Please join me

Hi,

Please join me here

Pinkandbarbara

 Barbara

A new house

hi!

I am moving to a new house this week ( as I have mentioned before..*lol*) So there will be a cap in my internetconnections. So I won’t be blogging for a week or 2…

 See you in 2 weeks!

Hugs..Barbara 

Pytt-i-Panna

Pytt-i-Panna is a Swedish dish, made of small cubes of potato, sausage and union. It is a very old dish and a traditional “workers”-meal. This quilt pattern is given to me by another Swedish quilter and she told me that the name was pytt-i-panna.

 This quilt was fun to make and quite quick as well. I still need to quilt it and I will add a scallop border. I hope to finish it before we move, and I hope it will look lovely in the new room with the new colors on the wall…

Tagged

Hi!

I have been tagged by Helen…so here I go..

4 Jobs I had..

1. Receptionist 
2. Receptionist at a 3 star Hotel in Amsterdam..
3. Office Manager
4. Secretary

4 films I can watch over and over…

1. Chocolate
2. The lord of the Rings…all 3 of them
3. You got mail…I watch this every Christmas
4. Big Fish

4 Tv-shows I watch

1. BBC’s Grand Designs
2. 2,5 men
3. House
4. Gilmore Girls

4 Places I have lived

1. Kampen in Holland
2. Oskarshamn, Sweden
3. Bergen, Holland
4. Västerås, Sweden

4 favorite foods

1. Kroket on white bread ( something very Dutch!)
2. Pasta
3. Anything Lamm
4. Greek

4 favorite colours

1. Pink
2. Blue /turqoise
3. Brown
4. sorry..nothing beats pink….*lol*

4 places I would love to be right now

1. In my new house with all the painting and wallpaper done and all the boxes unpacked with a nice glass of wine in my hand and my feet on the coffee-table …
2. In Holland sitting outside a cafe drinking a cup of tea and holding my best friends new baby I haven’t seen jet
3. Ireland and do some walking and beeing outside
4. Would love to see the Amish country in the US once..

4 Names that I love but would not use for my own children

Larkin (for a boy), fee, Cloe, Rose

4 People I would love to tag with this Mem

1. Cathi in Ireland
2. Weronica
3. Sherry
4. Lucy

It is great to have been tagged and have something to write about. I am in the middle of my move, so it is chaos. In this chaos I have started a new quilt, I am painting furniture, making a carpet, and making new covers for a chair..so …I will have something more exiting to show soon..

bye

Lost and found…

The last weekend has been revolving around lost and found..

This is my handsome little brother out surfing in the sea by Portugal. He is person who travels a lot, has a lot of fun and adventures and has a really good “taking life as it comes” attitude. He was surposed to be gone for a month, but stayed longer and that got us worried. He is not one who remembers to keep in touch when he is out having fun. But we are happy that is safe and sound at home. He stayed at a place where he worked as a builder and got payed in food and shelter.

Since we will be moving in about 3 weeks we had a busy weekend. We cleared out our storage, the garden and the furniture there. Our closets were organised, packed the summer clothes and threw away all the old stuff. But the coolest thing that happened this weekend was: Last time we moved I was really in a “trow away” mood, and threw loads of stuff away. I had a big collection of magazines and thought I had trown them out,…but there all the way in the back of the storage space were….3 bags of magazines…o JOY! I am now re-reading them and they are like new magazines now since I don’t remember what is in them…

In the middle of this mess…I am trying to do some journal-ling and scrapbooking, but I think I am going to pack it in soon. I really don’t like the way the house is looking now…boxes everywhere…really depressing and not “homey” at all…I can’t wait to move

well….back to packing.. 

Journaling thoughts

Okay, I would love some input about my journaling thoughts.

I am going to put together a journal, with my crafty projects and some other bits and pieces. It is not a real journal in the sense of like writing down my most intimate thoughts, it is more for keeping track of all the things I have made during the years. Now for my “dilemma” In what language should I journal? I am Dutch, living in Sweden and my blog is in English.

If the journal would be strictly for me I would do it in Dutch ( I think..maybe), but then none of my Swedish friends would be able to read it…or if I would want to put up photo’s and post on this blog, you wouldn’t be able to read it. But that would mean that I would have to spell-check everything and stuff. My English is not very bad, but I am  not as fluent in writing it as I once was. Writing in Swedish is not really my thing…and writing in Dutch is not the same as it was once either since I have been living in Sweden when I was younger…went to high-school here 4 years, and now I have been living here for 5 years again (so a total of 9 years). So I don’t feel like I have a natural language…..

So you see the dilemma??…

Help?

Barbara 

Mixed upload today

Okay…today I have a mix of small bits and pieces to show you, since I haven’t been blogging like I should. Been bussy, been sick….my granddad has  been atmitted to hospital (he is only 93 years old so this was totally unexpected…we thought he will live untill he is 300!) and on top of that I have been starting to prepare to move..

But first the biggest cool thing that happend last week. It was my b-day and I got a present from Cathi…a quilt! I was so overwelmed…she did such a great job. I love it. I have packed it away save so it will be nice, clean and fresh for the new house.

 

Thanks Cathi! The text says: Friends are like Heirlooms, the longer you have them the more cheriched they become.

