Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will not only cyber-clean my apartment for some nice belated birthday-party-raving university-style with some friends on Wednesday. No, I will sit down and get some quality time with my beloved sewing machine as well. Because....

I am done sewing on the Dresden Plates. I like the look so far. I think the colors go together nicely and although I worried about the huge amount of greys in the Millie's Closet Jelly Roll I think that now in this arrangement they help make the Dresdens pop. And I love all those cute little dresses and bags you can spot on the little square throughout the chain. And I love me my photobombing Mathilda. I didn't choose the other photo I took where Elmo was walking through as well.

In the end hand-sewing those Dresens on went rather quickly. The first two took me quite a while, I managed to sew 3 on yesterday, today I did the last one. By the time I finished the 3rd it only took me about 45 minutes to sew one on, which might still be kind of long for experienced hand-dresden-on-sewers (official term here) it was incredibly fast for me.

I can't wait to sew the rows together, especially since it won't take any time at all, considering that the blocks are quite huge. Yay. 

What I'm working on right now.

I've been quite busy the last couple of days. I've been working like crazy on my Irish Chain Quilt. I think I've figured out a way I want to incorporate the Dresden Plates into the Quilt, leaving me with a design like this:

I've completed all the blocks so far, I just need to cut some more white squares for the border that goes around the marked blocks. Oh, and I need to finish sewing the Dresdens onto the big white squares. Attaching them by hand takes so long! But I'm getting there.

I'm also working on my mother's quilt right now. Yesterday I added the black border.

Today I finished the top by adding the crown-border.

It measures around 77" x 58", which is converted a few centimeters shorter than what my mother asked for, but the backing is just 60" wide, so I'm already working with very limited buffer-space.

So right now I am sitting on the floor, basting it onto the polar fleece backing (with batting in between of course) so hopefully, tonight, I will have finished quilting it. My mom didn't exactly order some specific quilting. She just said: "Do what you and your machine can do!" I think I will stitch in the ditch around the fussy cut squares with the images on it and then quilt a diagonal grid over the chains. And straight lines on the borders that will cross over in the corners. Something like that.  So that when I sit down after dinner with Mr. A for some serious TV watching I can finish sewing on those Dresdens, so that hopefully, by tomorrow, I can sew my own Irish Chain Top together. YAY.

 

Watercolor.

Ever since I can remember I painted. I used to go to Art Class every thursday from age 5 to age 14. And I hated it. The teacher was very gifted, but not so much talented dealing with kids. The one sentence I still remember her always saying was "In Art, there are no mistakes!" and whenever she came around looking, she would stop behind me and literally say in the loudest voice she could possibly make without yelling: "Wrong! Everything wrong! Horrible, better you start all over again!" I hated that class. I'd much rather spent my days running around with my friend, climbing up trees and dressing up dolls than sitting in that class and getting told that I made everything wrong. I never stopped painting and drawing and sketching though. I doodled my way through classes in school and I even have some exam papers flying around were teachers commented, that I did great, but it would be nicer if I would invest the last minuted in reading what I've written and correcting a few mistakes than doodling in the corners. Oh well, I guess they never had so pretty exams to check.

I used to be afraid of color. I love color in clothes and rooms and in general, but I was terribly scared of painting in color. I would always use my pencils instead of dipping my brushes in some red or yellow or blue. I guess part of that is because I can still hear my Art Teacher say that I did wrong. But with pencils you can always erase your mistakes. It wasn't until 3 years ago that I gathered the courage to try out real paint again. First I just used black and white and experimented with a few portraits in Acryl. Those experiments only lasted a few months, then I gave up again. It just didn't feel right. 

Last Summer I spotted Sketchbooks in my nearby store. I just put one in my cart without second guessing it. A few days later I went to visit my parents and when I was shopping with my Mom I went ahead right into my favorite craft supply store in my hometown and bought a watercolor travelling kit. I never regretted it once. The first sketches were just some flowers in my mothers garden. It took me a few pages but then I began painting things and scenes that came into my mind, mostly things I related to lyrics from my favorite songs. Usually I would write the lyrics with a sharpie right over the finished page, turning into kind of an art journal.

