What to do?!

I've started quilting the I SPY. If I don't get my act together, this will end up as a UFO and will clutter up both my sewing room and my mind! I can't stand having these unfinished things lying around, they are constant reminders, of what I need to do.

So I started pinning... I bought a little box of safety pins, but nowhere near enough for basting a quilt this size. So I used regular pins, and it worked out fine. Actually a lot better than I expected! I gave my new walking foot a test-run, and I must be doing something wrong :-( It looked horrible, the fabric on the back got all pulled and wrinkled -like it does when the tension is off....

I need to bind it, and then I will show you some pictures of the whole thing...but it may be a while! The kids and I are going to my parents' house next week. But so far so good, right!

And thank you all so much for your nice comments wishing Charles a speedy recovery! He had caught a very persistent bug, but he is all better now. Thank goodness!
......but he has not eaten any jam yet. He did taste it, though, but only because Viola asked him.......who can say no to a 3 year old asking a nice and polite question?!

Homemade strawberry-jam

My parents have more strawberries in their vedgetable-garden than they know what to do with! To help them avoid the our-freezer-is-full-of-strawberries-scenario, I happily took 3-4 kg off their hands :-)

And really, making jam is not that hard. My biggest problem was finding enough jars to keep it in. But that was worked out pretty fast!

The real problem with my jam-making was -and I am embarassed to say, I didn't even think about it until it was too late- that Charles has the flu.
Can you imagine what the sweet sweet smell of strawberries cooking on the stove can do to someone who has an upset stomach and really bad nausea?! Not pretty!

It might just be me and the kids eating this....I don't think Charles will be too eager!

June miniquilt, sneak peek

The 6"-12" mini quilt swap on Flickr is finally on its way....and this little quilt has such a long way to go! I am still practicing the hourglass-blocks using AmandaJeans tutorial.

These blocks are 2" square when finished. There is a little bulk in the corners where the blocks meet, I tried to press it flat, but there is so much fabric right there. Any ideas on what to do??

I'll show you the whole miniquilt later, once it has reached its new home :-)

Fantastic mail!

I entered I'm a ginger monkey's contest to help name her new Bernina -and I won!! Yay! And look what the wonderfully talented Katy sent me!!! I love it. Look at the embroidered tail onthe bird....it's so sweet!
And I got my 6-12" miniquilt from tessophia. This is a Flickrswap I really enjoy. She made this little beauty especially for Ask. How cute is that?! The handquilting on this is so so pretty. He loves it, and I'll hang it over his bed.
As if that was not plenty of mail-love, I also got this absolutely amazing package from Anne in Finland. It has lots of large pieces of Marimekko fabrics
I LOVE these, they are so so beautiful! Thank you so much!

Anne also sent all these Moomin-goodies -look at the pink and baby-blue Moomin-fabric with matching stripes!
She sent mugs for the children, Viola wanted Ask to have this one
And she wanted this for herself
This is the green Moomin-fabric I laid everything out on in the first photo
Thank you Anne! I cannot tell you how many oooohhs and aaawwwws and smiles we have had opening your generous gift. Ask and Viola want to use their new mugs with every meal, and Viola wants me to save the napkins for her birthday-party :-)

DONE!

Thank you for all the support and all the kind words!
I just got home, and I got a 12! Or an A for those of you who use that scale....
So I'm happy, and very relieved......and.....no more studying until September! My parents came to take care of Ask, who came down with a fever yesterday afternoon. And they bought me a walking foot for my Bernina! That is great, I have so many plans for sewing-projects this summer, and they all need quilting! And I can start right away, and use it to quilt their Christmas-present -how great is that!?

I just wanted to let you all know, that my dreaded exam is over, and I did so much better than I had hoped for!

Happy thoughts are welcome :-)

This is what I have done to try and keep from stressing out. I am making this quilt as a Christmas-present for my parents (here's hoping they don't read my blog!).
I haven't had much time to sew, as the dreaded exam is TOMORROW! So keep your fingers crossed for me, and send some happy thoughts my way! I always get so nervous, and I keep telling myself, it's only an exam!!! In the greater scheme of things, it is not that important, but still.....I get nervous :-(

And my sweetie is not here! Charles is in Umeå, Sweden until thursday...

Oh well... I'll just have to think about all the sewing I'll have time to do, once it's over! That should put a smile on my face.

And another thing to smile about, is a give-away on Jackies blog Canton Village Quilt Works. Jackie is an extremely talented proffesional longarm-quilter, and the prize of her give-away is amazing! She will quilt a quilt for the winner! How great is that?! So go to her blog and leave a comment on the giveaway-post!

