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Showing posts from April, 2018

Finished quilt: Blue Roses and Denim

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Quilt details Name, Recipient, Size, Start/Finished date, Pattern and Fabrics used Blue Roses and Denim quilt, also known as ”Rosalie" I made it for me, to match the fabrics on my office chair.. 123 x 147 cm (length x height). 3.2.2018 - 29.4.2018. I improvised the piecing/pattern, but it's a variant of a four-patch. I wanted to use up the last fabric scraps I had of the same fabric I used to cover my office chair . I planned the four-patches based on how much 15x15 cm fabric square and halves I could cut out from the fabric. The upholstery fabric that's mentioned above, and denim squares out of old jeans. Batting, backing and binding fabric: Single layer of medium polyester batting (100 g, 1 cm thick) bought at Kruunun Kangas. Newly bought slightly stretchy fabric I found at Eurokangas. Binding was made out of the same fabrics I had used in the quilt (denim scraps, both blue roses fabrics). The binding I did on this quilt is via a method I read on

Finished quilt: Fake cathedral windows

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Quilt details Name, Recipient, Size, Start/Finished date, Pattern and Fabrics used The Fake cathedral windows quilt. I made it for myself. 102 x 103 cm (length x height). 2.2.2018 (the Jeans workshop course) - 29.4.2018. I free motion quilted my maternal grandmother's crocheted doilies to the blue background fabric, then used the "fake cathedral windows"-method to quilt the denim circles to them. The blue background fabric was a second hand store find I found the same Saturday the Jeans workshop ended, the crocheted doilies are ones that I inherited from my maternal grandmother, and the denim were both scraps from way back  when and also scraps provided at the course. Batting, backing and binding fabric: The fake cathedral window method is a quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) method, and the denim works as the backing and part of the quilting. I opted not to use any batting, because it would have made the already bulky quit even more difficult to handle. Binding w

Stash update 11/2018

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Today we went to Solf to get our tires changed, from winter to summer tires. The parents of an elementary school class has this drive to change peoples tires for 20 euros, and they use the money for activities the class wants to do. Afterwards, on our way home, I went via the second hand store at Palosaari. I actually found more than the plastic box I'm showing you here, but the rest were only toys for the kids so they don't count as crafting supplies ;) As you can see in the photo, I already started to fill it with my English paper piecing supplies. 3,00   Plastic container that was half full with materials for a  DIY loom band kit with colorful rubber bands ______________ 3,00 € total Total spent on stash this year:  408,66  + 3,00 =  411,66  €

Stash update 10/2018

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This weekend I took a sewing course at Arbis, and I went via two stores on Saturday. At the second of them, Eurokangas, I tried to find red solids for my still-to-be-done Rainbow scraps blocks. And I was successful! I also found a great backing fabric for my Blue Roses & Denim quilt top, so I can finally get around to quilting it. And in the box for handicraft cottons I found a real gem: " Geometry in Sunset from Remix by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics ". I have Glass' " Text in Charcoal " in my stash too, and I -really- like her designed fabrics. Something about the motives and colors draws me. 1,49     Perla YR100, 16 cm x WOF (width of fabric, which here is 150 cm) 1,49     Perla YP100, 16 cm x WOF 3,51    the Alison Glass fabric 14,63  the slightly stretchy flower fabric ______________ 21,12 € total Total spent on stash this year:   387,54  + 21,12 =  408,66  €

Stash update 9/2018

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This weekend I took a sewing course at Arbis, and I went via two stores on Saturday. At the first of them, Halonen, I had to buy a new quilting presser foot for my Pfaff, because I had broken it (see the photo!) by getting a 100/16 needle through the clear plastic! It's almost -impossible- to free motion quilt through denim - I don't even want to try and do that again for a while again. Buying new presser feet suck. Big time. How to kill a presser foot. This, and 5 spools of thread, were what I bought. 5,50    Gutermann Hand Quilting Thread 200m, color 800 (white) 5,50   Gutermann Hand Quilting Thread 200m, color 800 (white) 5,50   Gutermann Hand Quilting Thread 200m, color 1 (cream) 5,50   Gutermann Hand Quilting Thread 200m, color 1 (dream) 5,50   Gutermann Hand Quilting Thread 200m, color 111 (natural white) 12,90  portable thread stand 25,00  quilting presser foot for my Pfaff Tiptronic 1071 -15% discount on all ______________ 55,59 € t

