More Great Grannys

The bug is worse than ever!

Cute and romantic. So not me *sigh*

 



I made this collage with PicMonkey but its not really good.



Those colors are all wrong - the outer border is a warm dark rosa and not a purple.

Now I need to figure out how to square these blocks up to 12½". I don't own such a ruler and its not in my budget, so I need to do some math... when I first laid a block up for squaring it seemed easy but actually its not.

Great Granny Square

I have seen them on a lot of blogs - those granny squares and great granny squares - and everybody seems to be extremely crazy happy making them.

I want to be happy too!

So last night I pulled out some of that 30'ies fabric that I've had for years - and that I don't like anymore.
At least that's what I've been telling myself now for a long time.
It is way too cute and really don't go with my personality (!) or with anything else in my home. I am per definition and as a rule absolutely allergic to cuteness.
Dooohh...

I'm a whimp.
This is beyond cute and I now have a serious allergy attack.

Who would have thought that hate-fabric could turn into something so so so so... aughhhh CUTE!


Tutorial here and other cute blocks found here at Hill Valley Quilter who makes übercute squares!
And really vibrant squares at Simply Miss Luella!

I can't stop crochet hexagon flowers...

You can find those goodies here

July status

This July has been a good month - I've been really productive and made good progress on several projects.

First of all the blanket for my Dad is almost finished.

I need to make another 25 squares which will only take a couple of days to do.
I really like this project, it is fast and very fun.

A block for Jeanne at Grey Cats Quilts for her month in the Scappy? Sew Bee It group. Those giraffes are so fun!

American quilt block

I made 7 blocks for My American Quilt. The center 9-patches are hand pieced and some of the scraps are gifts from American blogging friends. Its a great scrapbusting project!

I finished 27 crocheted flowers and have 30 half done for the flowerbed project! Great project when watching the Olympics:-) .... but one of those projects that I have absolutely no idea about what to do with!
Its just so relaxing, cute and eats a lot of my old yarn:-)

I dug out these super old squares - cut in 6x6 centimeters (they are from waaay back - when I denied that I ever would succomb to that nonsense sewing anything in inches... hahaha!!!!) - and I made 29 blocks. I have enough squares left to make another 15 blocks.
They will be super for quilt practising as they do not fit with anything I have now:-)

I handpieced 16 hexagon flowers in my Hope Valley fabric for the Hexi MF quilt along

2 huge blocks for the Tetris quilt went through the machine quick and easy and was photographed taped to my frontdor....

... and I cut 2½" squares of a lot of old and ugly fabric - and made 9 blocks for the Vomit quilt - more or less done chain piecing and as leaders and enders.
I am determined to kill as much of my ugly and old fabric as I can and these blocks do make a dent although I suspect that I have scraps enough for at least three more quilts of this kind.
But it is easy to do - some mindless sewing - and very addictive when you put them up on your design wall and discover that it actually looks good!

I knitted 1 square of variagated Zauberball yarn for my shawl

And last but not least - I learned a new skill - how to make framed purses and participated in a secret partner swap, which was very fun:-)



Despite whining for a week about a nasty cold and not realising that I actually made a lot in between and also being away for a week I'm absolutely thrilled about this month's status!

So go away bad consciense - today I'm beginning my new project with The Lazy Bums!

August will be dedicated to finishing my dad's quilt and an old UFO and maybe throw in a few hexies and vomit blocks.

Who knows - the summer may turn up eventually and I may finally order that new sewing machine.
Miracles do happen!!




edit: Every first day of the month Lynne from Lily's Quilts hosts Fresh Sewing Day showing the previous month's work and I'm linking up for the very first time in the small blogs category.

Quilt on my door

I've had so much fun to-day!

Block 1 of the Tetris Quilt along was superfun, easy, fast and... HUGE!

I had NO place to hang it in the flat so I taped it to my front door - on the outside - to take a pic of it!




Notice how the colors match the walls in the entryhall!


I played a little with my coloring pencils - can't remember when I did that last, but it was fun!

