About

I will be back soon…

At the moment I stay in Bad Camberg for a medical rehab until the end of July. It is a lovely mediaval small town

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I already discovered a local quiltshop, it’s lovely isn’t it?

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I took some stuff for sewing, quilting and spinning with me… but the days are overloaded with sports, gym, swimming, massage, aquajogging, relaxing exercises …

I’m knitting socks at the moment out of my self dyed yarn. I dyed the wool with my balcony harvested dyer’s knotweed.

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I have a wonderful room here … a room with a view.

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Scrap Happy December

Four weeks since my last post… and I really didn’t sew much. But I have a nice little project to share for the monthly Scrap Happy post: I made some cute scrappy Santas!

Santas = Babbo Natale

Santas

The pattern is based on a log cabin quiltblock which I made from SCRAPS! I started with a 2.5″ center piece and added all the strips around.

block for the Santa front

block for the Santa front

The second step is to add the red piece for the Santa’s hat. I did that like I make HST out of squares – put a red square in the same size like the log cabin block on the log cabin block, mark the diagonal line and sew 1/4 ” of both sides from the line, cut on the marked diagonal line. What you’ll get are two blocks like these:

from one log cabin block you will get two Santas

from one log cabin block you will get two Santas

I added the eyes with a small zig-zag-stich using a very small stitch length.

After that you have only to add a red back side and stich the back sides together along the hats. If wanted you can add some embellishments at the edge of the hat and a ribbon at the top.

I found the tutorial on an Italian blog – it is in Italian but there are a lot of step-by-step-pictures… I did it without understanding Italian too 🙂 : http://cucitocreativo.xs4.it/i-miei-lavori/tutorial-babbo-natale-log-cabin/ I added one strip less than the tutorial claims and my Santa is 7.5″ tall.

One of the Santas I sent to  Avis with her F2F blocks – as she told me it is sitting at the top of her Christmas tree… mine is still sitting on my old treadler table on top of a bottle  waiting for a final usage… maybe as gift, Christmas ornament, gift tag, Christmas eve keyhole protector …

Santa waiting

It seems that I am the first one this month with my ScrapHappy post… so I’ll link here to the other participants supposed to publish a ScrapHappy post later:

Gun at https://rutigt.wordpress.com (in Swedish and English)

Susan at https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com (in English)

Titti at http://tittisquiltlek.blogspot.se (in Swedish only)

Kate at http://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/ (in English)

Sue at http://sewingmagpie.blogspot.com.au (in English)

ScrapHappy October

It is the 15th of the month and I decided to join ScrapHappy hosted by Kate and Gun. ScrapHappy is open every month to any one using up scraps… and that is what I want to do! For this month I’d like to present you my scrappy WIPs.

When I started sewing one and a half year ago I would never have guessed how many scraps you collect over the time. At the beginning I had a very small scrap box and used my scraps to sew small scrappy things… not knowing that there is a point you can’t  use up all the scraps to sew small cute stuff:

Small QAYG-pouch for my aunt
small fuzzy cut pincushion inspired by Jeanneke @http://jeanneke.com/#home
this feather was one of my first paper pieced blocks earlier this year
Log Cabin Chicken
One side…
small gear-pouches
Mercury-Star Coaster
Coaster for Philipp
Johnny proudly presents…
scrap-box-challenge @ grannymaudsgirl
Small Sunbonnet Sue Sample out of babyclothes_Detail

That’s why in June I decided  to join crazymomquilts’s scrap vortex sew along. And so I sorted my scraps and scraps from two moda scrapbags which I got as a present and started to connect them to pairs…

scrapvortex_pairs

… connected the pairs to pairs of pairs…

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… to make blocks out of it…

scrapvortex_block

… but with the start of F2F block swap there were new scraps… the scraps in the picture above are all from Esther’s and my F2F blocks. And some of the scraps were too small to put it into the stash but too big for the scrapvortex I thought…

A while ago I bought the Mini Periwinkle Template from MSQC (there is also a video tutorial at youtube) and so I decided to take big enough scraps for a wacky web quilt… I sorted the scraps again and started to sew the first blocks…

miniwackyweb

And as if that was not enough I saw the granny square blocks at wombatquilts … and it was love at the first sight! I knew I had to make these… and so I decided to make them not big but very small… a perfect scrap project. And so I sorted the scraps again… all big enough for a scrappy wacky web quilt  … all too small for that but at least 1.5″ squareables for the scrappy mini granny squares …. all the rest for the scrap vortex. As you can see I have now three scrap WIPs.

At the moment the granny square blocks are my favourites … there is a wonderful tutorial for these blocks at blueelephantstitches if you are interested. I just changed the size to 1.5″ squares – the finished blocks are 4.5″ then.

First I cut lots of scraps into 1.5″ squares and looked of which scraps I have only 1 piece (for the centre square), 4 pieces (for the inner ring) or 8 pieces (for the outer ring). The next step was combining the colours…

For the background I take white fabrics – solid white as well as printed, I have lots of different white scraps. The best way to sew the blocks is sewing several at once using the chainpiecing method.

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First I lay out the blocks I want to sew.

 

I add the backround fabrics I need to join the rows (columns)

I added the backround fabrics for the rows/columns I need to join.

 

chainpiecing

chainpiecing all of the blocks

All pieces are sewn together.

All pieces are sewn together.

The last step is squaring the block up to 4.5".

The last step is squaring the block up to 4.5″.

