Richness in different ways

Yesterday I got this in the mail:

I haven't started on any of them - just keep myself in suspense and instead read an old Modesty Blaise novel for the time being.

Today these waited for me in the mailbox:

The blue ones are for finishing the new place mats, the red/green ones for my stash. I got them from Thousands of Bolts, a great place to get quality fabrics at affordable prices and from where I get most of my treasures.

Surprise of the year - I got a bit of the bonus system at work for last year. I haven't got a krona (SEK) for the last 10 years. Not because I don't deliver or reach my goals, far from it, but for one reason or the other, I was never qualified enough to participate according to the leadress I had at that time. Lucky me who now got a boss who sees and recognize my qualities :-D

Laugh if you want to ;-)

The reason for non quilting posting latterly is not due to idleness but trying my hands at stitchery.

Let's start with that I'm not an embroidery type of gal....when the other girls I worked with at the large operation/surgery ward was hard at large and intricate Clara Waever embroideries, I red and only relented once, doing a small pink cross stitched rose. Which got me one more nickname (the first was Ylle) - the Rose ROFLMAO.

And to this day (well last week or so) I have hold true to that aversion, until I happened upon some lovely and/or fun looking stitchery. The thing is that the pillows on the couch need new covers and I want something different than real patchwork this time and some stitched blocks with flowers would look nice combined with ordinary blocks. But 30 years or so of non-stitching create a necessity for practice before getting down, not to mention practice on drawing designs. So I have spent my free time on small patches of fabrics upon I sewed all kind of stitches and believe it or not, I have even managed to art of French Knots!!

So here is the result of my efforts:

 a small "envelope" for my new MP3 player. The design is not to the better part of my own, the floral sprig (and the letters ought to be, but my clumsiness made them different LOL) from the Vignette magazine No1. And I had only a small selection of floss to choose from, but for such a small piece it don't matter. The measurements are appear 10x8 cm and has a little pocket on the back for the earphones:

I willingly admit that this is not one of the best things I ever done (and that hurt my ego a bit), so I can't help but smile (so feel free to laugh you too) looking at it. But if I continue to practice I might be able to achieve the lavender sprigs/wreaths design that floats around in my mind for the pillows. Such blocks would make the best carry-on sewing for this summers vacation in the RV, since it's harder than hard to fit and use the Horizon in there ;-)
If anyone knows of free online lavender patterns, feel free to holler :-D

Gaudi nails ;-)

A couple of years ago The DH brought back some gifts for us from Barcelona while on a conference: a couple of soccer t-shirts for the kids and this beautiful trinket box in an Antoni Gaudi design for me:

and it has been sitting on a windowsill ever after. Until yesterday.

Remember all these 60 bottles of decorative nail polish I bought from China some months ago? I think I said it before but the quality of these bottles has left a lot to be desired for, so they have been sitting there in a box, doing nothing. Until yesterday.

Not in a sewing mood I decided to try something with my new dotting tools (also from China for under 1 USD :-O) and started with yellow, green and blue. Then it struck me that the result was similar to the Gaudi box, so I checked it out and added red, white and black dots:

So here we are - a kind of Frenchie Gaudi manicure :-D Sadly my camera refuse to focus and give me crispy clear picture, it's probably that shiny Zoya Jules fault.

Heavenly scent

Oh oh oh, in the mail came one of my orders from one of the two best of the best of the best soap makers in the world: Ana . I'm relived she packed my order in much bubble plastic or I'm sure than some postal person between there and here would have not been able to resist snatching it up for themselves ;-)

Ack - the smells that wafted up  when I opened up the plastic was amazing (as always) , can't wait to get into the shower tomorrow with one of them bars of soaps...think I'm gonna start with the Patchouli heavy one. But what truly sent me of may rockers (like when I sampled a jar of feta cheese that I never tasted before) was the Gnarly Bitch Body Butter. It's such an immense pleasure that swoon is a good word to describe it LOL. I have some on the back of my hand and can't stop smelling it. I know what I'm going to rub on my hands before going to bed tonight and dream paradisiacal dreams.

