A new day

Yesterday went on with more tears. But  the plan to clear up and arrange the balcony was a good plan. I even sew some pillow covers. I had a few blocks lying around for a "maybe" quilt. But they were perfect for the pillows. 

I ended the day with some very earthy food ( the leaves of fresh organic beetroots, fried with a lot of garlic and tomatoes), some ice cream, candle lights, reading some quilting books, and in the backround there was some amazing  Jazz music from a street festival that is going on in our neighborhood this weekend. 

So this day of many tears ended somehow calming, when I went to bed I was calm inside, empty of tears, no energy left to cry. Thank you so much for all your lovely and helpful comments!

Today is a new day.

I will be on my way to a lake on the other side of town soon. There I will meet friends for swing dancing, outdoors. Having coffee, dancing, chatting, maybe a little swim and very hopefully  surely smiling again.

What you really should not do...

... when you are in an heavily depressed mood, is to go to IKEA on a saturday morning. Ikea is already hard to stand when you are happy. But today, I spent the worst hour there. Everything and everybody reminded me of a life that I used to live or of a life that I had planned to live when I was young. I saw the cuttleries and thought of the starter pack of cuttlery, plates, pots and pans that my mother bought me when I moved out and left home (that was the first time the tears tickled in my eyes today) I went on. There was this couple discussing about the couch they wanted to buy for a living room. (I never bought something with a man for an appartement and a life together, so more tears waited to be cried in my eyes; my walking pace got faster) I am sure you know these paths at ikea, on relaxed afternoons you can somehow enjoy strolling around with a good friend, even having fun trying the beds or couches, but on a morning like this I felt like I was trapped in a labyrinth, panic appeared. But it came worse. shortly before you leave for the basement there is the kids departement, and of course there were these happy kids with these happy parents (I know it is not always like that, some of you might say), searching for the perfect toy, the perfect little kids table, colourful curtains etc. My heart felt like broken into thousand pieces. I barely could whipe away these tears which fled out of my eyes. I nearly ran to the toilet, hid myself silently crying.

None of the things, I had imagined, when I was young happened. I don´t have the loving husband, the cute kid, the house in the suburb.

Instead I have  freedom, I fulfilled myself all the dreams I had. I have the perfect job. I travelled a lot. I can go out whenever I want, can sleep with whomever I want.
I know that this a lot and I know some people who do and would envy me for that. But what can I do when there is always this longing of belonging somewhere, to belong to a family. To love and be loved not just by my friends and myself.

I was always so sure that this will happen someday, but then I finally realize that time is not on my side with this. Being a woman with relationship issues is already hard enough, the ticking clock makes it even harder.

This is who I am today. This is what I feel sometimes. Sometimes I am just so sad about that all.
I now there will be days when I will be grateful for the freedom. Just not today. So it is.

Why did I go to Ikea anyways? I already knew I needed something for myself when I woke up this morning. So I bought some balcony furniture and flowers. I hope I will regain the energy to make this balcony pretty and comfortable. I want to sit there, watch the flowers and enjoy the sun. Maybe just not today.
So it is.

Scrappy Pinwheel - A Tutorial

Hi folks,
after some of you said YES for a tutorial for the Scrappy Pinwheel block, here it is.
This is the first tutorial I ever wrote (will write). I tried one for a quilt once and failed terribly. But this block is so easy to describe, it should be possible. And further on, just because I failed once, it doesn´t have to be that way for ever. Doesn´t it? It is the same as in life in general. If you fall, you should get up and go on.

But here it is, the Scrappy Pinwheel Tutorial

What  you need for one block:
- Several scraps in different colours and shapes, some strange odd pieces are super!
- A piece of backround fabric at least 10" by 10"
- 2 pieces of paper
- pencil, paper siccors, rotary cutter, cutting mat

For your templates draw an accurate square 6 1/2" by 6 1/2". Then draw the diagonals in the square and a half line into one of the triangles. Using the line as a reference draw a curve from one point to the other.

Now that you have your two shapes, copy them onto the second piece of paper (I use my window as a gigantic light box) and add a 1/4" seam allowance around them. Now you can cut them out. Done!

Take your pile of scraps and sew them randomly together. I didn´t even think about if the colours match, but I am sure it also look very nice if you make your pinwheels monochromatic.

 Don´t think while you are sewing, just enjoy that you don´t have to be so accurate (At least this is what I do!) If you want (I didn´t) you can cut back funny pieces of seamallowances on the backside.

