Best wishes for 2013!

...and thank you for following me throughout 2012!!

I finished this little wall-hanging last evening and it may be my new year's resolution for 2013 :) Pattern courtesy of Camille Roskelley 

Ahhhh... better!

I have been meaning to post about this little DIY project for some time now, but you know how life gets in the way of blogging. Right?

I am fairly happy with my current ironing board, but the top fabric was showing quite a few stains and wear, so I decided to make a new cover. I took off the fabric and batting and began auditioning fabrics

I took off the old batting and cut a new and larger piece but decided to keep the original batting underneath, as I had been slightly annoyed by the fact that I could always feel the metalframe and edges all the way round.

And after very little sewing - taaadaaa!

I chose to use a light green/yellowish fabric by Khristian Howell and then some linen at the end with a border of radomly mixed squares to add a bit of pop and colour.

To keep it all nice and taught I decided to use one of those thingies (sorry, do not know the name, not even in Danish, hah!) that you can find in many coats and trousers.

 All of a sudden, my little IKEA table ironing board seemed out of fashion, so of course I had to make it a new cover as well!

More taaaadaaa! :)
I switched the linen and patterned fabric around.

And to add just the tiniest bit of pink colour, I sewed in this little string of different fabric. It is less than 1/4 inch, but is just enough.

So aahh! Better now :)

Have a nice day!

First step, done!

This the first step towards completion of a little project I have given myself, related to an exibition/fair I have been invited to participate in from May to August next year! This is vey exiting as I get to make stuff without a recepient in mind, and to be honest, I find it a bit difficult.

This piece is done with a pattern and partly a tutorial from thebluechair and the "porthole" technique taught by Lu Summers at the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012.

Each fabric only appears once, thanks to a couple of charm swaps I have participated in this and last year :)

More to come!!

Embroidery, moi?

After the Fat Quarterly Retreat, I got a taste for embroidery. Yes, I know: the rest of the world discovered doodle stitching years ago, but hey! Now it is my turn :)


I have only dared venturing into tiny stitcheries, and the first one was the birdie Aneela Hoey taught us at the retreat, which I immediate used to pimp up the canvas goodie bag, along with the brilliant porthole technique by Lucie Summers. So much fun!


And when home again, I added a lining with a zipper pocket and replaced the original handles with new and longer handles.



My mom loved it instantly, so it now lives with her, being used to carry all sorts of crafty thingies (for painting, knitting, weaving, you continue...)


I had the luck to sit next to the incredibly sweet Nicole of Follow the White Bunny who designs very cute embrodery patterns. So I bought some of her patterns and transferred them (slightly enlarged) onto some linen I had on hand.



I really like the calm process and the fact that it can be brought along when travelling, which I do far too much currently (job related). And as I have not yet found the patience to handsew hexagons, this is a perfect solution!


Oh, and yeeeehaw!!

I have just bought the ticket for the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2013 - how could I not!? It was just too fantastic this year!




PS: If this post looks awkward, it is because I am trying out blogger's blogpost-creator-app.. I have NO idea where the photos will end up, for instance :)
PPS: It looked awful!! Returning to my wellknown BlogBooster free app....

FQ Retreat 2012 in London

Wooohoooo!!
I am here! In London with a bunch of lovely ladies. Who all have a mutual understanding for all things quilty and fabric. Who are familiar with Liberty insanity and the need for filling even more fabrics into your already filled-to-the-brim-and-beyond fabric storage. Who become excited over gadgets I did not knew existed and squeels over pictures of Johan ;) Wonderful!!


The FQ retreat starts tomorrow, officially.
The activities this afternoon were volountary to do and they kick started it all with totally good vibes.

I cannot wait to get started tomorrow:
I have a morning workshop with Lucie Summers (yes: the creator of the fabric line 'Summersville', and the 'portholes' tecnique).

In the afternoon the workshop will be with the Aneela Hoeyto learn the basics in free-hand embroidery. Cannot wait!

These two workshops were my choises, others have chosen differently with paper piecing or purse making or desinger challenge!

I will be back with photo evidence, once my phone decides to cooperate...

Ouch!

