Jag kviltar och kviltar / I am quilting and quilting

I fjor färgade jag tyger på en kurs i Löftadalen och i år sydde jag samman allt till en stor kvilttop. Toppen mäter 180 cm x 220 och det är verkligen en utmaning att frihandskvilta den på min vanliga symaskin. Men nu har jag under två dagar hunnit kvilta en tredje del av toppen.

I have used handcolored fabric in this big quilt top. I colored the fabric at a class last year and this summer I have pieced the wonderful fabric together to a large quilt top with flying geese.
And I must say that it is a challenge to FMQ this quilt top on my sewing machine.
So far so good 1/3 of the quilt top is now quilted with straight lines and bubbles.

Jag tror att det kommer att bli jättefint när det är klart. Jag försöker pausa med jämna mellanrum och det kommer att kännas härligt när jag är klar.

I think it will be a beautiful modern quilt. I am trying to get some rest and relax now and then. And it will be a wonderful feeling, when my quilting is done on this big piece.

Pin it with Kaffe

First of all I will thank our cheering lady Kristen and of course the lovely Madame Samm, who together are conducting this hop.

So many forms of pincushions I have seen during the first days of this blog hop and they are all so beautiful and awesome.

I will first present for you some animals, that I think are so  cute, that I can´t think of putting pins in their bodies.

Do you remember Skalman, the turtle that said hello to you during the hexie blog hop.
Here he is again

Don´t you think that he is lonely, maybe he is longing for a wife

May I present Skal-Stina who like me loves Kaffe, as you could see

And now they are talking business

My next Kaffe animal is a Spring chicken

My original plan was to sew a pincushion in EPP, from an old pattern that I have bought more than 10 years ago from a Danish quilt shop, that not is in business any more. My pincushion is made of 15 squares, sewn together in a special way. I have used squares 1,5 inches.
I am not at all fond of  sewing  EPP, but this one pincushion  was  fun to make. It looks like a crown, don´t you think and as the animals, the fabric is from  Kaffe Fasset´s design.

I must also show you a chicken pincushion made of an old recycled table cloth. I received it in a pincushion swap from Melissa, who lives in USA.
Don´t you think it is cool and it is big and heavy!!!

At  last I want to  show you the pincushion lady that I have bought in a Quilt Festival in Chicago 8 years ago.I think that she is adorable and fun. 

Now, when you have seen my pincushions, don´t forget hop over to the other ladies who sharing their pincushions today

Cherry´s Prairie Primitives

In Stitches & Seams

Sew and Sow Farm

Domestic Deficit Disorder

Moose Stash Quilting

Englating

Quilter in Motion

In the Boon Docks

Kaydie

Callenders Creations

Kreativnyie by Editha

My Sewing Blunders

Piecied Brain

Sheila´s Quilt World

Have a great day blog hopping

Britt-Inger in Malmö, Sweden

Be a Hexie Queen I have tried but .......

As you know I have loved to participate in most of  all the blog hops that lovely Samm has conducted, but this time I have many times regretted my eagerness to be in this hop too.

First of all I must thank our wonderful cheer leader Debby and of course lovely Madame Samm, who are conducting this adventure.

In our neighbor country Denmark many quilters love to sew by hand and always the English way over papers, but it has never been a common technique among the Swedish quilters until now, when sewing over hexies has been common in the quilt world.

When the local quilt guild,  Öresundsquiltarna, started 2003, the BOM of the year  was a hexie quilt with stars inside the hexies. And all have to be sewn by hand over paper.As you by now know what type of person I am, I couldn´t resist trying to test this too. We were at the start about 60 members who were in this BOM, but I haven´t seen more than 10 finished projects during the passing ten years.

I have quite forgotten my handmade quilt until today, and  I then  took it out from the shelves, as my quilt is one of the  finished projects. The quilt has  more than 12 blocks, as I from the start had planned to make a small quilt.

