Orca-stra

At my vacation 2013 into Yukon and British Columbia, we took at little excursion to Skagway, Alaska. There I came across this great quilt shop (Rushin' Tailor). I bought a couple of things, among them a kit for Orcas diving at a cliff all done in batiks.

The name of the kit is 'Orca-stra' by Pine Needle Designs.

Last weekend I found myself between projects. My great Trellis quilt top is done (I'm waiting for some more curved safety pins before I baste is). I finished the Blue Sands Cardigan (need an opportunity for some photographs. Preferably when it's not too warm). I have started a new cardigan, but there's no urgency to it.

So I thought, something quick, with some instant gratification would be great.

There was plenty of fabric in the kit, so I had some choice in picking just the right bit for just the effect I wanted. Working with batiks offers so much color and variation. Also, as it's usually more tightly woven than normal quilting fabric, it's less prone for fraying and thus ideal for raw edge applique.

The quilting was all done free motion, with a wavey braid at the border (I did stitch in the ditch using my walking foot at the inner border)

Only thing left to do is adding a sleeve in the back for hanging and a label.

Double Upcycling

A few years back (in 2010) I did some experiments with knitting and fulling stuff in the washing machine. One of those experiments was a bag I'd knitted using Cascade 220. I finished the bag (sort of), but never was really happy with it, or actually used it.
A few weeks back, that old bag fell into my hands, and I thought about giving it - or at least the fabric - a second life. As coasters.

I cut out circles and thought about doing some stitching on the borders, but then the remnants of another project fell into my hands. It was my first attempt on a rug for my bathroom from last year, using old t-shirts I've had braided into a long cord. I still had a couple of meters left, and as I used rather narrow stripes back then, the width of the cord was almost exactly equal to the thickness of the fulled material from the bag.

I hand-sewed the cord to the circles I've cut out from the bag and got lovely coasters for my summery drinks (which, by the way, is my home made rhubarb syrup - super yummy. I definitely need to make more)
So these coasters are using material from two old projects, one of them already an upcycling project. Hence double upcycling. Or upcycling the upcycling ...?

Close Up

I've got a macro lens, and I'm not afraid to use it ...

 

I've always been quite fond of dandelions (quite tricky to take photos of, though)

 Last one is the centre of one of my orchids. Almost like an abstract painting ...

Printing on Fabric

Last Sunday I tried out a couple of different methods to apply colour to fabric. I've got some fabric paint left overs (from way, way, waaaaaaay back) so I didn't even need to buy new materials.
I used some cotton bags I bought at the Swedish place (you know which one ...). I washed them before hand to get rid of any treatment still sticking to the fibers.
Bag 1: a stencil I bought years ago. I used a coppery color with a bit of sparkle.

Bag 2: easiest of the lot, really. I used toiletpaper rolls, folded them a bit to get a heard shape and dipped the ends into the paint. The yellow paint was a bit on the thin side, but I don't think it's a problem.

Bag 3: I uses some rubbery material which I cut into shapes and glued to a piece of pipe I've got lying around. After one round, the color was almost all used up, so I filled out the last bits with a brush. I think it would be better with a longer piece of fabric.

Bag 4: For this one, I wrapped some course twine around a bit of rubber and used this as a stamp. Fun, easy and I love the effect it creates. 

 

Bag 5:  Here I used masking tape to create a simple stencil. After each round of paint, I let it dry, then moved the masking tape to open up another bit. This one took the longest, but I really like the result.

 Finally, I iron them all for a couple of minute with the iron set to hot. Hopefully this fixes the paint. I use a couple those bag for potatos, onions, ....
Great fun, need to get more bags to try some more.
I still get plenty of ideas.

Night at the Museums

Last weekend, forty museums in and around Frankfurt opened their doors for a night of enterainment and education. We focused on three of them.
We started out at the Museum for Criminology at the police headquarter in Frankfurt. The museum is normally not open to the public (though you can arrange for guided tours), so it was something you don't see normally. There was a demonstration of the the K-9 unit every hour in front of the building. Though I didn't understand a word of whatever the guy who guided the demonstation, it was still quite interesting.

 It took a moment for us to find the stop for the shuttle bus, but we eventually managed to get to the Senkenberg museum (natural history)

The musuem always has been one of my favorites in Frankfurt and I've been there a couple of times before, but it was new to M.

