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.

bobby pins

I'm letting my hair grow a bit to have a cute bob in a few months.

My fringe is still short and not managable. It's always in front of my eyes and very annoying.

I have very thin hair so normal bobby pins are to heavy for me. They always fell out after a few hours.

In Hong Kong I went to some craft shops with Mo and Helen and found some blank tiny bobby pins.

Today I had a few minutes left to make some cute bobby pins for myself.

I used some tiny vintage buttons from my big stash and two little flowers which I purchased in Hong Kong .

I got a blank hair band too and added two tiny flowers.

It's a very simple design but I love it. 

Beside of the bobby pins I'm working on a christmas gift for my SIL. It's a simple quilt made from precut stripes and some solids.

Mie really enjoys the new quilt too. But sorry baby. This quilt is not for you.

Now I need to finish posting because mr. artistic and I having our yearly "Lord of the rings" marathon.

This year in HD :)

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 ?!

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.

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.

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 !!!!