Blogger's Quilt Festival - 488

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting!

I have always loved to look at all the entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival but was always too busy to participate. Well, this time I am busy studying Spanish. And where to better learn a foreign language then in one of the sunniest cities in Spain :) 

  

When I arrived here, we were having winter like weather in Germany and I was delighted to be greeted with blue skies and temperatures that I associate with summer. Fast forward to now: rain that won't stop and that makes me wish I had taken a quilt with me. More precisely, I am wishing for my flannel quilt made with Anna Maria Horners "Folksy Flannel" line. 

  

 I hoarded these fabrics for what feels like forever before finally deciding that it needed to be turned into something because I wanted to look at them more frequently. It took me hours to get settled on that zigzag pattern, mostly because I was looking for a pattern that didn't require too much piecing (because flannel is not very cooperative) but that wasn't too simple. Finally I gave in to the zigzag thingy and cut my fat quarters into smaller brick like shapes.

Because I don't have a design wall, I laid everything on our living room floor which was barely big enough and we all had to tiptoe around it. It took me hours to finally get the layout to work out (I tried to make the patterns match and keep everything as rainbowy as possible), I had just enough fabric to make the quilt and not a single inch more. I even pieced some of those bricks because some of the fqs got distorted after being washed. I remember watching two James Bond films in February while discussing the layout with one of my roommates, who oddly seemed to enjoy our conversation (after all, most boys don't).

Here it is all rolled up and I just love the rainbow it creates. Just like I love all things rainbow.
And doesn't it look so cuddly? I wish it was here with me :)

 I backed it with a flannel panel I had since I ordered the fq stash. You can see that I didn't have enough of Folksy Flannel and I had to add white flannel around it. I used a special high loft cotton batting and quilted some swirls, just a few so it wouldn't take away any of the cuddliness (is that even a word?).

 

This quilt holds a special place in my heart, not just because I love each print and because somehow freemotion quilting seemed to work on it (most of the time I can't get my quilts to cooperate :) yet this one was really wonderful) but also because it reminds me of evenings spent deciding on the layout and discussing it with others which I usually don't do.

Quilt Stats

Finished quilt measures : 1,4m x 1,8m / 55" x 71" 

Special techniques used :none

Quilted by : me!

Best Category :Throw Quilt, ROYGBIV Quilt, Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Please go and check out all the other wonderful quilt entries in the festival, they are simply stunning!

Enjoy the festival!

Johanna

Winner, Bee fabric and Account settings

Thank you to everyone who entered the Dolce giveaway! 

I will hope to do that soon again, I just love giving stuff away!

And the winner is:

who is Junebug. Congratulations! I will email you in a bit to get your address.

In other news, October is my month in the Bee Europa.  I have been busy deciding what to send out and what to request. I really love sewing things for others, most of the time it is something I wouldn't have come up myself and I love the challenge!

This time the challenge was to request something new that hasn't already been done and which I can later give to someone special. I decided to go with paperpieced letters with fabrics from a Kona Cotton bundle that I picked up at Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy. I really love this bundle and I think that the recipient will do so, too. Because I want to surprise him/her :) I won't tell you more but I will post pictures as soon as the quilt has been gifted.

So, last but not least, a question for you. I have been told that blogger apparently set back some of my settings on this blog and that word verification was turned on (thank you again for telling me!). So I turned it off and promptly received tons of spam mail. So now I have turned off the anonymous comments but I know that some people like to comment who don't have an account at any blogging. 

Should I turn the verification thingy back on and know that this bothers tons of people? Or should I stay with my setting of not getting anonymous comments? 

Of course I would just prefer to not get spam comments :)

Have a great day!

Johanna

PS: Tomorrow is "Tag der deutschen Einheit" (Germany Reunification Day) which will be celebrated in almost every city here. I can't believe it has already been 22 years! If you want to read more, please go here.

Craft Month

Hi everyone!

