Review of 2011

Projects finished in 2011

Finished tops, waiting to be quilted

Works in Progress

from left to right:

Joseph's coat quilt along

Tessellation quilt

Hexagon quilt

Blogger's BOM

scrap quilt

I hope to have above quilts finished by the same time next year! I just need determination and willpower not to start too many projects along the way.

There are a few more but I wouldn't call them "works in progress" as I haven't worked on them in a long time. Maybe they should be called "works abandoned". 

Wishing you all a wonderful and happy New Year ahead with hopefully lots of inspiration as well as lots of time to stitch.

Vreni x

And the gift certificate goes to

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

32

Congratulations Anna, I will get in touch with you shortly.
I would like to wish all my blogging friends a Merry Christmas together with a healthy, happy and stimulating year to come. 
Vreni x

Forth and final Advent Sunday Give Away!

Firstly, let's see who is the winner of last Sunday's give away: Random Number Generator picked number 20

Congratulations to Shirley who said...

Lovely snowflakes. Fingers crossed.          Make sure you'll check your inbox for an email from me.

Now for the last of the Advent give aways, I'm offering a gift Certificate of $ 30 for one lucky winner. 

Please leave a comment by Friday 23rd of December and I will announce the winner on Christmas Eve. The gift voucher will be delivered via email and the recipient will be able to redeem it right away. The winner may choose a gift voucher from a shop of their choice.

Good luck everyone, and make sure I have a way to contact you.

It seems I really can't stop playing with snow flakes. I guess I won't be finishing this little quilt in time for Christmas, but there's always next year.

Happy Fourth Advent!

Vreni 

Voting now open at Quilting Gallery

I have submitted "O Tannenbaum" to this week's themed Quilt Contest.

To vote go here. There are many lovely quilts to admire.

Have a great weekend.

Vreni 

Third Advent Sunday Give Away / SMS Give Away Day

Today's give away is in conjunction with

And this is what I'm giving away:

 "Let it Snow" Twice the Charm  by Kim Martin

If that's something you could use, then leave a comment before next Sunday (18th of December) when I will announce the winner . Everybody is welcome, no matter where you are in the world. For more wonderful giveaways go here to find the list of all participants (only by Monday).

And before I go, let's see who is the lucky winner of last week's give away.

The "Christmas Candy Rolie Polie by Riley Blake" is going to no 14, which is Diane H who said: 

Thanks for a chance. Wow, I'm off to check out the flower tutorial - yours look amazing.

Congratulations Diane, make sure to check your inbox for an email from me.

Do come back next Sunday for the last of the Advent give aways!

I'm trying very much to get some "winter feeling" which I associate with Christmas. I've been making snowflakes as seen on Pinterest and it seems that I can't stop anymore!

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well too.

Bye for now.

Vreni

Second Advent Sunday Give Away!

First, let's see who is the winner of last week's give away: 

The winning number is 15

Martina who said:

"Tolle Idee, da mach ich doch gerne mit! Wuensch dir von Herzen einen schoenen 1.Advent!"

 Congratulations Martina, you'll find an email from me in your inbox!

This week we have this Christmas Candy Rolie Polie by Riley Blake up for grabs.

You know the spiel; leave a message before next Sunday! Make sure I have a way to contact you in case you win. 

Before I leave, have a look at what I've been doing this week. I've been seriously sidetracked once again by something I've seen on Sarah's blog 

Now it's back to my Christmas card writing and baking Christmas cookies.

Enjoy your Sunday

Vreni

O Tannenbaum

I saw a paper cut on Pinterest and asked Nina  from Finland if she would share the pattern. She did within about one hour; what a nice lady! After making a couple of the paper Christmas trees I thought it would look lovely as a quilt too. I appliqued it with raw edges, then free motion quilted it. Here it is:

"O Tannenbaum"

I have entered this quilt int the 2011 Christmas Quilt Show, go and take a look at all the lovely creations.  

 

It will shortly be wrapped up and make its way to its new owner, hopefully in time for Christmas.

In the meantime, the third block of the Blogger's BOM was revealed. Take a look here.

I like the look of it so far. It's definitely going to be a baby quilt; mainly because of the fabrics I'm using but also because it won't make a very big. The blocks are only 8 " finished and there will be 13 block (I have an idea how to make three additional blocks, so I will have 16 blocks).

This week my quilt from the ALQS 6 arrived on my doorstep all the way from the US. Shawn made me this lovely quilt called Crazy Lizards. It's beautifully made and I love it.

She also made me this name card holder. Just what I needed for my handbag. There were also a couple of chocolate bars in the package, but sadly I can't show you any pictures of those as they are long gone!! Thanks very much Shawn, I really appreciate everything.