You can read all about this fun, fast and scrap-eating Quilt-A-long at Melissa's blog or press the Tetris button
at the bar to the right --------------------------------------------------------------> somewhere about here.. :-) --------------------------------->






70x70 cm

 
Oh - these blocks are perfect for my future QAYG-practice blocks and for practicing some machine quilting too. Much easier to handle in the machine - me like:-)

6 blocks is all it takes plus border and the usual stuff.


I can't believe how productive I've been these last 4-5 weeks.
I blame the weather. Calling this a summer is a joke!
So sowing  sewing (HAHA - great spelling error!) is flowing here - and everything gets some attention, so lots of progress all over.
Good :-)

Zum zum... I'm a naked bee..

I joined a bee called Scrappy? Sew bee it!. It is fun and exciting and it is nerve wrecking!

Perfectionists like me with unmistakeable stress symptoms should stay away from that kind of commitment. Because it IS a commitment no matter how sweet and funny and kind and lovely all the other bees in the hive are. Because they are all that I go overboard and before I know it I'm deeply involved in the perfectionists mad, mad world. And start eating chips, crackers and peanuts.
Nuts!

So I work my b*tt off to make the block for the first month as best I can - preferably waaaayyy better than possible - and I can feel the ache in the stomach grow because I'm fully aware that this is the first time ever, ever, ever! that I'm giving a patchwork block away - to be judged, scrutinized and laughed at - which I just know will happen. Especially to me. Only to me in fact. Everyone else makes perfect blocks. Thats a fact.

Its a horrible feeling. Because you see... I know that I'm not that much of a genius in the sewing area.
In spite of decades of sewing experience I'm painfully aware of the millions of much younger women with practically no knowledge of what they're doing (they just do it - how lame and unfair is that?) who can sew much nicer blocks than me because they have the perfect scraps!

They own the best modern scraps and I don't. It s*cks. And I HATE them!
All 2,47 millions of them!

Finally I produced an acceptable block. And I'm SO proud because the little bugger is only 1,5" square so it took me a lot of time to sew and a lot of time to press it so it would lay flat. As in perfectly flat. And then I took a photo of it...

Burned block. Yes. It is.

.. and I see it.
I have burned the darn thing pressing!!!!
In the meantime the weather has gotten so hot (I'm also annoyed, but that has nothing to do with it!) that I more or less strip and sew another little block dressed in practically nothing. Giving up is NOT an option!

I rip out the burned block (actually the entire big block) and this time I noticed before I sewed the new one to the rest of the big block that it is burned too!!!

This is where I kick the stove on my way to raid the refrigerator.
First I emptied the youghurt bottle. Then I ate a large piece of cucumber, 2 tomatoes and some leftover coleslaw with a large slice of rye. Then I hit the shower because I could smell myself and wrapped in the large and totally ragged pink bath towel that match my fair and freckled skin so well I decided to make some proper dinner.
An omelet with bacon, 2 springrolls and ½ a bag of crackers had no effect. I was still hungry. And fat(ter).

I made block no. 3 wearing nothing but the pink bath towel and an enormous amount of determination.



Sneak peak of the big block

The block turned out nice. Very nice. And I pressed it very carefully, sewed the big block together - admired my work - and took a nap. I was exhausted.

When I get up I discover that the lovely bees in the group are talking about making another block - a signature block. WHAT??????

But - energized by the previously consumed small snacks I throw myself at it and suddenly I have designed and sewn the ultimate signature block - still wearing the pink rag that suits me so well. The temperature has passed 30 degrees C - a blessing that comes with living on the top floor under the roof - so I cannot be bothered getting properly dressed.

Signature block. Sneak peak.

I took a photo, packed the blocks and wrote a nice card to the lovely bee queen, who will recieve the masterpieces next week and without any doubt will faint discovering their outstanding beauty. 


And now I think a lot about designing a fabric fig leaf.
Quilted of course.

