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.

Don't Panic, and bring your towel

Last year I bought a kit of gym clothes, a bag and a towel for Isabel at our local supermarket. It was great to buy it as a kit and it was very affordable.

Unfortunately more parents had the same idea and at the start of term pretty much every little girl in Isabel's class sported a purple nylon drawstring bag with the same print on it and the same purple gym clothes and the same pink towel.

It didn't take long before Isabel cam home with the wrong size gym clothes after school one day. We quickly figured out whose clothes we had gotten and I washed them and returned them with in a few days. But no matter how many times we asked for Isabel's clothes back they took their time returning them, and when they finally did, we got the wrong size back!

So in the end I sewed up a quick pair of pants and a shirt for her to wear. She never really like them - thought they were too warm but it worked.

So at the end of spring term, one of the last days of gym I had forgotten to wash her towel and I reluctantly lent her one of my own. It was an old towel - almost as old as me and I loved it to bits. The fact that it's still in one piece tells of the great quality of it.

Well - you can guess, Isabel forgot she had it and just took the generic purple towel she was used to have with her at the end of class and my favourite towel was lost.



This term I'm not making the same mistake. I bought a white towel at the store and appliquéd Isabel's name to it.
Even if someone accidentally brings it home with them their parents will see who it belongs to easily enough and hopefully return it. At least one can hope.

I also sewed up two kitchen towels into a tote bag for her to use as a gym bag. Ain't no one gonna have the same so she can't accidentally bring the wrong one home.

Now - to fix some new gym clothes that aren't as warm ... wish me luck.

I'm also going to send an e-mail to the parents' list to ask if my towel has surfaced somewhere. It feels silly to go to such lengths about a silly 35 year old towel, but I really liked it.

Beach bound

We live in Malmö which is a harbour town with a beach and lots of walks along the sea. There are both marinas and big industrial harbours. And yet the sea doesn't play a big role in our lives.

I'm not a beach person. Having battled with body image issues all my life I've never felt comfortable in a bathing suit and I don't like getting sand everywhere and there are just too many flies/birds/people to make it worth it.



But as summer is waning so are also the crowds on the beach and I can somewhat enjoy it if it's on my terms.

So one night this week I got out of the office early and went home to pack up the cooler with some sausages, ketchup, mustard and bread and made a thermos of coffee. Once Rickard came home with the girls we hopped in the car and drove to the beach to have dinner there.

It was lovely. A bit overcast and with a crisp bite in the wind (we really should have brought our cardigans) but no people.

We lit up one of our many "engångsgrill" (single use grill - it's a big thing here) and grilled some sausages.
We were out of hot dog buns but I found a pack of tortillas in the freezer that I brought along which turned out to be a stroke of genius.
Easy for the girls to hold even with mustard and ketchup - and with some cronions (fried/roasted onions) in there it didn't matter if some sand got in there. It was already crunchy.

I hope this isn't a one-time thing. I have an idea to make sandwiches to bring along next time. Or a salad. It was so peaceful to be down there in the evening.

As always I question why we never do it more often.

Lazy Friday

Sadly no background fabric from the States this week. My guess is that they have been held up in customs and they'll be here on Monday.


I went back to work this week and it's been mad. I sent off the manuals I've been working on to be translated into three different languages just before my vacation and I have been trying to make sense of it all ever since Monday.



It was nice to leave work at lunch today. I usually work until 1 pm on Fridays but today our server had to be restarted at noon and that would take upwards of 30 minutes to get done so I finished up what I could do off the servers and left early.

After our lunch/afternoon snack the girls sat down for some gaming. Isabel picked the Wii as usual. But I really adore Sofia's gaming locale. She took my iPad and played some Smallworld on it, snuggled down on a blanket on our door step.



I cut up a few charm squares for a new Dresden plate project I have planned. I didn't count how many blades I ended up with but later tonight as I prepared some appliqué for Isabel I found some left over layer cake squares from the same line so however many I had I will have a few more by tomorrow.

Saturday coming up and we have a sleep-over planned at our place. Sofia is having a friend over. Exciting doesn't even begin to describe it!

Heirloom

I love heirlooms. Especially the kind you can use and have out so you can enjoy it daily.

Last week my grandmother pulled out two of these top sheets that she made for her wedding in the mid 1940's.
She hemmed the sheets herself and did the monogram and I haven't asked her but I am pretty sure she did the lace herself as well.

They are thick and not very worn so I don't think she's used them very much.

