Friday, 2 January 2009

Time to learn new things

This Christmas I received many unexpected, wonderful presents. Obviously my hobbies have made it easier to choose something I like, find useful, and enjoy for a long time. I started blogging on January 16th last year, and at the same time I started using DH's digital camera. Now Santa has brought me not just one but two guide books to improve my skills. I have only started reading the one on the left, but I hope that by the end of this year you will see some progress!



My dear daughter Kaija is gently pushing me in the direction of more modern ways to play with fabrics, and she brought me the Contemporary Quilting book from her trip to London. My sister P gave me The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. In the book women become friends through their knitting hobby, and I have found many dear friends through sewing blogs.



The most exciting present was this 5" roll of "worn and washed fabrics" Kaija bought for me at Liberty's in London. Many years ago we made a trip to London together, and I took her to that shopping paradise. Now she had returned to the beautiful building and found this surprise for me!


I have not really opened the roll yet, but took a little peek to see what it contains. The fabrics are all 5" wide, but the lengths vary from under 4" to over 30" in the pieces I happened to open.




I think I'll need to enjoy looking at the roll and holding it for a good while. I'm sure the right pattern will be found in due time, and the Perfect Quilt will be made. Meanwhile I have some thousands of meters of fabrics waiting to be transformed to lovely quilts, bags, dolls and clothes.




The weather has been sunny on many days after Christmas. On Wednesday, the last day of last year, I was looking at the sun at noon. It hardly reached over the treetops across the road. But in about two weeks the days will be about one hour longer than at Christmas already. And it is getting colder, today's temperature here is - 15 degrees C or + 5 degrees F. Time for some hot tea, I think!

9 comments:

  1. Good luck with improving your digital camera and blogging skills in 2009. I need to do that too! It looks like you had a nice Christmas.

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  2. I too need to learn my camera better and more about my computer as my son says he isn't always around to do it.Boy oh boy that is nice fabric you will love to work with it. I am so glad that you are my new friend from blogging it is a very special friendship. Hugs, Marie

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  3. Ulla, the Liberty fabric is beautiful. It seems we have both been very lucky ladies with our gifts this year. Re the camera, I have had my camera for over a year and only discovered yesterday that it has a button that fixes things if your hands shake whilst taking a picture! Technology!!

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  4. What lovely gifts! Your daughter really knew what would make you happy! I'm sure you will come up with great ideas!!
    Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2009, full of wonderful moments with family and friends!

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  5. oo -15c Ihope you keep warm Ulla. We are 3c at the moment and I'm feeling it.
    You should have a lot of fun with your new books. I am slowly learning by trial and error what my camera can do.

    What lovely Liberty fabrics. I liked looking in their shop in Oxford. You could often get a skirt length with an elasticated waist top sewn on, so all you needed to sew was a side seam and a hem if needed. They were reasonably priced and beautiful fabrics.

    Happy New Year

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  6. Wow.. how exciting! Even now I can see you are using some of your newly learned skills.. just look a that jelly roll on it's side there.. so creative!
    I love Libery of London lawns.. they make fabulous tiny doll dresses.. and are hard to come by here in the US. What a wonderful present from Kaija.
    Stay warm.. soak in the sun through the windows when you can.

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  7. what wonderful 'goodies'....I really like the 'worn and washed'!

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  8. Munkin mielestä tuo kangasrulla on kiehtova, niin kuin joku salaa väreilevä käämi.

    Oikein hyvää alkanutta vuotta sulle, uusille tilkuille, ja kaikille teille!

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  9. These quiltfabirics "worn and washed" looks so beautiful! I want to sew a quilt with old fabrics, it´s much more beautiful than the new quiltfabrics, they are so boring !

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