Gathering some free patterns for precut fabrics I launched a giveaway on our customer blog .

So what can you get? Besides a wonderful tutorial showing the use of a Moda Jelly Roll which you will find there, there are three prizes: a small designer roll of 20 2,5" fabrics (a multicolored choice from the Fassett Collection) and two charm packs, each of five different Fassett fabrics, 10" x 10".

And what do you have to do in order to get one of these three things?
Very easy:
You either comment on that giveaway by giving to the community a link of a free pattern for the use of a Jelly-Roll or Charm-Pack
or
You tell on your blog about this giveaway and set a link (don't forget to comment on the giveaway telling me about, so you are counting in for the lottery)
or much better, you do just both: giving us a link of a free pattern and telling on your blog - so you get two voices.

The winner will be found and published by next Sunday.

So you now better go blogging ;-)

Have fun and a nice Sunday
Brigitte

Batik Beauty

Several weeks ago I launched a kind of contest on my customer's community blog. They sent me a photo of their tops and the winner (choosen by polling) got a free quilting service from me.

So here is the winner quilt, freshly finished and taken from my machine.

Vor einigen Wochen habe ich auf dem Kundenforum-Blog einen kleinen Wettbewerb ausgerufen: Wer Lust hatte, mitzumachen, konnte ein Foto seines Tops einsenden und es gab eine Abstimmung. Zu gewinnen gab es einen Gratis Longarm-Quilting-Service.

Da ist er - der Gewinnerquilt, gerade fertig geworden und frisch abgenommen von meiner Longarmmaschine.

Never ever give up on your dreams

Have you ever heard about „Stephanie Glaser“? I haven’t so far, but get to know about her yesterday accidentally when I watched a DVD my sister owns.
Stephanie is a Switzer actress, but this is too less to describe her. She is just magic. She radiates so much positive energies, youth, enthusiasm, esprit, charm, happiness – and she is about 86 years old.
At this age she had her first main role in a cinema movie, called “Die Herbstzeitlosen”. She was just brilliant.
She perfectly shows that it is never too late to live your dreams, not in that movie and not in her real life. That you never should give up what you really love, no matter which obstacles occur. If you like to be inspired by a person who believes in herself and makes her dream come true, than watch this movie! I highly recommend it!

Schon mal was von einer „Stephanie Glaser“ gehört? Ich bislang nicht, gestern Abend allerdings hab ich einen Geschmack von dieser beeindruckenden Persönlichkeit bekommen, als ich zusammen mit meiner Schwester eine DVD reingelegt habe.
Stephanie Glaser ist eine schweitzer Schauspielerin, aber dies ist eigentlich viel zuwenig, um sie annähernd zu beschreiben. Sie ist wie Magie. Sie strahlt soviel positive Energien, Jugend, Begeisterung, Esprit, Charme und inneres Glück aus – dabei ist sie bereits 86! In diesem Alter spielt sie nun ihre erste Hauptrolle in einem Kinofilm, „Die Herbstzeitlosen“. Und sie spielt sie einfach brillant.
Auf perfekte Weise zeigt sie, dass es nie zu spät ist, seine Träume zu leben, nicht in diesem Film und auch nicht in ihrem wahren Leben. Ihre Botschaft, die sie transportiert: Gib nie auf, was du wirklich liebst und willst, egal welche Dinge sich dir in den Weg stellen.
Eine inspirierende Persönlichkeit, die an sich selbst glaubt und ihre Träume lebt. Ich kann diesen Film nur wärmstens empfehlen!

I am so inspired

by all the ideas, pictures, blogs, fabrics crossing my way here. I just stumbled about a project which is really cute and just perfect to work on with a kid or your teenage daughter, designed by Courtney Russel. You can do your own one….

Hier gibt es so viele Ideen, Bilder, Blogs, Stoffe, die ich entdecke und ich bin voller Inspirationen (beinahe schon überinspiriert). Gerade bin ich über eine Monstertasche gestolpert, ein kleines Nachmittagsprojekt, genau das richtige, um mit Kindern oder seiner halbwüchsigen Tochter ein bisschen Spaß zu haben. Entworfen und genau erklärt von Courtney Russel, so dass man gar nicht anders kann, als seine eigene zu fabrizieren.

What a funny bird he is

This is Jakob (I am speaking of the green being of course). He has some funny habits. While he is sitting on my sisters shoulders he starts first to ding into her hairs and than he nibbles at her ears which seems pretty unfair to me because he himself has no ears for a kind or revenge.
He is not that conscious about his wings. When he is on place A and wants to get to place B, he climbs downstairs his cache, walks along the floor, you can hear the claws at his feet like klick-klick-klick every step he makes, and then climbs up again where he wants to be.
He obviously is a pacifist because he never fights with the cat in the house. Instead he hides his jealousy and tries to gain from his experience. The cat Mozart has a little hole in the door to get outdoors and Jakob has learned to use it the same way. Klick-klick-klick, over the floor, through the hole, outdoors to the patio, where he is never tempted to fly away. Instead he is climbing upstairs his outdoor cache, opens its door himself, goes in and closes the cache’s door from inside. Everything is in order for him now.
He has also learned to whistle after someone and he sounds like an Italian gigolo. So when I was wearing a red jumper and entered the room I was very surprised by this noise. But my brother in law explained that the corresponding female bird would have a red feathering and “You know, he is just a boy after all”


