African dogs

Yup,  my girls are true to their origin (Rhodesian Ridgebacks aka Africa Liondogs) and bask in the sun at every opportunity they get. Just have to be glad there is no lionlike creatures at this part of the world:-)

UFOs

I don't know but you, but I hate to have's. Since I am such a Ms Goodie Twoshoes, there aren't very many of them in my house, but those who lurks there galls me everytime I come across them. That headboard cover I started before I did the DWR for my MIL, has been hanging on the back of the chair in my studio and I feel absolutely no drive to finish it. And a sad thing that is, since it is a very good looking thing...

But I do have two projects that are even older than that, a collection of table mats and a top I made from one of Eleanor Burns books - Quick Trip I think it's called (the book that is). The mats I made tow of each colorings in the same design, enough of them to go around our humongous dinner table in case of family dinners. I finished 4, the rest of the tiny tops has been laying there unsandwiched. Until yesterday when I finally came to the "enough is enough" bend of the road. It suddenly struck me - here I have this fancy new machine - let's take it for a real spin. Said and done, sandwiched with spray glue and them four different stitches with the same King Tut variegated thread and then a quite suiting binding. The result:

The thing is - I can't tell for sure whatever went through my mind when I chooses the fabrics for the others - I mean, I think I sued every color scheme there is, like purple and yellow, lilac and pastels, blues,  dark green with yellow.....How could I even think they would work together on a dinner table???? Well, since I like the colors of this India inspired mat, I think I'm going to start over and make them two of each more in the same colors, but different fabrics and layout. After that I just need to get some new table ware, I mean blue olive leaves on white plates don't go very well with red and yellows - does it?? 

Minus 16C and bright sunshine. The dogs and The DH came back after less than 15 minutes ;-)

Happiness in form of metal casing?

Now this may sound ridiculous to some, but I think I'm "in love" (well it is Valentines day tomorrow, isn't it??) with the new fancy Horizon. Not that I have had the time or energy to take it on a real quilting test round yet, but I have tested a lot of the 250 or so different stitches.

And just look at them!!! I must say that IMHO that the quality of these stitches are miles apart from the ones that the Janome 6600MC produced. Here I was thinking that machine was pretty good, but compared to the Horeizon after just and hour or so,  I can see a remarkable difference. 

The automatic thread cutter is silent like a lamb LOL. The automatic threader stays locked until the thread is threaded , the lightning is fantastic (even The DH commented on it), the steering knob and the stylo pen......and the very large acrylic table. Not to mention the speed at it sew all these stitches:-O And the fact that it takes to metallic threads umpteenth times better than the 6600 which  refused to do it without shredding the thread to pieces every 5cm or so, make me real happy.

You know, I haven't sewn any garments in ages, mostly due to the fact that the 6600 didn't have a free arm, making it virtually impossible to sew in sleeves etc. But the Horizon do have one (that easily can be converted back and fro to a solid table) and sitting there sewing all them different stitches, I felt a twinge of desire to sew something else than quilts - a nice shirt decorated with ton in tone silky thread and different stitches maybe? Need to Google and see if I can find any nice and working patterns.

The creative possibilities are endless, so much that right now I suffer from a sewing block - hehehe.

New toy

Just look what came home with me today - a Janome Horizon 7700:

I haven't sewn a stich on it yet, reads the manual and will watch the instruction DVD in just a while. But it does look fancy, doesn't it? Can hardly wait to try it out, but it's so different from the Janome 6600MC so I think I better learn a bit first. One thing that really bothers me is - where do you put larger spools of thread???

Winter struck again yesterday and it was chaos everywhere - there wasn't a single bus in traffic anywhere in the Stockholm area and the commuter trains was at least one hour late. In these circumstances I had to go and pick up the big car from it's beauty treatment out in the near countryside. But - I managed and got home in one piece. Today it look like this:

The kids have gone down town on their own for the very first time. Sam is going to ask around for a PRAO place (heaven knows what that is in English) and brought John with him. Ack how fast they grow up LOL.

Now DVD time.

What to do?

Now that the DWR is finished and left in my MIL's care, I am (as always) at loss what to do. I know, I know - I ought to sit down and finish the cover for the headboard of our bed, but honestly, I'm not really up to it. New placemats (here you can hear me giggle maniacally...you can never in your wildest dreams imagine what the automatic spellcheck came up with instead of placemats? Placentas!!!!!)
Booring! Try to understand the pattern and instruction for that smallish cosmetics bag? My brain feel fried at the moment :-( New covers for the pillows we have in the sofa? Hmmmmm, might sink my teeth into some of the blocks in the Japanese Block Design book. The last fabrics I ordered are quite Asian decorative. But right now I think I need some Treo for the pain in my head.

Outside it's snowing again....gahhhh and here I was hoping for spring;-) I have driven my car up to the garage that will give it some cosmetic surgery and went back home on the commuter train. The dogs are so happy I'm back again (usually never leave them home alone twice in a day), that they are snuggled up close to me on the bed:-)

Finished DWR

I swear, this is the last time I'm ever going to be sewing under duress and stress....as the spouse of one of the more heavy duty PLs in his field, I ought to have had a better project plan LOL. I don't know about you, but for me there is never enough of the right fabric in my stash or it might be missing completely. This time I had to order backing from TOB and that Fusions for the border from Hancocks of Paducah.  Plus add the fact that I do suck at the actual quilting. I do have been getting better at sandwiching, but I doubt very much I ever manage to get to Huston standard when it comes to quilting in this lifetime.

This quilt is appr. 120cm wide and 230cm long and wringing it through the Janome 6600 is such a drag that I once again question my sanity when it comes to these matters LOL. Oh my how I long for a state of the art long arm quilt machine - one where you set the measurements and quiltdesigns in some nifty computerprogram, transfer it all to the LA and then set it at go.......If there ever is such a magic machine, they surely don't sell theme here in Sweden , the market is just to small :-(

But here it is, my latest creation - the DWR for my darling MIL

Friday I had to take the day of from work , so I had two days for sewing like crazy. I do not know why, but the blue borders lengthwise came out all wobbly, so when I added the binding it all came out of a skew. So off with it and think long and hard and came up with folding the backing over the front and it did help. I did had enough time at home to finish the top and bottom bindings, so I brought needle and thread and completed it all at my MILs. Arwen my sweetie, just had to check it out and give her approval LOL.


Now if a quilter looked at this bedspread close up she/he would faint cause the seamstressship ain't that good in the inserts and borders - but the actual ringed top is very ok. My MIL just called and told me that she had put it on her bed and it is so beautiful - like a jewel :-D And was so in awe for all the time and effort I have put in to it and then - it's all worth it.

I have no clue on what project to start on next, except for a small padded drawstring bag for a part of the DHs helmet cam. But today I' just going to take it easy and maybe, just maybe clean up my sewing stuff.

It's a beautiful winter day here in Sweden :-)

Wolfie