Oh the nesting...

Around (very round ) 4 weeks to go and my hormons are doing a full time job at making me clean, sort, organise and redo the house. There is hardly any rest. The books I got from the library for those last lazy weeks are sitting unread on my desk. Instead there is more clearing, and sewing and knitting and shopping. I completely had forgotten how busy these weeks were. And so full of joy and wonder and expectations and worries, oh my...
Baby has been estimated rather large (not big) and the specialist that my OB told me to go to, to get a full check up, suggested to prepare myself for a possible c-section just in case. My plans for this birth are quite different though. I have booked a midwife and want to give birth at her house, a place she runs with a few other midwifes, very peaceful, sweet and beautiful. Now, after talking to my midwife after what the specialist said today  I feel more easy again to still follow my path for this birth. Why should I not be able to give birth to a large baby, hey?! What helps also to take my fears, is reading lots and lots of birth stories over at Birth without fear, such a wonderful, encouraging blog in times like this.
Aarons birth was nothing I have to repeat, although we managed to avoid the c-section in the end. It all started very well at home, and ended 36 hours and 6 hours of pressing later in hospital with epidural, vacuum, doctors jumping on my belly and so on. It toke me days, rather weeks to build a connection to my baby. This time I want to prepare myself differently, somehow. We'll see how that goes.

Until then let me show you what I busy myself with theses days:

We moved the changing table that was still standing in Aarons room to our bedroom. So Aarons room was painted a little and became more kids-like and less babyish. I thrifted this wooden folding table (his room is very small and he like to play football in it). The chairs I found at the street a while back.

My heart is beating with pride when I tell you Aaron has finally discovered his love for colors and painting. We truely enjoy those times together and made a few colored hearts for his baby sister and pinned them next to the changing table. Creating her a tiny little corner full of love.

The gnome I have knitted last year from hand dyed and spun wool, Aaron got a simular one in green. 

The sewing, I almost forgot to mention is happening a lot too, the cover on the changing table for example. I am using mainly fabric with african prints at the moment, it feels so much like us somehow. Those two Saroul were made yesterday, so very simple and fast and so cute and comfy. I gave them a warm inlay for that early spring baby to be nice and warm. The purple fabric is, surprise, thrifted from an old dress I bought just because of the fabric last spring. I even wrote about it here.

I guess except baby talk there will be little to be found on this blog in the next weeks, I hope you don't mind and still join me for the countdown...

Thank you!

Today I recieved a wonderful package from Canada. I had won a give-away over at Pin and Purl and could choose any two items of Christines Etsy shop, which wasn't easy... In the end I decided for the embroidered spring flowers and the printed vegetable greeting cards. And that was a great choice. Isn't it all so, so pretty? And I love the peacock feather printing bookmark so much! 

Thank you Christine, I feel so lucky!

Since I experienced again how much fun it is to win a give-away, I was also inspired in my last post, to host one myself, I hid it a little so see if you can find it ;-) I will leave the comments open until next Weekend (22.7.)
It is fun to find places for my little crocheted blossoms. And it makes me very happy to use my handspun yarn as much as possible, even as strings for this little linen project bag that I made for my crotchet stuff.

It's done...

Ok it didn't get much bigger from when I showed it to you yesterday, but it is done! I feel like this is just the right size for a wall hanger. Sorry, the picture didn't turn out very well but I only had two nails in a rather dark spot and didn't want to add any new once since I will give this quilt to my granddad. 

One apron was left, it didn't fit too well with the other but I used it as the backing. If I had to choose the colors for my own quilt I wouldn't match those fabrics, but since I wanted to use my grandmothers aprons that's what came out of it... And I love it and can't wait to give it to my granddad.

Gut Ding will Weile haben

"Gut Ding will Weile habe" we say in German for things, that have taken a long time but somehow turn out well in the end. Leo translates it to "Haste makes waste". The plan to make a quilt from my late grandmothers aprons (I showed them here) has been in my mind for a good while now, supported by the wonderful Barbara, who sent me a copy of an american quilting magazin for beginners. I must say that this really kicked me to keep it up, but also knocked me down a bit after I found out that some utensiles are really helpful and nessecary to start quilting. I had none of that. But, with financial support (indirectly also from my grandmom, because my granddad had shared some of her money with us) I ordered the missing pieces (mat and cutter) and yesterday night I did it! Well, I am not finished yet, but for some reason, this is one of the few projects I don't mind about how long it might talk. It just feels sooooo good to worship something my grandmother used to wear on a daily basis and upcycle it into something else.

I am even using some old thread I have found in my grandmothers sewing basket. I was so happy when I thought about it in time for the project. What else would it be better to use it for.
Acctually I am not quite sure yet, what the quilt will end up as, a wall hanging, a small blanket or a pillow cover. I am doing it step by step, holding fabric pieces, choosing carefully what piece to place where. There is no plan, no exact aim. I am floating and savoring every moment of working at this project.

