Montag, 3. Dezember 2012

Did I say December?

No way I'm getting the star quilt finished - ever!!!! I totally underestimated the quilting of this huge quilt.. The heavy quilt is giving me a hard time on my little Pfaff Varimatic.... Unfortunately I have decided, and started to first outline ALL the stars (as if I had forgotten how many there were...). This is not even close to finished. After about outlining 1/4 of the quilt I started free motion quilting swirls a bit, just so I wouldn't get bored. It looks really good and the stars pop out neatly.

The struggle already started when basting the sandwich together. It took almost the space of the whole living room, as you see on the picture.

The backing fabric is starry as well. I couldn't resist :-) but since it was not wide enough, I just sewed one last star and made a strip on one side. I like it. Do you?

Well, right now I am very busy with stuff that I need to get organized before going back to work. Also I'm on a business workshop the next few days, so really... The star quilt might have to wait a bit longer... Although I still wish it to be ready within this advent.

I'm exhausted, but to you happy crafting!









Dienstag, 20. November 2012

Plan for tonight? No sewing!

Here is my finished random reflections quilt! Tonight I will just cuddle under my quilt, enjoy a cup of tea and read "the hunger games-catching fire" :-)
But to you: happy crafting!

Montag, 12. November 2012

Update on Stars and my very first pattern design!

You might have noticed that quilting has changed my life completely. Although I will go back to work as a graphics designer in January, I decided I wanna start a career in quilting as well. And although it may sound strange, me being a beginner, I will give a beginners patchwork class in April 2013 at our local craft school. Yay! All I want to do is spread the joy of quilting and that's how I'll start!

So besides working on my stars (I completed ALL the stars and joined them together) I have also worked on my very first design for a quilt pattern using HSTs and squares only. Check out the pictures of the process! And I have just sewed the first two test blocks. I wanted to go for solid colors so the contrast of the pattern shows really well, but the students should interpret that block with their own style of fabrics! Can't wait! After playing with colors I decided to go for the strongest contrast there is: black and white!

I am so excited about this! I just hope that enough students sign in, so it doesn't get cancelled!

Anyways. The pick up sticks is my next challenge to quilt! I have baught backing and bating and found a cool design on a ikea fabric that would go great with the piecing!

Enjoy the pics, and happy crafting!

Dienstag, 30. Oktober 2012

Twinkle twinkle Little Stars

I have completed more than 2/3 of the stars! Woohoo! So I might actually finish it before December!

I could really need a warm quilt right now. We had like 20 cm of snow last weekend and I'm freezing!

Although I must seem to have enough of stars, I have made an additional star (actually made two of those).

The secret behind this special blue star will be revealed on Christmas!

Happy crafting!

Montag, 29. Oktober 2012

A month has past

It's been a month since my last post. A lot has happend. I have been on vacation with my family (no sewing for 2 weeks AND I made it ;-) I read 2 Books instead...

My last post ended with two finished Baby Quilts, and I will start this one by telling you about my two (!!) large Quilts I have started, both for my Couch! Yes, finally I am making a Quilt for myself.

#1
I have been surfing through a lot of Blogs on quilting and found this awesome QAL (Quilt Along) "Oh my Stars"


I found that every QAL has a Logo that you can put on your blog to provide the link to the orignial page. But since I am totally new in blogging and still haven't had the time to deal with this program I have no Idea, how to do that and am just hoping this Link above is working.

This QAL just caught my interest and after reading and going through the tutorials I decided it was about time to make a full size Quilt for myself. Days have become cooler and since Christmas is just around the corner I decided to make a Xmas Version of Oh my Stars and will name it Oh my Xmas Stars. (Not very creative, I know). I ordered some Christmas Fabric and made my first stars, and they turned out really nice. Although I am not a very accurate sewer, everything fit together just fine! Awesome! The tutorials are so clear and step by step, anyone could do this!

So here's my first Star :-)
YAY! I think it's awesome ;-)
And after making a few stars each size, I started cutting more fabric at the time, so I would have a bunch of stars to start with. I am not the kind of quilter that cuts a few days, sewes a few hours and presses for a loooong time. Instead I like changing the routine.






http://thoughtandfound.wordpress.com/oh-my-stars/

Something strange has been happening to my Blog...

I am quite dissapointed about this, but half of my last post has been deleted..
What happend, I guess is that I changed a few spelling mistakes on my iphone and once I saved that, the last bit of my post was gone. Unfortunately the important part where I was going on and off about my Cutting Mat and how disappointed I was that it has worn out so quickly...

So please comment now! What are your experiences with cutting mats? I kinda solved my problem and baught a selfhealing Mat, that I knew from my times in Advertising, where I had to cut out dummies and print out samples a lot. The unfortunate thing is though, that it has only a centimeter grid and no cutting Angles, so I really have to still use my old mat as well, at least for measuring...