To be worn on hot days instead of a pink rag;-)







disclaimer: this post must be read with proper regard to the imbedded irony and poor attempts to pity myself.
I actually enjoyed making this block and I don't hate anyone. Not even Nicky with the beautiful and modern scraps;-)

Playing on a Sunday

Min baby quilt top blev reddet fra mit juicy uheld og har det fint. Den venter nu på en gang strygning sammen med en masse nyvasket stof - og det bliver ikke i dag. Solen har været fremme, så jeg har været ude i det gode vejr:-)

Jeg har en hel del strips til overs fra babytoppen, så jeg fik leget lidt i går.
Bente laver de smukkeste New York Beauties - jeg blev inspireret, så jeg har forsøgt mig for første gang.

Ha - det blev da godt nok ikke nogen success - tre - 3 - steder dækkede stoffet ikke papiret!
Jeg ved godt hvad der er galt. Jeg er for nærig sparsommelig. Jeg sidder og fedter med de mindste stykker stof jeg kan finde fordi jeg ikke kan bære at skære for meget fra efter syningen. Ok. Jeg er altså nærig alt for sparsommelig. Hvilket IKKE kan betale sig. Doohh......

My baby quilt top survived my juicy accident and just needs ironing before I can start basting it.
There are a lot of scrappy strips left over from the baby quilt top, so I have been playing.

Bente makes wonderful NYB blocks so I was inspired og gave it a try.
A very poor try. 3 places the fabric did not cover the paper. He - I'm frugal I know. Hate to cut away to much fabric so I fiddle with too small pieces, - just not good. Ahh well...I'll give it another try in the future, where I don't feel so frugal*lol*


Mange af farverne i de strips er lidt.... anderledes og ret svære at vise bare nogenlunde godt her. Det er 'skæve' nuancer, som jeg prøver at sætte sammen så jeg ikke blir' alt for svimmel eller køresyg *LOL*
Jeg blev inspireret af en quilt (jeg kan ikke huske hvor) og så er jeg meget vild med det som Marianne laver på The Quilting Edge - hendes flotte tæpper er syet og samlet som quilt-as-you-go.

Hun har netop lavet en ny gruppe på Flickr, hvor hun viser og hjælper med en QAYG metode, som jeg synes er genial og gerne vil lære. Den er min redning så jeg i fremtiden kan quilte store quilts på min egen maskine - så kan jeg måske endelig komme i gang med at quilte og ikke bare sprøjte den ene top ud efter den anden, som bare ender som UFO'er. Metoden er perfekt til gigtramte arme og skuldre - den slags er lige mig:-)

A lot of the colors in those strips are... a bit 'weird' - at least to photograph. I made quite a few striped blocks that I'm going to use practicing the QAYG method, that Marianne at The Quilting Edge  does so well. I'm very inspired by her work and I have just joined her group on Flickr
The QAYG method is not only a beautiful way of joining big squares/blocks/rectangles but also a great method for arthritic arms and shoulders. I like that:-)


De stribede kvadrater er slet, slet ikke så kedelige at se på i virkeligheden. Farverne gør sig ikke rigtigt på min pc-skærm;-)


Colors much nicer IRL - the pale pink is actually a nice yellow

Her er fx to grønne og en gul strip med et kvadrat - og den ser laksefarvet ud på min pc. Altså slet ikke så kedelig i virkeligheden.
Foreløbig laver jeg stribede kvadrater som jeg påtænker at bruge til at teste QAYG metoden.
Først var der bare et par stykker... men pludselig var der flere og så blev de til mange.
Supernemt.

Red Scrappy Triangular String Quilt Blocks For Dummies Like Me

Dette er en tutorial skrevet af mig - til mig - dummien;-)
Det er tilladt at smugkigge.
This is a tutorial written by me - to me - the dummie;-)
It is ok to sneak-peak.