I grew to love painting with color. Filling one page doesn't take long and it is something, that calms me down after I get upset about something. It empties my head when I listen to a song and there is this certain picture in my mind that wouldn't go away. Art is something beautiful. I always knew it, but for a long time, I was afraid to embrace it the way I wanted to, the way I felt the need to. I love dipping my paint brush into water and after that into color, letting it drip onto paper, watching it bleed together with other ones until there is so much movement that it literally twirls. I love challenging myself to be accurate when drawing a face on that little page. I cherish the gift of Art. And I am glad I have finally overcome my fear of doing so.

News, news, NEWS

Last Thursday was my Birthday. Yepp, I am the lucky one who would receive Birthday presents AND Valentines chocolate, if Valentine's Day would be much of a deal here in good ol' Germany. It becomes more and more popular, but Mr. A and I personally don't get why we should need a special day to show love.

So my Birthday. 21. I feel terribly old. I am still the youngest in every one of my university courses. But 21 doesn't sound cool. I get that being 21 is kind of fancy in America because of all the stuff that becomes legal. In Germany you are officially allowed to drink when you're 18, so being 21 is no big deal for me regarding alcohol or smoking or anything like that. 20, in my opinion, sounds pretty cool. I loved the 20th year of my life. I know 21 will probably be a good year as well (knocking on wood) but I miss being 20. 
I got some nice new "hey you are 21!"-hat though (well, actually five, thanks mom!).

I never had the the opportunity to make wishes for my Birthday presents. My mother was never a fan letting me chose. She gave me things she wanted to give to me. I always ended up with far too many socks. This year I just sent my Mom an E-Mail with three links and descriptions. The links led to a German Quilt-Shop. I kindly asked for one of the three Items, which were either one Salt Air Layer Cake by Moda, or The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Book or the Dear Jane Book. The next day my Mom called telling me, that I would get all three Items from my Dad, my Grandma and her for my Birthday, Easter and Children's Day and every other Holiday were I would usually receive a gift until Christmas. FINE BY ME.

So those three things were sitting on one of my dining room chairs for nearly 3 weeks now and I didn't touch them, since it wasn't my birthday. God, that was hard. But I did order some fabrics so I could start immediately after my Birthday. 

I plan on making my Farmer's Wife Quilt completely in Red and White. I saw one lovely Quilt Top (well, actually it's just the assembly) on Flickr and fell in love. I had wanted to make it in Red and White but wasn't sure but it wasn't until I spotted this one that I was certain that I don't want my FW Quilt to be in other colors. I have bought 4 prints for now and I will buy some more as I complete the Blocks. So I will probably make my first 5 or 6 Blocks out of those 4 Prints and my white Background fabric and then I will order some other prints to mix it up. 

I want my Dear Jane Quilt to be Rainbow-Colored. I don't know why, I just love me some good colorful Block-Quilts. I have ordered one nice pink print so far. I probably just buy 2 to 3 prints per color, I don't want it to be too busy. I want the colors to speak, not the prints.

I made some big progress with my mother's quilt in Black and White. The top is finished, next up are borders. She wants three borders, black, the crown print, and black again. We'll see how that works out.

I started my Irish Chain Quilt last week. I posted at the end of my last Post a Photo showing the strips of one Millie's Closet Jelly Roll and some Dresden Plates I made out of two Charm packs ( Marmalade and Vintage Modern). I want to combine the Dresden Plates and the Irish Chain, but I am still not really sure how. I will figure it out once I have my nine patches for the chain done. For now I have a nice stack already finished, I still need to make around 12 or so.

And, the most exiting news: I finished my Swoon Quilt. WOHOO. It was like the best Birthday Present I could have made myself. I actually squared it up the minute the clock turned midnight and my hand still hurt from cutting when Mr. A made me open my first birthday presents ( I really need to invest in some new blades, otherwise I will probably lose some fingers soon). After that I attached the binding and today after Dinner I buried the last threads. It still needs to visit the washing machine though, but for now it keeps me wonderfully snuggled up and warm while I have my nose stuck into "The Fault In Our Stars" which was the actual present I made myself. Mr. A, who was more excited to have it finally finished than me, didn't have a chance so far to enjoy the giant cuddliness of the quilt since I am constantly bundled up in it. Little does he now that I already make plans in my head for making him a big Yoshi-Quilt for Christmas this year. Gotta feed my Gamer-Boy some nice Gamer-Quilt.

