Circles circles circles

I never would have thought, but I am enjoying making blocks for the circle quilt I am working on.
To make the sewing easier, I use a lot of pins, and then they do come together quite easily.

I have 50-something blocks done. I am not sure how many I will need for the quilt to have a decent size. We'll see...

Quilttop finished

This afternoon I did some sewing - and I managed to finish the quilttop for the quilt I want to make for my parents for Christmas

 

The prints are "Morris Workshop" and the dark brown is a Kona Cotton.

I am not sure what to use for backing, I'll have to think about that. Any suggestions??

Mail love

As you know, I am taking part of the DQS9 - but my partner is having some trouble with the International Mailing. She has sent it out twice and it is taking forver to get here. I can only imagine the worry she is going through - I waited 2 weeks for the doll quilt I sent out to be received, and I was a nervous wreck!!!
Anyway...the mamas felt I should receive an angel quilt.

And...look what Carol sent me

 

That quilt is a work of art, Carol is incredibly talented! I wish I could show you this quilt IRL, but if you want to see it, you have to come to my apartment ;)

Miss V and I read through the embroidery book, and she found a lot of projects she wants me to help her sew! It'll be mostly me sewing, but that's fine. The book is really cool, I'll have to share some pictures from it.

And, here you have the quilt:

 

Isn't it just unbelievably pretty?!

Row10 August (!)

Yep. I am that late! Actually it's worse, because I started with September when finishing these rows....that was Lucindas row, now I have finished Anitas row which was meant to go out in August.
I like how it turned out, she requested red/grey and a (good) 4-letter word.
I chose READ

 

It is meant to be horizantal, but this was the only way I could get a decent picture of the whole thing. 

The row is app. 10'' x 60''

Next up is LauraJays row...it was meant to be finished in July....*shame*

Bee Row done!

This evening I set up my sewing machine at our dining room table. My parents are visiting, and they are sleeping in my sewing room....so I had to "move out" if I wanted to sew. And I did.

I am hopelessly behind in my Row10 group, and that makes me feel really bad! So...I pulled some fabrics, wanting to finish the row I had started for Lu.

 

I am not used to the colorscheme Lu chose, she wanted square-in-square in sherbert colors. I love working with these colors!!

 

I am sorry the pictures are not very good, it's close to midnight here, and the camera on my cell doesn't have a very powerful flash.

But you can still get an idea of the row.

 

I really like the yellow print with the birds. I hope it is not too bright for the sherbert quilt!

 

I am so happy to have this done, and I am also really happy with how it turned out. 

Tomorrow I am planning to make a signature block for Lu to put in (on?) the backing, and then this is on its way to a new home in a collaborative quilt ;)

 

I know this last photo is very strange looking, my only excuse is, that fitting a 60'' row into one picture is not easy!

Lucky kids

This week the kids don't have school or daycare, I was able to take Monday and Tuesday off from work, but the rest of the week my parents are here - so Mr Sødeste and I can go to work.

Today they got to go to the coolest place in town - Tivoli

Picture from www.tivoli.dk

 It is all decorated for Halloween, and the kids loved it!
I would have loved to go too, but I had to go to work today :/ Which is okay, I like my job, and I know the kids were thrilled to be with my parents.

Picture from www.tivoli.dk

 I love Halloween decorations - maybe it has to do with my love of orange? Or maybe it's because I like fall a lot?

Picture from www.tivoli.dk

Looking at the pumpkins on this roof, you have to agree with me, don't you?! It looks amazing!

A little sewing

I am so behind in my Row10 online quilting bee :/ No fun, these women are my dear friends, and I hate being late sewing their rows.
My parents took me and the kids to an awesome fabric store yesterday. And I had the best time picking out these prints for Lucindas row

 

Lu asked for sherbert colors, and I didn't really have any in my stash. Now that I have these, I see that not having worked with this colorscheme before is a great mistake! I love these colors!

I managed to sew 2 blocks last night, then I had to stop because I was using my moms machine and it is in my parents' bedroom. 

