September 10, 2015

Hi everyone!  Just thought I'd update you on my projects.  I spent this morning vacuuming (how exciting) and then pinning my quilt top to the backing.  I am a big fan of pins as you'll see in the photo of my quilt.  I hope to make the backing and binding the same color (navy with hearts).  I may get this quilt done in the next week as my husband is gone for work for nearly 2 weeks.  I'll have lots of free time after my daughter goes to sleep at night to get it done.  I think I'll stitch in the ditch for it all as I don't have a free motion sewing machine.  Since I don't have a table dedicated to sewing, I use a bed to lay my quilts on.  I put plastic place mats underneath it to pin against.  It's amazing what you can get to work when you don't have any other options :)

Below is my current cross stitch project.  I am making it for my personal collection.  I'm hoping to hang it in my sewing room when we move back to the US.  It's a HUGE project.  I like to sit and sew while I watch Downton Abbey at night.  Yes, I realize I'm already an old lady at heart ;)

It's hard to keep this cross stitch tight as it takes up the entire wooden cross stitch frame.  

Current Projects

Decided to try my hand at a star wall hanging.  This is what I have so far.

Next I decided to try making smaller stars out of leftover scraps.  I found out the how hard they really were to make.  I made 4 blocks like this.

Here's the star with the inner border sewn on.  I decided to use the leftover strips from making the big star as a border.  I ended up cutting and sewing quite a few more strips together as well.  The dark blue in the middle of the star will be the backing and binding if everything works out :)

Here it is all sewn together.  Soon I will be quilting and binding it.  Not bad for a first try at diamonds if I do say so myself :)

Today my daughter and I went with a friend on a lunch date.  On the way home we stopped at a florist for some flowers as flowers are really one of the only "cheap" things in Copenhagen.  The kind old man running the shop didn't speak much if any English but he arranged the flowers and even put cellophane on them for free.  Not bad for about $20!

Quilting Projects

Table Runners

Quilts

 My first quilt.  It's a lap size quilt.

 A quilt I made for my daughter's twin bed (for when she gets bigger).  This still needs to be quilted once I upgrade machines.  

A quilt I made for my daughter's toddler bed.  I used flannel on the back and scraps of fabric from my fabric stash.  I love this one and thankfully she does too :)

A sample of my machine's different stitches.  It makes a fun wall hanging in my sewing room.

Quiet Book

These are all pictures of pages from quiet books I made my daughter or for friends.  I found many ideas on Pinterest and on other websites.

 The cover is a quilted cover and I use buttonholes to put the metal rings through.

Mr. Potatohead.  The pieces and parts are inside the brown "jar" on the pink page.

Sewed yarn onto the page.  The envelope has clips and ties for the hair.

Didn't have the laces in yet but here's the shoe page

The clock page

The car page: I glued on the yellow stripes and house, trees, etc.  I sewed on the road.  I used a matchbox car instead of making one as I'm lazy :) :) 

The train page is nearly finished, just need to sew the snaps onto the white pages.

I don't love the clock one as it's hard for the hands to turn.

My mom made this one but it was too cute not to add :)

The newest page I made.  It has 5 ice cream scoops and a cherry for on top.  The pocket holds the extras.  I still need to sew the snaps onto the page.

The tree page.  Again, have to sew the snaps onto the page.

Cross Stitch Projects

This was one of the first really big projects I took on.  This is still on of my favorites because it reminds me of my little girl.  My mom taught me to cross stitch when I was in high school :)

One for our puppy

An unusually small one compared to normal ones :)

Made for my dad, who's a farmer

This was actually quite simple as there weren't many colors.  It's really large.

This one was HUGE.  I gave it to a friend and her new husband for a wedding present.  One of my favorites so far.

Random Projects

When we first moved to Denmark we brought very little with us.  The apartments here all have white walls so I needed to make some pretty things to hang on the walls to make it feel less bare.  I get a lot of compliments on the toilet paper art.  I have friends who argue over who gets it when I move home, lol!  

This project was decoupaged onto a canvas.  I cut out the pieces from paper.

This project was made of toilet paper rolls, glue together and spray painted.  I cut the rolls into 1 inch pieces and glued them together.  We hung it on the wall here for a year and a half and it started to sag.  I had to hot glue it to a piece of cardboard but now it looks better than ever.  This took lots of glue and clothespins but turned out great.

An Introduction

Hi all!

My daughter just started preschool so I find myself having a bit more time to myself now.  I have decided to start blogging about my crafting and perhaps life in general.  A little about me, perhaps?  I'm currently living in Copenhagen, Denmark.  My husband's job brings us here.  We have been here for 2 1/2 years and will be moving back to the USA in another year or around that time.  We have one beautiful daughter and a big, goofy red Labrador.  Denmark has started to grow on me mostly because I have a great base of friends here.  I do miss home and having family close by and the countryside too.  We moved from a house on 2 acres near a small town in the midwest to Copenhagen, which is 1.5 million people.  Thankfully it's not a huge city and has the feel of a large town, not a city.

My grandma used to quilt for as long as I remember.  She's now 92 years old and for obvious reasons can't do it anymore.  I remember going to visit her and she would be in her basement by her huge quilting stand hand quilting.  When I went to college and needed blankets for my bed she told, "Heaven forbid girl, don't go and buy any....come with me!"  She went to her spare bedroom and let me choose from several of her handmade quilts.  Until I started quilting I really didn't realize how special her giving me quilts really was.  I still have at least 3 that she gave me stashed away in the US.

One of my Grandma's hand sewn quilts

 This was a quilt I attempted to start in college but just didn't happen.  I sewed the embroidery flowers during college but stashed them until a few years ago.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to piece and quilt it for me.  She did an amazing job!!

I recently started giving quilting a serious go within the past year and have made several small projects so far.  I hope to upgrade to a larger sewing machine when we move home so I will be able to machine quilt (any advice on choosing a machine??).  I really enjoy quilting and my mother-in-law teases me that I have an uncanny ability to pick difficult projects.  I like the finished look of the quilt so I try them.  I know my quilts aren't perfect but I'm trying :)  If you have tips and hints for quilting (or any crafts), I would love to hear them.

My second love is cross stitch.  Here also I pick huge projects, haha!  I'm the type of person that wants to hang them on my wall and be proud of them.  I mostly pick cross stitch kits but once in awhile I'll try a pattern from a book and buy the thread separately.  Someone once told me I should go into business doing cross stitch and sell them to people.  I laughed.  Out loud.  I added up the hours it took me to make my last project and at minimum wage (in the US), it would be worth over $1,000.  I do it for myself.

Well, thus ends the introduction.  I hope you enjoy my blog.  Send any comments and questions my way :)

By the way, if you'd like to see my other blog about living in Denmark, here's the link:  http://beinganamericanincopenhagen.blogspot.dk/.  Enjoy!