30 augusti 2008

Just a short one tonight....

Today me and my daughter have been on a shopping trip the whole day and just came home. We have been in Helsingborg at a shopping center (yes, I bought some fabrics) and at IKEA. Then we drove a very beautiful but quite long way home. I will tell more about it tomorrow.

Tonight I will announce the winner of today´s draw. The potholders goes to Kerry; Forever Friday. Congratulations! E-mail me your snail-mail address and they are on their way to you!


Now I will say good night to my new fabrics and all of you out there!



29 augusti 2008

I will congratulate x 2

To the first person I will say "Happy Birthday"!

Actually her birthday was yesterday, but I wanted her to see this birthday card IRL before it showed up here. As you can see, altough the picture is not the best, here name is Carina and she is an old friend.





To the second person I will say "Congratulations, you are today´s winner"! My daugther helped me with the draw and this is the result:
This little thing will go to Norway and the winner is:


Please send me an e-mail with your snail-mail address and it will be yours.

Tomorrow I will draw the winner of the pot-holders, so welcome back!

Tonight I´ve planned to finish my stitchery from last weekend, there are not so many stitches left. Perhaps there will be a picture tomorrow.

Have a nice weekend, see you!


27 augusti 2008

If I get tired...

....I´ve made this! No, it´s not for my bed, it´s for my wall. It´s a close up photo of my new design wall.


Here it is. I´m very satisfied with it. It´s very easy to pin up the pieces, and if I want I can easy pull down the whole thing, roll it up and take it away.


Another close up. I pinned up a charm pack for a test. I have one more of this kind, perhaps I will make a quilt out of them someday.

Here´s my "big" table, which I don´t like. It´s not big enough and I hate the round shape. It makes the fabric drop down to the floor..... I will order another one, specially made for me, some day, but they are not for free.....

My ironing table and my computer....
Today the mailman was a kind one, he left this for me...


....with five charmpacks in it. I love charmpacks! He was not a bad guy. Welcome back!

Now my coffee cup is empty and it´s time leaving for Syverkstan. At first I´m going to made a birthday card for a friend, a paper pieced heart. It´s her birthday tomorrow, so I have to hurry up! Then I´m going to the post office. There are two letters leaving for Australia today, exciting. I will wish them a pleasant journey.

Time for me for a much shorter one, a 5 min car trip (it´s really rainy today).

Hugs,




25 augusti 2008

Missing!

Now I´ve mailed out the stitchery pattern to all of you, who´s e-mail addresses I could find.
In some cases not so easy - perhaps I can get a job as a private detective now...
But there are still some persons left, who said they want a copy but if you are anonymus or left a noreply-comment, it´s not easy for me. So, if you still want a copy, send me a mail...

Helena

My first pattern!

Thank you all for a wonderful weekend!
Now I´m working on mailing out the stitchery pattern, I´m on my way collecting your e-mail addresses from the comments, it will take a while, there are a lot of them...
If you don´t hear from me today, please contact me and I will check out what´s wrong.

Now the last surprise (for me or for you?) for the past weekend.... I have made my first pattern!
Here it is!


You can see more pictures of the quilt if you go back to earlier posts, beginning of July.

I have printed out 5 copies of it today and I will give them away for free...

The first one will go to Leanne, Lizzie´s Page She was first to ask me for the pattern and I promised her the first copy. It took a while but here it is.

The second one will go to Sarah, If only I had chocolate. She was the first one outside Sweden who gave me a comment. That made me change my mind and start writing in English (!?)
And out of that came this big adventure, meeting people from the whole world. Exciting!

The third one goes to Libby, A Simple Girl. You helped me with the name of the quilt. I read your comment on 8th of July, and there it was.... "Dancing flowers"

If you three girls will send me your snail-mail addresses I will put the patterns in a mailbox....

Now there´s two copies left, and they will be my last giveaways. The rules are the same, leave a comment, write about it on your blog and I will draw the winners next Monday!

Don´t forget there are three more giveaways the past weekend, it´s not to late to leave a comment!

Now I think I have to go on with the e-mails...

