Happy 2015

Happy 2015

It is a long time ago that I wrote a post but to be honest, the curve ball is still stricking me and I am not really able to concentrate on crafting, sewing or whatever. However it is time to face the FAL Q4. This is the last time we link up with Katy. Thank you so much for hosting the FAL 2014 and hope you have a relaxed 2015 coming up. 2015 we will have a new host and I am sure I am in.

I had already a look yesterday and I am pretty pleased with this quarter. I almost finished my list but lets just have a look: 1. Hexagon-Quilt ...... DONE

I  love it so much! It is absolutely cosy and we fight for it every evening

2. Flying Geese Block ... BINNED

there will be other projects for this fabrics

3. Embroidery ... DONE

finish this and put up in the room for my girl when she comes home from school ... surprise :)

4. Gloves ... DONE

nice, compfy and cosy but this winter is everything than cold :D

5.  PJs for my little one ... DONE

I made these and two other tops for the girls 

7. Modern Stitching Bee Quilt .... not yet

I am really sad about this as I am still waiting for blocks but will start to finish the next days

4 out of 7 is not so bad! My girls are  happy to have new pj's and I am with my new quilt. Thank you Katy for hosting a wonderful year with great tutorials! 

Falling Hexagons

It was a long time ago that I wanted to make a quilt out of hexagons. I had many plans how to make it but it was only some weeks ago that I made the final desicion. At the end I changed my mind again but now it is done. I have my hexagon quilt!

Salthill, Galway

It took a long time to burry all the threads from quilting and my time table was totally a mess as I underestimated how this will take. I also removed the FMQ quilting I had done as a border. I did not like it at all. Not that it was my first try and it was just not good it also did not match all the straight lines with the curves.

I used pink and aqua varigated thread around the hexagons and a yellow to add a diagonal line. To emphasize the last line falling out I added straight line getting wider at the end using all three colors. This is the first time trying to add a picture with the quilting.

I am happy how the quilt came together. It will be a cosy fluffy one for the living room now when the days get colder. Therefore I used fleece which my girl chose for the back (now my sewing machine is pink too). It is a heavy and comfy quilt.

Waterwheel, Galway

I am so happy as this is my second finish on the FAL Q4 list. Only some more and I get the jackpot! Now I have to hurry and get on going on the pillow for the Irish Quilter Swap and I have to finish the tutorial for my bee block for December!

And linking  up with Finish It up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

FAL Q4 "the list"

It is always the big question which of the projects do you take to the next quarter and which would be better left out?!? Making a list is always a good way to look around in the sewing room and think of what has to be done ... let me say it ... until Christmas! ... or before 2015 hits you!


So time to write the list:

1. Hexagon-Quilt

I got the background and am ready to start

2. Flying Geese Block

I used most of these fabrics to make a trial block which needs to be turned into something useful

3. Embroidery

This is my work when my little ones does her homework. Stitch Along at http://www.lilipopo.co.uk/ 

4. Gloves

I want to give this pattern an other try. Hopefully I will not have freezing fingers in winter

5.  PJs for my little one

The bottom one is done and now getting ready for the trial run for the top. These are the fabrics for the finished PJs

7. Modern Stitching Bee Quilt

I am waiting for two more blocks and need to make lots of HSTs for the border

This list is long enough to keep me working and short enough to have success (I might be dreaming but sometimes you need to get out of your comfy box). So fingers crossed it will all work out fine and I will have two cosy quilts either to give away or to snuggle in at Christmas!

Blogger Quilt Festival

I have to thank all the bloggers out there for the reminder that it is Blogger's Quilt Festival Time. I took part the last year and it was so much fun. There are so many stunning quilts and stories. I really enjoyed looking around.

Hello and welcome! Take a cup of tea (I would rather drink coffee but in Ireland they like me to serve tea) and "listen" to my story. Hope you have fun! My name is Anneliese and I am an Austrian living in Ireland and this is the story to my sons birthday quilt. I really had to think hard in which category I want to put my "Nerdquilt" and finally chose Original Design. This quilt was made and designed with my son for his eleventh birthday this year. It is not easy to make a quilt for a boy and I found this age tricky so we did it together. It is obvious that he loves maths and chess.

So we both sat down on the drawing board and tried to make something for him. I started with the idea of math and math symbols. This is just not enough to fill a quilt so we added the black king. If there is a black king there has to be something in white too so we chose to add the rook in an inverse block.

This was the first plan so I started to make blocks. The background is made out of 2'' squares in low volume mainly. The sewing was straight forward and so the blocks came together nicely whenever there was time to sew. To get him involved again we put batting on his wall and he had to arrange the blocks how he likes them. That was not that easy as first I did not have enough batting and second the space in his room was limited. You can see some blocks are upside down...

