Instagram Mini Swap

This is what I sent to Kelly (Kellyfairy on IG and Flickr, here is her blog)
I already showed you last week

 

The pattern of this miniquilt is by SewMamaSew and can be found here: part 1, part 2.
I quilted it just with diagonal lines.
The back is a sturdy fabric from IKEA with lots of logs on it.



What I got in return from someone else was way beyond my expectations

I received this beauty made by Amanda aka Weeshuttermonkey (her blog is here)

A big box with lots of Scottish goodies too!
I loved that Puffin from the moment I saw it on Instagram!

As if the beautiful bag is not a big present in itself!
I'm so delighted!

Thank you Amanda!

I'm still lost for words
(in my own special way)


Have a great weekend!

Really, anything goes ... lots of catching up

Just thought I'd drop you a line, but in the mean time I'd like to know how you are?
Planning for the festive season probably.
Or like me (trying to) catching up on everything?

If you're here for the first time: 

take heed: 4 blog posts in 1 (lots of pictures)

Our oldest son had left home a few years ago, but now he has left the country too. In July he moved to Malta where the weather is always much nicer than here. He is a professional quilter (online) poker player. You never think of something like that what your child will do when he's grown up. He makes a good living and loves what he does.
He thought it was a stupid idea to make him a quilt as it's always hot in Malta, always ...
Stubborn as I am, I made him one anyway.
I thought I would be struggling quilting this big one, but that turned out to be nonsense. I used an easy pattern for every vertical block.

Pattern: Dreamweaver by Tula Pink

Fabrics: Art Gallery Fabrics: Oval and Nature Elements

Quilted with Madeira Cotton Nr 30 Sunrise (= orange, yellow and green)

Backing: Green from my LQS (Kona Zucchini lookalike)

Binding: Dark brown/red (like the dark red in the quilt)

Size: 64" x 84" (after washing it 61" x 79")

Next up was our niece who now is a Master of Arts after having studied Religion & Culture. She loves blue, so I made her a fast & easy quilt (in 3 days). I followed a tutorial by Quilting in the Rain (here) which involved quilting as you go, but my quilt was bigger.

I used my most precious flannel, the Dr. Seuss; and when it was finished I wrapped it up nicely.

Pattern can be found here

Fabrics: all Kaffe Fassett (from a desert roll) + Dr Seuss flannel

Size: 70"x55" (before washing)

Last Friday I sent this mini quilt off to the UK. It was made for a swap on Instagram, hosted by 

Sandy Greenberg. He was hoping to get 50 then set his target for 100 and he ended up with 500 (or thereabouts)

Pattern: Sewmamasew here, made mine a bit smaller (one of the rules was a size restriction).

Now I jumped on the wagon called the Grand Illusion Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville.blogspot.com The first clue was last Friday, there will be 4 more clues.

This is my first time and I wonder if I can keep the pace. I'll do my best!

If you're still here, you made it to the end

Thank you for sticking with me!

I'll be linking up to Lynne @ Fresh Sewing Day and Bonnie @ Quiltville

FQR 2014 London

I went to London and took with me:
the lovely name tag Bettina from Munich made me

I apologize for the picture of Bettina; I blame it on my iPhone (or my enthusiasm haste)

The name tag I made for Cara from Pink Stitches

My sewing table & my sewing machine (and my husband to carry it) and my supplies for all the classes

When I arrived at the venue a delivery man came with FIFTY, yes 50 Janome sewing machines (all new!).

We all got a goodie bag full of useful stuff (lots of fabric!):

We all met inspirational teachers

top left: Thomas Knauer (a picture I robbed from Cara), top right: Amy Ellis,
bottom left: me + Trudy Wood; bottom right: Brioni Greenberg

We all made new friends and met old ones:

 Here are all the Dutchies:

I had the biggest laugh of all when Jack (Lynne's son & one of the assistants with his best mate Jack) photobombed my selfie with Brioni

And only afterwards I realized I'd made a lot of pictures with me aka selfies with others...

Have a great weekend!

A laptop bag with a pocket

I have a lot of catching up to do with you, so here's one of my makes during the summer.

My youngest daughter has a laptop and the case that was very much worn. So she needed a new one, would I make her one? She would also need to have room for the battery charger and other 'stuff'.

I decided to make it a quilt-as-you-go project: very easy. I pieced different sized pieces of fabric  together on a piece of batting and then cut it to the size of her lap top.

You can see the 'stuff'  ...

I also attached a key holder, which you can detach from the bag: handy!

The inside is minky left overs from a quilt (the beast) : nice and soft.

