Home....

First, I hope all of you had a beautiful Christmas! I was absent for a while and yes I owe you. I promised to keep you updated and here I go being quiet.
Today, in few hours, will be exactly two weeks since I left home to come home.
I have been spending time with my family, at least as much I could.
Those two weeks flew by and I don't even know how. I didn't even meet all of the people I promised I will visit, but I think I was a bit ambitious to think I will be able to do so.
I am full of happy and also weird feelings. I love being with my family, but I am missing someone who is a big part of my life too. I realized that I don't feel complete alone anymore.... and no Christmas will be truly Christmas without this person.
I know this should be craft blog, but as you can imagine I didn't have chance to do any of it lately.
What about my home?
While in US I couldn't even imagine how I would feel returning home after such a long time. Now, here in Slovakia with my family and places that are so familiar, I feel like I only left about a month ago.
On the other hand, I do miss an American Christmas magic that I grew to like as well.

I will have to share all of my feelings from this special trip slowly, just because I can't just spit it all out, but here are at least some images from my first days.



Walk through downtown on the way to the opera...



My youngest nephew with typical Slovak dish (Bryndzove halusky/ Sheep cheese potato noodles)...




My sister and me...



View from my room, but I wanted to show parking. I was shocked to see it... In the past years more people started to use cars for transportation and parking problem arose. As you can see...

From other side of the ocean...

I am here. After a very long flight and travel (6 hours delay), warm welcome and a first day spent surrounded with my closest family (is closest even a word?). It is amazing!
I will be back when a bit more rested and with some pictures.
Thanks for all good wishes!

Off I go...

OK, I did not sleep a bit (maybe 3 hours the most), but I calmed down.
This is definitely the last post before leaving. I just couldn't wait to share with you what I won in the recent giveaway at For the Journey .
Dallas was soo generous. Look at what she sent. I felt a need to place a thread there for the scale. I love all of those vintage sheets.



She split her collection of vintage sheets between four winners to see what everybody comes up with. I am so excited about this already. I will have something to think about while waiting on the airports.:)
It will definitely be a quilt, but I may add something since there is enough fabric for multiple projects.

Here are just a few favorites.



So long, talk to you from Slovakia.....

Oh, no....

I didn't have a good day.
Last night with the snow/wind storm we lost our internet connection. We don't have cable here, so it's working through the satelite and because of the weather, that obviously didn't work.
This morning we found out that the company the internet is coming from won't fix it unless we pay $160.00 dollars or sign another two year contract. So what do we do?
Send them .... you know where. We were in search for other company for awhile anyway since there were other issues.
We found a different company, but they won't be able to come and set it up until Dec. 18th.
So, I am posting this from school. Sorry, no pictures...
This wouldn't be the end of the world for us anyway because we can use internet at work or at school.
Well, another unfortunate thing that happened is that I am worried about my flight home.
My dad woke up us this morning calling from Slovakia. There has been strikes going on in Budapest airport (where I am supposed to arrive) since this morning and flights are being canceled. You can read about it more here, if you are interested.
I was nervous about the whole traveling part of my trip anyway. I am not much of a traveler, you may say.
I don't know how long this will be going on, but it sure makes me worried.

If I won't be able to post until I leave....
I will definately post from Slovakia. I should be able to get there sometime, right?
I just might be too worried about other things tomorrow.
I am leaving Chicago 5pm on Friday, wish me luck.

More handmade presents....

I refused to buy presents this year. I feel that we all have stuff we need and if we don't we buy it for ourselves anyway because it's needed or because we really want it. And who knows better what we need than we do.
With little ones it's different, I understand, but also only from certain age. Babies don't care if it's made or bought.
So I made almost all my presents this year. I said almost because there are certain people (two in my case )around us that just would benefit more out of something else.
My presents for family in Slovakia are all packed and will be revealed later (from Slovakia).
There were few more that I was missing for people here in U.S..
These are throw pillows that will go to a home where handmade is loved. There is going to be quilt coming later, but that would really have to wait until after my trip.





The last one still in works. Let's hope I'll make it. Not today though, spending all day in school - finals.



Also, dont't forget to Freda's Hive today! Don't know what I am talking about? Check this out!!!

Edit:
Another great 100th post giveaway is going on here!

I caught second breath.../ Tutorial for a super quick scarf.

I was certain that I won't be able to do any more sewing before my trip. I also got over the fact that some presents will be given after Christmas. And then, this weekend, I packed my suitcases (Yes, I am taking two, but one is straight Christmas presents - making me feel like Santa) and did loads and loads of laundry and ....

