Finishes 2013

... and wishing you all a Happy Christmas with your loved ones! After it is time to finish the list for the Q4 Finish-A-Long 2013! 

SMS Winner

We have a winner. Mr Random came out of bed very early...

and the winner is ...

Congratulation. I get in touch with you. Thank you all for stopping bye and maybe I will see some of you again! It was fun taking part.

Modern Irish Table Runner Swap at the MIQG

It was not long ago that the MIQG called for a Christmas Table Runner Swap. You all know that I am addicted in swaps so I had to join! It was on the 10th of November when I got my partner from Sarah. I had to read it a million times until the information really got into my head. I got a brilliant partner but this time it was someone special! It took a while to think but some day I got an idea. I wanted to work on a paper pieced star as center piece. So sitting down and drawing, scanning, printing, sewing and hoping it works. The color scheme she was asking for was bright colors, pink, aqua, light green, no dark Christmas fabrics. I got a deep dive in my stash looking for pinks and aqua and trying to match them. Love the polka dot fabric.

The center star should be lined on two sides with little stars, four on each side. To calculate them was not that easy but at the end each of them measures 3''. To make them going a little curvy I added 1'' stripe either on the right or the left side.

Some of the little stars have a fussy cut in the middle. I used some of  Aneela Hoey "Cherry Christmas". I do love those little birdies and the clothing lines with the stockings and socks. Adorable!

The background is a simple snowflake fabric I got somewhere and the binding is again the pink polka dots. This fabric frames the table runner perfectly. I tried to do less and keep it more white than I usually would. I was to scared to do a FMQ so I only did some little stitches around the stars in pink and aqua.

As I had an accident with the iron this table runner already had a good wash and got the wrinkly structure. I hope she does not mind! Last but not least there was a decoration item. I already have shown the back! So, I am not cheeky enough to sent a glued snowman ...

It was fun again taking part in a swap. I made a bit of a secret out of it as you might already know it: my partner was the swap mama Sarah! She already received the table runner today and I hope she will use it. Thank you for organizing the swap.
Tomorrow I will be back with a winner for the cat-table-runner-mini-quilt!

Grummel ...

Oh what a day! When you look out the window today it looks like in the middle of the night but it is already 10am. I feel terrible. I need to get the Christmas table Runner finished for the swap but my stupid iron did not work as I wanted it to be so fingers crossed all works out fine. But I finished the decoration item. It is terrible hard to fix the ribbon if you  have a plaster on your thumb because you are silly and sew your finger ...

I have only shown lots of peaks in this swap so if you think this is your decoration item: I am sorry, this is only the back! Someone in the house was sad to let the table runner go and I just had the same fabric so I had to put his little guy somewhere. In hope I can show the finished table runner the next time. 

An other item that had to be finished was the cat-table-runner-mini-quilt-wall-hanging! Call it as you  like. Tata! It is done! That was the easy part today :)

This is a collection of the first five cats in the QAL at Oh, Fransson. May I introduce you to Ferdinand, Bernadette, Sunny, Mia and Ralphio. I love this rainbow cats. I only stitched around the cats in the matching color.

Of course there had to be cats on the back as well. So many cats are looking for a lucky winner over here. Take your chance and just in case you do not want them to lay on the table I put some hangers on the back. If they work? I have no clue but I am happy to know.

So I am back to my table runner and fingers crossed it works!

It is Sew Mama Sew Give Away day ...

.. and I am not ready! How could this have happened? I could tell you now a lovely story about an amazing concert, a brilliant chess competition, lovely lights in the streets while doing some Christmas shopping, ... but I am sure you are just here because it is Sew Mama Sew day. So grab a cup of coffee, have a look around and after I tell you what I have prepared for you.

This is the second time I am taking part in the give away and even if I got a reminder some days ago I am not totally ready. No worries, this little give away will be finished before it goes on the way to a lucky winner. When I saw the QAL at Oh, Frannson I first wanted to make them for a friend but was not so sure about it (I might make an other one for you after Christmas?!?). So I made the first five cats and out came a little table runner for the SMS give away. As it is not totally finished now I only can show you a picture of the progress.

To be in the chance to win just leave me a comment and tell me your favorite place to celebrate the new year. I would love to go to New York. This must be amazing.
Be sure I can contact you or if not sure leave your email in the comment that I can do so. The give away will close Friday night Irish Time and I will ask Mr Random on Saturday, 14/12/2013. If you receive an email that you are the lucky winner respond otherwise I will ask Mr Random again on Monday.

I will sent worldwide. Have fun hopping around at Sew Mama Sew and leaving lots of comments. Good luck!

