The best laid plans and all that……… :-)

I had planned to do a lot of sewing machine work these past 2 days, but my body and I are not on the same team right now.
Stitchery is nice though, combined with a lot of tea and my feet up. It is a matter of counting your blessings, not your limitations, right ? :-)
I do have a small finish for November already, and do not have to force any finishes on this last day of November, which is Good in my book !

It is freezing cold outdoors - minus 16 degrees C + wind chill.

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All this talking about baking  and baking covers made me want to bake more!

Whole grain bread rolls - yummy - and we had them with fish burgers for a quick dinner today too - yummy.
There are still enough rolls  for tomorrow + for the freezer.
I wish this was a photo with smell - bread rolls smell very nice!

Talking about baking traditions:

I bought this lovely box at Berlin Airport in Germany the weekend before last. I bought it for the box, thinking it might contain cookies or something, but found it contained this lovely fruit cake Christstollen.

This fruit cake has a very long tradition in Germany, according to the leaflet in the box with the cake.
I do not read German very well, but I could read that this cake tradition has roots back to the 1400 century - how nice is that!

If you by any chance has a good Christstollen recipe to share I would be a happy recipient.
My DH and I have had a slice of this delicious cake / fruit bread for our 7 pm coffee for a few days now :-)

As you might see from my first photo, the baking cover stitchery is done and I hope to work more on it tomorrow.
The small stitcheries will be part of my Christmas gifts this year.

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~Reflect upon your present blessings,
of which every man has plenty;
not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. ~
Charles Dickens

Hanne

More on the baking cover pattern giveaway - a change of rules

May Britt and myself have learned over the last few days that the decorated baking covers seems to be mostly a Scandinavian tradition and that it is more common to use a regular tea towel in other parts of Europe and in other parts the world.

The more a reason to enter the giveaway! :-)

But - in order for you to do so we have to change the rules a bit, to fit reality:

1. You have to have a blog AND you have to be reachable by mail.
2. Tell us what you like the best to bake - bread or cakes
3. Make a blog post about baking if you will - it will make it fun for us to visit your blog

The deadline for the entries will still be Wednesday at 6 pm ( noon New York time)

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The rhyme on the baking cover goes:

In Norwegian:

Bake bake kake
Rulle rulle bolle
Ringle ringle kringle
og puff inn i ovnen

Translated to English (not included in the pattern):

Bake bake cake
Roll roll bun
Twist twist pretzel
and in the oven it goes

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My girls learned this rhyme in kindergarten, complete with arm movements, and it is so fun to stitch - I aim at finishing the stitchery today.
It is not unlikely I will make more than one of these baking covers in  a while :-)

Visit May Britt's blog to see the stitchery for the pattern in the pattern giveaway finished.

Our friend Bente finished this baking cover this weekend - isn't it cute?

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I found this lovely free stitchery pattern here - I bet she will look cute on a baking cover too :-)

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"Broken cookies don't have calories" Author unknown.

Hanne

More baking covers - and a challenge / give away.

All good things do not always come to an end :-)
May Britt, Bente and myself are having a Start of Advent weekend together.
We are all stitching on baking covers, and we are having a great time!
Above is mine, from Northern Quilts, in variegated blue Cosmo thread.

Next is Bente's gingerbread men, embroidered with 2 colours of brown DMC floss.

This is May Britt's baking cover, partly hidden in her new Christmas box - the same design as the one I am doing.

Bente brought this lovely vintage baking cover for us to admire.
She has got it as a gift many years ago from a lady she knew, Mrs. Monsen - see the beautiful monogram. The baking cover  is now more than 70 years old.

A challenge for you, if you like to have it:

Make a blog post about your baking cover(s).
If you are so inclined, please tell a good memory about baking too :-)

May Britt and I have 3 baking cover patterns from Northern Quilts, sponsored by Wenche at Northern quilts,  that you may win. They are in Norwegian, and with Norwegian text on the stitchery, but you can easily change the text to your own language and/or stitch the baking goods only.

Let us know in our comment sections about your blog post and we will visit your blog.
The challenge ends at Wednesday December 1st., at 6 pm Norwegian time,  which is noon New York  time.

We will draw the prices in the evening on Wednesday.

Have fun :-)

Hanne

This and that

Since I have not been very blog active for a while, I have some catching up to do.

This Tilda Christmas stocking is done - remember I blogged the kit a few weeks back ?
It will be a gift for a cute little girl in our family, the daughter of our niece. She just turned 2 years.

Remember these strip blocks?

The 6" blocks (finish size) are now a finished top for a future care quilt.
I guess it will not be done before after Christmas. I have to piece the backing too.

After about 25 years of quilting I finally have a sewing room with all my fabrics, books, patterns and other quilt related things in it!
Nearly all my quilt related things I might say, as the sewing corner in the living room will still live - it is the very best place to sew in this house!
But - I finally have got the big overview of all my things - I do not think I Need to buy much for a long time!