And here are the blocks I finished so far:

There are small sqares for another 155 blocks to go… I will show you my progress next month (perhaps I get another six finished?).

 

Linking with

Gun at https://rutigt.wordpress.com (in Swedish and English)

Sue at http://sewingmagpie.blogspot.com (In English)

Titti at http://tittisquiltlek.blogspot.se (in Swedish only)

Kate at https://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/

Started my Dear Jane today…

The first step is done… today I started my journey with Dear Jane… I wonder how long it will take.

The first block I sewed was A-08 – I did it with foundation paperpiecing. For my beginning I’ve chosen an easy block – but to be honest: I’m really afraid of all the curved piecing waiting for me.

A-08… the first block of my Dear Jane

I use the Dear Jane book by Brenda Papadakis to help me doing the quilt and I searched the internet for helpful sources:

There is especially the official Brenda Papadakis website with a lot of block tips and other helpful hints. Another helpful site with block tutorials for every block is Anina’s That-Quilt-Blog. Then I discovered Susan R. Gatewoods website: she offers her own patterns for free download, just asking for a donation to the Bennington Museum, Vermont, where the origanal Jane A. Stickle quilt is exhibited. There are lots of other inspiring websites/blogs too. In the end every quilter have to find its own way to build all these tiny blocks using pernonal preferred techniques – but I am very thankful for all these tutorials, descriptions, inspiration and support.

Unfortunately it was not possible to find a virtual design wall… so I improvised a little bit to show my progress in the side bar:

My virtual designwall

Above the design wall you find some numbers – today it was: 1-0-0-11. These numbers represent the

  • number of finished square 4 1/2″ blocks
  • number of finished triangles
  • number of finished corners
  • number of used fabric pieces

So when the quilt is finished it will look like this: 169-52-4-5602 …

I wasn’t able to put a link behind every table cell in my designwall (simply don’t know how it works)… so the whole thing is linked with a pdf to show the single finished blocks enlarged with some notes how I did it.

Already for the small pieces of this first block it was worth I built a kind of table-ironingboard few weeks ago: I used a lumber-core board for inside, upholstered it with some heat-resistant wadding and covered it with a piece of an old ironing board cover. On the back side I sewed the coverfabric together with large stitches (just to fix it) and covered the back with a piece of felt – it stops sliding and protects my table. Until now I used it with my mini iron for appliqué but I’m sure it will keep me from flip open my big ironing board for these itsi bitsi fabric pieces in these quilt’s blocks.

Thank you for reading… and I would be delighted to get some useful tips concerning the building of a virtual designwall 🙂

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you all have a very happy Merry Christmas…

I sewed a last minute project, “peppermint candy table topper” from a free pattern I found here… I quilted it stiching in the ditch and the peppermind-candy-windmills free motion with Holly leaves and berries (I did it in a continous line and used two designs – if you are interested you’ll find it here).

And although it was actually too late… I couldn’t resist trying that Christmas cake recipe by Kate from talltalesfromchiconia… and suppose I can’t resist eating it all either!

 

Some Baby Equipment for a Friend… and a free tutorial for burpcloths

Today I took time to sew some baby equipment for a friend. I tried the selfbinding babyblanket (pattern by MSQC), two burp cloths (look at the free tutorial in this post) and a baby-soother case.

Detail - the corner of selb binding baby blanket

Detail – the corner of self binding baby blanket

I noticed the MSQC-tutorial for the selfbinding babyblanket at youtube first and after watching it I was curious to sew it…

You only need 2 fabricpieces of 30” and 40” – because of the way of connecting these fabrics the binding arises by itself. It was fast & fun to make.

Finally the blanket’s size is 35”.

 

Baby Blanket

Baby Blanket

There was much of the yellow terrycloth fabric left and so I decidet to make some burp cloths. I drawn a pattern by myself… and it turned out well.

If you didn’t notice – this is the 50th post on my blog! For that I’ll give a free tutorial to my readers: It is the first time I traced a sewing pattern using my computer… so I hope everything is understandable – if not I’ll answer your questions. –> Baby Burpcloth – free tutorial (pdf)

burpcloths before turning
and one out of terrycloth and cotton with little stars
and so it works…

Last but not least  – and because I couldn’t stop making this cute baby stuff – I made a tiny baby-soother case out of some leftover fabric…. if you look closely you can see that it is sewn like a chicken-pincushion (just with a zipper).

You can carry a fresh baby-soother in it
it can be attached to the baby buggy
so have always a neat baby-soother with you… the one of the picture belonged to my daughter… 16 years ago!!!

Thank you for visiting by blog and reading my posts!

DEUTSCH –> (more…)

23/04/2014 Paper Piecing

I took Easter days to try out paperpiecing… I never did before – and in fact it is real fun and at last I got an acceptable result (for such a beginner with paperpiecing like me). For my exercises I used two free paper piecing patterns  from the inspiring WOMBATQUILT-blog.

I began with the 10-inch-HOUSE BLOCK … as an absolute beginner with this I changed the position of  the parts with the trees… cause it was a little bit puzzling… It’s a pitty I’m not a gifted photographer… it’s quite impossible to catch the real colours. But here are some impressions:

choosing colours … my cat helps
chosen fabrics
several parts of the pattern are sewed together
blockhouse block – ready

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Then I tried the 8-inch-STARRY NIGHT BLOCK from Wombat Quilts patterns. Additional I added a frame around it – think it looks a bit Xmas-like… so I have time until december to make something out of it 😉

 

 

DEUTSCH (more…)