WIP Wednesday

Wow - busy, busy day in a busy, busy week!  So that means I have things to share with you today.

Let's start with my very slow-going embroidery quilt: Nice People, Nice Things.  As I have probably mentioned more than once, I started this quilt several years ago and although I love embroidery work, I don't sit down at home and work on it very frequently.  It's normally my go-to project for quilt guild days and Haberdashery work but sometimes I get the bit between my teeth at home, too, which has been the case during the break and that means I've finished the month #7 blocks!  Hurray, hurrah!

I really enjoyed stitching these blocks - the handbags, flowers and butterfly were among my favourites to make.  I've already transferred month #8's designs onto their fabrics so I can start the next batch soon.  Slow and steady wins the race...

I also spent the day with friends Ingrid and Birgitta planning a new quilting project, which all three of us will be creating together.  I can't give too much away just yet but suffice it to say that we decided on a pattern, bought fabric (sooo pretty!) and even got the blocks started.  So that's off to a great start.  Here's a little sneak of the fabric choices...

And finally, I chose a background fabric for my Persian Pickle project but I forgot to photograph it to share.  I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow, provided the sun is co-operating better than it was today.  I tried a few different colours and then some black but nothing was really pleasing me - they were either too flat or didn't work well with the random fabric swatches we're using.  Then I found a rich brown with varying undertones of pinks, creams and blues so I'm hoping that will work well.

WIP Friday?

It's been a while since I made a WIP Wednesday post and it seems it's going to take a while longer still...  I had every intention of posting this on Wednesday but the day just got the better of me.  However, better late than never, eh?

So I have a few little projects to share with you today.  First up - I bought my fabric for my Haberdashery club's Persian Pickle Club project!

I'm sure you're not surprised that it's orange.  I did try to find something with a geometric pattern but no such luck.  My second choice was a large retro floral print on a lighter tint of orange but as we're only providing 15cm square pieces to each other, I felt this smaller pattern worked better for the size.  We'll be swapping our fabrics next Tuesday so stay tuned for the big reveal of all the different fabrics chosen - so exciting!

Second up - it's been a while since I shared my progress on my Nice People Nice Things embroidery quilt.  It's been slow going but it's coming along, little by little.  I actually ran out of pink floss the other week, which set me back some but then when I finally managed to get down to the shop and buy more, I got the bit between my teeth and sat over two nights and stitched a bunch more to catch myself up, which felt great.  I'm very nearly done another month's set of picture and text blocks.

I also have a scrapbooking LO partially started, which I'm hoping to get back to work on and finish this weekend but I'll leave that for another time.

Right, off to finish watching the Winter Olympic games opening ceremony!

WIP Wednesday

Hello, everyone!

Well, I'm back from Stockholm - such a lovely city and fantastic capital.  I had great fun doing the tourist gig - went up the Skyview on the Globe Theatre, visited the Vasa Museum and the ABBA Museum (squee!), went through the Royal Palace (old and current) plus the treasury and armoury and a bunch of other fun things.  I'm hoping to print off the photos soon and I already have plans for using my Fancy Pants Down by the Shore papers for the Vasa photos (very famous previously sunken Swedish warship, in case you're not familiar with the name).

And speaking of holiday photos, back in July I watched this video by 2Peas Garden Girl Nancy Damiano and was unexpectedly inspired.  I decided it would make the perfect gift for a friend's birthday, as we had holidayed together in Barcelona over Easter earlier this year.  Anyway, I finally got to work on it this past weekend.  Here's a sneak peak of the inside cover page:

As you might notice, I'm using the Simple Stories Snap! mini album and related products, which I found the local Panduro Hobby has recently started carrying.  I've never done any sort of pocket scrapbooking before and I found the preparation a bit tricky; the photo printing in particular.  Since I don't print at home, it was a bit challenging figuring out which photos I would need to order at special sizes before having planned out the whole album.  In the end, I decided on which ones I wanted at 6x8 prints, made a bunch of collages and paired up 3x4 photos onto 4x6 sheets and printed any I wasn't sure about as both 3x4s and 4x6s so I could have some flexibility and this turned out to be a good idea.