I can't wait to get back home so I can make some more!!
These are so much fun! The colors are fab and the square in square pattern is showing off the prints in such a nice way.

My sushi-loving daughter

The kids have next week off from school and daycare. I have been able to take Monday and Tuesday off from work, so yesterday the kids and I went to stay with my parents for a long weekend.
My sister lives in the same apartment building as my parents (they recently moved here), and that works out so great for the kids, because then they get to see everyone everytime we come here!

The sushi-chef made these special for my kids!!

As some of you may know, Miss V, my sister and I love sushi. So my sister was very excited to invite us all to a resturant with a conveyor belt sushi buffet -the picture is not of where we went, but the same idea. Miss V LOVED it! I have never seen her eat so much. Ever. She ate almost as much as I did - and I could have rolled out of there!
The small protions meant she could try new kinds of sushi and not worry about having ordered too much and then not liking it. Perfect! She loved being able to pick makis off the buffet.

Ask doesn't like sushi, so he had chicken and fries :)

Another Nintendo cozy

I bought a Nintendo DSi for Little A this past week. He is so happy with it, and he loves that he got a blue one :) So naturally I needed to make a cozy for his Nintendo as well - also we had to ride the train to my parents' house, and I really wanted him to be able to bring it :)

Miss V helped pick the fabrics

Again I can only encourage you all to set your strippy scraps aside, it makes it so much easier to make projects like this!

Self Portrait Friday -on Saturday

I am part of a self portrait challenge over on Flickr. We all hate having our picture taken, and the group is meant as a way of helping us get past that...

This was my portrait from yesterday

I am thinking the challenge may be working....I can look at pictures of myself without being horrified ;)

Favourites

1. Notenschlüssel, 2. I'm A Maverick Star, 3. Quilt Show, 4. Batik Kaleidoskop, 5. The Magic Hour, 6. Mini Lone Star, 7. DSCN1605, 8. My Winner, 9. Busy Bees - Tacha, 10. Kaleidoscope quilt for Riley, 11. United She Stands, 12. Travel Quilt #3, 13. DQS9 from my partner, 14. The Wild Geese Quilt, 15. DSCN2410, 16. Jelly Roll Christmas Quilt

Looking at curtains

I really really need to do something about the curtains in our living room....if I can say that when in fact we don't have any curtains in our living room.

Our living room windows face north, and we are on the third floor (fourth floor to you Americans!) so the sun is a "problem" in the way that the room gets too hot and stuffy and everything is bleached/ruined. Sooooo....I need to do something. We have been looking for curtains for a while (a couple of years...shhhhh...) and I have been planning to sew curtains for at least one year now.

I like the curtains in the pictures, they have a country-cabin feel that I really like ;)

Priorities

I sometimes need to remind myself of all the blessings in  my life. Also, I need to remind myself of what's important. Sometimes in my schedule with 2 small kids, a fulltime job and trying to keep a somewhat decent house - I get a little lost.

And....nomatter how much I think about this, there really is only one thing that is truly important to me, and that is my family. My kids.

Laundry has not been a priority this week, quilts are the "stand-in" for the dirty couch-cover

Obviously there are many other things in my life there are important, and that take up a lot of my time. My job, keeping our home nice and clean, cooking dinners, doing laundry.....all that stuff we all do every day.
But sometimes I need to tell myself, that if I can only choose one thing, I choose my family. They are the only truly irreplaceables.

Scraps

I'm sick :(
And I missed blogging yesterday. I can't really sit up and sew, not being able to keep food down for 2 days is quite tiring ;)
But I am starting to feel better, and tonight I cut the pieces for another grocery bag. They are so fun to make, and this way I have it ready when I find a moment to sew it.

And another great thing about cutting is, that it generates more scraps!

