With Easter approaching....

...the bunny gets very busy! I´ve been busy as well, visiting the Styrian Quilting Day, the Quilt exhibition in Litzelstetten (Germany) and making little Easter treats for my customers. Can you guess what it is?

I´ve done a workshop with my quilt guild about how to make boxes with stamped fabrics. I´ve made this box and now I´m keeping ribbons in it. I´ve always wondered why so many of my quilt friends were buying ribbons all the time. Now that I was in need of ribbons myself and only had a few, I certainly understood why: you can never have enough ribbons of all kinds of colors and patterns....

I took some scrap fabrics from fabric swatches and wanted to perk them up a little bit with the ribbons that I had (some were bought, some were left-overs from presents that I kept, thinking that I would surely need them one day). 

 It´s obvious by now what they´re going to be, right ?

For the inside I took a patch of fabric that I got from one of my friends. Although the color is just the opposite of the outside, I thought this orange fabric will keep the eggs cozy with is bright and warm shine.

I finished the egg cozys pretty quick but somehow something kept missing..... so I went through my haberdashery (also left overs from all kinds of purchases or from friends that didn´t have any use for it anymore) and found the buttons! 

Taa daahh, now the easter bunny can come and get them and put them into my customers easter nests!

But before he comes to get them I will add little cardboard-tags with my label on the backside....

  
... and I also labeled the back of the egg cozys!

Mystery Quilt Surprise Box - final

Two days ago we received the last instruction for our mystery quilt Surprise Box and I thought, super, I´ll work on it on sunday and finish it. But ohhh my, was I misguided...... that quilt´s going to be very, very big as I have chosen the big version - but I did not think that my grey little box full of little grey-blue blocks would turn into such a big quilt when sewn together. Me and measurements are not exactly on friendly terms, most of the time.

So I cut down on my expectations in time and finished at least one out of nine blocks. Here it is! And I hope to be as efficient as I have been this weekend for the next few weeks so I can present you the completed quilt very soon...... soon, compadre!

QuilCon pickings continues - Missouri Star Quilt Co.: MOD BLOCK

In our goody bag was a book from the Missouri Star Quilt Co., MOD BLOCK with 10 modern projects made easy, traditional goes modern. I fell in love with the double friendship star quilt from Jenny Doan. And as another baby quilt is due, I took the chance to do this pattern - and I think it turned out great. As soon as I have quilted it (by hand) I will do the binding in orange!

This morning the sunlight was streaming across my working table...

QuiltCon pickings

On my way back from Austin I met Kirstyn Cogan at the airport. Because I was hours too early prior to my flight I was walking around not sure what to do or where to wait. But then I saw this woman sewing, sat down and asked her if she´d been to QuiltCon...... yeeaahhhhh! 

Kirstyn is the author of the newly released book "Urban Scandinavian Sewing", go check it out, it´s a fantastic book for lovely and beautiful sewing projects to brighten up your home!

QuiltCon 2015 in Austin

Yeeaahhhh and jiippeeehhhh, I still could shout out loud like that every day thinking about the 4 days at QuiltCon in Austin!! It really was like that, believe me. All the people that I´ve met were just unbelievably nice, amazing, creative, supportive and a pleasure to get know and talk to. During those days I experienced so many moments of fun and joy to last a very long, long time. 

Whether the helpers (in blue T-shirts) at QuiltCon or the women doing the workshops and lectures, they all communicated their topics in such a positive, catching and fantastic way that there is only one thing to say about it: I´m loving it !!

Enjoy the pictures, I will post small reports about each workshop or lecture that I attended during the next few days.

Should you wish to see even more pictures, go the the blog site from the Modern Quilt Guild, it´s worth taking the time, scrolling down and see what it´s been like!!

https://themodernquiltguild.wordpress.com/

Go see the winners in the different categories but also all the other quilts, each and every one something special.

Austin downton

A wonderful shop full of yarn, wool and knitting staff!

A shop called "Uncommong Things" - fantastic !

The QuiltCon agenda - everything a quilters´ heart desires!

Registration on Wednesday evening - the staff in blue T-shirts were just great!

The QuiltCon goody-bag - so many useful things, what a pleasure to go through the bag!

Workshop with Penny Layman - papier-piecing, a sewing organizer!

Quilts from the show - sorry if I did not note down the quilters names and titles, should you wish to know who made a quilt, please let me know, I´ll check it out for you!!

Maura Ambrose and her husband - lecture about "natural dyeing" - such an interesting and catching lecture. It made you wish you´d live on a small farm like her!

The charity Quilts of the several MQG groups from all over the US - fantastic quilts!

The demonstrations were super, you got everything from A-Z in the quilting and sewing world shown and explained!

Carolyn Friedlander´s color palette

more quilts....

Jen Kingwell - handpiecing - unbelievable !

Elizabeth Hartmann - everyone loves her patterns!

Windham Fabrics - isn´t that a super idea to present your blocks?!?

"Seams unlikely" lecture with Nacy Zieman - an example of the "American Dream come true", but only by hard, enduring work and a lot of support from family and friends !

Yoshiko Jinzenji - the lecture seemed strange with this small, white-haired woman, but what a bubbly and lively person she turned out to be when the lecture was "finish" and she explained her quilts and dyeing processes.....

more charity quilts...

Penny Layman´s workshop paper-piecing for a sewing organzier

Jenny Doan from the Missouri Star Quilt Company - everyone knows and loves her from her youtube-videos. But you know what: she is the nicest and kindest woman, not only in her tutoring videos but also in reality!

This is my finished sewing organizer - from the workshop with Penny Layman and her book "The Papier-Pieced Home" - go get it, the papier-piecing patterns are just the most fun you can get at sewing - my cushions with the furniture patterns are already in the planning process.....