Ravenhill

Happy creative weekend!

A fresh Marie Claire is perfect inspiration. The magazine always has some fabulous embroidery that quenches my never ending thirst for eye candy. I think it was what finally motivated me to take out my supplies and I played with some variegated threads in some free-form embroidery with no plan or purpose other than to try out the pretty flosses.

My subscription to this French magazine must have run out because this summer issue is in the shop but not my mailbox so I bought it at the kiosk.

I don't usually make anything in the magazines but the colors and patterns can spur me on to action.

 Isn't this a delightful splash of color?

I am positively silly over buying new threads lately. It is embarassing really, but if I embroider all day and night then I can likely use them in my lifetime. Well, maybe with Lilly's help...

Embroidery seems better than knitting with wool in this unusual heat wave here in Oslo, Norway. My brother is coming to visit in a few days, traveling all the way from cool and cloudy Maine. What a shock he is going to have when he gets off the plane. Norway seems to have gotten tropical.

My first roses are in bloom and the kids are already picking blueberries! The berries are typically ripe a month from now. I wonder what has happened to the usual month of cool and rainy weather we get this time of year?

I hope my adoration of colors and threads will inspire you to do some creative play of your own! Happy weekend!

 

A skirt for Lilly

I thought I would surprise my dear friends, family and readers with a blog post this morning! I have really been terrible lately about finding time to sit down and blog. The sunshine and perfect weather have been calling me outdoors. We just run in once in awhile when we are hungry. Our little pool is filled up and the kids are splashing and sqealing out there from as early as 7 am many days. Sorry neighbors, such summer joy just cannot be suppressed!

Here they are bright and early today. This morning my husband is taking the children to visit Oldemor, my husgand's grandma. I would have liked to have gone too but I needed the day to myself even more. Lilly is wearing the brand new skirt I made for her.

I was just going to put the one yellow yo-yo on there but she insisted on 3. She also chose the fabrics for the skirt. I picked the vintage ricrac. I think we make a good designer team, don't you?

My matryoshka creations end up all over the world. The other day I had an order from someone in the town next door to my hometown! I thought that was fun and even more fun was seeing Fru Herland on this blog. I hope you will read her post because it was so delightful! Thank you so much Rhea. I will definitely drop by and visit Alewives and visit with you when I am in Maine!

Before I run off and do whatever I please I wanted to tell you that I have new needlebooks in the shop.

You might also want to hurry to Jennifer's as she is having an amazing give away that ends tomorrow, June 28 at 5 pm. Please tell her I sent you!

Now I have a custom order to finish. I haven't painted a face in months and am a bit nervous about it. It is probably like riding a bicycle though I will remember how when I sit down to do it. Doing this embroidery on the back was really fun. I really love it when someone asks me to embroider something special on a doll. 

Thank you so much to everyone who wrote such lovely messages on my last post. Your kind words really meant a lot to me. I hope you will have a wonderful weekend!

Knit one miss you

My closest friend in Norway is moving away tomorrow. It might be just for a year but more likely it is for good. I have had many moves myself over the years and many good friends move away but it is still very sad to say good bye. Funny that her moving seems to have inspired a big knitting craze, because not only had we both moved from the US to Norway, married Norwegian guys, had kids the same ages, etc etc we also both love to knit and that is what we did nearly every time we got together as we chatted up a storm. So the needles would fly and our we could chat about everything under the sun for hours. So I suppose this stack of yarn I bought over the weekend is an attempt to cheer myself up.

Sebastian joined me on an the train to downtown. It only takes 5 minutes to walk to the train and then the ride is 12 minutes. We were going to go to the library but we never ended up getting there. We did some window shopping, went to see what was at the toy store, and found a couple of summery sweaters for me and socks for him. The most fun though was going to the yarn store together. I blew my entire birthday gift card from January on buying yarn for making Sebastian's long list of winter gear that he wants.

 

I picked up this new PT pattern book with some great tradional Nowegian Selbu inspired patterns. The colors my dear son picked out were far from traditional and are making the knitting ever so much fun.

 

So this is his sock so far. Aren't those great colors together? The best part about it is that for now, when he grows out of hand-knitted socks I can use them! He is growing like a little weed and has feet nearly as big as mine so I am knitting these in my (our) size.

I can't really say that the knitting will begin to fill the gaping hole the departure of this dear friend will make in my life, but they do say that knitting is therapeutic.

Actually, it is hard to find time to dwell on anything sad with my children around! Summer vacation started today and my little one doesn't even have time to get her face washed after her lunch before she runs off to play. I only caught her in the camera here, but she was playing in a little tent with a friend when I took this and the house was filled with giggles.

Let's go shopping!

Sometimes my sweet customers post a photo of my doll on their blog. Mary was one such appreciative buyer and it made me so happy to get her personal letter and see her blog post about my creation. Thank you so very much for making me feel appreciated for my work!

I am an appreciative customer too... but maybe I seem like a funny customer when I arrive at Katrine's Quiltestue with camera in hand and beg for permission to photograph everything in sight before making my purchases?

 

I am sure I look at each and everything at least twice.

 

Everything is so darn pretty!

I don't want to miss anything.

In a short time I am so enchanted by all the glorious fabrics that it is nearly impossible to narrow my favorite fabrics down and pick just a few.

I mean, aren't these blues beautiful?

 

 Katrine really has an eye for color, aren't these dreamy? Many of us don't even think we like orange and yellow very much but when presented like this... what is not to like?

 

Not only are the fabrics for sale incredibly inspiring, but the shop is positively filled with finished projects like this bag, giving you even more reason to buy more fabric.

