2018 - a round up

The first thing I do before I write my round up of the year is to go to my 'quilty goals' post and see if I have accomplished what I have set out for myself.

Well, I didn't have much of a productive year I have to admit. One reason was our move in March this year, which took a long time and parts of my sewing space are still not completely finished. I still need a proper design wall, and I'm also trying to find a solution of how to hang my large quilts to a wall.

But I did finish two quilts that are very dear to my heart.
One of them is 'Purple Haze' (proper photos and blog post to follow). With the quilt top I've won my first ever prize: 1st in the international entries of 'quilt top only' of the 2018 Pantone Quilt Challenge. Everything about this quilt is so outside my comfort zone: the colour scheme, the curvy piecing and having to block the quilt due to heavy distortion after quilting. You can read more about it here.
Purple Haze is on its way to QuiltCon in Nashville already, I'm so happy that it got accepted to be in the show.

The second quilt is 'Four' with which I was part of the 'What shade are you' blog hop hosted by RJR Fabrics.
Four was a very challenging project with the use of 13 solids and an improvisationally pieced method. I love the soft colours and the play with different values. It looks so much better in real life and I think this might be the reason why it got rejected from being accepted into QuiltCon because the photos just don't do it justice. Anyhow, I'll try again next year, it still is a beautiful quilt whether it's at QuiltCon or not.

Talking about QuiltCon - obviously my second visit to QuiltCon in Pasadena was even more excitign than the first one, because I had my quilt 'Splinter' in the show!

I love this photo so much because that expression is like: OMG, is this really happening??? Pasadena was special because my husband was with me and experienced what this community is all about along hundreds of beautiful quilts and many quilty friends.

I also made two mini quilts this year:
One was 'Three', a mini quilt that I gave to Anne Sullivan at QuiltCon in Pasadena, and that eventually led to the design of 'Four'.

And 'Connected' which was a 15" small mini quilt made in line with the prompt by the Curated Quilts Magazine.

This year was all about exploring lines and finding an improv style I suppose.

I also made super fun table runner as part of a spring blog hop, I really love these fresh colours!

There was this zipper pouch as well as a gift for my colleague:

And there were two projects I made from the left overs and scraps from 'Purple Haze': One was this boxy pouch, which is so big and so handy:

And another project is this pillow:

I've just realised that I didn't write a blog post about it yet...

Another reason that I wasn't that productive was the extremely hot summer we had here and that I rather went on walks with my husband and our dog Biene than sewing.
But I started an adventure quilt that documents the adventure we have with Biene. These blocks are so much fun, it's a slow process but it continues to grow.

Here she is with a selection of the different blocks. I have no idea how to put that quilt together but I'm sure it will be a fun quilt once it's finished!

And of course my bee blocks I made for my 'Quilty Circle of Bees'. We are very reduced in numbers and I've realised I don't have photos of the blocks I made for Magda but here's a small overview of the other ones:

And I have finally started my Christmas quilt:

I made most of the blocks at my first ever Quilt retreat in November, which was so much fun and a great experience being with quilty friends not doing anything else than sewing for an entire extended weekend!

I'm very pleased with my projects and also excited what 2019 brings!

Linking to Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and the Best of 2018 Link - Up!

Frühlingserwachen Blog Hop (Spring Awakening blog hop)

For English scroll down

Ich freue mich dass ich heute beim Frühlingserwachen Blog Hop an der Reihe bin. Organisiert hat das Ganze Judith von Septembers Quilt Delight.

Und ich bin dir so dankbar, liebe Judith, denn ohne dich und deinen Blog Hop hätte ich jetzt nicht so einen schönen Tischläufer!

Wir sind erst vor 4 Wochen umgezogen und haben immer noch ein bisschen Chaos und jede Menge unausgepackte Kisten. Aber meine zwei neuen großen, weißen Schreibtische für meine Nähecke sind schon einsatzbereit und nach dem ersten Probenähen bin ich schon sehr begeistert.

Für unseren ebenfalls weißen Esstisch wollte ich einen neuen, frühlingshaften Tischläufer nähen. Schnell hatte ich das Rot und Orange rausgesucht und mit dem Mint- Grün und Weiß gepaart. Da fiel mir ein dass ich noch diesen Riley Blake Stoff hatte, der all diese Farben hat. Perfekte Kombination!

Ich habe mich für 'Half Square Rectangles' (halbe Rechtecke) entschieden und viele verschiedene Farb- Kombinationen genäht. Damit der lange Läufer nicht so langweilig wird habe ich an einigen Stellen Streifen in das Muster eingesetzt, so wirkt die ganze Komposition etwas aufgelockerter und interessant.

Wie so oft habe ich die Anleitung, wie man 'Half Square Rectangles' näht, nur halbherzig befolgt und prompt passen die Blöcke nicht richtig zusammen, bzw. gehen die Rechtecke nicht bis an das Ende des Blocks (na ja, wenigstens ist das durchgängig und passt auch mit den anderen Blöcken zusammen, ist aber eigentlich so nicht richtig...). Das tut dem Tischläufer aber, wie ich finde, keinen Abbruch. Ist halt die persönliche Note.

Gequilted habe ich in Wellenlinien mit rot melliertem Aurifil 50wt Garn, das lockert die strenge Geometrie der Blöcke etwas auf.

Zum ersten Mal habe ich 'faced binding' ausprobiert. Ich weiß gar nicht wie das auf Deutsch heißt, jedenfalls ist es kein herkömmliches Binding um den Läufer herum sondern es wird ein Stoffstreifen auf die rechte Seite des Läufers genäht, dann umgebügelt und von hinten von Hand angenäht. Hier ist das Tutorial (was ich dieses Mal genau befolgt habe).

Diese Art von Binding mache ich bestimmt noch öfters, gefällt mir sehr gut. Der Läufer hat die folgenden Maße: 132 x 55cm.

Fotografiert habe ich jedenfalls auf meinem Nähtisch, im Esszimmer herrscht noch Chaos. Jetzt kann ich aber gar nicht abwarten bis wir alles fertig haben und dann zeige ich euch auch meine neue Nähecke.

Schaut auch bei den anderen Teilnehmern vorbei, bei Judith gibt es auch immer Zusammenfassungen so wie hier, hier und hier mit den entsprechenden Links.

Morgen ist Alex dran.

English summary: 

Today it's my turn in the German blog hop 'Frühlingserwachen' (spring awakening) organised by Judith of Septembers Quiltdelight.

We only moved house 4 weeks ago and we still have many unpacked boxes and chaos but I could sew on my new sewing tables and made a table runner in lovely spring colours for our white dining room table. 

I picked a spring like colour palette and mixed it with a Riley Blake print and went with half square rectangles. I (again) didn't really follow the tutorial of how to sew the rectangles and the result is non- matching seams... ah well, at least that is consistent and it still is a lovely table runner!
In addition to the rectangles I added some strips to make it look more interesting and I think that enhanced the overall design. 
I quilted in wavy lines using Aurifil 50wt in variegated red and used faced binding for the first time. I just love that look and will definitely try this again! 
The table runner finishes at 52 x 21".
Here, here and here are little summaries of all the things many super talented ladies put together for the blog hop, go an have a look!