Holiday Sewing

Hi everyone!

It’s been quite awhile since I last sat down to write a blog post. I have been sewing a bit during all the stress produced by my daytime job which took so much more time than usual (for several weeks I have been working full time instead of halftime). It is not over yet but I hope to get a new colleague soon.

But the last two weeks we had two weeks of family vacation of which we spend  10 days in Spain.

Prior to our trip I made some last minute holiday items:

1. Traveling Documents Holder with a clear vinyl back pocket for boarding passes:

    

2. Small Triangular Pouches for earphones and such…

  

3. Cases for sunglasses for the boys and me..

  

  

4. A little bag for the headphones I bought for the boys:

  

5. And last but not least three luggage tags that I made the very morning we were leaving for the airport:

I apologize for the mixed quality and backgrounds of those photos. When I made and photographed the items I did not have a block post in mind… I already posted some photos on instagram (did I ever tell you I gave in and joined instagram?! I am @grapesandhearts over there).

Does that happen to you? That you regret afterwards that you did not put more energy into coherent photo styles?!

 

Well and here are some photos of our trip to Mallorca, Spain.

The boys dragging their luggage bags to the airport… waiting…

  

… and then their first fight… and nightly bus transfer to our hotel (2 hours… uaaah)

  

Lots of fun by the sea / and by the pool…

  

… and in the water of course (o:

Tons of fun for the four of us. We had a great family time and somehow I wish I could stay at home a bit longer. But tomorrow I will have to go back to work and the stress starts all over again.

If your holiday still lies ahead, I wish you a happy and sunny time.
In any case, I wish you a happy new week!

Christine

A Baby Boy Patchwork Quilt

My youngest sister had her first baby in February. A sweet little boy. They named him Oskar and you’ll never guess what I made for him…

Ta da…

A rather soft-toned little patchwork quilt with his appliqued name. (Well, how DID you know it was a quilt?!)

I chose the striped background to make it look like the name was written on lined paper. I raw edge appliqued the letters and outlined them with black Aurifil in a rather careless, wonky way. I like the effect so much that I will surely come back to this method often.

I free-motion quilted the patchwork part with dogwood quilting, one of my favourite quilting designs ever. As there are much more light fabrics, I used a white 50 wt. Aurifil so the thread blends well with most fabrics and just adds texture. The striped part was fmq using straight lines within the white stripes (see photo above).

And the same light striped fabric was used for the binding. If I knew where I bought it or what it name was I’d buy some more, I really grew fond of this versatile fabric! For the backing I used a dark grey fabric with white and green butterflies that I’ve had in my stash for ages.

And then I tried something new. When my husband gave me this sewing machine for christmas 2012, it came with an automatic embroidery module. I never tried it because I never wanted to sacrifice the little spare time I have for reading the manual.

Then I decided that Oskar’s Quilt needed a proper label and eventually I read the manual and installed the hoop. I could not make it work. I read the manual multiple times but the hoop did not move. After spending two hours muttering and swearing I called the Pfaff Dealer in complete desperation.

It turned out that I only forgot to remove a little transport securing plastic device. Stupid me. After 2,5 hours I made it work:

In the end I was so happy with this little label that I am sure I will make many more (Now that the darn plasting thingy is gone…)

Now guess what happend?! Little Oskar likes his quilt! See??

Isn’t he cute as pie? And he is sooooo “well behaved”! He sleeps well, he eats (or rather drinks) well, he seldom cries (and only with a low voice). He is such a handsome litte baby boy!

Thank you, dear brother-in-law for that lovely photo! And thanks for your permission to use it on my wee little blog (o:

Happy Quilting!
Christine

P.S. As you can see from the label, I made this quilt in january. The baby was born at the beginning of february. It “only” took me 2,5 months to write a blogpost. Guess how much sewing has been done during the last 4 months? Nearly nothing. My daytime job is so exhausting at the moment.

I so long for more time (and energy!) to sew. Even on the occasional afternoons off (when the boys are visiting friends or grandma), I can’t gather enough energy to sew. I am tired all the time. I can’t count the evenings when I headed downstairs for my sewing room, turned on the lights, looked at my WIPs and turned the lights off again.

Does this happen to you sometimes? How do you get over it? Is there a tried and proven method?

A group quilt

Today I want to share a group quilt we made for our first “Modern Quilt Guild Bielefeld Baby”.

We knew that our guild member and New-Mom-to-be  was expecting a girl but does not like too much pink and rose. So we picked a grey background and decided on wonky star blocks. Each of us made 2 or three blocks and I volunteered to put the quilt top together and baste, quilt and bind the quilt.

Here’s our baby girl quilt for little Leona:

I used a variegated red-pink Aurifil to free motion quilt stars and loops…

…and outlined the stars using a white Aurifil thread.

All stars are scrappy and some are multi-coloured and others are monochromatic.

I found a fabric with little stars in colourful circles for the backing and used a multi-colour-striped fabric for the binding.

Below you can see the baby’s name quilted in the top left corner for some extra little individuality.