 

I ended up splurging on more dots and several florals. I will have to show those another day though. I do hope you have enjoyed accompanying me on my little shopping excursion.

Before I drop off to sleep after a very busy day you must meet some of my latest matryoshkas. One is already spoken for but the others are in my shop.

 

Congratulations to...

Thank you, one and all, for your fantastic comments, kind words and appreciation of my pretty fabrics! It has been so much fun having a give away once again and getting mails day and night with so many lovely messages!

My newest creations, Fru Friberg and Fru Baden are all smiles in anticipation at finding out who the winners are!

The moment has come that you have been waiting for. The winners!

Winner of the issue of Sew Hip magazine is: Cee Lew

and the winner of the fabrics and surprises is: Muriel

I have contacted the lucky winners of my give away so I can know where to send the prizes.

Today after all this give away excitement I am ready to sit down to relax and knit on this gorgeous variegated yarn that was a gift from Mervi.

Peachy Keen!

There is still time to enter my Crafty Give Away!

I made this drawstring bag as a custom order recently. I enjoy working together with people and trying my best to make what they are dreaming of. I love how it turned out and would like to make more with pinks and peaches.

I made a few dolls with some peachy pink colors from some lovely Lakehouse Drygoods fabrics called Teatime Florals by Holly Holderman. The first time I set eyes on these fabrics I knew I needed to have them. Her fabrics usually make me feel that way!

Fru Nielsen is already sold.

Fru Eide is just listed and still available. I really shouldn't have looked at the Lakehouse page, now I want more of these fabrics in the blues and beiges. I am trying to be so good. I think it is over a month since my last fabric purchase.

So far this post has been rather subdue, but the peachy pink flowers in my backyard are anything but...

This is the BEFORE shot last week of my lupins that I planted by seed last summer. One week of near 24 hours of daily sunlight does a lot for a plant!

AFTER!I love this time of year when it is light day and night! Everyone is out, we are enjoying the wading pool in our yard, just soaking in the sunshine, and loving every minute of it. Please don't mention the W word. We know it is coming soon enough. Right now everything is peachy keen!

Hexagons and playing tag

Don't forget to enter my Crafty Give Away!

I finally finished my hexagon peice that I started way back when and made it into a zippered pouch which is in my shop as my entry to the European Street Team's weekly challenge. This week the theme hosted by Rita was "cheap but gorgeous".

The cheap part is the low price considering the ridiculous amount of hand stitches involved. I find the Japanese fabrics made into uneven hexagons quite gorgeous if I do say so myself!

I wanted to thank Tommye for featuring me on her blog yesterday. Kathi was sweet in selecting, among others, my blog for the "One Lovely Blog Award". Thank you! I was tagged too. Eeek! Stéphanie, who makes unbelievably life-like minature food into all sorts of things, told me that I have to write:

1. SIX THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY:
- Breathing in the fresh clean air after a spring rain.
- When my little ones snuggle with me.
- Getting surprises in the mail from near or far.
- My husband's great sense of humor and getting hysterical laughing.
- Keeping my hands busy with sewing or knitting.
- Thinking about the upcoming visit with my mother and brother.

I am tagging Michele, Petra, Jackie, Sumiko, Gretchen, and Laura. Now you need to blog about 6 things that make you happy and then choose 6 others to tag.

Have a super weekend!

The Winner and A Crafty Give Away

Thank you everyone for your kind words about Lilly's being sick. Her fever is gone today, but she and big brother are still coughing.

Finally it is time to announce the winner of Vilte's shawl. Thank you to everyone who participated!I used the Random Number Generator to select the winner and the lucky person is:

Mary Pennington!

Congratulations Mary, this is the lovely shawl Vilte has selected for you:

When I contacted Vilte about the winner of the give away she wanted me to say:

"Take a moment for yourself and sense the gentle and light as a feather silk touching your skin. Be feminine. Congratulations on winning the giveaway, Mary!

And thank you all who participated in this giveaway. Especially for all your warm and kind words for my shawls. This means a lot to me!"

I know many will be disappointed about not winning. I am so sorry! I know that I too am dying to own one of her creations and I couldn't even enter the give away... To help ease the sadness I am having another give away!

This last one was so much fun that it deserves repeating. This time the give away will have two prizes with two winners! First I need to show you something exciting for me that has to do with prize number one.

Give away number one is a brand new issue from the UK's sewing magazine Sew Hip! They kindly offered to send me this issue when they asked if they could feature my dolls. Since I already subscribe to the magazine I requested they send it to a lucky blog reader instead and they agreed!

So on page 72 I'm tickled to find my dolls alongside of these other colorful plushies!

The second gift for some other lucky person will be some of my favorite fabrics. I will just give a peek at them, and a good look at a few.

If you follow my blog you will recognize many of them as I have used most on my dolls. They are a great array of pinks, reds and blues, European fabrics, many Tilda, mostly Norwegian.

I plan on tossing other goodies into this bundle too: delightful surprises like ribbons, buttons, flosses, etc!

You may enter up to 4 times for the chance to win either the magazine or the fabrics with surprises!

For one entry, leave a comment to this post.

For a second entry please mention this give away on your blog and link to this give away. Once you have done this, post another comment to this give away post telling about your blog mention, and you receive a second entry.

For a third entry, alter your “Status” on Facebook to mention this give away. Be sure to include the url: http://ravenhill.typepad.com/weblog/  so that your friends can visit too. Once you have done this, post another comment to this give away post telling about your facebook mention, and you receive a third entry.

For a fourth entry mention and link to this give away on Twitter. Once you have done that just let me know in the comments that you have twittered.

I will announce the winners on June 10th.