I also discovered (although this should seem obvious) when I sat down with the prints and the album and supplies that it does take a much different approach than 12x12 scrapbooking and it took a little time to get into the groove of that approach.  But I feel like I got it to work pretty well after I changed thinking about the album layout in terms of individual days and broke it up into themes, such as tours, sights, food, real life and so forth - then things started falling into place much more easily.

Here are a few more sneaks of the different chapters in the album and I'll have proper photos and a video later in the week to share with you.

I also whipped up a quick little card tonight for a student in my class who had surgery on her skull last week - she has a skull bone that never properly fused together when she was an infant and the surgery was to correct this.  Poor thing is just 7 years old.  Her mum emailed me today to say that the surgery went well and they brought her home from hospital yesterday and she's doing very well so that's great news to hear.  I'll tuck this little surprise into her homework folder that her sister is picking up tomorrow - I'm sure it will brighten her day.

Thinking of You Teddy

Cheers and check back later in the week for more on the album.

WIP Wednesday

Welcome back to another WIP Wednesday.  Life has been feeling pretty fast-paced recently and that hasn't left a lot of time for crafting, unfortunately.  I've been trying to make a little more progress on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt blocks.  Having had both a quilt guild day and another meeting of my Haberdashery group, you'd think I'd have gotten at least another block or two completed.  Sadly, I've been running low on my embroidery floss and no time to get to the craft shops and buy more so progress has been slow.  Here's where I'm currently at, though:

And I have to admit, I didn't get a whole lot of stitching done last night at Haberdashery, mainly because this little fella curled up for a nice, long nap on my lap:

Isn't he a sweetheart?  What with the bathroom renovations started in my flat this week, I've had to pack up my Oskar to stay with a friend (AKA his German holiday family) so this was some much-needed kitty time for me.  It's quite sad not having Oskar at home; and very quiet.

And speaking of the bathroom renovation, today is half way through week 1 (of 6-8 weeks).  Demo started on Monday and here's a quick snapshot of what used to be my bathroom:

Yup, not a whole lot left.  There are two toilets and two shower stalls down in the cellar that all of us currently going through reno must use.  I reckon it's probably around 50-60 people at a time, depending on the number of residents per flat.  Doesn't that sound cosy?  Luckily, I've managed to have a shower two mornings in a row so far; I think most people are either showering at night (thus leaving the showers available in the mornings - yeah!) or sponge bathing.  At least the workers have been really nice and helpful.

Anyway, I'm afraid that's all I have for the moment.  Check back on Friday, though, as I'll be posting a new scrapbooking LO for you to see.

WIP Wednesday

This week's WIP Wednesday is a work in progress of a very different nature.  This week starts the long awaited (and dreaded) bathroom renovation.  Construction starts on Friday, to be exact, but I've spent a good hour and a half this evening, despite working late, moving stuff around the flat in preparation.  Thankfully my flat has plenty of storage space so I've managed to squirrel away pretty much everything so things still look normal, although it does mean requiring a ladder to access at least half of it, should I have the need.

Pre-Reno Shot

But perhaps I should clarify, as this isn't just limited to a bathroom reno.  Yes, the entire bathroom is being gutted and re-done: all new plumbing pipes, modernised floor drain, ceiling pot lights, new floor tiles, new floor to ceiling tiles, new tub/faucet/shower head, new sink/faucet/cabinet, new toilet (don't get me started on the toilet!), radiator-heated towel rack, new vaniety with built in lights and outlet!!!  This part I'm super excited about, as I haven't had an outlet in a bathroom during the 11 years I've lived in Sweden, due to funky construction laws.

But it doesn't stop there - no!  They will also be installing a modernised fuse box (thank goodness), updating all ceiling light plugs to include grounding capabilities and installing three additional outlets where ever I choose (also amazing and desperately needed).  Oh, and they're also putting in all new plumbing pipes in the kitchen and installing a new kitchen faucet.

So if you're doing the math on all of this, you'll have figured out that this is not a quick and dirty renovation.  They're estimating between 6-8 weeks.  That means between 6-8 weeks without a functioning bathroom and thus the dread and displeasure.  I keep telling myself that it will be nice once it's finished but...6-8 weeks is a reasonably long time.