Hourglass blocks

Thank you so much for all the nice comments! I am feeling a lot better, and I did get some reading done today. But I'm still very tired, so I can't read for hours on end.... So I spent some time sewing. I have wanted to try AmandaJeans hour glass tutorial, and I had some 3" squares left from the I SPY. These little blocks are 2½" square....

They are not as difficult to make as I thought they would be, actually they were not hard at all :-)

Thank you, AmandaJean for a great tutorial!

Aaargh!

Why is my luck just so bad?

-Okay, it's not all bad, I have the really important luck, such as healthy children and a loving sweetie. I know this is minor-

I'm trying to study, and I'm sick! I must have caught whatever it was the kids had, because I have a fever, and I'm just soooo tired all the time. Not to mention, my brain is mush!
Oh well, I'll get some work done, and we'll see how it goes ;-)

Is there another way?

I have pressed all 143 squares....
I really dislike ironing, so I always look at these different little gadgets that promise to work just as well. I have never tried any of them, though! If you have, let me know which one, and if it worked. Because if there is an easier way to do this, please let me know!

And now that I'm done whining, I can say, that I really am happy with the way this is coming together. It may have to go on hold for a while, though. I have an exam coming up next monday (yes, it's still that #&! paper on patents), so I have some reading to do!

I love string-piecing!

So I cut the fabrics. I'm making a Plain Spoken quilt (from the book Modern Quilt Workshop) from the solid-colored fabrics, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for me to get started on the hourglass quilt....

It was a lot of cutting, I really need to learn some good cutting-techniques.

Anyway, this was my first time trying string-piecing, and I love it! It's a totally different way to work, I'm not tired at all, eventhough I sewed all the blocks needed for the quilt!

Now I need to press them all... Let's see when I get around to doing that. Not my favourite part of quilting. LOL!

My sweetie bought icecream -just for me! Good thing my children go to bed early, so I didn't have to wait too long :-D

Yum!

I found a new favourite place to shop!

I went to a fabric store today, that is only a 10 minute busride from my house, and so incredible!
They had so much fabric! Bolts and bolts of quilters cotton! -there was lots of other types of fabric as well, but I'll have a look at that some other time!
There was so much fabric, and was cheap! I couldn't decide on anything (too many choices), and went with something I know I will need for my upcoming projects. LOL!

I bought the 6½" ruler, because I can't seem to forget this quilt!

That quilt also needs a lot of white, so I chose two white prints.

These solids are for another project I have planned for this summer, we'll se when I get started.

So many projects.... Maybe I'll get started on cutting tonight?!

Picnic in the park

We gave my parents tickets to Celine Dion's concert in Copenhagen TODAY!
The weather is so nice here, so we decided to have an early picnic-dinner in the park before seeing them off...

Charles made all the food, exept for the bread....
Viola and I baked the bread for our sandwiches, and Viola made this special for "bedstefar" (Granddad).
We had ice-cream for dessert... YUM!
This is a view of the church-tower.... Look at that beautiful blue sky!
Something was wrong with the clock....we were there at 4pm!

The tree we sat under, had these beautiful thingiemabobs:
Wouldn't this shape look great on fabric?

An award! YAY!

The fantabolous Tonya from Puddinpop gave me the Arte y Pico award! I am so happy :-)
If you haven't already, you should visit Tonyas blog, she is the mother of 7 (yes....7) children, she sews beautiful outfits for them! And finds the time to share pictures with blog-friends too.

My nominations will be:

Diana Martin: She makes the prettiest miniquilts! Some with embroidery in them as well....

Mathea: Look at the bag she just finished! And she has some beautiful quilts too!

Lily from Block-a-Day: She is such a talented quilter and needlepointer (is that a word?). And she makes great tutorials, they make the most difficult things look doable.

Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey: Because she appliques so beautifully!

John from QuiltDad: He is really talented! He did some table runners for mothers day that are just fantastic :-)

The rules are:

Once you've been selected, please follow these guidelines and pay it forward:

1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it.
3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Please post these rules!

The mini-quilt I made for I'm a Ginger Monkey has finally arrived, so I can show you what it looks like:

It's quite small, but I forgot to measure it before I sent it.....

My parent's are coming for a 3-day visit today. The kids are so excited! It'll be fun, the weather is really nice, so maybe a picnic tomorrow?

Which reminds me.... I REALLY need to make a picnic-quilt...LOL!

New bulletin-board

This white and BORING wall in my kitchen has bothered me for some time now... I couldn't quite decide what to do, but finally made up my mind.
I made a bulletin board, and my sweetie put it up today -with a lot of help from Viola ;-)

And here is the finished result. I am so pleased with it!