Christmas dresses

I've been sewing dresses for the girls for Christmas. I have worried and agonised over them for days and weeks but now they are finally done.

Of course I have a few tweaks left on them (when don't I ever?) but they are both wearable.



Isabel's dress is made from thick party satin in a Christmas red with red satin lining and a transparent gold taffeta sash.
She says she likes it which is rare these days.



Sofia is getting a cerise dress in baby cord with a white batiste lining in the bodice and some acetate lining in the skirt to stop it from catching on girly stockings.
She also got a small white trim on the neckline and a wide, chunky lace around her waist. (That is the main focus of my tweaking. It didn't turn out exactly as I had planned.)
Sofia was very happy with her dress too and asked to wear it right away.

I have been guarding them like a hawk so I won't have to wash them before the holidays.

Choir

In Sweden every city with a bit of a population has a Folkets Park (People's Park). It is a remnant from the days when workers fought for labour rights and the parks became a place for gathering and entertainment.

Malmö's Folkets Park is close to where we lived when we had no kids, and later when we had only one.
We've spend many hours there at the playground and some at the Tivoli but I have never been to the big dance hall, Moriskan.



Built in 1902 it is a fixture in the park with its characteristic domes.

Wednesday evening it was filled with four classes of second graders. Two classes from Isabel's school and two from a school across the city.

They had practised songs with their teachers all semester and now they were to perform to parents and siblings, all classes together for the first time.

It wasn't a Christmas concert at all. All songs but two were written by the choir master. The last two by Mikael Wiehe, a singer/songwriter well known in Sweden.

It was so fun to see them all. Some completely disinterested and just aching to have it done and others singing with such fervour they looked like "proper" performers.

I hope Isabel gets a chance to do this again. I was reminded of my choir days and the concerts I participated in. It was always such fun.

Squishy

It felt good to be sewing clothes for the girls again.



I tried out the Field Trip tee-pattern from O+S and while I'm not satisfied with the stitching (I'm not an experienced knits sewist) I loved the pattern and how easy it came together.

Sofia loves the tee and has worn it on multiple occasions - pulling it off the line as soon as it is dry.

The next I make for her I'll shorten the neck band and see if I can make the neck less wide and get the shoulders to sit properly.

The knit is a Moda interlock, in the City Weekend collection by Liesl Gibson. I love it and I want a shirt from it for myself.

My friend - the fabulous Mel - managed to track down some of the pink colourway and it is on its was across the Atlantic as we speak/read. I kind of want to keep it for myself - but the candy pink really isn't my colour.

I might end up using it for nightgowns for the girls ...

Back in the saddle

Ok, so now that's out of the way I can dive into some clothes sewing for my girls.

I have a length of knit I've been meaning to cut into and make some shirts for them.

I've done the Hopscotch tops before but have had little luck with getting a good fit with them so I think for this turn I'm trying the Field Trip tops.
The raglan sleeves are usually quick to construct and I think they'll be comfy and a great staple for them both.

I also have Isabel's Fairy Tale dress that I want to start up again. I'm going to have her try on the muslin I made in September and see if the notes I took are still valid.

While I make that I also have to come up with a fabric choice for Sofia's Fairy Tale. I have a hard time deciding.

Ideas from the crowd?

Irish Chain - Done

I finished up my Irish Chain quilt this weekend, and I love it. I chose to machine bind the binding because of reasons. Mostly to do with wanting it finished as soon as possible.

I found the pattern/description for it in one of Missouri Star's Youtube videos.



It's made up of nine-patches and solid squares in a repeating pattern to create the chaining effect.

I used a jelly roll of Moda fabric, called California Girl and some Kona Cotton in Bone.

The backing is one of my grandmother's old top sheets that I folded over to the front to preserve the lace trim and embroidery she did on it in the 1940s.



For batting I used two fleece blankets from IKEA (Polarvide). Not the best option but inexpensive and quick and easy to handle.