Acute lower back pain arrived here yesterday afternoon. It was a wellknown but not a welcome guest and I hoped it would leave again during the night.

WRONG! Ouch, ouch....yiakes OUCH!!

So I went to see my chiropractor who told me that "what have you done? Your back is very angry with you!" . LOL!

He did his thing (made my spine and neck click and crack) and told me to stay as comfortable as possible the rest of the day with an ice pack nearby and to return tomorrow morning for a second treatment, as he dared not do it all to me in one trearment...

I wonder if anything quilty will be an option..?
Any position is currently uncomfortable, so I will find out.

Enjoy your day, AND appreciate your back! :)

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to share a precious moment (for us) with you all: Johan finds his first ever Easter (chocolate) egg in Grandma's garden.

Oh, and yes: I will try to translate that sourdough bread receipe soon!

:) Ann

New toy and sourdough

Warning: this post is not quilt-related! ;-)

This is my brand new kitchen machine from Kenwood!! I was fortunate and had a nice amount of my tax money back, so I jumped in and bought this :) So far I am very happy with it: it has a powerful engine (1000 Watts) and a lot of attachments and extras. Of course Kenwood offers a bunch of additional attachments to drool over and put on my wish list *hint*!

So, naturally I needed to give it a try and what better way than baking?!

I have had my eyes and mind on a specific sourdough receipe for about a month now but did not have neither sourdough nor the time to try it out before now, during the Easter holidays.

A good friend provided me with a large storage glass of sour dough. Thanks Lone!

Ready-to-bake dough:

All warm and finished result:

And it came out very moist, crunchy crust and very good taste!! Yippeee!!

Let me know if you want me to write down the receipe! 

Naaahhh... better wait a little on Pinterest :)

Following my last post, I have revisited Kirsten's homepage (primarily to check my link):
It appears that Mr. Pinterest himself called her and talked an entire hour with her, ensuring her that they are working on the issues pointed out.
And she has not deleted her account either, just deleted the boards that contained photoes that could likely cause her legal problems. Brilliant.


I shall await further actions from Pinterest's side and meanwhile, I will be very cautions WHAT I pin :)

Happy pinning ;)

I will be deleting my bords at Pinterest... Sadly!

Please read the following blog post (or just the first part of it if you do not have the time): it is very interesting and enlightning...
why-i-tearfully-deleted-my-pinterest-inspiration-boards

This is the reason for me leaving Pinterest and deleting my boards, one of these coming days.

I just need time to compile this inspiration somehow else, and currently my only alternative will be a truck load of bookmarks or one or more documents placed at Google docs, for easy access.

Yep, copyright is a bitch, but I understand and wish to respect it.

Just thought you might wanted to know too!

/Ann

Stack of yummy

Hybris: Finally home at a time of day with decent light, kiddo sound asleep, and a stack of pure yumminess to play around with, look at, strike.

*click, click* (sound of iPhone camera happily at work)

Nemesis: the stack tips over, hits my cup of freshly made latte, latte hits floor and splashes into areas of my livingroom I have not visited on hands and knees recently.... *sigh* (me)

Well, nobody was hurt and the latte did not stain the fabrics, at least :)

Enjoy your day! I know I do.

Revelation in colour!

Did you know..?

...what a HUGE difference it can make, if you get your screen calibrated to show the true colours in webpages/pictures etc.?!?

I have often been somewhat annoyed, when a long awaited fabric-yummy-pack arrived at my doorstep and I may or may not tear it open like a little kid at Christmas only to find out, that what I thougt was a specific coulour fabric, bought to match other fabrics in a project, does not match the colour I saw on my laptop when ordering it.... DANG!

Do you know that feeling?? huh?!? I know you do - just admit it!

As a recent example, I want to share with you what I saw on my screen and what I really received:
It is the Anna Maria Horner line called Little Folks, the Pastry line in marine.

So... what I thought I ordered was blue with just a hint of green, and what I in fact received was what I would call 'sea green'. I love the colour in itself, no doubt! Just not for the project waiting to be finished....


