Tessallations

According to Wikipedia "a tessellation is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps"
M.C. Escher was very famous (among other things) for his tessallations using animals like fish and birds. janukke, a lovely lady at Ravelry, did come up with a knitting pattern (for an afghan) for the fish tessallation a while ago, and finally I gave it a shot and knitted one of the fishies. And another one. And then another one. I'm now at number 6 and can at least lay out the first of the hexagons.

The pattern is not super difficult, but it does require a lot of attention, so it's far from easy, mindless knitting, but one has to admire the sheare brilliance that has gone into designing the fishes.

I've still got a long way to go and I plan this as a background project, so it will be a long time before I actually have something blanket like.

On the sewing front I've put this little etui together using braided stripes for the outside.

 My minons are quite intreagued what it might contain, but, sorry boys, at the moment there's nothing of interest inside.

Slippers

It's too hot to do much, so all I have to show you this week is a new pair of slippers I've made when I realized I needed a second pair. (I have a pair of shawls finished as well, and I also finished the top on the 'Oh my stars!' blanket, but haven't got around to take pictures yet, so maybe later...)

This time I used real leather for the soles. I have to see how this works out.
They fit perfectly!

Büdingen 2013

The renaissance fair in Büdingen takes place every other year. I've been going there for the last two times and, again, this year. I blogged about the fair four years ago.
As usual, there's a camp against the walls of the town.

There are entertainers (some of them of the rather unusual kind)

 I loved that setup for kid's entertainment. The little tykes get to dress up as a knight, with a little horse strapped on and off they are on a kind of obstacle course for little knights. And when not needed, the horses wait patiently for the next little knight to come along (and PETA can't complain either ...)

 And, of course, great food.

Starry Update

Yeah, I finished my 111 stars and I have started to sew them together.
I now have six larger blocks, which still need to be sewn together. Then the border, decide what to use for the back, making the sandwich, quilt the whole thing (I'm thinking about doing that bit by hand!) and finally the binding. I'm practically done!

Schönbusch and Mespelbrunn

I visited two small castles west of Frankfurt.
The first one is Schönbusch, part of a large park area close to Aschaffenburg. The main reason was for a photo shoot for a present for my sister. But as her birthday is in September I can't show you the present yet.

 I'm particular fond of the four sphinxes at the end of a stone Bridge in the park.

Second stop was Castle Mespelbrunn, a smallish castle which is still privately owned and lived in. In Germany it's most famous for being the set for a movie from the 60s (The Spessart Inn - Das Wirtshaus im Spessart)

Ebbelwoifest

In Hessen, my home country, the national drink is Ebbelwoi (Apfelwein, for those who speak proper German, and apple wine for those who don't speak German at all)
So, once a year, the street through my home town is blocked and a carnival is set up.
We have a big Ferris Wheel:

 This ride is called 'Tagada' according to Wikipedia.

And there was also a very nice Merry-Go-Round (though I have to say, the mouths of the horses look like they are wearing very cheap make-up)

 Ebbelwoi was runnig out of the fountain in the center of town and the whole area was dressed up.

Leipzig and Castle Colditz

The old town hall of Leipzig was flagged with signs for the Bachfestival that took place this weekend.

The 'Auerbachs Keller' is the second oldest restaurant/pub in Leipzig and even Goethe has been known to frequent it while studying in Leipzig.

 

I was pretty impressed by this graffiti (this is actually only about a quarter of the full size of it)

 

On my way back to Dresden I made a little detour to Castle Colditz. The castle itself has been around for 700 ~ 800 years, but it became most famous for being a prisoner-of-war camp of officers of the allied forces during WWII. Supposingly escape-proof, 31 prisoners actually managed a 'Home-Run' (though most escape attempts were foiled)

Today, it houses a youth hostel and also a small museum which shows some of the truely inginious things the prisoners came up with is order to excape.

Quilting Cruise

As I mentioned in my last post, we didn't just go on a cruise, we went on a Quilting Cruise. (*fanfar sounding*!!!)
At our two sea days, we had classes in the on board conference center. Thanks to Pfaff (and Tom and Ian) we had 56 sewing machines set up and Ros and Judy were our teachers.
We started simple with the typical Nordic Eight Pointed Star pattern. It was up to us which technique we used, so I decided to do reverse applique, which I hadn't tried before. I later added the triangles in the corners, sewing them on by hand. I'm not sure at the moment into what to finish this, so it stands like it is for now.

The second class we had was for the New York Beauty Block in Foundation Piecing. I made the basic block first (on the right), then added the little bit more advanced one (on the left)
This has been super fun, and I'm thinking about doing something else in that technique in the near future.

During the week, we had also a few things going on in the evenings, one of them making this pin cushion out of hexagons with the English Paper Piecing method. I finished it at home and stuffed it with scraps too small to use for anything else. It's already been in use.

On the last day we finally had something to really use the machines that had been set up for us. We appliqued this landscape (I made a few mistakes there, but well, it was more for praxis, right) then I went a bit wild on all the stitch pattern the machines had to offer. I especially like the little fishes.

Final class was on Bargello. I did something, but currently I am thinking on making what I have into a little bag, so I'll show you that sometimes later.

I had a lot of fun trying out all those new techniques and certainly found inspiration for new things to do. I would do this again, anytime, anywhere.

Norway

Our cruise took us from Southampton in England through the English Channel across the North Sea to Norway.
First stop way Flåm at the Aurlandsfjord. There we took a trip with the Flåmsbana, a railway line that goes over a distance of 20km to 863m above sea level. It is the steepest standard gauge railway line in Europe and has very beautiful sights to see.
One of the stops is at the Kjosfossen waterfall and just when we stopped there the sun came out and made this beautiful rainbow.