Also pictures of my latest Quilt that I made in between my stars, which I found on moda Bakeshop have been deleted :-(((

So without having to repeat everything I wrote before, just this short note:
I was a bit bored of sewing Stars, so I made this pretty strip-quilt. It is called "Random Reflections". I found another quilt this style on the web that was commented "pick up sticks" which I like better.
So the "pick up sticks" will comfort me on cold evenings on the couch!
I have finished the top, and am now thinking about a pattern to quilt on it. Also I will need batting and a background fabric, which I might just leave white with some left over strips in the middle...

Here the lost pics:

These are the beautiful Jelly Rolls from Quilt et Textilkunst that I used for this Top
And this is how the Block looks like

6 Rows with 5 Blocks each
And I have finished sewing all pieces toghether and added about 8'' of background fabric on top and bottom, to make the quilt longer (I like to be cuddled up to my chin)

Since I finished that I have been working on the stars. It just HAS to be finished by December 1st! I also want to feature it on my Christmas-Family-Photo. Since quiliting has finally become part of the family LOL. A little Story here: My daughter (3,5 yrs) was asked by her kindergarden teacher what her mom was doing for work, and she said: Shes's sewing blankets. I was really amused when I heard that, for I am originally a Graphics designer and will go back working for the German People Magazine in January... 

Now heres a quick update of the Stars, and a knitted cardigan I finished for my little daugher (1yr), that has been laying around for ever. 

been busy chainpiecing geeses
A bunch of stars

a bit more than a third of the Top... but by now I have completed almost 2 thirds.
I am going to replace the Chevron star though, cause I think it sticks out annoyingly.


gorgeous little Cardigan for Lisa

Another odd thing, is that this post is listed below the one I messed up, although this one is the latest one! How I hate the computer work. grrrrr...

Until I have the nerves to post again! Happy Crafting!




Donnerstag, 6. September 2012

Frustration - Tears - and two finished Baby Quilts


Argh. I do not know where I sould start this post. A week has past since I quilted the Snowball-Quilt for my Godson in Canada. It was some frustrating day!!

But lets start with pictures of the Lemon Fresh Summer Quilt. That was an easy, but still very pretty looking quilt to do. I LOVE the pattern that I used on the free motion quilting! I really should have used an all over pattern for the Snowballquilt as well... But you're always smarter after...

Okay. No words, just pictures:
The Lemon Fresh Summer Baby Quilt for my friend Sarah's nephiew!







 I am not writing this post as the things actually happend. I quilted the Lemon Fresh Summer Quilt a few days after finishing the Snowball Quilt. The quilting of this one above really lifted me up again and draged me out of a very strong frustration in quilting.

Lets start with these pictures of my designing a pattern for the snowball quilt:

I used tissue paper to draw my design. This picture also shows the backing and my thread I was gonna use

On my "Test-Sandwich" everything worked just fine and really liked how the little paw turned out!


 Thread and Design ready, I was keen to start quilting. I made my sandwich and got my machine ready. Both my kids were taken care of and I had a full 6 hrs for myself and I was very confident that I'd be able to finish the quilting. I did. but I was very frustrated at the end of the day...




I was confident, but in the first few blocks I did really bad. Just as I started to "get in the flow" the bobbin ripped. NOOOO! After getting everything back in place! The tension was off! NOOO! After getting that fixed, the top thread ripped! NOOOO. I was struggeling and struggeling. Don't know what was wrong with my machine, but it just kept bothering. The terrible thing is, that I just never really got into a good flow in free motion, so most of the pattern looks kind of... I don't know... just messed up :-(

Then I started to quilt the border. I did fine, but I struggled with "going down" with the quilt. I just had to stop every 8 inches or so and everytime I started again, it would make this horrible corner.. I just decided to do the wavey line over and over until it didn't show so much anymore. Thank goodness the paws turned out just fine! I think the reason is, that I am really good in round patterns... That's why the lemon fresh quilt turned out so pretty.
Anyhow here the pictures:



I did get by and I am not so frustrated about the quilting anymore. I really like the look of the quilt in whole now! And it is soo sooooft! I love the moda fabric! It feels so nice! Perfect for a baby!




Next, I made my first Quilt-Label. I decided to stich it and I wrote down the words with this blue pen, that will fade by washing. Now instead of washing that out before putting the binding on, I binded and then realized: "Oh no, the pen still shows! I'm just gonna put it in the washing machine, cause it needs to be washed anyhow, since it's gonna be a babyquilt." Ahem. Have I mentioned I pre wash my fabric??? STUPID ME!!!!!

So this is what made me cry...

The seams on the outline ripped open! You cannot believe how I hated myself and how frustrated and discouraged I felt. I took a seat in front of the TV one night and sewed it all back together by hand.


I do not have to mention I am a really bad hand stitcher...

I got the quilt ready. It looks just beautiful and I am sure my Godson will love it and his lovely parents will appreciate my work!

It will go in the mail tomorrow.


You see, I am going through ups and downs, but I am not letting these frustrating moments discourage me. I still love doing the patchwork and the quilting! Quilting is terribly addicting! It totally changed my life and the way I look at thinks (I think in blocks and doodles now ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this post and watch out, there is more to come! There's a new project on it's way! It's gonna be a Full Size Quilt this time!

Until then! Happy Crafting!