My first QAYG Project or Why you should believe in pink

I have lots of lovely friends who love these little things which make them feel special and me feeling thankful that I have them in my life.
Ich habe viele tolle Freundinnen die diese besonderen Dinge lieben, die sie einzigartig und mich glücklich machen dass diese Menschen Teil meines Lebens sind.
For special occasions I do sew lovely things for my friends, like this zipper pouch here:
Für besondere Gelegenheiten nähe ich gern Dinge für meine Freundinnen wie diese Kosmetiktasche hier:
I made this for a friend who loves pink. Everything pink, because pink makes her happy.
Ich habe dieses Täschchen für eine Freundin genäht die Pink liebt. Alles Pink, weil Pink sie glücklich macht. 
In ihrem sehr geschmackvoll pinkig eingerichten Apartment hängt ein Poster mit einem Zitat von Audrey Hepburn und das geht so:
In her very tastefully all-sorts-of-pink decorated home she has one poster with a quote of Audrey Hepburn and that goes like this:

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.”

My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

UPDATE: FREE pattern available now! Download here. 
Pattern release blog post here 

So here it is: my very first quilt top as a finally finished quilt:

As I started the quilt top in September 2013 it got so big that I laid it aside. Earlier this year I wanted to finish it and decided to cut the top so that the white squares are off center. The quilt has now a lap size and I think that was a good decision! I used the remaining stripes for the back.

I went with a wavy quilting design which I think is very suitable.

Oh, you may wonder why the quilt is called Regatta. Besides sewing I am also rowing. The latter is a very time consuming hobby but I love it and I'm rowing since 25 years now, always competitive on different levels. Meanwhile I am rowing in the masters class which is great fun.
So of course I took photos of the quilt at my rowing club.

Our boat house has a very old beautiful timber facade which was the perfect back drop for the photos. 

I followed this tutorial by Holly DeGroot of Bijou Lovely, there is a great video she made and after just some wavy lines this quilting technique is actually very easy and super fun.
I again used multi coloured Aurifil thread in blue/ white.

I'm very proud of this quilt and I'm also happy that I only finished it recently. Back in 2013 I would have not been able to make the quilt as beautiful as it is now.

I'm linking this with Crazy Mom's finish up Friday.

And .................  I'm also linking this to the Blogger's Quilt Festival of Amy's Creative Side - how exciting!!!

7 1/2 quilts in 13 months - a review and change

Gosh! My first quilting anniversary has passed last month and I didn't even notice! I kind of could remember it was some time last September but I needed to check the dates on the first photos I took. I started with my Regatta quilt top on September 8th 2013!
And that's what I've done so far:

That's quite an impressive stack of quilts I think!
The only quilt missing is my Mom's Lotta quilt which I couldn't add for the photo.

So what do we have (bottom to top):
My furry friend
Goggle Box
Phoenix
Emerald Isle
Baby quilt Lara
Regatta (quilting in progress)
Sea Breeze (finished quilt top)

The Regatta quilt meanwhile is completely finished and I took photos of it last weekend, I need to edit them and I'll put up a blog post soon!

The Sea Breeze quilt top is finished as well, that needs to wait a bit though since I started another quilt (really!) and I'm also caught up in some autumn projects - more about it later!

A review
I have learned a lot during the last year!
Sewing an accurate 1/4 inch seam for example, economical cutting of fabric, learned several piecing techniques, practised different free motion quilting designs, got to understand how my sewing machine works, learned what colour goes with what and that I really have to follow a tutorial for a quilt block (more about this later in relation to the Sea Breeze quilt...).
And I have so much fun!

A change
From my next blog post on I will write also in German. I realised that when I want to reach German readers that I need to write in German. Even though most Germans speak English, a German blog soley written in English might be a bit offputting and I don't want that.
I have no clue how to do it (first English then German, one language in italic or in a different colour?) but I'll figure something out which will not make an entire blog post too long (otherwise no one is reading anything any more!) and which will look visually pleasing too.

And I also will link my posts to some great crafty sites out there (once I figured out how that works)!

So, thanks for reading and keep on sewing!

A quilt for baby Lara

I'm excited to show you my very first baby quilt today!
The quilt is made from a selection of pre cut 2.5'' strips I bought a while ago. I added a few more strips cut from my own stash and sorted them from low volume to dark colours. 

