A commitment..

This summer we got Miss V a Nintendo DSi. There was a moment there where I was afraid I would never again play Go Fish!, puzzles or read books with her again.....not to mention see her beautiful blue eyes!
Luckily that was not the case, she loves her Nintendo and does use it a lot, but it is something she will choose to do instead of watching a movie.

So, the only rule I made was, that it could not leave the house before we had some kind of bag/case/cozy for it.

And so I made this cozy for her Nintendo. Better than having to break my own rule, huh? She likes it! Yay!

Also I have the pictures of the grocery bag I made for myself. I love this Kaffe Fassett print so much, this way I get to see it almost every day.

I also like the lining, I like stripes.Don't you like these stripes too?

I just want to make a ton of these bags, they are really fun to sew. And every afternoon when I pick up the kids, I end up carrying all their art projects, dirty clothes, jackets etc in a big lump under my arm. Now I can pull a beautiful handmade fabric bag from my shoulder bag, and carry all their stuff in style. That makes me feel very organized. Bear with me...I don't get to feel that way very often ;)

I have made a commitment to post every day from now and until the end of October - except this weekend!
So you'll get to see a lot of pictures from my everyday life, because I don't get to sew every day.

A bag for my sushi-loving sister!

My sister loves sushi. We always have sushi when we want to treat ourselves to something special - so naturally Miss V has been used to sushi being something really extraordinary and she has always associated sushi with my sister.
So when I said the sewing project of the day would be making a reusable grocery bag for Aunt J, the only fabric that would do was the sushi print!
I used a plastic grocery bag as my pattern, so it's a good size and my sister should be able to get some good use out of this.

The lining was also chosen by Miss V, I had intended to use this print for binding for a future project...but since that is a still-unknown-future-project it didn't seem to make much sense to make that argument with the very happy V.
This bag folds up very small, and will definately fit into most shoulderbags :)
I think it turned out pretty nice!
I have made a few of these already, my favourite one has gone missing, so I made a new one for myself too. By the time it was done it was too dark to get a decent picture, so you'll have to see that in my next post :)

Swap-treasures and projects!

I am loving the weird facts you can read in the Snapple bottle caps.
This is another thing I didn't know...in fact, I wasn't even aware that there is a "rose family". Oh well...live and learn, right?! And no-one can know everything!
I have sent off my doll quilt for the DQS9, and it has been well received. That's always a nervous time...will my partner like what I made for her?! But she did, and I am relieved!

This round I have also been a swap mama, and the super talented Lucinda made a chair-quilt for each mama in the swap!!! How cool is she?! I love the chair she made for me, it is such a treasure :)
I have been working on a quilt for my bed. It is not a huge bed, but big enough that it is going to be quite a challenge to quilt it. So far it is 85" square - and I have no idea how I am going to wrestle that through my sewing machine, but I am sure going to give it my best shot!
The quilt is made from several packs of Punctuation charm squares - now I am waiting for the yardage I ordered for the backing to arrive!

Also...I want to show you the rows I have received from my fabulous Row10 friends. I love this quilt so much already!! Maybe I will use some kind of quilt-as-you-go methos for quilting this one....still debating!
My evergrowing scrappile is also keeping me busy, I have wanted to piece circles for a while, and it seemed like a good way to use some scraps. This is not a fast quilt to cut. For these blocks I do find the actual piecing much easier than the cutting.
But I will finish it!!! I will!!

Miss V is enjoying school so much - I am still a wreck, but better me than her!
My job is very time-consuming right now, but we're supposed to get some help in another month or so, hopefully that'll make it better ;)
I still do enjoy my job very much, however, I also feel like I am missing out on so much with the kids. It's all about compromize I guess.

She has started school...

She was happily skipping down the street - I was a nervous wreck!!
She did great, and she can't wait to go back - which is good :)
Now I'll just have to get used to a whole new set of worries to add to the ones I have already.
Oh well...I guess that's what it is to be a mom?

