Worth it

It doesn’t matter how warm wool yarn feels between your fingers in the summer

or how many times you had to go shopping for another colour of yarn

or how many yarn ends you have to weave in

or how difficult it is to photograph colour,

 



or how many times you had to frog those finishing stitches;

when you see the finished garment on your little model/recipient

it’s all worth it.

Morning madness

Our young ones are staying with us for a few days and in between enjoying their company and trying to keep up with the mess, I spent a few hours in my sewing room this morning. Aaaaahhh. Peace.

Finally getting started on my giveaway piece I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make one two-piece prize for the blogaversary and the Quilting Gallery blog hop on August 26th. Sorry, I cannot add a link from my iPhone.

It was so good to be back, I haven't spent time in my room since mid July. Happy day indeed, playing with layers upon layers, adding a little yarn here and some stitches there. Peace.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Summer of Murphy

This summer has been quite a ride. Lots of things have gone wrong, but overall, a good summer indeed. Be warned though, a little whining and lots of pictures coming up.

It all started with the toe woe which basically was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Trying to keep my left foot elevated, I spent a lot of time sitting with my left foot crossed over my right. Not a god idea. Not at all. Something in my knee popped during a visit to my physical therapist and there it was, a brand new knee injury and an inflammation to go with it. For the first few days it would not bend, it would not straighten out. Ouch.

After a week and a half of limping around with two half functional legs, I invited grandbaby for a sleepover. Two halves do not always add up to one whole; you can take my word for it. As I was moving his bouncy chair, I accidentally dropped it onto my foot. Heavy bottom plate, on edge, my bare foot, cut & bruises, husband in China, foot gigantic and sore, no shoes again, class samples to be quilted, lots of fun.

Then it was time for a new visit to the foot therapist to check up on the toe and she accidentally cut into my foot. At this point I finally caved in, paid a visit to the doctor’s office and got some anti inflammatory painkillers (insert huge sigh of relief here). You may laugh now.

Now onto the good part – spending time with family.

Husband, grandson and yours one-legged truly spent 5 wonderful days at the cabin. The weather was so and so, but it wasn’t too wet and it wasn’t too cold. Here are some highlights:

Our usually peaceful little river was foaming after lots of rain upon arrival.

Fun bandy games on the patio using 2 plastic kiddie sticks and a broom. We get quite competitive and I broke the ball on the first day. No problem; wool yarn and a screw to the rescue and the ball was stitched up and ready for the next match in no time.

Board games – hours and hours of board game fun with “The missing diamond” on the top of the list

and Mastermind on the second.

Walking in the stream with both feet and getting wet as the cold water ran into my rubber boots. Being happy getting the boots on in the first place.

Launching a new toy boat, watching my guys having fun.

My serenity flag still there; most of the water olours washed away by rain, but still bright and beautiful.

Enjoying a few hours of sun.

Husband and grandson extending the patio underneath the cabin, the space being more suitable for the 5 year old.

Balancing on a cattle grid.

Knitting an itchy scarf.

Enjoying both manmade colours and patterns

and nature’s.

And then, on the last night, I got sick. End of vacation.

Finally bug free, I have spent many hours in the company of my young ones.

Daughter will be back in university in January, so I’d better spend time with them now.

Grandbaby was 6 months on Friday; such a happy, smiling baby and lots of cuddles and fun.

Grandson and I finally got around to take the bus into town and had lunch at a café. Who knew a ride on the bus could be such an adventure.

Sometimes I cannot believe my luck being blessed with such bright souls with whom to share my life – the perfect remedy to get through a summer of Murphy.

ATC swap - libbyQ

The last set of ATCs I swapped in this round was with Lynda aka libbyQ. She asked if I would prefer quilted ATCs only as she works in other media as well, and I said I would be happy with any kind of ATCs. I am so happy I did as it is that personal little touch that makes each one so special!

“Crazy quilted #1”

“Abstractions #1”

“Live in your strength”

“London”

I absolutely love all the handwork and details, and the London one was particularly perfect this summer. I have spent a lot of happy times there both for business and pleasure and lately I have missed it very much.

Thank you so much, libbyQ, they are fabulous!

