Grocery Bags 2010

These bags are the best!!
I love mine! Most of these were given away as gifts, and I have received only positive feedback.

If you click the picture, you'll see the links to each picture. The comments on the purple bag (#3) has the link to a tutorial for these.
If you haven't made a few of these already, put it on your list for 2011!

Finished Quilts 2010

When I set out to make this mosaic, I could only think of 2 quilts I had finished in 2010. So with that in mind I guess having finished  4 big quilts and a doll quilt is ok.
I also have 2 quilttops waiting - they are not in this mosaic.

 

Click the picture to go to Flickr and see the links to tell you the story of the different quilts. 

3 of the big quilts were given away, and so was the doll quilt. Maybe that's why I feel like I haven't finished any quilts this year? The only one still at my house is the picnic quilt. I do love that quilt though, right now it is under our Christmas tree pretending to be a tree skirt - a real tree skirt should be on my to-do for 2011!

Home sewing 2010

I did manage to sew some stuff for our home in 2010.
I still have a lot of projects I want to complete in 2011, but let's see how much I get done!

If you click the picture, it will take you to Flickr where the links to the individual pictures are.
My favourite project is the curtains. They have been needed for so long, and once I actually started them, they were pretty easy to make.
Everyone loves a project like that, right?!

Rude candy!

It is so cold here in Copenhagen, and we have a lot of snow!
These are the bikes I pass every morning when going to work and every afternoon going home.

 

I understand why their owners leave them there!! Mine is parked at work and will most likely stay there for atleast one more month. Probably more.

Speaking of work, my co-worker and I both love licorice, and we often buy some for both of us. I found these the other day - they must be the most politically incorrect thing I have seen in a very long time!!

They are almost too big to eat, but that just makes for a nice and quiet office. LOL!

But seriously...have you ever seen anything like these?!

I am about to kiss the kids goodnight, and tomorrow is the first day of a 5 day weekend, the kids and I are going to have so much fun! I hope!

And if I am lucky I will have time to do some sewing ;)

To do before 2011

I am a part of the Row10 quilting bee on Flickr. I am so late finishing up my last row :(
LauraJay has been more than patient with me, and now I really need to get this done! I am not very happy with my free-piecing these days, so everything takes me a very long time :(

But yesterday, after my family left and I had cleaned our apartment a little, I sat down to sew. I wish I could tell you that it was easy-peasy - but no!
I am still not happy woith how it turns out. But now I am thinking I'll do it, and I'll do my best and then LJ will have her row - and it will "only" be 6 months late *shame*

I also want to make some fabric grocery bags before Miss V goes back to school January 3rd. We never gave her teacher a present, because Miss V had pneumonia most of December and didn't get to go to school. Boo.
Last night when the kids were having their baths I managed to cut 3 grocery bags while watching them! Yay!

Miss V has claimed one for herself (mom.....I need it when I go grocery shopping with dad!) and one for her teacher. The last one will be a special present for a friend of mine! Cutting them is the part that takes time, sewing them is much more fun.
After finishing these 2 projects, I can start looking at what I want to sew in 2011.

Christmas Lunch

Every year we have the same Holiday plans. My parents and my sister arrive on the 22nd for Miss Vs birthday, and they live quite far away, so they stay with us until after Christmas.
During Christmas we have Charles' family come over and celebrate with us, so we have lots of company during the Holidays!

This is a picture from our Christmas lunch Dec 25th. We were 11 people in all, quite a lot for our apartment :)
Miss V had made the candles and given them to Charles as a gift - she was very proud to see them on the table.

We had a traditional Danish Christmas lunch, so lots and lots of food!! We sat at the table from 1PM until 6 PM. Lots of food and lots of fun :)

My sister, my mom share in the cooking, and Charles' brother brings the drinks. We have a wonderful time.
But every year I promise myself, that I won't eat that much EVER again!

My parents and my sister are leaving today, our home will be strangely empty without them. And I go back to work tomorrow. I work Monday and Tuesday, and then I have taken Wednesday, Thursday and Frisday off. Maybe I'll be able to sew? I have lots of stuff to finish before I can make sewing plans for the New Year!

