Come geese, come spring

Geese coming back from their winter migration is a good sign of spring, but I still haven't seen any. Maybe because they're all flying in circles???
Gjess på vei tilbake fra vinterferie er et godt tegn på vår, men jeg har ikke sett noen ennå. Kanskje fordi de alle flyr i ring???

THE GOOD: A completed double circle of flying geese

THE BAD: Be careful removing freezer paper - it can fray your edges!

THE UGLY: Ooofff - I've got a mess to clean up!

REWARD: Seams matching up perfectly (sorry to boast!)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Ha en flott helg alle sammen!

WIP Wednesday

PROGRESS: Starburst quilt top is now pieced. Hope to get this basted this weekend, but need to get some backing material.

Note: You may notice that this is laying on snow outside our house - the only clean/tidy place with good lighting I could find. And when looking at this photo I wonder how the makers of fabric decide what the color of "snow" is. Kona's isn't too bad, but Moda's Bella Solids in Snow really looks like snow someone peed on...


NEW WIP: A little paper pieced block with a double ring of flying geece. I was thinking perhaps this would turn into a cushion, but knowing that the other members of the household won't treat it with the respect it deserves, I am thinking this might turn into a mini quilt. Maybe for my future new sewing room (my current sewing room is in the attic and has all angled walls = no space for design wall or hanging fun mini quilts AND super cold in the winter and super hot in the summer).

I think it's slightly ironic that one of the quotes I managed to capture was "be bold". This fabric line (Odds & Ends) doesn't exactly feel bold to me.

So that's what I've been working on this last week. Linking up like so many of you to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A sunny, rainy day pouch

If you haven't noticed (or didn't read my rambling blog post last week), paper piecing seems to be very "in" now. Kristy at Quiet Play is hosting the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop now in August and if you follow her or me, you may have seen this cute umbrella pouch that she designed and made.
Papirsøm er virkelig populært for tiden og forrige uke ble jeg inspirert av denne søte paraplypungen som Kristy hos Quiet Play hadde designed og sydd.

My little sister lives in a very, very rainy city, so I thought this would be the perfect gift for her (although she is only 22 and possibly too cool to carry around home made gifts...).
Lillesøsteren min bor i Bergen og jeg tenkte dette ville være den perfekte gave for henne (selv om hun bare er 22 og kanskje for kul til å bruke hjemmelagde gaver...).

I drafted my own umbrella with pencil on paper and decided to use some citrus colored fabrics (to keep it cheerful and fresh) from my stash - here is the result:
Jeg tegnet opp min egen paraply og bestemte meg for å bruke noe sitrusfarget stoff jeg hadde (ville at det skulle være lystig og fresht) - og her er resultatet:

FRONT

TOP

BACK

What I love about this project:

• color combination
• cute umbrella
• yellow herringbone fabric from Riley Blake (on of my favorite near solid fabrics, I have it in red and green too)
• jelly bean fabric on back (can't remember designer, but got it from Sew Mama Sew)
• using Elizabeth Hartman's Perfect Zip Bag pattern, resulting in an oh-so-neat finish.

Mest fornøyd med: Fargekombinasjon, søt paraply, det gule stoffet (et av favorittene mine, har det også i rødt og grønt), jelly bean stoffet på baksiden, Elizabeth Hartmans Perfect Zip Bag mønster som gir en veldig fin finish.

What I'd do differently

• not much - the solid background fabric on the umbrella block did not have the same shade on the front on back. I didn't notice until I was almost done with the block, so I left it. 
• I should probably have been better at cutting off the dark seam allowances on the handle, so that the dark brown fabric didn't show through. 
• and I forgot about reversing the pattern, so I made an umbrella for a lefty.

Hva jeg ville endret på: Ikke så mye. Bakgrunnsstoffet på paraplyen hadde ikke samme farge på begge siden, og det så jeg ikke før det var for sent. Jeg burde ha klippet av mer av sømmonnet på det mørkebrune stoffet så det ikke viste igjennom. Og jeg glemte å speilvende mønsteret, så paraplyen ble til en venstrehendt.


All in all I really liked this pouch and I hope my sister likes it too! Or she better give it back!
Men i det store og det hele ble jeg veldig fornøyd og jeg håper søsteren min liker den også. Ellers vil jeg ha den tilbake!


Today I am linking up with Beth at Plum and June for her Let's Get Acquainted! Monday Link Up. Beth is hosting a blog hop for bloggers to get acquainted all summer and fall, so head over and see what's up this week.

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!