They are monogrammed in cross stitch with A L A for Annie and Axel Larsson.

They are both rather wide and I plan to use them as backing on a quilt (two separate quilts to be exact). I'm thinking about using the lace as part of the binding on the top edge.
I think if I fold down the top over the batting then fold the lace over the top and batting then bind the edges could work.

We'll see. I hope the background fabric I plan to use will turn up in the mail this week - and I hope I won't have to battle the grocery store for it - again.

Amusement Park

The entrance for Liseberg is this old beautiful wooden structure painted in the amusement park's colours, pink and green.
I'm not sure how old it really is or if it's even original but I like the retro/vintage look of it.



The park's mascot is a big green bunny named Mr Berg. I pity the person stuck in this suit on a hot summer's day, and while the girls dove right in and gave the mascot a hug, I can't help but feel it's a bit weird. I have no idea who that person is inside and I still let him/her hug my kids.



Isabel got a free pass for all the rides and the first one she tried was the bumper cars. I felt a bit sorry for her for having to go on the rides alone. Even if I liked going on rides I couldn't leave Sofia alone to wait for us if she was too small to go or, as was mostly the case, if she didn't want to.



The fairground swings was one ride I could have considered joining Isabel but Sofia was very determined NOT to so Isabel went alone.

The layout of the rides are usually very good with great views of the lines even from the exit so I felt completely safe leaving her alone in the line once a few people had joined behind her.



The view from up the mountain is great! They added that wooden roller coaster just last year I think. It's very new.



These boats were a big hit! Sofia enjoyed it a lot and they even got a custom license after they had gotten off that looks just like a proper driver's license.



This was another ride Sofia was eager to try and she looks happy enough in this picture but it wasn't long before she was crying and screaming at the top of her lungs and finally the attendant stopped the ride and let her off. She was so scared.



After that I had a hard time convincing her to go on the little Ferris Wheel with us. Isabel wanted me to come and again I couldn't if Sofia wouldn't join us.
But with the bribe of any ice cream she wanted she finally gave in. She didn't exactly enjoy it and after just two laps I had to ask the attendant to let us off next turn.

Once we were off Isabel rode a few more laps and when she got off Sofia somehow got caught on the wrong side of a gate  and hurt her foot and couldn't find me. So there were more tears.



An ice cream helped with that.



After this we caught a 3D-movie about two sea turtles that was both cute, fun and a bit scary. Finally I wanted to go on the Liseberg Wheel, but no amount of persuasion would make Sofia come with us. So Isabel went alone in a cabin large enough for 6. She enjoyed the view but it was a bit dull in the end because they could only empty 4 cabins at a time and there were 42 cabins on the wheel.



After a few more rides we got in touch with Rickard and agreed on a pick-up spot and we headed back south.
We stopped half way at a really great restaurant that only serves salmon. They had really fancy bathrooms there.

When we got ready to leave Sofia somehow again thought she had been left behind and I could tell she was really tired because Isabel had been standing right beside her and Rickard was just around a corner but she just couldn't function any more.

It was nice to be home, but Isabel and Rickard have made tentative plans to go up to Gothenburg again together just the two of them.
I think they would have a great time!

Gothenburg - impromptu

Since Rickard and I both work more or less full time it's rare that I can take the girls along with him when he goes out of town on business.

This week was different though as I'm still on vacation. I've have 5 weeks off and this is my 6th last week before I get back to work on Monday.



Rickard had to be in Gothenburg at 9 am so in order to drop us off first we had to leave before 6 am.

The girls were great and ate a bowl of soured milk without fuss before getting in the car for the trip. I had packed breakfast boxes for them both and they got them at 7 am.



We were dropped off in town and with the help of Google Maps we made out way to the Garden Society to have a look at their Palm House.
They weren't opened when we got there so the girls played for a while at the playground next to it.



The Palm House was built in the late 1800s and is really five greenhouses built together. In one of them there are water plants. Among others a rare Victoria water lily that only blooms at night.



I loved this sculpture of angel wings "left behind" on Earth by some fallen angel maybe.

After The Palm House I coaxed the girls into coming with me almost all the way back to where we began for some brunch at Eva's Paley.



I had been there before with an old co-worker of mine - sadly she passed away a few years ago. We had a sandwich and some cake to fortify us for the walk to Liseberg. A big amusement park in town.



It was a bit of a walk but the sight of the Liseberg Wheel cheered us up.

I have more pics from Liseberg, but they are still uploading. Check back tomorrow for that post.