February Block

My second block for the Hasenbach Challenge is finished. I'm starting to remember, why I have always liked paper piecing so much. I haven't done much of it lately though and was a bit rusty to start with, but I think I'm getting the hang of it again. 

As I will be in Switzerland for most of March I did a bit of advance sewing, so I won't have to catch up when I get back. As I'm not a fan of eight sided snow flakes, I  found a free pattern here for six sided paper pieced flakes.

You can see more blocks for this challenge here.

Happy Sewing!

Vreni x

Can you tell what this is supposed to be?

Another of our friends from the Tuesday group is leaving and she has requested flower blocks for her friendship quilt. And not just any old flower, no, it has to be the flower from our countries of origin. It was  obvious what I had to make, but the how is another story altogether. As there are no quilting or applique patterns for Edelweiss available, I had to design my own. I'm just hoping it is obvious as what it is supposed to be. 

 And a closeup of my French knots. 

To be Dutch would have been much easier. Anybody can applique a tulip, don't you agree?

And now back to my Scrappy Trip Along.

Cheers

Vreni x

Jumping on the bandwagon!

I've been drooling over the lovely Scrappy Trip around the World projects popping up all around blogland and was very much tempted to start my own. Since I finished my scrappy quilt I gave myself the "go ahead" !!!

Since my last quilt was extremely scrappy I'm controlling the scrappiness on this one.  I've started with a jelly roll of soft yellows and browns and I added and a few other coordinated fabrics from my stash as well as introduced a couple of baby blues.  Not only does the jelly roll speed up the process, but I love how all the colours come together.

I'm hoping to finish this quilt in two weeks time as I want to take it back to Switzerland and give it to my favorite aunt who just celebrated her 80th birthday. So I better get off the computer and back to my sewing machine.

Until we speak again.
Vreni x

Scrappy Quilt

Very scrappy indeed! I've used lots of different fabrics, in a way it's a bit like my quilt history. It was interesting to see how my taste has changed over time; from country to shabby chic to Japanese and Chinese and then on to the more modern fabrics. Also some baby and kids prints are included. All is there in a "higgledy-piggledy" fashion! Not the most beautiful quilt, I give you that, but I've used a good part of my scraps. I'm quite ruthless when it comes to throwing out scraps, I only keep it if it has a reasonably size. 

Next step: basting, FMQ then binding. Who knows when that will happen as there are already six tops waiting to be quilted. 

I wish you all 

Gong Xi Fa Cai

as today we welcome the year of the snake!

Hopefully I'll be back soon.
Cheers
Vreni x

This n' that

With the exception of one, I've got all the blocks back from the "Around the World Quilting Bee". I'm immensely pleased with them, as they are exactly what I wanted.

I have been making a few more blocks, trying out some  new techniques I've learned on an online class on Craftsy called "Big Techniques from small Scraps" with Sarah Fielke. For this block I used my Dresden ruler. I really like the look of it and I'm tempted to make a quilt this way using my scraps. 

The next thing I tried was curved piecing without pinning. I've always been very scared of curves but it was actually quite easy. 

Then I tried out some deconstructed piecing, which is another name for free hand cutting and piecing. 

The next two blocks were inspired by Syko. She calls this "close your eyes quilting", meaning she doesn't plan the layout of the blocks, but just dives into her scrap bin, takes some out and sews them together any which way. A perfect way to use up all the scraps I got back from the bee members together with the blocks. 

I couldn't help myself and joined another Quilt Along, called The Hasenbach Challenge. It's being organized by Katrin in Germany. I fell in love with the winter scene and as we only need to make one block each month, even I should be able to keep up. 

My first paper pieced block.

Then I made another friendship block as we had to say good bye to another member of our Tuesday crafts group. 

  

I realised that I never showed you the quilt or cushion I received as part of the swap I've taken part recently. This little owl is now sitting in my sewing room and it came from Cathy all the way from the USA. Thank you Cathy!

And out of the blue, my friend Rose-Anne sent me this lovely embellished heart. Isn't it gorgeous?

Enjoy the weekend and happy Australia Day to all my friends Down Under.

Vreni x

How far will you go? Quilt Along

My friend Jess (and her friend Jess) organised a QAL called "How far will you go?". The idea was that one didn't have to go the whole way but it was up to us to decide "how far we wanted to go" (hence the name).

I didn't get terrible far, I'm afraid! I only managed to make four out of the eighteen blocks on offer (or four and a half, to be precise)

You are now probably wondering what on earth it is supposed to be!

It's a  cover for my Bernina 820. I've been planning to make one since I got it nearly three years ago, but I just never got around to it. This machine is quite a bit bigger than my other machines, so the cover I made before didn't fit. Now I just have to remember to cover my machine when I'm not using it so it won't get so dusty anymore. 

There are even prizes up for grabs, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. 

As today is the dead line to enter and to have a chance to win one of those gift certificates,  I have linked up here!              

Happy Weekend everyone!

Vreni x

A belated Christmas gift

I made my daughter a shopping tote for Christmas. She liked it but told me that she would have preferred it a bit bigger. So what's a good mum to do? Of course make her a bigger one. And this one got her complete approval (and it's reversible) !

As today is the 6th of January (Epiphany) I made a "Three King Bread" (another Swiss tradition).  Traditionally there's a small plastic king hidden in one of the smaller buns, but since I haven't got one, I used a whole almond instead. Whoever gets the bun with the king inside, is king or queen for the day and is allowed the wear the crown. As it turned out lager than I though, I suspect we'll be eating it for breakfast for the next few days.

Bon appétit!

Vreni x