I brought the quilt with me to work so I had a chance to photograph it in daylight. Hence the boring greyish linoleum floor.

I still haven't washed it but don't expect it to wrinkle up much. The sheet has been washed before and the fleece batting isn't likely to shrink much so any shrinkage will be on the Moda fabric.
I don't mind.

The girls asked me why I made another quilt. "Don't we have enough blankets now, Mummy?"

Silly question!

Besides, they don't mind a multitude of blankets when they want to build their blanket forts. So there!

Weekend away

We all came home smelling of wood smoke today after a weekend away at my in-laws' cabin.

It's a 90 minute drive up there and I do wonder why we don't go more often. I don't think I've been there for almost 2 years.



The cabin has electricity and can be heated with radiators but we ran the wood stove instead. It smoked a lot before the chimney got heated up and once it did the stove burned so hot and quickly we could hardly keep up.

It also got so hot at times we had to open the door.



We left early on Sunday so Rickard could take Sofia to swim class at home and after a quick snack and a shower I ran a million loads of laundry. I also managed to talk Isabel into taking a shower at long last.

Once home and unpacked I ironed a quilt top I finished piecing the night before we left and while Rickard and the girls had a late dinner I basted it to an old sheet my grandmother gave me - I blogged about that a while back. I'll see if I can track down a link tomorrow. Here it is.

It's going to look nice - I hope. I'll start quilting it tomorrow. I'm thinking diagonal lines at 45 degree angles.

Moon

I had lots of stuff to do at work but since everyone was headed home, and I still, after 4 years haven't gotten familiar with the alarm system in the building, I packed up too and kept working for 40 minutes when I came home.

The project is due on Friday and I am beginning to freak out. I leave on Sunday to host classes on the machine we have been building and I do not feel ready.

The girls were dropped off at the in-laws' this morning and will spend tomorrow and Thursday there so I can work late a few more days.

As I drove on the road out of town to go that short loop around before heading back to populated areas, the Moon hung low in the sky.

It dipped behind a barrow hill when the road turned and then showed up behind another barrow only to disappear again.

I stopped to take a picture of it but my iPhone just doesn't do it justice, and once I came home and had access to my good camera it had risen so high in the sky the feeling was gone and I am left to savour the memory of it.
File it away in my internal photo bank.

Rickard is away and I just had a few sandwiches and some coffee for supper. I was going to start on some quilting but I'm just not feeling it.
I'll leave it for tomorrow.

Piecemeal

I was awakened by Sofia yesterday morning when she came in to our bedroom crying that her tummy hurt.

A visit to the loo later and it was clear she had to stay home. Rickard drove off to the office with the intent to be back by lunch so I could get to the office and get stuff done.

Sofia and I snuggled on the sofa for a bit then had a light breakfast. There were no more incidents and by 10 am she was very perky again.

I plonked her in a bath to clean off any germs that might linger, plus a bath is always nice.

My sewing room is just across the hall from our bathroom and when I open the door I can see the tub from my computer desk which made it easy for me to get a little bit of sewing in.



I saw this star on Missouri Star's video tutorials a week ago and was dying to try it with a charm pack I had.
After snow balling it (putting the little right triangles on each corner) I was left with enough to make the little bonus pinwheel as well.

I like how it turned out. I think I will be making a few more of these soon.

After bedtime last night I also spent a moment in the sewing room and got this block pieced.



Anna Maria Horner designed the block and has a gorgeous feather quilt on her site. I really want to make a whole quilt with these feathers but it will have to wait.
I have so many things in progress I need to finish a few off before starting something new.

Art - take two!

The second print I bought at Isa Form is this kitchen print.

The website showed it in landscape format but we don't have a wall wide enough for that in our kitchen.
She was very sweet and accommodating and offered to turn the print for me at no cost.

I got another Ribba frame from IKEA for this one and I was worried it would be too large, but it does fit here.
The door handle will hit the frame when you open the door, but I have some little transparent glue dots to put on the frame to reduce the impact.