When I looked at it today I must say that I am proud, as it is finished, all sewn by hand and hand quilted. And I think it is lovely too, even if I shouldn´t have chosen those fabrics today.

My quilt sewn by hand and hand quilted

It is now ten years later my second time to try hexagons sewn by hand. Four weeks ago I haven´t then decided what to make for this blog hop. During my trips in the summer I have visited a quilt shop that had  some very cute projects made from hexagons. And I fell in love in a project design by Annie Downs from Hatched and Patched from this book Simple Life and here it is

Skalman enjoying the sun

It is so nice in the sun

Skalman enjoying a walk in the grass

My Skalman, name  for my turtle pincushion (skal is the Swedish word for shell and man is a man) is made from some hexagons, a few pentagons and half hexagons to form the bowl shaped shell. And I must say that I love him and I could even admit that he was very fun to make.

Now to my second project for this hexie adventure. I have somewhere  seen hexies transformed to small animals and I decided to make a landscape with some hexagon animals. 

There  should of course be some birds in the landscape.  I love birds and why not some cute hedgehogs

as the hexagon shapes could easily be transformed to form the bodies of the animals. I made the shapes for the animals and the tree crowns  with help of  a compass. I sketched the form for the tree and voila
 here it is my happy small  wall quilt with hexies all made in fused  appliqué.

My way playing with hexies

 I think that I will never be a hexie queen, but I must say that I have enjoyed making my way  of hexies and I hope that I have put several smiles on your faces.

Now hop over to all the other lovely ladies of the day one of the Hexie Queen blog hop and there are I am sure of several magnefique hexie queens.

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Linda´s Quilt Mania

Thimblemouse and Spouse
Bumbleberry Stitches
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Sunshinequilting
Geta´s Quilting Studio

How Art You?

I like to quiltblog

UFOS and UBIS

Hill Valley Quilter (that´s me)

Have a great day blog hopping 

Britt-Inger in Malmö, Sweden

The Ho HO Giveaway The Winner is

Hi
I have asked mr Random Number who will be the lucky winner of this lovely pair of Santas

 and he has chosen Vickie who has one of my favorite blogs More Stars in Comanche.
Maybe her roosters will love to look at handicrafted Swedish santas which  will have their new home in  a place much warmer than they are used too. I am sure they will enjoy it.

My day of the HO HO HO blog and a giveaway

It is never too early in the year to start making things for Christmas as presents or to deck the hall, and there are always Ufos on Christmas Eve  that can´t be finished  until next Christmas.

In our Swedish tradition we decorates with more than Santas, we love to decorate with all kind of Angels too. That was in my mind, when I planned for this blog hop.

I love angels and it is not strange at all. I have some angel ornaments up all the year around, mostly of them are handicraft, but not from my hands.

But here is a handmade traditional Christmas tree, an old Christmas decoration with angels made from traditional book marks and white paper.

I was thinking of the old book marks with angels  when making my project, like this image below.

When I have chosen the fabric for the table cloth, I want the project to look old fashioned, that is why I this time chosen  fabric far away from  my  comfort zon  that has fabric that is bright and bold. And I must say that I loved how it turned out.

The decoration on the cloth is a traditional  wooden handmade  German music box from Erzgebirge. It is Virgin Mary surrounded with small angels.

And together with the hearts and stars the table cloth became very much Christmas for me.

I have drawn the angels by hand  and then appliquéd them on the surface with machine. The eyes and mouths are hand embroidered. When I am out shopping fabric, I  am always looking for fabrics for hair and beards to have in my stash, when I want to make some appliqué with angels and other beings.

And now my giveaway.We have the tradition in Sweden  to make santa ornaments of yarn. I have made many of them in my childhood, but this lovely couple was bought about ten years ago, and they are handmade.

I had them hanging in Christmas time at my work, but as I am retired now, I think I could give them away, as they are so cute and there is no place for me to have them in my apartment. They measure 8 inches and a made of acrylic yarn.

