I'll be holding courses at the biggest sewing event of the year in Sweden!

I'm super excited to finally be able to reveal that I'll be one of the teachers during the Husqvarna Viking-, Pfaff and Singer Sömnads- & inspirationshelg 2016! This is the biggest sewing event in Sweden and all of the nordic countries are taking part, it's going to be so exciting! =D

On the Saturday I'll be holding a course in the Stockholm Bag (if you want to take part you have to be quick, there's only 5 spaces left already!), all the material is included and you'll be confident in working with faux leather afterwards. You'll also learn many cool tips for making bags, among other things the handles on this bag, they look so great and are really fun to make and so comfortable to carry with, once you've started making these, you'll want them on all your bags! =)

And on the Sunday I'll be holding a course in the Bring the Basics Bag, it will be a ton of fun, there are so many great courses during this weekend, make sure you don't miss out! The Bring the Basic Bag course is great for beginner bag makers =D

My baby is home!

I've been sick now for what feels like forever. The flu kicked me into bed weeks ago and not until today I've been feeling well enough to do anything at all other then what's absolutely necessary.
So no sewing in ages. I'm behind on the Splendid Sampler, my Finish Along 2016 goal number 2 is just lying there on a chair, mocking me... And my newest pattern in the works, which I'm super excited about - is no where near finished.

But on the major upside, Diana is home! My heart, my baby, my lovely Norwegian Forestcat is finally back with me after a 1,5 year long battle! She's unfortunately very overweight, her diabetes has been very poorly cared for which has stressed her system, her back and hips are causing her a lot of pain when she walks due to her weight poor baby. However, she's home now and getting proper care, medication and weight management so hopefully she will be improving slowly, slowly as she looses weight. <3

I've today slowly been starting to organise my fabrics and sewing things as we bought a new wardrobe (Pax from Ikea) for the living room for me to keep my sewing stuff in, as I'd outgrown the available storage options. So today I've been making solid rainbows <3

Dual Zipper Baggies & Christmas Decorations

I made some gifts for my very good friends, one of them got one of these baggies a couple of years ago and she's literally used it to threads! As the creator, you can't get a better grade then that and nothing makes me happier then hearing such, so of course I had to make her a new one =)

Upon receiving it yesterday she immediately moved out of her traditional wallet again and asked if any of us wanted it, as she was going to toss it anyway, really made my night =)

Made one with Bonnie & Camille's Ruby, such a stunning line!  

One was created from the adorable Makeover UK's Patch line my mother sent me, for my dogloving friend.

And a third with Tula Pink, because, it always makes me happy working with her fabrics! And these purples are just too pretty! <3

Had much fun choosing different linings and matching but contrasting zipper pulls. 

Filled them with a little candy before gifting.

Other then this we've Christmas decorated our little home, had mulled wine and gingerbread cookies and listened to a lot of christmas music of course!

As our flat is so small, we have the smallest tree to date, it's adorable! Only 12" <3

And the snowflake star is up and so is the balcony decorations, all the lights makes me so happy!

Introducing: Pink Pony Design!

 I'm very proud and happy to introduce to you all today, the new me: PINK PONY DESIGN!

Time for a change and an exciting update! This is the start of my very own line of real patterns! I've with this also decided to update my "brand" name a little to represent me more, and to be a little more easily recognisable. I'm changing name from Not Only Quilts to Pink Pony Design.

Those of you who know me, or have followed me for a while, know how much I love designing bags and quilts and other things, and I'd love to do it for a living. This is a major, exciting step in that direction! I've made a number of free patterns in the past, and I will of course continue doing free patterns and tutorials. I will however also be releasing high quality patterns for purchase!

I've had precious little time for sewing the past few years due to my work. However, my work situation has changed and I'm left with a bit more free time and I'm therefor able to pursue this dream of mine =)

My new patterns will be released in Swedish and English and available as both PDF versions and paper patterns.

Follow the new me on Instagram!

To see what I'm currently working on or thinking about, follow me at: PINK_PONY_DESIGN or click the image below. =)

A Brand New Life!