It doesn't have a closure/zipper of fastener, because she always puts it in her huge handbag anyway.

inside

back

front

She's very happy with it and then, so am I.

Block of the month September for ESTB

This year I'm kicking off in the Euro Siblings Together Bee!
All instructions for my block can be found here.
But as that block is all in green and cream and I'd like to receive them in whites and/or neutrals + light & dark (er) blues, here's my version of this 12" block

What you need:
4 light blue pieces of fabric measuring 3.5" x 6.5"
4 dark blue pieces of fabric measuring 3.5" x 6.5"
16 white/neutral 3.5" squares (of fabric)

Sew each square to a blue strip and not like me (above) just on one end ...
I was halfway here.
I have a special request: please sew twice:

1. from corner to corner
2. the other sewing line half an inch to the left or right, towards the bit you'll be cutting off. This will give you (or me) an extra 16 squares of 2" (1.5" finished).

Would you like to send them to me too?
Don't worry about their size: I have a fabulous Block-o-lock template of 2" and I will cut them all to size.

And I like watching/listening to my favorite quiz during (boring) work ...
(in case you're wondering, it's Pointless).

Please iron to the dark blue side but not to the light blue side. Otherwise the pieces will not nest together at the next sewing step:
dark blue: iron seam to the dark
light blue: iron to the white/neutral

Here I'm cutting that extra half square triangle off

Here they are all together: seems a pity to waste them even though they're small. If you'll send them all (192 squares0)to me I can either use them on the back or start on another Siblings Together quilt. 

And this is my block all sew together, finishing at 12.5" exactly!
The only thing to watch when sewing these together, is the placing of the blues so they'll match.

I'm not a fast sewer and it took me about 90 minutes to make this block (I have all sorts of distractions).

Hope you'll have fun making them.
I'm looking forward to receiving your blocks!

No migraines and sewing

The last months I have done more sewing, because I've been feeling a lot better!
Since a month I have different medication, no extra pills: THE pill.
I've learned that my migraines are caused by a dip in the estrogen level in my body. This level drops 3 times a month. With the pill the estrogen levels stay the same; after 21 days I have to stick a special band aid on my back which emits estrogen. I'm really hoping it stays as good as it has been this first month!!

In the mean time I have been able to sew!
A baby quilt for Jens which is giving me a hard time just ironing it!
I think I'll just quit the diagonal lines: in the ditch and in between those).
The pattern can be found here
The fabrics are nearly all from Backstitch: Hurricane Sea bundle and I might have added some other greens.

Added at a later date (29th August):
One of the side effects of the pill is that your blood is thicker.
Unfortunately I noticed this at the end of June because I had difficulty breathing and was taken to hospital (in an ambulance!) with a lung embolism. After 3 days I could go home.
I'm fine now and have no more difficulties breathing (at all) and stopped taking the pill, of course.

I still haven't finished this quilt, though.
Oh well ...

Can I still squeeze in ...

Why do I want to join Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day?
Because I have 2 more finishes to show you; well all right, for the new bees I'll show them all from this year/month.

First up is In the land of Grey & Pink made for my Hedy's babygirl Lisa.

Next is present for my dear friend Bea who wanted a piano runner for her birthday. Made with a fat8th bundle of Oakshott Ruby's which are never as good on any picture as they are in reality!
I gave the left overs to my mum who wants to make a table runner out of them.

And then the last one: my value quilt, my happy colours quilt.
I made for a lady in our street who had a baby boy (last year!) and he could crawl very quickly by now ...

Pattern by Malka Dubrawski "Strips and Bricks" , fabrics from my stash, size after washing was (I've written it down somewhere but can't find it now) about 47"x52"
The quilting on all these quilts is very simple because I have an arm who does not abide to my wishes!! We're making compromises from time to time.


I hope you like them as much as I do. But now, what next?
As if I didn't have 15 projects on the go. Dûh! Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

I'm a little stuck on this one: I want to make a cheery orange quilt, but this might be too much ...
Blocks are by CluckCluckSew : easy bow tie blocks

Advice badly needed!!

And if you've read this far, there's one more thing:
I want to wish you a very good week, sewing and otherwise!

In the land of Grey and Pink

Does anybody remember that album by Caravan? Does anybody remember Caravan?

Very 70's music with lots of vague lyrics: who lives in a land of grey and pink?

Now I know: Lisa does!

She's my friend Hedy's daughter, born two months too early and very healthy!
Hedy requested a quilt in those colours as Lisa's room is full of grey and bits of pink.
This is what I came up with and I was so glad Hedy loves it!

