A Fig in Sweden

my domestic diva-ness

It's official! I finished my first quilt. All with IKEA fabrics. It's a bit poofy because I used a summer-weight IKEA synthetic quilt as the "batting." This presented quite a problem this morning when I went to quilt the three layers together. I did one row and it looked terrible. I spent like 30 minutes ripping out the seam.

That meant I needed to initiate plan B... tying knots of yarn at the intersections to hold the layers in place. This required working up the courage to step inside the little sewing shop in Älmhult. The shop looks like it's designed for die-hard sewers, so a beginner like me was a bit intimidated. Especially with the language barrier.

I brought my canvas shopping bag thinking I was only buying yarn and some polyfill for a nursing pillow I'm making. HA! I walked home with the yarn and polyfill PLUS 4 different jersey cotton fabrics to make swaddling blankets and little hats PLUS some real quilt batting for quilt #2.

The woman in the store spoke perfect English, and I even chatted with another woman who was planning to make baby blankets to get some ideas. (Mom, we are totally hitting this store when you come visit!!!)

I feel like such a geek, but I am just totally giddy about this new-found craftyness.

(Update Sunday night: So much for being a diva! I just noticed I messed up one of the squares. Oh well. Even divas started somewhere...)

look ma, no petsmart!

Tilly is now sitting pretty, thanks to my new sewing machine. Yes, I am becoming domestic. It took 37 years, but I finally get why my mom used to pull out her sewing machine on an almost daily basis to make things for us.

It took moving to Sweden to inspire this newfound hobby. Tilly's dog bed has been developing a hole for weeks. And, well, there isn't exactly a PetsMart, Petco or Target within thousands of miles. IKEA sells a sewing machine for about $75, and I have been lusting after it since the summer. This week, one of our interior designers told me that he had just bought one himself and that he really liked it (even preferred it over his other more heavy-duty sewing machine).

So we picked up our little beauty on Friday night, and I made this new cover for Tilly's bed my first project. (Using IKEA fabric of course. This one's called Elisabet.) That was after Lewis had me practice on all his shirts with ripped seams that needed repair. Hemming his pants is next. I think he's already starting to add up all the ways we can make that 75 bucks back. :)

Seriously, though, I'm not sure I ever would have tried sewing if we didn't live here. Back in the States, my instinct would have been to order a new dog bed from L.L. Bean. Instead, we paid about $7 in fabric, and a few bucks for Velcro®. (I thought a zipper would be way beyond me.) The whole project took about 2 hours from start to finish.

So, yeah, I think I'm definitely becoming mom material... (just 11 weeks to go!)

using hands frees the mind

Of course, it's not completely mindless because the instructor ONLY speaks Swedish. Hopefully I don't blow up the kiln.

fight the funk

There's just no getting around it: I'm completely bored off my butt. In a funk, as my dad would say. For anyone who dreams of living abroad, I'm sure you've already figured out that it is not one long dream vacation. I think the thing that is depressing me the most right now is that I feel like my identity is totally tied to my job. In Denver I didn't feel that way. If I had a day off, I would have plenty of ways to spend it. Here, not so much. A huge part of that is the fact that it's winter. In summer, I would just make a beeline for the beach.

At the same time, Lewis and I are trying to get to Portugal for Easter. (That's when living abroad really rocks!)

This weekend I decided to try to snap out of my funk. I set up my studio upstairs and painted, and I also signed up for a ceramics class that starts Monday (through IKEA). Between the two of them, I should definitely survive the Swedish winter this year. And have a whole bunch of crap to put on the walls and shelves...

*As a side note, I just looked up the word "funk" in the dictionary. My favorite definition is "the state or quality of being funky." Like the 3-week-old feta cheese in the fridge...