Today I'm doing this:

Almost there ;)!

Have a great weekend ahead.

Vreni x

And the winner is:

Teresa @ Aurea's Kitchen

Congratulations Teresa, I've sent you an email and as soon as I have your home address, those charm packs will be on their way.

Thanks to everyone who played along. Next time it's your turn to win ;)!

Cheers

Vreni x

SewMamaSew Giveaway Day!!!

This is what I have to offer:

3 April Showers Mini Charm Packs by Bonnie & Camille

All you have to do is leave a comment before May 16th and if you are a follower (old and new) you may leave a second comment telling me how you follow. The winner will be selected randomly and announced the next day.  All are welcome to play! Make sure I have a way to contact you, in case you are the winner. 

Lots more goodies up for grabs here: 

Good Luck!

Cheers

Vreni x

Beijing visit and a quilt

We have just come back from a few days in Beijing, visiting our daughter. We were very lucky this time with the weather as it was sunny and cool and the sky was blue. The last couple of times when we visited it was either terribly polluted or it was raining.

Although we have been in Beijing a number of times, there's always something new to explore. This time we "climbed" a little hill behind the Forbidden City to get a bird's eye view.

We also visited the "Bird's Nest", the Beijing National Stadium as it's officially called, which was built for the 2008 Olympics. We have seen it before but only from the outside and it was interesting to go inside. As we were living in China in 2008, we remember all the hype about the Olympics and especially the Bird's Nest. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which happened to be from my home town Basel.

A stroll along the Houhai Lake in the Hutongs

The Lama Temple was also on our to see list and it was well worth a visit. We were lucky as it wasn't too crowded.

 

Cute kids everywhere. 

We walked under these beautiful ginkgo trees and as usual I had to pick up some of the leaves and take home.

They will go from this to this:

The leaves are painted with silver art clay paste, then fired in a kiln and then polished. 

I brought along a quilt I made recently for my daughter's college friend who just got married last weekend. Said daughter is going to visit the States in the summer and will be able to hand the quilt to the happy couple. I got the inspiration from Pinterest (where else?) and found an excellent tutorial here.

The backing is Flower Lattice, a very early and rare Kaffe Fassett print which has long been discontinued. I adore this fabric and have been hoarding it for a special occasion, just like this. 

I even put a label on, something I've been neglecting recently. 

The Binding is a  Riley Blake Designs called "Red Flutter Stripe".

I hope to get back to you soon with progress on my Auntie Green's Garden. And don't forget to come back next week for the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day. 

Till then, take care.

Vreni x

The last two Camelot blocks

are done and already pieced to the back ground fabric. I've chosen an aubergine with small orange stars from Kathy Doughty's new fabric line "A Wandering Mind", recently released by Leutenegger in Australia. I think it works beautifully. This choice came by chance as I was planning to use some beige linen. But when I photographed the blocks on an purple footstool outside on the balcony it occurred to me that it would work much better and would be  "less safe" as well. 

As this project is coming to an end, my friends and I have been discussing what to tackle next. We agreed that we wanted to do some applique and after literary looking at dozens of quilts we decided on this:



Auntie Green's Garden by Irene Blanck, based on a early Australian applique quilt. Lots and lots of work, but doing it together with two friends will surely help me stay focused. I can't wait to get started.

Cheers
Vreni x

One baby quilt ready to go!

The first of my two baby quilts is now quilted as well as bound. 

I quilted diagonally both ways using the trusted wavy stitch, so much easier than a straight line as small mistakes are much less visible. 

The binding is from Robert Kaufman's Dr. Seuss line, so versatile for baby or kids quilts. 

One more Camelot block has been finished too, this is number 14

and here they are all together. Only two more to go.

Our little grand nephew has been born last week, so I better make sure his quilt gets finished soon too.

Cheers

Vreni x

My crafty week in pictures

I have enjoyed a lot of sewing and crafting time this week. On Monday I finished the "Peak Hour" top. When I say finished, I mean I cut out all the vehicles and ironed them onto the background. Not one stitch has been made at this point.  The next step is to sandwich the quilt and then I will sew through all the layers around each shape a couple of times with a  free motion straight stitch to secure them.

On Tuesday and Thursday I worked on my Camelot blocks. Here are block 12 and 13, only three more to go.

On Wednesday I finished another baby quilt top. I will probably quilt this one first, as the baby has already been born and I'm eager to send it off to the proud new parents. 

And on Friday I got together with my good friend Heather - as we often do on  Fridays - to do a bit of box making. She wanted to show me her way of making a sewing box, something she's been experimenting with lately. You can read about it here. I used my  "Keep Calm" fabric and I'm really pleased how the box came together. 

To close the box tightly, I used a piece of elastic cord and two buttons, so nothing will fall out while transporting it to and from the quilt group/class.

There's a little cutting mat hidden in the lid as well as a piece of sand paper (which is very useful when drawing on fabric around templates). Then there are different compartments, one with a lid,  for all the sewing utensils. Clever, n'est-ce pas?

Of course the fabric lends itself perfectly for a small pin cushion and I also made a teeny tiny "flannel design board".

After all this crafting, the sewing room needed a good clean up, which I did yesterday.

And today I woke to this: rain, glorious rain. It has been so very dry here the last few month that one could almost hear nature sigh with relieve. 

By all accounts, an excellent week. I hope yours was equally great, whatever you did. 

Cheers

Vreni x