duffle bag

Do you remember the sneak peak ?!

I'm finally ready to talk about the finished project.

I'm not sure if anybody tryed to guess but I turned this little quilt sandwish into this awesome duffle bag.

I always wanted a really big bg for the weekend trips and I was thinking about the perfect pattern.

My first choice was the weekender from Amy Butler. But I'm a little bit afraid that I'm not able to manage all the layers of batting and I will definetly have hard time finding all the batting in germany. Most shops don't sell the batting which you need to give the bag the stable look.

So I discovered the duffle bag from Jeni's post. I loved the look of the bag and it seemed not to hard to sew.

So I bought the pattern from Studio Cherie and started to look for some fabrics in my stash. Sadly I don't have to many bigger pieces of fabric so I had to piece some of them.

I really wanted to use the stuff I had on hand and went with the nautical theme. The fabrics are already 5 years old so why not finally use them for a fun and useful project ?!

Sadly I didn't have enough fabrics so I had to order the blue dotted linen for sides of the bag and the jute webbing as well.

I had really hard times finding the webbing so I had to buy it from etsy. It was the most expensive spending for the bag. I think I paid around 30 € for the jute plus shipping.

I think I washed the jute 15 times and it was still bleeding like crazy. I tryed different stuff like vinegar or different types of detergent but nothing seemed to help.

At the end I let the jute "bleed" for 4 days in a bucket with chlorine.

 The zippers are from my stash of zippers so no need to spend any money on that. It's not the perfect match because the big zipper ist dark green but you won't notice from far away.

The pattern is fun and easy. You work with squares which makes the cutting and sewing pretty easy. 

I made a little mistake with the pleats of the zipper pocket but you won't notice if you don't know the pattern.

For the lining I was able to use some fabrics in my stash as well. I found this fun hawaii print in a box with fabrics which I still have from clothes sewing. 

I still have another one which I tryed to turn into a Tova tunika but I look like a cleaner in that dress. The blue color of the fabric with a hint of pink makes it look like a apron dress. Not very attractive ...lol.

Maybe I will show it on my blog.

A quick project

Between all the quilts I'm working on I still have time for some small projects.

My handbag is always a mess. As I told you two days ago my bag has only one inner pocket so it's hard to sort my stuff inside the bag.
The charger and my headphones where always a mess with tons of little knots.
It always took my ages to tackle the mess.

I was in need for a little bag to store the chargere and the headphones so I drafted a quick pattern for a small bag.
The good thing in small projects you can use tiny scraps and left over binding.

This time I used the some mushroom scraps which were a gift from Katha and left over binding from my vintage table runner.

It'a a quick and easy quilt project and the best thing no cable tangle in my bag anymore.

stripes quilt

This blog post is overdue since 6 months .

The quilt I'm talking about was a christmas gift to my sis in law.

Her family room is completly in black, red and white and I wanted a matching quilt for her.

Since I'm lacking of black and red fabrics I had to buy a Lost and Found 2.5" Rolie Polie to make a matching quilt for her home.

Since I didn't have a lot of time before christmas (I just returned from my Hong Kong trip) I had to go with a very simple design.

I took the Rolie Polie and added some red and black stripes to make the quilt a bit bigger.

I just sewed all the stripes together and quilted it with simple lines.

The back is a mixture of Lost and Found and Kona solids. The binding is kona black  to keep it simple as well.

This year I added a matching pillow to the quilt. It was my easter present for her and I was lucky to have some fabrics left from the backing. I always liked this block design and I can see myself making more pillow cases like this.

 

I hand quilted the pillow cover and bind it in black kona as well.

 

I love stripe quilts but I rarely make them because most fabrics in my stash are FQ.

I used to buy only FQ back in time so the oldies but goldies are ti small to use them like this.

a simple bag

Sometimes avery simple bag can turn into your fave accessory.

I got this simple bag for free a few years ago when I bought a bag from skunfunk.

I rarely used the bag I bought so I passed it to my little sis.

When my older sis was here for a visit a few weeks ago we discovered the simple grey bag in my stash and I completly fall in love .

The large handle is perfect to have you hands free for taking pics or eating ice cream.

The grey goes perfect with nearly every outfit and the print is so so cool.

The only thing which bothers me a lot was the reason that there was no seperate pocket to hide things.

The bag is completly open so very easy for thieves to take out my money.