I have one more set of 4 ATCs - anyone up for a swap?

Gas money and a book review

The latest issue of Quiltemagasinet is out and so is my "Gas money" pattern and the first ever review of my book Gledesspredere.

I’m not even going to try to be blasé – I could not turn the pages fast enough to get to the review and was grinning the rest of the day and then some.)

3 years and running

On this day 3 years ago, it was a Friday, I decided to start a blog. My young ones had just moved out of the house and a brand new chapter of my life was laying right there in front of me. I did not read blogs at the time or have any strong visions about what my blog would be like or what it would mean to me personally and professionally, but that’s what’s so great about new chapters, isn’t it, the not knowing until you get there.

As the two year blogaversary went by silently while attending last year’s Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, I was determined to do something this year, like hosting a giveaway. I do know what I want to make, but as you may or may not know, I have been nursing a couple of bugs for the last few weeks so there has not been much quilting going on this side of the summer holidays. I am happy to say I’m all better now and getting out of the house again. Goodbye couch, hello freedom indeed!

I did however dust off one of my machines which has been parked for a while awaiting a scheduled tune-up. Patching up another pair of grandson’s pants while he was playing next to me I was thinking of all the knees I have been patching over the years and how happy I am to do so. He loves his patches.

Couch-sitting and knitting go perfectly together so I have made quite some progress on the knitted wool suit for grandbaby and am now in the process of weaving in the yarn ends. The whole thing is striped, so there are many, many ends to finish off.

I was very pleased with the touch of red on the torso so I frogged the top of the sleeves and added a little red to each of them to tie it all together.

Searching for suitable buttons was a blast, and I have quite a few alternatives set aside.

We tried the half-finished WIP on the baby today and it was not as gigantic as I feared. Puuuh.

I’ll be spending tomorrow with grandbaby, but stay tuned for the 3 year celebrations - unless something messes up my plans. Again. The whole summer has been one mess after the other but I’ll save that for another post..

Artistic licence

Having thought about it all week, I decided to add a touch of red to the blue/green colour mix. If it was a quilt I would never hesitate adding some zing to make the colours pop, but with knitting - well, not so much. It might be because making a wrong turn takes a lot of work to fix like frogging and reknitting. There's no design wall or easy replacement of odd stripes, is there, but for now I quite like it.

Grandson and I are spending the day at home. Our resident stomach bug invited one of his cousins over so we're out sick. Again. It's quite funny.

Going retro

Slowly moving forward with my knitting project, I have finished the legs and sleeves and started knitting the body. It looks huge. Huge. He'll wear it at his first day at school or something.

The pattern is 20-something years old, but with some of my favorite blues and greens, it looks totally different. Knitting is kind of like quilting - lots of different colours makes it much more fun.

Thank you for all your well wishes, I am feeling a little better. Keeping up my blood sugar level has been rather challenging while being sick, so hopefully I'll have more energy soon. In the meantime I'll be knitting.

Those of you who blog from your phones - is there any way you can add links or move the pictures around within the post (I am using the Blogger app for iPhone)?

Same old, same old

Playing hostess for a stomach bug for more than a week does not do much for ones creativity nor energy. Except for the fun evening with my quilting buddies on Wednesday, most of my days have been spent recovering on the couch. Now, with the Olympics and all I should not really complain, but I am bored out of my mind. Today I started looking through my knitting patterns for a suit for grandbaby and even got started knitting. He will need warm clothes for fall and winter and right now I have nothing but time - and a considerable yarn stash.

Hopefully I'll be back quilting and blogging soon, but until then my yarn and needles will keep me company. Life's not that bad after all - is it.

Back in the saddle

A wonderful week of vacation is over, followed by a stomach bug taking half of us down one by one. Stepping away from quilting for a few weeks has been good, but by now my fingers were itching by sheer idleness. Time to dust off the machine and pull out some fabrics indeed. My favorite way of doing so is of course getting together with my quilting group, so I called for an unsceduled meeting and spent last night enjoying the company of 2 of my friends.

I brought a bag of scraps in various widths and my brand new iron, slashing and stitching and laughing the evening away. Perfect.