It has been craft book month for the past 30 days :) and of course I had to wait until the very last minute to participate. There is something about a looming deadline that lets me get creative.

Let me say that I rarely buy craft books. I own three, one of them Amy Butler's Style Stitches. Now, I know that this is probably one of the books almost everybody has at home and the Cosmos Bag is probably the most made bag. 

But if you want to use faux leather (not quite sure you would call it that, basically it is plastic and sewing with it has the same advantages and challenges that coated fabrics create) you are probably wondering if this bag is even possible to make.

 

The short answer is: yes! I simplified the pattern a bit: no outer side pockets and no clipping the edges on the bottom panel the way it is described in the pattern. You also have to be carefully when sewing with faux leather because every stitch shows and your stitches shouldn't be too narrow because it can tear the fabric apart.

I must also say that this is not an easy pattern to make - contrary to what the description says. Having a lot of experience with sewing patterns comes in handy but if I hadn't had them I doubt I would have tried. Last time I made the pattern, I was shocked to see how huge it turned out so this time I shrank all the pieces to 75%. I think it is the perfect size now!

Because I was afraid that the handles may come undone if I pieced them together, I cut them in one single piece. Now, getting the lining and the outer fabric to match up was quite a challenge but I basically folded the seam allowances to the inside, put the left sides together, put paper clips in place instead of pins and just topstiched through both layers. No turning necessary :)

And here it is on me (yes, with a heart the same color as the bag!). If you made this bag, let me know how you thought it went, I would love to hear it.

Have a great start into the week!

Johanna

Thank you and a giveaway at the end

Thank you everyone for repinning me! I am very grateful that you helped me!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it under the first ten people to fill up their repins, so no fabric for me. I must say that I found it a bit unfortunate about how everything was handled. I do understand that giving away that many bundles is too much for a business but as a shop owner myself I usually limit the things I give away (or I keep an eye on the giveaway to make sure it doesn't bankrupt me).  But I really don't want to restart the discussion here, a lot of people made their point over at the blog post announcing giveaway winners.

Now, onto happier things. This quilt was made with the help of my friends from Bee Germany and uses Dolce from Tanya Wheelan and two solids. It doesn't have any batting, just a back and a front and I simply quilted around the stars. Now I can use it as a table cloth and not just as a summer quilt.

And now onto the giveaway! In order to say thanks to you, I am giving away a small stack of Dolce by Tanja Wheelan. There are a few FQs and some Fat Eights in there as well as some scraps.

I weight it and it makes for 2 yards of fabric. 

 

Just leave a comment over the next three days and I will select a winner on Sunday. I will send it anywhere in the world.

 

 Good luck to everyone!

Johanna

I need your help on Pinterest

Well, as you all probably now know Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is having a wonderful contest over at pinterest. If you pin a bundle from Randi and get the number of repins that the bundle costs you get the chance to win it. 

I had my eye on Perfectly Perched for a while, it is just too pretty to resist. And I need your help to get it! Will you please repin my pin here? 
All you need to do is click on the link, it will take you to my pin. Then you click onto "repin" and you pin it to one of your boards. You need to be on Pinterest to do this. For instruction how to participate go to Randi's blog post.

 

And please leave a comment so that I can repin yours as well.

I have about two more days left :)

Thank you so much for your help!

Johanna

Some fabric bundles

Hello everyone!

I have been rearranging my stash and I found some fabrics that I didn't even know I had ( I do hope that happens to some of you, too :) )
Some of that has to go so that my closet doesn't explode again (like it did last week...)
Up for graps is a bundle of some fabrics from the Meadowsweet collection from Sandi Henderson with a coordinating brown solid.

Measurements from left to right:
brown solid: a bit less then half a yard
pink dots: a bit less then a yard
orange rose: a bit more then 1 FQ
Pink flowers: 1 FQ
Vintage Paisley: a bit less then a yard in length,
half a yard in width
dark roses: 1.5 FQ
middle roses: 1.5 FQ
5 prints of large scraps plus some 8"scraps that are not pictured.
All in all about 3.5 yards of fabric for 25€ (which is about 30$). Shipping will be 7€ (9$) international, 2,20€ within Germany.

