HAPPY NEW YEAR

to all!! Do you know that Swedes will be setting of fireworks for  a joint sum of half billion Svedish Krona tonight? Such an idiotic from all lot of perspectives.

The DH is getting a late McD lunch for us all, so we can save our de luxe seafood dinner and champagne for later :-) But I doubt very much I'm going to able to stay awake until the stroke of midnight, don't think I have for the last couple of years. Must be old age LOL.

DWR saga part II

I managed to put three rings together and it all looked nice until I added one more ring in the second row - then the four connecting pieces didn't match up and the whole thing looked more puckered than a lemon sucking witch :-( The instruction for the pattern say that you should only sew the melons to the centers just where the purple meets the end parts of the melons (the purple multi patterned pieces).... so I did but still don't get it. The whole thing is now ripped apart and I going to start all over again, but heck if I can get them bits and pieces to add up. Grrrrrrrr.

Feel free to post instructions and great ideas ;-)

One ring to find them....one ring to bind them....

Well I admit, I'm not totally sure if that is the correct paraphrase from the Lord of the Rings, but I hope so ;-)
After reading the instructions for the DWR quilt I bought along with heavy duty acrylic templates ( I swear - these templates going to last me a lifetime and be my legacy to a daughter in law (if I ever get one), they are like at least 5mm thick!) over and over again, I decided to try it out. So after auditioning a nice collection of blues, I got going with the smallest rotary cutter and it was no big deal at all. I even managed to follow the instructions and could sew the melon shapes and - attach it to the middle part without much trouble. Until I read that you ought to leave the end pieces un sewn until you piece the next rings to the first, so I have to use my nice ripetty--ripper at these parts -  hence the wobbly shape. But since I sewed the corner pieces together at first, I know that the whole thing lays flat when sewed together:-)

So without much ado - here is the first ring block:

 In lack of natural light, I used the flash so it don't look 100% ok. My MIL like the color blue, so all the rings are going to be in blue varieties, cause I don't think I have enough fabrics for all the rings to look the same. But I strongly suspect that I need to keep all the corner pieces (the most colorful ones at the end of the melon wedges) the same and - maybe the purple ones next, to bind it all together  - right??

Now I have to place it on Sam's bed (it's the same width as my MIL's) and calculate how may circles I need to make. To finish it of I plan to make a café au lait colored border and a blue binding.

So what do you think? I'm kind of proud of my very first try out with curved shapes :-D

One ring to find them....one ring to bind them....

Well I admit, I'm not totally sure if that is the correct paraphrase from the Lord of the Rings, but I hope so.
After reading the instructions for the DWR quilt I bought along with heavy duty acrylic templates ( I swear - these templates going to last me a lifetime and be my legacy to a daughter in law (if I ever get one), they are like at least 5mm thick!) over and over again, I decider to try it out. So after auditioning a nice collection of blues, I got going with the smallest rotary cutter and it was no big deal at all. I even managed to follow the instructions and could sew the melon shapes and - attach it to the middle part without much trouble. Until I read that you ought to leave the end pieces un sewn until you piece the next rings to the first, hence the wobbly shape. But since I sewed the corner pieces together at first, I know that the whole thing lays flat when sewed together:-)

So without much ado - here is the first ring block:

 In lack of natural light, I used the flash so it don't look 100% ok. My MIL likes blue, so all the rings are going to be in blue varieties, cause I don't think I have enough fabrics for all the rings to look the same. But I strongly suspect that I need to keep all the corner pieces (the most colorful ones at the end of the melon wedges) the same and - maybe the purple ones next, to bind it all together  - right??

Now I have to place it on Sam's bed (it's the same width and my MIL's) and calculate how may circles I have to make. I plan to make a café au alit colored border and a blue binding.

So what do you think? I'm kind of proud of my very first try out with curved shapes :-D

Backing

I confess, I find that finding backing that suits a project is not that easy. Well of course we can get xtra wide quilting backing over here too, but you can guess the price huh? And of course I can get it from the USA from stores like A Thousands of Bolts, but that mean getting one piece at the time cause there is only so much fabric you can squeeze into a USPS flatrate envelope...

