Scrappy key lanyard

I have made another scrappy little project: a key lanyard for my niece!

My niece is 11 now and uses her own key from time to time, so I made her a nice key lanyard she can wear as little, useful accessory.

I picked one of my favourite fabric scraps and cut them into even widths (3 times as wide as the metal clip thing). I used fusible batting as an inlay and folded the fabric edges in to the required width and quilted in straight lines.

My niece loved it and I will make one for myself when I go over to the US to attend QuiltCon in February 2017 in Savannah!!

Scrappy Kindle case

I recently enjoy sewing small things with quick results. I really do enjoy the process of quilt making but every now and then there has to be a speedy little sewing project.

I have always wanted to make a case for my kindle... I suppose just to have one, because really the kindle is in a hard cover and protected enough... but a self made case is sooooo nice, right? 

I made this from scraps, my scrap glasses really do inspire me as I see all my scraps every day. And since the storing space is limited I need to use them.

I used scraps  in grey and orange, this is such a lovely colour combination (and matches the orange coloured kindle hard cover my husband got me together with the actual Kindle!)

The individual scrap pieces are 2 x 3'' big and sewing them together in rows of 5 x 4 created an almost perfect fit for the case already. I have used this tutorial as a guidance, but adjusted the flap to the whole width and measured the size of the kindle and added approx. 1inch to each side in order to estimate the size of the covers needed.

The kindle fits perfectly in it even though the I calculated the position of the velcro wrongly. I measured without the kindle being in the case, so now it just catches.

And as I was finished I thought I could have just added another row of scraps to the one case cover and not sewn the flap on separately. 

But this is something I can adjust when I make a second case.

Linking this to Scraptastic Tuesday.

Cathedral window pin cushion

I have always admired something made from cathedral window blocks. It always looked so beautiful but also super complicated. After I have seen this pin cushion and learned how easy it actually is, I thought I should give it a try.

I made a pin cushion for myself  from my scraps following this tutorial which is free, you should try it out!

I have always wanted a pin cushion and that was just a perfect way to try the cathedral window block.
Turns out it isn't complicated at all, just following some simple steps and there's a lot of ironing involved.

It took me a long time to find a nice button, but I'm happy with the red one with the carvings on it.

So, next thing to try is a pillow made from cathedral windows, I'm not afraid anymore!!

Linking this to Crazy Mom's Finish up Friday!

Mug rug swap with the lovely ladies of the MQG Individual Members

I am super excited to be involved in my very first swap project! This one is from the individual members of the Modern Quilt Guild! 

My swap partner is Carmen and she wrote about her favourite colours:

orange, green, aqua, that pinky berry color :), not too many colors I don't like. I will love what you make so please don't stress over what to make - make what speaks to you and have fun doing it.
Very nice! 


So, and that's what I made her:

I emptied my scrap glasses and selected a few of my favourite colours: turquoise, yellow and red.
I went with kind of a coin block design and stacked the scraps from medium to dark volume. I absolutely love the cross hatch fabrics by Carolyn Friedlander and they go so well with the bright colours.
I used simple straight line quilting in irregular distances and yellow binding.

The size is about 8 x 7,5''. That's big enough to hold two espresso cups or....

one large mug and some sweets to go with your tea or coffee.

For the back I used this lovely fabric with little vintage TVs, I just loved the idea of having a tea in front of the telly.

So, Carmen, I hope you like your new mug rug, it will go in the post tomorrow!

Linking this to Crazy Mom Quilts and Sraptastic Tuesday.

Head over heels for Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I haven't blogged that much recently but that didn't mean I wasn't sewing. I was actually working on a new quilt which I proudly present for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

This is also my first custom made quilt for the wife of a dear colleague. She wanted a quilt with turqouise and green and rather dark colours as it might be that their dog is snuggeling up in the quilt as well, so no white. I met the two around Christmas and brought a selection of my fabrics in the desired colours and also colours which accompany the combination.

I also brought all my quilts (..aham, four in total in fairness) to show her what a quilt is actually made of and how it feels. She picked beautiful fabrics and I was really happy that she liked my Gogglebox quilt so much that she wanted the same design for herself.

 
So I combined greens and turquoise with some splashes of red and grey and opted for this beautiful anthracite Oakshott fabrics for the grid and binding.

For the back I opted for a similar design to Gogglebox repeating three blocks and the grid with solid fabrics.

Due to heavy work load and only weekend sewing sessions it took me until now (end of May) to finish the quilt. I also only issue it at the very last minute for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

I free motion quilted in two different thread colours, again green and turquoise, and it really stands out on the anthracite fabrics and the light grey at the back.

I'm very happy with this quilt which I named 'Head over heels' due to the elegant Oakshott grid and splashes or red. I'm already having a hard time letting it go, it needs to go in the wash one more time and then it can go to it's new owners.

I'm happy to participate the second time in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, this is such a great online quilt show!

I have made some key rings

I actually made these ages ago, but never got to write the blog post about it. But here they are:

All were presents to dear friends.
The first three made with ribbons from Luzia Pimpinella, a very talented blogger from Germany with a huge following. She blogs about life style, diy, photography, travel and all sorts of quirky stuff. Check her out!

And here's two with ribbons with graphics from my hometown and home area! One is for my brother and the other for my husband, he opted for the green felt, bit of Ireland in it too! 

These key rings are so easy and quick to do and they are a great small present. They won't be the last I make!

Happy Easter everyone!

Quip # 4 - Quilt in progress - Plus One

As promised I'll share the 'making of' my Plus One Quilt today in another QuiP post.
This Quip should have actually been posted before the post of the finished quilt but I was so excited about it that I couldn't wait.

