Nimipäivä - Name day

Nimipäivänä oltiin matkoilla, tarkoitus oli olla yli kaksi viikkoa. Mutta sattuneesta syystä käännyimme torstaina Oulusta takaisin kotiin päin, joten pääsin "korkkaamaan" nimipäiväpostit ajateltua vähän vähemmän myöhässä. Hauska yhteensattuma oli sekin, että aika monella oli sattunut lähettämisessä yhden- jos toisenkinlaista kommellusta, joten postilaatikko oli ilmeisesti kolissut suurimmaksi osaksi myöhässä :) Mutta runsas saalis oli koossa kokonaisuudessaan eilen:

Sisältöä oli vaikka millä mitalla, kun ainoastaan seitsemää fat quarteria oli odotellut:

Jo ennen kirjeiden avaamista päässä kävi ajatus sisältöjen yhdistämisestä yhteen työhön, ja avaamisen jälkeen se elää edelleenkin... Saapa nähdä... Kiitos kaikille ylenpalttisista antimista - tällaista nimipäivälahjatulvaa en muista miltään aiemmalta vuodelta :)

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I 'm participating a name day gift along, and here are the letters that have been popping into our mailbox this week. Actually the envelopes are supposed to contain one fat quarter from each of the participants, but as you can see there's been lots more in them :)  I'm sooo happy - I can't say I would have such an abundance for my name day ever before...

Even before I opened the envelopes I had an idea of combining the contents into one project - that thought is still clear in my mind... We'll see...

Tikkausvinkki - Free motion quilting hint

Jos olet jo jonkin verran harrastanut vapaata tikkausta, tämä Quiltshopgalin haaste voisi sopia sinulle! Se kestää koko vuoden, ja joka kuukausi julkaistaan tikkausaiheita, joiden avulla voi harjoitella tikkausta ja oppia uutta. Joka kuukausi myös nimetty tikkaustaitaja tarjoaa ohjeita kuukauden tikkausharjoitukseen ja sen työstämiseen tilkkutyöksi. Esim. tammikuun harjoituksesta ohjeistetaan tekemään tyynynpäällinen. Kuukausittain arvotaan myös palkintoja osallistujien kesken, jos laittaa tekosensa näkyville - osa palkinnoista jaetaan maailmanlaajuisesti.

Kun selaat linkin kautta aukeavalla sivulla vähän matkaa alaspäin, näet kaksi listaa: ensimmäisellä listalla näkyvät kuukausittaiseen haasteeseen liittyvät linkit, toisena on taulukko, josta näkyvät kunkin kuukauden palkinnot. Molemmat listat päivittyvät vuoden edetessä.

Tammikuussa voit esimerkiksi harjoitella höyhenien tikkausta sydämen sisälle taitavan LuAnn Kessin ohjeiden mukaan, löydät ohjeistusta ja You Tube-videoita Cindy Needhamin Ultimate-sabluunan käytöstä - ja paljon paljon muuta!

Kuva LuAnn Kessi, blog 

Pinterest

Tässä kuussa esim. Craftsyllä on huima alennusmyynti vielä muutaman päivän - Cratsyhän on siitä "fiksu" amerikkalainen nettikauppa, että sieltä tilatessasi maksat ALV:nkin saman tien, niin pakettisi tulee suoraan postilaatikkoon tai jopa kotiovelle kuten ainakin meillä :)

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If you are interested to learn more and develop your free motion quilting skills, there's a great opportunity for that in Quiltshopgal's (previously known as SewCalGal) free motion quilting challenge for 2015.

There are lots of exercise each month, lots of advice from famous, talented free motion quilters, hints of sale, good tools and equipment etc etc. 

Each month there are also great sponsor prizes awarded to the participants that post their exercises - part of them shipped world wide.

January exercise is quilting a feather filled heart motive and making a pillow. The sketch above is from LuAnn Kessi, who shares her free motion quilting process in the challenge post.

Around the world blog hop

I was quite pleasantly surprised as I was invited to join the "Around the world blog hop" by a Canadian blogger Carole from "Fresh off the Frame" blog. I've learnt to know her a bit closer while asking for some information concerning longarm quilting, in which I'm a newbie having acquired my HQ Avante machine March this year. Her quilting work is really worth taking a look at, and she has been so very helpful and encouraging following me in this new path.

There are some questions to be answered, so here they come!

1. What am I working on?
Despite my efforts not to start to many projects at the same time I rarelly succeed in it. At the moment I have some bags waiting for handles to be put on...

...a baby quilt for my older brother's grandson (just a glimpse sofar as it is some kind of a secret,  how it is going to look like - and the picture is awful taken inside in the evening)

...a couple of quilts waiting for quilting, like this sampler quilt

 - just to mention some of my WIP :) Then I might also sidetrack to things having nothing to do with quilting at all. It might be a crocheted bathroom rug...

 ...or a workshop of purses with metal clasps

I'm also teaching patchwork and quilting, so I need to build demo pieces for the lessons which might lead to more WIPs, as contrary to my students and due to the demo nature of the projects, my works only seldom finish at the end of the course...

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I guess the simple answer is: it doesn't. I'm eager to try different techniques, but so are other quilters as well. I'm constantly in search of new projects - so are others as well... I own more patchwork fabrics than I'm probably ever going to use for my quilts - so are other quilters... I love to share my knowledge on this hobby - so are fellow quilters, too...

3. Why do I create what I do?
I cannot be helped, it is a must, I have diagnosed the syndrome as "restless hands". I started quilting 19 years ago, and been hooked from the very first moment. I love to see what I can create with my own two hands, it is so concrete compared with the abstract everyday job I do.

4. How does my creative process work?
Nothing special here, either. Sometimes I have a clear plan or even pattern that I follow from start to finish. Sometimes that clear plan changes during the realization of the project. Sometimes I just start something without knowing how it will finish. Sometimes I get stuck at some point, I might not like how the work is turning out, not at all like I had visioned it. Or I might see some interesting new project in the internet, book, magazine and hop over to doing it.

And now with my longarm machine, the pallette has become yet another dimension: I'm falling in love with the quilting part of the process. Here are pictures of my first two quilts that I have quilted with my Avante machine.

 

 

I was supposed to tag three  quilters to continue this blog hop - unfortunately I'm not able to, which is a pity. But this blog hop has been going around so much that most candidates that I tried to invite already had participated, and the rest weren't able to take the challenge due to timing issues or other personal reasons. So I have no quilty conscience, I've done my part, and thank my bollger friend Carole for kindly inviting me in this blog hop.

I'm linking my post to Anything Goes Mondays at Stitch by Stitch