potholders - new town - new job

I am enjoying discovering the town I'm going to live and (come Monday) work in. I did already discover 3 fabric stores and the internet tells me there are even more.

Yesterday I didn't feel like doing much - is awfully hot - so I went to get some fresh fruits, never can have enough of them in the heat. Well I stumbled upon this fabric store - absolutely useless for "real" quilting but hey they did have a bit of thermolam and the odd bist of 100% cotton fabrics. And a few hours later:

hmm yeah I already used them today cooking lunch

The red one took me all afternoon --- the blue one was easy peasy done after dinner ...

Löni

You can do it if you want to

That's a bit of my version of one of my mothers standard answers to most of my requests: "You can have it if you can do it" ... hang up a picture frame, a green wall, butterfly curtains, a bar in my doorframe to play with,  a wooden custom fitted rack ... 

Well I always liked the geometric appliquée things - not so much the Baltimore Album Style stuff (much too chaotic for me), but more the Hawaiian quilt things ... So yes - I can have one if I can do one, so I decided to sit down and give myself a pep talk. And decided to go for somethign small ... and thought about using the thing for a panel for a bag. I guess I should still have used some sort of backing fabric .. though of course the bag will be lined - maybe I should have waited with the quitling ... well yeah you grow with your mistakes

  Well that thing was no good for a first timer ... absolutley stupid thing to do of me - but at least it's not too ugly. But I decided to have a go at the basics and asked around a little - the answer was essentiall: "Just do it!"

So I thought I would take some gemetric shapes as I like geometry ... and ended up circles of different sizes and parts of circles.

Again stupid stupid insane me - circles are not easy to get round doing needle turn ... and those tips of the green leaf-ish things - and absolute nightmare ... well they are all differentlly shaped ...

Löni

dozen in one post

uhh yes I have been quiet - didn't read a single blog, barely read any mails, but I read a thousand books and had lot's of chicken soup, I could effectively refuse the offers of warm beer. Now after a week I reduced my tissue usage to hmm 2 packs a day, I almost used up a honey jar and there's no thyme left on the spice rack.

So I did promise some potholders - because yes I did finish them on the train.

I even started quilting something - no idea what I thought when I started apart from "I want to work on my tiny stitches"

Ok the circles are far from round - storing the project squeezed in a tiny bag didn't really  help with the wrinkles. For comparison that is a circle:

And that is a lunch that's composed of food sins - not really healthy at all but tasty and yes perfect to scare off a lot of people - they just don't appreciate it.

That's some "Münster", deliciously smelly cheese at the left, half a bread with "Griebenschmalz", lard and greaves, "grobe Leberwurst", liver sausage with chunks in it, not the finely ground kind then there's some "Bauernbratwurst", well hmm no idea how to explain that one then there is "Schwarzwurst" (black sausage) that wants some mustard to go along - I won't tell you what's in it because then you might not ever give it a try if you come across it.

Don't be afraid you can get some simple plain cheese or a salami here if you want- much more common actually. Well yeah most people don't like the "traditional food" because they want to firmly believe that meat grows on trees and that chickens are made up completely of chicken breasts and cows only consist of tenderloin and the occasional steak.

So that was todays excursion into strange German food - maybe I should introduce more of that. Some "Szegediner Gulasch" (which is not German at all but my Grandpa used to cook it a lot and there's Sauerkraut in it)

 Leo

lasagna, skirts and a quilt

"We" had some fun yesterday - first eating lots and lots of this:

And then taking up the skirt I started sewing last year ... now I just need to hem it - how do you hem a skirt?

I also started quilting my little pinwheel quilt and as I could hardly feel my fingertips anymore I thought maybe a timble could be the solution - just it wore through the thread really really fast, maybe I'm just using it wrongly. My solution was to cover my finger in tape.

Ohh yes and that's the quilt - which is probably much more interessting ... 

 Leo

Wednesday

Wednesday again - and I just managed to get my January swap mini finished in time. If I hurry with the lable I might have it in the mail by the 31st.

Sorry for the crappy shots - but with the exams coming up there is one rule down: no sewing before 8:00pm. The horror will start Thursday at 7:30 am - who else could be so cruel than a Latin Prof?

my green and purple "garden fence" block for the NewbeeBee

my - not so beautiful - butterfly-ish block for BeeBiased

I didn't attempt any other projects, I didn't look at any other projects though I've been thinking a lot about other projects, so much nicer than grammar or ISO standards ...

Leo

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Wednesday

I was almost about to forget to share this little beauty with you: It arrived at Lizzie's place well in time to be a Christmas present.

[hand pieced and hand quilted]

 

This was one of those "never ever again" quilts that make you love doing them but you are afraid to ever get the urge to do another one ...

I'm working on:

• Walk the Line 

• Disappearing Nine Patch

• Easy Street  

 

• Ticker Tape

And I need to get started on:

•  a "snow themed" mini quilt for January
•  a butterfly block for February
• start Hand Quilting Trial 2

Leo

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sewing marathon

I was just too busy to write posts during the week - I got a lot of things done:

I quilted my two Ribbonry rainbow tops:

I finished the "Deal with Mum" quilt (more here and here)

I bound my Hand Qulting Trial I:

And I almost ofrgot that I even worked a bit on Easy Street:
see I cut the "extras" that I dutifully ignored so far on step 2 and 3 and I marked a few more of the shaded 4 patches.

Leo

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Easy Street Part 1

I let myself be talked into joining the Easy Street Mystery Quilt - not that I put up much of a resitance. And I will manage because I have a personal trouble shooter

So far it included a lot of cutting - some lat night sewing

and now the rest is watiing to get sewn and ironed

that is what I'm reading instead of doing the important sewing

and that happens if I feel a bit gloomy on a gray November day and want to finish watching Torchwood ...

Leo

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