The next fabric bundle is from Sandi Hendersons Farmers Market/ Meadowsweet collections plus a matching Amy Butler print from her Lotus collection.
They are all half yard cuts with exception of the Amy Butler print that is missing a 4 by 8 Inch piece. You would also get some matching scraps with these prints if desired.
All in all a bit less then 2.5 yards of fabric for 16€ (which is about 20$). Shipping will be 7€ (9$) international, 2,20€ within Germany.

I would love to give those fabrics away but fabric is just too expensive being a student with no money :)
Please email me or write a comment if you would like to buy one of these bundles. I will get back to you with a paypal invoice and send them off as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Johanna

And some Scraps....

Update: gone, thank you!


I also have some scraps that I am willing to part with. Unfortunately I will only be able to ship them to someone in Europe and you have to be willing to pay shipping charges because the package is quite large. There are 2,2kg of scraps, mostly quilt shop fabric. Some of the scraps are as large as a fat eighth, but most are smaller. I used scraps like these to make my string quilts, like this one:


Shipping costs to anywhere in Europe is 17€, within Germany it is 6,90€. If you prefer that I just send you the quilt shop fabric in this package then shipping costs will be 8,90€ for within Europe and 4,10€ for within Germany.

Just leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Hope you are having a great day!


Und nun noch ein paar Stoffreste, die ich leider nicht mehr selber verarbeiten kann. Leider kann ich sie nur innerhalb Europas verschicken, da ansonsten die Versandkosten zu hoch werden.
Es sind hauptsächlich Baumwollstoffe in Quiltqualität darin, insgesamt 2,2kg, meist kleiner als ein Fat Eighth. Leider muss ich dafür Versandkosten berechnen. Innerhalb Deutschlands kostet es 6,90€ für das gesamte Paket. 4,10€, wenn Du nur die Quiltstoffe möchtest.

Bitte einfach einen Kommentar hinterlassen (inklusive Emailadresse) und ich komme dann auf Dich zurück.

Einen schönen Tag!
Johanna

New Selvages

Update: All gone, thank you!


I have some selvages to give away. Does anybody want them? I was planning on definitely using them this time but life got a bit in the way :)

If there only was a way to make summer last longer!
Here are some pictures from sunny and warm Italy. And yes, I was very reasonable: not more then one gelato a day :)

Summer sewing

Hello everyone,

somehow, summer decided not to show this year, instead it feels more like fall just went ahead and got itself a yearlong ticket to Munich.

I now got a little time on hand and am determined to finally get all my UFOs out of my hair. I really hate not being able to start new projects because I should continue with old ones.

I have about four quilts I should finish and tons of  other things that got to the half-sewn stage but never made it further. That and my Dawanda shop which I have neglected for the past few months. Whenever I had time to sew, I spent it on something for me. 

That said, I admire people that get through with their projects every single time. I love the process but sometimes get so frustrated when it takes longer then expected that I put it into some little corner in my closet.

This weekend, I managed to put a new quilt top on an old green Ikea blanket. I wonder why I ever picked a green blanket, it is so not my favorite color! At least the front makes me happy now, I just need to recover the back :)

I also have a chubby star quilt top on which I stopped sewing two years ago because the colors just weren't right. I am wondering if I should take it apart and reuse the Sandi Henderson Fabric in another quilt. I did use the scraps from it to make three placemats. So that little corner in my closet can breath again :)

And then there was a bit of new fabric that arrived a couple of days ago and made such a perfect upholstered chair. I had been planning to do so since I got it a year ago :)

 

 I hope you are all having a great summer, with hopefully some sewing time in between :)

Johanna

Well, it's not even two weeks later and I already announce my winners :)

I simply picked two winners and hoped that one would be in Europe and it worked!