My personal life has undergone some major changes this past year and due to these among other things, not much sewing has been possible for me sadly. Which has resulted in me banking a million and one ideas for new patterns and things I want to create, which is fantastic now that my life finally permits it!

My sewing machine is finally with me again and the sewing table arrived a few days ago now, it's an Ikea Malm. The lovely flowers are from my new love with whom I just celebrated 5 months with! <3 It's a really tiny (but adorable) one bedroom flat we live in now so the table is squeezed in between the kitchen counter and the sofa ^^

And yesterday I retrieved my Ikea Benno shelfs and I could finally unpack my fabrics! I'm so happy!! They will very soon been filled with a rainbow these FQ's and half yards that I now have refolded and sorted, I was so ridiculously happy to finally be playing with my fabrics again!

I just can't wait to start creating again! =D

My mother has opened a brand new Swedish quilting store!

I'm so immensely proud of and excited for my mother who has the blog evas syrum. She has just opened her online quilt fabric store in Sweden. I know that most of my readers aren't Swedish but I just had to share this anyway, I'm so happy for her! =D

She's also hosting a giveaway with a chance to win 2 Moda Scrap Bags! These seem to be such an awesome thing, I really can't wait to get my hands on my first!

Please feel free to hop over for a chance to win (you can use the translation gadget if you don't speak Swedish)! I literally couldn't be more excited for my awesome mom! <3

She prices all her fabric the same, it's 155 SEK per meter, other then the Kona Solids that are 115 SEK per meter so it's really easy to shop there. She also has some really cute little FQ bundles and some other pre-cuts. You can order as little as 10 centimeters of a fabric should you wish.  =)

A Jacket for Jackie

We're dog sitting little Jackie again much to my delight! In the snowy and cold weather we've had the poor baby has been shivering every time we go outside. So I decided it was time to take action!

I borrowed a teeny tiny Hemtex sewing machine (which made more noise then any other machine I've ever heard!), brought out an Ikea fleece plaid and a piece of oilcloth and got to work! She really likes it, she comes right away when I take it out and she is so much more relaxed when we go out now, no more shivers or shaking! =D

We took an old hunting neon band for the belt and attached it while covering up the advertising text at the same time with a small piece of reflective band to make sure little jackie is visible in the dark. 

You would think this was a really quick thing to make and it would have been had it not been for the darn little sewing machine causing all sorts of havoc with the tread tension. It was cranked up to 10 when I got it and was still making loops on the backside... Managed to find the bent piece of metal and fix it and then it was more or less obedient. Have you ever seen such a tiny machine? =)

This is what I'm talking about regarding the tension issues, not a happy sight.

It was also pretty much impossible to sew a straight line, the thing jumped left and right and feed the fabric very unevenly. You can see the remaining tension issues on the the velcro. Luckily it's hidden on the inside for the lining.

However, Jackie is super happy in her wind and water proof, nice and cozy winter coat, and that is all that matters, and I also got to satisfy my worst sewing cravings, so it was very much a win win. The pattern is just made up on the go, will probably make one with a hole for the head and coverage for the chest next time =)

My Mom Visited!!

My mother and step dad (feels so wrong to call him that, he's awesome!) Hasse visited us for week a short while back and not only did we have a lovely time (despite a rather intense sand storm for a few days) but she also taught me how to crochet! I had no idea how fun and relaxing this activity was (relaxing after I'd learned not to grip the needle like my life depended on it, I bent it a couple of times actually ^^ ).

We made flowers!! Lot's and lots of flowers! Mom made the hearts for me and a few of the flowers but I did make quite a few of them myself =)

My first flower to the left and to the right of it, my most advanced one so far ^^

Mom also brought a fantastic gift! A Gutermann thread set, which is pretty much the dream to own! =D

Behind each of the threads is the color number, so you don't even have to save the old spools, you can just look at the number to replace a color or buy more, super handy! 

