Geckos

I totally blame my current obsession with quilting on my sister (which is totally fair, I think, as she blames me with her current knitting obsession)
While I was visiting her this summer, I saw a wall hanging with two geckos I really liked. Luckily, she still had the pattern, so when I got my hands on some really nice batic fabrics, I gave it a swirl.

 I actually still nead to finish the edging and wash the thing and maybe add a tunnel on the back for hanging, but other than that, I'm very pleased.
A detail of one of the geckos shows the free motion quilting I did (just scribbling swirls, nothing fancy). Not too bad for a first time, but definitely some room for improvement still.

 And as I had nothing else to do (*gough* housekeeping *gough*) I made some apple chutney / apple-banana chutney from apples gifted to me by a friend. There is not much yield, but what there is is highly concentrated flavour. Especially the one without the banana holds quite a spicy kick.

Into the Labyrinth

 Last week I used the nice weather and went for a little hike in the Saxon Switzerland (Sächsische Schweiz). First stop was the so called Labyrinth, a pile of boulders with a meandering path laid out through it. Some of the paths leads between large boulders and as it narrows down you have to squeeze through. Unless it gets too narrow, then you have to turn around and find another way.

After this I hiked out to the Zeizigstein, a sandstone column with a really nice view from the top. There was a ladder leading to the top, which made reaching the top somewhat easier. And the view was well worth it. With 550m above see level the Zeizigstein is actually the third highest peak in Saxon Switzerland.

On the way back I stopped in Prina and admired the ceiling in the Marienchurch.

What Is Trump?

In my gaming group we love to play a card game we either call 'Prediction' or 'Up and Down'. I'm not really sure what the right name of the game is. My sister learned it a long time ago on a trip through Africa from some of her fellow travellers. Basically, each round you play with less and less cards, while the trump suit also changes each round. Goal is to predict how many tricks you will make each round. Correct prediction will give you five points, while each trick you make will give you another point.
(I did some digging and found that the games 'Oh, Hell' or 'Up And Down The River' seem fairly similar to our game - though there are some variations still)
Prediction is our fall back game anytime we are not able to play our usual roleplaying game because one of our group is not available.
As the suit which is trump changes every round, a very common question is: "What is trump?"
For which I now have the perfect solution:

Suit coasters!!

I used felt and applicated the suit color using my sewing machine. On the backside I sewed some soft leather.

Mission Accomplished

After one day and four evenings (though, of course, not all the time ...)

Very Puzzling

I'm working on this Lord of the Rings jigsaw puzzle. It's a fairly difficult one (at least I think so ...), but I'm plowing on.

It's driving me crazy, but it's also a lot of fun. :)

Balla Balla

I made those two balls on the weekend. The sewing is done by hand, but using the right technique (in this case the English paper method) it's super simple and is a lot of fun. I stuffed them with polyfill and granules used for stuffing dolls or teddy bears. In the middle of each is also a little bell, though it's not really loud.  

 Mathematically the balls are regular dodecahdrons, formed of twelve regular pentagons (I love that!)

I'm thinking about making them a little smaller still and fill them with catnip for friends who have cats.

More tricky (as the instructions were not 100% correct and some guesswork was involved) to make was this little backpack. At the moment I'm happy with the outcome, though it has to be seen how usuable it is in the end.

It was the first time I did crazy patchwork, and that was a lot of fun to make.

 

Finally, the last of the tree Mini Mandala Gardens. I changed a bit how I attached the beads on this, then decided that I liked it more and went back to the other two mandalas and redid most of the beads there.