The "Aunt" is back and other stories

When I say "Aunt" of course I really mean "The Aunt's Quilt". I've finished the top a while ago and I had it hand quilted in the Philippines through a quilt shop in Singapore. As always the quilting is exquisite, something I would never have the patience nor the inclination for. 

Another quilt top which has been laying around has finally been quilted as well. I've free motion quilted it and my new machine has delivered on its promises. I have not one broken thread nor any skipped stitches to report.  In short, it sews like a dream. Hurrah! 

Then there's this little baby quilt I made for a new baby girl. I forgot to take pictures before sending it off to Australia and only have this wonky phone photo.  Once again I found the idea on Pinterest.

I also managed to finish block 3 and 4 for my Scandinavian Christmas quilt. I'm now in the process of making the small blocks to go around although I'm not sure yet how I'm going to put the quilt together.

Recently my husband's cousin celebrated a big birthday and her wish is to go whale watching, so I made her this card

and I also tried my hand on making a small fabric landscape for another birthday card. It needs a bit more work, some more embroidery I think. 

Then there's a tiny bit more progress on the "Ballet avec Kaffe" project. Still not sure if I want to preserver, although I've started a new way of sewing the pieces together and I think I like it much better. The stitches are less visible and it feels more comfortable doing it too. You can find a short demonstration about the process here.

I made a tote bag for a friend

and another friend gave me this little beauty. Thanks Kerry, it's been very useful on our many road trips this summer. 

So that's about what has happened in my sewing room over the last few month. As we helped our daughter move from Milan to Frankfurt over the summer and we've been going back and forth a few times, I didn't touch a needle and thread for weeks on end. But now normal life has once again resumed and hopefully I'll pop in here a bit more often (one can hope)!

Vreni x

The good news is....

..... I've finally finished my The Aunts' Quilt-top! I've decided to take it with me to Singapore and have it hand quilted in the Philippines. I will show you the finished quilt when I get it back but here's a little sneak peek.

I've also made a few small Christmas gifts:

A couple of embroidered ornaments. The one with the santa was a kit I bought a while ago from here and the Christmas tree is a free download you can find here.

This stocking is for a friend filled with goodies for the 6th of December, which is Santa Clause day in Switzerland. Santa brings sweets, nuts and small gifts for children on that day! I found the free pattern here via Pinterest.

I've also started making Christmas cookies. You can find some of my favorit recipes here. Now it's back to writing Christmas cards. I've given myself a deadline and hope that I'll be able to post them all by the end of this week in order to make sure, they'll arrive in time.

I hope you are enjoying the season.
Cheers
Vreni x

Autumn

Like many of you, I can't quite believe that we are already at the beginning of October. Summer is well and truly over, although we still have the occasional warm day. But the woods are getting colourful and I can't get enough of that golden Autumn light!

I had a lovely summer with a couple of road trips rediscovering Europe. It made me appreciate how much there's still to do and see here. We also had lots of visitors from all corners of the word and from as far away as New Zealand and Australia and the US. And some even brought hand made gifts, like these lovely bags my friend Jeanette made for me

and this pin cushion my friend Joanna made; I have quite a few pin cushions but this is definitely my biggest yet and very practical it is too!

This is the quilt I received in this round of the "Another little Quilt Swap"

Sarah from the UK made it and I love it. Take a look at her blog; I really like her style and it seems we have the same taste not only in quilting but also in books.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with another friend Rose-Anne from the Netherlands at the yearly European quilt show in the Alsace, France, which is only about one and a half hour from where we live. It's the first time I visited this show and it's nothing like any show I have previously been to. The exhibitions were strewn over four different villages and were mostly in churches or town halls.

Rose-Anne had a quilt in the "Dear Jane" exhibition. It was made with mostly Kaffe Fasset fabrics and it looked amazing. It was interesting to see how the same pattern can look so vastly different because of colour and fabric choices.

There was also a commercial area with everything quilting related. Of course I had to get a few bits and pieces! Some Dutch heritage fabric by Den Haan & Wagenmakers, something I've been hankering after for a long time. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but that's beside the point!

I also got these wool bundles. Aren't these colours just lovely? The shop I got them from is from Como in Italy. If I had only known that when we were there in the summer. Oh well, there's always next time. 

I've even been sewing a bit, mostly hand applique. I finally finished the corner and side triangles for The Aunts' quilt (only a year late...ha)!

Now I just have to tackle the last border which should not take me too long.... I hope. Then I have to decide how to quilt it. I really want it to be hand quilted - and not by me - but I don't have easy access to hand quilters anymore like I did when I lived in Asia. 

Happy Autumn (or Spring)!
Vreni x

A finish and some progress

The daughter of one of my good friends in Australia had a baby boy last year and of course I had to make a quilt for the little bundle of joy. As the nursery's colour scheme is kept in grey, yellow and white naturally the quilt had to be in those colours too. We haven't had good weather lately, so the pictures are a bit dull. 

I've included some prairie points as little fingers love to play with something. The animals and circles are raw edge appliquéd and I have added a layer of batting to the back. After the applique was done, I carefully cut the excess batting away, which resulted in a sort of trapunto effect. 

I've also finally finished the last block for The Aunt's quilt. 

and here are all the blocks together, only the border triangles to do now. As I've mentioned before I'm using wash away paper for the applique but I decided that I don't like it. I think I will stick with the old needle turn method from now on.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cheers
Vreni x

Sight seeing in Switzerland

August already? How did that happen? Both our kids are spending some time with us here in Switzerland over the summer. As it happened, they are both moving from Asia to Europe this year too. My daughter finished the school year in Beijing and will start her new job in Milan, Italy next week. My son quit his job in Singapore as well and is now looking at two job opportunities; one in London and one in Zurich. Guess which one I want him to take ;)? On the other hand London would be a cool place for a young person to live and work and for us to visit. In any case, it's lovely to have the whole family on the same continent again.

Since the weather has been beautiful and it's been quite hot (too hot for my taste) we took the opportunity to go on a few day trips.

This is Gruyere, a small medieval village with its historical castle dating back to the 13th century.

View from the castle over the manicured garden

It was blessedly cool in the castle with its thick walls. 

As you might have guessed, Gruyere is also where the famous Gruyere cheese is made and although it was hot, we had to have an authentic Gruyere cheese fondue.

On another day we went up to Kandersteg from where we took a cable car up to Oeschinensee and a leisurely hike brought us to this wonderful little mountain lake. The fresh air up there was just heaven.

On the way back, we stopped at the Blausee (meaning blue lake) and it's easy to see why it's called that

and the obligatory selfie ;)! 

We also spent a lovely day in our cute capital city Bern. It was another scorcher of a day and lots of swimmers came down the Aare River. Unfortunately I didn't catch any on my camera. 

a cold drink under a sun umbrella in front of the Parliament Building. 

It was indeed a gorgeous day, but I still think Bern is the most beautiful in winter covered in snow. Oh boy, I can't wait!

Source

And surprise, surprise, I even did a bit of sewing. 

Block 3, 4 and 5 for the Aunts' Quilt are now finally completed. Just one more of the big blocks to finish and then I can get going with the side triangles. I know I'm hopelessly behind the "official schedule" but I'll get there as I'm still enjoying this project a lot. 

I've been very lucky as I've won a give away by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts fame, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. These lovely boxes of Aurifloss arrived on my doorsteps

and a look inside - can't wait to try them out. 

That's it for today. I hope you have survived the heat or the cold, depending on where you are.

Vreni x