A Quiet Day...

Today was a very peaceful day for me. I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so I sat and quietly worked on some hand-piecing projects. A couple of friends and myself are doing an online swap of Valentine's Dear Jane blocks. You may be thinking, "Hey, Valentine's Day is over, so what is she talking about?!", but we had decided not to put a deadline on mailing our blocks! I love these kind of swaps best!!! Absolutely NO pressure!!!


Today, the sun was brightly shining and warmed our living room to a wonderful, cozy temperature. So, with sleeping dogs at my feet and a hot cup of tea within close reach , I snuggled up in my chair and created these two blocks. Justin's Comet and Hannah Lou's Hearts are two of my favorite Jane Stickle blocks! My love of appliqué and hand-piecing make these blocks a joy to sit and stitch!



We agreed on using a pink and red theme of Civil War reproduction fabrics, with shirtings for the backgrounds. I look very much forward to receiving Debby and Terri's blocks...the nice thing with swaps is that you're always pleasantly surprised with everyone's choice of fabric/colours! I'd like to make a little table-topper from these blocks to use for next year's Valentine's Day!

Last week, I found a wonderful, half-price Jinny Beyer print in just the exact colour I had been searching for! I plan on using this for the bias edge of my Jane Stickle quilt. It's perhaps a little different shade than here in the picture, but it is exactly the blue-green teal I had in mind! I hope it will be a good contrast against the muslin scallops! Many thanks to everyone on the Dear Jane list who wrote and answered my inquiries about how much fabric to purchase! I appreciate your help VERY much!! ;o)

Have a wonderful day doing what you love best!

Cheers...Mary Ann

Spring is on the Way...

After an unusually warm winter with perhaps only a handful of days with frost, the first signs of spring are starting to emerge here in Denmark. Here are Vintergækker, commonly called Snowdrops in english. This early debut is a bit worrisome to me, as nature can very well still send a freak snow-storm our way and destroy all these fragile blooms! I'll keep my fingers crossed for continued warm temperatures!

This lovely yellow beauty is called Erantis in danish, or Eranthis hyemalis in latin. It's native to Europe and is always the first flower of spring!


And last but not least, a very brave little Hyacinth!!!

Jelly Rolls!!!!

Oh, aren't they yummy-looking??!!! I just received these Jelly Rolls from Three Sisters for Moda in the Shangri-La pattern after ordering them a few weeks ago. I plan on sewing Natalie Lymer's Truly Scrumptious quilt from Cinderberry Stitches....after I get some other projects under control!! I don't know if this will be possible, as my will-power is very low when it comes to Moda fabric!!!!

I am quite excited about this project and am so happy that I was able to acquire the same fabrics as Natalie used in her Truly Scrumptious quilt. It's such a happy quilt!! It consists of 9 BOMs and a 10th pattern to assemble the quilt, all of which were purchased from Darlene Carroll at Bee Sew Whimsical. Sooooo....I guess I'm ready to "roll"!!

I've finally finished my Dad's flannel snuggler and he's looking forward to it arriving! It's been a long and cold winter in Canada and it'll hopefully keep him warm and cozy until the spring weather arrives. I know that Kiki, the quilt inspector, will sorely miss it around the house, but I've actually thought of making her a little "snuggler" of her own out of the scraps!!!

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!