I went to pick up " My sister's quilt" from the quilt shop this weekend (I love it quilted, but will post about it from Slovakia, OK? )and stopped at Jo Ann's on the way back to search for binding fabric. I found three, so I need to make some decisions. But I also found very cool fabric in red tag fabric shelves. It's kind of silky, batik in green/ brown shades and turquoise/ browns. Front is a bit shinny and a bit fancy, back is just batik. Fabric is all crinkled too. I am sorry that I don't know the proper name of it.
Well, idea was born and I was working on the super quick shawl out of both (two for presents and one for me.
This is what I did:
I bought one yard of each. From the first one I cut it lengthwise (1 yard length)into 8 strips (width is approx. 44" divided by 8, since I made two out of this fabric). This fabric was crinkled, so it was hard to measure exact width. I sewed two of the together to make it long enough for shawl/ scarf.



Then, folded them over and sew one more time along the edge. Next, turned over and sewed the ends in. Super simple, but I am no tutorial writer, so please ask if you have questions.



I made the two bluish/brown scarfs thinner to wear with a nice dressy shirt or with a simple sweater to make it look more dressier.



I kept the green and brown combo for me. Well, I have a very cute hat that I need to wear more, but was missing a perfect scarf to match it. This way I satisfied my desperate need for more presents and also I had a nice scarf to wear in my hometown. I made mine a bit wider - I only cut it four times the width - 44". I also made mine reversible I may say. One side is more shinny to wear for fancy occasions and the other is simple batik to wear daily. That's on the picture.
Please, imagine that the splotches on the mirror are snowflakes. Thanks! :)

I made more presents, but I will leave this for tomorrow.

I am running out of time to sew, but that doesn't stop me from playing with ideas.... not mine!

I' ve been hiding behind books and computer (working on projects for school/ reading blogs...) for the past week and coming home in the evenings exhausted. I think I took two or three naps approximately from 6pm till 10pm and worked on my school stuff later those nights. I prefer to get up earlier in the morning and study before exams as oppose to late nights (I can't keep my eyes open and fall asleep anywhere - literary), but naps helped a bit with that.
I wanted to share with you something that was the closest I've got to any crating, sewing related activities this week.
Jacquie at Tallgrass Prarie Studio, have posted about the quilt she's been working on and asking for ideas for the layout of the blocks that she and her mom created. Playing with the ideas for quilts' layouts is by far my favorite part about quilting. I needed to work on the paper about soil requirements for septic systems in my county (you probably wonder what I study... haha..). What do you think I did first?
Yep, I sketched a layout for Jacquie's quilt and fought with our 100 year old scanner in order to send it to her. Then I started on the septic systems, but was too unpatient to see what she would think about it, since it was very different from what others suggested.



I waited and waited and today I got to see it. I love it! She altered a few blocks which made it totally Jacquie style. I think she is happy with it. I feel satisfied because I had something creative and beautiful to think about this week (think septics - eek),
Check out Jacquie's quilt here.
Thanks Jacquie! You made my day /week ! :)

The two cornish hens...

I hope all of you had a great holidays in case you celebrated. We don't really celebrate it, but since we live in the U.S. we get kind of sucked in. I don't mind Thanksgiving because I really like the purpose of the holiday- eating- no I am just kidding. I think it is important to stop at least once a year, look back and give thanks. In Slovakia, we kind of do this on the New Years Eve (Silvester).



We all get a turkey at work from my two bosses. Last year I asked for two cornish hens instead. We are not too crazy about turkey at my house, so I felt like it would be a waste. In the past, I gave our turkey to the friends. I got my two cornish hens this year as well. The two cornish hens are perfect for us. Years ago, I found a simple and very tasteful recipe somewhere online (sorry don't have a link, it was seriously about 5-6 years ago). The whole recipe is very simple. It is cornish hen with sage and lemon. You melt the butter with dried sage and spread it with your hands all over the hen, also in between skin and meat. You stuffed cornish hen with more dried sage (you can also use fresh sage) and lemon. Bake and that's it!
For the side I used stuffing recipe from years ago too, but very similar to this except the brandy. It was just two of us since I was sick like a dog, but we had a nice day.



I had a lot of crafting plans for this prolonged weekend, but this time it was never ending flu that got in my way. I did some sewing anyway, but not even close to what I had planned.
I decided that since it is only about two weeks until I go home, I really need to focus on everything else that needs to get done. For some unexplained reason I am extremally stressed out about the whole thing. I need to put myself together somehow. Sigh.....



Also, I just recently joined a number 3 group of Sew Craft Blog. I like the idea of meeting new blogers. You can find links to the blogs in my group on the sidebar.

P.S.: On the pictures:
One of the quilts awaiting binding - in works.
Two pillows to match the quilt - in works.
Will post more later.

Owly Day....

