more tea cozies

Easter was cold, snow white, hail and sunshine...we experienced it all!
But it was warm inside so I spent some time behind the sewing machine to make two new tea cozies for the dutch sisters shop.



They were lots of fun to make and for a special touch I gave each one different curtains.



The one in the middle (above) is not finished yet.



And I made a little basket to hold teabags in. It's from the same pattern as the one from my previous post.



The post on which I received so many lovely comments, I feel overwhelmed. Tomorrow is the last day to enter this giveaway and the drawing and announcement of the winner will be on thursday.
So if you want to be in for this drawing, please feel free to leave a comment.
I'm of now, have to finish the pink flower cozy!

1 year anniversary

Hip, hip, hooray....my blog is 1 year old!! A year sure goes fast, doesn't it? I learned so much trough blogging, such as writing better English (lol) but best of all...I met you and so many other wonderful people!
Thank you'll for coming by and letting me share a little bit of my creative thoughts with you. It's so inspiring to visit your blogs too!
I really want to celebrate my blog's first anniversary with you so I made a little gift basket ( with suprise) to giveaway and I also made a tutorial on how to make one.
If you want to enter the draw all you have to do is leave a comment before wednesday march 26.
So feel free to join in also if you don't have a blog you are still very welcome!


Tutoriol "How to make a gift basket"

Step 1.)

Draw a basket like the one in the picture. You can make a larger or smaller basket by changing measurements.
Cut the pattern out.


Step 2.)

Pinn the pattern on the fabric add seam allowances and cut the pattern out.
Place the pattern for the outside basket on the fold.



you'll have three parts.

Step 3.)

place both lining fabric pieces on outside fabric piece with the right sides together and sew the top left and right, see picture.


This is how it should look.



Step 4.)

Fold the fabric with the right sides together and sew all around leaving an opening on the side of the lining fabric, see photo.



Step 5.)

Turn the basket inside out and sew the opening closed.



Push the lining into the outside fabric piece.



Step 6.)

Add cord, string or ribbons and sew them on the basket as you pleased.
Buttons, beads, you can use anything to make it a fancy basket.


For those who want to give this pattern a try, I hope you enjoy and please let me know how it turned out, I really like to know!

triftstore embroidery & Japanese fabric

These hand embroidery patterns were once part of one long piece that originaly was made as a wallhanger. I bought this wallhanger last july in a triftstore ( see this post). I thought they could came in good use for another project someday.



And these are my Japanese fabrics. I saved them for a special project too! Not yet knowing what project that would be!



But last week I had the embroidery patterns in my hand and saw how well the colors blended with the colors of the Japanese fabrics. Then I knew how to use them.... a quilted wallhanging!



I kept it simple by sewing stripes in different sizes around the embroidery patches and then cut the patches in six equal sized squares.
The finished top is ready now for basting and quilting, a lovely little work for doing this upcoming weekend!


Have a lovely creative weekend too!

take it slow

What have I been doing since friday...well not much really.



I sorted out my trims & ribbons box.
I spent two days in bed, sick!
I made two more flowers for the flowergarden dollquilt.

I found three house blocks made from scraps (they were hiding in the scrap box).


One day they will end up in a quilt like this one below!


Photo from the book "Little quilts all through the house"

Well that's about it, I'm not planning on doing much more this week!
Only one thing... reading blogs, many blogs, I'm way behind!

p.s. And for those who still wonder what the pink peek from a few posts back was, and haven't seen it on Nicolette's blog, yet. Inspiration came from a painting Nicolette made for me.

color splash

See these fabrics....I saw them yesterday and just had to buy them all! I had a picture of a tea house cozy in my head......



And voila...see here the result after an evening spent behind the sewing machine.
A pretty coincedent is that the colors are a perfect match with the new china!



Have a nice weekend! I'm of now, go to sew another teahouse cozy.

pastries, tea cozy and a dollquilt

Oké, maybe I wasn´t that busy with reading blogs and posting this week but I managed to do some crafting instead.
The pink sneak peek from last post is finished and brought to the post office. I'll post a picture of the finished project soon as it has reached its final destination.
I already started a new project, nothing else to do, haha! I make flowers for a dollquilt using these fabrics. I just love the sweet printed designs on them, perfect for a doll quilt!



And another almost finished project I did last week...this tea house cozy no2.



And I've got a mail from Mary, she did received my valentine swap package and she liked what I made for her..phew!
These two sweet pastries I made from felt were my gift for her.


What a big success this valentine swap was! I´ve spotted some beautiful selfmade presents on blogs all around! Lucy, if there´s gonna be a valentine swap next year...you can coint me in!

Valentine swap

Yeah...today I received my valentine swap gift made by my swap partner Mary. I'm so happy....she made me this beautiful cushion.



It has a polka dot back, Mary must can read my mind....because I love polka dots!



Mary also made this lovely valentine card.



And to spoil me completely she did sent me these wonderful presents along. Yummy, yummy chocolates in a box, the most gorgeous fabrics, paper handkerchiefs with printed hearts on and a quilt magazine! Thanks Mary!



This oh so fun swap was organized by Lucy from Lucy locket recycled her pocket
I can't show you a picture yet of what I made for Mary. Right now my valentine package for Mary is probbably in a plane flying over the ocean somewhere. So I'll wait for her to receive the package first.
Instead I show you this photo, a peak of a small gift I'm working on at the moment and hope to send it of soon to someone special too!



Have a great weekend everyone!

feels like spring

What a lovely weather we had this weekend! It felt like an early spring.
I know it's a bit previous for spring but if it was up to me than I would say, let's skip the rest of winter and let springtime begin!
Well it isn't up to me so all I can hope is for this lovely weather to hold on a few more days!