This is my first finish of the year!! 

(Maybe even of 2 years)

The back is a beautiful batik, perhaps you can see the straight line quilting in chevrons too.

This was not so hard to quilt as it's only a small one.

The greys are from a grey and white jelly roll by Moda, no idea what it's called. The pinks are from 5 fat quarters.

The pattern is from the book by Pam & Nicky Lintott (Jelly roll quilts) even though it's everywhere on the web.

As I'm so much more on Instagram lately thanks to Helen, I've added an Instagram button right next to the Pinterest and Flickr buttons. Have a look!!

Hope you'll have finishes too and lots of lovely sunshine!

A silly entry?

Yes, I'm back with something silly
Sometimes you I did it again: I entered a sort of competition to win tea with a celebrity!

It's of course David, the policeman from the Great British Sewing Bee.
Now I couldn't sleep this morning because I kept thinking of all the arrangements I would have to make if I'd win! Drive down there by care I suppose.
A pity though, because David lives in Surrey, which is closer to the continent than Wales.
Hope I don't win!

But you can!
Go to Abakhans Facebook page, like it and share this message!
(There's a lot of information to be found on sewing, fabrics and lots of tutorials here.)

Good luck to you!!

What to choose?

At the moment there are so many wonderful quilt alongs going on.

Economy QA
I was so tempted by Rita RedPepper to make these wonderful Economy blocks which finish at 5.5"; tutorial here
Amandajean Crazymom also stepped in and made a bigger block which finishes at 8.625", tute here.
And I also heard Katy imagingermonkey stepped in to make an even bigger block which finishes at 12", tute here.
I also found more size options at 'athousandneedles' if you'd like to start with a 2.5" or 5" center.
I'm tempted to step in with Amandajean, but I don't have the time (so many WiPs) and I tried one block
(used a purple non-cotton something = wrong)


At Craftbuds there's one going on: if you make something before February 14 you could win great prizes. The block is from the book 'Modern Bee, 13 quilts to make with friends' by Lindsay Conner
A tutorial is here and this block is really versatile. Take a look at what others made of it!
This looks like a very fast and easy quilt, which is what I love.

This is what Darcy of www.moderncozy.com made

The last one I found and want to share with you is the Mod Olives QA by Jenny of sewkindofwonderful. Start of the QA was February 1 and it'll continue for 6 weeks.
For me this would be a bit of a challenge (sewing curves) but not impossible. I love this block!
Tutorial here.

This picture is from Jenny's blog

In the meantime I know exactly what to choose: my WiPs are killing me (not really).
I've got 2 waiting to be basted & quilted, one I will make of the Craftbuds pattern in grey and pink.

Here's what I'm working on at the moment (tutorial here) :

picture from the scrapbook blog

I'll show you mine once it's pieced together.

Have a great time sewing or otherwise!

A weekend in London

I look forward to seeing other bloggers and learning about quilting in and out of the classes this summer at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London!
Yeay, I've got a ticket!!

My husband told me to buy one as soon as was possible and I immediately obeyed his orders.

Want one too? Then go here
I'd love to see you, get to know you (better).

Our hotel from last time was very noisy with walls made of cardboard or was is just those Polish girls having a ball? Anyway, for the same amount as a hotelroom for a few nights, we now have an apartment just around the corner!
If that's what you want too, go to AIRBNB. This link takes you to BNBs in London.

I will have to take enough pills, what! I'll take them just before I leave so all I can do in London is

E N J O Y

The End of my Hibernation

It's about time I woke up from my hibernation, which was great!
There was a lot of relaxing time over Christmas with children after we celebrated Sinterklaas (wiki info) of course.
So now the new year has started and again I have so much going on in my head; it's like total chaos quilting patterns and ideas. I'm sure you'll recognize this.
I read somewhere in a blog that the writer hadn't made any New Year's resolutions, but just one word for the whole year. For me that word is

not a picture to look at for a long time if you're migraine prone ...

I did not finished one quilt last year, which is absolutely abominable; fortunately it's easily solved by finishing the ones which are nearly done anyway! So you'll see them soon enough.

The good news for this year is that I have already bought my ticket for the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in July this year. I'm very pleased with that!

One of the things that has kept me busy during my hibernation was buying old Singer sewing machines. I thought only crazy people did that, but it turns out I'm one of them now.
I'll show you more in the future.

And if you're still here, I do appreciate you reading this!
Comment if you like.
And I still feel flattered when people want to read what I write.
So please forgive the breaks I take ...
My aim for this year is at least one post a week (starting from now)

Have a great time sewing or otherwise!