Frida saw a picture of a patchwork blanket for a teddy bear in one of my sewing magazines a few days ago. She was quick to order a blanket for her Hello Kitty build-a-bear, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. A year ago or so when I last wanted to try making quilt, I ordered a few charm packs from Fat Quarter Shop. I broke open one of those for the picnic blanket – one from Moda called Patisserie.

So I got everything aligned nicely and sewed up all the little squares, and then I thought: “Well, this didn’t take too long, and I’m almost done!” And then I got started quilting, and found out that I was not nearly done.

I struggled a bit with the quilting foot, and I’m learning from the beginning how to control pace, movement, pattern and everything.

As usual, I have been using different sources for instructions: I found help for many things on YouTube, and especially Leah Day has gathered what seems like a year of quilting lessons there, and she is quite pedagogical. Check out for instance her thoughts on basic quilting designs here. And I used her tutorial on how to bind the quilt here and then for the final. She has loads of detailed and really great videos on how to make different quilting designs, which is really inspiring.

All in all – including watching lots of videos on YouTube, learning new techniques, using a new presser foot etc. then for the final closing of the binding after I had attached it all the way round, I used this tutorial from Heather Bailey, which shows clearly how to join the two ends.

To the right here, you see Frida just after she made Hello Kitty at the Build-a-Bear shop following her birthday last year. The cat is almost as big as Frida is, and it takes up just as much space in her heart.

Now Hello Kitty will definitely be able to go picnicing with Frida – which she has been today actually.  So here’s the result:

I’m fairly happy with it, although I acknowledge, that I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to quilting. Anyway, while I was attaching the binding yesterday evening, Ronja was watching. And now she wants one. And that is what I’ve been working on today, but it isn’t done yet, so you’ll have to wait. See ya!

Following a marvellous day yesterday, Easter Sunday has been rainy. We were planning to go somewhere, light a fire and make twistbread with the girls, but with the weather today, it just wasn’t possible – or at least it would have been rather wet.

Instead we painted Easter eggs (better late than never), and had good friends over in the afternoon.

Tomorrow is my last day off before I start my new job – and Ronja’s last day off before she starts in the after-school centre. She will be going there full time as kind of a transition period, until she starts school for real in August. What a big Tuesday for this little family.

Maybe tomorrow we will have weather for twistbread…

Happy Easter!

Weekend. This week became the week when I found out I will be spending the next few months looking for a new job. Not really the situation you would want at the moment, is it..? Especially not since I love my job and have the best colleagues. Well, not for long now.

Do you remember back when you were young and going to school and you had so few responsibilities? And still everything seemed tough enough, because at that time you were in your teens. If only you could have understood the amount of freedom you had…

I wouldn’t mind being able to press the ‘pause’-button on the responsibilities right now.

Hi guys – long time no see. I want to start out by saying thank you SO much for the concern in shape of comments, as well as emails and messages on Facebook and Flickr. Don’t ever think you can just wander off in the blogosphere and disappear – no siree! I’ve missed you all, but I had to take a break, due to – busy life, I guess. No blogging as you know (not even blogreading), no sewing, and the camera has been taking a bit of a vacation.

Where were we? Oh yes, the kitchen arrived and was installed. The pictures below give an impression of what it all looks like now, if you want to see more, go here.

We are missing a few details, but we love the kitchen, and we so enjoy using it. The finishing touches will be there when we feel like it. The pictures were taken on a sunny day in December, and they don’t even quite show the kitchen the way it looks now, because some wall cupboards are missing, but I’ll show you sooner or later.

But so many other things happened during November and December, and I’ll just leave the very short version here – wouldn’t know where to start otherwise. In November they had mass lay offs at Mads’ work, which happily he avoided. Frida’s hearing kept getting worse, followed closely by her speech, which caused her to have new ear tubes inserted in December – it’s all much better now. My father passed away late November, which kept me busy emotionally and led to lots of thoughts. We all went to funeral in December, and in spite of the occasion we had a nice day with the family. And then of course winter colds, flus and the likes to top it all off. Just before Christmas Frida had the chickenpox, followed closely by Ronja on the morning of New Years Eve.

We have had our share to deal with over the last couple of months, but during the Christmas break we have done nothing but relax. Nothing! Stayed at home, gone for walks, watched movies with the girls, had friends over for dinner, spent an afternoon at Tivoli’s Christmas Market as we do every year. It has been great, and we could’ve easily spent another month like that.

That’s pretty much it for now – but I won’t be gone long this time. Finally I just want to show you the beautiful picture of Ronja walking in a Lucia parade in the day care – even though it has been a while.

So what did we do for the last bit of our vacation? Well, we had visits from the grandmothers, visited Land of Legends Lejre (Sagnlandet Lejre), relaxed a lot, went for walks, did little outings. It was the kind of days that when you look back on them, you can’t really account for your whereabouts – which is rather nice, I think.

Impressions from the last bit of a summer vacation.

Sailing in a log boat at Land of Legends Lejre.

Grinding grain into flour – I’m not sure I even made enough flour for a Digestive…

Ronja worked hard as well – we had to promise her that we will go back there to grind some more before too long.

The weather hasn’t been amazing summer weather, but this was a good day. We drove to Rødvig for an icecream and a bit of walking around at the harbour looking at boats. Frida loves boats – there’s definitely a sailor in that little girl.

And we did some jumping.

And a bit of flying as well.

Now we’re back to our regular rhythm – I drop off the children at their day care in the morning at 7-7.15 and they have a full day there until Mads comes to pick them up in the afternoon. We both work full time in Copenhagen, so the girls have long days in their day cares – good thing they’re really fond of them!