Wel, time to start dinner - Falukorv, fried potatoes and maybe if I feel nice, some fried eggs as well Lucky my family who has me to cook for them ;-9

Itty bitty thing

Since the MP3 player we got for Christmas at work 3 or so years ago, won't play nicely with my Mac, I had to give in and buy one that is compatible....yeah, one more fruity thing LOL. It came in the mail today, rattling around in a too large box, packed in a appr. 5X5X5 clear plastic cube and my oh my, that is the tiniest marvel I've seen so far. I haven't listened to it yet (but the music is synced) since the battery is charging, but is .....reading the manual!!! I confess, I feel a bit like a dinosaur since it's sweep here, doubletapping there, drag this way or that ... what else can they come up with and cram into that small thingee?? Well I am in a bit of an awe, that's for sure - but Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks can be listened to and pictures viewed...how on g-ds green earth is that possible? Hence the manual reading, I would never understand a thing otherwise.
The other MP3 just played music and that's it, although I do suspect that there was a radio hidden in there too.

The quality of the sound is simply great and - the earphones don't leak sound, so I don't disturb anyone at work. That is if I don't start to sing along ROFLMAO.

And here I am fiddling around with my music toy while I ought to be sewing or at least decide if I should stay with the color scheme on the place mats or - change them (and the pattern) to blue instead...decisions decisions ;-) First I'm going to sew a little pouch, I have the construction of it ready in my mind :-)

Happy Birthday

to my younger sister who celebrate a significant birthday today. Hurray, hurray, hurray!!!
Welcome over to the "other" side

Happy feet

There are sewing machine dealers and then there are dealers of sewing machines ;-) and I have understood from my American friends that there are people out there who simply ought not have the license to deal at all. Maybe it's the same way over here, why shouldn't it? Even though the dealer who I bought the Janome 6600MC from gave me an almost unbelievable deal (but we had to travel round 700km to get it) I never had much to do with him afterwards. When it came to upgrade to the magnificent Janome Horizon 7700 I ended up with a local dealer, Stockholm Sycenter, mostly cause they offered the best price. But - afterward they have been nothing but good when it comes to customer services, answering questions, finding out facts and mailing the cone holder to me when I didn't feel like going downtown to pick it up.

On the Yahoo group for this machine, there have been some talk about that the original O-foot (that came with both the 6600 and 7700) was so bad that Janome has come up with a new and improved foot called (wouldn't you believe it) - O2 and all Horizon owners that register their machines online, get this new foot for free. Well - Janome Sweden don't have that register function on their website and don't offer any exchange of feet for that matter, so I emailed my dealer and asked if maybe we in Sweden could benefit from the same deal. The answer was - send me your serial number and I will get Janome to send you a foot. Now how about that - huh? I think it's terrific and such a very good way of conducting business. Whenever there will be an even better machine, guess where I'm going to buy it? Right now that seem like an impossibility, getting an better machine than the Horizon that is :-)

All time high

On Sunday I reached an all time high here at Wolfie Stitches with 73 unique visitors. Wow, I don't that happened back in my Ruby's  Jewels days. You get a kind of fuzzy feeling knowing that 73 people world wide reads what you have written. Now all I could wish for is some more comments. Come on now guys - a little comment hasn't hurt anyone and I promise that I will reply to each and everyone of them.
Yesterday it was sunny and a bit of the snow and ice thawed and of course, during the night it was freezing again. Soooooo blank shiny ice in the morning and when I drew through the gatepost the car lost all steering ability, just gliiiided on that ice and honest to g-d, the neighbor across the street was very close at getting a dent in her fence. For sure I have no clue whatsoever what I did to manage avoiding that collision, but I did with a pounding heart and red splotches on my neck. Gahhhhhhh!!

A taste of heaven

Well my dear foreign readers, the rest of this post will be in Swedish since I find it hard to believe that any of you will travel round the world to visit this marvelous little butcher shop in Helenelund, Sweden.

Dagen före det stora snöovädret åkte jag för ovanlighetens skull med SL och slö som jag var, så orkade jag bara inte släpa mig uppför den branta trappen och ännu brantare gångvägen upp till vår "kulle". Istället ställde jag mig och väntade på 178an ( för en enda hållplats... ja ja jag vet) och slö-glodde som man bara kan göra när man väntar...Huset tvärs över gatan innehåller en väl renommerad Iransk restaurang, en liten hål i väggen till frisörsalong samt Dannes Godishörna, ett lockande häng för traktens ungar. Men hålla - det står inte Dannes på skylten längre utan Håkan. Och inte godis utan kött och delikatesser!! Väl hemma googlade jag, men Håkan är en hemlig man - han har ingen websida han inte. Däremot hittade jag en blogg av en tjej nån stans i grannskapet som varmt rekommenderade Håkan och hans varor.