Inside they had a Mad Scientist Quizshow and a couple of interesting demonstrations.

Next stop was the Experiminta, a Science musuem, with tons of interesting stuff going on.

When we got out of there, we realized that it was getting on to midnight, so we stopped there (even those there had been a few more museums on our list).
Our feet hurt and it was very cold.
Still, I quite enjoyed the whole event.

Braided Baby Quilt

The baby is in due in August, but I couldn't wait so long.

 I've used a half jelly roll with batic fabrics for the stripes, leaving out the purple ones. Green and blue went in one direction, yellow, orange, and red into the other.

Every stripe is quilted with a different free motion pattern. I fought quite a bit with my sewing machine over tention with this. Some stripes are more or less perfect, but on others you can see either the background color or the front color peek through at the other side. On one of the stripes I actually pulled everything out and did it again. Now I wonder if my choice of sewing thread is at least partially to blame for this (I just took any which sewing thread I had in my stash for this and didn't buy special quilting thread)
Well, it's too late to change now.
For the back I found this great print with dots, which matches color wise almost perfect with the front. Binding is a simple blue stripe.
Now only the baby in question needs to make an appearance, so I can make a label with the critical statistical data. But no hurry.

London - Street Art

On our last day in London we had a pretty cool tour on the local street art in Shoreditch.

 One of my favorites is by 'Invader' who's using tiles and puts them up on the most inaccessible locations

 No idea who this artist is, but I really likes this one.

 And another one I really liked. This one more simple, but really, really expressive.

 This one is by an artist who goes by the name of Stik. Also really simple (he always only ever does those stick figures), but they do hold quite a punch, I think.

It's really amazing what you can find in this corner of London. Whereas all form of graffiti and street art is totally illegal in the rest of London, this little corner kinda tolerates it. Of course, you still get a lot of crap this way, but also a lot of really cool and amazing stuff.

London - The Harry Potter Experience

I'm a big Harry Potter Fan for quite a while now, so when Warner Brothers opened 'The Making of Harry Potter' a couple of years back, I naturally wanted to go and see it. My nephew was willing to go with me (always good to have a kid with you, so you don't look too weird).
After a short introduction movie, the doors open to the great hall. Set tables are on either side and behind the teachers' tables are the glasses for the house points.

 Among floating candles, Dumbledore is welcoming the muggle tourists.

The next big room is full with costumes and some of the smaller sets, like the boys dormitory, Hagrid's hut, Dumbledore's office, the Weasley's kitchen (including self cleaning pots and pans, and the magical knitting blanket).

Behind that room is platform 9 3/4 with the waiting Hogwarts Express.



There's an open to the sky set with Number 4 Privet Drive, Knight Bus and a cover bridge (which is were we enjoyed a cone with Butterbeer Icecream)
The last three rooms are for Diagonal Alley, the special effect / creature shop, and finally a huge model of Hogwarts.
Sadly (or maybe luckily) we ran out of time, and I hadn't much chance to look at everything in the souvenir shop.
The visit and the tickets are not exactly cheap, but I enjoyed it still a lot, and could have done another hour at least (we had about three).

London Calling

Last week I've went on a short trip (five days) to London. We (that is my sister, my nephew, and I) went to see a couple of shows ('Mrs. Henderson Presents', 'The Book of Mormon', 'Lion King', and 'The Play That Goes Wrong')

Of course, we also did the touristy stuff.

The London Eye: 

 Tower Bridge:

 Changing of the Guard:

 Leadenhall Market:

We also went to 'The Making of Harry Potter' at the WB studios. More of that next time.

Rasberry Kiss Pillow

I came across this pattern on the web and, in a spout of startitis, I made another pillow.

 The pattern is called Rasberry Kiss. I've made originally 25 blocks, but decided that this would get way too big for a pillow, so I picked out 16 blocks.The neutrals are mostly from a half jelly roll I picked up in the quilt shop in Frankfurt. I've found that I could get enough for 2 blocks from each stripe with just a little bit left over. Also, one 5 by 5 inch bit of the blue fabric is enough for two crosses.
The whole thing came together quickly.

After neglecting it for several months, I finally came back to the Tuly Pink City Sampler. I've finished the stripes section (block 56 ~ 70). I started thinking about a layout for the quilt, but am rather undecided at the moment. 

Rainbow Star Pillow

Scraps. So many scraps.