Hiv alle dine røde restestrimler frem, top dem op på en skammel midt i stuen og fryd dig!
Vær modig og hæmningsløs - forestil dig at du er den nye Bonnie Hunter - The Queen of Scraps. Du må godt, for du ved jo det er ren fantasi og hun finder alligevel aldrig ud af det *lol*
Lav eventuelt en selvkomponeret indianerdans rundt om bunken mens du takker alle verdens guder for stof og farven rød. Pust ud i sofaen med en kop mokka, mens du holder øje med at de røde strimler ikke bliver neglet af no'en. Katastrofe! Ta' en kop mokka mere hvis tanken er ubærlig.

Beslut at du vil lave en helt fantastisk quilt med røde trekanter, som du har set på en (andens) blog og stjæl idéen fordi den er god genial.
Kan du ikke komme dig over at du ikke selv har fundet på det (og det ved du at du ikke kan!), så hæld et skvæt Irish single maltwhiskey i mokkaen og 'get over it'. Du ER genial - bare ikke til det her.


Pull out all your red scrappy strings and place them in the middle of your living room - and enjoy!
Be bold and adventurous - pretend that you are the new Bonnie Hunter - The Queen of Scraps. You are allowed to - its a fantasy and she'll never know anyway *lol*
Invent and perform a happy-dance around them, thanking all Gods for fabric and the colour red.
Breathe on the couch, have a cuppa while you keep an eye on the red strings. If the thought that someone could steal them is to hard - have another cuppa

Decide that you want to make an absolutely wonderful quilt that you saw on a great blog  and steal the idea because it is good genious. If its too hard for you that you didn't come up with the idea your self (and you know it is!) pour a hint of Irish malt whiskey in your tea and get over it. You ARE a genious but not in the quilting area.

Find en gammel telefonbog, gerne den, der har ligget i din postkasse i 6 måneder.
Hiv nogle eller mange sider ud og tjek for sjovs skyld om du stadig selv står i den. Vær ligeglad hvis dit navn IGEN er stavet forkert. Du har kun røde stofstrimler i hovedet alligevel.

Find that old telephone book that has been in your mailbox for 6 months.
Pull out some or a lot of pages and just for the fun of it check if your in it. Do not go hysterical if your name is misspelled AGAIN - you are only thinking about red fabric strips. 

Find din geometriske og matematiske overlegenhed frem. Glem ALT om quiltere, der klynker og påstår,
at de er dumme til matematik - de lyver! Quiltere kan regne hvadsomhelst ud!

Skær med en kasseret rullekniv papiret i sådan en facon, at du kan lave to ligebenede trekanter ud af det. Ikke lige-sidede men lige-benede. Det betyder at to af benene er lige lange, mens 'bunden' af trekanten måler noget andet. Her kan du se hvor pædagogisk jeg er - de lange lige sider er alle 9 inch, de to korte for enderne er 6 inch. Og nej, jeg underviser ikke. Jeg er bare enormt god til at regne den ud og blærer mig.

Bring out your geometrical and mathematical superiority. Forget that quilters always whine and complain about being mathematically challenged. They are lying! Quilters can figure out anything!

Cut the paper with an old knife and make a shape that will give you two triangles like the ones I drew on the photo. Long sides are all 9 inch, short sides 6 inch. Yes, thats me. Not a teacher but just brilliant and bragging.



Sticky pile of ironed strips

Stryg nogle af dine røde strimler - eller la' vær'. Det er ikke i dag du skal lide under din perfektionisme - men du skal bare lege og ha' det sjovt! Det er rester - slap af.

Hvis du alligevel stryger - så læg dem ovenpå hinanden en efter en så de underste blir' strøget mange gange.
Løft op i bunken og se hvordan de klistrer til hinanden - det er sjovt!
Gå eventuelt på nettet og google hvorfor. Quiltere ææælsker at vide noget om alt.

Iron your strips or not. Forget perfection - just play. Have fun. It's just scraps.
If you iron anyway - put the strips on top of each other one by one so they will get ironed a lot. Lift the pile of ironed strips and watch how they stick together - its fun!
If you need a break try googling why fabric stick together when ironed - quilters loooove to know something about everything.

