I finally got my fabric from the US!

My faked document worked great with a new customs officer despite the one from last time trying to mess things up for me, I couldn't believe his nerve when he walked in and tried to unclear my cleared items... Luckily neither could the other officer so some interesting, not very nice sounding Maltese conversation took place while the nice officer waved at me to sneak out with my things *lol*

So yesterday I finally got to bring home my fabric from fatquartershop.com! Work has been more then a little crazy lately through and I wouldn't have had much time to sew anyway until now to be honest.

It was the most amazing feeling to open up the package and actually get to take it out, see the fabrics I'd dreamed of for so long after seeing them around the net! It was amazing! It is so much fun to have so many different fabrics that match so nicely, and not to mention how fantastically fun it is to not have to spend so much cutting! My left hand always hurt when I cut so this is so great.

My box of pure happy:

As you can see, there's a couple of jelly rolls (how I ever will be able to make myself unroll them I don't know, gosh they're so pretty tied up!) and a little non Christmas yardage hiding in there too, what will become of that I'll tell you later ^^ Now I have to get back to my Christmas project, more on that tomorrow, but I can tell you I just had to start straight away:

If you wonder why my cords to the sewing machine is covered in froggy flannel, it's because Diana chews cords so I have to cover them up XD

Emerald is back and how I hate Maltese customs!

Yesterday I got to pick up my dear little Emerald! He's working again... Most of the time ;)


I've finally finished my Christmas table runner, it turned out very nice I think, I really like it now. Had I made it today through I would have put all the kitties facing the same direction.

Christmas Kitty Table Runner with Hearts

I asked my fiance to take pictures for me, went to powder my nose and when I get back this sight meet me, my pretty table runner used as a kitty blanket at and armrest at the same time *lol*

Closeup of one of the adorable Christmas kitties

On another note my long awaited fabric from fatquartershop.com arrived! BTW, costumer service there is AMAZING! I was a terrible costumer, ordered to little and had to add to my order last minute, lived in a country where normal shipping methods didn't work and they just kept being so friendly and helpful, will order from there again for sure! The thing is through on the subject of the fabric, I've seen it, but I haven't got it...

How's this you ask? Well Malta is an annoying, backwards little country is the answer! :(
I get to the customs office with my notice they left me, my ID card and my wallet, should be enough right?

Nooo, that's not enough! After the customs officer opened the packet, he looks very confused, looks at me and ask:
"What is this for?"
I answer "Quilts"
The officer replies "So curtains?"
I reply figuring this man isn't the sharpest pencil in the box, "No quilts, bedding".
I get back an "Aha" which clearly states he still has no idea what I'm talking about...


He then asks where my "eBbay receipt" for "the stuff" is, and I reply "I didn't get an eBay Receipt as it's not bought from eBay". He looks confused and then says that I have to have an "eBay receipt or Paypal receipt" to be able to collect my package. So I reply I can't get either of that as I paid with a card directly on the site and the site is not eBay. He's now getting really aggravated with me and says I have to call "the eBay" and get them to send me  another receipt so they know the value of the "the stuff" (no matter that it says on the label  what the value is) or my package will be sent back...

So here I am now, trying desperately to fake an "eBay receipt" that the not too clever customs officer will accept and I can get my fabric. Just another day in Malta... At lest I have my Emerald back =)

Still no sewingmachine

Ok, so I'm slowly going crazy, not a word form the sewing machine guy, any day now I'll go over there and take a hostage to be returned when I get my machine, I kid you not.

In the meantime I thought I'd show you some really teeny tiny vanity cases I made a while back. They're about 7 cm long, one is a standard half circle shape and the other is more box like. The photos don't really do them justice though, they're adorable ^^ The half circle one is always in my purse carrying my spare contacts,  medication, earplugs etc. The other one was made as part of a gift to some very dear friends. A very handy size or all that small stuff that otherwise would get lost in the depths of my purse. They're lined with adorable cat fabric too, I don't know why I didn't take a picture of that back when I made them, but now I don't want to, it's not as white anymore =D

Sometimes living in Malta isn't very fun...

There's one, ONE person on the island that repairs sewing machines, and when we finally got there when he felt like being in the store (took 3 tries) he told me he couldn't fix anything electrical should that be the problem and that "I was lucky to have such an amazing quality machine". No offense little Emerald but you and I both know you really aren't THAT high quality even though I love you.

He would give Emerald some TLC and see if he could fix the issue with the thread tension. No promises made through.
I naturally asked, "How much will this cost me"?
He replied "Not very much".
* facepalm*
So I ask again, "How much will this cost"?
And he replies he can't really tell as he doesn't know what's wrong...

I tell him I at least want an approx price or I can't really leave the machine with him and he finally says that it'll cost about €40. "About €40", no telling for sure. I sighed and told him I can't pay much more then that as it would be more economical for me to buy a new machine if it gets more expensive, the guy just shrugs and walks away! Customer service, not his strong suit that's for sure...

He also said it'd be done in the beginning of next week, hopefully, no promises there either. So I'm more then a little upset at this point as I'll be without a sewing machine for so long, and not knowing if it will be repaired or not. :( All in all, I've not been a very happy quilter lately.

Since I don't have anything else fun to share with you today I thought I could show you my trusty quilting helpers, Edward and Diana, here at work with my Crazy Rainforest quilt:

Edward says he knows he's not allowed on this particular table, but what if he only walks on the very edge?

Diana is very happy with the layout and has decided to lie on it so I can't change it around again. =)

Christmas runner progress

I've not had much time for anything today so I figured I show you a picture from when I was re-quilting the table runner, I'm hoping to finish the binding today so maybe we'll have another progress post later. Before it was just quilted with a few straight lines across, now I've quilted it to try to empathize the adorable kitties and the hearts, I think I managed ok =)

I'm also contemplating some hand applique and how best to do it, also one of my "left since the summer" projects. So I'm doing some youtube watching to learn some new techniques, any tips and tricks you might have is much appreciated.

Wiggly table runner

So since I'm currently just able to do hand stitching my progress hasn't exactly been of lightning speed lately so I thought I'd show you something that I almost finished this summer but that's been in my pile of "whenever I should feel like hand stitching pile" waiting for it's binding to be hand sew on the backside. It got a border just a few days ago and I thought I'd show it to you since I still haven't finished the binding of my Christmas runner that I talked about a few posts back... Embarrassing I know, but I really hate sewing by hand.

So here's my wiggly table runner, made at Mia's quilting retreat this summer. It was so much fun to make and really quick too. I quilted it in the ditch using invisible thread, that however is not something I want to do again soon, tricky!

In it's rightful place on our coffee table,  it needs an ironing I know

Stretched out in it's full glory

And here's the back; as I've learned that not everything has to be perfect I thought I'd share it with you. I didn't really have enough background fabric so I added two sections from the front and the binding is really stretched at places to cover up the selvage which would have been visible in places otherwise *lol*

A little sad today :(

My sewing machine is about to give up I think...
He's been having issues with thread tension for quite some time but he's always bounced back and while never giving exactly perfect seams he's never failed me completely. He is a Husqvarna Emerald 116 wich I got on my 19th (I think?) birthday so he has a few years in his luggage. The move to Malta from Sweden wasn't exactly in his best interest either and I can tell that the humidity is really tough on him. The last few days however he's been giving up and I can't get him to bounce back. I'll be taking him to the center of the island on Monday to see if the man with the Husquarna boutique there can help us. :(
I'm feeling all crippled, not being able to sew....

Fight little Emerald, fight!