It also means that for 6-8 Oskar is going to need to live elsewhere, as all of this will be far too stressful on him, even locked in the bathroom (which is directly next to the bathroom where a tonne of noise will be occurring).  I have arranged for him to 'holiday' with his German family - a family from work that I'm close with, as I've taught the two eldest boys - and they've had him at their house several times before for Christmas and the boys absolutely adore Oskar so he'll get a lot of love and attention.  Hopefully he can come visit me on weekends when possible but I'm going to be sooo lonely during the week!

So, wish us luck and I'll keep you posted on the progress.  And of course, you can expect that all of this will be scrapbooked down the line, too.

WIP Wednesday

Recently I've been focusing on smaller projects - mostly scrapbooking, as I typically do an entire LO from start to finish in the same day.  However, like many crafters, I have many UFOs patiently waiting to be finished so today I thought I would share one with you.

London Love Jelly Roll Race Quilt

If you're a quilter, you'll know about jelly rolls, but have you heard about jelly roll races?  A fellow quilter friend introduced me to the idea and all we could say was 'SUCH FUN!'  Check out this YouTube video showing a quilt guild in action on a jelly roll race day:

In a nutshell, the idea is that you take the 40 pre-cut strips from a jelly roll and sew all 40 of them together, end to end, using a bias join.  Now, before you go any further, cut off 18" from one of the ends of your strip - only do this ONCE!  Next, take the two ends of your giant stripe (minus 18") and with right sides matching, sew the lengths together - when you get to the end, cut the fold.  Repeat this process for a total of 5 times (or get to the size you want).  The great fun - or at least I think so - is that the pattern is completely random and you don't know what exactly you'll get until the very end!

Here's how my completed quilt top turned out:

And here's a closer shot with better lighting:

Next step is to add borders, buy some backing fabric and decide on a quilting pattern.  Suggestions are welcome - I really haven't decided how to quilt it at all yet.

Like the jelly roll race idea and want to try your own?  Check out this YouTube video by Missouri Quilt Co. - it provides accurate and easy instructions and this gal is just a hoot!

And if you make your own, I'd love to hear about it!

WIP Wednesday

So I've been a bit MIA recently due to the fact that I've gone back to work this week for the new academic year.  The summer holiday wasn't nearly long enough.  Le sigh.  Posts might be a bit spottier than the last two months but I'm going to really try making an effort to keep things up and fresh despite the work schedule.  Wish me luck.

Anyway, it's Wednesday today and that means checking in with current works in progress.  I don't have many irons in the fire at the moment but I did recently start a new set of embroidery blocks for my BOM (Ha!  Biggest misnomer ever!) quilt.  I believe this is set 7 of 9 so I'm in the home stretch!

I'm working on the matching text square for this block right now and with my Haberdashery quilt group meeting up next week, I expect I'll get more done on it shortly.

In other news, I've put in my next 2Peas order; taking advantage of the 20%-off sale and am eagerly looking forward to another big box of goodies - squee!  Hopefully it will arrive next week.

WIP Wednesday & Grab Bag Goodness

So as you know, I've been working on re-organising my scrapbooking supplies and arrangements.  I've been mulling over how to potentially better store my papers and I finally took the plunge and decided to try out a new system and see how it goes.  Here's what I've set up:

I buy cardstock by the 10-pack and I've been saving the left-over sleeves to recycle and thought they could make good paper holders.  I cut 4" off the front tops and made some little tabs with scrap card and washi tape to label them, then started putting in paper by manufacturer.  I didn't have enough sleeves for all of the manufacturers but I have a lot of singles and two pages from random companies so there's a fair bit of 'miscellaneous', which is fine for now.  Behind the patterned paper is my cardstock, arranged by colour; then specialty papers and letter sticker sheets, notepaper pad and scoring board.  I'm going to try this out for a while and see how well it works for me, then decide if it needs adjustment or if I want to purchase proper Cropper Hoppers, etc.

I also did a big de-stash the other week - my first ever de-stash, actually - it was so liberating!  Being a teacher, I could of course take it into work to use with my class but I actually thought it might be more fun to make grab bags for interested readers such as yourselves.  Sounds fun, yes?  So here's the deal...

Grab Bags!
I've made 9 themed bags (see the list below) and you're very welcome to take as many as you wish, I'm just asking for $10 USD to help with the cost of international shipping.  I'm very happy to combine multiple grab bags into one shipment, although depending on weight, I may ask for an additional $5 USD.

