Crazy world!!!

This is really, really weird......


I have just this morning recieved 2 parcels from the postman.

One big one that I sent to myself last monday from London with some of my purchases from the Knitting and Stitching Show - including embroidery scissors that you can't bring carrying just hand luggage on the plane. Travel time: 4 days

The other parcel is smaller, very crinckled and looks as if it has been on a trip around the world.
Its from Helen. Its from England. It smells of almond. Travel time: 3 months.

ITS THE PURSE!!!!!!!


Usually I'm not lost for words. But this is just so weird!

Of course I have opened it and it is just as gorgious as I knew it would be. Purse is crinckled, card is crinckled - I don't care a bit - and the smell of almond? A wonderful surprise:-)))

I can not take pictures and show you now - the weather is very grey and overcast here, so no light - but I will update with photos as soon as possible.

I need some strong coffee now.
Holy cow....


UPDATE:

Here are photos of my lovely purse made by Helen:

I love this purse - the fabric is perfect!!

The whole content of the packet - purse, card, fabric and a HUGE bath soap that smells of almond!



The lining fabric - geometric - just me - love!!!



The bath soap packed in a cute suitcase - very british!

..and Helen sent me the fabric too!

I have been fondling and touching that purse more than I will admit in public. And after 3 months close to the soap bar it smells wonderfull of almond!

Thanks again Helen!


And now - I can finally say that my swap is finished - successfully!!!!

I'm a happy, happy girl:-))

Surprise gift!

Its been a while since the last blog post. I don't know what happened - maybe I needed a small break but whatever the reason I'm back:-)

I have loads to tell and show - not so much finished stuff (surprise!!!) but I just returned from a great week in London where among other things I visited the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace - or the Ally Pally as the place is called by the locals;-)

But first a post about surprise gifts.

This summer I participated in a secret partner swap on Flickr - the in the Framed Purse swap.
My purse arrived safely at my secret partner's house and I waited patiently for my purse to arrive.
And I waited. And waited. And went to the post office time and time again.

No purse for me.

Its a really odd feeling to be the only one in such a group not getting my swap. Its not like I got extremely sad or crushed - its more that you are not finished in time with the others, sort of being left out or behind. Not in a bad way - the swap mamas and group members have been extremely kind and supportive - but I've not finished the swap yet.  The purse sent to me is probably lost in the mail - of course it can turn up but the chances are small. I have been told who made a purse for me, I have thanked her and it is just the most lovely and perfect purse - just my style and fabric and pattern and all... but alas: Its lost.

Returning from London I found a notice from the Post office that I could pick up a package - wow!!!
Was it the missing purse??? I doubted it as the name on the notice didn't match the name of my secret partner.

This morning I went to pick it up.

And this is what was inside:



A lovely lovely mini quilt - my name handembroidered on linen and with my favorite fabric from Flea Market Fancy



A very sweet and lovely letter, thread and favorite fabric!



My name hand embroidered and a nice pumpkin - ready to eat! 


A group member, the lovely zaynoo1 (Kristina from Mûnchen) - who I only knew from the group and never have had any contact with previous - had read about my missing purse in our Flickr group and sent me this absolutely gorgeous mini quilt along with some of my favorite fabrics, threads and a lovely, lovely letter!!!

I'm so surprised and overwhelmed about this gesture - I just can't believe she did this for me!!!
Look at it - and think about all the time she has spent making it - handstitching and embroidery - stalking my blog and Flickr photos to find out my favorite fabric etc etc - I just can't believe it! I love it!!

Thank you Kristina - such a nice and moving gesture!

---------- *----------

To finally finish this saga about my missing purse I think you should see what helenjanei made for me - the perfect purse that I loved from the first photo uploaded on Flickr - the purse that got lost in the mail can be seen here on Flickr.
Unfortunately I can't show you pictures - they are copyrighted to helenjanei - but a link should do the trick:-)

A big thank you again to Helen for all your work. Regardless - you nailed it perfectly and I'm so happy I told you that in the comments from the very start:-))

Steder at besøge i UK

Der er ikke længe til.
Festival of Quilts i Birmingham (UK) løber af stabelen den 16-19. august og der er efterhånden rigtig mange danske og skandinaviske quiltere, der har fundet ud af, at det er en usædvanlig god mulighed for at se hvad der rører sig ude i den internationale quilteverden.