So often I "cheat" that is getting normal wide fabric and sew it together, but that means that you have to have round 5-6 yards to fit a Swedish double bed and honestly, I very seldom have that kind of yardish in my stash. Soooo, I cheat even more and do something many quilter considers a no-no, I use bed sheets:-O Depending on the project, I can't see why not. I know I know, bed sheets don't have the same thread count as quilting fabric has, but for stuff like the headboard cover, the backing don't show at all. And the upcoming DWR quilt for my MIL - how often do anyone think she is going to wash it? Not once I believe.  Therefore I ordered two extra wide sheets from a catalogue company, affordable and it matching colors and is quite pleased with myself:-) And while waiting for them to arrive, I'm going to start audition blue quilting fabrics for the DWR. I must check my stash to see if I have enough of cream muslin for the background though, otherwise I simply have to make that ToB order nevertheless;-9

We are sewing, we are seeeewing

Think Rod Stewart there LOL. After a month or so of non sewing activity, I have set my mind to finish the Mariners's compass headboard cover in a near future. Why? I have come up with the perfect combined birthday and moving gift for my darling MIL. Me and my sis have't exactly been fortunate in the mother department, but I was very lucky to get a wonderful MIL along with the DH.  In two months time, she will move to her very first own home ever. The thing is, she has never lived by herself - she got married with my FIL direct out of her childhood home and they stayed together for 56 years. Now a widow since 2 months, she has to adapt to a new way of life. So what to get her? The other day it hit me - a Double Wedding Ring quilt!!! I must confess that I am mighty pleased with this idea and when run by the DH and my thoughts around the project, he totally agreed. My MIL loves blue, so I have to check out the description of the pattern I bought (it included thick acrylic templates - yayyhhh) on how much fabric is needed. Luckily she don't have a Kingsized bed, but a standard Swedish 90cm one :-D

Gahhhh, how I hate this climate and since it's only november, this is probably only the start of a truly horrible winter -  heavy winds, drifting snow and only +17C in the bedroom :-(

As far from Huston you can get

One of my dreams is to be able to afford going to the Huston show, but in meantime for that to happen, we have the Swedish version called The Sewing Festival. After being located at smaller very cramped fairs, it's now located at the very large Stockholm International fair in Älvsjö. You might think that since the fair is so large the festival ought to have grown in size, but oh no - it's only large in space, not in vendors and it took us about just over one hour to walk it through. We was smart enough to get there late in the afternoon when most of the visitors had left, so there was plenty of space and good air supply :-)

Anyhow, the big reward going there was spending time with my younger sis - it's sooooo nice to walk up and down the ails, checking out and discussing stuff. The fair host not only sewing stuff, but all sorts of yarns (that category has grown), scrapbooking and stuff we would rather be dead than caught with LOL. And we where so good - I even came home with most of the money I had brought. I only bought two seamrippers, a pattern for small makeup bags, some stiff foundation and a foundation with cm grids printed on it. Sis only bought some yearns and a new wallet. Plus we bought each other a Christmas present......yeah, this way you get something you really want :-D
Thank you darling sis for a wonderful time!

The thing is about fairs in Sweden - all vendors keep the same price for their wares that they to in shops etc. And absolutely no give aways, no matter if you show yachts, motorcycles, home decorating or - handicraft stuff. I was so fascinated to see how many women actually bought bundles of fat quarters or bags full of yarn at prices you could get twice as much for in American online stores. OK I admit, at times you have to bow down and buy fabrics in a store when you need to get the color combination absolutely right. But in the long run, buying on internet works very very well.

Time to get out of bed and start the lardy - bläääää boring.

Know read

I finished the Sheldrake mystery novel in record time. Normal I buy most of my books from Amazon.co.uk cause I buy a whole bundle at the time and mostly they are cheaper that buying them here in Sweden. But you on a lark I ventured into Akademibokhandeln yesterday and what did I find? Ken Follets latest "Fall of Giants" all 850 pages of glorious read. I think he is a great writer and has enjoyed Pillars of the Earth and  World without End extremely much.