But first, if you didn't win but want to get the book, use the code BLOGTOUR at checkout and you get an amazingly 20% off. Thank you Amanda!

 who is Celine from the UK and

 CJ from Idaho!!! 

Congratulations you two, I will be emailing you in a bit and get your books out as soon as possible.

Thank you everyone for entering! 
Hope you are having a great day,
Johanna

An Apple a Day blog tour and Giveaway

 

Welcome everyone!

Today's my turn to host the An Apple a Day Blog Tour! Please continue reading, there is a giveaway at the end!

 It took me a while to come up with my project, I thought for days on what a quilter would really need. 

Me, I am always annoyed that whenever I am going to visit someone, all my sewing supplies, all the small stuff somehow gets thrown into three different bags and still is totally out of order when I arrive and want to sew. 

So I made a bag that has enough pockets to carry everything with you. There are pockets for the rulers, for your pencils, for your spray starch or iron (or those small water bottles that I like to carry around), for your scissors. 

There are zippered pockets for those small things that you need but which would inevitably fall out of normal pockets. 

 

Click on the pictures to see all the details :)

Here is the full schedule, you can still enter:

Sunday, July 1st: Amanda's Blog & Jana's Blog

Monday, July 2nd: Julie's Blog

Tuesday, July 3rd: Sally's Blog 

Wednesday, July 4th: Candice's Blog

Thursday, July 5th: Stephanie's Blog

Friday, July 6th: Johanna's Blog <----- you are HERE!!!!

Saturday, July 7th: Jackie's Blog

Sunday, July 8th: Brooke's Blog

 

Now, for the giveaway: I am giving away two copies of
An Apple a Day, 9 projects for the daily life of sewist, quilters and crafters!
One to someone living in Europe,
one to someone living somewhere else in the world!

If you want to enter, please leave me a comment telling me where you live and what you would sew first from the book.

If you can't wait for the book, you can purchase it here.
 
Good luck everyone!

Johanna

An Apple a Day Blog Tour started

Good morning everyone!

July has started and so has the An Apple a Day Blog Tour! And because this is a book tour, we'll be having inspiring pictures, little stories, fun tutorials and - of course- lots of giveaways you can enter at each stop. 

Make sure you visit each member of the creative team, you won't regret it!

And because this is day one, we'll be starting with TWO giveaways :)

Here is the full schedule:

Sunday, July 1st: Amanda's Blog & Jana's Blog

Monday, July 2nd: Julie's Blog

Tuesday, July 3rd: Sally's Blog 

Wednesday, July 4th: Candice's Blog

Thursday, July 5th: Stephanie's Blog

Friday, July 6th: Johanna's Blog (ME!)

Saturday, July 7th: Jackie's Blog

Sunday, July 8th: Brooke's Blog

Since I am in Europe, my books took a while to get here. But let me tell you: so worth the wait! Is it weird to be inspired by your own project? I could never have taken those pictures and never have put together and layouted the book the way Amanda did. Did you know that she did all this in the already crazy weeks before quilt market?
Make sure you stop by her blog and tell her how amazing she is :)
And if you can't wait to win the book, you can purchase it here.

Hope you are all having a great summer and please come visit me on Friday :)

Johanna

Blogtour

Long time, no see! I am having such a good summer, it is hard to sit down at my sewing machine and therefore I have nothing to show you. Well, almost :) 

I do have an anouncement to make, though. You may have already seen it on the blogs of the other members of the Design Team: we made a book! And to celebrate, we are doing a BLOGTOUR!

And every blogtour comes with giveaways, so keep an eye out for us.

Meanwhile I will leave you with pictures from my latest kids quilt, which should be for sale in my Dawanda shop tomorrow.

Hope you are having a great summer!

Johanna

 PS: and this little one managed to somehow get included when I uploaded my pictures :)
The newest addition to my shop and made from the pretty Dutch Love fabrics from Hamburger Liebe.