our DJ group got some input

The Janiacs, meeting and learning together in Höchstädt once per month (1 year now) met last Saturday to welcome my friend Sabine Lohse. She finished her version of the Dear Jane patterns ~ 2ooo, it was for shure the -before-EQ-aera. So she draw all the blocks on her own with EQ 5(?)

It was a great AH and OH in the room
Some got overwhelmed, like "I'll never reach that goal" or "I'm not that perfect" and so on - but at the end I hope it got more motivation to work on their own Baby.

Sabine also brought her wonderful Piecemaker applique quilt

AND last but not least
her Quilted Diamonds blocks,

all done by hand and partly assembled to hexagons.
Again she designed her own layout - this is going to be a gorgeous quilt too.
Due to the fact that I influenced her with the beading-bug she don't quilt anymore -
until now I hope ;-) She promised to work on her Diamonds again

Überraschungen sind etwas Wunderbares

Vor wenigen Minuten klingelte es und ich bekam ein kleines Pakerl von meiner Freundin Monika - einfach so
Eine sehr schöne Karte, sehr gut duftende Seife, ein kleines Herz, eine Webkante und 2 spannende Bücher
U N D
ein superschönes Nadelkissen - in meiner aktuellen Lieblingsfarbe
Vielen DANK Moni!!!! bist ein Schatz


Surprise! My best friend Monika sent me a little parcel, just for fun
a wonderful card, nice smelling soap, a little heart, selvage, 2 books
A N D
an embroidered pincushion in my favorite coloration
THANK you so much, Moni

do you remember Sesamstrasse?

Today Karin, the shopowner of my beloved LQS is celebrating her birthday. The next 4 weeks I have to survive, because the shop is closed: vacation! buhuhuhuhu
Tonya Ricucci and Elizabeth Hartman are doing GREAT letters and words, both on their own way. I did letters in the past and was shure I'll come back to them again and again. In fact I do have at least two projects concret in the planing status :)

Karin and I are nearly the same age and I remembered the scene from Sesamstrasse, when Ernie (or Bert?) opened his trenchcoat and asked very mysterious " do you want to buy an A?" - or B, C, D .....
loved this - hope she has the same memories ....


So I made Karin a " K "

Principessa

Yesterday my husband came home with this cute little so called "principessa"

Isn't she funny?
She is standing on my old Singer threadle under the Dear Jane embroidery
greeting me with her smile when I'm climbing up the stair

my POTC filler squares

are identic in construction to Carols from Postcards from Panama - but the effect is quiet different
because I made a kind of checkerboard
I do LOVE Carols version also, it separates the blocks much more than mine do.

The 2 first sections are filled in -

I'm very pleased with the result!
BUT
what do you think, would'nt it be clearer to change the green fabric in the filler squares to the pale yellow one? your options are more than welcome
This is going to be my summer 2o11 project

the pictures don't justice the fabrics - but we do have grey, rainy weather - sorry

Bavarian Castle tour

Early this month my DH and I spent 3 days in the southern part of Bavaria, called Ostallgäu to celebrate his birthday and to visit the 2 famous castles.
First night we stayed in Füssen:

like always: click on the picture to see it big


On Friday we visited
Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein
This places are a MUST for every Germany tourist ;-) worth the visit!




We made a little tour to Maderhalm,
a little village between Sonthofen and Oberstdorf.
Lovely landscape!!!
here are some impressions of our tour with the Nebelhornbahn

typical cows - love them and the sound of their bells

We made it up to the little Alm you see in the distance. The flowers in the meadow smelled - couldn't remember this special memory



We liked the place so much, that we rented a little flat for our sommer vacation!

Wouldn't you like to travel there too?

Accuquilt - giveaway

after a blog-break I'm here again ;-)
thank you for your patience

Here you (and me) do have the chance to win 3 Go! Cutter Dies.
Due to the fact that I don't own a Accuquilt cutter - but a Cuttlebug (from my scrapbooking department ) I'm dreaming to use the dies with my green bug.

more about our little trip early this month later

New project: Lucy Boston, patchwork of the crosses (POTC)