I think I'll pick up one of the colours and repaint the walls in the kitchen. The wall by the hob is in need of a touch up anyway.

Now to go with green or blue?

Art!

I never would have thought I'd get art for the laundry room. But given how much time I spend in there it is totally worth it.

I bought the print from Swedish  designer - Isa Form. She lets you customise the prints with your own phrases, so I picked "från halv tolv till middag" which in translation means "from half past eleven until noon" which is what my grandfather used to say to me when I spilled on my clothes. "You can't stay clean from half past eleven until noon."

The frame is Ribba from IKEA - I love that frame. Nice and chunky. When we redo the laundry (which I hope will be soon) I'll hang it on the wall that is behind our dryer now. It is a little low for my liking right now.

The brown tube on the right is our battery recycling collector.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Well, that last post was a word vomit if I've ever seen one. I'll add a few pictures here.

Starbucks opened its first Swedish location at Malmö Central Station this spring (I think). There is a Starbucks in Stockholm but on the other side of the ARN Security Checkpoint so it's not really accessible to anyone without a boarding pass.

I went there once in March with Rickard but didn't really like the premises. It's stark and the sound is weird.

I have however reconsidered since the food is good. If a bit (a lot) pricey.

The girls both wanted cake but we forced them to have a sandwich - it was breakfast after all.

The movie didn't generate much in the way of pictures but the new Adventure Miniature Golf course at Folkets Park (Peopele's Park) got a few.
There has been a generic, standardised golf course there for years but then they got a Ben & Jerry franchise to open up there and they gave the course a face lift.

It's all green astro turf and cool concrete obstacles that are all connected to the city. The one up there with the eyes are from the old chocolate company Mazetti. It's become something of a graphic icon that logo.

Sofia lost interest after a little while and I have never been very good at miniature golf, but I ended up winning with 2 points.

Rickard came in second and Isabel third.

This rose sculpture is a combined sculpture and splash pad. The water wasn't running on Saturday so the girls climbed on it for a while before we went home. The stem of the sculpture is really long and I couldn't get it all in one shot.

Domesticate

This has been a wonderful weekend. Yesterday we had almost 20 degrees and clear skies.

We took the bus to town and had breakfast at Starbucks at the Central Station. While eating I reserved tickets for us all to go see Hotel Transylvania at noon and we took a stroll through town browsing some shops before picking up the tickets.

The movie was fun and the girls both enjoyed it too. Before we left in the morning we had sort of promised them a round of miniature golf at Folkets Park so we walked over there via the video store and played a round. I won by a narrow margin!

The bus home stops right outside the park so we didn't have far to go once we decided to head home.

We missed the bus by a minute and had 20 minutes to spend while waiting for the next one so we stocked up for dinner at the store next to the stop.

We made home made pizzas and had ice cream but the girls were very disappoint we forgot the candy.

After the girls were in bed we got caught up on some televison before bed.

It was a great day.

Today I drove to the store for breakfast bread and the fancy juice. I picked up a package with some art I had bought while I was there.

After we ate I caught a bug of some kind and started cleaning. The patio door has been full of finger prints for a while so I decided to get them all cleaned. And while I was at it I vaccuumed the wooden blinds we have there. It was long over due too.

Rickard left with Sofia for swimming lessons, and Isabel helped me mop the floors in the laundry while I did the kitchen and hallway.

When Rickard and Sofia returned he started mowing the lawn and I took the girls to IKEA for lunch and some shopping.

We were out of candles and I wanted frames for the art I got. I also got new shades for the lamps in the living room. I just need to dig out the old bases for them. I think they're in the attic. I also found some great boxes for our pantry to make it more organised. It's been anarchy in there for a while. It's now looking much better.