So, and this is how it all started:

Selecting fabrics. I happen to collect a lot of low volume fabrics and they all seem to go very well with blues, greens and yellows and oranges.

I found a plus block tutorial with a lot of 3/4'' dimensions and that made me crazy... growing up and being used to metric dimensions that was not for me. Ultimately the first block went wrong. I found another tutorial with full or half inches and that worked better.
But even though the block was hopelessly wonky I thought I'll keep it anyway and make a rug out of it for my jewelry at the bedside table.

But everything went wrong with that one...
I wanted to try quilting parallel lines ... and that went wrong too. I rushed it and I did everything wrong what one can do wrong while quilting. Oh, and not to forget the the binding... that also went wrong and looks rather horrible. I rushed this as well...

The only good thing was it taught me a lesson.

- If you follow a tutorial, follow the tutorial.
- Preparation is everything.
- Be precise, don't rush.

With the other blocks I was really careful and they turned out to be really nice and square.

I knew I had to do something with the quilting, even though it's 'only' straight lines there is so much to it!  
I am on Craftsy and I joined the new class by Jacquie Gering 'Creative quilting with your walking foot' which is excellent and very helpful.
But she also has this tutorial on her blog.

So I taped the entire quilt and started quilting.

Nice and slow, always checking if I was still on track.

Using the little bar attached to the sewing machine really helped, but without the control measuring I would have been hopelessly off.

I quilted the lines every 1/2 inch apart because in fairness the lines were sometimes still off by almost 1/4 inch or even more.

But I am so happy how it turned out!
Here it is again:

As for the jewelry rug: reminds me every day that mistakes can only make you better!

Linking this to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Sew Cute Tuesday!

BlockMquilts turns one - I have organised my scraps

One year into blogging and making quilts I thought it was time to organise my scraps.

After eight quilts and a few other things I've sewn in the last year I had scraps and fabric left overs everywhere. Mostly in little plastic bags, one from every sewing project.

This really started to annoy me so I was looking into options as to how to keep the scraps in one place, tidy and organised by colours.

I found these really nice over sized jars during a trip to Ikea. They hold one liter, are about 7 inches (18cm) high and about 4 inches (10cm) in diameter. I have seen people using these in their kitchens filling them with pasta and rice and all sorts of food... well, I have a different agenda!

I started off with buying 8 of them, but quickly realised that I needed more to cater for every colour. I first had yellow and orange in one jar and also turquoise and blue but realised that they need an own space. So now I have 11 of them.

I know the glasses are rather small, but I think this is good because my plan is to use up the scraps as quickly as possible. What I love about the glasses is that I can see the scraps all the time. I keep on changing the glasses so that colours are always in different locations. That's almost like having a scraps design wall!
 

Naturally I did my first scrap project straight away: a coffee cozy!

My husband loves coffee and  so I made one for him.
I opted for greys, yellows and browns and used a strip of velcro rather than a button, I thought this is a bit more manly!

We have these cardboard coffee thingies laying around the house all the time. So I just took one apart added the width of the velro on each side and finished was the cozy!

It's funny, I can actually see every sewing project in that tiny little thing.
I'm glad, my husband is actually using it and we have less rubbish at home.

How do you store your scraps?

Linking this to the German Montagsmacher!

My first finish in 2015 - Plus One

I have my first finished quilt in 2015 to show: Plus One!

I showed photos of the first plus blocks already in November in line with my turn of the Around The World Blog Tour as it was still in progress. Now it's finally finished and I'm very happy how it turned out!

I used a selection of solid fabrics in different shades of green, orange, yellow and blue.
Ever since I've seen this beautiful quilt by NZ quilter Adrianne of 'On the windy side' I wanted to make one myself and started collecting lots of low volume fabrics and started sewing the first blocks.

I went with a simple diagonal straight line quilting with what will be my all time favourite Aurifil thread with colour shades from white to light grey. The colour changes of the thread are so subtle but still visible and give the quilting a beautiful depth.

 

 And that's how the back looks like: 

Almost as nice as the front! 

I just love the little orange birdies of Lotta Jansdotter's fabric line 'Bella'!

So why is there a 'one' in the quilt?
Well first of all I always try to come up with something different in my quilt designs, even if it is a quilt block design which has been done so many times by other quilters. In this case I just wanted to add a bit of interest and draw the attention to the 'one' in the quilt as it stands for my 'plus one' - my husband!
I placed the 'one' so that when I'm wrapped up in the quilt on our couch that the 'one' points towards my husband.... awww! 

And here he is:

Always supporting me and holding up my quilts for photo shootings - thank you!

I really like the +1 idea, the next baby quilt I'll do might have l+l=ll in lovely baby colours? I'll see how this turns out. Already excited about that!

I had a few difficulties with these blocks at the beginning.... I will do another blog post about it later and will also tell you about how I did the straight line quilting.

Linking this to the German Montagsmacher and  Crazy Mom Quilts!

Fresh start - please comment

New year, fresh start.

As I started my blog in March last year I didn't know that I only made commenting on my blog posts available for Google+ users... I want to change this now as some people stated that they would love to leave a comment but don't want join Google, which is understandable.
So I checked out my settings and I found the box I need to untick in order to make commenting available also for non-Google account holders. But I will automatically loose ALL the lovely comments I got since I started my blog (respectively: they will not be visible anymore...unless there is a computer nerd amongst you who can tell me how I get them back???).
All these lovely comments will only visible on my Google+ account.

I have been avoiding this decision for quite some time but have now decided that I will change the settings to make commenting available for everyone with whatever account. 
I'm very sad to see my blog 'blank' with no comments at all...

So you guys, go ahead and comment and make me a happy girl again!

At this point I want to thank everyone who visits my blog and make me feel that I don't only write this all for myself! Thank you!