new favorite thing

and it's no longer mine.

my first little attempt at "quilting" resulted in a pillow for my sister.
it's her birthday today and she's about to move into her new room which will sorta have a pippi longstocking theme. perfect combination of reasons for me to go wild with scissors and the sewing machine.

i'm absolutely in love with the way the pillow turned out. in fact, i could stare at it for hours... so many of my favorite fabrics collected in one random chaotic design. it's perfect and just the tease i needed in order to really get started on our big family quilt. it's like a mouth watering appetizer.

anyways. long story short... here are some pics.









oh, in other really great news... my gran'ma is letting me have my great-grandaunt's very vintage singer machine. it's moving into my sewing space later this week hopefully. yay!

call me crazy

so i've started quilting.

that's somewhat weird because quilting is one of the last things i ever thought i'd do.

it just doesn't seem to make a whole lotta sense to cut perfectly good fabric into lots of teeny tiny pieces only to sew them all back together again and in the end have a big piece of fabric. plus, i'm terribly impatient and it appears quilting requires ridiculous amounts of time and patience.

well, logic smogic and the time and patience i'll just have to find somehow.

i made some space in my out of control chaotic sewing corner, pulled out the scissors and cut half of my cotton stack into lots and lots and lots more little pieces. yes, i used scissors. because i'm too rock'n'roll (read: too poor) for a cutting mat and rotary cutter.

now my ironing board and pfaff machine sewing table are covered in scraps and i'm picking up more fabrics (good folks. finally!!) at the post office tomorrow which will also end up getting cut.

i've done about an hour and a half of reading up on quilting online and of course decided to ditch all the instructions and advice and figure out my own approach instead. yes.

oh, did i mention that i intend for the finished project to be king size? that's where i decided to forget about all the seasoned quilter's advice... everything i read said to start with a baby quilt and i'm dead set on making a massive one right away for our big cozy family bed.

which leads to the cause of this madness. i feel the need to make a big bright colorful fun warm cover for my husband, myself and mostly the kids. so i'm making a huge blanket which will fit all of us now and when the girls are much much older and move on to college or art school or to travel the world, i can split in two pieces and each can take half.


mk. pics? pics.

the past few weeks in fabric

sigh. i feel like bathing in fabric. since that's not really a convenient option, i finally took the time to iron, fold and photograph most of my recent purchases. my husband thinks i'm a freak and he's probably right, but whatever. makes me happy and that's what matters.




14 half yards i received from fabricworm a week ago. love them for the most part. some colors are quite different from what i had expected but that's just what happens when you buy fabrics online without ordering swatches first. my favorite is the wonderland by momo print. i got a couple of other moda prints and i'm in love with the super fine feel of those fabrics... perfect for light summer shirts and dresses.



two pairs of quick summer pants i made for joon. her wardrobe needed some urgent help with the sudden change in weather. ten days ago it was winter here and now it's almost summer. crazy but oh so wonderful.


all those fabricworm pretties with their new friends in my stack of designer cottons. it appears i need to get a second bookshelf for materials some time soon.


this is the stack i got at a flea market last weekend.


and my bargains from stoffmarkt holland: a meter each of flower jersey (3euros), striped corduroy (5euros), boring but unbelievably soft grey jersey (5euros), light olive green flower print linen (2euros) and green and grey striped jersey (3euros). trin still has 2 meters of brown canvas for me which i plan on turning into thai fishermen pants next week.


still waiting for a stack of fat quarters... good folks complete collection should arrive here any day now. and i kinda feel like a five-year-old waiting for santa.



off to go work in the garden. time to start planting veggies in a couple of days.