2020 - a round up

Traditionally my round-up posts are a compilation of all my projects, big and small. Since I only wrote like 9 blog posts this year here is a summary, which is a bit more expansive than usual. 

2020... where to begin? Well, maybe when the world was still in order and we could travel and hug people. 

This year started with a visit at QuiltCon in Austin, Texas. 

I had two quilts in the show, one of it was Define Gravity and it was in the small quilts category. 

The second quilt was Fade to Grey which hung in the Modern Traditionalism category. I participated in the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2019 with this quilt. 

QuiltCon again was a fantastic event, it was my third time attending and I met old and new friends and had a great time. 

I took part in the mini quilt swap and swapped quilts with Audrey from Cotton & Bourbon. 

This is Audrey and me exchanging quilts, you can read more about Sugar Rush, the quilt I made, here. 

I've actually made two mini quilts for the swap and didn't really like the first one, but it grew on me and now I'm happy that I made it. It's an adventure into monochromatic log cabin blocks that will be further explored! 

This is B.O.W. and I wrote about it here. 

Well, and then, two weeks after QuiltCon, the Corona Virus hit and turned our world upside down. Including mine. 

I did finish my Triangle Sew Along mini quilt, which was organised by Nicholas Ball of Quilts From The Attic. I really like his book 'Inspiring Improv' and that is one technique from it. 

This is Pineapple Parfait and it was an experiment into the use of colour as well as exploring a new technique. 

I wasn't in the mood for sewing or blog post writing at all. I did finish one large quilt though, that was three years in the making. However, all I needed to do was sew the binding on. That seemed doable. Because for the first time I sent a quilt to a longarm-quilting-service, to Rachel Hauser to be exact. 

This is Playground and it was a colour and value experiment.

I made two zipper pouches from scraps, one is an oversized open wide zipper pouch I made for a dear colleague that left my office. 

Playing with scraps was something that kept me going. I made another boxy pouch following the pattern by Katie Pedersen. 

This one was made from left overs from the Pantone Quilt Challenge 2019 Fade to Grey, which you've seen at the beginning of this post. 

Another zipper pouch was made using the Quilt-As-You-Go method. 

During summer I took out all my other left overs and started piecing tiny fabric pieces together. It felt good to make something small into something big, to make something whole. 

This one here is actually made from left overs from my Emerald City Quilt. My intention was to make a pillow to match the quilt, the size of this panel is about 25" square. I quilted it in an X-from, and then mirrored the quilting  1/4 " apart - it got so distorted that it needed intense blocking and even after that it looks terrible.  I love the colours and all but this panel is kind of a representation of 2020.

I have more of those scraps and will make another panel that will then turn into a two-sided pillow. I'm sure the pillow will look good once it's finished but this piece left me a bit frustrated. 

I finished a bee quilt which I love very much. This is Trip Todd, a quilt for Triplets. 

And I made more of Biene's adventure blocks. 

We did not go on holidays at all this year (social distancing and all), but we went on some really great walks with Biene. Her face is getting so white! She will turn 10 in February, she's still very fit and goes running with me twice a week. 

There's only five blocks missing and then her all the quilt blocks will be complete. I'm planning on having the quilt finished in the new year!

And then there was Metamorphosis, the only quilt I submitted to QuiltCon together. 

This quilt started with large scale blocks, which I didn't like. So I cut them up and pieced them together, a very exciting new design emerged! Metamorphosis was the only QuiltCon submission this year, and was not accepted into QuiltCon together. My good DSLR lens broke during the year (can 2020 be any worse?) so I wasn't happy with the photos. Maybe that was the reason for the rejection or the many, many really good quilts that are entered into the Improv Category. Anyhow, I hope to get the lens fixed and try again next year! 

I have one last project to show you: Athos & Oscar. 

This two-sided quilt is very dear to my heart and was definitely a special project of 2020. 

