veni vidi vicky

one lovely blog award

June 19, 2015Uncategorized2 Comments

Two of my favourite quilting bloggers, Amanda (The Cozy Pumpkin) and Teje (Nero’s Post and Patch) nominated me for this little blog-hoppy award. Both Amanda and Teje have been blogging for quite a few years, their blogs are wonderful resources of inspiration.

I love Amanda‘s clear and structured projects (her tutorial’s rock!) and she’s an absolutely darling person who creates the most beautiful quilts.

Besides making lovely things from fabric, Teje ownes the cutest store selling handmade jewelery on the island of Crete, Greece. We bonded over our mutual compassion for stray dogs (my family dog was a stray on Crete before she was rescued) and IKEA fabrics.

I’m taking this as a chance to reintroduce myself to my (new) readers. Though, I need to note that I’m a super private person, so keeping this blog is a little awkward at times. I love to join the quilting community and maybe contribute some useful tidbits here and there, but I have a huge restraint against showing off myself, my life and even my thoughts too much. So please bear with me while I write my ‘about me’…

So about me, Vicky, 26 yo, from Germany

Quilting didn’t enter my life until the beginning of last year, but I’ve always held a fascination for fabric. I remember when I was very little my mum bought be a small bundle of fabric from the department store that I coveted for years. I would sew little teddy bears and other soft toys by hand, which is something I still enjoy doing a lot. But it wasn’t until I bought a sewing machine that I started sewing more regularly.

Quilts are perfect! I love the graphic design, colours, prints, calculation and math involved. Some of my favourite fabrics include designs by Carolyn Friedlander, Lotta Jansdotter, Lizzy House and Leah Duncan. I’m drawn to graphic motifs and I use a lot of blenders. I’m a serial straight-line quilter and converted machine binder.

A couple of other things I enjoy a fair bit:

* swimming * pets * books * architecture * art * urban life *

* travel * beer & wine & cheese * cooking * podcasts *

* mysteries & riddles * the sea * vineyards *

Okay, now for the really interesting part of this post. Check out these sweet ladies websites or you are missing out in life =)

lovely and enough

holly gets quilty

slo studio

kinga isabella quilts

What are some of your favourite quilting blogs? Please share with me, I love to get to know other fellow quilters =)

about me blog hop quilting community

fully quilted pillow – how to add a zipper [tutorial]

June 16, 2015small projects, tutorial18 Comments

I finished a couple of cushion covers recently and I love to quilt both the front and the backside of it. I had a hard time finding a good tutorial online on how to add a zipper to such a fully quilted pillow case. So I’m sharing the way I figured it out.

My favourite feature with this method is that the pillow can be used from both sides (as opposed to an envelope back)

STEP 01 __trim two quilted panels to the size of your cushion filling, adding a seam allowance measuring 3/8” to each side. With a 20×20” filling i.e. your panels should measure 20 6/8” square each. I usually sew around the trimmed panels 1/8” from the edge to keep the quilting seams secure.

STEP 02 __ Lay your zipper out where you later want to sew it in. With my project I have about 3” left to cover at each side. Cut two strips of fabric about 2” wide (in length at least double of what you have to cover – I cut two 2×7” pieces)

STEP 03 __ fold and press the fabric strips in half and sew the closed edges to one respective end of your zipper each.

STEP 04 __ Trim the zipper ends according to the width of the zipper. Lay one of your quilted panels out, facing up. Place the zipper wrong side up on top of it, leaving just 1/8” space uncovered. Pin into place and sew close to the zipper (about 1/4” from the zipper edge.)

STEP 05 __ Fold the quilted panel over and press lightly. Proceed stitching in place very close to the zipper.

Repeat STEP 04 and STEP 05 with the other panel for the second side of the zipper.
Make sure the two parts are lined up correctly because we already trimmed them down!

STEP 06 __ Fold the two sides together wrong sides facing, line the corners up and pin into place. Open the zipper halfway! Sew around leaving out the side that is closed by the zipper. Use a 3/8” seam allowance (this is what we added to the final size before trimming). Secure with backstitches at start and end.

