28 februari 2009

A give away and more.....

Today I found a give away on Anna´s blog, beautiful pink fabrics, perfect for my Hearts of Love quilt. I hope I´m the lucky girl.....

Here is a picture of the hidden project from my last post. It´s an easy one, only squares. I really love the fabrics, Midwest Modern by Amy Butler. This quilt will be quite big and mine.
(A secret: There is no quilt so far that´s mine, only small wall hangers and bags, but no one that I can wrap around me....only made gifts so far....)

The Baby Boy quilt from last post couldn´t be finished this month. My only piece of batting which was too small for my mother´s quilt (10 cm) was too small for this quilt too (5 cm).
That means that my only finish for February is my mother´s cat quilt. I still have no photo of it when finished, but I hope it´s ok anyway....

I used my batting for another smaller project, my pinwheels, but no pictures so far....

Take care

Helena

25 februari 2009

I did it today!

I finished my baby boy quilt top. The photo is not the best but I will try to get better ones after it has been quilted. This evening I prewashed the back fabric and tomorrow I will sandwich the quilt. Can I add it to my February finishes? Maybe....

As you can see there is another project hidden behind the top. It´s a quilt I started to work on a couple of weeks ago.

This beautiful fabrics were staring at me from my cupbord and asked to be cut....

And of course I couldn´t resist and there it was, a stack of squares, ready to be pieced together.
Next time I will show you how it looks so far.

Take care,

Helena

24 februari 2009

Hearts of Love

On Valentines day I cut the first strip for my Hearts of Love quilt. I just had to do it that day, maybe it will bring some luck.....
Today I went on with the cutting, squares and stripes......

I don´t exactly know what the quilt will like when finished, but I have a picture in my head.
There will be some stitcheries and applique, a lot of angels and hearts.

I will make 16 big blocks, like a sort of BOM, that together will be a king size quilt. Each block will measure 18" x 21" and can be used as a little wall hanger or a few of them together can make a baby quilt.

Todays work. The triangles will be stars and pinwheels.

This angel is transfered to fabric and ready to be stitched.

Longing for tomorrow, then I will do some applique, and finish a quilt top, and add a border to my pinwheel quilt and......of course work on the dresses.....pictures will come soon.

Take care,

Helena

23 februari 2009

Busy, busy, busy!

Cats, cats, cats, wonder how many there are?

Finally I finished this top, two days before my mothers birthday, and it was time for some quilting. That was what I thought, but no, sometimes nothing goes my way.....
I ironed the back fabric, lay it out flat and then the batting....too small....about 10 cm were missing....xxxxxxx (too awful words).
About 1 hour by car to the nearest quiltshop, but no car. And no birthday present for my mum.... (Yes, I could have started earlier, I know, but that´s not me. I create the best under pressure...)

A closer look

Next day, Wednesday, I´ve got an idea. A couple of years ago I purchased a piece of fleece for a robe, but never made it. There were 3 meters and the right colour....I don´t know if I like to put fleece on a quilt, but what should I´ve done instead...? It became very cozy and she really loved it....because of that it was the right choice.

Betsy, look what I did! It was very helpful this time, thank you for the idea!

Worked all day and almost all night, 2.30 am I cut of the last thread.....5 1/2 hours later I had to leave for Copenhagen.... We went there to celebrate my mothers 75th birthday, I and my daugther and my sister.....and mum, of course. We had a wonderful day, but when it was time to drive home again it was very snowy. 4 hours instead of 2 on the road, and we came home about 2.30 am.......Guess who was tired and what I did on Friday....

There was no time to take pictures of the finished quilt, I will do that next time I visit mum.

Take care,

Helena

12 februari 2009

Cats, cats, cats....

Do you remember Alfons? It´s my son´s little cat. Now he is about 1/2 year old and has grown a lot (but still the cutest...except that day he chewed on my new bag....).
On this pictures he´s just a very small kitten, but the most wonderful little creature I´ve ever seen....


My mother also loves cats, she has one herself, a big, grey and white boy called Ylle. I think we are a cat family, all of us love cats. Sorry that no one can stay with us, that´s because I´m allergic.

Next week it´s my mother´s birthday, and I decided to make her a quilt. I purchased beautiful cat fabrics a while ago, and now I got use for them.

I cut out the cats and made them to blocks.

Then I put them together like this.

Today I will add a lot of squares and borders to finish the top. Hope she will like it!
But first of all I will take a walk, the sun is shining and that doesn´t happen every day......

Have a nice day/evening/night/morning.....wherever you are!

Helena

11 februari 2009

I´ve been thinking....