During our last sew-in the little baby came along for the first time. Below you can see a snap shot of her on Brigitte’s arm with her new quilt. She was such a cute addition to our party. Napping in her pram or being carried around by other quilt members.

You are most welcome to cheer us up with your little smiles and “uh-ohs” and we hope to see you again soon, little Leona!

So this was a long kept secret (we started sewing in October, I think) and I am glad I was able to finish the quilt just in time for her first visit.

Do you have a go-to baby-quilt pattern? I have to start another baby quilt soon, so if you know a good pattern, I’d love to read your advice!

Happy (secret) sewing!
Christine

Paper Lanterns – a baby girl quilt

The wife of my former workmate gave birth to their first child last week. A sweet little girl.

May there always be lights (and lanterns) to light your way, little Johanna!

Raw edge appliqué and free motion quilted black wires.

Double loops as background quilting…

I quilted the baby’s name in the lower right corner.

I used different designs within the lanterns.

Backing and binding. And my new name tag including washing instructions.

I am rather pleased with the result. A not too girly baby quilt. The process gave me some pains though. I had huge problems with tension and breaking threads. It was the first time I encountered these problems with my sewing machine. After changing needles twice, cleaning my machine, rethreading multiple times the problem was still the same. I was so disappointed and frustrated.

Ironically, my machine worked perfectly when I quilted on a test-sandwich. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had put the wrong side of the batting up. Trudi explained last year that, when using needle punched batting, the side with the little knots aught to face downwards. Mine faced upwards. I need to remember this when basting my next quilt!

What do you do when you encounter thread breaks?!

Happy Quilting!
Christine

Serger fun

We had the first snow this winter! However I took the products of my “labour” outside to take some photos. (Ha! that sounds like sewing tees is hard and a chore, doesn’t it?! And like I spend my spare time working…)

Infact, sewing tees has been a mere enjoyment as I treated myself to a new serger. My first serger. And “treated myself” is rather wrong, because I spend my christmas and birthday money that I received from my MIL and my parents.

I sincerely expected some sighing and shrugging shoulders when I called my mom to tell her how I spend my christmas money but she was very happy that I had found something that I would love to use…

So I made some tees first. I bought Rae’s flashback skinny tee pattern and couldn’t stop at one…

The pattern is easy to follow although my boys seem to be bigger than average. I first made a size 6 for my 6 years old son. It was too small in the armpits so I  shortened the arms to make it a perfect fit for my 4 years old.

Here are some details of the neck and the hem. I used a twin-needle for a more professional-looking finish.

In former times my boys have taken to their heels when I sewed clothes for them. It really helps to let them choose the fabrics and some fun iron-on patches.

This is my youngest with the first tee before I shortened the arms. It gets more and more difficult to get them pose for photos so I have to sneak in and catch them unexpectedly…

Here’s the bunch of tees together. So much fun.

Have you tried sewing apparel for your kids or nieces, nephews, grandchildren?
Do they love wearing handmade clothes?

Happy sewing and have a great new week!
Christine

In the hedgerow – a quilt finish

I recently finished the quilt that I made for my mother in law. It is (almost) a wholecloth quilt and quilting this one took forever.

My MIL loves nature, especially birds. But I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make a rather reduced quilt, not a “bold statement”. She has browns and blue-ish greens in her appartment and I didn’t want to add more colour.

Believe it or not: I tried some paper piecing! After Lynne’s class in London 2012, I only made on other block (during a Modern Quilt Guild Bielefeld Sew-in). And then I went crazy and chose this block:

A blue tit (pattern bought here). Let me just say, Lynne’s class helped a lot and despite of all those little bits and pieces, it came together rather smoothly. The seamripper came out once or twice but within three or four evenings I was able to complete the paper pieced block.

I later embroidered the eye in black DMC floss.

I “extended” that branch to both sides and added only white kona as background.

I then free-motion quilted leaves all over the background. I started with these easy leaves - until I ran out of this variegated (Aurifil) thread.

After some muttering and swearing, I chose another green-ish variegated thread and quilted some other leaves – a bit more difficult, I admit.

I am sorry, but I found it very hard to take photos of that “light-green and white variegated thread” on white fabric. Here’s another shot of both kinds of leaves together:

For good measure and to add some interest, I added a dragonfly (in a gree-blue variegated Aurifil)… (inspired by this book)

…and a caterpillar in the same colours.

I pondered on the bird’s quilting for a long time and in the end, I simply stitched in the ditch around all the larger pieces. That meant a lot of thread changes, though…

I am however happy with the result. The stitches are almost invisible and the bird is crisp and radiant compared to the (almost) white background.

I used some white-brown-blue large scale print for the back and machine-bound my quilt in more kona white, stitching the binding down with a triple zig zag stitch.

Here’s one last shot where you might be able to see the scale of the leaves. I did not want to quilt it too densely and it came out of the dryer very soft and fluffy.

I hope that this quilt brings some joy and comfort to my MIL who will have to undergo a major surgery in a few weeks. I am happy to report that she liked her quilt and I sincerely hope that she will use it often: she remarked that it was “too precious to use” (o:

Does that happen to you, too? And how do you persuade the presentee to actually use his/her new quilt?

Christine