  

Læg en bred strimmel parallel med den korte side af papiret med retsiden op, læg en anden strimmel ovenpå med vrangsiden op og start med at sy dér hvor spidsen af pennen er på fotoet. Eller lad være, for så skal du bakse med papiret på højre side af nålen i symaskinen. Vend den om og begynd at sy i den anden ende - det er meget smartere!

Find en tutorial der viser det rigtig godt - fx denne her - selv om der kun laves en trekant ad gangen. HA! Jeg ER smartere - jeg laver to ad gangen (ta' den!)


Put a wide strip parallel to the short side face up, put another strip on top of that face down and begin sewing where the tip of the pencil is. Find a tutorial that shows it really well like this one. It does only show how to make one triangle.
HA! I'm smarter, I make two at a time - I bet she is not an engineer;-)

Pres strimlerne fra hinanden. Gentag med strimmel ovenpå strimmel og pres hver gang. Mange gange. Det er træls og helt enormt kedeligt. Især hvis du hver gang skal rejse dig og gå ind i et andet rum for at stryge en strimmel fordi du bor så småt at strygejernet må bo i et andet rum. Husk at motion kan overdrives.

Så chain piecing er en god ide - sy 5-6 stykker ad gangen. Begynd og slut i hver af de korte ender med en bred strimmel.

Iron the strips apart. Repeat with the strips and iron every single time. It's so boring! Especially when your iron lives in another room because your flat is super tiny. Too much exercise is a health hazard.

So chain piecing is a very good idea - make 5-6 at a time. Begin and end with a wide strip.

Vend stof og papir om og tjek om sømmene ser ok ud på bagsiden - altså papirsiden.
Læs hvad der står og hvis du har en sær form for humor, så grin højt!

Turn it over and check your seams on the paper side.
Read the page ( The yellow pages - always at hand ) and if you have a weird sense of humour laugh out loud!

Når papiret er dækket af strimler - trim alle fire sider langs papirkanterne.
Smid de overskydende rester væk. HELT væk!
Du ER ikke Bonnie Hunter!
Ellers skal du jo lave en ny quilt med lutter minirester og det har du ikke tid til - du har UFO'er til loftet!!

When the paper is covered with strips - trim all four sides along the paper.
Throw away the tiny scraps. All of them. You are NOT Bonnie Hunter!
You have no time for another quilt with tiny scraps - your UFO's are reaching the ceiling!

Skær tværs igennem langs den KORTESTE diagonal. Altså den KORTESTE linje mellem to hjørner. Det er vigtigt. Meget.

Cut it apart through the short diagonal. The SHORT diagonal line. This is important. Very.




Only two red triangles. But great! 



Læg dem op på et hvidt stykke stof, ta' et foto og vær vældig tilfreds med dig selv.

Du er dygtig!!
Du er smart!!
Du er simpelthen genial!!



Put the triangles on some white fabric, take a pic and be very pleased with your self.
You are brilliant!!
You are smart!!
You are a genious!!




A lot of red triangles. Still great!

Lav lige så mange trekanter du gider. I dag. Og i morgen. Det haster IKKE!
Gem dem et sted hvor du kan finde dem igen, hvis nu du får andre go'e idéer, som lige skal prøves af ind i mellem. Og det ved du at du gør.

Hvis dit kamera pludselig fortæller dig - når du skal til at oploade en masse fotos til din egen tutorial, - at den ikke kan formattere memory dimsen, "format error" så tryk på alle de knapper der er. Ingen grund til at læse i manualen, den har du smidt væk for du er jo et geni.
Prøv alle mulige kombinationer. Efter ca. 20 minutter dukker der en menu frem som hedder "format memory" og du er reddet!!!!
Du har godt nok lige skyllet en sjus ned med et skvæt te i, fordi alle dine fotos lå på den der dims og de er nu blevet slettet, men du holder fanen højt alligevel - og tar' alle billederne om - det tar' alligevel kun en time. 3½ faktisk, men hvem tæller?