This is older product from a number of sources, such as scrapbooking manufacturers, Papercraft Inspirations magazine free gifts, generic craft stores and dollar stores.  Each grab bag is comprised of different items but may include: patterned paper (either 12x12, 8x8 or 6x6 sizes), clear stamps, stickers, tags, dimensional embellishments, rhinestones, sequins, letter stickers, brads, tapes & adhesives, photo corners, buttons & beads, ribbons, artist's colouring pencils and ephemera.

Available themes (list will be updated as needed) - $10 USD shipping cost unless otherwise stated:

• Autumn (small - $5 USD shipping cost)
• Winter (small - $5 USD shipping cost)
• Summer/Spring
• Christmas
• Wedding
• Baby
• Kids & Critters
• Card-Maker's Pack
• Misc./Trave/Food

UPDATE: All grab bags have been claimed and shipped!

If you're interested, please email me at cenglanddesigns [at] gmail [dot] com and indicate which grab bag(s) you'd like.  Please also include your shipping address.  If combining bags, we can discuss any necessary adjustments to shipping costs, which will be payable through the above email address via PayPal.

Belated WIP Wednesday

Okay, I know it's officially not Wednesday anymore but I was having a completely slovenly day yesterday and didn't do much of anything (it was wonderful, btw).  Anyway, I'm playing catch-up today and have actually managed to be quite productive so I guess it all evens out in the long run.

So, first up - I have finished my donation slab blocks for the Quilts Recover Southern Alberta project - yeah!  I sat down today and sewed a new orange block, since I had fallen in love with the first one I made and then made a second red block, since I had a lot of leftover red scraps I'm unlikely to use for anything else.

That brings the total up to eight blocks altogether and I'm quite happy about it.  I'm eagerly awaiting Cheryl's address so that I can pop these into the post in the next week.  Here's a look at the collection altogether:

I've also been working a bit more on re-organising my scrapbooking stash.  It all started when I found some wooden clothes pegs at a good price; brought them home and decorated them with narrow washi tape, then sat down and went through my ziplock bag of ribbons, creating a donation pile and winding the rest I wanted to keep onto my new, prettied-up pegs.

How lovely, eh?  I've since found an old glass container I no longer use for baking supplies and have stored them in there.  Well, then I seemed to have gotten the de-stashing bug because I quickly moved on to my stash baskets, which are now pretty bare.  I'm very happy about that, though, because a lot of it was stuff left over from my extremely early scrapping days that doesn't match my current style or things that I've received from elsewhere (ie. magazine gifts, etc.) that again don't match my style.  And of course, clearing out the old means plenty of room for new shopping - squee!

So at the moment this is the current state of things.  Not really organised, as you can see.  Those two woven baskets in the bottom shelf are actually my 'stash' and with the exception of cardstock and patterned paper, everything fits in here.  Small, right?  What can I say, I own a small flat and I need to balance living space with hobbies.  The majority of my scrapbooking supplies are currently in a similarly large basket in the kitchen, though - that's my current stash that I'm working through so this certainly isn't all of it.

The box on the second shelf in the first cubby on the left is my box of de-stashed items.  The other two cubbies on this shelf have things that would normally fit into the stash baskets but it's all awaiting further organisation at the moment.  I'm trying to decide what to do about paper storage right now.  I have paper sleeves that my 12x12 cardstock comes in that I'm considering recycling to hold my patterned paper in one of these cubby squares.  Or I might invest in a cropper hopper - one for cardstock and one for patterned paper would be plenty for me.  Or perhaps the black three-partitioned cropper hopper.  I'm going to chat it over with a fellow scrapper friend who's coming to visit for a crop this weekend and then try to decide on a course of action.  Suggestions are whole-heartedly accepted.

WIP Wednesday

So I have a few things going on in the craft department lately.  The largest is the age-old issue of organisation and functionality and at the moment, it's my scrapbooking supplies and process that needs the most help.  I have a reasonably small flat - a very comfortable size for just the cat and I but no spare room that can be used for crafting purposes.  This means that my supplies are spread out between the lounge and kitchen - the majority of the stash and stuff I'm not using at the moment is stored in various nesting baskets in the lounge while my current stash is in one big basket on the kitchen table, where I work.  I've also realised recently that I do most of my scrapping standing up these days.

