My muse made me do it

So when I gave Axel a quick kiss on his way out the door this morning I forgot that he wouldn't be home tonight.  He's delivering something for work about 4 hours away, then heading back to Duisburg to take his aunt out for afternoon "kaffee und kuchen," then spending the night at his parents and heading home tomorrow.

Wow ... a whole day and a half to myself.  I have so much to do ... I should be working on this, that and definitely this (especially because I really need to hang it in our living room soon - see below)!

Unfortunately my day has been a little bit all over the place. Yesterday (and again this morning) the electrician was here to repair numerous things including re-wiring the corner of the kitchen where our microwave - I won't bore you with the details of this job - suffice to say I now have an ugly cable on the *outside* of the house. Regardless, this meant I needed to move everything the cupboard holds onto the kitchen table. Then when he left last night I decided that since the cupboard was empty and moved I should paint the wall behind it ... I have been toying with this idea for awhile and wanted to use the same dark green I had painted the kitchen in Schellebelle.  It was a quick job first thing this morning but hmm ... now I'm wondering if it's too dark ... ?


We've also been trying to figure out what to do with our living room.  We just moved it upstairs ... it always think of Jane Austen's period when I think of this ... but our house is nothing like that.  It's just that I really needed my office to be bigger and have a dedicated class table in the shop.  So we hired a furniture lifter to shift our vanilla sofas upstairs through the french doors.  But that created the whole problem of the dealing with the ghastly wallpaper.  When it was our bedroom I could live with it - eyes closed!  But now it's driving me crazy.  Look at this horrible texture.  So ... what would it look like if I painted it?  Or if my muse painted it?

First I tried the new color I was considering for the living room - ugh - I accidently bought oil-based. Ah-ha! When I was digging out the kitchen paint I also found a partial can of my favorite favorite blue that we had in the living room in Schellebelle. I dashed downstairs, cleaned my brush, stirred that blue and ran back up to see what would happen - I LOVE IT!  Now if only that oil base would dry so I can paint over it before Axel gets home.  It is going to make the room a little bit darker but it has those lovely windows / door.  And the sofas are light - very light - too light.  Will deal with that in another 5 years ...

In the end not a single stitch was put into anything today.  But the shop just closed so dinner, walk Whisper and then ... hmm, paint or sew?  Which one will it be?

Oh .. and I promised to tell you about the Mülheim girls' dots ... before I head to get dinner I will blog about the Under the Willow Tree - so be sure to check them out there! Pin It Now!

The best Medicine ...

... is a day with friends ... I guarantee they will chase away all the cobwebs and snarls.

And Wow - what a day I had!! Yesterday Axel and I jumped in the car for a quick (2-1/2 hour) drive to Germany. Before he went schlepping groceries for his parents, he dropped me off with a bunch of girlfriends who meet up every Tuesday.

I first met this crowd when we moved from England simultaneously into our storage-apartment in Geldern (about 45 mins from his parents) and back to the States. We knew we'd be flying over often enough that a regular place to stay would be important. It only took a little bit of research to realize this little apartment just a few minutes walk from one of Axel's best friends was cheaper than a storage unit in England. It meant I could sew and have a "normal" life when Axel was out touring and it gave me the opportunity to meet THE GIRLS.

They're all quite a hoot and keep each other in stitches. Somebody always has something new to share ... and more often than not there's 10+ things to show each week. They are a constant source of inspiration and ideas.

Gabi was working on her flower garden - isn't it gorgeous?  Every tiny little scrap of fabric is Kaffe Fasset.  The hexagons measure about 3/8" on each side.

I met Karin for the first time - a warm, friendly lady who can KNIT and I mean really knit.  Gabi knits too and was working on a gorgeous shawl, but she had already put her project away by the time I pulled out my camera.  Someday I'm going to get the two of them to teach me how to do this.  First I need to finish sock of my socks.  I have knit three, but still don't have a pair - the story of my life :)

And Angela dyes her own fabrics and makes the most outstanding quilts. She's been working on this one for a couple of years ... 9-patches made using the English Paper Piecing method.

It was a wonderful day ... packed with laughter, ideas, inspiration, friendship and best of all patchwork and creativity. I also showed the my GOT DOTS project and immediately "infected" three of them. I'll save those pics for tomorrow. I was exhausted at the end of the day mostly from trying not to mix up my German and Nederlands (which was pretty much a lost cause).

There was a semi (lorry) accident on our normal motorway so we came home via a different route.  Quite tired and too three four-legged critters that were happy to see us. Today I've come down with *another* cold, the shop is open, our village is getting ready for Kermis (the ferris wheel will be set up across the street - right in front of our bedroom window).

I want to do is stitch, stitch, stitch - I have a few more Got Dots blocks to show you, another snowflake and more.  But I need to take pictures of everything.

I hope you're happily stitching away!  xox Jovita Pin It Now!

"Not I" Said the Little Red Hen

If you're saying this, you should head right over here to enter my give-away going on Under the Willow Tree.

Thanks so much for all the comments and ideas I've received so far for my first 9-patch.  I don't think you'll mind ... but I've decided to keep the drawing open for another week.  It's my fault ... I *finally* sent out a big email to all my friends in the States to give them the heads up that I'm blogging again.  Otherwise, just those who are on Facebook knew about all the recent activity.

Plus after reading a few of your ideas I browsed through my stash and found these ... I thought it might inspire a few more ideas :)

I have all these ideas about decorating my studio in these colors and would love for it to have the feel of the little tableau you see below.  But unfortunately I don't think it will work in this house ... it was built in the 1930's and has a wildly patterned cement tile floor in brown, greyish and creamish.  The fireplace is also quite a statement ... oh, what to do ... what to do ....

Still I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite inspiration pics ...

(i've lost my source, if you recognize
this please tell me)

Pin It Now!