That's it for me for today. Over and out!

Vreni

First Advent Sunday Give Away!

I don't know about you, but I love the Christmas season with everything it entails. I love decorating the house, baking "tons" of Christmas goodies but most of all I love making, buying and giving gifts. That's why I'm having a series of give aways during the month of December, on every Advent Sunday to be precise. It's also to thank all my lovely readers for sticking around.  As today is the first Advent Sunday, here's the first give away.

Please leave a comment on this post, making sure I have a way of contacting you. The give away is open to everyone, no matter where you are. I will draw a winner next Sunday and at the same time announce the second Advent Sunday give away. Good Luck.

Cheers

Vreni

Christmas Crafting

I made a few more cards:

Then I made these gift pouches, which I will fill with sweets and use as table decoration at Christmas. They are from a Japanese book but you can find a tutorial here as well.

I've seen these light bags in a couple of German blogs and wanted to try making one. Inside is a jam jar with a tea light. You can find tutorials here and here (use Google translator, if your German is a bit rusty).

I want to make some more but I have to start collecting empty jam jars first as I usually toss them out! I think they would make lovely little gifts for Christmas. 

A friend of mine showed me how to make these gift bags. Wouldn't they be cute at Christmas morning instead of stockings?

Not long now and I can start decorating the house. Can't wait.

Have a lovely weekend.
Vreni

Friendship and other Blocks

In one of my quilt groups it's custom to make a friendship block for the leaving member. The person leaving chooses and prepares the background blocks for everyone as well as a few coordinated fabrics. Unfortunately we have to say good bye to two members very soon. That's definitely the downside of our "expat" life. Nothing stays the same; people come and people go and one has to adjust constantly to the new reality.

I also made my second block for Blogger's free BOM.  It was designed by Vicki Welch and you can find it here.

I think I like the combination of the soft blue with the red. I can't wait to see how it further unfolds.

I also found a lovely tutorial here via A Spoonful of Sugar for paper flowers and though I could make them into Christmas cards. 

I hope you were also enjoying a bit of sewing or crafting time this week.

Cheers

Vreni

I won, I won, I won!!!

Can you tell that I'm exited?

 This is why

 You might recall the quilt I've made for this year's Singapore Quilt Challenge. My Chinese Lantern received the most votes, can you believe it? I am tickled pink!



Look at the prizes; lots of Ruby goodness as well as coordinated solid fabric and Aurifil thread. But that's not all. I also received a couple of vouchers from a local quilt shop. How lucky am I???

And here are some of the other entries! All very nice, don't you agree?

Now I'm going to play with my new fabrics and start planning what to do with them!

Cheers
Vreni

I'm back

After a lovely week in China, we are home again. It was great to be back in Shanghai and to catch up with friends and go to the markets as well as having foot massages!

In Beijing we mostly spent time with DD and her young man! We got to see their new apartment as well as DD 's classroom; very new and high tech. When I went to school, we had a black board at the front of the classroom. My kids had white boards but now they apparently have smart boards, which - I had it explained to me - are interactive white boards. 

It was nice to see my Dr. Seuss quilt again

and DD was happy with the quilt I brought her.  

As we've been in Beijing several times, we didn't do any touristy things. But on Sunday we had a lovely breakfast and then a stroll through the Hutongs. Although it rained, it was a blessed relieve as finally the air was "breathable" again after three days of very heavy pollution.

Just to give you an idea of how bad the pollution was. Take a look at these photos. This one I took from the hotel window when we arrived 

 and this one - as luck would have it - on our last day. It's mid morning in both pictures.

It seems "the kids" have settled very well in Beijing. In any case they do eat like the "locals"!!

How about a little scorpion for a snack? Not for me, thank you very much,  although they tried very hard to convince me to try one. Apparently they taste like potato chips. Then why not eat potato chips, I ask you?

I hope your week is going well too.

Vreni x

Just in the nick of time

We're going to China tomorrow; first to Shanghai and then on to Beijing to see our daughter (and her young man). Initially I was going to bring her this quilt, it only needed the binding put on.

But after seeing the orange sofa in their new apartment in a photo she sent me, I had to rethink, and fast! I decided to give her the quilt which was intended for my MIL for Christmas instead. I can sort out what to give MIL later on. That left me with exactly two days for sandwiching, quilting and binding the quilt.

With time being scarce I stitched the binding by machine to the back. I usually do that by hand as I hadn't had much success on earlier attempts. But using the blindstitch foot really helped and I only needed to stop and go back because the stitching didn't catch the binding on the back a couple of times. I will need a bit more practice, but I will definitely do this again.

All ready to go. Can't wait!

Talk to you when I get back.
Cheers
Vreni