We finished the day with fried herring and mash potatoes. A classic Swedish dish that I haven't made in this house ever. (We've lived here for 5+ years). Isabel ate 4 fillets/fish and declared it a great meal. Sofia ate one fillet and said she didn't like it but ate it anyway. Yay!
Rickard and I stuffed our faces with it and there are still food left over for my lunch tomorrow.

I got so much done at home today that I've been putting off. It feels great. and I hung the art in the new frames. One print in the kitchen and one in the laundry.

Tomorrow I'll see about those lamp bases. After dance class.

Don't be a doormat

In our former life. When we lived in town as DINKies we bought this very nifty doormat.



It says Cellphone, Keys, Wallet.

I love the simplicity of it and it did help me remember to bring all my stuff.

When we moved to our house 5 plus years ago the mat had seen better days and when my helpful FIL tried to bang it free of dirt against a wall he managed to tear off a corner of it.
Now it resides in our shed.

I happened upon an identical doormat at an online shop a few weeks ago and decided it was time to get one again.

Unfortunately when it arrived I felt it was a bit small for our hall - or maybe it was just that I had gotten used to the larger one we had.



So I flipped the larger one and placed the new one on the back and traced the outline. Then I cut out a hole in our larger mat and taped the new one down with duct tape on the back.

Perfect!

Puppy visit

Our Pup!Cousin is almost 5 months old and is getting big!



She came to visit for the first time with my FIL on Sunday when he came to fetch our old television set.
It was fun to have her here. She was very inquisitive and went all over to have a sniff and see what this place was like but she wasn't crazy active.

We had a bag of old plushies in the hall and she dove head first into it. Plushies are her favourite thing.
In the end we had to put the bag away but only after I dug out a fish for her to play with.
She went out in our garden which is perfect for her with a high fence she cannot jump over.



She left the toy out for next time she comes to visit. I hope it doesn't take another 5 months.

Wind blown

Sofia was supposed to have a swim class on Sunday at noon but the weather was great, albeit windy so we decided to ditch class and drive south to the beach instead.



Isabel was adamant she didn't need her windbreaker. The fleece was more than enough she said. Well. As long as she stayed in the car or behind some kind of shelter.



Down on the shore it was blowing a gale. She was more than happy to button up her jacket and the hood too.
There were at least 10 kite surfers and five-ish windsurfers enjoying the winds where we took our walk.

We went to Skanör which is the westernmost tip of Skåne and the place where migrating birds stop to rest before heading south across the Baltic along the Danish coast.

We saw murmurations of starlings (I think), quite a few swans and several different geese ploughs.

We seldom go to the beach at all and pretty much never in fall but I would like to make it a regular thing.
If we go further south(east), to Falsterbo there is good opportunities to find amber washed up after the autumn storms.
Skanör where we went yesterday is more of a sandy beach with loads of sea shells and sea weed. Further south the sand is mixed with pebbles and amber.

Aftermath

Picture Day went well and I managed to have both girls photographed together as well. I'm excited to get the e-mail to look at the pictures. I hope we can find a nice picture of them together to give away for Christmas.

After daycare we drove to the bath house to pick up a swimsuit Isabel had forgotten on Sunday when she was there for a party and then we fetched Rickard at work.

After a quick dinner Sofia splayed out on the sofa and watched Bolibompa (like Cbeebies only in Swedish). This is how tired you get after a full day of daycare.



She wasn't asleep here but almost.

Today school is closed for planning so Rickard took the day off to be home with Isabel and as a result Sofia has to stay home too.

I think they'll have a great time, even if it is raining.

Picture Day

Sofia had Picture Day at daycare today and I had very good intentions to make her a new dress for the occasion.
Only I forgot about it.

And then I remembered. Yesterday.

I've made her an Oliver + S Jump Rope dress before and she has loved it to bits - almost literally. The placket has paint on it that won't go away and there is a tear in the bodice that I had to patch up a while ago.

It's also getting a bit small so a new one has been on my to-do-list for a bit.

I've never made the View B of that dress before but I have always liked how it reminded me of one of Sofia's favourite cartoon characters, Lola from Charlie and Lola.

