Be a hexie queen - bloghop with TUTORIAL

Welcome to all of you!
I am so glad you are able to hop over.
Thanks to Debbie who put  a lot of work in this hop, keeping us updated frequently about nearing deadlines , and of course to Madam Samm who's blog is the home of all these wonderful hops.

I still remember the first time I heard about Hexagons, it was still back in Germany, and I had just (re-)started sewing / quilting. My friend Christiane talked about these things you sew by hand. And I was like: Really? Are you crazy????? I thought this was freaking crazy. 

Then, last year, I discoverd more an more wonderful stuff made with Hexies - I even started to make a special pinterest board for them. And I thought more and more about making some myself....
And then I fell over this issue of GenQ and I found this wonderful book in our library and I gave up *waving a white flag*
I bought some stuff to make my own hexies.

After reading the article in GenQ, I decided to go with the freezer paper Hexies, I thought that would be best for me. But I couldn't find them anywhere....

But, in the end, I found this etsy shop and was able to order not only a bunch of freezer paper hexagon templates, but also 100 pre-cut Liberty of London hexies - that was my undoing...

Ever since they arrived, I was sewing my hexies....

while watching / listening Downton Abbey...

my first Hexie-Flower EVER!!! Okay, not that perfect. but still....

On my flight from Austin back to S.F. - yes, you are allowed to bring needles and small scissors into the cabin....

sunday morning 8 am while my daughter was having breakfast (who can eat breakfast at 8 am?)

Sill - I was not sure I will finish this until today, so I did something else...

(of course not - not finished... but already played around with some options for the final design....

Hexagon-Pouch with (lace-) zipper based on Moda honey combs

(Tutorial)

Do you have some nice fabric scraps? and a zipper or two? Some scraps of woven ribbon as well? And about 30 minutes? Then click here or on one of the pictures to hop over to the tutorial....

After doing so (or right now), don't forget to pop over to these other awesome ladies:

Sunshine Girl Nicola 

Cheryl James

    

Fish Kopp   (<--- you are here)

Grizz 'n' Dove   

Secretly Stitching  

In the Boon Docks  

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs 

    

Quilt Doodle Designs 

    

Ridge Top Quilts 

   

KaHolly 

    

Why-Knot-Kwilt

to see what they have been up to.

And don't forget to check in on "Sew we quilt" for the next seven days to get even more inspiration to try this crazy, but addictive technique for yourself :-)

Hope to see you soon, have a hexie wonderful wednesday,

Tina

bloghop - put your stamp on it!

Today is my turn.
I have to thank our cheerleader, Thearica, for the great job she is doing - and for following my wish to put me on the schedule for today. Thanks so much.

I have to admit that I have been a terrible participant at the

blog hop. I have so much going on, with 4 kids on summer break at home and still having to work (did you know it is a lie when they tell you home office is great for moms with kids? It's not. The kids just don't understand that you are working when you sit with your netbook at the kitchen table. And you can't really work with all these interruptions -every 2 minutes).
I wander around on all blogs, to see the beautiful creations, but usually on the run,  waiting while somebody is having a swim lesson, on the playground or wherever, but it is just to uncomfortable to comment on a smart phone - and I really don't find the time to do it at home at the moment.
Sorry for that!


So, what does my stamp look like?

It combines the skyline of my hometown, Hamburg, in Germany
(okay, to tell the truth, I was not born there, but I lived there for 34 years, so that is the place I feel at home.) and the place where my heart is now - the San Francisco bay area.
Don't you love this state embroidery?
I found this embroidery file on etsy, and you can order your own state with the right placement of the heart there.
It took appleberryapps less then 12 hours to customize and deliver it!
The Hamburg skyline is a german embroidery file I found on dawanda - what is kind of the german etsy. She offers other german cities, too.
And in case you want to order something: she speeks and writes english. She initially thought I was american and wrote back in english to me :-)

The value of my stamp is forever 39. Why?
Because this joke was handed to me on a silver platter to me, as we say in German *g*
Today is my fortieth birthday. Happy birthday to me!

I have to admit I don't even want to stay 39 forever, that would mean to be stuck with a terrible adorable  two forever *uah* - I am looking very forward to my 55th birthday. Then all the children will be off to college or whatever, and I might finally get my own sewing room. Yeah! (at the moment, I sew in the entry way between kitchen and family room. And yes, that is as bad as it sounds. The first thing people see when I open the front door is my sewing chaos. This is how it looks like when it is tidied up. what it rarely is.)

