Made in 2010!

After looking through my blogposts for the last year, it looks like all the crafty stuff I've done is making cards... but that's not the case... I guess I've just forgotten to blog about all the other things I've made. Most of my cards are made for some challenge or other, and have to be blogged right away... other things have to wait... but not anymore. Here are some of the things I made in 2010:

Some new outfits for my girls' Barbie dolls. I have made a few more skirts and blouses, but I don't have a photo of them. I found all the patterns HERE somewhere.

Back in March, I knitted some mittens for my mum and for Maja. I also made some for Susie, but they were never shown... but here they are. Susie picked the colours herself, and she has used them a lot.

I've had this white yarn in my stash for ages. I inherited three full balls and two used ones of this when my grandmother died 16 years ago. This yarn must be quite old. It's called Annie, and is made by L/L Hovland Ullvarefabrikk. The factory was dismantled in 1989, so my "guess" is that this yarn is 22 years old... probably older....

After being in my stash for that long, I thought it was about time I used it for something. I decided to knit myself a Dream Shrug. I used this quite a lot over my strappy tops last summer. I have also made one of these for Maja/Susie (they had to share one), but again, no picture.

I'm not sure these frames are worth showing, but here they are anyway. They are made of a piece of cardboard, old newspapers, glue and some acrylic paints.... Quite fun to make actually!

My cheap laundry basket from IKEA was falling apart last summer, so instead of buying a new one I decided to rip off the old plastic basket, keep the frame and sew a new fabric "basket". I love it! (before on the left, after on the right...)

I have also been digging into my stash of beads. I have mostly made knitting markers, but I sold or gave them all away before I managed to take some pictures... silly me! I managed to take some really bad photos of a couple of earrings I made though... I gave these to my hubby to use as a gift in his work's advent calendar.

I started knitting this scarf back in April, but never finished it until November... Scarves are sooo boring to knit! Love the pattern and the colours of this though. I found the pattern for this at Ravelry.

This is a project that took even longer to finish.... I'm not quite sure exactly when I started knitting it, but I know I still lived with my parents... I moved out back in 95.... so it has taken a few... ehm... years to finish. I must say to my defense that it was stuffed away in a basement with all our other stuff in Norway the 8,5 years we lived in Scotland.... but still....

I have also made a reusable, reversible Swiffer cover. I was tired of buying new ones all the time, and this is more environment friendly as well. It's made from acrylic yarn as that tends to create static that makes dust and hair cling. It was fun and easy to crochet, and it works really well. I'm definately going to make more of these! This is also a Ravelry pattern.

The last thing I'm showing is a new dishcloth for my kitchen... Nice and bright colours, 100% cotton. Pattern is HERE.

I think I've already blogged the baby blanket I made for my new niece... didn't I? *opening a new window to check*... Yes I did. (I have made another one of these blankets for a friend at work, but I'll show that later... guess I've shared enough today....).

Well.... that's all folks... as they say in the cartoons... lol...

This year's, or rather, last year's handmade Christmas presents

Well... Christmas is over and a new year has begun... I guess I'm safe to put up pictures of some of the things I made for Christmas presents last year (it feels so funny to say last year about this Christmas...)
I made my mum and dad a quilted Christmas tree skirt. Well, that was what it was intended for... but I think my mum wanted to use it as a table cloth as well.... I guess it has many uses, so I'm happy for her to do as she wishes with it.

It was hard to catch the colours correctly, but you get an idea.

For my hubby's family (sister, brother, nieces, nephews, all with family) I made egg warmer hens. Some of them has been pictured before, so I'm not going to show them again.

For his brother and his sister I also added a bread basket with a quilted cloth that matched the egg warmer hens (I didn't make the basket though...or the egg cups...)

The blue and striped pin wheel basket cloth was for Per's sister and her hubby, and the red and blue flying geese cloth, for hubby's brother and his wife.

Here are the hens that went with the flying geese....!;)

I gave some other handmade things as well, but most of it has been picrued on my blog before, so I'll just leave it here...

You are a STAR and a WINNER

I'm sure you are all waiting for the results of my giveaway.... I'm sorry to have kept you waiting the whole day, but I'd promised Maja that she could help me with the draw so we had to do it after she was home from school. But then we had someone over for dinner this afternoon, so when I was gonna do the draw, I was busy preparing for having dinner guests. I hope you understand.

Anyway, after keeping you waiting for so long, I thought I would keep you waiting for a wee while longer... cruel, I know... but I just wanted to show you the hand pieced/ paper pieced star all finished. I ended up making a coaster... as I suggested in my other post. I used two layers from an old flannel nighie after Susie as batting, so it's nice and thick.
I wouldn't look too closely at my quilting... It's awful... it almost looks like the basting is still in... but, hey, it was my first time hand quilting... But then again, the coaster goes quite well with my favourite mug colourwise, don't you think?
Ok, so over to the draw! Here Maja is helping me cut all the entries into separate strips. (Isn't her nightdress cute?? I just love that cow pattern...)

All the entries are in...

Who will be the lucky winner....

Eileen! You won! Congratulations. Please contact me with your address, and I will send you the prize.