She is often drawn in a tunic like dress with a collar and placket and when I proposed that model to Sofia she was all for it.

I found a nice soft cotton in purple with white stars on it and Sofia requested it right away.

After dinner yesterday, which was a quick thing since I bought Subways while Sofia was dancing and brought them home with me, I put the girls to bed and started on her new dress.
The broadcloth I had intended for the collar and placket hadn't been prewashed so I gave it a good steam with extra water and dried it with my iron. I'm not sure how that will work, I suppose we'll see when I wash it.

I messed up the first collar I cut out and I had to cut a second one, and the pockets could have been neater, but in all I think it turned out nicely.



I had purple cloud shaped buttons that I wanted to use but I could only find two so I had to change my mind.

Sofia happily put it on this morning and I was relieved to see that it fit her. I had dreamt in the wee hours that it was too small  and felt a bit nervous.

I started pinning the pattern at 8 pm and I sewed the last button on at 10:45 pm-ish. I have made the dress before which explains why it didn't take longer. The placket is a bit fiddly but I've made it three times for Isabel before so I had it pretty much memorised. And since I picked view B I didn't have to gather any skirts which also made it come together quickly.

Fingers crossed it holds up well in the wash now.

Vintage collars and families

I went shopping with my grandmother yesterday. She turns 90 next year and doesn't walk very well but she does her own shopping every week if someone takes her to the store.

My parents are on vacation so I offered to take her.

When I was a girl and lived at home I visited her and my grandfather every day more or less and I do miss our chats so it was nice to sit down with her for a bit after we were back at her flat.

We came to talk about the red dress I'm planning for Isabel for Christmas and I mentioned an idea I had of making the collar on it detachable. I told her of my woes on what fabric to use for the collar - cotton broad cloth doesn't exactly work well with a satin dress.
She told me of an olive green dress she had made for her in the 40's that had a basted on lace collar and how she had held on to it even though the dress was long gone.



It's from 1944, so definitely vintage and I think the lace has been sewn to a thin bias strip that was then basted onto a dress.She said she had held on to it and had been thinking about giving it to me for a while now.

It will be a perfect accent on a little girl's dress I hope. Her timing couldn't be better.

I loved hearing about how grandma had all her clothes made for her back then. Ready to wear was available but not in quantity and not where she lived in rural Skåne. It was easier to buy fabric you liked and go to the local seamstress to have it made for you.

Sadly all the dresses she spoke of yesterday are all gone. She said they had been thrown away or donated over the years.

Such a pity.



This is her in the 1940's.



And this is her and my grandfather on their wedding day. She was 21 when they married and he was 30. They had been married 61 years when he died in 2005.

Planning continues

Well, taping did commence last night. I got the bodice taped and ready to make a muslin from.

I was about to cut into it at the size 8 when I came to my senses and decided to wait until a time when I have the intended recipient's body available for measuring.

A 5 year old doesn't exactly like being woken up at night just cause Mum was too lazy to measure her before she went to bed. It never ends well.

So instead I watched some online classes on Craftsy that I bought and am slowly working my way through a first viewing.

Tonight I'll work on getting ahead on housework though. It's not my forte and sometimes we let things slip too much. I'm giving myself a head start for the weekend when the girls are off hiking and then Isabel's going on a sleep over at her grandparents'.

The best laid plans of mice and men

I had good intentions last night to get the size 8 of the Fairy Tale dress taped for Sofia so I can start on a muslin of the bodice.

The pdf was printed (I splurged on colour for the cover) and I was about to get going as soon as the girls were in bed but somewhere along the evening I got side tracked (baking, laundry and lunch box preparing can do that) and I ended up splayed out on the sofa playing Plants vs Zombies while watching reruns of old Big Bang Theory episodes.

That was good too.

But I'll give the pdf a new try tonight, along with pinning the Field Trip pants for Sofia on pink twill.