Morris Workshop quilt done!

My parents have recently moved from their house in the country and to an apartment in the city. I am so happy for them, the house was huge, they had to drive everywhere and there was a huge garden to look after.
So all in all a good thing. For the new apartment they bought a new couch...and as we all know, a new couch needs a new quilt :)

This is the label...I wrote Merry Christmas 2010" and our names. Miss V wrote her own name and did some drawings. I like how it turned out :)

The fabric is "Morris Workshop", I have had it for a while and am very happy to have used it all in a quilt, as I had planned. The solid is Kona Cotton in Mocha.

Please just look at the quilt, and not the mess :) I like how this turned out, and my parents are so happy with it. They were totally surprised by it! Yay!
Also, I must say that finishing this quilt was quite a challenge, my parents have been staying with us most of December because Miss V has had pneumonia, and I haven't been able to work on it while they have been here!

I pieced the backing using the rest of the prints, some Kona Cotton in Mocha and Moss and a dotty print from my stash.

This was a fun quilt to sew, not a lot of cutting and most of it could be string-pieced.

My only problem now is, that my sister just bought new couches too....
-and she turns 40 in January!

Merry Christmas!!

Picture from www.tivoli.dk

I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas!
 

Peppermint Bark

Miss V and I made Peppermint Bark this morning - it's her 6th birthday, so she gets to choose a lot of todays activities :)
This was so easy to make, I don't know why we have never made it before! Yum!

 

We're expecting company in about half an hour, so I have to get off the computer again...just wanted to check in and say hi - and say if you have not made Peppermint Bark already - then do it!!

Oh, and the Moriis Workshop quilt for my parents is done, it is in the wash. As it should be since they are arriving any minute now!!

So...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS V!

Present from work

At my new (well sort of new) job, we could chose one of 6 different presents for Christmas. So no surprise, but a better chance of getting something you will actually like!
I chose this

This is a SKAGEN watch - I really like it!

Moomin love

Look what Charles gave me today! A brand new Moomin mug!

 

How cute is that? Moomin, snow and a winter-feel! I love it!

I still have lots of presents to buy - and no time to go shopping :/ So I am a little stressed out about the whole gift-giving/-getting thing this year.

And to make it even worse, Miss V has pneumonia. So I have no idea how I am going to get any shopping time. Please keep your fingers crossed that the penicillin kicks in real fast. I so want to take her Christmas shopping!

Happy Lucia Day

Our neighbor brings us these every year.

 

Such a delicious tradition! Charles is half Swedish, so he really appreciates these ;D

How to quilt this?

Somehow I never find settling on how to quilt something easy....I mean, there are lots of ways I would love to quilt this, but most of those I can't do. And I am not going to send this one out to be quilted...

 

I also have lots of straight-line-quilting ideas for this, but I really don't enjoy quilting straight lines....

Do you have any suggestions? I am off to Flickr to search for some inspiration.

New ornaments for our tree

C and I agreed that we need some ornaments for our tree...not that our tree is half-empty or anything like that. It's just that most of the ornaments we have, are some that we have given the kids! If we don't start buying some for ourselves, we'll have an empty tree when they move out. LOL!

I got this cute coffee ornament when I was in Vienna last month. Too cute if you ask me :)

Miss V and I went shopping today, and she chose this angel for herself

The frog is for Little A

The tiger is for C - he really likes that ;)

 

I love getting new decorations for our tree. 

And so do the kids ;)

Mr Sødestes 40th Birthday

Charles turned 40 this weekend, and Saturday we had an open house - in other words, we had a house full of guests from noon until 8PM.
It was fun - and and he loved it.
I knew what I wanted to give him, but had a very hard time finding it......he as been wanting a movie poster from a Danish movie from the 50s (60s?). Either way, they are very hard to find!
Thursday I finally found someone who had it for sale, but I wouldn't be able to pick it up until this week :(

 

So I made him a giftcard, and a monster giftcard holder!

He loved his present, and he thought the monster was really cool!

