Oh Deer! A baby boy quilt.

I made a Baby Quilt for my cousin’s first baby. As it was meant to be a surprise I asked my auntie what colour scheme my cousin chose for the pram, the nursery, etc. She said the pram was brown but the overall preference was multicolour.

That turned out to be more difficult than I had foreseen. I have almost no browns in my stash. Eventually I found a charm pack of Momo’s Oh Deer! that had just enough brown and lots of different additional colours.

Here’s what I made for the little boy that was born in October (I hand delivered it last week so it’s safe to show you now):

I had previously opted for a different border but I am so glad I took it off and made a new one.

 

I free motion quilted it with a variegated yellow-orange-white Aurifil, using a dogwood design, availing myself of the seams as guidelines in the centre…

…and marking chalk lines (half the size, i.e. 2,5”), that I followed when quilting the border.

A added a brown ric rac border all around the centre and appliquéd his name with my sewing machine. This raw edge appliqué was rather difficult as the letters were so thin and small but it turned out to be my favourite lettering appliqué ever.

(Did you know that I choose individual free fonts from the web for every name? I think that each name needs it’s own font. Some names look great in handwriting, others look better in capitals, etc.) Call me weird but that’s how I roll.

For the backing I chose a cuddly brown flannel that was just big enough. I finished the quilt with a striped fabric (Ann Kelle’s Remix) that matches the top perfectly and made use of my favourite triple zig zag stitch.

I am a bit annoyed that I chose different thread colours for the top and the back. There are some places where the bobbin thread is visible on the top and vice versa. Oh well, it is done and I hope that little Felix doesn’t care. I saw this hashtag somewhere and think it is appropriat here: #doneisbetterthanperfect

Happy Quilting!

Christine

Handmade christmas

 

Two sets of machine embroidered dishtowels:

 

 

Sew-together-bags

 

Little selvedge pouches

 

 

5 pillow covers for 5 little boys. Fabrics chosen according to the boys’ interests.

My nephew is a huge fan of New Holland Tractors (o:

 

And I received christmas presents, too (o: Here are two of my favourites:

My brother-in-law gave me his grandparents’ old Pfaff:

 

It took me a while to figure out how to adjust the tension correctly (there was no manual for the machine, but it worked better eventually). She is still at my parents’ because I couldn’t bring her in my car but I am looking forward to have her at our house. I plan to fully oil her (I bought a manual online today), clean her and use her for straight stitch projects (o:

 

My BIL is awesome, isn’t he?!

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Bye bye 2014

It’s been quite a while since I last found the time and energy to write about my sewing projects (it’s half a year actually!). Looking back to the first months of 2014 I realize how everything was too much for me – especially too much work at my day-time-job. Hours and hours of overtime that made me impatient with the boys (which made them uneasy and even more agitated), unnerved by the workload at home and generally too exhausted to enjoy my freetime (which I mostly spent sleeping).

But! Everything is better now. I have a new colleague that took over a large amount of my workload and circumstances made it possible to return to normal schedule at work during October/November.

I made a re-start at running, sewed more often and generally enjoyed my life much more than during the first months of 2014. The boys were easier to handle, more balanced and family life got calmer, too.

There. I thought I’d share these good news with you and I really look forward to enjoying 2015 as much as possible.

But first let’s have a look back at the last months of 2014:

In August, big boy started primary school:

In case you are wondering what he carries in his arms: it’s a “Schultüte”: In Germany the kids get a cardstock cone filled with candy and little gifts to “sweeten up” their first and exciting day at school. Very often the cones are handmade by parents (or parents and kids together). When I asked him, what kind of design he’d like to have (soccer, superheros, etc.) he said that he wanted me to sew him a cone. When I told him that I didn’t know how to sew a cone he simply said: “we’ll look it up online”. Ha. Clever boy he is. He chose a star-y theme and I machine embroidered the date of his first day at school, his name and his class.

In September my sister had her second child – a girl! The first baby girl after 4 baby boys in our family! I was so looking forward to sewing little dresses for girls that I started right away:

  

October, November and December flew by with secret sewing projects.

But the best thing that happened during the last half-year was the visit of Ann for a private sewing retreat in August. She came over from Denmark for an extended weekend and we had lots of fun together. (Some pictures are from our Instagram Accounts: she is kvintaen on IG and I am grapesandhearts)

She taught me how to sew a Sew-together-bag (pattern by SewDemented):

 

And I showed her how to use a Serger to sew t-shirs for her son. We made an entire production:

 

And we visited Zen Chic Owner and Designer Brigitte Heitland. She lives approx. 30 minutes away from me:

 

This was truely my sewing highlight of the entire year. Thanks so much for flying over, Ann! It was so much fun to have you here, you are very welcome to come back at any time!!

So in a nutshell, this was the second and better half of 2014. I made many more things during the last months (christmas gifts, baby quilts, big boy quilts, bags), that I plan to show you during the next days (the kids are visiting grandma so I hope to get some blog post up during the weekend).

Enough for now. I sincerely hope that 2015 will be a good, happy and healthy year for each and every one of you and your beloved ones.

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Bags, bags, bags

I made four more bags. It all started with this fabric:

And it ended in a sports bag for my youngest who was about to have his first handball lesson ever.

In the photo above, I stuffed it with boxes, the bag is too floppy in reality. You can see, that is not stiff enough in the photo below:

Of course I should have known that big brother would ask for one, too. I made the second one much stiffer by using a fusible interface. And I used a laminated IKEA fabric as lining.

See? It keeps it form without stuffing.

Plus I tried a covered zipper. Yay.

And then there was my mother’s birthday. She asked for a little bag with the emblems of her rowing club. Well. Here’s the result:

I enlarged the emblem and appliquéd it on a low volume love fabric (wonder if she saw the hint?!)

I lined it with a red and white striped fabric and I even put in a little zipper pocket for keepsakes (which is lined with a fun fabric featuring all kinds of traffic signs).

I am happy to report that she loves this little bag and that she uses it a lot.

And I made another bag – another quilted one – that will be a gift for a dear friend. So just a little sneak peek today:

Happy Quilting!
Christine