I also got some money to spend from my dad’s girlfriend and from my MIL. So I bought these repro-fabrics and some scrapbooking things. Here are the repro’s:

2 weeks ago I was at a quiltmarathon and had a great time. I made this progress on my Girls Day Out quilt:

Since we are moving soon I am making my way trough my room sorting out all my things. I have finally started to write down all my recepies that I have torn out of magazines through the years.. So this big pile of paper finally got trewn out!

And I got ride of all these catalogues and stuff as well:

So slowly I am getting all my things sorted for the new sewingroom…

talk to you soon again! 

Stitchery Project Bag Tutorial

the inside:

Hi,

I have just finished this Stitchery Project Bag. I was talking to Cathi about how I make a bag like this, so I decided to put a tutorial on the blogg again.

Before I start describing on how I make a bag like this I have to tell you…I hate math, and I suck at it…so I don’t do math. I just explain how I do it and I usually just “wing it”.

Okay, lets start. Think about what your bag should contain. I wanted mine to fit my round stitchery hoop. So I went through my kitchen and found a tray that was big enough. But you can make this bag in every shape.

This was now my “pattern”.

I used an old UFO stitchery pattern, for the front of the bag. I did a log-cabin pattern around it to make it bigger, and then quilted it with a bit of batting.

 To make the rest of the bag you need a piece of fabric where you can fit at least 3 times the round pattern and then a additional 20 inches.

Cut a piece that is bit enough for 3 times the round pattern and 6 inches. As I said I did not measure…I just took the pattern plus a ruler:

 Quilt this piece of fabric as well. I always quilt my fabric first because it tends to change shape a bit after quilting. Cut out the 3 pieces of the round pattern, just by drawing and cutting with scissors. Then cut out a long piece that is about 6 inches wide and cut it into the middle so you have 2 strips. (so these 3 circles and 2 strips of fabric are quilted.) NOTE: Don’t throw anything of you scraps of the quilted fabric away. They can be used later for scissorkeep and other things.

I use zippers that are sold in yardage. They are great, if you can find them …buy them in bulk…*s* This is the way I put the zipper in:

First put the zipper on the quilted fabric like this: with the “zippers teeth” on the right side of the fabric and facing down. Cut a piece of un-quilted fabric that is also 6 inches wide  and cut in the middle (each strip is 3 inches). Put this on top of the zipper, so that the zipper gets in between the 2 fabrics:

Sew the zipper in . When you have sewn the zipper in. Turn the zipper right side out and quilt a seam just under the zipper to keep it more in place. Put the zipper together now. You might notice that the sides are not equal this is because the quilted part needs more space to turn. This is nothing to worry about. As I said, I don’t measure, I just square things up later. Attach a piece of fabric like on the picture below (this is a piece of quilted fabric and a normal piece of fabric on the back. )This will be your “henge” to open close the bag:

You should now have 3 circles of quilted fabrics, one circle for the front with the stitchery and the zipper part.

If you want to add pockets and things like that inside your bag, you should do this now. I made my scissorholder and the pincushion by using  the little leftovers you will get by cutting out the circles. The pocket is made by folding a big piece of fabric and just laying it over a cirkel and cutting it even, leaving the fold at the top.

Okay now the most important tip: You will have 4 circles sew these together 2 by 2.  If you do this together with the pockets and everything you will have a easier time putting the bag together, less pieces to keep track of later.

Now it is time to put the bag together.  Now you take another look at the piece of fabric with the zipper in and decide how wide you want to have your bag. I cut mine 2 inches on each side of the zipper. Just start sewing around the circle by putting the zipper part on. Important: Start sewing  a small piece from the edge. This will work like putting the binding on. You need a piece of fabric to be loose to be able stitch the ends together. Like this:

When you stitch the ends together sew a piece a fabric in so you can hide the seam later like this:

When the all the parts are sewn together it should look like this:

Now cut 2 pieces of binding big enough to reach around. and sew it on:

Now the bag is finished and you just sew the binding down by hand.

This a picture of 2 other bags that is made in the same way:

Have fun making your bag.  If you have any questions please write to me and I’ll try to help..

good luck!

A quilty weekend

Hi!

 I had this wonderfull weekend. My friend Lisselott was here the whole weekend, and my dh wasn’t home so we didn’t do anything else but sew. It was great. I focused mainly on getting all the HST done, and it got done…

I have even started on piecing the  pieces together and got half way through, and even finished one block to see what it would look like later:

Yesterday we had our Wednesday sewinggroup meeting and I made one Dear Jane block:

I have also made some progress on my cardigan. I am now getting the point where I have to start the neckcollor and the armholes at the same time. It is a bit intimidating but I hope to get started soon.

I have been sick this week, I had this fever and a bad cough. So I hope to get better soon and do some more sewing..

Barbara

Day 2

This is the progress for day 2. I have done some knitting. I cut some pieces for my Double Wedding Ring. And I have started to prepare on the “girls day out”, but there is a lott to sort out before starting. I have finished with that and have found out that I had most of the DMC threads but needed to buy just a few more and a better background fabric. So I was in town today and did that.

When I was in town I bought these things to put together as a present. We forgot our friends Susanne’s birthday and we feel really realy bad.  The basket is filled with CrazyQuilt things like beads and ribbons and stuff.

Tonight we are going to have our wednesdaynight sewingmeeting. I don’t know what to take with me jet. The backgroundfabric for the “girls day out” is in the dryer so I might be able to  prepare some embroidery for tonight. Otherwíse I will take my knitting..which is heaps of fun to do….

Hugs Barbara