Finally, I had my productive weekend.
This is the project I started a while back.
It was inspired by this.
Mom that had a baby shower yesterday, show me the catalog and we both instantly fell in love with the owls. I don't have kids, so my excuse to make them was to make the owl for her daughter. (Well one of them.)
All the credit for fabric choices must go to her, since she picked it and supplied it. I just got to play.

I was afraid to cut into those cute fabrics without any pattern. So I created scrappy Mr. Blue.



Now, he is was a successful, but lonely prototype. So his lovely friend was created.




They like to hang out together, but soon will be separated and will go into homes of their own.

More giveaways.....

1. Beautiful Christmas necklace is being given away here.
2. And look what a precious giveaway is going on over here.

Baby Business...

Do you remember this little sneak peak I gave you a while back? Well, I can finally show you the finished product. I had a great time at the baby shower today and couldn't wait to show you what I made. So here we go...



Here is the quilt when I just finished it and needed to still stitch the binding on. It is for a baby girl who should arrive anytime now. Her room is decorated with brown and shades of light blue. Her mom told me that she bought this curtains for the room, so I was inspired.

This is the back, so you can see the quilting. I am very proud of this because I quilted it myself just with the walking foot. This is the second quilt I've machine quilted. First one was just straight lines and also baby quilt.



Nursery is also decorated with elephants, so I added a pillow/toy elephant and of course some onesies.





And one more time all finished and completed with nice crinkles from washing and drying. So soft!

More great giveaways...

There is more and more giveaways going on lately. It shows how generous the whole crafty community is.
One of them is here right now:
Film in the fridge is a wonderful blog full of inspiration and showcase of great fabrics... Ashley is celebrating her 100th post and put together fabulous package (handmade gifts and more fabric) for a winner. I am really hoping for this one.

3100 g and 49 cm....

Edit: Here is the photo. This is all I have, not the best quality, I think they took it with the phone. I am sure there will be more coming up. I am so proud.
Don't you think that those first pictures of new babies are not always the greatest pictures, but they are so special.



I have a big news from Slovakia. My sister gave a birth to her fifth baby yesterday. It is fifth baby, but it is the first girl. Everything is well. I don't have a picture yet because she spent her first day in the incubator. She is doing great though, so I might have picture soon.
Oh, and guess what? Her name is Michaela. How sweet is that? It was a huge surprise for me, since I had no idea and my sister kept telling me different names.
I can't wait to hold her.
Less than a month and I'll be there, yey!

Christmas Giving...

I try to stay calm and give priority where it's the most needed right now.
Therefore,
my house is still messy, we ate out this weekend, quilts are still missing the binding (most of them, but not all) and other gifts are still only in my head.
School was the highest priority this weekend. It's just that time of the semester when big semester projects need to be turned in, last quizzes need to be written and professors are summing up everything we worked on so hard for final exams.
BUT,
I was able to fit in a little, tiny project and probably would have finished it if I wouldn't run out of thread. And yes I did at least vacuumed the house.



No, don't worry I am not that quick. I had all the coasters and placemats pieced since last year (project that didn't get done on time for Christmas. Boy, I hope I won't have any of those this year). All I was doing this weekend was quilting and yes ran out of thread, so I have still five placemats waiting.

Scrapy Birds...

My good friend gave me this magazine and ask me to make her some wild birds for her son's nursery.
I start playing with it and pulled up some of my scrapy, vintage fabrics.




They are super easy to make and kind of addictive. She asked for any colors, bright colors, scrapy look, but I already have some favorites and some that I am not sure about. I'll see once they are all finished and together. That is the whole fun about scraps, hey dn't look good until a lot of them mixed together.



I love this vintage fabric.

Eeek... .... and three different giveaways...

You know it's winter when......

you need to purchase more of these....



because you already ran out from what you bought this year.

Anybody who lives on the farm knows that as soon as farmers harvest the fields around, you are going to have some visitors. There is nothing you can do about it. Well, except get some of those sticky traps (We tried live traps already, they don't work). When we moved on the farm three years ago, we didn't know this. We weren't prepared at all and it wasn't pleasant experience, I would say. Ever since, we are ready as soon as the leaves start turning colors.
Unfortunately, I work in small firm that is also on the farm, small house made into the office, so I am dealing with it at work as well. I am city girl (at least if you would look where I grew up), but I love to be where I am right now. I love everything about it, except our visitor in the winter. What do you do? There must be some some sacrifice everywhere, right?
My mom is disgusted every time I even mention it, so I don't anymore. She thinks I am crazy leaving the town life.

I know I shouldn't even talk about this here, but I found three of them caught at work this morning and thought about my life on the farm again. A thought of posting the picture of that came and flew away very quickly, don't worry.

