Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I should be working on my quilt, but instead I made a belt out of the scraps, sue me:) Now I just have to find some pretty belt buckles and then I’ll make one in every color available in my stash. Think of the possibilities - a matching belt to every bag *swoon*! 

Sounds like a great idea? Go and make one with this fab tutorial over at Not Quite Vintage.

As you probably know, I’m totally in love with the Mendocino line from Heather Ross. I’m so in love with it, that I kept every little scrap from the Mermaid Quilt. It turns out that it was worth it, because Bloom’s great tutorial uses just the tiniest amount of my favorite fabric, perfect to show off the little mermaids. 

I used some brown linen from my new quilt (yeah the one I don’t have enough of) and added some elastic band. I can see myself make a few more of these, and I think a notebook with such a pretty cover would make a great present. If you need some more inspiration check out the tutorials from my “Make something” post.

…because yesterday I bought a 60 year old sewing machine! I went to the thrift store to look for a small drawer and found one. But when I opened it, it wasn’t a drawer but a sewing machine! A Pfaff 30 to be exact.

My first thought was: I need this! My second one: what the hell am I gonna do with it? And then it went like this: Maybe I could use it for all the stiff layers and leather? How does this work? Where the hell is the bobbin? Oh found it. Nah it’s too big, I don’t have enough space for that monster. Oh look, pinking shears!

And that was that. The pinking shears sealed the deal, because the last time I went to buy some I was to cheap to spent the 30 Euros, and now I could have them together with a SEWING MACHINE for 30 Euros.

And not only that, but a lot of threads, measuring tape, needles, chalk, a manual (thank you) and some buttons. Now I only have to clean the whole thing, oil it up and figure out how it works. Did I mention that it doesn’t have a motor and there are 12 steps to thread this thing? :)

If you want to see more of the craziness, click here and head over to flickr for a few more shots.

I don’t know what’s wrong with my brain, but for some reason I’m not capable of calculating fabric. Working on the blocks yesterday, it hit me that I completely forgot the border and that I don’t need 25 but 30 blocks. That wouldn’t be a problem if I hadn’t bought the last frackin’ bolt of the brown linen!! Argh! So now I have to go back to the store and pray that they have a meter left somewhere and if not, I’ll either have to make the quilt smaller or come up with another idea for the border. These are the options: green cotton border (the solid from the blocks), green linen border (they have a light green) or natural linen. I still keep my fingers crossed that they have some of the brown left, until then I leave you with a crappy pic of a few blocks with sashing.

I just want to show you the MacBook sleeve I made a couple of months ago before I start on the new one. If I remember correctly this was the 4th project I made after buying my sewing machine and the first time I tried some applique.

It fits it’s purpose, but I really wanna make one with the bear fabric and a different shape. For this one I used some wool blend suit fabric and the orange bird fabric from Ikea for the lining. And I had to use the Sandi Henderson Apple Dot print for my fake Apple logo. So please Apple, don’t sue me :)

…at least in my crafting room, because outside it’s still pretty cold. I finally started my spring quilt, and so far I have 15 blocks done and only 10 more to go. I’m not entirely sure about the sashing though. First I thought white cotton, then green cotton and now I switched to linen because I think I’d like a bit more variation texturewise. So going through the beige, white and green linen in the store my eyes fell on a chocolate brown one, and there goes my spring concept. I guess I’m not the light and airy girl after all. Here is a sneak peak of the blocks without the sashing, I think I can show you some finished blocks on Monday.