Needless to say - I am sooooo happy that my brain finally has come around to it's usual bookaholic self after years of concentration problems:-D

New wallet

Well my 9 year or something like that Camel handbag started to fall to pieces, so in a moment of splurginess I bought a new fancy and quite expensive one:-) And of course I had to make a new wallet to go with it:

Sorry for the blurry first pic, but the weather here is rather blahaha today.

I used fake suede (can't for the life of me come up with the right English word) and some simple but artistic (??) threadwork on the closing flap.

A small coin pocket at the back.

And 8 credit card holders inside.

I'm rather pleased with the result and have got some nice comments:-)

Feelgood feeling

One thing that make me feel good and that is to have a pile of new books awaiting to be read. I do have four Billy bookcases choke full - you know when your first you have one row of books, then you pile some more on top of them and when that's full, you store them in a second front row too. I know I that I tried to throw away some older ones when we moved here in 1999, but the DH got chocked - you never ever throw ways books was his statement. So I lend already read ones to friends and family and in some cases I hope they forget to return them. In other cases (like all Anne Rice, Philip Pullman, Shantaram and others) I'm gonna save "forever".
Anyhow, on Monday and today the latest order from Amazon.co.uk arrived and now I have a nice selection to read, among them a new fantasy series "The Opal Cowen" trilogy and - the one I started and enjoy tremendously "The Help" by Katryn Stockett.

Feeling of richness can also come from something as trivial as a new hoard of nail polishes LOL.

Fall has really arrived, the leaves are turning and a strong wind is blowing = :-(

So cosy

Well I admit, I have been a lazy blogger... nah not lazy, just kind of uninspired. I think that I over did it with sewing all these things for the RV - after that I kind of deflated and the only thing I have made is this:

a teacosy for the .....RV!! I very much doubt that there are many happy campers that have a real teapot on board, but we do :-) Nothing fancy, a cream colored with blue print from IKEA.

In our very small neighborhood mall (I'm not even sure that it really qualifies for a mall) there is a store selling Juki industrial sewing machines, buttons, YLI thread and such and I have never felt the urge to go in and check them out. But since son No 1 managed to break my ergonomically shaped ripper (from Fons & Porter) one day I went in to see if they had a substitute. Which they didn't. But the owner was a very nice guy and 1,2,3 the next day I brought my Janome 6600 for a checkup and service. Since we had had all the cars in for service the last weeks, why not my machine? They gave it some TLC and - had to sharpen/file the feeder cogs cause they had developed some grades (gradients??? not entirely sure of the correct word). Jeez Louise, I must have sewed up a storm the 2.5 yrs I have owned it ;-O

So here I am, with a almost as new sewing machine, lots of gorgeous fabrics and threads and with absolutely no idea on what kind of project to start on next. I mean it - I have no ideas at all. There are enough quilts (the kids don't want any of their own) and pillowcases in the house, I have some bags and totes, tea cosy (for the house), oven mitts, table runner and a table cloth, Christmasy stuff and the only UFO are a collect of table mats to use when we have company....

So my dear readers - HHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!!

Talk about confused

How many people do you know who tries to put a 5 krona (5 SEK coin) into the steering lock (have absolutely no clue what the correct word is) in the car? Well, now you know at least one LOL.

Guess what half of the family

are going to do tomorrow? THIS
The DH and Sam are going to spend the day there. Not my cup of tea and John is not into that kind of music. Luckily the weather report has changed from rain, to sun and +22C:-)

My unique tableware

OK, you can call me a snob and fancy kind of girl, but I do love to have things that nobody else has. I mean, I do know the need for durable stuff in an RV (we did have plastic in the yacht), but I have this need for the dinner table to look great too.
Here in Sweden you can only get melamine tableware and pretty all sellers carries the same line. During our RV road trip I couldn't help but glancing at other peoples dishes in the common dishwashingroom and nobody, I mean nobody had the same fantastic tableware or glasses as I do.
The pics aren't so good cause the light inside the RV where it's parked, is kind of dark, but these are the lovely things we got from the USA:

