Sanity savers

I joined Lorraine's 'sanity savers' project of sending useful craft supplies to the bushfire victims a couple of weeks ago. I sent little things due to high postal charges and lack of too much money, but I sure hope that someone can use all of them AND that they arrived safely and not got lost by the infamous domestic postal service.

Néhány héttel ezelőtt csatlakoztam Lorraine felhívásához, hogy küldjünk apró hasznos holmikat a bozóttűz áldozatainak. A magas postaköltségek ill. pénzhiány miatt apróságokat küldtem, de nagyon remélem, hogy valaki hasznosnak találja őket és azóta megérkeztek ÉS nem vesztek el a rosszhírű hazai posta bugyraiban.

Giveaway

Elin is having a giveaway and I hope to win! To have a chance, click here.

Elin ajándékhúzást rendez, én meg nyerni szeretnék. Ha te is nyerni szeretnél, kukkants be hozzá.

Eastern basket

My son was feeling better yesterday - so I had a bit of time to sew, while he was watching 'The Chronicles of Narnia' :-)
I am planning to make 3 baskets, one for all of my kids, and the Eastern Bunny will hide the presents in these.

Tegnap már jobban volt a kisfiam, volt időm varrni, míg ő Narnia krónikáit nézte. 3 kosárkát szeretné csinálni, egyet-egyet mindegyik gyerkőcömnek, és a húsvéti nyuszi ezekbe fogja elrejteni az ajándékokat.

New finish for February - cross stitch

I have got this kit from my best friend who always gives me very challenging kits. This one was challenging because of the metallic threads which kept breaking and it was extremely difficult to sew with them. And I only realised at the middle of the picture that it doesn't have to be sewn using the metalic threads only, but using 2 kind of metallic together with normal threads... I did the couch and the little dresser using normal and metallic threads and it was much more enjoyable. I have started it at least 18 months ago, so it is a real WISP!

The kit consists of 5 patterns (chandeliers, letters, teapots, cutlery and furniture) and all the metallic threads, and I might make more of them, I still have a LOT of metallic threads...

Now I just have to have this one framed. The picture doesn't show its real values, but it is really very very beautiful. Meaning that I will have to choose some really really expensive frame for it... :-)

Plans

I have so many plans for small projects I want to do in the next days and weeks, like 3 little baskets for Eastern for my children to hide their Eastern goodies in them; a little sponge bag for my Mum to match her birthday bag I made a few weeks back; a stichers' angel sewing bag from May Britt; a wonky house something and of course I should continue the dolls house cross stitch for my daughter. Just to list a few...
Instead I am here with 2 of my 3 kids at home, one of them is running a high temperature and coughing and blowing his nose, the other one is only here because we had an orthopaedic appointment for both of them this morning which I did not want to cancel as it was with great luck that we had received one so quickly. I also have to turn up the hem of my old skirt for my eldest son to wear at the school costume party as he is going to be ... uhm .... A Dumb Blonde :-)
But at least the sun is shining and the snow which had been falling for the last 2 days continously started to melt... It is nearly Spring and our garden still cannot be located under the snow.

Pay It Forward

It seems that I will be getting something in this game from Carlotta, but will have no-one to send something to. Great, either I will make 3 somethings and keep them, OR I will send them to those who left comments here. OR maybe I will have someone to join yet...

Nothing to do with quilting

It is nothing to do with quilting or sewing or any craft what so ever, but I am so awfully proud of my older son that I have to blog about him here too :-)

He was planning - or rather we were planning for him - to go to an 8 year secondary school and he sat for his entrance exam at the end of January. The results came this Thursday: his were the very best of all tests, he got 94%. I cannot tell you how happy and proud we are at the moment!

We have quite a complicated school system here in Hungary. All children must finish 8 years at an elementary school or attend school until the age of 16, but after Year 4 (age 10), there are various options open to them to go other types of schools. We chose 4 years of elementary school and afterwards 8 years of secondary school, and then who knows, hopefully university.

