Mio my Mio

A collegue of mine has just had her second child. A girl this time. She asked me if I could make her a baby quilt. I'm always happy for an excuse to make something, but I warned her. I was going to make it sweet and pink this time. As you might have guessed, pink and sweet is not her thing. So to tease her, I made a pink knitted lace, with a white quilted silk carpet below. Could it be sweeter?

 A little worried about what she was going to say, I chose as a motive for the knitted lace a tableau from one of my favourite books as a child, "Mio my Mio" by Astrid Lindgren. This book has many dimensions, but the story I wanted the little girl to carry with her trough life, is to have the courage to stand up to people who want to control you.

Mio is actually named Bosse, and lives in Stockholm. He has only one friend in life and is bullied regularly by the other children. One night, a genie comes to him while he sits on a park bench crying. The genie tells him that he is really a prince in the land Far away and takes him home to his father, the King, who calls him Mio.

Mio finally experiences what it means to be loved, and he gets many friends. But he also discovers that there comes responsibility with being a prince. In the land Beyond, the evil Knight Kato rules with an iron fist. He captures disobedient children and turns them into birds who are doomed to circle his castle for all eternity.

Mio, which is a scared and shy little boy, realizes that he is the only one who can save these children. He finds the courage to ride out with his best friend Jumjum, to challenge the evil Knight Kato. Because of his kindness to people he meets along the way, he gets the help he needs to defeat the knight and free the children. The motive for this blanket is when Mio challenges Kato and wins.

At the centre of this blanket, I have knitted a pattern called "The Ginger bread castle". I can not remember if this happens in the book, but I chose to put the knight's castle on fire. The flames are a pattern called "Bleeding harts", while the cliffs below the castle is a pattern called "Purl shell pattern". Around the castle birds are flying, which is a pattern called "Shower head". All these patterns you may find in Barbara G. Walker's book series "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns". The blanket is knitted in a beautiful silk and alpaca yarn from Du store alpaca, named Fin, in a deep pink colour (229).

Many of us meet people who are trying to get us to do things we really do not want to do. It takes great courage to stand up to such pressure, to be who you are.

To the little girl who has just been born, I wish you all the best in life and that you may find happiness. I also hope that you will find the courage to stand up to your Knight Kato. Be who you want to be. Think for yourself. Make your own choices. 

"Mio my Mio".

New blinds for my daughter new room

When my daughter was four, and were going to get her own room, she wanted every thing to be pink. The walls, the sofa bed and the blinds. Now, when she is eleven, pink is not so cool anymore, and we needed to redecorate her room. This time, the colours are white, black, turquoise and other shades of blue. Much more suitable for a young lady.

She bought some lovely checked pillows in different tones of blue for her new room. She loved this pattern so much that she asked me to make her some new blinds in the same pattern. So I did.

I used the old blinds as background, making the new blinds very thick and preserving the mechanism for folding the curtain up during the day. It worked like a charm. But best of all, my daughter was pleased.

Here is a picture of her old and very pink room.

To dream under water

We have a summer home in the skerries of the Oslo fjord. It is very small, only 37 m2, but has many smart solutions. This makes it possible for us to live there for longer periods of a time. One of the smart solutions is a box bed behind a curtain in the hallway. The curtain was a bit dreary, so I wanted to quilt a nice drape in front of the alcove.

The theme for the drape was “An under water dream”. It is made of a large piece of backing fabric, and measures 210x190cm. It has applications of fishes, sea turtles, mussels, starfishes, corals, kelp and seaweeds. The aim was to make it dark enough to sleep behind the drape.

I have had the pleasure to snorkel with sea turtles twice in my life, and it is a magnificent experience. The last time I snorkelled with turtles, I was with my daughter, who were to sleep in the bed box. Thus, I wanted sea turtles on the drape. I found a nice pattern for the application of the sea turtles and sea weed, named "Follow me", designed by Carol. The pattern for the corals and the yellow and black fishes, is "Dolphin Bay" from Cornelia W. Carpenter.

Additionally, I found some pictures of various fish on the net, and made my own patterns (see pictures below). I particularly enjoyed making the clown fishes.

I also loved to make the turtles. In the original pattern, the turtle in front was looking behind to the other turtles, as to urge them to follow him. I wanted the turtle in front to look at the fishes in the foreground, to focus the attention on the minor details on the curtain (see pictures below).

The drape hangs in a narrow corridor, which makes it difficult to make an overview picture. I have tried, and if you see the two pictures below in relation, it gives an idea of how the curtain is put together.

 

The drape works as a charm, and nobody can see that there is a box bed behind it. Additionally, it gives a lot of colour and atmosphere to our summer home.

Tablecloths by Bente Mahlm

I never really liked tablecloths. I don’t like to iron them and I don’t really like the esthetics of embroidered tablecloths. They look like they belong in the home of an old lady. That is why I was really pleased when I discovered that quilted tablecloths often look really nice. The ironing is limited and they are fun to make as well.

In particular, I fell in love with the designs of Bente Mahlm. I have made a couple of tablecloths with fall motives, with applications of leaves and blueberries. I think they look very nice, but my husband does not like checked fabric, so they are banish to our summer home. The girl in the picture is my daughter, Elise, who thought pictures of just the tablecloth were boring.

Keeping track of all the colours

I have not embroidered much in my life, but when my mother i law showed me a book she had bought, featuring various animal motifs, I was hooked. The book was in French, but it didn’t matter as the patterns were easy to follow. I searched the net, and eventually found an American net shop selling this and several other absolutely fantastic books (see “The French Needle” under My Favourite Net Shops). I bought several books, and they did not disappoint me. In particular, I fell in love with a book with patterns of Beatrix Potter’s pictures.

When I started to sew, I soon discovered that things got very messy, and it was difficult to find the right colour. I also had a tendency to loose the wrapping where the colour number was written. Furthermore, I only used one of six strands of thread, so I had a lot of loos threads lying around. It was obvious that something had to be done.

To better organize my sewing projects, I quilted a little folder. It had pockets for each colour, a place for my scissor and a pocket to put the pattern and embroidery. The thread pockets were made so it fitted the floss bobbins, and I could see the colour and colour number. I found the floss bobbins in a British net shop (see “Sewandso” under My Favourite Net Shops), where they also sold boxes to store the floss bobbins, threads and patterns. To decorate the folder, I made one of the patterns in the Beatrix Potter book, of a tailor mouse.

The folder is working well, and I have full control over loose treads, it is easy to find the right colour and it is easy to bring my sewing projects with me while travelling.

Yellow orchid

I love orchids. They are the only flowers that survive in my house, and some of them blossom for months at a time. I have about twenty, and my favourite is a yellow and red orchid. Unfortunately, it doesn’t blossom very often, and only for a couple of weeks.

I have planned to quilt an orchid tablecloth for a long time, and the last time the yellow orchid blossomed, I decided that now was the right time. I drew the blossom, and designed a tablecloth for my dining room table. The flowers are appliquéd in a fantastic batik textile I found on one of my favourite net shops (see “Quilt design” under My Favourite Net Shops). The leafs is pieced, sewn onto paper, as I wanted them to give the impression of turning, and the stem is done by sewing a cotton thread on to the tablecloth with zigzag stitches.

Unfortunately, the yellow orchid had faded when I took the picture, so I used a pink orchid instead. Now, the tablecloth is lying on my dining room table, reminding me of my yellow orchid even when it is not blossoming.