Das ist Jakob (ich sprech jetzt von dem grünen Wesen). Er hat einige skurrile Angewohnheiten. Wenn er auf der Schulter meiner Schwester sitzt, fängt er erst an, mit dem Schnabel in ihren Haaren zu wühlen und dann tastet er sich langsam vor bis zum Ohr, um dran rumzuknabbern. Das finde ich persönlich ziemlich unfair, denn er selbst hat keine Ohren, an denen man sich dann mal revanchieren könnte.
Er scheint sich nicht so recht bewusst zu sein, dass die Natur im Flügel mitgegeben hat. Wenn er sich von A nach B bewegen möchte, dann klettert er langsam an seinem Käfig hinunter bis auf den Fußboden, latscht dann so vor sich hin, wobei man schon von weitem seine Krallen mit einem leisen klick-klick-klick hört, wie die Stöckel von Damenschuhen (wir wissen immer, wenn er herumspaziert).
Er hat sich mit seinem Mitbewohner, dem Kater Mozart, auf ein pazifistisches Miteinander geeinigt. Und da er schlau ist, schaut er sich ab, was man als Kater so für Vorzüge genießt, z. B. durch einen kleinen Auslass ins Freie zu gelangen. Jakob tuts ihm nach, klick-klick-klick, latscht er durchs Loch nach draußen auf den Balkon, wo man allerdings keinerlei Sorge haben müsste, dass er davon fliegen könnte. Nein, Jakob, klettert zu seinem Außenkäfig, macht die Käfigtür auf, setzt sich rein und macht die Türe von innen wieder zu. So, jetzt hat die Welt für ihn wieder seine Ordnung.
Jakob kann einen heißen Pfiff, das klingt wie wenn ein braungebrannter italienischer Bauarbeiter einer minirocktragenden Schönheit hinterher pfeift. Ziemlich machomäßig. Und ich war recht überrascht, als ich am Sonntagmorgen mit meiner roten Strickjacke ins Wohnzimmer kam und dieses Geräusch zu hören bekam. Aber mein Schwager erklärte mir, dass das Gefieder des entsprechenden weiblichen Vogels rot wäre und „Weißt du, er ist halt auch nur ein Junge“.

This trip was pretty adventurous

It started with a bad surprise. Coming to the airport on Friday morning and putting my luggage on the belt the nice lady at the check-in desk let me know that I am not listed. She couldn’t just find my name. After some research it turned out that my flight was already expired because of a very stupid mistake: I booked the flight on the internet and typed in the wrong date. I booked for September instead of October. So this flight was lost. Can you imagine how much I was hopping mad about myself?
So after blaming myself for some hours I decided for another flight and get one for the next day. The plane should leave at 8:20 and as it takes about two hours of driving to the airport, so we started at 5:20. What we didn’t have considered was a fast-flowing stream of rain which made us slowing down our drive. In addition the navigation system failed. So we got a little bit nervous now.
But we finally arrived at 7:40, I ran into the building, gave my ticket to the very first Lufthansa employee for electronic check in, asked everybody to let me be the first in line for putting my luggage on the belt – and could make it. Puhhhhhhhh
My flight was Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Philadelphia, San Francisco. When we landed in Philadelphia there were only 25 minutes to get the next flight. During this time I had to pick up my luggage, go through customs, fill in the papers, pass security, recheck the suitcase and then walk about 2 miles from terminal A to C.
So once again I asked everybody for help and everyone was so supportive. People let me go forward so I was the first in line, and a very nice guy gave me a drive with such an airport wagon to terminal C. When I finally arrived 5 minutes before scheduled for leaving I was told the boarding is already closed and I have to wait for another connection. Oh no! That couldn’t be true. But it was.
Fortunately the next plane left two hours later and after a trip of about 30 hours (a sleeping pill helped me get some sleep during the time) I was at my sister’s home.

Pure white

Strolling through the Patchwork Magazine I often thought by myself "MG, why do those pictures not compliment the quilts in a better way?" But this time, when I opened the new issue I was sooo exited. If I ever could have determined how my new modell should be presented I couldn't have made it any better. The interior style is so perfectly fitting - I'm really glad with this presentation! Just click at the picture and have a closer look.

The kit is available at http://www.farbstoff.org/

Batik- black-white

Today I won half a day, my foot was swollen and I was not able to drive my car to my job (hmhmhm.....) but it was not tooo swollen for standing in front of my machine doing longarm quilting and let dancing my needle over the top while listening to "Billie Jean" ;-)

I was told this is a socalled "mental health day" and I surley need not only one of it (can I book a whole month?)

Find more details about this customer quilt at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018470&id=1397337460&l=3dbbfa25bf

(I hope my foot will be fine by Friday so I can go out for dancing...)

Red Heritage

Just finished this traditional looking quilt for publishing in German Patchwork Magazine's Christmas issue.

for more pictures please have a look at

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017778&id=1397337460&l=d70d4fa5e8

This very pastel quilt is made from printed scraps alternating with wide white strips to show the quilting lines. Branches of leaves are swinging like waves around the prints, the thread variegates from pale white over yellow to lavender.
Those quilts are for selling and can be personalized in color and style. Just imagine a cute little girl cuddling in this pastel dream for a nap.

It's so much fun

Owning a long arm quilting machine since April enriches my sewing. It is so much fun to dance with the neadle over the fabric - it's just flow - I enjoy it every time.

Here is a detail of a project quilted by allover pantograph of leaves for a customer.