Gone phishing ...

Well. I suppose there's a reason not to have your e-mail capable cell phone turned on right next to your bed and having it check for new e-mails regularly even during the night.

Just as I was about to doze off I heard the little chirp my phone makes when I have a new Gmail. It displayed a little badge on screen telling me it was from Paypal and that I needed to update my credit card information.

Normally that would turn on all sorts of warning bells but I have been having payment issues at Paypal lately and I clearly wasn't thinking straight at 12:37 am.

I clicked the link. (First mistake).

I entered my user name and password and clicked OK (Second mistake).

I got a screen with some entry fields where I was asked to enter my credit card information, my name and date of birth and as I was typing my address I guess I finally woke up and had a quick thought that I had made payments via Paypal in the nearest couple of days without a hitch and most likely the issues I had were due to the seller and not my Paypal account.

I stayed my hand and decided to go to my computer to have a proper look at the address I had just visited and entered my Paypal login.

Sure enough it was nothing like paypal.com.

So for 45 minutes last night I was awake and tried to figure out how to change my password and once I had that solved I needed to come up with a good new password. And also remember to write it down so I could remember it in the morning.

I also had to change the password on all those other sites where I used the same because I was too lazy to figure out a new one.

I feel a little sluggish today.

Back to school

I totally forgot to post this picture of Isabel as she headed to school on her first day of 2nd grade. She's been back to school for almost a month now.

She was wearing the same ruffle dress I made her for last day of school before summer. It was pretty much the same weather - ie cold and overcast.

She chose to use the Messenger bag I made her for Christmas last year - or possibly even the year before.
She's shown no interest in it for months and months but now she's warmed up to it. It's a bit floppy but it works.

In Sweden all kids get a hot meal during the day and there is no need for a packed lunch. If you need to the kids can be dropped off early enough to have breakfast as well, but Isabel prefers to eat at home and we have been able to work our schedule around that.
They also get served a fairly substantial snack in the afternoon.

Oh, and did I mention that city-run school is free here? We pay for after-school care (breakfast and afternoon snack is served within that organisation), something like $125 a month. It's roughly what we pay for daycare for Sofia as well.
If we had been low-income that fee would be lower. We make enough to hit the roof fee.

Isabel had a great first day - although she didn't get the right amount of maths homework as she had hoped for.
I spent the afternoon having my nails and feet done and she asked if she could stay with me and watch. She's very interested in beauty, hair and make-up these days.
I said she could and she watched very attentively whilst chattering away with the manicurist.

Back log

So I take the lack of answers to my last post as a No. I am however contemplating wearing it tomorrow when we go to my SIL's for a 4th birthday party ... Still undecided.

I feel like I haven't been sewing much of anything lately - maybe that's because I've not sewn for the girls but rather done pleasure sewing for myself.

I've done up four beautiful Dresden plates and have had no idea what to use them for - but the other day I found a tutorial on turning them into plate chargers/place mats. Definitely doing that.



I have made three star pillows - none of which have been photographed properly and one of which (the pink one below) will be given away tomorrow as a birthday present for the 4 year old cousin.



I have started a new quilt using a lovely jelly roll by Figtree Quilts called California Girl. It's shaping up nicely. I still have lots of it to do but it will make a nice lap quilt soon enough.

I also started basting my huge Oh Cherry Oh-quilt but ended up unbasting it when I realised the border was much too wavy and I will have to fix that first. It's so huge so clearing space to baste it is such a hassle. It was quite a disappointment when I had to take it all out again.



This week I've been home sick and home because Sofia's daycare was closed. I sewed up this skirt for her in one evening. I love it on her as it has a lovely kicky feeling to it with the flounce and that tab being folded to the outside.
She loves it and that makes me happy and contemplating whipping up a couple more for her but I don't think she needs more skirts.

I'm having plans for a pink twill pair of cargo pants for her. I just need to tape the pattern together.

