Simply Mental Stars

Can you forget a quilt top you spent hours and hours on no less then 2 months ago? Well I managed XD The top I named "Simply Mental Stars" was neatly folded away for a photo opportunity later when I got home from the quilt retreat and I completely forgot about it until I saw a similar star on Pinterest yesterday.

Anyhow, introducing Simply Mental Stars:

Didn't have time to take it outdoors and this photo is as close to the actual colors as I could get.

It was really fun to make the stars, the crazy stars require minimal attention and you can make them as "mental" as you'd like =) 

It's made from half a Tonga Treats, Strip Treat - Hard Candy roll. I'm planning to use the rest for borders. It didn't turn out at all like I planned as I ran out of the black fabric so I'm really back and forth when I look at this top. Sometimes I like it, others not at all, it comes and goes. I was planning on adding a skyline applique to the bottom but for now I think I'll fold it back and let it "mature" for a while until I have time to decide what to do with it and then take it from there.

A Rainbow Stash Update!

 Since I've been sick for nearly a month, and covered in work on top of that I haven't got anything creative to share. So I took out my new, oh so pretty rainbow of fat eights for a little photo session, so I would get to stroke some fabric at least ^^

Aren't they just gorgeous!?
I can't beleive such a stunning pile is acutally MINE =D

I just can't wait to get time to start on my color wheel wall quilt I have planned for these beauties! But until then I'm perfectly happy just being able to pat them and look at them from time to time. You've got to love that about fabric, it makes you happy even when you haven't got time to play with it =)

A cellphone case for a friend

My "prototype" cellphone case will be getting a new home with a dear friend. I made two when I made mine, the first one was unfortunately too small, forcing me to make a second, larger one to accommodate my big phone. The prototype is however the perfect iphone size so it'll hopfully be great for my friends phone. It's a bit daintier then mine and I actually really like this first version better, but what to do when your phone is to fat? ^^

And since she's just as crazy about frogs as Anki is, I couldn't help but use up a small amount of my adorable frog fabric from my previous post for her. I'll show you what I made with it after she receives it, as I want it to be a little surprise and I can't be sure she wouldn't see it here ^^

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I also received an email from Jennifer the other day who had made a Charming Rag Quilt using my Moda Bakeshop Tutorial. Isn't it just lovely! Love how manly it looks while at the same time looking so snuggly! She used  3 King of the Ranch charm packs, a Texas panel and some various western fabrics she had at home to give her a total of 168 squares.

  

Thank you so very much Jennifer for sharing your beautiful creation with me! <3

Beautiful Gifts & Summer Squares

I just want to start out by saying that I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life!

When I was at the quilt retreat this summer, I fell in love with some adorable fabric Anki was sewing equally adorable things with, really cute frogs (she loves frogs!) and beautiful matching fabrics. And when she'd finished up her things she was making with it, she gave what she had left of all the fabrics to me! I was so happy! I can totally see all the cute little baggies I'll be making from these! Thank you so very much Anki! <3 There where a lot more then what can be seen in the pic.

On the same note my beloved mother (who is much to generous for her own good) saw me swooning over her Puttin' on the Ritz jelly roll, as I had no idea what pretty, non childish fabrics this collection contained! Such stunning fabrics. And she gifted it to me! I can't stop looking at it, I know I want to make something stylish for the living room with it, I just don't know exactly what yet ^^
Thank you so very much mom, you know how much I love you! <3

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A couple of days ago I also received  an email from Tina Leahy who had made her own, stunning version of my Summer Squares Quilt from the tutorial found on Moda Bakeshop. Isn't it stunning? I love what she did with the little thin green border to frame it all before adding the big border to give it a more usable size, she shared with me that she got the idea from Sew'n Wild Oaks Blog.

Thank you so very much for sharing your beautiful creation with me Tina!