I have to show you some of the other artwork he got, his friends are too funny :D

Now I am looking forward to sewing Christmas presents, a birthday present for Miss V - I can't believe she'll be 6 years old soon! -  and something for my sister who has her 40th birthday right after New Years....Oh...and then there's the quilt for my parents, I still need to sandwich and quilt that. Better get off the computer!!!

Tissueholders

I have seen these around Flickr and blogland, and I have always thought they are really cute.
But as with so many other projects, I have never actually made any.....until Miss V saw these cuties.

She went straight for the scrap baskets and choose 5 sets of 2 prints!

 

So there you go...5 tissue holders, ready to be wrapped up and given away as Christmas presents. 

Miss V is really proud of these, she chose the fabrics very carefully ;)

The countdown begins

my oh my....

Only 23 days to go...and I still have so much work to do! I am seriously doubting if I will be able to finish eveything in time for Christmas! Oh well, one day and one task at a time, and then I'll see how far I get.

And to make matters worse, Charles' 40th birthday is this Saturday...and I haven't been able to find the thing I want to give him!!! I know what I want to buy, I just can't find it!! The stress!!

Office Christmas Party

...well more like an outing, really :)

 

Every year (this is my first) the entire Copenhagen site is invited along with our families to a Christmas Party outside Copenhagen.

We took the train - never do that when it's in the middle of the first serious snowfall of the season ;) 

Anyway...the party was great! Good food, huge decorated tree, Santa came and had brought candy for the kids.
And we got to go in horse-drawn carriages to a Christmastree lot in the woods where we chose and cut down our own tree! Fun! The kids were so excited :)

 

Bringing the tree back to Copenhagen on the train was a bit of a challenge, but Mr Sødeste is a strong guy, so he managed :D

Now we just need all the snow on the tree to melt, and then we can put it up and decorate it!

TGIF!!!

I have been looking forward to Friday most of this week. Not because I didn't want to go to work - I did. But because we have been making progress on some home-improvement projects that have been put off for way too long.
Remember this post about curtains? I finally did it!!

I chose a fabric (IKEA) that Charles and I would both like, and then I was able to finish this whole project in an afternoon!

I am sorry this second picture is a bit blurry, but you can still sort of see what the curtains look like. I am very happy with them :) -oh, and please excuse the messes in the pictures. I have so much cleaning up to do, it's not even funny!

I am also hoping to find time to take the kids out for a snowball-fight tomorrow. We have a lot of snow here at the moment, and they have to be given the time to enjoy it while it's here :D

One down! Too many to go ;D

Christmas (and in my family also birthdays) are just around the corner, I have hardly even begun sewing! I am so behind this year.

When we were at IKEA the other day, I bought a towel so I could make a Tote-able Towel following Anna Maria Horners tute.

She likes to go scuba diving, and she enjoys going to the beach in the summer - so I am thinking this will be a good idea for her.
This will either be her Christmas present or her birthday present. Her birthday is January 5, so I need to have her present ready when I see her during Christmas :)

Christmas decorations in the making

Miss V has asked for at least a month if we could please put up the Christmas decorations?! I have been able to stall until now, pretty good I think :)

I love garlands, and I remembered seing this felt garland tute. So since I am spending a lot of time on the couch watching reruns of old tv-shows anyway, I figured I might as well do some stitching...

 

Miss V was happy to help me put all these on a thread and hang it in the window

 

I am pretty sure we will put it on out tree, though, I don't like it in the window. It seems too small somehow...

So I have rolled it up, and put it away so it is ready for our tree.

 

It looks really pretty this way. Like a felt flower :)

Vienna - at the opera

Vienna has a lot of cafés and apparantly they are famous for their coffee - I don't drink coffee, so that was wasted on me. However I do eat cake. And they had lots os fabulous cake!!

 

Another thing Vienna is famous for is their Opera House. I first saw it at night, and it looks really nice with all the lights.

 

I had booked a ticket to see a ballet in the Wiener Staatsoper, but when it finally turned Wednesday evening I was so tired I almost didn't go.

But I am so glad I did. 

It was a beautiful performance and everything about this building was so formal and elegant. I felt very glamorous - even if I was wearing jeans!

