Summer knitted cardigan

My sewing machine is (more or less)out of reach; because we are redoing my daughters bedroom and had to move her stuff to other places in our house. Also as part of redoing the floor in her room ... we thought that we might as well change the parquet in the hallway and Slava's room. We have been staring at the ugly parquet ever since we bought our house 15 years and this is one of the "still not changed things that we absolutely need to change as is it sooo ugly". Also the parquet is not real, it is some cheap synthetic something. So no sewing for a few weeks. I managed to finish the quilt for my niece just before moving (a lot) of furniture, books, games, ... temporarily in to "la chambre peche" or the peach coloured room. When we bought our house I painted each room in a different colour, giving a name to each room at the same time. The curtains have disappeared and the room is waiting to change colour ... one day .....

I still had access to my bond knitting machine. Have not used my bond a lot the lately, yarn in abundance of course. Before going on holidays I knitted a cardigan for Alesya. The yarn (Markoma 4 points mysterieux) I had bought last year in a little shop on sale, the owner was retiring and having a huge sale. So I ended up buying yarn and fabric, thinking that whatever she would sell to me, she would make more money than selling all to a someone who would buy the whole lot for one price. So now the challenge is to use all that I bought. I have no idea where this yarn is produced, a search on google did not produce any results, other than shops selling this same yarn or Nordic sock wool.

The yarn is not intended to be used on a knitting machine, however with some coaching and sweet talking I managed to knit the 5 parts (back two fronts and two sleeves) prior to going on holidays. The assembly I could do while away. The edges were finished with a matching spring green cotton yarn crochet border from my stash, as were the the buttons. My daughter loves the cardigan and will wear it happily this autumn all through spring.

A finish - Pip Marzipan quilt

Happy dance, I finished the marzipan quilt in Pip colours for my niece. It feels good to actually finish such a big quilt. Without talking about the progress I make. The more I quilt, the more I get addicted and the better the end result is.

Last month was a crazy month with travel to Rwanda for work, picking up the kids in the Netherlands on my way back and work. So it was the first time since I OMG-ed that I missed the deadline.

Kigali, Rwanda's capital was a surprise to me, a pretty big city with quite some high-rise buildings. When I landed, the surroundings were as I expected, Savannah with huts and houses. However as we approached the city ... lots of traffic and houses and small shops.

The first day of our meeting we finished in time to visit a market close by the hotel. I bought some nice souvenirs including two hand woven baskets and two necklaces made of coconut shell.

I almost bought another Djembe, almost, as it would not fit in my suitcase. The sound was really good .... however I already have two and my eldest also has two ..... next time I bring a bigger suitcase .....

And of course I managed to bring some fabric home .... I could almost start a fabric shop with all my African and Asian batiks.

Back to my marzipan quilt: My niece wanted a quilt with blue, not too much pink as she was done with the pink princess phase. I had a 5" stacker Hello designed by Amanda Herring for Riley Blake Designs. For the back ground I used fabric bought on-line . I did not have enough 5" squares in the pack to make 12 squares, so I used some fabric from Slava's marzipan quilt. Plus fabric from his lamp that I had covered.

I quilted in the round and the end result is this beautiful quilt in soft blue and pink with patches of brighter colours. Am really pleased with the result. I had shown pictures to my niece of the top and she was happy with the colours. Am looking forward seeing the quilt on her bed.

Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal for August over at Elm Street Quilts.

Now on to some knitting for the rest of the month before I start my next quilting project.

To challenge or not to challenge

My craft room is taken over by my daughters stuff as we are redoing her room. I managed to keep a path from the door to my sewing machine as have not yet finished by Marzipan quilt in Pip colours. It was the first time since I started participating in OMG that I did not make it. Dramatic??? No, not really. Was my aim realistic last month ..... yes in a way as "all" I had to do was the quilting and the binding. True, the last few week were too hectic, so should I stop challenging myself in my creative space? No, I would miss it too much. The challenge keeps me going. For a few quarters I had signed up with Finish-a-Long (FAL), for the second quarter of 2019 completely missed the deadline. Over the last 6 months I did quite some smaller and bigger projects out of the way. That felt good. So come September will prepare my list, still soooo many projects to finish.

My goal for August's One Monthly Goal organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilting is to finish the sweet blue quilt for my niece. Am off to the Netherlands in September so it would make a perfect gift.