My first custom order!

A few weeks back I got my first custom order over at Etsy! Yay!!! The customer wanted 7 of my pink quilted bags (like the one below, this one is still for sale in my shop).
I had to get new fabric for the stripe at the top, because I didn't have more left of the ones I used in the original bag, so the custom bags won't be exactly the same. Yesterday I washed the new fabric, and I've been cutting the pieces for the bags today, so I'm now ready to start sewing.
Guess I should go downstairs and get started instead of sitting here blogging...

Back again

I'm sorry I haven't blogged much the last 2-3 weeks, I've been away on easter holiday to Norway. The girls and I spent 15 lovely days there even though the trip there was a bit more eventful than I enjoyed.... lots of bad weather, plane being diverted, delays, snowy roads etc made it so we didn't arrive at my parent's cabin until 2am!! We had been travelling since 8.30am (17,5 hours), so we were pretty tired when we arrived.

We spent the next four days at my parent's cabin at Bortelid. As you can see there was plenty of snow there.

Maja even entered a skiing competition on easter saturday. She had been looking forward to that for ages, so it was good fun when it finally happened. She had got new skis and shoes, and although she hadn't been skiing for two years, she did really well. Maja's the one in the yellow chicken hat....

Susie spent most of her time either sleeping (well tucked in) in her push chair, or on her sled. She really enjoyed sledding, and even though she can't speak yet, she mad it clear what she wanted... every time the sled stopped at the bottom of the hill, she just pointed to the cord... meaning she wanted to be pulled back up again...

The rest of the holiday was spent in Kristiansand with my parents. Per managed to join us for a few days as well. First some days up at the cabin and then later on, a few days in Kr.sand.

I din't do much crafting while I was away. Remember that poncho for Maja I planned to take with me?? Well... it was kind of pushed aside by the new shawl I started knitting for myself... I got this lovely yarn as a late birthdaypresent while in Norway, sooo.... let's just say it's always more fun to start something new.... (haven't got a picture of the shawl yet, but will post one later on).

EDIT: There are more pictures from our easter holiday over at my mum's blog (just scroll down a bit).

New dress

Finally... It's washed, and Maja's not been allowed to wear it until I was ready to take a photo. I made this dress a couple of weeks ago, but before I'd gotten my camera out, Maja had gone and got the dress dirty... that's 5 year olds for you...

Aaanyway... I found this tutorial for making a toddlers dress from an old shirt, and I thought this was such a brilliant idea that I wanted to try it out myself. And since I had just made a dress/pinafore for Susie, I figured I'd try and make this for Maja. I just got a bigger shirt to make it fit my 5 year old (instead of a toddler). It was really fun to make, and quite easy too.
It's not easy to get her to behave when there is a camera around....

The front of the shirt makes the back of the dress... brilliant solution... I didn't have to sew a single button hole...

I used the sleeves of the shirt to make a pair of trousers to go with the dress.

The best thing is that when I went to pay for this shirt (which I bought in a secon hand/charity shop in town) they told me they had "buy one, get one free" on all gent's clothes that day, so I got two shirts for the price of one... which was virtually nothing... hehe, I love a good deal. I've already started making a dress of the other one as well. I'll show you when it's finished.

Mystery solved

Ok, so here it is... the "answer" to the mystery:

Now, what will I make out of it?? I guess I could make some more of these blocks and make a quilt... maybe...

Talking about quilts, why don't you head over to this blog for a quilt giveaway!! Yes, it's true... she's giving away a quilt. All you have to do is leave a comment on her post. But you have to hurry though, cos you only have until Thursday 20th March...

ATC from Australia

It's been a while since I traded any ATCs, but I got a comment the other day from Linda in Australia, asking me if I wanted to trade. Of course I would. And today this came through my door:
A lovely purple fabric ATC with a purple feather on it... Great!

This is what she chose to get in return from me. Hope she gets it soon.
This one is a collage called "Mosaic". I've used water colours, stamps and ink and tape transfer. I've had this one for a long time, so it was good that it finally found a new home.

Mystery quilt

I've never sewn a mystery quilt before, so when one of the girls over at "Norsk Quiltegruppe" posted one yesterday, I couldn't resist trying this out. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, I'll try to explain. When you do a mystery quilt, you don't know what you're making until the very end. You are given instructions to only a small part of the project at the time and when you have finished this, you get the next part. Did this make sense??

Anyway... This is what I've got after part 4 of this mystery: I don't know what this is going to look like in the end yet, but there is only one more part to this mystery, so I'm almost there... Well... I'm curious to find out what this will be, so I'll head over to Norsk Quiltegruppe now and print the last part of this...

I'll keep you updated!

Poncho

I was thinking about finding Maja's old poncho and see if it would fit Susie. It will soon be spring (we could always hope...) and a poncho is such a great piece of clothing for those days that are not quite warm enough for just a jumper. Maja was soooo cute when she was toddling about in this... It should be in the loft somewhere... hope I can find it.
As soon as Maja heard about my plan of giving her old poncho to Sus, she wanted one as well... of course... Sooo, I jumped at the chance to do some crocheting. I found some cotton yarn in a bargain basket at the yarn shop... I hope cotton will work ok for this... This is how far I came last night. Maja was VERY pleased with the colours. She is helping me decide in what order to crochet them. This will also be a good project to bring when I go away on easter holiday... Can't wait till we are at my parent's cabin in the Norwegian mountains...

