CQJP 2012 - March - Contrast

All the blocks I'll make for the crazy quilt journal project (CQJP 2012) are for me training blocks.

I want to get more used to stitching and have something like a social dead line / pressure to work on this :)

This time I wondered how a lot of different stitches would look like if I used just one colour and a very colourful background.

Unexpected fabric - pillow out of kitchen towels

Just have a look at this gorgeous woven fabric! It is high quality cotton washable even at higher temperatures than 60 °C. Okay, should be like this with a kitchen towel, or? 

I just found them at the supermarket and was smitten :) 

The colours are difficult to catch without sunlight... but they are really bright and vibrant! 

And the threads create an interesting structure with their different strenghts...

Mine :)

Also surprisingly soft, I really don't know why anybody would make kitchen towels out of this fabric. This is not a kitchen towel fabric at all. I never want to cuddle with the fabric of my real kitchen towels!

February block

My block for februar in the crazy quilt journal project 2012.

More than a little bit late but I try to get everything in order again. Still a lot emails to look through and answer...

This serves as an experimental playground for me to try stitches and what kind of effect I can create with them.

Circles, knots...

...ornaments...

...leaves...

I still love to stitch. But I think I prefer the simple ones and the knots :) Even if I like how the leaves look... they take too much time and patience for me to make. 

A long time - a lot of stiches... and more...

Yes, it is too long ago that I blogged anything. My time is quite dedicated at the moment as are my nerves ^^ I am learning and preparing to defend my thesis (oh yes, more nerves than anything else!), working, trying to get some sleep and somehow stumbled into a relationship. The free time I find I am using mostly to create / make stuff rather than writing and blogging about this. So yes, there are some things I can show you... and hopefully will over the next days. 

Also (this is the sniffing little child inside of me) it seems that I catch every pathogen available! Just yesterday a night without sleep and without the content of my stomach but with a lot of shivering and pain. Bah. Next time please without me!  

One of the things I made was some stitching and sewing resulting into a pillow. I just saw some pictures about traditional indian stitching (don't ask me where, I lost the site... sorry...) and I just loved the structures which were created! 

I just took my embroidery threads randomly and stitched line for line... Yes, I could have marked the lines or ironed them... but I love nothing more than the dynamic created through the process stitching non-perfect. There is an organic feeling to it (you should touch the surface! can't stop touching it!)...

...and while the lines are uneven...

...the stitches are all in different sizes...

There is a whole picture in the end.

Oh.... I would love to have a whole quilt like that...

...but one should stay honest to oneself: Not with my lack of patience! ^^

I choose cream rather than white as background because I didn't want a too sharp contrast, rather something like a harmony with all the random colours :)

Strange as it is, I would never have thought that I would start to love stitching that much. But there is something inside of it that speaks to me: To create structures and surfaces! I don't believe I'll ever be into more traditional stitching but the possibilities with stitching are just so alluring! With patchwork, with fabric paints, with stitches... no end to go into all directions.

And now: Just catching some food, cooking, sleeping. Just too tired at the moment :)

Good night projects: Mittens!

One of these days I forgot my gloves... it is cold outside... and I am always going by bike. Without gloves not a nice experience! So I just needed something to replace them now. 

I was just back at home, it was late in the evening but I wanted to meet with friends just a little bit later that day. Therefor this quick version of some mittens :)

I had some "Walkloden" (some kind of felt, loden) left which I used. 

I layed my hand over the fabric and traced with a white marker around it. See: a kind of mitten! After that I sewed two layers of the fabric together. Yes, I sewed before I cut the fabric! This way it is a lot easier to avoid the fabric to slide. Also a good method if you are sewing very tiny and complicated parts ^^

I cut it out... You don't have to secure the ends of loden! 

...and turned it around.

Finished!

The fit well and are very, extremly warm!

But next time maybe longer at the end :)

Saved my hands! 

And even if I did find my gloves... 

I am still using the mittens on my bike if it is getting really cold and / or wet :)

Visiting Lachafa in Münster

This blog entry is full of inspirations! 

At least for me but I hope you'll also find some inspirations. And please tell me, because Lachafa is my little (no not so little anymore) sister and I am just sooooo proud of her and her stuff (and ideas and creativity... okay, I guess you got my point ^^). But I think it is the in the rights of a big sister to be proud of her younger siblings :) (for my little brother search for tophino in my blog, he makes great music!).

Just have a look at this collar she made! With hundreds of tiny beads sewn on a piece of felt! And all what she said was: Oh, that was easy...

This are long paper pieces she pinned on her wall. Her plan is to change them from time to time to change the decoration in her room (she is a student now, sharing a flat). 

She cut a lino stamp and printed it on the paper. You see that only a quarter of the ornament is the real stamp.

She made a combination of a pillow and a plushy! 

You remember my polymer clay buttons? Take a closer look at the eyes of the whale! :)

This one is a crochet scarf... 

...you can just tighten it. But she told me just some days ago that she used the scarf as a skirt! 

Some pictures about Münster... 

Giant geckos (a Tokkee! I had some a few years ago! Love them :))...

...climbing up and down the houses.

The same time you can find miniature versions of the city...

...would all suit into the mouth of the gecko ^^

I always love this kind of facades...!

Lachafa :)

From every point of the city you can see steeples...

...but don't believe you could sue them as a help for orientaion. Way too many!

And she made me also a crochet cap like hers! (and will make me another one.. just a reminder sweetheart! ;))

You see the cages? Behave!

Yes... this one is frightening!

The light was just magical...

...and the ducks too cute ^^

Oh, every city needs water!

The street art Lachafa and I found... and the ruins of their train station I'll show you in another post :)