Preparing Christmas

There is lots going on in the house but not enough time to blog about it all. So here is just a little overview what we are doing at the moment. First of all we are baking. Still? No, we have a break now for about a week but I am sure than we have to start again otherwise there will be none in the house for Santa.

If the kitchen is cleaned after all that baking I am working on the Christmas Table Runner Swap. This year I am totally with pink and aqua. Here is a little sneak peak

 

The last sewing of these little stars freaked me out so when the kids were gone on the afternoon as well I immediately got out my rainbow charms and some solids I have left to make my own rainbow. So starting on red going to yellow and green some blue ending with purple ... I had to start this littleproject. I will show more on Monday ;)

  

This week also the Christmas box filled with lots of chocolate arrived in my house. We had a little swap at the Lazy bums and - yes Nicky - kick your own butt! - these are just delicous. I love the little basket. Thank you so much my dear partner.

 

Now we enjoy the evening with some of the cookies, a cup of mulled wine and lots of gorgeous sweets sent from friends.

Birthday gift

At the moment I am usually baking like mad but yesterday I finally got back sewing again. Just the sewing machine did  not work as I needed it to so it went to a check today and the good old baby had her turn to make birthday present. It all started with a star seen over at Sarahs blog and some fabrics I got.

I wanted to make her something special and I know she loves to celebrate. As it is Christmas coming up a table topper might be a great gift and as this star is also called "Star of Bethlehem" this it had to be.

With the old machine I did not want to ruin this beauty so I decided to go back to handstitching. I took out some pink and aqua perle cotton yesterday evening. I stitched in the pink diamonds of the star and around the aqua border.

 The sewing machine was still not working today so I used the time while I was waiting for my new tires to hand sew the binding to the back. It looks so nice and neat now and I am really happy how it turned out.

 So this little table topper was given her at a surprise birthday party some ladies had arranged. I brought a cake the girls made yesterday and for the hosting lady a little basket full of toffees.

And if you want to read about the "trip along quilt" have a look at the Modern Quilt Guild Ireland blog.

Linking up with crazy mom quilts and Finish it up Friday

working, working, working ...

Do you know that time before Christmas when everyone is counting the days? I have no clue how many days are left until Christmas and to be honest, I did not even start preparing. There was an UFO that had to be finished so I am just going to show you some little peaks now ...

Swapping with the lazy bums ..

... then I met Santa to give him the trip along ...

.. then I started the table runner for an other swap ...

... and I started backing!

So we are busy helping Santa!

Modern Irish Bee 2013

My baby is done! Finally after stitching the binding for the last three evenings (yeah I am slow) this quilt is finished. My Modern Irish Bee quilt is done after a long time and lots of trouble. I asked for lines made out of equilateral triangles. Two lines together make a row.

Today I took it out for a photo shoot - just a little different than I usually do. So let me show you lovely places around Galway. Lets start at the beach...

I went down to Blackrock to the diving platform, one of the most beautiful places in Galway. I love this yellow tower and one day I will do the jump (they say you are not allowed to leave Galway before you did the jump).

I am glad the wind did not blew the quilt into the sea so I would have had to do the jump.

After I had a place in mind but I could not get a parking space any close there. Friday might not be the best day to head to town for a photo shooting but you have to use the sunny slots here. So I went to the other side ...

You still can see the Cathedral just not from the spot I wanted it to be. Down at the Corrib you can find this bridge. I am not sure if it is unfinished or it broke one day.

After a short stop at the coffee shop I head of to the last place in Menlo. Actually there is this little ruin next to the bridge but as it started raining I postpone climbing up there with an other quilt on maybe a sunny day?

I am so happy with my new quilt. The last three days when I was hand stitching the binding I could not stop smiling. It is getting terrible cold these days but it was so cosy sitting under my quilt.

It looked like the sun is coming out again so on my way back home I took the way along the beach following the sun ... sun? She really was disappearing every time I stopped ...

So no picnic today but frozen back home. Anyway it is much to wet outside and heard on the radio - I am listening sometimes - that it is going to be stormy and rainy in the West.

This baby went bigger from day to day and so at the end the backing had to be pieced.  The binding was made out of the last leftovers I had in dark grey, light grey and blue hand stitched on the back. I love how neat it looks.

Fabric: Glimma from Lotta Jansdotter in rose, grey and blue
Background: Britten number, Emma Jones pieced with Glimma
Size: 71'' x 78''
Wadding: cotton

A huge thank you to the ladies from the Modern Irish Bee and a special Thanks to Linh who helped me selecting the fabrics.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

The Blogger Quilt Festival

Yesterday I got the relieving message the mini quilt has arrived. I am so happy she loves it so let me share this little story with you.

I have never ever tried curves before but I adored them. Evey now and than curves appear in blog land I was just impressed. So when Debbie wrote about her Mango block I thought it is time to give it a try.