Revisiting Cubes Revisted ^^

I'm competing in this weeks Quilting Gallery contest under the theme Modern Geometric with my Cubes Revisited Wall Hanging. You can read a bit more about it and see some additional photos in the original post.

I'd like to ask you all to hop over there and vote for the ones you feel deserve to win. You get three votes this week so I'm hoping of course that my little quilt (it's actually little, only 19,5" square) will stand up to the incredibly fierce competition and maybe get one of your votes ^^

Vote Here

Cellphone & Earphone Cases

During this years quilt retreat Anki was making adorable cellphone cases, my mother made one too and soon everyone was making them, they're so cute and I of course had join the club =)

I made mine in Ruby by Bonnie & Camille. I'm glad it has a lid as I tend to drop my phone now and then and in this case it won't get hurt at all. =) The hanger on the earphone case is giant rick rack and the little chameleon on the zipper was a gift from a dear friend.

 

It's a super handy little case thanks to the little pocket on the front, perfect to stuff a little cash and a credit card in so one doesn't have to bring ones entire purse for a quick shopping run. My earphones exactly fits in the little case so it doesn't take up any more room then absolutely necessary and the clips at the tops makes them super easy to attach to one another and then hang in a belt loop.
 

Sunday Stash = Stash Stack Club!

Today my first shipment of Stash builders arrived from Pink Castle Fabrics and I couldn't be happier! Such lovely fabrics and such a wide range! My favourites are the one at the top and the criss cross one second from the right, so pretty!

I'm a huge fan of Jeni from In Color Order,  I love her work and her amazingly inspiring blog. I've been following her Art of Choosing series rigorously and I've really been trying to learn how to stash smartly as nearly all the fabric in my teeny tiny stash are impossible to use - as I had no clue what I was doing back when I bought them. =)

 

So when she announced the Stash Stack Club which she and Pink Castle Fabrics where organizing I immediately knew I wanted to take part, oh so badly! However, the issue was Malta and their darn customs, it's a whole issue that can takes days and numerous visits to the post parcel office (which is located in a desolate spot on the island so I have to take a taxi there making it very costly too) to get the things one has ordered and paid for. Luckily the awesome people at Pink Castle allowed me to do a test month which went splendidly as they'd packed the shipment flat enough to go directly in my mailbox and I didn't have to go to the customs office at all! Thanks a lot and I can't wait for the next months shipment! =)

I love Panduro Hobby!

Especially when they're selling gorgeous Tilda Fabrics at 50% discount! When I was in Sweden for the quilt retreat they had summer sales and lucky me managed to score some beautiful Tilda fabric and various tools and notions at 50% off. Made for a very happy Maria, especially when you look at the adorable color matching pom poms! Seriously, how cute are they? Bought ½ yard of each fabric except for the greens where they only had one of each FQ left.

I also found some adorable cotton lace, intended for scrapbooking but I'm sure it will work lovely in sewing projects too. ^^

And this is such an adorable little eyelet puncher and the most teeny tiny eyelets in such adorable colors! Can't wait to try to include these in some projects!

Back from this years quilting retreat!

So I've been to Sweden for 10 days for my yearly "computer free week and quilt retreat for sanity" =) And it was lovely as always, the ladies  there (some new and others I now met for the 6th year in a row) are some of the most amazing ones I know and I couldn't be prouder to call them my friends. <3<3<3

We've had a wonderful week with lot's of laughs, good food, good wine and lot's and lots of sewing time. I think one of the the best things is that you can open up a discussion about fabric selection and suddenly have >5 people helping you, and all of them actually being equally interested as you are in the selections for your quilt.

I'll be showing you my own creations and acquisitions when I have some spare time to photograph them properly but as it is I'm lucky enough to have my sister visiting for a week and I want to spend all my non working time with her (sneaking in this post while she's in the shower ^^).

Here's some of the photos and this years beautiful creations, sadly many of my photos where very poor quality due to them being taken with my compact and didn't make the cut. 


