Guess what's tumbling?

The compaion cube is finally quilted, binding has been sewn on and it's in the tumble dryer.Tomorrow if the weather is nice, I'll get some pictures of it.

Below you can see one of the reasons why quilting takes so much time for me. When my princess decides to use my WIP as a place for her washing up and a catnap, what can I do but work on something else in the meantime? =)

My beautiful Diana who rules our house and my heart with a silk covered iron paw.

Quilting a Companion Cube

I'm currently quilting the companion cube quilt, I'm doing a rectangular version of a loop de loop pattern I guess is the best name for it =) Andreas wanted something a bit more manly then normal meandering, a bit more edgy, and I thought it only fitting for a quilt of a cube so this is what we landed on.

I also have a trusty "quilt-holder" which is working alongside me on the ironing board, just as I took the picture she of course had to stretch out a paw to make sure it was clear she was actually helping, not just lying there ^^

A side not to future me and anyone else who might want to help out: If I EVER get the stupid idea to do a quilt with a solid bright white backing ever again after I've made my own companion cube quilt, please grab something hard and hit me over the head with it. It was darn near IMPOSSIBLE to not get a black fluff of cat hair in between the backing and the batting. 

The cake is a lie

So I've finally finished the Companion Cube quilt top for Andreas gaming blanket! 600 separately peiced 3" squares later, it's finally done and already basted (please thank your favorite deity for 505 basting spray for me ^^) and by the machine for quilting. It's being quilted using a square loop the loop design which I'll take pictures of the process for tomorrow as it's to dark now =)

Portal 2 (the sequel to the game the Companion Cube is from) is released on the 20ieth of April so the quilt has to be done by then by the latest so he can play it with his quilt around him. I've been working on the back, it's basically just all Kona white but I decided to add a little fun touch:

Those of you who've played the game will know exactly what this is. For the rest of you, this phrase is scribbled on stuff all over the Enrichment Center for Aperture Laboratories, which is where the game takes place. To ensure I got a real feeling handwriting style for the text I simply freehand quilted the text with black thread. It's a little tilted and wonky, just like it looks in the game:

Look what I've got! Sunshine!

Today I got a delivery of pure sunshine! Or more correctly, a big box of Sunkissed by Sweetwater.

I couldn't stop smiling as I unpacked these fabrics, they where even more beautiful then I'd dreamed for the pictures I'd seen on the net, they where so bright but at the same time so soft colors. I just love this line!

Let's just say they have lifted my spirits a lot and I feel like creating again, now all I need to do is manage to get the time to do so...

Work is killing me...

Or at least, it's killing any and all creative spirit.

Problems with the people you work with on a daily basis is terrible, and right now I'm having a lot of them. It's been building up over quite some time and it's finally culminated, and right now it's taking all my energy to deal with it and sort it out. I normally love my job but it's times like these I wish I had a normal job where I just got to call it a day at 17:00 in the afternoon, go home and forget all about work until the next day. 

I've not been sewing more then a couple of seams on Andreas gaming blanket, I've managed to finish another quarter so it's only 1 quarter left to do but right now, I don't see it happening anytime soon. I've also been sick since we got back from Paris which hasn't exactly helped my mood.So I figured I'd show off some of the fabric I bought when in Sweden to try and lift my spirits a bit.

First out is some really yummy browns and coffee fabrics I bought at Mia's Quiltbod, I'm thinking they'll become a table runner and maybe one or two of those currently oh so popular "mug rugs"  =)

These fabrics are also from Mia but in a different sense, she was kind enough to gift me these AMAZING fabrics after I'd been stroking them all day =) She wasn't selling them, they where her own personal fabrics so I was so ecstatic (I believe I even did a little dance ^^) when she declared that she'd be happy to split what she had of them with me. I have a very clear idea of what I'm going to make with them and they're even more neon in person, I love them - Thank you Mia! <3

I actually have MORE fabric to show you from the Sweden trip, can you believe it? But I'll leave that to another day. Now I'm going to go to bed so there's at least a chance I actually get well soon. XD

Gift for one of my dads

I'm lucky enough to have two you see ^^
I imagine that the topic is a bit confusing, it's just that the word "step dad" is so ugly that I don't want to use it. It's a bracelet he's wished for for some time. He's a large man, over 2 meters tall and well muscled so I needed something that wouldn't look delicate or too thin, but at the same time not so big it would become clumsy so he couldn't wear it when he worked. I think I managed quite well with that =)

He sent me these beautiful pictures of himself wearing it as I completely forgot to photograph it before I gave it away. It's a five strand braid with twisted skin thongs around and finished with the two folded three strand bracelets. It's black lambskin with a reindeer antler button.

