1.950 hexagons later...

It started last year while I was on vacation with my dad and sis.

 Do you remember this pic ?

This is where my love for paper piecing started. Since I made my first hexagons I'm completly hooked.

In the past 12 months I was always working on my hexagon flower project when I was traveling or when I was in mood to hand sew.

Finally 5 weeks ago I added my last flower.

1.950 little hexagons were made into this lovely quilt in less than a year.

I used one tiny piece of each of my fabric in my stash (minus the ones I bought in the last months) and sashed everything in kona ash.

Now there is even more work waiting for me because I decided to hand quilt this baby.

I plan to quilt around each flower with grey embroidery thread.

I already finished the backing and I'm going to baste this quilt as soon as I'm leaving the hospital.

I already made my decission for the binding.

Gladly I was able to find yardage of the Annie's Seed Catalogue so I can use the same fabric which I already used for the center of the flowers.

After 1.950 tiny pieces I still love hexagons so I already started another project.
I will have lots of time durring chemo so hopefully the next one wont take me a year to finish.

Two

Yesterday mr. artistic and I visited his family.

My little niece turned two.

I'm a very proud aunty and I enjoy every minute with her.

Gladly they live only 80 km away (same city like my parents in law) so I see her everytime we visited my parents in law.

My heart always beats faster when she is saying my name.

Me and mr. artistic taught her to make "high five" and she is only doing it with us.

She loves books and reading and you find her very often sitting on the couch and reading her books.

I gave her some handmade gifts for her birthday.

Her mommy asked me for some fun handmade gifts to decorate her room.

I bought some cute fabrics a while back and finally I used it for a little bunting.

I had a a few scraps from the bunting and made it into a little mini quilt.

 I stiched around each square with pink, yellow, green ore blue embroidery floss.

 It can be used as a little tablecloth for her table or as wall hanging.

Amelie decided to use it in a different way...as a little blanket.

Isn't she adorable ??!!

In my eyes she is the cutest and fun girl on earth <3

I already have a new sewing list for her room.

She needs pillows for her tiny chairs and maybe a new quilt.

This is the baby quilt which I made for her right after her birth.

She use it as a play mat right now <3.

It was my very first quilt and I cutted all the fabrics with scissors. Can you believe that?!

It took me hours.

But I have to wait untill Amelie gets a big girl bed to take the measurements.

a wedding quilt and other patchwork goods

Attention: This post is filled with lots of pictures !

When I took the plane to Hong Kong my suitcase was filled with lovely gifts for friends.

I've been working on these goods for a few months already but wasn't allowed to show the results untill now.

You might recognize some of these because I showed some teasers a while back but never the complete work.

Lets start with biggest gift I brought to Hong Kong. My friend Wendy got married in november and of course I had to make her a quilt.

This is my third complete quilt (if I don't count the 2 quilt tops which are waiting to get basted and quilted) and I'm proud that I did all the work in time.

The post office really gave me headache a few times because my solid order took around 2 month to arrive.

But at least I did it in time.

Due to the lack of time (and quilting skills) I had to skip the the idea to quilt this baby free motion. I was afraid that I might ruin the whole quilt so I went with simple stright lines instead.

I really like the quilt pattern and I talked about it already here. Sadly my points never match completly but after the quilting and the washing it's not that bad anymore.

I used the kona espresso for the background and some of my nicey jane fabrics for the stars.

The backing of the is a mixture of kona espresso, some pink kona (I don't know the color by heart) and a big piece of nicey jane.

I went with the brown color scheme because I was hoping that it might fit into her bedroom (or living room).

The quilt is to small to use it as a bed cover but at least Wendy can snuggle under quilt on cold days.

A week before I left Wendy told me that a new iphone bag would be a perfect. The last one was to small she she gave it to her mom.

I'm always bad with measurements when I don't have the object in hand but this time it works.

It's a bit tight but at least it's working.

The back of the iphone bag as another star in red color. I hand quilted around each star. I really enjoy handquilting on small projects. You definetly see more hand quilted tiny projects next year.

Wedding is for couples so why not bringing a Hoppel couple as a little wedding gift ?!

I made two Hoppel couples because one couple went to Sabrina and Vincent who spent a perfect day with Wendy and me in Stanley (like last year too).

Mo is another lovely friend from Hong Kong.

I'm lucky that I was able to see her in Hong Kong a few times this year again. Mo has a super lovely little family.

I made two little patchwork pillow covers for lovely kids.

The pink one is for a Sammie and the blue one for her little brother Dortie.

They are both such cute and fun kids. In Hong Kong we spent one afternoon with making soap bubbles and another day Sammie thaught me how to make cute little angels made from beads.

Of course I brought a little gift for Mo too.

I made Mo a bag for her earphones early this year in red and yellow colors.

Mo asked for matching bag for her iphone since the old one is completly worn out.

I had lots of fun with reserve applique again and I tryed a tiny patchwork pattern.

I hand quilted both sides and added a little loop to be able add a fun charm.

Because I was totally in wonky stars making mood I had to play with that pattern for Helen's gift too.

