Peaceful New Year

dear bloggers

2008 has been a difficulty year for many people,
for different reasons: economy, health ....

I wish everybody all the Best for the New Year:
peace, health, love, creativity and time

XOXOX
Brigitte

green: is the color of hope

tiny beauty stitches

My friend Monika embroidered this lovely stitchery for me:
isn't it lovely?
I'll going to find a cute frame for it soon


many more pretty gifts had been changed yesterday .........
First experience with a digital frame and a iPod speaker

I'm unwrapping here - with the "old" jewelry ...
No exercise need for wearing the NEW necklace ;-)

AND - the tree:



firstable: coffeetime with "Linzer Torte"



and doggies' Christmas gift presentation:


Today we are going to have goose, traditional food

wishing everybody a special time with their families

The day after

Yesterday we had a very quiet, pieceful afternoon and evening -
with a lot of candles, even on the tree
Many thanks at first to my SSCS Partner from Australia

Unfortunatly I don't know to whom I may sent my thanks, because there was no name on and in the package, just a mysterious card

I got a Xmas tablerunner with handembroidered wreath, a Austalian magazine and notecards

THANK YOU dear SSCS Partner - please contact me

Merry Christmas

Dear bloggers worldwide -

have some pieceful, silent moments

Here in Poland and in Germany, where I'm from we celebrate Xmas on the 24th

Our family tradition starts with coffee, cookies and cake - the whole room full of candles, even on the tree - real candles on a real tree ;-)

My DD traveled to us today and so we pick one present after the other, we look what the others got and how they react - that takes some time and we enjoy each minute of it.

After everybody is hopefully happy we eat:
potatosalad and pastasalad, both homemade
and sausages called "Frankfurter Würstchen" - that's it

Tomorrow a big goose will be in the oven for hours -
the day after tomorrow I have wild boar gulasz -
than days of left overs, for shure

However you celebrate this special day
best wishes from Szczecin

Brigitte

Pre-Christmas decoration

No Christmas decoration in the house, just one window ...

in my room.
Sorry, the orchids blossoms aren't natural

Love the little angel!

4 days old

Today I would like to show you Imi with Jette, Jule and Jupp
aren't they cute???
Imi is a mini dachshound and this is her first motherhood, she is doing a great job. Their weight is between 250 and 293 gramm, imagine!
I was lucky to see them today and she was very friendly even to me

Santa's deadline

Yesterday my parcel started it's journey to .............

( unfortuneatly I can't write the name) and I am lucky I finished exactly at the deadline. Finger crossed the long trip will be safe and lucky.

Who don't LOVE to get a suprise in the postbox???

A very nice lady on the other side of the ocean (in Canada) I'm swapping with sent a nice surprise. I read on our Yahoogroup some days earlier that she asked how to make a fabric postcard, never dreamed about to get this first beauty.

BTW: Her "12 Days of Christmas - Quilter's Style! " is tooo cute

the question of today is: what blocks are we swapping????? any ideas?????

Christmas Siggies

Yesterday, when we came back from our wedding anniversary trip to Krakow I found several parcels. One was a Birthday gift from husband - a very stylish carrycruiser from Reisenthel to transport all the stuff to Retreats.
Great help

Speaking about Retreats - actually are ~ 90 lucky ladies together in the Amish village of Shipshewana/Indiana enjoying their company, the lovely quiltshops Yoder and Lolly's and Rebecca's antique store (where I bought the old Log Cabin Quilt for my husband in April). They had snow on Friday

We too here in Szczecin, can't remember snow that early in Berlin............... I tried to make a little movie, but I flipped the camera and I'm unable to turn the movie :-(

Now to the other important parcel I got, it came from Judi who was our fabulous swapmom. Imagine she swapped ~ 150 x 150 Christmas Siggies ( that means around 22500 blocks ......... )

Once I swapped Siggies from ~ 45 women, that was a job from one afternoon

To give you an idea I'll show you only three Siggies
thanks Susan !!

still thinking (dreaming) this could be a SPECIAL one ???

love this "tree"

unbelievable giveaway

Dana from OldRedBarnco.blogspot is unbelievable generous, she is giving away 3 - YES: three !!! quilts, one is better than the other

.............. visit her blog and see - but PLEASE

don't let a commentar, that would reduce my chance
;-)
;-)

Giveaways are always special, but this one

is it much more than others I saw. Read the touchy story here.

If you are the lucky winner you may get a similar quilt in colors you choose.
Great, isn't it?

DJ Secret Pal gift of this month

Members of the worldwide DJ community are playing the Secret Pal thing throught the whole year on a monthly manner. Each paricipant has to send once per month something to another quilter, the reciever don't know from whom she gets her packages, evenlopes or parcels. They are all mixed up, means: X send to A, A get from G - as example.

