Cutting

Cut almost 200 3" squares today, and when I put them all out on the floor, I was pleased :-)

I did cut another 50 dark/black squares so it's dark all along the outer edges. So now I have app 450 3" squares....
I can't wait to finish this. I don't think Charles will let me leave it on the floor until I eventually get around to sewing it, so I'm thinking I'll put each row in an envelope.... Any good ideas as to how to store this?

Viola bought me this flower, I love it....

Happy me!

Today I got a package from Diana Martin in the mail...

She sent me so many beautiful pieces of fabric, Viola's favourites are SpongeBob and a blue print with stars and silver glitter, the candycanes, the cherries...... You get the idea :-)
I love the birds! The blue fabric on the bottom, it's so beautiful! I wonder if I'll be able to cut into that?!

Diana also sent this fun project:


This is going to be so great, Viola and I will get started on that asap!
Thank you so very much, Diana! I am completely overwhelmed! Now it's on to cutting, and then sewing! Exciting!

My mail-man also brought me this fabulous pattern I found on etsy

I looooove that red dress! I want that to be my wedding-dress! Only...in white and a little longer.

But today I had to sew a balaclavae for Viola. Can't let those little ears get cold...


Here's the pattern, if you have little ones prone to ear-infections...

Hopefully, I'll get all the cutting done soon, it's such a pleasure when working with such beautiful fabrics!
And then, it'll be on to sewing!!!

Finally spring

Today was a beautiful spring-day, so i packed up the kids and the bike, and we went to our favourite playground.

Viola had a blast on the jungle-gym -while I tried not to run around wanting to catch her just-in-case!

Ask tried to eat everything in sight, and I tried equally hard to stop him from it....


So basically, I needed an extra arm :-) But what else is new?!
We had such a good time!

Fabric in the mail!

I must be the luckiest person alive!

Today my mailman brought me two packages (and some bills, but lets forget about them!).

The first package was from Christiane of Blickfangquilts in Germany. She makes the most amazing quilts, take a look at her use of pink! I am so impressed with her work. And look at the scraps she sent me.... Beautiful!


The second package from Jackie of Canton Village Quilt Works in the US. She is a very talented quilter, the work she does on her longarm quilting machine is fantastic... I can certainly see why she is a busy woman :-)
Jackie sent me two packages of pre-cut 4"squares, this is one of them!

Ask was looking at the other package as I was taking this picture.
I'm so thrilled to have these to put into my I SPY quilt!

Thank you both so very very much! I am so happy and so very very grateful!

Stash justified

Now it's finally spring! And that means no more winter-clothes in kindergarten. It's too warm... However, spring came suddenly, and the warm rainpants I ordered for Viola are not here until friday! What to do?!

Well, either go out and buy something else....no! Or dig into the stash, and see if there is something useful.....

Wind- and waterproof pants with flannel-lining :-)
The fabric was meant for Ask, but since he doesn't start daycare until next month, he'll be okay!

The color is not something I would normally choose for Viola, so to make up for that, I put a little sequin-heart-patch on one leg.

That also makes it easier for her to see how to put on the pants :-)

She likes them and was happy to wear them today.

Thank you!!!

I ordered two patterns from Lisa Boyer not so long ago.....and look what I received in the mail today!


The patterns I ordered....and fabrics and a pattern for Ask and Viola! I have made plans to re-do their room, and have been thinking that a wall-hanging would be a good idea.
Now I just need to get started! Can't wait, I'll start as soon as they are tucked in tonigth!

How to make life easier on yourself....

First, you make all tiresome jobs sound very very interesting and challenging. Then you look concerned when family-member asks to try, but say, "ok, then!"

And before you know it, your sweetie is getting fabrics ready for the washing machine :-)

And your sweet daugther is vacuuming!

She was so proud of herself. I did not let her do too much, though, it's quite heavy for a little girl.... So on to dusting! Much more age-appropriate :-D

.....now I just need to find something for Ask to do, and I'll be all set!

Done!

The skirt is finished and in use!
The flowerprint works really well on a small skirt, I think, and Viola loves it.


-Please ignore the messy room-


A few corrections, and this pattern is the easiest skirt ever! But this one doesn't twirl like the purple skirt, so that's still her favourite!

Another skirt

This time, Viola chose this Amy Butler print that has been sitting in my stash for over a year now. I think I bought it for a skirt for myself, but ended up thinking the colors were wrong for me.... Having red hair, I am VERY pale, even in summer!
But Viola is a blonde, and tans beautifully, so this will be perfect on her!

We spent most of the time making the pattern, she is very ticklerish = very hard to get measurements :-D
Hopfully we'll sew it tomorrow!

I have been tagged again, this time by Denise from Happy Apple Quilts :-)
I am not going to tag anyone, pretty much everybody I know in blogland have done this.

Anyway, I love doing these quirky things, so here we go:

1: I'm always cold...
2: I love the beach, but not in summer
3: I like to bake
4: My favourite book is John Miltons Paradise Lost
5: I drink tea, not coffee
6: I love Disneyland!
7: I like to wear skirts and dresses, but somehow I always end up in jeans. LOL!