Eileen said...
Tonje, these are beautiful prizes. I'm sure you made the adorable slippers! Congratulations on your 100th post. It is a lot to keep up with especially when you are moving all about!thanks always for visiting me and leaving such lovely comments. :-)
07 November, 2008 11:50

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And this is what my wee helper did with all the non- winning entries... she shredded them! I think maybe she enjoys using her new scissors...

I would like to thank all of you who took part in my giveaway. I really appreciate your comments.

Lazy Saturday morning

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Don't forget to enter my 100th post giveaway!

Today we had a really lazy morning. It was cold outside, but we'd lit the fireplace, and while the girls were snuggling on the sofa watching a DVD and being quiet for once (this photo isn't from today, but this is what they looked like. Today's photo was too blurred... I was probably too tired to focus...)...
...I was trying my hand on hand piecing for the first time. Is that what it's called when you tack a piece of fabric around a piece of paper and sew it together by hand...?? This is something I've never done before, it was quite relaxing although a bit repetitive.
Here is the star I pieced, tacking on and everything. I'm quite amazed that the colours are so true in this photo ... I always have a hard time catching the colours correctly. Finished with the piecing. The tacking/basting is out and it's ironed. I'm not really impressed whit my stitching... maybe I should have matched the thread better with the colours?? Or maybe I shouldn't have watched Tintin with the girls at the same time as I was stitching...Well, this was just for fun, just to try it out and see if I liked it, so it doesn't really matter. I'm thinking maybe I would try to hand quilt this as well. That's another thing I've never done before.
The star is quite small, so I guess I'll have a (nice) coaster for my morning coffee when this is finished.

This afternoon I started a new knitting project as well. I guess this was the day for starting new things... I just totally fell for this neck warmer when I saw it. So that's what I'm knitting. I'm not using the same yarn as in the pattern... I'm going a bit cheaper with "Oda" from Trysilgarn (colour 209 if anyone is interested. The colour in the photo isn't quite right though).
The pattern seemed pretty straight forward to start with... only two rows to repeat. That was until I started knitting... It was a bit hard to wrap my head around what the pattern really said, and how to do it practically. But after a couple of (four, five) trials and errors, casting on, ripping it off, casting on... etc... I finally got it. This isn't really a quick knit... well, not for me anyway, even though I use needles 8mm... but, hopefully, I'll have a new neck warmer in a few days... that is if I don't start a new project in between...

To Switzerland and back

Last weekend I was in Switzerland with my family, to attend Pirmin and Angelas wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful old church set in even more beauiful surroundings. Even the place cards were beautiful... decorated cookies... wow!
We didn't understand much of anything anyone said in their speeches (or in the church)... If they only had spoken "normal" german instead of "Käse Deutsch" (as my hubby calls it...) we might have stood a chance... but it didn't really matter because all the people at our table during dinner spoke english very well and we all had lots of fun.


The girls had a ball of a time. Maja was so lucky as to be allowed to hold the brides bouquet at the party... she was sooo thrilled... and they both loved the table decorations as it was big bowls filled with water, candles and rose petals... why are children always so attracted to water??


This was just a short trip, going there on Friday and coming back on Monday. But we had a great time, we even managed to squeeze in a short hike up in the mountains behind the hotel.

As for the present... the place mats... I only managed to get four of them done in time. I was up past midnight two days in a row sewing, but... I really struggled with the quilting (the thread kept breaking), so things took much longer than expected. I will finish the last two asap, and send them in the post though...
I just had to add this photo of Susie...

Wedding present

I'm working on another set of these flower place mats. I'm making six of them this time. Some friends of ours in Switzerland are getting married, and I thought this might be a nice gift for them.

I hope I will finish them in time...

For my bum...

I made this scrappy star block ages ago. The block seemed fun to make and I just wanted to try it out. I just grabbed some fabric that was heading for the bin (and some from my scrap box) and threw it together. My curiosity was satisfied... it was fun to make. I didn't have anything in mind for it, it was just a trial... so it was just put aside. It's been lying with my fabrics for a couple of months now. (Do you recognize the fabric from my previous post??)
I found it again the other day, and decided I could use it for my garden chair. I added a couple of borders and some wadding and voila! A new cushion to sit on when I'm in the garden.
It's quite amazing what a border can do to a (not so useful) block... I think this look rather nice, if I may say so myself... hehe...
The cushion ties in the back to secure it to the chair.

Which one??

HELP!!! I'm going to make a cushion (to sit on) for my garden chair. I've decided to use a Depression block, and I've sewn all the pieces for it... BUT... I can't choose how to put all the pieces together... I've laid them out in different combinations but I can't make up my mind which one works best or just... which one I like best.... I would appreciate some of your thoughts on which block to make... which one would you make??

Ps. Picture 1 and 2 were taken with flash so they look a wee bit brighter than the rest....

Finished!!

Here they are! All 7 of them! The quilted bags are now done and ready to leave me for their new owner... Hope she'll be as pleased with them as I am.

The fronts:
And a view of the back of them as well...

More pink...

The quilted bags are finally starting to look like something...
This is what they looked like last night:
The "only" thing left now is to put on the top border and zippers... better get on with it...