This month I got lovely Laurel Burch Christmas fabrics

Thank you "Betty Boop" ;-) that's how she sign her letters

I'm still unable to post pictures of the project I'm working on - due to the rules of SSCSwap 2008. It has to be a secret until Xmas and the package arrived and was opened.

Photo - FUN

Rosa posted a funny picture,
Paris Hilton posing with a CD which shows her DJ ...........

I played with photofunia and had a lot of fun,
here you see the result:
our Nelli observatored by two cats, lovely cats BTW

Future

The best thing about the future is
that it only comes one day at a time.
— Abraham Lincoln

Quilter's Shorthand Acronyms & Hearts

While "traveling" in www blogland I got to this blog, she translate the acronyms quilters are using in their groups and mails. Most of them I knew, but not all. An example: do you know what TGIF is???

Yesterday I was very active in my studio and finished the piecing of a TOP secret present. Unfortunatly my beloved Bernina 440 QE wasn't cooperative - the BSR function didn't work like it should. But I maschinequilted it the oldfashioned way - will try to fix the problem later. In the evening I handquilted special parts of the blocks AND I got really in trouble. PLEASE: don't eat chocolate while quilting!!!

How do I know? I got dark brown soft chocolate on very light plain parts of the central block!!!

I was in shock at first, decided to wash the UFO (still no binding)

Do you imagine my relief - the chocolate was gone in the morning?

To tell a good news:
My participation in a 6 inch Heart block swap was accepted -
I waited until the very last minute ( some hours more, to tell you the truth ) -
BUT I got in .... I thought about, but was afraid to make that many blocks like in the Christmas Siggy Swap I'm in ( 165 blocks !!! ) Now I have to do 45 heart blocks - until March 31, 2009

BTW: I am the only one waiting for the Xmas Siggies, it seems to me (and I paid $ 40 to get them quick)

My friend Monika and I are swapping heart blocks as a longterm project for around one year now. All in different sizes, even some are rectangles. I started dreaming about a 6 inch heart border:

LAZY

Not only Nelli is exhausted

I was really lazy yesterday as well

Now I'm busy sewing: Birthday Siggies (I'm behind the agenda - sorry)

and some Xmas secrets

That's why you don't get pictures today

Cinderellaing

You may ask: what the heck is that - cinderellaing -
Tilde from Copenhagen / Danmark encourage the members of the WIProducers Yahoo group from time to time:
to clean the ironing board, the desk, the sewing area, the floor and so on
to get rid of all the stuff growing in piles EVERYWHERE

YOU don't know this phenomenon??? lucky you
I know it very well, I have to confess. This studio is much bigger than every space I haver had - it's a dream !!! when it is clean and nice
It was a nightmare, even the lovely Jo Morton fabrics I bought in April
( yes, 6 months ago !! )
waited on top of the table to be stored.
From time to time I enjoyed how nice the colors and patterns are -
but today I mad the big change here.
I emptied a space in my drawer and put the Jo's into it.
I'm shure I'll open this drawer to look at the fabrics until they are ready to be used - no problem :-)
I cleaned the piles on the floore, magazines, books, patterns, scetches with ideas, samples .........
Fabric on different places from various projects, actual once and long ago once as well, good mixed.

WHY today??
Tomorrow 2 wood worker will show up with heavy stuff to clean the whole floor in the house and oil it. They plan to work 10 hours per day, 3 days in a row.
Tomorrow the dog is part of the "gang" again, no idea what I'll do with her the other 2 days. This is going to be interesting ...........

The resume: I am totally tired - but glad I did it
and to say the truth, without the men coming it wouldn't had happened.

no pics today - sorry

Helen's giveaway

One of the blogs I'm visiting frequently is Helen's, and she is giving away her new patterns - worth to stop by



May be I'll post more pics this weekend, I hope to be busy in my studio

Longarmquilting

Yesterday I had a phonecall with Sue Baddley in Utah, who is professional longarmquilter.
A Belgium friend told me she did just amazing work on her Dear Jane quilt.

I was lucky to meet her in person in November 2005, when I attended the DJ Retreat in Shipshewana / Indiana. She is a very special person and it has a special meaning to me to have it done from Sue.

After sending a picture she had a fantastic proposal, I loved immediatly. The package will leave Germany in some days, stay tuned - I promise pictures when I have it back.
I'm not shure, if it is a Copyright thing to show the scan of the sewing themed pattern she suggested.

