preparing my sewing kit for vacation

preparing my sewing kit for vacation, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

I'm spending the last fays with preparing different little sewing kits for my vacation.
Each sewing kit fits in a small box and is easy to carry around.

This box contains paper piecing stars made from my fave collection from Lecien.

Doll Plus Quilt

Doll Plus Quilt, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

This is the tiny version of my plus quilt.
I'm still cutting fabrics for the big sized (and I'm waiting for some solids) so I thought it would be nice to practice the Plus Quilt pattern with some small scraps.
 

The doll quilt will be around 45 x 57 cm.

Plus Quilt - the start

I started sewing when I was very little.  It were mostly little things sewing by hand.

One day (I was around 9 or 10) I saw a super cute dog in a kids TV show made from fabric scraps.

I begged my mum to help me making such a dog. We searched in her fabric stash and I started sewing.

My part was sewing all the parts together and pick the the buttons for the face.

The rest of the work belonged to my mum.

She had to fill him and put all the parts together to one dog.

I remember that we sat together making this dog since very late that evening because I wanted to take the dog with me to school next day.

When I went to bed he wasn't finished so my mum had to do this without me.

When I woke up the next morning and I was really upset because he wasn't looking like the dog from the TV show .

(doggy with doll)

But I was so proud and took him with me to school. I wear dungarees that day and carried him in my front pocket the whole day. My friends really loved him and I started to love him as well.

He is now 20 years old and I still adore him <3.

I made a lot of soft toys on my own after this. I made minature teddy bears when I was 17. I made lots for my friends and my family.

I made bags from my old jeans. 

I crochet hats.

I did embroidery.

I made necklaces.

I made friendship bracelets.

I was always crafty and I tryed lots of different things untill I got my first sewing machine in march 2006.

Since that day I never stopped crafting.

I had phases were I didn't do any crafty stuff when I had some downs or when I was ill.

Since a few months I'm spending a lot of time reading patchwork and quilt blogs .

I'm looking for the best materials, patchwork patterns and some instructions (I love youtube).

I have a super long list of quilts I really want to try and I ordered lots of solid fabrics to get started . Can you believe that I hardly own any solid fabrics yet ?!

So I'm waiting since april for my fabric order to arrive. I always order from the US because german fabric shops are too expensive.

Everything costs in germany nearly double price than in the US !!!

The best example is the Yli quilt thread. I spend hours looking for a good price in a german online shop.

Finally I ordered from the US which saved me around 4 USD. Can you believe that shipping the yarn from the US to germany is cheaper than shipping the yarn in germany .

Unbelievable !!

But back to my topic. Since I'm waiting for nearly 1 1/2 month for my solids to arrive (which is sadly normal recently for bigger orders from US) I gave up.

I made the decission so start with a very easy quilt. I always loved Jeni's plus quilt  so I had to give it a try.

Jeni was so kind to write a tutorial which makes it pretty easy for me.

(solids and vintage sheets)

I used all my vintage sheets and some solid which I bought from a local fabric shop or got from my dad's school friend. The solids are not quilting quality but they look really nice.



(fabric choice so far)



Choosing the Plus Quilt was the best idea ever. The quilt is made from squares only so I can practise cutting with my rotary cutter. I'm still not a pro but I'm getting better and better.

 

 



(step 1)



 

(step 2)

 

(step 3)

I still can't believe that I made my first baby blanket with using my scissors only last year.

I really start to love my cutter and I bought a book how to use my ruler and cutter.

 

I cutted the first 211 fabric yesterday. I have no idea how long I spend cutting the squares but believe me I had lots of fun.

 

 

(Hoppel the fabric guard)

 

I had to change the square size a bit because I'm not having a a ruler with inch. I own only a cm ruler but I want to buy one after getting my next salary at the end of this month.

My squares are around 10 cm but they will be smaller after I put them all together because I forgot to add the seam allowence (stupid me).

 

 

(211 freshly cut fabrics)

Now I'm waiting for my next order of vintage sheets to cut more squares. YEAH!

cutting fabrics

129/ 365 cutting fabrics, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

I'm cutting fabrics since 7 hours now (with small breaks for snacks).

Since my solid colours didn't arrive yesterday I started a quilt out of the vintage sheets from Jeni and some solids I still have around.
I'm getting better and better with the cutter.

I decided to try the plus quilt first.
It's a very easy quilt with cutting squares only (which is a great training for a beginner like me).

sunny weekend in Mötzow

While I'm typing this and looking at all those great sunny pics I'm wondering where I catched the stupid cold.

Since yesterday I have a sore throat and a little bit fever.

I went to the drugstore and picked up some homeopathic stuff and I'm taking it since yesterday every 30 minutes (when I'm not sleeping).

Due to some very important meetings today I have to work the half day untill I'm able to go home to rest.

I'm really pissed that I'm having a cold again. I had a big fat cold last month and had to stay at home for 1 1/2 week.

I'm hoping that this cold won't last that long.

It seems that my body has difficultys to fight against flu virus since I had my chemo 2009. I never had a flu or anything else before chemo. Even if all the people around me had a flu it never caught me.

But the time changes and it seems that I have to be extra carefull and pack myself in warm clothes !!

But back to my weekend.

I spent 3 awesome days with my dad and my sis in Mötzow again. We went there last year already and I totally loved it.

Our vacation started with a stop in Brandenburg. It's a lovely  town and perfect for a little shopping.

(Brandenburg)

My sis, my dad and I bought some clothing and my dad got himself sunglasses.

