The Colors of Fall (or Autumn)

This year, Mother Nature really pulled out all the stops.

 

 Sadly, all will be gone soon ....

Kunterbunt

(translates to 'very colorful')

When I saw this wall hanging in 'Patchwork Spezial 1/2012' my first reaction was "Wannamakewannamakewannamake!!!" ;-)
Well, never it by said that I don't be willing to follow through.

The pattern in the magazine uses 22 different batik fabrics, I used 80 different of whatever I had laying around. There's some batik fabrics, but also quite a few solids. The patchwork part took up most of last weekend, quilting and binding maybe a day more. The only thing I did for the quilting was to carefully follow the edges of all single houses (as defined by having a roof)

I handstitched the label in the back

Now I only have to decide if this is going to hang here at home, or comes with my to Dresden ....

White or Gray

 Last week I bought a Jelly Roll with 31 stripes of fabric (6.5cm wide, 110cm long) in all colors of the rainbow. Since then I've been pondering what to do with this. The most recent design is below. Of course, this is only a sketch, and there will be a few more colors in the end (excel only gave me about 25 colors I could use for this).
 If I did my math right, this will give me a quilt 160 x 180cm. I also calculated how much of the background color I might need.
 Only, I can't quite decide if I should go with a white background like here:

 

Or with a gray background like here:

I'm leaning toward the gray, mostly because I would like to USE the quilt in the end, and I'm afraid with a white background it won't stay so white and crisp for very long.
What do you think: White or Gray?

Sashiko Placeset

About two years ago I discovered the Japanese quilting/stitching technique called Sashiko.
Enthusiastice about something new, I prepared three placesets, but finished only one back then and got halfway through the second.
A few weeks ago I rediscovered those old pieces of fabric with the faded chalk markings and decided to give them another whirl, updating a few things with what I learned the last weeks while quilting.

I have finished two of those, but think I'm going to go back to the one I made originally and redo it.

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.

Too warm for this

We picked the hottest day of the year (as in today with 38°C) to make mixed pickles. I wanted to make photos, but forgot to bring the camera.

So all I can offer are two project bags I sewed last weekend.
Both are made following the same pattern. The first one is made from jeans fabric and some fabric I picked up ages ago in Japan.

 The second one was a present for a friend's birthday and is already living at his new home.

Slippers

One pattern I picked up at my sister's but didn't get around making in Sweden is for a pair of slippers. Back home I picked some matching fabric and gave it a whirl.

 They do fit very well (better than those my sister made and she and I have the same shoe size ... go figure). For the sole I used some fake leather which worked (at least so far) very well. It gives just enough traction to make them feel right.

During the last days of the Olymic Games I also finished the second Mini Garden Mandala (or is it Mini Mandala Garden?). Number 3 has been started but is not very far yet.

Sigh, vacation is over and I have to go back to work on Tuesday. So updates and finished projects will be further in between again.

Sweden 2012 - Creativity

As I already mentioned yesterday, I've been busy in Sweden.

Project 1 is a pair of potholders using some fabric I also picked up in Goetheborg. There was no real pattern, but we saw something similar in a store downtown, so we reverse engineered the whole thing. For a first try pretty good, though there's some room for improvement.

The potholders are fairly small, but thanks to the opening in the back, you can almost wear them like hot gloves, so very usable. They are also totally reversable.

Project 2 was a small beaded bracelet we found the kit for in a sale. The bracelet is super easy to make, so not really very crafty, but pretty.
In the photo I present it over a lovely cup my sister got me for my birthday. There's this super cute little dragon peeking over the rim of the cup. Happily I managed to transport the cup back home without breaking it.

 Project 3 and 4 (and some trials inbetween) are made using a technique called tatting. Using a special long needle, you make a couple of slip knots on the one end of the needle and then pull through the tread to either form a ring or a chain before moving on to the next set of knots. Adding little loops (picots) during the process of the knot making will give you added decoration and also a point to connect the chains and rings to each other, enableling the making of a large variation of shapes.
I still need some practice though ....

Number 5, a project I've started before I came to Sweden, some cross stitch. This is the first in three so called Mini Garden Mandalas by Martina Weber of Châtelaine Designs. The kit I have contained the pattern for all three manadalas and the specialty threads and beads, but no fabric and none of the DMCs needed. Lucky me, I've got plenty of fabric and DMC. I picked some unbleached linen in 32ct to stitch on and enjoyed (and still am enjoying) stitching it. Currently I'm plowing my way through the back stitches on the second mandala.

Finally, I also did some knitting. I started a cardigan in Wollmeise lace, but am not happy at the moment with it. I'm thinking about ripping everything up and starting again with a smaller needle size, but first I want to give what I have (back and front down to about 5 cm underneath the armholes) a bath and see how it fits.

Sweden 2012

It has turned into something of a tradition that during the Olympic Games I pack my bags and set up camp at my sister's and her family in Sweden for a week.
First of all it gives me time to spend time with my nephew, whom I, due to the fact that he's living in another country, don't see nearly often enough.
Second, it's a perfect excuse for my sister and me to spend hours in front of the TV to watch the games. We are not exactly idle while we watch, but do knit, stitch, tat (what is the verb going with 'tatting'? I don't know), sew and do other creative stuff. More on that tomorrow.
Third, hey, who wouldn't want to spend vacation time in Sweden? It's a beautiful country. My sister's place is close to the sea and even if the weather is not always perfect, there's still enough nice days to go out on a walk and take some photos.

