Beautyshot

Well, as much as it's possible in this weather (Sunshine? What's that?)
Frontside:

And Backside:

Exercise in Dwarven Design

I may have mentioned that I really like the new Hobbit movie (I just went and saw it again last night).
One of the things I love are the costumes and all the lovely details that go into them. A great book for people like me who love the art and design that goes into the movie is this here: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - CHRONICLES: Art

Anyway, when I saw the celtic knotwork pattern that adores some of Kili's costume (and, as I have found out in the meantime, also can be found on Fili's coat), I though that this could be made into a knitting pattern. Or at least I should be able to work out if this can be tranformed into a cable pattern.
So, here's a close up of the pattern as it is on the costume:

And here's my swatch with the cable pattern (this is like version 3, but finally I'm totally happy with it):

And if you want to try it out on your own, here's a chart:

 

The swatch is three repeats of the chart.

Sadely this is a bit wide to use in a sock (which was my first thought), but it should work fine on the back of a fingerless glove or simply as a band in a sweater or cardigan. Or, maybe as a trim on a hood/scarf combination.

Training

When doing any form of Free Form Quilting (FFQ), it's a VERY good idea to train a bit before heading for the real thing (especially if the real thing is a whoop-ass huge quilt)

So, what are you going to do if you don't want to waste precious pieces of fabric on something you won't be able to use in the end: You (or in this case, I) make placemats.

This also had the added bonus that I didn't just train doing FFQ, I also had a chance to try out two other techniques.

The first one, in the picture on the left and the right side is using 'Quilters Grid', which is a kind of fusible quilting aid with a 1" grid printed on on. Using lots and lots of little 2" squares, you lay them out, fuse them to the quilters grid with you iron and then can sew them easily together without them shifting of flying around.

Second technique to try is some paper piecing using 1.5" hexagons printed on and then cut out of freezer paper. The little hexagons of paper are then ironed on to little pieces of fabric and everything is sewn together by hand.

For the FFQ I drew lines on the farbic using a marking pen that disappears once you iron over it. After those three placemats I felt comfortable enough to not mark the quilt beforehand. 

Rainbow at Midnight

My Rainbow Quilt is done and got this slightly pretentious name:

The free form quilting worked quite well, and eventually I got bold enough to add some more distinct forms. It's actually fun to look at the quilt and start searching for those little hearts. The grey of the backside is in reality a mix between the picture above and the one below. Grey with a touch of blue and a breath of green.

If asked what I like most about the quilt I probably would say the edging. Even though I ignored all the usual rules for making a binding, it worked out exactly as I hoped.

All I need now is to grap a friend, a camera and possible some sunshine to make a proper photoshoot outside.

Quilting

Progress on my Rainbow quilt.

First I had to make the quilt sandwich. I used basting spray to join the three layers, but also added safety pins (just to be sure)

I'm only quilting the dark blue parts, leaving the rainbow colored bits untouched.

The freeform quilting is working okay, the toughest part is actually handling a 1,80 x 1,60 m piece of fabric sandwich around and through the machine. I'm now pretty much at the center of the quilt and for some reasons the thread is breaking every so often. Very annoying this.

2012 - The Works

2012 was a busy years in regards of handicrafts. I've knitted:
10 pairs of socks
3 shawls
2 scarfs
2 cardigans
3 wirstwarmers / fingerless mittens
1 blanket / afghan
1 pillow
2 pairs of potholders

The last (and only) bag I've knitted is this one:

Then I did sew six project bags (of which I gave away three)
I also patchworked / quilted two wallhangings, and work on my first full sized blanket.

I learned to fold Bascetta stars (very cool that).

All in all, I had a lot of fun!

Happy New Year 2013 to all of you. Stay healthy and stay happy.

There and Back Again

This post is about the movie 'The Hobbit; An Unexpected Journey', So no knitting, no travelling, none of the usual stuff. Sorry.

Eleven years ago, shortly after Christmas, my friends convinced me that it I should go with them to see the movie 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'. I've had seen the trailers, so I was mildly interested (it looked like there would be a lot of action), but not overly enthusiastic. I had tried to read the book some years before, but after 100 pages of it I had given up - it was soooooo boring (or so I thought at that time)
Now, within three hours of watching the movie I was turned into a fan.
I saw each of the movies in the trilogy several times in the theaters. I have the DVDs (Extended Edition of course). I have secondry literature (Art of Lord of the Rings). I have an Elven cloak. I have knitted Pippin's scarf. I went to the exhibition of the movie props in London. I saw sketches by Alan Lee and John Howe in the National Library in Paris.
Yepp, big fan here.

