Frosty Flakes block #4

Am pleased to being staying on track with this project. One little hexagon flower with a bit of embroidery and bead embellishment isn't much but it goes a long way on the "I've accomplished something" list.

Check out the Flickr album for more pics of other Frosty Flakes.

I'm busy plugging away in my studio, a quick trip to Ikea last night resulted in the rest of the "design wall" storage.

Today, I've got the music cranked ... what may seem like a strange mix of language and styles ... but it's keeping me going ...

* Pink Martini
* Michel Bublé
* Paolo Conte ~italian~
* Katie Melua
* Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
* Neil Diamond
* Michel Sardou ~french~
* Reinhard Mei ~german~

So if you'll excuse me ... I'm off to get some more of this mess cleared away. Pin It Now!

Plugging Away ...

So it's still a bit of a construction / re-organization zone around here.  The furniture "lift" came Friday night to move our two sofas upstairs via outside and through the french doors (there's no way they'd go up the staircase.   But we still need to drill holes and pull the cable wire upstairs so for now we're watching TV evenings in my studio - courtesy our garden chairs.  It doesn't feel very elegant, but by the end of the day of sorting, shifting and piling up (see those tables that still need to get sorted out!!) we're quite happy to plunk down, put feet up and just watch a bit of something funny.  

The shop and classroom area are coming along nicely and I can hardly wait to re-open on Wednesday just to see everyone's reaction.  By the time we're finished with this re-fit we will have doubled our shelving space for bolts and added a comfortable classroom table for six with a view into our little courtyard where weather permitting we can gather to stitch on a regular basis.

Thankfully I'm still able to carry on with hand projects in spite of this disaster zone.  My Courtyard Quilt is coming along nicely - I ended up adding 3 more fabrics to give it a bit of a lift and have pretty much decided on the layout ... it would be nice to have it done before our open house starting on the 1st of September.  

Block three of Frosty Flakes was posted last Wednesday.  I was glad to have already prepped and appliqued the "flowers" so it was just a matter of  adding the embroidery and beads.  Voilà!  Here she is ...  Plus I've posted a pic of the first five flowers so you can see the color pallette I'm working with.  plus Dawn started a Flickr group where you can see what everyone else is doing.

Happy Sewing!!   xox  Jovita Pin It Now!

Yesterday was my Wedding Anniversary ... 13 years!

I thought I might show you a pic or two but my scanner isn't set up yet in the new studio and the only one I can find on the computer is this one of my dad and I.

It's hard to imagine that so much time has passed but then we have to admit that we have packed a ton into those 13 years. We've moved "across the pond" three times, into homes in England, the States, Germany and now Belgium for a total of five household moves. For the sake of sanity we won't count any moves involving storage units, the shop or classroom.

Axel is working very hard right now - they are right in the middle of "the season."  So we decided to wait until the weekend to go out for an Indian in Gent - I can hardly wait - my mouth is already watering.

Since we stayed in last night,  I made his new favorite dinner ... it's a variation on a recipe I found here. Only I make it with chicken using a combination of this recipe and a family favorite that my mom just called "soy sauce chicken wings." I'll post my adaptation soon.  For dessert we had his favorite cake - the same one we had for our wedding day and later for our reception - with thick Cream Cheese Frosting.

Then I got to thinking ... it's been !13! years ... and we *still* don't have a quilt on our bed. Not that he's that bothered being a European duvet kind of guy.

But still ... I've started two ... isn't it time to get one finished ... but which one first?


I think I need to make quite a few more of the Monkey Wrench blocks for it to be big enough but will be easier to quilt (maybe?).

The Amish 9-patch, on the other hand, just needs two borders ... but how will I quilt it?  (you can read more about this quilt here).

And then there's the whole question of size ... did I mention he wants to get a King Size "Long" now?  We have had a custom bed for some time now - Queen Long, the mattress is 60" x 90" / 152.5cm x 229cm (Queen is usually 80" / 203cm long).  A California King is only 84" / 214cm long.

Then again, my first quilt does fit ... so maybe I should just leave it there for a while ...

But first I need to get more put away in my office, the sewing machine(s) set up, pressing and cutting space organized ... and then, ~then~ ... I CAN SEW!  In the meantime, here's a peak of the shelves that are starting to look more like this :) Pin It Now!