So, I'm toying with the idea of buying a moveable kitchen island that I can use to scrap standing up and can choose whatever room in which I want to work.  I like the look of the Ikea Förhöja - a decent sized table top, drawers and two shelves.  I'm also thinking I could install some rails on either side to hang organisational pails and such.

To test out this theory, I spent Monday scrapbooking on my ironing board, which I set up at the same height as the förhöja island and it's nearly identical in measurements on the top.  It went quite well.  A very comfortable height and while I would love for a little more table top space, I think this will be a flexible solution, especially if I get the rest of my supplies stored better.  My lounge features a large Expedit-like shelving unit so I'll see about getting some baskets and perhaps pretty tins to fit into the bottom squares and possibly the famous ol' Raskog cart for extra storage and portability, which should fit nicely between my old computer desk and wall.

I also have designs for two new scrapbooking layouts rolling around in my head right now.  One uses the rest of my Kate & Co. Oxford Lane papers, which I discovered through chance while sorting through papers on Monday during tidy-up that they match beautifully with an Elle's Studio and Lily Bee Designs paper I bought in my last shopping spree - sweet!  I love when serendipity happens like that.  Here's a quick shot of some of the supplies I've pulled:

And finally, I've been making some more progress on my Albertan Relief quilt blocks.  I got the second green block sewn up last weekend.  Still need to do a second orange block and I definitely have enough red scraps to do one more red one, too.  Hopefully I can get those whipped up before next week so I can ship them off to where they're needed most and not laying around hogging up my ironing board (since it's apparently now doing double-duty...).  Here's the new green block:

Oh!  And I nearly forgot, I'm taking two scrapbooking classes!  I took advantage of the recent 2Peas 20% sale and bought access to Shimelle's Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking and Amy Heller's Through the Kaleidoscope classes.  I've decided I'm going to focus on one at a time and I'm starting with Hitchhiker's, because I always think it's important to review the basics (and I adore Shimelle :P ) but I'm super geeked to check out Amy's colour theory class afterwards.  Right now I'm enjoying a chapter a day and I think one of the sketches from chapter two will be put to good use with the second layout that's mulling in my head at present - fingers crossed!  And Wilna mentioned in yesterday's In the Mood to Scrap video that she'll be releasing an Art Class II this autumn - how exciting!  Her current one is still on my wishlist but you can be sure it will be the next class (or set of classes, now it seems) that I take.

WIP Wednesday

Here we are at another Wednesday - seriously, how do they fly by so quickly?

The wind today is really whipping outside and been making me feel restless but I have managed to putter around with some scrapbooking today.  While I generally consider most layouts 'finished' once they're off my work table and photographed, sometimes I'll look at one I've done recently and realise that there's something missing.  I'm quite happy to go back and tweak as necessary in these situations, because I'm a firm believer that I should be happy with my creative work.

So today I pulled out this layout that I created in April:

I <3 Malmö

After I finished it, something just felt missing so I kept it out to mull over what it was and how to ultimately finish it.  I felt like I wanted to frame the photo and that with all the delicate colours, it needed something dark to help anchor it.  I also felt that with all the straight lines in the design and the papers, it needed something circular beyond just the buttons and the sticker.  Then I remembered one of Shimelle's older sketches (here), that uses brads in a circular shape.  So today I broke out a package of alpha brads I've been hoarding and got to work; I filled out the rest of the circle with gold sequins (totally obsessed, it's a sickness, really).  For me I found a tighter circle worked best.  After:

And a detail shot:

I feel confident in calling this project done now and have slipped it into its album.

Then I decided to work a bit more on a layout I started the other week with a sun and surf theme.  I discovered, however, that the recent humidity, low as it was, curled my vellum so I'm trying to press it out, as it's making the layout a bit tricky to work with curled up.  I did, however, add the bottom layer of papers today:

By that time I'd lost steam so I've put it aside again to flatten out some.  I am hoping to finish it off by the end of the week, though, since I don't usually leave pages to sit like this; I'm more of a start to finish scrapper normally.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank the people over at Quilter Blogs for linking to my blog.  They have a lovely selection of quilting and sewing related blogs so if you also love stitching, please do check them out.

WIP Wednesday

Today I have a whole slew of goodies to share with you so let's get started and dive right in.