Looking back on all my projects during 2020 actually doesn't make me feel too bad, I thought sewing wise this year was a whole disaster... turned out it wasn't. And the good thing is I have some very exciting projects for 2021 lined up. 

Thank you all for your support, I appreciate every single one of you! 

Linking this up to Cheryl's Best of 2020 Linky Party, hop over to Meadow Mist Designs and look at all the great quilts people made! 

Open wide zipper pouch extraordinaire

Sometimes I have an idea for a gift and I just have to make it. My dear colleague and friend Ceylan has left our office to pursue her dreams in Istanbul. I knew I wanted to make her something handmade and it was suppose to be something useful, too.

I decided to make Ceylan an open wide zipper pouch in extra big so she can use it as toiletry bag. And since Ceylan loves nail polish, I downsized the free pattern of the nail polish quilt block by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet and made three of them in different shade of pink.

The bag was suppose to be very chic and classy so I went with Robert Kaufmann Essex Yarn Dyed Metallic in beige and that worked so well.

The other side of the bag has her name in the same shades of pink. The letters are hand drawn first and then transferred into fabric. I quilted in simple diagonal straight lines with this beautiful pink of 50wt Aurifil thread. The bag has a great texture!

 The zipper is pink as well and it's such a great contrast to the beige linen fabric.

 The lining fabric is a pink oil cloth so it suits the bag's use and it can be easily cleaned.

This pouch is seriously my masterpiece in form of a bag. I'm not a big fan of zippers but I do like the open wide zipper pouch by Noodlehead and these bags make great gifts. The size is customised though and it's about 15" (38cm) long and 7"(18cm) high.

In total it took me about 10 hours to make the bag and it was done in two days, all after work until the middle of the night.

But it was so worth it! Ceylan absolutely loves it and she said she always thinks of me when she sees the bag, so what is better than that?

That orange zipper

I am going to 'Nadelwelt' (engl.: needle world) this coming weekend, it's the biggest German trade fair that has to do with needles, fabric and yarn. There's going to be quilts on show along other textile things. There's lectures and a big vendor hall.

It's the first time I will be going and I will be meeting with a lot of other quilters and sewists. 

There will be a meet up on Saturday and there's a swap of zipper pouches organised. I made an open wide zipper pouch because they are my favourite zipper pouch to make.

I emptied my turquoise scrap glass and pulled these aqua and light turquoise fabrics and pieced them together and quilted straight lines in light grey.

With all these tone-in-tone colours I thought the pouch needed a bit of a 'bang', so I added a bright orange zipper.

I think this is very suitable and it turned out even better than I had imagined.

For the lining I used some colourful fabric with directional dots that add a bit of a surprise when you open the pouch.

I love those little zipper ends, really finished off the zipper nicely.

So this is going to be for one lucky swap partner. We all put our pouches in a big bag and everyone just picks a pouch randomly. I like that!

I will report back from the actual event when I'm back next week!

Open wide zipper pouch

I just made another open wide zipper pouch. I just love these little projects! It's the middle size of the free pattern by Noodlehead.

A quilt sometimes can feel overwhelming, little projects like this are very satisfying.

Especially if they are a gift to a person, who loves it. That green print by the way is one of my all-time favourites!

This pouch I made for a dear colleague who is off to an adventure in South America, with a backpack and a one way ticket. Since I know how messy a backpack can get I made her that pouch to hopefully avoid any mess!

First finish in 2016!

It's only the first week of January and I have already my first finish done! It's the smallest of my goals for the year but that doesn't matter.

It's another open wide zipper pouch following Noodlehead's tutorial. And I've also found this super tutorial by Ros of Sew Delicious. I never knew where to have the zipper pointed while sewing the layers together, sometimes I did it correct, sometimes I didn't but never knew why my zippers looked different.  Now it's neat and tidy, great!


I used a coated fabric for the inner lining so that it's easy to clean.

This one is (again) for my Mum... I seem to make her a lot self made stuff recently but Mums always do so many great things that this is only a small way of saying 'thank you'!

Linking this to Finish up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.