But the joke was to good to let is pass by.

The stamp frame is made with a Silhouette Cameo - what an awesome toy! And I found the stamp frame ready to buy in their shop.

As one can have never enough of these, I but it on a shopping tote

this is a free german ebook called "Omas Liebling" by Farbenmix, you can download it here.
Grandma's best loved is a real useful shopping tote for all these grocery things you need. And, indeed, my Grandma had several like these - just not that nice. In Germany, plastic bags have never been free, you always had to pay for them, and the frugal german housewife would never have been so lavish to do so.

So, now hop over and stop by at the other awesome ladies who are presenting with me today:

July 2

Sew and Sow Farm  

fishkopp <------- (you are here)

Scraps of Life

Meadowbrook

Katie and Kwilts 

Em's Scrap Bag  

GrammieQ's

How ART you?

BumbleberryStitches

A Stitch in Time

and in case you have time to comment:

I attended the "you are my sister" event at Hart's fabric on sunday in Santa Cruz.
I will write more about it as soon as I find the time to do so.
They gave away wonderful goody bags. In mine, I found a scrap bag by windham fabrics. These are lovely fabrics, but just not the kind of fabric I use.

So I will pass it on.
If you would like to win it, please leave a comment telling me the name of the town you were born in.
This give away will close sunday evening, and I will ship the goody bag next week.


And it is time to announce the winner of the last blog hops give away.
It is

Mara, as a mom who has to clean up a car that had motion sick kids as passengers you sure deserve this little win (I hear you, sister!).
I'll send you an email.

have a great day, you all, and a lovely fourth of july,
Tina

Get a clue...

To be honest,I didn't have the tiniest bit of a clue who Nancy Drew is when I saw the announcement for the blog hop.

I had to google her :-)
But I really liked the fabric line, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a smart, fearless young woman as a role model for young readers. Reminded me of the Enid Blyton books I loved so much when I was a kid... Do you read there books here in the US? The famous five?

When I received my online ordered fabric, I was astonished how big the pictures on the panel where. And did you realize how cute the selvage is?

The blog hop was shifted, and I kind of lost the task out of my eye...

So the reminder about the hop start came, and guess what? Me still clueless...
I first thought that it would be great to do an ebook or tablet cover, but meanwhile, I had bought some in  a store....

First of all, I decided what to do with my left overs (I knew I would have some:) Turn two of the book covers from the panel into a really simple library tote. So I sat a large quantity of the fabric aside, but I think, that was a good decision. This fabric makes a wonderful library tote:

The bag doesn't have a front and back, it has two equally nice sides:

And here is a picture of the handles:

And then, suddenly, I knew what I wanted to do for my main project : a book pillow!

Since having one, I really enjoy reading on my ebook-reader. No additional light necessary, so lightweigt, all my books in one small place.
But some books one just has to read the old fashion way - how inconvenient ;-)
That was the moment I remembered the "Lese Lotte" (something like: "reading Roberta") a pillow that holds the book for the reader. No pattern available. So I kept on google-ing, and came up with a free pattern for a "Buchkissen" (book pillow):

So here it is, my Nancy Drew project:

put the book on the pillow and strap it down, so it stays open on the side you are just reading:

From the side it looks like this:

and without a book like this:

It's not a mistake you can see the selvage on the top side, I really like the look. of it, like a divider for the two fabrics:

The cover has a zipper, so it can be easily removed for washing (the inlet is filled with grains)

So what am I reading?
I am quite sure you tried to figure it out :-)

The giving quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini :-) I am sure a lot of you read it too.
I really, really love this series of quilting themed books, but I was a little disappointed by the last one (The weddding quilt?), which was very short and and a little bit dull. So i decided to check the new one out at the library rather than buying it.
So far, I am really enjoying it. Much better than the wedding quilt.

I am really delighted that I was able to combine my most favorite hobbies in this project.

and finally here is the reason why I am not as present as usually on the internet this time:
a good friend of mine is visiting from Germany at the moment and staying with us. We met in middle school and have been friends ever since. She is even the godmother of my oldest daughter. She "volunteered" to model how it looks like to use the book pillow:

(Of course, usually even germans don't wear coats in bed. we just came home from a trip...)

She never heard of a book pillow before but liked it immediately. Might be I have to make a second one....