Does anybody else has to deal with these little creatures this time of year?

Edit:
There are several giveaways going on. One is better than the other.
This one is from Old Red Barn Co. Go check out those quilts they are absolutely fantastic.Yes quilts!



The other one is from Simplify . The winner gets quilt of his/her choice. She makes it all kind of fun and not that easy.

The last one is over here at Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk . Debra is giving away a beautiful journal.

Go on to check them out!

Waiting to be finished.....

Do you want to take a peak? This is part of my To Do list.

1. Add binding...



2. Finish quilting and add binding....



3. Add binding and quilt matching pillow....



And the list goes on....

Feeling Quiet......, but Busy

I have been absent for a few days. Business of life got in the way during the day and sleepiness at night. I have been finishing some baby gifts and working through my Christmas list slowly, but surely. So there is show and tell to come soon.
I am trying to keep calm about everything that is awaiting me in the next month. Wrap up the semester, pack up everything for a month stay at my parents in Europe, get over flying issue (I only flew once in my life and that was from Slovakia here, this would be my second.) and get all my paperwork ready for visiting American embassy in Slovakia (because for some reason American embassy in Slovakia doesn't communicate with U.S. one, so I have to take everything with me.) and than make sure to get all the presents ready for those here and in Europe.
There is a lot on my mind as you can see lately and I have become a little stressed over it all, so I am trying to calm down. Being quiet helps...
I am going to leave you with some pictures of my home town.












All images are random finds on Google after you put Kosice, Slovakia search for images.

Procrastinating.....

This is what happens when you need to study for another exam and work on two other projects that are not sewing related.
I picked up several thrifted t-shirts in the morning before work and in the evening I was already a manufacturer of these cute hats. They are super easy and quick to do. I had some problems with my machine, since I don't own serger, but I found out after a while that it all depends on type of jersey. Certain T-shirts are just fine others, well, not so much.


Most of them are done, I have couple more T-shirts in the wash an will finished them tonight.





Oh, and I also did most of the quilting on this one. Yes, last night as well. I am a very good procrastinator, can't you tell?
Have a nice day! I am off to study.

Mama to Mama

I suspect that most of you already heard about Mama to Mama project that Amanda launched yesterday. I was also overwhelmed by all the info that Meg provided in her yesterday's post (and there is more in comments).
I thought that I could share a few ideas how to spread the word or found resources and therefore create mor hats for Haiti babies.

1. Post about this on your blog, you can get the banner here.

2. Talk to your friends at the local quilt shop, your fabric shop.They tend to like participate in hese projects.

3. If you don't have any T-shirts suitable for cutting, there is always Salvation Army.

4. And if you feel overwhemed with all those projects on your list for Christmas and are afraid that you might run out of time (deadline is December 10th), relax and think about how long those tiny hats could actually take to make, probably not to long - one evening?

5. Post about hats you make, it might work as great inspiration for others.

If you have some other ideas to help to spread the word , please go ahead and leave a comment.

Another Great Giveaway...

If you haven't done that yet, go to Sew Katie Sew to enter her giveaway. She is giving away some great fabrics to celebrate two years blogiversary !
And if you just found out about it from here, please mention it. Thanks.

My sister's quilt...

I can show you !



As I found out from my parents, my sister doesn't know about this new little space I have here. In any other situation my reaction would be, "What? How come??"
But not now. It is actually kind of convenient that she has no clue because that means I can go ahead and show you her Christmas present in the full beauty.
I started this quilt about week and half or two weeks ago. I am mentioning that because it makes it the record for quickest quilt (of that size and all pieced not like this one with not as much piecing and wide borders) I made. In fact it is also the biggest quilt I ever made.
Wow, I am really breaking some records here.

My sister and her half just recently painted their bedroom that apple green color. Don't ask me why. It was white before, so maybe they wanted to brighten their dreams.
I was pulling info from my mom about the best present for them since I will be actually there for Christmas this year. After much ideas I threw in and my mom's negative reactions for those, she sugested , "You know you could make a quilt as cover for their bed to match their new color and those blue lamp shades." Geeze mom, thanks for the tip, I don't know what to sew first anyway and I never made queen sized quilt before. But she succesfully placed the bug in my head and I started to go through my stash and pulled out all my thrifted sheets and pillow covers. I did buy a few fat quarters and not even full two yards of that blue solid. I just couldn't get over that bright green and bright blue (I am not bright color girl), but I think I found some that worked well together.
I found some inspiration and the pattern while sick over two unproductive weekends here.
And the quilt top was born. I actually grew on those bright colors and really like it.

Off to pay visit to my machine quilter lady drop off this beauty and pick up two finished ones..