First of all, I've been making (slow) progress on my embroidery quilt.  I didn't realise when I bought this quilt, which is actually suppose to be a BOM (block of the month) that there were nine months included, each month consisting of two panels of six squares to stitch - if you're keeping count, that's 108 squares altogether - yikes!  Anyway, I've been working on month #6 blocks recently and this little teddy bear turned out super cute.

Each of these picture blocks has a co-ordinating saying that will go on the backside.  They're not quite as much fun to stitch, since they're all text and they take a lot longer but I've been portioning it out by doing one picture block, followed by the matching text block so that I don't get too bored or risk leaving all the text blocks to the end.

Next up, I'm heading off to the cottage with friends tomorrow so I've spent the day preparing my next project to take along with me - those super cute citrus felt coasters I pinned on Sunday!  The website provides a printable template page but as I don't have ink in my printer, I decided to make my own templates using various glasses to trace around, which has the added, handy bonus of ensuring my coasters will fit my glasses.  I've done all of the cutting and matched up embroidery floss for the needed colours so now I just need to do the stitching - can't wait!

I also did a bit of scrapbooking work today, but the layout is far from done.  Yesterday I pulled a variety of papers but wasn't quite ready to work on it beyond that.  Today I got some good inspiration for the top portion of the page, including mixing up some homemade texture paste - such fun!  I also made my own little triangle/arrowhead template to use with the paste and it's turned out great.  I will definitely be using this more often.  I pulled out some vellum today, too, along with my Mr. Huey's mist and the sewing machine.  Here's what I have so far:

Incidentally, I ended up with such a large number of papers that I was having trouble weeding down which ones I wanted and I resorted to this:

Yes, that's right, I had to move to the floor to lay them all out so I could mix and match.  Someone please tell me I'm not alone in this and you've found yourself here, too?  I've set the rest of the layout aside for now while I process the bottom part of the page in my head for a day or two.  I know how I want it to feel, I just haven't quite figured out how to get it there yet but I'm challenging my inner Janna Werner and Wilna Furstenberg and perhaps a little Michelle de Leon, too.

And lastly, something that is not a WIP but actually complete - tetra-pack chooks!  I'm so ready for Easter now!

These little gals are so easy to make - literally two stitch lines - although placing the bits (especially the comb) was a little tricky.  If you want to make your own, check out Red Ted Art's Juggling Chooks.  There isn't a template for the felt bits but they're very easy to make - one triangle, a three-hump cloud-like shape and a heart folded along the line of symmetry is all you need.  If you're a papercrafter and have the Martha Steward heart punch, that's probably about the right size, even.  I made the eyes with a colonial knot (slightly larger embroidery knot) or you could use a standard French knot.  Oh, and since these will be decoration only and not for juggling, I left out the rice and filled them just with stuffing, although a bit of rice or sand would give them good weight to sit, too.

WIP Wednesday

I can't believe it's Wednesday again already!  Things have been progressing with my Ricky Tim's Harmonic Convergence wall hanging.  I still have the top border to sew back on - something's gone wonky with the measurements so it's been giving me a spot of trouble but I'm sure I can work it out.  I'm taking a bit of a break from that right now and yesterday I picked up some new supplies for a few smaller projects that I've been meaning to do for a long time now.  I'm hoping to start them sometime later this week.

I thought I'd also share a WIP my quilt guild is working on.  Last year we decided that we should make a whole guild quilt where every member contributes a block.  Our Danish sister guild has done this and it's really neat to see everyone's interpretation of a theme.  Our theme was Mitt Skåne ("My Skåne"; Skåne being the province in which we live).

At first I wasn't sure what to do and then I found this great poppy fabric that kick-started my imagination.  You see, wild poppies aren't something I grew up with in my area of southern Ontario but they're everywhere over here in summer - through all the fields and in all the ditches along the roadsides in the country, so for me they're very European.

I decided that I wanted my block to be 3-dimensional; something that I'd never tried before.  I started with sewing some pale green scraps together in narrow stripes to mimic the tall, dried summer grass that often surrounds wild poppies.  Then I set about embroidering on some stem work, fussy cutting flower heads and stitching tiny seed beads - many, many seed beads - and came up with this:

Recently the committee responsible for this project at guild posted an update on how joining all of the blocks is coming along.  It's been decided that instead of making one enormous quilt, we'll make three or four smaller ones that will be more manageable.  And here is an update photo that includes my block (second row from the top, last block on the right):

I think only one other person used poppies in her block so I was pretty original.  Willow trees, bicycles, rape seed fields, white geese and The Little Mermaid statue (technically in Copenhagen) were all very popular motifs among the blocks.  It's going to be such fun to see when they're all finished!