Take care,

Giveaway - Sunday

Ooops!! It´s already monday. I told you it could be late, but this was too late... But here it is, the Sunday giveaway! I made it from the result of a little paper-peicing game. Much fun!

It´s a kind of a bag, or perhaps a purse...


The back with pineapple pattern on it.

Leave a comment.....tell other people.....the draw is next Sunday.

I promised you the last surprise tonight, but I think it´s better waiting until tomorrow. Because when I´m tired I´m afraid I will make a lot of misstakes...

See you tomorrow, then I will mail out the stitchery pattern, don´t forget to leave a comment on that post!

24 augusti 2008

More pictures...

Welcome to day three of my opening weekend!

I couldn´t have dreamt about meeting so many nice and wonderful people! A lot of hugs to all of you!!!

I will take a closer look at all comments and check out your blogs tomorrow when it´s an "ordinary" day again. So be patient, you will hear from me sooner or later, it´s just about time...
And tomorrow I will mail out the free stitchery pattern, if you haven´t left a comment on that post yet, it´s not too late. You can do it until I press the e-mail button tomorrow!

Som pictures from the part of the studio where my sewing machines "lives"

There are three of them in my studio except the retired one I showed yesterday. My oldest machine stays in my house, in case I can´t stop sewing in the evenings....

My best friend, one of them, they can help me with a little different things...


Here are one of the shelves (is that the right word?) with fabric.

Enough for today. I will show some more another day, my cuttingtable, designwall, kitchen and toilett (yes I will, because it´s a little bit special!)

I just have to give you a little cloose up of an UFO which will be the next one to finish! I really love that cat pictures on it and the colours. Next week, I promise!

Time for finishing the last giveaway for this weekend. Welcome back tonight and leave a comment. And there will be another little surprise then. But that can be late at night, for me here in Sweden!

See you,



23 augusti 2008

Giveaway - Saturday

The giveaway for today is perfect if you like roses and perhaps cooking; a pair of kettle-holders:



Log-cabin on one side and...


....roses on the other.
Leave a coment, tell other people about it and I will put you into the drawing. Next Saturday is the day for the winner to be drawn.
This post will be a short one, but I´m back again tomorrow.
Thank you everybody for another wonderful, exciting day!
Don´t miss to read the earlier posts this weekend!

Welcome to Syverkstan!

Welcome to my opening weekend, day two!

Today I will show you the first couple of pictures my daughter helped me to take yesterday.
I wrote about posting them last evening but no... I sat down to read blogs but couldn´t keep myself awake. Must had been a hard day... But now after a good nights sleep I´m fit for fight again.
I woke up to a mailbox so full of e-mails that it nearly broke :))) Don´t think I´m unpolite if I don´t answer your comments at once. I will go back and check out your blogs as soon as I get the time. Looking forward to it...
Before the pics, a little reminder, check out my earlier posts. There are a free stitchery pattern and a giveaway yesterday. And later today there will be a new one for today, so welcome back again...
I will mail out the stitchery pattern to you on Monday, leave your comment before that.
But I must have an e-mail address, important! I miss that from some of you who have already left comments. If you are one of them, it´s not ot late, just mail me!
A little thinking: Isn´t it difficult to understand, that we live on the same planet but here by me it´s lunch time, and some of you are sleeping and by others it´s another time of the day..... Well, you have to take a look at my clock when I write about mornings and evenings.....
Enough words, here come the pics:

Welcome in....


No, it looks better, nowadays. I just wanted you to see the difference....

Today it looks much better...

Come closer, yes, most of the quilts are UFOs, but not for so long.... I hope....


A close up, one of my own favorites. I´m working on the applique, by hand, and then it will be handquilted. Hoping about a long life....

And here I am.....


...and the champagne that I wrote about. But we will open it tonight because I needed to use the car yesterday......

Thank you all, I had a great day yesterday!

Last picture, by me and my camera: It´s my daughter, and her fantastic camera. If you want to see her wonderful pictures, click here.

Time for a little work again, and as I already told you, a new giveaway will be posted later today!

Take care out there....all nice people...

