Hello good friends!

Hi! Long time, no see! Sorry I have been M.I.A. - I'm alive and well. It's just that my sewing/blogging time and energy available have greatly decreased with a) going back to my full time job and b) being in the middle of a DIY home renovation project.

But... I have been able to squeeze in a few sewing minutes, so I have some stuff for show and tell:)

1) April block for Fat Quarter Shop's Mystery BOM - so pretty in pink, red and aqua:)

2) My first ever bee blocks - for the do.Good Happiness circle. I think this color palette is very sofisticated:)

OK - I may have made a mistake in cutting the pieces for the geese, so their beaks and wings got a bit clipped. Oops! Well, I still like the block.

3) A start to the Modern She Made swap item for my secret partner - also a new color combo for me. I hope my partner approves. I think it will become a pillow...

4) As I was cleaning my sewing room the other day, I found this stack of FQs of La Dee Da fabric that I never really liked... It's just not my colors. So I decided it will become a quilt for Siblings Together and got to cutting half-hexies with my previously unused Hex N More ruler. I think this quilt will be very cool and modern and perfect for a girl or teen.

OK - time to be enter the social world of blogging - so linking up to:

Not my finest work...

When the package arrived with February's Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop, I immediately saw it would be a pain to put together. I love HST's for their versatility, but when many points meet up it's a pain to get them alligned and to make the seam allowances to lay flat.
Da pakken kom med februar sin Mystery BOM så jeg at den kom til å bli kronglete. Alle spissene som skulle møtes opp og så de bulkete sømmonnene...

So here is my finished block - I did make a change in the construction and made flying geese out of the gray (as opposed to 2 HST's).
Så her er den ferdiglagde blokken.

The seams don't line up, the points are off/gone and it is in general very wonky and a bit bubbly, even after pressing the heck out of it.
Sømmene møtes ikke alltid der de skal og den er generelt litt skjev og bulkete (selv om jeg presset i vei).

I'll leave it at that. When it's all quilted and washed, I am sure no one can tell. For now, I am happy to be on track with these blocks:)
Jeg lar det være med det. Når teppet er quiltet og vasket er det sikkert ingen som merker noe av det. For nå skal jeg bare være glad for at jeg er a jour med disse blokkene:)


Linking up with:

BOMs Away at What a Hoot!
Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up - hosted this week by Janice of Better off Thread

All caught up!

This year has had a rough start with little time and energy for sewing and blogging. Company in my sewing room from December 26th until January 13th followed by a week of sick baby and sick me did not make for an active crafter!

Well, now all is more relaxed here and I am determined to look forward and get back in the sewing/blogging groove.

And what better way to start than to complete one of my January goals - get caught up on my Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop. Mission accomplished! I even got this month's block made up.

Here they are - all finished and nicely pressed!

Block 5 - October 2012 - a very pretty block using quite a few of the colors in the collection

Block 6 - November 2012 - a bit simpler, but still quite nice looking

Block 7 - December 2012 - love the look of this 2-tone block, but wonder how it will fit in with all the more colorful blocks...

Block 8 - January 2013 - simple, but I still managed to make a mistake in the direction of one of the prints... But too excited about being done that I decided to leave it. Who will notice in the midst of a whole quilt?

So - now it's on to my main January goal - finish a quilt for my first nephew - it's a Christmas gift (from 2012) so a bit over due. But in my defence, he wasn't born until December 18th and I didn't know the gender and didn't want to make a gender neutral quilt. It's all basted and ready to be quilted. Hoping to have it done by Friday for the TGIFF linky party hosted by my bloggy friend Nat.

Linking up today with:

The Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up, hosted today by Heidi at Fabric Mutt

BOMs Away Mondays at What a Hoot!

If you haven't been there already, hop on over and get inspired by what others are up to!

Weekend hustle

What did I do this weekend?
Hva gjorde jeg denne helgen?

Joined The 100 Day Hustle hosted by Kelsey of Kelsey Sews. If you want to join this work-along towards the end of the year (only 98 days left now) write up your to-do list and link up by end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday).
Meldte meg på 100 Day Hustle (100 dager med hardt arbeid) - en samling med bloggere som oppmuntrer hverandre til å få unna gjøre-listen sin innen utgangen av året.

Finished my Windy (City) Days baby quilt top. It is finishing at 36" square. I like a borderless quilt, but do you think 36" is too small?
Fullførte Windy (City) Days babyquilttopp. Den er ca. 1 kvadratmeter. Jeg syns det er fint med teppe uten bord, men er 1m for lite?

Sewed up September's Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop. One for momma (me) and one for babygirl.
Sydde sammen september Mystery BOM. En til mamma (meg) og en til lillejenta.

What did you do this weekend?

Hva gjorde du i helgen?

Linking up today with:

Mystery BOM - block 3

Hello, hello! I have been a bit of a slow blogger lately. I gave myself a sewing restriction, not allowing myself to use my sewing machine until I got my sewing studio tidied up. Let me just say - it was a mess! I was so eager to get sewing again, I didn't get around to taking any "after" photos before I started messing it up again:) So I'll have to clean it up again so I can share my little corner of the world.
Hei, hei - jeg har vært litt treg til å blogge i det siste. Jeg måtte rydde på syrommet før jeg kunne tillate meg å bruke symaskinen igjen - det var bare så rotete! Jeg var så ivrig etter å sy igjen at jeg glemte å ta bilder etter jeg fikk ryddet. Det får bli neste gang.

