Summer report

Somehow the months have raced on and there has been no blogging. I seem to have drifted along, doing this and that, posted the occasional picture on IG and that may be just what I needed, but I miss having a record of all I've done and what ever I was thinking while I did it. So I think it's about time I got back to a set of routines including a bit of blogging.

Let's begin with what I did during my holidays. I stayed at home this year, and imagined that I didn't do all that much, but looking back I have proof that I wasn't completely idle! A wall quilt, a top for a lap quilt, a shoulder bag, three pouches and a giraffe - not too bad, is it?

If you follow me on IG you will have seen it all before, of course, but there's something to be said for showing it all together - it feels like a result! And if anybody asks me what I did over the holidays, I have my answer ready: "Oh, I made a giraffe"...

Just lucky, I guess

I'm just amazed by my luck recently. No sooner had I shared my lucky win the other day than I got a message from Kristin that I had also won a giveaway on her blog. And I usually don't win anything. This time I hadn't even realized that there was a giveaway, I had just commented on how great it was to see pictures from the yearly outdoor quilt show in Sisters, Oregon, and not noticed the giveaway information. And look at this lovely prize I received!

There are lots of lovely cards with pictures from some of Kristin's quilts, handcoloured yarn and fabric and a cute hand-stitched tag/ornament.

The fabric is just wonderful. Pieces of lots of different fabrics in three colourways: "leaf", "sky" and "blossom"

Look at all the different textures: cotton, silk, chiffon, and more. I've just been sitting here sorting through them and stroking them for a while now thinking of all the possibilities. Combining them all in one piece? adding bits here and there in different projects?

I don't know yet, but I think they deserve some loving hand-stitching, maybe some ruching and folding here and there? Yes, I need to let the ideas marinate for a bit, but these lovelies will be put to good use, I'm sure.

And this ornament is for now hanging from a shelf on my desk so I can admire all the different coloured stitches while I'm on the phone.

Thank you so much, Kristin!

2013 - bring it on!

Beginning a new year is like starting a new journal, isn't it? Lots of blank pages to be filled in as we continue our journey and wonder where it will take us. It's also a time to stop and look back and contemplate on what we have achieved.
2012 for me was a year of waiting, not a year of doing, and I really need to snap out of it. I decided in the end of 2011 that I needed to find a new place to live, as this flat is too small, needs more work done to it than I am capable of tackling and the thin ceilings give me too much information about what my neigbours are doing...

I was lucky and had a bit of a windfall in 2011 which will allow me to buy a bigger place, and I thought that would happen just like that. But it is not so easy - one has to find the right place first. I don't think I'm too picky, but I have some criteria that must be met, and I spent 2012 searching and waiting for it to appear.

I remember packing away my christmas decorations a year ago, thinking that the next time they would be used at my new place. I also started purging my belongings and packing away things I wouldn't need for a while, so much that when I was to start decorating for the holidays, most of my decorations were buried under so much stuff in the basement that I just couldn't be bothered, so I have gone for the minimalist approach to decorating this time - no tree, but christmassy quilts, light chains and lots of candles. Different, but very nice anyway.

I am also in a better place when it comes to preparing for a move than I was a year ago, so that's good - a lot of stuff has been cleared out, given to jumble sales or to friends, so the things I have left will be the things I really want to hold on to, which should make an eventual move much easier.
But I see that I really need to be more active and do new things, spend time travelling, visiting, doing, not putting everything on hold.

I'm not all that into making new year resolutions, but I think it's about time I made one - to make this year a more active one socially and also to spend more time making quilts than dreaming about them. And that should give me more to blog about as well...
Happy New Year!

2012 - Summing up

The year is ending and I spent last night mulling over what I have achieved when it comes to sewing at least. I was a bit surprised to see that there are so few large quilts this year and kept going back through my blog posts and Flickr photos to check that there really aren't any more, because I somehow felt that there were, but that turned out to be in 2011 - how time flies... :-P
This also explains why I have been such a lazy blogger this year - not much crafting to write about!

