Festival Of Quilts, Birmingham 2009    Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Drop Box


Wow what a week last week. Tuesday was the wonderful day out at The Henry Moore Foundation with 'Fiberfusion'. Friday a superb day trip to The Festival Of Quilts, Birmingham with my other textile group 'Out Of The Fold'. Had the most fantastic day. A huge amount of quilts, exhibitions within the main exhibition, demonstrations, workshops and vendors galore. It is always so mind boggling and inspiring to attend these huge events. I usually do my home work and kind of know what exhibitions/artists I want to concentrate on while my brain is still fresh. On this occasion I didn't take a whole lot of photos. Only 12 to be precise. But one of the few ones, that I took was an art quilt that really caught my eye. After looking at for a while, I went to read who had judged it. I couldn't help smiling when I saw the judges name. It was a Danish lady called Lisbet Borggren. It didn't surprise me at all that another Dane would have spotted that as well! As I was too cheap to buy the festival program I didn't know who made the quilt. It wasn't until yesterday that I learned that the quilt was made by a Danish! Internet friend of mine Mai-Britt Axelsen. I'm so thrilled for her. As a matter of fact she won two prizes. First price in the miniature category with 'Little Thin Blue Line' (30x30 cm)(the photo above) and second price for her art quilt 'Another Thin Blue Line' (120 cm x 120 cm) WELL DONE. CONGRATULATIONS!!! On her lovely blog Linen and Silk you'll find much better photos of her prize winning quilts, so do take a look.

Fibrefusion at Henry Moore    Wednesday, August 19, 2009




Yesterday I spend the most wonderful day at the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Hertfordshire Henry Moore Foundation It was a day trip with the textile group Fiberfusion. Very recently I had the honor to be asked if I wanted to join this very advanced textile group. This was only my second time meeting with Fiberfusion Fiberfusion But what a day! What more can one ask for: Great company, fantastic weather, a superb pub lunch in one of these very old, timber framed English country pubs AND the most impressive sculptures placed in natural surroundings, with lots and lots of open space around them. The sculptures were allowed to express themselves, not being crowded by one another (or city scape's for that matter. Very powerful. Three of the sculptures were placed amongst grazing sheep. One was on its own little mound, but two of them were actually the field. Over the years the sheep had polished an area/ring around the sculptures in sheep height, giving that area a lighter golden colour. It was lovely. The Marquette room was very exciting. There it was possible to view some of Henry Moore's design inspirations and his first attempts creating mini sculptures, playing and familiarizing himself with the shapes. In this area of England (East Anglia)there is a lot of huge flint stones/blocks in the ground, and one of Henry Moores returning design source were these big lumps of organic shaped flint stone. I didn't know that. It was a beautiful day out.

Workshop and Cakes!    Tuesday, August 11, 2009



I've have (once again) not been blogging as much as I would have liked to. 'Real life' has been busy, so my 'Internet life' has been put a bit on the back burner. Having said that, I have missed blogging as it does focus my busy life for a brief moment. So what has taken my time? Well the last week in July I attended a 5 day summer school in free style machine embroidery, Tutor Pauline Verrinder. A superb time with 15 like minded creative souls and their sewing machines. I'll write more in detail abut that later. So much to tell......
The summer school was followed by a lovely warm and very sociable weekend with friends. Then I had to do my final preparations for teaching one of my textile groups. We all take turns in teaching and cake baking. I do more teaching than cake baking which is totally fine with me :-) Everything in moderation (kind of :-) but I do love all these home baked, traditional English cakes all baked from scratch that suddenly appears in the tiny kitchen of our village hall where we meet once a month. This one was a moist, sweet, tardy lemon drizzle... beautiful!!!! Such creativity!
I tell you about the workshop I taught in my next blog post. Gotta run, I'm of to make a cake.... :-)

Great blog: Etsy Technology Help    Sunday, July 26, 2009


I love it when I come across great blogs! This blog:
Etsy Technology Help I really would like to share with you. If you have an Etsy shop and is, like me, a tad computer challenged, then I would highly suggest you take a good look. I promise you it will save you a lot of time :-)
A couple of days ago I saw the blog link posted by
MagnetGames the blog owner, in the Etsy Forum. I clicked over there and was for a long while totally absorbed in all the great tips. Some I had come across before in the Forum, but a lot was new to me. Since then I have been implementing some of the things that she suggests. Amongst others how to add an active link to your blog post that opens up in a new window (like when you click on 'Etsy Technology Help' above. How to add a Google custom search area, like the one you see in the left hand side column. There you can type a key word and it will search your blog for posts with that specific theme. Very handy. Another tip mentioned: In my shop I have now added active links to some of my descriptions like 'You might like this listing as well'. A great way to make it easier for customers to let them know whats in your shop.
I still have a list of things that I would like to add or tweak in regards to my blog and etsy shop over the coming days. It always makes me so happy with all the great people out there just wanting to share what they are great at. Thank you MagnetGames!