After you have sewn some scraps together, check if your finished piece is already big enough for the template.

If yes, give it a very proper press.

Now you can lay your template onto the fabric and cut out the shape.

Repeat these steps until you have 4 of your shapes.

Now cut 4 of the opposite shapes from your backround fabric.

Lay the backround fabric onto the scrappy piece and sew the curves together. If you are not familiar with sewing curves, here is an easy tutorial.

After you finished the curve, give your fragment a proper press.

Repeat for the other three pieces.

Now that you have your four triangles, sew them together. Good job, you are nearly there!

Trim the still quite wonky block to your desired size. I trimmed mine 7" by 7".

Finished is your Scrappy Pinwheel Block.

I hope you liked this tutorial. Enjoy sewing!

Yours Miriam

Scrappy Pinwheel Block

Yesterday at our meeting from the Berlin Modern Quilt Guild after I tried out Pojagi, I found the time to work on some more of my scrappy pinwheel blocks which I told you about in my last post.

Today is my day off and after I relaxed in my newly rearanged living room, reading a book, snuggeling under a quilt, having a hot tea, I finished 9  7" pinwheel blocks. I think this would be a decent size for a new pillow cover.

I extremely like how it looks. Even as decoration on my wall.

I think about writing a tutorial for the block, would you fancy that?

This and That

I feel that my quilt making mojo is gone for a little while now. Unfortunately I don´t feel the "need" to make a new quilt (maybe because nearly everybody around me who has a special place in my heart already has a quilt from me and the pile of mine is already huge like a house). So I just did little things, like the baby quilt I finshed recently, or the bag for our german swap. The bag that was made for me unfortunately didn´t turn up yet. It seems that it might got lost on its way. Buhuuu I am really sad about that.
But on the other side from not beeing so inspired I need to do something, when I cannot go swing dancing or singing, which fills my life quite tremendously at the moment. Not to forget that computer addiction which worries me  recently. So back to sewing, thats much better than spending hours in front of a energy stealing big screen (Do you know this feeling?).

So what did I do?

First there is a medallion quilt which hangs on my design wall for a little while now, unfortunately I can´t show pictures, I didn´t take some yet and today the weather was so extremely terrible cold and dark -no chance for photos.
Yesterday very late in the evening I finally tried something that was in my head for some months now. I made a scrappy pinwheel block.   

It could look like that as whole quilt:

Or the other way around.

These two blocks paired together could look like this.

Oh this playing with the mosaic maker is fun and inspiring!
I love working with the scraps, I don´t have to use my precious stash. And it is such a good feeling when they are used .

 And there is my collaboration with the Bee Germany ladies who also help me to get rid of my growing scraps stash. I asked them to make some tumbling blocks block for me. There are still arriving at my house and I also added some similar blocks to ad some interest, but I am not so sure about it yet. Sorry for the blurry photo.

So this is what is in da house. Let´s see what happens next. I am excited.

A Mid Mod Houses Baby Quilt

In January 2010 the first baby of my dear friend Caroline was born. For this wonderful event I made her a quilt. It was the first quilt I ever made. Here you can see it in all its beauty.
Last week, about three and a half years later her second child was born. For sure I had to make a new quilt for Toni the new boy on town. What a lucky coincident that I still had the cute Mid Mod Houses Blocks in my drawer which where made by the talented bees  of the Bee Germany back in 2011.
So this morning I started to put them together.

I absolutely adore this quilt. I think even later when the baby  boy is to big to fit under it, the quilt can be used for playing.
And because I never want to let one child neglected, the big sister who is the cutest todler I know, will get a dollquilt made from one leftover block. I hope the kids and the parents like my gift. I definitely do.

Swap*pen auf Deutsch

We did it again! Aylin organized the second round of Swap*pen auf Deutsch. This time we are swapping  totes. Because I am going on a trip to turkey soon, I finished the tote for my secret swap partner very early.

I used the free Charlie Bag pattern from the Burdastyle website.  Already two  of these bags have been made by me and I love the pattern. The shape gives you so much possibilities to alter and "embellish" the bag. For the bottom I used some nice velvet leather because it gives you more durability. I really love this version. I almost hope my partner doesn´t like it, so I can keep it. ;-)

Inside there is one open pocket for the things you have to reach quickly and easily.

 And one zipperpocket for the more valuable stuff.  This is it for now, I wish you all a sunny sunday!