That is how I decided to use the button lines as well, and some part of a pocket. It just happend, it just felt right.
To not overwhelm the pattern I added some plain linen (from Ikea). I think it matches the vintage style. Into the centre of the quilt I printed my very favourite picture of my grandparents, riding a camel in Tunisia on one of their many trips around the world.

My plan is to give the finished quilt to my grandfather for his birthday in August. I am just not sure if he can take it, we'll have to see.

I never expected quilting to be so much fun, if there wasn't all that spinning, knitting, gardening, blogging, playing, baking, loving to do (and a wee bit of working too) I would do it all day long ;-)

Some rainy Sunday - Ein verregneter Sonntag

We woke up to rain. Not just some rain, it came pouring down. And it wasn't going to stop. Our initial plans of spending the day outside in a park at a circus festival were drained. 

Es regnete in Strömen als wir heute Morgen das erste Mal aus dem Fenster schauten und nun, viele Stunden später, tut es das immer noch. Das Gauklerfest in einem Park, zu dem wir eigentlich hatten gehen wollen fiel leider ins Wasser.  

Instead there was some indoor football (not much longer of that, his kicking is getting stronger by the day), knitting and singing. Finally I also found time to try my new cutter, dear what a difference it makes to my old, blunt sciccors. And I wrote that poem onto a cup with a very fine porcelain marker. Somehow I like it.

Stattdessen wurde Wohnzimmer-Fussball gespielt (allerdings nicht mehr lange, seine Schüsse werden langsam ziemlich kräftig), gestrickt und gesungen. Ich habe auch endlich die Zeit gefunden, meinen neuen Rollschneider (hab gerade keine Ahnung wie das Ding offiziell heißt) auszuprobieren. Was für ein Unterschied zu meiner alten stumpfen Schere. Und dann habe ich noch das Gedicht mit einem sehr feinen Porzellan-Marker auf eine Tasse geschrieben. Irgendwie gefällt mir das.

Then I found out that Lori is back from Namibia and we spend a long time watching lots of breathtaking pictures on her blog. Welcome back dear Lori! So good to hear from you again and take part in your beautiful adventures. Aaron was very exhited about your pictures too :-)

Sewing Season

Something had to be done about my thread spools. They kept twisting and knotting and unwinding in the box I stored them in. They made me not want to do any sewing. Pinterest helped again! I saw a very inspiring picture of a thread holder which strangly enough turmed out to be by my africa traveling friend Lori. How small this creative blogging world can be at times... Anyway, Loris picture made me remember one of the driftwoods board I found at the shore back in March. And it was finally brought to use by piercing it with very, very many nails. Aaron wanted to sit on my lap the whole time, so nailing was a little challenging...

But we made it!

And I am very happy with the result.

May I introduce you to me precious little sewing space? We live in a rather small rented apartment of 64 qm ( 689 sf ) and I am so happy to have this little space to myself, always set up and ready to sew (except when it is very unorganized). You can see Nathans working out zone being right next to it...

The yellow drawing of a person is me, drawn by one of my clients, so well captured I must say!

It was about time I prepared my sewing space as some presents needed to be whipped up soon. The first thing that got done was a tool belt for a newly four year old busy worker (a friends son). Aaron didn't want to try it in so some drift wood had to do the job.

And my mum finally got her belated Mother's Day present, a Burlap Garden Trug, designed by Maya and shown in the first issue of Taproot. Oh how I love that magazine!

Now, after the first fast projects, I feel ready to get started on my much thought about and never actually begun quilt made from my grandmums old aprons (btw the belt on the tool bag is a belt from one of her aprons). And Barbara sent me a wonderful push up so, it has to be done, no more excuses! If you don't see any results in the next week or so, please keep pushing me!

Treasures from my grandmothers closet

I am sure my late grandmother has owned some very valuable things, like jewelry, pottery and the like. We have not gone into the details of sorting through those things yet, it just didn't feel right. My grandfather wanted some closets to be cleared though. Look what I found: treasures!

Having grown up during the second world war, my grandma wasn't what you'd call a crafter, she was more of a fixer. She never threw things but mended them with care as well as she could. She only made things that were needed, like socks, table cloth, carpets. Like the one in the picture. When I said I would take it I was not sure at all wether I wanted it in our sitting room but I really like it now. It is so colorful and it makes me very happy to know that Aarons great-grandmother made the carpet he is playing on now. (He has another mat in his room that his ugandan godfather has brought for him from Uganda, the type of palm leafe mat Aarons ugandan grandmother makes.)

I love all these vintage aprons that I found. Unfortunatly I never wear aprons so I am thinking about using the fabric for something unique, like a quilt (never quilted before either, but it seems like a good reason to start, right?). I am not sure I can cut into those lovely pieces though...

And did you notice the hanger? WHY on earth does anyone knit or crochet around hangers? They are covered by clothes and are hidden in a closet most of their life (unless you have a blog and want to show off your sewings which I doubt my grandma did)... 

What treasures are hidden in your families closets?

A Good Friday

Today has been the first day of my holidays. On Monday we will go to visit my parents and I can't wait to go, get treated, take spinning lessons with my mom, all those good things.