I made a fun little christmas themed placemat (or mug rug because it's a bit tiny for a placemat).

I hand quilted this one too. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the back.

There was a little blue Hoppel for Helen as well. But sadly I'm not able to find the pic right now.

Hexagon travel kit

10 hours on the plane...what would you do ??

Sleeping, eating, reading, watching movies or just starring at the people next to you ?!

In my case I'm the movie watching kind of girl.

I traveled with finnair for most of my long flights and I always liked their movie selection.

They had the typical blockboster but also some nonfamous (at least for me) movies from different countries.

I never had any problems to fill my flight with tons of movies.

Due to a strike from finnair last year I had to fly with lufthansa.

I was really dissapointed when I saw there movie selection. They had only a few blockbuster which I already watched at home.

Since I'm flying with lufthansa this year again I will prepared to have nothing to watch. Since I won't feel comfortable starring at the people next to me or eating tons of food (I'm tall so my body and stomach is already completly crushed already due to the small seats which means I have no place  for lots of food ) I had to look for sth. to entertain me.

Making Hexagons entertained me a lot in the past months so why not making hexagons durring the flight ?!

Normally I would travel like this with my hexagon sewing stuff but for a long flight I really needed something more tidy.

So I jumped on bandwaggon and drafted a little pattern for a hexagon sewing kit kind of bag.

( I can make a tutorial when I'm back if anyone is interesseted)

I wanted to use some scraps so I tryed the bow tie pattern.

I started to quilt the white pieces by hand but found out that the pattern will loose all the prettiness once you fold it.

So I stoped on the project and put it aside for a fresh start.

This time I kept it really simple.

Just some 1 inch colorfull squares framed in black Kona and with a letter printed fabric background.

I hand quilted around the square with embroidery thread and I hand quilted some circles all over the the whole piece.

The lining really caused my headaches.

I had to decide how many pockets or other stuff need to be added.

I decided for 4 pocket to hold the precut fabrics and one pocket for the templates.

Sadly I made a little mistake with the measurements so one of the pocket on the far right is a little bit to small to hold my 2,5 inch fabric precuts.

I added a little piece of felt for the needles.

I just need one needle to sew the hexagons but the pins looked so nice so I added these as well.

BTW ...does anyone know if I'm allowed to bring needles on the plane ? Is it allowed ???

I added a little string made from some kona solid to hold my thread. You can easily change the thread color because you can open and close it with a snap fastener.

The little scissor is my fave item.

I bought in in the museum of history in Hong Kong last year.

I was looking for some scissores because I was working on a travel book durring the trip and needed something to cut all the stuff I wanted to glue in the book.

I hope this little sewing kit will keep my busy durring the flight and with some luck I will be able to finish some hexagons flowers for my second hexagon quilt.

holiday crafting

Do you remember this post ?!

The pillow cover is not the only christmas related item which I'm taking to Hong Kong.

Since my wallet is a bit big and heavy I made myself a new one just for the trip.

It's big enough to store all my credit cards and cash but not to heavy and bulky.

I used one of my fave linen fabrics from the stash. I bought the fabric a few years ago but never found the perfect project to use it.

The wallet is something I will use daily so I will be able to enjoy the cute fabric very often.

The lining are some christmas related fabrics from my stash as well. I really need to stock up with some christmas fabrics but I will wait untill christmas is over to get them on sale.

This year I won't be able to use any more christmas fabrics so I have no problem to wait.

There is always another christmas coming !

If you are interessted in making the wallet the pattern can be found here and it's really easy to make.

And here is the latest update from the hexagon project.

The quilt is growing and growing. Sadly there will be no time to work on that quilt for the next 4 weeks.

I think I will be able to add a few flowers durring christmas holidays.

I really can't wait to finish this quilt because I'm plaing the next hexagon quilt already.

I know I must be crazy to think about another hexagon project but I really love to have long term projects.

I'm full of hope that the first hexagon quilt will be finished by the end of january 2012 so I can have a fresh start with new hexagons.

christmas pillow cover

In two weeks I will take the plane to Hong Kong.

I will stay in Hong Kong for 1 1/2 week and after my vacation I will travel around for a few days in germany.

Sadly I will miss the first 3 weekends before christmas. I will miss the first 12 days of chocolate from my advents calender and lighting the candle on the "adventskranz every sunday before christmas.

I won't be able to decorate the apartment and enjoy all the christmas lights in my home.

To take a little bit of the christmas feeling with my on vacation I made a christmas pillow cover for the long flight.

I wish there would be enough time for a matching quilt but I'm happy to have something christmas related around while travel.

I used some of my red and white christmas fabrics to make wonky stars. I quilted by hand around every wonky star with embroidery thread.

I used some of my fave japanese christmas fabric for the back of the pillow cover. Sadly I made a mistake with the measurements so pillow foam always shows :(

I loved making the wonky stars and they are fun easy. I will definetly will make more of them. Maybe a complete quilt made from wonky stars ?!

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 !!

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.

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.

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 !