Well, I realized, that either
1. the e-shop made a crappy job in displaying the fabrics and their true colours
or
2. the fabrics did not show up right on my screen.

ad 1: why would the e-shop do that, based on the fact that it depends on its sales of fabric, and most often the pictures can/are provided by the manufacturer. It is imperative that the colours show up right on their webshop!

ad 2: I have heard about it before: screens need to be calibrated if you work with photos and graphics. But hey! I am just a happy-go-lucky quilter... Why should it apply to me too??

This is why!












But what to do, you may ask?
Luckily for me, my bf plays around with photos and had just purchased this calibration thingy.
A cheaper version can be found here.

Yiakes, that is expensive, you mumble. That is several months of my fabric budget...

Well yes and no... because if you are a "specific projects" buyer, that you can actually save yourself a lot of time and trouble by calibrating your screen.
Or if you, as I, live in Europe and have to have the new fabrics shipped from the US, then the shipping costs easily adds 30 to 50% onto the fabric prices!

It is just an advise, as I am by no means an expert, I just had an AHA-moment when seing the huge difference it made on my screen! Consider it, folks :)

This and that.

Where does time fly??

I suspect being a mother of a 16-months kiddo, having a full-time job, and the obligatory seasonal illnesses pesting our life answer my own question. I just feel that everybody else manage to fit in social events, culture, sewing, sport, you name it!

I don't and I hate to admit it, but now I have said it. There. That felt nice...
On to another happier subject: I have a new job starting on April 1st, which brings me an aweful lot closer to this beauty! Oh yeah :D You will know when I manage to get my little sweaty hands on it. For sure!

I have also participated in a regular fabric swap, the 'Color Wheel Charm Pack Swap', and now I have received back the 200 charms, all in different fabrics. Wanna see them? OK, I can manage that!


Yummy! This pile will fit nicely into my existing pile of 4x4'' charms, cut from most of the quilting fabric I have ever bought. I foresee several monochrome quilts in my future :))

New projects. Yes, yeeeeees, I know - perhaps I should finish those in the waiting line first.
But... These oh-so-soft voiles from Anna Maria Horner, one of her previous lines called 'Little Folks', will eventually become something nice and useable. But for now you will only get this sneak peak ;)
Thank you for still reading my blog, despite the long intervals of posting!

/Ann

Drooooool!!

Oh dear..!
I have touched THIS beauty today:
Yep! The Bernina 820.

She is a beauty to look at and so smooth to touch *sigh*.

I think I may just have fallen in love!

But... dang! It is so expensive...

Then again... If I really, really like this machine, which I suspect I might, then it is probably a keeper for many, many years.

Can you hear the inner voices here, huh??

Does any of you have any experience regarding the Bernina 820 - or any other Bernina for that matter - then I would love to hear from you!!

Thanks :)

Sunday stash

I was tempted by this delicious selection of fabrics at Hawthorne Threads.

I really love their webshop: So many yummy fabrics (!) and some really brilliant features, such as suggestions to coordinating fabrics and the possibility of finding coordinating fabrics by colourway based on the current fabric (look at the bottom of the page). I think this is FANTASTIC.

My Sunday stash is a combination of Modern Meadow in the berry colourway (by Joel Dewberry), several fabrics from Pat Bravo in berry and plum and a few others.

I see a berry/plum quilt in my very near future, to soften up all of the blues and greens that currently surround me. It is self-inflicted, I admit, as I have made it with my bf and son in loving mind :)

I love berry and plum - both as colours as well as the fruits. Yum!

What are your favourite colours right now??

I miss her...

It is my bestest sewing and quilting machine I miss...

She was handed over to the machine repair man on September 17, and she has not come back yet...
It was just supposed to be a 10 days seperation for us, for ordinary maintenance, but Pfaff apparently has not yet been able to deliver a spare part that she needs... And it may take them up to another 2 weeks!

*SIGH*

Hope she is well... At least she is among other sewing machines...

Followers: Who are you??

Hi my dear Followers
(and others who accidently drops by)!

I am amazed that I even have Followers, considering the long interval between my blogging *blush*

Being curious by nature, I have tried to look up YOUR blogs and read a little, to see what kind of peeps that might be interested in ME. However, it was fairly difficult (due to the setup of blogger), so I thought "why not ask them directly?".