Just the right stuff that makes a grown woman happy:-D

It's blowing so hard

that my little Honda Jazz started to wobble on the highway. My heart kind of jumped into my mouth and at first I though I was not concentrating so the car skimmed allover the line, but then I realized there was heavy winds. Yesterday it rained 60mm in the Stockholm area and today this......well at least "vi had i alla fall tur med vädret" during the vacation. Two more days and then back to work :=(
But we are having fresh Swedish crawfish for dinner tonight. Swindling expensive, but I hope they are worth it = yummy

Vi hade i alla fall tur med vädret ;-) PART 2

Don't ask me why there is a big space showing up here in the browser, since I have absolutely no clue at all.


You know - following the coastal line, first of lake Vättern and then Halland and Skåne along the Atlantic and Östersjön, kind of connect you with the roots of Sweden's history, from the middle ages and forward. The DH and I have always kind of envied the great national pride that Americans have, since it's something that we Swedes lack in spades. But this road trip of ours, made me sort of feel with a something I never had before - a feeling of belonging.

In lack of available lots at the camping grounds, we went to Simrishamn and checked out the harbor parking space for opportunity to "free camp" there and even though I kind os sweet talked the harbor master into using one electricity outlet, we decided to try our luck someplace else. Not that there is anything wrong with Simrishamn, quite the opposite - it's such a charming and cute town and has such a nice feeling to it, that we started to contemplate to move there after retirement LOL.  But after much more phoning around I found this small family owned campingsite Landön, which is situated in the only archipelago there is in Skåne. On our way there we passed Kivik and Brösarps kullar - places I only read about and utterly fell in love with the area.

Sadly they don't clear up and maintain the beaches at Landön, if they did this place would turn into a small paradise and as it is now, it's kind of uninviting to put your toes into all that slimy, green goo.
Anyhow - we stayed there a couple of nights and believe it or not - even had some visitors. Two of the members of the DH's motorcycle club came by for a chat and told us a lot of local gossip ;D

Our plan with this trip was to follow the coastline from the southern parts of the west coast to the east. So after leaving Landön we set our sights for Kristianopel. We passed this amazing place - Trollehus - home of the Trolle noble family on the way.
We have been to Kristianopel once before when we sailed with Maggie from Stockholm to Bornholm and it's such an amazing place that I would easily say - if you ever visit the Nordic countries, this is a "must" place to go.

Once again we struck lucky lot wise and this is the view from my bed window. We had very nice neighbors, the beach was wonderful and the restaurant served up a delish barbecue buffet - what more could you ask for? The place was so tranquil and restful that we ended up staying for four nights before we went north to Kalmar and over the bridge that leads to Öland. We had called round at most of the camping sites on Öland, but since it was the "Victoria day" that week, they all where booked solid. Finally I got lucky and caught the very last free lot at Haga Park and we stayed there for four days. But believe it or not, I never got around to take any pics :-8 Haga Park is not a bad place and the lot we got was in the outmost corner, but the people living in the trailer right behind us....well to put it mildly - their behavior left a lot to be desired for. Not toward us thank heavens, but lordy me the way they treated each other...... I confess, there was times while we sat outside having dinner, when I had to cover my ears cause listening to them was way too disturbing and if you think I can be a bitch, oh my - that girl beat me to the post umpteenth times over LOL.

The beach attracted the male parts of my family, but for me it was so and so. There was grass, then pebbles both on land and in the water before you hit the sand and with my wayward sense of coordination and balance, I simply didn't want to take the risk. Plus - after my horrible swimming experience when I grow up (try learning to swim in +13C water!!) I have this rule not to bath in any less temps in the water than +26C :-O. The guys also took bicycle trips in the area while I relaxed with a nice novel...I think I had come to the newest Trudy Canavan "The Ambasador's Mission" by then. I have all her earlier novels and have loved each and everyone of them and this one really lived up to my expectations.

