Charity Quilts

We also made some charity quilts for a local charity. Here are a couple of pictures. I really love the brown one. Wish I knew which pattern it is.

Stocking Exchange 2010

The stocking exchange was wild and fun again this year. Here are a couple of pictures I took. The creativity is amazing. Every stocking was different, and it was hard to choose the one I wanted.
The stocking with the poinsettias is the one I made. Billa ended up with it!

Quilts: Thrilling

This says it all...


see more Very Demotivational

Christmas Stocking preview

In the spirit of Lisa and Frauke, here's a preview of my stocking we'll be swapping tonight.

Bonnie Hunter's new Mystery Roll, Roll Cotton Boll is up Part 1

For all of you blog readers waiting for Bonnie to come next February, here's a taste from one of her latest creations, the pattern Roll, Roll Cotton Boll. This mystery quilt just started today. As normal, Bonnie runs this as a mystery for a while, then removes it from her site in order to put it into a book. Get it while it's new and free!
Nice part is, you can just watch and download all parts, and make it when you want. No need to complete one part in order to get the next.

Here are the relevant links.
Bonnie's web site
Blog where part 1 is posted
Yahoo group to join if you want to talk about it with others
My basic fabrics for this one

Cute Christmas ornament from Carol Doak

I'm a member of the Carol Doak Yahoo group, and she posted a pattern for a very cute Christmas tree to celebrate Christmas 2010. This is an adorable pattern, and I'm going to be making more of them.
This one has scrap fabrics for the tree, and black satin for the background, but I can imagine it in silks or shiny damast fabrics.

German quilty links, miscellaneous

This is my "Quilty Goodness" week of the month, in which I have one or more group meetings (3 this week, 2 next week), and I've been so busy preparing, I haven't been photographing things or planning blog posts.
Last Saturday, the Black Forest Guild did quilting demos at the Sindelfingen Christmas Bazaar. We made a couple of newspaper articles, even got one photo.
Here are some other German quilty links

http://www.patchworkgilde.de/

 

http://www.patchwork.de/

 

http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/Quilt-Sterne

Roll Roll Cotton Boll - Bonnie's New Mystery

Bonnie Hunter has just started a new mystery quilt. Go here to find the details on Bonnie's blog, or join Bonnie's quiltville Yahoo group.
I'm taking the rest of the year easy, and don't want to do the whole quilt (Bonnie makes BIG quilts), so I decided to just follow the mystery, making just a small number of blocks.
Here is the basic fabrics I've chosen, and will be further complemented by all of the little scrap bits in my stash as I find the need. I really wanted to try to follow Bonnie's colors, and I'm pleased with the results so far.
The reason I don't have piles of scraps sorted out is that I'm still learning how to choose colors that make the quilt pop. By choosing one base fabric in each group, I've got an anchor for each color. Then I can add scraps to make the quilt more fun. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Next clue is due on or about Nov. 19.

GFG Motif Chosen

After some time spent with PowerPoint, I came up with the following pattern for quilting the edge of my Grandmother's Flower Garden. And it's working well. Once I figured out how to get the chalk onto the fabric I found out it goes pretty fast. And the quilting goes faster than I thought.
This pattern has multiple loops, but I'm just quilting the outer loop first. Then I'll decide if I want to do the inner loops. When I noticed that the outer loops went fast, I began to get itchy about finishing the quilt. Maybe the outer loops will be enough, and I'll be satisfied. Or maybe I need to do the inner ones too.
But once those are done, then I only need to do the binding. Oooh, that makes my toes curl up in happiness when I think of having this quilt finished!

Never Have to Sort Laundry Again (except that you still have to sort)

Color Catchers sound wonderful - you toss your new fabric into the wash, add a color catcher, and any excess dye jumps right onto the catcher, and not onto your other fabric.
So I bought some. They are available at the Schlecker drugstores here in Germany, about 2 Euro for 15 sheets. Here they're called Farbfänger, and this brand is called Farb Magnet, or color magnet.
Never having used them before, I carefully read the instructions. And did a double take.