He choose the sunglasses himself because they looking like blues brothers glasses.

(showing off his new glasses)

We stayed there for a few hours untill we rushed to the small holiday village near Mötzow.

We had some yummy bread roll with fish and rested for a few minutes near the Havel canal.

(my sis on the bridge)

(flowers in Brandenburg near the Havel canal)

(my sis showing off her hot leggins and the bag I made for her last year)

The holiday village was awesome as always. This year we stayed in the old bungalows. The bungalows are not  new but I adore the GDR charm.

Last year we stayed in the new built houses which are pretty nice.



(the house we had last year)

 Each of these new built houses comes in a different colours . There are 5 finished houses right now and they are still working on some new ones.

(my sis in front of the new houses)

On friday evening a few more people from stutterer self help group arrived. My dad is a member of this self help group and he and another guy organised this weeked for stutterer and their families.

Gladly we new already a few of them from last year and it was fantastic to see them again.

We chatted a little bit but my sis and I were so tired so went to bed very early.

The saturday was mostly for relaxing. While the members of the self help group had some kind of workshop about burn out my sis and I relaxed in the sun.

In the afternoon while most of the members went to visit some famous places near Mötzow my sis and I rented a boat (like last year).

(sailboat)

(row, row your boat)





(perfect marine look)

We rowed for 3 hours untill our hands started to bleed. Hahahahaha...not really. My sis was in a rowing club when she was younger and while she was a student. She is very proffessional (not like me) and she has super power in her arms.

(houseboat...I would love to rent one next year. But it's pretty expensive !)

When I wasn't rowing our boat I did some craft work. Yes I did some craft work in the boat.

I prepared some hexagons before I left on thursday and I finished them all last weekend.

I made the decission to cut hexagons from nearly all the fabrics I own. It's the perfect project for traveling because you only need some yarn, fabrics and some paper hexagons.

(very concentrated)

(Done !!)

I made only yellow ones last weekend but I already prepared hexagons from my purple, orange and red stash.

(perfect craft for traveling...even on a boat)

In the evening we met with the other familys and members for a barbecue. We had some awesome conversations and we stayed up till 2 am. I'm not sure when I caught the cold but I'm pretty sure it was that night when I was sitting outside for hours with only a longsleeve, a denim shirt and some shorts with leggins.

Not much for a still cold spring evening ?!

On sunday my sis and I just relaxed and "worked" on our tan.

(paddle)

(there was a kind of regatta )

I had really hard time to say good bye to that awesome place. But gladly I only need to wait 1 year. My dad and the self help group rented the place again for next year in june.

It means next year I will be able to go swimming too because the weather is much nicer.

(las pic before I left >___<)

Sometimes I think that I have nothing to write about...

...but I do have a lot to write about and I have always enough pics to show.

But sadly I'm a very lazy lady so I stick with posting only one picture on flickr and keep the left overs for me.

Since I'm starting my next weekend trip tomorrow I think I should write a little bit about my easter weekend.

(small little train near the mountains)

I spent the entire easter weekend with my dad and my older sis. We met up with my aunt and her family to celebrate her 60. birthday with her family.

Most of her family (brothers and sisters) still live in the small village where she was born. Hettstedt is a small village not so far away from the east Harz.

The Harz is a famous place for hiking and vacation. There are lots of lovely hiking routes and a few very special sagas about this area.

(on the top of the Hexentanzplatz)

On easter saturday we had the most perfect weather so we decided to go hiking to visit the famous Hexentanzplatz .

I always wanted to go there because it's one of the best spots in the east Harz. Sadly we were not the only ones with that idea. Due to the easter holiday nearly every german and lots of tourits seemed to have the same idea.

The Hexentanzplatz was cramed with people so we only stayed a few minutes for some lovely pics before we started our hiking tour.

(view from the top)

My dad was as always very well prepared. He brought a book about hiking tours but we agreed to just follow the signs.

It seemed that my sis and I left our brains at home because both of refused to wear hinking boots. We choose our pretty sandals. It turned out te be a very stupid idea because the path was full of rocks.

(my sis taking pics)

(handmade backpack by me - birthday gift for my sis 2010)

We hiked for around 4 hours with only a very short break because my dad asked a guy for the best way back to our car.

We were all pretty tired when we came home that day.

(detail of the embroidery I made for my sis backpack)

On easter sunday we left the east Harz to visit my granddad. He is turning 90 this year and he was really lonely this easter. My grandma died in december last year and it was his first easter since 1948 (when he came back from russian war captivity).

(river near the our path)

I left my granddad (and my dad & sis went back home too) on monday to spend a few days with mr. artistic and his family.
We went hiking again but sadly the weather wasn't that nice anymore.

(me on the top after 4 hours of hiking)

Tomorrow I'm leaving again to meet with my dad & sis again. I have to travel 350 km with my little Ford Ka.
I will be back on sunday because I have to go to the office again on monday !

(my dad & me)

(my sis and me)

How my first Hoppel came to Nice ?!

How my first Hoppel came to Nice ?!, originally uploaded by crafting with loove.

the story:

This is my travel Hoppel.
I took him with me to Hong Kong & Singapore.
When I came back I sent him to my grandma when I found out that she is very ill.

But my grandma died before the Hoppel arrived.

I told my dad that the Hoppel don't want to come back to me. He wants to stay in Berlin and travel with my dad.
When my dad went to Nice with his philosophy course he took Hoppel with him.

This is how my first ever made Hoppel came to Nice.

end.