Du er ved at lave en skøn quilt i røde trekanter - og du er helt oppe at køre over hvor flot den blir' - engang!!!!


Make as many triangles as you like. To-day, tomorrow. No rush!
Hide them some place where you can find them again, you might want to make some other things in between that is urgent. Which you know will happen.

If your camera suddenly tells you "format error" when you are about to upload all the photos to your tutorial then just push all the buttons. No need to read the manual - you tossed it because you are a genious.
Try out various combinations of buttons. About 20 min later a screen comes up and tells you how to do it and you are saved!!!!!!!
You just made yourself a drink with a hint of tea because all your photos were on the memory card and were deleted - but you are a real trooper so you just shoot them again. No problem - it just takes another hour. Actually 3½ but who's counting?

Nothing can get you down - cause you are making a terrific quilt with red triangles - and you are so exited about how gorgeous it will be !!!!!

Small paper piecing

"If you can't beat it, join it". Det gør jeg så.
I dag har Mr. RA (hr. Leddegigt) været på spil og drillende ødelagt alle mine planer. Næsten.
Så jeg spiller spillet og brokker mig ikke - ikke særligt meget, kun en lillebitte smule *hmpffff...*

Det blev til 5 små blå paper pieced 3½" squares - lavet af strips i forskellige bredder fra min store blå restebunke. Jeg har ingen planer for dem endnu, de kommer over i bunken til de andre, som jeg syr på de værste drilledage. Det er lette, små sager, som ikke kræver det store af hverken krop eller hjerne og selv om det går temmelig langsomt med at få ryddet ud i restestrimlerne, så er det små projekter, som alligevel gir' en god følelse af at ha' nået noget.
Og jeg burde virkelig overhovedet ikke brokke mig. Der findes tusindvis af kvinder med børn, jobs osv., der elsker at sy og som faktisk kun lige har den samme tid til at sy hver dag, som det har taget mig at sy disse 5 squares... så ingen grund til brok. Altid godt at ha' sine prioriteter på plads og kunne se det sår'n lidt udefra:-)

"If you can't beat it, join it".
I do. To-day Mr. RA found it enjoyable to tease me a lot - so I do what I can - I play the game almost without complaining *growl..*
Strip piecing 5 small 3½" blue squares was to-days accomplishments - I have no plans for them yet but they end up with the others I sew when Mr. RA is naughty and won't let me do what I've planned to do.
Its a slow process to kill al those strings but it is a nice, small project that gives me a good feeling of accomplishing something on such days.
I really should not complain. Thousands of women with kids, jobs etc who loves sewing barely have the time each day that I've spent on these 5 squares.
I need to go eat some humble pie...

Scraps

For some time I've tried to kill a lot of my uglyuglyugly and oldoldold fabric by turning it into scappy pinwheels.
They are supposed to be 3" square and those that do not messure up I cut down to 2".

"

According to my scappy-hero-quilter of all times, Bonnie Hunter - there is no such thing as ugly fabric.
"Cut it smaller" is one of her good advices. Apparently the uglyness dissapears in the US - i doubt it counts here in my home *lol*. Those buggers of mine cannot be smaller - or they'll turn to dust;-)

I'm quite excited about my photos these days - if I may say so:-)
I never expected my small camera to get this close and take such clear photos.

However you see EVERYTHING - including non-matching points én masse.
Now I know that I also need a new cutting mat - it really is worn out!!

Huhh... I DID iron those. I did!!!
I'll have to steam the life out of them!

They take a lot of time. Tons of squaring up and ironing. And it is boring. And not so exiting - the pinwheels are actually not that good-looking, so I'll have to come up with some "pop" and "zing" to add to it or I'm afraid the whole thing will be forgotten in some drawer.

Also they are not that well made. The points match about 50% which is way below my usual standard. They are simply too small for my arthritic hands to sew, too difficult to fiddle with in the machine. They may not become a quilt - but now I have realized this - and all lessons are welcome.
Including the 'hard' ones.
No more small quilty things in the machine.
Done with that:-)