Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap

The making of a Christmas tablerunner (and ornament)...
Å lage en juleløper (og juletrepynt)...

Drew a sketch and made one block.
Lagde en skisse og sydde en rute.

Liked it, made two more and joined with some white sashing and border.
Likte den, lagde to til og sydde de sammen med hvite border.

Looked a bit plain (what's a Christmas decoration without red) - added some ric-rac and some appliqued stars.
Syns den manglet litt (hva er en julepynt uten rødt) - tilførte kroklisse og applikerte stjerner.

Decided on the day before the deadline that it needed hand quilting.
Bestemte på dagen før sendefristen at den trengte håndquilting.

Got a sick baby and missed the deadline. Sorry!
Fikk syk baby og rakk ikke fristen - unnskyld!

Finally finished hand quilting and binding.
Ble endelig ferdig med quilting og lukkekant.

Made a cute ornament (tutorial found here).
Sydde en søt juletrepynt (tutorial finner du her).

Said ornament tried to run away in the snow! But I caugh him and now the package is on its way.
Julepynten prøvde å stikke av i snøen! Men jeg fikk tak i ham og nå er pakken på veg.

I hope my partner likes her gift!

Håper mottageren liker gaven sin!

Vintage Holiday Quilt - DONE!

It's the last day of the Vintage Holiday Quilt-Along and I am finished just in time! I only wish the weather were nicer, so I could have gotten better photos...
Siste dag av Vintage Holiday Quilt-Along og jeg ble akkurat ferdig! Skulle bare ønske været var litt mer medgjørlig for fotografering utendørs...

The front is made of a layer cake of Alpine Wonderland from Riley Blake, pluss some other fabrics from my stash; sashing is Vintage Baby from Riley Blake; border is a pointsettia print from the Alpine Wonderland collection.
Forsiden er sydd sammen av en "layer cake" av Alpine Wonderland fra Riley Blake, samt noen andre stoffer fra stashen min. Rammene er Vintage Baby fra Riley Blake, borden er fra Alpine Wonderland.

I quilted straigh(ish) lines in the sashing and border. The blocks are quilted with a free motion swirl. My free motion skills are mediocre at best - uneven stitch lengths and some jagged curves, but that is hard to see without close inspection.
Jeg quilted (nesten) rette linjer i rammene og borden. Blokkene quiltet jeg "free motion" - ikke det jeg er flinkest på, men det ser man ikke uten nær inspeksjon.

I pieced the back with the left overs from the front and some green solid (also from Riley Blake). The batting is Warm & White.
Jeg brukte opp noen av restene fra forsiden på bakstykket sammen med et grønt ensfarget stoff. Vatten er Warm & White.

The binding is scrappy, as I felt all red would be too harsh, but I still wanted some of the warm colors in the binding. I machine sewed the binding - no time to sew by hand!
Lukkekanten ble variert, da jeg syns bare rødt ble litt voldsomt, men ville allikevel ha de varme tonene i lukkekanten. Jeg maskinsydde lukkekanten (ikke tid til håndsøm).

Now I just have to wait until December so I can snuggle under my new quilt on the couch!
Da er det bare å vente til desember så jeg kan bruke dette teppet!

Thanks, Heidi, for hosting this quilt along! It was my first ever and it was fun to be a part of it and see all the variations everyone came up with.

Fabric Origami Ornament (Tutorial)

This is my favorite fabric ornament to make. It is very easy to sew and is sewn all by hand - perfect if you want to get out of your sewing space for a while:) And for a very inexpensive item, it sure looks fancy (i.e. it makes a great gift).

Materials needed:

• 3 fabric* squares (one for center, two for front/back) - 5" squares are easy, 4" squares make dainty ornaments
• 2 buttons/beads for embellishing center
• String/yarn for hanging loop
• Needle, thread, scissors

*Fabric should be "creasable", not fray too easily and not be too thick. Most quilting cottons work well. I haven't tried it, but spray starching the squares might be useful if using thinner fabric.

USEFUL TIPS:

• Finger press all folds in all steps.
• Fold and tack in place on side at a time for all steps (then you don't have to pin anything)
• Cut you thread long enough to last for the whole piece

Step 1: Fold square in half and finger press crease, open up and repeat in other direction to make a creased cross in the center.

Step 2: Fold two opposing sides in towards center and tack in place at center.

Step 3: Fold the other two long sides in towards center and tack in place.

Step 4: Place a finger in one of the "ears" and flatten into a square. Tack in place. Repeat for the other three sides.

Step 5: Fold the sides of one of the little squares in to make a point and tack together. Sew all the way around, tacking in place on the sides of the "arrows" and where the folds meet.

For center square: You are now finished. Just fasten the thread and cut it off. The back side should look like this - don't worry, all the stitches and raw edges will be covered:

For front/back squares: Continue with step 6.

Step 6: Fold one corner towards the center of the back and tack in place. Repeat for the other three sides. Fasten the thread and cut it off.