Stash update 8/2018

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A package I had ordered from Adlibris came today. I had tried to find one of these Fiskars hexagon punches to use for making hexie EPP (English paper piecing) templates, and then I found them easily on Adlibris. I was really surprised, because I thought they only carried books and e-books. Apparently, they've expanded. I'm happy for it, because it made it easier for me. Oh, and since they were on discount, I bought a couple of other punches too, just to try out. The kids can get to use them for arts and crafts projects too, so it's a bonus. 17,30  Fiskars XL (50 mm) Hexagon Squeeze Punch   2,93 Figurstans Kvadrat 38 mm (1,5'')   3,68 Figurstans Kvadrat 50 mm (2'')   3,68 Figurstans Oval 50 mm (2'') ______________ 27,59 € total Total spent on stash this year:    304,36   + 27,59 =  331,95  €

My progress in the Goodreads reading challenge of 2018

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So, I managed by April to read at least 25 books. That was my Goodreads challenge for this year , and unlike last year, I don't want to stress myself by changing the challenge to a larger number.  If you take into account that nearly all of these books have been read in the Amazon Kindle app, and thus also that I have bought them via Amazon, they represent how much money I've bought books for already this year. Since I'm still on child care welfare, the amount of money left for buying books is ridiculously low by now. And no, I don't have any savings left. The library and the net are the options left for me now...at least until the day I get a job. Out of these 27 books, " Love Minus Eighty" by Will McIntosh  is the one that's  going to be one of this year's most memorable books. I've had it on my Amazon wish list for 3 years now, and only went it suddenly went on sale for 3,71 dollars did I have the money to be able to buy it (I usually

Stash update 7/2018

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It feels so typical a situation: as soon as I learn of a new (to me) interesting store, I learn they're going out of business.  So is it also this time, with the small fabric store Kruunun Kangas / Tygkronan in Vetokannas, which is close to our house. The day I and the kids went to check out the store, it was one of the rare days when we had the car available (because Mikael had taken his bike to work). We ran a few other errands, and when we arrived at Tygkronan, little boy had fallen asleep in the car. Little girl was awake and happily munching away on some warm snacks I had bought at the store we went to before arriving. I tried to be smart and not take too much time shopping, because leaving little boy in the car unsupervised sat ill with me. And, since I was looking for specific shades/colors of solid fabrics, and the store mainly had a nice selection of home decor fabrics, it didn't all that long. And little boy slept through it all. And little girl ate her s

Stash update 6/2018

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I confess, I took the kids on a bus ride into town to run some mommy errands. Mostly because the lack of fabric spray glue is making my life miserable when it comes to my quilting. But also, because the weather has become warmer (yay, spring!) and it's nice to be outside in the sun. Even if it's only 10 °C in the shade. We went via the Halonen sewing machine store to pick up some things I needed, and then Mikael came to pick us up with the car a while later. So, stash has been updated with the following: 4,90  Gütermann m782 extra stark thread 100m, color 800 (white) 4,90  Scanfil Super Strong 100m, color 1043 (violet) 4,95 new tweezers for my Huskylock overlock machine 17,50 Prym fabric spray glue -15% on all ______________ 27,41 € total Total spent on stash this year:  228,62   + 27,41 =  256,03  €

Finished quilt: the Cars quilt

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The Cars quilt, finished. Quilt details Name, Recipient, Size, Start/Finished date, Pattern and Fabrics used The Cars quilt. And I made it for my kids, because we've been watching that Pixar film a LOT lately. 141 x 137 cm (length x height). I was aiming for a square quilt. 27.3.2018 - 7.4.2018. I improvised the piecing/pattern, but wanted the different characters to look like they had frames around. The rest is just to get enough background and borders to get to free motion quilt on.  The "Cars" fabric was a small curtain I found at Palosaaren kirppis . The black fabric is the out of print "Flower Show III" (4256-12) for Benartex (100% cotton). I bought a F8 of it (along with a two violets and a yellow) at Syfestivalen in Umeå last year . The red border is a red cotton fabric I found second hand, and the pale pink background is part of an old ruffled mattress cover I got from Mikael's dad. Batting, backing and binding fabric: Single la