Have a good beginning of the week!

Knitted star tutorial/ Gestrickter Stern

Ok, finally after promised months ago here my first attempt of writing a knitting pattern in English.

"A Knitted star"



What do you need to make one?

Yarn: To make a star with star points in different colours you need 5 colours. You can also choose to make a star in one or in two colours. There are many variations possible. The size of a star depends of the thickness of the yarn and the size of the needles. The thicker the yarn, the larger the star will be. I used soedan wool for this star and needles size 4.5.
Knitting needles: Size depends on the thickness of the yarn.
Needle: To sew the star points together.
Stuffing material: poly-fil or fiberfil or cotton.


Instructions:
1.) Knit 10 star points in five different colours, two of each.



One star point:

Row 1 : cast on 3 stitches
Row 2 : knit 3
Row 3 : purl 1, inc 1, purl 2
Row 4 : knit 1, inc 1, knit 3
Row 5 : purl 1, inc 1, purl 4
Row 6 : knit 1, inc 1, knit 5
Row 7 : purl 1, inc 1, purl 6
Row 8 : knit 1, inc 1, knit 7
Row 9 : purl 1, inc 1, purl 8
Row 10: knit 1, inc 1, knit 9
Row 11: purl 1, inc 1, purl 10
Row 12: sl 1- knit 1- psso, knit 10
Row 13: sl 1- purl 1- psso, purl 9
Row 14: sl 1- knit 1- psso, knit 8
Row 15: sl 1- purl 1- psso, purl 7
Row 16: sl 1- knit 1- psso, knit 6
Row 17: sl 1- purl 1- psso, purl 5
Row 18: sl 1- knit 1- psso, knit 4
Row 19: sl 1- purl 1- psso, purl 3
Row 20: sl 1- knit 1- psso, knit 2
Row 21: sl 1- purl 1- psso, purl 1,
Cast of by pass stitch over.

- sl = slip stitch from left-hand needle to right-hand one without knitting it.
- psso = pass slipped stitch over.

Slip stitch from left-hand needle to right-hand one without knitting it. Knit the next stitch. Insert tip of left-hand needle into the slipped stitch, pass it over the knitted stitch, and off needle.

2.) Press the ten star points carefully under a damp cloth with an iron.

3.) Sew the star points into two stars. Make sure you have a left and a right side, see picture below




4.) Sew stars together right side out. Leave one star point half open. Fill the star point with cotton or polyfill. Close the half open star point.
Note: Each star point has a short and a long side. Make sure all the short sides are pointed to the middle of the star.

You can decorate the star if you like. I used the bullion knot stitch. I did one in the middle on each side from the star and on the end of each point.



For those who like tho try this pattern out.....enjoy and good luck!

Thank you Barbara for your german translation.

Gestrickter Stern:

Was braucht man dafür?
Garn: je nach Wunsch bis zu 5 verschiedene Farben, man kann den ganzen Stern auch einfarbig oder zweifarbig … machen. Die Größe des Sterns hängt von der Dicke des verwendeten Garns und der Nadelgröße ab. Ich habe Soedan Wolle verwendet und Nadelstärke 4,5
Stricknadeln: passend zum Garn
Nähnadel um die Sternspitzen zusammen zu nähen
Füllmaterial: Füllwatte o. ä.

Anleitung:
1. Stricke 10 Sternspitzen in fünf verschiedenen Farben, zwei von jeder Farbe.

Reihe 1 : 3 Maschen aufnehmen
Reihe 2 : 3 rechts
Reihe 3 : 1 links, 1 zunehmen, 2 links
Reihe 4 : 1 rechts, 1 zunehmen, 3 rechts
Reihe 5 : 1 links, 1 zunehmen, 4 links
Reihe 6 : 1 rechts, 1 zunehmen, 5 rechts
Reihe 7 : 1 links, 1 zunehmen, 6 links
Reihe 8 : 1 rechts, 1 zunehmen, 7 rechts
Reihe 9 : 1 links, 1 zunehmen, 8 links
Reihe 10: 1 rechts, 1 zunehmen, 9 rechts
Reihe 11: 1 links, 1 zunehmen, 10 links
Reihe 12: 1 abnehmen 10 rechts
Reihe 13: 1 abnehmen 9 links
Reihe 14: 1 abnehmen 8 rechts
Reihe 15: 1 abnehmen 7 links
Reihe 16: 1 abnehmen 6 rechts
Reihe 17: 1 abnehmen 5 links
Reihe 18: 1 abnehmen 4 rechts
Reihe 19: 1 abnehmen 3 links
Reihe 20: 1 abnehmen 2 rechts
Reihe 21: 1 abnehmen 1 links
Abketten

(Abnehmen: Masche von der linken auf die rechte Nadel heben ohne sie zu stricken, nächste Masche stricken, erste abgehobene Masche darüberheben.

2.) Die zehn Sternspitzen vorsichtig unter feuchtem Tuch dämpfen

3.) Die Sternspitzen zu Sternen zusammennähen, dabei sicherstellen, dass man eine rechte und eine linke Seite hat, wie auf dem Bild unten .

4.) Sterne zusammen nähen, mit der rechten Seite nach aussen. Eine Sternspitze etwas offen lassen. Den Stern füllen mit Füllwatte und verschließen

Achtung: Jede Sternspitze hat eine kurze und eine lange Seite. Stelle sicher, dass die kurzen Seiten zur Sternmitte weisen.

Du kannst den Stern dekorieren wenn Du möchtest, ich habe einen Knoten Stich verwendet in der Mitte der Sterne und an jeder Sternspitze.

Für die die es versuchen wollen, viel Spaß und viel Glück.

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