Happy mail day

No, there is no mail day on Saturday in Ireland but lots have been asking to show the pillow cover. I am so happy to tell you it arrived safely in Rhonda's house and she loves it.

It is a little cheeky and full of color but this is how she knows me! I used some of the Japanese fabrics I got recently and lots of scraps. The spider web is quilted off center in a spiral around the fussy peak. My girl already asked to make her one as well but that might also be a long term project. Now I am almost ready for the summer holidays!

Last day in School

Today is the last school day and in approximately 45 minutes the summer holiday 2014 officially starts. It was not a nice ending as there have been some new rules for the next year. So fingers crossed those things can be sorted.
Anyway it was time to think about a little teacher gift but I do not want to be Mum number 29 to bring in chocolate. My little ones teacher had a hard job helping her through the year and she always loved the sewing my little one brought in. So why not make her something she could use? Teachers always need pencil cases and Aylin has this gorgeous "Schlafmäppchen" on her blog I always wanted to try.

One of the difficulties my little girl had was reading. lucky me I got a fabric with lots of text. The newspaper fabric is perfect therefore and maybe next year an other child is going to read on this pouch (I already found the word SCHOOL).

I love the curve and the unique style. Even hiding the edge of the fabric on the bottom worked out really nice. The big zip makes opening and closing very easy.

There is plenty of space to keep all those pencils and stuff you need in place. This time it is not filled with stationery and I could not resist to pack in some sweets. My little girl was very proud to bring it to school this morning and I hope her teacher will remember her in a good way.

Next year an other teacher will have the pleasure to teach her but the older she gets the more she listens. It is hard to say good bye!

Finish it up

It took a long time until this UFO finally is done and can be strike through. I am so happy as this block was one of my favorites: a spiderweb! But it was not just a spiderweb block, it was the generous Rhonda who sent me the templates to make it.

I had this block two times on my FAL list (or was it more?) and did not even touch them after making the shot. So it was time! I sat down one morning when I finished Bee blocks and started sewing. It is so easy and it does not take long until you have a finished block.

The ripping took longer. With the school year almost finished and this gorgeous heat wave here in Ireland there is no time in the afternoon. Of to the beach and building sand castles, swimming (not me!) and enjoying ice cream was much more important. I did take my hexagons with me and finished an other 2 but that was all the sewing I did! Anyway the mornings are cool and I had enough time to rip of the paper and put a border on the block. I changed my mind three times but at the end I used a lovely aqua where I had enough to also use it for the back.

I never read about how to finish a pillow nicely but I do not like to have the fabric edges to be seen (does that make sense?). For putting in a zipper I know how to hide those edges quite good but for the envelope finish I have no clue how to do it properly. Therefore I just attached a binding and now there is no more fraying fabrics.

This pillow is on the way to someone special and I know she used to read the blog so for now I can not show any more pictures. It will not take long and I can show you this gorgeous pillow.

This is an other FAL finish and I am so happy it is done! I love it and hope she does as well!

Road trip for Erin

Last month - oh yes, I am talking about May - in the Modern Irish {scrappy} Bee Erin war the Queen and she asked for colorful Road to Tennessee. This is a lovely block for chain piecing and using small scraps I had left over when using white or grey. 

This blocks came together quite fast. To fast not to make a mistake. I made Os instead of Xs. I only recognized it when I was looking at the pics after I already sent them of. An other "Sending-before-Doing". I was so happy to have them finished and made the pictures ready to sent them on a beautiful day that I did not even see they are the wrong side.

I could not resist to put some of the prints I got recently. She wanted to have bright colors and she made us think about summer. Sorry, I could not resist to use this fussy cut ....

They arrived safely and I am glad she is happy with them. This quilt will be gorgeous! An other pattern to put on my list ....

Almost Halftime

In January I decided to get rid of my Cabbage fabrics and what could be better than to use them for Bee Blessed blocks. Just because they are not my taste does not mean someone else might not love them. So each month I wanted to make a block to be part of a lovely quilt. I just sent of the last blocks before I go on summer break.

I would have loved to show you all the blocks I made so far but guess what: I did not make pictures! I know they have all arrived and I also found most of them in quilts already donated. I love being part of it!

Love being Queen

This is my month in the Modern Stitching Bee. At the beginning of the month I told the lovely ladies already what I want them to make and I already received the gorgeous blocks from Sarah. I also promised to write a short tutorial so here it is. This is the block I was asking for: lots of HST

I am asking for either a fussy cut center or a center made of HST in one main color. To make the center block finishing 4.5'' I used a 4.5'' fussy cut and 4 2.5'' low volume fabrics. I added the low volume to two corners, sew along the middle line, cut back the seam allowance and pressed.

I repeated this steps for the other two corners and the center block is done. The rest is lots of chain piecing and at the end: trimming! To make the block you will need

8 2.5’’ LV squares

4 2.5’’ 2-colored HST
20 2.5’’ HST color/LV

There are many ways out there how to make HST. For this block I preferred to cut 3'' squares. I put a low volume square and a color fabric square right sides together and sew on the right and left side of the diagonal line, which I usually draw on the back of one fabric.

Then you cut on the line and press the block. Unfortunately now comes the ugly part: Trimming!

This is absolutely no fun and I am so thankful to have the lovely ladies from the Bee to help me. I designed (I am sure out there might be a name for this block but this is what we were drawing) this block together with my girl and it is going to be her quilt when it is finished so I really appreciate the help.
So lets arrange all those gorgeous HSTs

This is the step I usually make at least one mistake (and I did on both sample blocks), so I decided for all the other blocks I have to slow down. I really sew the first row two and two pieces together and lay them out again. After checking I finish the first line. After I go on to the next line until I have the block done

The terrible part is the trimming other the block is straight forward. I love it and hope my bee ladies are not mad at me now and can enjoy the sewing a little.

Short trip to Italy

The last weeks of the school year started and somehow this is a busy time. My girl wanted to go to Italy again, meeting friends and take part in a dancing competition. So we went to Milan again. Thank goodness it was not as hot as last year. First stop Friday was climbing the stairs up to the top of the Duomo. It is so beautiful! Going down we counted the stairs and it is something between 160 and 165. If you are lazy, no worries, you can go up with an elevator!

Looks like they are still renovating the same part but it is anyways to hot up there so we went back down and sat in the cool shadow. Behind the Duomo starts the shopping mile. There are only few shops we went in like the Disney store but window shopping can be nice too.

Saturday was all about the dancing. Unfortunately nothing went right so instead of having a lovely shopping afternoon we sat there till the evening. We were just happy when we could leave the hall and have some dinner. So Sunday was only to relax. We went down to the Canals - Navigli.

You can find lots of artists there and some shops are really gorgeous like this one from madame gioia. I just loved to look around in her shop. I found quilts and linen and so many other little goodies. Those chicken are just adorable (no, the suitcases were already filled by my girl but one of them made the way to Vienna)

The last stop on Monday before we had to head of to the airport was again the Duomo. It is always sad to say good bye to our friends. We hope to meet them again soon and maybe it is time we have a stop in Vienna this summer.

The weekend went by so fast but it was a wonderful time again. Somehow it felt strange when the guy at the pass control said "Welcome back" but here we were again: back in cloudy, low temperature but not rainy Ireland!