On Monday I will have finished my last exam for this semester, so this weekend there will be no sewing for me ( at least no quilty sewing. I will probably sew up some nice butterfly potholders for a friend whose Birthday is on Sunday). After that I will finally add the borders to my mothers quilt, finish up all those nine patches for the Irish Chain and maybe - MAYBE - cut into the Salt Air Layer Cake to start the Chevron Quilt I plan to make out of it. And of course, I want to start the first blocks both for the Farmer's Wife and the Dearest Jane. So much to sew, sew little time! But till then, I will spent my time learning Japanese Characters in a way it looks like Dexter paid me a visit:

Study Buddy.

Monday I have my oral exam in Japanese. Being the huge procrastinator I am I did nothing till today. Which is still pretty good considering the countless minutes I spent speedlearning half an hour before exams back in school. Level Up.

I'm sharing my home with a guy who is deeply in love with me. And I am not talking about my boyfriend. I am talking about this one here:

 

Wherever I am, he definitely is as well. I'm sitting on the sofa, my laptop, well, on my lap, and he will lie next to me happily snoozing away. If I stand up and walk into the kitchen to cook something, 30 seconds later I will stumble upon him juggling pots and pans. Heck, I can't even go to the bathroom without him standing on the other side of the door screaming bloody murder because I forgot to let him in. So peeing with open door it is. Sorry, just keeping it real. And I have to say, up until now he is the one who appreciates my sewing the most. Because a bundled up quilt next to me means some extra soft nap areas.

When I tidied up my dining room table today, which also functions as my sewing table (actually I sew way more at it than it is used for eating) to sit down and do some serious studying, there where always some eyes peeping through the glass, observing every move I made.

I love my little study buddy.

I love him so much I gave up on learning halfway through, called it a day and began a new nap-quilt for me him.

on my way.

How can you not love going to uni, when it looks like this?

Swoon Tales

I, the completely over-estimator that I am, thought it would be easy to make the Swoon Quilt. After I saw all those darling Swoon Blocks and finished Quilts all over the web, I thought to myself: Heck, you can do that too, Mie!

So I ordered 20 beautiful vintage sheets fat quarters and the pattern and began cutting. That was a whole lot of cutting! But I loved it. The pattern is explained wonderfully and it was so fun piecing those nine giant blocks. I could have done it forever. I love love love the pattern.

I spent hours deciding on the layout of my blocks. No, not two checkered ones next to each other. Doesn't look right with so much violet in this corner. 

This floral one is too close to the other one. There are only nine blocks, but it took me forever to make the layout feel 'right'. Here are all of my blocks laid out in my tiny living room around Christmas, completely with dirty socks and an empty bottle of orange-juice under the Christmas-tree. Just keeping it real. I didn't went for this layout though (I managed to overwrite the picture of the actual layout during editing. Duh.)

The sashing was no deal at all and before I realized it was time to think about the part of making a quilt I didn't want to think about: Quilting. I had asked my Mother whether she had some old bed sheet that she didn't need anymore and she willingly gave me two big flannel fitted sheets in a lovely violet floral. 

I knew my quilt would be heavy. And big. Let's be honest. For someone who has just made 4 quilts so far this thing was HUGE. My history included a crib sized baby quilt, one quilt for my grandma which was somewhere between lap-sized and crib-sized, and two lap-sized, one I made for my sister, one I made for me.

I just had handquilted some simple designs or stitched in the ditch so far. Stitching in the ditch on every block wasn't something I wanted to do. And handquilting that gigantic thing wasn't even an option. I was drawn to Free Motion Quilting. I saw hundreds of tutorials on youtube and read a lot of tutorials I found on blogs. I checked the site of my sewing machines manufacturer and was literally over the moon to find they had finally listed free motion feet for my sewing machine.

But when it arrived in the mail I didn't even open it immediately. It became real. I somehow feared free motion quilting. Although I practiced a lot on small sandwiches I made out of leftover fabrics and even quilted some pillow covers I still wasn't sure. I feared I would ruin the quilt I so much enjoyed making. But someday Mr. A asked when his quilt would be done (he claims this as his, because he doesn't really fit under the other one I made for our sofa, so he finally wants one he can cuddle under without having his feet stick out).

So I gathered up all the courage I could find and started quilting. I went with a simple stipple, which right now I know would have been to small and tight. I was amazed by the texture it created though.