Since we all missed our furry babies, we decided to pick them up a few days earlier and heaven above how happy, no correct that, ecstatic they got. Fionas breeder and her husband is the nicest people ever and even though they had plans to go out, they had stayed at home for an extra hour just to be able to meet us again. After much hugging and kissing, the girls practically rushed into the RV (in case anyone would change their minds into leaving them there again LOL) and we started a long haul to Jogersö camping just outside of Oxölösund. We had stayed there for a weekend of-season last fall, but now they was packed solid and once again we got lucky and got hold of the last available plot. The girls was (true to Birgitta's word) absolutely exhausted

and the kids was ecstatic to have them back.

You can never imagine what difference there is (or maybe you can) between staying there of season and in full blown season.....Many of the people around us was soooooo rude - one guy sat outside his RV staring at us all the time and the family next to us was extremely loud mouthed.  There was even one guy who just passed close to our dinner table while we where having dinner and smoked close to our bedroom window during the night. So at breakfast next morning the DH asked us if we really wanted to stay another day and the anonymous vote was - NO!!! So in a hurry we washed up and packed everything and - went back home.

It was good but strange to be back home, I don't think we ever been away from here for such a long time ever and the house felt a bit unfamiliar. The kids was so good helping out to empty the RV and putting everything away and I couldn't help but compare how easy-peasy it is to pack and unpack a RV compared to the yacht :-)

There are good things and bad for just about every issue on this planet and when it comes to spend your vacation in a RV (or any other confined spaces) so far I have found that:
With four people living in a cramped (well not so when you look at the size of our RV, but compared to home it is so) spaced is deemed to get the tempers rising. But on the other hand it is damned cosy.
You have to plan your meals cause the fridge only hold stuff for 2 or 3 dinners, depending on how many bottles of chilled beer the DH felt he need ROFLMAO. And after two weeks you are so fed up with grilled meat that you consider going on a starvation diet ;-)
The beds are semi good, but a long way from home....I don't know the last time when I slept that badly. But when I got home I almost fell out of bed when I turned cause my bed was "the wrong way" LOL.
It costs a fortune to use the washing machine at campsites!! And it cost a fortune to do any shopping at their service shops. A piece of bread cost round 1USD!
I just loooooove our table and glass ware!!! Thanks to my very generous Wisconsin friend (thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!), who helped us to get Corelle tableware and rainbow acrylic glass ware and I promise you, we are alone in the entire Kingdom of Sweden to own such wonderful things. Call me immature, but I get happy every time we use them :-D

So yes, we did have tremendous luck with the weather for most of our 19 days and believe it or not, the day after we got home, it turned chilly and grey. We have had some days of sun but not enough to open the pool and, during last the night we had thunder and now it's grey and rainy again. My oldest has asked me to take him to a mall today, have no clue what he want to get, but it will be nice spending some time alone with him. Three more days and then it's back to work :-(

Vi hade i alla fall tur med vädret ;-) PART 1

Translation: At least we where in luck with the weather. It's a hilarious Swedsh movie from 1980 about a family going on vacation in their caravan.

I have included a lot of mouse over links, but even though they show in the editor, they don' t show up when I view the blog in a browser and I have noooo idea why. So if you can't see the links and are interested, mouse over each row and hopefully you find them.

And we did....had tremendous luck with the weather - round+30C in the shades for almost three weeks.

Background: I married into a sail yacht of substantial measures (41ft) that the DH and his brother build from scratch. Yup . they even molded the plastic hull all by themselves. All things comes to and end and we decided to sell it in and a new life with two kids and two RR girls began and all our vacations was spent at  home. We got kind of laid back and satisfied with having everything we needed here - like the swimming pool and an icemaker LOL.

Last year the DH opened up for the idea of getting an RV and after spending quite of several days  going here and there to check out all the different brands that was within our budgetrange, we found a one year used car - a Bürstner Elegance and bought it right away. The pictures in the link are from the seller, but it's not our car. Ours looks a bit different when it comes to upholstery and stuff.

