Finished It Up Friday {#3} Stacked Coins Baby Quilt

Finished her up last night!  

Ended up going with the free motion quiltary as it was quicker, simpler and didn't require me to line up my quilt top and the backing.

And I love a crinkly baby quilt.

Thanks to all those who linked up last week!

On to this week's fun!

A snip of Finland

I've been trying to finish editing my photos from Finland and so I haven't had too much time for sewing.

I ran across this picture from an old train station in Borgå and thought how pretty it was and how it could be a fun project to reproduce all those lovely blocks with some more bright and modern fabrics.....hmmmm....

Just getting ready to head downstairs to load the dishwasher and then get to quilting my stacked coins quilt for Josh's baby shower tomorrow.

I'll be sure to post it for my Finished It Up Friday.

Be sure to come on back and share your finished projects!  I can't wait to see what you've done this week!

WIP Wednesday: Getting my bearings...

So I've officially been home a week and I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get back in the proper swing of things.  Last night was the first night I made it past 9 pm before falling asleep. 

 Jetlag has been a real stinker.

But my dear husband has a baby shower at work to attend on Friday and had asked me to make him something to take so today I pulled myself together and got to sewing.

And it felt really nice.

I put together the above quilt top for the little boy baby.  Tomorrow I'll quilt it but I just can't decide yet how I want to do it.  The usual stippling or straight lines?  It certainly lends itself to straight lines but I also just love a nice, crinkly stippled quilt.

hmmm.....what to do.....

The Single Girl.....

This little lady waits patiently for me to finish the last four blocks.  I think what's holding me back is the fact that I know I have to cut out the pieces for the wheel part since I started out with the wrong white for the first block I did.  (big bummer no?) so I am one short on each piece.  The thought of cutting out all those pieces feels a tad daunting.  BUT I am quite excited to see her all pieced together. I keep telling myself what a nice Finished It Up Friday that would be to post about but....it just never happens.  Maybe this will be the week.  My jetlag thinks doubtful. 

My hexie quilt continues slowly but surely!  I have to report that my hexie holder was a dream on my 13 hours of flying each way and I got some nice little blocks done while whiling away the hours of in seat movie entertainment. 

 And PS:  as to those who were wondering about the little scissors in my hexie holder.

They made it through security NO problem.  

And if they can make it through airport security in Seattle, they can make it through anywhere.  

They are no joke about airport security in Seattle.

Still at three blocks of these pretties.  Looking forward to plugging away on these guys here a little there a little now that I'm back

And then there is this:

My WIP box.  

She's awfully full and in need of some attention before I go plunging into any other new projects. 

 These are my projects that seem to be in holding patterns, waiting for inspiration to strike.

So that's my progress!

And another invitation to click here to zip back to my giveaway!

Win a panel of Urikka Blue fabric from Marimekko

Giveaway closes Sunday May 1st at Midnight

Today I'm linking up with:

    

 

Curtains made really easy and no commitment required

I know I showed these guys yesterday but I am so enamored with them I thought a closer look was warranted.

Not because they are so amazing but because they instantly have me rethinking all the cheap-o curtains I bought at TJ Max that are hanging around my house.  They were just so easy and allow an easy change up if I ever feel the need for a change in scenery around here.

Here's what I did:

STEP 1: Obtain desirable fabric at appropriate length for your windows.  This was some of my Marimekko fabric that measures just under 60 inches long across and is a nice heavier weight.  I had enough length to cut it in half, one for each side.

STEP 2: Finish edges. I left the selvedges as my sides so that didn't require any sewing to finish (and I like to preserve the name and designer of the particular Marimekko I used-its what the Finns seemed to do).  I then sewed a two inch hem on the top of the fabric and a three inch hem on the bottom.

STEP 3:  Head to Bed, Bath and Beyond (or another such store) and get yourself some drapery rings.  I used one for each panel.

STEP 4: Clip those guys at equal measures across the top (two inch hem) side of the panel and hang her up.

The whole process (besides the drive to BBB) took about fifteen minutes and I think they look great.  If I get tired of these fabrics its no big deal to swap them out with something else and the stitches would come out very easily so that I could reuse this fabric for something else.