Maybe all her visits to friends' houses and all the hours of having a friend visit her here, will free up some time for me to sew??
I will think of it that way, then it's not as scary - it is, I'm trying to trick myself ;)

I have been working on my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 9. I have started quilting it, but I haven't taken a picture of that yet.
I also have another project I am working on. I am using Punctuation charm squares. I love that fabric line.
This quilt will be big, it's for our bed. I really don't want this to become a UFO!!

Clean-up job!

My coworkers and I were invited to dinner at the Raddisson in Copenhagen. The fod was delicious, and take a look at the view!! Wow, right?!

I love this city :)

Speaking of things I love - or don't love.... I used to have shelves above my sewing table, to hold fabrics....but one day, one of the shelves broke!!! What a mess. Lucky for me, it was not taken as a sign that I have too much fabric, but just that I needed different storage :)
So off to IKEA we went, and I chose these:

They are really kitchen cabinets, but I like them so much as fabric-storage! I am loving this, and I have even managed to keep my sewing area cleaned up since we put these up...how amazing is that?!

I am working on my doll quilt for DQS9, and I will post pictures once it is closer to being done. That should be very soon now!

I'll just leave you with this bit of trivia:


Did you know?? I didn't!

A picnic quilt!

I have tried to put my scraps and stash to use, and I have some different projects to show you over the next couple of weeks :)

First I will show you my picnic quilt!
This quilttop is made entirely from scraps. I cut 3" strips to whatever length the scrap would allow. Some are long and some are really short - depending on the length of the scrap-piece it was cut from.
I have pieced them totally randomly, and added each strip once it was finished. It's a little scary for a quilter so addicted to arranging and rearranging LOs as I am :)
I am really happy with how it turned out, though. It is bright, happy and busy enough to hide all the spills....
I quilted flowers like these from Oh Fransson - only mine are connected in a continuous line, I hate securing all those loose ends!

Here is a shot of the quilt in action. The I SPY fabrics in it helped keep the kids busy :)
My favourite thing about this picnic quilt is the carrying strap I attached to it. It is made a'la Anna Maria Horners Totable Towel. Only I didn't do the envelope sleeve.
BTW this year I am definately making a towel like that for a Christmas present for my sister!! I have wanted to since I first saw it, so this year it is going to happen!!
We don't have a car, so we have to carry everything, or be able to balance it all - and the kids - on our bikes. So being able to carry this like a shoulder bag is such a great help!

My oldest is starting school in less than 2 weeks. ACK! Where did all that time go?!
Anyway....looking forward to seeing what I have missed in blogland - I know it's a lot, so I have a lot of exciting reading to do...mmmm a cup of tea and blog-reading!

A baby quilt and lots of fabric :)

Yesterday we went to see my good friends' baby get baptised...and you know how it is. A new baby means a BABY QUILT!! I haven't been able to share any pictures of this before, since it obviously had to be a surprise :) This picture is taken in the laundry room, right after I pulled the quilt from the dryer, and right before I packed it up and ran out the door...we made it to the church on time, but only just!!
My friend loves it...it 60" square
Like so many others, I like to work with solids, and since I order most of my fabric online, I treated myself to the Kona cotton solids colorcard. Wow. I love it. I see many more solids in my future.
I ordered my color card from Canton Village Quilt Works if you don't know the store, go visit. Jackie has a lot of great stuff in her store! I also bought the FQ pack of rainbow colors from her.

Last week I took Miss V to the fabric store - to buy backing fabric for the baby quilt - and she chose these fabrics. She needs new dresses and skirts, she has grown so much since last summer that all her summer clothes are too short. LOL. So I am going to start by making her some skirts. I also bought these orange and teal fabrics. Orange and teal is my favourite color combination right now.
Also....I am a swap mama in Doll Quilt Swap this round. EXCITING!!! So if you visit the flickr group or the DQS blog, you'll see me there from time to time as well!