I've made 6.5 inch blocks (though 6 inches would totally have been enough). Then I followed this tutorial on Happy Quilting for the Scrappy Rainbow Star. The only thing I changed (besides the size of the block - it's 18" / 45cm) was that I also used scraps for the background.

In the end I made a pillow.

It's very bright and colorful.
Lovin' it!

Greenway

I hereby declare this afghan as finished.

The pattern is called Greenways, and is from the book 'Comfort Knitting & Crochet Afghans'.

  I used stash yarn in DK weight (and a couple of times holding double fingering weight). The plan was to get rid of the DKs I've had, but I've still got a lot left (are they breeding somewhere? I don't know) I just decided that this is it, it's big enough. It's a good 160 by 140 cm.

 I quite enjoyed making this and I do love the end product. I still need to give it a bath, which will be a PITA, as a lot of the yarns I've used are handwash only, meaning I will need to do it in my bathtub.

Flowers and Butterflies

Last week I was in the mood for some paper piecing.
I started out with a couple of butterflies. I've found a free pattern here and started sewing.

Then I thought what to do with them, and decided on a smallish wall hanging, adding some New York Beauty flowers and a sun. I've made those patterns myself, as I couldn't find anything in the size I've wanted.
Finally, I taped off an area on my design wall and added background fabric until I've got to the size I wanted the wallhanging to be. The flower stems and the leaves are applique.

(sorry for the somewhat blurry pic)

My brilliant idea for hanging it was to use two safety pins and a knitting needle. It works!

What's on My Knitting Needle

Several project are currently ongoing.
Main focus project is the Blue Sands Cardigan.

 I'm using Wollmeise DK in Blue Curacao, QED and Dora. The yoke was tricky with a lot of stuff happening at the same time, but the instructions are super clear, so there was no issue and a careful fitting (so I don't pull out the needles) shows it's a pretty good fit. I'm about 10 cm into the main body and there are long, boring rows of stockinette. Perfect for TV knitting actually.

Second project is socks (because, well, socks can be knitted anywhere and anytime, so it's always good to have a pair going)

Again Wollmeise, this time in the twin quality. The yarn is leftover from other projects, and the colors are Wolke and Wasserratz.

Project numero 3 is a stole. The name of the pattern is actually 'Stole'

Nothing very exciting, really. Just 10 knit, 10 purl for 380 stitches each way. As I'm using lace yarn (picked up in Nuernberg last year) it's a light projct to carry around.

Finally, I've also got a crochet projct going (actually, already since October). 

I've been trying to get rid off some of my stash yarn. And looking through my stash I've found several skeins of blue, browns and neutrals. Searching through my books I found this pattern called 'Greenways' and I thought this might work well with what I've got. I'm working this as a stashbuster/scrappy project, using everything that's halfway to DK weight yarn. 

I really love the scrappy look. 

The width of the blanket/afghan is 140cm and I've already got 150cm in length. I guess I'm going until I'm at 170cm.

Braided Rug

Last year in February I made my first experiment with braiding fabric into cord and then sewing it up to make a rug. The result was okayish (the rug refused to lay flat), so I planed on a second attempt using not t-shirt yarn but cotton fabric (my thinking was that the reason the t-shirt rug didn't lay flat, was because the t-shirt yarn is a bit elastic, which may have contributed to the problem. It turns out that's only part of the problem. Even with non-elastic cotton, the tension you use for feeding the cord to the sewing machine is tricky to control)
So here's braided rug number 2.

It does lay perfectly flat, though some pulling and stretching has been required after washing it in the bathtub.
Hurray!
The final diameter is 70cm. If my math is correct, I've used circa 30m of braided cord.

I'm seriously in love with my new rug.
I put it in front of my bed, so when I get up in the morning my toessies don't land on the cold floor.

Halfway There

I'm currently working on two quilts. One is the Trellisquilt, which has reached 20 blocks so far, the other is a Double Star quilt, which also is at 20 Blocks.

If I go for a 6 by 7 layout (72" by 84") I'll need 42 blocks, which means I'm almost halfway there. I definitely need more reds, yellows and purple.
Long time, no socks, so here's a new pair I've knitted while I was in Dublin.

Pattern is called nine-to-five (a free pattern) and the yarn is some hand-dyed sock yarn I've picked up at the Wollfest in Leimen last year.