Sunday, October 30, 2011

Working with felt

I rarely work with felt but this weekend I went trhough my felt stash.
I was working on a little project and needed felt in different colors.

(little project I'm working on recently)

I own a little bag filled with felt. This bag belong to my mum.
She was an art and music teacher in elementary school.
She had lots of lovely ideas for her kids at school and for me & my sisters. I'm sure that I have most of my talent from her because my dad was born with two left hands.

In the bag of felt I found this lovely handmade napkin ring.


My mom made it as a model for the kids at school. I even found some precuts <3.
My mom was an amazing and super talented woman !!

Friday, October 28, 2011

stitching & baking

I have to admit that I'm not able to just relax when I'm ill.
I always wake up early in the morning because my head is full with ideas.
I try to spend most of the day on the sofa but I really HAD to make some new cookies.

I made some yummy cinnamon cookies a few weeks ago and I was lusting for chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe which should be the best chocolate chip cookies ever if you believe the new york times.


The cookies tastes really nice but I was hoping to find a recipe for cookies where the inner is still soft.
Maybe do you know a recipe which you can share with me ?

Beside cookie making I have always some hand stitch stuff next to me on my sofa.


The ducklings are so fun to make but very time consuming.
I worked more than 2 1/2 hours on the stitching with the duckling & hedgehog so I won't be able to make a lot of them.


Being organised is very important when you don't want to waste time.
I like my embroidery yarn all together in a box sorted by colors. I even made those cardboard things myself.


I really needed to add some buttons on my newly made pillow covers. Gladly I own a lot of fun and colorful vintage ones.
Of course I sort these by colours too .


Mie is not impressed by all my hard work. She prefers to sleep on a "new" cardbox.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Handsewing

I still have a cold and a sore throat so I'm spending most of the time on the couch.
It's hard for me stay away from the sewing machine but at least I can work on some handsewing stuff.


I really love it to work on appliqué but I rarely find the time. This week is perfect to finish some WIPs.


I have already plans what I will make out of this appliqué. But it's a secret. Stay tuned and you will find out.

My hexagon quilt is growing too. Very slowly but at least I'm getting some flowers done.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

cold & sore throat

I'm staying at home till wednesday (next week).
I catched a cold and I was stupid enough to exercise a lot.
Now I'm feeling really tired and my sore throat is killing me.

(ignore the cake crumb on my shirt)

So I'm spending most of my day on the sofa and cuddle under my quilt.
Sometimes Mie decides to join me. But it very risky to have her on my quilt. You never know if she trys to "catch" you while you sleep.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Working & sewing

This is pretty much how my week looks like since a pretty while.
Due to my long to do list (I know I've told you about that several times and it seems that I'm complaining most of the time) I have the feeling that I'm working 24 hours.
I get up at 6 am to be on time in the office at 7.
I'm back home at around 4 pm to change my clothes to rush to sports classes or some grocery shopping. I'm back at home around 6 pm. Time for a shower and to prepare my dinner.
After dinner I'm glued to my sewing machine untill I fall asleep.


(tiny patchwork for a secret project)

I work on christmas gifts and other little presents for friends. These days I rarely find time to work on stuff for myself.
Last weekend I found a few hours to make 2 more blocks for my summer sampler quilt.
My plan (back in summer) was a quilt made from 20 different blocks but after this weekend I changed my mind.
I sashed the blocks with 2,5 inch stripes Kona white and the quilt turned out really huge.



It's nearly big enough to cover a single bed or snuggle under the quilt with mr. artistic. But still not enough for me.
I will add 4 more blocks to this quilt and I'm adding  a bright colorful border using all the left over fabrics from cutting the fabrics for the blocks.
Gladly there are lots of cute tutorials in blogging world (and of course my favourite website quilterscache ) so I won't have hard times finding patterns.

I have no idea how long this will takes me but I doubt that I won't be able to finish any block before my vacation in 4 1/2 weeks.


Sometimes I wish I could be happy with only a half finished quilt like my little Mie.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Pimp up your clothes

I'm always looking for unique shirts, dresses and pants.
But you hardly get any cute stuff in the shops.
Why always look for cute and unique clothes when you can pimp up your stuff yourself.


A few weeks ago I bought a simple black cardi from H&M. I really needed a black one to go with most of my clothes.
As much as I love the simple and classic look the cardi wasn't really me.
It screamed for a little pimp up.


I remembered my love for leather elbow patches and quickly turned my simple cardi into a hot designer cardi. lol .
I saw some other cardigans on different websites with heart fabric patches and went quickly through my stash.
I really wanted to add some hearts made out of vintage sheets but mr. artistic convinced me to use some non vibrant colors.


Now I'm glad that I choose the grey tweed. It goes perfect with most of my clothes.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

950 hexagons

I can't believe that I already used around 950 hexagons for my quilt top.


There are still more than 1000 hexagons waiting for me but I still like working on this quilt.
I really enjoy hand sewing while watching TV or series.

Recently I'm watching Glee. I have to admit that I'm adicted already and I will be really sad when I finished all episodes.

