The place mats round III and stupid dog owners

The day before yesterday I got the Rhapsody (and it's siblings) in the mail and could finish the 3rd set of place mats. Well, the first two are just tops, so they don't count fully ;-)

I made two of each, so they last for almost the entire extended family and in the end I'm quite pleased with the result.

On a different note - does this look like a lethal dog to you??? This girl has never even showed her teeth to anyone (but the neighbor GS pup Teves when he went for her teats LOL).

 The DH let the dogs out round 8am and of course - three women with a whole bunch of dogs (two golden and the rest was Yorkshire) came round the corner and WOWOWOWOW and wipwipwip. Then one of the women asked The DH if ours use to jump over the fence and he answered "only once"! Oh piped the woman, then you shouldn't let them out by themselves since they have bitten of the leg of another dog!!! Bitten of a leg??? Our dogs??? The DH went mildly berserk and told her that she ought to be sure of what she sail before throwing around accusations like that! Even when provoked, the Queen Bitch of the Universe Fiona, has never as much as nibbled on another dog. Not even her worse enemies ;-)

I told that lady how far of she was and which neighborhood dog it was that took to bite small dogs. an Airdale Terrier that is thankfully in doggie heaven for quite some years now.

Tomorrow is the start of a 4 day Easter Weekend here and today is a "short" day which both me and the DH has taken of = five days from work :-D

Happy Easter all!!

Out of ideas

While waiting for the Rhapsody fabric to arrive so I can finish these placentas, I want to make some new pillowcases for the couch. Since four of the five inner pillows I have today is old and/or of very poor quality, I bought 4 new feather ones at IKEA (60X60cm and 30X60cm) and some fabric for backing as well. And after that my mind draws blank..... I have three or four large books on quilt blocks, one on applique, one on thread works and several others of mixed content and non of them make my creative mind go yiihaa. Heck, I'm can't even wrap my mind around making a new smallish pouch for the music thing. This time quilted, not embroidered ;-)

I give up and read some more...

Shopping spree

Haven't bought any nailpolish lately, so I felt I could splurge on new fabrics ;-) Mostly bought with a project in mind - you know them place mats that I have been changing my mind about this way or the other.
So two packs of Bali Pops, Berry Blue and Blue Hawaii from Hoffman:

A full FQ bundle (the second one full collection that I ever bought) Scarborough Fair:

All these three from Fat Qarter Shop and I think I'm gonna use some of them for a new snuggle quilt just for me:-)

And yesterday some grayish ones (the camera didn't capture the correct colors) came from Thousands of Bolts:

These i bought with a new color scheme for place mats in mind, thought they would go well with the new china. But now I'm not so sure - to much alike colors can't be good can they??  Again, why on earth do I fuss over these place mats when most parts of them are covered by plates, glasses and cutlery? Sometimes I despair over myself LOL.

So far today I have one load of laundry in the washer, have picked up all dog poop, raked the entire front from twigs and leaves and put them in the large "garden rubbish" bin. Yesterday I took all the soda cans and bottles (four large plastic bags full) to get the money back (here it's called "panta", did the grocery shopping for the weekend and then took all the cardboard boxes, bottles, tins, newspapers and plastic containers to the recycling station. Pueeeee. Only tow more loads of laundry and marinate some pork for the grill dinner to go. Full tilt ahead LOL.

The mystery remains

I have been thinking a lot about what on earth could have been the cause of the fabric disintegration on these two pillow cases.
* I sew five different ones during the same time frame.
* As far as I can remember, I used the same thread on all of them.
* The inner pillows on all of them differs
* Once of the cases are made from a FQ bundle containing among others these fabrics:

Most selvages are gone, but on the few remaining it say "Antique Flower collection printed by Lecien", but I doubt very much that all fabrics are from the same collection of the same producer since they feel very different to the touch
*When you look at the pillowcase made from a lot of fabrics like these above, you see that only some fabrics are affected, which rule out the ideas that it can be the batting or the inner pillows or the thread or  the xxxx that is the culprit.... Heck, I do wish it was the Guterman thread I used back then would be the cause, because then I would knew for certain that all latter projects will be safe, since I never use these threads for quilting any more.
* Maybe it's the house mouse Coffee that had a field day before he was captured by Sam? He sure loves fabrics and batting and Sam has got a small stash of left overs to use in Coffess little Hobit house. Or maybe it was the dogs when they was false preggers? Nahhh, how come some fabrics are unaffected then?