So far, so good

Today I tried laying out the 3" squares I have for an I SPY. Fun. I can see how a big design-wall would be helpful, but I don't sew enough to justify taking up an entire wall ;-)


It was fun seeing the whole thing laid out like that, and it's going to be even better when I get the rest of the squares done! I can't wait to get it done, and start playing I SPY with the kids.

Viola looked at me in disbelief and said: "Oh but mom! We can't sew that much!"

Sweet :-)

....and look at my purple little one in her new skirt....

Purple skirt

I was so excited by the prospect of actually finishing something and Viola was very eager to get started, because she wanted a new purple skirt....have you guessed her favourite color yet?!

So I forgot to take pictures until we were almost done sewing!!

When it was time to sew on the binding, Viola was getting bored, and I remembered the camera!

I sewed most of this on my serger, and only did a little stitching on my sewing machine. I'm so happy with it, and even more importantly, so is Viola!

Oh....I almost forgot. It twirls! That seems to be the most important thing about a skirt ;-)

Preparations

Yesterdays half hour was spent preparing fabrics for washing. Viola was happy with the colors and patterns, her favourite is the purple with the green dragonflies.
Today, after washing and drying, we got the fabrics ready. Viola wants us to make some skirts out of these, so I guess that's what we'll get started on tomorrow.

I have an ongoing project....ok, the everpresent WIP..... I collect conversationals for an I SPY blanket for the childrens' room. I just cut some more today, and now I have 200 3" x 3" squares. I just figured out today (!!!) that charm squares are 5" x 5".....

Now, it would have been a little easier if I had used that size. Then I would not have had to do so much cutting. But oh well, now I'll remember the size forever :-)

You can do a lot in ½ hour a day!

I just read some of my previous posts, and boy do I whine about not having enough time to sew! So now I have decided that everyday (well, okay, almost every day) when Viola comes home from kindergarten, she and I will have special mom-and-Viola-craftiness-time!

She may not want to help, but that's okay, it'll still be a great little break for us to spend some quiet-time together, and it's absolutely okay to draw, color, play with her doll-house, or whatever else (see, I'm not even thinking that she may not want to be in the craft-room with me!)

Today, we made a present for her dad:


He had this sheet when I met him, he only had one, and it's very worn in places.... But I love the pattern!!
We have a mess of vitamins, lip-balms, lotion etc on a shelf in the kitchen, so today we made a little "bucket-bag" for all this stuff to go into!


I've been tagged by the lovely Nicole aka Craftapalooza!

So....now I have to find 6 random quirks about myself....

1: I don't like milk, and I love Coca-Cola!
2: I can't sleep if I know there are dirty dishes in the zink....
3: I'm a trained waldorf-teacher
4: I'm a sargeant from the Danish AirForce
5: I love to watch mindless tv
6: I think grey is the most beautiful haircolor!

I'm tagging block-a-day, Diana Martin, Magnolias and Sunshine, Puddinpop, House of Krom, Syko

And here are the rules:
1: Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Lap-top bag

I have needed a bag for my new lap-top, and for some reason, I have dreaded making it... But I finally figured that even a not-like-I-wanted-it-to-look-at-all bag, would be better than no bag ;-) So I chose some fabric.


These go well together, I think. Started sewing, Ask thought it was fun, until he realized, that he was not allowed to use the scissors!

A relatively small project, as I had to take all the easy-way-out choices, because Ask is not as eager to be by the sewing-machine as I am. So no zippers or other fancy stuff... But this will be what I take with me, when leaving the house to study in the future.


Now Ask is taking a well-deserved nap, and I need to reorganize all the stuff he pulled out from.....well.....pretty much everywhere.....


I'm happy. It doesn't look at all as I imagined it, but it works, and I love the fabrics!

The Rhino-whisperer.....

Today, we went to the Zoo.... Viola loves it, and she especially likes the large and somewhat messy animals, such as the hippos and the rhinos.
And it looks like the feeling is mutual!


She thought kisses from the rhino was the best thing ever!

This next picture is for Lisa.... She has shown us a lot of wild chickens in Hawaii, and although this is not exactly wild, it is still walking around the Copenhagen Zoo as if it owns the entire place.

It was so funny -and quite noisy!

Wonderful indeed!

Look at what I got in the mail today:

These patterns are from Wee Wonderfuls, and I can't wait to get started!

Since I don't have a lot of time to do crafty stuff these days, I seem to be buying a lot of fabric, patterns and other fun stuff.... Then I can sit and dream of days to come, when I can spend a whole day (or even just a couple of hours) sewing!

I need to get Ask equipped for daycare, so today he and I bought him his first pair of shoes! Aren't they the sweetest little shoes?!


Unfortunately, wearing shoes makes it really hard for him to walk.... Oh well, such is life. Loads of stuff to learn!

Work-work-work!

These past couple of days, I have been working on my project on patents.
And today I took a course: "Introduction to patents and patentsinformation". As I am certain most of you would be bored to tears, hearing too much about this, I will not go into detail :-)


Anyway, when I finally returned home, after a full day of learning, I had mail! YAY! I have no idea when I will get to try these gadgets out, but I will leave them in view....


Then I can try to motivate myself with little crafty treats....."when I have read two more chapters, I can make a giant yo-yo".....