Meet Fox and Panda for Dinner!

Can you imagine: I haven't been sewing for the last two and a half weeks! I went to Germany for a week and then I send my sewing machine on holidays (check-up) at the same time. I was hoping she would be back when I returned, but she isn't. I called the engineer today and he promised to bring her back tomorrow! I can't wait! I am showing withdrawal symptoms: What do you do when you can't sew? Buy sewing books (Hello "Love at first stitch" and "Colette Guide to sewing knits"), patterns (Hello Bronte Top) and knit fabrics.

Why are placemats more difficult to photograph than people?

Have you ever gotten a check-up for your sewing machine? I wanted to do it for the last year, but just couldn't part from my machine. But now she became really noisy and I had troubles getting all the dust out of her. Then I had a problem with the bobbin case that somehow got stuck. I had to force it out and in the process scratched some of the plastic. If even possible, the noise level went up further. So, I am really excited to see how she is going to perform after her check-up!

Today is my little sisters Birthday (Happy Birthday Tina :) ) and I made her two placemats as a Birthday present: a Panda and Fox. I didn't come up with this pattern by myself, but found it and a tutorial on Chrissy's blog "One crafty place".  The only change I made, was to print the pattern slightly larger so that I could make bigger placemats. 

Except for the dotted fabric, all materials came from my stash/scrap bin. I love the placemats and really want to make them for myself as well! But I doubt that will be soon, as there is always another project that is more urgent to sew, haha.

Placemats modeled with a lemon cake :)

Quilting time!

Today I want to share my latest make with you - it is a quilt I started to make last year in March. I actually finished it this year February, but due to all my thesis writing (only one month to go, yeah!) it's hard at the moment to find time to write posts :P But hopefully after Easter, I am back at my sewing machine and blog!

Spring Quilt

Pattern: Amazingly, the pattern and instructions for this quilt are free. You learn to make the quilt in a patchworking class with Amy Gibson (check out her fabulous blog) on Craftsy! So if you always wanted to learn how to patchwork, but were afraid because of the difficult blocks, just have a look. Amy does an amazing job - I really loved her class.

You see that spiral on the top left corner? That was most difficult to quilt, because it was in the middle of the quilt and because you go round and round a had to squeeze so much. All that massive quilt under my small sewing machine. The block on the bottom left corner is actually quilted with feathers. Can you see them? Me neither :P because this design I just couldn't get in my head!

For the actual quilting I bought the class with Leah Day on Craftsy. Leah does loads of free motion quilting and you might already be aware that this is my favorite way of quilting :) Leah actually has this free motion quilting project going, where she shows you how to make many different designs. Just check out her website! (Note: I am not getting paid by Craftsy by telling you all this. It's just, I love it!)

Fabric: Everything I could find in my boxes and then I bought another piece from time to time :) I tried to go with one color theme that does not only include pink! I think I managed quite well! Although for the quilting, I just couldn't resist!

The flower on the bottom right corner is one of my favorite designs, its called Dresden plate.

Construction: I could have finished this quilt in less than a year. I actually had assembled the quilt top since last summer, but then I started to make my mums butterfly quilt for her birthday and had to stop working on this quilt. It lived in my sleeping room on the basket for the dirty clothes. Thus before washing it, I actually had to go over it with a lint roller just to remove all the dust. Next time, I will put the quilt in a bag :P Luckily this time, none of the colors leaked onto the white background - I must have been extremely unlucky with my mums quilt (possibly because it was a present, something had to just go wrong!)

The "butterfly" on the bottom right corner is made from hexies, that you have to handstitch together! Did I mention that I don't like handstitching? But I survived and actually enjoyed the process :)

The quilting took many hours and I strained quite hard to finish the sashing. You see all these little spirals? I love them, but it was really hard to get them in. I have one confession to make: I didn't unpick a single stitch! There are some really big quilting mistakes in this quilt, areas were I just couldn't keep a straight line or didn't get the pattern right. But you know what? I don't care. The quilt is so busy, you can't spot these mistakes that easily. And as I am not planning to participate in any quilting shows, I really don't mind these mistakes!

The quilt lives now in my living room! I would have liked to hang it onto a wall, but sadly the only wall big enough is in the dining room. I don't want to put it there because I am afraid of the grease and fumes from the kitchen  - we don't have a kitchen door. So it is now on my couch making a beautiful living room decoration.

So, I will leave you with a few more detail pics from my most loved quilted block. It's called flying geese!

The binding reminds me of candy and lollipops!

Although the quilting of this block took about 2 hours, I just love the design! 

And that's the back! Summer yellow!

Teatime: Reversible Table Topper!

I am in the midst of fitting Simplicity 1883 (it was part of my autumn sewing list), which is a dress with princess seams. And as you might know, princess seams and me are no friends. As it might take me a few more weeks (I just assembled muslin 2) to actually finish it, I try to keep myself motivated in between by working on some smaller and easier projects :)

Quick question: Do princess seams have to go over your apex? Mine are like 2" next to it.

So, here comes the reversible table topper!

Do the proportions look wrong? The tea pot is a Chinese clay tea pot and fits only 100 ml :) (if you ever want to have a Chinese tea ceremony)

Fabric: From my quilting stash (I try to use some of that fabric as well, although it is not part of my diet). I bought it when I just started to quilt and ordered it online. So when it arrived I was a little bit surprised because it is a heavy fabric. It said cotton duck, which is actually a linen canvas (artists even paint on it. Why didn't I Wikipedia it before???) But I just love the pattern. All these little tea cups and plates. And the colors. They are my favorites. And what better way to show off the fabric, then to make a table topper!

The front with the snowball blocks...

The back made from fabric strips and little triangles.

Construction: For the front I used the snowball block pattern from cluckclucksew. These are big blocks that come easily together and lock beautiful. When trimming the blocks I cut off little fabric triangles and I just thought it would be a pity to throw them away, so I used them for the back! I didn't plan on making a reversible table topper, but I think the back looks really pretty as well - I almost like it more than the front ;)

See, not stiff at all!

I didn't quilt the table topper, so there is no backing in between the two layers of fabric. This has the advantage that it is not so thick and actually dangles from the table :) If I would have quilted it, the table topper would have been super stiff.

Why is it so difficult to take nice pictures from a table topper on a table?

How about you? Are you inspired to make some decorations for your home? Or do you prefer to make garments?