Gudrun´s World

Last summer days

I can't believe a month went by this fast! It's mid September and I feel like we were just flipping our calendars to August! The saying "Time flies when you are having fun" is very true. The past month has been so busy with fun stuff. We had a lot of friends visit us from Iceland and I was able to take some time off to enjoy their company. Since then, it's been knee deep in work, trying to get things done before Quilt Market which is less than 6 weeks away! I will be able to show you some previews very soon!

It's sad to see summer go although we are sailing into the most beautiful season here in Minnesota. We got our last boating/beaching day in last weekend.

It was a gorgeous day with perfect temperatures to play!

Gisli had to do some last rope swinging of the summer!

Maybe I will have to try this next summer!! It looks so much fun. Although, I will definitely not have the gorgeous gymnast dismount like he does:/

One thing I am going to be sad about with summer leaving.... no more Hummingbirds outside my window. I have had so much fun watching them this summer, we put up a feeder right in front of our house and we have a few birds coming to it on a regular basis.

I got these shots through my front door window!!

I was pretty amazed to catch these photos because these tiny creatures are super fast!

I hope you have had a great summer and are gearing up for fall. Are you sad to see summer leave or excited for fall and winter?

Quiltistry

I got to be a part of a very fun event this past June that took place in New Ulm, Minnesota. This was the first year of this Quiltistry event which hopefully will be held on a regular basis. It was put on by a group of women owned specialty shops and businesses in downtown New Ulm. 

The day started out with a morning tea session at the The Grand Kabaret, where I was the featured speaker. This is a very special place with a lot of history and I just loved the interior.

I only had my phone to take pictures and of course didn´t pull it out until after everyone had left.

The Grand Kabaret has live music and comedians on their stage on a regular basis. This morning.....a quilt designer from Iceland!! 

It was pretty cool! Thank you to all the ladies that came out early on a Saturday morning to listen to my gab!

They had a specific Quilt Trolley going around town that day to take quilters to the different events.

New Ulm has some wonderful buildings dating back to their German settlers and one of the highlights that day was the outdoor quilt show on German Street. I took the stroll on my lunch break and took some photos:

One of the quilts on display was made from my Destiny line of fabric from a few years ago.

Peeking through the window on that same house, I spotted another quilt in the porch from my Amma´s Garden fabric line, which matched the flowers in the window boxes. What a fun surprise.

Across the street there were quilts strung between the trees! Gorgeous!

In the afternoon there were workshops offered taught by me, Chris Hoover from Whirligig Designs and the local shops.

It was a very fun day in the cutest little town and I highly recommend checking it out next time if you are in the area.

 

Summer celebrations

It was Svana´s birthday this week. She turned the big 10!! Double digits! It´s a big deal you know. For me, the bigger deal was realizing that it´s been 10 years since I held her in my arms the day she was born, not believing that I actually had a girl! My last baby. 10 YEARS!! WOW. 

It seems like she was like this just a little bit of time ago! 

No more Dora ponytails, princess dresses or twirling in the living room.........more like hair straightener, short shorts, tanktops and hip hop dancing!! The girl is growing up fast. We still have the bright smile though and those gorgeous eyes.......and Justin Bieber in every other sentence! Love you to the moon and back girl:-)

My son Atli has been in Iceland this summer and we are excited to have him home next week. Even if it is only going to be for a day or two because he needs to report to college for the soccer preseason right away.

The kids are super excited to see him. It has definitely not been the same without him. 

My sewing machine has been working quite a bit this month. I am working on a new book! YES, a new Fast & Furious book....I can tell you that much! Lots of fun things that I will be able to share more about soon as the project comes together.

My newest fabric is in stores now! It´s called SUPER and has definitely got some summer freshness going on! The Fat Quarter Shop has some juicy bundles along with yardage of the whole line here.

Just to refresh your memory, I did two patterns with these fabrics that were released this spring.

On The Move, a quilt as you go kids/crib quilt

and

Road Trip - quilt as you go DVD or CD Holders.

To celebrate, I did put a few On The Move kits in the Kit Shop, check it out here.

I hope you are having a great summer to celebrate!

 

 

 

Summer is on!

Hello friends. I hope you are enjoying your summer just like I am. I had a very busy June so July has been the regroup month for me. As bad as the weather was in June here in Minnesota, July has just been heavenly with lots of sunshine and heat to warm my bones.

I have started working on new things for the fall here in the studio, slowly but surely. I am trying to get my routine going again with blogging and keeping up with the social networking. I will get there. It's always a challenge when the kids are home and they want to do fun stuff in the afternoon. So we have been swimming, boating, bike riding, going on ice cream runs and all kinds of fun stuff too.

