lots of sewing

end of april and it does rain and rain on, which is just perfect, if you ask me. nature definitely needs the rain, as we had a very warm and dry month. and it comes in very handy, as i planned to finish a long started quilt. so here i am, sewing on the living room table, where i made myself a bit of a contraption to be able to have a mostly flat and big surface to move the big size quilt as smoothly as possible.

all the quilting was done yesterday and even the binding was cut and ironed yesterday, sewn on this morning. a quick run after that -it was good to get out into the rain- now back at hand sewing the binding. and in a week i will be able to hand the finished piece over to my friend. she was super patient, as i have told her about the project a long time ago, not quiet expecting that it will take almost forever. though she never asked how far i was or when it will be done. thank you a.
the more is my joy complete, when i will present the gift.

dandelion on the table

i got some wonderful dandelion bouquet last week, very happily did naomi bring it into the kitchen and loved it for a couple days. then the dandelions all closed up and soon thereafter they all lost the yellow brownish crown. i almost feel like i could say, they "freed themselves" from the old dried up flower pedals. just to appear in their new dress of white and wonderful feathery parachute seeds. once more i enjoy spring in the house on the table!
and there is lots of interesting salad leafs we can eat, spinach, arugula, dandelion leafs, spring onions and some wonderful light italian dressing.

pickled eggs

i have never made or even tasted pickled eggs, but i thought of them as looking very cool. and so i embraced a new little project last week. i pickled eggs!
so here i am studying a recipe and collecting all the different spices, including running to the root cellar at my parents (as we stayed with them) to find a beet. it is definitely not hard to do, cooking up the onion and spices in the apple vinegar (or replace the apple vinegar for some other rather strong brand of vinegar, it worked fine). the kids started to come to the kitchen and ask me what i'm cooking for lunch.... no not lunch, a pickling project is going on and all four were quickly leaving the kitchen with a few comments of not being very excited about my pickling adventures.

though when we had a peckish little hunger this sunday night, i opened up a bottle of white wine, a friend stopped by with a savory bread, i opened the two jars with the pickled eggs. and you would not believe everyone liked them. the dill pickled ones were loved, the beet pickled ones were tolerated.
but to my surprise they all, including joel who is not easily being cooed into trying pickled curiosities, and that is, what my eggs were treated. all eggs were gone in a jiffy!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

the "grow" box

i have been liking this little box from sew mama sew and new right away, that i will make one for thea. so here we are, painted and cross stitched, filled with all the wonderful growing things one needs. and by the wayside, the big girl also was painting some base plates for herself. we love to take out paint and just get going with what ever crosses our path. the torf cups, some little boxes with seeds for tomatoes, green beans and eggplants, as well as sunflowers and zinnia are in the box.

the zinnia we have already planted in a pot and thea is regularly watering it, i'm sure those flowers are being cared for until they are in full bloom! and all of us will be enjoying thea's work.

our easter days

it's just about a week since i posted the last time....
we enjoyed a wonderful maundy thursday dinner with our brothers and sisters in the neighborhood and yes we had snow too, quiet a bit. it was cold and just a good friday to hover and stay put. we decided not to go out and not to dig for pretty little flowers and grasses to decorate the easter eggs. instead we used rubber bands and tape. for natural colouring we cooked up a bunch of dried malva flowers, with the hope to get some kind of green/gray colour. i was all excited and really liked the different kind of colour for easter. the kids did not!

and that's why we got out the felt markers, just go with what ever the fancy struck. and the result was even more striking. such a wonderful combination to the easter table which we enjoyed for breakfast. a lot of time with our extended family, visits at my brothers farm and just having a wonderful time, celebrating the risen lord, jesus christ.

dots of red on maundy thursday

this is a bit random, i know, though never the less i like the red in those two pictures. it's such a strong colour even though spring is usually not as subtle as it shows here. there is even more red around the house by now, tulips in all variations. the lilacs will not take much longer, it's all very early here in the heart of europe.

it's maundy thursday and i will take a few days off. to everyone a time of still and moments of easter joy to revel in.

holy week

on the living room table are my favorite spring flowers, i got a bunch of ranunculus last saturday, and i love them. together with a few branches hazel, cut weeks ago from behind the house. they have been growing leafs and make for a good simple bouquet. we have entered holy week, i try to keep it simple and take a moment to be still a few times a day. just to be, and focus on the one thing i feel is so needed. to remember and being still.

