2010 June (from original blog)

 

On the move

I used to have my sewing room in the house, then last autumn I moved to the shed (log cabin type shed, not lawn mower storage type shed)

However, the daughter who also uses the shed was worried that her friends may push buttons or pick up fragile things, or - horror - use fabric scissors for paper, or toe nails (it happened to a friend of mine, it was her mother in law!!) and also the insulation isn't great under the floor, so I have now decided to move back to the house. I love the arrangement that I had, so I am moving things back to the house and hoping to make the best use of what must be a contender for the world's smallest sewing room! The problem is, it now leaves no time for sewing (twitch, twitch!)

LATER . . .

Well the sewing stuff has been moved to the box room, and the computer is moved and working again too, so I am back in business. A productive day, I have finished an order of 45 polo shirt and fleeces, and have nearly finished an embroidery on a baby blanket, and I sold another embroidery design on ETSY - this applique lighthouse - another $1:50 into the savings - very exciting!!!


This is the sewing room from left to right, it never quite got to tidy before I started pulling out all the projects that had a specific deadline, maybe I'll get there one day :-)



I especially like the kitchen utensil hooks on the front of the shelves - fab for scissors etc.



And I love the 45 degree pipes Husband has stuck onto wood for me, ideal for pens, glues, stitch rippers etc

(Thank you to Patrick for the idea, and to Tindra for letting me copy. Patrick we miss you RIP)







I even remembered to put books on the sunny side, and fabrics on the shady side!!!

Beach Cottage in Norway (originally posted in 2010)

 This was my first post on my original blog.  Somehow in the downloading and uploading of the posts the first few years got lost so I am looking to see how I can add them to the new blog

Beach Cottage in Norway

This is the quilt I made for my Great Aunt's 90th birthday - and I think it took me that many hours to make. It was in the planning (and buying fabric :-) stage for ages, and was finished in January in time for mum and I to go to Norway to give it to her on her birthday.

It is a mixture of free motion quilting and machine embroidery and applique on a variety of picture fabrics, and represents the family's cottage in Oslo, just opposite the harbour. It has been in the family for a number of generations, and the two red beach huts are very iconic. We all love the cottage, and we all love the wonderful (if *slightly* eccentric) great aunt

This was the first landscape quilt I have made, and although I have done machine embroidery (and design) for nearly 4 years, the free motion quilting took me right out of my comfort zone! I love this quilt partly for the image itself, and the memories of childhood summer visits to the cottage, but also for the random phone calls I got from the Great Aunt who calles to tell me that she has seen something new, and how much she loved it :-)

It is the family's summer house in Oslo harbour as seen from the sea. This yellow cottage and the two red cabins are a familiar landmark to anyone leaving Oslo by boat.

The cottage is much loved by my Great Aunt and the rest of the family. This was my first landscape quilt, and my first real attempt at free motion quilting, I loved making it, partly for the memories it brought back, partly for the joy of creating and partly for how much I knew she would appreciate it. 10 months on, mum and I still get random phonecalls to tell us what another friend said when they saw it, or that she has noticed some new detail!

An Uncle asked if I would be able to make him one for his 70th, but I think he will have to wait for his 90th!

Details in detail:

The sea wall, the tulips, the sea and the sand with free motion
quilting (FMQ)










The cabins and the cottage were done my machine embroidery:
designed from a photograph they were added to the quilt after
all the detail had been finished - a bit nerve wracking hoping
nothing would go wrong!











The flag was made on my embroidery machine as a free standing lace design (stitched onto water soluble stabiliser). it was stitched down along some side only so it could 'flap'.