Thanks to Madame Samm and Carole for the organization of this blog hop - you are doing a wonderful job, as always! It is always such a pleasure to work as a group and see all the wonderful projects show up on blogs around the world.

please check out my fellow day-mates:

That’s Sew Julie

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Lily Patch Quilts

Cherry’s Prairie Primitives

The Thimble Room

The Treehouse

The German Mom  <----- (you are here)

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch.

Quiltin’ Jenny

Blackberry Creek Home Arts

this blog hop will continue for another whole week, so there will a lot more projects to discover...

Have a great day

Tina

PS if you want to make a book pillow too and need help with the directions, please let me know. I can help you with the translation and the conversion of the measurements.

Ich schicke euch heute mal wieder rüber

auf meinen englischsprachigen blog,
denn ich habe mal wieder an einem blog hop teilgenommen - an einem an dem ich mir zunächst die Zähne ausgebissen habe, weil mich die Muse so gar nicht küssen wollte...

Als die Idee dann erst mal stand, ging es aber schnell, und im Moment produziere ich wie eine Blöde, allerdings leider immer erst ab Mitternacht *seufz* und vor allem nicht ein Teil von Anfang bis Ende, sondern immer neue Teile von Anfang bis Mitte....

Es gibt einfach sooooooo viel, was ich gerne nähen möchte, und ich habe einfach viel zu wenig Zeit....

Und dann musste ich für's fällige Foto auch noch meine Nähecke aufräumen *ausch*

Und ihr so?

It's all about me bloghop

Today is the second last day of the 

blog hop. And it is "my day"

all these wonderful blogs are on the schedule today:

Quilting Lines

Mountain Delights

Jane's Fabrics and Quilts

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

Ramblings of an Empty Nester

NautiStitcher

Quilt Doodle Designs

Living Life

Freemotion By The River

The German Mom  <------- here you are

Spoilt Dog Quilts

Marlene and Madame Samm did a wonderful job keeping us all together. Thanks so much!

So, what did I do?

First of all, I have to admit that it was pretty difficult for me to come up with an idea for what I wanted to make out of it.

And so the bloghop did start and I was still thinking about what to do....

And then, finally, I knew where I wanted to go....

Think of Marilyn Monroe, Tomato soup and Andy Warhol - do you know what I mean?

My daughter recognized it, so you might too :-)

And here are all the four lovely ladies one by one:

  Miss blue: 

Miss Orange: 

Miss Green:

and Miss Red:

and guess who came up with the slogan?

My hubby!

Who would have thought he could be such a genius?

This piece - all made of material I already had in my stash , I didn't buy anything new at all for it! - found a place over my sewing table

(Yes, I had to clean up my sewing table before I could take the picture, you bet!)


It is a little wonky, and I made some serious bad faults (I won't put my finger on it in case you missed them *g*), but it was to late to do it over, and I am pretty happy how it turned out in the end.

Thanks so much for stopping by, don't forget to hop over to the next blog

Spoilt Dog Quilts

and come back soon!

Have a great week - we will celebrate my son's sixth birthday today and the arriving of my good friend from Germany today.

Tina

Ups, I am late...

... yesterday started the "It's all about me - bloghop.

So head over to Madame Sam to see what all the super bloghoppers made yesterday and today -
and don't forget to come back next Monday (25th) to see what I made :-)

Ich schicke euch heute mal wieder rüber....

... auf meinen englisch sprachigen Blog, denn heute "bin ich dran" beim hugs & kisses blog hop.
Da koennt ihr dann auch den Beginn vom Creadienstag fertig sehen :-)

Aber vorher noch ein kleines Valentinstagsgeschenk:

Der Film ist soooooo süss, oscar nominiert, und keine Angst, auch fuer nicht englisch Sprecher verständlich, da stumm (könnt ihr also auch im Büro gucken *g*)

Erinnert der Mann nicht total an Adrian Brody? Erkennt jemand die Frau? Obwohl die ziemlich Disney-Prinzessinen-Stereotyp aussieht....

so, nach dem gucken bitte hier lang.

Einen schönen Tag euch allen!

PS ich starre ja nur noch gebannt auf meinen Klick-Zähler (links) - langsam wird's echt spannend .... die 100.000 warten. Und dann gibt es eine Verlosung, nur damit ihr schon mal Bescheid wisst *g*