Der er meget andet at se når man nu alligevel har taget turen, og det tager hverken lang tid eller koster mange penge at bevæge sig udenfor Birmingham området.

I 2010 tog jeg turen og jeg blev ikke skuffet.

Jeg fløj superbilligt til London og nød nogle dage med bl.a. at besøge nogle stofforretninger (surprise!) og derefter tog jeg med National Express Coaches til Birmingham. Bestiller man sin busbillet online i god tid kan den fås for 5£. Ret billigt for en behagelig tur fra London til Birmingham - og så får man set noget af landskabet;-)

Som by må jeg indrømme at Birmingham var meget kedelig, så da jeg var blevet mæt af udstillingen i NEC, tog jeg videre med bus til Bristol, hvor jeg boede på et skønt hostel lige ud til en af havnekanalerne.

Og fra Bristol er der ikke langt til Bath... 20 min i lokaltoget - og så er man i en helt anden verden.

Bath er en velbevaret middelalderby og har en helt egen stemning med centrum omkring den store katedral og hele det skønne Cotswold område lige udenfor.

Katedralen i Bath med Turistinformationen placeret nederst til højre. Jeg har ALDRIG mødt så søde og flinke turistinformationsfolk før. De fixede en dagstur Cotswold rundt dagen efter og alt klappede!

Hvis man tar' en bybus i Bath, står af ved endestationen og går en lille fin tur gennem et typisk engelsk landskab så kan man ende her:

The American Museum har udover en rigtig flot samling af 'americana' - dvs effekter fra hele den amerikanske historie, lige fra nybyggeres køkkenredskaber til våben, dukkevogne og klædedragter - en helt fantastisk samling af gamle amerikanske quilts. Og hvis man er Kaffe Fassett fan og kigger godt efter, så kan man her finde nogle af de quilts der har inspireret ham.

Spis godt i Orangeri Caféen - her er naturligvis alt i the og kager og lækre små frokostretter og hvis vejret er godt kan man sidde på ovenviste terrasse med fantastisk udsigt over landskabet, hvor floden Avon løber igennem. I butikken kan man finde denne bog, som jeg tog med hjem - masser af inspiration! 

En dag i Bath er ikke nok.

Jeg havde booket en dagstur Cotswold rundt - vi var 6 turister med en herlig sjov og lokalkendt chauffør i en lille bus - og vi kom rundt ad små veje og gennem helt utrolige små byer - med masser af stop og mulighed for at kigge på de meget gamle huse, som stadig beboes. En frokost på Englands ældste kro blev det også til:-)

Ren idyl. Og det her er en af de større veje;-)

En 80-års fødselsdag bliver fejret med en lille tur rundt i nabolaget - humøret bag i vognen var højt!!!
Som de dog kunne synge!

Man tror jo det er løgn - men her bor stadig folk i de bittesmå skæve, uisolerede og fredede huse fra 16-hundredtallet.
Til gengæld er det ikke løgn at der er en del japanske turister - ham her ville så gerne med på fotoet.

Helt fantastisk smukke landsbyer - man kan ikke lade være med at tænke på krimiserien om Barnaby!

I Tetbury - midt i Cotswold - ligger denne lille forretning. En af kronprins Charles' 3 forretninger, der bl.a. sælger økologiske produkter fra hans landbrugsvirksomhed. Er man heldig kan man komme ind og se hans have der - ventelisten var omkring 6 måneder da jeg hørte om det på turen, så man skal være i god tid.



Prins Charles' butik i Tetbury



 Der var mange lækre ting men jeg kunne lige få plads til lidt lækkert sennep i tasken. Det var GODT!

