Shine bright like a diamond

My Starburst quilt is finished and I LOVE IT! It's the best quilt I've ever made.
Min Starburst quilt er ferdig og JEG ELSKER DEN! Det er den fineste quilten jeg har lagd noensinne.

Let me share som photos with you:)
La meg dele noen bilder med dere:)

The full quilt (sort of)
Hele teppet (nesten)

Here you can see the quilting pattern quite well.
Her kan du se quiltingen ganske bra.

I used 2 similar prints from the fat quarter bundle to make the binding.
Jeg brukte 2 lignende trykk til lukkekanten.

To get this finished today, I had to machine quilt the binding. I didn't like how much "flap" there was on the back and added a second line of top stitching to secure it in place, which worked out well.
For å bli ferdig til i dag, sydde jeg på lukkekanten med maskin. Men jeg likte ikke hvor mye ekstra kant det var på baksiden og sydde en ekstra søm et par mm inn og det funket fint.

Love how vibrant this is!
Elsker hvordan fargene stråler!

Fabric: Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda with Kona Snow background
Size: 57"x57"
Pattern: Starburst (free tutorial!) by Melissa at Happy Quilting


Linking up to:

 TGIFF which can be found this week at Quokka Quilts

WIP Wednesday

PROGRESS 1: California Cherry Blossom

The top is finally completed and so is the backing. I started cutting for these blocks last July, so it was about time! I am splurging on getting this quilted by someone else, so really it's not "in progress" by me right now.
Forstykke og bakside er endelig ferdig (begynte på denne forrige juli) og jeg har sendt dette bort for å få det quiltet. Så det er ikke akkurat jeg som jobber med denne nå.

PROGRESS 2: Starburst

Quilting is almost complete, binding is cut and I have a panel ready that I can use to make a label. Finishing this is my main goal for February - we'll see what I get done by tomorrow!
Quilting er nesten ferdig, lukkekanten er klar og jeg har et panel jeg kan bruke til å lage en etikett. Å bli ferdig med denne var hovedmålet mitt for februar, så vi får se hva jeg klarer innen morgendagen er omme!

Linking up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

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

Sunday Stash/Confession

All I needed was some Kona Snow - you know - that perfect off-white that works with just about anything. But when you first need to order something from overseas, you might as well fill up the package with a little more fabric. Am I right???
Det eneste jeg trengte å bestille var noe off-white bakgrunnsstoff. Men når man først skal bestille noe fra "junaiten" kan man jo like godt fylle opp handlekurven med litt til stoff. Ikke sant?

So this is what made it's way to my mailbox this week - some cuteness from Riley Blake!
Så dette var det som ble levert denne uka (i tillegg til det off-white) - supersøte stoff fra Riley Blake!

1) Some yardage with no particular project in mind - LOVE the bunting and the diagonal stripe should make a cool binding for some future project!
1) Diverse stoff til stashen - DIGGER de små vimplene og det med de diagonale stripene blir nok en kul lukkekant!

2) A sweet plaid which I hope to make into a summer dress for my girl and some pom-pom and lace trims that were too cute to pass up:)
2) Et søtt rutete stoff som jeg håper blir til en sommerkjole for lillejenta og noen pom-ponger og blonder some jeg bare måtte ha:)

I will let you know that I ordered these supplies from fabric.com - a web site I sometimes love and sometimes don't... They do have good prices and a large selection of fabrics, but their service level has been varying greatly. Sometimes my order is packed, shipped and on my doorstep within 2-3 days (when I pay for UPS). Other times they don't have the items I ordered and it takes a week just to get it out their door. Which happened this time...
Jeg handlet fra www.fabric.com - en butikk jeg av og til elsker og av og til elsker ikke... De har gode priser og stort utvalg, men litt varierende servicenivå.

With my fellow fabric-aholics, I am linking up to Sunday Stash #52 with Fiona of Finding Fifth. It's my first time confessing my fabric purchases and it feels goooood!

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.

February Goals

A quarter of the way done with the month and it's probably overdue to note my goals for February. I was more than happy with reaching all my January goals and I think I should be realistic about what I'll have time for in the next 3 weeks (considering we are in the middle of DIY renovating the first floor of our house).

1) Finish Starburst quilt - all the way - start and finish a quilt in a month - can I do it?

2) Finish California Cherry Blossom top and back and send off to get quilted - this should be very do-able!

3) Finish/make birthday gift for my grandma - either finish the planned Christmas gift that got put on hold or make something totally new - wonder which it will be?


There - the list has been made. I'm kind of feeling like I've been showing/working on the same stuff a lot lately. So my thought about March is that I want to work on several smaller projects. Maybe I'll just start 10 projects at once, just to have some more variation. We'll see:)


Linking up with:

WIP Wednesday

NEW WIP! The Starburst quilt (tutorial and quilt-along by Happy Quilting).

All 4 blocks - 24" square - are done and ready to be made into a quilt top. Print fabric is Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda (if you haven't read that in one of my previous posts!), background is Kona Snow.

OLD WIP: California Cherry Blossom

After finally making some progress on this (I think I made the first block last summer), I was quite annoyed to see that one of my rows did a switch-a-roo on me and now my yellows are in a V and not on the diagonal. A necessary evening with the seam ripper hasn't appealed to me yet...