Mie is really enjoying the hexagon quilt too.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

So much to "sew"

My sewing list is growing every day.
Every time I think that I can skip something from my list I have to add another sewing project.

Last week I tryed the block Love in the mist. It's a really lovely block and I knew from the beginning that I would cut in my nicey jane fabric to try it.


I used kona espresso for the background and I really like the result. The nicey jane fabric really pop out.

Do you remember this project. There was no progress for a while so made another block with the Love in the mist   pattern.



Now I only need to make one block and I can finish the quilt top.
Sadly I already know that the last block has to wait for alittle while because there are so many things which need to be done before I leave for the vacation.

Some sad new from my new ironing board cover. After only a few month of nearly daily use I found a little hole.


How long does your ironing board cover last since you changed it ?
I really didn't want to waste more fabric so I used a little trick to cover it.


I'm not the only one who is hard working.
Today I found Mie like this in living room.


Do you need a professional confetti maker ?
She does a really good job !

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

week 42: Things I love

It's wednesday so time to speak about things I love.
Every wednesday I TRY to post about things I love today (or last week).

This week I'm loving:
online tutorials from awesome crafting people
 There are many awesome bloggers in the world wide web. I can spent hours reading their blogs and admire their creativity.
Ayumi is one of these awesome crafters. Her work always blows me away. I love how she mix fabrics and colours.
Ayumi has lots of great free tutorials on her blog as well. Since she posted about her little baskets I was waiting like crazy for the tutorial.
For the 12 gifts of christmas blog hop Ayumi finally posted her awesome basket tutorial.
Gladly I had enough time last weekend so I pulled out some nice autumn fabrics and made my first basket.


I love the apple print and the little squirrels. Both fabrics are in my stash for a little while already and I'm glad that I kept these for so long.


I used some thermolam plus for the squirrel basket. I like it but I definetly prefer my baskets to have a more firm look so I made another basket with some fast2fuse left over from my last project.


The basket is smaller than the squirrel basket. I think I prefer the small basket because I can fit more of them in my tiny sewing space.


Thank you Ayumi for posting this lovely tutorial.
I will definetly make a few more baskets in the next weeks.


I will give the squirrel basket to a friend and the tiny basket found a new home on my desk in the office filled with wallnuts and some autumn leaves.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

weekend review

It's already thursday so time for a little blog update. My past weeekend has been very relaxed.
I stayed at home and worked on a few projects.

There was some embroidery...


...which I turned into a mobile phone bag.


There was some Dresden plates fun.
With pink....


...and rainbow colours.



And there was a yummy dinner with mr. artistic....



...and making one of my fave quick recipes. Eggs with mustard sauce. Served with potatoes. A typical german recipe.


I played with my new 12.5 x 12.5 inch ruler and found out that none of my 12.5 inch block ARE 12.5 inch at all.
I really need to get a better foot for my sewing machine.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

week 41: Things I love

It's already thursday. Usually I will speak wednesday about things I love.
Every wednesday I TRY to post about things I love today (or last week).

This week I'm loving:
red & my new glasses
I bought new glasses a few weeks ago. Since that day I never used my contact lenses again.
I totally love the new glasses.
It's already autumn and usually it's grey and dark.
I easily brighten up my day with wearing something colourful.
I bought the Blutsschwester jacket with my sis in summer this year.
The jacket is realy not made for autumn but since I'm going by car (a red Ford KA - red again) to work I really don't care.
My red Minnetonkas are my fave shoes recently. They are super comfy and I love the style.
I might get a brown pair for my trip to Hong Kong ?!
Sadly the prices for Minnetonkas are really high in comparison to the US.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

gifts and crafts

It's been a while since I finished a little doll quilt for the lovely Amy.
Finally I'm able to show the quilt on my blog too.


I can't remember when I started this quilt. It must be in in june this year.
I stared to paperpiece the stars with no idea in mind what to make out of these.
The idea came into my mind while looking at old children books.



I added a few Hoppel's to make the quilt even more fun.
The stars all all appliqued by hand (and the Hoppel's too).

I think I worked 2 month (with breaks of course) on this quilt and when I finished it I wasn't sure if it's good enough to send it away.


Do you know the feeling after working on a project for such a long time and starting to dislike it ?


Because I wasn't sure about sending this doll quilt away (because I didn't like it anymore) I started to make a few things for Amy.
I wanted the package to be fun and usefull too.
I decided to add a little iphone case because everybody needs a fun case to keep the phone safe and warm.


I really love Amy's work. Her sense of fabric and colours is awesome. I think I've never seen anything on Amy's blog which I didn't like at all <3
Her work is adorable !!


Because Amy is such a lovely girl she couldn't resist and already sent me again sth. in return.
I sent Amy a few little pieces (with some other fabric scraps) from my fave lecien collection (which Amy really loved) and she turned it immediately in a super cute needle case for me.



She used the left overs from making hexagons. I can't describe how much I love this cute needle book.
Amy must be able to read my mind because I really needed a needle book for my travel crafting kit.


It's really hard to resist Amy's cute work. My little niece was in love too.




Dear Amy,

thank you for making such super things. You are AWESOME !!!!