Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

While free-motion quilting today (while at Arbis on the quilting course that takes place during Tuesday mornings) on my One Block Wonder quilt, I used up my last remaining white thread while pre-winding bobbins to use later. Luckily, I had time afterwards to head on in via Halonen’s sewing store to purchase  a new spool. Halonen 5,50    Gutermann Mara, 1000 m color 800 ============== 5,50 € total Total spent on stash this year: 759,98  + 5,50 =   765,48  €

I spent my Thursday piecing together the Emma-quilt, and then when I started basting it and my Kingfisher quilt I ran out of spray glue. Which was typical. So, since hubby Mikael now has the flu and I was supposed to go pick up the kids from daycare, I went via the Halonen sewing store to pick up one more can. Halonen ??      Prym fabric spray glue -15% discount ------------ 16,06 ============== 16,06 € total Total spent on stash this year: 743,92 + 64,08  =  759,98  €

It was 56 books in August. Now, in September, I'm up to 63. I will continue to say this: if I had more money, Amazon would have to "shut up and take it". Because on my Kindle wish list I have : "Margaret goes Modern" by Francis O'Roark Dowell "The Thief" by J R Ward "Soulless" by Kate Rudolph  "Phoenix Unbound" by Grace Draven "Archangel's Prophecy" by Nalini Singh "Wild Country" by Anne Bishop Like I said, "shut up and take my money". Because those books aren't the only ones on my lists, I have many many more craft books too... ---o--- Wishing you a happy reading day :)

I was feeling really flu-crappy three days ago. Taking care of oneself comes kinda second when the kids have the flu too. *sigh* Anyway, I was cleaning out stuff from the cutting table, since I had gotten those place-mats and towels done. And I found a small baggie with already fussy cut small Christmas blocks. So, I took the leftover natural white I had used on my Rainbow quilt, and found some matching reds, and made some not-quite-economy blocks. And no, I had no idea what to do with them. Next day, I squared them up and placed them on the design wall and tried to figure out what I could do with them. I quickly realized that unless I wanted a Christmas-themed baby quilt, it needed more blocks. I pieced together some from the small leftovers I had. (I think I managed okay with this one, the seam runs straight through the center) So...after having gone through my novelty fabrics for Christmas themed ones in green-white-red, I found one with present...

Oh happy day - the borders have been added! And I think they turned out great. I'm truly amazed by the fact that I - after reading up on color theory and then trying my best while also using an app tool to help - actually managed to create a quilt with a color palette that WORKS! Even the scrappy fabrics I've used for the hexie flowers work together well. On the overview photo some of them look a bit muted, and some of the oranges are so bright they shine, but close up the effect is much better.  Oranges, browns and red. With pink, and some odd greens, light blue and a few yellows. Writing that down makes it sound like an insane mix. The patterns on the fabrics are also an insane mix: florals, geometrics, polka dots, stripes, pastoral idylls and solids. Also, and in this I'm thankful for all the comments I got on Instagram for these photos, I noticed that I've chosen autumn colors. Without thinking. Visa det här...

During September, so far, I’ve gotten a lot done on my Rainbow Scraps quilt. I took it with me to the Arbis quilting course on Tuesdays, and I’ve sewn on it in the city library (waiting to be able to go pick up the kids at daycare) and at home. The borders are  finished, and that’s great! It feels nice to have gotten all that done, because it means I don’t have to use any pins on it in the future when and if I do any hand-quilting on it. I really hate and loath getting pricked and scraped by all those darn pins. I hate needles too. * sigh * But it is getting easier to sew by hand. I’m getting better. The stitching looks more even, and I "get into the flow" of it. I'm only annoyed at the thing when I run out of sewing thread on the needle. I've been contemplating a feather pattern for the borders. We'll see how that will go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE ask permission BEFORE you PUBLICLY copy anything from my blog. All images, all my text, and cont...