Så i fredags tog jag mig tid och gick dit och det kommer jag aldrig att ångra. Första intrycket var; liten affär, litet sortiment, men ack vad jag bedrog mig. Ja alltså, affären är ju liten men vilken kunnig, trevlig och genereös man och vilka himmelska  varor jag kom hem med. Jag slog till på fyra stooooora biffar av det mest fantastiska marmorerade kött (nöt ytterfilé), två paket om sex grillspett, en burk fetast så god att jag var tvungen att stöna lite av njutning, en burk "chimchaya" sås (ni får ursäkta mig men jag har inte den blekaste om vad den heter egentligen eller hur det stavas) oerhört kryddig tomatröra, het och med en viss rökighet, en burk aubergineröra som även den fick mig sucka av lycka. Dessutom fick jag helt gratis ett paket av Håkans hemgjorda korvar och en burk bearnaisesås. Allt detta till det oerhört facila priset på 430kr. När jag lyckligt trippade ut genom dörren insåg jag att min kasse var tung som en liten tegelsten och insåg att jag hade rena fyndkassen i handen.

Biffarna hamnade på grillen till middag på lördagskväll (så dom kom inte med på bild) tillsammans med en vitlöks- och gräddstinn  potatisgrating. Och här måste jag klämma in med; vi har under sommarhalvåret (ja ibland på vintern med när man kommer åt grillen) köpt kött på två av Sollentunas köttbutiker - olika sorters kött, mest mu - men aldrig, aldrig har vi under dessa 12 år ätit maken till mört kött som det jag köpte hos Håkans. Det bara smalt i munnen och när vi var klara fanns det inte minsta lilla smul kvar, förutom några kantbitar som voffarna fick lyxa på.

Söndag fick familjen för ovanlighetens skull lunch - korvarna grillades och inmundigades med världens torraste korvbröd. Suck, dom håller inte alltför länge i frysen dom inte, korvbröden alltså. Men korvarna var fantastiska  de både luktade underbart i rått tillstånd och smakade förträffligt gott tillagade.

Till middag gjorde jag familjens potatisfavorit - Hasselbackspotatis och grillspetten grillades. De var lyckligt befriade från allt vad grönsaker heter, utan innehöll bara små fina filébitar på träspett som var marinerade i en marinad fullsmockade med vitlök, chili och andra spännande kryddor. Fram med alla såser och röror, jag tror jag åt upp större delen av aubergine röran själv, lika glatt suckande och - jag som knappt får i mig några större mängder kött nuförtiden, slukade två spett utan problem.

Till helgen hoppas jag att de beställda kambenen har anlänt, sen ska jag ha en stooor burk feta ost och mer augergineröra och...... Föresten, vill ni veta trickset med att få till fin-fina kamben? Det är att koka dem i en buljong tillsammans med Liquid Smoke (koncentrerad rök smak på flaska) till dess de är genomkokta, låt den svalna i buljongen och grilla dem sedan penslade med vilken grillsås man än må gilla.

Så - du där i Helenelund, Tegelhagen och Silverdal, jag föresten hela norra stor Stockholm (ja resten av Stockholm med, det ligger ju vid pendeltågstationen) - har du inte redan varit där - skynda skynda. Inte nog med att Håkans Kött och Delikatesser har en suverän kvalitet, men dessutom trevligt bemötande och helt fantastiska priser, så butiken absolut värd ett besök (och två och tre och...) Ju fler vi är som handlar där, ju större sannolikhet att han blir kvar. Jag vet att jag från och med nu kommer att gå dit varje fredag för att införskaffa helgmaten. Gör det du med!

Och nä - jag har inget som helst ihop med Håkan;-p, jag blir bara så vansinnigt glad över att hitta sådan fantastisk kvalitet till ett sånt makalöst pris och - nära.

Things we need and don't

This one I got in the beginning of my quilting adventures, cause some more experienced people said they couldn't live without it. Well, let me tell you this - I think I only have used it 3 or 4 times during a 3 year period. It just lurks behind the curtain in the dining room, living a nice, quiet and un-stressfull life.

This one I forgot to put in the last post, but this one came home with me last weekend. Now the best iron I ever owned was a Philips that you could use with or without the cord. I would never ever bought a new one if I hadn't dropped it on the floor and the water tank started to leak at the bottom. So I bought a Tefal (high on Ws) and even though I'm not that fond if it, it did it's work except that it started to go strange on the thermostat and burned some of the muslin pieces on the DWR quilt = GRRR!!! And then a piece at the very top broke of the water tank and the silicon that held it all tank to the iron kind of hardened and started to crack, so water dripped out while ironing = more GRRRR.