So now I thake the leap!
Would you dare to tell me (and all the others) a little about yourself? Perhaps even include a link to your own blog?
I know I would love to learn more!!

As for an update from me:

1. Just started back in a full-time job after 9 months of matermity leave *ouch*
   
2. Not much quilting getting done *yiakes*
3. My son is ABSOLUTELY wonderful and gives me so many laughs and so much joy that it is totally worth me missing out on many other things in life *I love that little guy*
   Here he is:
   
   
4. I am about to start my first EVER shop - a webshop selling just Kona Cotton Solids and the marvellous GO! fabric cutter (I bet you have heard about it).
   I will probably not be able to compete with any American shops price-wise, but there is just 2 other places here in Denmark to get a few of the Kona's and I will be the first GO! retailer here *weeeeee*
   
   Better get that darn webshop up and running, as I will receive my very first cutters in the coming week!!!
   I am in NO WAY planning to make a living out of it, it just annoyed me that I could not get those products here, so I thought "why not?". If only I get back what I put in, it will be ok for me :)
   
5. Hmmmm... anything else.... errrrr...... not really... Boooooooring, booooohhh.
   Well, that is it, I guess.

YOUR TURN ;)

Inspiration :)

Hi all!

It has been some time since blogging last, so here is a few links that I have found inspirational while surfing the great net:

http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/ - Wonderful quilts and tutorials

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com - You probably know CrazyMomQuilts, but she is soooo worth a revisit! I have linked to her latest quilt along, wich is only in it's 2nd week (and first little bit sewn)

http://bighugelabs.com/ - You can, with FREE downloadable programs make the coolest and funniest stuff with your photos (benath, see the thingy I did in 2 minutes) or find the colourway in a picture thatinspires you, just look for the color pallette generator!It also works with Flickr (look for Scout) to find out if any of your uploads have been featured on the Flickr Explore pages. Mine have!!

This cake!! I need to make me one of these someday - just too yummy!
Or.... this cake! I cannot tak it anymore - such yummyness *drooooool*

Well... I'd better go clean the appartment. Have to do it, but I just want to eat cake now.. HAH!
Have a lovely day, all of you :)

quiltingbeeblocks.com

For about a year I have been following the QuiltingBeeBlocks photo pool on Flickr.
I have also added photos of my own VQB blocks for inspiration to other fellow quilters (that is how it works).
Now it has it's own blog at http://www.quiltingbeeblocks.com , which I think is a GREAT idea!
Also, there is a huge opening give-away - go check it out :), and then consider joining us :)

Virtual Quilting Bees really is a good way to try new blocks, fabrics, and colour combinations.

It has dragged me out of my comfort zone a couple of times and I have learned to deal with triangles, woooohooo! But always in a good way, that is! If you have not tried a VQB, I recommend that you do - it is great fun!

Delayed birthday gift to myself :)

Happy (delayed) birthday to me!

As a treat to myself I went to Pink Chalk Fabric's homepage and bought 4 Kona Cotton solids in the brown/purple range: 1.5' of the colours Berry, Raisin, Eggplant and 0.5' of Coffee.

I really, really love the richness and depth of these colours!

Besides those lovelies, I decided to spend a Kona Cotton Color Card on me - such great inspiration and... oh-oh, the temptations *giggle*. Not all stores carries this card, but Pink Chalk Fabric has just re-stocked. It is so worth the cost of 16$!


Edit: I have just checked this, and it appears that she is out of stock again - very popular item, I guess!!

At my local fabric store 'Stjerne Stoffer' here in Denmark, I recently purchased two pieces of fabric that will go well with the Konas, not sure which one to choose - guess that depends on the pattern I eventually decide upon :)


Fabrics are reallyexpensive here in Denmark, compared to the prices in the US, which is why I even am willing to pay the 13$ in shipping for the above items (yep, that is right!!).

However, I wonder if any of you out there in blog-land have any experience in internet shops that are willing to make special arrangements for shipping abroad a.k.a. Denmark?

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy and creative New Year!!