WORKSHOP RESULTS

Here are the results of last week´s workshop on scrap quilts:

One student decided to stick to one block and nearly managed to finish a top:

I like that one a lot and I hope I can see it when finished.

At the moment I am knitting that sweater on very fine needles (for a sweater!) and it is taking its time. I want to finish it soon because we have just the right weather for it now; sunny and chilly.

Next week the local huge hand craft fair is in town for 5 days. Our patchwok guild will be there too and I will demonstrate on friday morning machine quilting in the hall nr. 7 from 9.00 to 1.00.

Do please come and say hello (this especially for those of you overseas, come on I know you can make it!!)

I wish you a nice week with a lot of sunshine.

MACHINE QUILTING

On saturday, I gave a workshop on machine-quilting. It was fun and we all (I think!) enjoyed ourselves even if some had aching shoulders at the end of the day.
For the course I made the pink sampler and the students made the samples in white.



It is not always easy to adjust all the machines for machine-quilting and we had some problems at the beginning with the tension of some machines. I am so glad my Bernina sews everything with only some adjustments.

Anyway, the students had to draw on paper first so as to learn the movements and then sew without thread to get a feeling of using the machine without feed dogs.

And here are the results:

from Sigrid

from Monika

from Barbara

from Iris

and from Jutta

Well done, ladies!

Friday was the dutch fabric market in town and guess what I did! I just bought a few fat quarters and some buttons. Mind you next week there is a wonderful textile market in a town nearby so I guess my purchases won´t stop here!
I wish you a wonderful beginning of May.

SOME PICTURES

Today, I got up at 5.00 AM to go to work and after that I went to the market I was talking about in the last post. But before I go to bed I wanted to show what I bought and some other pictures.

This is my second Icarus shawl. It is plain wool and so a bit scrachier than the first but I like the colour. I wonder if I will keep it or give it away and knit yet another one for me with space dyed yarn. We will see. It is not as if I didn´t have any other project on the go!

The next picture is of the lottery quilt top in my students quilt group.

Monika N. was the very happy (you should have seen her!) winner of it. I gave her enough fabric to add at least two borders.

Then my students made a lot of bag packs! Sorry the picture is blurred. Too many excited women on one spot, I reckon!

From left to right and from top to bottom: Helga, Lisa (made a tote), Lisl, Waltraud, Inge (could not stop and made 2!), Monika and Jutta.

What I liked with that project is that each made her pack out of different fabrics, there are upholstery, corduroy, silk, denim and curtain fabrics here!

Then what I bought at the market. I didn´t buy any fabric! I tried to but they did not seem to have any repro fabric. It seems they are not so popular in Germany.So instead I got some embroidery floss for my Bea´s BOM project and for some future ones.


I also got some ribbons from my favorite ribbon weave mill and some cute buttons (which were reduced!).Finally I purchased some knitting bamboo needles as I could not find any Knit Picks.

This year the hit was pearls, beads and home made juwelery. They were everywhere. But I don´t need to start a new hobby so I avoided them!

That´s all for today. I won´t stay much longer up. I can hear my bed calling me!




I wish you a nice evening and an inspiring week-end.

AND YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT

I have started yet another attempt at reducing my stash of old, flowery, 80´s fabric. I got the pattern for the "Delectable mountains" at Bonnie´s and I just add the small triangles at each side of one mountain. I am planning of doing 4 or 5 rows and adding a string star in the middle. I am so serious about that reducing attempt that I want to add prairie points all around the top. Lots of fabric there!

This week I also sewed a coaster to go with a mug for a friend´s birthday.



I had the right fabric in my stash! It is the first coaster I made but I am very happy with it and it won´t be the last.

One of my students, Monika N. finished her sampler. Congratulations Monika!
I like it because of its scrappiness and because of the nice quilting.
Today I borrowed some quilt books at our guild librairy. One on the Nebraska quilt documentation project. I like the quilt doc. project books as they tell the stories of the women who made the quilts and present the state where the survey took place. It is like applied history.

So now I am off to my settee with a big book on my lap full of beautiful quilts!

I wish you a nice week-end.

P.S.: Don´t forget, tomorrow Bea posts a new BOM!

TRADITIONAL BLOCKS, LIBERATED BLOCKS

A new session started with my quilt students and as the tradition goes, I showed them a new block. I saw that pattern on a blog but I am very sorry I can´t find it back. I had a look around the blogs I usually visit but it was not there.
Anyway, all the fabrics are from my stash and my students sewed them together. We decided that we will add two rows and then the top will be won at a lottery by one of the students.

That way, I can get rid of some of my older fabrics (and have a excuse to buy some more!).






The second quilt is an older quilt I started at a retreat where we were supposed to sew something free cut. The retreat was a lot of fun (sorry no picture there as it was way before digital camera time!) and I tried some new to me colour combinations. The top came very fast together but the quilting lasted a bit longer!






I am especially happy about the purple as it brings some warmth although it is not my sort of colour at all!
The quilt hangs now in our staircase.

I could not help starting on a new pair of socks, this time for my DH with a new method from the toe up. The first one has a few mistakes. The explanations were in english (or should I say english abbreviations!) which I have some problems to understand and a lot of stitches were new to me too. But I think the second one will turn better. Pictures next week!

I wish you a restful creative week-end!

THIS AND THAT

Last night we had our monthly patchwork group meeting. It was fun, we saw very nice quilts, had dozens of lists going around for projects, tours, courses,... I wonder if I really wrote down all the dates and things I am suppose to take part in!
Well today I will show different things which don´t have much to do with one another but are still worth showing (I think!).

First the socks: I had bought some wool in March and of course I can´t wait till next winter so here I am, knitting socks in May with temperatures much higher than usual and still no rain. A funny thing, Diane is knitting socks as well and the pattern looks much the same. Is there a sock bug going around?

Second, the inchies: I wanted to try this because when I go on holiday I think it is something I will be able to do with my mother (quilter) and my sister (no quilter, no sewer) as a girls-get-together thing. I will prepare some more and bring all my embellishments with me and on holiday (in France at the sea) we can find some more interesting stuff like seashells. I am looking forward to that.

Third, the little house: I made this one after seeing many japanese houses in a magazine about a japanese patchwork exhibition. The house is hand appliquéed and the whole is hand quilted. It is about 4"3/4 x 6" 3/4.

The last picture is the mystery quilt from Waltraud Gr.. It is the result of a course I gave last winter. Look here to see more of them. I like the colours Waltraud chose. It would be perfect in MY TV-room but I don´t think Waltraud agrees!

Some people asked how big the minis were I showed in the last post but one. They are 4"x 5,5".

I wish you all a nice week-end with a lot of time for your projects!

STUDENTS´ACHIEVEMENTS

After an wonderful week with
beautiful weather, I gave yesterday a workshop on hand-sewing. The students could choose among different technics what they wanted to have a try at. There were yo-yos, curves, set-in seams, japanese method, english paper method. Here are the results:







Christa W.










Mechthild W.




Annette Ma.












Heidi T.










Iris A.






Sarah W.

Sigrid M.

Annette Me.

Gertrud T.






Some of the students were beginners, some advanced. We had fun and I hope that all of them learned something and went back home with a lot of projects on the mind.