Linking up with the oh-so-inspiring party going on over at Freshly Pieced.

It had me fooled

It started with spotting this lovely bubble print and thinking it would be cute in a baby quilt:
Det begynte med at jeg så dette stoffet og tenkte "babyteppe":

Specifically, I thought the fabric line - Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda - would be perfect for a quilt for my nephew (who I didn't know yet would be a nephew so I wanted something gender neutral). For some reason I ordered the full fat quarter bundle even though that was way more than I would need and I was in no way in love with the fabric.
Jeg tenkte faktisk at stoffkolleksjonen vil passe til et babyteppe til en nevø jeg ennå ikke visste var nevø så jeg ville ha noe kjønnsnøytralt. Av en eller annen grunn bestilte jeg alt for mye for ett babyteppe selv om jeg ikke var helt forelsket i stoffet.

The fabrics arrived and they were nice, but a bit too much blue and green for my general taste. Then my sister-in-law said she preferred a more gender specific option I shower her and I had this huge pile of fabric with no purpose. And I wasn't really sure I loved it all that much. Waste of money, I thought to myself.

Stoffene kom og de var fine, men det var litt for mye blått og grønt for min smak. Og så sa svigerinnen at hun foretrakk noe annet stoff til lille nevø. Og jeg var fortsatt ikke sikker på at jeg likte stoffene så mye. Bortkastede penger, tenkte jeg.

About a month later Susan showed this triangle quilt on her blog and the fabric all of a sudden appealed to me again. And I realized that despite the bubbles, this did not need to be used for a child's quilt.

En måned senere så jeg dette teppet på Susan sin blogg og stoffene virket fine igjen. Og jeg så at de trengte så absolutt ikke bli brukt i et barneteppe.

Photo from Susan's blog post here.

So I started cutting into it for my Starburst quilt - so far I only have a photo of one block laid out to show, but I do have all 4 blocks sewn together.

Så jeg begynte å bruke de i Starburst teppet jeg jobber med.

And then I saw this pillow made by Deborah:

Så fikk jeg øye på denne puten lagd av Deborah:

Photo from Deborah's blog post here.

Which makes me think "maybe I love this fabric". And it's a good thing, because I have A LOT of it left!

Som fikk meg til å lure på om jeg faktisk elsker dette stoffet. Og det er jo bra for jeg har MASSE av det!

Susan called the fabric deceptive - it doesn't look like much until you actually put it to use and then it somehow comes to life.

Susan kalte stoffet misvisende - det ser ikke ut som noe spesielt før man faktisk bruker det og det vekkes til live.

Yes, it had me fooled!

Ja, jeg ble lurt!

*Starstruck*

No, not in a celebrity way - I couldn't care less about famous people! But in a quilty way (of course)!
Nei, det er ikke kjendis-stjerner jeg bryr meg om, men quilte-stjerner (selvfølgelig)!

I've been seeing so many cool star quilts and really wanted to make one for myself. Maybe several different star quilts. I think I have a thing for them...
Jeg har sett så mange stilige stjernequilter og har villet lage et selv. Kanskje flere - tror jeg har dilla på stjernemønster...

So last week when my California Cherry Blossom quilt was misbehaving (it needs an evening with the seam ripper now) I decided I needed to start something new NOW and it should include stars.
Så forrige uke da California Cherry Blossom teppet mitt var rampete (trenger en kveld med sprettekniven nå) bestemte jeg at jeg skulle starte noe nytt NÅ og det skulle ha stjerner.

Enter the Starburst pattern/tutorial by Melissa at Happy Quilting - and what do you know - she is in the middle of hosting a quilt-along for that very quilt. I was about 3 weeks behind and decided to catch up (because I couldn't NOT join).
Så da ble det dette Starburst mønsteret - og oppfinneren var midt i en quilt-along som jeg bare måtte ble med på (selv om jeg var 3 uker på etterskudd).

So these were my last 4 sewing days:
Så dette var mine siste 4 sydager:

Thursday evening - select fabrics (Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda) and cut, cut, cut
Torsdag kveld - velg stoff og skjær, skjær, skjær

Friday evening - some last cuts and mark all the diagonal lines for HSTs and such (booooring!)
Too boring to photograph.
Fredag kveld - skjær ferdig og merk alle diagonalene som trengte det (kjeeedelig!)

Saturday nap time - chain piece HSTs and Geese in the Corner
Lørdag formiddag - sy sammen masse deler

Sunday morning and nap time - press and trim HSTs and chain piece and press my Flying Geese.
Søndag formiddag - sy flere deler

Sunday evening - assembled the first block, but for now I only have a photo of the layout.
Søndag kveld - sydde sammen den første blokken, men for nå har jeg bare bilde av delene lagt utover.

So there - I am caught up! And let me say, I LOVE that this is coming together so quickly. And Melissa has a great way of sewing Flying Geese that makes no waste and makes 4 at a time! Check that tutorial out here - I generally hate sewing Flying Geese and this made it so much better.
Så der - jeg er a jour! Og jeg må si jeg liker hvor raskt dette går.

Those were my last few days of sewing. How was your weekend? Crafty?
Så det var sydagene jeg har hatt i helgen - hvordan var din helg? Kreativ?

Linking up with Beth at Plum and June for the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up - a great place to meet new bloggy friends and get inspired:)