Well I did finish some items, though, although most are small. The list is as follows:

1 lapquilt, 2 wall quilts, 6 small art quilts, 1 pillow, 4 bags, 7 purses, 1 phone cosy, 1 ipad cosy, 1 ipad support, 14 mug rugs, 1 sewing bag, 1 tablecloth and 6 placemats.

Not too bad, but all my plans for larger quilts have fallen by the wayside. This means that I have quite a few UFOs as well, so I'll have no problems with finding things to sew.

I may not have been such a busy quilter during 2012, but I have kept myself busy buying fabric, so I had better get around to using some of it. I have plenty of ideas too, so let's get started! 

Swappy goodness

My dear cyber friend Calamity Kim posted about her new Johnny Depp bag a while ago. I left a "swoon" comment and before you knew it, Kim generously offered to get me one too. After a bit of mailing back and forth we decided to do a swap, and just in time for the weekend I got to pick up an exciting box from the post office... I couldn't wait to get home, and see what was inside. And what a lot there was! First of all there was the bag, of course. Isn't he gorgeous? Can't wait to take him to town ;-)

And as if the bag wasn't enough - look at all this! Books, magazines, cards, fabric, labels and a marvellous envelope full of all sorts of little treasures. Everything was so prettily wrapped too, that I'm definitely keeping the paper to use in future craft projects.

It's almost inspiration overload, and I've spent the weekend gazing at all my treasures and dreaming about all that I can make with this. Kim is so generous and the swap was a real delight! Thank you, my friend!

More gorgeousness

I've been away for a few days, and wouldn't you know it - I managed to sverve by a couple of quilt shops... And we all know what happens then, don't we? I just couldn't control myself! But it is such a lovely feeling, though: "I'll have this please, and this and this..." and before you know it:

A bag full of gorgeous fabric! I do have a few pieces in my stash already (understatement of the year!), but I had been saving up for this trip, and it was great to indulge a bit. My local quilt shop is all about sweet, romantic fabrics in soft colours these days, and I'm not, so it was great to find some more colourful bits and pieces. Yesterday I just sat here and oohed and aaahed and tried out different combinations, but now they're off to the washing machine so I can start using them.

There will be a lot more sewing than buying for a while now! My work-load has lessened a bit, so I have convinced myself that there will be more stitching time, and I certainly have enough plans to last me a while.

And while I'm sorting through my UFOs, have a look at this:

Wonderful, creative Calamity Kim is having a very generous giveaway with lots of gorgeous stuff: lovely things she has made, along with an amazing variety of craft supplies. Go leave her a comment and maybe you'll win!

Yo-yo pincushion

yoyo pincushion
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

So this is where those yo-yos ended up, a little frivolity or frippery, just for the fun of it. But it can actually be used as a pin cushion, so it's not entirely useless. I found the pattern, by Michele Muska, in Cloth Paper Scissor's Studios issue.
This was as I said, just for fun, I'm not really planning to go in for a whole lot of yo-yo making, but I just had to give it a go. The circle cut ruler is more for making circles to use in quilts - I have some ideas... Hopefully this rain will continue tomorrow so I'll get to spend some time with my sewing machine...
I didn't get around to sewing all afternoon, as I have spent my time tweaking the blog - where did the time go?

I have received an award!

I have received an award - the sweet Sødeste nominated me for the Arte y Pico award!

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 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!

There are so many great blogs to choose between, so this is really difficult, but I will give this award to:

Calamity Kim for her wonderful sense of humour and seemingly endless imagination. She creates awe-inspiring aprons, quilts and dolls - I wish I could tap into the place she gets all her ideas from! And the stories she writes about some of her creations are just wonderful - they are the kind that makes you run for a mug of cocoa and a quilt to snuggle under before you continue reading!