Also making all those half-square triangles for the star pillows made me want to revisit the quilt I made for Isabel when she was born.
I bought a lovely pile of blue Kona Cotton fat quarters that I expect any day now - I may have to think about doing an updated, and up scaled version of that quilt for Isabel. Maybe for Christmas.

Could I wear this to work?

The corset is DONE! I finished the last grommet yesterday afternoon and laced it up.

It's slightly large. I can easily lace it completely closed in the back which gives me no margin for when I (hopefully) lose a bit more weight.
But I can easily pick this apart if I need to and use the hardware again.

I ended up not attaching a mock belt like I had intended. I couldn't find a nice buckle and I wanted to have it done.



In this picture I get a few wrinkles at the waist and I think it's because I put the bunny ears (the part of the laces at the waist that you use to pull at to cinch it) too high up. I have since re-laced it and put the bunny ears one grommet pair lower.
I haven't tried it again after that.

I put in a really great modesty panel in the back but ended up having to cut it off because I had a brain fart when I attached it and it totally got in the way.
I haven't decided if I should make a floating panel (one you put in as you lace it up) or if I should just leave it as is. It's not like I'm going to wear it with nothing underneath.

So now the big question is. Could I wear this to work?

Movies and quilt thoughts

We're going to see Brave tomorrow night, or more like today since it's past midnight.

It's opening night and I booked tickets for the good seats in the middle of the theatre with lots of leg room for me and Rickard.

Saturday we're having date day/night. The girls are spending the night at my parents and we are yet again going to the movies. Bourne Legacy this time.

I also plan to do some quilt piecing on Saturday. I got my back ground fabric delivered and once I put in the grommets in my corset tomorrow afternoon (hopefully) I will feel free to start quilting.

I started basting my huge Cherry quilt tonight but I had to undo it because the border was too wavy. I must fix that before I can baste again.

I have a few other quilt projects in my head that I need to put down on paper, or draw up in Illustrator. I should do that before the new Oliver + S patterns are released and delivered which gives me roughly 1.5 weeks.

Almost there

I got all the bones in tonight in my corset and all there is left now is putting the binding on and hammering in a ton of eyelets in the back. Then I can lace it up and try it out.

I pinned the binding to the three other sides but it's getting late and I don't want to run my machine at this hour.

So finishing tomorrow!

I had an idea for a quilt pattern when I was at work and I think I'll do some doodling to see if it looks as good as I imagined.

Missing in the mail

I saw a tutorial for a quilt using the Irish Chain pattern and I fell in love. I already had two jelly rolls of printed fabric that I have been wanting to use and this pattern would be perfect for it.

So I agonised over what Kona Cotton solids to buy and came up with Kona Cotton Bone and Kona Cotton Stone. They will co-ordinate perfectly with the California Girl by Fig Tree Quilts and the French General jelly roll that I can't remember the name of.

I plan to use my grandmother's top sheets for a backing so I'll have to do some calculations so I don't make the quilt too large.



Well, I ordered the solid fabric from Pink Chalk at the beginning of August while I was still on vacation. I figured I could get a crack at it before I started work again.

No such luck. I waited by my mailbox night and day (not really but I would have if I felt it would be socially acceptable) but there was no mail slip.
Since it was shipped as a letter I couldn't track it either so I started to worry that it had been lost over the Atlantic or that someone else had gotten it or that it was somehow stuck in customs.

Finally yesterday I ran into our mailman (mailperson?) and she handed me a reminder pick-up slip for a big letter.
I drove over to the store right away and fetched it - certain I would have to pay customs as well, but no. The girl at the pick-up desk handed me a gloriously fat mailbag with my fabric! The original slip had gotten lost and the parcel had been sitting on a shelf at my grocery store for 2 weeks!

But now I had it. And all was well with the world.

Too bad I have now started loads of other projects that I should finish first ... I paired the fabric with its companion jelly roll and put them on my desk as an incentive to get going on that to-do list.