Adorable Emma was cutting from a sitting position this year due to her being pregnant. But you'd never know that with the speed she was producing beautiful things! I wish you the best of luck with everything sweet!

 Emmas creations, just look at the adorable little baby booties!

Awesome Fia and her simply gorgeous jeans bag!  I want one so badly!

My hands down favorite creation this year,  Maggans absolutely stunning applique quilt! I love everything about it, from the amazingly selected colors, to the pretty choice of applique flower to the insane piecing accuracy. Wow!

 Closeup of one of the  gorgeous applique flowers. Maggans attention to detail is just beyond me, fantastic!

My fantastic mothers adorable phone and earphones cases. I got so inspired I had to make my own right away! ^^  I don't want to blog about the other pretty things she created as I'm hoping she will will do that herself. You can read her blog here: Evas Syrum, it's in Swedish but Google translate works quite well and you can always just look at the pretty pictures she's always sharing if not =)

One of the amazing Anki's many, many gorgeous creations, she's just as sweet as the colors of this quilt top. Thanks for everything Anki, from teachings, to laughs, to endless patience and gifts! <3 In her case you can also see more of her creations on her Swedish blog here: Kinnas Sy

 Ursula making adorable little mug rugs! Also here I got so inspired I had to buy fabric to make my own =)

Some of Ursulas simply beautiful creations, the interesting thing is that "she really doesn't like to sew" ^^ This was her first year at the quilt retreat but it really felt like she'd been there every year as she fit right in with the rest of us crazies. ^^

 Fia's adorable little vanity case for her daughter.

And a blurry pic of "our corner", it's because there was always so much activity there ^^

I miss everyone already! Thanks for a fantastic week everyone!

2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - June

I had to quilt some more feathers, they're truly addicting! I love how fun they are to do! Diane Gaudynski really changed my quilting life with her tutorial just as Sewcalgal is doing with this challenge, thanks again! <3

So I went in and dove head first into the June challenge. It was by Cindy Needham and contained a LOT of information. She does amazing quilting and I think I will come back to some of the stuff she talked about. However, for me personally, it was too much text and to many areas covered in the same tutorial for me to feel 100% about it. Please don't get me wrong, I LOVE to read and I love to learn new things, it's just that when I read a tutorial, I want it to explain what I need to know fairly straight to the point, and this felt a bit too open ended.

It was also quite hard for me to do as I'm no fan of the Zentangle thing that's so popular right now, to much crazy going on, no organization and no order... But I really want to embrace each and every challenge so I tried to go at it with an open mind.

I really don't like the outcome (too much stuff going on) but I do like the idea of solving the issue of to much blank space by sub dividing it. Plus it was really fun to do so much tiny quilting and so many different things at once. And it was also really good for me I think to have to do something that was completely out of my comfort zone when it came to design. =)

I'll be honest with you and admit that I skipped the sketching part again. I have too precious little time in front of the machine as it is and I didn't want to waste any of it that could be spent with thread and needle on pen and paper. I've spent a lot of my time growing up doodling so I thought I had most of the element's she mentioned pretty much embedded in my muscle memory anyway.


It was also fun to learn that I was already doing with microstitches to the stop and going when quilting was the longarm quilter way. I had no idea ^^

I'm really enjoying this challenge, I just wish I had a lot more time to practice!

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On the topic of quilting, I thought I'd also show you some of my quilting test blocks for my Periodic Table Quilt. Please excuse the sloppy look of the quilting, it's just test blocks and I just wanted to see the effects. Here you can also see a few of all the incorrect elements I had to replace. In a way it was good as I did about 6 of these test blocks of 4 until I had decided on what I wanted to do.

My original idea was to outline the letters to get them to pop, a good idea in theory, not so much in reality. And then I tried a ton of different versions before I decided on the outlined block instead of letters and then a simple all over stipple to not distract from the lettering and be sure I got the same density of quilting all over.

The end result as you've seen ^^