One Happy Knitter

I really wanted to get back to knitting for some time but everytime I tried to do that my neck and shoulder started to hurt again - instantly! I thought I might just have to give up. Last week I decided to try one more time with a different size of needles. I took my bicycle and cycled to this fairly new yarnshop that I just discoverd, Wollig in Voorburg (if any locals are reading.) What a fun shop! I got my needles and of course some new yarn. At home I was too tempted to try the new yarn instead of the new needles. I have gotten alredy this far with no pain what so ever! Happy dance!

The pattern is a version of this one. The yarn is lang yarn merino + color. Love it! 

Linking with Ginny's Yarn Along

Quilt in Green

It is finally summer in Holland and what better way to spend it than sit inside and write a first blog post in a long time... It has been a very cold spring and early summer here. The funny thing is that I have not been complaining about it this year. Am I becoming Dutch? They never complain about the weather  - they just cycle through rain and wind with the smile on their face! In my country of origin Finland we have our share of bad weather but unlike the dutch we deal with it by complaining, getting all melancholic and feeling sorry for ourselfs!

At the beginning of this year it was time to make a big boy quilt to my youngest son. It took a long time to figure out what he likes so I patiently waited until I got it. He loves green! So I bought a big pile of green fabrics, made a plan and started working. Being me I of course changed the plan couple of times along the way. But I have now accepted that it is how my brain works. I just can not follow instructions, not even if I have writen them myself.

Phone pictures...Best I could do for now

After I had pieced the quilt I had a very rare opportunity to spend a whole day home alone! I decided to use the day for free motion quilting this quilt. I have very little experience FMQ and in reality I should stick to practicing on practice pieces - but that is just too boring! With great enthousiam I started in the morning setting everything up only to realise that I had forgot to buy thread. I only had thread in variating shades of blue and yellow to densely quilt my green and yellow quilt. Finally I decided to just use it even though it really would show my beginners quilting.

It was a interesting test. You kind of create a new layer on the fabric and with better skills in FMQ it could really transform a quilt. In my case the result was - like my daughter put it - a bit too sewn on. To finish the quilt later I got my self some green and yellow thread and that worked much better. All in  all I think is a fun quilt and looks nice on my boys bed. It wouldn't win any awards but it serves its purpose and I learned a lot.

I'm a quilter

During 2014 I did not make as much as in previous years and certainly did not blog as much. On that regard I seem to be following the trend, but I hope blogs still are here to stay because I love to read them! But I can see how instagram is enough if you don't have much to say and only want to share your work. I have been commenting less as well, but I would comment much more if somebody would make it easier to do with the smartphone.

Not making as much and not bloggin as often became an un-intentional test - would I drop my sewing hobby all together if I slow down? That has been my fear for as long as I have been sewing. It turns out I won't. I love it and have been sewing through out the year but on a far slower pace. And I like it. It does not quite fit with the internet world of sewing and sharing, but here and there I have noticed that many are ready to slow down a bit. Not just change from blogs to instagram, but you know, maybe watch a TV show and not handsew a binding or knit at the same time. It is amazing how much we quilters and knitters get done. It has been great to make so much during the last four years, but I have reached the point where to just sit and watch a TV show is great too! I also have noticed, that I like to work on a project for a longer period of a time. Let it rest and pick it up again even few years later. Combining these kind of projects with instant satisfaction projects that can be finished in few days seems to be a formula that works best for me.

One of the quick projects that I made this year but did not share yet is my Umbrella Prints challenge entry, only I missed the dead line by one day :( Never mind, it was really fun to make, I really like these kind of challenges!

Even thought I made it in May my inspiration came from Christmas. As much as I like the Carl Larsson type of Christmas musings there is another kind of Christmas magic that gets very little attention. When I was a child we lived in an appartment building and my favourite thing during the dark December month was to look at the Christmas windows of the near by appartment buildings. To me they looked like little happy postcards full of light. So when I was arranging the little pieces of fabric that came to my mind and was my inspiration

Picture taking is still not my strong point. Luckily I had little help this time!