Christmas sewing

I want to make little giftbags for the children instead of a stocking or a regular advent calendar.
To make them a little more festive and Christmas-looking, I decided to appliqué one of the little houses from "Welcome to the North Pole" by Piece'O'Cake Design onto each bag.
I started this a while ago, but then placed a window too low.... After dreading moving the window for weeks, I finally did it -it took 2 minutes!! Now I'm back on track with this little house. I need to add some white snowy ground for the house to stand on, then on to the fun stuff of sewing the actual bag and adding all the embellishments!

....and then make one more ;-)

Ahoy!

These are the pirate prints Tia sent me, I think they are perfect for Ask! I'm going to fuzzy-cut the pirates and the treasure-chests, and use the coin-print as a border.....and make something inspired by this.

These prints are going to be used for the backing. They came from Tia as well (how cool is she?!). I am going to piece the backing :-)

I am working on a paper for my webometrics-class, it is such a great class, I am really enjoying it.

It is also a lot of work, so I spend most of my time either reading or in front of my computer. I have had to work on the floor, because my sewing machines, fabrics, cutting mats and such is taking up all the room on my desk..... I think it is just not my desk anymore, it is my sewing- and cutting table :-)

And really, there is so much more room to make little piles of paper, when working on the floor! Only downside is, I have to move everything out of the way before going out to pick up the children...

But really, that is a small price to pay for not having to clear my sewing-stuff out of the way!

Strawberry-swap!

I joined Susans strawberry-swap, and I just received my absolutely fantastic swap-parcel from Kristy! Thank you!

She made me this cute miniquilt, polkadot strawberries and a strawberry flower in the center. This is so cute!
Kristy also sent me these strawberry fabrics, and vintage stickers
And look at all this! Lots of bathtime-fun for the kids -Viola wanted to take a bath right away :-)
There are also candles, a strawberry-stamp, pink rubber-gloves...

And look at Ruby! A complete project, ready to start! Ruby is so cute, and I will try my hardest to make her loo as good as the photo on the pattern!
....last but not least, Kristy sent me CANDY....
YUM!

Thank you so much! This is such a great swap to receive! I feel so very very lucky!

This and that.....

Starting a new semester has been a lot of work. We all have to adjust to it, I don't have as much time to do stuff around the house as I have been used to this summer. But I just need to be a little more efficient ;-)
Viola loves her princess-gown, and wears it any chance she gets!
And she is epecially happy with how it matches her new wool unicorn-slippers.
She loves the "diamonds" on these.

Ask has a cold, a very bad one. He doesn't sleep well at night at all -so neither do I!
He stayed home today, hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. Chocolate always makes me feel a little better.....it seemed to cheer him up too. I'm not too sure that's a good thing to learn at such an early age. LOL!
I'm trying NOT to eat chocolate, so to cheer me up (I get grumpy when I don't get the 5 hours of interrupted sleep I'm used to), Charles and Viola bought me these flowers.
Surprisingly, they do the job just as well as chocolate would have! Now that's a good lesson to learn at any age!

I have not been able to get to my machine in a while, which almost always means I come up with a lot of idea for quilts to sew! I have figured out what to do to solve the size-problem with Charles' quilt....I will let you know soon ;-)
Thanks to Lisa and Tia I have fabrics and plans for no less than 2 quilts for Ask! YAY! A pirate-quilt for his bed and a a rocket napping-size quilt. I'm so excited about that!

And....I have always wanted to make a Christmas-quilt. I don't see this wish coming true this year, but maybe next year?!
Is it just me? I love these seasonal quilts...

Breakfast-date!

Charles dropped the kids off at daycare this morning, as he always does, and had told me to meet him at 8:30... So I did. And for transportation, we used our bike! I sat in front, a bit small, but definately doable.

This is my view -I now understand why the kids like having the top open :-)
And this is my view when I look behind me, Charles! Fun!
He took me to this really cute little café, and we had breakfast.... I didn't take a picture....I forgot.
But here is my dessert, I think dessert after breakfast is highly underrated!!!
This was just such a great way to start the day! After breakfast we went to work...I had a class at 10:30, and Charles went to do what he does when he's at work. LOL.

And because Charles works at the Library School, we got to eat lunch together too. Such a great day :-)

Fantastic class!!

