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.

OMG July Basted Pip Marzipan

The Pip marzipan quilt is slowly slowly slowly progressing. And time moves faster. In two weeks my brother is coming for a two day visit. Well, he is actually coming to pick my kids and bring them to the Netherlands. He offered and I gladly accepted. Lately, I travel quite a bit for work, and I completely enjoy it. The down side is that I have less time for crafting as am less at home. I do get some knitting done as I can knit on the plane. I finished the secret garden shawl and currently am knitting a summer dress. Most likely the dress will be ready when autumn is here, or maybe when winter arrives. Especially as I keep frogging cause I had made a few mistakes.

Back to my marzipan quilt, this one in Pip colours is for my niece. Two weeks before the quilt is to travel to the Netherlands ... making completely finishing this my July One Monthly Goal for Patty's Elm Street Quilts challenge.

This weekend I managed to iron the top and back, as well as basting the beauty. She is now pinned and waiting to be quilted.

Secret Garden Shawl in Scheepjes yarn

In January my project on the go became this lovely shawl in Scheepjes yarn. I took this with me to India and Ethiopia. I knitted on the plane and in my hotel room. Sometimes just sitting and knitting in the evening after a long day of meetings is soo soothing. And something I don't always manage to do at home.

In April I was almost done and managed a few evenings of knitting to finish it as it was too large to take in my handbag and carry around in a plane. Then the knitting was done and the shawl just waited to be finished.

This morning, we had nothing planned, as last night both my eldest and husband had their "ending of the season" concert. After breakfast the laundry was put on hold and I took some time out to sew in all the ends.

The end result is this lovely soft shawl that will be perfect for the winter.

Linking up with 2019 Finish-a-long quarter 2 and the
This is my second project (3 out of 7) done from my list

Pip Marzipan top finish

June was a hectic month. The schoolyear is almost finished and I was busy with getting all the paperwork done for the new school year. My eldest is already in middle school, so that was easy. However my daughter and youngest son are going to middle school as well. So quite a lot of paperwork to fill out. All that is done now and pending is school transport for all three of them.

And of course I had a few travels for work lined up. Addis, and then not as the trip was postponed to the week I was to travel to Cameroon. In the end both fell through. Just came back from 8 days Asia.

So all I managed this month was to finish the top of my marzipan quilt in Pip colours. This was the original plan, so at least I managed that, secretely I had hoped to do more ...... Next month ...... depending again on my travel schedule.

I do get some knitting done, only to frog as knitting in a plane is error prone when I have to count a lot. For sure, I cannot complain about being bored.

Linking up with OMG June organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts

OMG June Pip Marzipan top

Last month I made more progress on my Pip Marzipan quilt, however the top is still not finished. My aim for the One Monthly May Goal is to finish the top and buy the batting. Although the latter does not count as a creative objective, without the batting I cannot finish Pip. Thank you to Patty at Elm Street Quilting for keeping us motivated and going, I enjoy being part of the quilting community.

Lamp & curtain blues

As part of the make-over of Slava's bedroom, I wanted to redo the lamp. I had bought a lamp at Ikea a few years ago upgrading from the Winny the Pooh lamp and had covered it with African batik matching the curtains and Alexei's quilt. Now that Alexei has moved in to his own bedroom, I painted the walls in blue to match the Marzipan nautical quilt I had made Slava.

Time to change the lamp as the yellow colours clashed with the rest. We bought fabric over Easter and the lamp was made in no-time.

I cut 55 cm of fabric (width of fabric), sew the short edges and made two small tunnels on each side.

As the African fabric will no longer be needed as a lamp (most likely will make some cushion covers) I re-used the elastic and pulled it trough the tunnels. Covered the metal frame et voila, the lamp was covered again.

and the lamp matches the rest of the bedroom. Next step .... change the curtains ....

update:
I made matching curtains and Slava's bedroom has now completely transformed in to this super blue and white bedroom

Linking up with 2019 Finish-a-long quarter 2 and the
Project 6 and 7 (2 out of 7) done from my list

Marzipan Pip quilt - OMG May

My aim for this month was to sew the nine blocks of my Marzipan quilt in Pip colours. And I managed to do more than my goal Hurray !!!!

I sew the nine blocks, chose the colours for the three remaining blocks, cut the fabric, sew the HTS, cut the fabric for the sashing and sew all twelve blocks with the sashes. I was in doubt when I had made the HST for the nine blocks, however now that they are all sewn together the (almost ready) top looks great. Can't wait to finalize the quilt and give to my niece in July. Don't think I will manage to finalize the top, buying the batting and do the actual quilting in one week .......

Am linking up with Patty from Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for the month of May.

OMG May Marzipan in Pip colours

Now that all my three kids have their own quilt, time to expand.

I started making the marzipan quilt for my niece in Pip colours. When she visited me last year she choose the design (the same design I had planned for my youngest). The quilt had to be in blue. I decided to use blue as the background colour and work with different brighter colours Pip studio style. Pip is a dutch designer mixing blue with pink and greens and flowers and birds.

As I started making the half square triangles I was not sure if this was going to work out, ohh the agony of doubt. However, once I started playing with the HST, the colours looked nice together.

My aim for the One Montly Goal of May organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts is to finish the 81 HTS in to nine blocks. The fabric for remaining three blocks will be chosen once these nine blocks are done and I have a better idea what colours are missing in the overall picture.