Early in April I made a trip to a nice little exhibition near Munich and got infected with a new/OLD bug: english paperpiecing! Elongated hexagons ( 1 inch ) are my new obsession. Lucy Boston made this special quilt many moons ago. Linda Franz wrote a lot of interesting details about the maker on her site. Linda offers a new printing technique to print the pattern onto the fabric, very clever - maybe you'll give it a try
I like the old fashioned way, "lieseln" over the paper, nice and quiet
I'm using Civil War fabrics and a creamy/yellow background fabric.
Carol from Panama is working on her version of POTC in powerful colors, absolutly beautiful! She found a very clever idea to assemble her blocks. Due to the facts that I think it's boring to sew 24 identical hexis around the blocks AND I'm short with just 2 yards of background fabric I asked her for her permission to use the same design - AND she agreed!
Thank you so much Carol

here are my first 3 blocks (have to get the seamripper out to remove some of the outer yellow pieces)



for some unknown reason the colors are not nearly the reality, maybe I'll take new pics after my bead-workend-retreat !!! YEAH, I'm lucky to stay 2 days with beading freaks from all over Germany at the lovely Ammersee
hugs

charity babygirl quilt for "Lünetraum" / Lebenshilfe Lüneburg

Last weekend I finished a babygirl quilttop for my friend Monika's charity project. She is sewing and collecting quilts for childs with special needs in Lüneburg, her hometown. Unfortunately the colors aren't real in this picture, but you get the idea



Thank you Rosa for the reminder, YES the blue scraps have been sent from Canada ;-) THANKs my friend

fleamarket goodies from the 30s or 40s

Yesterday we had fanstic sunny weather, just right to go the local fleamarket.
We found cards with vintage glass buttons from the 30s or 40s, made in the czech republic. One of the cards is so pretty I think I have to frame it ...








happy hunter

my red mini wallhangings

Inspired from the special exhibition in NY several bloggers reacted their own way.
Pat Sloan visited NY and created a special blog with LINKs to several other websites, many pictures! Enjoy the journey through the www

Taryn asked for showing red and white quilts on our blogs, come on - did you made one? If so, show it and post on her blog.

In 2oo8 I made some Minis to give them to friends, Redwork made from the Winter Wonderland pattern / Crab-Apple Hill design. I think, I have to make at least one more: for our household

spectacular exhibition in New York

These days the people of New York are able to visit an extraordinary quilt collection of 650 red and white quilts at the Park Avenue Armory March 25–30 !!!

Infinite Variety:
Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

I'ld love to see them in person - but ....
I can show you some LINKs to pictures
Martha Stewart posted 37 pics on her blog
The American Folk Art Museum presents it here
Here is a Flickr album of the Museum
NY Times posted here

The museum announced a free app for the iPhone - but I couldn't find it - if you get it - please send me the info!

Taryn is running an interesting blog and influenzed by the exhibition she asked her readers to show their red and white quilts - worth a visit!

enjoy

Bente's Leselotte

ist zu gewinnen - vielleicht hab ich ja Glück

I have to post several times to tell you EVERYTHiNG
about my adventures with Bonnie Hunter and the Retreat I attended.

The time with Bonnie Hunter (BH) was really special, she is a darling!
Full of energy and creativity, a joy to meet with!
I was in contact with for more than 8 years we tried to remember,
as mostly it started with Dear Jane - smile
I traveled from Thursday until Monday evening.
Stuttgart is just 2 hours from my actual hometown, but I organized the trip like a real vacation, choose just a very simple hotel to keep the cost level low.
No problem I was there just to sleep ;-)

My first stop was at the home of Susanne,
she is running THE big Yahoo group for quilters in Germany and has a webshop.
But the interesting part now is:
she is an expert for Featherweights!
When my husband was in Afghanistan in 2005 I got some extra money from him each month
and I bought a FW from 1936 with an 110 V engine.


It was not really running and made a terrible noise. Of course I bought the right converter, because we do have 220 V.
My friends DH gave my baby a nice cleaning and oiled it but it still did not run nice.
Susanne showed me all the little holes to oil and the parts which needs the lubricant – AND
YEAH it’s buzzing like a bee now!
Another problem was the tension of the belt. Now I know,
I have to move the engine to get the right tension – lession learned.
DANKESCHöN Susanne !!!

Thursday afternoon I visited the quiltshop in Schönaich, who organized the first workshop “Cathedral Stars”.
Tiny, but nice shop – they sent me over to the workshop location to say hello to Bonnie.
Bonnie greeted me like an old friend and I saw the participants busy sewing on their 4 patches and pieces.