Nothing much...

In lack of anything else to show you, I'll show you a pic of my newest Ballband dishcloth. I enjoy using the other two so much that I wanted more. They work a treat! And they look fab compared to tired old "normal" dish cloths. I used variegated blue/green cotton and plain white cotton on this one. I've got some variegated cotton in yellow as well, so I might make even more of these cloths.

I've also made some pin cushions lately. These were actually made a few weeks back, but I forgot to show you them.... Most of the other pin cushions like this (that I've seen) have a button in the centre. I didn't want mine to look like everyone elses so this yellow one has a ring of beads added to the centre instead. I used Perle Coton to tie it.
The blue one is a bit bigger than the other two, and I've just used the Perle Coton thread to make a circle in the centre. The little red/orange one only has a few knots in the centre.

I'm not sure what I will do with all these pin cushions... don't think I need that many myself...

Aaaarrgghhhh....

I'm trying to upload some photos, but Blogger won't let me... Will see if I can do it later on, or else I'll try again tomorrow... Until then...

A pinafore for Susie

I bought a lovely pear fabric at a secon hand shop the other day. I suspect it is vintage, but I can't be sure (how can you really tell??). I like it anyway. The big question was what will I make out of it? I decided on making a cute pinafore for Susie. It was a huuuge piece of fabric, so this little pinafore only dented one corner... so I got plenty left.... hehe... what will I make next?

Ok, so here it is;
It's a bit hard to get Sus to stand still long enough for me to take her photo, but I managed to trap her between the telly and the curtain...

The pinafore crosses over at the back.

Since little monkeys gets easily dirty, I made the pinafore reversible. I paired my pear fabric (!) with this floral fabric.

The shoulder straps just ties on the shoulders (I love this pic by the way). Easy peasy...

And the best thing is; Susie seems to like it. She would stand completely still when I was trying it on to get the pattern to fit her. And she will also stand still long enough for me to tie the straps on her shoulders... she doesn't usually have time for standing still that long.

Now I will have to make something for Maja as well. She's asking for a pinafore like Susie's, but I can't be bothered altering the pattern to fit a 5 year old... I've got something else in mind... stay tuned...

Edit: Woops... I forgot to say that I used this tutorial as a starting point for my pinafore. I've altered the pattern ever so slightly to make it my own though.

Happy happy joy joy!!!!

Late last night, I got an email telling me I'd sold something on Etsy! I'm sooooo excited... I've had my first sale!! Yoohooo... This is what I sold; the green reversible shoulderbag.

It is now in the post... on it's way to Norway... to a gal named... wait for it... Tonje! How cool is that...!? To Tonje....from Tonje! I hope she enjoys it!

Quilted bags

I've been making some quilted purses/bags the last few days. I didn't have a pattern for these bags, so they are just made up as I went... It was really good fun. I really enjoyed the quilting... the batting made them so soft and lovely. They are all living in my etsy shop now.

White handbag with flowers

I just remembered that I still had one handbag left after my handbag sewing marathon before christmas... I didn't have anyone to give this one to, so it's now in my etsy shop.
I had so much fun sewing handbags for christmas presents last year. I think I'll make some more bags soon (more night work...)

Small purses

A few days ago I used a couple of the squares of fabric I bought a wee while back to make a... triangle purse... pyramid purse.... don't know what to call it. I felt that it would be a bit small with just two of the fabric squares, so I added on some green and black fabric strips as well... and an orange ribbon as a wee strap. I also had a green zipper that matched the green in the stripy fabric (altough it doesn't really looke like it in the photo).
This little purse was really fun to sew. I'm not sure if I want to keep it myself or if I should put it in my etsy shop...

Of course, when my 5 year old saw me using the sewing machine, she wanted to join in as well. She found some scraps of fabric and asked me for a zipper, so she could make herself a wee purse for her coins. She sewed it all by herself, with me only supervising and giving her some hints and tips on how to do it. She even put in the zipper herself.

I think Maja's purse turned out gorgeous!! I was hoping she'd give it to me for my birthday in a couple of weeks... but no... She wants to keep it herself.

Birthday!

We had a birthday party for Susie today with a few of her friends round. Her birthday isn't until Monday, but Saturdays are better for parties. Happy Birthday, Susie! Where did the past year go? I can't believe you're one already!
I just thought I'd show you Susie's dress. This dress was made by my great grandmother, and I wore it on my first birthday 30+ years ago. It's crocheted and it's quite thick (and short....) but I thought it was a bit fun to dress my girls in it on their 1st birthday too (Maja had it on on her first b.day too.)
Here's the proof... Me on my first birthday. You'll have to excuse the colours... the cameras wasn't all that in the 70's... (Why did she make it that short?? Was it fashion?)