Handarbeitshaus mit Museum

One of my favorite stores for patchwork fabric is the 'Handarbeitshaus mit Museum' in Gröbern by Meissen.
It's in an old half-timber house and has possibly the most weird opening hours of all stores I know (Thursday and Friday between 10AM and 6PM, and Sunday between 2PM and 5PM)

 It also has the most amazing selection of patchwork fabrics I've seen anywhere. This here is about 2/3 of what they have on Kaffe Fassett fabrics alone and this is only a tiny fraction of all the stuff they have.

It's not the cheapest place to buy - they have the usual German price range, which is about 25 ~ 40% more expensive than the US from what I've seen), but the selection is really impressive.
They also offer Jelly rolls (Rollmöpse), charm packs, kits and many, many patterns, as well a courses (though I never joined one of those)
You can also order online ....

725 Years Lämmerspiel

The town I grew up in celebrated its 725th anniversity this weekend. It is known the area around Lämmerspiel (as the town is called ... and it has nothing to do with lambs - 'Lämmer' - or playing - 'Spiel') has  already been settled in the late stone age, but it was first mentioned by name only in a document in the year 1289.

 To honor the occation, we had a parade.
Starting with romans and celts (both are confirmed to have been in the area)

 Somewhat newer history refered to the burning of our old church when it had been hit by a bomb during WWII

 Interesting what what kind of draft animals were used in the parade. Ox, horses - of course - small and really large. One carriage was even pulled by goats.

 Up to 1900 there has been some gallows between Lämmerspiel and Steinheim, the next town over. Today only the bases of the pillars have survived.

 No idea what those alpacas have to do with my home town, but damn, those were cute (wonder what happened to the wool ....)

Once again we lucked out  - even though thunderstorms have been annouced for the afternoon, it didn't rain. Though, it's been rather hot and humind.

Four Stars

While waiting for the game last night, I sewed a kindle cover for a friend.

Somehow it's a good thing the World Cup is over.

I don't know if my nerves could take any more of it.

Welcome to the Familie

After two years of sewing quilts and bags and whatnots, I decided I'm sticking with it. Which means that I decided to spring for a new sewing machine, as the one I have is actually not my sewing machine but belongs to my sister. My birthday plus a nice bonus for this year pushed the decision and since last week I own a new sewing machine.
I decided on the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 930:

 This is a pretty big step up from my old machine and we are still getting to know each other. Let alone find out what all the bells and whistles are. And how to used them.
 As a quick warm up exercise I've made an organizer with attached scrap bag

So far, so good.

On the food front, a collegue of mine allowed me to raid his garden last week, so I've made jam.

One batch was 25% strawberries, 25% gooseberries, 25% redcurrant and 25% blackcurrant.

The second batch also had sour cherries (circa 35%) plus what I had left of the stawberries and gooseberries, filled up with red- and blackcurrant

I named the last concoction 'Quer durch den Garten' (across the garden)

From the remaining currants I then made sirup.

Divided Tote

It's not like I really need another bag, but, well, there's a new one.
Remember the Quilter's Grid I've worked on last week? Well, that's what came out of it.

 I used exactly 244 2" squares (2 x 110 for the outside and 2 x 12 for some inside pockets.

Pretty, isn't it?
(I think it's even prettier in person, but you'll have to take my word on it)
The pattern I used can be found here. It's free.