I found this tutorial from 'Cluck Cluck Sew' which uses 2'' strips, my quilt is a bit longer using the 2.5'' strips.

The tutorial is called strip & flip, it's super simple and as Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew says 'Fast, fun, and CUTE!' You basically cut a narrow strip out of the quilt top, sew white strips to the left and right, flip it around and sew it back together again.

And then it looks like this:

Cute, isn't it?
The fabric strips I used are mostly from the fabric line 'Home School' by LB Krueger for Windham Fabrics, I also used the same fabric for the back. Part of the fabric line was this beautiful ABC panel, I just needed to include it!

I took the quilt to a local primary school playground and found lots of great locations to take lovely shots of this little beauty!

The ABC fabric had two panels and I cut one little heart out of the second one and used it as label.

That was just the perfect place for it!

I quilted it with swirls and double swirls, obviously that needs a bit more practise... But I think this suits the quilt and breaks up the straight lines of the fabric strips.

And for the first time I used stripy binding!

This is just perfect for a little baby girl's quilt.

So there it is, nicely wrapped up. Lara, Mumy and Daddy were very happy, and that made me happy too!

Selfmade birthday presents are the best!

I just quickly want to share another open wide zipper pouch I recently made for my good friend's birthday.  

It is the medium size open wide zipper pouch following the free tutorial by Noodlehead. I used the beautiful fabric from Amy Butler and combined it with linen and a bias tape.

Zipper pouches are not my favourite things to sew (zippers and me need to become better friends I think...) but you quickly have a nice result and in the end it is a lot of fun. And giving away a selfmade present is always a great thing!

QuiP # 3 - Quilt in Progress: Regatta

Like many quilters I am working on a lot of things at the same time. I finally want to make my very first quilt top into a quilt!
I used four pre- cut packages of 2.5'' fabric strips, two are Kona solids white and the other two are the beautiful Oakshott fabrics in various shades of blue. All bought in my favourite local quilt shop Quilt Cabin in Dortmund.

I started this quilt over a year ago now. I took photos of the process already as I kind of knew I would write a blog eventually. (Just look how super new and complete dust free my sewing machine looks!!!)

I got inspired by the book 'Little Bits Quilting Bee' by Kathreen Ricketson, founder of WhipUp.net. Her quilt 'Step lively' is made from jelly rolls too, here's a link to a photo of it. 

I included white squares and between every blue strip there will be a white strip.
It gets me now that the very first quilt top I made was my own design already, I only followed the principles of the method used in Kathreen's book, I guess that's not too bad!

Sadly Kathreen passed away last year just shortly after I discovered her blog and it's really great to see that her blog is being continued and will inspire many quilters and crafters around the world. I bet she would be proud.

I mentioned this quilt top already in my very first blog post, I left it laying for quite some time as it got too big for me to handle at the time. Now looking at it I thought it still is too small to fit our king size bed so I just cut it down to a lap quilt size and that works better.

I have the quilt sandwich ready for quilting and soon it will be finished! Yay!

Quip # 2 - Quilt in progress - Sea Breeze

I fell in love with a fabric line! Hopelessly.

The fabric line has been released in 2012... I didn't even know what a quilt really was at that time!
You probably have seen it before, it's 'Salt Air' by Cosmo Cricket for Moda Fabrics. 

Ever since I've seen this beautiful quilt from Cynthia of Ahhh... Quilting I needed to have this fabric!
So I searched everywhere and luckily one of the German online shops, Quiltmania, where I usually order my Kona Solids had a jelly roll left and a view metres of the beautiful fabric you can see in the background of the photo above.

I was looking what to do with the fabric, there are so many tutorials on what to do with jelly rolls, I had a hard time picking a design. I found two designs which I liked, both actually using the fabric line as well: One is from the Moda Bake Shop and one is from Shontelle of England Streets Quilts. She provides a PDF download for free!

And that's the one I'm going to do! I have all the blocks finished and I'm putting together the quilt top within the next couple of weekends.

I'm really looking forward to this beauty!