STEP 07 __ I usually sew a short diagonal seam at each corner and trim them away, this makes for neater corners after turning.

STEP 08 __ Turn the pillow case inside out (this is the part where you will understand why the zipper has to be open) Poke the corners out using a pointed tool. YOU’RE DONE!

Thanks to the added zipper ends your corners won’t look clogged but pretty pointy. I love this clean look and the fun feature of the zipper ends (a pop of colour can work so well here!)
P.S. my pillow features quietplay’s geometric bear pattern (this is paper pieced). I hope I will come around to take some nicer pictures of it for a separate post.

Happy sewing!

this post is linked up with Let's Bee Social at 
Sew Fresh Quilts, Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts,
TGIFF this week at A Quilter In The Closet, Finish It Up
Friday at crazy mom quilts, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
and Freebie Friday at Handmade on Tuesday.

essex linen gift-idea pillow quilted gifts quilted pillow straight line quilting

[BQF] mini quilt entry: The Modern Crest

May 19, 2015small projects17 Comments

Entry to the Mini Quilt Category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2015.

The working titel for this mini quilt was ‘Texas meets Germany’. I sewed it up for a awap partner who resides in Houston. The mini quilt turned out to be a fusion of medieval medallions and crests (think German castles) and a Texas inspired colour palette.

I wanted for the binding to add to the theme and after nixing the idea of tassels I made a ton of mini pom-poms on a whim and added them to the finished binding.

This quilt it by far my favourite finish of the past 6 months, and I’m still a little sad I had to part from it. So I’m glad I get an excuse to show it off again by entering it into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival of Spring 2015 ;-) Go check out all the other beautiful entries in the various categories and vote for your favs!

This post is linked up with the Blogger's Quilt Festival 
at Amy's Creative Side and TGIFF this week at Anja's Quilts.

Blogger's Quilt festival essex linen mini quilt pom-poms schnitzel & boo mini quilt swap the modern crest wall-hanging

‘wherever you will go’ baby quilt

May 11, 2015baby quilt20 Comments

Hey there, I guess it’s been a while! Life just went super busy with finishing up my degree, but after packing away my sewing machine for a couple of months I’ve been back to more regular sewing since the beginning of May. I have different things under my machine right now, and I’m stopping by to show you my first finish post-hiatus: a baby quilt for my cousin’s newborn boy. Since I didn’t have a lot of time from start to finish I wanted a simple layout I could sew up quickly. I’ve been drawn to the look of Quarter Square Triangles lately and I find them super simple to put together. So a simple QST quilt seemed like a good fit.

Fabric used is a wild mix of Tula Pink, Lizzy House and Robert Kaufmann prints, mixed in some Cotton and Steel and a citron-y Kona Cotton I’ve learned to love (cactus? not sure). I had plans to make a simple border just using big strips of the Tula Pink Seawater blue-greyish fabric, but once I had pieced the inner panel, the Tula pattern seemed overwhelming if used in such big quantities. Thus the border was pieced using coordinating squares of the outer triangles. The border now seems to be forming arrows pointing to the middle of the quilt, which prompted the name of this baby quilt “Wherever You Will Go”. I’m slowly learning to embrace quilt-making as a process, where not everything can be planned in advance.

The quilting is done in straight lines echoing the seams with a 3/8” offset. I might have opted for a denser grid, but was running out of time to get it done, washed and photographed in time before gifting it to its little owner yesterday. I love the little cats, zebra and balloon sneak peaks and the fresh colour palette.

I will put this in a couple of my favourite link-ups. I’m so happy to be re-connecting and catching up with all of you, I missed this virtual community =)

this post is linked up with 
Monday Makers at Aylin Nilya and Stoffbreite, 
Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts and Fabric Tuesday
at Quilt Story, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts,
Monday Makers at Hug a Bit Quilts, Quilt Collection
at Allie & Me Design, WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
,Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and
Thank God It's Finished Friday this week at SLOstudio 
(love that blog!)