....about blogging and awards and challenges and other things that figures in Blogland. What´s my opinion about all this?
I love blogging and Blogland and all inspiration and friends and all that part of it. But when it comes to awards and challenges I feel a bit split.
Of course it´s a worderful thing both to give and to recieve nice words about a blog and I love challenges. I willingly tell you things about myself and other things if you ask me.
So, what´s the problem?
After turning my brain inside out I realized that it is when it comes to the nominating part that I don´t feel comfortable. I don´t want to choose a few blogs from all wonderful ones I read. I will feel free to give my friends, new or old, my own "awards" spontaneously when I visit a blog that makes me feel like that.
And I don´t want to nominate people that have the same feelings like me about it, I want them to feel comfortable.
Don´t misunderstand me, I feel happy when you tell me you like my blog, I feel proud when I get compliments. But I will get them and give them without obligation.
There are so many blogs in Blogland that I love to read and I hope you will like to visit mine.
And about challenges, I think it´s fun. I´m not afraid of telling you things about myself or whatever the challenge is about, so I think it´s the nominating thing that is the problem here to.
But don´t be afraid of asking me things, that´s ok, if I´ve got an answer you will get it. And I´m more than happy to read things about you and your life.
That´s that! All this are written directly from my heart and as you know English isn´t "my" language, I sometimes think it´s difficult to describe feelings. I hope you understand me anyway, and I will be happy to hear your opinion. Please leave a comment!

Now I´ll show you something I would have showed you quite a long time ago.


Nanabarb tagged me and of course I will do what she told me to do. First I will tell you 10 things about myself that I´ve never told before. I will try, not sure everything are news.

1. I´m left handed.
2. I´m afraid of dogs but love cats. (Dogs are cute on pictures)
3. I love watching documentaires about medicine, especially deliveries.
4. I´m trying to learn HTML, how fun!
5. I love to make tables, lists and diagrams.
6. I walk about 2 hours every day.
7. I have one sister, but I have always wanted a big brother. (Sorry Johanna, love you!) Maybe too late for that wish?
8. I hate watching sports, especially if there are balls included.
9. I can´t count to 10.....lol

5 things that I´m addicted to:

1. My fabrics and all that stuff
2. My computer
3. Dark chocolate, there is a bar filled with lemon and ginger, that´s my favorite!
4. My pedometer
5. That thing that helps you get rid of the curls in your hair and make it straigth, what is it called in English?

Then I got an award from Laila.

Thank you very much, I´m proud you have chosen me.

The meaning of this award:

This blog invests and believes in Proximity - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming ... These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement!
Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Pass the award on to 6 fellow bloggers, to include the above text in their blog. So ... please visit and give more attention to these writers ...


I will pass this award to all nice bloggers out there, you all have wonderful blogs, love them!


At last another thing that I promised to show you. I´ve found time. Tid is the Swedish word for time and you can find it on a square in Kristianstad in the south of Sweden. The bad thing is that I had to leave it there, too big to fit in our car. But if you are in a hurry you know where to find it!

Now I have to stop before my keyboard is overheated. Many words this time. But I hope you understand what I mean....if you managed read all.

I´ll soon be back with pictures of what has happened in Syverkstan the last days...
See you!

Helena

10 februari 2009

Happy Birthday Josefin!

Once upon a time this little wonderful, sweet and crazy little girl was born. I feel like it was yesterday, but today it´s her birthday and believe it or not:

Josefin 19

Happy Birthday!!!


(and yes, I have taken the picture from her blog, hope she´s not angry with me....)

Take care,

Helena

04 februari 2009

A challenge!

A while ago Noémia gave me this challenge and today the time has come for answering it:
Here are the rules:

1. You must link to the one who nominated you.
2. Write the roules in your blog.
3. Tell us 6 things about you (what ever you want: fun things, dreams, your life, etc.)
4. Nominate 6 people more to ansewer to this challenge.
5. Warn everyone that you have nominated her

OK, #1 and #2 are already done, then to #3.

1. I´ve never been in the attic of our house (we have lived there for more than 20 years), maybe it has something to do with my relationship to ladders.
2. I love "Friskis & Svettis (aerobics and fitness training), visit that place three times a week.
3. I have one younger sister (6 years), she was perfect as a pupil or a patient when I played with my friends.
4. I think that the fat edge is the best part of a pork chop, yes I´m a little bit special, or....?
5. I love cats, but I´m allergic to them....

Pooh, now I´ve turned myself outside in, I´ll be back later with #4 and #5.

It has been some busy days working on the dresses, but of course I can´t resist working on my quilting projects too.

This is my Calendar quilt, not the world´s best picture but a very funny project. I´ve started with February but no pictures yet. There are some small stitcheries on their way that I will add to this block.

Some pinwheels have also been made, today there are 13, going to be 16 and then I will put them together.

Can somebody hide my rotary cutter for me? Couldn´t resist to start cutting squares for a simple quilt. Easy to make, but I´m in love with the fabrics....

There will be two awards to tell you about and some more pics when I´m back....
And I´ve found "time" (!), will show you in my next post....

Happy Stitching!

Helena

01 februari 2009

I haven´t disappeared from earth.....


....but my computer nearly did! Some days ago I made quite a big post with all challenges answered and a lot of pictures downloaded and a lot of work done and a lot of time spent....and a lot of not so kind words coming out of my mouth and a computer on its way through the window.....

Blogger was not my friend, not willing to save my work, and after a long time I decided to publish my post a little bit later and left the computer. When I came back that stupid thing had decided to restart itself, without asking me, and all my work was gone.....
I decided to go back to only using paper and pen and snail mail and stay in my little corner of the world, alone......

But no, I have regretted that decission, I miss you and everything in blogland too much, I´m back, giving it a new try....

This time I will do this little post first and then other small posts, publishing them one by one....hoping it will work my way.....

I´ll be back telling you about the nice awards I´ve got and show pics of what has happening since my last post.....

See you,

Helena