We had two of-season weekends out (and we all loved it) before the harshest winter in a long time struck and during the winter we did a lot of modifications - the DH did all the technical improvements and I placed my butt in front of the sewing machine every opportunity I had and sewed; two bedspreads, curtains for 4 windows, two seat covers and a heck of a lot pillow covers. I tried umpteenth of times to take pictures inside the RV to no avail, so this is the only one I managed to far that is true:

So on July 5th we was packed and ready to go. After much discussions we had decided to kennel the girls (for the first time ever in their entire lives) at Fiona's breeder outside of Huskvarna. Oh my, you should have seen the look at their pretty faces when we closed the door to the box and said our by-byes.....Never though eyes could grow that big in a dog ;-P I swear - they look like that big eyed animal in Madagascar LOL.  I promise you this, when we left  Arwen told Fiona of in a big way: "why did you have to go and bite daddy like you did, now we both are locked up here in Dog -Sing and I didn't even do anything!!" Well it turned out that Arwen had the highttime of her life while Fiona sulked during their stay.

Of we went to Gränna, the Polka Pig capital of the world LOL. Gränna is famous for their Polkagris candy (Polka pig if you do an exact translation). We had booked two nights at Grännastrandens camping area. The beach was nice , but nothing fancy - it certainly do not look like in the pictures but the kids bathed nevertheless. Our plot was ok, the service houses great and even though our neighbors did a bit of partying, all was quiet round 10.30pm and there was nice selection of restaurants in the harbor to choose from.

Next step went from Gränna over to Mölndal and south via lunch at an IKEA and stocking up with stuff that was needed - like a teapot LOL and then on to Åsa Camping and Havsbad. The interesting thing about this trip was that all camping grounds had their good and bad sides. This one offered us a plot next to the service house (= a lot of people went closely our lot), there was some sort single mom convention with hoards of kids who lacked a lot in their upbringing. The great thing was closeness to a bakery and a grocery store.
Just look at this beach:

You would think you are at the Mediterranean.

Two nights was enough, so we steered our home away from home to the fancy resort of Torekov at a great campingsite where we ended up on a wonderful large plot under high pines with the neighbors at a distance. The immediate beach wasn't as great as we hoped for, but 5-10 minutes or so away on a bike was the real McCoy ;-)  The kids had a blast bicycling around, John bought himself a landing net and fished for crabs. He actually got quite a few of them, but animal friend as he is, he did put them all back into the sea.

Since we really loved this place, we stayed on for a couple more day's than planned. Good thing since we hadn't booked anyplace ahead in advance . But with the with the (in) famous "Båstad Week" (where the Brats are partying in a rather discusting way) coming up, we decided to  continue our trip along the coast of Skåne.

It turned out to be a very long day trip since we 1) had to shop for more supplies and 2) most camping sites we checked out was fully booked.

TBC.

New threads

I don't know why, but for me variegated threads are as attractive as little jewels ;-) These are King Tut threads from Superior Threads that are new in my collection. I also stocked up on two other that I already own and use quite often, plus a cone of Bottom Line bobbin thread. Quite a frugal purchase this time LOL.

You learn

 something new every day. Like fussy-cut.....I came across it in some different patterns in the mags I recently bough. I know I asked a year or so ago on the Quilters Home group, but heck if I can remember what it was. When I hear the word fussy I just get a fluffy kind of image, like frays. But luckily I did a Google and found this little movie and voila - everthing is crystal clear, I truly admire Eleanor Burns, that's for sure :=)

Back to finish quilt the last block on the 2nd RV bedtop......

Snow?!?

Just when you thought that spring was advancing and finally many of the streets in our neighborhood started to be free of ice and snow, 2hrs ago it started to snow again and a lot of it too. Flakes big as a Swedish 5 krona coin and the streets are back to being covered. I mean, you can get depressed for less right? Even more depressing is that the roof of my greenhouse couldn't hold the snow masses when they started to taw and glided down, so two panes are broken and there is a lot of glass shards in the house. Since the backyard still is covered in a huge amount of snow there is no way to change the panes now, so my poor sanctuary will have to withstand all the forces of nature until all snow is gone. Vojjne!