Click here 
to enter my giveaway for your own panel of this lovely Marimekko! 
Entries close at midnight Sunday May 1st

Today I'm linking up with:

     

Marimekko: My New Obsession and a GIVEAWAY

While in Finland I gained many new obsessions.  

Marimekko being chief among them.

I think every home we visited had Marimekko in some form: 

curtains, tableclothes, pillow shams, etc....

One of the cousins we visited there lives very near the Marimekko outlet and we happened to visit on their Friends day, meaning that everything in the already discounted outlet store was even more discounted.

So I went a little crazy.

I came home with more than I planned on buying however I still seem to feel like there is more I wish I would have bought.  Item number one turned into the above picture curtains.  I love them!

The also sell the fabric plastic coated so this little beauty came home and is now our tablecloth.  Totally stain free safe/kid proof and it makes me happy each time I see it.

 These last three little numbers came home with me not quite decided as to what they will become.  I think the orange/white/blue number would make fun circle shaped throw pillows and then with my red bullseye I can't decide between table cloth or framing it and hanging it on the wall.

We'll see.

And now onto our giveaway.

I brought you friends home a little trip treat of your own.

Its the Unikko blue, a very popular design.

The piece measures 41"x57" and would make a great curtain, tablecloth, wall hanging or quilt back.

and it will go to the lucky winner of our giveaway.

Here are the rules:

There are two options to enter-

Make sure you make a comment for each entry that you do.  

One comment=One entry

Entry #1

Become a follower of this blog (or if you already are, just say that) and leave me a comment telling me what you would do with this fabric if it were to come home to you.

Entry #2

Share this giveaway on Facebook or your own blog.  Make sure to leave me a link.  I love to see your blogs!

Giveaway will close midnight, Sunday May 1.

Goodluck!

I'm back

hello there friends!

i'm back from my week in Finland and let me say, it was amazing.

obviously with the amount of unpacking and jet lag recovery going on around here, there hasn't been much time for quilting of any kind.

i sense a few more days of putting things back together before we get back to our regularly scheduled programing.

until then i thought i'd share a few sneak peeks of my pictures and favorite Finland moments.

one of the fun things about stores in Finland is that you can find fabric for sale in the most unlikely of places.

for real.

this was in Stockman, Finland's major department store.

check out the thread and notions wall over there!

Stay tuned for my Merimekko show and tell.

I'll give you a hint and a teaser....it was friends day at the Merimekko outlet store the day we went and I used the price savings to just buy more fabric.

I brought a little trip treat home for you guys and we'll post it on a giveaway starting next week some come back for that.

see you then!

JayBird Quilts Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY!

There is a GREAT giveaway going on at JayBird Quilts.

When she first posted her off the rail pattern I instantly declared I needed the fabrics from this quilt.  I love them!

Today is the last day to enter for your chance to win.  Good luck!

Finished It Up Friday or {Avsluta Det På Fredag!}

{handväskor för kusiner}

I have four lady cousins who I thought might like little purses (handväskor).  I've seen so many cute little purses rolling around the bloggosphere and on flickr I thought I'd try my hand at them.

This project could also be titled, "Tyra Figures Out Zippers"

They are tricky little things although once I realized I had a zipper foot, they got quite a bit easier.  I am unfortunately one of those people who just seems to have to learn by trial and error.

"Look on youtube!" I shout to myself.

"Read a book!" I yell to myself.

"Just read the directions on the package!" I beg myself.

But to no avail.

I think they turned out kinda sweet and I hope the cousins (kusiner) like them!

Grattis på födelsedagen!

Today is my birthday and since my present to myself was landing in Finland on my birthday, I have nothing frabric related to show you.  About a million years ago my grandfather promised me a trip to Finland to spend time with our family there if I'd learn Swedish, which I did.  But never was able to take him up on the offer before he passed away three years ago.  But my Joshua and his frequent flyer miles stepped in about two months ago when my brother and his wife mentioned they were going and so here I am.

(Hej hej!)

Its been a long time since I've celebrated my birthday without my Mr. Taff and at these little boys (well I suppose this would have been Asher's first time to wish me happy birthday outside the womb but you get the point) so we still had to have some sort of celebration before I left.  

(er...don't look at the messy kitchen or left side of the table okay?  I've been busy packing..no time to prep photos to look like I clean my house..)