Autumn colors in far northeast Germany

Today I had a nice walk with 7 dogs, not without a little fight between my "darling", which turned out to be a little devil and one of the dachshounds of the "gang" (of 6)

I took another road this time to come back to Szczecin, which is located right across the border between Germany and Poland. To make shure I din't damage my car ( a Janiac car, if you look closely to the back !! ) I decided not to drive more than 15 miles per hour :-) Sightseeing

Just in case you want to know EXACTLY where I drove, this little road:

Coming from Eggesin, I turned left in Ahlbeck, passed through Ludwigshof and came to the "normal" road in Gegensee. We are talking about the REALLY far northeast of Germany ....
http://tinyurl.com/5uofzh to see a map

I think, what the Americans call Indian Summer is identic with the German "goldener Oktober"

it's ready to show

my turquoise sewing themed and Siggy quilttop is ready to go the longarmer - YEAH
just to piece the packing: 4 seams - not too bad

Of course Nelli had to pose in front of the top, don't look too close on her, she needs a haircut immediatly :-)

And to make it easier to look at, now in the right direction

Lesson learned - again BTW ...

Like several times ago I planed a quilt, nothing new until here. With the fabolous fabrics my DJ Secret Pal sent me - THANK YOU, unknown Janiac whereever you are

I did it - this time - the oldfashioned way: on paper, because I was at my friends home. Complicate as mostly, Monika declared :-)

I sewed the blocks 11" ready - easy


added the sashing 1,5" ready - easy


added a border - and the trouble began

BECAUSE I left the plan - tada

next border include 72 rectangle Siggies, the Janiacs signed for me, when I attended in November 2oo5 in Shipshewana - great memories -
And I realized my measurement wasn't correct ...........

What did the study told me??? not to store the project away toooo long

because of the short term memory - is that a menopause thing ??? ;-)

here is the actual stadium - watch for the next step

Helpful hints: Quilt measurements

Helpful hints: Quilt measurements

This is more for the German readers –
which size the usual quilts are in inch and metric (rounded)

Crib 27 x 52 inches = 0,70 x 1,30 meter
Wall 44 x 56 inches = 1,10 x 1,40 meter
Twin 66 x 90 inches = 1,70 x 2,30 meter
Double 80 x 92 inches = 2,05 x 2,35 meter
Queen 84 x 96 inches = 2,15 x 2,45 meter
King 106 x 94 inches = 2,70 x 2,40 meter

new Glasses

This week I got new glasses,

and some time ago glasses to wear during computertime

Did I ever wrote:
* * * * * * * * * * * I hate pictures from me? * * *

Christmas secrets

I am really busy these days, unfortuantly I'm unable to show what I'm working on -
because one of course is going to be my present for the SSCS 2008.

Here a small part of the first steps

Batic Dear Jane

In preparation for some XMAS secrets I searched in my stash and
- SURPRISE !!! -
the missing Dear Jane blocks from my first try popped up. Big fun

2 blocks where in unfinished stadium,

E 11 was appliqued from my friend Monika except the four little quartercircles in the corners, so I appliued them - looks great

and one of my scary blocks: G 6 (Papa's Star)

here I found the centerstar ready (PP), the big star and the background was ready to sew. I finishied this by hand and - I'm glad it's done and astaound it wasn't that difficulty I thought.

At the beginning of 2oo9 I'll see what to do with the Batic/handdyed blocks - a little wallhanging may be - any idea for ~ 40 blocks??

addition

the location is named: Galenbecker See don't know, if you'll find english sites in the www
Its in the far north east of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Cranes migration

Yesterday I had a special experience.
We watched at the for ~ 2 hours at hundreds of Cranes, which stop by for 2 or 3 weeks on their way south. About 7000 birds return every year, not only cranes - also gooses
Here are some pics

Fantastic sky, a little bit cold - but worth every minute!! Just spectaculary

Tomorrow we are "celbrating" the Octoberfest with the other nations here in Szczecin

happy dancing here in Poland - my BAG arrived

Lucky news from Szczecin:
I am the lucky owner of Rhonda's adorable crazy bag !!!!!!!!!
can't believe it actually
It is a masterpiece, she used several fabrics and lace and she did fantastic embroidery with floss, silkribbon and beads.
Rhonda created a spider with its web, a cute baskets full of roses, sunflowers, fans, a dragonfly and played with different stitches.

The basicfabric is a warm dark chocolate, lined with a warm darkred fabrics showing roses – 5 pockets inside are offered to prevend the typical chaos in bigger bags (I normally have)

It is a beauty

Rhonda surprised me also with a Quiltmaker magazine, Fons and Porter directional pins (never seen them before, quiet clever!) and purple beads

THANK YOU Rhonda - I am absolutly thrilled !!!

Thank you Linda fort his GREAT swap,
it was big fun to sew AND to enjoy the surprise