Guess what? I sewed the the center together on two course lessons at Arbis! Here's two photos, one without any flowers on, and one with. I really like how it came together. Most points actually also match up - go me!  I only have 8 flowers left to do. Then I have 46. Wish me luck on those ;) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE ask permission BEFORE you PUBLICLY copy anything from my blog. All images, all my text, and content that I specifically haven't referenced as belonging to someone else on this site are my property and they cannot be used, copied or transmitted without my consent. The exception here is Pinterest, because I give you permission to pin my photos there IF YOU CITE THEM AS COMING FROM THIS BLOG AND THUS FROM ME. I understand that Pinterest is useful for saving tutorials and photos for quilting inspiration, because I use it that way myself, and I'm okay with you doing that too - but PLEASE: "cite when you write". Give the creator some...

One of the more frustrating things about going to therapy is that you have no idea how long it will take to get your brain to fix itself again, just so you can get on with your life. My therapist laughed with me when I honestly told her ”I’m here to be able able to stop seeing you”. Because why else do it all, if not to get better? So, since I can’t plan anything about my home-life, I can at least try to plan something about my crafting life. About ideas on what I’d like to focus on during 2019. During 2018 my goal has been to focus on free motion quilting, and I have done that. As well as try to become a more accurate piecer and machine sewist. I’m contemplating hand-sewing as my focus for 2019. To do that, I have two projects in mind: English paper piecing Continuing with EPP (English paper piecing), I’d like to make a quilt called ”Lucy’s Terrace” ( pattern by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth ) which is based on a quilt called Lucy Boston which is made f...

The Monday our kids started in daycare, I stayed with Little girl in her group for maybe 1,5 hours and then stayed outside in the nearby park (Skeppsparken) until I could go and get my bike from the repair shop. Afterwards, I took a detour via my husband’s job and picked up our car. I went via Halonen's sewing machine store to buy a new cutting mat (both of my two 30x60 cm mats are in such bad condition that I'd rather not use them anymore), and also via Eurokangas to buy some interfacing. I cleaned up a bit and put the new mat to use straight away. It's a Fiskars (yay, Finnish products) and it's thinner that the green mats I've been using before. It's more flexible too. We'll see how it feels in use, maybe it's better than the thicker ones? I cut out fabric for some place mats, and some fabric for small towels. These came out of fabric I'd gotten donated from Frida. Halonen 4,45      1 m thick flax ribbon 1,00  ...

One month has passed since the last progress update on my projects, so I thought I'd write an update on how far I've gotten on all of them. During August, I think therapy for me started working, because I started feeling better. We also got our kids accepted into daycare. They’re starting on the 3rd of September. There’s a lot of schedules we’re having to start conforming to, to ease the kids into getting used to the daycare’s schedule. On September  2nd, I attended a sew LAN-party which a larper friend was hosting. I got lots done then.  Otherwise, I have just tried to make my nearly 2 months of sickleave just that: trying to get better by -not- doing too much. Which have evolved into me doing a lot of sewing by hand, especially on the Rainbow quilt. I’m also contemplating more EPP projects, as well as what I want to focus on during 2019. Oh, and I enrolled myself into some crafting courses at both Arbis and Vaasa Opisto for the fall. One of them is held ...

Me and the kids are at home today with ”daycare flu”. Since our noses are constantly running, and we’re not feeling the greatest, I lit a fire in the fireplace and then tried to do some chores. After lunch, I took a shower...and noticed the jeans I had shopped online and been ”saving for a rainy day” HAD PRE-MADE HOLES IN THEM! What’s a crafty mom to do? I don't want to have any pre-made holes in my pants, especially not since the weather is already turning cold! Well, I did some boro sewing (it’s a Japanese mending technique) and fixed the holes with parts of my old cut up black/grey jeans. (Loved those old jeans btw, literally into pieces) Yeah, thank you H&M... I couldn't see those holes all that well while I was shopping on my phone...  I started with gluing (yay for having my EPP glue basting glue nearby) the patches to the inside of the pants.  Then it was just big stitch sewing. It think it looked great!  Weavin...