Cherry Blossom Hill Studio

This photo is from a cook book I bought for my dad in Solvang for Father’s day but we still haven’t managed to get together yet.  The last I heard, he was vacationing in Myrtle Beach, how lovely!  Happy Pappa’s Day Poops!  This one is for you!  I don’t know who Tina Nordstrom  is but apparantly she is a famous television personality in Sweden.  Do you know how in each issue of Marie Claire you get treated to a photo vacation to some far off destination, full of incredible picture postcard perfect photos, well, this is it, all 219 pages of photos of the Swedish countryside (picture hot tubbing in the middle of the frozen winter), and dishes that range from mulled wine (Glogg in Swedish), cinnemon plums and apricots wit vanilla custard to comfort foods like goulash soup and white wine strawberries with whipped creme fraiche.  If those don’t get your mouth watering, how about berries with cloudberry zabaglione or seared scallops with blueberry vinaigrette!    Yes, there is even the humble Swedish meatball!  Each section of the book takes you to a different region of Sweden.  The photo shown here is from Dalarna

I love embroidery, I just haven’t tried it yet!  Every project in this book inspired me to give it a try.  All in English too!  Unfortunately, the look inside the book feature on Amazon doesn’t show the cutest projects in this book.  There is a very simple counted cross stitch Christmas stocking pattern on linen, some Jacobian crewel work in a picture frame, a really fun linen hobo back with Carribean blue embroidered flowers, some Scandinavian felted and embroidered slippers, and even a linen sewing kit case.

In case  knitting starts to feel monotonous and quilting just feels like too big a project to take on, or you just want to branch out and try some different craft techniques, this book is loaded with lots of fun projects for yourself or your home using techniques to manipulate fabric to provide texture and eye catching appeal.  I’ve seen silk scarves like the one in the book going for hundreds at Nordstrom’s, how cool to make one yourself!  Its not sooo much the fabric, but what you do with the fabric that makes these projects  really special, an idea that is really appealing to me because I’m not so crazy about fabrics in the quilt shops anymore.  I like the texture you see on the surface of quilts, but its really hard to find fabric that inspires me to quilt anymore.    But I have to say, if you are really good at creating a color pallette  from a stash of fabric that really comes alive, like Piece O’ Cake Designs, than I’m only too happy to spend my after work hours relaxing with one of their books, looking at the photos.  Or Kaffe Fasset, another really great quilter that can put together a great pallette, no matter what the fabric.  Its a skill I’ve never been able to aquire, I’ve always been a one collection girl, just picking out all the fabrics I like from a single collection.  And I haven’t found any collections I’ve liked in a long, long time.   I don’t know if its the economy or if other people feel like me but one of the largest quilt shops in Southern California closed its doors a few months ago.  They couldn’t make a go of it anymore.  I wonder how many years it will take for people to quilt through their stash before they ever need to visit another quilt store again?

I’ve been busy and tired from work lately but have been meaning to post a photo from the book Pixie Felt by Birgitte Krag Hansen that I found in Solvang, California a few weeks ago…thought you might enjoy!