So, 2025 has had a very creative start to it. And I’m loving it. I must admit though, that there are things going on in my private life and in the world in general that feels quite overwhelming at times but I try to focus on the small things I can control and leave the other stuff at the door. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t.

Love Notions Timbre peasant top nr 2

Last year I tried hand sewing a garment for the first time, and I loved it. In fact I loved it so much that as soon as I finished my first top I quickly made another.

Yes, I made another top using the same pattern as last time. However I was a tad short on fabric so I simply shortened the sleeves to about elbow length. This time I used a lovely woven viscose I had in my stash. I bought this fabric last year for about 125 kr per meter (around $11 per meter). It drapes wonderfully and is so, so soft. I turned under and enclosed all the seams leaving a really neat finish. For the moment I’ve left all the basting in place, figuring that they might give a little bit extra support to the garment.

I have another piece of fabric in my stash that I figure will be yet another version of this same pattern, but it needs to be washed first. And if I’m really lucky I might have enough to maybe lengthen it into a tunic/dress.

My Perfect Notebook

Early 2000 I briefly went back to uni for a couple of years to study economics. During that time I found my dream notebook, my almost perfect notebook. It’s a thick notebook, feels like a paperback book and has cream paper. The size is perfect to take everywhere and the cream paper makes it feel more relaxed, not to mention the cover is gorgeous. Since then I’ve tried to find something similar. I’m sure it’s out there… I just haven’t found it. So… I’ve decided to make my own.

I’m currently creating my own pattern and cover in Procreate/Affinity Designer. The size will be 5”x8”, 300 pages, cream paper with a 5 mm dot grid in a light grey colour. My plan is to create this because I want it myself, and I’m going to print it via Amazon KDP. I’m so excited over this.

A Scrappy Comfort Quilt

Youtube is to blame for this one. I don’t know how I stumbled upon this but somehow I found myself watching multiple videos about Kawandi quilts. And I’m the first to admit that I’m not doing this the traditional (or correct way), nor am I trying to. BUT this was where my inspiration mainly came from and I’m going with it and taking my own spin on it.

So I went deep diving in my stash and grabbed all of the random quilt blocks I’ve created over the years. Some just a few years old, others about 20 years old. This mix of quilt blocks will be my Kawandi inspired quilt top. As the backing I will use the rest of the duvet cover that I used for my first Timbre top. And I’ll piece together the batting from scraps that I have left from the previous quilt. (Images of the top and quilt can be found in my previous blog post). My plan is to sandwich them all together in the same style as Kawandi quilts to, using a running stitch working from the outside in.

What else?

I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head. Things I want to learn, explore and create. But I’m trying to practice a little bit of self-restraint and allow myself to focus on a few things at a time.

Like, I’m currently signed up for Liz Kohler Brown’s membership, The Studio, to learn more about surface pattern design. I’d love to design my own fabric in the future. I’m currently working on a class called “Block Print Pattern and Illustration” that I really enjoy. The cover I’m working on for my notebook is actually a pattern I created in this class.

I’d also like to practice more on my folk art drawing skills. I really like the Swedish/Scandinavian decorative folk art style like kurbits or rosmålning, and it’s something I’d like to learn. I’ve bought a book with swedish folk art from the early 1800 for inspiration and reference. And I got a beautiful book called “Imagine a Forest” by Dinara Mirtalipova. I figure that the combination of these two will provide plenty of inspiration for me to get going.

And I would like to keep working on this website. Like creating an image for the header, maybe a cute background, populate the sidebar… the list is endless. 🙂

And of course I have my big Scrappy Comfort Quilt and notebook to finish. 😀

First time I created a blog was back in the late 90’s. I sat with notepad and hardcoded every single page with html. No fancy fonts, no digital camera – only computer generated images (a lot of clipart and gif’s). I spent hours on end to see how far I could push the few html tags that were available at the time. It was simple, it was basic, and it was a lot of fun.

Since then things have changed and somewhere along the way the fun with creating websites disappeared for me. I’ve tried multiple times to come back to it because I missed blogging, but every time I got so fed up with the constant fight against overly complex tools and web standards that kept changing.

I’m not saying that things were better back then, but the simplicity of it all made it a lot easier to just jump in and have fun creating. But here I am, 25 years later, with a brand spanking new wordpress blog. Thinking back with nostalgia whilst trying to embrace what is.

So am I having fun? Well, building this website has definitely had its ups and downs. But it feels really good to get back to blogging again and sharing the things I make and create.

~

I’m not really sure what happened in the final week of december but out of the blue I got the feels and finished several projects.

Lap quilt sewn with a hand cranked Singer 128k

First I picked up a project I started about a year ago. It’s a quilt I’ve done with my old hand cranked Singer 128k. It’s completely done on that machine. First project I’ve finished in a long time. And I’m really pleased with it. The fabric is from a charm pack I bought 15ish years ago.

English paper pieced hexagon sewing machine cover

After that I instantly picked up another old project. This is a project I began 8 years ago. An english paper pieced hexagon sewing machine cover. It’s for my old hand cranked sewing machine. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. But to be honest, if I never see another english paper piecing project again, I won’t be sad.

Love Notions Timbre peasant top

I’ve had my eyes on sewing Love Notions Timbre peasant top for a while now. I had done a muslin and was ready to sew. But when it was time to start something weird happened. Instead of doing it on my sewing machine, as planned, I for some reason decided to hand sew it.

This is my first garment I’ve ever hand sewn. And I really enjoyed it. The whole process was very meditative.

The fabric is from a cheap cotton duvet cover. I flat felled all the internal seams. It took me about 4-5 days in total. And this is something I will 100% do again. I’m already planning my next one.

~

2025 – What’s next?

A new year, a new blog… a new me? It feels like everyone is setting big intentions, chasing lofty goals, and reinvent themselves to glow up and enter their “new era” of awesomeness.

Me? I’ve decided to kind of do the opposite, I think.

In 2025 I want to do more of the things I really enjoy – the things that makes me feel good. I want to slow down, and be more intentional with my energy and time, and focus on living a good and simple life.

Consume less – Create more.

And I want to share all of that here on the blog.

˜

So, here’s to 2025. Let us fill it with all the things that make our hearts sing and our souls happy.