Jeg kan kun anbefale at ta' et par ekstra dage når man nu alligevel er i Birmingham. Med lidt planlægning hjemmefra kan det gøres nemt og billigt og et besøg i Bath og på det Amerikanske Museum er en supergod oplevelse :-)
Næste gang jeg kommer til Bath skal jeg naturligvis bade i den berømte spa og besøge Jane Austen Centeret. Lidt kultur kan man vel godt klemme ind:-)

More Great Grannys

The bug is worse than ever!

Cute and romantic. So not me *sigh*

 



I made this collage with PicMonkey but its not really good.



Those colors are all wrong - the outer border is a warm dark rosa and not a purple.

Now I need to figure out how to square these blocks up to 12½". I don't own such a ruler and its not in my budget, so I need to do some math... when I first laid a block up for squaring it seemed easy but actually its not.

Great Granny Square

I have seen them on a lot of blogs - those granny squares and great granny squares - and everybody seems to be extremely crazy happy making them.

I want to be happy too!

So last night I pulled out some of that 30'ies fabric that I've had for years - and that I don't like anymore.
At least that's what I've been telling myself now for a long time.
It is way too cute and really don't go with my personality (!) or with anything else in my home. I am per definition and as a rule absolutely allergic to cuteness.
Dooohh...

I'm a whimp.
This is beyond cute and I now have a serious allergy attack.

Who would have thought that hate-fabric could turn into something so so so so... aughhhh CUTE!


Tutorial here and other cute blocks found here at Hill Valley Quilter who makes übercute squares!
And really vibrant squares at Simply Miss Luella!

I can't stop crochet hexagon flowers...

You can find those goodies here

My purse has landed!

The lovely Catherine from Sew wonderful life was my secret swap partner in the In the Frame Purse Swap and my purse has safely reached its destination.

I'm so happy that she liked it and I hope she will take the purse out on many adventures :-)))

You can see her blog post about it all here


I'm still waiting to receive my purse - I have no clue what it looks like or who made it, so its very exiting!

July status

This July has been a good month - I've been really productive and made good progress on several projects.

First of all the blanket for my Dad is almost finished.

I need to make another 25 squares which will only take a couple of days to do.
I really like this project, it is fast and very fun.

A block for Jeanne at Grey Cats Quilts for her month in the Scappy? Sew Bee It group. Those giraffes are so fun!

American quilt block

I made 7 blocks for My American Quilt. The center 9-patches are hand pieced and some of the scraps are gifts from American blogging friends. Its a great scrapbusting project!

I finished 27 crocheted flowers and have 30 half done for the flowerbed project! Great project when watching the Olympics:-) .... but one of those projects that I have absolutely no idea about what to do with!
Its just so relaxing, cute and eats a lot of my old yarn:-)

I dug out these super old squares - cut in 6x6 centimeters (they are from waaay back - when I denied that I ever would succomb to that nonsense sewing anything in inches... hahaha!!!!) - and I made 29 blocks. I have enough squares left to make another 15 blocks.
They will be super for quilt practising as they do not fit with anything I have now:-)

I handpieced 16 hexagon flowers in my Hope Valley fabric for the Hexi MF quilt along

2 huge blocks for the Tetris quilt went through the machine quick and easy and was photographed taped to my frontdor....

... and I cut 2½" squares of a lot of old and ugly fabric - and made 9 blocks for the Vomit quilt - more or less done chain piecing and as leaders and enders.
I am determined to kill as much of my ugly and old fabric as I can and these blocks do make a dent although I suspect that I have scraps enough for at least three more quilts of this kind.
But it is easy to do - some mindless sewing - and very addictive when you put them up on your design wall and discover that it actually looks good!

I knitted 1 square of variagated Zauberball yarn for my shawl

And last but not least - I learned a new skill - how to make framed purses and participated in a secret partner swap, which was very fun:-)



Despite whining for a week about a nasty cold and not realising that I actually made a lot in between and also being away for a week I'm absolutely thrilled about this month's status!