For now, we just try to make our days as good as they could be: Today started with a long sleep in (including Aaron). For breakfast we had homemade bread that I baked yesterday night after I had made butter myself for the first time ever and thought this fresh butter really needs some fresh bread to go with. There is nothing better: bread, butter and salt. 

Did you know it is very easy to make butter? You just have to fill cream into a jar and keep shaking for around 10-15 minutes. 

For lunch we had baked purple potatos with fresh rosmarin and some salat. Another simple treat.

After another long nap we finally made it outdoors and back to the stone beach of Father Rhine (that's what Germans call their river Rhine sometimes because its one of the longest and most important rivers here.) The stone beach we chose again because of Aarons new passion for throwing rocks into the water. He can do this for hours and enjoys every single "plop", when the stone hits the water.

This time I didn't forget to take a lighter so we collected all the wood we could find and made a small bonfire, Aarons first open fire ever. It was magical somehow and a bit smoky... Nathan and me both forgot our mobils at home, how fortunate. We were timeless and went home with the sun set.
We only brought some water, so no picnic either, just fire and rocks, water  and this wonderful hebrew song that I love so much:

Eli Eli
she'lo yigamer l'olam
hachol v'hayam
rishrush shel hamayim
b'rak hashamayim
tfilat ha'adam

hachol v'hayam
rishrush shel hamayim
b'rak hashamayim
tfilat ha'adam

My God, my God,

let these things never end. 

The sand and the sea. 

The rush of the waters.

 The lightning in the heavens.

 The prayer of mankind.

 The sand and the sea.

 The rush of the waters.

 The lightning in the heavens.

 The prayer of mankind

I brought my new tote bag which I sewed yesterday while I was waiting for the bread to rise. The fabric is from one of those skirts I found at the flea market last weekend, I am so in love with the fabric that I wanted to make something I can carry around with me all the time. It is a very simple Purl Bee pattern and was a joy to wipe up.

I love collecting things at the beach. Mostly driftwood but since there was not very much at the place we were, and we needed all of that for the fire, I gathered stones, special stones with stripes. It's like they really want to tell a story, an ancient story. And then I found this Good-Friday-Stone (first picture). Don't you think it looks just like a cross? I felt to exhited to find such a stone on Good Friday. Imagine this stone has already been around at the time Jesus died ( and much longer of course)... I really like stones.

To all of you a wonderful easter weekend with lots of eggs and the like!

Yarn along - Well seated

Knittin and reading. My favourite things to complete a perfect day. So I am joining Ginny on Wednesdays for Yarn Along to share my passions with you. Come and join in if you like!

I guess I don't have to explain to you very much about what I am reading at the moment, right? Or are any of you not in love with Soulemamas blog and have not heared about the new beautiful magazine Taproot? It arrived today and I am so very exhited. Even though, or maybe especially because we live in a big city with just a balcony to maintain, I love it all. And it does wake longings in me, for more nature around me, more roots....

The other item in that picture, the one that looks a lot like a felted sombrero, is my attempt to make a seat cushion for this old wooden stool that I found at the street some month back. The top of that stool has seen lots of stuff (not getting into details...) even before it reached us. There are some kids drawings on it for example.

I have wanted to make a cushion for that stool since the day I found it. It has never been a priority though... Until I found an article on felted strings in one of my mums "Landlust" magazines (yes, she has a whole pile if them and I looked through all of them and took pictures of all the ideas I liked). First you have to crochet some strings (chain stitch) out of feltable yarn, then felt them in the washing machine. Here are some of the ideas from the magazin for you: (I guess acctually that is not exactly legal, is it?)

Anyway, I once tried to knit the seat cushion from "More last minute knitted gifts" and failed at that. Very strange knitting that is, knitting in a circle...

Now I gave that crochet hook a try, just chain stitches, so no hurt feelings here and used up all my felting yarn stash and my mums handspun skeins. It didn't turn out to be enough in the end though and I'll have to get some more strings to finish the cushion but I am getting there. 

This is how the felted strings looked like after they went into the machine.

Then I started sewing the strings together, round after round, after round, after round, you get the idea...

Somehow the thing ended up a little more tight than I had intended so it looked more like a bowl or a sombrero. I put all my hope into blocking or rather some extra felting and pressing with a hot iron.  

Which turned out to be a good idea.

  

So for now, at least the cushion is flat. As I said, a little small though. I want to attache one more string as soon as I can and add some strings at the sides too so I can fix it to the stool because Aaron love to take off that cushion, I don't think he likes it...

Oh and btw, there is some more reading to come as I found some great books at the flea market last sunday. I just have to show you, I got a little maniac at that market...

The sheep with the cake is celebrating her birthday and gets some great presents from her friends. In the end she presents everyone with a knitted gift made from her own wool, so beautiful. I love children books!

Some great fabric founds were also made (or rather clothes and sheets I bought just for the fabric). I have all these sewing projects in my mind, I just can't decide where to start...

But, for now: Happy Yarning!