Tuesday 29 June 2010

Summer doings

Lately I have been busy with my weekly dose of the Between Charming Friends quilt along. This week I have assembled the blocks together for the quilt center and have about one day to finish the inner and outer borders.




What kept me from doing that was another project, with a strict deadline on June 30th, so naturally the strings had to be attached first. Here is a handbag for Stephanie's challenge, sewn with donated strings from my endless stash. I bought some black linen for this when I couldn't find my linen stash, but looking for something else I happened to dive  into a plastic bag with linen scraps and an almost 2 m piece of black linen! So the handbag is completely from stash fabrics after all. I used here the grommets Stephanie sent me some time ago, using the instructions on the back of the packing, Stephanie's tutorial and the encouragement of Suzie.



The other side is also stringy. I took the bag picture with my not so early peonies, but only a few can be seen there, so here is another view. Yesterday they were all just closed buds.


My vegetable patch has changed a lot in 4 weeks, but the only harvest so far can come from the herbs we bought in pots and some lettuce I planted here after using the big leaves for salad. The radishes (two first rows from left) are about 1/4" thick.



I feel heroic after having cleaned the living room windows, finally! The new fireplace caused a repair work on the parquet, and the whole floor had to be treated so there was no colour difference between old and new boards. When this dusty business was over (yesterday), it was so necessary but also so easy to clean the windows. If we had empty rooms with no furniture and especially no "stuff",  cleaning the house would only take a few minutes. But now we are slowly returning to normal life with carpets on the floors, chairs and tables in the room, and I might even hang the curtains some day.

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations on another string finish. I just love the bag colors and the grommets look fantastic!!! Your charming friends project is so pretty. I really like how the 4-patches float.

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  2. Both projects are really nice! Congrats on finishing the string bag in time!! It looks wonderful on the gorgeous peonies. Ahh... housework only taking a few minutes, definitely a dream!

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  3. Ulla, the quilt and bag are lovely and thats the way your garden is looking also.
    Ow cleaning windows-yuk I hate doing that. That is one thing that makes me thankful for winter-I can't clean the outside of the windows-lol.
    hugs Deb

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  4. Both projects are quite lovely, Ulla!

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  5. What a beautiful quilt!

    I did not see the wedding on tv, but I looked at photos of the wedding and the guests in their fine dress the next day.

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  6. Both projects are gorgeous!! You had a very productive week...and it's only Tuesday!! Your garden is lush and wonderful!!
    Take care and enjoy it!!
    Paulette

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  7. Well done Ulla glad the house is coming together again after all the fireplace work. Your veg bed looks so neat and tidy.
    Pretty peonies too.

    The string bag turned out really well. Good luck finishign your quilt top on time.

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  8. Another string finish and its a great bag! LOL-I have some potholders.

    I absolutely love the quilt you are working on! Its brilliant with the white outlines-took me a minute to figure out what I was seeing. I always love when that happens!

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  9. Hi Ulla..
    Both your new quilt and bag are very beautiful. I especially love your new quilt.

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  10. Your new quilt looks so beautiful, that's a great project. And your bag is gorgeous!! Grommets are a very good idea for bags. Hope you also having a nice weather.

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  11. You quilt is gorgeous, Ulla, and I love the string bag! Your vegetables look so pretty in their beds, too! I'm so glad you finally have good growing weather!
    Cheers!

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  12. Your string bag is awesome with those grommets! Love that!! Also fun to see another Charming Girl in the mix! Wink!!

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  13. Having repair or structural work done inside the house is such a pain- and cleaning is awful! You have my sympathy for all that hassle.
    The quilt and the bag are lovely- I especially like the colours in the quilt! The bag looks very smart! And your peonies are lovely- LOTS of buds, they must have been just amazing when they all came out. Mom's bushes didn't have nearly as many flowers as yours, they never do, although the individual flowers are so beautiful.

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