sleepless nights and no mailing

I spent the last two nights there ...

... and the days catching up on sleep ... because of this:

So I'm sorry but there will be no mailing till May - sorry to the Bee-people waiting for the blocks from the last post ...

I don't think I already put the sneak-peek up for my April Round Robin part
(sorry Kirsten you need to wait too

Leo

Placemats for a Friend

It's awlays sad how fast you loose contact with friends if you move away ... well I managed to stay in a lively contact with a friend in Leipzigby sending old fashioned mail ...

And even though I was terribly busy before Christmas I managed to send some presents her way ...

and even though I'm sure she's not reading this blog - I thought it better not to post them before Christmas ...

Löni

Queen Bee

Yeah you have all been seeing the blocks pop up in various posts as a sort of add on at the end of other posts. Being still rather a beginner it wasn't easy joining a bee - I mean so many of them want "bee experience". The other problem is of course findign a stash bee - my bank account is not in favour of sending out tons of fabric to have people sew my blocks ... 

keeping the postal workers and esp. customs officers in work

In January it happend - I got into 2 bees - a beginners bee and an intermediate bee (of course there is a constant dscussion what intermediate means). I enjoy making the blocks and sending them off but of course "my months" are the best ... especially as I got both around my birthday.

June blocks - the intermediate bee

each one made 3 purple-red-orange thrifty blocks and one block in their colour

I rellay like having my birthday sort of extended into August. I'm missing one block for June, but that Bee is MIA so I will maybe have to wait a little longer or get busy myself. These are for July and I really like how July is turning out.

My design wall is occupied by the June blocks - so I had to turn my floor into a design floor, which means of course putting the blocks away again as soon as I'm done with taking pictures. As you can see I'm already behind and the newest block hasn't yet been on the "design floor" with the rest ...

I really love how that one is coming together

 Leo

I got mail

remember?  a few wekks back I send out some bee blocks? or maybe you could call it swap blocks? hmm well desn't matter mine arrived all. Well my mum is taking care of them for me. Aye well I'm not exactly a patient person, so she opened them for me and took pictures. (And uhh yes that's a brigth red carpet in "my" room - well it's not really mine anymore there is just a lot of my things there)

 Leo

The usual suspects that I link to

almost 200

I just realised that I have almost reached the 200st post - now if I had a sponsor they would probably hand over something nice to have a give away. But yeah I sponsor myself - so I will wait until I figure something out to write the next post.

I had a lovely easter time at home - I even did some sewing, but do you think I remembered to take pictures?

I got rid of our cherry tree though - and dug out that old windowsill - and just left it there until "someone" finds the will to place it as path for picking raspberries.

As far as my plan goes - this is going to be my new sewing place, there is just the tiny problem that I'm too scared to fill the rack with fabric - because it might be a little to heavy for my DIY-rack and the hangers. Well I won't risk it - time will tell what things end up in it.

I finished putting my name on the lists for the lectures - let's hope I get in everywhere. So now I have time to start on my "I moved - here is my new address"-mailing, unorganised as I am I still remembered to get stamps after registering at the town - that makes my now an official resident of "Rhineland-Palatinate" (I wonder how you pronounce that one).

UDATE: I just realised I'm never ever going to be a fan of Hershey's Milk chocolate.

Leo

catching up

For the ones still hopping aorudn the blogs it's that way --->

I didn't realize that I had been so busy .. I wrote a ton of mail ... all paper mail no fabric mail and used some of the not green envelopes and I can report they are standard sized and each of them was painstakingly measured and tested by the dear Lady in the post office.

I played around on the sewing machine

I finsihed a swap project and was just about to post the pictures when I realised that the recipient yould be reading .. so here are soem left overs and scraps from the sewing (sorry it's already dark, no daylight picture). Maybe I should add some of that green fabric to the give away - I didn't remember I had that much left of it.

