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.

Doors of Dublin

Dublin has very pretty doors.
They come in yellow.

 Or in red.

 Some are blue.

 And others are black.

But all are beautiful.

The Rug (Or, It Used To Be A T-Shirt)

Last year in February, I cut up a couple of my old t-shirts and made them into a rug for the bathroom. As an experiment it was okay, but there were a few things I wasn't 100% happy with, so now for T-Shirt Rug No.2.

 This time I cut the t-shirts in 2 inch wide stripes and then crocheted around the stripes using old cotton yarn (using a 4.5mm hook)

I used about five t-shirts in total and 4 1/2 skeins of the cotton yarn (all from my stash).
I totally love the result (even if this one is ALSO not laying 100% flat). It's a bit more ... squishy than the first rug and it feels really good on my feet when I get out of the shower.
I've still got a couple of t-shirts I've already have cut up, so I guess I'll make a second one, maybe for the bedroom.

Pincushions

I've now finished 15 blocks for the trellis quilt, but have to take a break, as I've run out of the white fabric (I do need 2 inches WOF for each block, so I've ordered 2 more meters --> 20 more blocks, only, I think I will need 21)
In the search for more usable scraps I dumped out my crumbs scrap baskets (basically, everything I deem to be too small to be worth saving with the bigger scraps, but still big enough NOT to end up in the stuffing bag). There I found a lot of small triangle cut offs, which I then turned into small (1 1/4 inch) half square triangle blocks. And those HSTs I then turned into pincushions.
 First one was from the green scraps basket and turned out 3 x 3 3/4 inches (one of the HSTs is 3/4 of an inch after sewing)

Second one is from the blue basket and has a five by five grid (3 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches)

 The third one in reds and neutrals is again 3 x 3 3/4 inches, but I made it into a tiny mattrass 1 inch high.

They are all stuffed with more scraps, those too small be be useful for anything sewn.
I'm quite pleased with the results and also that I found something useful to do with those tiny scraps.

Book Covers

During my my most recent trip to the fabric shop, I came across this great cork leather fabric/material. I bought a roll (roughly the size of a fat quarter) and following the pattern I bought with it, I made a book cover for a note book.
And because it was so damn simple to do, I made another book cover in leather (and a third one in black leather, but no picture as I've run out of note books to cover)

The cork material is made with natural cork which is bonded to a fabric backing and it's a pleasure a use and touch. So soft.
I also love the brilliant way for the closure of the book. Just stick a pen or pencil through the three loops and the book is held closed. And you never have to search for a writing utensil.

Scrappy Trellis

New Year, new quilting project(s).

This one is another attempt to manage all the scraps I've got.

I've searched through my scrap drawer and pulled out all the scraps that are at least 3 inches wide and between 1 and 2 1/2 inches wide and sorted them by color groups.

This here is only a part of what I've found, by the way.

Using adding machine paper I sewed the scraps into long stripes (I did cut the adding machine paper to 21 1/2 inch as this worked out best for me)

I then trimmed the stripes to 2 3/4 inch width (the adding machine paper is 2 1/4, so I added 1/4 inch to both sides)

To both sides of the stripes, I sewed a white stripe 1 inch wide (coming out as 1/2 inch) and two gray triangles.
After trimming that block down to 6 1/2 inches it looks like this.

 And after sewing a couple of them they look like this.

I've got now 8 blocks á 4 sub-blocks. I'm aiming for a total of 30 or 36 blocks, which should give me a 60 x 72 inch (or a 72 x 72 inch) wide quilt.

I'll have to see how far my scraps can get me.