Graduation went great! Atli did a greeting in Icelandic at the beginning of the ceremony. Very Cool.

I wanted to quick show you my June quilting project. This was the only thing I made in June....it was kind of important though....the T-Shirt quilt for Atli's graduation. It was worth the late hours...he loved it!

Here it is hanging outside for the grad party

I used all of his soccer jerseys to decorate with....he has quite a few!!

Now that I am officially back....I won't keep you waiting for another blog post...promise!

 

Winners!!

Thank you all for participating in the blog hop book tour. It has been a real treat reading all of your wonderful comments. Here are the TWO winners from my blog:

# 111.....Joan said: "Very cute decorating ideas. Would make great gifts too!"

and

#479......Deb said: "Leftovers in food: it means i have a free afternoon to sew instead of cooking supper that night. Leftovers in fabric: love, love, love to find ways to use it all up! Thanks for the chance."

Make sure you check for your name on my fellow guest bloggers sites since they have all pulled a winner of a Table Talk book from their comments as well.

If you were not the lucky one to win your own copy of the book, I know many of you talked about getting it. You can order it here on the Pickledish website, here at the Fat Quarter Shop or if you prefer Etsy you can hit up my kit shop here.

Thanks again for your participation in the hop, it was so fun!

I will be taking a little bloggy break until later in the month. My oldest son Atli is graduating next week and I am knee deep in preparation for the party and family coming to visit. My parents and grandmother are coming from Iceland and staying with us for a week or so and one of Atli´s childhood friends is also coming for a visit from Iceland. It´s gonna be a great time.

Table Talk Blog Tour: Final Day!!

Hi everyone, and thanks for sticking with me this week. If you are new today, welcome to the Book Tour. Today my featured blogger is my publisher Kansas City Star and their website and blog Pickledish....to be more exact, it´s Diane that is writing the post today. 

Table Talk is the first book that I have done with a publisher, I have always self published my books and I was a little nervous about the whole publishing route to begin with. I have to say though, I didn't really need to be nervous because it was a wonderful process, I got to make a lot of decisions myself so that the book really does look like something I would have done on my own which I think is really important. My editor Kent Richards was a dream to work with, we agreed on everything regarding the book so it was just a breeze!!

Let me answer the most popular question in the comments so far, in case you are not the lucky one to win your own copy of the book, you can order it here on the Pickledish website, here at the Fat Quarter Shop or if you prefer Etsy you can hit up my kit shop here.

Ok, lets get to the last quilts in the book that I haven´t showed you yet. 

Let´s start with a quilt called Emma´s Courtyard. 

I just love this quilt. Not only because it is named after my mom Emma and inspired by the idea of sitting in my parent´s backyard. I love quilts where you can really showcase a good floral or a good main print. This one, you can put your favorite fabric in the center of the quilt and tie everything together by repeating the same fabric in the border.

The fabric is from my Flair fabric line with Red Rooster Fabrics which should be still available in stores. It has been doing well so they printed it again and I believe the reprint has been shipping the last few days. This photo is taken at Yvonne´s house, my right hand gal! She just happened to have the perfectly matching vase & dried hydrangeas.....I think she might have to end up with that quilt after all...don't you think. It just looks so great there;)

Next up is City Square.

This quilt was inspired by a certain park in my little hometown that I used to walk through each time when I would visit my grandma after school. It had these little walkways that created a maze like pattern and I remember loving taking a different route each day to see different flowers and arrangements.

I used Halo, my fabric line that was released to stores last fall for this quilt. It has just a fun, retro feel to it and I loved mixing those retro blues, browns and greens with the pink for the flowers.

Last but not least....

Sticks and Stones. This is a Fat Quarter Quilt made from 8 medium/dark fat quarters and 4 light FQ's! Now.....I am not going to tell you how many of these quilts I could make based on the number of fat quarters I have in my sewing room....but I bet most of you could pull off that number and get that quilt made. Am I right?:)

I have always been a sucker for chain quilts and really, the scrappier the better! The scrappy border ties it all together and makes it sing....right!!

I can't leave you without one of the recipes in the book, especially with all your great comments on them. Kate complained about thinking she would be loosing focus on her sewing because of the Hot Fudge Pudding cake recipe next to the finishing instructions of City Square! I thought that was really funny....because honestly, I didn't really think about that when I was writing. Come to think of it now...I probably would loose focus myself having that recipe next to the finishing instructions!! I would at least have to take a break and try the recipe!

