Danish Summer

Pretty much heaven on earth.

Good-bye, Svalbard; ha det bra midnatt sol!

Hej hej Københaven!

The Denmark summertime is full of gently waving grasses and delicious-smelling roses and puffy white clouds in blue skies.  We have been picnicking with babes ever since we arrived, which seems to be the thing to do in Denmark.  We have played a lot of tag, cars, peek-a-boo, tickling and shape games.  We have cooked some dinners and eaten out and been for walks in at least five parks.  We have flirted with flowers so much we begin to suffer allergies, but it's worth it.

Eating right in Frederiksberghave.

And smelling right in Kolding Geografiskhave.

Felicite Parmetier.

 Oh, and I finally get to brag about the baby quilt I made for my niece!  I've been working on this thing for, oh, ten months. I finally finished it in about mid-April; these bragging shots were taken about thirty seconds after the last stitch was in place.  I was keeping it a secret until I delivered it in person last week, but now I can talk about it all I want!  Here's the scoop.  So, I ordered fabrics last July, shortly after hearing the news that my sister was pregnant.  I didn't love my first experience ordering fabrics online: I forgot to check the gauge on each swatch (even though it was clearly delineated at the bottom of each picture), so the prints I ordered weren't quite as harmonious as I was originally hoping.  I had to do some editing to bring things together in a way I liked.  I am really pleased with the result, but I think for any future small quilting projects I might consider using all solids instead-- I think the potential for playing with the pattern of the overall image would actually be stronger.  Still, this is pretty cute!

 And this is the back!

Everything is hand-stitched, including the piecing.  It took about 75% longer to finish the piecing than the actual quilting and binding.  This fooled me into thinking that if I just slapped together a simply-pieced top really quick, I might be able to finish a second quilt before we left Svalbard.  Now I am carrying around a big old bundle of cotton and wool in the top pocket of my backpack… I keep thinking that if I can only finish it before we hit the tropical climates we are headed toward, it will be worth it.  Wish me luck?

I don't really care one way or another-- I will either finish it, or be having too much fun to finish it, so it's win-win.

This baby not to scale.