Today's confession: Sometimes I open it just to stroke the pretty colors for a while, really makes me happy and calm =) Thank you mom and I miss you already! <3

Pillows finished and preparing for Christmas

My pillows are finally finished! Remember, the Drunkards Path blocks I made for the March and April FMQ Challenge? They're the ones I've finally, nearly a  year later have completed =)

Close-up, I had so much fun quilting these!

Diana loves them, they're constantly all black with her hair... Maybe not the brightest choice of fabric in hindsight. ^^

The Free Motion Quilting Challenge I failed miserably through. This year has really kicked my behind work wise and I haven't had much time for my hobbies. Which is really sad as I don't feel as happy as I normally do when I don't have time to create, I have to try to take more me time next year. But I did learn a lot from it and I really hope SewCalGal will let the tutorials remain even next year so maybe I can complete the rest then.

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

I had the girls over for some drinks and girl talk the other day and had a lot of fun making Christmas themed snacks without making them taste christmasy as I suspected we'll all prefer to look forward to eating Christmas stuff in the upcoming few days. It's a little Christmas tree! ^^ With the tree I served dip and some other really tasty snacks like the "Christmas Tree Ornaments" honey, goats cheese and pistachio truffles, they where yum! =)

I also had tons of fun Christmas decorating the apartment a few days ago, dressing our adorable little Christmas trees with Diana watching my every move carefully as those little lights are oh so pretty she think. Will try to show them all done later tonight when you can see how pretty they are with their lights.

I'm alive!

Haven't written anything in a long time, haven't really had much to write about nor any time to write. Things have just been piling up the way they usually do so I've been working, eating, sleeping. Now we're also doing some home improvement so we've been plastering, painting etc in our "spare" time.

Anyhow, we did have quite a lovely Halloween, went to a fabulous party as Pyramid Head and one of the  Nurses from Silent Hill. Our friend is an Enderman from Minecraft. We made our costumes ourselves and had a ton of fun doing so =)

Making of Nurse Costume

I bought a much too large, white dress which I sewed in to fit me, and at the same time get some spare fabric for a nurses collar from as all store brought nurse costumes  where ridiculously expensive to just ruin. 

I tea dyed the dress (what an awesome way to dye stuff!) with some cotton fabric to get that old, rotting skin color that their dresses have.

From the leftover parts of the sewn in skirt, I made a collar - to make it look more like a nurses dress.

Dress sewn in, and finished with it's collar:

I made a nurses cap out of a pattern I found online here and the cotton fabric I previously tea dyed and Fast2Fuse heavyweight interfacing. I left the edges raw and cut them up a bit to make them look worn.

Coloured it in spots with a tea bag to make it look a little gross and more stained. I smelled like forest fruit tea all night ^^

Painted my shoes to make it look like I walked in blood with Pyramid Head =)

In the end I stained it all with some more tea stains and some paint with a rusty red color to give a it a little drops of blood feeling. The nurses aren't really covered in blood like you see in many costumes but I thought a few spatters couldn't hurt to increase the scary factor. I stained bandages with tea too to get a worn look and wrapped them all around my head and then colored them in places to get really creepy feel.  It took me about 4 hours to color my legs/arms/chest with white/grey and the veins and dead body bruises.

Pyramid Head

The Pyramid Head costume was the real challenge. Sooo much fun to make and sooo much hot glue used! *lol* First we cut out cardboard triangles which we tried for size. 

Then made the vision holes.

Added side triangles and some more pieces for depth and a more in game feel.

Trying on the base.

Adding more details and bottom edges.

Packed the whole things in painters tape, glueed on the carpet slip covers we used to hide his eyes but still allow him to see. Glued on some plastic pipes and the caps of some medicinal bottles for the screws and then spray painted all of it silver and black.

We made the oversized sword from and old broom handle rescued from the garbage room, cardboard and lots of silver tape.

Made his "butchers skirt thingy" from an old sheet which I tea stained and then painted with  non toxic face paint (in case you're wondering why Diana is allowed to help with the job ^^).

Tada! Silent Hill Pyramid Head and Nurse:

Me and our lovely host at the party who LCHF blogs over here: http://www.lchfmalta.com/

I really hope I can get back to sewing soon or I'll loose my mind.