My lack of blogging before Christmas has not been due to lack of crafting. I was working on a big present for my mom, and ouf course I could not show it here, I wanted it to be a surprise! But now that it has arrived at its new home, I am free to post the pictures (I took them seconds before wrapping the present, I almost forgot!).

We always had christmas placemats when I was little, but they eventually fell apart, and were never replaced. So, knowing how much I like to sew and make things for her, my mom asked for a new set. Se did not give me any guidelines besides „christmassy“, so I could play around with fabrics and different quilting patterns (without destroying a whole quilt top). I love that all the placemats are different, yet still belong together.

I think she loved them as much as I loved making them!

Ah, how refreshing a few days without internet can be! Not that it was out, my boyfriend was online pretty much constantly, but I just didn’t feel like sitting in front of the screen, now that I don’t have to. So I gave myself a small vacation, from the internet, blogging, reading blogs, e-mail and all the various paged that I waste my time with on a daily basis.

I will have some catching up to do in the next days, and I am looking forward to it, but right now, I enjoy what all those hours without PC added up to.

I have been working on this blanket since early summer, creating a mountain of individual squares first, and then, over the course of the holidays, sewing them together into one ig cozy blanket. I almost gave up towards the end, it felt like I just could now sew another piece to this thing. But I finished after all, and it seems to be cozy.

In the crafting world, I always considered myself rooted in the sewing corner, with few visits to other crafts. But with the colder temperatures lately, I found myself knitting more and more. I have two projects on the needles and a sweater planned (!!!). Considering that, and my recent quilting and crochet adventures, it seems like I am finally leaving my craft-comfort zone. Which I love. There is so much out there to be discovered!

But right now I am happy with my latest woolly knit and some books to be reread...

Oh my, have I been busy lately! It's mostly good-busy but still... I just started this little space of mine and I aleready miss it.

There are different reasons for my being busy, but this man is definitely the main one: Mr. Jack Hardy.

Jack (middle) is a folk singer from New York which my whole family loves and listenes to since 20 years, when we first saw him life (yep, I went to a concert of his when I was 5). He has been making music since 40 or 50 years and just released his 16th album, but here in Switzerland, noone really knows him.

This year, he decided to come on tour in Switzerland and Germany, and since he does not come to often, and - given his age - may not come so many more times, it was clear for my father and me that we go to all Swiss concerts. And since he is so unknown, he only plays in very small venues, so I went to Watt two weeks ago (made it back home with one of the last trains), to Chur last week (had to stay at Glarus with my parents) and to Sumiswald last Saturday (I had to stay in a hotel. This village is so far away from everything, it's not even funny) So, many short nights and long train rides, but is was soooo worth it. I love this mans music so much, and every concert was different, and all of them lovely. I would go again tomorrow if there was another one, but I kind of like sleep too (says she who writes a post at 23:30 on a Sunday night after being up since 6:30 in the morning...).


And then there is of course the getting-used-to-the-new-job thing. It0s interesting, but most days, when I get home, I just collapse on the couch and don't want to move again because I am so exhausted. I'm sure I'll find my rythm in time. And who minds staying a little longer if the view from your office looks like this?

Have a wonderful start to the week!




(ack, the whole font type and font size thing is driving me crazy... I'll figute it out some other time)

So with getting to know my way around my job last week, I didn't have much time to blog or craft or anything. I didn't even go for runs! I am used to doing sports at least every other day, but last week I only managed to go once... I guess it will take some time to fit all the parts of my life together now that I work in a new place. But its really interesting, I'm looking forward to tomorrow! 

In my time off however, I had tons of time to try new things, one of them quilting. So I bought some fabric:

Decided on a layout (this is actually about version 3 or 4... I just could not decide)

After putting together the quilt top, I kind of hit a wall. I never really quilted anything before, let alone such a huge thing, and it intimidated me to no end. So I decided to take a detour and practice on a couple of cushion covers:

After that I felt confident enough to work on the actual quilt, stippling the whole thing:

And now its only waiting for some binding. Which is perfect for doing in front of the TV, especially during such rainy days as today...

And it feels like this won't be my last quilting adventure, so instead of just referring to it as "the quilt", I named it by the sea. It looks like sand and a few waves to me...

I can't believe it's already the last day of my time off and I start work tomorrow. My first real job! I am excited, hopeful, scared all at the same time. But it's going to be fine, this always happenes to me when bigger changes come along, I am nervous but in the end it's all good.


I enjoyed my time off from studying and working immensely. I made a lot of things (which I hope to show soon), went jogging and to yoga, read books and had so much "me-time". I really think that my batteries are full not and I am ready to start something new.


Yesterday was definitely a day that brought new things: I ran my first race. It was the "Glarner stadtlauf" in  the town where I leved before and where my parents still live, and me and my mum decided to run in the womans category. It was a race over 5 rounds, 7875 m in total (what an odd number). And I made it! I was dead last im my category, but the goal was to finish, so mission accomplished. I only started running last spring, and I am really proud that I made it this far already. The goal for next year is to run the Greifenseelauf, which is a half marathon. Thankfully it is not until next September, so I have enough time to prepare for it.


I'm so glad that sports (at lease a few types) is finally enjoyable for me!

 After sending my corrected thesis off to my supervisor (fingers crossed that the next corrections will be the last ones... I really really want to finish my masters already), I am now again at liberty to do with my time as I please. It feels so good to have some time off before my next  big adventure - having an actual job - starts. 

Much of my time has been spent crafting, and before I really dive into knitting again I made a cozy home for my needles. They look like they all lie in their sleeping bags, waiting until I wake them for the next project...

And from the leftover fabric, I made a bag-of-sorts, using the very last scrap of the red fabric on the outside, the red fabric on the inside, the ribbons for the braid, and the red thread. A stashbusting project really (ironically, I am trying to build stash too). The design was heavily inspired by dottie angel, and the words say "knit fast, die warm", a quote I found on craftster one day and instantly knew that I wanted to use it in some project.

And now the bag is home to many many many small knitted patches, which will become a cozy blanket some day. Maybe not this year, as there are over 120 pieces so far, and I am still knitting...

The original plan for this Sunday was to invest some time into this new space of mine, make it pretty and presentable and write a little about me - but plans change. It was the Star Trek weekend on Film 4, an English TV channel that I watch sometimes, and even though I am not a Trekkie (yet), I have a thing for anything space travel related, and decided to dedicate the weekend to Mr. Spock and my knitting instead.

I hope your Sunday was as relaxing as mine!