Magazines

There are a lot of quilting magazines out there (and only one Swedish) and as with everything else, there are good ones and not so. I used to subscribe to Quilters Home (via a Swedish newspaper agency) and found it hillariously funny and rewarding, but when Mark Lipinsky up and left, the air went out of it. Frankly, I got so dissapointed with the copy cat style that the new director has - trying to come across as Mark II, that I quit my subscription right away. I also subscribed to Quilters Newsletter, but that one has become so uninteresting that I quit.  The list of magazines offered via the newspaper agency is rather short, some Aussie ones but to get them, you need to sign up for 12 issues. Well, I choose two others:

and buy are they good. I think I have read both before without being very impressed, but these two issues are simply awsome! I think I have read them both from cover to cover three times over and in booth there are plenty of stuff that I realy would love to try my hands on. Like to one on the cover of McCalls Quilting, the one to the left with the starshaped in circles type of blocks...but sadly I do think that is beyond my limitations :-(

On the good side, I have only two blocks to quilt and the light natural deviders, then it's only the bindings and the two bed covers for the RV are ready. Maybe the snow will be thawed at the same time, so I will be able to take them out there. Going to be interesting to see how they fit ;-)

Like Christmas in March

Believe it or not, but I haven't bought any fabrics in many months, but after auditioning a whole lot of the ones in my stash for the binding of the RV bedspreads, I gave up and simply had to buy some. One of my fav stores is Thousands of Bolts, not only do they carry a very large range of fabrics, but at terrific prices and they get here in less than a week. And - I found one that I thought would fit and today it arrived together with some others:

It's the second from the left and I'm pretty sure it will suit. The one to the far left is a kiddy Easter print, bought it with no use in mind more than it's cute. I think I have some panels and yet one more fabric in the same range and when i told John he just shrugged his shoulders and said "collecting fabrics is like collecting anything else". Isn't he wise my precious son?? ;-D


The other three fabrics are more of "good to have, will come in handy one day" LOL.

One heck of a dress

I posted about this on my Swedish blogg and had to think over why I do like this dress so very much:

I mean - it is so beautiful it takes my breath away, one of the most so from the Oscars that I can remember (where most are ugly, very ugly and plain awful) and then it struck me - in some way it reminds me of skillful applique and embroidery in the quilting world ;=) I think it goes great with all that pale skin and red-red lipstick and one can't help but wonder what kind of shoes that is hiding under that silken fall?? If I was "someone", rich and got invited to fancy parties, that would be my wish-for dress...or it would suit our crown princess Victoria as a wedding gown when she weds her beau in June....Imagine it with a dark red waterfall kind of wedding bouquet...Maybe I should send her a note? LOL

Back in ther saddle

Proof that I'm realy sewing and not just paint my nails LOL

I'm back

This has been the most horrible winter in a long time and still is. We are having so much snow it's unbelievable and the people who plow the streets here in our municipality isn't exactly doing a good job. Thank heaven for the 4WD and that diff mood you can use that probably makes it possible to climb small mountains with it LOL. All this wintery stuff makes us all quite tired and in some cases, feeling ready to give up and hibernate - I mean it is the first week in March and no relief can be foreseen.

Well the good thing is that I'm back at sewing again (and the DH at fixing the RV and modding the MC) and have finished quilting the first bedspread for the RV. But while audition fabrics for the binding, I found absolutely nothing that looked great. I know I know, very very silly of me when it just the binding and since the spreads will be tucked under the mattresses, I could use whatever I had enough of in store....but I am such a stickler for details, that it would feel completely wrong. I mean, if I spend a uncountable couple of hours making the top, taking care that all the details are as perfect as I am able to make them, I can't fib away the binding.

So I just placed an order with Thousands of Bolts for 12 yrds, the first fabric purchase in many months and it felt gooouuuuud:=D

I need to go grocery shopping, but the danged stupid neighbor across the street, has a handyman of some sort there and guess where he has parked?? At all the friends, family, handyman, cabdrivers etc favorite place - across our gates at "her" side of the street! So it is virtually impossible for me to get the 4WD out of the gates and I do not want to confront them cause I know for sure that I'm gonna blow a fuse or two... So I just have to wait and see :-(

Time to put some clothes on and start sandwiching the second bedspread, I saw a video clip somewhere that made it all so easy using a wall instead of a table or the floor.