Be*mused for all the great inspiration, both quilting and knitting-related. She has a great sense of colour and comes up with the most wondrous combinations. She's in the middle of a big move, right now, but scroll back and have a look at her "marinating" quilts, and you will see what I'm talking about.

A Stitch in Dye for her wonderful quilting and use of colour - have a look at some of her densely quilted pillows, and you'll see what I mean! She creates the most beautiful dyed fabric too.

Spirit Cloth for her amazing works of art. If anyone could make a silk purse from a sow's ear, she's the one! Have a look at how she turns the humblest of scraps into the most magical quilts. Her companion blog What If, where she tries out all her ideas is really inspiring too!

Mollychicken for her humorus, sometimes hilarious, posts about life in general and crafting in paticular. She makes the sweetest softies and writes wonderful tutorials. Her creations always come with little stories about who they are and what they get up to, and you can count on finding a little bit of naughtiness in each and every one, however sweet they are.

OK, that's my selection of five. I hope you'll enjoy visiting them!

Hardware

Quilting is usually all about working with soft and pliable elements, "software" if you will. But my current project (you must be sick of hearing about this handbag by now, but we're nearly at the finishing line now - I promise!) includes a lot of hardware. Not the computer kind, but from the hardware store, or ironmonger's if you like. That's what I fell for in the first place with this pattern - the combination of soft fabric and somewhat rough bits and pieces like these carabin hooks and whadyamacallits. I don't know what they are for excactly, but something to do with boats I think, because that's the department I found them in. They just happen to be the right size. The colour of the metal is slightly different from the hooks, but never mind. They will do.

I have spent most of today struggling with this bag, but a movie and some hand stitching now should do it. Just so you won't think I'm terribly slow I must hasten to add that the day has been rather short because I slept in after a big party last night. We had this big shindig at work that I helped arrange (read: took over the arrangement of - I had forgotten how much fun that bit can be!) with a treasure hunt and fashion show involving a garbage bag and found objects. It was really fun to see how creative normally serious office workers can be in the right setting! Well, enough said, but getting to bed in the small hours and sleeping really late accounts for less sewing time today, and let's face it: my coordination might be "somewhat hampered" ;-)

This is my last post in May, and although I didn't post every day - some time away and some late nights prevented that - I think I did rather well. 19 posts in May, compared to 2 in April is definitely progress, right? I think this has helped me get back in the groove and I actually find myself thinking about what to blog during the day again, so I hope I will be able to keep it up, just don't expect a post every day!

Sorting threads

It's amazing how a few days away and getting out of the habit of doing something can make you stray off path completely. I was really getting into this alphabet thing, and had even prepared a post to be posted when I was away to keep it going, and then all sorts of other things interfered with my plans. It started with trying to take some pictures for my next post, but because it has been raining heavily for what seems like weeks, I couldn't get any photos worth posting - I get the feeling of being under water lately what with the constant sound of the rain and the gloomy light. Quite cosy if you want to stay indoors and create, but not the best light for taking pictures.

I've been sorting and tidying all my "stuff" these last couple of weeks - the redecorating of my living room (pictures will follow...) brought a lot of clutter to the surface that need to be sorted - in heaps of "for keeps", "pending" and "going out". There seems to be a lot of this going on in blogs lately - maybe it's something to do with getting our "nests" ready for winter hibernation ;-) I also sorted through some of my threads, and since Alicia posted the question of how we deal with those tangle-prone cottons, I thought I'd show what I do with mine, even if my photos have that sub aqua-feel... Since I have a lots of DMC cotton floss - I have been doing cross-stitch for years and I'm for ever adding to my stash - I have made some plain cardboard strips with punched holes along one side. I cut the skeins in same size lengths and loop them through the holes in numerical order. If I use only two strands of a length, I can loop the remaining strands into the same hole and have them ready for the next project.