Because it's no problem to make a lining I searched in my stash for a simple but cute lining. I was looking for sth. bright grren but sadly I didn't have anything matching fabrics in stash.

So I went with a whithe fabric with some brown and green print.

I added a a little zipper pocket to hide my money and mobile phone and used a matching green silk thread to add the lining to the bag.

I'm using this bag every day now and I still love it.

This weeked I started a nnew project. I choose some nautical fabrics from my stash which are waiting in my cupboard since many years already.

This project is already done and I will show it to you later this week (need mr. artistic to take pics of it.

Can you guess what this is going to be ?!

A picknick quilt

Today I'm able to show my newest quilt. I finished this baby two days ago when I stayed at my parents laws home.

I really can't believe that I finished my first big quilt in such a short time.

I planed to make a picknick quilt when I discovered that fabricshack had "Just wing it" from moda on sale.

They didn't have the entire collection anymore but enough different fabrics to make a bright and cheerfull quilt for me and mr. artistic.

I ordered 1/2 yard from all the fabric they had in stock from that collection and when the fabric arrvived I knew it was a great deal.

The patterns are awesome and I love the bright colors.

My first thought was a simple quilt made from 12.5 fabric squares. But this seemed to easy to me so I decided to add some fun little blocks.

As always I look for patterns at quilterscache because they share lots of lovely and easy quilt blocks for free.

I started the quilt the night bevore mr. artistic and I left for our vacation. I worked fromm 11pm till 3 am and I just went to bed because I had to get up early the next morning because I needed to pack all our stuff.

This project waited a few days and I started working on it again a few days after the second chemo.

When  mr. artistic left for a long weekend at his parents home I took my sewing machine and my fabrics with me. My plan was to finish this quilt in 2 days. Because I wasn't feeling well I had to skip thursday but since friday last week I was working on this baby again.

My parents in law have a big home so I had lots of space to lay out all the pieces. In mr. artistics and my home I wouldn't be able to lay out all these blocks so I really enjoyed playing with blocks and different fabrics.

I added some kona solids to have a few more bright fabrics.

I quilted this baby free motion. And I have to admit that I'm sooo very proud that I quilted this 72 x 84 quilt free motion.

I already tryed free motion quilting on small projects but when I tryed my luck on bigger pieces I always failed. Because this quilt was to big to quilt in the shadows I tryed my luck with free motion quilting again and it worked wonders.

I always thought that it was my fault that it wasn't working but now I know it better.

It's just because of my small sewing table. The quilts I tryed to quilt free motion before where always to big and heavy so they kept falling from the table. At my parents in laws home I used the big dining table and it worked so easily.

So everyone who thought that free motion quiliting isn't working because of their skills should try their luck on a bigger table.

Believe me.

It's easy when you have a really really large table.

For the backing I used two old ikea prints (from 2006 when I was in sewing clothes) and only a few bigger pieces from "Just wing it" since the quilt will be laying on the grass and it's getting dirty. When I planed the quilt I bought 2, 5 yards of the pink flowers from "Just wing it" for the backing but as always it's wasn't enough left for the backing.

I really need to work on my math skills when it comes to quilting.

 I never have enough fabrics for the backing but I'm making to much binding :)

Originally I wanted to make the binding from scraps but since the pink flower fabric wasn't enough for the backing I decided to make the complete binding from the same fabric. When I cutted the stripes for the binding I wasn't paying attention to the lenght of the quilt and made to much binding.

I think I can't bind another quilt with the left over binding...lol.

For the batting I used some really cheap one which I bought last year. it was very fluffy and really hard to sew. But this time it was working great and I didn't have any problems while I quilted this baby.

This is the simple but cute label design. If you are follwing my blog you might be wondering because there are missing two quilts . The #4 and #5 are already finished since a few months but I totally forgot to blog about these.

I will show these later.

I made this quilt in only 5 working days.

It's 72 x 84 and I used mostly "Just wing it" from moda and some kona solids.

The backing is from ikea fabrics and some left overs from the quilt top.

The binding is from "Just wing it" too.

I quiltind this quilt free motion and I'm very proud...lol.

Now I hope that the german summer will come back that mr. artistic and I can use the quilt outside.

Untill this day it's keeping us warm in our bed .