I finally got my third Mystery BOM block finished, so I am still on time with that project.
Jeg fikk endelig fullført min tredje BOM blokk, så jeg er i rute med det prosjektet. 

And, as I have done before, I made a mini version of the block. My mini blocks are similar in size, but not exactly (I now have an 8", an 8.5" and a 9" block). So I will have to get a bit creative when it comes to putting the smaller quilt together.

Som tidligere, lagde jeg en miniversjon av blokken. Miniene mine er nesten, men ikke helt, like i størrelse. Så jeg må bli kreativ når jeg setter sammen den lille quilten.

And then to finish it off, a fancy angled view. Ta da!

Og så til slutt, fancy bilde fra skjev vinkel. Ta da!

Linking up today with BOMs Away at What a Hoot and the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up at Plum and June. If you're not coming from there, klick on over and see what others have going on today.

What I accomplished this week...

July seems to be a slow sewing month, even though my intentions have been good. This week we spent Mon-Fri at my in-laws' lake house and I'd brought along lots of hand sewing projects.

Juli ser ut til å bli en måned med lite sying, selv om jeg har hatt veldig gode intensjoner. Denne uka var vi på hytta til svigers fra mandag til fredag og jeg hadde med masse håndsømsprosjekter.

And what did I sew? ONE seam. Yupp, here it is in all its glory:

Og hva fikk jeg sydd? EN søm. Jepp, og her er den i all sin prakt:

I have high expectations of great cuteness for the final product and will reveal what it is in about a week (I have a deadline on this, so it HAS to be done by next weekend).
Jeg har store forventninger til at det ferdige produktet skal være supersøtt og skal dele hva det er om ca. en uke (jeg har en frist på denne, så den MÅ være ferdig til neste helg).


This weekend, I finally got around to sewing the second Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter Shop. Such pretty fabric! And I can hardly believe how nicely the points met (I say, as I pat myself on the back).
Denne helgen fikk jeg endelig sydd den andre Mystery BOM fra Fat Quarter Shop. Så fint stoff! Og så flink jeg var til å få fine spisser på stjernen i midten (sier jeg og klapper meg selv på skulderen).



Have you seen such perfection? (You probably have... I'm not the only one capable of nice seams.)
Har du sett noe så perfekt? (Det har du sikkert... Jeg er ikke den eneste som kan sy pent.)



As I did last month, I once again made a second, smaller version of the block.
Akkurat som jeg gjorde forrige måned, lagde jeg også en mindre versjon av blokken.



OK, so what didn't I get accomplished this week? My Dear Jane blocks. So I am 2 blocks behind. Better get on that! Some of them take a LONG time to sew.
Så hva fikk jeg ikke sydd denne uka? Mine Dear Jane blokker. Så jeg er 2 blokker på etterskudd. Må nok komme igang med det! Noen av de tar LANG tid å sy.

I am linking up today with BOM's Away! at What a Hoot. Lynn (whose blog it is) is a fellow Janiac and sews such perfectly pieced blocks and quilts it almost makes me embarrased to share my stuff online, not to mention linking up to her blog. Seriously! How does she do it?


PS: I just realized I am on a roll with sewing stuff in red/pink/aqua/green combo. Come back in a day or two to see the finished product from this block:

Mystery solved

About two weeks ago a mysterious pending charge appeared on my credit card. I was quite sure I had not been shopping on that day, but couldn't be sure. Then it hit me - it was the first Block of the Month (BOM) I'd signed up for at Fat Quarter Shop that had been sent to me! About a week later a small package arrived (yay, I love packages - even if I have paid for them myself).

Here is my first block - isn't it pretty?



For to uker siden dukket et mysterisk trekk opp på kredittkortet. Jeg var ganske sikker på at jeg ikke hadde shoppet noe den dagen, men var ikke helt sikker. Jeg kom til slutt på at det var den første "block of the month" pakken jeg hadde bestilt fra Fat Quarter Shop som hadde blitt sendt. En uke senere fikk jeg en liten pakke i posten (hurra, jeg elsker pakker - til og med de jeg har betalt for selv). Ovenfor er min første lapp - er den ikke fin?


After piecing the block I had a bunch of triangles left over. Almost enough to make one more block... So I cut a couple extra pieces of fabric and made another block using only triangles. The second block came out a bit smaller than the original (original is 12.5" and the second block was 9").



Etter jeg var ferdig med lappen hadde jeg masse trekanter til overs og ved å klippe ut bare et par stoffbiter til hadde jeg nok til å lage en til lapp satt sammen av bare trekanter. Den andre lappen ble litt mindre enn den første.


Along with the fabric and instructions for the block, I also received a mini charm pack (2.5" squares) of the fabric used for the BOM. Bonus! Don't know what I'll make of it yet - maybe some pillows to go with the main quilt. The fabric is Modern Vintage by Moda - beautiful!



I tillegg til stoff og instruksjoner til månedens lapp, fikk jeg med en mini charm pack (2,5" ruter) av stoffet brukt. Bonus! Vet ikke hva jeg skal bruke de til - kanskje puter som passer til hovedquiltet. Stoffet er Modern Vintage av Moda - nydelig!


Now, with regards to what I will do with the smaller block I made... I am thinking maybe matching quilts for me and my baby girl. Is that too weird? I think not!

Og hva skal jeg bruke den mindre lappen til? Jeg tenker kanskje matchende tepper til meg og lillejenta. Er det litt rart? Tror ikke det:)