On a sidenote - I used a lot Mayflower Muslin from Benartex in my MIL's DWR quilt and some of the melon wedges kind of kid brittle, crackled and fell apart from ironing. Have no clue why, but it might have been that just that fabric was very very sensitive to heat...(or the stupid Tefal iron went highwire), but not all of it since most wedges stayed intact. Maybe it's just me?? The fabric shredder;-P Nahh, I have made quite a few items that by now are around 3-3.5yrs and they are just fine. So far.....

The spring has sprung and my miracle music thingee has started to behave very strange. It does not go to the next tune, but repeat the last played one over and over again. I have read the manual, restarted both the pod and the computer to no avail. .......heavy sigh.

Edited: read some more on Apple website and rebooted the pod and low and behold - now it works like a charm again. Women can too!!! ROFLMAO. Now I don't have to listen to John and his friend Erik playing PS3 just outside my room:-D

Distressed??

This is pictures of some of the first things I sewed when I started on the quilting adventure.

The two pictures on the left shows a pillow made with quite expensive (as everything quilting is here) FQs that I bought a bundle of at the Sewing Festival in the fall of 2007 I think and the one to the right is made of both quilt fabrics and the green one is bought at sale.

Now I wonder if anyone out there has any idea about what has happened to these fabrics? It's like they just have disintegrated or something like that. When I see these I kind of despair, what if this phenomena happens to objects I have made on commission or as gifts to loved ones in four years ahead in time? Is it the threads, mice with acid or bad fabrics that is the reason???

Thankful for any input on this matter. I've been to IKEA to get some new inner pillows and some fabrics for backing. Now I just have to figure out what pattern to use for some new covers :-)

I have some more pillowcase I made around the same time, but they are just fine.

I found it

the small tiny label saying "Red Rooster Rhapsody" and I found the fabric on sale along with two more of the same series. 5 yards for 15$ is not a bad bargain ;-)

So now I can finish three of the place mats and then lay aside the last two until that package get's here. What to do ...what to do in the meantime? I do believe that I'm going to start on some new cushion covers, the ones I made four years ago are starting to fall apart of their seams. I got some lovely plaid fabrics from a dear friend that I'm planning to use as focal fabric. Lucky me who has friends like her, not only does she create magnificence soaps, she send me fabrics as well :-D

RELP RELP

If anyone knows what fabric this is (and manufacturer) and even maybe have a small bit to spare (10x100cm or 2inchX1yrd) I would be ever so happy.

I need it to be able to finish the binding of the last two place mats.

Edited- of course I need more than 1m or 1yrd -  I need 20cm on full width, nothing less, otherwise it would be doll mats LOL.

Placemats over and over again

On and off (a long bit off) I have been working on making place mats for our large dining room table which seats 14 people with a bit of good will;-)

By now I've made three different themes and not being entirely happy with any of them:

First round I decided to make two of each of seven different color schemes, but most of them looked quite sissy. Then I selected the one in the middle, cause I really loved the India colors. Got as far as binding the ones with the elephant in the middle, layered and quilted eight of them and then it struck me -upholstery is blue and curtains has dark purple olives printed. So dark red/yellow might not suit?

OK, blue place mats then....had some leftover blocks from my nieces USA bed spread and used them. With a disastrous result. I mean - just look at them!! Have you seen anything as boring in your entire life? Not only boring, they are plain ugly. Good thing I didn't get as far as sandwiching them before I was struck by that insight;-)

So here I am now, back at quilting the rest of the middle once, I have one to go. And then it hit me - these will not look good with the new china! And here is where some might think I'm a bit crazy or something in that vicinity.....but I finally decided on a light grey, dark grey and cream theme and ordered some yards of fabrics. Since it will take a week for them to get here, I have all the time in the world to come up with a design that I really truly like.

They are only place mats - right? And they will mostly be covered with plates and cutlery and glasses and napkins and.....Well at times I am a bit of a overachiever, that's for sure LOL.

Wolfie in Sweden where it's rey and a bit rainy, not the nicest weather to start clean up the garden in.

Things to long for

Ack, my heart bowled over with longing  when I read this. But nevertheless a great longing, it just don't feel right to go on such trip without the family. And - not sure that non Aussies can tag along....

So I spent some of our money on some new good china instead - this:

Well not the coffeepot or the cups.....but I really would want some of the individual bowls that is part of the series Grey Pearl. Not Black pearl mind you, Grey LOL.