I took out some Christmas fabrics I got last year (or was it two years ago?) and started cutting. I was amazed how easy the cutting went and started very confident putting the curves together.

The first plan of quilting did not work out so I went back to straight line quilting. Half circles in the circle going back through the middle. Not even there it was bulky and the needle went over quite smooth.

I tried to make wall hangers on the back to give her a chance to decide what to do. I am waiting to hear if they worked out but someone has to prepare the wall before.

I am happy how it all came together. It was finished in time so she can use it this year for Christmas. I love how the winter-Christmas theme comes together. So why not enter this mini quilt. If you visit for the first time stay a while and have a look around.

Starting curves ...

Schon lange habe ich eine Idee für einen Quilt, aber er besteht aus vielen, vielen runden Nähten. Mein erster Versuch letzte Woche einen Versuchsblock zu nähen ist hochgradig gescheitert. Erstens hat die Vorlage nicht gepasst (totaler Rechenfehler) und dann war das Teil einfach viel zu klein. Als ich dann diese Woche den Mango-Block bei Debbie entdeckt habe und auch noch ein tutorial dazu, war es um mich geschehen! Also alle Pläne für Freitag über den Haufen geworfen, ausgedruckt, Stoffe gesucht und losgelegt.
A long time ago an idea started in my head using lots of curves. I already tried to make a sample block the last week but terrible failed. So when I saw the  Mango-Block at Debbie's blog that was perfect. So all the plans for Friday were dropped and I started printing, drawing and searching for fabrics. I only had enough Christmas fabrics so it had to be a Christmas project.

Nachdem ich noch immer auf meine Stofflieferung warte, habe ich mal schnell mit einem Weihnachtsprojekt angefangen. Der Block passt perfekt für charms und ich hab ja noch das Charm Pack von Kate Spain aus dem letzten Jahr. Das Template für den Ring passt genau auf ein 5 inch square.

I took out my charm pack from Kate Spain from last year and it was perfect for the curve. The template matches exactly the charm from side to side. Isn't that great? This was the first time sewing curves and I am amazed how easy they came together. The inner circle was a little bit fiddle but it worked out fine too.
 

Auch für die Umrandung waren die Charms perfekt. Ich hatte noch genau so viele rote Charms, wie für die Seiten benötigt wurden und mit den Schneeflocken in der Ecke hat es perfekt geklappt.
There were just enough red charms left for the sides so I used the snowflake fabric again for the corners. I love how all the parts came together.

Ausnahmsweise habe ich auch relativ viel gequiltet. Eigentlich wollte ich mich endlich an Free Motion Quilting waten, aber nach elends langer Suche, wie man den Fuss montiert und ein paar wenigen Stichen auf einem Probestück, bin ich zu dem Schluss gekommen: das braucht dann doch wesentlich mehr Übung als geplant. Also Maschinchen wieder umgerüstet und gerade Linien genäht.
I had a special pattern in my head when I was pinning. So I tried to put the Free Motion Foot on my sewing machine (had to search the internet first on HOW to do that) and made some stitches on a sandwich. It only took me five stitches until I decided FMQ might take some more practice before I can try it on a quilt. Bach to the screw driver and removing the FMQ foot and make straight lines...

Ich hoffe, es gefällt ihr. Der Mini ist schon auf dem Weg zu einer ganz, ganz lieben Bloggerin, die mir so oft zur Seite gestanden ist und tolle Tips gegeben hat. Sie ist auch immer für einen Spaß zu haben. Vielen lieben Dank! Damit sie sich aussuchen kann, ob er am Tisch zur Verwendung kommt oder sie ihn lieber aufhängen  möchte, hab ich mich an den Ecken versucht. Ob es so funktioniert? Ich habe keine Ahnung ...
I hope she likes it. The mini quilt is on the way to a special blogger friend who encouraged me and gave me so many tips. We both have lots of fun chatting. Thank you so much. 
I am not sure if she wants to hang it up or put it on the table so I tried to make hangers on the back. It they should look like that and if the function? I have no clue but she might tell me one day.
 

Endlich kamen auch meine Tannenbäumchen zum Einsatz. Lange lag er schon in meiner Kiste, aber entweder er war zu kurz, zu schmal, zu wenig oder einfach nicht passend. Aber für den Mango Block war er gerade richtig.
Finally I could use the Christmas tree fabric. Usually it was to small, to short, not enough or any other reason that I could not use it. It was perfect for the Mango block.
 

Ich hoffe, er kommt bald in seinem neuen zu Hause an. Danke an Debbie für das tolle Tutorial und den Block!
I hope it arrives safe in his new home and thanks to Debbie for a brilliant tutorial and a gorgeous block.