When I heard that Peter Jackson would be making 'The Hobbit' I couldn't have been more happy. I was a bit sceptical about the idea to make THREE movies out of that one small book (not any longer, though ... )

Last weekend I finally saw the movie. Twice! Once in the new higher frequency resolution 3D and the second time in the 'normal' 3D mode. Some people claim they have problem with the HFR version, but for me, I liked it better. Everything is more clear, more crisp. Fast movements are less blurry. And to me it was more relaxed to watch (usually 3D is more tiring for my eyes than 2D)

The movie itself is almost three hours long. This is quiet long, but it didn't feel that long. Yes, the movie takes it's time to tell the story, but as a fan I'm more than happy with that (I mentioned I owe the extended edition of the 'Lord of the Rings' movies, right?)

Middle Earth / New Zealand is beautiful!

Acting: Ian McKellen IS Gandalf - it's very obvious he loves the character and enjoys playing him.
Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins is perfectly cast. Watching his journey from gentle Hobbit to finding the courage within himself alone is worth the price of admittance.
The scene between Bilbo and Gollum ('Riddles in the Dark') - fantastic.
And the dwarfs. I love every single one of them. Thorin is a wounded and driven soul (and not exactly bad looking). And I have a particular fondness for Fili and Kili.

According to my copy of 'The Hobbit' (the 50th Anniversary Edition from Unwin Paperbacks) the movie ends at page 111 of 285. I'm looking forward to the next 174 pages... Only 359 days to go.

Christmas Cookies 2012

 The last two days were spent with making this year's crop of Christmas Cookies.

 One kind that needs to be done every year are Cinnamon Stars. Mostly sugar, eggwhite and grounded almonds, they are pretty simple to make and look rather fancy.

 Another 'have-to-make' are Heidesand, only that I add candied ginger to the mix, which gives them a spicyness that contrasts fantastically with the intense butter flavour.

Another traditional cookies are 'Gebabbte', buttery cookies with homemade jam sandwiched inbetween. The term 'Gebabbte' is the hessian word for glueing something together, and as those cookies are glues together by the jam hence the name (at least in my family) ...

A newcomer (though really a variation on something I made last year, or was it the year before) are those Linzer stars. Based on the famous Linzer cake, there contain hazelnuts and rasberry jam.

Another newcomer are those mandarin marzipan cookies. Considering how much cursing was involved in making them, I'm not sure they're be back next year, but actually they taste very nice so maybe there's a chance for them after all.

Socks, Socks, Socks

Three pairs of socks are finished.
Pair 1: made from some scraps of Wollmeise (in the colors 'Wasabi' and 'Türkis Markis') plus some yarn I dyed back in March. The patterns is made up by me, but basically a simple 3 knit / 1 purl pattern. 

Pair 2: Again Wollmeise yarn in a mystery colors, probably 'Gewitterhimmel' or 'Mitternacht'. The patterns is Thelonious by the fantasically talented CookieA.

I do LOVE her patterns.

 Pair 3: same pattern I made last year and the year before. Both time for my mom, who l loves those socks (as she sends them back to me to fix the holes - repeatably!). So, those went to my mom as well. The pattern is called Mermaid and the yarn is Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett.



Hot off the Presses (ehr, Pressing Board)

I just about finished the top for my patchwork rainbow blanket:

Now I "only" have to sew the back part together, make the quilt sandwich, quilt it and finish the binding. Should be a snatch.
Yeah, right!

Slowly Approaching

It's less about seven weeks to Christmas, but this year I'm prepared!

Well, that is I'm already working on x-mas decorations.
The first one is a Bascetta Star, a bloody brilliant origami star with 20 points, made from 30 pieces of square paper. You fold each of the 30 pieces of paper into a specific diamond shape and then you built the star without a drop of glue or any other additional fixing aid.
Briliant and a little bit magical.

The other is a bit more mundane and involves a lot of hand sewing. It's using the Englisch Paper Piecing technique, which I really wanted to try out. I particularly like how the one on the right has turned out.

Other than that I'm making progress on my rainbow patchwork blanket. After a visit to my local patchwork dealer, ehr, sorry, store, I decided to neither go with white or gray, but went with a very dark blue instead. Good choice I would say.

Those patches (224 in number) have now been sewn into four-patches and trimmed to the be the same size (I aimed for 8 inches, but had to settle for 7 3/4 inches).

I've got enough squares left over to add a rainbow stripe in the border, but am not so sure if I've got enough of the dark blue for this. And as it was the last my dealer had left, I need to do some math before I decide to go this way. So, Im off to pull out my trusted measuring tape.

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. :)