It was at last minute when this quilt finally got a finish. The children were off from school for midterm break, chicken pox in the house and all the wonderful time tables could be thrown in the bin. Additionally I messed up the two last blocks several times before I could figure out how they have to be done. Doesn't look that difficult, does it?

So I had to make a night shift to deliver the present when he wakes up in the morning.

To keep the quilting simple I only did diagonal quilting. I really like how it breaks the squares. It takes ages to quilt all 27 lines and 54 rows. For the backing he chose a fluffy blanket in grey and for the binding we bought "Script Noir". It was at about 2 am in the morning when I finally could go to bed and this baby was put in his room waiting him to wake up.

It was lots of fun to make this quilt with him and he loves it. Hopefully the summer will arrive so I can give it a good wash. The quilt measures 54'' x 74'' and is big enough for both of us.

Hope you enjoyed the little story about this quilt and have seen something you like.

Some details to the nerdquilt

It took a long time but finally I found the cable to transfer the pictures I made from the quilt. I loved to play around with the blocks and so did my son. Just let me show you how his room looked like for February when I gave him one block after the other.

On the wall next to his bed we nailed the last piece of batting and stick block after block. When we came to row four there was no more space underneath so he just went to the side. The rook and the cube still look good but to read Einstein's equation you have to turn your head.

The quilt also got quite huge so basting had to be done on the kitchen floor and therefore everything else had to be removed or put to the side. There would be a bigger space in the living room but there is a carpet and it somehow feels not as good as taping the back to the ground.

It was a cold evening when I started quilting but after some rows it good quite warm. For the back we used a grey blanket he chose as we could not find any fleece in a lovely color that would match the front. Baby blue and beige was not really an option so we were glad that we could find a blanket that suited in color and softness.

And the equation was back in the place I had it planed. He did not really learn it in school till now and I am pretty sure he has no clue what it is about but he will find it out later. So my hope is on that the quilt will still be in style when he gets older.

He also might not have seen it till now but I pus some hugs and hearts in as well. I am still the mum so I am allowed to do so :)
Today was one of the first times the rugby was held in sunshine and it was not really cold (The last week I was walking around the pitch quite fast to stay warm while the kids had training) and so I took the opportunity to make some pics. The girls had a training session on the side pitch and the boys were playing Ballinasloe. They had a great time and I could enjoy the sunshine!

Modern Quilt Guild Galway

Some days before the first Thursday in a month I get a reminder from Cindy for our little meet up. So yesterday we sat down in a lobby to have a chat, tea/coffe and did a little stitching. We really had a lovely space with lots of light and it was warm and comfy. So actually there was no need to bring my nerd quilt but I promised to show when it is finished. If you want to see more about it have a look at Fluffy Sheep. She also shows the amazing work from Annette which I forgot to take pictures.

And for Cindy, please let me return the favor. She brought her little donation quilt. It is so gorgeous. I love all the charms she used and so many lovely colors. You can not see the binding properly but the little flowers are just sweet. I really love it.

I had my new pouch filled with my paper piecing and my "Nordika" circles to work with. I finally decided I want to make them into a table runner. 

It was so lovely to meet you two yesterday. 

February is gone ..

I feel like I have done nothing in February than making "nerdquilt". Don't get me wrong, it was amazing. I love it! I made my own pattern,  did an awful lot of calculating, a huge number of seams, even paper piecing the root as all the other options did not work and much more! But I love this baby! It is the second night walking into his room seeing him snuggled in this comfy blanked with a little grin.
So this is what February in sewing looks like:

I also made some bee blocks and there is at least one block missing (first thing to be done on Monday morning) but I am happy!

Linking up with

Happy Birthday my boy!

I did it! Today at 1.46 am I switched the sewing machine off and had a finished quilt. The last steps were quite hard but I did it. He was so happy this morning.
It all started with a wish and a plan to full fill this wish: a quilt! Big enough to snuggle in and of course it had to be cool. So why not make a quilt with his favorite things: maths and chess! That was the plan and that was the map therefore ...

I have to be honest - the heart was not cool enough so we had to make a hexagon instead. The whole quilt is divided in 2'' squares which was my grid. The main blocks were the numbers 1 to 9 followed by the mathematical operations +,-./ and *. To fill some blocks I added the shapes: triangle and hexagon, cube and sphere (or circle). He loves chess so one corner is occupied by the black king while the white rook protects the other. The last spot I drew a bar graph which he made into a book shelf .... and this is how it looks

This quilt measures 27x37 squares which should make it a size of 54x74 ''. Almost 1000 squares later the quilt got a diagonal quilting and a binding and I a good sleep. Now I am totally done! Happy Birthday!