I hope that they will have a good new home this Christmas, and the only way for them to go is that you leave a comment at this post.

Most of all thanks to lovely Madame Samm and our fantastic cheerleader Carol and not to forget the sponsor of all the HO HO HO, I think I could hear it, Timeless Treasure.

Now that you have seen my Christmas Angels and the santas for the giveaway  I am sure that you will find some more santas  together with the following ladies and have fun with lots of HO HO HO

Vroomans Quilts

Åbyquilt

Mac Donald´s Patch

Life and everything around it

Hill Valley Quilter ( that´s me)

Travelling Quilter

¨Quilting Lines

The reluctant Quilter

Pig Tales and Quilts

Tea Time Creations

Ravelly 1

Christmas Greetings from Britt-Inger in Sweden

En härlig utflykt / A wonderful trip

Idag var jag uppe tidigt för att åka på utflykt till Ängelholm, Förslöv och Helsingborg. Det var jag och min väninna Karin som åkte iväg med buss och tåg i det till början lite gråmulna vädret.

I was an early bird today, as I and my friend Karin has planned  to make a day trip to two citys close to Malmö, Ängelholm and Helsingborg.

Men när vi kom fram till Ängelholm, flödade solen och det var väldigt varmt. Vi gick över bron över Rönneå mot centrum för att ta oss en fika.

After a short trip with bus, we took the train to Ängelholm. When we arrived to Ängelholm it was sunny and hot, and we thought that we needed some refreshment, as coffee and sandwich.

Rönne å / Rönne river

Visst är de blå blommande Petuniorna fantastiska. The fantastic blue Petunias.

Petunia närbild / Petunia close

När vi fikat färdigt tog vi bussen mot Förslöv, där vi besökte Butiken Annalunda.

Vi mötes av en glad Molly och Anna, som glatt visade oss alla nya godsaker, som affären hade att erbjuda. Inspirationen flödade och vi handlade förutom planerade inköp, några på impuls, för att vi kände att tygerna måste följa med hem.

When we were refreshed to soul and body we took the bus to the quilt shop Butiken Annalunda, the shop Different, where we were met by the  happy dog Molly and Anna the owner of the quilt shop. 

We were so inspired of course and couldn´t resist some goodies to bring home. I fell in love with the fantastic froggy fabric with some other fabric to match. It will be a lap quilt for me with wonky stars. 

Don´t you think that it could be an awesome quilt?

Jag föll för grodtyget med tillhörande gult, grönt och orange tyg. Visst är de kul.  

Det kommer att bli ett täcke med vimsiga stjärnor.

Nöjda och glada fortsatte vi till Helsingborg, där vi intog en något försenad lunch. Därefter besökte vi Tant Thea, en fantastisk garnbutik, där jag köpte ett kompletterande garnnystan av Noros fabrikat.

Then we continued to Helsingborg, where we ha a late lunch and then visited a yarn shop, as I needed one more ball of yarn, for a shawl that I will make.

Det har varit en fantastisk dag och ett fantastiskt väder. Jättekul och jag är väldigt nöjd med hela dagen och med mina inköp. Jag som inte alls behövde mer tyg än det vita, som jag köpte.

A wonderful day with lot of sun, laughters and fabric, that I don´t need, but can´t live with out it. LOL

QAL med Melissa / QAL with Melissa

Det är så varmt i dag, alldeles för varmt för att jag skall vara ute. I stället har jag tillbringat dagen med att skära till den sy-tillsammans på nätet, QAL, som jag hittade hos Happy Quilting
Jag har bestämt mig för att sy 16 inch stora block och det ska bli  12 st, så det tog lite tid att skära.

I have been indoors today, in spite of the sunny weather. But it is too hot for me to enjoy, it is much better inside cutting fabric. I am quilting along with Melissa on Happy Quilting and I am ready for the next part that she will post tomorrow on her blog.