Saturday

I've been meaning to do this for awhile now and today was the day. I went over to Schoeniach, to see a quilt shop called PatchCom. The owner, Brigit Klein was having a quilt fest. People brought their quilts to display while they were shopping, taking part in activities, watching demos or having coffee and visiting in a beautiful outdoor area. There were a really nice variety of quilts. Nadine Ruggles was there with a ton of her Inchies, she makes it look so easy. Everytime I see her mini works of art, I want to try making some. Brigit's shop is a lovely light filled space. If you haven't made it out there, I would recommend a visit.
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I was able to get this quilted and bound in a realatively short time. I had fun making these silly meandering flowers and I love the rich colors of the Kaffee Fassett fabrics.

One more down a million more to go.....

A pretty perfect day

I woke up earlier than I'd wanted to. So when You Know Who came in from his run saying there are two hedge hogs out by the door, I was ready. By the time I got out there though, one was bumpity bumping off through the grass. I should have taken a movie. It was funny. The other one froze. At first it looked at me and then...... It attempted to roll into a ball. Either it wasn't very practiced or I wasn't very threatening. Hiding it's eyes under it's spiky brow was the best it could do. Yes, Jessica, I touched it. That photo was blurry. It's very hard to take a picture at dawn, laughing, outside in your pjs, knowing your German neighbors have seen, and feeling so sorry for this little creature that you can't resist touching.

After that I pretty much started the day with a vengance. The next item up is a wristlet key thingy that I've wanted to make for awhile. I don't have the "real" hardware that everyone else uses, so this is my version. I love it, I don't know why but it makes walking the dog more fun. This one is for a certain friend.... is it pink enough?

Six more installments towards my spider web quilt.

A quilt top finished and hopefully quilting will commence soon. This is for a seven year old who likes race cars. I'm glad he also said these colors are favorites, they all happen to be flag colors in racing. I hope he likes it.

And then I was thiiiiiis close to finishing another top. Oh the saddness of miscalculation. Oh the harsh trials of directional fabric. So Jess, here's a preview, if you don't like it, too late.

And for goodness sake, if you don't like animal fur or random strings of thread do not magnify this photo. Thank you.

I even managed house cleaning and an hours walk around town, in the heat, getting bad directions, searching for a totto lotto that had a package for me.

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More later

Almost complete, complete, and sneak peek

Lizy helped me with this quilt top..... She got her's done first. I have had this fabric for a year. The line is Basic Grey, Urban Couture. I too used the Turning Twenty pattern. I chose to add in the purples so even though the fabrics are the same and the pattern is the same, our quilts totally reflect what we like! Just like her, I am going to add another border before quilting it. I love it. Don't know why I waited so long. When I got as far as I could go with that top, I spotted this pattern. Well, see, I'd just kinda thrown it on the table and left it there since our visit from our R and Z reps. I was working on same said table and kept shoving the pattern from side to side. After trying not to let any of the same fabrics touch in the quilt (didn't suceed) I needed something a bit more....mindless. I still had some fatquaters left from the quilt and wa la! Kinda funky, kinda 80's but it's done.

Now for the sneak peek. I must apologize for the color in the picture. Who knew energy saving lights could do this? I mean seriously, they not only do not give off enough light, but they totally make colors look icky. This is the Metro Blue goes Green that we just got into the shop. I'd been waiting for it forever! I am using an AMH pattern that's free! I was going to cut out the templates she has until I realized I had a ruler that works. It is one Kimberly Einmo made for flying geese. So instead of tracing all the templates, I was just able to cut 5.25 inch strips WOF and stack the strips to cut them. So much easier. I would like to say I got it done but since I only started it yesterday, getting this far is not too bad. I shouldn't be showing it, but I love it. I lost some of my points but I still LOVE it.

gemütlichkeit.........

I love this word. It's a feeling, as close as I can translate (correct me please if I am wrong), of coziness, warmth, friendship or friendliness. It pretty much permeated my whole weekend.



It started Friday night. I have no pictures because I was having fun in the moment. There were quite a few of us at the shop doing some late night sewing and painting pottery. It is so much fun to get together with old friends and potential new friends to share in common interests.



Saturday, the man and I were quite lazy. In the evening I allowed him to take me out to one of my favorite restaurants. The Wildpfadstueble (the old Busnauer Hof) is a wonderful place to go and relax for a bit. Marion and Detlef are a warm couple and most of the time you feel as if you have been invited into their home. Detlef is an extraordinary chef, I have never been dissappointed and I have had everything on the menu. Pictured below is some apple kuchen he made. If I hadn't already eaten too much, I would have asked for another piece. It is almost better than his tiramisu..... hmmm, I need tiramisu....

Sunday was equally as relaxing with an afternoon drive to Esslingen to see a quilt show. The Log Cabin Ladies got together and made all of these quilts for the SOS kinderdorf. It's a place for children in need. The quilts were wonderful and each was made for a specific child with their likes taken into consideration. I love the generosity and care that went into each of these works. The pictures on the top left are the front and back of one quilt, amazing. I wish I could show you each quilt, but you get an idea of all the effort that went into this kind act.

After leaving the quilt show, we took the long way home partly on the weinstrasse. You know who was very kind and when I squealed, "I wanna stop here!!!" obligingly did so. He didn't even mind when I climbed down the embankment, in my heels, like a crazy person. Of all the days to wear heels. Hope you like the pictures....

Quilt tops

So, while trying to get over jet lag I made these two baby size quilt tops. You saw the Flip Flop block last post but I hope this is a better picture. The newest one is from the same designer and is called the S curve. You can see her here. The first quilt was very easy to put together. The next was just a bit more time consuming. For someone who wants to quilt but not do a lot of piecing this could be a fun project. There are several other versions at various levels of difficulty to choose from and I am sure you could come up with a few of your own!

Goats, they're just cool

I had the opportunity to spend time with a very nice young woman, her kids and her kids...... Becky, among raising children, chickens and goats, also designs quilts. I don't have any pictures of her quilts but I will bring home the patterns. So I started quilt market early, going straight to a source.....

I am now in Portland, ready for the market. First, there must be food, I have my priorities..... I won't bore you with the dinner picture but it was good! I am putting up the dessert picture. We dove into it before I could pull out the camera. If you had been there, you'd know why.