Another WIP

I bought a bunch of FQ's from Katy a while back (2 years ago...pretty much to the date), and I have had several different plans with them. Many ideas and plans later, I have finally cut into them over these past few days, and I have made a beginning

The colors are not very good in this picture, they are more subtle. Later I will get a picture in daylight. That's going to be much better!
I really like this weave-type pattern for these prints. I wanted something that would show off the prints, and I think this will be just right.
The finished quilt will have a lot more variety, I have 16 different quilts in all - this is just how much I have done at the moment.
I would love to finish this in time for Christmas.....but I have other sewing jobs to finish first, so we'll see!
This quest for my sewing mojo is working, but not as quickly as I would like. I'm not a very process-oriented person. I like results!

How did I get this tired?

WARNING: This post is just my tired mumblings......

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

 

I love this little treasure hunter :)

I am so tired this evening, I had a long day at the office. I had hoped to sew a bit this evening, but I am just too tired. Getting up at 5:30AM does that to me ;)

You'll see all the pictures are taken with my cell while I'm sitting on the couch - I'm too tired and too lazy to get up. So you'll have to excuse the poor quality of the pictures....

I am blogging, watching some Ms Marple on tv, and playing Mario on Miss V's Nintendo. And that's about all I can do this evening ;)

I absolutely understand why these are so popular with the kids!! Little A wants one too - a blue one ;) But at 3 years old, I think he is still a little young. Maybe this Christmas....or when he turns 4 in spring. We'll see.

Also I want to share a comment he made this evening that made me laugh. He wanted to try on my shoes - not my sneakers but my work shoes...I want him to not break his ancle, so I said no.

He then looked at the shoes...looked up at me with a frown and said "These are like little slides mom!"

 

And I guess he is right!

A very productive day!

Hmmm...it feels like today has been a productive day, but really all I have done is get the laundry under control, and clean my house.

One good thing about a clean home is, that I get to decorate a little.

Miss V chose these yesterday on the way to the movies :) She has wanted to get some of these for a really long time. And now I can actually put them out somewhere, without having to either move a pile of stuff or put them on top of it!

I have also been thinking of what to do about curtains in our living room. We need to be able to close some curtains duing the middle of the day ;) Right now we don't have any. I want to sew some, but I am not sure what kind - any ideas?

I have also been thinking about Christmas sewing...nothing like dreaming of future sewing projects while folding laundry, right?

These 2 patterns are on my list of bags I want to sew. I absolutely love Keyka Lous patterns. The one I have here is the "Foldover Clutch". The other one is Amy Butlers "Blossom Handbag".
Amy Butlers pattern will be a challenge, but I am going to give it a try....sometime!

Fall is here!

Look...fall is here. Miss V and I took this picture yesterday afternoon...

The kids and I were home alone last night, it was a bit of a logistic nightmare. Miss V had a swimming class, and I can't bring A when he can't go in the water.....he would scream from we arrived until we left again. I can deal with that, but the other kids and parents who don't love him unconditionally like I do - unlikely!!
So A was picked up by his uncle, V and I went to the pool, we were all home at 6PM - and had a picnic in the living room :)

I had ordered pizza - my kids' fave is margharita with 3 x olives :) They usually remember us at the pizza-place.

Since I have already made the commitment to blog everyday of October, I figured I may as well join the Blogtoberfest - the name alone makes it all worth it!

 

This should be fun! 

I am working on a list of Christmas sewing - and a list of sewing to do before I can start my Christmas sewing!

Christmas preparations

I have wanted to try this tutorial since I first saw it last year. 

Like so many other things, I have been thinking about it, but haven't actually tried it until now! I found an old magazine that was going to be thrown out, and I started...

I was sure it was going to be impossible, but it wasn't that bad! I cut my strips a little too wide, and so I didn't have room for the 3rd layer - but hey! Who said I can't just leave that 3rd layer out and leave it as it is?!
That's what I did...I made a mistake by cutting the strips of paper too wide, but I made it work ;)
Now I just need to find some fancier paper - I am thinking the Christmas adds will be nice - and then I have to make some more, so we can have beautifully wrapped presents without having to spend money on the wrapping. Cool, huh?!