Hello!!

Hello all!!

My name is Johanna Beren. I meant to introduce myself to you earlier but my mummy keeps me so busy all the time. She either feeds me or changes my nappy, or plays with me...But I enjoy it a lot :-)

I turned five weeks yesterday and growing so fast which my mummy is not very happy about. She says "I wish you stayed this little so I enjoy soaking in your newborn smell forever". I told her we would have years together and would have so much fun. She is an emotional mother, you know...

Ok, now it's mummy's turn to talk; it's been a while since she was around. You will see me more often from now on. Take care!

Hi all!

As my girl said, it has been a while since I was here. Let me quickly tell you what I have been doing, besides having fun with this little lady!

I was lucky enough to have an easier and quicker birth this time. I healed very quickly and turned back to my daily routine. Actually, I was up and running as soon as after we came home from the hospital. This meant, I got back to my sewing pretty quickly. I will come to that a little later.

We are still busily preparing for our big move to Argentina. DH is trying to finish the work in our yard, I am going through clothes, kitchenware, etc and deciding what is staying here and what is going with us. We have only three months left in Australia; as the time passes, my excitement is growing more and more. I feel good about it.

I have done something crazy to add on top of what I already have in my plate. I enrolled in an online undergraduate program, Communication Design, at Swinburne University! I will have three years for myself in Argentine and I want to spend it wisely. This will allow me to change my career when we return and hopefully find a job I will enjoy doing every day. The course has already started; currently, I am studying 20th Century Design which is about modernism. This unit has made me understand what modernism is and how it is applied to our everyday life (including quilting, believe it or not!).

I am back to teaching Turkish too. My student wants to fully utilise me before I leave.

I will also be back to the Spanish classes soon and will continue learning with a private tutor when we get there.

When I was expecting my girl I started an improv quilt using my scraps and a jelly roll which was sitting on the shelf for the last four years. I have made some good progress on it; it is now a baby size. I just can't decide whether to keep it at baby size or just continue growing it. I still have so many pieces I can use- I mean sooo many. Each time I look at them I say to myself "What was I thinking!!" But, this project kept me sane during the last weeks of the pregnancy. I think I just cut and cut and cut, sew and sew and sew. I remember it was like therapy.  Here is a photo of one of the panels I put together. 

Now, if you follow me on IG, you heard the BIG news already. 

I am a proud owner of a Juki TL2010Q!!! She was my Christmas wish for last year but Santa didn't accept it. I must have been a very good girl this year so Santa decided to deliver my wish a month early LOL The best thing was that I didn't know about this until it appeared on my door step!

I received her last Saturday and finally today the power converter arrived- 2010Q is not available in Australia so I need a converter. I have a hot date with this baby once the kids go to bed tonight!!

So, these are the latest news. Hope you are all doing well and getting ready for the festive season.

Cheers!

 Sibling love!

Scattered colours table runner

I will shock you with this post because I will actually blog about a finished project- hurray!!

Couple of weeks ago, I started this table runner as a quick and easy project. As usual, it took me a while to finish it but a late finish is still a finish and I am happy about it.
I want to share some details about this project with you.
Some of you might already know and follow Alex of Teaginny Designs. I came up with Alex on Flickr first and immediately I started following her blog too. Alex is creating beautiful quilts and other home decor items made with improvisation technique. There are so many photos of her beautiful and inspiring projects both on Flickr and on her blog. When I was going through her Flickr photos, I saw the picture of her book called Improvising Tradition. It immediately grabbed my attention with its title and cover photo and I didn't hesitate to buy my own copy.
In her book, Alex is teaching you how to combine some traditional patterns with strip piecing, strata piecing and slice and insert techniques and make 18 beautiful, modern projects. For someone like me who feels nervous when it comes to applying improvisation techniques, this books takes the pressure of you by taking you through the projects step by step with great photos and illustrations and explanation.
So, to get started, I chose the scattered colours table runner project.

I fell in love with this table runner when I first saw it on Flickr and since then, had been thinking about making one.
I had some Kona charcoal and lots of 10 inch Kona precuts in beautiful colours. After some playing with the colours, I chose a nice mustard yellow like in the photo, a pink and a neon green. And, made this.

To be honest, I was a little nervous when I was slicing my strips for the coloured inserts. As much as I tried to let it go, I think I (unconsciously) chose to be on the safer side and most of the time centred my inserts. As a result, my inserts look quite organised and grouped rather than scattered LOL.

 I love the neon effect of pink and green and also love how yellow creates the balance between the colours.

For quilting, I chose to do straight stitching because I wanted the quilting to have the least effect on the overall look of the runner. I chose to bind it with the charcoal, as Alex says in her book too, to take the attention to the coloured inserts.

You can find the Jewel Box Coasters projects from her book as a free download at Sew Mama Sew's blog. 

Lastly, you can purchase your own copy through the link below. Please note that I am an Amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book by following the link below, you make a small contribution to my blog.

Thank you!