On a less festive note: I am sick! Eeeeks! Well-wishes are most welcome ;D

Pillowcase

We have a number of pillows and cushions at our house - as I imagine we all do :)
Only, at my house these pillows are a very poor-looking bunch. When I finished the hexagon pillowcase for our floor cushion, I vowed to prettify all our pillows. And I still haven't done it.

But now I have made a start. I have made a new pillowcase for one of the pillows in our couch.

 

The fabrics are all Kona Cotton - 7 different colors :) The kaleidoscope blocks are 11'' square and I am so happy with it!
The orange and purple stand out a lot in the photo, not so much in real life. Funny how that happens!

I am not all done sharing pictures from Vienna, but that will have to wait for my next post.

Vienna - Hundertwasser

This must be the architect of my dreams!!!

Hunderwasserhouse, Vienna

The work he did, is so unique and so beautiful. I can only imagine what it must be like, to live in one of these houses! The pictures are ones I took using the camera in my cellphone, there are much better ones on the website - also ones where the trees are green...amazing!

The other side of the building

I think it looks amazing!
There is also a museum with some of Hunderwassers paintings and models of houses....you can see some of his work at their website: Kunsthaus Wien
The museum is a work of art in itself

 

I am blown away by these buidings, they are such an inspiration!

And now I also know where my dream vacation would be....at Bad Blumau!

Vienna - The museums!

I am finally back from Vienna...it feels like I have been gone for a really long time, but it was only from Sunday morning to Thursday night.

There was so much to see and do in Vienna, home of the Jugendstil!
....the real reason for my visit was a course at the EPO. And that was awesome, but I think you would all be really bored if I went into too much detail about that - so I won't!

Vienna has lots and lots of museums, I could only go to some of them.

This is me in front of Wien Museum Karlsplatz.

This museum has my favourite Gustav Klimt painting "Love" - it was so worth the visit!!

Klimts work was the main attraction of the next museum "Secession"

Here they house his "Beethoven Frieze", but the building itself was also impressive, all the detail and the decorations. So beautiful!

After the Secession Hall, I went to Museum Belvedere:

 

After going here, I went to my hotel. I had walked all over Vienna, and I must admit that my feet were getting tired!

This next building is not a museum - it's the French Embassy. But look how beautiful it is!

 

The windows and the balconies and all the gold...wow! I could look at this for a long long time. And really, a lot of the buildings in Vienna were so pretty!

After an hour or so in my hotel room (and some dinner) I went out to see the Albert Loos' American Bar

 

I love stained glass, so naturally I like this a lot :)

There is so much more to share from Vienna, but I will have to split into several posts, so come back!!

Self Portrait Friday

This week has been such a busy one. But then every week seems to be that way. Come Friday evening I am sitting on the couch, not really wanting to get up...not even to go to bed! I may just fall asleep right here.

 

This is my picture forthis weeks' self portrait. I am happy because I had a good week, because I have spent this afternoon watching Miss V splash around in the pool during her swimming lesson, because I am watching tv and eating popcorn with Mr Sødeste.

Life is good.

-and I'm a little anxoius, I'm leaving for Vienna on Sunday. I'll be gone until Thursday night! I am going to miss the kids so much!

But it will be fun...I'm going as part of my job, but there will be time in the evenings to go and do some (other) fun stuff.....know of any quilt shops in Vienna, Austria?

DQS9

Today started out not so good. Miss V is sick and I am staying home with her today.
A day with her is always welcome, I just wish it didn't have to be because she is feeling bad.

We started doing watercolors, watching movies and other low-key activities....and then the doorbell rang!
It was the mailman - with a package for me - my doll quilt for DQS9!!

This quilt has been sent to Europe from the US three times before arriving at my door - I am so happy Donna didn't give up! Look at the beauty she made for me!

She also sent lots of goodies

 

Miss V was so happy to see a lot of beautiful buttons, and she started laying them out on the quilt ;)

The patterns are wonderful, I think I will make some bags for Christmas, they will make great presents!

Also, look at the label

 

Isn't it just the best? I am feeling very lucky that Donna made this quilt for me. It is perfect!