Even better news I got mail! Batting ... finally some batting again (ok some fabrics too), all my batting had made its way mysteriously into projects of my mum. I will never store anything hand craft related at her place, I will entrust grandma with it. She returend everything the way I left it.

so because there is some fabric in here and one "sewn" word I would say I can link up with Manic Monday

Leo

customs officers

I will start with the not nice things: I do NOT like condescending fat old customs officers! Being happy and smiley about having won some of Colby's Fugly Fabric I waited for the postman. No luck though, I jsut got a letter to please pick up my parcel at the next customs office (in a neighbouring town), I wrote them a mail explaining about give aways blablabla. That's interesting but they would need some proof. I offered to forward the e-mails. Ohh what a shock to the customs officer, the e-mail was in English (who would have thought that with the package being sent from the USA). So no good. I offered to translate, but he didn't like that he wanted me to come. Phewww I reall ydon't like them. Have you ever heared of commercially send fabric wrapped in a plastic zip-lock bag accompanied by a personal note? And yes they know all that because they opened the whole thing (that's what the sello tape says : opened by the post to be processed by customs).
Some people just drive me mad. Did I mention I had to take the train to get to the customs office?

The nice things:
I got some flower fabrics that I will be able to put to good use ...

I'm preparing for swaps and you never know who is looking so just a  peak

And I posted my give away which hopefully will not have such a hard time getting through customs. I had no problems sending it after I told the Lady at the post office that she miss-read my handwriting. I was not sending fabric, crocheting and a syringe, but fabric, crocheting and lace. (well the German words for syringe and lace look very smilar)

Seems I have no luck with officials, they always find a way to annoy me.

Leo

linking with Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday

Mail mail mail

I'm still catching up on the home front - I feel like 12 years again ... I got told off three times today. First for not making breakfast even though I was already up. Then for not having lunch ready at 12:15 and then for not having thought about hanging up the laundry (of which I didn't even know it was in the machine). I know why I do not live at home anymore. so I decided it was time for some comfort chocolate, but as that came in a SWAP I first had to take a picture, which reminded me of all the mail taht was wating for me on Sunday.

  



my heart from the Initial heart SWAP organised by Cheryll

Leo

FINSI (1)

I joined the Lovelies over at the Friday Night Sew In (FINSI) for the first time, and I think I spend my time well. When I changed from work dress into my comfy weeked clothes I realised that I had been running around all day in a lovely sock mix up. I really love both of them, and they actually go well together, but even I am a little too old to run around that way - luckily they were covered by the jeans most of the day.

So and now to the being productive part, I already visited some others, and they seem to have accomplished so much more, but I have to say to my defense I was hand sewing. Some of you may already know my Flower garden and the little border auditioning. So that's what I did, started on the border. As the whole thing is getting quite bulky I decided to just sew a new piece and sew the border on the quilt later.

As I haven't decided, whether to do all the flowers with the dark center (it's one of the petal fabrics in the center flowers) or use the dark and the striped fabric interchangeing, I decided to leave the centers empty for the moment. The whole adventure was accompanied by

And in between I finished some more "save the Royal Mail" things. H.M. Queen Elizabeth II were custom orders - well I bought the post cards, but they were explicitly ordered by the addressees.

Leo

 Edit: as I'm preparing for the journey I didn't get much done on my flowers so I will just enter the one in the started border.

busy weekend

I almost managed ot finish the first border around the center - now I judt need to add another ~ 45 hexagons. I should never have chosen 2 cm (0.79 inch) as size for them.

As that will keep me occupied for another few evenings I'm starting to think how to continue from there. Use more of the same fabric (there is still a bit left from the bed cover) or introduce a new fabric and whether to set it off in white again or not ....

 

And of course not to forget my effort to keep the Royal Mail in business

Linking up with SewHappyGeek and her Manic Monday Party.

more post

As I was not able to buy a ticket home - my lovely (most of the time) mum went to the train station for me. Afraid that my ticket wouls get lost she decided to send a package instead of a simply letter.

 

and the contents - the most important part!

don't you love letters

This arrived this morning from a dear friend back home.

new year greetings from Japan