:-)

New finishes for February

I finished my sewing machine cover. I am very happy with the result.
I dyed the fabrics last Spring at a workshop, and it was such a hassle, that I decided then and there that it was the first and last time that I dyed anything. I had no idea what to use the fabrics for, I thought that they were too light weighted anyway.
When I was looking for which fabrics to use for the cover, I came across the bag full of these fabrics and decided to give it a try. And it was a dream come true! I love the colors put together, I love the feeling of the fabric, and it was very easy to work it them.
I have a feeling that I will try dying again in the future... :-)

The little 'bag in a book' will go to a dear friend of mine, whose name I will not reveal yet, as she might be lurking around. It is a re-usable cotton bag folded in a sort of cover, to keep in her handbag for quick and small shopping to use instead of plastic bags to save our environment. I think it is cute.

Give aways

I am slowly reading through all the blogs of the participants of the 'One Project a Month Challenge'. And sometimes I stray from there to other blogs linked in the blogs. And I discover wonderful giveaways from time to time, like this one here in this blog.
I have not win anything yet (anywhere ever in my life, to be correct), but you have to participate to have a chance, so I am doing just that.

Pay it forward

OKAY, so I have decided to try it. It seems, 2009 will be a year of new challenges for me :-)

I joined Carlotta's Pay It Forward. The aim of it is a sort of swap among crafty people of all over the world. The first three people to sign up will receive, within the next 365 days, some handmade presents from me. But! Those who sign up, will have to continue the chain by sending presents to three people of their own.

Anyone to sign up? If you decide to do so, leave a comment, copy the button to your blog, post about the pay it forward in your blog and off you go to start looking for your 3 people AND making the handmade presies :-)


Ok, akkor megpróbálom. Úgy tűnik, 2009 a kihívások éve lesz :-)

Csatlakoztam Carlotta PIF-jéhez. A cél egyfajta cserebere a világ kézműveskedő emberei között. Az első 3 jelentkező 365 napon belül saját kezűleg készített ajándékot kap tőlem. De! Aki jelentkezik, annak folytatnia kell a sort, és 3 másik embernek ajándékot küldeni.

Érdekel valakit a dolog? Ha igen, jelezd a blogomban, másold át a PIF gombot és írj egy bejegyzést a cseréről a saját blogodban, és máris keresheted a saját 3 megajándékozottadat ÉS kezdheted készíteni a sk. ajándékokat! :-)

WISP

At last! I did some sewing yesterday after a week of thinking of what I should sew? I seemed to have a sewing block of some kind... my daughter being ill and at home for the week did not help to overcome the problem.
I have started a cover for my sewing machine using the fabrics that I had dyed months ago at a workshop. And I was planning to continue sewing today after lunch, but my daughter is already up after her (very short) afternoon nap and not in a good mood, so I cannot really go to my basement sewing room and leave her alone in her room upstairs while she works out if she wants to get up or go back to sleep. I took her to a concert this morning which she loved a lot, but it seems that it wore her out so much that she became a bit(??) whining.
So much for my nice cozy sewing afternoon...
Anyway, here are some pictures of the fabrics I am using for the cover at least. And a picture of the little shopping bag in use :-)

Bagoholics

I made a smaller tote bag... It seems that I have fallen in love with these bags. I used the method of corner cutting, and it looks just as good to me as the other version.

It is a handy side to pack just the necessary things when I go out to collect the children, or to the library, or to parent-teacher meetings - like I am doing nowadays day after day, 3 children means at least 9 parent-teacher meetings a year.

I am slowly but surely using up my scraps, which is a good feeling. So now I can buy new fabrics. Anyway, loking at other peoples's pictures of their stash, I realised that I have not really got a lot of fabric, even though my DH thinks so. So I bought some fabric at IKEA this Saturday. And I am seriously thinking of ordering some jelly rolls or layer cakes (or both)...