This semester I'm taking a class on webometrics, and it is so much fun! It's a lot of work....but then, nobody said it would be easy. I have decided, that I work while the kids are away, so monday-friday when they are in daycare. It gives me just about 5 hours a day. Quite a bit less than I would normally work, and quite a bit more than I had last semester when Ask was at home with me ;-)
So all in all, I should be okay.

The class is taught by Professor Peter Ingwersen, who is well-known internationally in his field. And he is a wonderful teacher, I feel very lucky! So my first class this semester is off to a good start.

I do miss the kids, though. But I am comforted knowing they are having fun with their friends. And this way, I can spend time with them in the afternoon, and just focus on them....and dinner....laundry....the general mess that is my house!

Unfortunately I don't have much time for sewing. Right now, I'm trying to remember how to study, summer was a bit long, and somewhere along the way I seem to have lost my ability to remember what I read. Not so good! LOL! But it'll come back to me....I hope! No, seriously....it's the same every time I've had a long break. I just need to reboot my system...

Messed up the math :-(

I finished the sashing, and as I was sewing, I noticed, that this was not going to be as large as I wanted... Aaaack! I have messed up somewhere along the way, and as the top is now, it is 125cm x 172 cm (50" x 68")... I am thinking it's too short. Charles is atleast 190cm (6'2) tall, and I know it'll bother me forever if I think it's too short for him!

So...I figure my options are:
1: make another 5 blocks (yikes), no borders.
2: a narrow brown inner border and either a scrappy border or a border made from this sheet.
3:take my chances and leave as is

What to do?

The Plain Spoken is finished!

I finished it!! Woohoo!! And I am so happy with how it turned out. The poly-cotton blend I used for batting is low-loft, and at first I found it very thin, but it is growing on me. And the quilt still keeps you warm, so all is well :-)

I am really surprised at how much I like the polka-dot binding. This is the first time I have made the binding cut from selvedge to selvedge. I usually make bias-binding. This was so much easier! I used this binding-tutorial, and it was so much easier than the bias...and it looks really good too! I cut my bindingstrips 5 cm (~1½").

It is app. 140cm x 200 cm (52" x 78"), a good size for a napping-quilt.

And here you can see the backing, I still cannot believe my luck in finding the fabric. It is a perfect match, and it was on sale!! It doesn't get much better than that! LOL.

The pattern is from the Modern Quilt workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.
Love that book!

Now I just have to convince myself to wait until Christmas to give it to them....

A swap and a giveaway!

Tia from CampFollowerBagLady and I decided to do a swap.....and WOW! She sent me so much! There is a stack of MODA charm-squares, beautiful buttons and one of her handmade bags! And the fabric....oh the fabric!!! Loads of boy-prints! Dragons, pirates, maps, gold-coins.... Tattoos, dogs, houses, cars.... It is all so fantastic! Thank you, Tia!

I have so many ideas of what to make for Ask, now that I have a great selection of boyprints to work with!!

I won one of Jennifers give-aways! If you have not been to her blog yet, you must go pay her a visit. She has a give-away every week, and it is really a lot of fun! And look what I won!

A Disney princesses panel!!! Viola is turning 4 just before Christmas, and she will just love this! You can't tell from this picture, but the purple behind the princesses has glitter in it! Does it get any better than that?!

The prize also included fabric for backing, a lovely print with little purple flowers.

Oh...in this picture you can see the sparkle in the purple background!

Right now I am sewing the binding on the Plain Spoken. I started last night, but didn't finish.... Hopefully it'll get done tonight!
That'll be one Christmas-present done!

Making sushi

Viola loves sushi. Her favourites are maki-rolls with cucumber or avocado. I have bought sushi for her before, but it is pretty expensive, and since I'm hoping Ask will like it too, I figured it was time to try making some myself.

I think these are okay for a first try :-)
We'll have to see what Viola says.

I need to figure out how to make the smaller rolls, they are more bite-sized for the kids, and easier for them to eat.

It was fun, not messy, and fast.....so if Viola likes them, I'll be making these again!

I have started making Advent-calenders for the kids, but misplaced an appliqué-piece, so that is left out of sight -and out of mind for a while. I hate ripping sticthes! But I suppose we all do!

I have cut the sashing for Charles' quilt, and the binding for the Plain Spoken......now I just need Ask to get better, he's teething again, and in a really grumpy mood!