The next to last sentence in the Wirkweise paragraph says, "You can skip sorting colors and whites." Sounds great! I can't wait to never sort laundry again.
On to the actual instructions.
Step 1: Sort the laundry just like normal.
Wait?!? What? I thought it just said I don't have to do that anymore!!! Arrgh.
OK, I didn't really believe I would never have to sort again, but this kind of BS is annoying.

Rotary cutter replacement blades (Ersatzklingen)

In any country, replacement blades for your rotary cutter are expensive. At the same time, it's safer and more efficient to frequently replace your blades. Not only do you get a better cut, with fewer skipped areas, but you are much less likely to cut yourself when you aren't forcing a dull blade through many layers of fabric.
Most of the time I flip a blade over if it skips, and it sometimes helps, but my blades in general get extra-good treatment. When I start a big cutting project, I give a slightly used blade a run through my sharpener (50 turns on each side of the blade with each side of the sharpener), and if it starts skipping, I just toss it. Because I've just sharpened it, I know another sharpening won't do it any good.
The sharpener is not really a sharpener, you should understand. It is a circular tool, with two different weights of sandpaper. You drop the blade onto one side and twist the handle many times (I do 50). Then you flip the blade over, and repeat. Turn the sharpener over and repeat for the other weight sandpaper.
After these 200 turns, you still haven't technically sharpened the blade. All you can hope to do with sandpaper is to take major burrs and dirt off, and there's plenty of that when you've been cutting. Take a look at the sandpaper after you've finished. It's pretty dirty, so you'll want to brush it off with your finger to keep it clean.
Regardless of how well you maintain your blades, you need to replace them regularly. Here in Germany, blades are not cheap. In the US, they seem to be a bit cheaper, but I'm not thrilled by the prices there either.
The first replacement blade I ordered was 7 Euro ($9) for a single 45 mm blade. That motivated me to look more carefully for blades in the internet.
The last time I ordered 45 mm replacement blades here, I bought them from Patchwork-Oase and paid 6.72 Euro for 3 blades. It was on sale at the time, but their regular price is 7 Euro for three. Keep in mind that these are not Olfa blades, but another manufacturer. They do fit my Olfa cutter without problems.
If you're looking for replacement blades, here are some links to websites with good prices. Please note that I've only purchased from Patchwork-Oase so far.
Patchwork-Oase budget 45 mm replacement blades 3-pack about 7 Euro
Fadenversand Olfa 10-pack about 34.90 Euro
Bacuplast has blades even cheaper at 5 Euro for 3, but I can't figure out how to order from them

Country Rose Quilts has a Prym 3-pack for 11.50 Euro, which is already too high, in my opinion

Remember the quilter's saying: a sharp blade makes a better quilt! (OK, nobody but me ever said that)

GFG edge quilt motif design

My GFG is progressing nicely, I've just finished the quilting of the flowers themselves. But how to quilt the edge? I don't yet have an idea, but tonight I'm going to start sketching some possibilities.
This graph paper will come in handy. I printed it out  from Incompetech, and colored in the areas that are available to be quilted. Let's see what I finally decide.
The cross-hatched area is already quilted, and I've shown about half of each side. 
Your suggestions are very welcome.

Thinking about buying an embroidery machine

If you have an embroidery machine, I'd like to hear about your experiences. I'm considering buying one, and have just found out that I don't really have a clue of what I'm talking about.
As best I can figure, I need to make some of the following choices:

• Do I want to buy an add-on module to my Bernina 440QE, or a standalone machine
• If i buy the module, what kind of sewing machine should I buy to be able to sew while the other machine is embroidering
• What kind of software do I need to buy to do the things I want to do
• What services and products would be cheaper for me to "outsource," that is, buy from some other source? I'm thinking designs, or digitizing services, or who knows what

At least I know what I want to do, which is (ideally) create my own graphics and stitch them onto my home deco projects, quilts, bags and my own clothing. 
Let me know your opinions, either here or by email. I'm quite confused right now.