Have a lovely weekend all!

Verrahhh quiet

I know I know, I'm more quiet than a door mouse these days for various reasons and hence - almost no sewing is done. Well I do have brought out the first of two bead spreads for the RV and continued quilting it. I said id before and say it again - I am not at all good with quilting. In my more far flung moments I think that quilting would be so more easily done on a longarm, but where would I put it and - would I really make use of all that money spent?? So one day last week I decided to let this quilting process take it's time and on a good day I quilt one block and that way it all seem more manageable:-9

When I don't wring that spread through my Janome 6600 machine I read. I read a lot. And most is good reads - new ones or old ones...Right now I'm reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" that I borrowed from my BIL and it is one terrific read. After this one I'm going to re.read Shantaram...one of these truly great novels.

And when I don't wring the sandwich through the sewing machine, help the kids with homework, cook or do the laundry and don't read - I paint and stamp my nails. Such a frivolous pastime LOL. One of these days I'm going to empty the sowing trays from last years sowing compost, put in new and sow my new seeds from T&M. it is virtually imposable to get out to the greenhouse, so I thin I will have to make do with the laundry room as soon as the last batch of laundry is dried, folded and put away. I can almost feel the taste of small homegrown tomatoes;-)

Puppy Loooove

I think my youngest (11 in March) has a girlfriend....she has been texting him during the Christmas break and just now she called his cell....how cute is that?? :=D

Over the weekend I made a new cover for 2010 calender, but forgot to take a pic.. Nothing very fancy, very nice paisly fabric that I embelished with seed pearls and some metalic variegated threads. At least better than storebought covers in fake leather :-)

The good and the bad

There has been some sadness in our house the last week or so, because three of the four salamanders the kids adopted last summer has died. Yesterday John's girlie Lea was found all dried up and did he suffer all day long...cried his little (nah, that boy do have a big) heart out. We figured out that this sudden onslaught of death probably is due to the fact that in captivity these little guys couldn't hibernate and without hibernation they couldn't just make it.

Well, yesterday the fabrics I ordered from Hancocks Paduca finally arrived after have been on their merry way over the ocean. Did it arrive by rowboat one might wonder, since it took four weeks...Happily they looked exactly as I thought they would and I think they will work very well on the tables in the RV.

And finally - after having waited two years or something, Sam finally got a place in his former school and will start there on Tuesday. The current school hasn't worked out for him at all (but it works splendidly for John), well the learning has been OK but many other pupils leaves a lot to be desired from - specially when all the good ones have given up left for "better" schools and the badasses have staid on. Sam can hardly believe it's true - one of his biggest wishes has come true and he will be back with his friends that he went to day care, 1-3 grade and plays soccer with. And as a mom, I feel proud of having managed to finally pull this of for him.

This weekend is the end of Christmas in our house, so all ornaments and Christmassy table cloths and placemats will be stored away and I will get my dinner table back and can start to sew again - yipiieeee!! I think I will start with a small makeup bag for my nailtools

PS What do you think of the new template design? Me like it a looooot:- )

Happy New Year

to all and everyone!!
Thanks to the dining room table that acts like my sewing table, is decorated for Christmas and all sewing stuff is stored in the study, not even a new cover for the 2010 almanack can be made.

So instead I have be re-reading novels from the 90th (Sally Bauman) cause my stack of new and unread books is zilch and - since I figured that nail polish and sewing don't exactly go hand in hand - I created a new blog for just for decorating nails and occational other beauty stuff. If anyone might be interested, you can find it here
Believe it or not, polsihing your nails is great fun LOL.
That blog has had patheicaly small number of hits, so if anyone has any good advice on how to direct traffic there, just holler.

Hugs from a very snowy and coooooold Stockholm!