22 augusti 2008

Giveaway

Thank you for all nice comments! I´ve just finished my giveaway for today, here it is:





Front


Back


Inside there are pockets for your sewing items and a pincushion.

Just leave a comment and let other people read about it on your blog site. I will leave this open until next friday. On Friday morning I will announce the winner.

Don´t miss the free stichery pattern in the last post.

Now I will take a rest, sit down and visit all your wonderful blogs. Then I will post some pictures from Syverkstan.

See you later this evening....


Be my guest.....

Welcome to Syverkstan and the opening weekend!

Everybody who leaves a comment to this post and puts a link to my blog on your site in a post telling about this opening weekend will get this stichery pattern for free. I designed it yesterday just for this event. Just make sure that I know your e-mail and I will send it to you.

I will mail out the pattern on Monday and until then you are welcome to leave a comment!

I will also put a link to your site in my guest-list!


Now I have to finish the first give away, there will be one each day this weekend.
Come back later, I will post it as soon as I´m ready!
Then here will be more pictures and some champagne....

Hugs from

Good Morning!

Today it´s a sunny day here by me in the south of Sweden, for the present, and a wonderful day for my little opening ceremony. I will be alone in my quilt studio (from now I call it Syverkstan) most of the day, but I hope that´s only IRL ;) because you are all wellcome to visit me here in blogland! I will post a couple of times today, showing some of my secrets, pictures and much more. Just visit me and you will find out.....




For the moment I´m sitting at home with my morning coffee. Soon I will take a shower, eat my breakfast and take my 15 min walk down to Syverkstan. But first I will tell you a little bit more about myself and my dream, which has came through today.

My name is Helena , age 47, and I live in a village called Oskarström. If you look at a map you will find me on the westcoast, near a town called Halmstad. I live together with my husband Conny and our daugther Josefin 18 (and sometimes her boyfriend Felix). We also have a son, Jonatan 19, he moved out this april and lives with his girlfriend Therese.

At the moment I´m unemployed, but not out of job...

I worked as a pre-school teacher for more than ten years before I decided that I had had enough of that....

But I will start from the beginning. I´ve been sewing since I was old enough to hold a needle. My mother taught me and her mother... I forgot to borrow the cute picture of me sewing, just a few years old. My mother keeps it, will try to remember it next time.

I´ve sewed almost everything, clothes, home decorating, you name it...

Why I became a teacher, I don´t know, but things happens in life, I can´t understand everything. After more than ten years, in 1998, I had enough and decided to do something else.

I started to sew clothes for children and opened my first studio. It was difficult to sell those clothes and I more and more became an general seamstress. The years went by and I felt more and more bored about doing what people told me and never being allowed to use my own creativity.

I had done some quilting now and then and wanted to learn more. Because of that and because I didn´t earn enough money as a seamstress I decided to quit.

It was in February this year. Stupid me believed that I could find another job for the money, but that didn´t go my way.

But I went on with my new studio. It´s in the same house as the old one but much bigger and better for me. For a couple of months a have restored it, don´t talk with me about painting, I´ve had enough. Now I have moved in and everything is ready to start creating, my dream has came through!!

In the beginning I will work alone, but I have dreams for the future.

I want to sell my work, even on internet, my homepage is soon finished.

I´m dreaming of having classes when I´ve learned more myself.
I´ve started making patterns, the first one is almost ready.
Perhaps I can open a quiltshop some day...

But today is today and I have to hurry up and get ready for the day. I will end this post with pictures I took yesterday when I went down to Syverkstan. Did I tell you that Syverkstan is the Swedish name for "the sewing studio", in spoken language?

So please follow me down there...


Our house



Beautyful flowers


We live on a hill


Way down



"The snail path", named by the children, because there are many snails when it´s whet, leads down to the school.






Almost down, now you can see the house.

Here it is, bad picture, the grey part is mine.





My neighbour, "Lilla Klippstugan", a hair dresser. In this house was my first studio.






And on the other side of the street, "Passgård", he sells bikes and lawnmowers.

I´ll be back later with my secrets, see you....

Helena