I also whipped up a quick birthday card today for my uncle.  I had planned on making some candles out of paper straws but all the shops were out of them yesterday so I just decided to use my current go-to birthday card design.  It's always handy to have a design that you know you can easily fall back on when you're feeling rushed or tired or a birthday sneaks up on you unawares.

Birthday Wishes Card

This stamp set is by Technique Tuesday and I use it regularly.  It includes a variety of sentiments, as well (birthday, anniversary, good luck, get well soon) so it's quite flexible and you can mix and match as you want.  I use mine with heat embossing powders so that it really stands out on my papers.  The 2Peas store no longer carries this stamp set but you might still find it elsewhere if you look around.

So what you are currently working on?

WIP Wednesday

I feel like there's a lot I want to share recently but I'm going to break things down and not flood the blog all at once.  Right now this is what I'm enjoying most:

Now that summer holidays have officially arrived, it's 100% craft and "me" time - swoon!  Since I don't have an extra bedroom to use as a craft space, I like to set up my sewing machine out on the balcony when the weather is nice.  There is something particularly lovely about stitching outside with the sunshine and a light breeze, watching the trains go by (just behind the fence in the distance).

My current WIP (work in progress) is a Ricky Tims Harmonic Convergence wall hanging.  I made the top about two years ago during a sewing project day with friends but I was never happy with the inner border - it was decidedly blue and didn't really go well with the rest of the colour palette.  Then one day at quilt guild, a vendor had this fabric that I snatched up:

Isn't it just yummy?  And scrapbookers, look carefully - yes, that is a MME fabric!  I'm in total love.  So a few months ago I ripped off all the borders with the plan to replace the inner blue border with this lovely turquoise one but never got that far.  Yesterday I sat down and began the process of adding the borders back on and it's looking so much better now.  The top border is giving me some issues, however.  Despite everything being squared up properly, the border and cornerstones aren't matching up well but I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

Here's a general layout view for you (along with Oskar, who is 'snooper-vising'):

You can see that I've made the borders directional so that the cups look like they're hanging.  The folded fabric in the top left will be the backing fabric.  I haven't decided on the binding yet - probably either that luscious turquoise or the brown.  I may also fussy cut and applique one of the teapots onto the design, too, but that's still being debated at the moment.  For quilting, I'm thinking swirls to mimic steam throughout the body and possibly waves along the borders and maybe concentric circles in the cornerstones.  My machine doesn't quilt well, though, so this might end up being a hand quilt project...

Next up, I sat down today and made a belated Father's Day card for my step-father.  With all the bustle and stress of end of school work, Father's Day just sort of hit me out of the blue.  I was a good girl and made a point of ringing him up but thought I should send along a card, too.

A lot of my inspiration for this card came from working with the MME Oxford Lane papers when putting together my Gaelic Girls LO - the colours are of course masculine and a wee bit retro and I liked how well they paired with both the Maggie Holmes gold glitter Thickers and the Webster's Pages Composition & Colour neon yellow washi tape (seriously, if you love Oxford Lane, invest in this tape, too - they are the perfect match in both colour and style).

I also had some inspiration from this week's Stash Busters Challenge at 2Peas, specifically prompt #1 (use something shiny) and prompt #2 (use something natural).  I recently found these lovely kraft corrugated die-cuts at my LSS and decided to try them out and I knew I wanted to use one on this card.  The MME papers are all white-based, however, so I decided to pull in a little more kraft with the matting and I made a border of the yellow washi tape to remove some of the over-powering white and help draw out a little more pop of yellow in the process.  The button is made of coconut wood and sort of reminded me of a suit button, which would compliment the necktie.  I think the few sequins and the glitter Thickers are just enough bling without going overboard and still works well together with the kraft elements.  If you'd like links to this project's shopping list, you can check it out here: #1 Dad card.

That about wraps it up for today.  What are your current WIP?