I actually searched the internet and bought all fabrics I could get my hands on! Well, I need fabric for the binding and the back, no? (I'm becoming a bit of a fabric addict here...)
Annie from Busy Bees Patchwork, Newport, South Wales, UK, was so kind sending me fat quarters she had left from the line. She still has some left, if you are in urgent need here's the link.

And for the first time I also ordered fabrics from the US. Jimmy Beans Wool had a sale on a couple of weeks ago. I have so many Salt Air fabrics now I can actually make another quilt! Happy days!

Shattered renamed Phoenix

I have another finished quilt to show today!

I have blogged about this quilt in my Quip #1 but during the quilting process I thought that the name 'Shattered' didn't do the quilt any justice. So she needed a more suitable name.

I associate the yellow patches with the sun, and the grey fabric with ashes.The name 'Phoenix' came to pass and reading up on it reinforced the name. 'In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Quite often, the oldest images of phoenixes on record would have nimbuses with seven rays.'

My husband and I took photos of Phoenix at an old steel production plant, the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum now turned into a cultural venue which is part of a heritage trail presenting the steel and coal mining history of the Ruhr Area. The rusty steel structure of the buildings seemed a perfect setting to have Phoenix shine.

All solids (apart from the white) are Oakshott fabrics, they have two different coloured weft and weave which gives it a beautiful depth and vibrant colour. I quilted the yellow/ grey patches in the multicoloured Aurifil thread and the grey fabric with the black/ white thread.

Phoenix has a beauty spot ......
unfortunately some puckering appeared in the centres of the yellow/ grey patches. I was quilting with straight lines working my way from the outside in... should I have done it the other way round?

But I am really happy with this quilt, all the quilting at the grey fabric is free motion quilting in overlapping rectangles. I am more and more confident with the quilting and it's actually lots of fun.

So, there she is: all rolled up ready to rise and shine!

My entry for the MQG fabric challenge and Why I called this quilt Emerald Isle

As I've seen the previous fabric challenge by the Modern Quilt Guild I was impressed with all the different designs people came up with and didn't have to think long and signed up for the 4th annual fabric challenge. I have never taken part in a challenge before and as I received the fabric I was quite nervous about it.

I combined the given fabric with solids and started some improvisational blocks and didn't really know where this was going. But here it is:

 
I'm pretty certain that this will not go anywhere... I'm mean competition-wise. I have seen some fantastic quilts for the challenge already.. I have a lot to learn.

Anyway, I'm really happy with the quilt and since the fabric wasn't available anywhere in Germany it turned out to be smaller than a usual lap quilt, so I thought this 'small persons quilt' is perfect for my niece and God Child, Anna.

I opted again for a fleece backing but still quilted it with curvy flowery stitches to accompany the floral fabrics on the front.

During the piecing process I always try to name the quilt in progress. I think every quilt needs a suitable and memorable name.

My solid fabric choices and the floral challenge fabrics began to remind me of Ireland, where I lived for six years. The colours stand for the blue and white clouds, the often, very often grey and rainy skies, the pebble stone beaches, the steep and dramatic coasts, ancient rocks, mountains, bubbly cities, the beautiful flowers and super friendly and happy people.

My husband again came up with the name and also with the little twist in the quilt... a quilt named 'Emerald Isle' and there is not a single green piece of fabric in it?

So there it is: a tiny green patch quilted with a shamrock! Awwww!

I will give the quilt to Anna soon, she is ten now and starts secondary school in August and I think that the quilt will provide warmth and comfort.

Thank you Modern Quilt Guild and thank you Michael Miller Fabrics, without this challenge I would not have made this quilt.

I have been busy making zipper pouches!

Not that you think I was lazy... I have been making some open wide zipper pouches following this tutorial by Noodlehead.

These are the smaller sizes but slightly altered.

The first one I made was from fabric left overs from my current quilt in progress with crazy piecing and beautiful multicoloured Aurifil thread, I loved the effect it had and will use it on my quilt as well.

The second one I made was a gift for one of my best friends and rowing partner, her favourite colour is green so I added pink and a linen fabric with grey, green and pink.

And the third one was my very first custom made item for my colleague, he wanted this as a present for his girlfriend, he picked the colours and thankfully they both liked it, phew!

I am in the final touches of quilting my fifth quilt and will post about it soon!