finished in four days

my finished in 4 days (including binding) whirlygig quilt!

there's the much-discussed fleece back.

it's not heavily quilted because of the fleece back. fleece doesn't need it.

an inviting little corner - too bad it's really about 3°C out here.

husband wants me to sell the quilt, but i just want to curl up with it!
isn't that robot super adorable? i got him for sabin in berlin.

i even tried my hand at a little free-form embroidery with my sewing machine.

now i'm just wondering what to make next. i'm thinking another quilt, this time in some mod michael miller blues & greens that i've been hoarding.

a little retro inspiration

one day at the flea market, i snatched up these two embroidery books from the seventies for a song. it was that day that i got a discount on the discount. both books are done by an embroidery artist named lis paludan. here's a link to someone who did a bit more research on her than i did. she's a danish woman who taught handicrafts for years and apparently is very well-known for her crochet books as well.  although these books are quite dated and in many ways really, really seventies (to the point where i feel i should listen to ABBA when i look at them), they have a timelessness as well in the simple, almost childlike motifs and bright colors.

i can easily see doing an updated version of these borders

a little tweaking of colors and these flowers would be very noughties.

i love that little owl.

i love this idea of appliquing children's drawings to cloth.

and the anatomical correctness of those three in the middle - very seventies.

sabin did some super cool flower people as a little girl, i think we'll try it with those.

and this row of houses is just so charming.

i think sometimes we look at previous decades and think we can't go there (for me, it's the 80s), but by taking bits and pieces and updating for right now, i think these books were definitely worth the 40 kroner i spent on them.