At the crack of dawn    Thursday, July 23, 2009


Well it is amazing how much one can get done when getting up at the crack of dawn. Our old cat decided that she was tremendously hungry and was talking up a storm at 4.45 am. Being a light sleeper at the best of times, an early raiser and still jet lagged from our recent travels to the US, I decided to stay up and get some computer work done which is a great feeling. Even though I did manage to get some work done in the US, I'm still behind from where I would like to be. I'll get there in the end :-)
I have just listed two batches of my hand dyed embroidery thread/yarn on Etsy red/blueish thread and olive green/blue thread Some time ago I blogged about the dyeing process and the final result. Please take a look if you want to more info/pictures (March 14Th and 19Th 2009). Four more listings are ready to be posted on Etsy over the next couple of days. I like to spread similar listings, so that they are not just sitting there as a big group. I work in so many different styles and I like that to be reflected when people visit my shop. I was just thinking, that I wouldn't mind, if the light would be good for taking pictures today. It looks quite promising. Slightly overcast, but bright. I have so many items ready to be prepared for Etsy. I find it easier and more time efficient to do a good batch in one go instead of breaking it up in chunks.

turquoise bowl    Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A quick update    Monday, July 6, 2009



Just as life was starting to find it own rhythm and my blogging was sort of picking up every thing goes a bit pear shaped. I know I won't be spending much time in front of the computer for the next couple of weeks. My husband and I are leaving to go to the US shortly. We have managed to sell our lovely house in Virginia and will be heading over to put everything into storage. It is with mixed emotions as we loved the house, the area and all our wonderful friends, but since we were not moving back to the US anytime soon in the foreseeable future it didn't make sense to keep it. I will be keeping SewDanish open, but any orders will not be shipped until the 23 July when we are back in GB again. Have a lovely summer, stay safe and hopefully not too hot :-)

Oh, on a completely different note. NFL and Fantasy Football season is just around the corner, judged by my husband getting more and more jittery. If you or your friends are interested please check http://ffguidebook.com where you will find info about the 5 books that he has published on Fantasy Football, with '201 Fantasy Football Tips" being his latest publication. There is a clickable link in the right hand side of my blog under 'great blogs' if you want more information about his books.

Textile challenge    Tuesday, June 30, 2009


In one of my textile groups we have done two challenges. The challenge is that we all get the same little package containing the same selection of fabric, beads, metal, cord and other tid bits. When we are handed the package we decide in the group whether we are allowed to add anything, whether it all need to be used or just be represented etc. Usually there are no stipulations on what item to make.
The package from which I made the mini quilt in the pictures, was a selection of very strong coloured sari fabrics. They were so much in your face. I like colour but they were just over the top. After having made a simple strip pieced top, I sandwiched it with wadding, backing and a final overlay of a chiffon scarf on the top to knock the colours back. Then I quilted it. Cut it up, played with joining and embellishing, finishing it of with raw edge stitching. I was really pleased with the result. It was a lot of fun to make. I can highly recommend doing a challenge like this. It is absolutely amazing to look at the different results, having all started from the same base.

Unique Women In Business #UWIB    Thursday, June 25, 2009


You might have seen the occasional twit from me about UWIB, Unique Women In Business. I belong to quite a varied mixture of teams and groups and 'Unique Women In Business' is one of them. It is a great group of about +100 ladies. All the ladies are shop owners, many are on Etsy, but quite a few are not. It is a really nice mixture of shops. I first came across UWIB in the Etsy forum. I did a bit of research and was debating on and off for a while to join or not. One of the few group rules is, that to stay a member, you have to make a purchase from a group member each month. I'm not a huge shopper and didn't really like the thought of being tied down to having to buy something. But after a while I decided to 'take the plunge' and joined. When you join your initial purchase has to be with the one who referred you, after that you can choose any group member you like. To leave the group you just don't make your monthly purchase and you are out. Very simple :-)
But seriously, I'm so pleased that I joined. I have now been a member for about 6 months and I'm enjoying myself tremendiously. I have been building up a nice little collections of ACEOs made by fellow members. It is so much more than just 'spending money' group. Lots and lots of great info, links and support are being shared. If one has a question, you can be certain that somebody knows the answer or can give you a push in the right direction. Some group members are very active in making fantastic treasuries and spotlights, something I yet have to figure out how to do. Looking at my Google Analytic quite a bit of traffic to my shop comes from UWIB's blog and UWIB members blogs. It is such a lovely group of energetic ladies. Erin Keys who is the group moderator is doing a superb job keeping track of it all. You can find the link to UWIB blog and a selection of links to UWIB members shops in the right hand side column of my blog. On Etsy you can also do search on 'UWIB', as members will have tagged their listings. Feel free to contact me if you would like more info on the group. I'll be happy to answer your questions :-)
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