Thursday evening 2 friends from a private Yahoogroup arrived.
Since 2oo5, when I was in Shipshea I’m part of
the Caravanquilters (that’s the name of our little group).
Valerie is French, now living near Paris and is running a Longarm business. She moved several times during the last years: Brussels, Belgium and Chicago area
Carolyn is from Maine and was just traveling to Rome, where her daughter is studying. They both came to the Stuttgart region just to see Bonnie and her trunkshow! It was so much fun to meet Valerie again and Carolyn first time!
We had a lovely local meal in a little restaurant near bye and a long chatting later in our room, lots of laughers.
On Friday they made sighseeing at Mercedes and a local chocolate factory
I was lucky to have the Cathedral Star workshop
BH is a real good teacher, such an inspiration!
Everybody was lucky and busy –
a nice meal has been served as well for lunch.

This report will be continued soon
YES - pictures are coming too

Tilda blog-candy

Denise's blog is worth a visit, not only because of her giveaway
Especially for Tilda-lovers
good luck

H O P E

After nearly 2 weeks on journey I'm back home.
I'll post about my adventures during the next few days, yes pictures will be shown as well.

The horrible news we all see daily from Japan are so overwhelming, I can't find words for. Tanya's blog is one of my favorites for some time now. Actually she is posting about the situation in Japan of course. On friday she posted such a touching video, I have to share with my readers! I believe in future
Go visit her blog and send her some encouraging thoughts

back on earth - from scrap HEAVEN

I left on Thusday morning and came back on Monday evening. Mentally I'm still with Bonnie :)
All I can say: it was FANTASTiC to meet with Bonnie Hunter, the Black Forest Quilters and many talented quilters. Especially to spent some time with Valerie from France and Carolyn from Maine was so special to me. They are both members of a little private Yahoogroup of Janiacs I'm part of and drove from Paris to Stuttgart!

Firstable I visited a quilter, which runs a webshop and is an expert for
Singer Featherweights (they are rare in Germany!) I own a FW from 1937, but it didn’t run smoothly. She showed me all that tiny holes needing oil and the part I have to add lubricant. After she moved the engine to get the right tension for the cord. My darling is running and sounds happy now!
Her husband will fix a problem of the electric cord and send it to me
THAN I can use it – YEAH !!! Dankeschön Susanne!!

Drove a little bit around and walked through Herrenberg, a historic village nearbye.
Around 4 PM I peaked into Bonnie’s workshop and said hello.
She is such a darling and we talked a little bit. In the evening Valerie, Carolyn and the 3 french kids arrived at the hotel. We left immediately to a little restaurant and had local food, beer and a lot of chatting.

On Friday morning the Cathedral Stars workshop took place – I missed Caroline from Brussels, who had to cancel the trip because of bronchitis and astma!!!
First time ever I used the Easy Angle and Tri Rec rulers – very clever, will never do
halfsquare triangles the oldfashioned way.
In the evening Bonnie held her trunkshow at an formerly officers club, where the
Black Forest Quilters having their meetings. It is an American/German club, very creative, supportive and active. Would love to be part of this guilt.
The Trunkshow was FANTASTiC !!!!!!

Barb posted a really sweet post about Bonnie's visit to Texas! She enclosed 2 youtube video from the trunkshow - This way you can get an impression about the scrap queen. Thank you Barb!

On Saturday I attended the Virginia Bound workshop at the guilt.
I’m using woven plaids, made in Bangladesh – first time my SewEzi table was built up
PERFECT !!!
In the evening I had dinner with Aby (the organisator) and Bonnie -
We had a lot of fun!

On Sunday the Star Stuck workshop was held at Nadel und Faden, located in an old building from ~ 1700
Just 9 participants, lovely shop – bought the perfect 2 grey fabrics for the sashing.
Needless to say I crashed into my bed every evening!
On Monday I didn’t rushed back home, instead I enjoyed the lovely landscape around Stuttgart and got to a little village with big outlet stores of many famous designers. I was lucky to find a perfect fitting chocolate brown jacket with coordinates trousers.
Had a soup in another old village (Blaubeuren)
Right now I’m prepairing our house for the visit of my daughter Ines and her friend Tom.

Monday I’ll leave to visit my friend Monica in Lueneburg, together we’ll go to a Retreat with 6 women from Hamburg.

Tomorrow I promise pictures!

happy greetings