moments to remember and slow down the daily grind of life. it's good and i realize that i live more in the moment and enjoy it. even sitting and jotting down a few words to give my thoughts a place to be has happened today. an awareness of being thankful and giving thanks.

wote life

we got tickets way back in december, as soon as we knew wote is going to play in zurich. amos and i brought sandwiches along and met joel and elias in zurich, just on time for the door to fling wide open and we were so excited. we have been watching and listening their songs on youtube for a while already, and we loved them. so the opportunity to see them life had to be taken advantage off and the four of us went and enjoyed.

so very creative and versatile the group is playing music is just so much fun to watch and listen to. it got late, very late for the boys, and we all had to get up today. we did and it was so helpful to see the sun rising and have it brightly shining into this new day.

she loves to scooter

one more afternoon spent with the scooter (sometimes it is her bike as well). it's one of her favorite activities, to take out a vehicle and race it around the gymnasium next to our house. today was a bit special, as she discovered a pair of swim goggles and of course they have transformed into her racing goggles. i could not resist and was sitting there on the ground, watching her do her rounds, again and again, not tiring out but getting faster and more daring at every round she took.
be careful, o what a mother worries about her girls. i try not to and just let her scooter and enjoy it, we both had a blast

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

anja niedringhaus

i was at the opening event for the the photography exhibit of anja niedrighaus at the coalmine in winterthur.
very moving and impressive photographs. and the reality hit home, with the fact, that anja died last week. she was shot by an afghan police officer it was good to see her work and face the fact, that war and tragedy is a reality for a lot of people in this world. lets face it and fight it!

potatoe project

 
how to grow potatoes in a bucket. i have heard of this way to grow potatoes. of course it's not a large scale way of growing food, never the less it struck my fancy for an experiment. i sent thea to the basement to fetch a pail filled with potatoes yesterday afternoon, intending to peal and roast them together with other root veggies, for dinner.
she came back with the full pail and asked me, what those longish arms are... well my potatoes sprouted and it almost hurt a bit to pull the sprouts off, doing so and pairing them we still did. but i also explained to thea, that those "arms" are really growing from this potatoes to bear new potatoes in the coming season. telling her was not enough, of course not. so we got some good garden soil, a bucket and started the project this afternoon. and now we will have to wait and see what will happen.

on a rainy afternoon

we take out the paints.
she loves to use all of one color before she moves on to the next one. an interesting practice, which she has been showing me for a few painting sessions already. and mostly abstract, big bold strokes. i'm thinking of giving her a challenge of having to use water paints the next time...
so far she has done acrylic paints and loved it. i don't blame her, the rich pigments and full bodied paint is fun to work with.

very free form over all. mixing colours is out of question, i have tried to explain it to her, that it would totally ok and even fun to start mixing and see what is going to happen, but a big no! was the answer. no problem for me, i go with her flow of ideas and wanting to paint in her style.

picking up pieces and blocks

it's long (there was a bit here and there), since i have been working on this quilt... though i grabbed the pieces and a good junk of time last friday morning. how wonderful is it to be able to work for three hours in one sitting and get so much accomplished. picking fabric for the backing, cutting and piecing it together again. adding some creative little blocks into the mix and play around. it was wonderful.
it will be a regular twin size quilt (or at least something like it). it is sandwiched with an organic cotton fleece. and i already made the call to my sister in law, that i might want to borrow her machine. she has a new bernina and i will be free motion quilting with the amazing little stitch regulator foot. it's all new to me and i think i will like it. often i did struggle with the stitch length when free motion quilting.
so there we go the sandwiched quilt is ready for an other big session of sewing...

meanwhile, i work on the backing of one more quilt... it's fun and i do enjoy to dig into a stack of vintage fabric, which my mother in law had dropped off a couple months ago. more in a later post.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

bunnies on our table runner

 

i attended a wet felting workshop, just for fun, with a few friends from the neighborhood. and i had a good morning, a wonderful handmassage for my hands. lovely ladies, all working on their own little bunnies an easter-egg projects, and even a couple little kids also working alongside.
i like to felt, though i really don't take the time to just do it at home with no one giving me a kick... so this morning was a gift to me. and now the little two bunnies are on the living room table runner and watch what's going to happen in our house over the next few weeks leading up to easter.


they love to sit with the felted flowers... (don by naomi a few weeks back)