So go away bad consciense - today I'm beginning my new project with The Lazy Bums!

August will be dedicated to finishing my dad's quilt and an old UFO and maybe throw in a few hexies and vomit blocks.

Who knows - the summer may turn up eventually and I may finally order that new sewing machine.
Miracles do happen!!




edit: Every first day of the month Lynne from Lily's Quilts hosts Fresh Sewing Day showing the previous month's work and I'm linking up for the very first time in the small blogs category.

A framed purse for my secret swap partner.

This has been staring at calling at me for weeks.

I committed to a secret purse swap some time ago and I have been sweating over this for weeks.

My secret swap partner shares almost the same taste in fabrics as I do - at least I think so - and that uncertainty was causing the sweat because maybe I got it wrong, right?

Well - I finally dug into this completely unknown territorie - I've never made a purse before.

At first it didn't go too well. Which is an understatement thats almost a lie. 

You need to use interfacing to make the purse a bit stiff and that word makes me shake. A LOT. 

Interfacing. Horrible word!

So I bought different pieces and when it arrived I could not tell it apart. HAHA - *sigh*....

Whattodo whattodo?

Samples.

So I ironed different pieces of youknowwhat to fabric and spent a long time feeling and fondling and hugging those samples to find out which one was the best suitable to use in a purse.

Having never seen or held such a purse I did not know anything about how such a purse is supposed to feel and which youknowwhat was the best to use. Huhh.... Not much help there.

I made some patterns.

It looked weird. The engineer in me demanded those patterns to be constructed properly, so I dug out the drawing and meassuring gear.

I looked at tutorials and could not get the angles right. Oh well - the tutorial writers are most likely not overachieving perfectionistic engineers and just plot in some angles with arrows pointing in very very not-engineering-correct-directions - which everybody else understand except me.

I like it ... correct. *sigh*

So I took a lot of breaks and did a lot of crochet instead but kept thinking about this purse. Constantly.

I also caught a nasty cold and felt extremely sorry for myself and all the frames were still laying there - now looking at me in a sort of.... accusing way.

I'm sure they were pointing their hinges at me and snapping closed when I turned my back at them!

Nausea set in. Procastination is a no-go for me, so on with it.

The small frames went bad. Total disaster. But I so wanted to make a tiny, sweet one for my partner.

Not good for rheumatic hands. AT. ALL.

Ruined 3 sewn purses that got glue all over - so I cleaned the glue off the small frames and put them aside. Thankfully I had bought a LOT of youknowwhat so I still had a lot left to practise the bigger purses with.

Oh... Acetone is not good for your brain. But it clears your airways if you have a nasty cold. Just saying.

The middle size purse went much better. Except the proportions were a bit weird...

weird size....

dark interior

... but the finished result looked GREAT!

I was very proud of this!

And then - on to the REAL thing!



Front

  

Back


 

Lining

Finally I was satisfied with my efforts - this I can give away without being ashamed.
Nothing beats that feeling of doing good. HAHA - you just need to be pleased with your self once in a while. And admit it :-))

I have added some goodies for my sweet secret swap partner.

Among those extra goodies is a readymade fabric coordinating small purse with a frame - without the frame glued on!!

I could not help sewing it but there is NO way I'm going to ruin this like the other small purses.

I hope my secret swap partner is up to a bit of gluing:-))

Small purse with DIY-frame!

Looks gooooood :-))))

 

And now the purse + extra goodies are sent on their way to .. well, thats a secret for now:-)



Ready to go!



It was quite a troublesome 'pregnancy' and the 'birth' of this baby was long but I hope my partner like my precious baby. A baby I'm giving away.

I'm a bad, bad woman *lol*

I found a great card that leaves no doubt about my feelings that this purse is now finished:

Pheeew....

Not only do I hope my sweet secret partner has humour - but I really, really hope she likes the purse and that I got her taste right.

Time will tell :-)