Well, here it is peeps!!

-------------------------------------------------

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

 

1-1/4 cup  Sugar, divided

1 cup  Flour

7 tbsp Cocoa, divided

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Milk

1/3 cup Butter, melted

1-1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup packed Light Brown Sugar

1-1/4 cups Hot Water

 

Heat oven to 350°. Combine 3/4 cup sugar, flour, 3 tbsp cocoa, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Blend in milk, butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour batter into a square pan.

In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar, remaining cocoa and brown sugar. Sprinkle mixture over batter, evenly. Pour hot water over top, do not stir. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Let stand 15 minutes, spoon into dessert bowls, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. 8-10 servings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish I had a photo for you because it just looks and smells divine.....maybe tomorrow I will....my mouth is already watering!!!

Make sure to add your comments because the prize packet is getting even bigger. When I saw Kate giving away her scraps, I thought....what a great idea!! When I am working from a new line, I always throw my scraps in this basket I have on my cutting table and make sure to clean it out before the next line arrives. Well.....can you see how overflowing this thing is with my SUPER fabric!! (sorry for the bad iPhone pic) I would love for you to have some of this to play with before the line comes out. Sooo....here is what is happening....

I AM DOUBLING THE PRIZES!!

There will be two winners that will get: A Table Talk Book, A Shooting Stars kit, 2 yds of BOSAL fusible fleece, A set of my 4 new patterns and half of that scrap basket!!!

Make sure you comment on this post and the others this week because I am randomly drawing two names from comments from the whole week!! 

Thanks so much for reading this week, I just love hearing from you in the comments. Have a great holiday weekend!

 

Table Talk Blog Tour: Day 4

Thanks for hanging with me this week and welcome to day 4 of the book tour. It was so interesting to read that so many of you haven't tried fusible fleece for "Quilt As You Go". I am telling you, when you get your hands on some Bosal, you will not be disappointed, love the stuff:) It's always great to hear when I am able to be a little informative here on the blog and not just rambling into cyberspace:)

Today's stop on the book tour is the east coast and the brilliant blog of the superstar designer, Kate Spain. I was lucky enough to meet this wonderful lady for the first time at Quilt Market in Minneapolis a year ago. I had of course fallen in love with her fabrics way before and after some chats through e-mail and meeting her in person, I fell in love with the person. She is just as gorgeous as her designs, inside and out:) Stop by her blog today and add a comment because she is giving a book away too.

Kate's designs have been licensed by many big companies, I love her dishes at Crate & Barrel, bought all the paper products from Target last Christmas with her designs and the stationary is beautiful. Her fabrics are just wonderful too and I think I have made something from each of her lines. You can see the stockings from Fast & Furious Holiday in the picture above; they are made from her 12 Days of Christmas line. Her newest Christmas line is called Flurry and will be in stores very soon. I used Flurry for the square version of my new pattern Strip To Be Square. I absolutely love it and can't wait to hang it up for the Holidays.

I used Kate's Verna fabric line for one of the runners in the book. This runner got the interesting name Jelly Jar Runner. I know you are wondering why.

This runner is in the leftover chapter of the book. I was making a quilt with a Jelly roll and then I had all of these pretty little rectangles left over from the strips. They were too colorful and happy to throw away so I quickly put them together to make the runner. The thought of having the rectangles laying around my sewing room made me think of all the Jelly Jars clogging up the fridge, each with just a little bit of jelly on the bottom. I actually cleaned them out and used them up too.

I am usually this way about my fabric leftovers. If I don't find use for them right away, they get packed away and forgotten about. Until the next spring cleaning when I dig them out again and most likely end up throwing them out.

I couldn't be happier with this little gem, it looked perfect propped on Yvonne's vintage Coca Cola cooler. And now I have a matching runner to my quilt:)

This next runner is called Scrappy Daisies Runner.

This runner was also made from leftover 2-1/2" strips. I had some strips from 2 of Camille & Bonnie's fabric lines and they really worked well together. Some of my leftover strips were only 10" long, so I used 4 different fabrics for each flower. The backgrounds are all different too, but that is the beauty of scrap quilts. When you get them all put together, they just sing.

As an extra bonus it just matches my kitchen perfectly.

This little cutie is Easy Hex. It uses 2 fat quarters and some leftover 1-1/2" strips and it is a "Quilt As You Go" project.

We had two other cuties posing with this project, my daughter Svana on the right and Briar, Paula's daughter (my photographer) on the left.

It started out real cute...