So I found this beauty, a Braun with an attachable sole for garment ironing. Now that is what I call innovative - one sole for quilting and one for clothes:-) And it has a 8 seconds timer, that is if you don't touch the iron for 8 seconds, the thermostat shuts it of and when you move the iron, it get back on. Now there must be some real thinking people at Braun, thats for sure. Just hope that the water tank holds better on this one ;-)

A gifted week ;-9

When I met The DH he told me that if I was looking for someone to bring me flowers and trinkets, I looked at the wrong guy. And he has been true to his word...until Friday last week (16th wedding anniversary) he came home with this beautiful bouquet :

and was mighty pleased with himself surprising the socks of me. So he did get a kiss or two ;-) Not to be misunderstood - he do get me a gift for my birthday, but that's about it. The presents for the rest of the year, I pick out myself .

Then a friend from M1800Riders came by to pick up some stuff and he brought me a gift:

from him and his wife. Why?? Christmas came and went and my birthday is a long time away...The reason was kind of too personal to post here, but let's just say I got it cause I'm nice, kind and caring, which might come as a surprise to some ROTFLMAO. The carafe is from Eva Solo and is glass with some stainless steel and a zippered neoprene coat. I really truly like it.

I also got a package in the mail yesterday, the cone stand I wrote about . I did bring out an ordinary screwdriver to adhere it to the Horizon, but it was way to large to work. So I used the small screwdriver that comes with the machine (the regular one, not the flat) and after soma wiggling, I managed to get it into place:

It comes with some (at first glance) strange things - two of them plastic comes and two pair of nylon nets to put over the cone of thread.....I have not tried them yet, but will later today. Edited: I did finally understand what these cone shaped "cage" like things where good for - they make the thread wound of evenly instead of the whole cone going like a merrygoround.

You also get two nets that you supposedly should put on the cone of thread, but dang if I can get it to work. When I got the net in place, the thread got cought inside it and broke.

The arial is at it's middle position in the picture, but you can raise it half that length further. Why you would/need that, is beyond me ;-)

To make the thread run smoother, Janome has added a small thing that you put into the whole for the extra thread holder that comes with the machine:

After much trying I thought it was impossible to manage to get that little metal thingee to fit into that hole, but at last I was firm and gave it a real good push and reluctantly it slid into place.

If you ask me, I think it's a shame that the people at Janome didn't figure it out this from the start, that a machine for people who quilt, need to have a stand that can hold large cones of thread attached to the machine from start. Now this add on do work (although getting the screws into place......well let's just say I'm convinced that the person who came up with this solution must be of the male sex :-O) But why as customers/users have to pay for something they missed in the first place? Since the price is so low (even here in Sweden :-0) they can't earn very much from it, so why not offer it for free? Nobody who don'w have a Horizon can get any use from it - or??

Well it's laundry time (sucks) and re-sew some pieces on one of the set of place mats and hopeful there will even be time for some quilting.

Glorious sunny day although a bit windy. You might start believe that spring will actually arrive sometime in the not to distance future,

Cones

The Horizon has one fault, the spool holder (s) can't hold cones, just small ordinary spools. And when you quilt, using these tiny things isn't an option, you would be ruined :-O I have used the sneak version of putting the spool in a bowl at the right side of the machine, but when spooling the bobbin, it get all tangled up. So the kind people at the Horizon group at Yahoo told me there is an add on to buy that mimics the holders and arial that was on the 6600MC, I asked my friendly dealer to order me one and today it arrived in the mail = hurray. I haven't screwed it in place just yet, but later on I'm going to bring out the screwdriver and get going and as far as I can see at the back of the box, it's going to look like the setup on the 6600 = yayyyy.

It's gray, a bit of a wind and it rained a while ago. Hmm, better rain than snow, that's for sure cause then maybe the huge amount of snow we have will melt away? I have a weekend of umpteenth loads of laundry to do - gahhhh, how boring. And John, my "baby" turns 12 today, time flies ;-D

Miss spell ;-P

When I back read my posts I find a lot of misspells here and there and that's not because I'm so danged bad at writing, but the automatic spellcheck that wrecks havoc with some words. And since it has checked the word, it doesn't come up underlined in red and I don't notice it. Bummer :-(

Just one more set of tops to go (placentas - HAHAHAHA, damned spellcheck, it is PLACEMATS!!!) and I'm going to start sandwiching and quilting them :-)