The first 3/4 of the first block went really well. But then it happened: The thread kept breaking.

When the thread wasn't breaking, the needle broke. I was frustrated. Sure, I could have just continued but I wasn't so fond of burying thousand of threads after quilting. I made an account in an German Quilt-Forum and asked for help. I got very quickly so much answers and nice recommendations, and although I was very grateful, none were working. So my Swoon Quilt sat in the corner of my living room, partly basted and bundled up for nearly 2 months. 4 days ago I had enough. I cleaned my floors, laid that Quilt out and re-basted it. And without second-guessing it I put it under my machine and started quilting a simple diagonal grid, using the seam as a guide-line. It took me around 2 hours at first, because I quilted on every block individually (because of the sashing I couldn't do a continuous grid) and I had to pivot that beast (yes, by that moment I didn't called it Swooney-Babe in my head anymore) A LOT. 

By the time I started the third block I was screaming "PIVOT!" in true Ross Geller fashion every time I hit a corner (sorry neighbors) . And since I don't have fancy security pins for basting, just regular one, I scratched my arms a lot. But eventually around 8 pm yesterday I finished the 8th block. 

 

Now I have a new friend: Meet Seammy, the Ripper.

For the next what-feels-like 7 weeks I will sit evening after evening on my sofa and unpick the stitches of my FMQ on the last block, before I can finally finish it. NOT FUN. 

Recently

Last weekend Mr. A's parents came visiting us, which was not only a great opportunity to eat a whole lot of yummy stuff, but also a nice chance to finally tidy up every corner of our apartment. Mr. A had work off a little earlier than usual but I started cleaning the living room without him anyway, although he said I should wait for him. I started with the first thing you see when you come from the hallway, which is my yarn-crate.

This thing was a hot mess! No wonder I stopped knitting or crocheting for a few months. Most of the yarns were all messed up, so I spent 2 good hours making this:

into this:

Ah, so much better! But there is one thing that worries me. I have far too many baby hats!!

Like seriously, all the people I know who are expecting a baby right now should better become girls, because I had another pile of boy hats a few months ago for all the people who just recently became parents and they all got little boys. Stock up on girls, people. I have at least 9 little hats to give away and two pairs of little booties.

And I don't think I have mentioned it yet here on the interweb, but I have a serious hat-problem (hint in the baby hats above). I'm addicted to them. I have around 80(!) now, but I won't stop till I have one for every single day of the year. My Mother and Grandmother are knitting like crazy and constantly buying new magazines from which I have to select new patterns whenever I visit them. Ever since I can remember those two have always knitted stuff. I was the only kid in school who would wear homemade knitted sweaters (and at that time it wasn't cool. Wish the hipster-times came earlier, haha) and when I grew out of a pair of jeans my mom would simply crochet some lace to the bottom to make it look longer again. Yeah. I was very stylish back then :D Around 7 or 8 years ago my grandma started knitting for a good cause. Every summer 50 kids from Chernobyl come visiting the village I grew up in, so my Grandma and the members of her knitting group knit one pair of socks, one hat, one scarf, one pair of mittens and one headband for each kid. Every year since then. They also collected stuff from local doctors like coloring books, pencils, toothbrushes, notebooks, little toys etc. 

When my grandma started doing this she put inserts in some local newspapers asking for free yarn for a good cause. Let me say, she received enough yarn to knit 10 pairs of socks everyday for the rest of her life. Every inch of my parents attic is stuffed with yarn, which is good for me, since there will always be enough for a hat or two for me. So my mom and grandma knit a lot. Naturally I started knitting too and even my sister, who has no talent what so ever when it comes to crafting something with her hand started knitting some scarfs for the kids using a loom-knitting-tool. When my grandma heard we both started knitting she was so proud she cried. And she gets excited every time I sent an E-Mail with my newest projects and finishes. 

Since my yarn-crate was so messy I haven't knit in a while. But now that all the yarn is rolled up again I pulled out my favorite yarn and casted on some stitches. I found this cute pattern on ravelry called Slouchy. It's free and so far it's great and easy to follow. I love knitting cables and the brim of the hat is full of that. My yarn is a bit thinner that it's recommended. I use Baby Merino yarn which I had left over from the far too many baby hats. It might turn out a bit smaller, but I already figured that and casted on a few more stitches.

Looks nice so far!