I can see a lot of care quilts coming on over the next year.
The 2 fabric / book cupboards got moved last week and it is very visible if I use from them. Right now the older fabrics are stored there - a lot of bright colours from the Debbie Mumm era.

It is good it is the end of the year, sort of, a good time to make a fresh start and with some photos it it easy to record improvements through 2011.
If you wonder where those 2 cupboards were before, I can tell you that the master bedroom now is a bedroom only, not doubling as a quilt storage room. DH is happy!

Hanne

Baking season :-)

I do not like to bake cakes very much, but I love to bake bread and other goodies with yeast.
I am good with yeast, I enjoy the process! (said the humble baker ;-) )
I enjoy covering the dough with a clean baking cover and I enjoy covering the fresh bread with the same cover after.

Here are my baking covers, including the one over the breads - one with cross stitching on it, one with a simple applique (not ironed after washing yet), one vintage plain white with a lovely pattern in the fabric and one in printed linen I bought in Tallinn, Latvia,  last year.

I have recently bought these 2 embroidery kits for baking covers and plan to do one in brown and one in red embroidery.
They are bought at my favourite quilt shop, Lappemakeriet.
Visit their new blog!

I also want to make this baking cover, with a traditional nursery /baking rhyme on it. It is cute!
The design is from Northern Quilts, just like the Christmas Hearts.

One of my good memories from years back is when my grandmother had baked bread very late in the evening when I came home to their house during vacations, after hanging out with friends during my teenage years.
My grandmother always baked the very very best bread and she used a baking cover similar to my vintage white one.

Lately some have started using plastic behind their baking covers, but I do not like that, as it limits the baking covers to the dough only.
It makes the dough rise faster, but in my not so humble opinion I think that yeast dough is better when it is not rising that fast.
You can not cover your bread, cakes or cookies after with a plastic cover either.

May Britt has blogged about her baking covers too - take a look and drop in later this week, both here and there for a nice surprise :-)

Hanne

Slow steps forward :-)

It feels like I have been on the sick list for a long time - stomach flu, cold /flu and tiredness.
One good thing though - I am forced to slow down, even if I do not feel like it right before Christmas.
I like to be done with the Christmas gifts here in the sewing corner early - but not so this year.

Sometimes it looks so comfy to be a cat, just 'laxing through the days, watching the papers and the sewing goods.

Under this furball is a 8" square quilt, and it was all it took to make her claim my desk basket as her own. I guess it takes a cat to find that pile comfy.

Come to think about it when I see a corner of my sewing machine on the photo above, several people have asked what I think about my new Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.
I am still in love with the machine and it meets my needs very well!
Nothing wrong with my old Janome 6600 either, other than the fact that it was high in the front and I am not a tall lady, so my hands and shoulders got more tired than they do now.
I hope the new owner is as happy about it as I was before my shoulders gave in!

When I am not in my best shape, stitchery is a lovely thing to work on, and now all the hearts for my Christmas Hearts BOM are done. Come next week I will finish the quilt / table cloth.

It is secrecy season again, and the first batch of packets are ready to leave the house.
It is fun to make these Advent Sunday calendars!

Hanne

Starting backwards :-)

I have a lot of nice things to blog about, and I will start backwards, with a small finish I did today.

A gift drawstring pouch ? A place to store my Christmas valuables ? A joy for the eyes only ?

I have used from my fabric and thread collection only  - the stitchery is from Hatched and Patched.

I know for sure I will make more of these pouches!
I have more lovely small stitcheries done and more on my to do list - just for fun, pleasure and joy!

Hanne

Sunday plans

The best laid plans - you know all about them, don't you ?
Well, today my plans are not to ambitious (I think hope).

My goal for today is to finish, from A to Z, this Christmas stocking from Tilda, for a Christmas gift, and move my Christmas BOM table cloth several steps forward.

I have a tendency to buy kits on half price after Christmas - this January no exception. I have more, I have more - and I promise not to repeat the action after Christmas this year.

I can however promise to finish one more of my Tilda kits before Christmas, for my own pleasure only, but that is food for another post on another day.

Can you see what is written on my beautiful tin ?
Merry Christmas in many different languages - isn't it gorgeous ?

To be continued, so to say, wishing you all a wonderful day wherever you are :-)

Hanne

In the mood….

 

….. in the red mood, again.

Red is my happy colour, red is my comfort colour, and I turn to red again and again.
I never was much of a Christmas person, but I love Advent and this year I am surprised over myself enjoying Christmas work this early.

I had many plans for this week, but a stomach bug / stomach flu have got the best of me for the last 3 days.
Now the fever is gone and I am feeling better.
I managed to do a little cutting of fabrics and some stitchery, but that was all.

I am ready to prep Christmas heart # 2!

Hanne