About six months ago I baked a batch of cupcakes and froze them along with a baggie full of individual serving sized dollops of frosting.  Monday as I was packing I pulled three cupcakes and three dollops out of the freezer and stuck a candle in one and we had ourselves a birthday party.  

 I like vanilla and my boys like chocolate so this individual freezer method lets us all have what we want without the leftovers.

 My Carver

 My little Asher attempting for the first time the "more" sign I've been trying to teach him for weeks.  Turns out  he just needed a chocolate motivation to ask for more.  He did it as soon as he saw Josh take a bite out of his cupcake.

Lucky for him his daddy is a softy for giving his kids chocolate.  

Grattis på födelsedagen!

Some Mini Quilts

Today I am flying away to Finland.

That's right.  Finland!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight which is probably why its midnight, I'm leaving for the airport in five and a half short hours and I'm on the computer instead of sleeping.

Anyhoos, in preparations for my trip I made a few little gifties for my family I'll be staying with in Finland.

Here are two little samplers I thought I'd share before I head out.

There are three sisters who are my grandfather's cousins although they are more like my mother's age and their children are my age so they are more like dear, fun aunts and I can hardly wait to see them soon.  

I made two of them identical mini quilts to be used as table runners.  I call them my little table quilts and I love the colors and how they turned out.  They really remind me of a Marimekko fabric which is fun since I've begged them to take me to the Marimekko store when I am there.  I must just have had it on the brain.

The third sister is a great lover of purple so she really had to have a purple table quilt.

I have been itching to try my hand at a zig zag quilt and this was the perfect opportunity.

I think I'll be making myself a full sized one at some point.  I really love me some zig zag.

So that's what we've got today.  I've got a few more homemade gifties that I'm bringing but I'll save those for another post later in the week.  

For now I've got to print off a few more hexie templates for my plane ride and dig out my Swedish dictionary (yes its Finland but we're Swedish-Finns.  Vi pratta svenska okay?)

And I'm on my way.

And before I leave I'm linking up with these fun linky parties:

   

Finished It Up Friday {#1}

Finished It Up Friday: A New Linky Party to Crash

I was thinking it might be fun to do a little Linky Party around here.

Just something to end the week and cleanse the palette.

And maybe cruise around for some more inspiration to get you going on your weekend?

<center><a href="http://www.silverlilysews.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="SilverLily Likes to Sew" src="http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j421/SilverLilySews/FinishitupFriday.jpg"/></a></center>

So let's get this going, shall we?

Come back tomorrow to join in on Finish it Up Friday.

Here's the rules:


1.  Link up with any post for the week showcasing a project you've finished.  If you're like me, you've got about twenty juggling around the WIP bin and I know if feels good to FINISH something


2.  Paste this here button on your blog post or sidebar 


3. Visit the fellow crafter who linked in just ahead of you and leave some nice praise/encouragement/happy words about their Finished work.  Its just nice to spread the love, don't you think?

This is going to be my motivation to FINISH at least one thing per week.

And then the next week we'll feature one linky friend's finished projects.

How about that?

So come back tomorrow and let's get this linky party started, shall we?

for the playroom: a picture

I've been drooling over what Chrissy from In His Grace has been creating.  She does beautiful artwork and I've been itching to add some to our walls.  I love her use of bright colors and the incorporation of such lovely, spiritual messages. 

I bought her print of Phillipians 4:8 and put it over our computer.  

So often my husband and I are talking about all the media we watch (via computer since we don't have TV) and how we want to make sure that what media we are letting into our home is good and worthwhile. 

I thought putting it right here above the computer would be a good reminder.

I bought the frame at the Goodwill behind our neighborhood and painted it with leftover paint from the shelves   my pops and I did last week.

I should have done a before and after shot because it really did transform an ugly piece of trash looking thing to a lovely, sunny addition to our room.

So that's my little DIY moment for the week!

This isn't even a sponsored plug for her shop.  I really just love not only the brightly colored, fun art she does but the spiritual roots behind it.

On my wish list is this, this and this.  Oh and this.

Click here to head over to Chrissy's Etsy shop and see for yourself what lovely creations she's got there!

Today I'm linking up with: