Goodies from Australia!!

Today was a great day for me, as I received a little parcel all the way from Australia!!! A while back, I had entered an Australia Day competition on Catherine Bayne's blog about what I would like to see if I ever visited the wonderful "Land Down Under"!! I wrote that the fantastic natural beauty of Australia would, of course, be the main attraction of a future visit to her country, as well as visiting the numerous Quilt Shops I see during my living-room cyber travels!! Seeing Rolf Harris live would also make my day!! I've been a fan of his since I was very young!

Anyways, for participating, Catherine gifted me with one of her beautiful patterns, a tube of Vegemite and a lovely Koala card, too! Thanks so much, Catherine! Please visit Willow Valley Store and see all Catherine's lovely creations!! She's an extremely talented designer and lovely person! The vegemite was definitely a unique experience...different than anything I've ever tried before, but I did find it quite tasty!!! Salty and a bit tangy is how I would describe it! I wasn't sure what you drink with a Vegemite Sandwich, so I tried a glass of chilled white wine and that went down well!!! ;o) Again, thanks so much, Catherine! I appreciate your kindness! :o)

A BIT OF KNITTING AND QUILTING!

I've had the knitting bug the past few weeks, so I thought I'd post a few pics of some projects I've made. A pair of socks for myself and a pair for our little grandson, Axel! Nothing like home-made wool socks to keep the tootsies warm!!! I'm also working on a scarf for myself in alpaca and mohair. It's done in a lace pattern and is proving to be quite a challenge! I hope to have it done soon, though!

On the quilting front, my Dad's flannel snuggler is almost done...it's hopefully going to be a January finish for me!!! Pictures to come!!! I decided to dedicate my New Year's resolution to completing a few of my "UFO's"! Below is a picture of another project, first started in 2003, shortly after I took up quilting! It's hexagons of rose fabrics, sewn together using the English paper-piecing technique. I've now finished piecing this top and am waiting for an up-coming sale to purchase the backing fabric!!!! I'll be using Hobb's 80/20 cotton-poly batting and will hand-quilt this, as well. Stay tuned!!

Happy New Year!

There's still an hour before it's officially 2008 here in Denmark, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to send my best wishes for a very Happy New Year! I hope that the coming year brings joy, peace and happiness to all of you! 2007 was my first year of blogging and I just want to thank everyone who took the time to comment on my writings! I've had a lot of fun both posting and reading all the wonderful blogs out there! So very, very inspirational! Have a great evening!
Cheers! Mary Ann

Christmas Angels...

Here is my little Christmas tree that I finished last week. It's made of six stuffed fabric stars that are skewered onto a sharpened dowel and then inserted into a wooden stand. I sewed entirely around the stars and turned them inside out through a slit in the centre. I had four of these cute little plaster angels and thought that one would perhaps look nice on top of the tree. I used my trusty Dremel tool to drill a hole in the bottom of her so that the dowel would fit! I used a bit of glue to fasten her to the dowel, the dowel to the stand and then sewed on beads for decoration. Voila!! Our Christmas tree for this year is ready!!! And no needles to vacuum up!

And speaking of angels, one must have been watching over us this past Wednesday, when my husband and I were driving home from Copenhagen. We were involved in a serious accident on the freeway after being struck from behind. We emerged miraculously unscathed from our totally wrecked car and I am just so very thankful to be sitting here today.

Some Things Are Hard To Live Without!

If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would one day suffer terrible cravings for Campbell's soup, well, I think I would have laughed out loud!!! Well, the other day, I happily discovered some tins of Cream of Mushroom soup in a local shop which regularly imports "goodies" from across the pond!! Needless to say, I stocked up!! Now if they only would find some Kraft dinner, too!!! And graham wafer biscuits....2 lb jars of Peanut Butter...Red Rose tea...Baker's semi-sweet chocolate...oh, the list goes on and on!! Thank goodness I make yearly trips back home!!!

Last evening, we had a little dinner get-together with a few ladies from our guild. Here are the quilt-inspectors at work!! This is the quilt that I'm making for my Dad. I'm aproximately half-way done with the quilting. It's been tough working through all that flannel and cotton batting, but I'm getting there!! Left to right: Else, Solveig, myself and Inger. We had a great evening!

Some Finishes For Today...

This is a little "Altoid" candy tin which I've covered in fabric. I got the idea from Val on the Dear Jane list. Many thanks for the inspiration, Val! I picked up a few of these tins on my last trip home to Canada! I think I may to find some more, as they would make nice little gifties!!!

I sewed this little pin-cushion a while back from a pattern from designer, Heather Bailey. I had originally filled it with sand, but wasn't 100% happy with the results, so today I replaced the sand with fibrefill! Much better!!!

Note the little antique "fly"hat pin! I found it at an outdoor flea-market last summer. A bit macabre, but nonetheless, extremely original!

Last, but not least, tulips from my dear husband who continues to brighten my life, especially during these dark, December days! xoxoxo

Another Cinderberries Needle-Case!!!

After making one of these great little needle-cases for a friend a few weeks ago, I decided that I needed one for myself!!! I'm working on the embroidery now and hope to have it done tomorrow. I was visiting a rather gorgeous quilt-shop called Patchwork Butikken last week and found this pretty fabric from Northcott. I also want to make a bag with this fabric and found the perfect ivory pom-pom trim to accent it!!! I remember this trim from the sixties when it was used to embellish sombreros and vintage cars!!! Now, it'll work great on my new bag!!!!

This needle-case pattern, as I mentioned in a previous post, is a freebie from Cinderberry Stitches. Many thanks to Natalie for posting this great design!


I'll sign off with a picture of my favorite pair of "nisser", or elves in english! I didn't make these two myself, but couldn't resist buying them last year during a Christmas shopping trip! I think that they're just wonderful and they sit happily on my shelf all year round! I've heard somewhere that it's good luck to have "nisser" in the house to keep watch over things!!

Until next time....Mary Ann :o)

Christmas is Coming....!!!!

....and I'm getting very motivated with regards to creating a bit of holiday cheer around our house!!! I've been making a lot of sweet things from my new book, Tilda's Julehus, by Norwegian designer, Tone Finnanger. It's full of wonderful ideas which I've been very busy with!! This is a plate of yummy apples!! They're just cloth, but still are very delicious-looking!!!! I've made three dozen of these, by the way!!! :o)

I've also made 36 of May Britt's pincushions which I thought I'd let double as ornaments for the tree...I added a string to hang them with!!! I may also thread some of them together with the apples and create a nice little garland! I've used a lot of mother-of-pearl buttons from my collection...I think they add a nice touch. These little pin-cushions/ornaments are actually quite addictive to make! You can get into quite a rhythm winding the string around the buttons!! I had some DMC pearl cotton which I used for this.

And this is one of the little angels...also from Ms. Finnanger's book. I chose to make her hair a bit on the wild side!!! I still need to attach her wings! I'm currently working on three more of these little ladies for Christmas gifts. Very fun to do!!! She measures about 19 inches from head to toe and is supported on a little wooden stand. I am considering making the large version of this angel to welcome guests in our entry hall. I'm just in love with these little gals!!!