Second stop was Skjolden. We didn't take any of the official trips offered but walked up to a viewing point 120m above sea level. Looking back the Indepences of the Seas doesn't look that big after all.

 We also hiked to a fantastique water fall (there were lots and lots of waterfalls ...)

In Olden, our next stop, our weather luck turned and we had rain. Cold rain! The whole time! Still, we did a trip to one of the side arms of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, the largest glacier in continental Europe.

The next day brought as closer to civilization again and to Ålesund. The weather improved and we had great views.

Next and final stop before returning to England was in Stavanger, where we visited the Sverd i fjell monument, three, 10m tall swords rammed into the rock in memory of the Battle of Hafrsfjord (around 872) when Norway was united for the first time under one king.

Of course, there was much more to this trip, but I just don't have the room here to show you all of my pictures.

Also, this was not just a normal cruise, but this was a Quilting Cruise, so next time I will show you some of the things I made on the two days we had courses.

Independence of the Seas

The 'Independence of the Seas' was the first cruise ship I've been traveling on, and now I might be a bit spoiled for any other possible cruises in the future.
For once, the Independence is big. Really, really big.

With 3600 passengers and 1350 crew there are also a lot of people on board, but thanks to the size of the ship, you normally don't notice.

There's a lot of entertainment, starting with three swimming pool areas, a rock climbing wall, tennis court, mini golf, theater (with very good  shows twice per evening)

 And, of course, there's food. Lots of it and all the time. And most of it also very good (my only complaint would be that there was no decent rolls at breakfast, but that's really nitpicking) 

All in all, a very pleasurable way to spend a vacation.

Teaser

I've been on vacation last week :)

As I won't have the time to work much with the photos until next weekend, here just one very quick teaser.

Yes, I've been on a cruise. And even though I'm not yet 60+ I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it very much.

I promise, there will be more later ....

Rhubarb 2013

I tried to repeat the experiment from last year, making rhubarb-banana jam. Only, this time it didn't come out the same way as last time.
First, the rhubarb juice turned out a bit on the weak side - the sirup I made from it only seems to have a hint of the fruit (okay, I know, technically, rhubarb is a veggie, but I disgress). Then the bananas were just about ripe (as in not ripe enough). And the lemon zest I've used came on pretty strong.
I'm not saying that the jam is bad ... it's just not as good as the last time I made this.
As I also had a mango I needed to use up, and some strawberries, I've also made a rhubarb-mango-strawberry jam. This one didn't want to gel in the first round, so I dumped it all back in to the cooking pot and added lemon acid and more pectin and now you could cut butter with it.

 For a very good friend, who's birthday was this week, I made potholders. For me, they would be a bit on the large side (they turned out 28cm across), but my friend said they are the perfect size for her husband.

Stars and Rainbows

The latest update on the 'Oh My Stars!' quilt.

I now have 8 large stars, 21 of the medium size and 50 of the small ones. Following the pattern, that means I still have 32 stars to make: 7 large, 7 medium and 18 of the small ones.

Yesterday evening I was looking out of the window and saw a lovely rainbow.

I've always been facinated by rainbows. Perfection (as they represent a section of a perfect circle) and beauty in one. Love them.

Scrappy Scrap Baskets

I'm made a couple of fabric baskets to hold my scraps. And I used scraps. Basically, everything bigger than a square inch was fair game.

The bottom is jeans fabric, the lining linen. The size is around 4 to 5 inches squared and about 3 to 4 inches high.

And as I also needed something to hold my thread spools, I made an extra one...

Shades of Blue

Some knitting for a change.
The patten is called 'Shades of Truth' by Laura Aylor. I used Wollmeise Twin in the colors black, nature, 47Ag, Blaue Tinte and Wolke.

However, when I put the finished shawl into the sink for washing, the dark blue bled onto the white. Still wet, I put it then into the washing machine and used a color catching tissue, in the hope it would get the blue spots out. The blue spots are gone now, but the whole white section in now a pale grey (here in comparison with the original yarn)

 It's not super terrible, but at the moment it does annoy me. I'm thinking about riping, but am not there yet.
Basically, I still like the shawl, but it does does look kinda ... dirty, not clean, at the moment.

Important lesson - pre-wash darker shades of hand dyed yarn before knitting. Repeatedly. Especially when mixing it with white.

Partial Eclipse of the Moon

On Thursday night, we had a very lovely moonrise:

But there was still another show in the starting blocks - a partial eclipse of the moon. I admit, as lunar eclipses go it wasn't super impressive - the moon was only for about 2% of it's surface in the Earth's umbra - but as the weather was so nice, I still took a couple of pictures.
The series below was taken between 21:12 and 22:53, one shot roughly every 10 minutes. I used fixed apperture (5.6) and exposure length (1/800) for all pictures.
I plugged the pictures into Photoshop and enventually managed to create this composite.

You can just about see the umbra scraping along the upper edge of the moon.

By the way, did you know that the fact that the Earth's shadow shows up as a circle on the moon (when you have a bit larger coverage of course), was, among other things they observed, proof already for Plato and Aristoteles that the Earth was a sphere.

Big Reveal

Some time ago I gave you a sneak peek of a quilting project I was working on at that time.
Now that the intentend recipient finally received the finished quilt, I can show you what I was doing. It's a scappy nine-patch / hourglass quilt in blues and aqua. The pattern was in a magazine but I would need to search, which one it actually has been.

I used a charm pack and (mostly) farbic from my stash. For the backside I used a lovely blue fabric with little golden dots all over, which I picked up in the closing sale of the patchwork store I just had discovered barely a month before it closed it's doors forever *darn*

The quilting itself was simple straight lines in the diagonal, so nothing fancy, but the pattern didn't need anything fancy and I'm very happy with the outcome.