I keep all the cards in a tin box so that the threads are coiled underneath and all the cards rest upright on top - quite the archivist, oh yes I am! :-D Because I started this system years ago, and it has been growing little by little, adding to it doesn't take a lot of effort, but I doubt I would do it this way if I suddenly found myself with hundreds of skeins that needed sorting - I'm not tidy enough to keep it up for that long!
I also have some special threads, like perle cotton, this beautiful silk noil, some linen etc., and have been doing what Alicia did - pulling out one length at a time from the skein and getting them into a terrible tangle. A friend of mine showed me a trick that works perfectly for these, and I am sorting through them in front of the TV these last couple of evenings. What you do is to open the skein, which is kind of twisted around itself so you have one big loop of thread. Then you cut through it all at one point (preferably where the ends are) so you end up with a bunch of single threads. Loop the bunch around the index finger of the hand you don't work with (I'm left-handed, so I use the finger on my right hand) bringing all the ends together at the opposite end. Split the bunch into three smaller bunches and start braiding them from your index finger. After braiding a few times, you can lift it off your finger and continue braiding with both hands. I just braid as far as I can and leave it like it is. If you feel the need for a very neat finish you could tie a piece of thread or something around the end, I suppose, but I find that it isn't really necessarry - the thread stays braided well enough. If you need to keep the label, you can fasten it throug the loop end of the braid. When a length of thread is needed, just pull it out from the loop end. You'll find that you can easily do this while keeping the braid intact. Works beautifully!

E is for EFL

Or English as a Foreign Language.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to try to use my language skills, such as they are. Way back in 1981 I went to London and worked as a domestic slave (also known as an "au-pair") for a year, while attending Hammersmith and West London College studying EFL. It was a very interesting year in which I learned a lot, not least about myself.
I realized quite soon that my domestic skills weren't all one had hoped for - I failed to see the importance of dusting and hoovering every single day of the week, and this is unfortunately something I still haven't managed to get my head around... Still, the job was only my means of getting to stay for a year, and I knew what I was getting myself in for, so no worries there. Through attending college I gained lots of friends, some of which I still keep in touch with. Some were English and some from other countries - I didn't seem to lack destinations to travel to for years after that. In my class there were people from most European countries and some from Japan and Hong Kong as well. We all came from different backgrounds, but through a shared experience we became great friends.
In the blogosphere it is a bit like that too - people from all parts of the world and all different backgrounds meet to share parts of our lives, what we do and what we think about. Friendships are made and visits, real or virtual, are arranged. Simmy, for instance has just returned to England from a holiday in the US visiting blogfriends and their families and had a wonderful time, it seems. Lolly is taking us with her to visit Peru, and shared a story full of suspense of how she and her husband were separated and managed to find each other again during the recent earthquake - I was not the only one who smiled through tears when she came to that point of her story! We get to share Amanda's proud and happy rendition of her little daughter's first sentence, and after so many posts about Alicia's lovely dog Audrey, more than a thousand comments on the post announcing the dear doggy's death shows that craft bloggers are a compassionate lot. I'm happy to be a part of this community and feel that I get more insight into how the rest of the world lives, what people feel and think, only to discover that we are not so different after all.

Updated

I have updated my blog a bit. I have been hesitant about changing to the new layout option in Blogger because of all the fiddling you have to do with colours, fonts and settings, but today I took the plunge. I managed to copy all the contents of the sidebar and I have also added a label cloud, thanks to a very helpful link provided by Diane at Going to Pieces. I see that I still have some tweaking to do - I think the margins are too wide, so either I have to make them or the banner narrower. But not right now.

Diane has provided further inspiration. Her post about her quilters' retreat where they made stack'n'wack-like blocks has been at the back of my mind for a while, and yesterday I just had to give it a go. I got out a great floral fabric and started cutting and sewing. So far I have made eight blocks. I can't wait to make more! They will eventually become a summery tablecloth I think. Maybe one for my balcony. My sister and I went to the nursery to stock up on flowers today and I have brought home lots og goodies. I'm too tired to do anything about it today, but tomorrow I intend to get it all sorted.