Sweden 2014

By now it's almost a tradition that I visit my sister in Sweden during the Olympic Games. A good excuse to spend time with her and my nephew, who, this time, even had a birthday to throw in (and I made a big birthday cake for him ...)
As the first attempt for my mom's table topper ended up a bit on the large side of things, it now went to my sister.

The pattern is called 'Lone Star' and is waaaaaay easier to do than the 'doves in the window'. For one, you start simply by sewing three stripes together and then cut them at an angle. The eight points are identical, so not so much chance to mix things up.
And, if I may say so, the result looks pretty cool.

Swedish weather was pretty mixed, but at least one day was bright and sunny, even if it was rather windy, so I grapped my camera and made a few pics.
The Swedish coast:

 Proof I was in Sweden:

 And the very first spring flowers peaking through.

Doves in the Window

A few weeks ago, my mom asked me to make a table topper for the little table in her room. She also said that I should use scraps (I have plenty, so no problem there)
My first attempt turned out to be waaaaay too big (80 x 80cm for a table 45 x 42cm), so I started attempt number 2 using the 'Doves In The Window' quilt pattern.
This is a fairly traditional pattern (there are actually two different pattern with the same name ...), but I saw a more modern interpretation on a blog I follow, and thought to give it a spin.

I love the finished block, even though the sewing bit was a bit painful. I kept mixing up the order of the little pieces, ALL THE TIME! Then I started using a 1/4 inch (0.75cm) black border, but that didn't look right, so I ripped all the black bits off again and used a 1/2 (1.5cm) border instead. 

Only problem now ....

It's still too big for the table (it ended 50 x 50cm)

This week also saw the completion of a long term project (started March 2013)

The blackwork sampler chess board.

There are 32 different designes, which I pulled from all over the place: books, magazines, the internet, ...

I'm not 100% sure if I call is finished, though.

I'm thinking about adding some gold accents, oooooooor even to mirror all the black fields in gold on the opposide side.

What do you think?