The things I have to get to first are:

- My corset needs to have boning inserted. Working on that. I put in the last busk piece last night after crawling all over the floor looking for the half that had mysteriously gone missing.
- Basting my huge quilt that I got batting for yesterday.
- I have to decide if I want to attach the Dresden plates I made from that co-ordinating fabric on the back of the quilt I'm about to baste. I should do that before sticking pins in the thing. Not sure how to go about it.
- Make a second Carpenter Star for Isabel now that Sofia claimed the first one. (This is not important to start before I get to the new quilt. We'll see.)

Colouring book? No! Fabric!

I found this colouring book fabric at IKEA a few weeks ago and I just knew it would be perfect for the girls to paint on.

I stretched it on an old cork notice board I had and just tacked it down with push pins.



Sofia had a great time painting on it after she came home from the woods on Saturday.

We went back to IKEA to get some bits and bobs and I bought 5 meters more of the fabric. I have more plans for it.

Eight

I just realised I haven't written anything about Isabel's birthday.



She turned 8 in mid-July and we invited the whole family at her request. She also got to decide on the menu so we served dark bread with smoked salmon rolls for starters, patties with onions and potatoes for the main course and for cake - a lemon cake with lemon filling



We bought her a sewing machine from IKEA and my aunt gave her a beautiful sewing box and some patterns for Barbie-clothes as well as some tips on how to make Barbie and easy skirt.



We also gave her an iPod Nano so Rickard could reclaim his old phone she had been using to listen to audio books on.

Hiking!

Sofia's been going on mini-hikes with Rickard since she was just 1 year old. They would be away for 90 minutes on a Saturday morning with other kids and their parents.

This year she turned 5 and is allowed to go on the bus with just the group leaders to the forest. There has been much excitement the last few days about this.
It was raining but she had a great time.

I predict she will sleep well tonight.

Army corset, part 2

About a month and a half ago I started on a new corset.

I got as far as sewing the outer shell and the lining together but then I had to put it on hold because I didn't have a busk or any boning.



I placed an order with a UK company for two black busks and boning for three corsets -ish. They shipped it promptly but then my Post Office was giving me a lot of trouble and wouldn't release it to me.
Since the value was so high the supplier had sent it insured and I hadn't used my full name on the order but rather the name I go by from day to day so the Post wouldn't let me have it.

It took a few days to sort that but finally I got it and went home to get going ... only to find out that the busks had been out of stock and would be sent later.



Finally in my last week of vacation I managed to eke out some spare time and put the busk in.



It's a bit fiddly but it went together smoothly. I stitched the seam twice for durability and cursed my machine for not letting me set stitch length in smaller increments than 0.5 - very annoying.



So one side of the busk is in, the other needs a modesty panel cut out too before I put that busk part in.
I am also debating if I should put in the mock belt I've seen on my inspiration picture or if I shold skip it. I have had trouble finding a nice buckle for it. At least one big enough.

Nails

For years and years I was a nail biter. I have worn off some of the enamel on my teeth from biting my nails since I was a kid.

I tried lots of things to stop. Painted on that stuff that tastes vile - didn't work. Put on nail varnish to make them pretty to stop myself - didn't work.
For our wedding 12 years ago I had acrylic nails made - that was gorgeous but it destroyed my own nails and it took weeks to get them back to normal after I had the fake ones removed.

I'm not really sure what's happened these past few years - maybe I've finally grown up or at least out of it.




What happens now though is that they split and chip easily so yesterday I tried out shellac on them. I figured it would strengthen them a bit.
I've read loads about shellac online. People say it lasts two weeks or more so I wanted to give it a go. The nail studio was just around the corner and there's a foot specialist as well there so I got a pedicure while I was at it.

I chose a French manicure. Partly because I think it looks good in summer when you're a bit tanned on your hands. Partly because I don't normally "do" nail polish. This is a nice natural look.

So far I love it! We'll see in a week's time when I have a bit of growth.