Another finish and an accident

Thank you very much for all your lovely comments on that quilt I made for my Dad. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to come back to every single one of you because an accident of my husband turned our every day life upside down (not a life-threatening accident, thank goodness!). I promise to get back to you once we get accustomed to a new routine.

Almost two weeks ago my husband slipped on black ice while he was running/jogging. He fell hard on his shoulder and head. He wasn’t too far from home and came back with a limp left arm. I couldn’t persuade him to visit a doctor immediately (it was around 8 p.m.) and he neither went the next day. 4 days later he gave in and it was ascertained that he had a comminuted fracture at his left shoulder. Last friday he had a large surgery, the fragments of the bones were screwed back in place and 4 torn tendons were re-attached with another big screw.

Yesterday he discharged himself from hospital and went straight back to work. For 6-8 weeks his left arm will be quite immobile and he’ll need much assistance. For dressing. For chopping his meals. And he isn’t allowed to drive. So that’s constant lifts to and from work, to and from doctor, to and from physical therapy, and so on. Add those household tasks HE usually does to MY usual tasks and MY own job and there is not much time for me to sew or for blogland adventures. Phew. I dread those next weeks.

But enought of that. I’m distracting myself with as much sewing as possible. I needed some quick finishes during the last days. Something I could do without much thinking. And while listening to an audiobook. What’s better than finishing some UFOs? Here’s one that just needed a backing and a binding.

Not much to think of one could say. But after attaching the binding to the front I discovered that I intended to attach it to the BACK in the first place. I had just decided to ignore that fact and to NOT rip it all out when I discovered that I had forgotten to fold that 2,25” strip in half.
Aaaah!!! Hello Mr. Seamripper )o:

Don’t you just love these butterflies?!

I found them in a scrap bag and combined them with some of my stash prints and low volume prints. None of the butterfly prints had a selvage so I have no clue who designed them. I YOU know, please leave me a comment, I would love to order more!

I fuzzy cut some of them and – using my favourite quilted panel technique – quilted them as I went. Then I didn’t have a zipper that was large enough and that unfinshed cussion sat in my UFO pile for some months.

Last weekend as I was in great need of instant satisfaction, I just whipped up a backing with a hidden zipper (that I had bought some weeks ago) and a binding.

 

Now I need a filling of the right size (o:

But I’m glad it’s finished and I love how it turned out. It will make a great gift for my MIL – if the colours match her couch’s. Will have to check that secretly one day soon.

Thanks for reading and always watch your step!
Christine

New Weekender

Last week my friend Meike gave me this incredibly fabulous weekender as a belated christmas gift (we didn’t manage to meet earlier):

And this is the back:

I am a lucky girl, am I not?! I love her choice of colour and the way she quilted the outer panels.

And I love the sturdy handles and the little pockets and the zipper pocket and the little flower and… and… everything!

And isn’t this stamped label just too cute?!

And it has a perfect size for the weekends I spend at my parents’ when I take my kids there for a visit. A perfect gift! Thank you again, Meike!!!

Now you may want to see the christmas gift that I had made for her:

I made a fabric basket to match the quilt I made her last year:

And I gave Meike two Kate Spain Charm Packs to convince her to start making quilts. We took a basic sewing class together 3 years ago and developed different sewing preferences since. I became addicted to quilting and she makes the most beautiful clothes for her children, awesome pouches and phone covers, loops and bags. Plus she has great taste – for example when it comes to colour coice and combining solids with prints. I’m so glad we met 4 years ago!!! (in a water-gymnastics class for pregnant women when we were both expecting a second baby).

Here’s to a long lasting friendship and many more happy sewing hours spend together!

Give your best friend a hug!
Christine

Another quilted patchwork panel project

Confession: I’m addicted to quilted patchwork panel projects. I tried Elizabeth Hartman’s technique once (about 6 weeks ago) and made around 10 projects since (most of them are Santa’s Secrets for some more days…)

Here’s one I made for myself. (Btw. one of those things I want to do next year is to do more “selfish-sewing” – sewing for myself and my family).

When I saw Rachael’s blogpost about her craft book project, I knew I had to make a bath mat for our own bathroom. The bathroom is grey and white and I used red as the only other colour (for towels, paintings, kleenex box covers, etc.).

This is my quilted patchwork panel bath mat:

Once again finished with my favourite triple zig zag stitch:

Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for your great tutorial! I love my new addiction (o:

Happy Quilting everyone.
I hope you’ll all have a joyful christmas time!

Christine

Gift revelation

Some weeks ago I have shown you this quilted panel but could not reveal the completed project.

Infact, I made two of them:

Here they are cut to shape… No more clues needed, I guess (o;

And this is the finished gift: A BBQ Glove for my friend Brigitte made from some scraps and a mini charm pack of COMMA and bound in a dark grey cotton print.

This is the end of my non-official COMMA series – I promise to turn to other projects for some weeks. But I will get back to this fabric line sooner or later – it is my absolute favourite and I can’t wait to get my hand on larger pieces (o:

Hoping to get back to you soon,
all theses christmassy preperations just beat me up…
Christine