2 nights in Paris

I just got back from a short weekend in Paris with eleven of our friends, we had a lovely time! I must say we managed to squeeze in a lot in the short time we had: Went to the Louvre and got lost, saw Notre Dame by night, went to Place de la Concorde, saw the Eiffel Tower and attended a wine fair. It was a beautiful city but I have to say that I prefer Rome still.

This was one of many attempts at getting a romantic picture in front the Louvre, our jumping friend in the background made it very difficult ^^

Mona Lisa, the one and only:

 

The inverted pyramid in the Louvre (can you believe I had to crop the picture so I wouldn't have the terribly ugly mac apple store logo in it, since the store is situated right next to it?)

When in France do like the french right?  We drank wine and ate baguettes =) 

We attended a massive wine fair and tried hundreds of wines, champagnes, cognacs etc. and all this for the insanely cheap price of €6! We also had some lovely oysters there.  After trying all those wines I thought my opinion of French wines would have improved a lot, sadly it did not. We found some decent wines we brought back but I'm just not into french wines. However, the whites (and of course the champagne was lovely) where much better then the reds, I found quite a few I really liked, however as I nearly never drink white it was red that was our main focus.

Notre Dame by night

I of course had to try eating snails, it was not bad nor good, tasted like garden sort of, soil and grass? But I don't think I'll order it again though. 

 

Non optional romantic picture in front of the Eiffel Tower =)

And on a more related topic, I also found some very interesting quilt designs in the floor of the Louvre. There was everything from nine patches to stars =)

8 Bit Companion Cube Gaming Blanket WIP

I read over at http://carolinapatchworks.com that her husband calls her "The Slowest Dot Matrix Printer Ever" when she's making her awesome video game quilts and that's EXACTLY how I feel right now... I print at a speed of a little over 200 pixels/day if I work pretty constantly if anyone wondering ^^

This project is one I've longed to do for a long time, it's going to be a set of "His & Hers" gaming blankets for me and Andreas. I started out with his, it's about 600 "pixels" (each pixel being a 3x3 inch square) in each quilt so it is pretty slow work. It's an 8 bit rendition of the Companion Cube from the game Portal which is one of the most awesome simple games ever! =)

The "His" version has a blue heart instead of the original pink which will be in my quilt. I've chosen to not use any strips to piece this as I want to be able to see each "pixel" once it's finished. Let's just say I've pretty much perfected my quarter inch seam allowance during this project and I have over 900 pixels left to sew...

This is also my first use of Kona cottons and so far I'm really loving working with them. I ordered from River Fabrics on Ebay and they where fantastic, not only do they have an extensive Kona selection and are located in Europe, but their speed and costumer service was amazing. I highly recommend shopping from them and I will do so again very shortly.

I've also been attempting to clean out my sewing area which I had some excellent help with =)

Postage Stamp Quilt - Bliss by Bonnie and Camille

So here it is in all it's quilted glory! Sadly the weather wouldn't permit any outdoor photos so our bed would have to do, and it fits the bed and the room so much better then I thought when I made it. From the brown from the furniture and carpets to the red of the wardrobes, it's perfect =)

I didn't have the patience to wash it before I took the pictures though so it's not all crinkly and lovely yet. Might post some more pictures of it's full glory when I do because I love it so much and you can't really see how lovely the borders look in these pictures =D

And a closeup of some of the quilting, and no those aren't tucks, only wrinkles, luckily the few tucks I got was on the backside =)

Finishing up my Postage Stamp Quilt

So today I've finished up my postage stamp quilt, with only an eight or so left to quilt I wreck my needle completely, somewhat annoying when you just changed the bobbin thread XD

Had I only been happy with the 505 basting my quilt would have become much nicer, now I ended up with a few tucks on the back where I had tacks... This was because they where long enough to allow the fabric to glide around a bit but then it was a dead stop in some places where the tack had come in a bit diagonally. And those darn tacks then! Very close to completely impossible to remove (took me over an hour and I'd not used many) without risking cutting up the quilt. Some had even nestled one end in between the backing and the batting and will remain in the quilt forever now. I'm really NOT happy with it as a basting tool.

And then I continued with the fun of making 7 or so yards of binding, which actually wasn't even half as time consuming as I thought it would be, it came together quite quickly. And since I recalled that the awesome Anki had thought me how to attach binding by machine in a really quick and handy way last summer the binding part was actually just fun! So with the 505 basting spray and machine attaching binding, quilting is now pure enjoyment! =D

If the weather is nice tomorrow I will go outside and get some nice pictures of it so you get to see it finished.