One stitch at a time

I'm in the middle of this ogre. A chrocheted bed spread, where the crochet is finished and the remaining work is "only" sewing it together. Only what?!?!?!? I did some simple math. It's eight seams. Every row consists of 334 rows. There is 2 stiches in every row and that means four stiches in every seam pr row. If my brain still works, that means a total of 10688 stiches. It seems almost impossible to this within reasonable time, but I have already completed one and a half row this week, so maybe within October?

Another ogre is a nosegay quilt I started on one and a half year ago. It's one 12 inch block set on point with an Amish kind of border. Every time I look at it, I wonder where on earth was I when I chose the fabrics for the border. The block is 1930-ish and the border is not. But I've decided to finish it. It's hand sewn so I'm going to hand quilt it. And I'll give it to my uncle who needs something to put on his walls. I know it will be appreciated despite that I'm not satisfied with the colours.

The miniature version of Liberty Flowers is finished and delivered to my brother. He and his wife where satisfied. Pictures are on my other camera and will come when I remember to download them
;-)

Inga

Saturday afternoon

It's Saturday afternoon and time to relax. I've spent the day doing house chores, preparing next week's program for the two concerts we're giving (Mozart, Smetana and a couple of Norwegian contemporary composers) and quilting on the Liberty Flowers. We also had a photosession to take pictures of the two wristbands I've designed and knitted last week. It took some time before we found the ideal setting but finally we decided that the piano made a perfect background. I've been wanting a piano since I was 7 and when we finally bought one three years ago, it was one of my biggest dreams come true. I'm not a great pianist, but I can accompany my students and even play some pieces with my husband, who's also a professional musician. He plays the flute.

Here is also a picture of the tablerunner you got a sneak peak of earlier. I'm going to make potholders and place mats also. And when we're talking about sneak peaks:

Jodie, will you please send me your postal address? Because you were right about embroidering spoons and other cutlery on the project from last post. There's a small gift waiting for you here above the Arctic Circle.

Inga

Sneak peak on project

The quilting on Liberty Flowers is going fine. I'm done with half of it and hope to post a finished result within a week or so. I'm also hoping to finish the crocheted bed spread this month. It has been a long time since I started it, more than three years, but I finally see the end.

Today's picture gives you a sneak peak on what I'm planning to take up next. I have a redwork embroidery which I wanted to make pieced borders for. I made one border, took a look at it and decided no, this won't work. So I've decided to use it as the centre of a table runner. The borders will be white linen and I will use red silk thread and embroider something in the borders. What it will be is a secret, but you all have it in your kitchen....

Inga

Another finish

The UFO-pile is diminishing. Yesterday I could mark off another project as finished. Do you remember the project in this post? One of the postcard quilts is finally finished. I appliqued the handpieced 4 x 6 inch block in the middle onto a piece of fabric and then handquilted it. It's a bit hard to see the quilting, but I've quilted a large maple leaf in the colourful centre. I've also quilted lines 1/4 inch apart from each other. In the outer border I've quilted smaller leafs.

I don't know if I'm fully satisfied with this piece. I like the composition and I think the colours in the middle section stand out well. What I'm not so sure about is the quilting. Maybe I should have appliqued some leaves in autumn colours instead of quilting them and then just do stipple quilting? But I've decided to just let it be like it is. I'll learn from the experience and hopefully will I be more satisfied with my next postcardquilt project.
Inga

Progress

The calendar says September and most of the work routines are back to normal. Concert season hasn't startet though, so I still have some nice days where I can do some sewing between my daily exercises on the intrument. Today's first picture is an old UFO, started more than three years ago. I came over a pattern for the heart shaped placemats by the Danish designer Helene Juul in a Norwegian quilting magazine. I did think I could finish them before Valentine's Day (and I probably could have done it also) but back then I was too impatient and put them aside. They have been only in my mind around the12th of February every year, knowing that I wouldn't finish them for Valentine's Day this year either :-). After I completed the table runner last week, I thought is was time to try to finish them before our (my Husband and me) 13th anniversary later this month. I know I postponed to finish them because of the shape and getting the backing fit nicely in the "cleavage", but it wasn't hard to do at all.

The second picture shows the miniature version of Liberty Flowers my brother has commisioned. Each block is 4" and the quilt will finish 24x24 inch. It's basted and ready to be hand quilted.

Inga