One day we went to Goetheborg to the botanical garden. We wanted Adventure Golf, but it was seriously too full. If we hadn't gone I would never have seen this dude, and what a shame that would have been.

More on the creative part tomorrow, after I take some project pictures.

Almost Finished and Finished

I finished the stitching on the Delightful Dragon Scissor Fob. Seems like I'm getting too old for this shit, or that it's about time I'm getting reading glasses. I still managed though sometimes, especially in the evening, I had trouble focusing on all those super tiny stitches.

I need to do the sewing part still.

I also finished knitting the New Wave cardigan in Wollmeise Twin 'Blaue Tinte'. Of course it's now far too hot to wear it...

 Some detail of the collar.

I did recycle the yarn from another project where I was not happy with the outcome. This one, I'm much more happy with.

Blueberries

Not far from where I'm working is a field were you can go and pick your own blueberries.

(for those interested, those are not the wild growing blueberry Vaccinium myrtillus - Wildheidelbeere or Waldheidelbeere - that grows in forests and in the wild, but the American Northern Highbush Blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum - Amerikanische Heidelbeere - that is nowadays cultivated)

Within half an hour I had a small bucket full (a little more than 1 kg), not counting those that somehow never made it to the bucket but ended in my mouth directly.

Though, eventually, the rest will end up in my mouth anyway, as I made blueberry jam.

 

RTFM

In engineering RTFM stands for Read The F***ing Manual, also known as: "if you're trying to do something, it might a good idea to read the instructions first".

The same can be said for cross stitching.
Because, if the instructions say to stitch something over 1 (thread, that is), you shouldn't stitch it over 2 (threads).
Else, you get this:

 If, actually, you should have this:

By the way, this is the same fabric. The motive is just half the size. Which is a good size for a scissor fob. Which the over-2 clearly is not.
Ah, pattern: Teresa Wentzler's 'Delightful Dragon Fob'
And, yes, I know, the over-1 one is not ready yet. Have patience.

Sockblank

What is a sockblank and why would anybody bother?
A sockblank is a rectangular piece of knitting, made with two strands of sockweight yarn held together. You knit one (or buy one) so you can dye it, unravel it and then knit again, this time in the shape of a sock (or a shawl, or a pullover, ....)

Here, the knitted blank, after I soaked it for a couple of hours in water (not a good idea to dye a dry piece of fabric). I spread it out on cling film so the dye won't do funny things to my table.

Using various Kool-Aid packaged I painted the blank in various pattern. The color combination here is a bit wild, I admit, but as those were the only colors/flavors I had left, I didn't have much choice.

Next, I covered the blank with a second layer of cling film, rolled it up like a long sausage and placed in a glass dish. I put it in the microwave for 3 x 2min on full power, letting it set for a few minutes in between. Unlike my first experiment with Kool-Aid, I had no indicator if the colors have really set, but i think it might have been enough.

 Then I unraveled the blank and wound the two threads into skeins. This step is not really nesseccary, as you could knit directly of the blank if you want (doing two socks at the same time), but I wanted to see how the yarn looks, and, damn, it's pretty!

The first sock knitted from it. The pattern is froop loop, an older pattern from knitty. When I saw the skein, it sort of wanted to be that one, so who am I to protest.

As you can see, I started from the left of the blank (the orange section on the cuff) and ended about 2/3 through (before the next section of blue). Next time when I'm dying a blank, I will make less vertical stripes, as they lead to large stretches of just one color.
But over all I love the result. This is a lot of fun to do and I certainly will try again.

The Rhubarb-Banana Experiment

On Friday I was gifted with 2 kilos of rhubarb. Though I'v already made rhubarb jelly and rhubarb-strawberry jam two weeks ago, (after using about 1/2 kilo for a yummy cake) I decided again to make jam. But what to use to compliment the rhubarb flavor? I decided to try bananas and lemon juice/zest.
The result ... hmmmmmm, loving it!

As I made it up as I went, here my first attempt to write a recipe.

You need:
600-750 gr rhubarb
half again water
500 sugar for jams 1:2
3 bananas (depending on the ripeness - mine were just about ripe)
1 lemon (bio)
5 gr lemon acid

Clean the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces. Cook with water for 20 minutes, then filter through a kitchen towel. Your aim is to get about 500ml of juice. Wait for it to cool.
Peel the bananas and cut them into small pieces. Add them to the rhubarb juice and the sugar.
Let sit for 1 hr, then puree all with a hand blender. Cut thin stripes off the lemon (after washing very hot) and cut them to tiny slivers. Squeeze the lemon. Add the zest, the lemon juice and the lemon acid to the rhubarb-banana mix.
Cook for four minutes, never stop steering, then fill in to clean glasses.

Notes: While I was cooking the jam, I noticed something dark and sugary sticking to the tip of my cooking spoon. I looks like the sugar at the bottom of the pot actually caramelized (and burned a little). I don't know if this can be prevented (I never really stoped steering the pot), but actually I like the flavor, so no harm done.


I sort of call this jam the 'three-hit-wonder' as you'll have three distinct flavor experiences. First the banana is very dominant, then the rhubarb makes an apperance, only to end with a lemony note.
I don't really need rolls or bread for this, I could just eat it right out of the glass.

(and in case you wonder, I made also another batch of the jelly with the left over rhubarbs)