Still sewing

I have not finished anything in the last weeks, but it doesn't mean that I am not doing anything. I have finished a small stichery for another bookmark, and I 've started doing my daughter's cross stitch picture again. I had a long break of it, as I was busy doing other things, but I started it again today after lunch when Emma was napping.
I'll never finish it, I'm afraid... Just have a look at its size, the details in all the rooms, even the outlining looks frightening. I'll not give up, of course, but don't think that it will be a finish in this year. Or the next, for that matter.

Give away at Quilt Qua

There is a lovely giveaway at Quilt Qua which I would very much like to win. Problem is, that I have to ruin my own chances of winning by telling a friend about it - oh, well, good people usually get their reward, so I will be behaving myself for the rest of the... day? week? month? YEAR??? how much do you think I have to promise for this gorgeous bundle??? :-)

Where is summer, may I ask???

It is raining here, it is cold and windy and dark and miserable, and I am having a cup of coffee and reading craft blogs on the Net, while my daughter is happy for a few minutes in the boys' room aka playroom. The boys are both away in summer camps (one living in a tent! in this weather! hope he will no get a cold at the time of his very first summer (???) camp...), little princess is cross with the world, the weather, the quantity of clothes she had to put on, her mum, everything and everyone. I made a fire - fire in June, middle of summer...-, this weather in the lake house always makes everyone unhappy...
I wish I had my sewing machine and fabrics here, reading Gudrun's blog makes my fingers fidgety.

Ah, well, I suppose I could always work on my daughter's dolls house cross stitch picture while she is napping after lunch... (not that we have anything for lunch, and cannot even go out to the shop as it is raining and we have no car).

Give away at Sheree's

Look at this great giveaway at Sheree's!
(but don't comment there, as that would lessen my chances of winning! just kidding, of course. or maybe not... :-) )

Now, nowadays I do not enter every give away that I come across, but I would really like to win this one. So I keep my fingers crossed - when I am not sewing, of course!

More projects

A few more small projects were finished last week. A small bookmark, which still needs a tassel at the end, a green one, quite likely; 4 little lavender bags, and my lavender in the garden is just about ready to be cut and dried, to fill the bags later with my own "organic" lavender.

And best of all, I have finished my jelly roll and charm pack quilt top. It is a simple pattern, because the aim was to cut off as little as possible of the precious fabric, but I love it. I love the colours, the pattern, the whole top. Quilting will be done later, probably in September, as summer is not really the time of sewing for me - unfortunately...

I tried to take a better picture of the whole top, but it was impossible - inside it was too dark, outside it was too windy.

Childless

My kids are all away from home. The boys are both on a school trip with their respective classes, they left on Tuesday and are coming back tomorrow. Little princess is staying with my Mum at the lake house, having the time of her life. And I am also having the time of my life, sewing, going to the gym, wathing TV, reading, spending time with my husband, having conversations without the interruption of our little darlings (whom we both miss - a bit :-) - of course, meaning: I have already bought surprises for all three of them...). So having all the time I need, I finished a few things again today, for the fair in August at the lake.

The two little "books" are in fact enviroment friendly shopping bags, that can be folded and buttoned in a "book", and carried in a handbag. The red and blue one has writing on it, "ABC" on the front, as the old corner shops used to be called in Hungary, and "milk", "bread" and "butter" on the back. The little cow pouch in the front of the picture is for paper hankies.

June finishes

I have finished my Wonky houses made by the instructions of Jenny of Elephantz . I made all 4 blocks, but for some reason, the last two came out half an inch smaller than the first two. It must be the printer or some other technical reason, but anyway, I only noticed it when I was starting to sew the blocks together and this way I couldn't put all 4 of them in one little quilt, they looked sort of silly, so I made a wallhanging of the first two, and still didn't decide what to do with the other two blocks. I quite like the wallhanging though, and will take it to the lake house to have something pretty in my room there too!

I have started using my jelly roll, and just couldn't throw away the selvedges, so I used them to make this little basket. I love how the white highlights the other colors, and also find the orange quilting lines delicious!