Dresden

It's already nearly 2 weeks since I'm back from vacation.
I wanted to blog about it already last week but the side effects from the second chemo kept me busy (and the picknick quilt I was working on...but more about that later that week).

My vacation started on the 3th june when mr. artistic drove all the way to Dresden to meet up with my dad. He just came back from my cousins wedding (I didn't go because my 90 years old grandpa doesn't know about my health and my dad said it's better not seeing him without any hair) and it was is birthday as well.
My sis dropped him off at a restaurant and mr. artistic and I picked him up and we went to our holiday home.

Our holiday home is the old family house of a friend of my dad. Bärbel is always so kind to let us stay for free in a lovely home every summer.
It's an awesome little house and Bärbel and her boys did a great job renovating it.
It has a lovely little garden with apple trees and the best thing it's only a 30 minutes tram ride to the great center of Dresden.

Sadly we had only 4 days since my second chemo was sheduled for friday but we did the best to enjoy every day we had. The weather wasn't that great and mostly it was cold and rainy.

Gladly I know Dresden very well since my granbdparents live just around the corner in a small village. I used to spent a week each summer with them when I was younger so we went several times to Dresden as well.
Mr. artistic visted Dresden the first time so it was a pitty that the sun wasn't shining that much.

My dad and I tryed to squeeze as much as we could in the few days we had to show my hubby the loveliest places in Dresden. We went to the museum to see to visit the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.

Of course there was some shopping in my fave area in Dresden (Neustadt) as well.
Dresden Neustadt is a district where lots of young people live. It's full of small little shops and there lots of lovely little places to sit down and have a coffee.

Durring our stay in Dresden we met with Dieter an old school friend of my dad. Dieter and my dad came up with the idea to hike a little bit near our holiday home.

We went to visit an old mill and had a beer (of course because we are german ^____^).
It was raining like crazy when we arrived at the old mill but we didn't care and enjoyed our good cold beer.

working again on my FBL

working again on my FBL, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

I was bored after chemo and kept looking at all those pretty carved Blythe. So I took my poor FBL and kept working. The result is Ok. There will be some small changes and I need to add make up. My hardest part ist as always to paint the lips. Any advices how to paint very simple lips on carved mouths. I never had any problems with coloring on normal Blythe lips.

second Chemo

second Chemo, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

While I'm typing this I'm getting my second Chemo.
Mr. artistic came back yesterday evening from our roadtrip to Dresden. We had an awesome timr but the weather wasn't that great at all. Mostly it was rainy and sky was grey. But more about that later.
Have a great weekend everyone !!!

outfit

headscarf: usually a loop scarf for your neck
scarf: new yorker
shirt: new yorker
fake leather jacket: no brand
pants: blutsschwester (bought in Dresden in my fave store)
shoes: marco tozzi

roadtrip

roadtrip, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

Mr. artistic and I started our roadtrip today. I packed some food this morning and we took our car and headed to Dresden. We will meet up with my dad and stay thete till thursday.
I left the house without scarf on my head. We will see how long I feel comfortable like this.
See you all back on thursday. I try to post at least once.

Tova

 I don't know if I told you that I made clothes when I started sewing back in 2006. 

I made lots of dresses, skirts and tops untill I moved to bag making and dolly sewing.

 Since a few week I see lots of Tova's popping up everywhere in blogland or flickr and knew that I have to try that pattern too. Reading clothes patterns and sew inversible zippers in dresses and skirts is no problem for me.

But all these skills are not needed for this pattern. It's definetly a pattern for begginers.

It's very easy to follow and quickly made.

It's my first Tova and I can see myself making a few more. The fabric I used for the main of the dress is an old one from my stash. I used this fabric already 2006 for another dress.

The fabric is much thinner than quilting cotton.

The pink flower fabric is quilting cotton weight. It's from my stash and one of my fave fabrics. I'm very happy that I find a project where I can see it quiet often.

This photos where taken yesterday by mr. artistic. These are the last ones with my pretty blonde hair.

While I typing this my hair is already chopped off because it was coming off.

I'm going to miss my blonde hair a lot. I know it's coming back but I was so proud having blonde hair again.

Bye bye blonde hair. Hopefully I will see you again at the end of this year.

The next Tova will be a short sleeved one with hawaii print. The fabric is in my stash since 6 years and I was waiting for perfect pattern to use it. 

I'm glad that I found it .