Thursday, January 12, 2023

2023 has begun (and a little ending from 2022)

With 2022 ending, my blocks for the #focuscuttingsewalong from Instagram has been sewn together (notice the two lonely blocks at the bottom). I used triangles in dark blue between each block, and I have to figure out a solution to join these two blocks with the other ones. And then, how to finish the top (and then! quilt and bind it). This year's sewalong started a couple of weeks ago, and this year we are playing with honeycombs. 


My Christmas Day cast-on (I finished a scarf on Christmas Eve) was the "Slow Shawl". I'm using the yarn I got in the 2021 Advent Calendar from Værbitt. Here's the first four colours knitted up. I'm using approximately half of each skein (mini skeins) for the beginning, and I'll see how far I get with that strategy before I decide to use the rest of the yarn too. It's finally making sense, after a few (many..) repetitions and increases, and I can now more or less knit it by memory (with the help of a ton of stitchmarkers). The yarn is Finull, which is 100% wooly wool. Very nice to work with. 


Two of the first finished projects for 2023 were these project bags from previous years from the Norwegian quilting association (NQF) from Bergen and Tromsø. These kits were my mom's, but she'd had them stored for quite some time, so I asked if I could make them. I'd like to make them again, perhaps with another stitchery (or with a motif fabric). The front one was fun to make, but the one in the back was way easier to make. 


Last year we upgraded our Christmas tree - from a 140 cm one to a 180 (I think) cm one. Finally we were able to get some air between our ornaments! And Hubby brought out some of the ornaments he got when he was little. It's a fun mix of vintage and old ornaments, handmade ornaments - and ornaments made by the kids in kindergarden or at school.


We spent New Years Eve home just the four of us. None of us changed into pretty clothes, but kept the comfy clothes on. (A little unusual, but quite nice.) We met up with some neighbours to see some fireworks earlier in the evening, and both kids stayed up until midnight to watch the big fireworks go up. This was A's fist time staying up this late - and shen enjoyed herself very much. 


Just before Christmas my Nebula returned from the quilter. I sent it to Lappemor, and Anne Heidi did a wonderful job quilting it. It's so enormously huge it's covering our entire floor! 


I even signed the label and sewn it on the back. I had to go back in my photo archive to see when I made the first block - it was back in January 2021 - and the last stitch of the binding was sewn December 11th 2022. I'm now ready for a new Tula Pink BOM - I've signed up for the Queen of Diamonds, starting Summer 2023. 


Around Christmas, small projects, stitcheries and decorations seem to appear all over our house. This is a section of the dresser in our hallway. I love to swap the mini quilts and stitcheries on this board. Sometimes I'll add postcards or photos.


The first weekend in January brought a ton of snow to our little corner of the world. On Thursday they cancelled all of the buses around in our area - and we shuffled snow three times! And Friday came with even more snow and shuffling. The roads were not prepped when the time came to pick up A from school, so I waded up there (snow up to my ancles) and we both waded home. 

A managed to build a tine snowman family (we had to buy carrots for the first time in ages). Unfortunetly, the very next day the rain melted the snowmen and only the carrots remain. 


I'm continuing my plan from 2022 to finish as many started projects as possible, and have copied my list of projects over to my new planner. I'm happy to report that more than one of these projects are now completed. *yay*

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