Bits and pieces

Somehow my sewing creativity is still in vacation mode. I may have left it here:

I don’t feel like starting a new quilt. I made some totes instead.
Six of those gift bags and two of those robot totes for kindergarten.

The bags are fully lined and I used some ric rac to add an extra little something.

I did some secret sewing for Brigitte (following her pattern, no creativity needed).

Then the fabrics for Annabella’s month (August) of Sew-Euro-Bee-an arrived (after they were returned once because the postman was unable to find us. Stupid fellow…). She chose a Churn Dash Block and sent out two colourful prints and some low volume bits for the background. My first Churn Dash Blocks ever and certainly not the last!

Thanks for sending out the fabrics again, Annabella! I loved making your blocks!!!

And about a week ago, Brigitte let us have a go at her longarm machine. You can read more about that MQGB adventure here.

Look at their faces… can you guess what my first stitches looked like ?! FMQ on a longarm is soooooooo difficult IMHO. Moving the machine instead of the fabric feels weird and the handles are soooooo far away from the needle.

So, not much creativity over here. I hope that I get back into the mood soon. I have not been reading blogs much and perhaps I get tempted by some eye candy when I resume my daily blog-reading routine?!

Hoping I am not the only one who feels uninspired somt times… Are you?

Have a great new week!
Christine

Newborn Kimono Top

A picture post.

My favourite part: the scrappy bias binding - made entirely from bias tape leftovers.

It’s size 0-6 months of this free pattern. Thank you for sharing, Amy!

Happy Sewing!
Christine

A fourth birthday

Last week our youngest turned four. He asked for a “Pirates” birthday party and we asked his little guests to dress up for the afternoon. And they all did! So my husband I had 7 little Pirates to entertain that afternoon.

We had a great time and the weather was oh sooooooooooooooooo nice! The kids had their cakes and dinner outside (not many sticky fingers and therefor not much dirt inside the house, yay!!!)

We had a Photo-Treasure-Hunt that took us through the forest for 40 Minutes (each clue was a photo of the place where I had hidden the next clue/photo).

The hints took us back to our sandbox where I had burried some “golden” coins, glittery “pearls”, a little glow-in-the-dark-skeleton and some glass-jewels for everyone.

To prevent the keener kids to take away ALL the treasures, they were asked to just collect the treasures that were pictured on their individual treasure-card (aka the photo I had previously made of a set of treasures).

And here is my little pirate and his big skeleton brother (-:

For dinner we had “Seasnakes with Pirate’s blood” (aka Spaghetti with tomato sauce) and some syringes filled with “Pirate’s Blood” and “Krakens’ Guck” (aka Jell-O)

We had so much fun (and I was sooooo exhausted that evening…) and I think this was a birthday party to remember (for all of us).

Next up is big bro’s birthday in October… so many preparations… so much to do…

I hope to be back with some sewing news soon!
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Christine

New to me in August

This month I tried something new. I found a super soft cotton print and decided to make a scarf. And as it was very thin I thought I could as well try to make a rolled hem…

After some unpicking (and swearing…), I finally managed to make do.

I am not even sure that I handled the special foot correctly but the scarf was hemmed eventually. More photos when that thing is gifted (o:

Have YOU tried something new? Come, share!

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Sewing Room Update

During the last weeks we made more improvements downstairs (in my sewing room).

I made a Design Wall out of one left-over woodden panel and some flannel. Yay!
Here you can see it covered with blocks from our “Sew-Euro-bee-an” online bee.

I still owe you a picture of my FMQ Setup. It is sooooooo much easier to quilt on a built-in sewing machine than on the small extension-table that I used before. Thank you again, Dad, for building this table!!!

Oh, and did I mention that my husband gave me a giant cutting mat for my cutting table as a birthday present? It is custom made so it covers the top completely.

The centimetre grid ends at 145 cm!!!

But the most important thing and the best decision ever-ever-ever is this addition:

We moved in an old table and two IKEA chairs and most of our boys’ creative stuff. This decision was made after they “accidentially” coloured our sofa with their felt-tip markers. I made room on the shelves for their crayons, felt-tip pens, pencils, stencils, stamps, small scissors, colouring books, blank and coloured sheets of paper, decorative-hole-punchers and of course for their perler beads.

Somehow my boys love perler beads. Our youngest (who BTW turns 4 next week) is so proud when he covered a “mould” entirely with beads. And above you can see our eldest (almost 6 yrs) who loves to invent new forms and shapes.

Together we regularly (almost daily!) spend an hour or two crafting downstairs. I really enjoy watching their progress and sharing my passion for crafts with them.

The downside is that the craft room is so much messier now (at least I can now pretend that it’s the boys who make it messy… ehem)…

When I our eldest turns 6 in October I plan to give him his first sewing book. I showed him how to hand sew a little felt bunny this easter and he was quite keen to try it again. With the long winter months ahead I thought it might be a good idea to revisit hand stitching. I thought I’d give him “Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make”. Any objections or better ideas? I’d love to hear what you think about sewing books for kids.

Happy crafting everyone (o:
Christine

P.S. If you came over from Ellison Lane Quilts and her “Studio Spotlight”, here are two more photos of my sewing room to give you a better idea.
And you can find even more photos here…

Thanks for visiting!

A hint of summer

Elisabeth asked for aqua, blue, turquoise and white blocks for her month (June) of Sew-Euro-bee-an. I made two summer-y applique blocks using fabrics from my stash.

I will not even try to conceal how much I love these flip-flops. I will surely remake this block (slightly bigger) and turn it into a bathmat.

As Elisabeth had asked for blocks in any sizes, I didn’t cut them back so she can fit them in whereever she might need them.

We’re off for a week at the sea with kids and our friends (and more kids) so you won’t see me around for the next days.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Christine

Optimism – A finished Quilt

If you have been following my blog for the last few weeks, you know that I had a hard time at my real-life-job recently. Fate had struck my dear colleague with a nasty blow. He was absent several weeks and will have to undergo medical treatment for some weeks.

To cheer him and his family up, I made him a quilt. A Plus Quilt has been on my to-sew-list for quite some time now and I think this was the right occasion to make one. I associate many positive meanings to plusses – and that’s what it was all about: to send positive vibes and thoughts to my colleague and his wife.

Amazingly, I pulled all these grey, green, white and black fabrics from my stash (mostly comma and curious nature with some architexture and backyard baby mixed in). As I was in a hurry to get the quilt finished, I used rectangles and squares to speed up the piecing.

I meant to use one solid piece of fabric for the backing but discovered too late, that the intended piece was too small. I ended up piecing the backing and I am glad I did. IMHO I think it looks splendid.

Here’s to my new sewing machine! I managed to quilt straight lines without any problems. Thanks to the adjustable foot pressure of my new machine. I quilted two vertical lines and one horizontal line…

… and bound the quilt with my favourite COMMA. I attached it with my sewing machine, using my usual zigzag stitch.

I really love this rather manly quilt and am happy to report that my colleague wrote me a super-nice-thank-you-note stating that he loves the quilt and that his wife wants to learn how to sew now (o:

Thanks for visiting!
Christine