in a month I thought it would make a nice finish. I have been procrastinating like forever......

Since I already have the rule of just 1 knitting project at a time, now I can start something new - and I will, shortly. 💖

New month, new chances! 

💖 Wishing you a good day where you are  💖

Hanne

Hexies galore

It has been a hexie week in my sewing room 💖

I started this project when in USA before Christmas and it has given me a lot of joy to handpiece the traditional way. My friends has been retreating in Shipshewana, IN, this week, so doing hexies along with them from a distance has made me feel connected.

The inspiration comes from Tales Of Cloth on Instagram and the hexies finishes 2,5" big.
The quilt will be 17 hexies down and 17 hexies wide. 

On the Chookshed Stitchers challenge list this one is #5, so it is not due this month.

It is time to give some attention to the projects on my April challenge list too. Times goes so fast these days.
The snow is finally gone. It has been a long winter in my part of the world. 

Have a lovely day where you are 💖

Hanne

April focus projects

 

# 9 is the magic number in the Chookshed Stitchers challenge this month 😍

My # 9 is the red stitchery with the yellow fabrics.

The stitchery is designed by Bronwyn Hayes / Red Brolly.
It is from back then when stitchery was so new in my part of the world that shops here did not carry any yet. These have no year printed on them. It would have been fun to know how old the are.

I found these on Ebay, from Australia,  and I can still remember the joy and the anticipation waiting for the mailman. I did not find all of the 4 different designs all at once, so I was often waiting for something nice to arrive. 

Postage was not so high back then, and fees and VAT on international private small scale shopping was not a thing yet. 

I love pouches and will turn this stitchery into a special bright one 💗💛

The square stitcheries I will turn into Christmas coasters.
Designer is Natalie Bird.

I have a little quirky plan to finish something Christmas-y every month this year, if I can. 
March did not deliver, but I can always do 2 this month or another month.

I will start April with these 2 projects and see where it brings me.

                                                                            💗

On another note....

I tried to delete many unused blogs and add some new blogs to my sidebar reading list yesterday. 
I used a lot of time on that, deleting, saving, deleting, saving, without any luck.  Whatever I did, the end result did not match the effort, and nothing could be deleted.
The widget I had was most likely outdated.
I deleted the old widget this morning and started a new list today, but it will take some time to put everything in there again. I did visit many blogs yesterday, and I met many that were not updated for years, some were deleted, at least one was red flagged by my security system.
The new list will be blogs that I want to read, updated through the last 12 months.

Have a good day where you are 💗 

Hanne

1st finish in April

Ever since I bought my first sashiko panel, I have been smitten - with the designs and with the process. 

I love dragonflies as you may know. I love how they look and the symbolism they have all over the world. 

This tote was supposed to be finished in March - it was on my Chookyshed Stitchers 2024 challenge list -  and since it had a deadline (for a gift) I had to just pull my socks up and do it. I finished it on April the 1st.  The tote is travelling to its new owner as we speak 😀
I am happy with how it looks. I love fabric totes and use them all the time myself, instead of plastic bags.

I am aiming for a productive April - more about my focus project(s) shortly 💗

Wishing you a lovely day

Hanne

March = no finishes

 

The best laid plans and all of that......

My focus project # 3 (my own priority) - turning the sashiko into something useful and pretty for a special person in my life, with a deadline, 
 and the project Deana drawn for us, #4, which turned out to be the Raspberry tea quilt from Sue Daley are not done.

I did join together the last 9 block square and cut fabric for the sashing around the focus block in the middle of Raspberry Tea quilt.  Other than that, nothing much happened on that project.

The sashiko - no progress at all in March.

Life interfered with my plans - and when life does that, I know it is good for me to relax, re-think and re-prioritize.

Come to think of it - I did have a finish in March 😃
I am still working on shrinking my light pink and peach fabrics. 
Chooky showed us a lovely table runner when we last had a Zoom meeting, and I just had to try the technique, since I already had that template, still wrapped in plastic 🙈

This quilt top is approx.. 55" wide and 65" long, and it is ready to be handed over to the next person in the charity quilt maker group, to be machine quilted.
Did it make a dent in the soft pink stash? I do not really see one, but I think it did, since I have been pulling fabric from here and there, from several boxes.

This project had some progress, 

this project had some progress,

and this project had some progress too!

All in all, in retrospect, I see that I have got quite a lot done, even if it was not on my original March to do list.

Wishing you a lovely day 

Hanne

The last day of February

 

The little candle mat is done, and I can put it away with the other Christmas things.

With only 1 thread of stitchery barely done, and lost in a bag of scraps,
I am happy I found it after several years....

The candle mat is a mix of 2 designers and patterns. 

The stitchery is from Northern Quilts in Norway, and the hexagon design and the rest is from Helen Stubbings, Hugs n' kisses in Australia. 

Over the last years I have made several of the candle mats, both with Helen's bird stitchery in the middle and with other stitcheries in the middle. I am sure I will make more in the future. They are cute around the house, and make beautiful gifts.

I am ready for what the Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge will bring tomorrow 💞

Happy leap year everyone! One more day to be creative.

Hanne

February Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge

 

The care quilt top I had as my February goal in the Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge is done, and has left the house for the next person in line doing the machine quilting.

My care quilt group meets about every 6 months for a 2 day gathering, in driving distance from everyone's home, so we all sleep in our own beds.

I have started cutting and sewing another top like this, from my own fabrics, with fewer blocks - 7 by 9, instead of 8 by 10. 
I am shaking my head about the fact that I must have had like 5 yards of the pinkish red fabric, French General.
Note to self - do not buy so much for future might-want-to-do projects.
Well - I think I bought all these French General fabrics in USA, where fabric prices still are much lower than here.
I do remember I loved that fabric, so it is a good thing to use fabrics when they are fresh off the bolt, and not saving it for the future. 
Taste changes over time, right?

Morning stitches adds up too 💖
More about that in another post shortly.

Wishing you a wonderful day where you are 💖

Hanne

February focus projects

 

Since I picked up this Ufo in January, I decided that it is it's time to be done 🎄
It's a candle mat - the hexies are 1 inch.

My main focus project for February - with a deadline - is this lap quilt top, 48" by 60"

It was never an Ufo, but it is on my to do list for my care quilt group's get together next weekend. 

We do have a lot of fabrics in the group the participants can pick from, but for me it feels better to use from what I already have at home.

I am sure I am not the only one having more fabrics that what I can use for many years......

These care quilts do not make the biggest dent, but it does make a difference in my fabric collection over time. Before, I used to make my care quilts A to Z, but I do not do that anymore.

We have some lovely ladies in our group being good at machine quilting, and have that as their task in the group. So, hence that, I can do what I like best, making quilt tops.

My arms do not like using the sewing machine for more than 1-1 1/2 hours maximum a day, so I have made a progression plan to be done in good time. It works like a charm so far 💖

Wishing you a wonderful day where you are 💖

Hanne