Merry Christmas!!

As all my friends live far away from me I had some long phone calls during the last few days. One asked me if I have a Christmas Tree. No, I don´t have one, I quit setting up a christmas tree a very long time ago as I rather see the tree in nature than in my living room. I like other people having that tradition, it´s just not one for me. My friend felt sorry for me but with all the christmas decoration around me I really feel content and merry, even without a christmas tree.

To soothe my friends worries I made a christmas tree cushion, started yesterday afternoon, finished it this morning after a nice christmas breakfast with my Mum. It´s made of blue striped men´s shirt scraps (left over from the Mystery Quilt cutting), the back and the zipper is from a size 0 jeans jacket of a friend of mine and the the dark grey loden is also a leftover from a sewing room that does curtains for hotels.

I wish you all the Merriest Christmas with your families, friends and loved ones!

Mystery-Quilt - Surprise Box - Part 3 and 4

A heavenly task for a stormy sunday afternoon: cutting and sewing part 3 and 4 for our Mystery Quilt. See for yourself, can you imagine what will become of it? Me neither, which means waiting for further instructions......

Last minute thank you gifts for Christmas

All my christmas presents are already on its way, christmas cards have been written and posted, almost all is done..... but sometimes there is a last minute thank you gift that I want to give to someone who has unexpectedly been very helpful and supportive. And instead of making just one I always make a couple, in case......

For that I took the day off to make these small give-aways, made myself comfortable with coffee and good music. This year it´s the "Lost on the River, The New Basement Tapes" that I chose for Christmas Music. I am not very fond of the typical christmas music, so every year I select and buy a CD that I am listening to during the weeks until Christmas and after (and should I not find one that I like, I take one or two from the previous years)!

And I love to create something out of jeans-scraps, left-over hexagons and left-over zippers (that a friend of mine didn´t need anymore)!

 

In between

As I was out of basting for my Festival of Trees quilt I finished my birthday-blocks quilt. Last year our group decided that each one of us could wish for a block from the others for his birthday. I chose a crazy log cabin block with green in the middle and all sorts of grey fabrics around it. The only regulation for the block was that it had to be finished with one dark grey stripe that I provided. 

It´s also the first time that quilted a piece completely by machine. I only did straight lines but not without getting all kinds of advice online first - the most helpful one that I got was the one from Jacquie Gering. After reading how to go on with straight line quilting, I really felt confident enough to do it with my little Pfaff sewing machine. Here´s the result!

Thanks to all the members of the Innsbruck group of Quiltirol for their blocks, they were very, very much appreciated! 

I will sell the quilt and donate it to Doctors without Borders. As soon as I have better pictures I will post them (with details and the back).

Halfway done.....

... with my Festival of Trees quilt. I hand-quilted the appliqued pieces, added the yo-yo´s with silver buttons (sewed them on with silver thread, Ophir from Coats) and added the side stripes. After all was said and done I wanted to sandwich it but: I did not have enough basting! That means it has to wait until the bastings here and until then it´s again tea and cookies....