..but with a truckload of candy displayed in front of your face..

..smelling sweet and delicious....

.....It just gets too tempting....

...and just fun:) 

There is just something about leftovers...either you love them or you hate them. My family loves leftovers and the kids actually prefer them over regular breakfast any time! But I think there is one thing that we all agree on...that is having too many leftovers filling up our fridge and then having to throw them away is a very bad thing. I feel the same way about my fabric leftovers, just gotta use them up if I can....fast!

Today I am adding a set of my 4 new patterns to the prize packet so make sure you add a comment today. How do you feel about leftovers? Love....Hate....???

Table Talk Blog Tour: Day 3

I have had so much fun reading all of your comments and they have truly made my heart sing. So many of you share my passions with fabric....and food!! Stay tuned, hopefully I can inspire you even more. We have quite a few projects still to come:)

Our featured guest today is Monique Dillard, the genius behind Open Gate Quilts. Hop on over to her blog and remember to comment...yeah, she is giving away a Table Talk book as well:)

Monique has a new book out called Fat Quarter Winners and I am for sure getting my hands on that book. You know I love using my fat quarter "collection" for projects. I just love the cover quilt on the book and I know that there are other gorgeous quilts in that book.

Monique also designs fabric for Maywood studios, beautiful collections that have a little bit of an old world sophistication and french inspiration. Her fabric line, Olde World Style inspired one of my table toppers in the Table Talk Book.

Meet French Inspiration! This is a "Quilt As You Go" table topper that comes together as easy as pie! Or should I say as easy as quiche!!

Because quiche is pretty easy....at least if you use refrigerated pie crust like I do! Yes, I've got the recipe for the quiche in the book, it's one of my kid's favorite meals. Quilt As You Go is just as easy, if not easier than quiche. Here are some more of those projects.

This runner is called Windows of the World. Now, I love a quilt that you can personalize to make it fit your life. This one is perfect for that because you can use some 2-1/2" strips you have laying around or some Layer Cake squares that didn't make it into the last quilt. You can even make it longer just by adding some units to the runner. Now if that would only work for the clothes that you buy!!

 

 I used a wonderful Kansas City Star collection called Perennials for the runner along with a background fabric from my stash:)

Summer Fling is a really fun little topper, made entirely from Fat Quarters. I say entirely because the leftovers get pieced together for the backing. I loved the fun and happy colors of this fabric line by  Quilt Soup, Summertime. This one will definitely be topping my table soon.

You would not believe how hard it was to get that fish to cooperate for the photo shoot!! What they say about animals in movies is very true:) It took us forever to wait for him to make his way around the little fish bowl so that he didn't look like a glob of dirt or like somebody dropped their gum in there. It all worked out in the end and I am so happy this idea of having a goldfish in a pretty bowl in one of my books came true. I have seriously been obsessing about it for a while!!

The Countdown runner is already a crowd pleaser. Everybody seems to love this runner. It really does make life very easy....you only have to pick 2 fabrics, 1 fat quarter of one and 1 yard of another. Because it is a quilt as you go, you get it done in a couple of hours and on your table to enjoy right away. We all need instant gratification every once and a while.

 

This one was a little bit of a challenge to photograph. We tried it in many places and it just never clicked. I knew it needed a glamorous backdrop and I almost bought one of those cool mirror dressers to use for the shoot. Then I remembered this silver chest at my friend Cameron's house so we hurried over there, popped the runner on the chest and.....perfection! Even the cool painting in the background gives it the extra pop that it needed! Thanks Cameron:)

Are you ready to find out what will be added to the prize package today? It's not bacon.....not the champagne in the picture either....(it's long gone, who are we kidding:)

I am adding some of my favorite product to use when I am making a Quilt As You Go project. BOSAL fusible fleece! It is the best stuff around, I tell ya! It is fusible on one side so you can just fuse your backing to the batting and start sewing right away. The fusible webbing dissolves so nicely so that you are not feeling it through the fabric after your quilt is done. Just try it, the quality is like no other.

Remember to comment to add your name to the pot, each day increases the chances. Have you tried using fusible fleece when you "Quilt As You Go?

 

Table Talk Blog Tour: Day 2

Welcome back to the tour. Today the featured stop on the tour is Iowa and the entertaining blog of Sandy Gervais. 

Here she is in her adorable booth at quilt market with her husband Bruce. They are my favorite couple to meet up with each time at quilt market, so fun and nice. Make sure to hop over to her blog and comment because she is giving away a Table Talk book.