Linking up with finish it up Friday at Amanda

Half way through ...

If you ever have plans for midterm think about that someone could bring home Chickenpox which break out on Sunday (best day to get a doctor) and you are "imprisoned" for the break. That was what happened. The only fun part was on Thursday driving through the big M for food. So not much sewing was done the last week and not the pressure is on. Friday is the big day and today block number 16 (out of 24) was done: the cube!

I am happy that my girl immediately saw the cube. So this means I have done it right. Tomorrow I hope to finish the last blocks so we can go and arrange the top to be sewn on Wednesday. This is going to be a tight timetable now. Fingers crossed everything goes right.....

18 days to go ...

There is not much going on in the house these days. I managed to finish the last seam from the bag and she took it happily today to  her dance class. The shoes fit perfectly and the extra bags on the side give space for a small water bottle or the socks. Thanks to the bag feet and the grid it keeps perfectly in shape. With the long zip it is easy to find things in the bag. I love it and I am so happy it is used now!

large enough to fit the shoes and some other goodies

The other thing I am working on is still the quilt for my son. It will be so different. The two huge blocks are done. Now there are only one or two tricky ones to be made. The others are all straight forward. I have no clue how it is going to look like as my son got a design wall in his room now where he can arrange the blocks. He is excited and I love his smile when I add an other block.

The main color of the quilt will be black and withe. We designed it all on squares. To give it a good size there should be 25 2'' squares in the width and 36 in the length at the end. No, I did not calculate the total number of cuts I have to make. Some blocks will contain orange or aqua. The background is made out of low volume but some will be negative blocks (low volume on black background). So back to sewing! 18 more days until I want to be finished and there are 14 more blocks to be made.

22 days to go

I really was surprised when my son wrote on this wish list for his eleventh birthday: quilt from my mom! Isn't this cute? He got the stained quilt I made following Sarahs QAL feeling ages ago. He loves this quilt but it just to small.

So I sat down some days ago and started to draw a quilt for him. It is going to be very special but I will show you some pictures from work in progress. Today I made the first block. It is done and he loves it.

I  hope to get the first row done tomorrow. The countdown started and there are not many more days. Fingers crossed I have a finished boy quilt in three weeks!

Trip around the world in "Cabbage"

This is what I call this quilt: "Cabbage"! Some already followed the story of this beauty on Instagram but the story started a long time ago. So come with me on a journey of fabrics. It all started with a fabric swap where I took two places. Nothing really dramatic. So I ask hub to bring me those two each one yard.



Really easy BUT I got only one fabric AND a bundle to make a specific quilt. And here we have the problem: the bundle is absolutely not mine (big flowers) and there was no pattern! Just a little tiny note what you have to buy extra and where to get the pattern. I do not tell you that it was very expensive and the minimum I would ask for spending so much money is a sheet with cutting instructions. There was nothing!!! So the bundle was put in the corner until a short time before Christmas when I decided to make my mother a birthday present. As I already made trip along blocks I thought that might not be that hard to figure out a whole quilt. I sat down and did some maths (I love that part) and started cutting and sewing. The first block came together really easy and it was faster than expected. I used some left overs of the squares to make a pillow with the kids.


I have to say the kids really had fun putting the stamp pad all over the hands. I was surprised the color war so soft on the fabric. So back to the quilt. The blue fabric should build the diamond and the border and this is how it looks like...

I have to be honest and the colors are amazing. Absolutely vibrant and stunning. I also admit the green is really one of my favorites. So if you ask now why this quilt got its name? The blue fabric is called Cabbage and it is a cabbage field in blue and green.

I am not sure if my mum would be impressed if I tell her these are not roses in blue and green so I just do not do so! As I wanted to have a reflection of  all the colors used I made a scrappy binding and I love it. It really rounds up the whole quilt.

Together with the blue border it is perfect. For the back I again used a fluffy blanket. I wanted to giver her something to cuddle into as she is always complaining about the cold weather. She is most of the time in the living room and the huge window lets the cold in especially in winter time. So now she has her own quilt to warm her up.

The quilting was kept very simple straight lines diagonally. I wanted to make an other spiral as on the pillow but it did not work out. The fluffy blanket got stretched even if I spray glued it to the batting. It was huge work to rip it and after some days I got the last kick and got motivated to finally finish it.

Nine days after the birthday the bundle now is finished to travel to Austria. She does not know that I sew and she has no clue that there is a parcel now with birthday cards from the kids traveling to her. I hope she will love it. My girl does ;)

Details to the quilt:

Name:  Cabbage

Made for: my mom

Fabric: Westminster Fassett

Size: Approximately70x72 inches.

Pattern: Trip Around the World using this tutorial with 3.5'' stripes