Okay - almost there!

If you have made all your three squares you should have something that looks like this:

Step 7: Make a sandwich of your pieces (you should be able to use your crease lines from step 1 to see where the front/back points should meet) and tack together at all corners of the front/back.

Step 8: Sew your embellishments to the center front and back (sew through the sandwich) and sew a string through one of the points of the center (green) square to make a hanging loop. Congratulations, you are finished!

Front view:

Back view:

And it will look something like this hanging on your tree:

Alternative 1: Make it classic! (Gold fabric is a very thin laminate)

Alternative 2: Make it neon! How cool would a tree filled with these look?

So, this is my first tutorial ever written. I hope it makes sense! If you make one of these, send me a pic or link to a blogpost - I would love to see what color combinations you come up with.

-Marit

Star on Fire Christmas Pillow

I was going to call this post "Christmas in July Roundup", kind of as a joke. When I started blogging in early June, I quickly came across some Christmas in July blog events that I was really eager to participate in, but July came and went and what did I make - ONE Christmas pillow. But what a pillow;) I really do love it! And I am so happy it is finished (I DID finish it on the last day of July)
Jeg skulle kalle innlegget "Jul i juli sammendrag", litt som en vits. Da jeg begynte å blogge i juni fant jeg raskt noen "jul i juli" blogaktiviteter som jeg var ivrig etter å være med på. Men juli kom og gikk og hva fikk jeg lagd? EN julepute. Men for en pute;) Jeg må si at jeg syns den ble kjempefin!

So let me share the details with you/Her er noen detaljer:

Pattern: Snowflake block designed by Rebecca of Sew Festive Handmade. A very beautiful and complex pattern!

Mønster: Snowflake blokk designet av Rebecca hos Sew Festive Handmade.

Method: Paper pieced center block consisting of 24 sections with a total of 96 fabric pieces (is this a lot, or what?). Hand quilted with DMC floss. Envelope closure on back.

Sydd sammen med papirsøm - 24 deler med totalt 96 stoffbiter. Ganske mye, ikke sant? Håndquilted med DMC broderigarn.

Fabric: Various stuff from my stash. The red pointsettias (and green in center) is from Alpine Wonderland by Riley Blake. The green houndstooth around the edge is also from Riley Blake. Background is Kona White. The fabric is left over from the pieces I have cut out for the Vintage Holiday QAL over at Fabric Mutt.

Stoffet er fra stashen - det er rester fra biter jeg har skjært opp til Vintage Holiday QAL hos Fabric Mutt.

Favorite part: Definately the hand quilting. It was my first attempt at hand quilting (I've done some embroidery, so wasn't a big stretch) and I think it turned out great (if I may say so). I must say, though, that I was happy it was a small project because I don't have a thimble and I quickly felt like I needed one.

Favorittdelen var håndquiltingen. Første gang jeg har prøvd dette (men jeg har erfaring med broderi, så var ikke akkurat vanskelig å få til) og jeg syns det ble kjempefint om jeg kan si det selv. Men jeg var glad for at det var et lite prosjekt, for jeg har ikke fingerbøl og det kunne jeg trengt!

Least favorite part: Trying to get the center of the block to allign. It didn't. I wasn't precise enough when piecing the blocks and with a whopping 16 points coming in to the center there were too many seams to fiddle with. So I made do and covered the worst bit with a festive button.

Det verste var å få midten til å møte opp. Det gikk ikke. Jeg var ikke presis nok da jeg sydde sammen delene og med hele 16 spisser som skulle samles var det alt for mange sømmer å flikke på. Så jeg skulte det verste med en fin treknapp.

I don't think anyone will think about it too much when looking at the big picture - or what do you say?

Det er vel ingen som tenker så mye på det når de ser det store bildet, eller hva sier du?

And just a final note about this project - I was debating between Kona Snow (slightly warmer) and Kona White (very, very white) for this, and decided White was the best looking option. But I was very hesitant, because this will be on the couch in a season of hot cocoa drinking and cookie/chocolate eating galore. So what did I do while making this pillow? I picked it up to finish quilting right after eating a peanut butter sandwhich and totally got a stain on the white part. I forgot to photoshop it out, so you can see if you find it on the photo above:)

Jeg valgte (med stor nervøsitet) å bruke et veldig hvitt bakgrunnsstoff, selv om denne vil være i sofaen i en tid med kakaodrikking og masse sjokolade/småkakespising. Og selvfølgelig klarte jeg å få en flekk peanøttsmør på den allerede under konstruksjon. Du kan se om du finner flekken på bildet ovenfor:)

OK, since I am so pleased with this project, I am going to show it off in bloglandia. I hope you don't think I brag too much, I really am quite modest about my skills... I will be linking up to:

If you are visiting from any of these places (or elsewhere) - Welcome to my little blog, hope you like what you see. Leave a comment and I will surely visit you too. Let's be social!