So guys, back to work – but it won’t be long before we take on a new project. Remember this? Well, we haven’t finished. I’ll let you in on the details soon.

I’m sure Ronja will be dancing around the cherry tree in the mean time.

We had a wonderful holiday. Really down to earth, with only a few things planned. Mads has been pruning the trees in the garden and building a fence out back, Ronja has been playing our little garden aid, and Frida has had time to totally find herself again, and she soooo enjoys the garden. Only problem is to get her back inside when it’s time for dinner.

Frida’s palate is healing up really well, and it looks quite nice now – much better than it did a week ago. Mads has started to visit the nursery with her on a daily basis, because next Thursday he is going back to work, and she will be spending her days there. It’s such a nice place, though, the same one Ronja went to, we know the teachers, and we are at total ease with leaving her in their custody! Besides, it’s right next to Ronja’s kindergarten, and they will be able to have a daily chat through the playground fence. Frida still goes “Ooonja, Ooonja” whenever Ronja is out of sight, which is so sweet! Or whenever Ronja comes into sight, actually.

I made the fabric covered buttons for the tunic yesterday evening, so I just might be able to show you later.

Christmas has moved into our yellow house by the station. Entering December means entering a month of expectations and cosiness, and a month that has a different pace to it. 

The Advent wreath is lit every Sunday afternoon, starting with one candle, and then lighting one more each Sunday. We usually sit around it with tea or hot chocolate, and have some nice family time.

Ronja’s Advent calendar is a pixie that’s hanging on the door to the living room. The pixie itself is from a Danish design company, called Maileg, and I altered it a little bit, by adding little brass rings to each pocket. I found that I could never make any of her presents fit into the tiny pockets, so I tied them to the rings instead. Which is ok actually, because I really like the way it looks this way. I try to make the presents look pretty – in my opinion half the joy of opening these presents, which are not very pricy at all, lie in the expectation, and the excitement of unwrapping – so the look, the feel, and the sound is important.

For Frida, as I mentioned earlier, I made a smaller Advent calendar with a present for each Advent Sunday. Her presents are kept in a small basket at the piano. They have little numbers on them, and Ronja helps her find the present with the right number.

We light the Advent candle every day to help us count down the days until the 24^th.

As you know I started working Monday. These past few workdays have left me feeling very tired in the evening, while at the same time uplifted, because I love to be learning. My new colleagues have been so nice to me, and everyone is really helpful and forthcoming, so I have every reason to be optimistic about the future. During next week, I’ll be spending two days on training in Newcastle, which I think will be pretty exciting. Mads is just getting used to his new role. Today he took Frida to “legestue” – I don’t know what the English word is, but it’s a place, you can go to with your child, if he or she is not in daycare. There are other children for Frida to play with, and other parents for Mads to talk to, and the way he has described it to me, it was great for Frida as well as himself. It’s a little bit strange, that he and Frida will be doing so much together that I have no part in, but that’s something I will have to get used to.

I’m writing this in the train on my way home, and it’s snowing outside. It does take me a while to get to work, so I guess blogging, reading, and listening to music will be nice ways to spend my time on the train. I don’t have web access on the train, so I’ll have to hold the posting until I get home. Maybe I should get myself a mobile broadband connection…

 Getting ready for December 1st in this house means doing a lot of things. I have been making an Advent wreath (well actually, that was for today), a decoration for the Advent candle, a gift calendar for Ronja – Frida isn’t quite old enough for one with 24 gifts yet, so I made her an Advent calendar, with a small gift for each Advent Sunday. Also this weekend, Ronja attended a princess gala birthday party at a friend’s house – and I accidentally promised her a new dress for the big event. That ate up a few afternoons…

And of course, what’s also special about this year’s December 1st is that it’ll be my first day at work since Frida was born. Still trying to wrap my mind around that one – and I’m pretty sure that Mads feels the same way! He’s going to be taking care of Frida at home for the rest of the time until her surgery to close her cleft palate, which will take place when she’s around 1½ years old. We don’t have the excact date, but he’ll be SAHD (Stay At Home Dad) for probably 5-6 months. Exciting!

However, I have been stretching your patience – I know. Sorry about that! Since Ronja is in bed by now, Mads just played the role of the goddess of fortune – and a very pretty one too, if I may say - and he drew the following lucky names out of the hat:

Winner of the pattern #10015 is Tara at Learning from Chavah

Winner of the pattern #20039 is Jenny

Congratulations to the winners! And to those of you that didn’t win, thank you so much for all your sweet comments – please come back for the next give-away. I’m putting the next two patterns (a kids pattern and an adult pattern) up within the next week. I’ll also need to tell you about all the other stuff – the princess dress, the Advent calendar, the Advent wreath, Ronja’s recent snow experience, our trip to Gisselfeld Christmas market, Frida’s recent breakthrough – gee, I’m behind!

Guys – now December 1st is not coming up anymore – it’s here. I’m off to find my bed! 

So what kills me is this:

Frida actually chose TODAY – of all days – to start walking. Can you believe it???? I go away for one lousy day and then she walks??? Mads took Ronja to gymnastics class this afternoon, and while he and Frida were waiting outside the gym, Frida chose to start walking. BOOOHOOOOO…… *sniff*

But hey! She’s walking – and very enthusiastically too! And I’m her biggest fan – though Mads may try to claim that title as well! As you can guess, the picture doesn’t show Frida’s first step - this was after I returned home. However, this is Ronja’s first step – 3 years ago almost to the date.