Sandy creates the most adorable fabric lines every year....many a year actually and I always have to have a little bit of each one. I used her fabric called Lollipop for the Sassy Blooms runner in the book.

The colors are so vibrant and fun that we thought it would work perfectly to photograph it with a party theme. I knew I wanted cupcakes in the photo.....what is a party without cupcakes? I had a hard time finding "matching" cupcakes though.

Solution: I just took some of Sandy's fabric to the bakery and asked if they could make a custom sprinkle mix that would match the fabrics!! And they did!

This runner is made from fat quarters and fat eighths, I am sure you all have some of those in your stash ready to go right?

Here are some more runners from the book.

This is Rock Canyon. I love this runner. I love the contrast of the fabric, I love the colors and it is a perfect size to fit anywhere. 

The fabrics all came from my stash so there is a little bit of this and that, some Moda, some Riley Blake and some my own fabric design. They all work together so well though that you might think they are all from the same line!

Shooting Stars is another runner made from fat quarters. 

It is made from my Flair fabric line and we found this perfect spot to photograph it in my assistant Yvonne's yard.

The color of the background fabric matched the bench perfectly and the cooler colors looked so good against the snow.

Most of the quilts in the pieced project part of the book use fat quarters, fat eighths and other sewing room staples. I love being able to go to my stash and pull fabrics for a new project when I feel the urge to spruce up my table. Just as I love to be able to cook a meal with things that I already have. Included in that same chapter are some recipes that I make regularly for that exact reason....the grocery store is not my favorite place to go! You will find Harvest soup, Hot Fudge Pudding cake and Lettuce Wraps.

Today I am adding a KIT for the SHOOTING STARS runner to the prize package. Yes, the winner will get a book and a full kit for the runner....and I will be adding more goodies each day. You can comment every day to multiply your chances of winning. I would love to hear if you have any sewing room staples to whip up any of these runners. Or if you have any of the kitchen staples to make the soup! The only things you absolutely have to have are potatoes, frozen corn and bacon. Everything else can pretty much be substituted. Doesn't every kitchen have bacon available at all times?

Table Talk Blog Tour: Day 1

Welcome to my book tour featuring my new Table Talk book, published by Kansas City Star. I am dedicating the whole week to posting about the book and will be giving away copies of the book and some other great prizes along the way.

Make sure you visit here each day of the week, add a comment to put your name in the pot for the prizes. By commenting each day, you increase your chance to win.

Joining me on the tour are 5 fabulous bloggers and today the featured stop is the Jolly Jabber and the wonderful miss Kimberly. Make sure you stop by there too because each of the bloggers will be giving a book away as well.

 

When I started discussing the concept of the book with my wonderful editor Kent, he told me that we had to include some of my history, growing up in Iceland and how I ended up in this quilting world. Thinking back to my childhood there was definitely something that stood out to me right away. My earliest memories of any gatherings of friends and relatives or any  conversations within the family, whether they were any day stuff or major political discussions, all involved the dining table or the kitchen table. I knew right away that I wanted to write a book filled with quilts that you can top your table with to tie that together with my history. Along with the table projects, I included some of my favorite recipes, both classic recipes from my mom and grandmothers and others from my own kitchen.

The book is broken into 4 chapters; Pieced Projects, Holiday Projects, Quilt As You Go Projects and Leftover Projects.

I am going to start off with the Holiday projects.

 

Do you remember this block? It was a part of the Fat Quarter Shops Designer Mystery BOM. I talked about it here last year.

I just loved this block and wanted to do something more with it and came up with the Wrap It Up runner.

 

 

 

Two of the gift blocks anchor the runner on each end and the centerpiece is a large, festive star. I loved using the polkadot background fabric, it really makes the runner whimsical and fun.

The stripe cut on the bias for binding adds some extra fun factor as well. The fabrics I used were from the Colorful Christmas collection by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake.

 

The Mistletoe Magic topper has a little bit of appliqué and I used wool for mine. I love mixing wools with cottons because it adds texture and interest to a quilt. Wool is also very easy to machine appliqué because it is very forgiving;)

For the fabrics, I used some of the Noel collection by Susan Winget for Benartex along with some of my stash fabrics.

The Jolly Woods runner was a really fun project to work on. It does have some smaller pieces but it all comes together with simple construction. It's all worth it in the end.

I also used the  Colorful Christmas collection for this runner, I just fell in love with the happy and bright colors and prints.

 

Do you use holiday quilts for your tables?

Remember to add your comments to be eligible to win a book. Remember to stop by Kimberly's blog to increase your chances to win.

I'll see you back here tomorrow.